Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend and discussed her experience while on Columbia University’s campus during the pro-Palestinian protests last spring, which are likely to heat up again as students return to campuses.
Clinton told Zakaria that she believed the protests were not student-led and had received outside influence. “There were already existing groups within our country, and particularly on certain campuses like Columbia, who had talking points. They had a plan for protest and disruption. And I watched it sort of morph into something that was not student-led, even though students participated, but which had outside funding, outside direction,” she said, adding:
And I still to this day, I’m not quite sure. All that was going on with it. And a lot of students were caught up in that. And, a lot of the videos on social media gave not just a one-sided view of the conflict, but a totally anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, not just pro-Palestinian view. And for me, it was distressing because, look. I have my own opinions formed over many years.I am willing to sit down and have a conversation with anybody, but it’s difficult to have conversations with people who hold strong opinions with no factual and historical basis. And so in trying to talk to students not just at Columbia but elsewhere, I would be met with slogans. I would be met
with attacks and, you know, very inflammatory language.
Clinton, who joined Columbia’s faculty in 2023, added that she believed many of those involved in the protests were ignorant of the facts regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “And when I would ask, ‘Well, what about, do you know what happened in 2000 at Camp David? No. Do you know what happened in 1947? No. Do you know how difficult the relationships have been? No. Do you know that there are Arab Israelis and some are serving in the IDF? None of that.’ And this whole chanting of, you know, from the ‘river to the sea.’ What does that mean? What river? What sea? That’s what bothered me,” Clinton concluded.
Clinton also condemned the harassment of Jewish students on campus, calling it “nasty.” “This was screaming at students who were Jewish, it was blocking their entry into classes or into club activities. It was nasty. And so there was something else going on here that was very troubling. And we now, you know, have seen evidence of, you know, obviously foreign money, foreign influence, the algorithms on TikTok, which were anti-Israel right off the bat. And so I think that a university particularly has an obligation to, of course, protect free speech, but also to protect students against harassment and against the kind of behavior that interfered with their learning,” she said.
Watch the clip above via CNN.