Sunday marked six months since the October 7 terrorist attack, where Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 240 people into Gaza. Many people took to social media to remember the victims and bring awareness to the remaining 133 hostages trapped in Gaza.

 

As part of the latest ceasefire negotiations on Monday, Israel demands that Hamas release at least 40 living hostages, and Hamas replied that they do not believe they have 40 still alive. Users online reacted to the news by expressing outrage that fewer hostages may be alive than they hoped, and redoubling their efforts to advocate for their release by using #BringThemHomeNow. 

The FCAS Command Center has tracked over 158 million mentions about Israel and the Israel-Palestine conflict between October 7 and April 7, which is an over 3,000% increase compared to the previous 6 months, showing how extensive conversation is online. There are over 10 million mentions of the word “hostage” or “hostages” within this time period, demonstrating the scale and scope of online discussion and support calling to release the hostages throughout the past six months. In January, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded a total of 3,291 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. within the first 4 months since October 7, which constituted a 360% increase in antisemitic incidents. 

Four Vanderbilt students were arrested after breaking into the Chancellor’s office and assaulting a community service officer during an anti-Israel protest last month. One of the protesting students, Jack Petocz, posted about his role in the protest and his subsequent expulsion on X on Saturday, gaining millions of views. He received significant backlash for claiming he was “peacefully protesting,” as X users commented with videos of the protest. Petocz refuted these allegations despite Nashville police charging the protesters with assault.

 

Other universities are taking similar measures to discipline unsanctioned or illegal protests on campus, including Pomona College where 20 students were arrested for storming the president’s office and shouting racist slurs on Friday, and Columbia University where students were expelled last week for an unauthorized anti-Israel event. Many users online applauded these universities for taking action to discipline protesters for breaking university rules. 

 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released its first Campus Antisemitism Report Card on Thursday to guide potential college students and their families on how universities are responding to antisemitism on their campuses. The ADL awarded only two “A” grades to Brandeis University and Elon University, and gave 13 universities an “F” for failing to protect Jewish students. Social media users discussed the lack of passing grades and called on universities to do more to combat antisemitism on their campuses.

The phrase “Death to America” was posted over 200,000 times in the past week according to the FCAS Command Center, after a crowd began chanting the phrase at an anti-Israel protest in Dearborn, Mich. along with “Death to Israel” on Friday. The organizer, Tarek Bazzi, also called Israel’s actions in Gaza “satanic.” Online conversation pointed to language like this becoming an attack on the entire Western world, not just Israel. Users also expressed horror that protesters in America would call for the death of their own country.

 

50 members of “Christians for a Free Palestine” were arrested after demonstrating at the Senate cafeteria on Tuesday, chanting “Senate can’t eat until Gaza eats.” Many people online condemned the protesters and wondered how they were allowed into the Senate building in the first place. 

A group of anti-Israel protesters at Rutgers University interrupted a university town hall meeting on Thursday, causing Jewish students and Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway to leave the event early. Other anti-Israel protests occurred recently at Arizona State University, Wellesley College, and University of Michigan.

 

An incident at a celebratory dinner for the University of Berkeley School of Law’s graduating class garnered significant attention on social media, becoming the latest topic of discussion around free speech and antisemitism. Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, hosted the dinner at his home. A law student, who is also the co-president of the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, attempted to give a speech about the Israel-Hamas war urging the university to divest from Israel. Dean Chemerinsky asked the student to leave before his wife, Berkeley law professor Catherine Fisk, attempted to grab the microphone from the protesting student.   

Videos of the incident have garnered millions of views online with many expressing shock and outrage over the confrontation. Many users said that the student’s First Amendment rights were violated, and called the events a racist assault on a Muslim student during Ramadan and falsely claiming the speech was not about Palestine. Others provided context to the video and pointed out that the school’s SJP chapter circulated posters in the law school building, and on their social media, depicting Dean Chemerinsky with a bloody knife and fork. The poster which has been accused of perpetuating blood libel, called for students to boycott the dinners as they are “normalization PR events that hopes to distract students from Dean Chemerinsky’s complicity and support for the genocide of the Palestinian people.” On X, Community Notes further emphasized that the First Amendment does not apply due to the event happening on private property and that the state of California permits the use of reasonable force to eject a trespasser who refuses to leave private property.

 

 

StandWithUs filed a federal complaint on behalf of a Jewish high school student who faced antisemitic bullying at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, Texas. In a 17-page filing, they allege multiple incidents dating back to 2021 according to the student’s detailed log. The student was the target of taunts such as “dirty Jew” and “Go bathe in Auschwitz where you belong,” and found drawings of swastikas and the phrase “Burn the Jews” on a bathroom stall. Despite such egregious instances of antisemitism, this incident did not gain significant traction online.

 

 

Bipartisan members of Congress introduced the Countering Antisemitism Act on Wednesday, the most comprehensive bill of its kind to combat antisemitism in America. The Act works to codify parts of the White House National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which was released in May 2023. The bill would establish a National Coordinator to lead an Interagency Task Force to Counter Antisemitism, and would require agencies to report on antisemitic incidents, prevent discrimination in higher education, and bolster the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. It would also designate the month of May as “Jewish American Heritage Month” in federal law. Many users online applauded the work of Congress and encouraged one another to write letters to their representatives to pass the Act. 

 

 

 

 

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