Columbia anti-Israel encampment
Columbia anti-Israel encampmentReuters/Adem Wijewickrema/TheNews2/Cover Images

Two Republican congressmen demanded that the FBI begin "doing its job" and act to protect Jewish students by opening an investigation into anti-Israel groups at Columbia University who endorse and call for violence, the New York Post reported.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) addressed a letter today (Monday) to FBI assistant director James Dennehy, who runs the FBI New York Field Office.

Ernst and Stefanik cited the statements of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) member Khymani James, who recently retracted his apology for saying "Zionists don’t deserve to live" and for saying "Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists."

The two lawmakers wrote in their letter, “Rarely has the FBI had such public and obvious evidence of potentially imminent violence."

“This cannot become another instance in which a terrible case of violence takes place at a school and the FBI issues a statement after the fact that the perpetrators were ‘on its radar,’ but [the FBI] did nothing. Put simply, the writing is on the wall and you have no excuse. Do your job,” they added.

Last week, CUAD retracted the apology it issued on behalf of Khymani James for his statements that Zionists do not deserve to live and expressing his desire to murder Zionists. The retraction was published a day after the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, and said CUAD’s original statement in April had been written by the group’s organizers, not James himself. It cast the statement as a betrayal of the group’s principles, and offered an apology to James, saying he had been subjected to discrimination.

The apology “does not represent Khymani or CUAD’s values or political lines,” the statement said. “CUAD organizers were complicit in not maintaining our political line.”

CUAD's statement also included an explicit endorsement of violence. “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the CUAD statement said. “In the face of violence from the oppressor equipped with the most lethal military force on the planet, where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”

Late last month, James filed a lawsuit against Columbia in a New York State court, saying that by suspending him for his statements calling for the murder of Zionists, the university had violated his rights by misusing the student conduct system to discriminate against and harass him.