Northwestern University claims to be “committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus for all community members, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni.” Yet, Northwestern faculty and community members who have spoken in support of Palestine have had their personal information leaked, encountered online threats, and suffered various forms of harassment. According to the 2025 Free Speech College Rankings, Northwestern University was ranked as “poor” when compared to other American colleges. University administrators demonstratively failed to acknowledge the negative impacts of its actions on Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students.
In April 2024, Palestine Legal filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Northwestern Law on behalf of four students who had been the target of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow students, professors, and Northwestern Law administrators. The targeted Palestinian students allege Northwestern administrators have neglected to adequately address their safety concerns, as they have been followed, recorded, and subjected to threats of doxing. Professors at the university made anti-Palestinian remarks, such as calling the displacement of Palestinian civilians from Gaza a “two-week vacation”. One Pakistani and Muslim-American law student, Aasiyah Wasif, who was part of the complaint said, “I want to point to this environment of fear and hostility that Northwestern has cultivated. The fear was so pervasive, and the hostility was so pervasive.” Earlier in the fall of 2023, a group of students was working on a project on campus. As a Palestinian student zoomed in on an image for others to see, she said, “I’m going to blow this up on the computer to show you.” Then, in front of the other students, a professor reportedly replied, “someone who looks like you probably shouldn’t go around saying they’re going to blow things up,” according to the complaint.
In July 2024, four Northwestern employees, including faculty members, were arrested by Northwestern police for participating in an anti-genocide protest in the spring. One professor, Dr. Steven Thrasher, wrote in his column, False Profits: Why I Am Not Teaching in the Classroom This Fall, that he was “beaten up by Northwestern cops, leaving [him] in physical pain for several weeks.” Alithia Zamantakis, another Northwestern assistant professor who was arrested, declared, “A genocide is happening, and I was acting in accordance… they were attempting to silence us.” The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against the employees, citing their policy of not charging peaceful protesters. Despite the dropped charges, Northwestern canceled Dr. Thrasher’s fall classes. His attorney argued that this violated basic due process and the Northwestern faculty handbook. The University responded that teaching is “at the discretion of the dean.” On September 22nd, more than 2,500 scholars, journalists, and health professionals signed a petition and open letter demanding Northwestern reinstate Dr. Thrasher. “We … are deeply concerned that Northwestern University is targeting Dr. Steven Thrasher for his political speech against Israel’s war in Gaza and for defending those students who also stand against it,” the petition reads.
Northwestern University administrators’ anti-Palestinian activities are only part of an apparently embedded institutional culture where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism are permitted. In August 2024, an Instagram post of the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (NU’s SJP) stated that photos of medical students wearing keffiyehs were deleted. The photos were apparently taken at the Feinberg School of Medicine’s White Coat ceremony earlier in the year. Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine removed the photos of its Arab students from its official Instagram page and from its Flickr drive. The university responded that it was protecting students from being doxed. NU’s SJP demanded a public apology, a thorough and transparent investigation, and an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion in its Open Letter to Feinberg Administration.
In September 2024, Northwestern University’s administration reaffirmed its hostile culture by silencing activism in its new Demonstration Policy. Northwestern’s Students for Justice in Palestine (NU SJP) determined that the new policy was “a telling indication of how universities across the country are systematically ignoring and silencing pro-Palestinian students.” Similarly, a member of Northwestern’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace clarified how the policy communicated injustice. “I think what this policy will create is a clear demonstration to people that the University is actually not invested in freedom of speech, not invested in hearing students out, but is actually just invested in shutting things down,” said Weinberg junior Evgeny Stolyarov.
