Israel president says US universities ‘contaminated by hatred, anti-Semitism’

JERUSALEM: Israel’s president on Thursday slammed US universities for campus unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza, saying these institutions were “contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism”.

Isaac Herzog said in a special broadcast that he was issuing an urgent message of support to Jewish communities amid a “dramatic resurgence in anti-Semitism and following the hostilities and intimidation against Jewish students on campuses across the US in particular”.

“We see prominent academic institutions, halls of history, culture, and education contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism fuelled by arrogance and ignorance,” he said.

“We watch in horror as the atrocities of October 7th against Israel are celebrated and justified.”

His comments came as hundreds of police and protesters were in a tense stand-off at the University of California, Los Angeles and unrest over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza continued to spread in campuses across the United States.

Demonstrators have gathered in at least 30 US universities since last month, often erecting tent encampments to protest the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

It comes in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also took about 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead, Israel says.