Cornell University in New York announced Thursday that canceled classes for a dayafter a student was accused of uttering antisemitic threatsincluding one for attacking with a firearm,against a food hall kosher.
With the objective of “live a community daydue to the serious tension of recent weeks,” this Friday, November 3, “no classes will be held at the university,” according to a spokeswoman for the New York university.
The threats, allegedly made by Patrick Daia 21-year-old young man, occur in the midst of what is “an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts in the country, due to the war between Israel and Hamas” that began on October 7, according to the words of some public officials of the United States.
The young man was arrested on Tuesday and charged with “post threats to kill or injure to another person, using interstate communications,” according to the prosecution.
What were the threats and what the Justice said
The Department of Justice accuses the young Dai for having allegedly published a post “calling for the death of Jewish people” on a discussion forum at the Cornell University House. Furthermore, in the post, he apparently said that he was also going to “shoot 104 west”a dining room that primarily serves Jewish students and it is right next to the Cornell Jewish Center.
In another message, Dai allegedly threatened to “stab and cut throat” to any Jewish male he saw on campus, in addition to “rape and throw off a cliff” any Jewish woman, as well as “behead any Jewish baby.” The statement also claims that Dai even threatened to “shooting Jewish students on the school’s campus in Ithaca, New York.”
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Reuters
Anti-Semitic threats in the US: the university’s response
“We will not tolerate anti-Semitism at Cornell. In fact, we will not tolerate hate in any of its forms, neither racism nor Islamophobia,” declared Cornell president Thursday, Martha Pollack.
After Dai’s arrest, the presidents of nine Israeli universitiesin an open letter to their American colleagues, accused many American campuses of becoming “breeding grounds for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments“largely fueled by”a naive understanding and biased of the conflict”.
At Harvard, Stanford, and New York University, confrontations involving students, faculty, and administrators exploded into viral debates on social networks, in addition to increasing accusations of antisemitism, Islamophobia and threats to the freedom of expression.
Source: Ambito
