(NewsNation) — While acknowledging criticism of Israel’s policies and actions, New York University professor Scott Galloway argues that the student demonstrations have crossed a line into blatant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment that should not be tolerated.
Galloway, who identifies as an atheist and “cultural Jew,” told NewsNation’s “CUOMO” on Tuesday that he was “blind and immune” to antisemitism in the U.S. until witnessing the demonstrations, which he called “the most anti-American activity I have seen.”
“If I went down to the plaza of any of these universities in a white hood and started saying ‘Lynch the Blacks,’ … I would believe there wouldn’t be a handwringing conversation about First Amendment,” Galloway said. “I think they would have called in the National Guard.”
From coast to coast, campus protesters put up tents to protest Israel’s military action in Gaza and demand the school divest from companies they claim “profit from Israeli apartheid.” The number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Galloway, a marketing professor, said universities have created an “orthodoxy” that divides people into oppressors and oppressed based on their race and wealth. He argued Jews are being falsely cast as oppressors because of perceptions about Israel.
The professor argues that some university faculty lack “critical thinking” by empathizing with ideologies that would mean most students “would either be thrown off a roof or summarily executed.”
He also criticized Israeli policies, suggesting a shift from the nation’s earlier image as a David to a more aggressive stance. “I don’t think Israel has draped itself in glory over the last 20 or 30 years. The Israel I grew up with, the ’67 War, in Munich, they were the David. Now they’re the Goliath.”
“Free speech is never freer when it turns to hate speech against Jews,” he said, advocating protesters engaging in harassment should face “swift response, arrest and/or expulsion.”
He said universities and society at large must take a firm stand against this manifestation of antisemitism, up to expelling students and firing faculty who cross the line into hate speech and harassment.
The professor said people must speak out against antisemitism on campuses, noting that, “We were too quiet 90 years ago,” referring to Nazism’s rise before the Holocaust.
Galloway suggested that TikTok, being controlled by the Chinese government, may be pushing more pro-Hamas/anti-Israel content on the platform as a way to sow division and rage among young Americans who consume content on the platform.
