American-Iranian student Yasmine Lame says she stands with Israel: This is a ‘war between good and evil'

For more on this, we’re joined by current George Washington students Sabrina Soffer and recent graduate of Wake Forest University, Yasmine Lemay. Thank you both for joining us. We wanted to bring you in because we want to hear your voices, what you’re experiencing, what you’re seeing out there in the world, and get your thoughts on it. Sabrina, I want to start with you because GW is really in this situation right now. They are facing the encampments and and trying to decide what to do about it. So your experience as a Jewish student there in that campus, what is it like? What have you heard? What have you seen, And as well as your fellow Jewish students? Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me and for allowing us to share our voices. And as a Jewish student today at George Washington University, I’m really appalled by what’s going on. But I’m honestly not surprised. And Jewish students are not safe, and they haven’t been. And this has been in the making as a result of a combination of radical faculty who have been hired by the university and allowed to teach with no diversity in that camp of faculty, in addition to a weak administration that refuses to enforce their policies. And today, I understand that they’re trying to remove the encampments, but there’s other factors that are preventing that from happening. But at the same time, over the course of the three years that I’ve been at GW, the administration has failed to really take swift and serious action against these radical faculty members and the radical student groups who are being effectively created and emboldened by these faculty. Yeah, I want to bring in Yasmine in a moment, but I want to ask you a quick question about what some universities are doing. There’s the University of Florida that has made some pretty clear guidelines for pro Palestinian student demonstrations. Even threatening a suspension from campus for up to three years of action isn’t take. And on the other side, there’s Brandeis University, prestigious University in Massachusetts along Jewish Heritage there that have actually extended their current transfer application deadline. Sort of been reaching out to Jewish students all across the country because of the current climate on many campuses. As Brandeis puts it, your thoughts on what some universities are doing compared to what you’re seeing. Yeah. So I think what Brandeis doing is it’s a great gesture, but I do think that there needs to be a crackdown on these, this chaos that’s going on on campus. Because ultimately, by refusing to crack down, it’s just allowing this sort of mob rule to take over, in addition to allowing the claim that this is freedom of expression, which is not because freedom to protest, which I’m all for, is actually leading to the harassment of Jewish students. One of my friends at UCLA was actually pushed off of a ledge and could have cracked her skull open. And the fact that faculty members are allowed to participate, this isn’t academic freedom, it’s academic fraud. And I think that this whole orchestrated effort, there needs to be a serious crackdown on what’s going on whether it’s with the encampments and within the the university construct and and I think you bring up a a great point about responsibility. Yasmeen, I want to bring you in. You have a unique personal story. You’re Persian and Iranian. Both of your parents fled Iran during the 1979 revolution. But you are pro Israel and an anti Iran at this point. And I want, I want you in your own words to tell your story. Where do you stand today and your thoughts on what’s unfolding? You know, I just find it so ironic that the very students are protesting on campuses in opposition of Israel are by default supporting Iran, who beat protesters to death and most of the protesters in Iran around the same age as these college students. And you know, like you had mentioned, my parents fled Iran at the time of the revolution when the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Republic took over being a part of a non-muslim religious minority group, they were denied the right to receive a higher education. So you know, I have trouble believing that the students who are protesting on campus, on the campuses know exactly what they are supporting when they oppose Israel. Opposing Israel means supporting Iran. Opposing Israel means putting the Holy Land at risk. And and as an American Iranian, I support Israel because to me this is a war between good and evil. The government of Iran is called an axis of evil for a reason. They are the perfect example of, quite frankly, the devil. I mean the the epitome of human greed, corruption. In Iran there’s no such thing as freedom of religion. If you aren’t Muslim, they’ll kick you out of your home and steal the land right under you. They will martyr your relatives and not even let you mark their grave. They’ll deprive you of the right to get a higher education while they award each other doctorates when they themselves haven’t even completed the 6th grade. Jasmine, I think you raise a great point about some of the voices we’re hearing on these campuses and some of the comparison you seem to be drawing. Take a listen to some of the things we’re hearing on these campuses as part of these protests. Israel go to hell. Israel go to hell. Israel go to hell. Many people view these chants as being not just anti-Semitic but calling for an end to the Israeli state. Your thoughts Yasmeen as as you hear these voices knowing what your family has experienced it’s it’s just mind blowing to see the degree of ignorance. I mean as I’m a part of a non, you know, I’m a part of a non-muslim religious minority in Iran. And speaking from my perspective, but also the perspective of the fact that Israel is our holy, is the Holy Land for major religions, Christianity, you know, Judaism behind faith and and Islam. And the thing that is just mind blowing is the fact that when you oppose Israel, you’re putting all of these major religions in the Holy Land at risk. They’re not. You know, Hamas is funded by Iran. Iran is going to do the exact same thing, or the Islamic Republic will do the exact same thing to Iran, to Israel. I mean, as they did to Iran. I mean, a perfect example is the, you know, the Persian Empire was one of the greatest empires in the world. And Cyrus the Great Cylinder was the first Declaration of Rights. But we don’t even trust that cylinder to be in Iran. We would rather have it in the hands of the British, in the British Museum, because we know that they’re going to destroy it. This is exactly what the Islamic Republic will do to Israel as well. Thank you so much to you both. You know, we’re hearing these loud chants, these loud voices, the drum beats. But it’s important to hear all of the voices and to hear your calm and to hear your thoughts as we’re watching all of this unfold on university campuses, not just across the East Coast, but in many other places across the country. Now at this point. Sabrina Suffer, Yasmine Lemay, thank you both for joining us today. We appreciate.