At Northwestern, Antisemites Protest a Committee to Combat Antisemitism

The anti-Israel, antisemitic Stormtroopers at Northwestern, their ranks consisting of both students and faculty, have been agitating, rioting, screaming about what they see as the latest outrage by agents of the apartheid, settler-colonial, genocidal state of Israel , which is the decision of the college’s administration to appoint a committee on “preventing antisemitism and hate” on the campus. It’s about time such a committee was formed. The atmosphere at Northwestern is thick with antisemitic and anti-Israel hate; the behavior of these rioting students, and of their faculty collaborators, is hard to stomach. It puts me in mind of what was going on in German universities in the 1930s, when all Jewish faculty were fired and Jewish students were harassed and expelled, as the Brownshirts ran riot. Here are the details of the Northwestern administrations response to the rise in on-campus antisemitism, and the fury it has provoked: “Northwestern University Students, Faculty Slam School for Forming Committee to Combat Antisemitism,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, November 16, 2023:

Dozens of student groups at Northwestern University just outside Chicago on Thursday dismissed concerns of rising antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war as “mass hysteria and collective psychosis,” seemingly calling for the destruction of the Jewish state and joining faculty in castigating the school for forming a new panel to combat Jew-hatred on campus.

On Monday, Northwestern President Michael Schill announced the creation of a new committee “on preventing antisemitism and hate.”…

The school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter has falsely accused Israel of apartheid, genocide, and “settler-colonialism” at its events and in its social media posts. The group also marched around campus earlier this month chanting, “Hey, Schill, what do you say, how many kids did you kill today?” In one incident — in which SJP has denied any involvement — an unknown group vandalized print copies of The Daily Northwestern, the campus newspaper, covering them in leaflets headlined, “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians.”

In Monday’s announcement, Schill disavowed such activity while noting specifically that chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are perceived by “significant parts of our community” as “promoting murder and genocide.” The popular slogan among pro-Palestinian activists has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Nonetheless, in response to Schill’s announcement, 65 student organizations on Thursday signed an op-ed in The Daily Northwestern that was headlined, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“Indeed we know there is a genocide happening, and it is happening to Palestinians by the Israeli apartheid government,” the article read. “Palestine has always served as a litmus test of our collective imagination of what freedom could look like. When we say from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, we imagine a world free of Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Blackness, militarism, occupation, and apartheid. From the river to the seas, Palestine will be free. Until liberation.”

The op-ed dismissed efforts to combat the recent surge in antisemitic incidents on college campuses as “mass hysteria and collective psychosis,” arguing Schill is being “irresponsible” and “dangerous” by “denying genocide” and “mischaracterizing the mission of activists.”

The students also argued that “the destiny of all marginalized people — both in occupied Palestine and around the world — is intertwined. We believe in the liberation of all peoples from Chicago to Sudan to the Congo to Western Sahara to Palestine.”…

“Ah, yes! Let’s lump this highly complicated and charged conflict in with all of the bad things in this world and blame it on the Jews!” Northwestern University student Josh Miller tweeted in response to the column. “I cannot believe that this op-ed ran in The Daily Northwestern.”

The student groups did not mention or denounce the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, when they invaded the Jewish state and murdered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 240 others as hostages. The brutality of Hamas’ onslaught — which included rape, torture, and the beheading of babies — has shocked the world.

Also on Thursday, over 150 Northwestern faculty and staff signed a letter accusing Schill of undermining academic freedom and free expression, as well as jeopardizing the safety of “staff and faculty of color.” The letter went on to argue that Israel is committing “genocidal violence in Gaza,” despite the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) taking precautions to prevent civilian casualties….

How has President Schill “undermined academic freedom and free expression”? Apparently, by appointing a committee whose remit is to investigate ways to “prevent antisemitism and hate.” Are we to conclude that the 150 signatories of that letter do not want the university to create a committee to be engaged in such a laudable venture? Why? Could it be because those who falsely accuse the Jewish state of “genocidal violence in Gaza” know perfectly well that this is exactly the kind of “antisemitism and hate” that the new committee will be holding up for denunciation and punishment? And how does this committee in any way jeopardize the safety of “staff and faculty of color”? Or should we conclude that “people of color” are especially prone to “antisemitism and hate”?

Are you left speechless at this ghastly display of wild charges (“genocidal” Israel) and crazed hate at Northwestern? So am I.