Rutgers president at House hearing on antisemitism defends negotiating with protesters

Emphasizing "dialogue and education" — and his own personal experience with discrimination as the son and grandson of African Americans — Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway told House Republicans on Thursday at a hearing on antisemitism that only "civil discourse" could help during "polarized" times.

Holloway defended his decision to negotiate with pro-Palestinian student protesters early this month in order to have them dismantle an encampment on the grounds of Rutgers-New Brunswick.

House Republicans called Holloway and several other prominent university presidents to defend against the Republicans' allegations of "antisemitic chaos" spreading in schools and colleges since campus protests broke out following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

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Republicans asked the university presidents Thursday if they thought Israel was a genocidal state. "No I do not," Holloway said. He also said Israel had a right to exist and defend itself. Asked if he believed "intifada" and "from the river to the sea" are antisemitic statements, Holloway said statements that incite violence break the code of conduct. "I agree," Holloway said, when asked if he agreed that was dangerous.

A similar question proved to be a public relations disaster for presidents of elite colleges, Harvard, UPenn and MIT when they did not respond with a clear yes or no, after Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, asked them in December whether they considered calls for the genocide of Jews antisemitic.

Holloway said that any exhortation of violence breaks the university's code of conduct and that Rutgers students would be held accountable for that kind of behavior.

"Are you going to hold people accountable?" asked Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Florida.

"Yes sir, absolutely," Holloway said, noting that campus police and in some cases the FBI would intervene with "any instance of the kind of language and behavior we are talking..."

Holloway had agreed to several demands made by the protesting students at Rutgers, but not two key ones — that Rutgers divest from Israeli businesses and that it cut ties with Tel Aviv University.

Free speech advocates have defended the pro-Palestinian campus movement and students' rights to protest the more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza after Israel’s retaliatory strikes following an attack by Hamas terrorists in Israel left 1,200 people dead and hostages taken.

Holloway testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, along with two other university leaders, Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University and Gene Block, chancellor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Frederick M. Lawrence, Secretary and CEO of academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa Society, was the fourth witness.

"Do you believe Hamas is a terrorist organization? Do you believe it's OK for faculty at Northwestern to praise Hamas? asked Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, of Schill. Schill said he agreed that Hamas is a terrorist organization, but that faculty can express their views as part of their free speech rights.

“The committee has a clear message for mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders,” Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina and the committee chair, said in a statement announcing the hearing. “Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of your duty to your Jewish students.

"Actions will have consequences,” the statement said and added that college was not for “play acting juveniles” or “radical activists."

Presidents step down

Congressional hearings on antisemitism in schools and colleges since the Hamas attacks in Israel drew national attention after the presidents of private, elite colleges — Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT — declined to characterize calls for "intifada," or "revolution" in Arabic, as antisemitic. Eventually, presidents Liz Magill of Penn and Claudine Gay of Harvard resigned from their positions.

Thursday’s hearing is the first to call for an accounting by university leaders after students began setting up tent cities on campuses, demanding a cease-fire in the Middle East. That movement has turned into a call for Palestinian sovereignty and demands that universities divest from Israeli businesses and cut off ties with Israeli academic and cultural institutions. Foxx and some Republicans call this movement antisemitic.

Foxx's critics — including Rutgers staff and faculty unions and unions representing employees at the other two universities — called the hearings a distraction from the destruction in Gaza, and a political flashpoint that is part of a conservative agenda to selectively protect free speech and mock liberal and left-leaning politics.

Holloway refuses to close center on race and religion

House Republicans have criticized Sahar Aziz, a Rutgers Law School faculty member, Middle East scholar, and outspoken critic of Israel for personal views shared on Twitter and for her work as director of the Center for Security, Race and Religion at Rutgers-Newark.

In March, Foxx had asked Holloway to collect and provide the committee with extensive documentation about conversations on law school email lists about the Israel-Hamas war and Aziz's work.

Holloway told Republicans he would not close the center, in response to repeated questioning about the university's support for Aziz's work.

Holloway has also come under fire from prominent New Jersey Democrats. Donald Norcross and Josh Gotteimer said he rewarded the pro-Palestinian students by negotiating with them. Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters May 7 that while he supported free speech and objected to both antisemitism and Islamophobia, the Rutgers agreement appeared to serve one group of students over the other.

Holloway has since defended himself twice in public statements, saying that his priority was student safety and the successful completion of final exams on campus. Some 600 Jewish faculty members from Rutgers and other schools have signed a public letter supporting Holloway’s agreement with the pro-Palestinian student encampment. The campus faculty unions have also defended Holloway.

The university’s Bildner Center for Jewish Life said it has been in talks with top administration officials during the past weeks about combatting antisemitism "at the highest levels at Rutgers University."

Donald Norcross grilled Holloway, asking him to explain the events of May 2, the day the students cleared out their tents and ended the encampment.

Holloway said he learned about the encampment's plans to interrupt final exams on social media, and was immediately in touch with police, his general counsel, and the attorney general's office during the day.

"The chief of police was dialed in," he said, and plans were being made to end the encampment. Holloway agreed with Norcross that by threatening to disrupt exams, protesters who were until then peaceful did "cross the line," and that he acted quickly by telling them to leave.

Holloway and other presidents said that the encampments were allowed to remain on campus because of free speech policies stemming from the First Amendment.

Rutgers gave student protestors a deadline of 4 p.m. to clear the encampment Thursday morning four days after it was set up on Monday that week. After negotiating with administrators, the group agreed to vacate Voorhees Mall, avoiding police intervention. Rutgers is among a minority of college administrations that came to agreements with pro-Palestinian encampments; many others, including at Columbia, UCLA and the University of Texas at Austin, called in police and resulted in student arrests.

Holloway appeared to reconsider one negotiated agreement with pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Asked about agreeing to support the education of 10 displaced Palestinian students at Rutgers, he said, "It's a tremendous amount of work." He added "it may not happen," after a short silence.

Four students were suspended, and 19 are facing disciplinary action, Holloway told Republicans after repeated questioning about how the university has responded to protesters.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rutgers president at antisemitism hearing grilled by House Republicans