Northwestern apologized for and condemned a performance held Tuesday in Sargent Dining Commons by Firket Al Azdeekah Entertainment, a local Arab dance group, in a Thursday email sent by NU Vice President for Student Affairs Susan Davis.
The performance was organized in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month, with the dance group hired by Compass Group, NU’s independent dining vendor.
The email, which was sent to students who scanned into Sargent around dinnertime Tuesday, stated that the University was “shocked and appalled” by the performance. Davis wrote that Compass did not give NU details about the performance in advance.
“Northwestern unequivocally disapproves of Compass’ poor judgment in allowing this performance to occur while our students were eating dinner and is examining all legal remedies under our contract with the company,” Davis wrote in the email to students.
The performance featured dancers waving a Palestinian flag while wearing keffiyehs and camouflage pants. The dancers’ shirts had an illustration showing the outline of what FAA Entertainment team member Ahmad Awad described as “historical Palestine” — a map including Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights — superimposed with a keffiyeh pattern.
Awad, who performed in Sargent, said the performance included music from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
“We were there to represent Arab culture, Arab heritage, things of that nature, folkloric dancing, fun music, kind of like a mini festival in a sense that everybody is welcome to join in,” Awad said.
In a post on Instagram, Students Supporting Israel at NU, an unregistered chapter of the international pro-Israel organization, criticized FAA Entertainment for wearing keffiyehs and “paramilitary outfits inspired by Hamas” and isolating students, including Arab students, who support Israel.
Awad called the accusations “absurd and insane,” saying that wearing clothing associated with Palestinian historic culture should not be considered offensive.
“They’re camouflage pants. They’ve nothing to do with the military at all,” Awad said. “There was a polo that said FAA Entertainment on there, and it said ‘Palestine’ in Arabic. (It had) the shape of the map of historic Palestine before the illegal occupation by Israel. So none of this in any way, shape or form, was a political statement.”
This is not the first time FAA Entertainment has performed at NU; it has performed at least twice before, Awad said.
A University spokesperson wrote in an email to The Daily that NU has since put an administrator who supervises the residential dining program on leave. They added that at NU’s request, Compass has removed the team members who ran Compass’ NU operations and campus marketing function.
Compass did not respond to several requests for comment by the time of publication.
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