Conversation about college campus antisemitism spiked by over 800% this week following the latest wave of anti-Israel protests on campuses, according to FCAS’ Command Center. Last Wednesday, a group of students at Columbia University erected tents on a main lawn on campus and created the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Since then, encampments have been formed at numerous universities, creating hostile environments for many Jewish students and resulting in hundreds of students being arrested following clashes with police. Protests on college campuses have been heavily criticized as antisemitic by many individuals online.

This graph depicts the volume over time of conversation about college campus antisemitism between October 1, 2023 and April 25th, 2024. 

 

The online discussion about protests on college campuses this week consists of more than two million posts, the largest spike in college campus antisemitism conversation since the beginning of the war on October 7th. This topic makes up over 25% of all conversations around campus antisemitism during the same time frame. Columbia University dominated the conversations this week, garnering over 60% of the total volume. Other universities that gained significant attention were Yale University, New York University, Harvard University, and the University of Southern California. As a response, some donors have decided to pull their funding of certain universities, including the founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism Robert Kraft, who declared “The Columbia I loved is no longer a place I know.”

 

Because of the scale of these events, we are dedicating the entire newsletter to online discussion about antisemitism related to the campus protests.

Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe on campuses following the widespread protests on campuses this week. Verbal harassment was reported throughout the week as chants calling to kill Jews and destroy the state of Israel have been present on numerous campuses. A viral video on social media showed a protestor at Columbia university telling Jewish students October seventh will become an everyday occurance for them. 

 

Other students have also reported incidents of physical assaults, including at Yale University where a student was reportedly attacked with a flag pole. On a number of campuses protestors formed human chains in order to prevent students from entering campus and their encampments, documented by many videos shared on social media. Incidents of Jewish students experiencing harassment on campus received hundreds of thousands of mentions online, with many users criticizing the antisemitic behavior exhibited in the protests on campus and calling on university presidents to take more action to protect their Jewish students. 

 

At Columbia University, which has become the epicenter for the encampments, President Shafik announced classes will be held virtually for the remainder of the semester after a Rabbi associated with the University urged students to leave campus and return home for their safety. Some criticized the decision as conceding to the protestors. 

Comparisons of antisemitic protests at Columbia University to the 2017 Unite the Right neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville, Va., went viral on social media this week. Videos of chants at the protest circulated, with phrases such as “Go back to Poland” and “No Zionists here” disturbing many users online, with some pointing out how these are reminiscent of neo-Nazis shouting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville. Others note that the Charlottesville demonstrators were right-wing and the Columbia protesters are left-wing, demonstrating how extremist views on both sides of the political spectrum promote antisemitism. 

 

This conversation was further driven by President Biden’s comments on the Columbia protests, in which he condemned both the antisemitic protests and “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians” on Monday. Several pundits considered his comments a “Charlottesville moment,” meaning that he sympathized with extremists the same way President Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” after the Charlottesville march. Trump further contributed to the conversation by stating on Wednesday that the Charlottesville march was a “peanut” compared to the ongoing antisemitic protests at college campuses. Several users online disagreed with Trump’s comment, accusing him of downplaying the violent neo-Nazi rally.  

Separately, anti-Israel students at Yale University formed a human chain to block Jewish students from attending their classes, driving many users online to compare the incident to a 1939 event in which Nazis used similar tactics to block Jews from entering university classes in Vienna. Users were outraged that such blatant antisemitism is occurring on American university campuses today and called for the Yale administration to punish the students involved.

Discussion over whether campus protests are considered a First Amendment right increased online this week after college students were disciplined for participating in anti-Israel encampments. These students argued that college administrators are infringing on their freedom of speech by suspending them from school for demonstrating. Users online argued that the students are breaking university codes of conduct by leading unauthorized protests on campus property. They point out that many of these encampments violate both university policy and local trespassing laws, resulting in authorities arresting many of the students involved. 

FCAS Founder Robert K. Kraft wrote an op-ed in Thursday’s issue of the New York Post, arguing that responsibility for one’s speech is inherent to freedom of expression. Kraft differentiated free speech from hate speech, asserting that student protesters calling for violence must be held accountable. Users online discussed similar points about free speech on campus, stating that intimidating speech resulting in threats to Jewish students may violate university policies and that private universities are entitled to their own rules regarding expression. Many users agreed that regulating antisemitic speech on college campuses is a matter of campus safety, not free speech.

 

 

 

 

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