How A Killer Became Their Hero

Police officers gathered outside King Soopers grocery store.

A radical campus group just praised a man who burned an elderly Jewish woman alive—and called it “sane.”

Story Snapshot

CU Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine hailed convicted killer Mohamed Soliman as a hero for a deadly firebomb attack.^[1]^[2]
The group called his assault “direct action” against a “Zionist death cult” and a “sane response” to supposed genocide.^[2]^[3]
The attack killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond and injured peaceful marchers at a pro-Israel rally.^[1]^[2]
The university condemned the post as “abhorrent” and stressed SJP is not an official student group.^[3]^[4]

Radical Students Praise Deadly Firebombing as ‘Sane’ Resistance

Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Colorado Boulder published a statement honoring Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man who firebombed a pro-Israel rally on Boulder’s Pearl Street in 2025.^[1] The group claimed Soliman “took direct action against one manifestation of the Zionist death cult” and framed his attack as a “decisive act of resistance against a genocidal global order.”^[1]^[2] They openly demanded his release from prison and urged supporters to “continue the struggle.”^[2]

Soliman, an Egyptian national, plotted the attack for about a year and then hurled Molotov cocktails and used a makeshift flamethrower against a weekly “Run for Their Lives” march that called for Hamas to release Israeli hostages.^[1]^[2] The attack killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond and seriously injured more than a dozen peaceful participants, none of whom were engaged in violence.^[1]^[2] A court sentenced Soliman to life in prison plus over 2,000 years for first-degree murder and dozens of other charges.^[2]

Twisting ‘Words Are Violence’ Into a License to Attack Innocents

In their statement, Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine claimed “there was no meaningful difference between speech and force,” using this idea to justify violent “direct action” against people they opposed.^[2] They labeled the rally a “colonist procession” that “celebrates genocide” and called its participants “colonists” and “war criminals,” even though they offered no evidence of any crimes.^[2] This “words are violence” mindset began on campuses and is now used to excuse real physical attacks on peaceful citizens.^[19]

The group insisted that “Mohamed chose the only sane response available to a rational human being confronted with the normalization of genocide” and claimed he “refused the comfortable position of the grateful immigrant.”^[2]^[3] Yet Soliman himself told the court that emotions over Palestinians “got the best of him,” expressed remorse, and admitted he sought to kill “all Zionist people.”^[2] His own guilty plea undercuts the claim that this was sober, rational resistance rather than targeted terror against civilians.^[2]

University Condemns Post, But Silence From Leaders Raises Alarms

The University of Colorado Boulder issued an official statement on June 2, 2026, denouncing the Students for Justice in Palestine post as “abhorrent” and stressing that Boulder SJP is “not a recognized student organization.”^[4] The university said glorifying violence “does not reflect” its values and reaffirmed that it prohibits discrimination and harassment based on protected traits, including religion.^[4] Campus leaders reported the post to the proper offices for further review, signaling possible disciplinary or legal steps.^[4]

**Facts on the event:**

June 1, 2025: Mohamed Sabry Soliman (Egyptian national) attacked a peaceful "Run for Their Lives" rally in Boulder, CO, for Israeli hostages held by Hamas. He used Molotov cocktails and a flamethrower, killing 82-year-old Karen Diamond (Jewish community…

— Grok (@grok) June 27, 2026

Conservative and Jewish outlets highlighted the post as clear praise for terrorism and warned that it shows how far parts of the academic left have drifted.^[1]^[2]^[3] They noted that most Colorado elected officials stayed quiet, with only a small number speaking out, leaving many families wondering why more leaders are not defending basic safety and moral clarity.^[5] For parents who send their kids to college, this episode raises hard questions about whether taxpayer-funded campuses are doing enough to stop extremism before more innocent people get hurt.^[13]

Dangerous Campus Rhetoric and the Stakes for Free Speech

National research shows that left-wing campus groups are less likely than right-wing or Islamist extremists to commit violent acts, but when they do, they often frame it as “defensive” resistance against supposed genocide or oppression.^[16] On many campuses, more students now say it is acceptable to shout down speakers, block events, or even use violence to stop speech they dislike.^[17] That growing tolerance for political violence makes incidents like the Boulder firebombing more likely and more easily excused.

For conservative readers, this case is a stark warning. A student group used the language of “justice” and “liberation” to celebrate a man who burned an elderly woman to death for attending a peaceful rally.^[1]^[2] If speech can be redefined as “violence,” then real violence starts to look like “speech” in the eyes of radicals. That flips the American tradition of free debate on its head, threatens Jewish communities, chills pro-Israel and conservative voices, and undermines the rule of law that protects every family.^[18]