North by Northwestern

Since last May, over a thousand university professors and faculty across the country, including several at Northwestern, have signed a petition against a large, anonymous campaign called the Canary Mission.

Founded in 2015, the Canary Mission describes itself as a database “run by students and concerned citizens motivated by a desire to combat the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses.” The mission has attempted to achieve this goal through creating a blacklist of student and faculty pro-Palestine activists, whom they perceive to be demonstrating acts of anti-Semitism.

The petition, sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), condemns this mission and asserts that it “should not be trusted as a resource to evaluate students’ qualifications for admission” into undergraduate and graduate schools. According to its 2009 mission statement, JVP is a “democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition” that ultimately seeks “peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East.

“Although, as individual faculty, we hold a range of viewpoints on Israel-Palestine, we recognize that student advocacy for Palestinian human rights is not inherently anti-Semitic, and that such advocacy represents a cherished and protected form of free speech that is welcome on college campuses,” the petition reads.

However, the Canary Mission accuses JVP of “[using] its Jewish identity to deflect allegations of anti-Semitism.”

English and religious studies professor Barbara Newman is one of the 13 Northwestern professors who have signed the petition.

“The petition hopes to discredit the Canary Mission and to free the people who have been targeted by it from any negative consequences,” Newman said. “I was told [about the Canary Mission] by one of my students, who was actually targeted and profiled, and I knew perfectly well that she was not an anti-Semite; she was a peace activist.”

Newman says her reasons for signing the petition are simple.

“I’m reacting as a citizen, as someone who cares about peace, as someone who is in some ways affiliated with the Jewish community but also very critical of the state of Israel.”

While no Northwestern professors have earned a spot on the site, several current and former students have been targeted, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) president Marcel Hanna.

“This website tries to paint us as anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic,” Hanna said. “I think the rhetoric they use is to try to de-legitimize us by branding us things that we aren’t, but that’s something we’re used to. But I don’t think it’s been successful.”

Ultimately, the mission aims to make an example of those who are vocally pro-Palestine and discourage them from continuing to speak out. Each profile includes pictures of the offender, personal information such as their university and major, and even promotes guilt by association through a “close connections” section. The profiles also link to the social media accounts of the students, many of which have since been deleted.

“A lot of people have had to go to massive lengths,” Hanna said. “People have changed their names on Facebook, people have even changed profiles. Some people have gotten suspended, some people have gotten expelled, not necessarily at Northwestern, but in general. They’re trying to send a message to Palestinian activists that if you want to be a Palestinian activist, this is what’s going to happen to you. I think we have to stand firm against that.”

Ramah Kudaimi, a former Northwestern student who graduated in 2007, has recently been added to the site. Since graduating, Kudaimi has become the Director of Grassroots Organizing for the U.S. Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation.

“It was a matter of time before I was added,” Kudaimi said. “Unlike a lot of the students that are on there, this is my full time work, and I’m pretty public about it and obviously have the support of the people that I already work with. That is not the case for a lot of other people who don’t have that safety net.”

The mission deems entire organizations anti-Semitic, including the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Launched in 2005, BDS is a movement that, according to its official website, call[s] for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel."

“[SJP] definitely fully endorses BDS,” Hanna said. “We think it’s the best nonviolent means of resistance. I think it’s the only way that we can get the Israeli occupation to end. If you look at South Africa, that was the only way the apartheid came down. It also only came down through student action.”

Charles Valdes, president of Wildcats for Israel, a student-run group on campus that “[supports] the existence of Israel as a secure, Jewish democratic state,” was critical of the Canary Mission, saying his organization is not in any way affiliated with it.

“It’s really important to be cautious of any organization that’s going to make people uncomfortable voicing their opinions or feelings on any issue,” Valdes said. “Often there’s this idea that being pro-Israel and being pro-Palestinian are mutually exclusive ideas, and I don’t think that they are.”

Tamar Eisen, the student exec board president of Hillel, the center for Jewish life on campus, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Hillel is concerned about any efforts to demonize individual students, and we strongly frown upon and discourage any form of intimidation that would target any student at Northwestern or other college campuses,” Eisen said.

Despite the Canary Mission’s attempt to discourage pro-Palestine activists, many remain unshaken in their goal.

“Being on the right side of history is not always easy,” Kudaimi said. “But in the end, freedom and justice wins out.”

Hanna also shows no sign of giving in to intimidation tactics.

“I think when you see the immense amount of suffering, the land dispossession, you have to stand up against that; it’s very much a tale of settler colonialism in the 21st century,” Hanna said. “And if we anger racist people, that’s always a good sign.”

David Gleisner also contributed reporting to this story.

Editor's notes: at 12 a.m. on October 13, the second paragraph of this story was updated to clarify why Canary Mission targets certain activists and faculty. At 1:52 a.m., the paragraph describing the BDS movement was updated to reflect the movement's official position. And finally, at 10:45 a.m. this story was updated to include a photo of Marcel Hanna's profile on the Canary Mission website.