EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers blast "fuelers of hate" behind latest university BDS proposal

Students at the University of Nebraska are preparing to introduce a resolution “to tell our universities to STOP funding genocide” that they falsely accuse Israel of committing in Gaza.

Top lawmakers in Congress told the Washington Reporter that the demands may threaten funds to the public school.

In response to the proposed resolution to boycott Israel, Rep. Randy Fine (R., Fla.) pointed to legislation he sponsored in the Florida legislature that “said that if you boycott Israel, we will boycott you.”

“You can’t do business in Florida if you boycott Israel,” Fine said.

“Any state university that does that should face a similar consequence,” Fine warned, noting that “they called me the Hebrew Hammer for a reason.”

While he’s only been in Congress for a few weeks, Fine wants to roll out federal legislation that makes the same point that his anti-boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) legislation did in the Sunshine State.

Top lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce blasted the BDS proponents as “fuelers of hate.”

Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), who chairs the committee, told the Reporter that “the BDS movement adds fuel to the raging anti-Semitism we’ve been seeing on college campuses.”

The lawmaker added that he is “deeply disappointed to see a student body consider doubling down on a position that harms Jewish students and faculty.”

“Should this attack on Jewish students and faculty pass, I trust the University of Nebraska will act wisely and determine not to implement this misguided policy.,” Walberg said.

BDS measures passed by student governments have almost never been implemented by the administrators who run America’s colleges, as Rep. Burgess Owens (R., Utah) explained.

“As Jewish students face blatant harassment and discrimination on our nation's college campuses, anti-Semitism is once again rearing its ugly head, this time at the University of Nebraska,” he told the Reporter.

“For years, the anti-Semitic BDS movement has tried and failed to target and demonize Israel, America's strongest ally in the Middle East, for defending its right to exist. These are not activists for peace; they are fuelers of hate,” Owens said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), who represents a nearby Congressional District to where the proposed BDS measure will be voted on, told the Reporter that “the folks who are organizing this are aligned with Hamas, who murdered 1,200 innocent people and who still have over 50 hostages.”

“If Hamas surrendered the hostages this war would be over,” Bacon said. “BDS seeks to isolate our ally and I’ve always opposed it.”

He added that “most citizens” in his district, the state’s sole competitive House seat, are “pro-Israel.”

Others out of Congress noted to the Reporter that, while the anti-Semitic BDS movement rarely forces colleges to boycott Israel, many noted that there could be consequences even against schools in states as conservative as Nebraska.

“Public university trustees are entrusted with fiduciary oversight of the institution and are accountable to the state, not to radical activists who don’t understand basic economics,” Nicki Neily, the founder of Defending Education, said. “Stunts like this are nothing more than an attempt to intimidate the community and chill political participation.”

Bonnie Glick, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), who is also a Nebraska farmer, praised the Trump administration for “actually following the law and withholding federal funds from schools like Harvard.”

Glick added that “the University of Nebraska receives nearly $300 million a year in federal funds; I would hate to see the University of Nebraska at Lincoln fall victim to a similar fate as did Harvard.”