Cornell University boosts security after antisemitic threats

An elite US college has heightened security at its Jewish centre on campus after antisemitic posts appeared online targeting its students.

Cornell University in New York state has alerted federal authorities to a potential hate crime over the posts.

"We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell," Martha Pollack, president of the Ivy League college, said.

It comes as US President Joe Biden's government unveils measures to combat antisemitism on American campuses.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul visited the campus on Monday.

She said that "we will not tolerate threats or hatred, or antisemitism, or any kind of hatred."

The Israel-Gaza conflict has raised tensions at US higher education institutions.

The Cornell Daily Sun, the college newspaper, reported on a series of antisemitic comments left on the website Greekrank.

The platform, which is not affiliated with the university, covers fraternity and sorority life on several campuses.

The posts have since been deleted, but some are still visible through an archiving website. The Cornell Daily Sun posted screenshots of other messages.

The BBC could not immediately independently verify who posted the messages, and whether they came from a member of the student body, a single person or multiple users, or an outside source.

One post from a commenter named "hamas" was titled "if i see another jew".

The post used slurs to refer to Jewish people and threatened violence, stalking and rape against Jewish men, women and babies.

The user threatened to bring a gun to campus to kill Jewish people.

Other posts captured by the Cornell Daily Sun featured similar slurs and threats against Jewish people.

The messages came days after anti-Israel graffiti appeared on campus, the paper reported. Several derogatory posts aimed at Muslim students on campus also appeared on the Greekrank website, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.

Cornell University Police Department said in a statement that they had "increased patrols and arranged additional security for our Jewish students and organizations on and off campus, and the university is in constant communication with these groups".

Ms Pollack, the Cornell president, said on Sunday they had reported the incident to the FBI.

"The virulence and destructiveness of antisemitism is real and deeply impacting our Jewish students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community," she said in a statement.

Students at US colleges have been reporting a rise in intimidation amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.

During a day of protest at Columbia University this month, a student who said she was from Gaza told a crowd she had felt unsafe on campus, while an Israeli student told the BBC she felt afraid to tell classmates she was Jewish.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, were working to combat incidents of anti-Semitism and other hate speech on campus by enhancing communications with local, state, and federal authorities.