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Cornell student Talia Dror shares her post-October 7th campus experiences.
2023-11-19 (#135)
Campus Free Speech During Israel-Hamas War
Advocates and activists testified at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war and free speech on college campuses. Topics included safety on college campuses, funding of charities and universities, and anti-Israel rhetoric on social media.
Video Transcription:
Chairman Smith, ranking member Neil, and members
of the Ways and Means Committee, thank
you for the invitation to testify today.
My name is Talia Dror.
I'm a student at Cornell, studying industrial and labor
relations with minors in business and legal policy.
But beyond that, I am the
embodiment of the American dream.
I'm the child of an immigrant who fled
Iran after facing religious persecution, dreaming of an America
where she could openly raise a Jewish family.
I grew up hearing the cautionary tales of blatant anti Semitism,
how my grandfather was stabbed for being a Jew, how my
mother was called a dirty Jew on a daily basis, how
my family had to pretend they weren't Jewish.
But I never thought the horrific antisemitism they faced would
follow us to the country we fled to for refuge.
39 days ago, as I witnessed the mass rape,
mutilation, and massacre committed by Hamas, my reality as
a college student in the United States radically transformed.
Students, professors, and administrators at Cornell celebrated
the massacre of innocent civilians just five
days after the heinous terror attacks.
The student assembly introduced a resolution calling Hamas,
quote, an armed resistance and placing full blame
for the October 7 attacks on Israel.
At the hearing, I spoke about the fact
that the very terrorists organ endorsed by that
resolution called for a global day of rage.
The next day, I explained that as a Jewish
student leader, my community is terrified to walk around
the school they pay to attend because they are
afraid of getting threatened, assaulted, or killed.
Students at rallies chant genocidal phrases like, from the
river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
This is a chant that calls for the elimination of the
State of Israel and all 7 million Jews inside of it.
This is a chant that calls for a second Holocaust.
Students scream antifata revolution, calling for
deadly terror attacks on civilians.
A Cornell professor announced that he was exhilarated
and energized by the Hamas attacks, by the
murder of my family and friends.
On October 25, Cornell students woke up
to a campus vandalized with graffiti that
said, Zionism equals genocide and new antifada.
That day, students walking into their classes
stepped over calls for terror attacks and
accusations of being genocidal for supporting the
existence of the State of Israel.
Cornell's administration has made firm statements on
everything from Supreme Court cases to the
war in Ukraine to Black Lives Matter.
But in the wake of the deadliest day in
Jewish history since the Holocaust, administrators have excused endorsements
of terrorism under the guise of free speech.
In their initial statement, they compared, quote,
the loss of life in the Middle
east to deaths caused by natural disasters.
They allowed tensions to fester on campus, professors to
use captive audiences to preach terrorist sympathies and the
targeting of Jewish students on their campus.
They paved the perfect path for radicalized individuals to
shift calls for the murder of Jews in Israel
to calls for the extermination of Jews on campus.
On the morning of October 29, the Provost,
in an address to concerned Jewish parents, explained
that while he understands concerns for their children's
physical safety, that they shouldn't be worried.
Not 7 hours later, Jewish students on campus received threats
that said, quote, if I see another Jew on campus,
I will stab you and slit your throat.
If I see another pig female Jew, I will drag
you away, rape you, and throw you off a cliff.
Jews are human, animal, and deserve pig's death.
Liberation by any means from the river
to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Quote, Going to shoot up 104
west, the kosher dining Hall.
Glory to Hamas.
Liberation by any means necessary.
That night, I sat in my
locked house pondering my mortality.
I knew that with my roommates and I
being openly Jewish community leaders, our apartment would
be one of the first targets for someone
looking to actualize the threats.
I thought back to the stories my mother told
me growing up, how as a young child, I
found so much comfort in having the privilege of
being protected by a country built on the foundation
of equal opportunity and individual liberty.
Two days later, I got news that the
threats were made by a fellow student.
This wasn't far away.
It was at the same school.
I worked my whole life to get into the school.
I invested my family's hard earned life savings
to attend the school that promised me they
would uphold a community of belonging.
Universities have failed to uphold their self
proclaimed values of equity and belonging.
When it comes to Jewish students, the hypocrisy
is glaring in light of horrific antisemitism.
Jewish students on campus have been courageous and
resilient, but we shouldn't need to be American
Jewish students on campus deserve better.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Thank thank you.
Thank you for your brave testimony.
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