[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 177 (Thursday, October 26, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5200-S5201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONDEMNING HAMAS AND ANTISEMITIC STUDENT ACTIVITIES ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES 
                          IN THE UNITED STATES

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration and the 
Senate now proceed to S. Res. 418.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 418) condemning Hamas and antisemitic 
     student activities on college campuses in the United States.

  There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the 
Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.
  Mr. HAWLEY. I know of no further debate on the measure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
  If not, the question is on agreeing to the resolution.
  The resolution (S. Res. 415) was agreed to.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S5200, October 26, 2023, third column, the following 
appears: The resolution (S. Res. 241) was agreed to.
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: The resolution (S. 
Res. 418) was agreed to.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Mr. HAWLEY. I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to 
and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in the Record of 
October 19, 2023, under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, 1 week ago, I came to this floor to try 
and pass this very resolution that condemns the violent, genocidal, 
anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions on our college campuses all across 
this country. Sadly, I was blocked by one of my Democratic colleagues. 
And since then, the situation at our universities has only worsened.
  I offer you just two examples. I could multiply these examples, 
sadly, but let's just take two.
  On Tuesday of this week, just 2 or 3 miles from where we stand now on 
the floor of the U.S. Senate, at the George Washington University, pro-
Hamas students projected onto the side of the university library 
various anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, pro-genocide slogans, including 
``Glory to Our Martyrs,'' in reference to the terrorists who attacked 
the State of Israel, and not just the State of Israel, but who 
committed cold-blooded murder of babies, cutting off their heads, 
shooting women and children in their homes, executing soldiers as they 
lay sleeping in their barracks.
  These same students projected other slogans onto the library wall: 
``Free Palestine From the River to the Sea''.
  What does that mean? Well, it is a reference to Hamas's longstanding 
call for the extermination of the State of Israel.
  Let's just be clear. This is a reference to their call for genocide 
of Jews in the Middle East and everywhere they can get their hands on 
them. This is what is going on, on our college campuses.
  If you talk to the students who were there at George Washington 
University

[[Page S5201]]

that night, what they will tell you is, they feared for their safety; 
they feared for their lives; they don't know if they are any longer 
welcome on campus or physically safe on campus.
  What did the university do in the wake of this attack? Well, the 
answer has become all too familiar. Virtually nothing. They issued a 
statement saying that the students weren't authorized to project these 
genocidal slogans onto the library wall, and that is about it.
  We have to do a heck of a lot better than that.
  Last night, at Cooper Union, an institution of higher education in 
the State of New York, Jewish students were barricaded inside their own 
library as a pro-Hamas group rampaged through the building shouting 
violent slurs at these students and then pounded on the library doors 
seeking to gain entrance.
  This morning's New York Post reads: ``Cooper Union barricades Jewish 
students inside library as pro-Palestinian protesters bang on [the] 
doors.''
  The students who were there last night spoke of being herded into the 
library, of campus security saying they didn't think they could protect 
them; campus security then locking the doors to the library to try and 
keep the Jewish students inside and an angry mob assembling.
  There are photos of this. Don't take my word for it. The video is 
available everywhere. Go look for yourself.
  An angry mob of pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas students were banging on 
the windows--the glass windows--of the library at the Jewish students 
who were literally barricaded inside.
  These students were calling 9-1-1, calling their relatives, asking 
for help. Eventually, an hour or more later, campus security reportedly 
took them out through the back door. They couldn't walk out the front 
door of a library in their own school. They had to be taken out the 
back for fear, I guess, of their safety, perhaps also for appearances.
  I can't help but think, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, the President of 
the United States had to activate the 101st Airborne Division to make 
sure African-American students could go to class in this country 
without being physically assaulted. Is that what it has come to now on 
America's college campuses?
  Are we going to have to activate the National Guard to see that 
Jewish students can go to class in safety without being in fear of 
their lives?
  I would just say this: As a nation, we must speak with one voice and 
say that there is a right, and there is a wrong; there is good, and 
there is evil; and threatening to kill an entire class of people is 
wrong and it is evil.
  Speaking up, shouting in support of genocide is wrong, and it is 
evil. Threatening the lives of your fellow students because they are 
Jewish is wrong, and it is evil.
  Plainly, these institutions of so-called higher learning have failed 
these students. These students have clearly no idea what right and 
wrong means. You project stuff like this on a library wall while your 
Jewish classmates stand in fear for their lives, you don't have any 
idea about what right and wrong is.
  Clearly, these institutions have failed these students, which is why 
we need to speak with moral clarity now. This is a teachable moment. 
This is a moment for us to say that genocide is wrong, that terrorist 
attacks against Jews are wrong, that threats on the lives of Jewish 
people anywhere--the Middle East, in this country, Europe, anywhere--is 
wrong.
  This shouldn't be hard. But we have to do it so that these students 
and everywhere within the sound of our voice can understand what right 
and wrong means--can understand the moral gravity of the situation we 
are now confronting.
  That is why what we are doing today matters, and that is why I am 
pleased today that we are able now, finally, to pass this resolution 
that explicitly names the rhetoric, explicitly calls out the language 
of pro-violence, pro-genocide, and says that is wrong.
  Now, I want to be clear. Our First Amendment--of which I am a great 
defender--our First Amendment allows people to say the most terrible 
things--vile, horrible, reprehensible things. The First Amendment, as I 
have often said, is the right to be wrong. And these students are 
absolutely wrong.
  So they may have the right to say these things--although I must add, 
nobody has the right to threaten violence against other Americans or 
anybody within their ambit. They may have the right to say terrible 
things, to say that they are in favor of genocide, to say that they 
want to see Jewish people killed. They may have the right to say those 
things, but that doesn't mean that we have to agree with it. That 
doesn't mean that we have to say: Oh, that is morally neutral. Sure, 
you can say it, fine. We have no opinion.
  No, no, no. The answer to that kind of hateful, virulent, dangerous 
speech is speech with moral purpose. It is language with moral clarity. 
It is a moral stand that says: No, that is wrong. That is not us. That 
is not the United States of America. That is what we are doing right 
here, right now, on this floor today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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