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Anonymous Statement Defends Disruption of Hillel Oct. 7 Memorial at Pomona College
- Greta Long
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Last week, an Oct. 7 memorial hosted at Pomona College by Claremont Hillel featuring Yoni Viloga, a survivor of the attacks, was disrupted by protestors. Afterwards, an anonymous statement defending the disruption was sent to multiple campus newspapers, referring to Viloga as “Satan” and “the spawn of a genocidal lineage,” and to Zionism as a “death cult that must be dealt with accordingly.”
“We know Pomona. Time and again, they have demonstrated their most important ‘core value’ is the endorsement and defense of genocide… [they] will go to any length to despicably defend genocide and paint Black and brown bodies who resist as violent,” reads the statement. “Therefore, it came as no surprise when they hosted a genocidal maniac, Yoni Viloga, to speak for a ‘memorial’ of the casualties of Al Aqsa Flood.” Al Aqsa Flood is the Hamas codename for the Oct. 7 attacks.
Viloga’s kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. He and his family brought members of the community into their home, protecting 16 people in their bomb shelter. When they were able to leave, Viloga and his family filled four cars with people and fled from the village, passing numerous bodies as they drove to safety.
Immediately after Viloga finished speaking at Hillel’s Oct. 7 memorial, four masked and keffiyeh-wearing protestors burst into the room, shouting “Zionists not welcome here” and yelling at attendees that they were “all complicit in genocide.” The disruptors were eventually forced out of the room by faculty members and attendees of the event. The memorial was hosted on Oct. 15, the Hebrew-calendar anniversary of the attacks, and after the recent ceasefire agreement was approved by Hamas and Israel.
“At approximately 8pm, we barged into Viloga’s circus show. Satan dared not look us in the eyes,” the statement’s authors recount.
They then describe the reaction from attendees of the vigil: “zionists swarmed us, put their hands on us and shoved us, while Viloga retreated like he did on October 7th, 2023. We let that coward know he and his fascist ideology are not welcome here nor anywhere.”
“Viloga served in the zionist occupational force and is a settler on stolen land,” the statement reads. “While touring Turtle Island and talking about his ‘suffering,’ he profits off of the murder of Palestinians and then returns ‘home’ to Wadi Al Zeit (Jewish supremacists call it ‘Kibbutz Mefalsim’).” “Turtle Island” is a term sometimes used by indigenous-rights activists to refer to North America.
“Viloga comes from a family of genocidal settlers; his father and brother both served in the iOF,” the statement continues. “It tracks that a genocidal institution would allow the spawn of genocidal lineage onto campus. Knowing this, we had to act.”
All Jewish Israeli men and women serve in compulsory military service for at least two years. Viloga studied architecture and now works as a project manager for a construction company.
The statement claims that “Claremont Hillel and every single zionist in [the event’s] room advance the genocide of Palestinian life. Since the entity’s conception in ‘48, the fraudulent claim of zionist victimhood has been a tool of domination imposed to silence, main [sic], murder, genocide, and rape the Palestinian native… Yoni’s fictitious ‘state’ destroyed 92% of Gaza, yet he dare talks [sic] about his genocidal compatriots’ ‘trauma,’ erasing the people at the other end of their barrels.”
“We recognize this moment of increased state repression against our comrades taking direct action in solidarity with Palestine from within the heart of the empire… Free Casey Goonan, Free Tarek Bazrouk, Free Jakhi McCray,” continues the statement.
Casey Goonan was convicted in September of firebombing a university police car and attempting to firebomb the Oakland Federal Building. Tarek Bazrouk has been charged with federal hate crimes for physically assaulting Jews, while Jakhi McCray faces charges for setting fire to ten New York Police Department vehicles.
An email sent by Pomona College President Gabi Starr the day after the memorial announced that the college has opened an investigation into the disruption, encouraging students to send any information to oct15disruption@pomona.edu.
“The language shared in a post by Claremont Undercurrents is vile, threatening and highly disturbing. It has no place on our campus,” a spokesperson for Pomona College told the Independent. The anonymous statement was published in full by Claremont Undercurrents in an Instagram post Wednesday evening, after The Student Life withheld the full statement due to its “inflammatory and offensive language.”
The spokesperson also reaffirmed Pomona’s commitment to investigating the disruption, and that the College was examining “security protocols, and reviewing security and other kinds of footage, with the intention of identifying and disciplining the individuals involved.”
Scripps College president Amy Marcus-Newhall forwarded Pomona President Starr’s initial email to Scripps students, adding “If anyone affiliated with Scripps is identified as violating any of our codes of conduct with respect to this incident, a disciplinary process will be pursued.” Harvey Mudd president Harriet B. Nembhard published a similar statement, asking students to reach out for support, though hers did not mention disciplinary action.
Pitzer College did not respond to a request for comment, and Claremont McKenna College declined to comment. Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine did not respond to a request for comment.
The statement also exhorts students to make “modern-nazis feel unwelcome, not just from college campuses, but everywhere.” It explicitly mentions an upcoming event on Oct. 27 at Claremont McKenna College, which will feature Canadian-Israeli author and journalist Matti Friedman, sponsored by CMC’s Jewish Studies Sequence and the Department of Religious Studies.
“There will be no business on usual [sic] that lie and masquerade as beacons of hope while abetting in genocide. Genocide is behind that facade, and we refuse to take part in it,” the statement concludes.
Since its publication, the statement has been condemned by professors and Jewish student leaders at the Claremont Colleges.
“Measured critiques of Israeli actions are welcome, but the theological and chimerical language of this statement denudes it of credibility,” Pomona professor Oona Eisenstadt, who teaches the only Claremont Colleges class on antisemitism, told the Independent.
“This may very well be the most vile and vitriolic rhetoric we have seen in the four years since [our] founding,” said student leaders of Haverim, the Claremont Colleges Jewish Student Union. “It’s no surprise that this may be the most shaken and frightened we have ever seen our Jewish peers.”
Last year, on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, student protestors stormed Carnegie Hall, occupying the academic building for five hours and causing extensive property damage. In response, Pomona College suspended a dozen students and banned scores of protestors from other Claremont Colleges.
On April 5, 2024, students occupied Pomona President Starr’s office, resulting in her calling the police and the arrest of 20 students. Later that year, students set up an encampment on Pomona’s Marston Quad, forcing the college to relocate its commencement ceremony.
Pomona College has faced a series of civil rights complaints and investigations surrounding antisemitism and Islamophobia over the past two years.