A conservative women’s group hosted a pro-Israel speaker at Texas Tech University, triggering hostile comments on social media and a protest at the event itself.
The Network of Enlightened Women (NeW) at Texas Tech, a student organization for conservative women on college and university campuses, hosted Mary Karp on Oct. 15 to talk about the Israel-Hamas war. Karp is the Director of Christian Outreach at StandWithUs, a nonprofit that “supports Israel and fights antisemitism.”
Several anti-Israel Instagram users left hostile comments on NeW’s post promoting the event, such as “disgusting,” “zionist shill,” “Take your hateful zionist rhetoric somewhere else,” and “you . . . have blood on your hands. [C]hildren’s blood.”
[RELATED: Rice SJP condemns anti-Semitism training as ‘propaganda’]
Shortly before the event, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Texas Tech posted on Instagram, calling on students and locals to “take immediate action in opposing this event.” The group called on followers to “show up to events wearing keffiyehs and holding signs to make a statement.”
The SJP at Texas Tech declined to answer Campus Reform’s request for comment.
Grace Reed, the NeW chapter president at Texas Tech, told Campus Reform that she has never “experienced this amount of harassment and hate on social media” during her time with NeW.
“Initially I considered canceling the event because I wasn’t sure what exactly might happen and wanted to make sure that everyone was safe, but after speaking with Mary [Karp] we knew that is exactly what [the anti-Israel activists] wanted us to do. To give up in the face of any opposition,” Reed told Campus Reform.
“I can’t say that I am surprised that we were harassed and received such pure hatred on our social media, considering we are a conservative organization, but what we had to deal with yesterday was astounding,” Jaci Howard, another NeW official at the school, told Campus Reform.
Despite the dissent, NeW’s event was successful, with only five keffiyeh-clad individuals silently protesting Karp’s discussion.
“One of the reasons I started the Network of [E]nlightened Women years ago was to create a place on campus for conservative women to discuss current events, public policy, and ideas freely. It is essential that our students can host speakers on campus in a safe environment,” Karin Lips, founder and president of NeW, told Campus Reform. She also expressed her gratitude to Texas Tech for providing a security presence for NeW’s event following the anti-Israel activists’ outrage on social media.
Karp told Campus Reform: “It is simply outrageous that while 7 Americans are being held hostage by Hamas in underground tunnels in Gaza, American college students decided to vilify a gathering of their peers who simply believe that the Jewish people have the right to live in their ancestral homeland and that all the 101 remaining hostages should be returned home.”
She added that “Students for Justice in Palestine has proved time and time again that their movement does not seek to coexist with Jews, or those who dare to stand with Jews, and the Texas Tech chapter is no different.”
Campus Reform contacted Texas Tech University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
