[Pages S456-S457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Anti-Semitism

  Finally, Mr. President, I just want to mention--we are focused on the 
ICC, and we are focused on the U.N., appropriately. This bill should 
have moved forward, and we are disappointed. But, you know what, we 
also need to focus at home.
  Since the October 7 attacks in 2023, the explosion of anti-Semitism 
that we have seen at our so-called elite universities--I don't call 
them elite; I just call them expensive universities--on the campuses of 
the top universities in America, has been nothing short of astonishing 
and disgusting. I don't know what other adjective I can use but 
``horrifying.''
  These are the statistics from the Anti-Defamation League: From 2023 
to 2024, their annual report on anti-Israel activism on U.S. campuses 
tallied over 2,000 incidents. Anti-Israel incidents of assault, 
vandalism, harassment, protest actions, and divestment resolutions 
between June of 2023 and May of 2024 increased a staggering 477 
percent--477 percent--at the top universities in America. This marks 
the highest number ever documented by the ADL.
  I witnessed this at my alma mater, Harvard. My wife and I went there. 
I don't always talk about it because I am not proud of it. This 
university has huge problems. I was there about a little over a year 
ago, walking the campus. I went to Widener Library. That is the big, 
famous library in the middle of Harvard Yard. I went to the reading 
room--during finals--of Widener Library, and there was a giant anti-
Israel protest in this reading room. It was

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shocking, what was going on at Harvard. As I wrote then, I couldn't 
believe this was happening.
  I took a picture. That is a picture from my camera of this giant 
anti-Israel protest in the middle of one of the biggest libraries in 
America, the reading room at Harvard. It was a pure anti-Semitism 
protest. And I wrote then, in another op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, 
and talked about my experience.
  My thoughts then turned to Harvard undergrads. Imagine if you were an 
18-year-old Jewish or Israeli student or even a pro-Israel Catholic 
like me, and you wanted to study for your chemistry final in the 
Widener Library Reading Room on a Sunday morning. This was on a Sunday 
morning. Imagine being confronted by this protest--obviously condoned 
by Harvard's leadership and commandeered by the Palestine Solidarity 
Committee, which is the anti-Semitic group behind the notorious 
statement that held Israel entirely responsible for all of the 
unfolding violence in the immediate aftermath of October 7. Would you 
feel welcomed at Harvard's most famous library? Would you feel rattled 
and intimidated and harassed by the anti-Israel banner streaming ``Stop 
the Genocide in Gaza''?
  As Jason Riley has written, ``If accusing Israel of genocide isn't 
defamation of Jewish people, I don't know what is.''
  If you were that 18-year-old student, would you believe the vacuous 
statement that had been put out a couple of days before by the Harvard 
Corporation, after it decided not to fire Claudine Gay, Harvard's 
president, that ``disruptions of the classroom experience will not be 
tolerated''? That was a giant disruption.
  So I ended that op-ed by saying this: Not all university leadership 
is so craven, morally bankrupt and afraid of the most radical, vocal 
sects of their own student bodies. As a member of the Naval Academy 
board, the contrast with the Naval Academy and Harvard couldn't be 
starker on issues like civil discourse, so-called safe spaces, trigger 
warnings, American history, and our unique and, yes, exceptional place 
in the world.
  I know we are talking about the ICC, and we should be, but our 
universities in our great Nation need a huge wake-up call because as we 
look at anti-Semitism at the ICC and the U.N., we need to be staring at 
it in places like Harvard and other universities where it has reached 
disturbing and sickening levels, and I think it is this body's 
responsibility to do something about it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.