Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said Tuesday on Newsmax that college administrators who cancel graduation ceremonies due to concerns about pro-Gaza demonstrations are appeasing the protesters.
"They're surrendering their campuses to these protesters, and they're only enabling them and empowering them to do more," he said on "Wake Up America." "So, when the protesters get their records forgiven or, in some cases, they've negotiated scholarships, this is absolutely ridiculous, and it's something that these campuses cannot say that they're trying stop these protests when they're giving these students benefits for protests."
Burlison's remarks came after Columbia University on Monday canceled its main, university-wide commencement ceremony scheduled for May 15 in favor of smaller, school-based events, a decision that follows weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled the Ivy League School.
"We have decided to make the centerpiece of our commencement activities our Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15," Columbia said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Burlison also criticized President Joe Biden, who had decried Islamophobia along with antisemitism, while discussing the protests.
"It's not part of the discussion," Burlison said. "When you bring it in, you're muddling the water and you're giving some form of equivalency to this hate. And at the end of the day, you have Israel as an accepting nation. It's the one country in the Middle East where both Jews are allowed to live alongside Muslims.
"In Israel, they allow Muslims and Arabs to live in their country. They're not expelling them. They're not trying to kidnap them and do all the horrible things that are being done in these neighboring nations. Israel is a free place. End of story.
"Look, this is right against wrong. This is good against evil, and I would say the evil is the hate groups that are hating against Israel."
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