As campus tensions over Israel flare, White House decries ‘grotesque sentiments’ against Jewish students
As Jewish students studied inside the Cooper Union library, a pro-Palestinian protest formed on the other side of the glass. One student who was inside said the action was “targeted.” Courtesy of Abigail Mottahedeh
By Lauren Markoe, Camillo BaroneOctober 26, 2023
The day after several Jewish students at Cooper Union were told to hide as pro-Palestinian protesters banged on the doors of the school library, the White House issued a statement decrying the rise of antisemitic rhetoric on college campuses.
“Amidst the rise in poisonous, antisemitic rhetoric and hate crimes that President Biden has fought against for years, there is an extremely disturbing pattern of antisemitic messages being conveyed on college campuses,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in the statement.
“Just over the past week, we’ve seen protests and statements on college campuses that call for the annihilation of the state of Israel; for genocide against the Jewish people. Jewish students have even had to barricade themselves inside buildings. These grotesque sentiments and actions shock the conscience and turn the stomach.”
The statement tied the current campus turmoil to the Holocaust, and characterized protesters’ anti-Zionism as antisemitism. These incidents “also recall our commitment that can’t be forgotten: ‘never again,’” Bates continued. “Delegitimizing the State of Israel while praising the Hamas terrorist murderers who burned innocent people alive, or targeting Jewish students, is the definition of unacceptable – and the definition of antisemitism.”
Pro-Palestinian protests began shortly after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7, and Israel began to retaliate with airstrikes, which Hamas’ health ministry says have killed more than 6,700 Palestinians in Gaza. (U.S. officials have said Hamas may inflate casualty figures.)
Students for Justice in Palestine at a several campuses have praised the Hamas attack, or said blame for the bloodshed lies entirely with Israel.
Among other incidents that have rattled Jewish students: At George Washington University, students reported to be associated with the group projected messages including “Glory To Our Martyrs,” “Divestment From Zionist Genocide Now” and “Free Palestine From The River To The Sea” onto the side of a library building for two hours on Tuesday night. Outside New York University, a protestor Wednesday held a sign that showed a Jewish star in a trash can. At Stanford University an instructor told the Jewish students in his class to stand in a corner, and said, “This is what Israel does to the Palestinians.”
‘They permitted Jewish kids to be in danger’
Cooper Union, a small Manhattan college specializing in architecture, art and engineering, was mostly quiet the day after the library incident. But in the early afternoon the mothers of two Jewish students, a city council member and an attorney from the The Lawfare Project — a pro-Israel legal group — convened a press conference outside the college to criticize its administration.
One of the mothers, Emilie, who did not give her last name, said she had sent several emails to the school since Oct. 9 about how she feared for her son’s safety after pro-Palestinian students began putting up posters at the school. “Nothing effective was done,” she said. “They still permitted the Hamas narrative to be expressed. They permitted the Jewish kids to be in danger. I know that a lot of the kids including my son do not feel safe coming to school, and they will not be attending school until something is done.” She said her son hid from pro-Palestinian demonstrators Wednesday on the fourth floor of the building that houses the library.
The mother of another student, who also gave only her first name, Sari, said her daughter had felt trapped in the library and that police showed up only later in the afternoon to escort the Jewish students out a back door.
Also at the press conference was Inna Vernikov, a Jewish Republican member of the City Council who was arrested two weeks ago for criminal possession of a firearm after bringing a gun to a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Brooklyn College. She said Cooper Union President Laura Sparks should resign for failing to protect Jewish students.
In a statement to the New York Jewish Week, Cooper Union said, “The library was closed for approximately 20 minutes late this afternoon while student protestors moved through our building. Some students who were previously in the library remained there during this time.”
And Chief of Patrol John Chell of the New York Police Department on Thursday said of the incident: “There was no direct threats, there was no damage, and there was no danger to any students in that school.”
JTA contributed to this report.
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