by Dion J. Pierre

According to documents shared with The Algemeiner, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, extreme anti-Zionism, as well as platforming of individuals who have promoted antisemitic conspiracies and tropes, has exploded at UIUC. Two months after the attack, the Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program added two virulently anti-Zionist panelists, Susan Abulhawa and Laila El-Haddad, to what was scheduled to be a one-on-one conversation featuring a pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian speaker.

Abulhawa has accused Israel of committing “a dozen kristallnachts [sic],” referring to the infamous pogrom carried out against Jews in Nazi Germany in November 1938. Abulhawa’s viewpoints are so controversial that a sponsor of an Australian festival she was scheduled to participate in pulled its support. After Oct. 7 she also rationalized Hamas’ massacre on her Facebook page.

El-Haddad is a member of a pro-Palestinian think tank that has regularly shared articles celebrating Hamas’ violence and promoting false allegations of Israeli apartheid and genocide.

Later, the event was canceled after Abulhawa allegedly refused to share a stage with a Zionist. In its place, the school’s Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) held a panel in which UIUC Students for Justice in Palestine member Sara Hijab said, “I hope you realize the evil Zionism is and that it has no place anywhere in the world.” Labor and Employment Relations professor Augustus Wood added, “The armed resistance should not be referred to in crude inhumane terms such as terrorists,” apparently referring to Hamas.

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students— since Oct. 7. Between that day and Dec. 18, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses , and during that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

Last month, the ADL called out American colleges and universities in an open letter, reminding them of their obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and intimidation.

“Shockingly, many students engaging in this activity — including harassment, intimidation, and other clear violations of student codes of conduct — have not faced consequences,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote. “Universities have by and large been derelict in their duty to protect Jewish communities on campus, in many cases raising serious concern under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Simply put, to date, there have been too few consequences — that must change.”

“The 78” to Transform Chicago’s South Loop

If you’ve been wondering why things have been so quiet between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown, it turns out things have been going on behind the scenes.  Big things.

Rendering of The 78

Tomorrow morning, Governor Bruce Rauner will announce a public-private partnership that will turn the 62-acre site owned by Related Midwest into a massive collegiate research park.  The academics involved in “The 78” innovation center are the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. The term “The 78” comes from the notion that this will become Chicago’s 78th neighborhood.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the new campus will have upwards of 2,000 people — 90 faculty, 1,800 students, plus support staff.  The total cost of the facility is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Part of it from the sale of the Thompson Center downtown.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the folks downstate decided that Chicago needed some Urbana-Champain love.  The last time was in the mid-1960’s when most of the city’s Little Italy neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for U.I.C.’s brutalist monstrosities that are only just now starting to not look terrible since we’ve gotten used to seeing them for half a century.

This time, though, the land donor is a willing participant.  And we mean “donor” in every sense.  The Trib reports that Related will donate the land to the institutions.

We’re not exactly sure what Related gets out of this deal.  Tax breaks, perhaps? Or perhaps Related will hold on to some of the land in the project, thus guaranteeing demand for housing and office space for the next hundred years or so.  We’ll know more after 10:00am.

    from Chicago Architecture https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2017/10/18/the-78-to-transform-chicagos-south-loop/

“The 78” to Transform Chicago’s South Loop

If you’ve been wondering why things have been so quiet between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown, it turns out things have been going on behind the scenes.  Big things.

Rendering of The 78

Tomorrow morning, Governor Bruce Rauner will announce a public-private partnership that will turn the 62-acre site owned by Related Midwest into a massive collegiate research park.  The academics involved in “The 78” innovation center are the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. The term “The 78” comes from the notion that this will become Chicago’s 78th neighborhood.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the new campus will have upwards of 2,000 people — 90 faculty, 1,800 students, plus support staff.  The total cost of the facility is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Part of it from the sale of the Thompson Center downtown.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the folks downstate decided that Chicago needed some Urbana-Champain love.  The last time was in the mid-1960’s when most of the city’s Little Italy neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for U.I.C.’s brutalist monstrosities that are only just now starting to not look terrible since we’ve gotten used to seeing them for half a century.

This time, though, the land donor is a willing participant.  And we mean “donor” in every sense.  The Trib reports that Related will donate the land to the institutions.

We’re not exactly sure what Related gets out of this deal.  Tax breaks, perhaps? Or perhaps Related will hold on to some of the land in the project, thus guaranteeing demand for housing and office space for the next hundred years or so.  We’ll know more after 10:00am.

    from Chicago Architecture https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2017/10/18/the-78-to-transform-chicagos-south-loop/

“The 78” to Transform Chicago’s South Loop

If you’ve been wondering why things have been so quiet between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown, it turns out things have been going on behind the scenes.  Big things.

Rendering of The 78

Tomorrow morning, Governor Bruce Rauner will announce a public-private partnership that will turn the 62-acre site owned by Related Midwest into a massive collegiate research park.  The academics involved in “The 78” innovation center are the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. The term “The 78” comes from the notion that this will become Chicago’s 78th neighborhood.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the new campus will have upwards of 2,000 people — 90 faculty, 1,800 students, plus support staff.  The total cost of the facility is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Part of it from the sale of the Thompson Center downtown.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the folks downstate decided that Chicago needed some Urbana-Champain love.  The last time was in the mid-1960’s when most of the city’s Little Italy neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for U.I.C.’s brutalist monstrosities that are only just now starting to not look terrible since we’ve gotten used to seeing them for half a century.

This time, though, the land donor is a willing participant.  And we mean “donor” in every sense.  The Trib reports that Related will donate the land to the institutions.

We’re not exactly sure what Related gets out of this deal.  Tax breaks, perhaps? Or perhaps Related will hold on to some of the land in the project, thus guaranteeing demand for housing and office space for the next hundred years or so.  We’ll know more after 10:00am.

    from Chicago Architecture https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2017/10/18/the-78-to-transform-chicagos-south-loop/