As American colleges begin cracking down on anti-Semitic events, some California schools let violence go unchecked
Colleges across America have finally begun to crack down on extremely disruptive protests and events on campus.
Colleges across America have finally begun to crack down on extremely disruptive protests and events on campus.
[RELATED: Vanderbilt University suspends, expels students who occupied chancellor’s office during pro-Palestinian protest]
From Vanderbilt to Columbia University, college administrators have recently disciplined disruptive pro-Palestine protesters, even arresting some.
[RELATED: Columbia University suspends and evicts students involved in event that featured Israeli-designated terrorist group]
Here’s a list of the colleges that have cracked down on disruptive pro-Palestine activists:
After around 30 pro-Palestine students occupied Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office on March 26 to protest the cancellation of a vote to change the student government constitution, administrators suspended and expelled many of the students who participated. Three students were charged with Class A misdemeanor assault after they pushed a Community Services Officer and a staff member who offered to meet with them while they forcefully entered Kirkland Hall.
The proposed change to the student government constitution would have prevented student government funds from going to businesses that work with Israel.
Columbia University suspended four students and evicted them from campus housing after they were allegedly involved in a pro-Palestine virtual event that featured an Israeli-designated terrorist organization. The event was hosted virtually inside a university residence hall. A university spokesperson said the event was “unsanctioned” and “unapproved.”
The group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, hosted the virtual event titled “Resistance 101,” on March 24 with Samidoun, a Palestinian advocacy group. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and has been banned from Germany.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Samidoun leader Khaled Barakat talked to attendees at Columbia about his “friends in Islamic Jihad.”
Barakat’s wife, Charlotte Kates, also participated in the event, discussing her support for Hamas.
“Hamas is a mass Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role right now, and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” Kates said. “The action that the Palestinian resistance took on the seventh of October was an earth-shattering undertaking.”
Pomona College, a private institution in California, suspended around 18 students who staged a sit-in at a campus administrative building to protest the removal of a “mock apartheid wall.”
The group, Pomona Divest from Apartheid, held a sit-in with over 150 students at Alexander Hall on April 5. Claremont police said that around 30-40 protesters entered Alexander Hall.
After ordering protesters to leave, according to the report, 19 students were arrested on trespassing charges, and an additional individual was arrested on charges of obstructing an officer. Students from other Claremont Colleges were also at the protest.
Pomona Divest from Apartheid previously made a mock apartheid wall and occupied an outdoor area of campus, which was taken down by the college. The group has also disrupted several campus tours.
American University
According to the American Eagle, American University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after members of the group held a silent march through two university buildings while holding signs calling on the administration to end support for Israel.
Police at the University of Georgia removed disruptive students at a College Republicans and Turning Point USA event featuring Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) on April 3.
”You’ve demonstrated that you serve the genocidal state of Israel rather than the American people,” a protester yelled at Collins before police removed her from the room.
Luke Winkler, president of the University of Georgia College Republicans told Campus Reform that protesters disrupted the event for about 20-30 minutes.
”Really, honestly, the rest of the meeting, to where it was just someone would stand up and start reading something off of their phone and just start screaming at Congressman Collins,” said Winkler.
While several universities have taken action against disruptive protests, California public colleges continue to let them slide. Some colleges, such as San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley, have taken little to no action to hold disruptive protesters accountable.
San Francisco State University
As Campus Reform previously reported, when Gaines spoke at San Francisco State University’s Turning Point USA chapter in April 2023, protesters attempted to disrupt her event by “stomping” and “yelling” in attempts to shout down her voice.
Protesters even followed Gaines after the event when she was escorted to a secure location by police, where she was forced to stay for nearly three hours until the hecklers left.
Rather than condemn the protesters for disrupting the event and putting Gaines in an unsafe situation, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney praised campus community members who “rallied quickly to host alternative inclusive events, protest peacefully and provide one another with support at a difficult moment,” according to KRON.
Mahoney attempted to diminish the incident as a “disturbance” that “delayed the speaker’s departure.”
University of California, Berkeley
After an event that featured former Israel Defence Forces member Ran Bar Yoshafat on Feb. 26 was forced to move off campus following pro-Palestine protesters forcibly entering the building, university administrators have taken little to no action against the group that organized the protest, which turned violent.
At the protest, which was organized in part by Bears for Palestine, a Pro-Palestine group at the University of California, Berkeley, Jewish students reported several violent incidents.
One student reported being shoved into an auditorium door, another was allegedly grabbed by the neck, and another was called a “dirty Jew.”
The protesters successfully prevented Yoshafat from speaking, as windows were smashed and around 200 protesters mobbed the building, preventing others from entering, as Campus Reform previously reported.
University administrators repeatedly condemned the protest, only one criminal suspect has been identified for trespassing and no action has been taken against Bears for Palestine. A university spokesperson told Campus Reform that it is investigating student organizations.
[RELATED: 20 Pomona College students arrested after occupying administrative building for Palestine]
As Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Zachary Marschall pointed out in his November analysis article, “California is the eye of the Jew-hating storm ravaging campuses.”
”California has a deep history of leftist activism that makes it the epicenter of anti-Semitism’s strength. Its radical political tradition is the eye of the storm that feeds the bands of hate and discrimination stretching across the country,” Marschall wrote.
Marschall pointed out that University of California, Davis, Assistant Professor Jemma Decristo still has a job after threatening Jewish journalists.
”One group of ppl we have easy access to in the US is all these zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation [sic],” Decristo wrote on X. “they have houses w addresses, kids in school.”
”they can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more 🔪🪓🩸🩸🩸”
