Socialist streamer Hasan Piker joined a “from the river to the sea” chant at Cornell University, drawing sharp pushback after the school settled major antisemitism probes.
Left-wing streamer Hasan Piker raised his microphone and joined an anti-Israel chant at Cornell University’s Sage Chapel, capping a campus appearance organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
The New York Post reported that the moderator, wearing a keffiyeh, invited the crowd to join a protest chant and led “From the river to the sea,” with the audience responding “Palestine will be free.” Piker lifted his mic and mumbled along. The exchange repeated two more times.
A man on the benches then started a “Free, free Palestine” chant. Piker joined that one as well. He left to loud cheers, treated like a rock star by the Students Not Bombs campaign crowd.
Cornell’s Hillel chapter said Piker’s views “go against our values as Americans and Jews” and called the “hateful rhetoric” “repulsive.” Jewish advocacy group SAFE Campus had petitioned Cornell plus state and federal officials to cancel the event, pointing to the university’s claim that it had taken “a clear and strong stand” against antisemitism after the October 7, 2023, terror attacks.
One horrified viewer wrote, “Pretty disappointed in Cornell for this one.” An alum said, “Disgusted that Cornell gave Hasan Piker a platform today,” and added, “As an alum, I am embarrassed and outraged. Cornell, what are you thinking? You can do better.” Critics labeled the campus a “bastion of hate.”
Less than a year earlier, Cornell agreed to pay $60 million to the Trump administration to resolve investigations into campus antisemitism. That deal unfroze around $250 million in federal research funding. Hosting Piker so soon after that settlement undercut the university’s claimed reset.
The 35-year-old New Jersey-born socialist provocateur is the nephew of Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur. He has a long trail of extreme statements. He justified the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed roughly 1,200 innocents as a “direct consequence of Israeli actions” and said “it doesn’t matter if f***** rapes happened on Oct. 7.”
Earlier this month he told Axios correspondent Alex Thompson the region “would be more stable” if Iran had nuclear weapons, adding, “I think Iran, much like any other sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself, regardless of its domestic policies.” In 2019 he claimed America deserved 9/11. He has also spoken at the University of Southern California and Dartmouth.
That pattern is why Piker’s associations keep drawing scrutiny from people who watch who progressive leaders platform.
At Cornell he urged the audience to “maintain revolutionary optimism, always.” The chant he joined is widely understood as calling for Israel’s elimination, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. A House resolution has condemned the slogan as antisemitic. Sage Chapel itself opened in 1875 as the first nonsectarian chapel at a U.S. college. Turning it into a venue for that slogan was a choice.
The same day as the Cornell event, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shredded New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the United Nations General Assembly over Mamdani’s friendship with the streamer. Piker has stumped with Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and named far-left New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez his preferred 2028 presidential pick.
Piker has been open about backing AOC’s 2028 ambitions even as his rhetoric hardens.
El-Sayed has faced his own pressure over the alliance. The Michigan Democrat apologized to Jewish voters yet refused to cut ties with the streamer.
When Piker’s comments on American Jews and potential violence surfaced, some Democrats scrambled to condemn him. Others piled on only after the blowback became impossible to ignore. The Cornell appearance shows the same progressive campus networks still roll out the red carpet.
Universities that settle antisemitism cases for tens of millions, then host influencers who join eliminationist chants, are not serious about the problem they claimed to fix. Taxpayers and Jewish students are left holding the bill and the risk.
