Pro-Israel group squares off against anti-Israel protesters in dueling rallies
“We’re here to stand up while they’re standing for genocide.”

The optics couldn’t have been more contrasting.
On one side of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum lawn on Fifth Avenue on Oct. 9 was a small group of mostly masked, university-aged youth, adults and senior citizens. They chanted the same antisemitic and anti-Zionist phrases heard at most of the anti-Israel campus rallies that have happened since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Globalize the intifada,” an apparent call to internationalize Hamas’ terrorism.
One speaker condemned Israel’s defensive attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Netanyahu has upgraded his goal in Lebanon today,” the speaker said into a microphone. “The goal was once apparently returning the Israeli residents to the north and today the stated goal is the destruction of Hezbollah.”
The speaker called Israel’s action “genocide.”
“Don’t be fooled, because when one destroys a community of human beings the result is next door, right there in Gaza,” he said.
The speaker made no mention of Hezbollah’s rocket strikes against Israel, its funding by Iran, that the paramilitary group is deemed a terrorist organization by most Western nations, or its attacks against Americans over the last four decades.
Nor was any mention made of the fact that Hamas broke a cease-fire on Oct. 7, 2023, or of its terror attack on Israel, which included the rape, murder and kidnapping of Israelis, Americans and other foreign nationals.
Standing on the other side of the lawn, separated by a phalanx of police, was a smaller, more youthful crowd of pro-Israel counter-protestors, many of whom were University of Pittsburgh students and alum, all with their faces unmasked.
As the anti-Israel crowd banged drums and shouted through an amplifier, the pro-Israel crowd spoke through a megaphone in voices that were sometimes lost beneath the din of the anti-Israel protestors and city traffic, advocating for the return of hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas.
The dueling protests started on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus at the William Pitt Union but university officials forced them to move because neither had a permit nor had registered their respective events.
Matan Reiger, treasurer of the Students in Support of Israel — one of the organizers of the counter- protest — said they were happy to move, if the anti-Israel group did as well.
“We’re not here to cause an issue with anyone in the area,” he said. “We’re here to stand up while they’re standing for genocide.”
Pitt alum Rachael Gaugler said she came to the counter-protest because she was troubled by the messages the anti-Israel groups are spreading.
“There’s no mention of the hostages, no mention of Hamas,” she said. “It’s very concerning.”
Wearing a Star of David necklace, Gaugler said that she is concerned about the security of Jewish students on campus since Hamas’ attack.
“I definitely feel less safe than I did on Oct. 6,” she said.
Sandy Zell said he was motivated to attend the pro-Israel rally by what’s happening on college campuses across the country.
“It’s supposed to be an institute of education,” he said, “not indoctrination.”
The Oct. 9 anti-Israel event was relatively small compared to other recent campus rallies and was part of a “Week of Rage” promoted on social media by various anti-Israel groups. Conversely, among recent campus pro-Israel rallies, the Oct. 9 rally was organized via word-of-mouth and drew their largest crowd.
Organizers of the anti-Israel protest told those attending not to talk to the media or police — this despite members of their group taking photographs of the pro-Israel group. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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