WWU president issues statement on Social Revolution’s planned campus protest

Western Washington University’s president issued a statement late Friday that discusses an upcoming protest and language that evokes historical violence and hate against Jews.

President Sabha Randhawa’s online statement doesn’t mention the group Social Revolution, which is planning the protest, but it refers to posters advertising the event that use the phrase “One Solution: Intifada Revolution” that have been circulating on social media and on campus.

“Intifada is an Arabic word meaning an uprising or rebellion, and it is specifically used to describe several periods of violent attacks against Israeli civilian targets, to protest Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza,” Randhawa said.

“I also realize that for many the phrase ‘One Solution’ in this context echoes the Nazi ‘Final Solution,’ bringing back horrific memories from the past,” he said.

More than 6 million European Jews were murdered in World War II as part of Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

“Regardless of the intent of this message, the safety of the Jewish members of our community is paramount to me as it should be for everyone who values the safety and belonging of every individual on this campus,” Randhawa said.

“The university will continue to stand for academic freedom, free speech, and free assembly. At the same time, we also have the right to speak in defense of our values, and to protect our community from any expression that aims to harass, demean, threaten or incite violence,” he said.

The protest is scheduled for 10 a.m to 1 p.m. Wednesday in Red Square on the WWU campus.

Several protests have been held on the WWU campus since the Oct. 7 killing of more than 1,400 Israel civilians by the Hamas militants. Hamas is holding more than 200 Israeli civilians hostage, and Israel has been attacking the Palestinian enclave to seek their freedom.

Antisemitic incidents have surged worldwide, especially on U.S. college campuses, since the Hamas attack and Israel’s military response.

The Arab Student Association, which has been involved in other campus protests, criticized Socialist Revolution in an Instagram post.

“We at the Arab Student Association do not agree with the Socialist Revolution’s appropriation of the word ‘intifada’ and the continued appropriation of our call for ‘ceasefire now,’ “ the post said.

The Arab Students also criticized Randhawa’s definition of the word intifada.

“Intifada literally means ‘shaking off,’ it is a call for Palestinian liberation from Israeli oppression,” according to the Instagram post.

But Al-Jazeera, the Arabic media organization, says that “in the Palestinian context, it is understood to mean a civil uprising” as Randhawa’s statement said.

Some versions of the Social Revolution’s poster feature the logo of the Associated Students at WWU, but other versions do not.

ASWWU did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment via social media and email.

But Social Revolution seemed to indicate that it was forced to remove the ASWWU logo from its posters.

‘The WWU Associated Students Publicity Center has banned this image! They say it constitutes an ‘incitement to violence’ and that ‘Jewish people on campus feel deeply uncomfortable over use of th[e] term [Intifada].’ These are slanderous lies, convenient excuses to join the international crack-down on pro-Palestinian speech!” Socialist Revolution said on its Instagram page.

Socialist Revolution also criticized Randhawa’s statement, calling it “a blatantly slanderous and hackneyed attempt to silence pro-Palestinian speech at [WWU].”