Earlier in April, Northwestern University’s dean of students Mona Dugo attended an anti-Israel protest aimed at targeting the school’s Hillel, the university’s Jewish student center, asserting the demonstrators’ “right to free speech.”
Protest organizers insisted on the university severing ties with Hillel, a century-old nonprofit operating Jewish community centers globally, including at Northwestern.
The demonstration coincided with Northwestern‘s Admitted Students Day, aimed at familiarizing incoming students with campus life.
Anti-Israel students have the “right to protest”
According to a report quoting the Daily Northwestern, the university’s main newspaper, Dean of Students Mona Dugo stated her presence at Monday’s rally was to uphold the anti-Israel activists’ “right to protest” and to “defend the right to free speech.”
One alleged protest organizer remarked during the rally that “‘[Hillel] is one of the many means through which this university perpetuates the intertwining of Jewish identity with Zionism.'”
Hillel leaders have targeted the protests going on in American universities, sharing their disbelief at the ongoing situation as well as disapproval for the protests targeting the organization.
A leaflet distributed by protesters alleged Northwestern of “funneling Jewish students into Hillel, the Zionist ‘foundation for Jewish life.’” It further asserted the university “weaponizes claims of anti-Semitism on campus to silence pro-Palestinian activism.”
The protest coincides with accusations against Northwestern president Michael Schill of permitting a rise in anti-Semitism on campus. Allegations stem from instances such as anti-Israel demonstrators displaying the Hamas flag at student gatherings. Additionally, during Northwestern‘s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial ceremony in February, a speaker accused Israel of “genocide.”
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