On October 7, 2025, two memorials commemorating victims of the ongoing Israel-Palestine War stood on opposite ends of the Arts Quad.
The memorials, erected on the two-year anniversary of the Nova Music Festival Massacre that ignited the current Gaza conflict, were organized by student groups representing opposing perspectives on the conflict. Cornellians for Israel hosted a tribute for Israeli victims and hostages, while the Cornell Progressives, joined by the Coalition for Mutual Liberation, Ithaca College Progressives, and Students for Justice in Palestine, organized a parallel memorial for Palestinian victims.
Cornellians for Israel’s Display
On the south side of the quad, near Olin Library, Cornellians for Israel lined a walkway with 48 chairs, each chair representing a person who is currently held hostage in Gaza. A sign with the words “Never Forget” in English and Hebrew marked the entrance to the pathway. Adjacent to the chair display, around 60 lawn signs commemorated victims of the Nova Music Festival.
Two milk carton-shaped signs bordered another path, each bearing images of Israelis who were killed, alongside messages such as “Hamas killed children.” Other boards described the timeline of the Nova Music Festival Massacre.
One such board read:
“On Friday, October 6, 2023, thousands gathered for The Nova Music Festival, celebrating love and music.
At 6:29 a.m. on Saturday, October 7, missiles struck and armed terrorists attacked, killing 370 attendees and taking 44 hostage.”
A nearby table offered t-shirts, pins, pamphlets, and stickers to passersby. Behind the table stood a Sukkah, a temporary hut constructed for the Jewish festival of Sukkot. The display ran on the Arts Quad from 9 AM to 4:30 PM.
Cornell Progressives’ Art Installation
Across the Quad, the Cornell Progressives’ installation included 100 white flags placed to memorialize Palestinians killed in the conflict. Seventy-seven images and descriptions of dead Palestinians lined the display, accompanied by a Palestinian flag, a sign stating “We will free Palestine in our lifetime,” a wooden sign with the pattern of a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, and a Handala, a cartoon that symbolizes Palestinian defiance.
A separate sign read:
“Since the Nakba in 1948, Palestinians have endured decades of displacement, occupation, and violence at the hands of Israel- a tragedy that has escalated into what we recognize as a genocide in Gaza.
Since October 7th, 2023, relentless bombings and sieges have taken the lives of an estimated 65,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.
Each white flag below represents 100 lives martyred, a solemn symbol of the immense human cost of this ongoing assault.
This display stands as a call for justice, remembrance, and an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
A police car was stationed on the Arts Quad at various times throughout the day.
Cornell is currently under federal investigation for its handling of the protests that occurred after the October 7th attacks, including for alleged anti-Semitism. The quiet scene on the Arts Quad was markedly different from the controversy this issue had previously brought to Cornell.
Just last year, 16 protestors were arrested for disrupting the ILR career fair, and a non-US-citizen graduate student involved in the demonstration faced deportation as a result of his involvement. Most recently, Cornell suspended a professor who allegedly excluded a Jewish student from his class which concerned Gaza.
This scene could also hint at a future on campus with the Interim Expressive Activity Policy, which requires community members “to comply with published campus space reservation policies.” According to the policy,
“Existing event scheduling platforms for each campus should be used to reserve locations for speakers or other expressive activities using dedicated space, including tabling, installations, and camping.”
According to a person tabling at the Israel memorial, Cornell Hillel had booked the space for the display for a certain period of time. Based on the Interim Expressive Activity Policy, the Cornell Progressives likely had to do the same.
While Tuesday’s scene on the Arts Quad was peaceful, the two memorials, separated by a stretch of fall grass, symbolized the divide on campus and the challenge of remembrance amidst the global conflict.
