Update, March 11, 8:10 p.m.: The article was updated to include the statement from Interim President Michael Kotlikoff.
At least 17 pro-Palestinian attendees were arrested or detained on Monday by Cornell University Police Department officers at Pathways to Peace, a panel discussion that brought together four experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a “wide-ranging conversation” on “potential paths forward for the people of Israel and Palestine,” according to the event’s description.
In a statement from Interim President Michael Kotlikoff sent on Tuesday, he explained that CUPD identified 17 people responsible for the disruptions, nine of whom are students who will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for “appropriate action, including the imposition of interim measures up to and including suspension.”
Kotlikoff further explained that University staff will be referred to Human Resources for disciplinary actions and outside demonstrators will be issued “persona non grata status” and be barred from campus.
Kotlikoff also said in his statement that Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian campus organization which helped to advertise and organize the event disruption, “faces suspension as a registered campus organization.”
Moderating the event in Bailey Hall was Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon. The panelists were Salam Fayyad, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Tzipi Livni, the former vice prime minister and former foreign minister of Israel and Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel.
According to a press release from SJP, students and community members were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct during the walkout. Protesters were escorted out of Bailey Hall after disrupting the event with pro-Palestine chants, making noise when panelists were talking and posing unscripted questions.
The panel met resistance before it began from SJP announcing an “emergency walkout” in a Saturday Instagram post. According to the post, SJP and other pro-Palestine organizations planned to walk out to protest what they viewed as “Cornell University’s decision to invite war criminals to our campus.”
Livni faced war crime allegations and a warrant for her arrest in the UK in 2009 for her decisions made before and during a three-week-long Israeli offensive in Palestine, Operation Cast Lead, while she was Israel’s foreign minister and member of the Israeli war cabinet. The warrant was withdrawn when it was discovered that she was not in the UK.
Kotlikoff wrote in a column to The Sun on March 5 that the event would uphold “Cornell’s twin commitments to access and to open inquiry and expression” with “open inquiry” that “enables both students and citizens to see and respect other's views.”
A March 10 opinion column to The Sun written by Hasham Khan ’26 on behalf of SJP detailed how the panel was “unbalanced” in favor of Israeli voices and why SJP would be leading a walkout.
“There is not a single Palestinian voice of resistance, not a single scholar or activist representing the realities of Palestinian oppression,” Khan wrote in the article.
The first instances of pro-Palestinian protest activity at the protest came at the introductions of Crocker, Livni and Shapiro, at which point students shouted phrases like “shame” and “war criminal.”
Protests intensified when Crocker pointed to a map of the Middle East, saying, “It’s important to understand how compact this area is. You could have breakfast in Beirut, lunch in Damascus, afternoon tea in Amman, dinner in Ramallah, a nightcap in Tel Aviv or Gaza City.” This was then interrupted by a stir in the audience. In response, an audience member shouted “What city is left in Gaza?”
Audience member Maria Lima Valdez ’25 said that Crocker’s introduction to the discussion sounded like a “vacation” when “people are literally dying there.”
After the disruption, Kotlikoff went on stage and announced, “We’ve enabled speech and people have made their views heard. You are now infringing on the rights of others to listen to these people. The next individual that shouts will be escorted out. This is your warning.”
Crocker said after the interruption that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not a case of “right versus wrong,” but “right versus right.” His next sentence, “this is what I hope our panelists will explore this evening — how two rights can make an ultimate right when a true pathway to peace…” was interrupted by loud, continuous coughing from various pro-Palestinian students.
A member of SJP who spoke to The Sun on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said that students coughed “in protest to Kotlikoff, who had just said that no further disruption was allowed.” The student said it was “important to resist in the ways that we can,” especially for those who did not want to “stand up and heckle and immediately be arrested.”
A student then shouted at Livni, accusing her of overseeing the murder “of over 500 children.”
The student was taken out through a side door of Bailey Hall by two police officers and led into the Computing and Communications Center.
Other protestors then left the event, chanting slogans like “Free, free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” An unidentified man threw a backpack at a student taking part in the walkout when he left his seat. The man was not approached by event staff or CUPD.
The Sun spoke with Kotlikoff about the removal of protestors from the audience at the end of the panel.
“What occurred here was not just an initial response but a disruptive event and that’s not freedom of speech, that’s infringing on somebody else’s freedom of speech, and the freedom of the audience to hear the speakers,” Kotlikoff said. “I find that very unfortunate that people come not to listen to individuals that have significant expertise, but rather to disrupt the event. I don’t think that’s how learning occurs, and I expect more from Cornell students.”
Once about 20 protestors gathered outside Bailey Hall, CUPD attempted to move them away from the stairs of the building. No clear answer was given when protestors asked where they were allowed to protest.
CUPD declined to comment at the time to questions about designated protest areas.
The event proceeded with Livni talking about her experience in the Israeli cabinet before the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, explaining that she convinced other ministers that it was the right thing to dismantle settlements in Gaza and for Israel to withdraw in August 2005.
“We pulled out the Israeli forces, Livni said. “And [then] … Hamas won the election.”
Livni said that because “there was [not one] Israeli soldier or one Israeli sanctuary in Gaza” before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the intention of Hamas was “not to free Gaza,” which Livni said it could have achieved by “renouncing violence and terrorism.”
Fayyad stressed the importance of having “recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to the Islamic state ... because we have no such recognition formally” in negotiations during peace talks. This was similar to Shapiro’s opinion that the creation of a post-conflict government in Palestinian would ensure that “Palestinians [have] as much self-determination as possible,” and Livni’s support for a two-state solution.
However, Fayyad’s view that Hamas needed to be part of the post-war governance of Palestine differed from Shapiro’s perspective that Hamas needed to be “removed from power” and Livni’s explanation of Hamas as a “jihadist” state that “should be out.”
“It’s too much to ask from any political society, any people, to suppress pluralism,” Fayyad said. He continued, “It’s incumbent upon us Palestinians to find an effective way to manage our pluralism” and to “offer people a competitive ideology” instead of “pushing away an ideology by brute force.”
Audience member Ezra Galperin ’27 said he was “surprised” that Fayyad said “the onus is on the Palestinians to install new leadership” and the conflict was “an internal Palestinian issue” which “Israel bears no responsibility [for].”
“It was ... heartening to see that each [panelist] was able to acknowledge problems, actions within their own camp,” Galperin said.
Valdez said that Fayyad was a “puppet” “propped up by the U.S.” with a 25 percent approval rating among Palestinians. She said event organizers “used [Fayyad] as a token” to make it “look like [they] had the Palestinian and Israeli side.”
Some attendees who pre-submitted questions for the event were selected to ask their questions live during a 10-minute Q&A session. Three students were selected by event coordinators to ask a question at the event, all of whom posed unscripted questions.
The first student started their question by saying, “You espoused a pathway to peace, yet during Operation Cast Lead…” referring to Livni’s support for the 2008-2009 Gaza War that resulted in about 1,400 Palestinian deaths. The rest of the question was incomprehensible as the microphone was taken away by event staff. They were then escorted out and detained, according to a SJP press release.
After more shouts from audience members asking Livni to “justify” her allegations related to Operation Cast Lead, Livni said, “It is our legitimate right to defend our citizens ... You should not compare between those acting against terrorists while trying to avoid civilian casualties ... and premeditated murder.”
Kotlikoff asked the last question of the panel to Fayyad about whether there were “viable alternatives to prevent the fragmentation of Palestinian governance” after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and how Palestinian leadership could “overcome the deeply entrenched political rift today.”
Fayyad reiterated his belief that Hamas should be included in future Palestinian leadership “on a platform of non-violence.” He also stressed the “importance” of having the “Palestinian right to the state” be “enshrined,” despite it being not “likely” that Israel would accept this. “Why should our right to self-determination,” Fayyad continued, “our right to the state, continue to be held hostage towards Israel, politically?”
Some students who attended the event to hear perspectives on the history of conflict and the war in Gaza voiced frustration over the disruptions. J.P. Swenson ’25, the student-elected trustee to Cornell’s Board of Trustees, emphasized that a University environment should be a place where all viewpoints are heard.
"I was disappointed in all the disruptions in the beginning, just because I thought the perspectives were supposed to be balanced, and I don’t think some of the people who were shouting gave the speakers a chance to share their opinions,” Swenson said. “A lot of people were there just trying to listen, like me.”
Correction, March 11, 8:10 p.m.: A previous version incorrectly stated that all 17 of the protesters responsible for the disruption were arrested.
Benjamin Leynse ’27 contributed reporting.
