Protestors Bring Violence, Vandalism, and More to College Campuses

Violent anti-Israel protests continued in September, as new FBI statistics show that Jews were the most frequent targets of hate crimes in the US in 2023.

In Australia, pro-Hamas demonstrators including Students for Palestine, Extinction Rebellion, and Disrupt Wars fought with police outside a Melbourne arms fair; they also attacked police horses with acid and rocks, resulting in multiple injuries and arrests.

Thousands of protestors marched through Lower Manhattan in what organizers called “Flood NYC for Gaza,” waving Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian, and Syrian flags. The White House condemned the appearance of Hamas flags.

Other anti-Israel protests took place in New York City, in one case ostensibly in connection with the shooting of a knife wielding criminal on a subway platform, and with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before his address to the United Nations.

In London and Edinburgh Barclays Bank branches were vandalized as was a Berlin Holocaust memorial with the words “Jews are committing genocide.”

In response to an April protest that shut down Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and delayed travelers, a public interest law firm filed a class action lawsuit against a variety of anti-Israel organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. BDS funders such as the Tides Center, its Community Justice Exchange, National Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, AJP Education Foundation, Inc., and the WESPAC Foundation, were included in the lawsuit.

On campus, the semester opened with a variety of anti-Israel protests and vandalism at schools across the country.

The most serious incident was an assault on a Jewish student at the University of Michigan, who was approached by a group, asked whether he was a Jew, and then beaten. T

The university president condemned the incident, but no suspects have been apprehended. A series of other assaults on Jewish students and a Jewish fraternity at the school occurred, but their motives are unclear. Two Jewish students were also attacked near the University of Pittsburgh campus.

Student anti-Israel protests were also held in Chicago and Bay Area universities, Columbia University, McGill University, and elsewhere. A number of protestors at the University of Michigan were arrested and will be prosecuted by the state.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) accused Democratic State Attorney General Dana Nessel of doing so because she is Jewish.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer initially declined to support the Attorney General’s decision, but later reversed course — and a group of House Democrats did so, apparently without naming Tlaib.

Elsewhere the Drexel University Chabad house was vandalized with “free Palestine” propaganda, while a mezuzah was torn down at Harvard from the door of a Jewish student.

Overall the ADL reports a 2,000% increase in antisemitic incidents on California campuses alone.

In a significant incident, members of the Baruch College Hillel were harassed by SJP members outside a midtown Manhattan restaurant, who shouted “Back to Brooklyn, out the Middle East” and “Where’s Hersh you ugly ass b***h?”

At Harvard University, Jewish and Israel-related events are now patrolled frequently by university police.

Across the country, vandalism of university property has become routine:

• Pro-Hamas students vandalized a statue of Benjamin Franklin at the University of Pennsylvania, stating it was “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.”
• A lawn at McGill University, which had been destroyed by anti-Israel protestors in the spring, was again torn up.
• The ROTC building at the University of North Carolina was vandalized, and a Palestinian flag was raised.
• George Washington University trustees’ homes were vandalized by the Student Coalition for Palestine.
• Various landmarks at Georgetown University were vandalized, including with the Hamas triangle symbol.
• A building at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities was vandalized with slogans including “Zionists off campus,” “Intifada is here,” and “glory to the resistance.”

Direct student harassment of Jewish faculty also renewed in September, including at the UC Berkeley law school, where students handed out flyers condemning a ‘Zionist’ professor outside of his class.

At MIT, pro-Hamas students harassed a talk by an Israeli professor and stole food provided for the event.

Students also resumed harassment of administrators, as at Pomona College, where dozens of protestors screamed outside the president’s house late at night.

Students arrested during a sit-in at Wesleyan University, whose president had written an op-ed praising campus protests, held a protest outside of his house. The Cornell University “Coalition for Mutual Liberation” disrupted a job fair and chanted “We will work, we will fight. No more jobs in genocide” and “F*** you Boeing.”

Anti-Israel students and faculty at the University of Minnesota marched in protest against that institution’s recently announced neutrality policy.

As has long been the case Students for Justice in Palestine is taking the lead in organizing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests on campus:

• The National SJP announced a Week of Rage would begin on October 7.
• The Rutgers University SJP chapter protested its suspension in front of an administration building, stating menacingly that it was “Strike Three” for the university.
• At William and Mary College, the SJP chapter led a walkout and chanted “intifada revolution” and “we don’t want two states, take us back to ‘48.”
• At the University of Minnesota, SJP protestors along with students from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), UMN Divest, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) disrupted the inauguration of the school’s new president.
• The Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition released a statement praising the Houthi missile attack on Israel, noting the support for the attack from Hamas, the PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and ending with “Glory to the resistance.”

Student governments also remain at the center of organizing campuses against Israel. At the University of Michigan, the student government voted again to hold the budget for various student groups hostage until the administration adopts BDS.

The UCLA student government also passed a resolution demanding the administration revoke its ban on encampments. The University of California at Santa Cruz voted to adopt a BDS policy with its own funds but delayed implementation when it discovered the move would violate state and Federal laws. In contrast, the McGill University Student Union revoked the club status of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights group. The Cornell University SJP chapter was also denied recognition by the administration, as was the University of Illinois SJP chapter.

These positive steps were counterbalanced, however, by the restoration of the University of Wisconsin’s and Harvard’s pro-Hamas student groups.

Columbia University’s new president, Katrina Armstrong, also apologized to anti-Israel students who were “hurt” after New York police were forced to clear spaces they occupied during the spring semester. The refusal of New York University’s anti-Israel groups to participate in anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training sets up a confrontation with the administration.

After protests aimed against campus Hillel by SJP members, Baruch College attempted to block a campus Rosh Hashanah celebration. The Hillel director stated “We were told by the administration that the campus can’t guarantee the safety of Jewish students because of other agitators who want to hurt, intimidate or harass them.” The decision was reversed only after political pressure, including from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). The university denied the allegation.

After criticism, University of Maryland administrators denied the school’s SJP permission to erect an October 7th “commemoration of martyrs” on the school’s main plaza. CAIR and Palestine Legal have sued the university, claiming First Amendment rights have been violated.

Faculty members continue to take leading roles in anti-Israel protests, typically claiming they are there to protect their students and “defend free speech.”

A new report highlights the growing role of Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapters in organizing campus protests. It notes that campuses with chapters were far more likely to have faculty helping students write statements and cosponsor events, in addition to producing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements from academic departments.

At Columbia, the second investigative report on antisemitism detailing incidents on campus was also met with hostility by faculty who claimed it was poorly researched and, more importantly, that the effort was in “bad faith” and “conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”

For their part, University of Pennsylvania faculty joined anti-Israel students protesting outside the presidential debate held in Philadelphia last month.

The deep embedding of anti-Israel bias by faculty into courses through the selection of topics or readings remains difficult to perceive or counter. Challenges to overtly political and one-sided courses are invariably met with charges of censorship and that “academic freedom” is being defied.

The participation of faculty in straightforward indoctrination sessions held outside the classroom was exemplified by the “The People’s Conference For Palestinian Solidarity” at the University of Geulph, which included sessions aimed at high schoolers.

In another example, a faculty member at Wilfred Laurier University offered students extra credit for attending a pro-Hamas protest and drove students to the rally.

The sheer loathing for Israel embodied by some faculty was reflected in the appearance at Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies of United Nations special rapporteur and global antisemite Francesca Albanese. She reiterated her stance that the October 7 massacre was “legitimate resistance,” that Israel is a “military dictatorship,” and that Israeli operations are “genocidal.”

K-12 Students

One of the most notable developments in the new school year is lawfare from CAIR and its partners directed against antisemitism training.

The San Francisco Unified School District was forced to reschedule antisemitism training for teachers after anti-Israel groups including CAIR, and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (JVP), as well as the BDS supporting union, United Educators of San Francisco, objected to the involvement of the ADL, American Jewish Committee, and the local Jewish community.

Evidence also continues to emerge of teachers conspiring to evade oversight and directly indoctrinate students against Israel.

Video emerged of Los Angeles teachers discussing methods to bring “pro-Palestine” content into lessons, transport students to rallies, and avoid getting fired.

Teachers also continue to manipulate students into participating in anti-Israel activities.

In Toronto, middle school students were forced to participate in a march for “Palestine” after being told they were going to “observe” an event having to do with Canada’s First Nations.

Jewish students were also told to wear blue in order to identify themselves as “colonizers.” A Jewish student who expressed discomfort was told, “You’ll get over it” by a teacher.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a significantly different version of this article was first published.

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