New semester reignites fears of anti-Israel protests on college campuses: 'We’re very concerned'

As students return to college campuses this month, administrators and pro-Israel activists are wary of a possible resurgence of anti-Israel protests that upended the day-to-day operations of major universities in the spring and, in many cases, blurred the lines between free speech and outright antisemitism. 

On Tuesday, Fox News Digital spoke with Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, to better gauge the Jewish community’s sense of security entering the new semester. 

"We’re very concerned about what’s coming down the pike. The good news is that everybody used the summer to prepare for the school year. And the bad news is that everybody had the summer to prepare for the school year," Hauer said. 

Protests swept college campuses nationwide toward the end of the spring semester in response to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza that has, since Oct. 7, claimed 40,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. That figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

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Protesters encamped on campus quads and disrupted daily operations, leading, in some cases, to violent clashes with police and more than 3,000 arrests. 

In the months since, university administrators have imposed new rules banning encampments and limiting the duration of demonstrations, allowing protests only in designated spaces and restricting campus access to those with university identification. 

"I think many campuses recognized — whatever their personal sympathies were — it was bedlam, and it wasn’t healthy. And it couldn’t continue," Hauer said. "And they worked on policies on time and place restrictions and how they would react." 

Hauer’s organization, the Orthodox Union, represents a broad Jewish community, including rabbinic families on dozens of college campuses, and provides resources for student leaders dealing with antisemitism on campus. 

Hauer argued that the movement behind these protests goes well beyond college campuses with "very dark" funding sources.

"[It’s] a movement that's not going to be resolved by people sitting down together to understand each other, because their goal is not to understand each other. Their goal is to drive anyone who supports Israel. Their goal — as they state in their protest — is one state. You know, back to pre-48," Hauer said, referring to the year Israel became a nation. 

Hauer clarified that neither he nor his organization advocate shutting down protests against the state of Israel or the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, per se. 

"I think there’s lots of room for legitimate protest, and I think that we have seen an incredible amount of illegitimate protest in this movement," Hauer said. "It is perfectly appropriate for people to choose to protest against the Netanyahu government or the policies of the Netanyahu government. And … it may even be OK for them to protest against the existence of the state of Israel. It may not be something that I agree with at all. But that doesn't make it, per se, something that they shouldn't have the right to say." 

Despite restrictions in place for the new school year, Hauer remains concerned administrators may not be up to the task of reining in the more radical elements of the anti-Israel protests. 

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"We’re worried because they are up against a very, very formidable movement that has shown incredible resilience and adaptability to be able to get around and through whatever kinds of safety and protections campuses would define," Hauer said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.