Northwestern University is investigating whether a campus protest targeting the school’s Jewish student community center last week violated the school’s anti-harassment policies.
A Northwestern spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon that the university is investigating flyers handed out by protesters, which demanded that the school end its relationship with Hillel, a 100-year-old nonprofit group that operates campus Jewish community centers at universities around the world.
“The university is investigating whether the statements about Hillel that were in the flyer distributed Monday violate our Code of Conduct or Northwestern’s discrimination and harassment policies,” said Northwestern spokesman Jon Yates.
The investigation comes amid a surge in anti-Semitic incidents at universities across the country. Classes at Columbia University were moved online on Monday, after anti-Israel protesters screamed profanities at and reportedly assaulted Jewish students. At Yale, a Jewish student was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag over the weekend.
The Northwestern protest last Monday, which called on the school to divest from “Zionist companies,” was attended by the university’s dean of students Mona Dugo. She told the Daily Northwestern that she showed up to support anti-Israel activists’ “right to protest” and to “protect the right to free speech.”
Yates told the Free Beacon that Dugo’s attendance was not an endorsement of the protest. He said she attends many campus events to monitor student safety.
“Our dean of students regularly attends student demonstrations on campus, to ensure the safety of our community,” he said. “Her role at these demonstrations is not as a participant or supporter, but as an observer to ensure safety and well-being of the entire community, including those who might be targeted by the protest.”
Protesters handed out flyers calling on Northwestern to stop “funneling Jewish students into Hillel, the Zionist ‘foundation for Jewish life.’”
A speaker at the protest also denounced Hillel as “one of the many ways in which this university is complicit in infusing Jewishness with Zionism,” the Daily Northwestern reported last week.
Alumni have accused Northwestern president Michael Schill of failing to combat anti-Semitism on campus, where anti-Israel protesters have raised the Hamas flag at student demonstrations. The Department of Education is investigating alleged anti-Jewish incidents at the school.
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