The Student Intifada Escalates at the University of Washington

A suspended student group is supporting an organization that the United States and Canada have deemed a terrorist entity, taking over an engineering building at the University of Washington.

Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return at the University of Washington (SUPER UW) was suspended from campus after refusing to cooperate with university administrators who were investigating vandalism after demonstrations in 2024. However, that suspension seems to be in name only, as SUPER UW has been allowed to hold tabling events on campus, with some reportedly handing out Hamas’ pamphlets (according to a Canary Mission video) and selling t-shirts promoting “resistance.”

On May 5, SUPER UW published a manifesto stating, “WE DEMAND: UW will no longer be complicit in genocide.” SUPER UW explained they were answering “the call” and entered “a new global phase of repression and resistance, both in the international student movement and on the ground in Palestine.” It is even more concerning who may have issued the call.

In May 2024 Samidoun published “A call from the Palestinian student movement in Gaza: Time for revolutionary escalation of the global intifada.” Samidoun is not limiting their call to university students but is also calling for high school students to participate in the “global intifada.” This is another example of university campus influence on K-12 education, demonstrating the need for transparency, not only in higher education, but in K-12 schools.

“Today we turn to high school students all over the world to participate widely in the struggles and activities of the university student movement, organizing demonstrations, sit-ins, and vigils, writing petitions and letters, and organizing educational days about the Palestinian struggle and the goals of the Palestinian people for liberation and return. Secondary schools constitute a strong fortress and a great support for university students everywhere,” the statement said.

SUPER UW explicitly supports Samidoun, issuing a “Solidarity Statement with Samidoun Against Ongoing Repression” after the terrorist designation by the governments of Canada and the United States.

More recently, SUPER UW shared their desire to “build a revolutionary culture in the West, bridging the Palestinian resistance back home and the Palestinian solidarity movement here in the imperial core to contribute to the global Camp of Resistance.” After the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim by a man yelling “free, free Palestine” — and after the fire-bombing of American Jews marching for the return of Israeli hostages in Colorado — SUPER UW’s call to “build a revolutionary culture” in the United States could be seen as a call for more violence against Jews and other Americans.

During a February 2025 rally organized by SUPER UW, the group’s media liaison admitted, “Our fight was never about the ceasefire, the fight is for a single Palestinian state, from the river to the sea.” The suspended group was protesting the Boeing-UW partnership on the construction of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on the university campus.

The response to a suspended campus group organizing a demonstration on campus was lackluster. UWPD Chief Craig Wilson stated, “We welcome and honor everybody’s freedom of speech, and we are here to support that. As long as people don’t violate either university rules and regulations or state law, we’re here to support everybody’s first amendment right to have freedom of speech.”

It should not be surprising that the University of Washington has been occupied by rioters and arsonists. The UW administration has ceded responsibility by allowing SUPER UW to continue to operate on campus, after being suspended.

According to a Forbes article published in 2023, UW receives approximately $1.56 billion Federal dollars for research and development. An institution that receives that type of Federal investment should do everything in its lawful power to ensure that groups are not handing out terrorist propaganda on campus.

The US Department of Education should require detailed disclosures on funding for departments, professors, centers, and student groups, including line-item reporting on how those funds are used.

Brandy Shufutinsky is the director of Education and National Security at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which examines the threats and vulnerabilities within America’s education system. Follow Brandy on X @76brandy76.  Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.