Cathlin Noonan

In May 2024, 370 faculty, staff, students, and alumni of The Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis signed an anti-Israel open letter that also endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The “Open Letter from Brown School Students” was published in response to Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. Israel launched the war after the October 7, 2023, terror attacks, in which Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, took over 250 hostages, and injured thousands.

On multiple occasions, the letter accused [pp. 1-3] Israel of "genocide" during its war against Hamas.

The letter further supported [p. 3] the "demands" of anti-Israel, pro-BDS campus group Resist WashU "for divestment from Boeing [which has technical partnerships with Israel], cutting ties with educational institutions in Israel...and [WashU's] condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Palestine."

Likewise, the letter demanded [p. 2] that The Brown School and its dean, Dorian Traube, "bring an end to their silence on the ongoing genocide of Palestinians."

The Brown School open letter also supported the April 2024 anti-Israel encampment at WashU, which resulted in approximately 100 arrests, including many activists unaffiliated with WashU. Among those reportedly arrested and banned from campus were 23 WashU students, including five Brown School students and at least four employees. All arrestees faced criminal charges for trespassing, with some also facing charges of resisting arrest and assault.

The term “genocide” was coined in 1942 and first used at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals. Since Israel's founding in 1948, anti-Israel activists have accused Israel of "genocide" in an attempt to compare Jews to Nazis and delegitimize the creation of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped 251 and wounded thousands. War crimes included various systematic sexual crimes like gang rape and genital mutilation. Men and women were violated, even after being murdered. Victims who survived that day, including hostages, endured forms of humiliation and torture.

Gazans working in the targeted Israeli villages provided intelligence to Hamas on which families to kill and torture, including long-time employers. Many Palestinian civilians joined in and celebrated the attacks. Hamas livestreamed their crimes on social media, including to victims’ accounts for families to see. To learn more, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and pro-terror activism on campus.