On anniversary of Oct. 7, Hochul criticizes anti-Israel student protests

On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, Gov. Kathy Hochul offered strong words of support for New York’s Jewish community, gave new details about her visit to the country in the immediate aftermath and strongly condemned pro-Palestinian protests that erupted in the wake of Israel’s military response to the attack. 

One year ago, Hamas militants entered Israel and killed over 1,200 people, many of whom were civilians, and took over 250 people hostage. Some of the hostages have since been killed, and roughly 100 of them remain in captivity. Following the Oct. 7 attack, Israel bombed and invaded Gaza; the Palestinian Health Ministry estimates that Israel’s invasion has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, and human rights organizations have warned of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the region.

On Sunday, Hochul spoke at a memorial event at the Temple Israel Center in White Plains, describing her visit to Israel last October, when she traveled to the kibbutzim where the attacks took place. “I went to places no American had been to yet,” Hochul said, noting she touched down in Israel right as President Joe Biden was leaving. “And the photos will never ever take the real images out of my mind with the smells, the sites, the people I held.” She said that she had stepped in puddles of blood while there and still has the blood-stained shoes “because I don't know what to do with them.”

She reiterated her staunch support of New York’s Jewish community, which she has repeatedly centered in the year since the attack. “I will be there at your side. I will be there calling out the negativity and the hatred every step of the way,” she said. “I will be your ally because you have been mine.”

Hochul’s father died soon after she left the United States for Israel last year, and she told those gathered at the center that her aides offered to schedule her an immediate return flight, but she refused. “No you're not, because I can't bring my father back,” she recalled telling them. “I will mourn him later. I am here to comfort a nation.” Hochul remained in Israel for several days as planned. 

In her Sunday night speech, the governor offered strong condemnation of pro-Palestinian protests that took place in New York City. “I came back from that journey shocked to realize that there are people protesting in the streets – not protesting what had happened in Israel, but protesting Israel itself,” Hochul said. 

College protests

Students at Columbia University and other colleges across the state and country set up pro-Palestinian solidarity encampments in protest of Israel’s military actions and called for their universities to divest their endowments from companies tied to the Israeli military. Hochul said that campuses “exploded in anger and hate and images that we never should have seen.” The encampments were mostly peaceful, but some pro-Israel Jewish students also reported feeling unsafe and unwelcome on campus, and university presidents were harshly criticized for their response to the protests. Eventually, police were called to break up the protest encampments, which also drew criticism.  

In perhaps her strongest condemnation of pro-Palestinian protesters yet, Hochul said that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a common and controversial slogan at pro-Palestinian protests – was a call for the genocide of the Jewish people. “Those are not innocent sounding words,” she said. “They're filled with hate.” Hochul referenced the phrase on Sunday evening when discussing her conversation with university leaders, warning that the state would step in if they did not address hate on campus, including the use of that specific chant. “There are laws on the books – human rights laws, state and federal laws – that I will enforce if you allow for the discrimination of our students on campus, even calling for the genocide of the Jewish people, which is what is meant by, ‘From the river to the sea,’ by the way,” she said.

Antisemitism review

In response to the protests and allegations of widespread antisemitism on college campuses, particularly at public universities, Hochul ordered a comprehensive review of the City University of New York’s policies on antisemitism. That report, released last month,concluded that the system for handling complaints is “ineffective and needs to be completely overhauled,” even as it found that the issue of antisemitism was the result of a “small vocal minority” rather than an endemic issue. 

The report made 13 recommendations on how CUNY could address its antisemitism problem, including the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s controversial definition of anti-semitism. That definition includes “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and broadly “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” as examples of antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian protesters have said that definition wrongly conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and would unfairly silence criticism of Israel. Hochul, who previously called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition “a valuable tool,” directed CUNY campuses to adopt all of the report’s recommendations.

Hochul ordered flags in New York to be flown at half-staff on Monday in remembrance of the Oct. 7 victims, and the governor is also set to appear with New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a memorial event hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council – the first time that Hochul has appeared publicly with the embattled mayor since Adams was indicted.