A House resolution condemning antisemitism on the nation's college campuses comes as the rise of actions against Jewish people has reached "horrifying" levels since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Rep. Kevin Kiley told Newsmax on Sunday.
"We've been seeing this rise of antisemitism on college campuses for quite a while, but it has reached disturbing new heights following Oct. 7," the California Republican told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "These are supposedly our most elite universities and yet they have been gripped by an ancient and retrograde prejudice."
Such universities, he added, have been "systematically suppressing free speech for years," but now "claim that the First Amendment stops them from condemning terrorism."
"These are universities that have been wading into every political issue of the day, yet now they're somehow saying that institutional neutrality means that they can't express an opinion on the murder of children," said Kiley. "These are universities that have been proliferating their DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] bureaucracies and yet now somehow they're turning a blind eye to the targeting and the attacks on Jewish students on their own campuses."
Congress is continuing to build bipartisan support not only to support Israel but to make sure that college campuses don't stay on the path they're following, Kiley added.
Kiley, a graduate of Harvard University, said he and fellow alumnus Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and other alumni members in Congress have written a letter to the university's president "calling out the absolutely abysmal response" from the school after the Oct. 7 attacks.
"The university itself said nothing condemning the attacks for days," he said. "Meanwhile, you had 25 student organizations who filled the vacuum and placed the blame on Israel alone for the attacks."
Harvard only responded after criticism "reached a very high level," said Kiley.
Meanwhile, it's important to stand for the freedom of speech, as the suppression of it is what has fueled the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, said Kiley.
"Suppression of free speech has been used to exclude and make it so Jewish students or people of other backgrounds don't feel welcome on campus, and don't feel like they can express their opinions or express their identities," said Kiley.
It's also important to "make sure that we're protecting students on campus against attacks, against violence, while also protecting the rights of all students to engage in free speech on college campuses and across the country," he noted.
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