Young Democratic Socialists opened Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Cornell town hall by leading roughly 2,000 people in a “from the river to the sea” chant Jewish groups call antisemitic.
Cornell University Young Democratic Socialists of America co-chairs Mina Petrova and Zoe Reisman warmed up the crowd on Sunday before the New York Democrat took the stage, Fox News reported.
They declared “long live the student intifada,” then led the chant. The slogan has drawn sharp pushback from Jewish organizations that call it antisemitic. The House has also judged the phrase antisemitic, a resolution Ocasio-Cortez voted against.
AOC’s campaign billed the gathering as a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall meant to lift Democratic turnout in party strongholds. The hosts used the platform to attack Cornell itself and to frame campus activism as resistance.
Petrova told the audience the university answers to money, not students.
“Cornell is fundamentally a capitalist institution that prioritizes billionaires and profit over students and community and is controlled by CEO trustees that are profiting off of genocide and war,” Petrova said, drawing applause.
"Cornell is fundamentally a capitalist institution that prioritizes billionaires and profit over students and community and is controlled by CEO trustees that are profiting off of genocide and war,"
Reisman cast the night as anti-imperialist solidarity and insisted student activism remains alive.
“Here we stand as anti-imperialists and believe that nobody is disposable. We have a responsibility to stand in solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere,” Reisman said. “Student activism is not dead. Long live student resistance, and long live the student intifada.”
"Student activism is not dead. Long live student resistance, and long live the student intifada."
The co-chairs then led the hall in “from the river to the sea.” Cornell YDSA did not immediately answer a request for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez has faced repeated scrutiny over public moments that clash with mainstream voters, including when Trump rebuked Mamdani and AOC after a video from a 9/11 ceremony.
After the warmup, Ocasio-Cortez took the stage and joined the hosts in accusing Cornell of censorship. She made no apology for the tone set before she spoke.
“Whether it’s the issue about Palestine or many others, whether it’s about people trying to fire those who are forming a union in their workplace, whether it’s people trying to speak up about a number of different issues, we have to respond to that first crackdown,” she said.
"Whether it’s the issue about Palestine or many others, whether it’s about people trying to fire those who are forming a union in their workplace, whether it’s people trying to speak up about a number of different issues, we have to respond to that first crackdown,"
She added a numbers argument: “When we come out in numbers, they cannot take us all.”
The New York Post reported the same sequence at the Students vs. Billionaires event and noted Gov. Kathy Hochul canceled a planned joint appearance. The coverage also flagged that the U.S. House had already put members on the record about the chant’s antisemitic meaning, and that Ocasio-Cortez voted no.
Her progressive brand keeps drawing attention for contradictions between rhetoric and record, from donor cash at high-end restaurants to hard-left campus politics.
The Democratic Socialists of America remain a loaded brand outside activist circles. A Fox News Poll found 55% of registered voters view the DSA unfavorably, while only three in 10 see the group positively. The poll also noted the organization has gained ground among Democrats even as most of the country stays skeptical.
Inside the movement, not everyone is lining up behind Ocasio-Cortez. The DSA Liberation Caucus condemned her and said it will not endorse her as a 2028 presidential candidate as speculation about potential candidates grows.
That split sits beside a longer pattern of AOC statements that collide with official findings, including when she claimed “modern-day lynchings” while records pointed elsewhere.
Cornell, for its part, was cast by the student hosts as a profit machine run by CEO trustees. Ocasio-Cortez treated the university’s response to campus protest as a free-speech crackdown that demands mass turnout in reply. Neither framing answered the plain problem the warmup created: a major Democratic figure’s event opened with a chant widely condemned as a call against Israel’s existence.
Separate image context from other AOC appearances, including a large Los Angeles rally, shows she can draw big progressive crowds. The Cornell night showed what those crowds are willing to chant when young socialists hold the microphone first.
Voters watching midterm turnout efforts will notice the gap. Party leaders talk about broad coalitions. The warmup act chose a slogan Jewish groups and a House majority have already flagged, then celebrated a “student intifada” before the member of Congress spoke.
Ocasio-Cortez has also been tied to other optics fights that undercut careful messaging, such as when she and Mamdani were caught smiling during a 9/11 name reading. Campus socialism keeps testing how far Democratic stars will go to keep the activist left close.
A movement that opens a midterm town hall with “from the river to the sea” is not hiding its priorities. Mainstream voters can decide whether that is the Democratic future they want.
