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Northwestern University Community Denounces Passover Vandalism
The campus of Northwestern University, a day after a US official said $790 million in federal funding has been frozen for the university while it investigates the school over civil rights violations, on April 9, 2025. Photo: Vincent Alban via Reuters Connect.
Northwestern University on Tuesday denounced the antisemitic vandalism of two administrative buildings located on the Evanston section of campus, a disturbing act that was perpetrated during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
According to the The Northwestern Daily, Kregse Hall and University Hall were graffitied with hateful speech calling for “Death to Israel” and an “Intifada,” alluding to two prolonged periods of Palestinian terrorism during which hundreds of Israeli Jews were murdered. The vandals also spray-painted an inverted triangle, a symbol used to express support for the terrorist group Hamas and its atrocities.
“Antisemitic acts cannot and will not be tolerated at Northwestern, nor will vandalism or other violations of our polices on displays, demonstrations, or conduct,” university president Michael Schill said in a statement following the incident. “We are working systematically and utilizing camera footage, forensics, and other methods to identify the individuals responsible for this vandalism. If these individuals are current Northwestern students, they will be immediately suspended and face full disciplinary proceedings under university policies, as well as criminal charges under the law.”
Schill’s statement went on to report that he had hosted a Passover Seder hours before the vandalism took place, continuing a messaging campaign Northwestern University launched earlier this month to tout its “progress” on addressing campus antisemitism. The university’s alleged failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination recently caused the Trump administration to impound $790 million in taxpayer funds that were previously awarded to it. Before the move, Northwestern released a report enumerating the policies it has enacted to combat antisemitism and strengthen its disciplinary code.
“As a university, we should take pride in the progress we have made over the past year, but we can never become complacent,” Schill continued. “In that report and in many communications prior, we made abundantly clear that violations of our rules and policies will result in strict enforcement and that antisemitic behavior will be met with consequences.”
Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, Northwestern struggled to combat an impression that it coddled pro-Hamas protesters and acceded to their demands for a boycott of Israel in exchange for an end to their May 2024 encampment.
Schill denied during a US congressional hearing held that year that he had capitulated to any demand that fostered a hostile environment, but his critics noted that part of the deal to end the encampment stipulated his establishing a scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contacting potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, creating a segregated dormitory hall that will be occupied exclusively by students of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim descent, and forming a new advisory committee in which anti-Zionists students and faculty may wield an outsized voice.
The status of those concessions, which a law firm representing the civil rights advocacy group StandWithUs described as “outrageous” in July 2024, was not disclosed in the university’s “progress report” on antisemitism.
Speaking to The Northwestern Daily on Monday, Jewish community leaders representing Northwestern Hillel said that the Passover vandalism is “despicable” and an example of the extent to which political discourse in the US has degenerated into “beyond the pale” pronouncements of extremist views.
“To see an upside-down red triangle on University Hall on the Northwestern campus, it feels like that’s where the terms like ‘egregious’ and ‘vile’ immediately come to mind for me,’” Northwestern Hillel executive director Michael Simon told the paper.
Sari Eisen, Hillel president said, “It was really disheartening and troubling to see those words and symbols, especially spray painted on the building.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Northwestern University Community Denounces Passover Vandalism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.