During the demonstration and march, students also called for an end to all U.S. aid to Israel and waved signs that said “Hands Off Iran,” alluding to President Joe Biden’s reaction to a recent attack on Israel launched by Iran.
“Our allies and partners have or will issue additional sanctions and measures to restrict Iran’s destabilizing military programs,” Biden—who is headed to a still unknown site in Tampa this week for campaign events—said in a statement issued five days after the attack. “During my Administration, the United States has sanctioned over 600 individuals and entities—including Iran and its proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Kataib Hezbollah. And we will keep at it.”
Biden’s statement, and last week’s student demonstration come nearly 200 days after Hamas, a terrorist group that has long-controlled Haza, launched an attack that killed around 1,200. Since the Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli government has engaged in a war that Al-Jazeera says has killed more than 34,000—including nearly 15,000 children—as of April 22.
In January, NPR reported that “The International Court of Justice has found it is "plausible" that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention.”
The convention, which codified genocide as an independent crime in 1948, classifies genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
At USF last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were joined by a smaller group of individuals including one holding a flag featuring The lion of Judah. Ethan Brooks, who wore a sweater from the school’s “Chabad At USF” group, posted recruiting videos from the event. Another student—USF senior Jacob Kamp, who wore “Stop Antisemitism” shirt—told Bay News 9 that he supports anyone who yells “Free Palestine,” but draws the line at chants that include “from the river to the sea” and “Intifada.”
Photo by Dave Decker
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were joined by a smaller group of individuals during a protest at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida on April 18, 2024.
“Those are highly anti semitic terms,” he told the station, adding that he’s called for USF President Rhea Law to issue a statement that there is a “zero tolerance for antisemitism at USF.”
Students on the pro-Palestininan side have also tried to get Law’s attention, but have also condemned antisemitism. On the same day as their march, the USF Divest Coalition and Students For Socialism @ USF organized a “Countering Anti-Semitism & Teaching Tolerance” event.
“Over thousands of years, the Jewish people have faced sadistic attempts at their extermination, and yet, they have shown incredible resilience, hope and determination. Never again may we witness the atrocities they have dealt with and never again may Palestinians and their right to existence be so under threat,” a post for the event said.
Jacob Cherry, a USF sophomore who was part of the call to end aid to Israel, told BN9 that no one in his coalition that day is against Jewish people.
“The true the anti-semitism that we've seen actually rise up over the years comes from the far-right, comes from things from the alt-right, from Qanonand and all those weird conspiracies that the far-right has been propping up,” Cherry told BN9. “That’s the anti-semitism people should be really worried about.”
