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Student group, banned from University of Colorado, calls for convicted antisemitic fire bomber to be released

The group praised Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who killed Karen Diamond and injured 28 others in an attack in Boulder last year.

Crime Scene of Attack on Jews in Boulder, Colorado
Police tape, ambulances and police cars near the crime scene of an attack against Jews in Boulder, Colo., on June 1, 2025. Credit: Katsuopolis via Wikimedia Commons.

One year after Mohamed Sabry Soliman killed Karen Diamond, 82, in an antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colo., the city’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter called for Soliman to be freed.

The chapter said that the attacker “took direct action against a manifestation of genocidal Zionism in our community.”

“We stand with him,” it said.

The University of Colorado has barred the group from hosting events on campus.

Diamond was taking part in a march to support the hostages in Gaza in 2025 when Soliman, who has pleaded guilty, threw Molotov cocktails at demonstrators, killing her and injuring 28 others.

Soliman was sentenced earlier in May to life in prison without possibility of parole and 2,128 years for murder and 100 other charges.

The student group told JNS that Instagram removed its post.

It said that it condemns “the eight consecutive life sentences imposed by the federal government to assassinate him.”

The Anti-Defamation League said that the student group’s post was “unacceptable and simply horrific.”

“The content of the post is beyond reprehensible,” it said. “It is so detached from basic facts, human decency and reality that it would be difficult to take seriously if its message were not so dangerous.”

Jessica Russak-Hoffman is a reporter for JNS in Seattle.
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