In the most recent reaction from the White House and Congress to the wave of pro-Palestinian student protests rocking colleges throughout the country, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote a letter to college and university presidents on Friday denouncing “abhorrent” incidents of antisemitism on campuses.
The letter, which CNN first acquired, stated, “As the 2023–24 school year draws to a close, I remain incredibly concerned by the reports of antisemitic hate directed at students on some campuses.”
A “sharp rise in reports of antisemitism targeting Jewish students on some college campuses” has been seen recently, according to Cardona. Along with outlining the tools that are available, he stated that his agency is “eager to provide further resources, training, and technical assistance.”
The letter from Cardona is sent out before to his scheduled meeting with Jewish leaders this Friday. This will be his first encounter with them since October 30.
It occurs one day after President Joe Biden firmly addressed the turmoil, stating that protesting is allowed but should not lead to disorder. He also denounced hate speech and acts of violence in general, regardless of whether they are motivated by “discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.”
In order to ascertain if Columbia University discriminated against Palestinian students and their supporters, the Education Department launched an investigation on Thursday. It comes from a complaint that Palestine Legal, an advocacy group, filed with the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on behalf of four students and the school organisation Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.
Since April 22, the government has been looking into eight schools for possible Title VI violations, Columbia being one of them.
Congress, however, appears ready to extend its public backing for Israel even further, maybe by extending an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s representative stated on Thursday night that the senator plans to accept House Speaker Mike Johnson’s offer; however, the specific date is still being finalised. Johnson said that Schumer was holding onto the letter, which was written as a bicameral request and submitted to him a month ago. In a well-known address delivered on the Senate floor in March, Schumer declared that Netanyahu had “lost his way.”
A contentious antisemitic definition measure approved by the House is also a component of the congressional reaction, but it is now encountering obstacles in the Senate. The bill would enable the Education Department to utilise the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism as a basis for enforcing anti-discrimination legislation.
Although the bill was approved by the House on Wednesday night, 320-91, significant bipartisan reservations about First Amendment infringement have since arisen and delayed the bill’s expedited passage. Schumer stated on Thursday night that he will be investigating the best course of action at this time.
As part of what Johnson referred to as a House-wide inquiry of antisemitism in America, House Republicans have also opened many inquiries into the protests. The heads of Yale University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan have testified as part of the investigation into possible breaches of the Civil Rights Act. Information on the way the nation’s capital’s George Washington University protests were handled by the Metropolitan Police Department will be gathered in another hearing.
There are no indications that the campus demonstrations will end, even with the politicians’ crackdown. Over 2,000 protestors have been detained on campuses as of Friday.
44 persons were taken into custody by police on Friday morning at the New School in New York City as the institution attempted to disperse student-made pro-Palestinian camps. At New York University, thirteen more persons were taken into custody.
Authorities in New York detained 133 protestors at SUNY New Paltz on Thursday night and early Friday. According to school spokesman Andrew Bruso, the arrests happened after the 9 p.m. cutoff time for pupils to depart without any consequences.
The university protests started in response to Hamas’s surprise onslaught on Israel on October 7, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 253 hostages. Following relentless bombings that destroyed much of the Gaza Strip in retaliation, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive that, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, is commanded by Hamas and has killed over 34,000 Palestinians in all.
The first wave of protests on American campuses were small-scale, disorganised, and mostly limited to institutions with sizable Jewish student populations. However, over time, these protests have grown in scope and complexity, virtually shutting down some of the nation’s most prestigious campuses, pitting political free speech against an upsurge in antisemitic incidents that are making Jewish students feel unsafe on campus. Recently, a large number of protestors around the country have united behind demands that their schools either completely break away from Israel or financially withdraw from businesses that support Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.
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