Students at Rutgers University have followed the example set by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill counterprotesters, who pushed back against anti-Israel protesters, preventing an American flag from hitting the ground and singing the national anthem.
On Thursday afternoon, Rutgers students went out to a group of anti-Israel protestors on their own campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey, waving American flags and chanting “USA,” later singing the national anthem.
“Toward the latter half of their encampment yesterday, a handful of what I consider patriotic students went on campus and they obviously were chanting ‘USA!’ They sang the National Anthem,” Jeremy Li, a student at Rutgers, told Fox News on Friday. “They were probably standing up for American values, despite all the conflicting chaos that’s been happening on campus recently.”
Li said that the protests were “great to see,” and added, “We’re seeing a movement that started at UNC that I think hopefully will move across the country.”
A Jewish Rutgers student named Abbey told Fox News “it’s not right” for the school’s large Jewish student community “to feel unsafe while trying to take their finals.”
“I had a lot of friends here yesterday who were chanting ‘USA’ and ‘all for Israel,’ and I think that’s really beautiful because that’s what this country is all about,” Abbey said.
Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway sent a Thursday letter to the school, saying that administration had met with protesting students to ensure that final exams were not disrupted.
“Several days ago, some people, including Rutgers students and individuals not from our community, set up tents on Voorhees Mall. The University has consistently taken steps to make clear to protesting organizations, including this group, our policies reflecting our commitment to free speech and the University’s thresholds for disruptive activity,” Holloway said. “Our strategy has been focused on de-escalation and yesterday, we met with a group of students representing the protest to discuss the need to ensure that their fellow students’ exam period was not disrupted.”
However, in the evening, Holloway changed his tune, saying, “Students for Justice in Palestine called for a significant rally on the Voorhees Mall, coinciding with the beginning of the exam period, specifically intended to disrupt finals for our students. The protests ultimately disrupted 28 exams and impacted more than a thousand students.”
“We value free speech and the right to protest, but it should not come at the cost of our students’ education and safety. We strive to balance these rights and maintain a safe and secure environment for our students to learn and succeed,” he added.
The counter-protest comes just days after a viral incident in which anti-Israel protesters at UNC removed the American flag from its place on the school flagpole, replacing it with a Palestinian flag.
After the flag was returned, the protesters attempted to remove it a second time, leading to a group of young men and fraternity members stepping in and keeping it from touching the ground.
A GoFundMe started for the Chapel Hill students raised over $500,000 before it was closed.
“Hopefully we’re going to see more and more students stand up to this nonsense that pro-Hamas students are putting up… We saw them at Columbia occupy buildings, destroy buildings, vandalize,” Li told Fox News.
The post Students At Rutgers Follow UNC Students, Push Back Against Anti-Israel Protestors appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: John Symank
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://resistthemainstream.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.