Some UNC student groups have been staging anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations in the days since Hamas terrorists began their latest deadly campaign against Israel. UNC administration has come under fire in recent years for alleged anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiments from members of the faculty and staff, despite unequivocal support for other communities on campus.
According to reporting from CNN, the death toll from Hamas' attack on Israel has risen to more than 1,400 people, at least 30 of whom were American. According to the Israeli Defense Force, Hamas is currently still holding at least 155 hostages.
Israeli soldiers have reported seeing the bodies of beheaded infants at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, according to CBS News. The Israeli Defense Forces have reported discovering the aftermath of horrific violence and have released numerous images of blood-spattered rooms and the burned and mutilated bodies of Hamas' victims.
Following Hamas' recent bloody incursion into Israel on October 7, several student groups at UNC-Chapel Hill have held and participated in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations. On October 9, UNC-Chapel Hill's chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America posted an Instagram statement "in solidarity with the [P]alestinian people in the pursuit of their liberation from colonization and apartheid," featuring the anti-Israel protest slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
On October 12, UNC-Chapel Hill's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, along with other cosponsoring orgs, held a "Day of Resistance Protest for Palestine" on the steps of Wilson Library, according to Instagram.
According to reports from WRAL, the scene on Oct. 12 became chaotic and disagreements between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrators became heated. An Israeli professor was reportedly pushed down the stairs and had a drink thrown at him before being escorted away from the scene by UNC police officers. No arrests were made, according to the report.
According to a report published in the Algemeiner, UNC-Chapel Hill has fielded criticism in the past over alleged antisemitism. The report highlighted that several members of the faculty and staff have been accused of antisemitic/anti-Zionist bias.
In 2014, more than 100 scholars and librarians in the field of Middle East Studies signed onto a letter in Arab Studies Institute publication Jaladiyya calling on their colleagues in Middle East Studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions. They also pledged not to collaborate with Israeli institutions, not to teach at or attend conferences at those institutions, and not to publish in Israel-based academic journals. Signatories to this letter include current UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members Cemil Aydin, Juliane Hammer, Sarah Shields, and Nadia Yaqub.
In 2019, UNC also hosted a "Conflict Over Gaza" event, which featured an antisemitic performance by a Palestinian rapper, according to an Algemeiner report.
In 2021, aforementioned UNC history Prof. Sarah Shields moderated an anti-Israel Zoom event that was cosponsored by UNC's Department of History and Peace, War, and Defense curriculum.
Prof. Shields taught a course called "The Conflict Over Israel/Palestine. In fall 2021, Ph.D. student Kylie Broderick — who is also a managing editor at Jaladiyya — took over teaching the course. The Algemeiner reports that Broderick had a long history of anti-Israel and antisemitic social media posts.
"The Conflict over Israel/Palestine" course reportedly violated a 2019 resolution agreement that UNC-Chapel Hill had entered into with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to "ensure that students enrolled in the University are not subjected to a hostile environment and to respond to allegations of anti-Semitic harassment." However, the Algemeiner reported that UNC Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz defended the course, prompting anger from the Jewish community.
On October 12, Guskiewicz issued a brief statement on the ongoing situation in Israel "to acknowledge the heartbreaking pain for members of our community who have been affected by the terrorist attacks of Hamas in Israel and the devastation in Gaza."
Guskiewicz' response to the George Floyd murder, for example, was more extensive. On May 30, 2020 — five days after Floyd was killed — Guskiewicz tweeted that he "[shared] in the grief and frustration over George Floyd's death and denounce the actions of the police officers involved."
Also that day, he signed a lengthy message from campus leaders regarding Floyd's death, announcing a forthcoming space on the University Office for Diversity and Inclusion's website to share thoughts and feelings as well as listing a number of resources for students, faculty, and staff — particular those in the Black community — to help with processing grief and stress.
According to the University's financial reports, of UNC's $4.036 billion revenue in fiscal year 2022-2023, $566,382,000, or about 14 percent, was state funding.
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