Members of Northwestern’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace met with an administrator in NU’s Division of Student Affairs on Thursday, three days after the University removed a banner criticizing Israel and Hillel that JVP put up Monday near The Arch.
NU took down the banner around two hours after its installation without notifying JVP, Weinberg senior and JVP member Evgeny Stolyarov said.
The same day, NU Hillel began its Israel Week programming, which lasted from Monday to Friday and included ceremonies, celebrations and gatherings for Israeli holidays, such as Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut.
In a Friday statement to The Daily, a University spokesperson wrote that NU removed the banner because it “did not identify the sponsoring organization on its face and did not align with the specific event or activity described in the reservation.”
Centered around an illustration of bespectacled eyes, JVP’s banner read “Israel is Committing Scholasticide” and “Hillel and Birthright Lie.” The bottom of the banner read “SEE FOR YOURSELF,” a reference to Birthright Israel trips, and included a QR code leading to a document with information related to the drawing, Hillel, Israel Week and other topics.
The drawing, which Stolyarov said was created by a JVP NU member, depicts the eyes of Palestinian Professor Refaat Alareer, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza in December 2023.
(Photo courtesy of Evgeny Stolyarov )
JVP has the banner space reserved until Sunday at 5 p.m., according to emails obtained by The Daily. The Norris events office confirmed the reservation in February, according to the emails.
Stolyarov said he feels the University applies a “clear double standard” when enforcing policies across different student groups.
In particular, Stolyarov said the banner’s removal was part of a “pattern of the University unevenly applying its policy in order to shut down any speech in support of Palestine.”
“Those who speak in solidarity with Palestine are punished and repressed, whilst organizations like Hillel can openly celebrate Israel without even acknowledging its daily committal of war crimes,” Stolyarov said.
NU Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said the banner and its messaging included “misinformation” and mischaracterized Hillel.
Simon said he was “disappointed” to see the banner installed during Israel Week, which he said intends to engage community members in reflection and celebration despite “the complexities of being a multi-faceted country that is the Jewish state.”
“I don’t think that kind of speech is conducive to a meaningful or constructive conversation about very complex issues,” Simon said. “So in that respect, not unhappy that it was gone.”
JVP had reserved the banner space under the title “Community Art Work,” according to emails obtained by The Daily.
Once JVP members became aware of the removal, Stolyarov emailed Student Organizations & Activities Associate Director Joe Lattal the same day, asking why the banner was removed.
In his response to JVP’s email Tuesday, Lattal wrote that he had alerted the director of SOA and that he would follow up with more information. Lattal’s email also asked whether JVP members witnessed the removal, and if they knew which University officials removed the banner. Stolyarov responded that he did not know who removed the banner.
Three days later, Stolyarov said Lattal had not responded. JVP emailed various University administrators and Student Affairs staff members Wednesday, asking about the banner.
Jeremy Schenk, NU’s associate vice president for operations and services in the Division of Student Affairs, told JVP in a Wednesday email reply that the banner did not meet the “posted requirements” for The Arch’s banner spaces.
Schenk wrote that the banner did not identify the sponsoring student organization and that the banner spaces by The Arch are intended for student organizations to promote activities “as described in their reservation.”
Stolyarov said he did not find the rule requiring the banner to identify the sponsoring student organization in the University’s Display and Solicitation Policy, but only in a PDF on the reservation site Mazévo.
He said he and other JVP members did not receive the document that included the rule when reserving the space for the banner in February.
Schenk returned the banner at a meeting with JVP members on Thursday, Stolyarov said. At the meeting, Stolyarov said JVP members asked Schenk whether the banner could be reinstalled after being modified to list JVP as the sponsoring organization.
The three JVP members present at the meeting said Schenk told them the banner’s content may have contributed to its removal and could prevent JVP from reinstalling it.
A University spokesperson wrote to The Daily Friday that at the meeting, Schenk told JVP members NU removed the banner “because it did not list the organization name and because the banner did not match the information submitted for the reservation.”
“The views or messages expressed on the banner were not cited as a reason for its removal,” the spokesperson wrote.
Simon said he would “welcome a conversation” with those who installed the banner.
“There’s a distortion of what Hillel is and the work that we do, including the idea that we are not welcoming to a diversity of views, which is just anathema to who we really are,” Simon said.
In the context of Israel Week, Stolyarov said JVP aimed to draw attention to “what is actually happening.”
“You cannot separate the state of Israel from the violence it’s committing against Palestinians on a daily basis, yet not a single one of Hillel’s Israel Week events is a conversation or an opportunity to reflect on the daily war crimes that Israel is committing,” Stolyarov said. “We felt compelled to educate the student body.”
In an email obtained by The Daily, Schenk wrote Thursday that he will share JVP’s inquiries with colleagues and follow up afterward.
Stolyarov said Friday that JVP is still waiting for a response.
“I’m just so infuriated, especially because there are other banners up in that space that are not following all the rules and regulations for banners, but they have not been at all disrupted,” Communication sophomore and JVP member Elia Silbey said.
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