College anti-Israel agitators could be sent to Gaza under new House GOP bill

FIRST ON FOX: A new House Republican bill would send any person charged and convicted for illegal activity on a college campus to Gaza for at least six months.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced the bill on Wednesday alongside Reps. Randy Weber, R-Texas, and Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., in response to the ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across the country.

Several of those protests have turned violent, with clashes between police and activists, as well as hundreds of activists being arrested across multiple campuses.

While Ogles’ bill text does not mention Israel or the anti-Israel groups, it specifically targets unlawful activity on college campuses after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded Israel in a surprise attack that killed over 1,000 people. 

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A woman is arrested at an anti-Israel protest at the University of Texas on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Jay Janner / American-Statesman)

Those convicted would be forced to serve a minimum six-month community service sentence in Gaza, where Israel is currently waging a brutal campaign to eradicate Hamas and rescue the remaining Israelis that terrorists took hostage in October.

“Students have abandoned their classes to harass other students and disrupt campus-wide activities, including university commencement ceremonies nationwide. Enough is enough,” Ogles told Fox News Digital.

“That’s why I introduced legislation to send any person convicted of unlawful activity on the campus of an American university since October 7th, 2023, to Gaza to complete a minimum of six months of community service.”

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Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is leading the new bill. (Getty Images)

Weber added, “If you support a terrorist organization, and you participate in unlawful activity on campuses, you should get a taste of your own medicine. I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity.”

The bill is likely to face uncertain odds in the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority of just one seat. Even if it passed, the Democrat-controlled Senate will almost certainly ignore it.

It is an example, however, of the heightened tensions wracking the U.S. over Israel’s war with Hamas. 

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Smoke billows after the Israeli army launched an airstrike on Al Mughraqa area in the Gaza Strip on April 14, 2024. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The college protests here have garnered bipartisan criticism from virtually all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, but progressives have continued to show strong support for the students and other activists on campus.

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Comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for example, referring to some Jewish students as “pro-genocide” have earned her a GOP-led censure resolution, filed by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., on Tuesday.

Her fellow “Squad” member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has also been censured for her comments about Israel in the wake of Oct. 7.