The Catholic University of America removed a display of Israeli flags last week that students set up in memory of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel.
A campus spokesperson told The College Fix that the display was approved “mistakenly,” and it violated the university’s flag policy. The spokesperson said in an email Friday that the student organizers also were informed about the flag policy prior to making their request for the display.
However, Felipe Avila, president and founder of the CUA Students Supporting Israel chapter, said the university did approve the display, and it has not enforced its policy consistently.
“It is fundamentally dishonest for the university to hide behind a ‘flag policy’ that they conveniently ignore for other student organizations,” Avlia told The Fix in an email Friday. “When a rule is used to silence one viewpoint, it stops being a policy and becomes a pretext for discrimination.”
Avlia said CUA Students Supporting Israel received permission from the university to set up the display almost two months ago. On Oct. 6, he said students placed Israeli flags on the university lawn to symbolize the 1,200 lives destroyed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
On the next day, Avlia said he received an email from the university revoking its approval for the display, and informing him that the flags had been removed. Administrators did give the student group their flags back, but Avlia said they were “stuffed in a clear trash bag in an administrator’s office.”
“Each of those flags represented the life and experience of every victim. When the university tore them down, they weren’t just removing flags; they were erasing those stories from our campus. A university, especially a Catholic one, should be a place that bears witness to suffering, not one that hides it from view,” he said.
However, the campus spokesperson told The Fix that the university had informed Students Supporting Israel leaders back in August that the flags could not be displayed, per university policy.
“This policy restricts the display of flags in public university spaces to the flags of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Holy See, as well as official University flags bearing the University seal,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson told The Fix that staff suggested the student group find a way to honor the Oct. 7 victims without using the Israeli flag.
Instead, the student group submitted a request for the flag display, and that request “was mistakenly approved,” the spokesperson said.
“The memorial was installed on Oct. 6, and removed on Oct. 7 when the University realized that the event had been approved in error,” the spokesperson told The Fix.
“We also wanted to acknowledge that the University understands and regrets that the enforcement of the policy coincided with a deeply significant day of remembrance for those affected by the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack just two years ago,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the enforcement of the policy “is not a reflection in any way of the University’s views on and support of Israel,” and the university strives to work openly with students who want to commemorate important events.
But Avila expressed frustration with the university’s actions in his interview with The Fix, saying the issue with the display is the latest in a series of conflicts with the university that began when he first decided to start the student group on campus.
Despite the policy, Avila said other student organizations also have been allowed to display flags in the past. He shared images with The Fix that appear to show other student groups displaying flags from Germany, Japan, and the pro-Palestinian flag on campus.
StandWithUs, an international nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism, also criticized the Washington, D.C. university, saying it is “selectively enforcing” its policy. Avila is a fellow with the organization this year.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable that Catholic University is selectively enforcing its own rules to deny pro-Israel students the opportunity to mourn the Jewish victims of Hamas terrorism,” Mary Schulten Karp, director of Christian engagement, told The Fix in an emailed statement.
“The university’s actions are deeply out-of-step with the Church’s teaching on human dignity — especially as we mark 60 years since Nostra Aetate, which reaffirmed the Church’s enduring commitment to unity with the Jewish people,” Karp said.
When asked about the policy enforcement criticisms, the campus spokesperson told The Fix, “The University enforces its policies.”
