by Oliver Wilson for Chicago Thinker
Jul. 16, 2024

Declan Hurley, editor-in-chief emeritus at the Chicago Thinker, joined Natalie Winters on Steve Bannon’s ”War Room” on Friday. After pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Chicago mounted a flag on the University’s central flagpole, Hurley condemned the University’s decision to cut the halyard, consequently preventing the American flag from being reinstated.

The protestors set up an encampment on UChicago’s Main Quad on Monday. Early on Friday, University President Paul Alivisatos announced that ”the encampment cannot continue.” By early afternoon a counter-protest ensued, rallying support against the encampment’s occupation of campus.

”We gathered a group of probably about 200 students, and we paraded through the Quad with American flags to signal our patriotism,” said Hurley, who posted a now-widespread video on X about the unfolding situation. ”We have a foreign flag of a country that has been aligned with terrorist groups and has butchered thousands of Israelis.” 

The counter-protest at UChicago was part of a growing movement of demonstrations against encampments on university campuses nationwide. A fundraiser for fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has raised donations worth over $500k after they were photographed shielding ”Old Glory”. Meanwhile, students at the University of Mississippi sang ”The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Hurley ultimately attributes the motivation of those participating in the encampment to the University curriculum. ”There are two main undercurrents to any political science teaching at the University of Chicago. One of those undercurrents is critical theory.” He concludes, ”The second undercurrent is this anti-imperialist notion, and anti-imperialism has been used as a cudgel against Israel to essentially massacre its people.”