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Edwards condemns UNCA's 'Until We're All Free' event

By Lightning Reports, Published: November 3, 2023

U.S. Congressman Chuck Edwards on Thursday condemned the “Until We’re All Free” event funded by taxpayer dollars scheduled for noon Friday on the campus of the University of North Carolina Asheville and urged the university to cancel the event that he said is designed to normalize and espouse hateful anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The event, titled “Until We’re All Free: State Violence from Cop City to Palestine,” was touted as “preparing students, faculty, and community members to think critically about American complicity in Israeli violence.”

“The anti-Semitic event that is scheduled to be held at the Highsmith Student Union, supported by woke radical leftists on the UNCA campus, is just one of several such rallies we have seen across the country," Edwards said in a statement. "Western North Carolinians and Americans everywhere must disavow and condemn events that encourage anti-Semitism and inspire violence.

“It’s not only hard to believe that an institution like UNCA would allow this event on campus, it’s difficult to comprehend how multiple taxpayer-funded departments at UNCA sponsored this ‘Hamas Open House.’

“These are folks who condemn everyone else for racism, yet this event demonstrates the purest form of racism by encouraging young, impressionable students to hate their fellow man because of their ethnicity, background or creed. This event is just another example of racist hypocrisy while the panelists and participants hide behind anonymity by banning cell phones from the event.

“Let’s fight the growing tide of anti-Semitism around the world, starting by speaking out against every kind of hate.”

The “Until We’re All Free” event is supported by the UNCA’s departments of Sociology and Anthropology; Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies; American Indian and Indigenous Studies; Africana Studies; and the Interdisciplinary/International Studies.