{"id":82412,"date":"2026-04-24T23:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/82412\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:44:15","slug":"students-supporting-israel-brings-idf-soldier-to-speak-on-campus-protests-disruptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/82412\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Supporting Israel brings IDF soldier to speak on campus, protests, disruptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, Students Supporting Israel (SSI)<\/a> Rutgers chapter invited a soldier from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to speak in person as part of their “Triggered: From Combat to Campus<\/a>” tour, while a protest against IDF presence on campus took place outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yossi Hertz<\/a>, a former soldier in the Hashmonaim Brigade of the IDF, spoke about his Jewish identity, provided detail into his training process for joining the first Orthodox Jewish brigade of the IDF and responded to protests against Israel’s actions. The event took place\u00a0on the fourth floor lounge of the College Avenue Student Center at 5 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event was met with significant criticism from groups like the Students for Justice in Palestine at New Brunswick<\/a> (SJP) and the Muslim Public Relations Council<\/a> (MPRC). These groups organized a simultaneous counter-demonstration<\/a> nearby at the College Avenue Gym, which also faced internal disruptions from some attendees concerned about the state of casualties in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Introductory remarks<\/p>\n

Kelly Shapiro, co-president of SSI, opened the event by encouraging attendees to engage in open dialogue with one another. “While there may be differences of opinions among those in the space, we ask that you allow the program to proceed as planned and not interrupt the speaker,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shapiro\u00a0then introduced Hertz and described his history with SSI. Hertz had been the student president of Hillel at SUNY Rockland Community College\u00a0 and founded the SSI chapter there, according to\u00a0Shapiro.<\/p>\n

Hertz was drafted into the IDF last year, serving in Gaza during the October 2025 ceasefire deal, said Shapiro.\u00a0After being released from service two months ago, he now works as the director of Campus Affairs for the #EndJewHatred<\/a> campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hertz claimed that while he was uninterested in the IDF when he was younger, he came to the conclusion as he repeatedly visited Israel himself,\u00a0that his identity was tied inextricably to the area. He attempted to draft when he was 27, but said that he was denied because he was “too old” and only accepted later when Israel opened additional draft classes in response to the events of Oct. 7, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What I’m trying to reinforce here over and over again is that the fundamental elements of Zionism (are) crucial to Jewish identity,” Hertz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Internal event disruptions\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Hertz was showing videos and explaining the training process for IDF soldiers, a student disruptor stood up and began listing off statistics of Palestinian deaths, attributing the IDF to more than\u00a070,000<\/a> casualties from Gaza thus far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The disruptor spoke of Hind Rijab<\/a>, a six-year-old from Palestine who was shot and killed by IDF soldiers firing a total of 335 bullets<\/a> at her family’s car in January 2024.<\/p>\n

“When my Jewish grandmother told me about the Holocaust, she told me ‘Never again,'” the disruptor said, before being ushered out of the room. “If justice is real, then the IDF will go down. You guys will be prosecuted at the Hague \u2026 Justice will prevail.”<\/p>\n

Two minutes after the first disruptor had cleared out, a second unnamed attendee began speaking back-and-forth with Hertz about death totals in Gaza. The attendee posed the statistic to Hertz of “20,000 children” killed, to which Hertz replied asking how many of them were combatants and discussed the semantics of labelling 16-year-old soldiers as “children.”<\/p>\n

Hertz responded to both disruptions by clarifying that he does not believe his government nor the IDF is perfect, but that the issue requires nuance on both sides. He commended the attendees of the talk for hearing his story and said he was “glad” the second disruptor had come to discuss things with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

External protests before, after event<\/p>\n

Prior to the event, the SJP organization arranged a petition<\/a> in protest titled “IDF Off Our Campus: Demand that Rutgers Cancel the ‘SSI Triggered’ Event,” partnering<\/a> with organizations like the MPRC to attempt to cancel SSI’s talk. As of Thursday, the petition had received more than 6,700 signatures and stood just more than halfway to its goal of 12,800.<\/p>\n

The petition alleged that the University’s permittance of IDF soldiers on campus “legitimizes all forms of Zionist violence” and neglects to acknowledge students affected by the crisis in Palestine. Additional organizations sharing the petition and campaign included NJ Build Up Resistance Now<\/a>, the Arab Cultural Club<\/a>, ROOTS Palestinian Cultural Club<\/a>\u00a0and New Jersey For Palestine<\/a> alongside others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shapiro commented on the petition, believing it meant that Jewish students at Rutgers were being held to a double standard and silenced. “Everyday life for (Jewish students) is a difficult feat here because they’re constantly being bombarded with unnecessary hate,” she said. “I think \u2026 leading with love and compassion and empathy and authenticity is really our goal.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MPRC also hosted an “IOF OFF CAMPUS<\/a>”\u00a0protest occurring at the College Avenue Gym at the same time as the IDF event, whose chants of “Free Palestine” could be heard from the College Avenue Student’s Center’s fourth floor and persisted for the latter half of the event.<\/p>\n

Hertz referred to the chanting outside as antisemitism or “Jew hatred.” He pointed to the Greek Orthodox Church and other organizations that have self-determination as a factor behind them, questioning why it was agreed upon that “Greece is for Greeks” yet felt that the same sentiment did not apply to Jewish individuals.<\/p>\n

“(The SSI) are students who feel very strongly about their Jewish identity and their Zionism as a fundamental part of who they are as Jews,” Hertz said when briefly speaking to The Daily Targum before being escorted out. “They believe that they, as Jews, have the right to self-determination, just like any group in the world, and that includes Palestinian Arabs as well.”<\/p>\n

This article covers the IDF Triggered event. For more detailed coverage of the IOF OFF CAMPUS protest that occurred alongside it, see The Targum’s other recent article<\/a> on the topic<\/p>\n