WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans have sought to claim the moral high ground when it comes to recent pro-Palestinian campus protests sweeping the country, throwing barbs at President Joe Biden and highlighting sharp divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel and Gaza.

But at Tuesday’s Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Capitol, Biden and Johnson were mostly unified in their unambiguous reproach of campus protests that critics say have devolved into antisemitism.

“I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech. To debate and disagree. To protest peacefully and make our voices heard. … But there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism and hate speech, or threats of violence of any kind,” Biden said to applause at the event, hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall.

“Violent attacks, destroying property is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. And we’re not a lawless country, we’re a civil society. We uphold the rule of law,” Biden continued.

The event featured congressional leaders, Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Biden hugged the survivors and dabbed at his eyes with a tissue as he spoke with them.

His keynote address amounted to an unequivocal statement of support for Israel, delivered at a politically fraught moment. Biden has attempted to strike a delicate balance in recent weeks, at times criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the counteroffensive Israel launched after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

That attack killed around 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. Meanwhile, officials in Gaza say Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 34,000. On Monday, Israel appeared poised to invade Rafah, a southern Gazan city where it’s estimated more than 1 million people are sheltering, despite concerns from the international community and opposition from Biden.

Nevertheless, Biden rallied support for Israel as he denounced antisemitism in all forms in his remarks, urging people to remember the horrors of the Holocaust and of Oct. 7.

“Here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven-and-a-half months later, and people are already forgetting … that Hamas unleashed this terror,” Biden said. “That it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten and nor have you. And we will not forget.”

“We’ve seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world,” the president said. “On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class. … It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop.”

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