A group of Jewish students have filed a class action lawsuit against Northwestern University over the school's handling of openly antisemitic pro-Hamas protests, saying the university should pay for allowing Jewish students to be subjected to the "dystopic cesspool of hate" the protestors established in their encampment in the center of the school's campus along Lake Michigan in Evanston.
The lawsuit was filed May 1 in Cook County Circuit by attorneys with the firm of Much Shelist PC, of Chicago. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three unnamed Jewish students, identified only as Jane Doe and John Doe 1 and 2. According to the complaint, John Doe 1 is an undergraduate student at Northwestern who lives on campus. John Doe 2 and Jane Doe are graduate students at the unversity, living off campus in Evanston.
The complaint accuses Northwestern of a "gross breach" of its contract with the students by permitting and "coddling" the encampment and the associated harassment and other mistreatment of Jewish students on campus that emanated from the camp.
Steven Blonder
| Much Shelist
The lawsuit centers on the university's refusal, to this point, to take action against the encampment, which has seized and been permitted to maintain control of the lawn known as Deering Meadow, which lies at the heart of Northwestern's campus.
Organizers of the encampment, which they call the "Liberated Zone," have said they have assembled to protest alleged "genocide" of Palestinians in Gaza, allegedly at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces. The IDF launched military operations in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israeli Jews at the hands of Hamas terrorists, recognized as the worst single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The complaint, however, notes that the Northwestern protest, like others assembled on college campuses elsewhere in the U.S., has glorified Hamas, while attacking Jewish people, in general, with protestors routinely spouting widely known antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish chants, calling for Jewish genocide and subjugation, while celebrating Islamic terrorists.
The Northwestern encampment, for instance, prominently features anti-Jewish signs, such as some featuring a crossed out Star of David, as if to indicate Jews are not allowed in the camp, while others depict Northwestern's president Michael Schill, who is Jewish, as a "bloodthirsty devil."
The complaint notes that people in the encampment "bark at passersby demanding they state whether they speak Hebrew."
Despite such provocations and open bigotry, Northwestern's leadership has taken no action to address the problems or remove the encampment, the lawsuit says. The plaintiffs claim this violates Northwestern's own policies, while permitting Jewish students to remain in danger and in fear for their safety, as they attempt to complete the 2023-2024 school year.
Further, the lawsuit states Northwestern has "twisted itself into a pretzel" to "coddle" and "accommodate the hostile and discriminatory encampment, legislate around it and ultimately reward it" after "negotiating" with the protesters on a list of "demands."
"But Northwestern may not suspend its rules just because students and student organizations prefer to pitch tents and sleep on the central campus lawn, promoting discriminatory, terror-supporting ideologies until their 'demands' are met," the lawsuit says. "That's not the benefit of the bargain Plaintiffs struck. Northwestern's refusal to enforce its own policies is thus a breach of contract, in addition to being a total embarrassment to the broader Northwestern community."
The lawsuit levels a single count of breach of contract against the university.
The lawsuit seeks to expand the action to include all current Jewish students at Northwestern who have not participated in the encampment protests.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Steven P. Blonder, Joanne A. Sarasin and Laura A. Elkayam, of the Much Shelist firm.
“When students choose to attend Northwestern University, they expect the school to fulfil its promise to govern everyone by the same transparent, content-neutral code of conduct,” said Blonder, in a prepared statement. “In exchange for paying tuition, students expect the school will uphold its commitment to ensure they are free to safely move about campus. Northwestern has failed its Jewish students on both accounts.”
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Northwestern "to comply with its policies" and granting the plaintiffs unspecified damages, plus attorney fees.