WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) discussed the rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate and violence in Vermont and across the United States. Senator Welch pointed to recent instances of hate crimes and violence in Vermont and nationwide, including an increase in antisemitic rhetoric, and the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent who were visiting family in Burlington last November. Senator Welch urged collective action from Congress and the American public to stem the spread of rising hate across the country. 

“In Vermont, we’re pretty proud of being a tolerant state. But we have suffered, significantly, with antisemitic activity. It’s horrifying. One of the things that’s really terrifying to me is that when folks want to go to their synagogue, they have to have police security, said Senator Welch.” And in Vermont, we had three young Palestinian men who were home visiting a grandmother for Thanksgiving—they were out walking, they were speaking Arabic, they had on a keffiyeh. They got shot. They got shot. I’m horrified at what has happened to them. I am horrified at the antisemitic escalation towards wonderful Vermonters who are Jews, and what they have to endure, and the insecurity that they feel.  

Welch continued, “People who commit crimes, particularly hate crimes, they should be punished. But that should be—whether it’s on campus, whether it’s on the streets of Burlington, whether it’s at a synagogue—we all have that obligation. Because that hatred is so corrosive to all of us and to our society. And if we, as a society, can’t accept the collective responsibility that we each have for the wellbeing of one another, then it’s not going to work.”  

“Let me just ask each of you what you think, what advice you have for us,” asked Senator Welch. 

Maya Berry, Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, and Co-Chair of the Hate Crimes Task Force at The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, responded: “We have a very real problem, and the center of it is understanding why people hate and what we can do to respond. The Office of Civil Rights has a budget to respond to the increase in college campus hate that we’re seeing. Regrettably, that is not supported in a bipartisan way. So, if we intend to actually take this seriously, it’s not a conversation about Israel and foreign policy, it’s what are we doing to understand that we must improve this response. And that includes no longer dehumanizing Palestinians.” 

Watch the Senator’s full remarks below: 

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