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Documented Proof: Outrages Happening on College Campuses Against Israel

Eaton Hall at Tufts University. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In March, anti-Israel activities on college campuses were characterized by the rapid revival of resolutions or referendums, which frequently accused Israel of genocide:

The Tufts University student government approved a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolution that demanded divestment from Israel, the end of study abroad programs in Israel, boycott of specific products on campus, and university acknowledgement of the Palestinian “genocide.” Jewish students report having been spat on and verbally abused during the debate, which was not conducted according to established procedure. The university rejected the call for BDS, and claimed it would investigate abuse of Jewish students.
The University of California at Santa Cruz student government approved a boycott resolution calling on the university system to divest from Israel and companies working in Israel.
The Barnard College student government approved a motion to present a BDS referendum to the student body. The referendum calls for “1. Divesting all stocks, funds, and endowment and refrain from further investment in companies profiting from or engaging in Israeli apartheid; 2. Canceling the opening of the Tel Aviv Global Center; 3. Ceasing the Dual Degree Program between Columbia University and Tel Aviv University.”
Union Theological Seminary’s student government passed a resolution demanding divestment, and calling to “End all promotion of Israeli Settler-colonialism via academic ties through including but not limited to Fulbright Israel as well as hosting any Zionist speakers amplifying settler-colonial propaganda.”
Vanderbilt University administrators canceled a student government vote on a BDS resolution after warning the measure would contravene state law regarding divestment from Israel. In response, protestors occupied an administration building for 22 hours where they reported “inhumane” treatment by police, including denial of bathroom access. Twenty-five students were arrested and 16 were suspended.

Protests demanding divestment were held at other campuses including a disruption of the annual Honors Convocation at the University of Michigan, the University of California at Santa Barbara, UCLA, Edinburgh University (where a building was occupied overnight), University College London (where a room was occupied, and demands for divestment were issued), and at Emerson College, where 13 students were arrested protesting the inauguration of the new president.

Pro-Israel speakers were harassed and canceled at a number of campuses:

At the University of Kentucky, protestors disrupted a speech by pundit Ian Haworth, causing the police to clear the building, after which protestors pulled a fire alarm. No arrests were made. One protestor was quoted as saying “Wow, okay, we disrupted it successfully.’ That was our whole thing, we don’t want this individual to even have space to speak at our institution.”
At the University of California at Irvine, the Jewish Studies program head stated that he could no longer hold public events related to Israel due to persistent harassment by pro-Hamas protestors, and that even talks on Yiddish and the Holocaust had been disrupted. No disciplinary measures have been taken by the university.
A talk at Indiana University by former Hamas member Mosab Hassan Yousef was also canceled after the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter accused him of “Islamophobia,” resulting in threats from the local Muslim community.
A talk at Georgetown University Law School by an Israeli reservist was disrupted by pro-Hamas protestors, who warned the speaker’s “proximity to these crimes make it likely that he contributed to the war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”

The Muslim Student Association at Concordia University demanded the institution ban “Islamophobic language,” and also provided a long list of terms that would result in a group being banned. These included “jihadist,” “Hamas supporter,” “rape apologist,” “Islamist,” “Shariah,” and many more.

Harassment of Jewish and Israeli students also continued on campuses:

At Concordia University, members of the Supporting Palestinian Human Rights club trapped Jewish students gathered in a Chabad room, banging on walls and screaming at them until campus security arrived. The pro-Hamas students were not sanctioned.
Pro-Hamas students continue a blockade of a main gate at the University of California at Berkeley, with reports indicating Jewish students are avoiding the area after incidents of harassment. The university later agreed to “post observers who can monitor and report on the situation” at the site.
At Exeter University, Jewish students manning a CAMERA on Campus booth in a student union were surrounded by a mob of more than 100 people, and forced to flee. Exeter had been previously known for faculty and student celebrations of the October 7 massacre and denialism regarding sexual abuse by Hamas.

University facilities vandalized by pro-Hamas protestors include a computing laboratory at Cambridge University and inside a student union at Manchester University, where “kikes out” and “up Hamas” were scrawled. Jewish institutions on campus also continued to be vandalized, including the Queens College Hillel (which also received threatening messages), the University of Texas at Austin’s Hillel building, along with buildings associated with Zionists — including the Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, which was vandalized with “Free Palestine.

One new study shows that Jewish students are hiding their identities, and pay a social penalty for supporting Israel. Another study indicates that very liberal students know they are expected to not be friends with Israel supporters but at the same time know they are not supposed to discriminate. Overall, the conformist culture of elite schools in particular helps amplify anti-Israel attitudes.

Faculty members continue to take aggressive stances attacking Israel and in defense of Palestinians and Hamas. Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapters dedicated to supporting SJP chapters continue to spread to “raise awareness about settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, genocidal policies and actions, and everyday violence against Palestinians,” and are invariably accompanied by claims that “pro-Palestine speech” is being “silenced.”

Faculty are also at the forefront of normalizing pro-Hamas viewpoints. One example at Barnard College is a session called “Resistance 101” hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women which featured Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Khaled Barakat. Upon questioning, Columbia University canceled what it called an unsanctioned event, which was then moved to a private space on campus. Observers argued that the event constituted material support for terrorism since the PFLP is a designated terrorist organization.

Faculty members have taken the lead in demanding their universities terminate relationships with Israel. University of Turin faculty members voted to end a research agreement with Israeli universities. The University of Montreal’s SGPPUM faculty union also voted to demand the university cut off relations with Israeli universities as well as demand an arms embargo and a ceasefire.

The US Department of Education continues to open investigations of antisemitism at colleges and universities, as well as public schools, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce expanded its own investigation to include UC Berkeley. Committee chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) noted that Harvard’s failure to comply with a subpoena for documents could result in a cutoff of some $625 million in Federal funding.

Anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda from K-12 teachers remained a focal point in March. Elementary school indoctrination was one focus, as was targeting Jewish teachers:

The Stanford University Arboretum Children’s Center for children of university employees was decorated with Palestinian flags and watermelon symbols.
Berkeley (CA) elementary school students were directed to write “stop bombing babies” on notes, and attach them to the door of the school’s only Jewish teacher.
The Maplewood (NJ) school district distributed an email encouraging teachers to discuss Ramadan in the context of the “Israeli genocide” against Palestinians.

The systemic nature of antisemitism at the K-12 levels, and the manner in which teachers’ unions have been co-opted by anti-Israel activism, was demonstrated in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Teachers Association hosted a webinar, developed with the help of Jewish Voice for Peace, entitled “The Struggle Against Anti-Palestinian Racism,” which was described as an exploration of questions including “What is anti-Palestinian discrimination? How does Palestine fit into the larger framework of colonialism and imperialism? What are Zionism and anti-Zionism, and what are their histories? Why is anti-Zionism not antisemitism?”

Mass public protests aimed at disrupting transportation and commercial activities also continued in March. Protestors demanding a “ceasefire” blocked the San Francisco Airport, the New York Times and New York Post printing plant, London’s Liverpool Station, and the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. Britain’s leading counter-extremism official warned that pro-Palestinian protests were making London a no-go zone for Jews and that radicalization was spreading throughout British society.

Protestors repeatedly vandalized locations associated with Israel, such as Effy’s Cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and Nanas Kitchen in Narberth (PA). Protestors also disrupted the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council gala, the opening of the Amsterdam Holocaust museum, which was attended by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, and an Israeli speaker at the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum.

Private dwellings were attacked, including a rock thrown through a window of a home and mutilation of hostage posters displayed outside a home in Newton (MA). A protest at a real estate fair in Teaneck (NJ) synagogue, which allegedly advertised homes in the West Bank, was protested by Palestinian-Americans who drove from nearby Paterson. Several bottles were thrown at attendees and at police. A similar real event in Brooklyn was canceled due to security concerns.

The result of continued protests, harassment and vandalism targeting Jewish individuals and institutions is a growing need for security measures including physical protection and secrecy regarding venues.

It’s a troubling time to be Jewish in America — especially on campus.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a different version of this article originally appeared.

The post Documented Proof: Outrages Happening on College Campuses Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday

US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”

The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.

Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.

He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.

The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.

Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.

“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.

Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.

Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.

“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”

The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.

Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.

Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.

A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.

The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg

FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.

Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.

“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.

“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”

Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.

Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.

Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.

“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.

The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.

FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.

Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.

In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.

The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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