New York, (Samajweekly) A Cornell University student, who was arrested for making violent online threats against his Jewish classmates, has been ordered by a New York federal court to remain in jail for the time being.
Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old junior at the prestigious Ivy League school, was arrested on Tuesday and charged federally with “posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications”, the US Attorney’s Office for New York’s Northern District announced.
The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, CNN reported.
On Wednesday, Dai appeared in a Syracuse courtroom and did not enter a plea.
The prosecution moved to detain the student on the basis of risk of danger and risk of flight. He was remanded back into the custody of US marshals.
His next hearing has been scheduled for November 15.
According to the prosecutors, Dai published posts in an online discussion forum in which he threatened to kill and injure Cornell’s Jewish students and “shoot up” the university’s predominantly kosher dining hall, 104 West.
In one post, Dai wrote he would “bring an assault rifle to campus” and shoot Jewish people,the US Attorney’s Office said.
The posts were written under usernames referencing Hamas, and they used anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian slogans, CNN reported citing an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint.
The development comes amid a spike in antisemitic incidents across the US in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
According to the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish NGO and advocacy group, such incidents increased nearly 400 per cent since the Hamas launched its massive assault against Israel on October 7.
Addressing a Senate panel on Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that antisemitism in the country had reached “historic levels”.
On Monday, President Joe Biden’s administration had announced that it was working to combat antisemitism and other hate speech on campuses by increasing communications with local, state and federal authorities.
In recent days, pro-Palestinian vandalism reportedly was reported in Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Rhode Island.
