I listened to Prof. Russell Rickford say that we live in the rotting corpse of an empire that masquerades as a democracy on Nov. 8th to a crowd of (mostly) supportive onlookers in Ho Plaza who cheered him on after each statement. The oration continued as Rickford mentioned how those in America and western society pursuing “hawkish pro-Israel policies” in the Middle East are “morally depraved.” The accusation of moral depravity is surprising coming from someone who was “exhilarated” by the rape and murder of innocent civilians by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7th, 2023.

The majority of Rickford’s commentary had little to do with the recent presidential election the demonstration was purportedly about. Efforts had seemingly been made by rally organizers to obscure the true purpose of the the event which was sponsored by four Cornell student groups including the Cornell Progressives, Students for Justice in Palestine, Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America and the typically more moderate Cornell Democrats — noticeably absent as a sponsor of the rally was the more radical Coalition for Mutual Liberation, the traditional ringleader of anti-Israel sentiment on campus.

Rickford’s presence, along with various keffiyehs and Palestinian flags gave away the fact that the rally was not actually meant to only be a “Stand Against Facism” or for “collective community processing [of] grief” as it was promoted. Positioning this “rally and march” as a response to the election of President Trump a few days prior was a dishonest attempt to broaden the tent of Cornell’s anti-Israel coalition to include all those who opposed........

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