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Stanford University Committee Releases Report on ‘Widespread and Pervasive’ Campus Antisemitism
Students are seen at an anti-Israel protest encampment at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Stanford, California, US, April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Stanford University in California has found itself embroiled in controversy after a university-commissioned task force revealed widespread antisemitism on campus following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
The Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias published a 148-page report on Thursday detailing a toxic environment for Jewish and Israeli students at the elite university. The 12-member committee argued that Jewish and Israeli students at Stanford have endured exclusion and harassment on the Palo Alto campus since October.
“Some of this bias is expressed in overt and occasionally shocking ways,” the report read, “but often it is wrapped in layers of subtlety and implication, one or two steps away from blatant hate speech.”
In several instances, the degree of antisemitism was so overwhelming that Jewish students decided to leave their residence halls. The report found that some Stanford Jews had their mezuzahs — small parchment scrolls containing Hebrew verses from the Torah that members of the Jewish community fix to their doorposts — ripped down from their doors. Others claimed to find swastikas scribbled on their doors.
Jewish students also reported having their residences vandalized with the phrases “Free Palestine” or “F—k Zionism.” In some cases, residential assistants (RAs) posted virulently antisemitic and anti-Israel content on their social media pages, fostering a “culture of fear and suppression” for Jewish students, according to the report. Some RAs have gone as far as to encourage students to participate in anti-Israel protests and encampments on campus.
Stanford faculty and staff have sounded alarms over the allegedly rampant and unchecked antisemitic rhetoric and behaviors on campus. Though Stanford faculty have overwhelmingly expressed support for the free speech rights of anti-Israel protesters, many have lamented the ease with which some Stanford community members spew viciously antisemitic rhetoric on campus. One faculty member alleged in the report that a Stanford professor uses the word “Zionist” as a euphemism for Israelis, an act he claims should constitute “hate speech.”
Israeli and Jewish faculty also reported a sense of “alienation” at the university in the months following Oct. 7. An unnamed Israeli professor stated that none of his colleagues reached out to share condolences after the Hamas terrorist attacks, in which 1,200 people were murdered and over 250 taken hostage during the Palestinian terrorist group’s rampage through southern Israel. The same professor said that the unchecked pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus have left Jews and Israelis feeling rattled and unsafe.
“I was happy living here before Oct. 7. I knew there were antisemites and there were people who hated Israel, but it was striking how there were banners celebrating Oct. 7 on campus,” an unnamed faculty member stated.
For several weeks beginning in April, anti-Israel activists erected a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on campus, refusing to leave unless the school condemned and boycotted the Jewish state. While the school declined to negotiate terms with the demonstrators, Jewish Stanford faculty assert that the university’s administration has been “cowardly” in its response to the antisemitic campus climate.
“The university’s silence suggests that Jews don’t count; the university leadership is cowardly,” an unnamed Stanford faculty member explained. “The university should take a stand, articulate its values, and enforce them in a consistent manner regardless of who it’s about”
The report detailed many complaints about the structure of Stanford’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. University affiliates lamented that Jews have been mostly excluded from these initiatives, arguing that Jewish and Israeli students and faculty are among the most marginalized on campus. The committee suggested that Stanford consider removing DEI programs, insisting that they “tend to propagate oversimplified histories and promulgate ideologies about social justice without subjecting them to the critical inquiry that is a core aspect of a university education.”
Matthew Wigler, co-president of the Stanford Jewish Law Students Association, said that antisemitism was “already a deeply rooted problem” on campus for years prior to Oct. 7.
“I will never forget how during my first year at Stanford in Spring 2016, when a coalition of Jewish student groups tried to address the toxic antisemitism of the time with a student government resolution, a student senator dismissed the issue and suggested Jews control the media, government, and economy,” Wigler told The Algemeiner.
Wigler explained that antisemitism has become much more “widespread and pervasive” on campus following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
“Now, eight years later, in 2024, when Stanford Jewish students gathered to address antisemitism at a town hall in the same place, we had other students yelling at us outside the event to ‘Go back to Brooklyn!’ while simultaneously shouting that antisemitism isn’t real and we need to stop ‘playing the victim,’” Wigler added.
Stanford President Richard Saller assembled the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias in November amid backlash over widespread anti-Jewish incidents on campus. Less than a week removed from the Oct. 7 attacks, a Stanford teacher reportedly forced Jewish students to stand in a corner and told them the action was analogical to the Palestinian experience. Stanford sophomore Theo Baker published a long-form piece in The Atlantic alleging that several campus parties forced students to say “F—k Israel” or “Free Palestine” to gain entry.
However, Stanford has recently taken more forceful action to quell antisemitism on campus. Several anti-Zionist protesters were handed felony burglary charges earlier this month for occupying Saller’s office and refusing to leave. Stanford announced that the demonstrators would be immediately suspended and, if any were seniors, barred from graduating and receiving their degrees.
The post Stanford University Committee Releases Report on ‘Widespread and Pervasive’ Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations into Abraham Accords, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump points a finger as he delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 31, 2025. Photo: Kent Nishimura via Reuters Connect
President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” said a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.
OBSTACLES REMAIN
The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.
Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.
Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.
But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.
Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan.
Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.”
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Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base, on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, Sept. 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra / File.
US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, saying a Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory was the sole solution to the disputed region, state news agency MAP said on Saturday.
The long-frozen conflict pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
Trump at the end of his first term in office recognized the Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, which has phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds, as part of a deal under which Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with Israel.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made clear in April that support for Morocco on the issue remained US policy, but these were Trump’s first quoted remarks on the dispute during his second term.
“I also reiterate that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” MAP quoted Trump as saying in a message to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Together we are advancing shared priorities for peace and security in the region, including by building on the Abraham Accords, combating terrorism and expanding commercial cooperation,” Trump said.
As part of the Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
In June this year, Britain became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory after the U.S. and France.
Algeria, which has recognized the self-declared Sahrawi Republic, has refused to take part in roundtables convened by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara and insists on holding a referendum with independence as an option.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.