From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lerer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Wednesday, May 1st.

Well, obviously, you've been hearing about what's going on on college campuses around the country.

And, of course, it's not just in New York

City where the pro-Palestinian protest or encampments and police responses have been taking

place. In some cases, clashes with the police, in some cases clashes between competing groups

of protesters. In many cases, expressions of anti-Semitism accompany these events,

also these developments, not just opposition to how the war in Gaza is being fought since the

Hamas attack on October 7th. In Montclair, New Jersey, in March, a Gaza relief event called

Palestine Lives was canceled by Montclair State University,

with the university president citing that an outside group had become the lead sponsor of the

event, and according to university president Jonathan Capell, published a mission statement that

goes well beyond advocacy for the Palestinian people. Specifically, the president's statement

said it contains an explicit call to, quote, eliminate Zionism on our campuses and in our

communities. So President Capel says the declared purpose of this organization to rid the campus

of any who oppose its views strikes at the very core of Montclair State

University's mission and values. That a quote from the university president's letter to the

university community in March. Also in March in Montclair, there were dueling ceasefire now and stand up to anti-Semitism events. And the editor of the

Jewish newspaper, the forward, Judy Rudorin, who lives in Montclair, published an article called

When Hate Comes to Your Home Town. It focused on a pro-Palestinian march that centered the chant,

...