ISTANBUL

The US Education Department has launched probes into five universities for alleged antisemitism.

In a statement on Monday, the department said that following US President Donald Trump’s executive order on combating antisemitism, it has launched investigations into five universities "where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported."

These actions come in response "to the explosion of antisemitism" on US campuses after the Oct. 7, 2023 start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The institutions being investigated include Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, all of which saw Pro-Palestine demonstrations.

“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year," Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said, according to the statement, adding that the universities allegedly made “astounding concessions” to camps set up on the campuses in solidarity with Gaza.

In late January, Trump signed a presidential order, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” that opened the door to the deportation of students participating in demonstrations in support of Palestine.

Protests at US universities

On April 16, 2024, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University staged a sit-in on the campus lawn and erected a tent called the Gaza Solidarity Camp in protest of the school's continued financial investments in companies that support Israel's attacks and occupation of Gaza.

On the second day of the protests, Chancellor Minouche Shafik requested the assistance of the New York Police Department to disperse the demonstrators, and police entered the campus and detained 108 students.

On April 29, after negotiations with the school administration reached an impasse, students entered the school's historic Hamilton Hall building, and a day later, at the request of the school administration, NYPD riot police intervened and evacuated the building. Police also dispersed the tent camp in the garden.

After starting at Columbia, the pro-Palestine demonstrations spread to over 50 other universities in the country, where police detained more than 3,100 people, mostly students and faculty members.

The protests came in response to Israel’s genocidal war since Oct. 7, 2023, which in the months that followed have killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000.

The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children.

Last November the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

A ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel took hold in Gaza on Jan. 19, halting the war that has caused widespread destruction and left the enclave in ruins.