Controversy Surrounds Campus Club’s Israeli Flag Memorial
Image courtesy of Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
A request from a student club at Catholic University to display over 1,200 Israeli flags that was approved and then denied has led to controversy around the university’s decisions.
Students Supporting Israel (SSI), an organization new to campus this year, requested approval to plant over 1,200 Israeli flags on a campus lawn—one flag per victim killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. According to senior nursing major Felipe Avila, the club’s founder and president, the club initially received approval from the Office of Events and Conference Services (ECS), which reviews requests to use campus rooms and spaces.
Members of SSI planted the flags on October 6, according to Avila, before receiving a notification from ECS staff that the permission had been revoked and that the flags had been removed. Avila told the media that the flags were put into plastic bags and stored in an ECS supervisor’s office before being given back to the club.
However, in a statement, university spokesperson Karna Lozoya said that Center for Student Engagement staff had told Avila in August that such a display would be a violation of policy. CSE staff offered to help SSI find another way of honoring those killed in the attack, Lozoya said, but “Instead of working with the Center for Student Engagement, the organizer submitted an event request to reserve the lawn for a flag memorial.”
That request was accidentally approved, said Lozoya.
University officials familiar with the situation told The Tower that the request had been approved by a student ECS employee who wasn’t familiar with the policy and that supervisors revoked the approval once they discovered the mistake.
In a statement, university spokesperson Karna Lozoya said, “Catholic University acknowledges the deep disappointment of Students Supporting Israel who found their memorial removed the morning of Oct. 7.”
Officials cited the university’s flag policy as the reason behind their decision. The policy states, “University flagpoles, flag stands, and any other means of display in University spaces accessible to the public at large shall be used exclusively for the flags of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Holy See, and any official University flag that includes the seal of the University. This policy does not apply to the display of other flags at University-sponsored events.”
Avila told The College Fix that he believed the school had not enforced this policy for other organizations in the past and that he saw the actions as discriminatory. He said that Palestinian flags had been flown on campus in the past.
Lozoya said, “From available information, we do not have a record of granting permission to any student or student organization to fly a Palestinian flag in a space accessible to the public. If a flag is flown without permission, and staff become aware of it, we require it to be removed immediately.”
She also said that flags in rooms not open to the public and flags flown in rooms and at tables during approved cultural events are not considered to be in violation of the policy.
Lozoya said, “The University 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 enforcement of the flag policy is not a reflection in any way of the University’s views on the terrorist attack on Israel.” She added that University President Peter Kilpatrick strongly condemned the attack back in 2023.
The lawn that the SSI display was on is used for flag-planting a few times a year, including around Memorial Day and 9/11. However, those flags are American flags, not foreign ones.
