Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday dinged Hillary Clinton for being “quite dismissive” in recent comments questioning the knowledge and perspective of anti-Israeli protesters who have stormed college campuses across the country.
Last week, Clinton went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and derided some of the protesters saying they “don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East or frankly about history in many areas of the world.”
Van Hollen (D-Md.) contended that many of the student demonstrators had legitimate concerns about the Israel-Hamas war unfolding half a world away.
“I thought…that Secretary Clinton’s comments, in that regard, were quite dismissive of students’ concerns about the awful humanitarian crisis and high civilian death toll in Gaza,” Van Hollen told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“I believe that the great majority of the students are protesting, are following very closely what’s happening in Gaza,” he went on. “They see what’s a very high civilian death toll.”
Clinton explained that she has “had many conversations” with younger people over the past seven months since the war erupted in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis.
She then underscored her husband, former President Bill Clinton’s efforts for a breakthrough in a two-state solution in the 1990s.
“An offer was made to the Palestinians for a state on 96% of the existing territory occupied by the Palestinians with 4% of Israel to be given to reach 100% of the amount of territory that was hoped for,” she recalled.
But then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected that offer.
Hillary Clinton has been a professor of public affairs at Columbia University, which was engulfed by heavy protests, anti-Israel encampments, and the occupation of Hamilton Hall amid campus strife over the conflict.
Van Hollen also stressed that campuses should protect students’ rights to free speech and “make sure that students feel safe on campus” as well as “stamp out antisemitism and hate.”
Earlier in the interview, the Maryland senator defended President Biden’s decision to put a pause on the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel over concerns it’s planning to mount a ground assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
“Remember, the president of the United States warned [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu repeatedly that if there was an all-out invasion in Rafah that the United States would make policy changes,” he said.
“Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored the President of the United States, ignored the president’s efforts to try to reduce civilian casualties, ignored our efforts to try to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ignored the priority of trying to bring back the hostages.”
Last week, the State Department released a report that stated it is “reasonable to assess” Israel violated international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Around that time, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley said, “Before we get self-righteous about what Israel is doing,” the US should recognize that it has fought wars with significant civilian death tolls, citing events from World War II.
“The United States has not been perfect — far from perfect. But since World War Two, we’ve adopted many more measures to try to restrict civilian harm,” Van Hollen said of Milley’s comments.
Netanyahu publicly estimated that roughly 16,000 civilians have been killed along with 14,000 terrorists in seven months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.