US President Joe Biden will speak out against anti-Semitism at a Holocaust memorial ceremony Tuesday, as tensions remain high over nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza.Those comments came as protesters including many Jewish students critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians stage recurring protests against the country's ongoing war in Gaza.
President Joe Biden is set to issue a forceful condemnation of antisemitism during a Tuesday ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust at a time when the Hamas attack on Israel and controversy over the war in Gaza have sparked new waves of violence and hateful rhetoric toward Jews. Biden’s remarks at the Capitol will play out as pro-Palestinian protests — some of which have involved antisemitic chants and threats toward Jewish students and supporters of Israel — rock college campuses across the country. Biden has struggled to balance his support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack — the deadliest day for Jews worldwide since the Holocaust — with his efforts to constrain its war on the militant group in Gaza.
Columbia University, the epicenter of US student protests against the war in Gaza, on Monday cancelled its main graduation ceremony, as colleges seek to contain the demonstrations that have rocked campuses for weeks.- 'Order must prevail' -
For many students who graduated from high school during the Covid pandemic, it will be the second such ceremony that is canceled due to external disruption.
U.S. university presidents joined Holocaust survivors and thousands of Israelis on Monday for the March of the Living, a yearly memorial march at the site of Auschwitz that honors the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and celebrates the state of Israel. This year, the mood at the march was overshadowed by the war in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the deadliest violence against Jews since Adolf Hitler's regime sought to destroy the entire Jewish population of Europe. The October attack unleashed a war that has led to a high number of Palestinian deaths, fueling pro-Palestinian protests that have swept U.S. campuses.