Northwestern’s Repression Against Critics of Israel Is Wrong

How will higher education react to last week’s blue tsunami in American politics? Will this political shift inspire some campus administrators to rediscover the academic courage they had locked away? Will private universities start to back off from the terrible repression they’ve imposed in the past three years?

Northwestern University offered one immediate answer: no. The repression will continue.

Northwestern suspended a student group, Spoon University, last week after its offices of civil rights and Title IX received complaints of discrimination when the group disinvited a pro-Israel student organization, Wildcats for Israel, from its food festival. Spoon University ultimately canceled the event after other student groups, objecting to Wildcats for Israel’s political views, refused to participate.

Northwestern officials told Spoon University leaders that they cannot “hold general meetings, host events, or participate in school-wide events as an organization until further notice” while it investigates the complaints. This suspension violates the speech rights of these students.

Interim suspensions are almost always wrong. People and groups should only be punished after they are found guilty of misconduct, not before. Only immediate physical dangers can ever justify an interim suspension of a student group.

The suspension violates Northwestern’s own policies and the standards of free expression and free association guaranteed to student groups. Northwestern’s student group handbook notes that the administration “may take interim action to ensure the safety and security of the University community, individual community members, or University property.” But Spoon University and its food festivals pose no threat whatsoever to the safety and security of Northwestern University. There is absolutely no basis for any interim action.

According to Northwestern’s Student Group Status Conduct Report for the 2025–26 school year, no misconduct associated with a student group—even explicitly illegal activity—justified a suspension of a student organization in the past year. So the notion that Spoon University should be immediately suspended for its decisions about whom to associate with for a food festival seems quite ridiculous, since such a penalty would be completely out of line with previous actions.

And there is no reason to think Spoon University violated any rules. Student groups are free to associate with any groups they wish to for political reasons. Wildcats for Israel, for example, has no obligation to partner with pro-Palestinian groups at its events. No one has alleged any kind of discrimination by Spoon University against individual students, who are free to get involved with the group.

The suspension of Spoon University at NU is also alarming because the group is a journalism organization. Founded at Northwestern in 2012 as a food magazine and website, it became a start-up and now is part of Her Campus Media, which has nearly 100 Spoon University affiliates on campuses across America. Any time a university bans journalists from operating, it’s a disturbing move. That’s why an interim suspension of all activities by a student group is far too extreme.

I strongly disagree with Spoon University’s decision to disinvite Wildcats for Israel, and I also disagree with the student groups who objected to their presence and withdrew from the food festival. A pro-Israel group selling some hummus doesn’t threaten anyone’s safety. Groups that are not political should not impose political standards on other organizations. And even groups that are explicitly political should still be willing to be around organizations with views they oppose.

But I think the proper response to those mistaken ideas is for individuals (not the university) to criticize them, not to attempt to punish them. When people file complaints as a way to express their displeasure with someone, the proper response of a university is to dismiss those complaints as quickly as possible when they do not meet any standards for misconduct.

Unfortunately, Northwestern University, under pressure from the Trump administration, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which holds that certain forms of criticism of Israel must be defined as acts of antisemitism. Faculty have demanded that Northwestern withdraw the IHRA definition and “not limit speech, scholarship or criticism of any nation or government.” As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has noted, the IHRA definition infringes on free expression.

Still, even Spoon University can’t be accused of antisemitism merely for asserting that a political group should not have been invited to its food festival. Northwestern officials need to recognize the serious violation of student rights and immediately end the interim suspension of Spoon University and halt the investigation, because student groups must be free to make decisions about their activities, even when those decisions are wrong.

This is a food fight where free expression must win.