US Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a resolution Tuesday condemning antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry on college campuses across the country.
"No to antisemitism. No to Islamophobia. No to all forms of racism and bigotry," Sanders said on the Senate floor, introducing the resolution in response to one offered by Sen. Tim Scott that did not go far enough in protecting students from bigotry, violence and the violation of their First Amendment right to protest and free speech.
His remarks came amid pro-Palestine college campus protests that have been persistent since last month, when students at New York's Columbia University launched an encampment in solidarity with the Gaza Strip and demanded that their school divest from Israel. Nearly 2,500 protesters were arrested during the demonstrations.
Sanders said he believes that protesting injustice is part of the American tradition and has played a fundamental role in recent decades.
"But I certainly do not believe, nor do a strong majority of the American people believe, that the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government has the right to wage an unprecedented all-out war against the Palestinian people.
"And what these protests are largely about, and what public opinion polling is showing, is outrage that since Oct. 7, the Netanyahu government has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and injured more than 78,000, seventy percent of whom are women and children," he stressed.
"I want everyone to know that there are no protests on the college campuses in Gaza…You know why? Because every one of the 12 universities in Gaza has been bombed and destroyed," he added.
The senator underlined that it is not just protestors on college campuses who are upset about US policy regarding Israel and Gaza.
"Increasingly, the American people want an end to US complicity in the humanitarian disaster which is taking place."
