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Student began club after campus pro-Palestinian group promoted ‘Night of Drag & Karaoke for Palestine’ 

Convicted to take action after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, one Catholic University of America student decided it was time for a pro-Israel club on campus.

Nursing student Felipe Avila began the Students Supporting Israel club this year at the private Catholic university. But already he said he has experienced tension from another relatively new student club, The Olive Branch, which supports the pro-Palestinian cause.

Avila recently spoke with The College Fix by phone to discuss his reasons for starting the club, as well as the reaction it has garnered on the Washington, D.C. campus. The Students Supporting Israel chapter is one of more than 140 on campuses worldwide.

Avila said the 2023 terrorist attack on Israel was one of the things that spurred him to action. In the attack, Hamas terrorists killed over 1,000 Israelis in a single day and took another 250 hostage.

While not Jewish or Israeli himself, Avila said he “still felt like it was my obligation as a human being to speak out to support those people, to stand with the people who are being marginalized on the basis of who they are.”

The other reason was a pro-Palestinian club called The Olive Branch. Avila said the club, which formed last year, created an “echo chamber” on campus, loudly voicing only one side of the story.

The pro-Palestinian club formed last spring, according to its Instagram page. Its mission is to “foster cultural and humanitarian awareness in the Middle East” and “facilitate social justice initiatives, cultural immersion, and community development.”

Avila told The Fix that he decided to take it upon himself to represent the other side of the issue, and putting together the club has been “an exciting time.”

“Even though there’s a very small Jewish presence here on campus, we believe that they matter, we believe that their voices matter and that they have a right to exist,” Avila said. He went on to say that “any club that says otherwise, we’re ready to push back on that.”

Avila said his new chapter is official with the national Students Supporting Israel, but the university recently delayed approval of the club’s request for official status.

The Fix also contacted The Olive Branch to ask for its thoughts on the new Students Supporting Israel club and open debate about the Israel-Palestinian conflict on campus. However, the club appeared to block The Fix’s reporter on Instagram after reaching out via direct message.

That same day, Avila told The Fix he was reported to the dean’s office for causing a student to feel “unsafe” about the formation of the pro-Israel club. He said he believes the complaint came from within The Olive Branch.

Avila also told The Fix that within 24 hours of announcing the new pro-Israel club on LinkedIn, he was unfollowed and blocked on social media by The Olive Branch and its members. What happened was “kind of shocking, but not really,” he said.

“It’s almost like they don’t want to have a conversation at all,” he said.

Avila raised concerns about some of The Olive Branch’s recent posts, including one promoting a December event called “Queeraoke: A Night of Drag & Karaoke for Palestine.” The post no longer appears on the club’s Instagram stories, but Avila shared a screenshot of it with The Fix.

The drag show was hosted by other groups not affiliated with the university. However, Avila told The Fix he believes even promoting the event violates the university’s Catholic policies.

In addition, The Olive Branch posted a statement to its social media “honoring their martyrs,” with another post including Hamas as part of that group. The depiction of symbols on these posts such as keffiyehs and watermelons are “scandalous” at the private Catholic university, Avila told The Fix.

University spokesperson Karna Lozoya responded to The Fix’s inquiry about the social media posts, stating, “Our student organizations are required to abide by the University’s social media policy… If there is a problematic post, we notify the club via email that they need to immediately edit the post.”

When asked about the two clubs and the Israel-Palestinian debate on campus, Lozoya told The Fix university President Peter Kilpatrick “has been clear about the need to respect the dignity of all human persons.”

She also pointed The Fix to an October 2023 statement from the president on the issue: “There is no room on a Catholic campus for words and actions that do not uphold the respect and dignity due to every single member of this community,” Kilpatrick said at the time.

Additionally, Lozoya said, “The Olive Branch is a student-led organization built to foster cultural and humanitarian awareness in the Middle East … One of the group’s first activities was to organize a prayer service for peace in the Middle East.”

Lozoya said the prayer service “was done with the guidance and support of our Campus Ministry.”

Meanwhile, Avila said he believes Israelis are being “dehumanized,” adding, “When you start to falsely accuse an entire group of human beings of committing genocide when they’re not, you’re almost dehumanizing them.”

He pointed to posts by the pro-Palestinian club accusing Israel of “continu[ing] the genocide against Palestinians.”

Avila said the hope with the creation of Catholic University’s new pro-Israel chapter is to correct the misconceptions that often surround the Israel-Palestine topic. He said he wants to educate the student body on what Zionism really means, and why it is important for Israel to exist on a worldwide scale.

Editor’s note: The article was updated to include the recognition status of the Students Supporting Israel chapter. College Fix reporter Leore Tal is a member of the Students Supporting Israel chapter at the University of Missouri.

MORE: ‘Ideological cudgel’: Catholic group denounces Wellesley ‘Queer Bible’ class

IMAGES: The Olive Branch CUA/Instagram, Felipe Avila, SteveSanchezPhotos/Shutterstock

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