Democrat Urges Joe Biden ‘Will Go to College Campuses’ as Anti-Semitic Protests Rallying Support for Palestine Engulf Universities Across the Country

A top campaign surrogate for Democrats and Biden said the president will visit college campuses rocked by pro-Palestinian protests as the issue has emerged as a major voting issue six months after the election.

“I think the president should and will come to the campuses,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said in an interview with CBS News Sunday.

Khanna’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when the potential college visit could take place.

The California Democrat has traveled around the country, most recently to Wisconsin, where he met with students and voters to gauge their priorities for the November election.

“In Wisconsin, the issues that came up first were abortion, then the cost of living and what the president would do on student loans, housing and rent,” Khanna said, adding that “Gaza was also discussed ‘.

Protesters across the country have called on their universities to divest from Israel

“We have to understand that this is a defining moment for this generation, on par with anti-Vietnam protests, anti-apartheid protests, (and) anti-Iraq war protests, and they want to see leadership in America and around the world.”

“This is not the world they want,” Khanna continued.

Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. colleges in recent weeks have led to thousands of arrests and continued unrest on campus, as students camp out on college grounds, often chanting through megaphones, and set up makeshift villages.

The movement first began at Columbia University before spreading to colleges across the country.

More than a hundred activists were arrested at Columbia University in the early days of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment there, but that did not stop protesters from later expanding their de facto domain by taking over a university building.

Activists demanded that the university cut ties with companies financially linked to Israel or with Israeli companies.

They also repeatedly denounced Zionism – the belief that Jewish individuals should have their own nation – and condemned that Israel should be dissolved or destroyed.

After weeks of trying to negotiate with student organizers, Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, warned students that harsher penalties, such as expulsion, would be imposed on protesters.

Ultimately, the New York Police Department had to intervene, dramatically entering the university building to remove students and activists who had taken over university property.

The saga led to separate visits from Speaker Mike Johnson and several House Democrats, all of whom spoke out against anti-Semitism on campus.

Yet Biden has not visited any of the college campuses hit by protests, although he denounced the protests last week and said demonstrators have no right “to cause chaos.”

“I think the protests and the larger movement have changed the president,” Khanna said Sunday.

“Look, everyone from the president on down is aware that young people are angry about what’s happening in the Middle East.”

“And I think there has been an awakening in Washington, that this war has to end, that too many people are dying. And if you look at the president’s language, that has certainly changed in the last six months.”

Khanna also said there is “constructive dialogue happening” on college campuses, some of which he did not experience while touring for Biden.

A University of Texas professor takes part in a pro-Palestinian protest on Sunday

He also condemned activists who blur the lines between protest and calls for violence.

‘You can’t shout ‘guillotine, guillotine’. You can’t shout ‘globalize the Intifada’ or ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live.’

“What is lost is that those few protesters who incite violence or engage in that kind of anti-Semitism diminish the number of thousands of young people who simply want the war to end.”