Squad members Omar and Bush compare anti-Israel protests to Kent State shootings

Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., compared the police response to the anti-Israel protests to the Kent State shootings on Saturday. 

"54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State," Omar wrote on the social media platform, X. "Students have a right to speak out, organize, and protest systemic wrongs. We can’t silence those expressing dissent, no matter how uncomfortable their protests may be to those in power."

May 4 is the 54th anniversary of the day that four students were killed and nine injured after the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University.

"On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across our country are being brutalized for standing up to endless war," Bush wrote on X. "Our country must learn to actually uphold the rights of free speech & assembly upon which it was founded. Solidarity with our students."

These statements follow the anti-Israel protests across multiple college campuses with some students setting up encampments and refusing to leave. 

The protests on the Columbia University campus have led to over 100 protesters being arrested.

Despite the arrests, protests resumed and the university’s president decided to move classes online to protect Jewish students.