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White House silent if anti-Israel protesters will be barred from student loan forgiveness programs
By Emma Colton
Published April 29, 2024
The Biden administration is silent on whether students carrying out anti-Israel protests spiraling on college campuses nationwide will be barred from student loan forgiveness programs that have canceled billions of dollars in debt under the 46th president.
"We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground," protesters have chanted on Columbia University’s campus in recent days. "Hamas we love you. We support your rockets, too," other chants have included.
Colleges from coast to coast, including some of the nation’s most elite schools - including Harvard, Yale, Penn, Berkeley and others – have seen dayslong protests on campuses, where students demand their schools completely divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza increases.
The protests come following terrorist organization Hamas launching war in Israel on Oct. 7, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was "open season for Jews on our campuses." The protests have now heightened to the point where Jewish students are warned to leave campus for their own safety.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Sunday asking if the administration plans to bar student protesters from eligibility for student loan forgiveness programs but did not receive a response. Biden, in part, campaigned in 2020 on forgiving student loan debt, including pledging to cancel at least $10,000 per borrower back in 2020.
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President Biden speaks at an event about canceling student debt, at the Madison Area Technical College Truax campus on Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s plan to give up to $20,000 in debt relief per person, though the administration has remained committed to canceling debt through other avenues, including through established relief programs. As of this month, the administration has forgiven roughly $153 billion in debt among about 4.3 million Americans, the Department of Education detailed in a press release on April 12 after the administration announced $7.4 billion in additional student loan debt relief for more than 200,000 borrowers.
A state trooper knocks down a pro-Palestinian protester at the University of Texas on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
Fox News Digital asked the administration if they are weighing whether to bar anti-Israel protesters on campuses from such relief programs, but did not receive a response. Fox Digital also asked if the administration is weighing such an option, if students would be barred based on arrests or through college and law enforcement investigations.
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The anti-Israel protests intensified this month, including when the NYPD arrested more than 100 protesters on Columbia’s campus, and a school rabbi warned students last week to leave campus "as soon as possible," noting that "what we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic."
Anti-Israel activists stage a demonstration in front of Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. Hundreds of protesters set up a tent encampment in solidarity with demonstrators at Columbia University who are demanding a permanent cease-fire in the war between Israel and Gaza. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
"The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy," Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote to students last weekend. "It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved."
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A Columbia professor argued in comments to Fox Digital last week that student groups supporting anti-Israel protests had "crossed the line" and morphed into becoming "actual terror" organizations. He specifically pointed to an incident on Columbia’s campus earlier this month when a protester was seen holding a sign reading, "Al-Qasam’s (sic)next targets," while pointing at a group of Jewish students who were singing and waving Israel’s flag. Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas.
Anti-Israel protesters march at the University of Texas on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
Protesters across many of the campuses have established encampments on campus, dubbed titles like the "Gaza Solidarity encampment" or the "liberated zone," which hearken back to 2020’s "cop free zones" in cities such as Portland, Oregon, and Seattle during the raging defund the police and BLM riots that year.
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Arrests for the protests are mounting, with more than 100 protesters arrested at Boston’s Northeastern University on Saturday. The school said protesters were heard using antisemitic slurs, including "Kill the Jews." Dozens more were arrested on Emory’s campus in Atlanta last week, including an economics professor, with police allegedly using tear gas and Tasers on the crowds.
All in, more than 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday alone on campuses stretching from Arizona State University to Northeastern, the New York Post reported.
Anti-Israel protests at NYU. (Obtained by Fox News)
As the protests intensify and video footage of the scenes spread on social media, critics have slammed debt bailouts under the Biden administration.
"Your tax dollars at work," State Auditor of Mississippi Shad White posted on X last week. "No more DEI (which is feeding this antisemitism). No more student debt bailouts. Fix our universities."
White’s comment came in response to the popular conservative X account "End Wokeness" posting footage of protests on Columbia’s campus last week, captioning the video, "This is the scene at Columbia University right now. A literal cult is occupying the campus. Remember: We all paid their student debt."
Students move a tent inside Columbia University on April 24, 2024, in New York City. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)
"IDEA: If a student is arrested in an illegal protest or at least arrested for attacking police he is no longer eligible for student loan relief - he’s got to pay back his loans in full - no forgiveness," conservative X account Amuse posted while tagging Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
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"Supposedly 'peaceful' pro-Palestinian protesters outside Columbia University calling for the end of Israel. Remember, your tax dollars are going to forgive the student debt for these people," the publication Conservative Brief posted on X Friday.
Former President Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the presidential election, has repeatedly slammed Biden as being responsible for the protests, calling the demonstrations and antisemtism a "disgrace."
Former President Trump speaks to the media as he leaves Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024, in New York City. (Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)
"What's going on at the college level… Columbia, NYU and others is a disgrace. And it's really on Biden," Trump said on Tuesday morning outside the Manhattan courtroom where he is facing 34 charges of falsifying business records in a case he’s calling a "witch hunt."
"He's got the wrong words. He doesn't know who he's backing. And it's a mess. And if this were me, they'd be after me, they'd be after me so much, but they're trying to get him a pass. And what's going on is a disgrace to our country. And it's all Biden's fault, and everybody knows it. He's got no message, he's got no compassion and doesn't know what he's doing," Trump continued, adding Biden is the "worst president in the history of our country."
President Biden speaks to the National Action Network Convention remotely from the South Court Auditorium of the White House on April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Biden has denounced the protests, but came under criticism last week for also condemning those "who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians."
"I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians," Biden told reporters this month.
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Critics have compared it to Trump’s remarks in 2017, following a two-day riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, when White nationalists descended on the city. Trump said at the time that the violence had "no place in America," while adding there was "blame on both sides" and "very fine people, on both sides."
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