FBI Action Urged: Jewish University Students Must Be Protected

May 1, 2024

“We are witnessing the abject failure of universities to hold accountable those who have hijacked university campuses and failed to protect Jewish students, faculty, staff, and other supporters of Israel. Immediate action must be taken.”  - Jim Berk, CEO, Simon Wiesenthal Center

  FBI Urged To Investigate Pro-Hamas Campus Extremists Fueling & Mainstreaming Jew Hatred: University Officials Must Make Campuses Safe Again for Jewish Students 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging FBI Director Christopher Wray to bolster the FBI’s investigation into surging anti-Semitism in the United States.

“The onslaught of anti-Semitic hate speech on universities across the country is part of a coordinated and concerted effort to target Jewish students and threaten their safety on campus. This is not about free speech; this is about hate speech designed to foster anger, which has led to violence. This is not about the right to gather; this is about a small group, led in many cases by non-students, impeding the rights of all students to travel safely on their own campus,” said Berk.
 
SWC urges university officials to act by:  

1. Taking the same actions they would take if the protests were for any other group of students under siege in their own campuses.  
   
   
2. Ensuring that all students should be held to the same behavioral standards as outlined in their codes of conduct.
   
   
3. Moving quickly to take control of these dangerous threats to public safety before threats to student safety become a reality.  
   
   
4. Making sure the safety of a university's students should be the singular highest priority.   

 The following steps must also be taken: 

1. Private universities call in local law enforcement to reestablish order and protect all students. 
   
   
2. Public institutions call emergency services for help.
   
   
3. Students who violate school rules should be suspended or expelled. 
   
   
4. Administrators should adopt and apply the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.
   
   
5. The FBI must open a formal investigation into campus extremism and step up to support student safety and investigate clear ties to organized outside agitators.   

 It is clear that these organized bursts of sustained and expanding, belligerent actions and rhetoric on campuses are parts of well-planned campaigns. For this reason alone, students and communities deserve to have the protection of local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.