Jewish UT Dallas students speak out against antisemitism on campus

Two Jewish University of Texas at Dallas students on Wednesday spoke out about their fear of being on campus after 21 people were arrested at a protest last week.

At a press conference, the students said they faced antisemitic hate speech on campus that has only gotten worse since the war in Gaza started. 

"I am a Jewish-Israeli student, and I have personally experienced antisemitism on campus before and after Oct. 7," said Ofer Turjeman, according to FOX 4 Dallas. 

She described how the culture at UT Dallas has "deteriorated" to the point where Jewish students are harassed on campus. 

"We want to make it clear that we support every student's right to free speech and expression," Turjeman said. "However, I'm here to share with you how the culture at UT has deteriorated to the point where Jewish students no longer feel welcome or safe on campus."

Jewish student Jade Steinberg said the antisemitism issue is bigger than last week’s incident, distinguishing between free speech and violence. 

"It does not give you the ability to threaten to call for violence. It gives you the ability to peacefully protest. And unfortunately, a lot of what we have been seeing on campus has not been peacefully protesting," he said.