GOP lawmaker attacks tax-exempt status of US colleges failing to condemn Hamas' 'barbaric' attacks

• A GOP lawmaker said he was "disgusted" by US college responses to Hamas' attacks on Israel.
• Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith attacked their tax-exempt status.

A top Republican lawmaker overseeing US federal taxes has attacked the tax-exempt status of universities failing to condemn Hamas' "barbaric acts of terrorism committed against the Jewish people," according to a statement.

"Some organizations that have celebrated the unspeakable acts of terror that claimed the lives of 30 Americans and hundreds of Israeli men, women, and children currently enjoy tax-exempt status in the United States, and their statements call into question the academic or charitable missions they claim to pursue," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith said, in a statement released on Wednesday.

Smith added that after Hamas' "horrific attack" on Israel on October 7, some universities, which had previously condemned speech they disapproved of, had failed to condemn Hamas attacks and student statements of support for Hamas.

"University administrators, for example, have weaponized their institutions to attack speech and free inquiry as 'violence,' yet fail to condemn actual violence that threatens our way of life, all while their institutions enjoy lucrative federal tax-exempt status," he said.

Smith went on to say he was "disgusted" by student statements of support for Hamas militants, adding that statements "celebrating, excusing, or downplaying the horrific rape, torture, and murder of innocent people" are the same as condoning or encouraging violence.

The Ways and Means Committee did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside office hours.

In the 12 days since the Palestinian militant group Hamas' terror attacks on Israel, elite US universities have been criticized for their response, or lack of response, to Hamas' attacks and student statements holding Israel responsible for Hamas' offensive.

More than thirty Harvard student organizations issued a joint statement on October 10, in which they held Israel "entirely" responsible for Hamas' attacks.

Prior to that, a student organization at the University of Virginia backed the "right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary," in a statement published on October 8, a day after the attack.

A day later, Northwestern University Students for Justice in Palestine released a statement, stating Israel is not the "aggrieved party," adding Israel could not "by any logical construct claim victimhood".

College professor responses and student statements have been met with swift backlash from a slew of wealthy donors, who slammed some of the most elite universities in the country, with some even pulling funding.

More than 1,300 Israelis died in Hamas' surprise attacks, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Over 3,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza in retaliatory strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Smith concluded: "Congress and the American people will not forget on what side these institutions stood the day the largest number of Jewish people were killed since the Holocaust, and they must be held to account for their implicit, vile support of Hamas terrorists and violence against the people of Israel."