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Leading Academic Group Denounces National Women’s Studies Association for Silence on Hamas Atrocities Against Women
Maayan Zin embraces her daughters Ela Elyakim, 8, and Dafna Elyakim, 14, former Israeli hostages, shortly after their arrival in Israel on Nov. 26, after being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, at Hatzerim military base in Israel, in this handout picture released by the Zin family on Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: Zin Family/Handout via REUTERS
A group of feminists and scholars at US universities has issued a searing open letter censuring the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) for not condemning the rapes and other sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The Section for Women Faculty of the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a nonprofit that advocates academic freedom and open exchange in higher education, noted in its letter that since the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught, the NWSA has issued two statements attacking Israel’s military response, neither of which mentioned Hamas’ female victims or the 240 people abducted as hostages to Gaza. Beyond the kidnappings, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and injured thousands more.
NWSA’s silence, AEN argued, is a seismic moral failure.
“We are outraged by the NWSA’s abandonment of women and girls who have experienced horrible atrocities and by its utter refusal to acknowledge the plight of Israeli women and girls in either its recent programming or public statements,” said the letter, which was shared with The Algemeiner. “The two statements that the NWSA released on Oct. 11 and Oct. 31 condemn Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre yet fail to denounce the brutality of Hamas terrorists, who were given orders to rape.”
It added that in refusing to condemn Hamas, NWSA alienated Jewish academics and students of women’s studies — a problem, the group explained, that goes back to 2015, when NWSA endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.
“We are deeply concerned that on account of this indefensible position, Jewish scholars and students are now thoroughly ostracized from the association, and by extension, from the discipline of Gender Studies,” the letter continued. “Jewish feminist engagement in the NWSA has been in decline for a number of years. The organization’s professional standing has truly been diminished by its antisemitism.”
Beyond the NWSA, women’s groups and sexual assault centers on university campuses and even within the United Nations have been noticeably silent on well documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli girls and women, as well as other acts of sexual violence, during their Oct. 7 onslaught.
On Friday, AEN executive director Miriam Elman stressed during a conversation with The Algemeiner that recognizing the traumas Israeli women endured does not exclude advocating for Palestinian women whom Hamas denies basic economic and political freedoms through its enforcement of Sharia law.
“You can show empathy for Palestinian women and girls — and please do — because they are oppressed through subjugation and honor killings,” Elman said. “Many in the section also want to say that they recognize that Palestinian women and girls are impacted by the war. You can do that and also recognize that Hamas systematically used rape as a weapon of war, condemn that, and call for the release women and girls who are still hostages Gaza.”
She added, “There are still young women in their 20s and early 30s still being held hostage. G-d knows what has happened to them since being taken into captivity. NWSA has released two statements that did not say one word about these atrocities.”
Feminist author Phyllis Chesler, a professor emerita of psychology and member of AEN’s Section for Women Faculty — called NWSA’s spurning of Jewish women “craven,” adding that “women’s studies has been more concerned with the alleged occupation of a country that never existed — Palestine — than with the real occupation of women’s bodies in Gaza and throughout the Arab world.”
Founded in 1977 with help from a grant awarded by the Ford Foundation, the National Women’s Studies Association is a professional academic society that claims to have over 300 members and institutional partnership with over 350 university academic departments. In recent years, its public statements have rarely addressed rising antisemitism in the US and across the world, doing so only after neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The group has, however, issued statements in support of Asian Americans, African Americans, and Palestinians.
“Palestinian solidarity is a feminist issue,” NWSA said during Israel’s 2021 war with Hamas while alleging that Israel has “perpetrated” sex crimes against Palestinian women.
Anti-Israel bias in professional academic societies has increased in recent years. Within a year, both the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) and the American Anthropological Association (APA) endorsed the BDS movement, drawing criticism from scholars who condemned the decisions for being “shameful” and “profoundly destructive.”
The problem also exists in prestigious post-graduate academic programs, Elman told The Algemeiner. She noted that over 100 scholars organized by her group recently issued a second letter denouncing the Fulbright Program, as well as the Fulbright Association, for not issuing any statements denouncing Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, despite Hamas abducting one of its alumni, Israeli academic Shoshan Haran, and murdering her husband, sister, and brother-in-law.
The doucment also denounced a separate letter signed by nearly 1,000 Millennial and Generation-Z Fulbright Scholars, all but one of whom participated in the program during the 21st century, that accused Israel of committing genocide and did not reference the Hamas atrocities.
“Haran was an accomplished alumnus of Fulbright, and you can’t say anything about her, you can’t speak out, you can’t say one sentence calling for her release? Their selectivity of empathy is unconscionable,” Elman said. Commenting on the tendency of young scholars to be virulently anti-Israel and to promote falsehoods about the Jewish state, she added, “It’s very concerning that all these young scholars are so morally confused.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Leading Academic Group Denounces National Women’s Studies Association for Silence on Hamas Atrocities Against Women first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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