In a revealing moment during her recent CPAC speech, Donald Trump’s newly appointed UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, openly took credit for the ousting of multiple Ivy League university presidents on Israel’s behalf. “Do you remember that famous Congressional hearing with the anti-Semitic university presidents from Harvard and Penn?” she asked the crowd. “I should say former presidents after my questions. Five down and so many to go.”

Stefanik was referring to her high-profile exchanges with university leaders, which she claims exposed their alleged tolerance for anti-Semitism and failure to combat calls for genocide against Jews. A widely circulated clip from the hearing showed Stefanik grilling then-Harvard President Claudine Gay, repeatedly pressing her on whether calls for the genocide of Jews were considered permissible speech on campus. However, the full video provides a broader context to the exchange.

Gay, who was later pressured to resign amid supposedly unrelated plagiarism accusations, faced Stefanik’s pointed questioning, which escalated into a demand for a yes-or-no answer. “A Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African Americans is not protected free speech at Harvard, correct?” Stefanik pressed, and Gay refused to give a direct yes-or-no answer.

Last April, a wave of protests swept across college campuses in the United States, leading to the formation of student encampments demanding that their universities divest from companies complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The movement, which quickly gained international traction, began at Columbia University after Gay was pressured into calling the New York Police Department to forcibly disperse student demonstrators.

Stefanik, who received at least $796,829 from pro-Israel donors between 2023 and 2024, argued that pro-Palestine student protests were calls for the murder of Jewish people. Central to this claim was her misrepresentation of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as incitement to genocide. Ironically, the phrase originates from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, yet when used by pro-Palestine demonstrators, it was framed as a call to kill the Jewish people.

As a foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, led the charge in demanding that American students be stripped of their free speech rights, likening peaceful anti-war encampments to Nazi rallies that preceded the Holocaust. Stefanik took up the cause domestically, amplifying accusations of rampant “anti-Semitism” on college campuses and spreading widely discredited hoaxes—among them, the false claims that a Jewish student was “stabbed in the eye” with a Palestinian flag and that protesters had chanted “death to the Jews.” She also pushed for an ultimatum: universities could either suppress student protests against Israel or risk losing federal funding.

On December 9, Stefanik took to X (formerly Twitter) to gloat: “One down. Two to go,” celebrating the forced resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. Magill had fought to uphold the First Amendment rights of her students, yet Stefanik and the Israel Lobby framed their campaign to crush campus protests as a fight against anti-Semitism.

Despite Columbia University President Minouche Shafik caving to pressure from politicians aligned with the Israel Lobby and major pro-Israel donors, her decision to crack down on criticism of Israel apparently did not go far enough to appease her critics. Shafik was subjected to relentless media attacks and accused of “permitting anti-Semitism” for allowing students to criticize Israel. Ultimately, she, too, was forced to resign.

The mass arrests of peaceful protesters, the violence against students by outside agitators, and the forced resignations of at least five university presidents together amount to the most significant assault on academic freedom in U.S. history. Never before have university leaders been ousted simply for allowing free speech on campus—an unprecedented crackdown that Stefanik now openly boasts about.

One down.
Two to go.

This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most “prestigious” higher education institutions in America.

This forced resignation of the President of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.…

— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 9, 2023

The crackdown is far from over. The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into alleged discrimination “against employees who are or are perceived to be Jewish or Israeli” at the University of California. Meanwhile, President Trump has vowed to deport foreign students who participate in pro-Palestine activism on campus, branding the demonstrations “illegal protests” and accusing participants of supporting Hamas.

Despite his rhetoric about cutting government spending, Trump has created a nationwide task force—funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars—to combat alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses. Even more concerning to free speech advocates is the administration’s exploration of methods to revoke the tax-exempt status of organizations critical of Israel, framing such speech as anti-Semitic or supportive of terrorism. This move could have far-reaching consequences, potentially affecting universities, independent media outlets, including MintPress News, and civil society groups.

Although there is no evidence that pro-Palestine encampments have called for violence against Jewish people based on their identity, corporate media and pro-Israel lawmakers in Washington continue to portray the protests as extremist gatherings. The Trump administration, despite its positioning as an “anti-woke” champion of free speech, is leading an unprecedented assault on First Amendment rights—on behalf of a foreign government.

Feature photo | Elise Stefanik walks to the House Chamber to vote, at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., February 25, 2025. Graeme Sloan | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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