Anti-Israel agitator interrupts Cruz and starts yelling “fuck Jews”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was interrupted on Tuesday during a congressional hearing discussing “hatred” by an anti-Israel provocateur who stood up and yelled “Fuck Jews.”

Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Threats to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America,” Cruz discussed the surge in anti-Semitism on college campuses since October 7.

“Anti-Semitism is an evil with no parallel in history, one that has manifested itself for millennia in violence, mass murder and genocide,” Cruz said. “October 7 was one of the darkest days in human history, when terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostage. Women and girls were raped. It was the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. Since October 7, there has been an explosion of anti-Semitism across the United States and around the world, especially on college campuses.”

Cruz criticized the Biden-Harris administration after giving examples of anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas messages directed at Jewish students.

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“All this time, the Biden-Harris Administration has been completely out of the picture. If the Klan were threatening African-American students on a college campus, would anybody doubt that the FBI and prosecutors would be there and that federal funding to the college would be cut off? Of course they would, and they should,” Cruz said. “But when it comes to anti-Semitism, Democrats have a problem. I would point out that the problem is having Democratic governors in Democratic-controlled states because Democrats are afraid of the pro-Hamas wing of their own party.”

“In states like Texas and Florida, this kind of thing can't be tolerated. At the University of Texas, police went in and arrested Jewish students because violent protesters threatened them. This is what happens when you enforce the law,” Cruz continued. “Every Republican on this committee asked the chairman to hold a hearing on anti-Semitism in February. But there will be no hearings on anti-Semitism. There will only be hearings on hate in general.”

As Cruz tried to explain why he thought the Biden administration was to blame, a man in the audience stood up and yelled “fuck you Jews” and other abuse, according to videos on social media, before the anti-Israel firebrand was ejected.

“And this is the kind of anger and hatred that's being encouraged. We're seeing that hatred manifesting right here right now,” Cruz said of the protesters.

“So what we're doing now is an anti-Semitic demonstration. We're doing a hate demonstration,” he added.

Cruz asked one of the witnesses, Mark Goldfeder, president of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, “Is the Biden administration going to defund the universities that have allowed this hate? Is it going to prosecute anyone for funding violent protests? Is it going to prosecute people who paid for those same tents? Or are they and their universities going to sit back and watch as students fear going to class?”

“No one has been charged,” Goldfeder responded.

“Has any university had its funding terminated for allowing violent threats like this?” Cruz asked.

“Not every university is like that,” Goldfeder said.

Anti-Israel activists continue to demonstrate at a protest camp on the Columbia University campus in New York City, April 29, 2024. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)

The senator earlier noted how the Anti-Defamation League showed that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the US more than doubled from 2022 to 2023.

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“College campuses, in particular, are vile hotbeds of anti-Jewish hatred,” Cruz said, citing an example of a Cornell University student threatening since October 7 that “if I see a pig-like Jewish man I'm going to stab him and slit his throat, and if I see a pig-like Jewish woman I'm going to drag her out, rape her and throw her off a cliff.”

The Republican senator posted a flyer distributed by a student group at California State University, Long Beach calling for October 7 to be a “Day of Resistance,” noting that the flyer included a photo of a person parachuting with a fan attached. “This is a direct reference and glorification of the Hamas terrorists who descended on a music festival in a glider and killed 260 innocent people and took many more hostages,” he said.

Cruz recalled that just days after Columbia University's former president, Minush Shafik, was questioned by the House Education and Labor Committee in April about the surge in anti-Semitism on campus, Rabbi Ellie Buechler warned Jewish students that Columbia “cannot guarantee the safety of Jewish students in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy” and said she “strongly encourages” Jewish students to leave campus and return home.

An anti-Israel protester holds a Palestinian flag during a march on the campus of Columbia University in New York City on April 29, 2024. (Reuters/David D. Delgado)

Cruz said the rabbi was “right to be concerned” after people on the Columbia campus chanted “We are all Hamas! Long live Hamas!”

The senator continued to cite examples of anti-Semitism on college campuses across the country, including the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor being told to “go back to the gas chambers,” and shared a photo of a Columbia University student holding a sign that read “Al-Qassam's next target” in front of students protesting with American and Israeli flags.

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“Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas. According to social media, this student is a wealthy student from Georgia. She is not Palestinian, but she has been indoctrinated with lies and hatred and has no qualms about defending the murder of her Columbia University classmate,” Cruz said.