Michelle Fischbach Grills Witnesses On SJP's Role In ‘Explosion’ Of Antisemitism On College Campuses

6 months ago

During a House Ways & Means Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-MN) questioned witnesses about antisemitism on college campuses and the Students for Justice in Palestine.

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00:00Ms. Fischbach. Thank you Mr. Chair and I absolutely agree we have to be the ones

00:06that speak out. I just it it's tragic that we have to have this hearing. It's

00:12absolutely tragic. It is 2024 and this should not be happening and it is it is

00:17appalling and I so you can see my as I was listening to Mr. Schneider I'm

00:24getting more and more upset but I did want to kind of refocus. I know that

00:28Fitz, Mr. Fitzpatrick talked a little bit about FJP and and SJP has been

00:35mentioned a couple of times and so I wanted to ask Mr. Marcus, I mean you're

00:41obviously familiar with the with the group, would you mind telling us a little

00:45bit more about the group and maybe the role that it's been playing in this in

00:50this explosion of anti-semitism on campuses? Congresswoman Fischbach, yes.

00:55There is no one single group that's responsible for this entire problem.

01:00There are many groups involved and then there are many wrongdoers who are not

01:03part of groups but SJP is involved far more than any other single individual on

01:09many many campuses, not just in protest but in various forms of hate as well. On

01:16some campuses their violation of rules or undermining of values has led to

01:21their temporary or permanent suspension or expulsion but they are still active

01:28on a large number of universities. They're also active as law students for

01:32justice in Palestine and now they're also faculty for justice in Palestine as

01:37well. These groups in addition to having been found responsible for violations of

01:42university rules and for their involvement in issues that may create a

01:47hostile environment for Jewish students, the toolbook for the national SJP says

01:53among other things and I'll quote, we as Palestinian students in exile are part

01:58of this movement, meaning the resistance movement, not merely in solidarity with

02:04this movement, we must act as part of this movement. Now the resistance

02:08movement is often understood to include Hamas, known also as the Islamic

02:13resistance movement. So when an organization of students who says that

02:18they are not merely in solidarity but that they are part of this movement, it

02:22raises the question of how they as an organization are relating to a US State

02:28Department designated terrorist organization and doing it actively on

02:34campuses around the United States. Thank you very much and professor maybe you

02:38want to add and Ms. Dorr I'm going to ask you too, if the response and the

02:43evidence we've seen, how did the universities respond to, did they take

02:49sufficient or proper response to those organizations? I can speak about a lot of

02:56universities but the best one that I can is my own Columbia. Nothing. They have

03:02written beautiful emails. It took the president of the university six months

03:08minus two days to acknowledge that Hamas exists. So I have been asking, I've been

03:15pleading for them to condemn Hamas. They wouldn't even use the word Hamas in any

03:19official email until April 5th and that was because she was subpoenaed to

03:25testify in front of Congress. So if it takes the president of a quote-unquote

03:31elite, not elite, but expensive university to even acknowledge that

03:35Hamas is responsible for this, then I'm not surprised and you shouldn't be

03:41surprised but she and her administration had done absolutely nothing. Thank you. I

03:47think something worth noting is the double standard. All other groups are

03:53subject to policy enforcement and Students for Justice in Palestine and

03:57hate groups on my campus are not. Fraternity Brothers most recently

04:02received firm disciplinary action for drinking beer in a backyard with a

04:06permit. The Students for Justice in Palestine group had an unauthorized

04:10encampment, ruined our entire quad, the entire lawn needed to be redone and did

04:15not receive any actual enforcement on that. In fact, they received complete

04:21immunity and a thank-you letter from our university. And I just want to say

04:25thank you all for being here and thank you for standing up because you're

04:30doing something courageous by being here too and I appreciate it and I for one I

04:35will say I will stand with you because this is it's appalling that we are

04:41dealing with this in 2024 and I thank you for being here and with that I yield

04:45back.

Michelle Fischbach Grills Witnesses On SJP's Role In ‘Explosion’ Of Antisemitism On College Campuses

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