The Sun of Lowell, Mass., on the spread of antisemitism (May 1):

Spring has long been the season of protest on college campuses, dating back to the opposition of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Whether it’s the moderating weather or the imminent ending of the academic year, spring seems to bring out students’ rebellious nature.

However, that nascent campus call for the end of our military presence in Vietnam grew from a strictly Ivory Tower exercise to one that eventually included the majority of Americans.

That changing of national sentiment led to the withdrawal of our troops and the inevitable fall of South Vietnam into communist hands.

It also served as an example of what protesting in support of a just cause can accomplish if conducted in a genuine and generally lawful manner.

What we’re seeing on college campuses today bears little resemblance to those past idealistic efforts.

The brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 massacred at least 1,200 Israeli citizens and led to the kidnapping of approximately 250 others.

The Israeli military response, which according to the Hamasrun Gaza Health Ministry has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, has unleashed a backlash, not only against Israel the sovereign nation, but against Jewish-american citizens who have nothing to do with that conflict.

This ad hominem assault against anything Jewish on college campuses appears to be just an excuse to unleash another wave of antisemitism and antisocial behavior under the guise of solidarity with the Palestinians caught in the crossfire of this Hamas-israel war, now in its seventh month.

While it might not have started with that intent, this cause in many cases has been hijacked by those more interested in fostering bigotry and anarchy.

Hundreds of students have participated in protests across Greater Boston, including tent encampments at MIT, Emerson College, and Tufts University. Harvard, which was roiled with related controversy that contributed to its president’s ouster at the start of the year, closed Harvard Yard to people without a school ID.

And on Saturday, police arrested about 100 people at Northeastern University as they broke up a pro-palestinian protest encampment that formed last week, according to the university and State Police.

Senior leaders at Tufts and MIT have called for an end to the encampments that have paralyzed their respective campuses.

Meanwhile, the president of Emerson College has said that school won’t take disciplinary action against students arrested as part of a pro-palestinian demonstration that was dispersed by Boston police last week.

And now some of our state’s most prominent political leaders have essentially said enough to this spate of anti-jewish hate.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton isn’t mincing words when it comes to the pro-palestinian protests that have rocked college and university campuses across Massachusetts over the last two weeks. He wants them shut down. “We live in a country that values freedom of speech,” Moulton, the Democrat and former decorated Marine captain who served four tours in Afghanistan, said Sunday.

“But these protests in many cases have threatened the safety of Jewish students,” he continued. “They’ve completely disrupted the operation of universities, preventing all the other kids from being able to go to school. So, the universities have a right, and I would argue in this case, even a responsibility to shut them down.”

Fellow Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, who is among the lawmakers who have called for a cease-fire, said “the protests seem to embody threats as well, especially to Jewish students.

Lynch, who voted in favor of the massive foreign-aid package that included help for Israel, said he’s had “kids in my district complain about the fact that they’ve had to take the mezzuzehs (a sort of good-luck charm) down off their ... door jambs so that they wouldn’t be identified as Jewish.”

The students are “fearful,” Lynch continued, musing that “there’s something different going on here. This is not in previous protests. That was a protest against an idea or an action. This is, actually, a protest where there are victims on campus as well as aggressors on campus.”

Those who oppose Israel’s role in this conflict have the right to express their views, but not to the extent of disrupting the college experience for the vast majority of students.

Or threatening the well-being of American citizens who just happen to share the same heritage or religion as the object of your ire.