When news broke last week that local progressive candidates had invited Hasan Piker to a Sunday, June 14 rally to be held at ReelTracks Denver, a number of area Jews responded, organizing what they called a silent solidarity gathering.
A popular Twitch streamer, Piker is vocally anti-Israel and has described Zionists as “rabid neo-Nazis,” has implied that the June 1, 2025 firebombing in Boulder was an act of “resistance” and has said that “America deserved 9/11.”
Organizing a counter protest should have been straightforward, but by Sunday morning the organizers still didn’t know where they would be meeting, since on Friday, June 12, ReelTracks had cancelled the event, as did its second location, the Ogden Theater.
The new location of the West Steps of the State Capitol was not made public until late Sunday morning, when Congressional District 1 Democratic candidate Melat Kiros posted it on her Instagram page.
In addition to Kiros, the other Colorado candidate scheduled to participate was State Sen. Julie Gonzales, who is in a primary battle with US Sen. John Hickenlooper (D).
Two other US House of Representative candidates — Donovan McKinney from Michigan and Justin Pearson from Tennessee — were also scheduled to appear.
The counter protesters — from Denver, Boulder and Greeley — went into action, meeting on the west side of Lincoln St., facing the rally site. The counterprotesters held American, Israeli flags and Iranian flags, carrying signs with messages such as: “Anti-Zionism is Racism,” “Hasan Piker’s Lies Fuel Hate Crimes.”
Security was facilitated by the newly-formed Colorado Jewish Alliance, started by Boulderite Aaron Brooks and others.
At the main rally, one man stood atop a pillar at the base of the West Steps of the State Capitol, dressed in the style of a Hezbollah fighter, fully masked.
He waved a flag with a Palestinian flag on one side and the Lebanon flag on the other.
A handful of others nearby yelled intermittently at the pro-Israel counter protesters, lobbing expletive-laden accusations of “genocide” and “baby killers” and reciting chants such as “there is only one solution intifada revolution.”
Several Iranians associated with Free Iran Colorado, an anti-Islamic regime group, also joined the counter protest.
“It is important there be opportunities for those of us who identify as Zionist to be able to do so publicly and unapologetically,” said Rachel Amaru, one of the organizers.
“The word Zionist is being hijacked and misrepresented. Anti-Zionism is a hate movement that has incomprehensibly become acceptable, both on the left and right.”
With primary elections on the horizon, June 30, the political nature of the rally also motivated the counter protest.
“Who one affiliates with matters,” said Amaru. “Who a politician chooses to sit down with matters. These politicians choose to connect themselves to Piker, to use the word ‘genocide’ against Israel, to align themselves with the hate movement of anti-Zionism.”
Said Miri Kornfeld, another organizer, “We are Coloradans who want to keep extremism and hate out of our state . . . Hasan Piker has compared the firebombing of our community in Boulder to resistance against Nazis,” referencing a Piker show on June 2, 2025.
“Our leaders should be condemning his disgusting ideas, not bringing him to Colorado for a rally.”
On Sunday morning, prior to the rally, the IJN put questions to the Julie Gonzales US Senate campaign regarding statements made by Piker about the US and about Zionists. As of press time, no reply has been received.
Shortly before the rally, Gonzales posted on Instagram that she was pulling out, due to the multiple changes in location and expressing concerns about security.
Last month, as a guest on Hasan Piker’s show, Gonzales stated her opposition to AIPAC, said she would vote against all military aid to Israel — both offensive and defensive — and implied, as did Piker, that people who express concern about the impact of anti-Israel activity locally are people whose “feelings have been hurt.”
Congressional candidate Melat Kiros was also a recent guest on Piker’s show.
Piker, who was escorted around Denver by Tim Hernández — the former Colorado House District 4 representative who participated in an anti-Israel rally on Oct. 7, 2023 itself, as the Hamas massacre was occurring — also didn’t appear at the rally, citing security.
He later joined a live stream with Kiros and other Denver DSA organizers, in which Deep Singh Badhesha, a prominent local DSA organizer, said the cancellations were “Israel related.”
At the edge of Civic Center Park, the counter protest largely adhered to its aim of being a silent protest. The counterprotesters were a group of around 40 across from a rally of a few hundred.
“It as important that the organizers of the Piker rally and the supporters of Melat and Julie physically see the presence of Jews in this community who stand united against anti-Semitism and hate,” said Amaru.
One counter protestor, Marli Rosenzweig, said she showed up “because not enough people do, because they are scared.
“I refuse to be scared to stand for who I am.”
This article was updated June 19, 2026 to correct the number of participants at the counterprotest.
© IJN 2026
