Stanford University officials have submitted a photo of an unidentified person on campus wearing a green headband worn by Hamas members to the US security agency as the school struggles to reign in pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country.
“We have received many expressions of concern about a photo circulating on social media of an individual on White Plaza who appeared to be wearing a green headband similar to those worn by members of Hamas,” the prestigious US school said in a Wednesday statement. “We find this deeply disturbing, as Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States government. We have not been able to identify the individual but have forwarded the photo to the FBI.”
Pro-Palestinian Protests
Scores of students at Stanford have created an encampment in the White Plaza portion of the northern California college campus to protest Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to the New York Post. Other universities have seen mass arrests as well as clashes between anti-Israel and pro-Israel supporters. The University of California, Los Angeles canceled classes on Wednesday after protesters at dueling rallies fought one another overnight.
Stanford President Richard Saller in a Monday message said the student encampment violates policies that prohibit overnight camping on campus. The university has submitted the names of students caught violating campus policies to the Office of Community Standards (OCS) for disciplinary proceedings, they said. Protest organisers have decried the university’s response to the student protests.
‘Harder stance on antisemitic’
“Stanford is actively discriminating against Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and anti-Zionist Jewish students using their internal disciplinary process,” the protestors said in a social media post on Instagram. A letter dated April 29 to school administrators called on Stanford to take a harder stance on antisemitic behavior by following the lead of other schools like Columbia University to remove the protesters. “Other colleges across the country have begun arresting and disciplining malicious student and non-student agitators, setting an important precedent,” the letter said.
“We, Jews and non-Jews alike, call on Stanford to follow suit.” The letter, authoured by Jewish students on campus and signed by more than 28,000 people, linked to the photo sent to the FBI. “Individuals dressed openly as members of a terrorist organisation is unacceptable and must be dealt with swiftly and harshly,” the authors wrote. “Not doing so sets a dangerous standard, as no citizen should have to worry about distinguishing between individuals merely dressed as terrorists and true terrorists who seek to deal us serious bodily harm.”
