Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called on anti-Israel demonstrators to protest against Hamas and demand that the terror group agree to a cease-fire deal as the war enters its seventh month.
Fetterman sat down Tuesday for an interview with “Special Report,” where he addressed the anti-Israel protests continuing to rock college campuses nationwide.
“I’m not even sure what they’re really, you know, protesting about. If you ask them, they’re not really sure,” he said. “They can’t… and now they’re not talking about cease-fires anymore, and now they’re talking about divesting and harming Israel and that. It’s crazy.”
Protesters rally at Brown University earlier this week. ( Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
Several students have come out in recent weeks saying they want their colleges to divest from Israel. The University of Southern California’s Divest from Death Coalition demanded a complete academic boycott of Israel, amnesty for students, staff and faculty involved in anti-Israel protests and an end to “war-profiteering.”
Students involved with the University of Chicago’s anti-Israel encampment demanded the defunding of campus police as well as a reduction in emissions by 2030.
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Fetterman highlighted a group of anti-Israel protesters demonstrating outside an Auschwitz Holocaust Remembrance Day event, saying it was “tasteless” and “disgusting.”
A large sign at the University of Chicago’s anti-Israel encampment includes slogans like “Break open the gates, globalize the intifada” and “We will honor all our martyrs.” (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
“It’s actually working against peace in Gaza, and Hamas is convinced that they’ve won the PR war and they keep seeing all these kinds of protests across the nation on these campuses. And it’s not helpful, but it’s actually… it works against peace, I think,” he said on “Special Report.”
The Pennsylvania senator said it is “very much” an American value to protest and have free speech, but what has happened on college campuses “is not that.”
Chants of “From the river to the sea” and “Long live the intifada” have been heard on a number of college campuses, leading some Jewish students to say they are afraid to go to class.
NYPD officers arrested more than 100 people last week at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall after anti-Israel protesters broke into the building and occupied it for several hours.
New York Police Department officers enter the Columbia University building and detain pro-Palestinian demonstrators as they had barricaded themselves to iconic Hamilton Hall building in New York, United States on April 30, 2024. Over 100 people arrested, according to reports. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Fetterman said he “doesn’t really care” who’s funding anti-Israel protests after reports emerged that some organizations backing pro-Palestinian groups are also some of President Biden’s biggest donors.
“I don’t care if you’re a protester, paid or not. You know, if you’re going to protest anything, you should be protesting against Hamas and demanding that they take the cease-fire, or they can just send all these hostages back home,” he added.
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Fetterman said he’s had anti-Israel protesters show up at his office in Philadelphia and believes it’s just “paid kinds of agitation.”
Mounted police work to contain demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class as protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The former Braddock mayor said he believes the Biden administration shouldn’t withhold munitions from Israel and that he can’t imagine setting any kind of conditions for aid to be sent to the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East as it continues its war against Hamas.
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“I have no conditions,” he said. “I never have, and I can’t imagine I ever will.”