Antisemitism watchdog calls for expulsion of students who took over Stanford president’s office: ‘Enough is enough’
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, addresses Wednesday's anti-Israel actions at Stanford University in California, where agitators occupied the offices of the school’s president and provost.
An antisemitism watchdog is calling on Stanford University to be tough on anti-Israel agitators who occupied the offices of the school’s president and provost early Wednesday.
StopAntisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez told Fox News Digital that universities are complicit in the takeover of campuses by students and other agitators.
"We saw USC, Columbia, NYU, these liberal arts universities who are greenlighting all of this behavior. And now they’re seeing the wrath of these bad actors and their actions," Rez said.
Students walk by graffiti near university president Richard Saller's office at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Police arrested more than a dozen people after anti-Israel agitators occupied the offices of Stanford University’s president and provost early Wednesday, causing what officials described as "extensive" vandalism inside and outside the building.
Photos shared on X by StopAntisemitism showed graffiti on the wall with slurs like: "Kill cops," "Burn this s--- down," and "Death to Israel."
The takeover began around dawn on the last day of spring classes at Stanford and ended three hours later. Some protesters barricaded themselves inside the building while others linked arms outside. The group chanted "Palestine will be free, we will free Palestine."
A campus maintenance worker carries a broken window from the office of the president at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Rez said that radicals on campus are "embracing Hamas terrorists" and have taken American college campuses hostage in the process.
"We’re demanding that every single one of those individuals who are actually a student of Stanford be expelled," Rez said. "Not just a slap on the wrist of suspension and then you’re reinstated two days later like we’ve seen at Columbia [University], but expel them. Do not allow them to graduate, instill actual consequences, because enough is enough."
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Protest camps have sprung up on university campuses across the U.S. and in Europe in recent months as students demand their universities divest from companies doing business with Israel over its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas terrorists for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Graffiti is painted on the wall near the office of the president at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez said Stanford students who participated in Wednesday's protest would be immediately suspended, and any seniors would not be allowed to graduate.
They said the university also removed a student encampment of Palestinian supporters on Wednesday, which had been set up on campus on April 25, citing public safety concerns and violations of school policies.
"The situation on campus has now crossed the line from peaceful protest to actions that threaten the safety of our community," they said, adding that demonstrators had recently tried to occupy a different building.
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Students walk by graffiti near the office of the president at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
In addition to the damage indoors, the president and provost said there was extensive graffiti on the sandstone buildings and columns of the Main Quad. Video posted on social media showed police busting in a door. Other photos showed an office desk splattered with a red liquid.
The president and provost said the graffiti calling for the death of Israel and police "conveys vile and hateful sentiments that we condemn in the strongest terms."
Rez, whose family fled the Soviet Union when she was a child, said universities like Columbia, NYU, and Stanford should have "put the kibosh" on these protests on day one.
Students walk by graffiti near the office of the president at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
"They thought by negotiating with these terrorist supporters that they were going to appease them. But we’ve learned, and has history has shown us, you could never appease terror supporters," Rez said. "They want more and more until they engulf everything in their way."
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Protesters accuse Israel of genocide for its actions in Gaza. The Hamas-run Health Ministry there alleges that Israel’s military has claimed the lives of more than 36,000 Palestinians.
That figure does not distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians. Israel has disputed these figures and accused Hamas of operating in heavily populated civilian areas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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