OAKLAND, Calif. — Karen Diamond was one of those severely burned in Boulder, Colorado, in a Jew-hating firebombing of a peaceful weekly Run for Their Lives vigil June 1 demanding the release of Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. She died from her wounds June 25.
Diamond, 82, was one of eight people hospitalized for burns after Mohamed Sabry Soliman lit and threw firebombs at the marchers. He later told police he wanted to “kill all Zionist people.”
Three days after the anti-Jewish assault, some 1,500 people packed the Jewish Community Center in Boulder to protest the murderous attack and demonstrate their determination not to be silenced. On June 8 thousands participated in a special Run for Their Lives action there during Boulder’s 30th annual Jewish Festival. The Run for Their Lives vigils have taken place every Sunday in Boulder since November 2023, after Hamas carried out its pogrom in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, the worst such attack since the Holocaust.
Run for Their Lives issued a statement after Diamond’s death was announced, saying it was “a heavy and heartbreaking moment.”
This Militant worker-correspondent and Socialist Workers Party leader from Oakland joined Laura Garza, the SWP candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, in Boulder after the June 1 attack to show solidarity. We pointed to the thousands of Colorado grocery store and dairy workers who had just taken strike authorization votes — many of whom are now walking picket lines all over the state — as potential allies in standing up against antisemitism and Jew-hating attacks and defending their right to protest demanding freedom for the hostages.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s office said they will file first-degree murder charges against Soliman for Diamond’s death.