As campus tensions over Israel flare, White House decries 'grotesque sentiments' against Jewish students [View all]

[Behind the Aegis]

As Jewish students studied inside the Cooper Union library, a pro-Palestinian protest formed on the other side of the glass. One student who was inside said the action was “targeted.” Courtesy of Abigail Mottahedeh

The day after several Jewish students at Cooper Union were told to hide as pro-Palestinian protesters banged on the doors of the school library, the White House issued a statement decrying the rise of antisemitic rhetoric on college campuses.

“Amidst the rise in poisonous, antisemitic rhetoric and hate crimes that President Biden has fought against for years, there is an extremely disturbing pattern of antisemitic messages being conveyed on college campuses,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in the statement.

“Just over the past week, we’ve seen protests and statements on college campuses that call for the annihilation of the state of Israel; for genocide against the Jewish people. Jewish students have even had to barricade themselves inside buildings. These grotesque sentiments and actions shock the conscience and turn the stomach.”

The statement tied the current campus turmoil to the Holocaust, and characterized protesters’ anti-Zionism as antisemitism. “They also recall our commitment that can’t be forgotten: ‘never again,’” Bates continued. “Delegitimizing the State of Israel while praising the Hamas terrorist murderers who burned innocent people alive, or targeting Jewish students, is the definition of unacceptable – and the definition of antisemitism.”

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