U of M Jewish students speak out against anti-Semitism amid pro-Palestine rallies

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Jewish students at the University of Minnesota (U of M) say the hate they’ve heard and felt arose after the Israel-Hamas war began in October, after Israel responded in force to the terror attacks by Hamas.

It’s continued to intensify, they say, and now with pro-Palestinian protests in front of Coffman Union, the messages of anti-Semitism are only becoming more prevalent and more frightening.

"I just want to go to school," said student Alex Fine. "I want to go to school and this is just thrown in my face."

They say classroom discussions about the conflict often become uncomfortably filled with hatred towards Israel, and slogans seen on campus flyers or scrawled on sidewalks are deeply disturbing.

"Seeing ‘death to Zionism' as I’m walking to class feels as though the protesters on campus want my Judaism to cease to exist," said Carlie Sachs, a junior at the university. "They want me to cease to exist."

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) joined students at the Minnesota Hillel, the campus Jewish student center, to explain the deeper meanings of the messages.

"Death to Zionists" and "Death to America," both seen scrawled on campus, are slogans connected to Hamas and Iran.

"Each of these protests begins with the infamous chant ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’" explained Sami Rahamin of the JCRC, who is also a 2018 U of M grad.

"This chant means the destruction of Israel," clarifying for those who do not know that it means Palestine should cover the entire area that includes present-day Israel, with the historic meaning that Israel has no right to exist.

The students believe that some who’ve joined the protests are truly there to call for peace. But they may not have any idea that the images and slogans used to support Palestinians are often deeply anti-Jewish.

"And the fact that people are being able to say this rhetoric that they don’t even understand and no one has taken the time to explain it yet," said student Molly Seligman, "this is the part that makes it scary to be a student here right now."

Data from the U of M shows that bias complaints on campus are massively up: 122 so far this school year, which is more than double from last year.

Of those, 58 are anti-Israel and 42 explicitly anti-Semitic. There have been 16 complaints of bias against Palestine or considered Islamophobic.