Radical UCLA students are planning a march on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attackon Israel – sparking fierce backlash from critics who blasted the event as “depraved.”
Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA is hosting a mass protest Wednesday to mark three years since Hamas terrorists launched their unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The protest is scheduled for noon Oct. 7 at Bruin Plaza at the University of California, Los Angeles, according to an announcement from the student group.
SJP said the demonstration is intended to commemorate what it described as three years of “escalated genocide in Palestine” and to “recognize and uplift” Palestinian resistance.
“In the face of Zionist occupation and genocide, the Palestinian people have remained disciplined in the fight toward the inevitable reality of liberation,” the group wrote.
The organization said its protest has two purposes – to “recognize and uplift” Palestinian resistance and turn grief over the conflict into political action.
“The genocide in Palestine has not slowed down, and neither should we,” the group said.
The group’s tone-deaf language immediately drew backlash online.
“This is depraved,” one person wrote in response to the announcement on Instagram.
“Looking forward to counterprotesting these bored, uninformed, cosplaying jihadists,” Jon Ronsen said.
“You’re gonna make a lot of noise and get a lot of attention, but victorious? I don’t think Israel will fall because of a bunch of barbarians and their Looney Tunes supporters,” another person wrote.
The California Post has reached out to SJP at UCLA for further comment on the planned demonstration and the criticism surrounding the event.
The Post also reached out to Jewish organizations on campus, including Bruins for Israel and UCLA Hillel, as well as Jewish student leaders. They declined to comment on the planned protest.
The Oct. 7 anniversary has become a particularly charged date at UCLA, where tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have repeatedly spilled into protests, counterprotests and clashes.
Last year’s anniversary protest drew roughly 70 people who marched through campus, with around 25 police officers and university personnel deployed as the demonstration got underway.
The protest included Palestinian flags, a coffin-shaped object and chants of “Free Palestine,” “Intifada” and “Israel is a terrorist state.”
Demonstrators also pulled a wagon filled with red flowers through campus before dropping paper red poppies into the coffin-shaped object at the end of the protest.
The anniversary has previously brought rival demonstrations to UCLA.
On Oct. 7, 2024, around 200 pro-Palestinian protesters marched on campus while roughly 200 supporters of Bruins for Israel held a silent walk.
Earlier that day, 1,200 flags representing those killed in the Hamas attack were displayed on campus. At least one person was seen kicking the flags.
In 2024, pro-Palestinian demonstrators also established an encampment at UCLA’s Royce Quad as protests over Israel’s war in Gaza intensified.
The unrest has since become the subject of a major federal legal battle.
In May, the Justice Department sued the University of California, alleging UCLA was deliberately indifferent to discrimination and harassment targeting Jewish and Israeli students, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The DOJ pointed specifically to the April 2024 encampment, alleging Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted, excluded from parts of campus and denied educational opportunities.
UCLA has strongly disputed the federal government’s characterization of its response and says it has introduced significant reforms to campus safety and protest policies.
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The university was also hit with a temporary suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research grants in 2025 amid Trump administration allegations of antisemitism and bias. UCLA said grants suspended by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy were later reinstated.
Just last week, the University of California escalated its legal fight with Washington, asking a federal judge to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit and branding the government’s case “political coercion.”
UC is also fighting a federal demand for repayment of more than $2 billion in UCLA research grants.
Wednesday’s demonstration comes as the bitter divide over Israel and Gaza on American college campuses enters its fourth year.
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