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Theo Baker, a student at Stanford University, revealed that the debate on campus over the Israel-Hamas war has become extremely hostile, with some students even calling for the death of President Biden.
“One of the section leaders for my computer-science class, Hamza El Boudali, believes that President Joe Biden should be killed,” Baker wrote in an Atlantic article published Tuesday. “‘I’m not calling for a civilian to do it, but I think a military should,’ the 23-year-old Stanford University student told a small group of protesters last month.”
“I’d be happy if Biden was dead,” the student allegedly said.
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Theo Baker, a student at Stanford University, revealed that the debate on campus over the Israel-Hamas war has become extremely hostile, with some students even calling for the death of President Biden. (Getty Images)
“I’m not calling for a vigilante to do it,” El Boudali said, “but I’m saying he is guilty of mass murder and should be treated in the same way that a terrorist with darker skin would be (and we all know terrorists with dark skin are typically bombed and drone striked by American planes).”
“He thinks that Stanford is complicit in what he calls the genocide of Palestinians, and that Biden is not only complicit but responsible for it,” Baker wrote of El Boudali.
“El Boudali has also said that he believes that Hamas’s October 7 attack was a justifiable act of resistance, and that he would actually prefer Hamas rule America in place of its current government (though he clarified later that he ‘doesn’t mean Hamas is perfect’). When you ask him what his cause is, he answers: ‘Peace.'”
Stanford is one of many elite universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, where the student bodies have become deeply divided over the Israel-Hamas war and over support for Israel. The clash between pro-Palestianian and pro-Israel supporters on campus has gained national cultural significance, with director Steven Spielberg recently saying at an event that the “machinery of extremism is being used on college campuses” to spread hate.
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Sometimes, adults not affiliated with Stanford will come onto campus and join in yelling and shouting matches between students, Baker wrote. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Baker argued that “extremism” on the issue has made it “normal for students to be harassed and intimidated for their faith, heritage, or appearance.” On both sides, students “have been called perpetrators of genocide for wearing kippahs, and accused of supporting terrorism for wearing keffiyehs,” he explained.
Sometimes, adults not affiliated with Stanford will come onto campus and join in yelling and shouting matches between students, Baker wrote.
Baker shared anecdotes of activists yelling “Go back to Brooklyn!” at Jewish students during an event focusing on “ameliorating anti-Semitism.”
“One protester, who emerged as the leader of the group, said that she and her compatriots would ‘take all of your places and ensure Israel falls,'” Baker wrote.
A Stanford University spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that the school “is committed to an educational environment in which Jewish students and all students can thrive and fully participate in the offerings of the university in an atmosphere free of harassment and discrimination.”
“We stand against antisemitism, anti-Muslim bias, and all forms of hatred,” the statement reads.
“We remain committed to providing for the physical safety of all students; to providing reporting mechanisms, appropriate enforcement, and student support resources in cases of unlawful conduct; and to encouraging a campus culture in which the constitutionally protected expression of divergent viewpoints is welcomed yet our discourse is reasoned and evidence-based,” the spokesperson said. “This reasoned dialogue is occurring in many places, and our classes and university activities are continuing.”
A Stanford University spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that the school “is committed to an educational environment in which Jewish students and all students can thrive and fully participate in the offerings of the university in an atmosphere free of harassment and discrimination.” (David Madison/Getty Images | Momen Faiz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
An unverified X account with the same name as El Boudali criticized Baker’s article on Tuesday.
“You portray me as an extremist in your piece,” El Boudali asked Baker. “Here’s a question: what’s so extreme about being happy if a genocidal maniac dies? Would you have been happy to hear the news of Hitler dying in 1945? Or Bin Laden in 2011? If you say yes, then you’re an extremist, apparently.”
El Boudali told Fox News Digital over email that he believed the story took his words out of context.
“The quotes are taken out of context and cherry picked, so the meaning is inaccurate,” he wrote. “There are also lies of omission.”
Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History.
Story tips can be sent to jeffrey.clark@fox.com.
