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Two years after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, antisemitic “venom” infecting America’s colleges hasn’t faded – it’s evolved, a professor said.
The protests may have quieted, but “venomous” hatred has gone underground, and it’s spreading through classrooms, faculty lounges, and student groups, William Jacobson, a Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, said.
He says universities have learned to mask the problem, cracking down on encampments and visible disruptions while the ideology driving the hate has only hardened.
“There has been a gross campaign at the international level to demonize Israel,” he told Fox News Digital. “False accusations of genocide. These are all percolating under the surface on the campuses. In some ways, the situation’s worse underneath.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, at Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., May 15, 2024. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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He argues that the same ideas that fueled the pro-Hamas protests of 2023 have now been absorbed into campus culture, where they are “more organized, more coordinated, and more dangerous” than before.
“People should not be complacent that these issues were brewing before October 7th,” he warned. “They’ve been pushed now back below the surface, but it’s still brewing on campuses and nobody should kid themselves.”
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He also accused elite universities of stalling the federal crackdown on campus antisemitism, saying they are “playing hide-and-seek” with the Department of Education’s investigations, and are betting they can simply outlast them.
“I think the schools think they can outlast the Trump administration,” said Jacobson. “That they can rope-a-dope it for two to three more years. And then perhaps they’ll be rescued by a new administration.”
He said many top universities care less about donor backlash and more about protecting the billions in federal funding that keep them afloat.
“They take a longer-term view. They think this is going to blow over,” he said. “For every alum who withholds a contribution because of anti-Israelism on campus, there’s probably another, probably a foreign donor, who makes up for it.”
“What they do care about is federal funding, because federal funding is on a scale that so far surpasses private donations that it’s something they can’t ignore,” he continued. “If Trump ends up prevailing in a lot of these lawsuits, and I believe he will, that’s going to put certain schools in a very bad situation.”
At Harvard University, federal officials have recently renewed efforts to limit the school’s eligibility for certain research grants and new government contracts, according to a recent Fox News Digital report. The Trump administration has argued that universities found to have violated anti-discrimination laws should not receive federal funding.
He likened far-left universities to “people clinging to a lifeboat after their ship was just sunk,” waiting for a change in political tides.
“They’re hanging on to the lifeboat waiting for help to arrive,” he said. “They will probably think we’ve been here before, and we’ll ride this one out.”
Barnard College Columbia University graduates sporting anti-Israel slogans prepare to enter the commencement ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, New York City, NY, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Columbia University has been a hotbed of protests as part of a nationwide movement on college campuses against the Israel-Hamas war. (Daniel McKnight for Fox News Digital)
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The professor said the roots of today’s prevailing hostility toward Jewish students go back to the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ massacre in Israel.
“People were marching, calling for an Intifada. People were marching, celebrating October 7th,” he said. “Let’s not forget, in many ways, the most important day for campuses was not October 7th – it was October 8th.”
That next day, he said, some faculty members began openly excusing Hamas’ actions as part of “decolonization.”
“That’s when [the] faculty started to make excuses for what Hamas and the Palestinians had done,” he said. “There was open sympathy for it. There was talk about, well, what did you think decolonization really means? It’s not just class papers — it’s a revolution.”
He pointed to examples at Harvard University and Cornell University, where one professor admitted he felt “exhilarated” after the attack before later walking the comment back.
“That nastiness that was there on October 7th and 8th is still there,” he said. “But it’s in some ways even worse because there are organized attempts to spread that sort of venom throughout the campuses.”
Free speech or intimidation?
He dismissed claims that universities are punishing students for their political views, saying the real issue is uneven enforcement of conduct rules.
“A lot of people say Palestinian students are being suspended for their speech. No, they’re not,” Jacobson said. “They’re being suspended because they take over the library. They disrupt people. They intimidate people. It’s conduct that they’re engaged in.”
Washington, Aug. 16 — Protesters gathered in Dupont Circle and marched to the White House to oppose President Donald Trump’s federalization of the Washington police department and the deployment of federal agencies and the National Guard. (Emma Woodhead/Fox News Digital)
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He said campuses tolerated disruptive tactics for months, creating what he called a “Palestinian exception to the rules.”
“All I have ever called for is to enforce the rules evenly,” he said. “You don’t get to set up checkpoints like they did at UCLA and weed out Zionist students. You don’t get to declare Zionist-free zones on a campus because you’re denying other students their right to education.”
‘It’s still brewing’
The professor said that despite public statements, few universities have truly reckoned with how antisemitism became normalized in their classrooms and administrative culture.
“I don’t believe the schools have changed their world outlook at all,” he said. “They’re just waiting it out. They’re playing hide-and-seek with the administration.”
Students at Columbia University participate in an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Jacobson’s remarks.