A literary magazine housed within the University of Chicago recently released a statement labeling Israel’s war in Gaza “genocide” and calling for the “liberation of Palestine.”
The Chicago Review, a venerable publication founded in 1946, primarily publishes poetry and fiction. It released the statement on its website in December 2023.
A tipster who intended to submit material to the Chicago Review before seeing the statement notified The College Fix of its existence earlier this month.
“As a publishing poet, I occasionally encounter literary journals that are overtly political – usually expressing a preference for submissions from BIPOC writers. Yesterday, I went to submit material to the Chicago Review for the first time,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Fix in an email.
“When I went to their ‘About’ page on their website, I saw a statement so shocking that I decided to have nothing to do with them,” the source added.
The Chicago Review did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment.
The statement begins by noting that even though the magazine is “editorially independent,” it is housed within the school and bears witness to the school’s “complicity” in partnering with defense company General Dynamics, which has supplied the Israeli military with weapons.
“We are housed in [the university’s] infrastructure and bear witness to its complicity with General Dynamics, which manufactures the IDF’s F-16 multipurpose planes and MK80 bomb shells,” the statement reads.
It goes on to express solidarity with university students and faculty who have been arrested after occupying university buildings during anti-Israel demonstrations.
“We demand the university uphold its stated principles of free speech, trampled by recent arrests of students and faculty peacefully occupying university locations,” the statement reads.
It also asserts there is a “shameful conflation” of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and condemns the ongoing “suppression” of Palestinian voices.
The statement concludes by calling for the “liberation of Palestine” and alleges that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza.
“We join global calls for the liberation of Palestine and for an end to Israel’s U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza,” the statement reads.
In late December, Cook County prosecutors said they will not pursue misdemeanor charges against students and faculty who staged a sit-in at the University of Chicago.
University of Chicago Hillel did not respond to a request from The College Fix seeking comment on the magazine’s statement.
Asked about the statement, Peter Herman, a professor of English literature at SDSU, told The College Fix he was “astounded by” the statement’s “hypocrisy.”
“On the one hand, the statement claims to denounce antisemitism. But at the end, it calls for ‘the liberation of Palestine’ – which means the eradication of Israel, and then falsely accuses Israel of genocide,” he said.
“There is nothing about Hamas, which started this conflict with its barbaric invasion of 10/7, and nothing about the Israeli hostages. In sum, despite claiming the opposite, the statement is itself antisemitic,” Herman said.
This is not the first instance of student-led organizations at the nation’s highest-ranked universities condemning Israel.
Immediately after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, which targeted and killed 1,200 civilians, more than 30 student groups at Harvard University blamed Israel for the violence.
“Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison,” the groups wrote in a signed statement.
At Columbia University, a coalition of student groups released a statement days after Oct. 7 condemning Israel and demanding the university “end its ties with apartheid Israel.”
“Gaza is an open-air prison that lacks essential necessities such as food, clean water, medicine and electricity. Palestinians in Gaza have endured five brutal wars and prolonged inhumane siege for 16 years depriving them of their most basic rights,” the statement reads.
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IMAGE: Chicago Review
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