Antisemitism escalated across several U.S. university campuses over the weekend in response to the ongoing effort by Israel to root out the Hamas terrorist group from Palestine. The war between Israel and Hamas began after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 men, women and children.

The situation hit a fever pitch last Friday at Columbia University in New York City, where protesters screamed these words at two Jewish students just outside the campus gates: “Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 times, not 100 more times, … 1,000 … but 10,000 times! … The 7th of October is going to be every day for you.” 

This was one of numerous videos that surfaced over the weekend of anti-Israel groups chanting obscenities. In one video, protesters called for Hamas to “burn Tel Aviv to the ground,” which would entail the murder of more than 4 million Jews, and chanted, “Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too.”

And another, also from Columbia University, showed protestors yelling, “Oh Al-Qassam, You Make Us Proud, Kill Another Soldier Now! … Israel Will Fall! … Palestine Is Arab!” as well as other cries encouraging the obliteration of Israel. Some of the protestors even went as far as calling for the murder of the counter-protestors carrying American and Israeli flags. After some were arrested, including Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minnesota) daughter, the campus chaos continued.

An Ivy League college, Columbia became an epicenter when a tent city dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was created on the school’s campus on April 17.

According to National Review, “Columbia University announced on Sunday, April 21, that, in response to ‘extraordinarily challenging circumstances,’ it more than doubled its safety personnel per shift, enhanced perimeter safety, improved ID checks for entering campus, and added additional safety measures to the Kraft Center for Jewish Life.” 

Classes were also moved to an online format to better separate students from the danger on campus. Meanwhile, Columbia President Minouche Shafik spoke out against Saturday’s protest in a statement, “Anti-Semitic language, like any other language that is used to hurt and frighten people, is unacceptable and appropriate action will be taken.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments have since spread to more than a dozen schools across the country. Students are calling for an end both to the Israel–Hamas war and to their universities’ investment in companies engaged with Israel.

School administrators at Columbia did report some progress early this morning in negotiations with pro-Palestinian protesters, who agreed to remove a significant number of tents from the lawn, ensure non-students would leave, and bar discriminatory or harassing language among the protesters.

At Yale University in the Beinecke Plaza, roughly 500 protestors gathered on Saturday, calling for more violence while tearing down American flags. Allegedly, one Jewish student, Sahar Tartak, who was covering the protest as editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, was struck in the eye with a flagpole by a pro-Palestine protestor, reported The Washington Stand. She and her friends were singled out for their Hasidic Jewish clothing. According to Tartak, the university police and administration did nothing to stop these events.

Harvard closed its yard until Friday in anticipation of pro-Palestinian protests, reported Jim Denison on Denison Forum. Yale’s president is concerned about “reports of egregious behavior such as intimidation and harassment” on his campus. Officials at numerous schools are concerned that pro-Palestinian demonstrators will disrupt graduation ceremonies later this spring.

Thankfully, many bystanders are calling out the madness for what it is, said The Washington Stand. One user on X posted, “Absolutely disgusting. If this was being done against any other people it would be global news.” Another wrote, “Someone needs to explain to me how this is even allowed.”

Drawing the ire of many critics is the tacit approval of some faculty at several of these elite schools. 

The day after the Oct. 7 massacre, Columbia professor Joseph Massad praised the “awesome” scenes of the assault “witnessed by millions of jubilant Arabs.” In 2018, Columbia professor Hamid Dabashi posted on Twitter (now X): “Every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world” could be traced to “the ugly name of Israel.”

The Washington Stand opined: “Colleges like Columbia, Yale, and Harvard are increasingly producing students that publicly promote outright savagery against disfavored minority groups and engage in violence. We all have the right to free speech, but when that right is abused and used to justify the violence we’re seeing in these anti-Semitic protests, elite universities must stand up and draw the line.

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for education studies, told The Washington Stand, “College campuses in America have become ‘global’ environments isolated from common sense, where people with a progressive worldview make and enforce the rules that students, faculty and staff live out.”

She continued, “When that is coupled with a population of foreign students who pay full sticker price coming to the U.S. from countries which are at best hostile to the United States, the stage is set for very volatile escalation.” What we’re seeing, she added, is that “students are graduating from public high schools across the country where love for God, family, and country is undermined.” These same students then “matriculate to colleges and universities who accelerate that anti-American trend.”

For the church, which is called to expose evil and stand for what is good, Kilgannon insisted, “Christians need to stop writing checks to these colleges and universities, stop recruiting these students into your businesses, and stop aspiring to get degrees from these institutions. Ground your children in the faith.”

 Above: Pro-Palistine protesters hold placards expressing their opinions during an April 23 rally at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City.