 NEW YORK (Press Release) — Anti-Israel students continue to disrupt campuses throughout the United States with some–but not all–facing consequences for their actions.
Top Stories Brown. Chants of “No rest till Brown divests” interrupted University President Christina Paxson’s commencement speech on Sunday. Brown Alumni for Palestine, a group withholding donations from the University until it divests, took credit for the interruptions. This comes even after Brown conceded to anti-Israel protesters just weeks ago and agreed to hold a vote on divestment from Israel. At the same commencement, the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel, along with students, parents, and alumni organized counterprotests outside the ceremony, including having a plane fly over campus with a banner showing the Israeli and U.S. flags along with the words “Brown 4 Israel.” One Brown alumni at the counterprotest said “We’ve learned throughout this period of time that if one person shows up, one pro-Israel person shows up, one pro-America person shows up, others will follow.” Portland State. Portland State (OR) University’s Chief of Police Willie Halliburton was hospitalized Thursday night after being injured in the arrest of seven protesters including “two protesters [who] chained themselves to the doors of a university administration building.” Court documents allege the protesters kicked Halliburton during a struggle. In response, PSU administrators and students released a joint statement on Friday evening addressing the “extensive property destruction, hateful rhetoric, psychological harm, and violence” that has followed recent anti-Israel protests on the campus. As part of the agreement, PSU agreed to curricular changes to address antisemitism and Islamophobia, and to establish scholarships for students impacted by the Gaza War. DEEPER: PSU has been the site of some of the most violent and destructive anti-Israel protests in Oregon including an occupation of its main library that included extensive graffiti inside and out as well as damage. According to reports, “the university filled two 40-yard dumpsters with the wooden pallets, trash cans, sheets of plywood and other debris used to barricade the library last week. ‘The amount of debris was completely overwhelming,’ said Cary Morris, Portland State’s assistant director of operations and maintenance. ‘It was like something I’ve never seen before.’” Oregon. The University of Oregon administration succumbed to demands from anti-Israel protesters last week, reaching an agreement to end the encampment that has taken over their campus. Among the concessions, the University agreed to create a task force of students and faculty to review the University’s investment decisions. A statement from University President Karl Scholz acknowledged this “period has been especially painful to many in our Jewish community” but failed to make any specific commitments to support Jewish students. UW Madison. The University of Wisconsin, Madison has temporarily suspended the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), one of two student groups that organized anti-Israel encampments at the University. Students for Justice in Palestine, the other leading group behind the encampments, is under investigation by the Committee on Student Organizations but had not been suspended as of Thursday afternoon. The groups are accused of violating University policy and Wisconsin law, including “damage to or theft of property,” “disruptive conduct,” and “discriminatory harassment.” In a letter to YDSA, Dean of Students Christina Olstad wrote “I have determined that an interim suspension is necessary to protect the health and safety of members of the University.” Princeton. Over the weekend, anti-Israel protesters at Princeton University in New Jersey poured red dye into the University’s Fountain of Freedom, painted graffiti on a campus building, and disrupted an alumni QA with the University president by “chanting, shouting, and holding up hands covered in red gloves and red paint… After the protesters left, several small speaker-like devices they apparently left under their seats went off at intervals with pro-Palestinian messages. At least three were confiscated.” This comes after the student group Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest posted a message on Friday saying “This weekend, act, disrupt, and escalate on your own terms — all tactics welcome.” Columbia. At a campus that has been at the center of anti-Israel protests and antisemitic harassment, it’s refreshing to hear from someone there dedicated to stop it. David Schizer — who when he became Dean of Columbia Law School was the youngest Dean in its history — is now a professor there and co-chairman of Columbia’s newly formed Task Force on Antisemitism. In a recent interview, he discusses reports that Jewish students have been barred from student groups unless they renounce Zionism, calling this exclusion “the most painful thing that I’ve seen in 26 years at Columbia.” The article describes another “potential Title VI violation,” where during the week before protesters temporarily took over a campus building, “campus security advised Jewish students not to enter certain areas of campus because it couldn’t guarantee their safety.” Schizer made his frustration with this situation clear: “You can’t limit the access of Jews or any other minority group—and that includes clubs, and it includes programs and classes and it includes physical spaces.” The Future Campus Leaders. The antisemitism we are seeing on campus is not limited to the Ivory Tower; in fact, it starts much earlier in elementary, middle, and high school. That’s why ADL has launched a new online resource that brings together all in one place helpful information such as strategies for supporting Jewish students in the classroom and responding to bias incidents in your school. If you have a K-12 student or care about one, keep this page bookmarked. A Very Expensive Bubble. A new analysis in the Washington Monthly shows that anti-Israel protests and encampments “have taken place almost exclusively at schools where poorer students are scarce and the listed tuition and fees are exorbitantly high.” While large public schools have seen greater volumes of protests — due mainly to the large numbers of students they serve — “in the vast majority of cases, campuses that educate students mostly from working-class backgrounds have not had any protest activity.” But for private universities, protests and encampments have been heavily clustered in schools that charge more than $60,000 in annual tuition and have fewer than 20 percent of students on Pell Grants.
|
| Campus Champions
Some Advice. Former U.S. Department of Education official Michael Brickman lays out five steps for university leaders to take in the face of growing antisemitism. They include: unequivocally calling out antisemitism when it happens, setting a clear line that encampments and disruptions are not allowed, and inviting people with different viewpoints to campus. Safety First. Disappointed by the University of Denver’s weak response to anti-Israel protests on campus, Jewish students at DU have formed a safety patrol to protect themselves — particularly when passing by protest encampments at night. “We just want this to go away and we want stricter protocols… [DU has to figure] out ways that we can just get the encampment off campus and ensure safety for everyone, not just the Jewish students,” said one DU student. While it is unacceptable that these protests have created enough fear that Jewish students don’t feel safe walking on their own campus, we are proud of these students for coming together. |
| Am Yisrael Chai 💪✡️
If Not Me, Who? How do we make sure the State of Israel is there for our grandchildren? Stever Leder, Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, offers an inspiring answer: “The strength of the Jewish people is that we don’t take our future for granted…Do I know if Israel exists 100 years from now or not? No. What I do know is I need to behave today as if it won’t… If every generation of Jews accepts that point of view and that responsibility and that privilege, then Israel will always exist.” * |