(DailyVantage.com) – The escalation of hostilities in the Middle East have triggered a wave of massive anti-war and pro-Palestinian protests in many colleges and universities around the country, leaving many lawmakers concerned.
More than half of the GOP membership in the Senate, in particular, are calling on the administration of President Joe Biden to step in and do something about the protest actions, some of which reportedly employ the use of antisemitic language and promote violence against Jews.
Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton stands at the head of a group of 27 Republican legislators from the Senate who have penned a missive to Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General and Miguel Cardona, the secretary of the Department of Education, asking that the government does what it can to “restore order” in school campuses around the country.
One such example is Columbia University, which has seen the creation of a massive “occupy”-style protest action which has seen students barricade entire buildings, leading in turn to the decision to have the campus shut down. The prestigious New York university has switched to a full pandemic-style “remote” instruction for students. The rabbi for the university and Barnard College, Colombia’s partner school, also issued a call for Jewish students to seek safety back in their homes given the current atmosphere of “extreme antisemitism and anarchy” in the campus.
Another prestigious university, the University of Southern California, cancelled its main commencement ceremony after the wave of disruptive protest actions in campuses around the country – and subsequent arrests in some cases – which USC officials fear could happen if it pushed through with the graduation rites.
In their letter to Garland and Cardona, the GOP senators emphasized that rioting and “violence or attempted violence against anyone because of their Jewish heritage” are both against federal law. They also said that schools who stand idly by in the face of antisemitism and harassment of Jews should lost access to government support funding, and said that immigrants who support terrorist groups such as Hamas should be deported.
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