A walkout, a fire alarm, and a group singing the Israeli national anthem.
A speaker event with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday was interrupted at various points, with approximately 20 protesters walking out of the event, an extended disruption by an individual who does not appear to have an affiliation with Princeton in the middle, a subsequent fire alarm interruption, singing by the event’s attendees at the end, and yelling between protesters and event attendees in the courtyard after.
The off-the-record event, which was hosted by the Center of Jewish Life (CJL) and co-sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs, the Program in Judaic Studies, Scharf Family Chabad House of Princeton, and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, was held in McCosh 10. Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91, the director of the CJL, moderated the discussion. Approximately 200 students, faculty, and other community members were in attendance.
Outside the building, about 200 pro-Palestine protesters chanted, screamed and banged on drums in a display of their dissatisfaction at the decision to host the former Israeli prime minister. The chants of protestors outside were audible inside the lecture hall throughout the talk, and reached as far as Firestone Library and the Architecture Building.
Steinlauf welcomed former Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett to the stage shortly after 7:30 p.m. Before declaring that the event was off-the-record, Steinlauf briefly read through Princeton’s regulations on free speech and warned that disrupters would be removed from the event and may face sanctions.
After 20 minutes, about 20 demonstrators stood up and began chanting “Naftali Bennett, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” They promptly walked out of the room to join the protest outside, followed out of the lecture hall by a free speech coordinator, a University staff member charged with enforcing regulations around protests. Outside, they were greeted with cheers from the demonstrators gathered in the courtyard.
A few minutes after, Sayel Kayed, a man sitting near the front, stood and began shouting at Bennett, quoting civilian death tolls in Gaza: “15,000 children killed, what do you say to that?” Kayed does not appear to have any connection to Princeton, and posted about the disruption on his Instagram.
Kayed — accompanied by a second individual videoing the disruption — continued shouting at Bennett for two minutes before he walked out, followed by Public Safety (PSafe) officers, a free speech coordinator, and Dean Jarrett Fisher, who often handles free speech-related events. Much of the audience applauded as Bennett delivered a rebuttal to Kayed.
“Instead of whining for the past 80 years and building your own future, you have focused on killing the Jews. It’s time the Palestinians stopped whining,” Bennett said, according to a video of the exchange posted on social media.
Alexandra Orbuch ’25, who was in attendance, expressed frustration that free speech facilitators had not intervened quickly enough in the incident. “They informed him that he was violating policy, but again, didn’t really lay a hand on him, didn’t do anything, and then escorted him out after he had disrupted the event for quite a while,” she told the ‘Prince.’
At 8:06 p.m., the fire alarm went off in McCosh and Dickinson Halls. Students and community members looked around in confusion before turning their attention to PSafe officers in the back of the hall for guidance. Minutes of confusion passed before it became clear that event attendees would not be evacuated from the building.
The University was unable to provide comment on the circumstances of the fire alarm before publication, although some attendees speculated it had been pulled by a protester.
Rabbi Eitan Webb then began singing “Kol Ha’olam Kulo Gesher Tzar Me’od” (The whole world is a very narrow bridge) and was joined by many of the event’s attendees, many of whom stood up from their seats and gathered around the stage. After the fire alarm was shut off at 8:17 p.m., attendees then sung Hatikvah — the national anthem of Israel — before the event concluded.
Steinlauf reacted to the disruptions that took place in a written statement to the ‘Prince,’ reiterating the Center for Jewish Life’s commitment to open dialogue and civil discourse in the face of differing viewpoints.
“The conversation with Prime Minister Bennett proceeded meaningfully, and the final disruption was met not with chaos, but with spontaneous singing, dancing, and a sense of unity in the room,” he wrote.
Also in attendance was Judah Guggenheim ’25, who led the opposition to last fall’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) referendum calling for the University to divest from companies involved in weapons manufacturing. He provided The Daily Princetonian with a written statement of his reaction to the disruption.
“It saddens me that the disrupters showed no sense of nuance. They shouted and pulled the fire alarm rather than listening to [Bennett] be asked and respond to difficult questions,” he wrote.
Other attendees also speculated that a protester had intentionally pulled the fire alarm.
Maddy Denker ’27, a member of J Street U, expressed disappointment over what she characterized as Bennett’s misappropriation of Jewish liturgy. “The statements made by Bennett do not represent the beliefs of all Jewish students and they do not represent J Street U’s pro-peace mission,” she wrote. About five J Street U members donned anti-occupation t-shirts and brought signage to the event.
PSafe presence in the area surrounding McCosh hall was notable, with officers guarding every entrance of McCosh and Dickinson Halls and additional officers stationed throughout the area around the event. Two fences spanning the length of McCosh courtyard were set up with a few feet between then, creating a “buffer zone” between the north side of McCosh courtyard and McCosh 10.
After rallying at Nassau Hall around 7 p.m., the protesters marched across campus to the location of the event. Positioning themselves facing a large window that looks into McCosh 10, protesters chanted continuously from 7:10 through the end of the event. Among their chants were cries of “shame,” directed at event attendees. At points during the event, a protester directed a bright flashlight into the window of McCosh 10.
The protest promotion highlighted a 2013 quote from Bennett that “I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that,” a comment a Bennett spokesperson said at the time was misinterpreted. Bennett, a right-wing figure in Israel, recently announced his return to politics.
When attendees left the event, the protesters again broke out into calls of “shame.”
Around 20 people coming out of the event then gathered along the McCosh 10 side of the buffer zone fence, and some protesters and attendees got into verbal confrontations, with individuals on both sides of the fence hurling charged insults and accusations. The environment was notably more tense than previous protests, with arguments between protesters and attendees lasting for over 30 minutes following the event.
Protesters and event attendees shouted across the ‘buffer zone’ after the Naftali Bennett event.
Kenzo Salazar / The Daily Princetonian
A few protesters breached the fence and entered the buffer zone, prompting security personnel and PSafe officers to instruct the protesters to back up. When protesters did not comply, one officer entered into the crowd and pushed them back. That officer was then pulled back by another after the crowd erupted in angry shouts. Protesters remained in the buffer zone for some time before moving back behind the fence.
The University was unable to provide comment on the circumstances of the PSafe incident before publication.
While many of the protesters were students and community members, some were from outside groups. Several members of Neturei Karta International, an anti-zionist Haredi Jewish organization, marched alongside protesters with signs decrying the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Rabbi Dovid Feldman, part of Neturei Karta, spoke with the ‘Prince’ to explain why they were there.
“If we truly want to see a better future, we must address the root cause. We have to address the occupation. We have to stop the occupation in its entirety, for the sake of the oppressed Palestinian people who deserve freedom, and for the sake of the Jewish people who deserve safety and security, all of us deserve a better future,” he said.
Also in attendance was Mahmoud Desouky, who spoke over the megaphone. Desouky is a graduate from Rutgers University and is running for N.J. State Assembly in the 16th District, which he discussed in his speech to the crowd.
“This is the time for change,” Desouky said.
The protest dissipated around 9 p.m., around half an hour after the event ended.
Vitus Larrieu is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Pensacola, Fla. and typically covers community activism, the state of higher education, and construction and architecture.
Devon Rudolph is an associate News editor and staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’ She is from northern Virginia and typically covers student life and USG.
Kian Petlin is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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