College students push back against anti-Israel protests
A panel of college students spoke with FOX News' Lawrence Jones about the antisemitism they have faced since the Israel-Hamas war began.
As anti-Israel protests continue to erupt at colleges across the U.S., Jewish students are pushing back against universities allegedly turning a blind eye to antisemitism on their campuses.
"As soon as the terrorist attacks occurred, it became a hostile environment for Jewish students," Julia Wax, a Georgetown University law student, told FOX News on Tuesday.
"People are scared to go to class. You have to sit next to classmates who are posting antisemitic rhetoric, who are promoting rallies that spew antisemitic rhetoric. People are scared, and the universities are not doing their part, and they're not stepping up, and they're staying silent."
Responding to the upheaval, Wax founded a Zionist group on campus to give Jewish students a place to go and to understand their heritage. One of her best friends is on the front lines of the conflict, she said, and the Jewish students at the university are all tied to the conflict in the Holy Land in some way.
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Lauren Cayle (L), Michael Korvyakov (C) and Julia Wax (R) all condemned anti-Israel rhetoric unfolding on college campuses across the U.S. (FOX & Friends/Screengrab)
"Everybody at our school who is Jewish is at maximum two degree separation away from this," she said.
"I have students who are texting me who had just gotten back from Israel on Thursday, and it's difficult because these are people from Georgetown that are getting into Georgetown Law School, getting into Harvard, getting into Stanford, getting into Yale, and they're spewing this kind of rhetoric towards us. It's anti-Jew, it's anti-American, it's anti-democracy, and it's hateful, and it's spiteful."
Michael Korvyakov, a freshman at Georgetown, told "FOX & Friends" host Lawrence Jones that he has been witnessing similar rhetoric, including claims that some Hamas-led atrocities, including the beheading of babies, never happened.
"The biggest problem has really been the fact that student organizations have cropped up on campus that are largely spewing this antisemitic rhetoric. We had a rally a week ago in favor of Hamas. It was a Palestinian martyrs basically rally," he said.
"In addition to that, multiple organizations released statements basically calling for the destruction of the state of Israel and also calling for anti-Israeli sentiment."
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators attend a protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
Korvyakov credited the school with releasing a statement a day after the attacks happened, but alleged the language didn't go far enough in acknowledging Israel's right to exist or to defend itself.
"Our long-standing commitment to interreligious understanding enables us to draw upon our faith traditions—all shaped by the pursuit of peace. We each have to discern how we can best contribute to peace and reconciliation. In our sacred spaces—in our Makom, in our Masjid, in our chapels and religious spaces—we can bring the power of prayer to our engagement and our discernment," the statement from President John DeGioia read in part.
"As a university, we have a responsibility, in this moment, to contribute to understanding, and to build pathways to peace and reconciliation. We have a responsibility to one another—to provide consolation and support to those who are suffering. May we be equal to the demands of these responsibilities."
Pro-Israeli demonstrators attend a counter-protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
Lauren Cayle, a junior at American University, told Jones she has always been "loud and proud" about her Judaism, but she doesn't feel safe on campus while the pro-Palestinian rhetoric strives to undermine support for Israel.
"My friends and I are just trying to spread love and peace and support each other during these times. We had a rally last week on campus, and there were students and professors screaming at us the whole time," she said.
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"With signs saying that we were ethnic cleansing and that they need to see proof and that we were imperialist pigs," she continued. "How is that going to spread love and peace if you're just screaming over us and not letting us have a voice? We're just trying to support each other during these times and mourn together."
A protester outside Baruch College in New York City's Upper East Side. (Fox News Digital)
American University President Sylvia Burwell released a statement to the campus community on Oct. 12, offering her support to students devastated by Hamas' atrocities.
"I want to express American University’s ongoing support for our community following Hamas’s brutal assault on Israel and its people. The atrocities committed by Hamas on such a shocking scale, including horrific massacres and abhorrent hostage taking, are repugnant. We condemn these terrorist attacks and their affronts to humanity. Many from our Jewish community and beyond have shared their hurt and sorrow, including anguishing personal impacts of this extraordinary attack. It is devastating, and I offer my support," the statement read in part.
"This attack will result in a spiral of violence that will, sadly, cost more lives of Israelis and Palestinians."
The national chapter of the far-left group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) posted a "call to action" on social media after war broke out, calling for student chapters to organize pro-Palestinian rallies as war rages in the Mideast with no end in sight.
"Anybody in the current educational society that we live in who sympathizes with Hamas, calls them militants and says that it’s justified resistance, is directly threatening the mental and physical wellbeing of students on campus," Wax concluded.
"Our students don’t feel safe."
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FOX News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.