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University of New Mexico Funds Plane Ticket Home for Israeli Student Worried About His Safety Amid Campus Protests
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The University of New Mexico (UNM) offered to buy a plane ticket to send one of its Israeli students — and star athletes — back to Israel this week after he expressed concern for his safety amid anti-Israel protests at the university.
Israeli sprinter Gal Arad, 24, was in the middle of his third year at the university, studying computer science, but stopped his studies and immediately went back to Israel.
“Mr. Arad asked to be sent home as soon as possible, as he did not feel safe being here,” Eddie Nuñez, the vice president and director of athletics at UNM, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.
“As you are probably well aware, the University of New Mexico is no different than what most colleges are facing in regards to protest,” he added. “I cannot speak to what Mr. Arad was feeling but we supported him on his decision to go back home. At no point did we choose to send him home. We supported his decision and also funded the opportunity for him to be able to travel back home.”
Nuñez did not clarify if Arad will eventually return to UNM, but the Ramat Gan native told the Israeli publication Ynet that he will find another school where he can finish his studies. Arad previously studied at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, from 2020-2022.
Nuñez also explained that on April 2, Arad entered his name in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Transfer Portal, which is for student athletes who want to transfer between NCAA member institutions. Before officially entering the portal, UNM coach Darren Gauson offered Arad the opportunity to remain on the school’s team for next season with his full scholarship. By entering the transfer portal, his scholarship would not be guaranteed for the next year, which Nuñez told The Algemeiner is standard procedure.
The athlete was just in Israel on May 15 competing in a race in Jerusalem, where he won first place in both the men’s 100-meter sprint and 200-meter sprint. His finish time in the 200-meter dash — 20.70 seconds — is the second-best time in Israeli history for that race.
The same day as his race, New Mexico police removed a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” and arrested and charged students at the university. The students had camped out for weeks at the school in protest of Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip and also US support for the Jewish state. They were arrested after refusing to vacate the premises.
Nearly two weeks earlier, student protesters took over the university’s Student Union building, chanted “viva Palestine,” and demanded that UNM divest from companies associated with Israel. They also had confrontations with police, who arrested 16 people. UNM President Garnett Stokes said in a statement on May 14 that the school stands for peace “in all global conflicts” and will review and research its investment portfolios, with results being shared in August.
Because of his return to Israel this week, Arad was able to compete in the Jerusalem Grand Slam on Monday, the first international competition in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, which launched the ongoing war. He finished fifth in the 200-meter race.
Arad did not respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment.
The post University of New Mexico Funds Plane Ticket Home for Israeli Student Worried About His Safety Amid Campus Protests first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.