Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., joined “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” to criticize colleges for allowing antisemitic protests on its campuses “under the guise of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
Lawler’s criticism comes as students at elite college campuses across the nation are forming “Gaza Solidarity” encampments to call on their respective schools to either cut ties with or end their support of Israel.
The nationwide movement has spread to schools like Columbia, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, University of Southern California, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, University of Virginia and others.
Lawler said, “Congress must act to crack down on it because these universities and college presidents and administrators are failing in their responsibility to keep these students safe, and to ensure that there is a free exchange of ideas, but based in truth and reality, and not antisemitic rhetoric, designed to threaten and target Jewish students.”
Gowdy then pointed to concerns over the use of “tax dollars or public moneys” funding colleges that either can’t or won’t condemn “racist, antisemitic activities.”
“Bottom line to me is, you need to be able to define what antisemitism is, enforce it and if schools are failing in the enforcement, then they need to be stripped of federal dollars, including student aid. And that’s why I introduced the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act, which would defund institutions of higher learning,” Lawler said.
Lawler also insinuated these colleges would have “cracked down” right away if the ongoing protests were aimed at Blacks, Hispanics or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
This is an excerpt from an article by Christopher Lopez
