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UNC Keeps Breaking Legal Obligations with Anti-Israel Events; Will the Legislature or Officials Act?
Students sit on the steps of Wilson Library on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US, Sept. 20, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has repeatedly abandoned its legal obligation to be institutionally neutral “on the political controversies of the day.”
On Feb. 16, I attended a campus panel titled, “News Media Frameworks for Israel/Palestine” that five UNC departments and institutes sponsored. Only about 25 people attended this overtly anti-Israel event.
All five panelists were well known anti-Israel activists. As I previously reported, four panelists signed a 2021 statement pledging to promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel “in the classroom and on campus.” The fifth panelist signed a statement saying, “We acknowledge our complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.” Five UNC administrators from the event’s sponsoring organizations also signed the 2021 statement condemning Israel’s “oppression” of the Palestinian people.
The event began with UNC professor Nadia Yaqub requesting that the audience not record. This was reminiscent of when UNC hosted the notorious 2019 “Conflict Over Gaza” conference, which made international news for featuring an antisemitic rap performance. As I reported at the time, the 2019 UNC audience was also instructed not to record. It was wise that some in attendance ignored this directive, because it was the publication of a recording of the antisemitic performance that forced UNC into a Resolution Agreement with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
Why is UNC — a taxpayer-funded public university — so afraid of having their anti-Israel events recorded?
About 55 seconds into her opening remarks, Yaqub told the audience that Israel is fighting “Palestinian resistance groups.” Not a single panelist spoke up to disagree, and to let the audience know that the United States and many other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
During the Feb. 16 UNC event, Israel was accused of targeting Palestinian journalists and the families of journalists. Israel was repeatedly accused of genocide, and accused of having a history of starving Palestinians. This went unchallenged. Hamas’ use of rape as an instrument of war, Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, and Hamas’ practice of building terror tunnels under and near hospitals and other Palestinian civilian sites were not mentioned a single time.
Students and the community were provided a one-sided demonization of Israel that ignored the legal requirement of institutional neutrality without including a single pro-Israel or even neutral voice to challenge the biased panel and the two hours of Israel-bashing speeches.
The so-called Gaza Ministry of Health was discussed as if it were a well respected institution that can be trusted to provide accurate information to the public. If a single pro-Israel or even neutral speaker had been included on the panel, the audience may have heard that Hamas runs the Gaza Ministry of Health, which could more accurately be described as the voice of an internationally-recognized terrorist organization.
Sitting near me were students taking notes throughout the event, which made me wonder, were they actually receiving university credit for attending this biased, anti-Israel event?
While Yaqub was not listed on the flyer as a panelist, she was clearly in charge of this event. Yaqub’s Zoom account was used to project the three panelists who participated remotely, and Yaqub introduced the speakers and moved around the small room as host. She also signed the 2021 statement pledging to promote BDS “in the classroom and on campus.”
In January, Yaqub spoke at a UNC Faculty Council meeting to oppose a resolution, titled “Condemning Antisemitism on Campus.” The resolution sought to condemn remarks made by Rania Masri, a recent speaker on UNC’s campus, who described the Oct. 7 massacre as a “beautiful day.”
Yaqub told Inside Higher Ed that she did not believe Masri’s comments were “objectively antisemitic,” and that “what actually happened on that day [Oct. 7], and who actually committed what, is still very unclear.”
Why would UNC and the five sponsoring departments and institutes ever think that Yaqub is equipped to lead what should have been an institutionally neutral event on Israel and the Palestinians?
The panelists suggested three media sources to the audience, which Yaqub wrote on the blackboard. They are +972, Jadaliyya, and Mondoweiss. All three of these publications are stridently anti-Israel. For example, UNC doctoral student Kylie Broderick is Managing Editor of Jadaliyya, which has a long history of promoting BDS. Broderick is a well known anti-Israel activist who has recently tweeted “F—k Israel.” Mondoweiss’ current social media banner says in bold text, “STOP THE GENOCIDE.”
Does UNC actually believe that presenting a panel which consists entirely of like-minded anti-Israel activists, and recommends only anti-Israel publications to its students and community, is going to be institutionally neutral on the issue of Israel and the Palestinians? It is time for the Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees, and the legislature to make changes at UNC, so that the law on institutional neutrality is followed.
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post UNC Keeps Breaking Legal Obligations with Anti-Israel Events; Will the Legislature or Officials Act? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.