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The Daily Northwestern Monday, April 22, 2024
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ASG hosts Earth Month celebration by Deering
Smino to return to Northwestern, headline A&O Ball Friday in Chicago
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Ryan Field case rejected in part County judge sides with NU, city after first hearing of suit By SHUN GRAVES
the daily northwestern @realshungraves
Daily file photo by Henry Frieman
For months, the Evanston Ceasefire coalition has petitioned City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Resident group advocates for Gaza Coalition urges City Council to pass resolution for permanent ceasefire By MELISSA DAI
daily senior staffer
Evanston resident Maha, who is Palestinian American, said she
moved her family to the city over 20 years ago for its “progressive” community — where “people are open and share values of decency, dignity and social justice.” But in the past few months,
Maha, who did not provide her last name, said she’s been nothing but “disappointed and disheartened” by the city she once loved. “It may not have been perfect, but City Council always made an
effort to rectify whatever problems and concerns community members had,” she said. “Until it came to the Palestinian people.”
» See CEASEFIRE, page 6
Dealing an early blow to residents opposing public-facing concerts at Ryan Field, a county judge dismissed three counts in the Most Livable City Association and 13 stadium neighbors’ complaint against the city on Friday. One of those three counts alleges Biss’ tie-breaking vote did not meet the council’s majority threshold. Another says NU’s project changes the site’s use so fundamentally that it should have required a zoning map amendment, a more stringent process. The last argues a written protest by Most Livable City should have triggered a supermajority vote under state law. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Pamela McLean Meyerson rejected those arguments in Friday’s oral decision. She also granted Evanston’s requests to deny the residents damages, a jury trial and attorney’s fees. The decision comes as the
demolition of NU football’s longtime fortress nears completion. The University’s $800 million project will build an entirely new arena that will also feature commercial concerts, the focus of many neighbors’ ire. After Mayor Daniel Biss broke City Council’s tie in November on the zoning change to allow concerts, the Most Livable City Association and 13 stadium neighbors sued the city. In the months since, the University had filed to intervene. Meyerson acknowledged both sides’ arguments but called the plaintiffs’ claims “not sufficient” because of Evanston’s home rule status. The city argued it followed its own rules regardless, and Meyerson agreed, holding City Council’s five-person majority sufficient for approval. She also denied the residents’ call for a map amendment because the Ryan Field zone’s boundaries did not change. And, with regard to their argument that state law would have required a six-vote majority following Most Livable City’s protest, Meyerson said the home rule city had already created a
» See RYAN FIELD, page 6
Pritzker hit with Nobel laureate gives GES keynote Title VI complaint Nadia Murad advocates for survivors of genocide, sexual assault Students allege “anti-Palestinian” environment at NU By BEATRICE VILLAFLOR
daily senior staffer @beatricedvilla
Palestine Legal announced on Wednesday that it filed a complaint against the Pritzker School of Law with the U.S. Department of Education for a ‘hostile Anti-Palestinian environment.’ In a news release, the organization said it is representing four Northwestern Law students who alleged they have faced discriminatory practices from fellow students, professors and administrators in the wake of the IsraelHamas war. The Palestinian students, who were not identified in the release, allege NU has failed to adequately address their safety concerns. According to the release, students have been followed, recorded and subjected to threats of doxxing. “As law students, our commitment to advocacy is paramount to the careers we are pursuing,” one anonymous complainant
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said in the release. “Yet those of us advocating for Palestine find ourselves navigating a hostile and unsupportive environment that challenges our fundamental right to education and to speak freely.” The complaint comes as Israel’s continued ground and air offensive in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. The military campaign follows the militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. “The University and its law school denounce acts of discrimination or harassment, and we will continue to support our students, faculty and staff,” University spokesperson Hilary Hurd Anyaso wrote in an email to the Daily. Palestine Legal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to an Instagram post from the organization, one of the complainants lost 130 family members in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack, with another six taken as hostages by the Israeli military.
» See TITLE VI, page 6
By EDWARD SIMON CRUZ
the daily northwestern @edwardsimoncruz
Content warning : This article has mentions of sexual assault and violence. Nadia Murad, a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, discussed the role of community and perseverance in social change during the capstone talk for the Global Engagement Summit on Saturday. The student-run summit spanning from Wednesday to Sunday, brought together delegates from around the world, each working on projects promoting various social causes. Delegates attended programming like group workshops, individual mentoring sessions and speaker events. Murad founded Nadia’s Initiative in 2018 to support communities affected by violence and survivors of sexual assault. The organization proposes “local solutions to local problems” in a “communitydriven” approach to change, she said. According to Murad, this
approach enabled her organization to create sustainable solutions even when governments and other institutions did not support their work. “You are building something for generations, and not just for a day or two,” she said. Murad, a member of the Yazidi ethno-religious group, grew up in a village in northern Iraq that was invaded by the Islamic State group in 2014. IS began a systematic campaign to eradicate Yazidi people in what the United Nations has classified as a genocide. Several months after being abducted and sold into sex slavery, Murad escaped from IS control. She said “silence was not an option” and began telling her story publicly, collecting evidence of the Islamic State group’s crimes for a UN investigative team and writing her 2018 memoir, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State.” Murad said she has been telling the world about the IS’s acts of sexual violence so people don’t forget the group’s actions and become better
Photo courtesy of Paige Bohart
Murad discussed the importance of holding perpetrators of sexual violence accountable during international conflict.
equipped to prevent atrocities. “When marginalized people are taking over and telling their stories … and find people supporting them, there is no way you will go back,” she said. Weinberg sophomore Sanjana Shankar, a delegate
representing the student organization Partners In Health Engage, said Murad’s talk gave a voice to “a lot of people who don’t have the opportunity to give a voice to themselves.” Shankar works at PIHE to
» See MURAD, page 6
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