A guest on Fox News on Wednesday compared pro-Palestinian protests at colleges around the country to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War II.
Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project, which offers pro bono legal services to Jewish people, appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Wednesday to discuss the protests, which began at Columbia University in New York City and have spread to college campuses across the United States.
Columbia students set up an encampment on the school's campus to call for an end to Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza and to provide aid to the millions of people displaced there. Students are now protesting at other schools, including The University of Texas at Austin, New York University, Yale, Harvard, and the University of South Carolina.
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and saw hundreds more taken hostage. More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel waged war on Hamas, according to the Associated Press, citing local health officials.
During her appearance on Hannity, Goldstein described the protests as "an illegal occupation" and said her group was suing for unlawful discrimination.
"They [Columbia University] have told their Jewish students to stay home. They have told a Jewish professor to stay home and in the meantime, they're negotiating with pro-Hamas protesters," she said.
Goldstein continued, "We are being occupied by radical Islamist theology that has been imported from the Middle East to the tune of billions of dollars from Qatar?
"The question is, how is this happening and how is it that they are so coordinated? They're all chanting the same slogans. Who is paying for the buses? Who is paying for the private planes that are bringing in the outside agitators?
"America needs to wake up, just like we were bombed by the Japanese [at] Pearl Harbor well into World War II and that woke us up. We have been bombed and Americans need to wake up right now."
She said that protestors were "following the exact textbook on how to overthrow a democracy."
Newsweek reached out to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the chief organizer of the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment," via email for comment.
CUAD describes itself as a "coalition of 100+ Columbia University student groups who see Palestine as the vanguard for collective liberation." It also calls for Columbia University to "divest all economic and academic stakes in Israel."
The coalition says they "firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students-Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black, and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues who represent the full diversity of our country."
"Our members have been misidentified by a politically motivated mob, doxxed in the press, arrested by the NYPD, and locked out of their homes by the university. We have knowingly put ourselves in danger because we can no longer be complicit in Columbia funneling our tuition dollars and grant funding into companies that profit from death," CUAD said on Instagram.
"As a diverse group united by love and justice, we demand our voices be heard against the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. We've been horrified each day, watching children crying over the bodies of their slain parents, families without food to eat, and doctors operating without anesthesia. Our university is complicit in this violence and this is why we protest."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
