Jewish advocacy groups compare Columbia student activists to KKK, seek DOJ intervention
The Zachor Legal Institute and StandWithUs urged the DOJ to investigate and prosecute anti-Israel student groups at Columbia under laws previously used against the KKK.
The groups write that Jewish students have faced significant harassment and intimidation.
On July 17, two nonprofit organizations wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, urging the agency “to investigate and prosecute” anti-Israel student organizations at Columbia University under laws that were once used to stymie KKK operatives.
The letter was written by the Zachor Legal Institute and StandWithUs, both of which focus on combating anti-Semitism.
“It is hard to differentiate the tactics of the Columbia Student Groups from those of Nazis in the early days of the Holocaust, Hezbollah in Beirut in the 21st century or, of course, the KKK in the American south after Reconstruction,” the groups contend.
“All one has to do is replace the confederate flags with Hamas flags and change ‘We Want A White School’ to ‘We Want a School without Jews’ or ‘We Won’t Go To School With Negroes’ to ‘We Won’t Go To School With Zionists,’” the groups argue. “The intimidation, harassment and deprivations are the same.”
StandWithUs and Zachor Legal Institute are not the only groups to draw comparisons between the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the KKK.
“They’re a large mob wearing masks to scare and incite people. Doesn’t that sound like the Klu Klux Klan?” New York Assemblyman Michael Reilly has stated.
The groups’ letter asks the DOJ to enforce two relevant provisions of the KKK Laws, 18 U.S.C. § 241 and 18 U.S.C.§ 245.
The letter explains that 18 U.S.C. § 241 would apply to any “conspiracy involving two or more people” whose object was to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate a person” in the “enjoyment of a right protected by the Constitution” and that the defendants understood the purpose of the conspiracy when they joined it.
For 18 U.S.C.§ 245, the DOJ would have to prove, among other elements, that a person used “force or threat of force” against a person “because of the victim’s race, color, religion, or national origin.”
The letter continues to detail the level of harassment and intimidation that Jewish students have been faced with and argues that the conduct has risen to a level that would be prosecutable under the KKK Laws.
“Jewish students were subjected to intimidation and physical attacks any time they dared approach the encampment, which was often necessary since the encampment was strategically located on an area of campus near dormitories and that students had to transit to get from one class to the next,” the document explains.
In a statement shared with Campus Reform, Marc Greendorfer, Founder and President Zachor Legal Institute, said: “It is hard to differentiate what is happening on campuses across the country today from what happened across the country after Reconstruction. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine have taken a page from the Ku Klux Klan’s playbook, using violence and intimidation to prevent Jews from exercising basic rights, like being on campus. Both civil and criminal deprivation of rights laws exist to combat this very situation, and thanks to groups like StandWithUs they are now being used in civil cases.”
”What is desperately needed, though, is for the Department of Justice to enforce the criminal side of these laws, as most of the individuals and groups behind the attacks are essentially judgement proof. The Department of Justice has used these laws frequently to address everything from blockades of abortion clinics to police misconduct and voter intimidation, so there is ample recent precedent for enforcing the laws as we have requested,” he continued.
”Putting those responsible behind bars will send the strongest possible message and will also disrupt the ability of these groups to continue their campaigns. While those behind the attacks claim they are being punished for political speech, the truth is that they are not engaging in political speech. They are doing exactly what the KKK used to do to Blacks on campuses—making the environment so hostile that the targeted students have no choice but to leave. Enforcing civil rights laws against the individuals and groups responsible for the campus attacks on rights is not only needed, it is exactly why the civil rights laws were enacted in the first place,” he concluded.
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
