Campus protesters mock Charlie Kirk’s death, echo radical rhetoric from pro-Palestinian encampments
From 'Strike for Gaza' to mocking a conservative leader’s assassination, a troubling overlap emerges on campuses.
University of Montana students link anti-Israel activism with hostility toward conservatives.
When Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins told students at the University of Montana that conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed at Utah Valley University, the audience laughed.
“Why are you laughing? He is my friend!” Hawkins shouted. “If you think shooting Charlie Kirk is justified because you disagree with his political opinions, you need to study your heart.”
When Hawkins pressed further, asking whether it was justified when President Donald Trump was shot, another student yelled, “Hell yeah.” A video shows a man riding past a bicycle, giving Hawkins a thumbs-down inches from her face. Many cheered the rider on.
“We are saddened by the callous response and remarks that were made in reaction to our friend Charlie’s death,” Students for Life told Campus Reform. “Political violence is a serious matter. You don’t have a free country unless you are able to speak your mind on public grounds, and condoning political violence is a direct threat to free speech.”
Similarly, at UC Berkeley student Miguel Muniz interviewed a fellow student who claimed that Charlie Kirk deserved to die, explaining that it was a “semi-popular sentiment on campus.”
“This is my personal belief,” the student Muniz interviewed said. The University of Montana officials have not publicly addressed Hawkins’ comment and the remarks made by students over Kirk’s death.
But this is not the first time the university has drawn attention from radical activism. Just a year earlier, on May 1, 2024, the campus witnessed an immense “Strike for Gaza” walkout, where students and community members demanded divestment from companies tied to Israel and labeled U.S. military aid to the Jewish state as “genocide.” The university reportedly has no direct ties to weapon manufacturers.
The demonstration was part of a nationwide movement on college campuses to create anti-Israel encampments.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in July that the school violated federal civil rights laws by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment during the encampment.
Federal officials said UCLA acted with “deliberate indifference” as protestors allegedly barred Jewish students from certain campus areas, creating what plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit called an unauthorized “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
Hours before the DOJ findings, UCLA agreed to a $6.45 million settlement with three Jewish students and a professor who claimed the university enabled antisemitism by ignoring their complaints.
At Columbia University, fallout from last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests has led to a confidential settlement with two custodians who said they were assaulted and trapped overniht during the Hamilton Hall takeover, where protestors used crowbars and hurled antisemitic slurs.
The lawsuit claims the men were derided as “Jew-lovers” and “Zionists” while trapped overnight in the building. Columbia has also agreed to pay $221 million to settle a federal civil-rights investigation into its handling of campus antisemitism, a deal that unlocks more than $1.3 billion in frozen research funds and requires the university to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
[RELATED: Columbia is worst ranked university for free speech as southern colleges top the list]
At UC Berkeley, two Jewish-student groups—the Louis D. Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education—sued the university, alleging it tolerated an unrelenting stream of antisemitic harassment toward Jewish students and faculty.
A federal judge allowed the case to proceed, finding the plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that Berkeley was “deliberately indifferent” to a hostile environment on campus.
Neither UCLA, Columbia, nor UC Berkeley have released official comments regarding Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Campus Reform has contacted Kristan Hawkins and the University of Montana. This article will be updated accordingly.
