More than a dozen pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered on Gainsborough Street in front of Two Saints Tavern Thursday night for an impromptu protest of Northeastern Hillel’s “Israel Palooza” event inside the bar.
Most of the protesters wore all black and donned Palestinian keffiyehs, wearing sunglasses and masks to hide their faces. Protesters held a large banner reading “anti-genocide ≠ antisemitism,” clanged kitchen pans, played drums and chanted.
The protest was organized by Huskies for Palestine, or HFP, an unofficial pro-Palestine student group at Northeastern. The group posted Instagram stories on its account at about 6:15 p.m. that it would be protesting outside the bar at around 7 p.m.
The Hillel event, called “Israel Palooza,” was part of its annual “Israel Week.” The week featured programming daily to celebrate “all things Israel,” according to a post on Northeastern Hillel’s Instagram account. The event featured Israeli food, drinks and music and was advertised in the post as “basically a trip to Tel Aviv without the flight!”
In a statement, a student who attended the Hillel event and asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns said they “went with my friends to have fun and celebrate my connection to Israel, where I’ve spent time and have family, and I didn’t even feel comfortable enough to even go inside until the space was cleared.” Protesters dispersed at about 7:30 p.m.
In an Instagram story, HFP wrote, “NO CELEBRATIONS WHILE YOUR ZIONIST COLONY DROPS BOMBS OVER GAZA.”
Hillel leaders welcomed attendees, some wrapped in Israeli flags and wearing kippahs, as they walked into the bar. On the door of the tavern hung a sign reading “private event.”
“At Hillel, we welcome opportunities to celebrate our shared culture and heritage, which does include Israel,” the student who attended the event wrote. “We are disappointed that a cultural, apolitical event acknowledging this shared culture was disrupted. We acknowledge that the recent resumption of fighting in Gaza is front of mind, and protesting a Hillel event is not the way to engage in dialogue. Hillel welcomes the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with members of the Northeastern community and we hope students who participated in [the] protest are willing to engage in peaceful nuanced dialogue.”
As event attendees entered the tavern, protesters marched in a circle on the street, chanting “Israel and the U.S.A., biggest threat to the world today” and “How many children? How many babies? What the f*** you celebrating?”
Four Northeastern University Police Department officers watched the protest from the intersection of Gainsborough Street and St. Stephen Street but did not interact with protesters.
The protest is one of few that has been organized by pro-Palestine student groups since the university implemented more strict regulations on campus protests in October 2024. Northeastern can now withhold or revoke degrees and deny tuition refunds if a student is expelled over violations of the Code of Student Conduct.
The Trump administration has also vowed to crack down on what it sees as antisemitism on college campuses. On March 9, U.S. immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student who is in the country legally and helped organize pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Two days before that, the Department of Education announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding to the university over what it said was “inaction” about antisemitism on campus.
In an Instagram post March 21, HFP wrote that “Israel Week” was “Seven days glorifying a violent settler-colony built on the genocide and displacement of the Palestinian people.” It also outlined what “Israel has been up to” this week, listing Israel’s violation of a ceasefire with a series of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, many of them children, according to NPR.
“By platforming propaganda, NEU has made its stance clear: it stands with genocide and the erasure of indigenous lives. And it does so with your $80,000 tuition,” the post reads. “Refuse to be silent while NEU funds and celebrates ethnic cleansing.”
HFP shared the following statement with The News March 23.
“As Northeastern Hillel gathered in celebration for the Zionist settler-colony, the Israeli occupation continued their genocide, and the skies over Gaza were once again filled with bombs manufactured here in the so-called United States. Violence was unleashed by the occupation that took the lives of over 650 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. While students played music and waved Israeli flags in triumph, entire families were erased, their names lost to the rubble. This is not a moment for festivity. Zionism is nothing less than a death cult. It is an ideology that deems Palestinians and Arabs in the region as inferior beings. Zionism and white supremacy are two sides of the same coin. After allowing these events to take place, we are sure more than ever that Northeastern does not have the interests of their Arab and Muslim students in mind. Our university is located in the center of Black Boston. Roxbury, a neighborhood that is resilient and rich in culture yet this very university frequently neglects or co-opts to further their own agenda. Northeastern University also occupies stolen Indigenous lands from many tribes like the Massachusett and Wampanoag peoples. As a collective of students who support the liberation of all peoples from oppression, from Roxbury to Palestine, we could not sit back and allow the celebration of the death of an oppressed people go undisrupted.”
Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 11:40 a.m. March 22 to include a statement from a student who attended the Hillel event and 1:30 p.m. March 24 to include a March 23 statement from Huskies for Palestine.
