When hundreds of Northwestern students arrived at their classes in the Technological Institute Wednesday morning, they found imitated front pages of The Daily Northwestern lying on their desks.
The single-page newspaper leaflets were primarily wrapped around the Oct. 23 issue of The Daily. They were placed in on-campus newsstands in more than a dozen buildings and pinned to the community posting board in Norris University Center. The pages featured a nameplate that read “The Northwestern Daily” in a font resembling The Daily’s masthead.
“The Daily Northwestern was unaware and unaffiliated with this page’s production and distribution,” Avani Kalra, The Daily’s editor-in-chief, said. “The Daily’s editorial board remains committed to covering challenging issues in a fair and nuanced way.”
Half of the page featured a color photo of doctors surrounded by deceased civilians at an Oct. 18 press conference at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza. A blast at the hospital killed hundreds of Palestinians the previous day.
Below the photo, an article headlined “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians” parodied the University’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. The article featured fabricated quotes from University administrators and a metaphor comparing Ozzis — reusable food containers offered by on-campus dining halls — to civilian hostages taken by Hamas.
The imitation paper also featured a manipulated advertisement for Birthright Israel, a free heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults, with the slogan “One man’s home is another man’s former home!” Below the ad, a QR code directed readers to a webpage with a message about the war.
The board of the Students Publishing Company, The Daily’s parent company, said in a statement it did not authorize or endorse tampering with The Daily’s production and distribution.
The entity is cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the matter. The SPC board — made up of faculty, alumni and students from outside The Daily’s newsroom — manages the paper’s financial operations but does not weigh in on editorial decisions, which are managed by The Daily’s student-run editorial board.
“We cannot say this any more plainly: We reject and condemn this act of vandalism, and we have engaged law enforcement to investigate and find those responsible,” the board said in the statement.
NU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine told The Daily it was not involved in the production or distribution of the false copies.
The statement comes more than a week after University President Michael Schill sent a message to the community condemning Hamas’ attacks in his personal capacity but iterating a stance of institutional neutrality on the war. The following day, Schill clarified that “the abhorrent and horrific actions of Hamas on Saturday are clearly antithetical to Northwestern’s values — as well as my own.”
In a Wednesday afternoon email to the Jewish community, NU Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon reiterated Hillel’s support for Jewish students in light of both the unauthorized copies and a walkout organized by NU SJP later that day calling on the University to cut support for Israel.
“These actions and others, individually and cumulatively, are contributing to a campus climate that is unsettling for Jewish students and members of the broader Northwestern community,” Simon wrote in the email.
NU responded to the incident in a statement released Wednesday evening summarizing events regarding the tampered newspapers.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @jacob_wendler
Related Stories:
— Editorial: The Daily remains committed to accurate and nuanced coverage
— SPC responds to tampering with The Daily’s distribution
— Northwestern Students for Justice in Palestine leads walkout
