GOP Senator Demands DOJ Investigate 'Alarming' Pro-Hamas Sentiment on College Campuses
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is calling on the Justice Department to investigate potential ties between college student groups and Hamas, the terror group that attacked Israel last weekend leaving countless people dead, wounded or kidnapped.
Hawley has been clear during protests in support of Hamas’s aggression that he stands with Israel.
Last week, he pulled no punches on his opinion of the terror group during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“These are terrorists, we shouldn’t be shy about saying it,” Hawley said. “They are terrorists, they are butchers, they are murderers and they would kill every American, too.”
We need to speak with moral clarity. Hamas are terrorists. Their atrocities are evil. Israel has a right to defend itself. And the United States must support Israel 100% pic.twitter.com/ncwnKxphqk
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 13, 2023
While many Americans view the actions of Hamas as terrorism and barbarism, many student groups across the country at premier universities have offered their unwavering support for Hamas.
For example, 33 student organizations at Harvard each co-signed a letter that blamed Israel for the invasion of its borders and for the bloodshed that took place families were murdered and children were executed and kidnapped.
Other schools have similarly supported Hamas, including Columbia and UCLA.
On Monday, Hawley sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in which demanded an investigation into the support of terrorism on college campuses.
According to a copy of the letter that Fox News shared, Hawley expressed concerns about the bubbling antisemitism on campuses.
“In the wake of the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, we have witnessed an alarming rise in support for violence against the Jewish people,” Hawley wrote to Garland. “They are menacing Jewish Americans within our cities. And they are doing so in what appears to be a coordinated fashion.”
He added: “Public reports indicate that several far-left student groups have lined up to effectively cheerlead Hamas’s genocidal war against the people of Israel.”
As a part of the probe he has requested, Hawley wants the DOJ to look into every university student group that has expressed support for Hamas to find out if any have received cash from third parties and “which pro-Hamas student organizations conduct fundraising, how many have financial or ideological ties to Hamas.”
Hawley acknowledged that Americans have a right to express their sentiments about the conflict.
“The First Amendment protects the right to protest. But it does not protect the provision of material support to terrorist organizations,” Hawley stated. “Nor does it insulate financial transactions that threaten our national security.”
Hawley took to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday and posted that he will ask each of his Senate Colleagues to denounce violence against Israel.
The repulsive celebration of terrorism against Israel on America’s college campuses should be called out for what it is: disgusting & immoral. I will introduce a resolution in the Senate condemning this virulent, anti-Semitic rhetoric and call on every Senator to join me
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 16, 2023
“The repulsive celebration of terrorism against Israel on America’s college campuses should be called out for what it is: disgusting & immoral,” Hawley wrote. “I will introduce a resolution in the Senate condemning this virulent, anti-Semitic rhetoric and call on every Senator to join me.”
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