For Denouncing Hamas’s Atrocities, Students at Northeastern Demanded I Be Investigated

Ten days ago, Hamas launched the most devastating attack against Israel since the country’s founding in 1948. Over 20 communities in southern Israel were overrun with terrorists that raped, beheaded, and slaughtered civilians, including infants. These are crimes that can only be likened to the barbaric atrocities carried out by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Because I dared to denounce these heinous crimes, a group of students at Northeastern University put together a petition in which, among other things, they called for the administration to investigate me as a doctoral candidate and lecturer of international relations.

Kibbutz Magen, my first home in Israel, saw its residents hide in bomb shelters for over 36 hours until the Israeli Defense Forces liberated them. Other communities were less lucky: In Kibbutz Be’eri, 10 percent of the population was massacred by Hamas. In Kibbutz Nir Oz, entire families were captured and dragged back to Gaza. To this day, Hamas is holding over 200 Israeli citizens hostage.

The violence unleashed by Hamas’ blatant crimes against humanity fueled a wave of antisemitism around the world. Pro-Hamas rallies broke out not only in Islamabad, Tehran, and Baghdad, but in Madrid, Los Angeles, and Sydney. From chants calling for the gassing of Jews to those supporting a renewed Intifada, Jewish communities across the world were put on high-alert. None of this is surprising: This hateful ideology is spelled out in the Hamas charter, which asserts that the “Zionist” project is a threat to both international security and mankind.

For some of us, this is the first time we’ve understood the warnings that our grandparents and great grandparents have been repeating for generations: Antisemitism is an existential threat to every Jew in the world, regardless of where we live.

The demonstrations we’ve seen are not about fighting a non-enexistent apartheid. They are not about creating a democratic Palestinian state that would uphold civil liberties and individual freedoms. They are about championing a genocidal terrorist group that has just proven its unquenchable thirst for Jewish blood.

Across college campuses, pro-Palestinian communities had a choice to make: acknowledge that Hamas’ continued existence is a threat to both Israelis and Palestinians alike, or justify—even celebrate—the murder of almost 1,400 Israelis in cold blood. Unfortunately, many chose the latter.

At Harvard University, 31 student groups penned a letter alleging Israel was “solely responsible” for the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. At the University of California-San Diego, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) released a statement backing Hamas. At New York University, the president of the Law School Student Bar Association blamed Israel for the violence, and at Columbia University, 20 Palestinian “solidarity groups” issued a joint statement urging the university to cut its ties with “apartheid Israel.”

For years, anti-Israel campus groups cloaked their antisemitism with universal progressive rhetoric. They have justified stabbing attacks against Israelis by invoking anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and liberation. They have called for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state by distorting the international definitions of crimes against humanity, such as apartheid. They have even demonized Israel’s inherent democratic nature by arguing it is a facade to oppress Palestinians while minimizing global criticism.

All of this could be justified as “nuance” in conversations surrounding the most intractable geopolitical conflict of the 21st century. But what nuance is there in condemning those who speak out against Hamas’ pogrom? That is exactly what these “anonymous” students failed to address in their petition.

Singling me out in a malicious yet futile attempt to intimidate and silence me, the petitions’ signees assert that I have “targeted Palestinian students, Muslim students, and other members of the community on campus, calling them Nazis, terrorists, and inciting dangerous conflict on campus.”

This is nonsense. None of my advocacy since October 7 references Northeastern’s campus, administration, or student body. Supporters of this petition egregiously omitted my continued calls for the preservation of civilian life where possible while simultaneously supporting Israel’s inherent and absolute right to self-defense under international law.

The entirety of my commentary since October 7 has been to denounce a terrorist organization that seeks to ethnically cleanse my people and terrorize those living in the Diaspora. The response from the writer’s of the petition? “We feel very unsafe knowing Northeastern is allowing a professor to continue to spread hate speech in our increasingly polarized learning environment.”

Let me be clear: I will not apologize for denouncing Hamas. It is not “hate speech” and those who feel uncomfortable with that position should spend more time reflecting on the source of their discomfort rather than operating as the advocacy branch for an organization that committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish nation since the Holocaust.

As educators, we have a responsibility to foster an inclusive environment where students feel safe to express diverging opinions and develop their own worldviews based on the continued exchange of ideas in academic spaces. This can be done while standing firm on issues that transcend partisan politics and impact humanity as a whole.

I will not be silenced or intimidated, whether by anonymous students or any other party. I will continue to support Israel’s unequivocal right to self-defense—the same right that is afforded to all states in the international system—while simultaneously calling for the minimizing of civilian casualties in Gaza.

I can do both. We can all do both.

If you support Israeli lives, if you support Palestinian lives, the next step is to support the obliteration of the terror organization responsible for the massacre of the first and imprisonment of the latter.

To university administrators around the country: Now is the time for courage. Courage to condemn hate speech against the Jewish community. Courage to take a vocal and moral stance against the worst tragedy the Jewish people have suffered since the extermination of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis, their collaborators, and those who looked away. Courage to resist succumbing to tactics employed by the signers of this petition.

To any that seek to silence and intimidate Jews: We will continue to use our voices to drown out the echoes of hatred and antisemitism in every corner of the world.

Yoni Michanie is a 4th year political science doctoral candidate at Northeastern University. He can be reached on Twitter, @YoniMichanie.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.