Patriotic Rutgers, UNC students push back against anti-America, anti-Israel agitators: 'Seeing a movement'
Final exams were canceled at Rutgers on Thursday due to disruptions from the protesters, impacting some 1,000 students
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After a show of patriotism on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus earlier this week when students prevented an American flag from hitting the ground and sang the National Anthem, students at Rutgers University followed suit.
Rutgers students on Thursday waved American flags and chanted "USA!" amid anti-Israel protests on Voorhees Mall at the New Brunswick, New Jersey, university.
"Toward the latter half of their encampment yesterday, a handful of what I consider patriotic students went on campus and they obviously were chanting ‘USA!' They sang the National Anthem," Rutgers student Jeremy Li, class of 2025, told Fox News Digital on Friday. "They were probably standing up for American values, despite all the conflicting chaos that's been happening on campus recently."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Li added that he thought the counter-protesters were "great to see."
"We're seeing a movement that started at UNC that I think hopefully will move across the country," he told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We're seeing a movement that started at UNC that I think hopefully will move across the country."
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Li noted that because of the protests earlier this week, final exams were canceled on Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rutgers University students display American flags. (Courtesy of Stephen Wallace)
A Jewish Rutgers student named Abbey told Fox News Digital that "it's not right" for the school's large Jewish student community "to feel unsafe while trying to take their finals."
"I had a lot of friends here yesterday who were chanting ‘USA’ and ‘all for Israel,' and I think that's really beautiful because that's what this country is all about," Abbey said.
UNC STUDENT WHO DEFENDED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB ‘HONORED TO GIVE BACK TO THE NATION’
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Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway called the decision "unprecedented" in a Thursday letter to the community.
"Several days ago, some people, including Rutgers students and individuals not from our community, set up tents on Voorhees Mall. The University has consistently taken steps to make clear to protesting organizations, including this group, our policies reflecting our commitment to free speech and the University's thresholds for disruptive activity," Holloway said. "Our strategy has been focused on de-escalation and yesterday, we met with a group of students representing the protest to discuss the need to ensure that their fellow students’ exam period was not disrupted."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rutgers canceled final exams on Thursday due to disruptions from anti-Israel protesters. (© Alexander Lewis / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Overnight, however, Holloway said, "Students for Justice in Palestine called for a significant rally on the Voorhees Mall, coinciding with the beginning of the exam period, specifically intended to disrupt finals for our students. The protests ultimately disrupted 28 exams and impacted more than a thousand students.
"We value free speech and the right to protest, but it should not come at the cost of our students’ education and safety. We strive to balance these rights and maintain a safe and secure environment for our students to learn and succeed."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
On Tuesday, a photo of Chapel Hill students holding up an American flag amid campus protests went viral.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Protesters on the North Carolina quad on Tuesday removed and replaced the American flag with a Palestinian flag. Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts stepped in with law enforcement to return Old Glory to its original place.
When protesters attempted to take it down a second time, a group of students and fraternity members stepped in to keep it from touching the ground. Since then, a third party created a GoFundMe for the Chapel Hill students that raised more than $500,000 before the fundraiser was closed.
UNC has since erected a fence around the campus flag pole.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Noting the violence that has occurred on other campuses around the country, Li said he hopes what happened at UNC and now Rutgers will reverberate nationwide.
"Hopefully we're going to see more and more students stand up to this nonsense that pro-Hamas students are putting up… We saw them at Columbia occupy buildings, destroy buildings, vandalize," Li said.
By Friday, conservative students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison joined the counter-protest movement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The school's "Young Americans for Freedom" chapter joined forces with College Republicans of UW-Madison to send a message to the student protesters at Library Mall, local news station WMTV reported.
"We just want to show the school and all of the protestors that are here doing it illegally, that there is a way to voice your opinion, there is a way to exercise your First Amendment, but within the laws," said Harrison Wells, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom.
Wells told WMTV that protests should be done peacefully and legally.
"I don’t think anyone should be going to school where there’s violence where there’s outbreaks," he said. "I think this could all be solved if these groups just followed the laws and follow the rules. I don’t think they would need to bring in police. Why would they if you’re following the laws?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.