The suspect also threatened to “stab and slit the throat of every Jewish man on campus, rape and throw every Jewish woman off a cliff, and behead every Jewish baby.”
A New York state student goes on trial Wednesday for making online death threats against his Jewish classmates amid fears of a rise in anti-Semitic and racist crimes amid the war in the Middle East. East. Several American officials have denounced anti-Semitic and Islamophobic actions in the United States since the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and the Israeli bombings in Gaza.
Patrick Dai, 21, a student at Cornell University in New York (Northeast), was arrested on Tuesday and charged with posting “threats to kill or harm Jewish people” online, US law enforcement officials said in a press release on Tuesday gifts. The man, who faces up to five years in prison, must appear before magistrates on Wednesday, they added. The suspect also threatened to “stab and slit the throat of every Jewish man on campus, rape and throw every Jewish woman off a cliff, and behead every Jewish baby.”
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American law enforcement officials did not say whether the student had directly referenced the war in the Middle East. This arrest shows the commitment of the American government “against illegal acts motivated by hate,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday. “Threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased significantly in our country,” he said during a virtual forum on hate.
He threatened to “slaughter all the Jewish pigs.”
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate violence or illegal threats of violence fueled by anti-Semitism or Islamophobia,” he stressed, according to his remarks, which were reproduced in a press release. The Cornell student is specifically accused of threatening to “bring an assault rifle onto campus and shoot all the Jewish pigs,” including “shooting” at a kosher dining hall, the statement said. The university said Sunday that police were investigating anti-Semitic threats online.
The White House warned Monday of an “alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents in schools and college campuses,” without giving an exact number. The war between Israel and Hamas is causing high tensions at the most prestigious American universities such as Harvard, where some thirty student organizations “blame the Israeli regime solely for the violence.” The text sparked outrage among several political leaders and public figures.
In an open letter Wednesday, Israeli university presidents accused American campuses of becoming “breeding grounds for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, fueled largely by a naive and biased understanding of the conflict.” In Israel, more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, according to authorities.