Senate Passes Resolution Condemning Student Groups For ‘Repugnant’ Rhetoric Supporting Hamas Attacks On Israel

The Senate voted Thursday to approve a resolution introduced by Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri that condemned antisemitism and the “repugnant” rhetoric of pro-Hamas supporters on university campuses across the nation, according to multiple reports.

Senate Democrats blocked Hawley’s first attempt at passing the resolution the week prior out of concerns that it would unfairly target pro-Palestinian students. The resolution passed on the second vote Thursday, and Hawley said in a X post that it was important to condemn the attacks by Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, as “evil.”

Hundreds of students on college campuses across the country released statements and participated in dozens of protests where supporters refused to condemn Hamas or the murder of innocent Israelis. As a result, many donors have withdrawn their millions in funding from Ivy League universities such as Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania after the schools failed to condemn the student’s actions.

Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen had previously criticized Hawley’s resolution, saying that it was “smearing” student’s “legitimate concerns.” “There are student groups that may have legitimate concerns,” Van Hollen said. “Legitimate concerns about the loss of innocent civilian life in Gaza.”

Hawley’s resolution “fully and completely condemns” both the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7 that resulted in the death of over 1,400 Israelis and wounded thousands more. The resolution aims at “pro-Hamas student groups” that sympathized “with genocidal violence against the State of Israel and risking the physical safety of Jewish Americans in the United States.”