More than 100 people, many holding white and blue Israeli flags, set up a counter demonstration near the pro-Palestinian encampment at Deering Meadow Sunday.
As the encampment entered its fourth day, Susan Radov, a Jewish student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management said the counter-protest included NU students, other students from around Chicago and some from Israel.
“We are united as a community,” Radov said.
Near the start of the opposing protests, the two sides edged within several feet of each other on the foggy meadow, but were later separated by Northwestern University police, with the pro-Israeli group staying on the steps of Deering Library. There were no arrests.
Radov said this has been a difficult time to be Jewish at NU.
“It’s been very unsettling, especially the antisemitic slurs and calls for death to our people.”
The pro-Palestinian protesters have been demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, citing the estimated 34,000 Palestinian deaths from Israeli raids following the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Some in the encampment are also demanding that NU cut all academic and financial ties with the Jewish state.
One of the Jewish demonstrators was wearing a shirt with a photo of a relative, with the words “Murdered by Hamas on October 7” on the front.
Hamas is believed to still hold more than 130 hostages out of the approximately 250 who were kidnapped during the raid.
Delicate international negotiations are ongoing to try to get those hostages returned as part of a cease-fire agreement.
One sign in the pro-Palestinian encampment said “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”
But Radov said, “to not believe in Israel is not to believe there should be a Jewish state.”
She said there can be a “clear difference” between supporting or opposing the policy of a particular government, but opposing the existence of a nation is entirely different.
As most members of the pro-Israel protest group were leaving about 1 p.m., a Jewish student spoke from the speaker’s platform at the encampment.
She said she now rejects what she had been told growing up about Israel and that she feels proud to be Jewish and to support the Palestinian cause.
It does not appear that the encampment will end anytime soon, unless the university enforces its “no-tent” policy.
Radov said she “gives huge kudos” to NU President Michael Schill for enacting the policy, but she said it needs to be enforced.
After the encampment was set up, NU spokesperson Jon Yates said. “The University is in active discussions with the demonstrators to ensure the safety of the members of the Northwestern community while also providing a space for free expression.”
There appeared to be about 250 pro-Palestinian protesters at the encampment Thursday, a number that seemed to have grown somewhat on Sunday at the time of the counter-protest.