A packed crowd at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Cornell University campaign event joined in chants of “from the river to the sea” and “long live the student intifada” on Sunday, delivering a jarring opening to an event designed to energize Democrats before the midterms, as reported [1] by The New York Post.
Roughly 2,000 people gathered inside the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center for the congresswoman’s “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall.
The standing-room-only gathering brought Ocasio-Cortez to downtown Ithaca as Democrats sought enthusiasm ahead of the November election.
Cornell University Young Democratic Socialists of America co-chairs Mina Petrova and Zoe Reisman warmed up the crowd. They led attendees in singing “from the river to the sea” and declaring “long live the student intifada.”
The opening spectacle gave the Democratic campaign event a distinctly radical flavor.
Petrova also attacked Cornell University, portraying the institution as beholden to wealthy interests and corporate leadership.
“Cornell is fundamentally a capitalist institution that prioritizes billionaires and profit over students and community and is controlled by CEO trustees that are profiting off of genocide and war,” Petrova said to applause inside the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center.
The gathering was hosted with More Perfect University, a student activist organization.
Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign described the event as “part of an effort by the Congresswoman to boost turnout in Democratic strongholds ahead of the November election.”
Ocasio-Cortez is campaigning in upstate New York to improve her image ahead of a potential campaign for president or the US Senate.
At Cornell, she criticized the university over what she described as suppression of student protesters’ free speech.
“Whether it’s the issue about Palestine or many others. Whether it’s about people trying to fire those who are forming a union in their workplace, whether it’s people trying to speak up about a number of different issues, we have to respond to that first crackdown,” she said.
“When we come out in numbers, they cannot take us all,” she added. Her remarks tied the dispute over pro-Palestinian demonstrations to union organizing and other forms of campus activism.
The chant that opened the event has already faced condemnation in Congress.
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly ruled “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be antisemitic.
The phrase refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Critics say the slogan calls for the eradication of Israel and its people, making its enthusiastic appearance at a Democratic turnout event especially inflammatory.
Ocasio-Cortez voted against the 2024 House resolution declaring the phrase hateful. The Bronx and Queens congresswoman did not shy away from challenging Cornell’s handling of protesters while speaking before the packed Ithaca crowd.
Her appearance also continued a political rise that began with her stunning 2018 primary defeat of Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley.
That victory came during the Democrats’ last midterm surge and vaulted Ocasio-Cortez into national prominence.
Ocasio-Cortez had also planned to appear with Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier Sunday.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office said Hochul withdrew from the planned Ithaca appearance with the congresswoman earlier in the day.
Hochul’s office attributed the cancellation to the nor’easter hitting New York City. The governor, however, did not have any public events scheduled for Sunday.
The Cornell event nevertheless proceeded with its mix of Democratic campaign organizing, socialist rhetoric and chants condemned by the House.
An effort billed as boosting turnout in Democratic strongholds instead opened with a crowd loudly embracing some of the left’s most divisive slogans.