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Defund Universities That Allow, Ignore Antisemitism, US Senator Says
US Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee markup in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, June 11, 2020. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Tuesday called for defunding colleges and universities that refuse to take significant steps to condemn and combat antisemitism on their campuses.
Blackburn touted the idea in a guest column published in the Knoxville News Sentinel, a local Tennessee newspaper, affirming a position she already took in October by cosponsoring the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act — which was introduced in the US Congress following an explosion of antisemitic incidents on college campuses after Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7. The bill would rescind federal funding for colleges and universities that fail to take steps to combat antisemitism on their campuses.
“Antisemitism has ticked up 337% since Oct. 7 and Hamas’ massacre of innocent Israelis. Higher education institutions across the United States have erupted with unsettling protests against the Jewish people — leaving many Americans stunned and disturbed,” Blackburn wrote. “These threats of violence and intimidation targeting people of Jewish heritage reject the very principle of religious freedom on which our country was founded and continues to stand.”
The guest column came amid a surge in antisemitism on college campuses across the West. Universities have been hubs of such antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Palestinian terror group’s rampage. Incidents of harassment and even violence against Jewish students have also increased. As a result, Jewish students have expressed feeling unsafe and unprotected on campuses. In some cases, Jewish communities on campuses have been forced to endure threats of rape and mass slaughter.
“I firmly believe that not a single dime from American taxpayers should be given to universities that allow, promote, or turn a blind eye to antisemitism on their campuses,” Blackburn wrote.
In her piece, Blackburn cited two former US presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan, whose public statements championed religious freedom as an essential human right, arguing that higher education’s failure to protect Jewish students falls short of the ideals they articulated. Additionally, the senator accused Harvard University president Claudine Gay and former University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill of concealing their indifference to the welfare of Jewish students behind a commitment to free speech, which, she alleged, elite higher education has not upheld in the past.
Magill resigned from her position earlier this month after telling a congressional committee that deciding whether calling for the genocide of Jews constituted a violation of the private university’s code of conduct was “context dependent.”
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, elite college faculty who have expressed conservative opinions on racial preferences and other controversial subjects have been subject to investigations, rumor mongering, and even termination. Meanwhile, Columbia University issued no statement nor took any action after professor Joseph Massad said in a column published in Electronic Intifada that Hamas’ invasion on Oct. 7 was “awesome” and that the terrorists who para-glided into a music festival in Israel to rape and murder the young people there were “the air force of the Palestinian resistance.” Neither did the University of California, Berkeley after Gender and Women Studies Department lecturer Brooke Lober falsely claimed during a city council meeting in Oakland, California that Israel fabricated accounts of Hamas’ atrocities and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), not Hamas, murdered Israeli civilians.
Elaborating on her personal opinion on free speech, Blackburn argued that the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not protect “speech that incites violence and genocide is not protected speech.” Such language puts the Republican senator out of step with some right-leaning individuals and organizations, such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which has championed the belief that nearly all speech, regardless of its vulgarity or potential to corrupt public debate, is protected by the First Amendment.
“The brutal attack by Hamas has exposed the cesspools that our higher education institutions have become,” Blackburn concluded. “We must demand a change in our higher education system. There must be no quarter for antisemitism on American college campuses or in our K-12 schools. Institutions that do must not receive a single dime from the federal government.”
Congress has taken action since Oct. 7 to address what experts have described as a double standard on antisemitism. Earlier this month, the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), announced an investigation into top universities to determine whether they have intentionally ignored and declined to punish antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
According to the antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, public statements issued by colleges already reveal a difference in how they respond to antisemitism versus other forms of racism.
A new study by the group — titled “Selective Sympathy: The Double Standard in Confronting Jewish Student Trauma & Antisemitism” — found that only 4 percent of statements from US colleges and universities on the Oct. 7 onslaught identified Hamas’ attack as antisemitic. Just 2 percent of the statements committed to addressing antisemitism.
Another key finding of the study was that only 14 percent of university statements issued after the Hamas atrocities acknowledged the trauma that the massacre had on Jewish members of the campus community, and just 65 percent condemned the Hamas attack, with many of them also blaming Israel for its policies toward Palestinians.
In contrast, the report found, nearly 100 percent of university statements issued after the killing of George Floyd and during a rise in anti-Asian violence “unequivocally condemned the incidents affecting Blacks and Asians/Asian American” and “acknowledged the emotional trauma suffered by their Black and Asian/Asian American communities following attacks targeting members of those communities.” Meanwhile, 100 percent of statements “named racism and anti-Asian hate as the motivator of their respective incidents,” and more than 90 percent “committed to addressing bigotry directed against Blacks and Asians/Asian Americans.”
AMCHA described the inconsistent responses to discrimination as an “anti-Jewish” double standard. Whether colleges apply it to disciplinary investigations is now up to Congress to decide. In the interim, lawmakers in the body are reviewing the Stop Antisemitism in College Campuses Act. It has been referred to committees in both the House and Senate.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Defund Universities That Allow, Ignore Antisemitism, US Senator Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.