Gabi Starr wants to conduct an investigation on who disrupted the Oct. 15 event with a former IOF soldier.

On Oct. 15, four students disrupted Claremont Hillel’s “Marking October 7th” event featuring Yoni Viloga, a former zionist occupation forces soldier. The next day, Pomona president Gabi Starr sent a school wide email asking students and faculty members to “send any related photos or videos to oct15disruptions@pomona.edu” in order to conduct investigations on the disruption. On Oct. 17, Undercurrents received an anonymous communiqué about the disruption through our email. 

“Viloga served in the zionist occupational forces and is a settler on stolen land,” the communiqué said. “Knowing this, we had to act.” 

According to an article in the Ozaukee News Graphic, Viloga stated that he, his brother and his father had all previously served in zionist occupation forces. 

Zionist occupation soldiers have faced prosecution and travel restrictions across multiple countries for war crimes in Gaza. The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed legal proceedings to prosecute both high and low ranking soldiers, prompting zionist occupation forces to warn soldiers against traveling abroad. 

“Pomona College, like the state, needs you to be afraid.” the communiqué stated. “Once we start believing we can’t do anything, that we need to keep our heads down and keep moving, we let them win. This moment demands we push past our fear and engage in collective direct action to clog the gears of the imperial war machine.”

Universities across the country have turned over disciplinary records, student emails and other personal information of students associated with Palestine solidarity protests to the US government in order to comply with Title VI investigations from the Department of Education. 

Last semester, Pomona said in a comment to the L.A. Times that it would comply with investigations to turn over disciplinary records of students who were involved in divestment and Palestine solidarity related protests. Pomona has not publicly announced any updates or information regarding this since April of 2025.

The following is a full copy of the statement.

For more than two years, the zionist entity genocided over 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza and counting. Allah yarham alshuhada’

We know Pomona.Time and time again, they have demonstrated that their most important “core value” is the endorsement and defense of genocide. Pomona college is steeped in blood: the blood of the indigenous Serrano and Tongva people, the blood of Black South Africans, the blood of the Palestinians, the blood of the global south, and the blood of marginalized communities across Turtle Island. Pomona will go to any length to despicably defened genocide and paint Black and brown bodies who resist as violent. Therefore, it came as no surprise when they hosted a genocidal maniac, Yoni Viloga, to speak for a “memorial” of the casualties of Al Aqsa Flood.

Viloga served in the zionist occupational forces and is a settler on stolen land. While touring Turtile Island and talking about his “suffering,” he profits off of the murder of Palestinians and then returns “home” Wadi Al Zeit (Jewish supremacists call it “Kibbutz Mefalsim”). Viloga comes from a family of genocidal settlers; his father and brother both served in the iOF. It tracks that a genocidal institution would allow the spawn of a genocidal lineage onto campus. Knowing this, we had to act.

At approximately 8pm, we barged into Viloga’s circus show. Satan dared not look us in the eyes. Immediately, zionists swarmed us, put their hands on us, and shoved us, while Viloga retreat like he did on October 7th, 2023. We let that coward know he and his fascist settler ideology are not welcome here nor anywhere. zionism is a death cult that must be dealt with accordingly.

The Claremont Hillel and every single zionist in that room advance the genocide of Palestinian life. Since the entity’s concpetion in ’48, the fraudulent claim of zionist victimhood has been a tool of domination imposed to silence, main, murder, genocide, and rape the Palestinian native. The zionist entity has weaponized this narrative during these past 739 days of their genocide in Gaza. Yoni’s fictitious “state” destroyed 92% of Gaza, yet he dare talks about his genocidal compatriots’ “trauma,” erasing the people at the other end of their barrels. The occupier will never be a victim of the occupied.

We recognize this moment of increased state repression against our comrades taking direct action in solidarity with Palestine from within the heart of empire. We must not abandon our comrades who are locked away by the state, charged under the guise of “terrorism.” Free Casey Goonan, Free Tarek Bazrouk, Free Jakhi McCray. Free all political prisoners, and down with the prison industrial complex.

Pomona College, like the state, needs you to be afraid. Fear is a powerful counterinsurgent tactic, and it suppresses any form of dissent. Once we start believing we can’t do anything, that we need to keep our heads down and keep moving, we let them win. This moment demands we push past our fear and engage in collective direct action to clog the gears of the impieral war machine. This includes making modern-nazi’s feel unwelcome, not just from college campuses, but everywhere. (Hint: next week Hillel welcomes zionist propagandist and new york crimes “writer” Matti Friedman to CMC). There will be no business on usual that lie and masquerade as beacons of hope for a prosperous future while abetting in genocide. Genocide is behind that facade, and we refuse to take part in it.