Hasan Piker Says Cornell Punished Pro-Palestine Encampment Leaders More Harshly Than “Most of the R*pists” in Scathing Livestream Before Campus Speech

Hasan Piker, an influential streamer and political commentator, has recently criticized Cornell University for allegedly punishing Palestinian student activists more severely than students accused of committing sexual assault. Piker’s claims have added to public outrage over the Ivy League school following the lawsuit filed against it over the alleged 2024 gang rape in a campus fraternity house.

During his visit to Cornell University on Thursday, when he addressed an audience of around 450 people at Sage Chapel, Piker commented that students participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been given more severe punishments than students found guilty of committing sexual crimes. In particular, the controversial statements he made during his visit have spread rapidly online.

“You got more of a penalty at Cornell University if you participated in a pro-Palestine student encampment,” Piker has claimed. “I was talking to some of the leaders of the pro-Palestine encampments. One of them got expelled for a year. They got suspended for a year.”

“They got literally worse penalties in Cornell University than half of the rapists did, or than most of the rapists did,” Piker said. “It’s (expletive) nuts.”

The above statements were made a few days after a former Cornell student initiated a lawsuit on Sept. 14, claiming that she was coerced to take drugs and sexually assaulted by several students of the Chi Phi fraternity at the fraternity house in October 2024. The lawsuit involves not only Cornell University but also several current and former students, fraternity and sorority organizations, and a local bar, CNN reports.

The accused students’ lawyer has denied the accusations against his client. As reported by The Cornell Daily Sun, an attorney for one of the accused said only two of the seven accused were expelled, and the others received lesser sanctions, including suspensions, workshops, or essays. Moreover, the lawsuit mentions that these students mitigated their actions by writing essays to the university.

However, Cornell University has provided its own explanation of events. Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball stated on Monday that a hearing panel handed down a series of sanctions including expulsions and suspensions and that no student was offered to write an essay as the only consequence of misconduct. According to the statement, the fraternity chapter in question was shut down in 2024 and will be prohibited from returning to the campus. Kimball emphasized that the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible.”

At the same time, Cornell University has not been able to provide detailed information on the disciplinary action due to federal privacy laws.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has reopened the criminal investigation into the case. In particular, he said that the woman’s sworn police statement from 2024 did not allege that she had been drugged against her will and that several men raped her. The lawyer for the victim has denied the fact that none of the accused men were arrested, CBS News states.

Nevertheless, Piker has chosen not to name the protester whose year-long suspension from the university he mentioned. However, Cornell University has already been accused of harsh punishment of pro-Palestinian activists since spring 2024.

In April, the university temporarily suspended four students after an encampment appeared on the Arts Quad, citing unauthorized camping and failure to comply with orders to dismantle the encampment. Two more protest leaders have been suspended a few days later.

In September 2024, more than 100 activists, protesting the presence of defense contractors Boeing and L3Harris at the career fair, managed to close down the career fair despite the opposition of campus police officers. Afterward, Cornell has suspended at least 15 students, of whom five were banned from campus for several years, The Young Democratic Socialists of America (Cornell Chapter) reported to The Cornell Daily Sun. Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell’s then-interim president, defended the measures taken, saying “Actions have consequences, on campus and in the criminal justice system.”

Considering the cases of encampment and the career fair protests alone, Cornell has suspended around 20 students. In March 2025, the university suspended the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after activists interrupted a campus panel featuring officials from Israel and the U.S. Still, according to the organization itself, it was reinstated under conditions in autumn 2025. In the same month, the university adopted a permanent Expressive Activity Policy, which replaced interim rules considered to be targeted at pro-Palestinian protests by opponents.

The consequences for international students are even stricter. British doctoral student Momodou Taal has been suspended twice – first because of the encampment, and the second time because of the career fair protest. Being suspended several times can lead to loss of F-1 visa status for international students. However, Cornell University reversed the second suspension in October 2024, but banned him from the campus.

In March 2025, Taal initiated a lawsuit against the Trump administration, as the State Department revoked his visa a day earlier, and he left the country at the end of that month, Ithaca Times writes. Another Cornell University doctoral student from Trinidad and Tobago, Amandla Thomas-Johnson, who spent only about five minutes protesting at the career fair, lost his student status in May 2025. In August, the graduate student union of Cornell University filed a grievance against the university’s refusal to provide funding for the two of them until they return to the country. According to the Cornell spokesperson, the university is unable to extend assistantships to the students living outside the U.S.

The comparison made by Piker is not an exception to the criticism of Cornell University coming from the left-wing politicians. During a town hall in Ithaca on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., compared the suspension of the student, which may lead to the student’s deportation, to the process in which, as she said, “rapists write an essay in private,” according to The Cornell Daily Sun.

This issue arises when Cornell University operates under the agreement with the Trump administration reached in November 2025. The university agreed to pay $60 million to restore more than $250 million of frozen federal research funding and to terminate civil rights investigations, CNN reports.

However, Piker’s visit has already been criticized even before it took place. According to Forward, leaders of Cornell Hillel called Piker’s rhetoric antisemitic. Nevertheless, the event’s organizers, an alliance of Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Young Democratic Socialists of America, want Cornell University to divest from Israel. Tickets for the 600-seat chapel sold out within hours.