Charlotte Towle is an ethnic studies junior, and Charli Fallon is an environmental management junior . The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
On Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, Mustangs United for Israel hosted an event called “Rising to the Challenge.” The purpose of this event was to bring two former Israeli Defense Force soldiers to campus to speak and share their experience as Israel continues its genocidal assault against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Student protestors were present at the event with signs that read “IDF kills” to oppose the platforming of war criminals and advocate for Palestinian rights.
Belev Echad, an international nonprofit that provides therapy and other resources to wounded IDF soldiers, collaborated with Chabad on Campus for a 10-day tour with former soldiers Eliyahu Green and Ariel Saat. Both of the soldiers operated within IDF units that have faced allegations of human rights abuses, a pattern that also characterizes the IDF at large.
In Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, IDF soldiers have proven themselves to be agents of torture, sexual violence, starvation, maiming, death, genocide and destruction. Each level of their abuses has another nested inside of it.
Airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure make conditions in Gaza virtually unlivable and can wipe out entire families instantly. Starvation makes mothers too malnourished to breastfeed their infants. Thousands of men, women and boys are detained in prisons and detention facilities, where they are traumatized by torture and sexual assault. Blockades prevent fuel and heavy machinery from entering Gaza, forcing families to dig their family members out of the rubble by hand or rendering them unable to reach them at all.
Per the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is constituted by acts such as killing,
causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions that bring
about destruction of life, imposing measures to prevent births and forcibly transferring
children away from members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. A
growing list of organizations and human rights organizations such as Amnesty international and a UN Special Commission have determined that genocide is being enacted in Gaza.
The IDF also undertakes misinformation campaigns to justify the genocide of Palestinians. The most egregious claim made by the two soldiers on our campus was that the “UN equals Hamas,” a talking point often thrown around to discredit any statistics that come out of Gaza despite evidence to the contrary.
The phrase has been used to justify the killing of UN workers and other aid workers seeking to alleviate the pain and suffering the IDF is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. Throwing out accusations against international bodies and human rights organizations helps them escape ramifications for the injustices they have committed. By allowing student organizations to invite IDF soldiers to campus, the university is complicit in genocide.
Student clubs do have the right to freedom of speech and the right to bring speakers to campus. However, the university has a choice in how it responds and whether it chooses to allocate resources to the communities affected.
In spring 2024, when Charlie Kirk visited Cal Poly’s campus, the office of Cal Poly Culture and Institutional Excellence, or CIX, created “safe spaces” for LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff. Along with their programming and support services, CIX released a statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
The university could have provided the same support here, when the IDF soldiers came to campus, but they did not. By not doing the same for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students who may feel unsafe due to the presence of IDF soldiers complicit in the genocide of their people, Cal Poly administration is clearly sending a message that the safety of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students is not their concern.
Given that the IDF has been enacting a genocide, with well-documented instances of violence against civilians and has deemed all Palestinians to be “terrorists,” their presence on Cal Poly’s campus is a clear safety threat to students, particularly to Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.
Private defense companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon along with the U.S. Department of Defense have financed projects and awards for Cal Poly students in the past. These companies also generate profits from selling military technology and equipment to Israel. The complicity of Cal Poly in the genocide of Palestinian peoples extends beyond their investment in defense companies to the campus environment through the students they deliberately choose to support and those they refuse to protect. Welcoming IDF soldiers to campus is just another example of how Cal Poly protects the support of Israel while not offering those same protections for students and faculty of other minority groups.
In 2025, Cal Poly created an anti-semitism task force. Composed of staff, faculty and students, the task force aims to support a “continued investment in a campus environment where Jewish identity and Jewish life are understood, respected, and supported.” While it is very important to support Jewish students, especially when they have been the recent target of an antisemitic hate crime, it is critical to highlight how this is not offered for the Muslim community. Cal Poly did not rush to create a task force in response to the San Diego Mosque attack or when San Luis Obispo County district attorney Dan Dow reposted anti-Islamic tweets on social media.
In the 2026–28 Catalog, Cal Poly added a statement against anti-discrimination. The first sentence states that Cal Poly prohibits discrimination and harassment based on “religion, ethnicity, ancestry, and all other protected characteristics.” It fails to even mention race. The statement then goes on to specifically name that “antisemitism and anti-Zionism” may qualify as discrimination. This statement does not just protect against antisemitism, but also anti-Zionism. These two terms, though often used interchangeably, are distinctly different.
Anti-semitism is a form of discrimination which includes targeting, violence and dehumanizing stereotypes of Jewish people because of their Jewish identity. Zionism is a political ideology that supports Jewish individuals’ rights to claim Palestine as their homeland. It is a settler-colonial movement that relies on the dispossession of Palestinians. Therefore, anti-Zionism refers to criticism of Israel as a state.
There is no specific commitment to any other group in the university’s anti-discrimination statement, let alone Palestinian or Muslim students. The last piece of the anti-discrimination statement describes how the university is committed to protecting free speech rights for all members of Cal Poly. However, Cal Poly’s track record shows us that the university does not apply this protection fairly to everyone, particularly when it comes to Palestinian perspectives.
Cal Poly has a pattern of censoring pro-Palestine speech and scholarship of both students and faculty. The IDF soldiers’ on-campus presence was a clear example of how, as an institution, Cal Poly has shown complacency in the spreading of misinformation in regard to the genocidal campaign against Palestinians, whilst simultaneously silencing Palestinian voices and scholarship at Cal Poly.
In 2024, Cal Poly canceled the yearly social justice teach-in it had held since 2017. The teach-in was first postponed due to concerns over a Palestine-centered track. It was eventually canceled because it did not include both pro-Palestine and pro-Israeli perspectives.
READ MORE: Cal Poly Social Justice Teach-In makes comeback after two-year break
The social justice teach-in had also included a reproductive rights track. However, there was no pressure to include pro-life perspectives. This clearly shows how there is an exception for anything relating to Palestine and an example of how the university has censored scholarship on Palestine.
READ MORE: Letter to the Editor: Letter from the Cal Poly Social Justice Coalition
On Feb. 17, 2026, Interim Library Dean Katherine O’Clair, without prior notice, removed 19 LibGuides from the Kennedy Library website. Most of the LibGuides removed from the Cal Poly website were broadly related to topics around diversity, equity and inclusion.
The removals included Dr. Kyle Tanaka’s 2024-25 Cal Poly BEACoN Project Cal Poly Student Protests & Activism. The research guide highlighted different protests in Cal Poly’s history, which included the pro-Palestine protests that took place during the 2023-24 school year. This was not a research guide completely dedicated to Palestine; the guide also spoke directly to instances of activism tied to racism, homophobia and transphobia at Cal Poly. It is not out of the ordinary for universities to have specific LibGuides related to Palestine. For example, CSUN has a guide on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Yet, Cal Poly still felt the need to censor this form of scholarship.
READ MORE: Letter to the Editor: Cal Poly let the ADL censor and misrepresent my
In spring 2024, South West Asian North African, or SWANA, identifying students met with President Armstrong and several other members of the Cal Poly administration. Among the concerns the students raised was extreme police presence at pro-Palestine protests and censorship of pro-Palestinian voices.
Students brought up Cal Poly’s close ties to defense companies, which generate profits from selling military technology and equipment to Israel. The students thoroughly voiced how, as SWANA students, they felt Cal Poly was erasing their presence and voices. President Armstrong did very little in response to the many concerns the students raised.
As leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine, we support and stand in solidarity with the student protesters who exercised their right to oppose the event. The IDF has no place on Cal Poly’s campus. We find it incredibly concerning and heartbreaking that Cal Poly allows the speech of IDF soldiers at our institution while simultaneously silencing the valuable voices and critical scholarship on Palestine and of Palestinian students.
This example highlights just how much this institution protects students that support Israel, while SWANA and Muslim students lack protections and instead, are left unsupported by our university. Why are students that support Israel continually advocated for time and time again, when Palestinian voices are continually targeted by the Cal Poly administration?
In “Perfect Victims”, Mohammed El-Kurd writes, “Zionism’s objection to the Palestinian people isn’t how we exist but that we exist at all.”
The university is operating with the same logic by ignoring its Palestinian students and hoping their voices of resistance simply slip away. Palestinian students deserve better. Muslim students deserve better. All students at this institution deserve to feel safe and welcomed. There should not be special protections for some students when those same protections do not extend to other minority groups on this campus, especially Palestinians.
Student activists pushing for divestment from the genocide in support of Palestine should not be targeted. Scholars engaging in topics related to Palestine should not have to fear their work being censored and they should have the academic freedom to produce work connected to Palestine. Palestinian students should not be made to feel unsafe because former IDF soldiers, who have actively participated in a genocide, are on Cal Poly’s campus.
As Students for Justice in Palestine, we demand that Cal Poly admin not allow IDF soldiers and those who are complicit in war crimes and genocide onto our campus, that Cal Poly’s participation in war profiteering comes to a close and that Cal Poly reaffirm their commitment to Palestinian and SWANA students.