Three Israeli Defense Force soldiers told Kent community members about their lives in the military Monday as part of the “Triggered, The Tour: From Combat to Campus” event in the Kent State Student Center.
Student organizations arranged a protest in response to the event hosted by Students Supporting Israel. They gathered inside the student center to confront the soldiers and event attendees as they left.
“[The soldiers] are just normal kids that decided to fight against war, against terrorism, and it’s sickening that people outside are protesting against them,” Parker Heller, sophomore business major and president of SSI, said.
SSI partnered with Olami, an international Jewish community, to bring the soldiers to different colleges. Israeli combat soldiers, Shahar Giat, Lior Biran and Shahar Charit were the speakers.
“They’re just coming to give a talk from Israel to tell the truth about what actually happened,” Heller said. “They’re young, like, college kids like us, that’s why we brought them to campuses because we relate to them mostly.”
Police officers, a K9 unit and security patrolled inside and outside the building to monitor protesters.
“Everyone’s invited, even people from both sides,” Heller said. “Maybe they’ll learn the actual truth instead of looking at social media and finding a trend and hopping on the trend.”
Throughout the presentation, demonstrators who registered and attended the event stood up to question and argue against the soldiers’ claims and recounts of the Gaza war.
Najla Abukhaled, a Kent resident and member of Friends for Palestine Collective, was the first protester to be escorted out of the room by police.
Abukhaled stood during the presentation and said, “If your intelligence is so good, how do you explain 17,500 children dead?”
A verbal fight then erupted between her and other attendees.
“This story affects me personally,” Abukhaled said after being escorted out. “My father was displaced in 1948; his house was stolen at the age of three years old. It’s absolutely disgusting, horrific that we even consider inviting them to preach about how they killed innocent people.”
Charit said he was on reserve for 500 days after Oct. 7.
He recalled how his father had called him on the morning of Oct. 7 to ask where he was and inform him that the Gaza Strip was being attacked.
“I saw that the Gaza Strip is having a massacre,” Charit said. “Atrocities, rape, murdering of babies. I was shocked, not because of who did it, because I know that’s what they’re going to do, because I know Palestinian people, but I was shocked that they managed to do it.”
Charit also shared his experience at SSI chapters in Florida and Michigan.
“I think I have a lot to give [supporters],” Charit said. “I want to rise Jewish pride and rise Israelite pride so [supporters] can continue, go back to the communities, not be afraid and raise their voice up.”
Protesters continued to speak out throughout the presentation, one standing to chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Some attendees added the phrase “from Hamas” to the chant while they were being removed from the event room.
SSI has hosted soldiers from Israel to speak on campus before, said Sophia Witt, executive vice president of the National Organization of Students Supporting Israel and a Kent State alumna.
“It’s something that we’ve actually always done, it’s just surprising that they’re just discovering that we’ve been doing it all these years,” Witt said. “When I was a student, we brought soldiers almost every year.”
Witt started the Kent SSI chapter in 2015 and said she is proud of the student work taking place. She understands both sides but feels the media and protesters have dehumanized the soldiers.
“We’re not animals,” Witt said. “I came in here, and I was called an animal, I was called a baby killer. I feel for both sides. I feel for death. Death is never okay … None of us are celebrating the death of anyone. To kind of be shouted at or dehumanized as an individual, I don’t think anyone deserves that.”
Emily Vincent, director of University Media Relations, said in an email that the university upholds the First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.
“As with any speaker invited to our campus, Kent State University does not endorse or condone an opinion or point of view represented by the speakers, nor does the university advocate for any topic the speakers might discuss during their visit to campus,” she said.
Jen Case, a Kent resident and organizer of the Friends for Palestine Collective, was one of the protesters escorted out.
“They make it seem like we are the ones that are going to bring the violence, having the police here and security team here,” Case said. “We’re not the violent ones. They’re war criminals. You can’t be silent. We’re complicit if we’re silent.”
Aryn Kauble is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
Barry Dunietz • Apr 2, 2025 at 3:08 pm
Indeed, important to point out that protesters, including
the two who were interviewed, were disrespectful and disruptive. They
all had to be escorted out by the police, who did an excellent job in allowing the event to continue.
Unfortunately, these protesters, as expected, missed the opportunity to ask intelligent questions, and maybe challenge the speakers. The speakers were ready to engage in such discussion.
The so called pro-Palestenian protesters promote destructive Hamas agenda.
Notably, a common thread of the current war between Israel and Gaza
(ruled by Hamas) and the so called Nakba is the genocidal intention of
the Arab leadership:
The so called Nakba in 1948, resulted from the war waged by the Arab neighboring states against the Jewish state. They had no intention to allow for the second Arab state to be declared because that
meant accepting the Jewish state. In fact, they called for the Arab
residents in Israel to immigrate to clear the land for the war. Those
who stayed became Arab Israelis with citizenship. (Their
descendants are Israeli citizens and include the neighbors and friends of one of the speakers who resides in Jaffa.) And if you are insisting to look for the colonial angle here — the Jewish people are native to the land of Zion (Israel), while the Arab are descendants of colonial conquests.
Moving to the current conflict started by Hamas with the horrific 10/7 attack. Hamas still governs the Gazan people in spite of losing in the military conflict. The Gazan people will continue to pay a price until Hamas
releases the hostages and releases its grip on the population.
If you are truly a pro-Palestinian you must call to free Gaza from
Hamas. Only with sane leadership next steps towards
a lasting solution can be explored.
Jeffrey Rockland • Apr 2, 2025 at 7:33 am
Major corrections needed for this article. Please note that English is not the first language of the people the author tried to interview. Nonetheless, the massacre that went on October 7th was not in the Gaza strip. Rather, it must be absolutely corrected that it was Hamas, Islamic Jihad and thousands of ordinary Gazan citizens who broke down fences and came into Israel to commit as much murder, rape, mutilation and kidnapping as they possibly could. As one of the speakers clearly shared, it was not only Hamas that perpetrated the worst horror on innocent Israeli citizens. The article also does not start to point out that Kent State supports SJP, which as pointed out in the recent researched film October 8th has direct connections to Hamas. Unfortunately, Kent State is like many other American universities in turning a blind eye to the influence of outside money that is being routed to promoting Jihadist philosophy around the world. This is shameful and needs to be pointed out.
We had on our campus college age guests with real life experience trying to protect their country from murderous genocidal terror. A small population, that had to be protected by police came to listen and learn about the experiences of these guests and a group of some 200 “protesters” with memorized slogans did all they could to drown out the voices of the guests. While all were welcome to attend and politely ask questions in order for their to be dialogue, the “disrupters” who tried to ruin the event didn’t come to engage in an intelligent and articulate interactive way, rather they came to should the one or two sentences that they were taught by outside Jihadist organizers. That is what happened.
Jan • Apr 1, 2025 at 4:07 pm
No one assumed they would bring violence, but the entirety of the event was disrupted, which is why we needed security. They didn’t listen when the organizers politely asked them not to disrupt or to leave when they did. People came to listen to the speakers. Not to listen to the students who were already screaming outside of the event, scream inside the event.