Speaker Johnson says college campuses have 'succumbed to an antisemitic virus'

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, speaks at the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony for Holocaust survivors at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., spoke at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony Tuesday in the Capitol, where he condemned the ongoing anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses.

Johnson said that American colleges and universities are "quickly becoming hostile places for Jewish students and faculty." 

"The very campuses which were once the envy of the international academy have succumbed to an antisemitic virus. Students who were known for producing academic papers are now known for stabbing their Jewish peers in the eyes with Palestinian flags. Faculty who once produced cutting edge research are now linking arms with pro-Hamas protesters and calling for a global intifada. Administrators who were once lauded by their peers for leadership are now barring Jewish faculty and choosing not to protect their Jewish students," Johnson said. 

"And these Jewish students are physically threatened when they walked on campuses. Their peers hold posters repeating the Nazi propaganda in the program: the final solution. Now is a time for moral clarity, and we must put an end to this madness."