Republicans Push Sinister Plan to Punish Schools With Gaza Protests

House Republicans are threatening to punish colleges and universities that allow pro-Palestine protests.

The Guardian reported Wednesday that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise met with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, on October 1 and declared he plans to take action against higher education institutions by revoking their accreditation if Donald Trump wins in November, jeopardizing their federal funding.

“Your accreditation is on the line,” Scalise said. “You’re not playing games any more, or else you’re not a school any more.”

The publication obtained video of the meeting, which was also attended by Republican Representative Pat Fallon from Texas. It began as a discussion about antisemitism spreading in the U.S. after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year. But the topic quickly changed to squashing criticism of Israel’s war, which has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 16,000 children.

Fallon applauded AIPAC’s targeting of progressive critics of Israel, praising the organization for spending $23 million to intervene in congressional primaries.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for firing Jamaal Bowman, and even more so, Miss Cori Bush. Great work,” Fallon said.

Scalise concurred and invoked an antisemitic trope, commending the organization for having “tentacles throughout the Republican and Democrat circles in 435 districts. You can see how people are voting—just put the pressure on those who are voting the wrong way.”

Scalise promised that a second Trump administration would use federal funding to target schools that don’t crush pro-Palestinian protests.

“We’re looking at federal money, the federal grants that go through the science committee, student loans. You have a lot of jurisdiction as president, with all of these different agencies that are involving billions of dollars, some cases a billion alone going to one school,” said Scalise. He singled out Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University as examples.

Scalise then criticized Jewish students who participate in the protests, saying they “just feel guilty that they’re alive. I don’t know how you’re brought up to where you feel, ‘I’m a Jewish student, and I’m on the side with terrorists who want to kill me.’”

Scalise, along with other politicians in both the GOP and the Democratic Party, are going against constitutional principles of free speech to demonize protesters who are opposed to Israel’s widespread killing and destruction of Gaza the past year. They see their job as supporting Israel’s actions with no limits, regardless of the humanitarian toll and the prospects of the U.S. being drawn into a wide and deadly war.