Fears rise on campuses after attack on Palestinian college students

Fear among Muslim and pro-Palestinian college students is rising after the weekend’s attack on three Palestinian 20-year-olds in Vermont. 

Universities have been a breeding ground of controversy since the Israel-Hamas war began early last month, with heated protests and threats plaguing students’ lives. 

While lawmakers and policy experts have raised alarms on violent antisemitism, advocates say similar spikes in Islamophobia are getting short shrift.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it has received 1,283 requests for help amid concerns about violence in the month after Oct. 7. In 2022, over the same time period, the group only got 406 such requests. 

“I have one friend that is hijabi, and she had someone telling her that her religion is a violent religion and that they are technically terrorists and all the problems in the world are technically because of Islam,” said a Palestinian student from Colorado State University (CSU), who requested anonymity due to safety concerns. “They also called her ‘towel head,’ and it was another student on campus.”

Lina Assi, advocacy manager for Palestine Legal, told The Hill the group sent a letter to the Education Department about the more than 600 requests for legal support it has received, “a huge percentage of which are students asking for this support because of these different experiences of discrimination and harassment that they’ve been facing.”

College students are finding themselves at the forefront of the threats, even when they are nowhere near protests nor advocating for any cause. 

Over Thanksgiving weekend, three students were shot in Vermont, with two of them wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves. Hisham Awartani, one of the three, may never be able to walk again, according to his mother. 

The man who shot the three students has been arrested, and the families, along with advocacy groups, are pushing for a hate crime investigation. 

Kinnan Abdalhamid, another of the Vermont victims, told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday, “In the West Bank, we’re not safe because of the occupation, and as a Palestinian American, I’m not safe in America because of people like this that might come out.”

The attack followed the shooting death of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in Illinois last month, in what police say was a hate crime.

“As parents of Palestinian children, we fear for the safety of our families as U.S. media and even elected officials from the highest levels of the government have repeated racist and dehumanizing language in recent weeks, contributing to an environment of heightened racism and violence towards Palestinians and Arabs,” the families of the three Vermont victims said in a statement. “This hateful rhetoric emboldens people to act with violence.”

Concerns on campus have been escalated to the Department of Education as advocacy groups work on behalf of students who are not sure how to handle the situation. 

College administrations have had to navigate concerns from both sides of the Israel-Hamas debate, with neither side currently satisfied with the protection or support given by officials. 

“I think [it] is just horrifying to think of, and I know that a couple of people mentioned that they never thought that an incident like that could happen,” a pro-Palestine student from CSU, who also requested anonymity for safety concerns, told The Hill. “We would hope it would never happen here at CSU and here in Fort Collins, but with the increase in violence rising, it’s just saddening to think that that could happen here as well.” 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Coalition Against Apartheid put out a statement saying its school “ignores” harassment against Muslim and pro-Palestine students. 

“Rather, MIT has deprioritized the fight against islamophobia on campus — leaving Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students subject to continued public harassment, doxxing, and even physical assault,” the group wrote. 

Meanwhile, a spike in antisemitism on campus has been the subject of two congressional hearings. 

The Anti-Defamation League found that 312 antisemitic incidents occurred in the U.S. from Oct. 7, the date of Hamas’s initial attack on Israel, to Oct. 23. In 2022 at the same time, there were only 64 such incidents. 

With both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian voices facing harassment and threats of violence, students find themselves in a vulnerable position. 

“Unfortunately, to ensure that you are safer, you need to avoid rallies, protests, anywhere where you are associated with a group. Unfortunately, that infringes on your right to free speech, your right to freedom of movement and your right to freedom of association,” said Henning Snyman, security director for the South Atlantic U.S. Region at International SOS, a security firm, adding, “you’ve got to avoid certain events where there’s the possibility of escalation or violence.”

He said what the best schools can do to keep students safe is inform police departments when rallies happen and let students know when and where they could see protests on campus.

“Often the university environments are more political than in most parts of our society, so it’s very difficult to steer clear of, and I think the best approach is to be apolitical in what you say and what you do,” Snyman said. “Without, I mean, obviously, everyone’s going to want …  freedom of expression. You’ve got to weigh that up with your own safety and the safety of your students.”