June 1, 2026 marked one year since the Boulder, Colorado firebombing, where an assailant threw Molotov cocktails at a gathering of members of Run for Their Lives, a weekly demonstration which showed support of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The attack killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond, who died later from her injuries, and injured dozens of others. The attacker has since pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
SJP Praised the Attack
On the one-year anniversary of the attack, Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine — an unsanctioned campus group at the University of Colorado Boulder — published a now-deleted Instagram post praising the attacker and defending the firebombing as an act of resistance. They referred to his attack as “direct action against the Zionist death cult festering in our city” and declared that he “chose the only sane response available to a rational human being” before calling on others to continue his “act of resistance.”
In response, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), shared screenshots of the now-deleted Instagram post, bringing it to a wider audience with their strong condemnation. “While we and others around the country remembered and mourned Karen Diamond z”l, who died from her injuries, and honored the other victims who were badly burned, the local SJP chapter chose to condone the violent attack,” the ADL wrote on X “The content of the post is beyond reprehensible. 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.”
The University of Colorado also denounced SJP’s post, with their President stating, “We can never accept the minimization or glorification of attacks on innocent victims. There is no place at CU for anyone who would justify or support antisemitic acts of violence.” In contrast, Colorado’s elected officials remained largely silent about SJP’s post, with only two representatives making public statements directly condemning it.
Using Data to Show How Reactions Unfolded
Between June 1 and June 4, Blue Square Alliance tracked hundreds of mentions of the Boulder firebombing attack’s anniversary across news outlets and social media platforms. The majority of the 705 reactions analyzed, coming from 321 unique accounts, expressed either grief over Diamond’s death and the broader attack, or disgust at SJP’s post on X, rather than agreement with the assailant’s actions or SJP’s praise of them. The relatively contained scale of the online conversation is consistent with a broader pattern Blue Square Alliance has documented: most Americans simply do not know the attack happened. In a survey of 5,000 U.S. adults conducted in November and December 2025, 62% of respondents had never heard of the Boulder firebombing.
The data also revealed something important about how the conversation about SJP’s rhetoric unfolded online: much of the conversation was driven by news outlets and advocacy organizations. And much of the activity consisted of news coverage, retweets of news coverage, and amplification from advocacy groups. Most of the activity occurred on X (Twitter), which accounted for 50% of mentions (n=351), followed by online news outlets at 35% (n=244).
Stand Up: The Boulder Jewish Festival Returns
This Sunday, June 7, the Boulder Jewish Festival will return to the Pearl Street Mall — the same site where the firebombing attack took place one year ago. The festival, now in its 31st year, will open with a community-wide commemoration honoring Karen Diamond and the 28 survivors of the attack, joined by local rabbis and community leaders.
In anticipation of potential threats at the event, the Boulder Jewish Community Center confirmed the festival will feature increased security measures from previous years, with assistance from the Boulder Police Department, federal law enforcement, and the Secure Community Network. Organizers described the measures as “proactive and precautionary” and emphasized they are not tied to any specific or immediate threat. As part of the day, Boulder County will unveil a memorial stone marker outside the courthouse honoring Diamond and the other survivors of the attack.
