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Pro-Israel Group Plans Massive Walkout Across High School, College Campuses on Jan. 18 to Demand Release of Hostages
Members of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) attending the organization’s national annual conference at Florida Atlantic University in Dec. 2023. Photo: David Mann
Students Supporting Israel (SSI), a nonprofit that promotes education about the Jewish state, is planning to hold a nationwide “walkout” across US high school and university campuses on Jan. 18 to demand the release of hostages who remain captives of Hamas in Gaza after the terrorist organization’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“For over 100 days, the terrorist organization Hamas has held innocent Israeli hostages captive, following the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the group said in an announcement posted to its social media accounts on Sunday. “Join SSI in a walkout, demanding the immediate release of the remaining 120 plus hostages and honoring the memories of the 1400 plus Israelis brutally murdered.”
Hamas murdered roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, injured thousands more, and kidnapped over 200 people as hostages during its terrorist onslaught. The brutality of Hamas’ attacks — which, according to copious documentation, included widespread rape and sexual torture — shocked the world.
The death toll cited by SSI in its announcement was revised by the Israeli government in November.
“On Thursday, Jan. 18, a date with the meaning of Chai [the Hebrew word for ‘life,’ which is associated with the number 18] and when the academic semester begins, at 10:07 AM — a time symbolically commemorating the date of Oct. 7, our movement will walk out to (1) remember the victims of the attack, (2) call for the return of the hostages, (3) take a stand against the rising antisemitism around the world and in academic institutions,” the group announced.
SSI’s announcement comes amid a surge in pro-Hamas demonstrations on higher education campuses around the world. Universities have been hubs of such antisemitism since Hamas’ onslaught, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Palestinian terror group’s rampage. Incidents of harassment and even violence against Jewish students have also increased. As a result, Jewish students have expressed feeling unsafe and unprotected on campuses. In some cases, Jewish communities on campuses have been forced to endure threats of rape and mass slaughter.
Additionally, between Oct. 7 and Dec. 18, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses, and during that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.
Valeria Chazin, co-founder of SSI who proposed the Jan. 18 walkout, told The Algemeiner on Monday that it’s important for pro-Israel student leaders to sustain the momentum of their advocacy heading into the new academic semester.
“With this event, we aim to keep the discussion about Oct 7. going because we don’t want people to forget, and we also want to make sure that it’s an event that starts the semester with an impactful statement saying that Jewish students are still here,” Chazin said. “We want to remember the victims of Oct. 7, issue a call to bring the hostages home, and raise awareness on day one of the new semester of the antisemitic environments on college campuses.”
Chazin added that numerous campus chapters of SSI have committed to participating in the walkout, including those at American University in Washington, DC, Tulane University in New Orleans, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
The date of the walkout is symbolic, SSI co-founder Ilan Sinelnikov noted, explaining that it is the birthday of the youngest hostage in Gaza, Kfir Bibas, a baby who will turn one year old on that day.
“That’s baby Bibas’ birthday, and we’re really trying to emphasize the message that it’s time to bring the crowd back out, that people should not get comfortable,” Sinelnikov said. “We have to continue organizing because Students for Justice in Palestine will not stop doing so, and we encourage everyone to participate. This doesn’t just have to be an SSI club event.”
The last mass US demonstration to show support for Israel occurred on Nov. 14, when hundreds of thousands of Jewish Americans and pro-Israel advocates packed the National Mall in Washington, DC in a historic show of solidarity with the Jewish state amid its war with the Hamas terror group.
The marchers, who traveled from across the US, represented a full spectrum of the Jewish community and its allies. As one participant told The Algemeiner, it was an important display of unity and the peaceful intentions of the Jewish people.
“I think it’s beautiful. It just shows that we are in peace, that we come in peace, and we’re not interested in violence, and on the contrary we’re fighting that in the world and all antisemitism and hatred of all kinds,” said Beverly Mehl, from New York. “It’s very important to show strength, to do something and take action.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Israel Group Plans Massive Walkout Across High School, College Campuses on Jan. 18 to Demand Release of Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.