It's Time to Act Against Antisemitic Behavior on Campus | Opinion

In the past few weeks, we have witnessed an unabated explosion of Jew-hatred at some of the top American universities, including Columbia, Yale, New York University, and others.

This is not Tehran or Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, but New York and New Haven. In some cases, the situation today resembles 1930's Nazi Germany and Austria, where Jewish students were prevented from entering universities. But those blocking the way aren't your white supremacists of the past. Today's bigots are privileged, woke trust-fund kids and Hamas wannabes who can barely even point to Gaza on a map.

And they are getting noticed by some of the worst people in the world. The Popular Front for Liberation in Palestine, another U.S.-designated terror group involved in the Oct. 7 massacre that killed 1,200 in Israel, has expressed "unwavering support" for the protesting students.

In short, exclusive universities across America have become a second front for Hamas, with explicit calls for violence in some places, while at Columbia, keffiyeh-clad genocide fanboys taunt Jewish students: "Never forget the 7th of October. The 7th of October is going to be every day."

The protests are not about the expression of free speech or an exchange of ideas. Instead, it's about threatening and harassing Jewish students simply because of who they are, while expressing direct support for terror and violence.

The situation at Columbia has become so intolerable that even a leading rabbi on campus has urged Jewish students to "return home" for their own safety. We saw this visceral hatred with our own eyes when, during a visit to Columbia this week, a Jewish student asked for a hat to hide his kippah.

This is an inevitable result of the absence of leadership by university administrators.

When universities continue to permit anti-Jewish hatred under the guise of anti-Zionism; indulge hate groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and cannot even answer whether calling for genocide against Jews is against university policy, what did they think was going to happen?

In a statement ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, President Joe Biden said "this blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."

Condemnations of the protests and expressions of solidarity with Jewish students are certainly welcome, and in fact necessary, but in the absence of urgent action, they are hollow and meaningless.

The following, therefore, is a 10-point action plan to restore order and protect Jewish students:

1. These ugly scenes must be labeled not as peaceful protests, but as pro-Hamas demonstrations by antisemites.
2. Universities need to call in the police to remove these rioters and anarchists from their encampments on campuses. If the police won't, then the National Guard should be called in.
3. Leaders must speak to Jewish students who are scared to enter campus, listen to them, and provide all the support they need.
4. Students found in breach of school policy must be punished, including with expulsion, and banning of their registered student organizations, while foreign students found in violation should have their visas revoked and be deported.
5. Lecturers, professors, and staff found taking part should also be disciplined.
6. Do not cancel in-person classes. That would be cowering before the bullies and haters, putting students who want to learn at a disadvantage. If universities and teachers take appropriate disciplinary measures and security precautions, there should be no need to resort to virtual classes.
7. Follow the money to find out who is funding these protests and protesters. Qatar, for example, has poured billions of dollars into Ivy League universities, buying up schools, chairs, and fellowships.
8. Initiate an avalanche of lawsuits and Title VI claims. Jewish students are not powerless and universities that receive federal funding are prohibited under the Civil Rights Act from discriminating against students on the basis of race or national identity, or allowing a hostile environment to form.
9. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, the most widely endorsed definition of Jew-hatred in all its manifestations, must be adopted and applied by every university. The IHRA definition has already been adopted by more than 40 countries, thousands of civil society organizations and has received bi-partisan support in the United States.
10. And lastly, Congress must immediately pass legislation rescinding federal funding from any university that does not take satisfactory action against this tidal wave of antisemitism or fails to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment.

We are at an inflection point where universities must decide whether they want to remain respected places of higher learning for all or become no-go zones for Jewish students. The decision is theirs.

Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum, a global network of lawyers, combating antisemitism and terror. You can follow him on 'X' at @Ostrov_A. Amjad Taha is a political strategist from the United Arab Emirates. You can follow him on 'X' at @amjadt25.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.