The members of Alpha Epsilon Pi and Pi Kappa Phi at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gained nationwide attention — and over a half-million dollars in donations — this week when, amid a chaotic and increasingly intense pro-Palestinian protest, several of the chapters’ members gathered around a campus flagpole to keep the American flag off the ground. Protesters had previously taken it down and replaced it with a Palestinian one.
The incident sparked a rapturous response among some conservatives. Current and former Republican staffers organized the fund-raising effort on the fraternity members’ behalf, though it’s unclear how much of the money will actually go to the organizations.
Several of the fraternity members who huddled around the flag on Tuesday have said they acted in the name of patriotism — not in explicit support of Israel or against Palestine — by keeping the American flag attached to its post and preventing it from touching the ground.
“For me, protecting the flag was not about taking a stance within the ongoing Israel-Palestine discourse,” Alex Jones, a member of Pi Kappa Phi who held up the flag, said in a statement shared on X. “I recognize the pain and suffering experienced by both sides of that conflict. But my decision yesterday to protect the flag of the United States was not about any other nation.” The presidents of the fraternities did not respond Friday to The Chronicle’s request for comment.
Another said in an interview on Fox News that a majority of men elevating the flag were Jewish and had previously been present on the quad to advocate for Israel when the protest was occurring.
“I’m Jewish and I’m Orthodox, and a lot of members that were holding up that flag were,” Isaac Maleh, a UNC student and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi — a Jewish fraternity whose chapter at Chapel Hill was founded in 1937 — told the Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham on Thursday. “We were there first and foremost for our country of Israel.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters and the students surrounding the flag heckled each other. In a video shared on X, a man tells a pro-Palestinian protester to “lose some weight,” before another fraternity member refers to the woman as a “bitch.” Brendan Rosenblum, a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, told Fox News that protesters repeatedly yelled at him to kill himself. Confrontations, at times, escalated. Fraternity members say protesters threw water bottles, rocks and sticks at them as they stood under the flag.
The incident went viral, particularly among Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats — including the billionaire Bill Ackman — who have hailed the college students as “American heroes” who protected the nation’s symbol at a time when two other countries’ flags are at the forefront of most college students’ minds.
Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde.
Conservative media in particular have touted the young men — News Nation interviewed several of them alongside the country music star John Rich, who offered to play a free concert (which he dubbed “FlagStock”) in celebration of the fraternity members’ “bravery and patriotism.” His offer elicited the support of other prominent figures, including Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser pardoned by then-President Donald Trump for lying to the FBI.
A GoFundMe promised to organize a “rager” for the fraternities. “Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde,” the fund-raising appeal’s description reads. It raised more than $500,000 before organizers closed donations Thursday night.
The money collected from thousands of donors will go toward throwing the fraternity brothers “a world class party that will echo across eternity.”
“We didn’t anticipate that that part of it would occur,” Trevor Lan, a Chapel Hill student, said in an interview with News Nation on Thursday. Lan said they wanted to represent students “who believe in our flag and democracy across the country.”
The fund-raiser appears to have been organized primarily by two people unaffiliated with the university or the two fraternities: John Noonan, a senior counselor for Sen. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican; and Sarah Ralston, a Republican political operative who served in George W. Bush’s administration and has “deep ties to power players in conservative politics,” according to NPR.
The fraternity members have said that they are trying to connect with the fund raiser’s organizers but that they technically have no say over how the money is used. The organizers did not respond to a request for comment from The Chronicle.
“Unfortunately we do not have direct control over that money,” Rosenblum said in an interview with News Nation on Thursday. “We don’t really know where that money is going to go right now.”
Pi Kappa Psi’s national office said in a statement Friday afternoon that the fraternity didn’t endorse the creation of the fund raiser and isn’t its beneficiary, that fraternity leaders are in contact with Noonan, and that, given the unexpected excess of money, the organization plans to support “charitable efforts.”
