FRANKFORT, Ky. (Oct. 24, 2024) – Attorney General Russell Coleman called on Ivy League university administrators to reject pressure from antisemitic forces on campus. In a letter signed by 25 attorneys general, General Coleman encouraged Columbia University’s interim president to hold the line against calls to divest from Israel.
“Antisemitic and terrorist-aligned groups will find no safe harbor on our campuses or anywhere else in this country,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Our Commonwealth and our nation will continue standing strong with our ally, Israel, against this evil.”
In the letter, the attorneys general write, “In April of this year, several pro-Palestinian groups staged occupation protests on Columbia University’s campus in New York City, established encampments, and demanded the university divest from Israel. Even after some protesters were arrested, occupations continued, and the school entered negotiations with protesters. The school appropriately declined to divest from Israel. But demands for divestment have not abated. And the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks heralded an escalation in antisemitic rhetoric by pro-Palestinian campus protest groups.”
The letter goes on to list examples of actions and rhetoric by pro-Palestinian protesters calling for even more violence, including one member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest saying the school was lucky he wasn’t out killing Zionists.
General Coleman was joined in the South Carolina and Arkansas-led letter by attorneys general from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
Earlier this year, General Coleman signed a similar letter to the leadership of Brown University highlighting the profound legal consequences of adopting a divestment proposal. That letter showed how yielding to antisemitic calls for divestment could trigger laws in nearly three-fourths of states that prohibit those states from associating with entities that discriminate against Israel, Israelis, or their business partners. Following the letter from the attorneys general, Brown’s governing board rejected the divestment proposal on October 9, 2024.
Read the letter to Columbia University.