Columbia SIPA hosts panel honoring former Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, met with protests from Columbia student groups

SIPA’s Institute of Global Policy invited Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with other experts in American-Israeli politics, to discuss Rabin’s legacy three decades after his assassination. In response, students organized a protest outside of the President’s House.

Photo by Karissa Song/The Barnard Bulletin

By Jaya Shankar, Elisabeth Siegel, Karissa Song, and Kimberly Wing

November 11, 2025

In protest of a panel hosted Monday by the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs’ Institute of Global Policy (IGP) to “honor the enduring legacy” of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, around 40 people gathered at 116th Street and Morningside Drive at 4:00 p.m., 30 minutes before the panel was scheduled to begin. 

An Instagram post by several Columbia student organizations — including Sunrise, Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition, Columbia Student Union, and Jewish Voices for Peace — called for the “emergency rally,” describing the event as featuring “a panel from hell.” At the event, Acting University President Claire Shipman first introduced 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton to commence the panel with formal remarks. Next, SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo moderated a panel that included Hillary Clinton, 67th Secretary of State; Jacob Lew, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel; and Nadav Eyal, IGP Senior Research Scholar and columnist for Israel’s “most circulated newspaper,” Yediot Ahronot Daily. 

Eyal, Yarhi-Milo, and Secretary Clinton are all current SIPA faculty. Secretary Clinton and Dean Yahri-Milo co-founded IGP in 2023 and have co-taught the SIPA course Inside the Situation Room for several years, including Fall 2025.

The panel marked the 30th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Rabin, whose second term as Prime Minister of Israel began in 1992, met with President Clinton and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat to sign the Oslo Accords in 1993, aiming to resolve the conflict in the Middle East by not only recognizing Israel as a state, but also the PLO as legitimate representation of the people of Palestine. He received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Oslo Accords. Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by an “Israeli right-wing nationalist” who opposed the Accords and Rabin’s peace efforts with Palestinians. 

At 3:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the protest was set to begin, New York Police Department vehicles arrived and placed barricades across Morningside Drive. Roughly 20 officers stood at the intersection of Morningside Drive and 116th Street. 

People began to gather at the Carl Schurz memorial by Morningside Park around 4:10 p.m. Protesters, many of whom wore masks or keffiyehs, hung a painted banner reading “War criminal off our campus” from the statue’s pedestal. The same sign was hung from the Law Bridge on March 4 by students protesting a previous IGP event, which featured former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and was also moderated by Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo.

Protesters hang "War criminal off our campus" banner from Carl Shurz Memorial.

Photo by Karissa Song/The Barnard Bulletin

At 4:25 p.m., Sunrise organizer Cameron Jones (CC ’26) led the crowd in chants of “Free, free Palestine,” “Every time the media lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies,” and “Israel bombs, Columbia pays.” Protesters held signs with slogans such as “One day, everyone will have always been against this” and “Resist.” 

Addressing the protesters, Jones stated, “Sunrise Columbia strongly condemns the event being held today to commemorate the so-called ‘legacy’ of racist war criminal Yitzhak Rabin,” who “played a leading role in the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians” and “ordered Israeli forces to use ‘force, might, and beatings’ to crush Palestinian uprisings in the occupied territories.” The crowd booed and chanted “shame” in agreement. 

“[The] Oslo [Accords] entrenched Israeli security dominance and denied Palestinians equality and self-determination,” Jones continued. “Rabin himself stated that he wanted a ‘Palestinian entity that is less than a state,’ explicitly rejecting full sovereignty for the Palestinian people.”

At 4:50 p.m., the group crossed Morningside Drive to stand directly in front of the President’s House, shouting “Oslo led to genocide” and “Say it loud, say it clear, Bill Clinton is not welcome here.” Individual speakers also took turns addressing the crowd.

Protesters stand in front of the President's House holding signs with various slogans, including "Columbia enables political persecution."

Photo by Karissa Song/The Barnard Bulletin

“I focus on climate, but I do not consider that a separate issue at all from all of the imperialist branches that will and are currently destroying life on this planet forever,” said Nathaniel Smith, an activist who was previously arrested for vandalizing the Trump Tower in Midtown and trespassing onto Columbia’s campus. “We’re here for our people and our planet.”

Another speaker who did not identify themself expressed their anger towards speaker President Clinton. 

“Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, who does nothing but serve as a mouthpiece for American empire and Israeli supremacy, is right now in a room of peace negotiators who have done nothing — absolutely nothing — to take responsibility for the heinous crimes they have committed for decades,” they said.

The crowd of protesters dispersed around 5:15 p.m., chanting “We will be back.”

Protester wearing a costume resembling the Columbia mascot Roar-ee with a sign that reads "No wars."

Photo by Karissa Song/The Barnard Bulletin

While students protested in front of the President’s House, at 4:40 p.m., Acting President Shipman delivered her opening remarks to the panel. “We are an institution built to have difficult conversations,” she said. “Being able to engage with topics or parts of the world that are challenging is what we do, even when others would sometimes like to see us more silent. We can do it academically, respectfully, and with open minds.” 

Next, Dean Yahri-Milo addressed the audience, mentioning the October 7 attacks and the conflict in Gaza, wondering if the world was “moving farther away from peace.” She then introduced former President Clinton, saying, “I cannot think of anyone who worked more tirelessly to bring peace to the Middle East.” 

“[Rabin] was able to navigate all the diplomatic waters and domestic politics, including the extremist opposition that tried to delegitimize him,” President Clinton said. 

“This long bloodbath in Gaza needs no more discussion from me, but it is one of the darkest moments in the whole conflict,” he continued. “We should remember that Yitzhak Rabin believed that he himself became more human as he was able to recognize the humanity of others.”

“The world lost a leader whose example matters even more today than it did then,” President Clinton concluded.

During the panel, speakers praised Rabin’s leadership and personal qualities. Dennis Ross, former United States Director of Policy Planning and Special Middle East Coordinator, described him as “highly analytical,” “intellectually honest,” and “a decision-maker, not a decision-avoider.” 

“I agree with everything that Dennis just said,” commented Secretary Hillary Clinton. “One of the possible outcomes of this event [...] is to really study leaders who made very hard decisions against their experience, against the people around them.”

Brian Cohen, Executive Director at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, delivered the event’s closing remarks, calling the panel “extraordinary” and praising President Clinton’s speech.

“You reminded us that he was a martyr for peace but a victim of hate,” Cohen stated. “Those words still echo for Israel, for the Jewish people, and for all who believe that courage and compromise can co-exist. Today’s conversation has brought that legacy vividly to life.”

At 11 p.m., photojournalist Alexa Wilkinson, in collaboration with Sunrise, posted a response on Instagram to the IGP event. Referencing President Clinton’s remarks, Sunrise and Wilkinson stated that the panelists were “referring to Gaza’s destruction as ‘one of the darkest moments,’ never once naming it for what it is: genocide.” They emphasized the importance of protesting panels that “launder war crimes through nostalgia and academic respectability.” 

The panel concluded at 6:30 p.m. As of Tuesday afternoon, the video of the event has received over 2,500 views on YouTube.