Jewish and Muslim students at U.S. colleges are exhausted as the school year comes to an end.
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have increased on campuses in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, and recent anti-war camps have greatly disrupted student life.
“This year has definitely impacted me a lot academically,” said Shani Glassberg, an Israeli-American and junior at George Washington University (GW), adding that she had to postpone finals due to unrest on her campus.
In April, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released findings that anti-Semitic incidents on campus in 2023 tripled from 2022, an increase of about 321 percent. The study did not include anti-Semitic incidents from the first half of 2024.
Although Glassberg said he received a lot of support from his classmates in the first week after the Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 civilians, “it quickly turned into a very, very hateful situation.” She said she saw “some people find very quick ways to justify” the Hamas attack and that “really hurt me on a personal level, on an academic level.”
Adena Kirstein, executive director of GW Hillel, said she has worked with hundreds of students who were burned out at the end of this semester.
“They would be tired if they were just finishing their academic years, but they’ve been carrying a lot of pressure on their shoulders just in terms of what’s going on on campus,” Kirstein said.
Stress increased considerably last month with the arrival of pro-Palestinian encampments on campuses across the country, and GW was one of several schools that made headlines for its demonstration after D.C. police initially refused the D.C.’s request. administration to end the protest. The encampment was only removed on Wednesday morning, hours before Washington’s mayor and the city’s police chief were to testify before Congress on the matter.
Police used pepper spray against protesters and 33 people were arrested.
“There was a lot of strong graffiti around the camp with different anti-Semitic stereotypes,” Glassberg said.
Hafiza Khalique, a first-year Muslim student at New York University, told The Hill that she was the first person she knew who was suspended from the pro-Palestine movement in October.
NYU suspended her until the end of the academic year for tearing down campus posters about Israeli hostages. She is currently suing her school over the suspension.
“There is a worrying amount of Islamophobia on campus. For years, NYU has received many allegations of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate. This year it has reached an unprecedented level,” Khalique said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its national civil rights report in April, showing that in 2023 it received the highest number of anti-Muslim complaints in 28 years, with more than 8,000 incidents recorded across the country.
Reana Akthar, a Muslim student at Wesleyan University, told The Hill that once, while she was wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Middle Eastern headdress, someone on campus told her to go back to her country.
“It feels like I’ve been walking in a dream these past few months because there are people who are firm in their belief that Palestinians have their way, and I think that’s unacceptable,” Akthar said when talking about the culture on his campus.
Thousands of people have been imprisoned in the pro-Palestinian camps, but Wesleyan still maintains its own, and students say they will not leave until their demands, such as divestment from Israel, are met.
“It’s a ridiculous time to be a student. It’s hard to get the job done. It’s hard to keep pretending that everything is normal […] At the same time, there are people my age being massacred” in Gaza, Akthar said.
“Muslim students, I think there are a lot of conflicting feelings. On the one hand, there’s a lot of disillusionment and frustration with our administrations and, of course, exhaustion from feeling like they’re having their First Amendment rights violated, feeling like their freedom of speech is being killed, feeling like they’re being scrutinized. in a way that is very harmful compared to other student populations,” said Dina Chehata, Managing Attorney for Civil Rights at CAIR.
“And I think there’s also a different feeling from a lot of Muslim students I’ve talked to who have been very active in the Free Palestine movement, calling for the liberation of Palestine and divestment from weapons manufacturers. very powerful,” Chehata added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
