Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a representative from the United States House of Representatives, praised anti-Israel demonstrators on college campuses Monday. She called them “peaceful,” despite heated confrontations which forced a Columbia University rabbi to tell Jewish students to keep away.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a Democrat, spoke at an Earth Day gathering in Virginia with President Biden when she suddenly compared the young people who are fighting climate change with those protesting on campuses across the country.

She said, “It’s important to remember that young people are shaping our country today. We once again see the peaceful student-led demonstrations on campuses such as Columbia, Yale and Berkley, among others.”

Minutes earlier, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik had declared that the Ivy League institution is in a crisis and ordered remote classes and increased security to deal with the anti-Israel protests.

Police officers at Yale University arrested protesters that had erected an encampment in the campus. Demonstrators blocked the entrance to the school after the arrests.

The mood at Columbia remains tense. Rabbi Elie Buechler of the Orthodox Union of the Columbia and Bernard campuses urged Jewish students to return home as quickly as possible, and stay home until the campus environment has improved dramatically.

In an email sent by the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Buechler stated that “what we are seeing on and around campus is terrible.” The events of the past few days, and especially last night have shown that Columbia University Public Safety and NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish student’s safety when faced with extreme antisemitism.