Simcha Rothman, the chair of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and member of Knesset from the Religious Zionist Party, spoke in a Holocaust ceremony at Columbia University in New York.
"We are standing on Holocaust Memorial Day at Columbia University, and the antisemitism is on the rise here and in many places around the world," said Rothman.
He spoke to listeners about the ongoing demonstrations at American colleges, stressing the importance of separating protest from hate speech.
Jews are facing severe threats in the diaspora
"In a demonstration where people simply want to convey a message, this this is freedom of speech, this is legitimately possible. What we see here on campus is not a demonstration; what we see here is support for terrorism and antisemitism," he added.
In recent weeks, dozens of campuses across the US have faced occupation and aggressive protest by activists in a bid to force the adoption of anti-Israel policies since the original April 17 Columbia University tent settlement. Many graduation ceremonies and exam seasons have been disrupted, and there have been incidents of violence and antisemitism towards Jewish and Israeli students and staff.
Rothman addressed this by questioning why protests, under the guise of being critical of Israel, choose to discriminate against or harass Jewish students. He asked, “If you are protesting a policy, why would you prevent students from entering campus? Why would you block a lecturer from entering the university if he looks Jewish?”
He spoke to the existential threat facing the State of Israel, which he says is fighting “not only to protect the safety of our citizens, but also to preserve the lives of Jews around the world”.
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He correlated the struggles faced by Jews today with that of Jews in Nazi Germany, saying that there was a similarity “between what happened in Germany before the war and what is happening today on the streets of the USA.”
He finished with a message of strength, encouraging unity between diaspora and Israeli Jews: “All of us together, unified, we should fight against terrorism and antisemitism in every possible way”.
Michael Starr contributed to this report.