Dear President Schill:

On October 7, at least 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children were slaughtered and thousands more wounded by barbaric Hamas terrorists. President Joe Biden condemned this brutality against civilians as an “act of sheer evil.” Yet the shocking response of many Northwestern student groups and faculty has been to cheer for Hamas, violence, and antisemitism. Remarkably, Northwestern's leadership has been silent about this endorsement of hate and savagery.

First, the Northwestern chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) endorsed the Hamas attack, arguing this U.S.-designated terrorist group “has the undeniable right to resist and seek their freedom without stigmatization as instigators and terrorists.”

That same day, the Middle Eastern and North African Student Association announced that it “resoundingly supports” Palestinian terrorism. These students referred to “decolonization” as “a real fight” and honored the barbarians who had just tortured and burned children to death as “martyrs.”

On October 11, the Northwestern University Community for Human Rights published a set of infographics claiming “Zionist propaganda in the media” was distorting the narrative around the conflict in Israel, parroting a vicious antisemitic lie. 

Most glaringly, the Asian American Studies Program faculty authored a deeply offensive statement defending terrorism and denying the trauma of thousands of Israelis. They referred to Hamas, as a “political group” and denied the widely confirmed beheading of babies by Hamas as “anti-Palestinian war propaganda.” This is no different than Holocaust denial. 

On October 13, you wrote that “our Northwestern values” and “our shared humanity should lead us all to condemn these barbaric acts.” Yet, Northwestern faculty members and students are spewing apologetics for these indefensible acts of violence. 

It is time to unequivocally condemn the hate expressed by so many Northwestern student and faculty groups, adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and mandate antisemitism training for all faculty members who signed an antisemitic statement.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.