A New York state student is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday on charges of making online death threats against his Jewish classmates amid fears of a rise in anti-Semitic and racist crimes in the wake of the war in the Middle East. East.
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Several American officials have denounced anti-Semitic and Islamophobic actions in the United States since the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombings in Gaza.
Patrick Dai, 21, a student at Cornell University in New York, was arrested on Tuesday and accused of posting “threats to kill or harm Jews” on the Internet, American legal authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.
The man, who faces up to five years in prison, must appear before magistrates on Wednesday, they added.
He is specifically accused of threatening to “bring an assault rifle onto campus and slaughter all the Jewish pigs,” specifically by “shooting” a kosher refectory, the press release said.
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.”
American law enforcement officials did not say whether the student had directly referenced the war in the Middle East.
Cornell 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 Israel, more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, according to authorities.
The Hamas Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that 8,796 people, mostly civilians, including 3,648 children, were killed in the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed relentlessly by Israel.