Copies of Jewish student’s op-ed that were graffitied with the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Photo: Twitter.

Recent incidents at Northwestern University are the latest examples of the vitriol launched at expressions of pride in Jewish identity and Zionism, experts on campus antisemitism told The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

On Monday, the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter tacked together copies of an op-ed by a Jewish student, Lily Cohen, graffitied it with the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and zip-tied it to fences enclosing the Deering Library. SJP painted the same slogan, which is interpreted as calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews living in Israel, on a campus monument that serves as an unofficial student message board.

Cohen’s op-ed discussed the difficulties of being Jewish in a time of rising antisemitism and defended the right to a Jewish homeland.

SJP took responsibility for the offensive displays that evening in a Twitter post charging that “US and Israeli law enforcement agencies collaborate to develop violent tactics to subjugate Black and Palestinian communities — in the name of American and Israeli racism, materialism, and militarism.”

The Algemeiner has asked Northwestern University if it considers SJP’s actions as appropriate expressions of free speech. This article will be updated accordingly.

“They accused her and other Jews who speak out about antisemitism of inciting violence against Palestinians,” said executive director of AMCHA Initiative Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. “Over time, this assault on Jewish identity has an amazingly corrosive impact on Jewish life on campus and beyond. The more incidents like this that occur, the less incentive there is for students to express their Jewishness.”

On Wednesday, AMCHA released a study examining how similar incidents on college campuses denigrate Jewish identity

Miriam Elman, executive director Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which promotes academic freedom and free speech on college campuses, said “it’s disheartening that, in advocating for the Palestinian cause, those (presumably students) who created this obnoxious poster saw fit to degrade and demoralize a specific Jewish student on campus.”

“It’s truly a shameful response to the op-ed, with the clear intention to hurt and demean its author. The university needs to speak out forcefully and unequivocally in support of both Ms. Cohen and the campus Jewish community,” she continued.

Anti-Zionism is becoming one of the “core elements of collegiate life” in America, according to the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism’s annual report on anti-Israel activism on college campuses. In response to its findings, the group is expanding online resources for reporting antisemitism and supporting its victims.