GOP Senator demands Biden send National Guard to protect Jewish students at colleges

United States Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) demanded that President Joe Biden should send the U.S. National Guard to college campuses to “guarantee Jewish students’ safety” after pro-Palestinian protests erupted at Columbia University ahead of Passover, a Jewish holiday.

“Eisenhower sent the 101st to Little Rock,” Hawley said in a post to X. “It’s time for Biden to call out the National Guard at our universities to protect Jewish Americans.”

The White House issued a strong rebuke on Sunday of the antisemitic remarks shouted at several pro-Palestinian protests calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous — they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

“My Administration will continue to speak out and aggressively implement the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, putting the full force of the federal government behind protecting the Jewish community,” the president said

Protests on campuses are stemming from the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7. killing 1139 people . Since the Oct. 7 attacks Israel invaded Gaza killing over 34, 000 Palestinians mainly women and children and displacing over 90 % of the Palestinians in Gaza

Last week, more than 100 students at Columbia University and Barnard College were arrested for being involved with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of the students suspended from Barnard College for participation in the protests.

The level of campus unrest following clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators resulted in Columbia making classes virtual on Monday

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) condemned the demonstrations at Columbia, calling them “outrageous and un-American.”

“No student of any race or religion should have to leave campus because it’s become too dangerous,” the speaker said. “The universities allowing rampant antisemitism to rage on campus must be held immediately accountable.”

Three House Democrats — Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Dan Goldman (D-NY), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) — are planning to visit Columbia’s campus on Monday to meet with Jewish students.

“I will be coming to Columbia University to walk with the Jewish students. If the University won’t protect them, Congress will!” Moskowitz said on Sunday.

But Arab American Institute  president James Zogby   said that the students are protesting against the Genocide in Gaza and calling for immediate ceasefire to end the killing of Palestinians in Gaza . In a tweet   he wrote that antisemitism is misunderstood in America  :

• Being anti-Zionist isn’t antisemitism
• Saying that Israel is committing genocide isn’t antisemitism
• -Saying that Israeli policy is apartheid isn’t antisemitism.

Let’s be clear:
– being anti-Zionist isn’t antisemitism
– saying that Israel is committing genocide isn’t antisemitism
– saying that Israeli policy is apartheid isn’t antisemitism.

Don’t allow the weaponization of antisemitism to silence legitimate criticism of bad policies

— James J. Zogby (@jjz1600) April 12, 2024

“People seem to forget that the Palestinian people like all the Arabs are semites too”, one Palestinian student was quoted as saying , stressing that the protests are strictly against the “Israeli genocide in Gaza and apartheid”

Mass arrests made as US campus protests over Gaza spread

Protests over the war in Gaza have taken hold at a handful of elite US universities as officials scramble to defuse demonstrations.

Police moved to break up an encampment at New York University (NYU) on Monday night, making a number of arrests. 

Dozens of students were arrested at Yale earlier in the day, while Columbia University cancelled in-person classes.

Protests and heated debates about the Israel-Gaza war and free speech have rocked US campuses since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, which prompted Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

The protest movement was thrust into the spotlight last week after New York City police were called out to Columbia’s campus and arrested more than 100 demonstrators.

Rallies have spread since then. In addition to NYU and Yale, encampments have been set up at the University of California at Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Michigan, Emerson College and Tufts.

Like their peers, the NYU protesters are calling on their institution to disclose and divest its “finances and endowments from weapons manufacturers and companies with an interest in the Israeli occupation”.

One student, Alejandro Tanon told the AFP news agency that the US was at a “critical moment”, likening the protests to historic demonstrations over the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa.

“We stand with Palestine and we stand with the liberation of all people,” one protester told the BBC’s US partner CBS News. 

NYU said 50 people were involved in the main encampment outside the business school. It described the protest as unauthorised, saying this disrupted classes.

Police started arresting them on Monday evening; they have not provided a number.

Hours before, nearly 50 protesters were arrested at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Authorities said hundreds of people had gathered; many of them refusing requests to leave.

Members of the protest groups who have given public statements have denied antisemitism, arguing that their criticism is reserved for the Israeli state and its supporters.

Mass graves found in Gaza

Workers uncovered more bodies on Monday from a mass grave at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The United Nations human rights chief has called for an investigation into the deaths and destruction of the hospital site. (Mohamed El Saife)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resembles Hitler and Israel’s allies will not escape justice,” stressing that “Israel must not be allowed to reoccupy Gaza and steps must be taken in this context.”

Erdogan believed that “Israel’s occupation or seizure of Gaza opens the door to other occupations.”

This is the second time in 3 months Erdogan compares Netanyahu to Hitler.

Erdogan’s attack comes after at least three mass graves were found at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, and 283 bodies have been so far recovered from them. This was revealed by Gaza’s civil defense in a statement on Monday .The graves were found in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex when Israeli forces withdrew, it said. Teams have been digging since Friday to recover the bodies.

News Agencies