White House responds to takeover at Columbia, condemns 'hate speech' against Jews
Fox News' Bryan Llenas reports the latest on the chaos at Columbia University. The 'Outnumbered' panel also discusses rampant anti-Israel protests and how the White House has responded to the antisemitism.
A Columbia University professor tells Fox News Digital that the anti-Israel demonstrations unfolding on the Ivy League campus at the end of the day are no longer about the Jewish State or Palestinians, but about "whether mob violence can bring our great university to a halt."
Law professor Joshua Mitts spoke Tuesday after a group of agitators invaded Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, shattering windows and barricading doors using tables and chairs.
"When you have a group of students — it’s really a small group, I don’t believe even the majority of protesters support things like this — when you have a small group that is committed to destroying property and shutting down campus life, that is the moment that we, the faculty, need to stand behind the administration and say ‘it's time to restore order, it is time to bring back the calm, academic environment that Columbia stands for,’" Mitts told Fox News Digital.
"And if you were concerned about cracking down on peaceful protesters, I hope the events of this morning have convinced you that there is at least a group out there who are not interested in peaceful protests at all," he added.
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Protesters gesture from a window of Hamilton Hall after barricading themselves inside the building at Columbia University early Tuesday. (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs)
Mitts is one of the now more than 2,000 Columbia alumni, faculty members and parents of students that have signed a statement calling on President Minouche Shafik to crack down on antisemitism and restore safety.
"We understand that she may be constrained by faculty resistance to calling the police after what happened almost two weeks ago," Mitts said, referencing a recent wave of arrests by the NYPD. "But at the end of the day, I think we have to ask ourselves, ‘are we serving our students by allowing this sort of chaos and anarchy to consume our campus?’ It might be hard, but we have to grow up, we have to restore order to campus."
Members of an anti-Israel mob broke into Hamilton Hall early Tuesday morning. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
"At the end of the day, this isn’t really about Israel or Palestine, it’s about whether mob violence can bring our great university to a halt," Mitts added.
Mitts told Fox News Digital that the "antisemitism on campus has been horrifying," and added, "The question I would ask the protesters is, what is really your goal? If your goal is to help the Palestinians, then let's work together to achieve that goal."
A member of the maintenance crew confronted the protesters after he claimed he was held hostage inside Hamilton Hall in New York City on Tuesday. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
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"While the police coming onto campus is a painful moment in Columbia’s history, the alternative that we are seeing right now, buildings being taken over, windows smashed, Jewish students fearing for their safety — this is not an alternative that is sustainable for our community," he also said.
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