Cornell socialist leaders guided nearly 2,000 people in “from the river to the sea” and “long live the student intifada” chants at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s turnout event, a slogan the House already called antisemitic.
Co-chairs of the Cornell University Young Democratic Socialists of America opened the warm-up at Ocasio-Cortez’s “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall in downtown Ithaca, New York. Mina Petrova and Zoe Reisman led the standing-room-only crowd of roughly 2,000 at the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center on Sunday.
The New York Post reported the pair directed the singing of “from the river to the sea” and the declaration “long live the student intifada” before the Bronx-Queens congresswoman took the stage.
The event was hosted with the student activist group More Perfect University. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign billed it as part of an effort to boost turnout in Democratic strongholds ahead of the November election.
In 2024 the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly ruled the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be antisemitic. Ocasio-Cortez voted against that resolution.
Critics of the phrase say it calls for the eradication of Israel and its people. The same language filled the room that Ocasio-Cortez used to rally students for Democratic midterms.
Petrova drew applause with a direct attack on her own university. She told the crowd 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.”
"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,"
Ocasio-Cortez then turned her fire on Cornell. She accused the school of suppressing free speech of student protesters and tied the fight to broader left causes.
"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 closed the call to action with a numbers pitch: “When we come out in numbers, they cannot take us all.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul had been set to appear with Ocasio-Cortez earlier Sunday in Ithaca. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said she backed out because of the nor’easter hitting New York City. Hochul held no public events that day.
Ocasio-Cortez still packed the hall without her. The congresswoman rose by defeating Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley in 2018 and has been campaigning upstate as she weighs higher office.
The sequence was plain. Student socialist leaders opened with a chant the House labeled hate. The featured Democrat who opposed that House resolution then spoke to the same crowd about resisting crackdowns and turning out votes.
Democratic strongholds are being primed with slogans mainstream voters already rejected. Accountability starts with noticing who leads the cheer and who shares the stage.
