Crisis in Gaza as Israel warns of long war with Hamas

The Biden administration is announcing new actions Monday aimed at combating a series of antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the United States in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

The White House highlighted a series of steps taken by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education, including engagement with campus law enforcement officials, which comes amid rising tension on campuses.

CNN has reported that at many universities, students are engaging in fervent protests as some administrators grapple with how to acknowledge students’ wide-ranging concerns while also fielding backlash from influential donors demanding the colleges take a clearer stance on the conflict. Over the weekend, a series of antisemitic threats were made against Cornell University’s Jewish community in online posts.  

The Justice Department’s Community Relations Service is providing support to Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and other impacted communities, the official added.

And the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of DHS, is working to “proactively engage with schools to assess and address need,” the official said. 

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is also “(expediting) its update of the intake process for discrimination complaints under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to specifically state that certain forms of Antisemitism and Islamophobia are prohibited by this law.”

That means that, for the first time, the complaint form will make clear that “discrimination on the basis of national origin in federally funded programs or activities — including ethnic or ancestral slurs or stereotypes against students who are for example Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu — are forms of prohibited discrimination under this law,” the White House official said. That is expected to formally be updated later this week.