CU Admin Shut Down “Palestine Solidarity Kitchen”

Photos courtesy of Mari Rosenfeld, 2025

El Diario de la Gente

Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has once again had an event shut down by Boulder police officers and administration following the scheduling of the Sept. 15 Palestine Solidarity Kitchen. This event was centered around teaching students and community members about traditional Palestinian foods while they also made the foods. In an Instagram post by SJP, they state the event is important because “In a time when Israel’s genocide is not only taking Palestinian lives but also trying to erase Palestinian history, holding onto culture is an act of defiance. It’s not just a meal, it’s a space for community, for learning, and for standing in solidarity against CU Boulder’s complicity in Zionist violence.” This event was also a fundraiser for a Palestinian family of five in Gaza, organized by the family’s matriarch, Nermin Wael.

Around 30 minutes before the event was scheduled, CU Residence Life director Craig Kuehnert arrived and told SJP members to leave and that the event could not be held. Shortly after Kuehnert’s interruption, CUPD service officer Kara Syvanen also arrived, asked event attendees questions, and, according to an anonymous SJP member present, “started bothering WillVill students in general who weren’t even involved in the event.”

While talking to attendees, Kuehnert repeated multiple times that “[SJP] know better for next time,” in regard to the organization not being allowed on campus entirely. Kuehnert also used the excuse that the event and booking of the WillVill East kitchen “…wasn’t in the reservation system, there is no reservation…these are my buildings,” even though a student had booked the kitchen for usage by SJP.

After leaving the WillVill common room, an anonymous member of SJP gave El Diario a statement, stating, “The problem isn’t with not having a resident; they don’t want [SJP] in any space on campus.”

This follows CUPD’s shutting down of a film screening in collaboration with student group Give Us the F—ing Camera, which was also a fundraiser for Gazans in desperate need of aid to survive. This repeated shutting down of fundraising events by the CU Boulder administration proves that the university is fully complicit in the killing and genocide of indigenous Palestinians, if not already obvious through the university’s collaborations with companies like Lockheed Martin and RTX Corporation, placing it within the military-industrial complex. People are still encouraged to donate to Nermin and her family .