Jewish students at Stanford University say they fear for their lives after the campus became overtaken by anti-Semitic protesters.
A series of hostile clashes have occurred across the prestigious university since the crisis in the Middle East erupted following the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
Officials have been criticized for failing to clamp down on discrimination, with shocking images shared by the Free Beacon including a teaching assistant calling for the assassination of Joe Biden over his support for Israel.
Other incidents include a teacher allegedly ordering Jewish students to stand in a corner “like Israel does to Palestinians,” and extremist students warning people “we will find out where you live.”
Stanford teaching assistant Hamza El Boudali was filmed protesting a pro-Israel display on campus holding a sign that read “Ask me about Jihad.” He also allegedly supported the assassination of President Biden because of his support for Israel.
Pro-Palestinian protests have swept the Stanford University campus following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks; one of them is shown in the photo on February 12, 2024.
Jewish Stanford students say they fear for their lives after anti-Semitism swept campus.
In perhaps the most shocking of the exchanges that have rocked the Stanford campus in recent months, assistant professor Hamza El Boudali allegedly erupted in threats while protesting a pro-Israel display.
He was seen in the footage standing in front of Stanford’s Blue and White tent, an educational tent about Israel run by Jewish students, holding a sign that read: “Ask me about Jihad.”
When asked about the sign, El Boudali reportedly responded that he would welcome Biden’s assassination and would prefer Hamas take over the federal government.
The assistant professor added that Jews under the Hamas-occupied United States would do “very well… just like the hostages.”
El Boudali, an assistant professor of computer science, was reported to the university, which refused to punish him or strip him of his grading duties, and only moved his office hours with students to Zoom.
A university spokesperson told the Free Beacon, “Stanford takes allegations of possible discriminatory behavior by instructors very seriously,” adding that students can have their work regraded by another instructor if they wish.
He reportedly did not deny the encounter, but defended it by saying that “the Blue and White Tent has been presenting Islamophobic rhetoric and misinformation to the university community.”
“As a Muslim student who has been here for more than five years, I made it my goal to combat their Islamophobia through education.”
In another ugly exchange on January 24, a forum on combating anti-Semitism was invaded by pro-Palestinian protesters.
The activists were seen harassing and taunting Jewish students, after they arrived at the scene and warned staff that they would “find out where they live.”
At the event, Stanford President Richard Saller attempted to assure students that the university had their back, saying, “We really want to make sure that all campus communities get the respect they deserve.”
“We are committed to equal treatment and equal protection.”
At an event meant to address anti-Semitism, protesters erupted in ugly scenes as they shouted at Jewish students to “go back to Brooklyn” and declared “Israel will fall.”
But just outside the event, protesters gathered to demonstrate against the war in the Middle East, attacking a rabbi and berating a Jewish student.
The student, David Schuller, 24, approached the group outside the event, before footage showed them surrounding him and booing him in response.
While students shouted that ‘the IDF killed their hostages’ in the Gaza bombings, the police stood by and did nothing.
At one point, a protester appeared to whisper something in his ear, which Schuller said was a violent threat against him.
“He told me, ‘Careful, man, we’re watching you.’ You better know what you’re getting into,” Schuller told the
“I had to take a couple steps back and tell the police that he threatened physical violence.”
Many other protests and demonstrations against Jewish students have broken out across campus, including one in which Jewish students were warned to “go back to Brooklyn.”
The song references the large Jewish population in the New York City borough, which is home to the largest number of Jews in the world.
In the video of the moment, pro-Palestinian protesters are also seen calling the whites “terrorists” and calling for the destruction of Israel and the United States.
“Stanford employees, we know your names and we know where you work,” another said as staff tried to calm tensions. And soon we’ll find out where you live.
Other incidents included the apparent attack on Stanford Chabad rabbi Dov Greenberg, who was followed by a mob as he led students away from the clashes.
In another incident of anti-Semitism on campus, Chabad Rabbi Dov Greenberg of Stanford was followed by a mob shouting at him, “There is only one solution: the intifada revolution.”
The protesters chanted: “There is only one solution: the intifada revolution” and “Zionist, Zionist, you cannot hide, we accuse you of genocide.”
The chilling encounters are a stark reminder of the scenes that erupted on college campuses as a result of the Middle East crisis, and experts reportedly say they could be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.
Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, who has advocated for free speech, said the Jan. 24 protests “clearly crossed the line into unprotected harassment and threats.”
He added that it “makes it impossible for everyone on campus to have true freedom of speech.”
In the case of El Boudali’s antics, Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, found that “the burden of grading strengthens the case that El Boudali’s comments contributed to a hostile educational environment.”