BUZZ
Campus Democrats condemn sign theft and soldier’s actions
A tabling event Wednesday at Stanford University turned violent when an Israeli Defense Forces member allegedly tackled a student who stole a sign for the event.
The pro-Israel group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis hosted the event with Melanie Shiraz, named Miss Israel 2025, and an unnamed IDF soldier.
The “Ask us Anything” event also included the use of virtual reality headsets so students and other passerby could get a sense of the violence on October 7, 2023, the student newspaper reported.
The Stanford Daily reported further:
According to eyewitness accounts, Margil Sanchez Carmona ’28 took the cardboard sign from the table and began to bike away from White Plaza. The soldier then tackled Sanchez Carmona to retrieve the sign…
…When Sanchez Carmona took a sign from the table, Shiraz said she and the soldier thought he might have stolen a VR headset. According to Shiraz, the altercation followed a debate between those tabling and a group of Stanford students.
Carmona, a member of the College Democrats, said he would take the poster again and had no regret.
“I don’t regret taking the poster. If I were presented with the opportunity to do it again, I still would,” Sanchez Carmona said. “If the precedent that we’re setting for discourse is violent or loud and insulting, and inherently lacking empathy for the other side, then I do not view that as civil discourse.”
A witness accused the soldier of briefly choking Carmona, although the student “said he was not physically hurt by the tackle,” the campus newspaper reported.
Hana Spahia, interviewed by the campus newspaper, criticized the display.
“I think that it is extremely irresponsible for student groups to bring in propagandists for these war crimes and violations of human rights,” Spahia said. “That is made extraordinarily clear by the fact that these former or current IDF soldiers are willing to engage in violence against students for something so silly as a cardboard sign.”
Stanford Democrats criticized Carmona, a member, as well as the IDF soldier.
“We condemn it,” the club stated, referencing the sign theft.
The statement continued on to criticize the “excessive force” reportedly used by the soldier.
“Although we maintain that students, including our members, should uphold campus rules when engaging in discourse, we strongly condemn the violent actions of this soldier and support the Stanford Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the matter,” the statement read.
MORE: UCLA student gov’t ‘condemns’ event featuring October 7 hostage
