Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn LLP rescinded a law student’s offer of employment, after the student said that Hamas’s slaughter of innocent Israeli children was “necessary.”
As president of New York University’s School of Law Bar Association, Ryna Workman emailed a weekly newsletter to students professing her “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.”
“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life,” the non-binary, 24-year old NYU student said. “This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary. I will not condemn Palestinian resistance.”
Workman joins university students across the country who are boldly professing their support of Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the most deadly attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists invaded Israel this weekend, and have so far murdered more than 1,000 Israeli civilians, including women, children, and 14 U.S. citizens.
At Harvard University, 35 student organizations issued a statement blaming “Israeli violence” for Hamas terrorist attacks and called on Harvard to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.” Ohio State’s club, Students for Justice in Palestine, called Hamas’s reign of terror a “heroic resistance.” Georgetown University’s club, Jewish Voice for Peace, blamed “Israeli settler colonialism” for Hamas’s murderous spree.
Various student organizations made similar statements at the University of Virginia, Swarthmore College, the University of Illinois, University of Michigan’s law school, the University of California, Berkeley, Northwestern University, and Columbia University.
Winston & Strawn condemned the “violence and destruction” Hamas ignited, adding that the firm looks forward to “continuing to work together to eradicate anti-Semitism in all forms.” The firm rescinded Workman’s offer the same day it learned of her email.
“These comments are profoundly in conflict with Winston & Strawn’s values as a firm. Accordingly, the Firm has rescinded the law student’s offer of employment,” the company said in a statement. “As communicated yesterday to all Winston personnel, we remain outraged and deeply saddened by the violent attack on Israel over the weekend. Our hearts go out to our Jewish colleagues, their families, and all those affected.”