The suspect also threatened to “stab and slit the throats of every Jewish man on campus, rape and throw off a cliff every Jewish woman, and decapitate every Jewish baby.”
A New York State student must be brought to justice on Wednesday for online murder threats against his Jewish classmates, amid fears of a rise in anti-Semitic and racist crimes with the war in the Middle East. East. Several American officials have denounced anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts in the United States since the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, then Israel’s bombings in Gaza.
Patrick Dai, 21, a student at Cornell University in New York (northeast), was arrested Tuesday, accused of posting online “threats to kill or harm» Jewish people, American judicial authorities announced Tuesday in a press release. The man, who faces up to five years in prison, must be presented to judges on Wednesday, they added. The suspect also threatened to “stabbing and slitting the throats of every Jewish man on campus, raping and throwing off a cliff every Jewish woman, and beheading every Jewish baby“.
Read alsoSeveral Harvard student associations hold Israel “responsible for the violence taking place”
American judicial authorities did not specify whether the student had made a direct reference to the war in the Middle East. This arrest demonstrates the commitment of the American government “against illegal acts motivated by hatred“, assured Justice Minister Merrick Garland on Wednesday. “Threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased significantly in our country“, he said during a virtual forum on hatred.
He threatened to “slaughter all the Jewish pigs”
“The Department of Justice does not tolerate violence or unlawful threats of violence fueled by anti-Semitism or Islamophobia“, he insisted, according to his words transcribed in a press release. The Cornell student is notably accused of having threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all the Jewish pigs“, notably in “pulling» on a kosher dining hall, the press release said. The university said on Sunday that police were investigating anti-Semitic threats posted on the internet.
On Monday, the White House warned against a “alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents in schools and on college campuses”, without giving a precise figure. The war between Israel and Hamas is causing strong tensions in the most prestigious American universities, such as Harvard, where around thirty student organizations have designated “the Israeli regime fully responsible for the violence“. The text provoked the indignation of several political leaders and public figures.
In an open letter, Israeli university presidents on Wednesday accused American campuses of having become “fertile ground for anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiments, largely fueled by a naive and biased understanding of the conflict“. In Israel, more than 1,400 people were killed, mainly civilians, during the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, according to the authorities.