Campuses are already paying the price of last school year’s weak-kneed, appeasing administration responses, as violence and threats by radicals rachet up again.

Last school year was a nightmare for Jewish college students. They and most higher education administrators were unprepared for the explosion of illegal campus demonstrations expressing anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-American hate.

Jewish students were physically attacked and their civil rights blatantly and unashamedly denied them by protesters. Universities were trespassed and vandalized, and their rules enforcing respectful behavior and academic freedom were trampled. Sadly, it took both Jewish students and college administrators nearly the entire school year to understand—and respond to—the full impact of the calamity.

While some punitive efforts were begun by government agencies, some legal proceedings initiated by students, and some corrective policies introduced by universities, the dust has not settled. Virtually no criminal protesters nor negligent universities have been punished. As the new school year begins, organizers of last year’s insurrection are making their intentions clear: They’re back with a vengeance.

It’s time for those who care about Israel, Jewish students and hallowed values of higher education in America to assess the battleground. What have we learned about the motivations, ideologies and strategies of the protesters? What do we know about who is funding them? What do we understand about forcing university leaders to protect academic freedom and student safety? What do we know about the legal recourse open to those whose rights are violated on campus? Finally, how can we who are invested in these issues and their fair outcomes ensure that justice is done—that we defeat student terrorism?

Supporters of Israel, Jewish students and academic freedom now understand that our campus enemies are neo-Marxist revolutionaries. A few weeks ago, the Student Intifada coalition of anti-Israel pro-Palestinians groups promised “the total eradication of Western civilization.” They tell us they are fighting “US colonialist and imperialist institutions.” The neo-Marxists also say the world consists of two kinds of people—oppressors and oppressed. Jews and most Americans are considered oppressors.

Adding a racist note, the pro-Palestinian thugs simplistically claim that the oppressed are people of color, while their oppressors are white. Israel is thus (somehow) a white, colonial state—ignoring the fact that Jews originated as an indigenous people of color in the Middle East, and most Israelis are people of color.

Pro-Hamas demonstrators are well-funded by establishment organizations. According to an analysis by Politico, donors include a who’s who of Democratic Party supporters: Soros, Rockefeller and Pritzker. Pro-Hamas protesters also receive funding from abroad. The top donor? Qatar, which has donated more than $3 billion to about 28 universities across the U.S. since 2012. Qatar gives refuge to Hamas leaders and is a major financier of the terrorist group. Qatar’s funds are used to promote Marxist and postmodern thought, as well as anti-Israeli events, such as Israeli Apartheid Week.

Some efforts have forced meaningful reforms on campus, while others have not. For example, some donors have withheld their donations from colleges in the hopes of forcing them to fight Jew-hatred. In one case, Robert Kraft, CEO of the New England Patriots, pulled his donations to Columbia University. Unfortunately, little evidence proves that such withdrawals of individual financial support influence major universities.

Lawsuits and civil rights complaints have proven more effective. Following a lawsuit against New York University (NYU), where pro-Hamas protesters chanted, “gas the Jews,” the university updated its Non-Discrimination and Harassment Policy to include language that identified “Zionist” as a term that can conceal the antisemitic intent of speech and other conduct that denigrates and excludes Jews.

In another settlement, North Carolina State University agreed to update its anti-discrimination policies to recognize anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism and include antisemitism in its programming on racial and ethnic hatred.

Some lawmakers have also taken action to protect Jewish students and college campuses from student terrorists. North Carolina recently passed a law requiring all state institutions to abide by the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes anti-Zionism. Ohio passed the CAMPUS Act, which requires public and private universities to adopt and enforce policies regarding racial, religious, and ethnic harassment.

At the federal level, the Restoring Civility on Campus Act was recently introduced in the Senate. It is intended to provide more transparency for federal civil rights investigations into reports of discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, which includes antisemitism and Islamophobia. This legislation also increases fines that can be levied on colleges for failing to disclose a crime motivated by antisemitism on their annual security reports. Unfortunately, this Act has yet to pass, let alone prove successful in quashing hate on campus.

Lessons learned to fight back against student terrorism on campus: 1) Neo-Marxist ideology is the main motivator for the pro-Hamas protesters. Rooting out curricula and faculty that foster this revolutionary ideology, such as critical race theory and violent “resistance”—including genocide—should be a top priority.  Abolishing faculty tenure would also allow a housecleaning of revolutionaries ensconced in academic positions.

2) Funding that promotes the teaching of antisemitism and anti-Americanism needs to be curtailed, particularly that which comes from terrorist-supporting countries like Qatar.

3) State and federal levels of government need to enact legislation that ensures Jewish students are equally protected from hate-fueled discrimination on campus. Colleges should be required to include antisemitism and anti-Zionism as part of their anti-discrimination policies. Violators should be subject to severe financial penalties.

4) We should encourage aggressive legal action against post-secondary institutions that fail to protect Jewish students, as this has proven effective in changing these institutions’ policies.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that we are fighting determined anti-Israel and anti-American enemies on campus. Those who commit illegal acts or break school policies deserve harsh punishment. Finally, we must ensure that Jewish students—and all other students—experience a safe learning environment, no matter their political leanings.

If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge.

Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S. The riots, vandalism and illegal trespassing on American college campuses have sharpened the knives of the Israel haters. It’s become clear that the “pro-Palestinian” protesters are purely anti-Israel and support the genocide of Jews “between the river and the sea.” Scandalously, we’ve also seen hard evidence that university administrators are willing to ignore or openly support the antisemitic hate speech and harassment of Jewish students—though they would never permit such behavior against other minorities. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of Jewish students and hate-free campuses need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Stop Terrorism on Campus”—calls for four actions to eliminate campus outlaws and to restore rights to all students. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME recently published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Mercury News. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation.

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