Duke University Student Government President (DSG) Christina Wang vetoed the creation of a Students Supporting Israel (SSI) chapter after the chapter called out a student in a social media post.
The Duke Chronicle reported that Duke SSI had posted on their Instagram a tweet from a student stating that the student government’s initial recognition of the chapter meant that “my school promotes settler colonialism.” The SSI chapter said in the since-deleted post: “Please allow us to educate you on what ‘settler colonialism’ actually is and why Israel does not fall under this category whatsoever. These types of narratives are what we strive to combat and condemn, which is why Duke’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel has been officially established & is here to stay.” They also put the tweet in an Instagram story and wrote “Excuse me, what?” and “This is why @ssi_duke is necessary,” according to The Chronicle.
Wang said in a statement to student senators that with their Instagram post, the SSI chapter “singled out an individual student on their organization’s social media account in a way that was unacceptable for any student group and appeared antithetical to the group’s stated mission to be welcoming and inclusive to all Duke students, and educational in mission and purpose.” She added that she would have taken the same action against any other student group that behaved in such a manner.
The student that Duke SSI called out in their Instagram story told The Chronicle that Duke SSI’s actions were “completely unnecessary, unprofessional and undeniably targeted harassment” and that they made no attempt to contact her. The student called on the DSG to uphold Wang’s veto. “Who really benefits from clubs on campus that aim to combat and condemn opposing ideas on campus through student intimidation and harassment?”
On November 17, the student government will hold a meeting in which Wang’s veto will be debated among student senators. Wang’s veto can be overturned if two-third of the senators vote against her, according to The Chronicle.
The Chronicle posted a screenshot of a November 15 Instagram post from SSI Duke issuing an apology, stating that they made “a naïve mistake” as a new organization and that it was “inappropriate” to call out a student by name. “We apologize unreservedly if we put any student at risk.” As of this writing, the post no longer appears on their Instagram account.
The national SSI organization is standing by their Duke chapter, arguing in a Medium post that the whole ordeal was “theater of the absurd” and that the chapter had apologized at the advice of a school advisor.
“It is absurd that responding on social media directly to a person is considered harassment,” the SSI National post read. “Those who put their opinion in the public space, need to know they can get [a] public response. It is our view that shutting down a whole student club for a social media comment is what should be considered ‘undeniably targeted harassment’ of the pro-Israel activists, if anything.”
StandWithUs Co-Founder and CEO Roz Rothstein said in a statement to the Journal, “It is very concerning that the [DSG] president has chosen to veto recognition of Duke’s SSI chapter based on the misguided notion that calling out false and inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric online is unethical. SSI had every right to respond to the polemics, and the student who posted her opinion about having an SSI group on campus should have expected a response to her antisemitic comment. Penalizing the SSI group for responding to an antisemitic comment represents a double standard. We call on Duke’s student government to reverse this poor decision.”
Stop Antisemitism asked in a tweet why the “vilification of Jewish clubs is allowed to happen.”
The university did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
