We’ve seen a lot of activism on behalf of Hamas on campuses, and usually think of the occupations and hateful rhetoric as a student-led phenomenon.
That’s not exactly accurate. Administrators, professors, and instructors are often just as committed to the elimination of Israel, the slandering of Israelis and Jews, and the promotion of Hamas violence as any student on campus.
After all, where do you think the students got their insane ideology?
Northwestern Administrators Pass Resolution Calling for Boycott of ‘Terror’ State Israelhttps://t.co/S5IJ6pA3Tw
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) May 8, 2024
Northwestern University is a great example of this reality. A number of professors and even high-level administrators have jumped on the Jew-hating bandwagon, reveling in the hyperbolic rhetoric, the blood libels, and endorsing the violent tactics of the protesters.
Northwestern University administration officials and faculty members signed a resolution demanding that the school cut ties with Israel, calling the Jewish country a “terror” state and accusing it of “one of the most atrocious and monstrous sieges in modern history.”
The resolution—which also defended the eliminationist slogan “From the River to the Sea” and criticized the administration for creating a task force to combat anti-Semitism—was signed by over 1,000 students, alumni, and faculty members, as well as officials from Northwestern’s admissions and civil rights compliance offices.
“After months of tightening what has—for the last 76 years—been a brutal and insufferable occupation, Israel is leading a multifront war on the people of Palestine that can only be described as ethnic cleansing and genocide,” said the resolution.
“Despite the immense loss of life and all that sustains it, US diplomatic, military, and top academic institutions have chosen to stand firmly on the side of terror,” the statement went on. “Northwestern is no exception.”
The resolution criticized the university for creating an “Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism” and a “Committee on Free Expression” to address anti-Semitism on campus.
The resolution is extraordinarily tendentious and, frankly, tedious, as are most things written by academics or committees, and a committee of academics wrote this. Thus, it is painful to read.
Snooze.
Nowhere in this resolution is a hint that these employees of Northwestern, most of whom likely earn six-figure salaries from the institution, are no longer willing to accept the blood money they believe is being handed to them. In fact, they seem quite satisfied to take it.
it’s an expensive place, after all, and they gotta eat.
The resolution—which didn’t mention Hamas’s mass terrorist attack that incited the war—comes as Northwestern and universities around the country have been upended by anti-Israel demonstrations that have veered into open anti-Semitism.
Signatories included Liv Harmening, the outreach and education coordinator for Northwestern’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance; Kandise Le Blanc, the senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions; Sasha McKnight and Rignesha Prajapati, assistant directors of Multicultural Student Affairs; Qiu Fogarty, the associate director of Social Justice Education; and Haley Kost, a senior program coordinator at the Center for Civic Engagement.
The statement was signed by senior faculty members, including Mérida M. Rúa, the undergraduate director of Latina & Latino Studies; Mary Pattillo, the chairwoman of the Department of African American Studies; Nitasha Sharma, the director of the Asian American Studies Program; and Noelle Sullivan, the associate director of Global Health Studies.
The resolution defended the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free,” which calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.
The signers argued that describing the slogan as anti-Semitic is “racist” because it perpetuates stereotypes of Palestinians as “hostile to Jews.”
“The attack on this slogan as inherently eliminationist is both inaccurate and irresponsible,” said the statement. “It asymmetrically delegitimizes pro-Palestine speech.”
The resolution is the latest example of the faculty members and administrators encouraging extremist anti-Israel activism on campuses.
How anybody got the idea that Palestinians might be “hostile to Jews” is beyond me.
Slander. Outrageous. It’s not like there is any indication that Palestinians would hurt a fly.
Insane videos from MIT…
In Arabic they chant that “Palestine will be Arab” and “Death to Jews,” then in English they chant “we don’t want no Zionists here” and that “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution”
Don’t look away. pic.twitter.com/OIiazxJaqt
— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 5, 2024
“Death to the Jews” is a metaphor, just like “Kill the Boer.”
When I look at the list of signatories, one thing pops out: many of these people are deeply involved in pushing speech codes, creating “safe spaces,” diversity and inclusion, and all the woke tripe.
Now they are foursquare behind those calling for the murder of Jews, and worried that their freedom to do so through blatantly illegal means is being hampered.
The hypocrisy, though, is not the point. Remember, these people never mean what they say or say what they really mean. For them it is all about tripping our triggers, with language not being a means of communication but a way to gain and use power.
At the George Washington University Gaza Solidarity Encampment today, the protesters held a “People’s Tribunal” where they put President Ellen Granberg, Provost Christopher Bracey, the Board of Trustees, @GWPolice, and many others on trial.
Is it normal for students to want to… pic.twitter.com/M8F543q0MV
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 3, 2024
Think 1984. Words change meanings all the time. Power is the only goal of speech.
If Northwestern were smart, they would find a way to fire these people or ease them out. Signing a stupid document is not sufficient reason to do so, and shouldn’t be.
But they are clearly poisonous, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had violated a number of policies, including aiding and abetting students in breaking the law. Find out and fire them. Even if Northwestern would have to pay them a hefty severance it would be worth it.
The one good thing coming out of all this is that the gradual decline in prestige that elite universities have suffered has turned into a freefall. People see what the universities teach, see how the students turn out, and want nothing to do with any of it.
That doesn’t mean that the universities will implode. They admit such a small percentage of their applicants that even a steep drop in their numbers won’t harm attendance numbers.
But it will take years or decades to recover.