At today's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) questioned college presidents about antisemitism on college campuses.
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00:00I recognize the gentleman from Georgia, Representative Allen.
00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank our witnesses for being here today.
00:13Obviously, and you've heard this over and over, we're all extremely troubled by the anti-Semitic activities occurring on college campuses across the country.
00:22Our country's made tremendous strides in hopefully getting along with our friends from all over the world,
00:34and our institutions of higher education seem to be serving as breeding grounds for anti-Semitic activities.
00:43This anti-Semitic rhetoric has reached institutions beyond just the so-called elite schools like Columbia or Harvard,
00:50which we questioned some time ago.
00:56As I stated before, as the oldest and most established democracy in the region,
01:00Israel exemplifies the core values of freedom and democracy.
01:05Jerusalem is the center of the universe.
01:08A lot of people think Washington is, but that's where it's going to happen.
01:11And, of course, you know, for those who are familiar with the Bible, the book of the Word of God,
01:23Genesis 12, 3 states,
01:25I will bless those who bless you, talking about Israel, and whoever curses you, I will curse.
01:32And that is a serious issue.
01:34In fact, it also goes on to say that all nations will be blessed through Israel.
01:40In fact, in John 4, 22, Jesus said salvation, even for Gentiles, will come through the Jews.
01:50And so, Dr. Paul, this is a serious, serious issue we're talking about.
01:55In fact, it has eternal consequences.
02:00And, I mean, DePaul President, Dr. Robert Manuel,
02:04with that being said, the anti-Semitic extremist group behind enemy lines continues to trespass
02:11on DePaul's campus and harass Jewish students.
02:15This is the same group that made a wanted poster featuring a Jewish Israeli student at DePaul.
02:21In January, the group handed out flyers on campus that urged students to get dangerous.
02:27Then, just this past March, the group was able to infiltrate a DePaul building as part of its week of defiance.
02:35Dr. Manuel, were any arrests made in either of these instances?
02:41Thank you for the question, Representative.
02:43Once we saw that post, we immediately trespassed BEL from our campus.
02:48We're an urban campus with many public streets and right-of-ways.
02:52We're working with our elected officials to see if there's not more we can do to stop the harassment of BEL against our students.
03:00So, were any of these students arrested?
03:03Again, we kept BEL from being on our campus.
03:07And on a number of occasions where they were involved in protests,
03:11our relationship with CPD prevented them from coming onto our campus to engage our students.
03:16So, what are you doing to prevent this from happening again?
03:21We are training our public safety officers.
03:25We're working with the aldermen, the elected officials in our area,
03:27to see if we can't get broader protections in the public space.
03:32And we continue to report things, like you mentioned, in the social media,
03:36both to the FBI and to the Chicago police.
03:39President Raymond, let's talk about restorative practices,
03:43a group to resolve disciplinary issues in your university.
03:48The directors of the group, Dr. Mon McHenry and Dr. Jill Stauffer,
03:53both publicly support the academic boycott of Israel.
03:57And Dr. McHenry is a member of the Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine.
04:03And in December 24, liked an Instagram post glorifying a member of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine,
04:11a U.S. designed terrorist organization with a history of murdering Jews.
04:15With the caption reading, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
04:21Would a Jewish student feel comfortable with Dr. McHenry leading restorative practice,
04:27giving her glorification of violence against Israel?
04:31Representative, we are committed to supporting our entire Jewish community.
04:39We are proud of it.
04:41And intersections with all aspects of our disciplinary processes are ones that I take very seriously.
04:51They must be done well.
04:53Well, it would seem that you would put into practice those things that, I mean, you're, we're here, I mean, we're hearing,
05:03and it's been, the testimony is correct about what's going on on these campuses.
05:08But, you know, the action that we're hearing, you know, like I said, we've got to fix this.
05:15And so, with that, I'll yield back, Mr. Chairman.
05:20I thank the gentleman.
05:22I recognize the gentleman from Utah, Vice Chairman of this committee, Representative Owens.
05:28Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:29It is really unfortunate that it's been over a year since our first hearing on anti-Semitism.