More than a year after anti-Israel agitators kicked off a nationwide effort to bring their antisemitic message to college campuses across the U.S., New York Democrats are moving to crack down on schools that do nothing to counter the hate, according to a new report.
Several new bills in both houses of the Democrat-controlled state legislature aim to accomplish the goal by making it easier to sue colleges that don’t protect students from hate-based discrimination and attacks and requiring schools to hire an administrator to make sure they meet the requirements of federal civil rights law.
The move comes days after the Trump administration’s Department of Education announced an investigation into five prominent universities for allowing anti-Jewish hate to fester, including New York’s Columbia University.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MULLS ARREST POWER FOR CAMPUS COPS AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS DISRUPTED SCHOOL
A masked figure smashes a window to get inside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City on April 30, 2024. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
One bill is the ACCESS Act, which gives students more grounds to sue schools that fail to protect their civil rights, according to the New York Post.
“The ACCESS Act is intended to push colleges and universities to be more proactive in preventing and responding to incidents of harassment and discrimination — not just antisemitism, which we have seen more and more since the horrific attacks of Oct. 7, but hate and bias of all kinds,” state Rep. Micah Lasher, a Manhattan Democrat and frequent Trump critic who sponsored the bill, told the paper.
Lasher over the weekend shared an infographic on X that purported 18-year-old voters are five times as likely to have an “unfavorable opinion of Jewish people” as their counterparts over 65.
Jewish students reported harassment and unfair treatment amid a series of anti-Israel protests since Hamas terrorists attacked the U.S. ally in October 2023, killing hundreds, sexually assaulting victims and abducting hostages.
Video shows protesters handing out fliers with antisemitic imagery, interrupting classes about Jewish history, blocking Jewish students on campus and more.
A masked demonstrator stands guard at a locked gate on Columbia’s West Lawn, where dozens of students have set up tents as they demand the university take a number of anti-Israel measures amid a conflict between the country’s military and Hamas terrorists who attacked on Oct. 7, 2023. (Micheal Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
At Columbia University last year, keffiyeh-clad activists smashed their way into a campus building and barricaded themselves inside, leading to dozens of arrests.
Manhattan’s Ivy League school is one of five universities the Trump administration’s Department of Education said was under investigation last week for allegedly allowing unchecked harassment of Jewish students on campus.
Anti-Israel agitators block the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City on April 30, 2024. (AP/Marco Postigo Storel)
“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground. The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable,” Craig Trainor, the Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.
Columbia faced sharp criticism over its response to the agitators, who set up camp on a lawn and were accused of harassing Jewish students. Some faculty members defended the group and even blocked other students and members of the press from entering their encampment.
An anti-Israel demonstrator holds a flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City on April 30, 2024. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In July, Columbia removed three senior staff members accused of sharing antisemitic text messages. The school’s handling of campus agitators led some of its billionaire donors to publicly question their financial support for the school.
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A second bill would require every school in the state to have a new administrator in charge of overseeing compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI allows victims to file a complaint against any entity that receives federal funds but fails to protect individuals from discrimination based on race, color or national origin.
