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US Education Department Sued for Closing Antisemitism Investigation of University of Pennsylvania

A swastika graffitied in the basement of the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design on Sept. 14, 2023. Photo taken by student.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is suing the US Department of Education over its allegedly premature closing of an investigation of antisemitic discrimination at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn).

The Brandeis Center filed a complaint alleging violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in November following a slew of antisemitic incidents at Penn, including the invitation of antisemites to campus and the vandalizing of a Jewish center lobby by a “disturbed” student — which, according to the lawsuit, the administration had failed to respond to or prevent. Upon receiving the complaint, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) determined there was cause to investigate the school, but weeks later the agency halted the investigation without notice, citing Penn student Eyal Yakoby’s filing a civil lawsuit against the school for similar reasons.

According to an OCR communication shared by the Brandeis Center, OCR argued that Yakoby’s suit contained “the same allegations” listed in the Brandeis Center’s complaint, making its own inquiry redundant. However, the Brandeis Center explains, OCR “admitted” that its reasoning was flawed. Per the agency’s Case Processing Manual, it may close an investigation of a school if it later becomes the subject of a “class action” suit, a complaint brought by dozens of plaintiffs. While OCR acknowledged that Yakoby is just one man, it terminated the Penn investigation anyway, violating, the Brandeis Center claims, the very policy it invoked.

“By failing to follow its own administrative procedures, in violation of its own administrative procedures, in violation of its own stated mission of ‘vigorous enforcement of civil rights,’ the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Education overall have not only shown a blatant disregard for the well being of Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania, but for the due process entitled to every American who seeks relief from discrimination in educational institutions,” Brandeis Center chairman Kenneth Marcus said in a statement.

He added, “Jewish students at UPenn and many other college campuses across the country increasingly continue to face an egregious amount of antisemitism, particularly after the Oct. 7 massacre. OCR’s decisions have crippled these students’ ability to seek remedy from these hostilities and allows certain colleges and universities to continue ignoring or even fostering antisemitism on their campus.”

Antisemitism fueled by anti-Zionism has led to a deluge of scandals at the University of Pennsylvania, one of America’s leading institutions of higher education. In September, it hosted “The Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which included speakers such as Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, who once promoted antisemitic tropes, saying in an interview, “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.” Another controversial figure invited to the event was former Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters, whose long record of anti-Jewish snipes was the subject of a documentary released last year.

One day before the event took place, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner. Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Former Penn president Elizabeth Magill, who refused to stop the university from hosting the festival, resigned from her post in December, ending a 17-month tenure marked by controversy over what critics described as an insufficient response to surging antisemitism on campus.

The school will continue to deal with the events of this academic year — which included a weeks long “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that became a source of antisemitic harassment and abuse — for some time. Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging a US congressional investigation of antisemitism at the school, which the House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched after Magill failed to provide acceptable answers about her handling of the problem during a hearing in December. The ruling cleared the way for Congress to continue an inquiry that could complicate Penn’s attempts to repair a perception that it coddled antisemites because they claimed to be partisans of the progressive left.

As part of its inquiry, the committee, led by US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), subpoenaed the university for a trove of documents, including reports and correspondence, which would provide a window into how administrators discussed antisemitism on campus.

Similar documents have already proved injurious to Columbia University, which recently disciplined, but did not fire, several administrators who were revealed by The Washington Free Beacon to have derided Jewish students’ concerns about rising antisemitism, calling them “privileged” and venal.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post US Education Department Sued for Closing Antisemitism Investigation of University of Pennsylvania first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump Again Warns Hamas to Free Gaza Hostages ‘Soon’ Following Previous Threats

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, US on Nov. 13, 2024. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS

While speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, US President-elect Donald Trump again called for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, issuing another veiled threat to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas ahead of his return to the White House.

A press gaggle peppered Trump with questions outside of his annual New Year’s Eve gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. One reporter asked Trump about his previous comments that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if a ceasefire and hostage-release between the terrorist group and Israel is not successfully brokered before his inauguration. 

“We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said. “I’ll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon.”

On Oct. 7 of last year, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages to Gaza during their invasion of southern Israel. During the onslaught, 45 Americans were killed and 12 were abducted.

About 100 hostages, both dead and alive, remain in Gaza, including seven Americans. Three of them — Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Edan Alexander — are thought to still be alive. Three others — Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judi Weinstein Haggai — are believed to be murdered by the terrorist group, with their bodies still in the Palestinian enclave. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed last month that Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, and his body was taken by terrorists into Gaza. Neutra was initially presumed to be among the living captives.

The Biden administration, in which 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris currently serves as vice president, has faced criticism from both sides of the political aisle for being unable to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of hostage negotiations spiked when American-Israel hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered by Hamas terrorists in late summer right before IDF soldiers could rescue him. 

Trump has repeatedly vowed to take aggressive action to secure the return of the remaining hostages. Last month, he vowed that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if the terrorist group does not release those still held captive in the Gaza Strip. 

“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!” Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social. “Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”

“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” he added.

Trump reiterated the threat days later.

The post Trump Again Warns Hamas to Free Gaza Hostages ‘Soon’ Following Previous Threats first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Anti-Zionist Student Government President Convicted of Misconduct, Removed from Office at U of Michigan

University of Michigan PhD student, center, carries a sign that says ‘Free Speech! Free Palestine!’ at U-M’s Diag in Ann Arbor on April 4, 2024. Photo: Junfu Huan via Reuters Connect

The Central Student Government (CSG) of the University of Michigan has removed from office president Alifa Chowdhury — the controversial leader of the Anti-Zionist “Shut It Down” (SID) party who led a failed and unpopular effort to freeze funding for student clubs until school officials enacted a boycott of Israel — following her conviction on an impeachment charge.

Chowdhury faced three charges in total: incitement to violence, defamation, and dereliction of duty, the last of which she was found guilty on Dec. 23, according to a statement issued by the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ). Her vice president, Elias Atkinson, was convicted of the same offense.

“Today’s decision means that President Chowdhury and Vice President Atkinsonare removed from office with immediate effect, and that they are barred from holding CSG office in the future,” CSJ said, noting that its ruling marked the first ever expulsion of a CSG president. “It is not lost on us that today marks the culmination of the first impeachment proceeding in the Central Student Government’s history. Neither are we blind to the major political clashes — both within the Assembly and between the legislative and executive branches … But our decision today, and this court’s role, is beyond politics.”

It continued, “Impeachment is a constitutional process, an important element of CSG’s system of checks and balances. Although the Assembly’ role in triggering the impeachment process is essentially political, it is this court’s unflagging duty to resolve any impeachment process neutrally and impartially once the starter pistol has gone off. This court must be a steady ship in a sea tossed by raucous political winds.”

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Chowdhury’s anti-Zionist zealotry led her to allegedly commit several disqualifying acts which blighted her office and shocked her CSG representatives. In the articles of impeachment filed by Rep. Margaret Peterman, the now-former president was described as having “gravely endangered” students — for example, by participating in a protest of CSG which led to threats and an assault by spitting — as well as the “integrity of the democratic system.” She also failed to perform key functions of the presidency, including submitting reports, preparing committee members for their roles, and convening meetings with CSG’s executive council — a pattern of neglect which led to her conviction for dereliction of duty.

The takeover of CSG by Chowdhury’s party, SID, in March led to a historically dysfunctional administration, prompting the involvement of school officials at key moments when its brinksmanship threatened to derail core functions of the university. In August, the administration resolved to fund student clubs over Chowdhury and SID’s objections, effectively stripping the new government of the power of the purse. Explaining the intervention to The Algemeiner at the time, university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said it was prompted by Chowdhury’s “senior” colleagues in the CSG Assembly.

Founded in the months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, SID allegedly committed multiple election code infractions to amass its unprecedented power. According to The Michigan Daily, students banded together to contest its election victory, citing multiple instances in which its members campaigned in proscribed areas and violated other rules regulating the use of posters and email communications. SID ultimately overcame the challenge following a controversial hearing which the student government, breaking precedent, conducted in secret.

After assuming power, Chowdury defunded the school’s 1,700 student clubs by vetoing the summer term budget, which had been “unanimously” supported by the CSG Assembly, and vowed to block any spending bill that would fund them in the fall term. The measure was, in SID’s view, strategic. It argued during the campaign that crippling university operations would inexorably lead to a boycott of Israel, a notion the university dispelled when it appropriated the funds anyway.

“CSG merely serves as an extension of an institution that has perpetuated systems of oppression by maintaining the current status quo of neocolonial capitalism,” the party said in a manifesto issued in March. “Every dollar coming out of this university is blood money. Student government cannot operate as usual as we witness the systematic murder of Palestinians. Student life cannot continue as normal when our tuition and labor are being used to fund a genocide.”

Those ideals manifested in the misconduct which have now disqualified Chowdhury and her vice president from ever holding a CSG position again.

“Today’s ruling is compelled by the All-Campus Constitution and the evidence,” the Central Student Judiciary said in explaining the convictions. “Our conclusions are a result of dozens of pages of briefing, the various evidentiary exhibits, and all the testimony and argument we heard over the course of a twenty two and a half hour hearing. Whatever political consequences might flow from our decision, we can only do our jobs.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Anti-Zionist Student Government President Convicted of Misconduct, Removed from Office at U of Michigan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Flag Burned Outside Stadium in Spain Before Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Game

An Israeli flag being burned outside the Gran Canaria Arena located in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, ahead of a basketball game with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Photo: YouTube screenshot

Anti-Israel demonstrators set fire to an Israeli flag outside a sports arena in Spain’s Canary Islands, leading up to a basketball game featuring the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv that is set to take place at the arena on Thursday.

Activists from the pro-Palestinian group Canarias Insumisa set the Israeli flag on fire outside the Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas, the local news outlet Canraia Ahora reported on Tuesday. The move was in protest of Israel’s military actions during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and also in objection to the EuroCup basketball game taking place on Thursday at the Gran Canaria Arena between Hapoel Tel Aviv and the local team Gran Canaria.

The pro-Palestinian group claimed that the upcoming basketball game whitewashes the “genocide” that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. The group also falsely accused Israel of murdering “47,000 girls, boys, women and men in one year” during its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Canrais Ahora called on local fans not to attend the basketball game on Thursday, claiming that Israeli fans of Hapoel Tel Aviv may try to provoke them. The group described Hapoel Tel Aviv fans as “aggressive Nazi-Zionist hooligan fanatics who will try to provoke, create conflicts and attack the followers of the Canarian team,” according to the news outlet Canraia Ahora. The group also criticized the owner of Gran Canaria, claiming he had the chance to prevent the local Spanish team from competing against Hapoel Tel Aviv, but refused to do so.

The flag burning took place almost two months after fans of the Israeli soccer team Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Five men behind the premeditated and coordinated attack were sentenced in Dutch court late last month to community service and up to six months in jail.



The post Israeli Flag Burned Outside Stadium in Spain Before Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Game first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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