University leaders secretly negotiated with anti-Israel protesters and hoped to give them “amazing wins” despite publicly condemning them, a report released Thursday found.
Uncovered emails reveal multiple university administrators at Columbia University and Northwestern University engaged in negotiation efforts with protesters while demonstrations continued to rage on campus, according to the report from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Staff secretly expressed that they were “inspired by the students” and were “hoping we can get some amazing wins for them.”
Northwestern President Michael Schill appointed two “radical anti-Israel” professors, Jessica Winegar and Nour Kteily, to oversee negotiations with protesters, the report found. Winegar is an apparent outspoken “Palestinian activist” that openly supported boycott and divestment efforts and implied that Palestinians were the true victims on campus rather than Jewish students.
“Thanks so much Wendy — a long way to go yet but I am inspired by the students and the way they updated their thinking and their democratic processes and am hoping we can get some amazing wins for them and also serve as a model for how a university can tackle protests like this,” Kteily wrote in a private message to Wendy Pearlman, a fellow “anti-Israel” professor at Northwestern that supports boycott and divestment efforts, according to the report.
Kteily meanwhile headed the Palestinian heritage department at Northwestern and allegedly advised students on how to pressure trustees and agreed to quietly boycott a hummus brand because of its Israeli co-ownership, according to the report.
Messages obtained by the committee expose that Kteily applauded Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota for following in Northwestern’s footsteps and conceding to protesters’ demands
Republican Staff Report – Antisemitism On College Campuses (Committee on Education & the Workforce)
“The students have started a movement by what they accomplished…another deal inspired by ours (although sadly no disclosure),” Kteily wrote to other administrators. “‘I’m trying to get the students excited about how proud they should be for what they’ve helped roll out across the country. NU was the very first to do so and we’re now setting the example for others to build on. You’ll notice many aspects of those deals follow ours.”
Rutgers has conceded 8/10 of the protestors demands after they forced the university to postpone 28 final exams this morning: https://t.co/hF9UsUAcSn pic.twitter.com/5r5DvqziiI
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 2, 2024
“So true. It was truly historic,” Winegar responded.
The communications reveal Northwestern provost Kathleen Hagerty was well aware of the concessions the two negotiators were proposing and supported their efforts, knowingly suggesting they “quietly” agree to some of the demands, the report said.
Administrators, including Schill, also entertained protesters’ demands to hire an “anti-Zionist rabbi,” the report stated. Schill denied the accusation in a congressional hearing but messages obtained by the committee imply internal discussions on the subject and multiple students stated the university president had agreed to the condition.
“The Republican Staff Report remains focused on events that were fully debated in the committee hearing last spring, and it ignores the hard work our community has put in since then,” Jon Yates, Northwestern’s vice president for communications, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The University stands behind President Schill’s accurate testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding the events that took place on Northwestern’s campus last spring as well as the actions we are taking to address antisemitism and other forms of discrimination at the University. The allegations in the report that the University ever seriously considered hiring an ‘anti-Zionist’ rabbi or boycotting any Israeli company are patently false.”
Columbia’s leaders meanwhile drafted a “menu” of options to concede to each of the protesters demands, including providing amnesty to many of the students involved in the encampment that overtook the campus for weeks, formally reviewing divestment demands from protesters, funding scholarships for students in Gaza and the West Bank, and creating a $10 million “resilience fund” for Gaza. Administrators also approved of a program in collaboration with a Palestinian university in which “Hamas is active on campus.”
Columbia President Minouche Shafik continued to negotiate with protesters even after they illegally overtook a campus building and allegedly held an employee hostage, the report found. Shafik resigned from the university shortly after her testimony to Congress in which she failed to state whether calling for genocide of Jews violated university policy.
“Columbia strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we are resolute that calls for violence or harm have no place at our University,” a Columbia spokesperson told the DCNF. “Under the University’s new leadership, we have established a centralized Office of Institutional Equity to address all reports of discrimination and harassment, appointed a new Rules Administrator, and strengthened the capabilities of our Public Safety Office. We are committed to applying the rules fairly, consistently, and efficiently.”
Protests at Columbia resulted in several arrests after altercations with police became violent. Many of the students were never punished for their involvement.
Northwestern and Columbia’s presidents were both called to testify before Congress during a hearing on campus antisemitism after which the House Committee opened the formal investigation into the universities and several others for their failure to punish students involved in antisemitic incidents.
“The University objects to the unfair characterizations of our Provost and valued members of our faculty based on isolated and out-of-context communications,” Yates said. “The University unequivocally stands behind them and their work on behalf of our students, and their hard work to successfully bring our encampment to a swift and peaceful end.”
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