Days after a group of around 50 protesters at Catholic University of America disrupted an event featuring two Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, the school's Student Government Association Senate proposed a resolution to ban any club from campus that supports Israel.

Felipe Avila, a nursing student at CUA and the president of the school's Students Supporting Israel group, told The Christian Post that the organization has only received "dismissive responses" from the university administration after repeatedly expressing concern about "the hostile environment and selective policy enforcement."

"The administration's failure to act created a vacuum, which is now being filled by students who feel empowered to push bigoted legislation built on outright deception," Avila stated.

On Monday evening, the SGA Senate at the university in Washington, D.C., considered "Resolution 004: A Resolution to Advocate For A Ban on Clubs in Support of a Nation(s) Commissioning a Genocide." The SGA Senate voted to send the measure back to committee, which tables it for two weeks, according to Avila. 

While the original resolution stated, "There is a club officially recognized by the school that unapologetically supports the state of Israel, a Nation condemned by the United Nations of commissioning a genocide," Resolution 004 states that there "is a club(s) recognized by the school that unapologetically supports a Nation(s) condemned by the Human Rights council of genocide."

The updated resolution calling for CUA to ban student-led groups that support Israel also referenced The Olive Branch, which was "disbanded by the University administration for allegedly supporting Hamas as well as other anti Catholic doctrines." Earlier this year, The College Fix reported that The Olive Branch had promoted on social media a December event called "Queeraoke: A Night of Drag & Karaoke for Palestine."

Both versions of the resolution state, "Supporting a Nation or organization that is actively pursuing inexcusable evil, such as genocide or terrorism, acts in a way that is contrary to the faith of the Catholic Church." 

In each resolution is a list of requests, including a call for CUA to ban any club that advocates on behalf of a "Nation that is commissioning a genocide." 

"This deceptive measure is a profound betrayal of our Catholic intellectual tradition," Avila told CP. "Our university is built on the pursuit of truth, not the suppression of it. This resolution is an admission of intellectual defeat, a sign that its arguments are too weak for open debate and must be shielded by an outright ban. More speech, not less, is the answer."

The SGA Senate also voted down a resolution to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, with the measure failing by a vote of 14 against, 7 in favor and one abstention. According to Avila, the vote followed a "contentious floor debate." 

"We witnessed senators on the floor of our own student government denying the Jewish people's long history of discrimination and struggle," the SSI president said. "To have our peers legitimize these tropes and then, in the same breath, refuse to even adopt the IHRA definition is a chilling and profound moral failure."

"Sixty years ago, the Catholic Church built a bridge with the Jewish people in Nostra Aetate," he continued. "Last night, our student government dismantled the tools needed to maintain that bridge. This vote signals a profound disregard for the university's Catholic values and gives a green light to the very hate Nostra Aetate was meant to extinguish."

One of the co-sponsors of the resolution to ban pro-Israel groups from CUA, Joshua Ortiz, organized an anti-Israel demonstration on Oct. 20 at CUA in response to SSI hosting two IDF soldiers, according to The Tower, the university's newspaper. 

In a statement supporting the resolution, Ortiz declared that the "university should not be complicit with genocide."

"If our Lord was born today, He would be a corpse under the rubble," Ortiz added. 

Ortiz led a "sustained disruption" and attempted to "shout down" the IDF speakers, according to Avila, who asserted that Ortiz is now trying to "ban [SSI] entirely." The nursing student also accused CUA of violating its own demonstration policies by allowing "outside special interest groups with ties to extremist ideology to intimidate attendees on campus grounds."

Joshua Ortiz did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.

During the event earlier this month, SSI hosted IDF soldiers Ron Feingold and Chanoch Berman, who shared their testimonies and explained how they felt called to return to the IDF after the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

The attack, which resulted in the massacre of at least 1,200 people and the abduction of over 240 others, led to Israel launching its military operation in Gaza to eradicate the terror group and secure the release of the hostages.

According to Avila, around 200 CUA students, staff and faculty members attended despite disruptions from around 50 protesters.

Video footage of Ortiz shows him disrupting the event, declaring that the IDF speakers are "war criminals" and that the state of Israel is a "criminal nation." Ortiz continued protesting outside after the Department of Public Safety escorted him out of the event venue. 

Speaking to a group of anti-Israel demonstrators outside, Ortiz declared, "There is no reason for war criminals and a terrorist state to be welcome on campus." Other protesters who spoke outside accused Israel of committing child murder and ethnic cleansing. 

Another demonstrator argued that the event featuring the IDF soldiers is "part of a larger program to recuperate the image of Israel and promote Zionism across college campuses."

"This is a clear pattern of disparate treatment. First, the administration uses an obscure 'policy' as a pretext to remove our Oct. 7th memorial, and now, a student senator who has publicly declared himself an 'enemy of the Israeli state' and posted 'Down with the IDF' is pushing a deceptive bill to ban us entirely," Avila told CP.

Earlier this month, CUA's staff removed SSI's Oct. 7 memorial display that the students set up to honor the victims murdered by Hamas. The group placed multiple Israeli flags on the campus lawn, only for the university to rescind its approval of the display and return the Israeli flags to SSI in a trash bag.

In a statement to CP, CUA spokeswoman Karna Lozoya acknowledged the "deep disappointment" SSI members felt the morning of Oct. 7 when they saw their memorial removed. 

Lozoya said that the memorial violated the university's flags policy, which states that only the flags authorized to be displayed in publicly accessible spaces on campus include: The flag of the United States of America, the flag of Vatican City, the flag of Washington, D.C., and any CUA flag that bears the university's seal. 

According to CUA's website, the policy "does not apply to the display of other flags at University-sponsored events." 

"That 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," Lozoya told CP. 

The spokeswoman stressed that the enforcement of the policy "is not a reflection in any way of the University's views on and support of Israel," highlighting CUA President Peter Kilpatrick's letter to the campus community following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Avila argued that CUA makes exceptions for other student groups, sharing a photo with CP of the Palestinian flag and flags of other countries displayed inside campus buildings. 

In response to a follow-up question from CP, another spokesperson explained that the policy applies to campus locations that are "accessible to the public at large." The SSI president believes that CUA's "inside vs. outside claim" is another "sloppy, tired excuse from an administration whose story keeps changing."

"It's a desperate distraction from the simple, chilling fact that they tore down a peaceful memorial for 1,200 victims of Hamas terror," Avila added.

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