Northwestern tells Jewish Voice for Peace to revise constitution over anti-discrimination concerns
Northwestern University recently told its chapter of the anti-Israel student group that its constitution violates the university’s guidelines against discrimination.
'Members are expected to be anti-Zionist and identify with Judaism,' the group's constitution states.
Northwestern University recently told its chapter of the anti-Israel student group, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), that its constitution violates the university’s guidelines against discrimination.
”As a registered student organization, Jewish Voice for Peace is required to comply with Northwestern’s anti-discrimination policies,” a Northwestern spokesperson told The Washington Free Beacon. “The appropriate steps are in progress to revise the organization’s constitution and membership policies.”
As noted by the Free Beacon, JVP’s constitution violates the non-discrimination policy because it mandates that members be Jewish and oppose Israel. “Members are expected to be anti-Zionist and identify with Judaism,” the document states.
JVP is a left-wing, activist organization made up of American Jews that explicitly opposes Zionism, according to its national website. JVP also argues that Zionism is not a solution to anti-Semitism, but a form of ‘settler-colonialism’ responsible for the oppression of Palestinians.
“Zionism, as a political ideology and as a movement, has always hierarchized Jews based on ethnicity and race, and has not equally benefited or been liberatory for all Jewish people in Israel,” the group states on its website.
In March, Northwestern’s JVP chapter posted to Instagram in support of pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, saying that Israel is perpetrating a “genocide” in Gaza and the Trump administration was an “authoritarian regime.”
This is not the first time Northwestern has made headlines about discrimination regarding Israel and Jewish students.
Recently, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a letter to Northwestern President Michael Schill asking him to give testimony about anti-Semitism at the school. The April 28 letter documents allegations including a Jewish student being spat on and told to “go back to Germany and get gassed.”
In March, during the ongoing anti-Semitism investigation at the school, the Trump administration froze $790 million in funding to Northwestern University.
Campus Reform has reported about Northwestern Assistant Professor Steven Thrasher, who has supported pro-Palestine protests, stating, “I still stand with our brave student protesters, Mahmoud Khalil, and the more than 200 Palestinian journalists who have been murdered in Gaza.”
“If people like Mahmoud and me cannot express dissent on campus about matters of life and death without fear of reprisal, then university campuses are less than useless; they are the front lines of fascism,” Thrasher added.
Campus Reform has contacted Northwestern University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
