Op-Ed – Cracking Down on Campus Jew Hatred is a Moral Imperative

Op-Ed – Cracking Down on Campus Jew Hatred is a Moral Imperative

By: Fern Sidman

Finally—America is drawing a line. With the reported arrest and looming deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a noncitizen agitator behind some of the most disruptive anti-Semitic protests at Columbia and Barnard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sent a thunderous and long-overdue message: campus hate will no longer be tolerated under the false pretense of free expression. This moment marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s urgently needed campaign to restore sanity, decency, and genuine equality on America’s campuses.

Let’s not pretend Khalil was some innocent student swept up in idealistic protest. He had already completed his graduate studies months ago, yet lingered—clearly with the intent to continue fomenting unrest and chaos. His involvement in the radical takeover of buildings at Barnard College was not about civil discourse or academic freedom; it was about intimidation, disruption, and ideological violence. His presence was not an exercise in democracy—it was a threat to it.

This is no isolated case. Ever since Hamas unleashed its grotesque October 7 massacre—a day of terror that left Israeli civilians butchered and the world aghast—American campuses have been flooded with vitriolic demonstrations cloaked in the language of “resistance,” but powered by raw, unfiltered anti-Semitism. These are not peaceful gatherings. They are menacing occupations of university spaces, blockade tactics aimed at silencing Jewish voices, and in many cases, outright assaults on visibly Jewish students.

Even more disturbing is the makeup of these protests. They are not, in large part, student-led movements. Arrest records repeatedly expose a cadre of older, seasoned radical activists—some with long histories of subversive behavior—pulling the strings behind the scenes. These are not scholars, but ideological saboteurs exploiting university platforms to seed division and glorify terror under the guise of “justice.”

Worse yet, university administrators—timid, ideologically compromised, or both—have largely stood by, hiding behind twisted interpretations of free speech law that were never meant to protect hate-fueled harassment or disruptive occupations. Columbia’s inability (or unwillingness) to curb this tide of anti-Semitism has now rightly cost it $400 million in federal grants and contracts. And it shouldn’t stop there. The Trump administration’s scrutiny of at least four additional institutions sends a clear message: when you tolerate hate, there are consequences.

Some will no doubt wail about “academic freedom” and “student rights.” But where is that concern when Jewish students are being harassed, isolated, and physically endangered on campus? What of their rights to learn in peace, to walk safely across the quad without being vilified for their faith or heritage?

Let’s be clear: this movement does not spring from moral outrage over global injustice. If it did, there would be campus-wide protests over the thousand civilians recently slaughtered in Syria, or the long litany of atrocities committed by other brutal regimes around the world. But those stories draw no outrage from this crowd. Why? Because the anti-Israel fixation isn’t about justice—it’s about bigotry, plain and simple. It is anti-Semitism dressed up in activist chic, and it is spreading like a virus in the hollowed-out halls of academia.

The left’s moral compass has been broken for years, but its alliance with anti-Semitic extremism is now too glaring to ignore. Thankfully, Trump’s administration has stepped in—not merely to punish bad actors like Khalil, but to affirm that America will not subsidize hatred.

This is not just an immigration matter, nor solely a funding dispute—it’s a defense of American values. It’s a declaration that privilege does not include the right to incite hate, to menace minorities, or to desecrate the mission of higher education.

More arrests, more funding cuts, and more institutional accountability must follow. The time for timid tolerance is over. The time for unapologetic justice has arrived.