SEATTLE — Advocates for the Jewish community are denouncing comments that praised Hamas and justified violence during a rally on the University of Washington campus on Thursday.
The rally was hosted by SUPER UW, a suspended student group that organized a takeover demonstration of an engineering building earlier this week. The group is demanding that the University drop all charges and disciplinary actions against 21 students who were arrested during the takeover and later suspended.
At Thursday’s rally, speakers read statements from participants who were arrested.
“Hear me, trans people. Hear me queers. Hear me, all people facing oppression across our campus and the world,” one speaker said. “The Zionist and other settler colonialists such as American nationalists, who fly their flag on stolen land, who build bombs on stolen lands, who use those bombs to try to take more land in Palestine, who fail because of the steadfast resistance because of the brave fighters of Hamas and resistance groups across the Arab world.”
The same speaker said, “We, as all oppressed, should know that by now violence is necessary.”
Another speaker at the rally, Bissan Barghouti, who was identified as being with the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, called the Oct. 7 terror attack ‘the tip of the spear.”
“It is correct to resist in the face of genocide and colonialism,” Barghouti said. “October 7th planted the seeds of revolution in the oppressed and toiling masses of the world.”
On Friday, Regina Sassoon Friedland with the American Jewish Committee said the comments made at the rally were inciting violence.
“In the Hamas charter, it’s not just Israel, or Jews in Israel, it’s talking about going out and killing every Jew in the world wherever you find them,” Friedland said. “Truly it’s a call for your death, and an eradication of your entire people. Free speech is one thing, this is not about free speech, it’s about violence.”
Friedland added she believes the campus protest on Monday should be investigated as an act of domestic terror.
“When you disrupt life like that and you are targeting, I feel like this is domestic terrorism,” she said.
This week, the U.S Department of Education announced a task force in response to what it described as ‘pro-terror protesters who demanded that the university divest from Boeing due to the company’s military contracts linked to the Gaza conflict.’
The violence and chaos that ensued on University of Washington’s campus is yet another horrifying display of the antisemitic harassment and lawlessness which has characterized many of our nation’s elite campuses over the last several years. This destructive behavior is unacceptable,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “The Task Force will not allow these so-called ‘protesters’ to disrupt campus life and deprive students, especially Jewish students who live in fear on campus, of their equal opportunity protections and civil rights.
The University of Washington issued a statement condemning antisemitism, harassment, and discrimination and said it complies fully with federal civil rights laws.
“We also recognize the need to continually improve and have for many months been taking concrete actions to improve the campus climate for Jewish students, faculty, staff, and visitors,” the statement said.
Thirty-one people were arrested during Monday’s protest. All have since been released from custody, and charges have not yet been filed while the investigation remains active.
