Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) called on anti-Israel protesters to protest Hamas and to demand that the terrorist group agree to a cease-fire as the war entered its seventh month.
Fetterman spoke with Fox News anchor Bret Baier Tuesday on “Special Report” about the anti-Israel demonstrations that continue to take place across college campuses.
I’m not sure what exactly they are protesting. “If you ask them they aren’t sure,” he said. They can’t… And now they aren’t talking about cease-fires anymore, and they’re now talking about divesting from Israel and doing harm to it. It’s crazy.”
In recent weeks, several students have stated that they want their schools to divest themselves from Israel. Divest from Death Coalition at the University of Southern California demanded an academic boycott of Israel and amnesty of students, faculty, and staff involved in anti-Israel protests.
Students who participated in the University of Chicago’s anti-Israel protest demanded that campus police be defunded as well as emissions be reduced by 2030.
Fetterman criticized a group of anti-Israel demonstrators outside a Holocaust Remembrance Day Auschwitz event. He called it “tasteless” and “disgusting”.
Hamas believes that it has won the PR battle and continues to see these protests on campuses across the country. It’s not helpful but I believe it works against the peace,” he said in “Special Report.”
The Pennsylvania Senator said that protesting and having free speech is “very much” a value of the United States, but what happened on college campuses “is not this.”
On several college campuses, chants such as “From the River to the Sea” and “Long Live the Intifada”, have caused some Jewish students not to want to attend class.
Last week, NYPD officers arrested over 100 people at Columbia University Hamilton Hall. Anti-Israel protesters had broken into the building for several hours and taken it over.
Fetterman stated that he “really doesn’t care” about who funds anti-Israel demonstrations after it was revealed that many of the organizations funding pro-Palestinian protests are also among President Biden’s largest donors.
“I don’t care if it’s paid or unpaid, I’m not going to stop you.” “If you want to protest, then you should protest against Hamas, and demand that they cease-fire or else they can send these hostages home,” he said.
Fetterman says he has had anti-Israel demonstrators show up in his Philadelphia office and believes that it is just “paid types of agitation.”
Former Braddock Mayor said that the Biden Administration shouldn’t hold back munitions for Israel. He also stated that he couldn’t imagine putting any conditions on aid sent to Israel, the United States’ most important Middle East ally as it continues to fight against Hamas.
He said, “I don’t have any conditions.” “I have never had any, and I don’t think I ever will.”
