New York – As Columbia University Authorities are continuing negotiations with a group of anti-Israel protesters who have set up tents on a lawn in the middle of campus, Jewish and Israeli students say they are wary of walking in the area after sunset due to the presence and aggressiveness of the protesters. Are afraid.
“I had a friend who was beaten,” said third-year Itai Dryfus. columbia graduate and Israeli military veteran from Tel Aviv. “It’s scary. It’s violent.”
He pointed to a confrontation over the weekend where he said anti-Israel protesters confronted a group of counter-protesters who support the alliance between the US and Israel.
“You had Jewish people holding American and Israeli flags, and people holding a sign that said, ‘Al-Quds next target,'” he said, referring to the militant al-Quds Brigades, a Palestinian terrorist group. Hamas. “These are the same people who bomb buses, rape women and put children in ovens.”
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 others and took them hostage. Israel’s military response is still ongoing, and protesters at several major US universities, including Columbia, USC, UT Austin and Yale, have arrested dozens of anti-Israel protesters.
In Columbia, a group of protesters who had set up tents on school grounds were escorted out last week, but returned with more tents and took over the West Lawn.
“It’s loud, and it’s scary, and a lot of Jews and Israelis don’t walk around the campus after the sun goes down,” Dreyfus said.
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Jewish students have told Fox News Digital that they faced harassment, anti-Semitic rhetoric and even violence in confrontations with protesters. Several students who said they could comment on behalf of the camp declined to speak to Fox News Digital.
Dreyfuss told Fox News Digital that his girlfriend, who is also Jewish, was followed into the house. He said he was told to hit himself, spit and scream.
“I don’t think there’s any way this can happen on any campus where a large portion of your student body is just scared for their lives,” he said.
Dreyfus, speaking in front of a wall covered with missing person flyers dedicated to the remaining Israel hostages, said he believed the protesters also refused to speak with Jewish students or Israel supporters and called them “and Left in an echo chamber to become “even more radical”.
“I think a lot of things, especially inside the camp, are not about someone who looks like a Zionist or a Jew,” he said.
School leaders have been negotiating with the occupiers for several days, but so far they have refused to ask the police to remove them for a second time.
“I have full confidence that these discussions will be successful,” Colombia’s President Minogue Shafik said in a statement Thursday. “If they are not, we will need to consider alternative options to clear the West Lawn and restore peace to campus so students can complete the semester and graduate.”
He also said that the school planned to take action against students who violated the school’s code of conduct.
“We are working to identify those protesters who violated our policies against discrimination and harassment, and they will be put through the appropriate disciplinary processes,” she said. “The right to protest is necessary and protected in Colombia, but harassment and discrimination are contrary to our values and an insult to our commitment to being a community of mutual respect and kindness.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on campus on Wednesday and asked Shafiq to resign if the protests were not controlled.
Some Jewish students and critics of the university’s actions to date have also accused the administration of anti-Semitic discrimination.
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Earlier this month, another Israeli military veteran who attends columbia He sued the school, accusing it of harshly punishing him for using “fart spray” on anti-Israel activists while turning a blind eye to his anti-Semitic rhetoric.