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.”
HFP did not provide a statement about the event in time for publication.
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.”
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.
