In response to Rutgers University’s announced “resolution,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) asked whether the school administration’s reply to the ten demands issued by the encampment organizers amounted to appeasement of antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters.
Included among their most egregious demands, the protesters ordered Rutgers to:
- “Divest from any firm or corporation materially participating in, benefitting from, or otherwise supporting the state of Israel’s settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide of Palestine and the Palestinian people…”;
- “Terminate its partnership with Tel Aviv University…”;
- Give out scholarships to Gazan students with taxpayer funding; and
- “…release a statement from the Office of the President acknowledging the ongoing genocide against Palestinians….”
“Any capitulation whatsoever to antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters is absolutely disgraceful,” said Smith, who visited the New Brunswick campus on Thursday to view the encampment on Voorhees Mall.
Just yesterday, Rutgers published a “comprehensive list” of protester demands—which included full amnesty for their actions—that were set forth as requirements for ending the encampment, which reportedly disrupted 28 exams and impacted more than 1,000 students.
“Instead of rewarding unbridled hatred for Jews and the nation of Israel, Rutgers should be working to combat the violent and antisemitic threats that have been escalating against Jewish students on campus,” said Smith, who co-chairs the House Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.
“The action taken by University officials is especially concerning in light of the ongoing investigation by Congress into Rutgers’ egregious history of antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students,” said Smith, who vowed to continue pressing to hold top leaders at the state university accountable.
A March letter informing the University of the congressional investigation notes that “Rutgers stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses.” The letter, which Smith said reads more like an indictment, specifically states that “Rutgers-Newark’s Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) has become notorious as a hotbed of radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity.”
Smith said that Rutgers has submitted approximately 80,000 pages to date in response to the congressional investigation that remains underway but noted that the vast majority of them have not been illuminative thus far.
In a speech on the House Floor earlier this week, Smith reiterated that “Hamas is a terrorist organization that commits mass murder of Jews and seeks the evisceration of Israel.”
“Don’t believe it?” Smith continued. “Remember the horrific violence of October 7th and the ongoing ordeal of the hostages. Or just read the Hamas Charter of 1988, the blueprint for genocide against the Jews—a modern-day Nazi-like final solution.