Pomona College opened an investigation on Thursday after an on-campus event held Wednesday commemorating the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks was disrupted by four masked and keffiyah-clad individuals who barged in chanting “Zionists not welcome here.”

“While we have not yet identified the individuals, we are examining video footage taken during the event, as well as security footage to determine how access could have been gained,” Gabrielle Starr, the college’s president, wrote in a campus-wide email. “We are also reviewing our security protocols for on-campus events.” 

“Antisemitic hate cannot be tolerated here,” Starr wrote. 

The memorial, sponsored by Hillel in a university building and scheduled on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the attacks, featured a talk by Yoni Viloga, who survived the attack on his family’s home in Kibbutz Mefalsim. 

“The event was meant to be an opportunity for students to reflect on what happened two years ago. The disruption was very unsettling, I saw students with tears in their eyes,” Bethany Slater, director of Pomona Hillel, told Jewish Insider. The disruption, which also included chants of “Zionism is still a colonial ideology” and “You’re all complicit in genocide,” lasted about two minutes, until campus safety officers arrived. 

While the liberal arts college in Claremont, Calif., has faced several anti-Israel demonstrations since the Oct. 7 attacks, Wednesday evening’s protest was the first to occur in an expressly Jewish space on campus. It also came days after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage-release deal. 

“This is the first time Hillel has been targeted. Demonstrations have always been directed at the [university] administration because they were calling for [Boycott, Divest and Sanctions measures],” said Slater. “This is the first time a Jewish event has been targeted at all, which is just shocking that it would happen now in the context of the ceasefire agreement.” 

Pomona College is among the dozens of universities currently under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for its alleged failure to address campus antisemitism.

Pomona administrators have responded quickly to a number of anti-Israel incidents that have occurred on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing war in Gaza. In April 2024, police officers dressed in riot gear arrested at least 20 masked students after some 150 people stormed the university president’s office and refused to leave for more than three hours. Organized by the student-led group Pomona Divest Apartheid, the demonstrators from Pomona, as well as the affiliated Scripps and Pitzer Colleges, were protesting the removal of an anti-Israel “mock apartheid wall” on campus. 

The following October, when an on-campus demonstration — which involved anti-Israel students taking over and shutting off access to a campus building — took place on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Pomona suspended 10 involved students through the end of the 2024-25 academic year.