UW Students Postpone Antisemitic Encampment for Having Too Many White Saviors

Activists with the UW Progressive Student Union (UWPSU) announced they are postponing Thursday’s “UW Palestine encampment” because there were too many white students involved. The group received criticism for not including Muslim and Arab students in the organizing. And now you have warring factions of extremists quibbling over who will get credit for demonizing Jews and Israel.

The encampment was scheduled for Thursday morning at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. UW administration privately told Jewish leaders that the school did not intend to intervene with the direct action unless “the event escalates and threatens life safety.” Still, the predominantly white UWPSU opted to call off the encampment in order “to make sure this encampment is a better reflection of the UW community, and having even greater unity with Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students.”

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Students criticized the White Knight students online, calling them opportunists.

“you guys need to learn basic organizing skills truly this is so incredibly opportunist it’s insane!! LISTEN to our concerns. listen to arab & muslim students. don’t announce actions like this in advance. postponing this event is not enough,” purported student Jess Schutz said on the UWPSU Instagram account.

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Before the postponement was announced, students foreshadowed the inevitable controversy.

UW Law student, identified as Yoseph with the bio “from the river to sea,” previously asked, “Were there any conversations with Palestinian orgs or students about this encampment?” UWPSU’s account said “yup.”

User Amber Pesce, who says “they/them” are a member of the UW Honors Program, chided UWPSU for having “zero community support in this bc of your inability to center Palestinians and Arabs and this is so poorly planned.” Another user, Sofie, implored the extremists to “please listen to the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students criticizing this event and cancel it.”

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