Protesters interrupted an on-campus event hosting veterans of the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday. The veterans spoke about their experiences surviving combat and rebuilding their lives while masked protesters held up signs objecting to the event.
Mustangs United for Israel and Cal Poly Chabad collaborated on the event, “Rising to the Challenge,” which highlighted speakers Eliyahu Green and Ariel Saat’s experiences serving in the Israel Defense Forces after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack. The event drew in 40 students and community members.
Before Saat and Green began speaking, nine masked demonstrators entered the classroom, holding signs reading, “UN says genocide,” “The IDF kills kids” and “End the occupation,” as well as an Israeli flag splattered in red paint that read, “IDF kills.”
“According to the UN, the war in Gaza is a genocide,” an engineering senior told Mustang News. “We’re here to say that’s not okay.”
Cal Poly police asked the protesters to leave the room based on their violation of Cal Poly’s Time, Place and Manner policy. The protesters moved into the hallway, chanting slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will soon be free.” Eventually, protesters were asked to go outside, so they would not disrupt the event.
Five Cal Poly police officers and two peace ambassadors were present, along with a Cal Poly drone hovering over Baker.
The first speaker, Saat, joined the IDF at 18. On Oct. 7, he fought at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border, where he said his unit evacuated more than 30 families.
He described the morning after the evacuation, when a grenade exploded as his unit cleared a house, severely wounding two soldiers, including his company commander, Malka. Separated from his unit in the smoke, Saat said he came under fire and killed an armed Hamas fighter before going back for the wounded men.
“I was shaking. I could not talk, I could not look at your eyes,” he said, looking at the audience.
Saat said he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder for four months afterward.
MUFI co-president Maya Paul said the event was intended in part to address mental health among soldiers.
“Mental health and PTSD, it’s not a weakness,” she said. “Our motivation behind [the event] is to give people a stage to talk and share their experience, especially IDF soldiers who have done so much for us and deserve so much back.”
Attendee Guy Kalach, a mechanical engineering senior, has family who lives in Israel and serves in the IDF.
“The survival of Israel is very important to me,” Kalach said. “It’s my second home, and I find it important to listen to these stories so we remember and are able to remember our resilience and the bravery of our soldiers in Israel.”
The second speaker, Green, spoke of similar struggles with mental health. He served five years in the IDF’s Duvdevan unit and is now a fifth-year medical student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He was in Sri Lanka on Oct. 7, 2023, cut the trip short and entered Gaza with his unit on Nov. 1.
About a week later, he said flying debris from an explosion struck him.
“I had a shrapnel that entered my ear, went out and entered my skull,” Green said.
He later developed insomnia and anxiety.
At the end of Green’s presentation, some protesters, unmasking themselves, challenged the speakers on civilian casualties and damage to schools and hospitals in Gaza.
Arjun Ramanathan, civil engineering junior, said he attended to raise awareness of the war’s toll on Palestinian civilians.
“What’s happening in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank: there’s a genocide happening there, and to see buildings in rubble, 94% of hospitals destroyed and damaged, 97% of schools destroyed and damaged, 64,000 children killed or injured,” Ramanathan said. “It’s hard to just sit on the couch at that moment. So I was motivated to come out here and spread the word.”
Kayla Chen, an interdisciplinary studies junior, attended alongside Ramanathan. She said students on both sides agree that the killing of children is wrong but strongly disagree over whose figures to trust.
“I talked with some of the students here, while they do agree that atrocities are being committed and killing children is bad, they also disagree on the facts and figures and the number of children, and they just get so stuck in the weeds,” she said.
Seth Pintar and Samantha Hansen contributed to this article.