College faculty are the ‘root of the problem’: Sabrina Soffer
George Washington University students Sabrina Soffer and Richard Li join ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to detail their shocking experiences combatting anti-Israel protests on campus.
The anti-Israel protests on college campuses are showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, and many George Washington University students are fed up.
GWU student Richard Li escaped religious persecution as a Christian in China at 12 years old and is now standing up for his threatened Jewish classmates.
"Oppression always starts with hatred. And hatred, time and time again, started with antisemitism, and that is what we're seeing on college campuses… on our college campus right now, right in front of our doorsteps. And it's very, very sad," Li argued during an appearance on "Fox & Friends Weekend."
George Washington students Richard Li and Sabrina Soffer joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" to break down the impact of the anti-Israel protests on campus. (Fox News)
George Washington University suspended at least seven student protesters who organized an anti-Israel encampment on campus and refused to leave after demonstrations stretched into a third day. One protester went viral after announcing that the group was "not going anywhere" 57 hours into the encampment.
"This has been 20 years in the making."
American universities witnessed a sudden spike in on-campus encampments after Columbia University made headlines for its disruptive anti-Israel protests.
In response to the heated demonstrations and the disruption to campus, the university announced that classes are shifting to virtual or hybrid learning formats through the end of the semester – a decision which prompted questions about tuition refunds, as students are not in class full-time.
The cost to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate student in the 2023-2024 academic year is estimated to be nearly $90,000.
George Washington University student Sabrina Soffer joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" with her classmate Richard Li to shed light on the impact these protests have had on Jewish students, explaining that it is difficult to go a minute without hearing political chants or being confronted by fellow students.
"This has been going on for way too long. This has been 20 years in the making," Soffer said Sunday.
"I've been threatened two years back. I've been threatened by those same sorts of students. And at first, I didn't feel safe, I really didn't. I remember one night, I was shaking in my bed at midnight because I heard that there were some students who were after me, and I was really afraid with what to do."
Signs and a Palestinian flag sit on a statue of George Washington at an encampment protest at George Washington University on April 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"It's not only a Jewish problem, it is an American problem, because these people are not only chanting against the Jews, they're chanting against American values. And it really stems from the faculty; that is the root of this problem. They are indoctrinating kids with anti-Israel lies and hate. And this is where the problem starts. And it has to end with that problem, too," Soffer argued.
Li concluded by arguing that the U.S. education sytem has been "infiltrated" by Marxists and socialists for the "last 10 years."
"Now that you're seeing a generation of Americans indoctrinated, and now they're basically closeted communists and outright antisemites, the schools, of course, haven't done anything about it. Because a lot of the instructors know they are themselves in these anti-Semitic protests. They're participating," Li warned.
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Fox News' Amy Nelson contributed to this report.
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