


Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) condemned pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University as “unacceptable.”
Protests have taken hold of several major universities across the country, centered on U.S. support for Israel during its war with Hamas. The most visible protest has been at Columbia, where protesters have forced it to adopt hybrid classes. The demonstrations drew the attention of Shapiro, who condemned university leadership for not taking action to shut them down.
“What we’re seeing at Columbia and what we’re seeing in some campuses across America, where universities can’t guarantee the safety and security of their students, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” he told Politico.
“If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law,” Shapiro added.
While Republicans have almost unanimously condemned the protests, Democrats are more split, with the divide being largely between the younger, progressive movement and older establishment. Shapiro is one of a handful of elected Democrats who have taken a firm stance against them.
The divide was illustrated on Wednesday when Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) clashed over the latter’s criticism of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) criticism of Israel.
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Ocasio-Cortez is one of the few representatives to come out in defense of the Columbia protesters, condemning the decision of New York to deploy police to deal with them as “horrific.”
The protests have also garnered international attention, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comparing them with the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany.