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Cleveland rabbi sentenced to 10 days in jail for stealing university group’s Palestinian banner
(JTA) — An Orthodox rabbi in the Cleveland area was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 18 months of probation for stealing a pro-Palestinian banner from a student group at a local university.
The sentence, delivered on Wednesday, caps a charged saga in which students had alleged that the rabbi and pro-Israel activist, Alexander Popivker, had harassed them.
Popivker, a handyman and resident of the suburb of Cleveland Heights, was charged with theft in January for taking the banner from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, a student group at Cleveland State University.
Popivker’s jail time will be suspended, which generally means he won’t have to serve it until after his probationary period is over, and may see it removed with good behavior. He is also required to attend anger management classes. The university has also barred him from campus for his behavior.
The case represents a rare instance, in the annals of campus debates over Israel, in which legal action has been taken against a pro-Israel activist for aggressive conduct toward pro-Palestinian students. Pro-Israel groups have filed a series of federal complaints alleging that campus groups have fostered a hostile atmosphere for Jews at campuses across the country, and pro-Palestinian students on multiple campuses have faced charges for their activism.
Popivker’s pro-Israel demonstrations at Cleveland State, carried outover the course of months before his ban, at times curdled into standoffs with students. He has frequently compared Palestinians to Nazis, and some students have accused him of targeting visibly Muslim people with harassment, which he denies. He also contacted a law student’s school and employers over her pro-Palestinian views, and made social media posts targeting her — an incident that led the student to file, with the support of a prominent Jewish dean at the university, an order of protection against Popivker.
Cleveland State, whose police force had made the initial arrest of Popivker, declined to comment on the sentence. A university spokesperson had previously told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Popivker “was not banned for the content of his speech, but how he chose to exercise it.”
The pro-Palestinian student group had previously celebrated the school’s decision to ban Popivker from campus, issuing a statement via the local Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in February. “We are still deeply disturbed by the events of harassment against the Arab, Muslim, and specifically Palestinian community, but are relieved to know that our students and communities are safe on campus for now,” the group’s board said at the time.
On Wednesday, Popivker told JTA that the sentence was “severe and unreasonable” and was “prompted by false claims by the university that I targeted Muslims for harassment and am Islamophobic.” He added that the ruling against him was a curtailing of his “First Amendment right to advocate at a public university.”
Popivker freely admits to stealing the banner, classifying it as an act of civil disobedience because the flag “erased Israel from the map.” But he otherwise blames his poor campus reputation on “Palestinian organizations, professors and students,” whom he says “are brainwashed with demonizing slander against the state of Israel.”
Local Jewish groups have been slow to comment on Popivker’s case, though after he was charged with the theft of the banner, The Lawfare Project, a pro-Israel legal group, called him “a Jewish civil rights activist.” A spokesperson for The Lawfare Project did not respond to a request for comment on his sentencing.
Popivker used the occasion of his sentencing hearing to attempt to stage a rally pushing the university to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, a document that has spurred controversy for saying certain types of criticism of Israel are antisemitic. Around a dozen people showed up at the courthouse to hand out Israeli flags, mostly friends and family, he said.
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The post Cleveland rabbi sentenced to 10 days in jail for stealing university group’s Palestinian banner appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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