Defense contractors, Israel subject of Wednesday afternoon protest

Shouts against war profiteering and in favor of Palestine dominated Campus Road yesterday afternoon. A small collection of protestors took to the parking booth outside Carpenter Hall to make their frustration with Cornell known to passers-by.

The protest, which most visibly targeted Cornell’s involvement in the American defense industry, consisted of about 15 students, staff, and Ithacans, though many came and left throughout the afternoon. Beginning at 4:00 PM, the group displayed signs reading, for example, “War criminals off campus,” “1 nuclear war can ruin your whole day,” and “Stop war on mother earth.”

Several minutes in, more protestors arrived with a bullhorn, with which they began shouting at pedestrians and motorists. Repeated through the hour long event were, variously: “No more war profiteers, you won’t take our engineers,” “Death to Lockheed Martin,” “Brains not bombs,” “Cornell kills for the bills,” “Drop courses not bombs,” “Support liberation not occupation,” and “Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, we want all the killers gone.”

Many passing cars honked to indicate their support, including a TCAT bus. There was also a friendly wave from a CUPD officer on patrol. Individual protestors left the traffic island to discourse with—or attempt to recruit—passersby. In one such interaction, one of the protestors spoke with a Review reporter. Though many of the activists seemed to be from outside the Cornell community, when asked, the protester would not clarify who organized the event.

Though the clearest target of the protestors was defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin (a company Cornell has partnered with extensively), much of the advertising of the event included references to Israel. Most visible in signs such as “Cornell kills Palestinians” and the unfurling of a Palestinian flag halfway through the protest.

In the leadup to the event, several of the activists took to organizing classmates to join the protest. One such recruitment effort—in a Wednesday afternoon law lecture—emphasized the use of American missiles, designed by Cornell, in the Israeli military.

A member of the Cornell community who observed the protest, and to whom we spoke, remarked on the seemingly unnecessary involvement of the Israel-Palestine conflict:

The protest today conflated issues that really have nothing to do with each other. It is becoming a trend on campus to distort events addressing separate issues involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People end up blindly following a side and not knowing anything about it.

Israel and Cornell are only directly connected through the Cornell Tech project. The Roosevelt Island, NY campus is a joint venture between Cornell and the Israel Institute of Technology (or Technion, for short). Technion has been described by Palestinian sympathizers as “virtually the R&D wing of the Israeli military.”

In 2016, professors in Italy petitioned for institutions of higher education in Italy to cut ties with Technion for alleged “complicity in Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians.” The truth is that Technion occupies a similar position to Cornell. Far from Cornell being an integral component of the ‘military industrial complex,’ many top Cornell grads simply work at defense contractors. Cornell also receives some funding for defense research.

Notably, none of these details were clarified by the activists. Many passers by could be heard asking each other “what is this about.” Several pedestrians even asked our reporters to clarify the purpose of the protest.

Yet another theme of the protest was climate change. Many signs featured dire concerns about rising temperatures, such as accusing the federal government of purveying “climate disaster,” or blaming the military for emitting more carbon dioxide than 35 countries. However, the activists did not conjure chants and songs for climate change, unlike their treatment of defense contractors.

In all of the above sins, the protestors seemingly believe Cornell is complicit. Time and again, they chanted “Cornell kills with your bills.” Indeed, on the nuclear energy point, Cornell has a long history of working with the government to develop such capabilities.

The location of the event, in the traffic island in front of Carpenter Hall, was likely a reference to the pipeline of Cornell engineering students. Many of Cornell’s top STEM graduates find work in the employ of defense contractors such as Raytheon, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman.

This protest foreshadows an upcoming rally this Friday by the Students for Justice in Palestine on Ho Plaza. Both the protest yesterday and demonstration tomorrow come amidst “Israel Apartheid Week,” during which Palestinian activists host events in an attempt to convince people of their oppression by the Israeli government.

Enzo De Oliveira and Cullen O’Hara contributed to this report.