President Joe Biden on Monday again condemned the "antisemitic protests" at Columbia and now other universities as well as the protesters who "don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians."
Biden made the remarks during an Earth Day event at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Va., with the de facto leader of "The Squad," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. His comments came hours before the Jewish holiday of Passover.
"I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians and their …," Biden said before being cut off with another question, The Hill reported.
Biden’s public comments followed a statement released by the White House on Sunday night.
"Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous -- and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country," Biden said in the statement.
Biden didn’t go as far as saying that Columbia President Minouche Shafik should resign in the wake of the pro-Hamas protests.
"I don’t know that," he said Monday.
House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., released a statement Sunday saying that Shafik, fresh off her appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss antisemitism on her campus, should resign.
"While Columbia’s failed leadership spent hundreds of hours preparing for this week’s congressional hearing, it clearly was an attempt to cover up for their abject failure to enforce their own campus rules and protect Jewish students on campus," Stefanik said, in part.
A prominent rabbi with an Orthodox Jewish student organization at Columbia "strongly" advised Jewish students to go home Sunday. Recent events "have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD [New York Police Department] cannot guarantee Jewish students' safety," Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote in a message to about 300 students.
Jewish students were met with hate speech and threats of violence, with one blocked from passing through a section of campus by a throng of anti-Israel protesters. Another student recalled a protester brandishing a sign advocating for Hamas to target Jewish students, an act described as "a call to violence" and emblematic of the escalating tensions on campus.
"Over the past few months and especially in the last 24 hours, Columbia's leadership has clearly lost control of its campus, putting Jewish students' safety at risk," Stefanik’s statement said.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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