Grassley Opening Statement on Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America

 

Five months ago, the Democrats held a generalized hearing on hate crimes in this Committee, entitled “A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America.”

 

You’ll notice that our hearing title is similar – it’s “Never to be Silent: Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America.” I want to explain why this isn’t another generalized hearing on every kind of hate, with no specified outcome.

 

October 7, 2023 was one of the most horrifying days in recent memory. Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. They callously murdered over 1,200 people, and they slaughtered children. Women were brutally raped. And 250 people—including Americans—were taken hostage.

 

You’d expect this horror to lead everyone to rally around Jewish people for support. Instead, we witnessed stunning acts of antisemitism.

 

On college campuses, we saw prominent displays of Hezbollah flags, Hamas armbands and genocidal slogans. On our city streets, we heard chants of “Death to America” and “We are Hamas!”

 

Students, professors, rabbis and shopkeepers were harassed for no reason—other than that they were Jewish.

 

At Union Station, anti-Israel antagonists brought their evil to our doorstep. They burned American flags and vandalized government property with vile statements, including “Hamas is coming.” Those burn marks remain there to this day.

 

These atrocities were fundamentally un-American. And they raised disturbing questions, such as: Who is funding these activities? What agenda do they have? And, why do college campuses seem to be such fertile ground for radical Islamist ideologies?

 

In the face of questions like these, Congress had a duty to shed light on this issue—and to confront it with moral clarity. To that end, my colleagues in the House held multiple hearings on antisemitism, exposing the willful blindness of leaders in education and government.

 

But on this side of the Capitol, committees were silent. Presumably, this silence was because elements of the Democratic Party, and their base, sympathized with the protestors. As one Democratic senator put it: “There is a reckoning necessary in the political left with antisemitism and [how] certain factions have responded after Oct 7. . . I don’t hear a lot of people on our side really focused on condemning it.”

 

In light of this deafening silence, on May 2, 2024, every Republican on this Committee wrote a letter requesting that we promptly hold a Judiciary hearing to confront the flagrant civil rights violations targeting Jewish students.

 

Yet, even though antisemitism was literally happening right in front of our eyes, this Committee didn’t hold a hearing for another several months. And even then, it was a vague hearing to “examine threats facing marginalized communities and how [we] can better protect the . . . safety of all Americans.”

 

During that hearing, we failed to give the issue of antisemitism the attention it deserved.

 

Republicans were given one witness, and incredibly tone-deaf statements were made by the other side and their witnesses.

 

For example, one of their witnesses called what we’re seeing on college campuses an “organic human rights movement.” She called it a “complicated question” when asked if Hezbollah and Hamas want to kill Jews. And she glossed over statements like “Long Live the Antifada.”

 

Clearly, that hearing wasn’t responsive to the May 2 letter from the Republicans on this Committee. More importantly, it wasn’t responsive to the historic levels of antisemitism that Jewish people were facing every day.

 

In our Republican letter, we wrote, “This Committee owes it to Jewish students . . . to examine these civil rights violations.” We still do.

 

The threat of antisemitism still looms large. Just last week, activists took over an academic building at Barnard College—injuring one employee so badly they were hospitalized. And antisemitism has found expression beyond college campuses too, including through boycotts, employment discrimination and even ESG policies.

 

You’ll find few people who’re more in favor of the First Amendment than I am. And I oppose censorship over political debate. But threats to the safety of Jewish people are obviously not protected forms of speech. Yet, that’s what we’re continuing to see and hear.

Our former hearing quoted Dr. King’s wise statement that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And of course, we all hate “hate”—be it on the basis of someone’s religion, race, or anything else. But a hearing about everything is a hearing about nothing.

 

When college campuses are assisting protestors in setting up Jew Exclusion Zones—we miss the mark with a watered-down approach to antisemitism. When we equivocate about an acute threat to the Jewish community—who are actively being assaulted—we end up turning a blind eye to them.

 

During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel wrote, “The world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent... We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

 

We can’t confront injustice without taking sides. We can’t be neutral in the face of hatred. Antisemitism is, and remains, an ongoing poison. And unless we reckon with that, we’ll never have the moral clarity to address other forms of injustice as they crop up.

That’s why, along with Wiesel, we must swear never to be silent. And that’s why we’re here today: to expose and condemn the recent forms of antisemitism that went unaddressed last Congress. And to discuss the ongoing forms of antisemitism that we’re seeing every day this Congress.