Campus Event Featuring IDF Soldiers Spurs Protest -

Protestor Joshua Ortiz is removed from Heritage Hall by police. Photo by Lily Chambers.

By Lillian Murphy and Patrick D. Lewis

On Monday, October 20th, the Catholic University Students Supporting Israel (SSI) organization hosted two soldiers who served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to share their story with the student body, leading to a student-organized protest against the event.

Soldiers Ron Feingold and Chanoch Berman were invited to give personal statements about their time spent in Gaza. The event was heavily advertised and garnered large reactions from both sides. A description posted by the SSI to the Nest states, “Now, they’re here to tell you what really happened. No filters. No spin. No scripts. Just the raw, firsthand truth from two soldiers who saw it all.”

The event began at 6:40 PM and was opened by the president and founder of the CUA SSI chapter, senior nursing major Felipe Avila. Avila made a brief call for civility before introducing Feingold as the first speaker. Feingold was born in Israel before moving to the United States at a young age. He has worked with multiple organizations that have close ties to the State of Israel, including Turning Point USA, for which he worked as Director of Israel Engagement and Outreach. Feingold served as a paratrooper in the IDF in 2017, after which he returned to the states.

Feingold spent much of his speaking time describing the collective obligation to, “keep Jewish security in the hands of Jews,” a sentiment he believes is widely held among the Israeli people and which encouraged him to join the IDF once becoming eligible. In light of the October 7th attacks in 2023, Feingold said he felt called to return to the IDF, stating, “If I’m not able to uphold this collective responsibility that I think Jews have, I will not be able to go and account to my creator when my time comes.”

The second speaker to take the stage, Chanoch Berman, was born in the U.S. but was raised in Israel for most of his life. Berman has been an active member of the World Zionist Organization, as well as the Media and PR Advisor to the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations. Berman also has a history with the Students Supporting Israel National Team, joining them multiple times on trips to campuses across the country.

Much like Feingold, Berman also felt the urge to return to the IDF, in which he served for about a year following the events of October 7th. His personal account included references to U.S./Israeli relations, a repeated call for consequences for the contributors of the October 7th attacks, and the claim that “The two times in my life that I felt I was fulfilling the destiny of prophets or the Bible was the two times I went into war.”

It was at this point that participants of the Pro-Palestine demonstration happening directly outside Heritage Hall began to come inside to the SSI event. The protesters in attendance remained silent and seated for the remainder of Berman’s account. A group of about 50 protestors, made up of both students as well as members of the community and from around the D.C. area, remained outside Heritage Hall for the full duration of the event. Many of the demonstrators brought signs, and one group brought a display depicting an infant Jesus amidst rubble.

Following Berman’s speech, Avila opened the floor up for questions from the audience. Avila outlined the ground rules for the Q&A session, which stated that each audience member had the opportunity to ask one question, which had to be civil and not an outright statement. Avila said failure to adhere to these guidelines would result in the immediate termination of one’s time at the microphone.

Junior theology major Joshua Ortiz, who helped organize the protest, as well as multiple other demonstrators, were some of the first to line up to question the two speakers. Ortiz, as the first to speak, questioned the claim that Israel is a moral government, as multiple international organizations have now condemned the IDF and the Israeli government as a whole for the actions in Gaza. An argument between Ortiz and the two speakers ensued, resulting in the microphone being taken away from Ortiz. Despite this, Ortiz continued to condemn the actions of the IDF to the audience. Ortiz was escorted out by the Department of Public Safety, as he violated the guidelines previously stated.

After being ejected, Ortiz used a bullhorn to continue his speech from outside the building and received applause from the protestors.

The next audience member to ask a question was another Pro-Palestine demonstrator who, upon stating her support for the people of Gaza, had the microphone taken away from her. Multiple audience members called for the microphone to be returned, citing freedom of speech. The microphone was returned, and the Q&A session continued without any further major disruptions.

The remainder of the event included questions from both supporters and protesters, whose subject matter varied from moral inquiries to questions about how the United States financially supporting Israel benefits the American people.

Meanwhile, outside, several student organizers gave speeches expressing their concerns surrounding both the war itself as well as the university’s decision to approve the event.

Emma Bonney, a sophomore politics and psychology major, was one of the organizers of the protest. In an interview before the demonstration, she said she helped put together the protest because, “from the first time that I saw that we had a Students Supporting Israel group, I felt, like, the students who don’t support Zionism and don’t support what’s happening in Gaza had no voice on campus.”

She added that organizations that used to be active on campus, such as The Olive Branch, are no longer functioning, which meant there was no official student organization to hold a “counter-event.”

“You gotta listen to the people,” she said when asked about her message to university leadership. “Two popes in our time have denounced what Israel is doing.”

Another organizer, sophomore history and politics major Kevin McElligott, said he started the process of organizing the protest because he sees the approval of the SSI event as “completely incongruent with our Catholic values here… anyone who has been in Gaza, which these soldiers have, has blood on their hands, and we can’t really give the time of day to people that have been participating in one of the most-documented genocides in history.”

McElligott added that he doesn’t believe you “can have a conversation” with people who “have committed genocide.”

A petition against the event started by McElligott gained over 170 signatures.

Many of the students who attended the protest spoke about why they felt they should attend it. Benjamin Mason, a senior marketing and international business major, said “We’re the Catholic University of America, we are run by a Church who actively says that what is going on is inadmissible and not right, and yet, we’re still, you know, as a school, inviting these folks to come and speak and celebrate what they’ve done, and I just don’t think something that we should allow as a student community.”