RSS
These Outrageous Antisemitic Incidents Occurred Across the US in July
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Many of the anti-Israel protests in July were centered on the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US. A variety of American Palestinian groups urged Netanyahu to be “arrested.” Prior to Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, some 200 protestors were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda. Mobs also besieged the hotel where he was staying, with Palestinian Youth Movement infiltrators filming themselves releasing maggot and insects, and pulling fire alarms overnight.
Prior to the speech, thousands of protestors mobbed Washington, D.C., burning American flags and waving Hamas flags, assaulting police, and vandalizing monuments with graffiti including “Hamas is coming.”
Classic antisemitic imagery, including Netanyahu depicted as a demon with horns and fangs dripping blood, were common. Police, including many brought in from other cities, used tear gas to disperse the crowds, but US Park Police later reported that less than three dozen members were deployed to protect monuments. Those arrested were later released, and many charges were dropped.
The riots were condemned from across the political spectrum, including the White House.
Other pro-Hamas protest activities during the month included:
July 4th disruptions in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, which featured burning the American flag.
Vandalizing a Seattle Holocaust museum with the words “Genocide in Gaza.” Local police declared the act was not a hate crime.
A planned protest outside a Michigan Holocaust museum and demands that the museum condemn Israel.
Protestors who unfurled pro-Hamas banners from the roof of the Australian parliament building.
The Royal Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam being vandalized by pro-Hamas activists with red paint, which they stated “symbolizes the blood of the Palestinians that is currently flowing through the streets of Gaza.”
Emailed bomb threats “in the name of Palestine” forced the evacuation of the Pennsylvania Capitol Complex.
An Israeli owned factory in New York City was attacked along with two in Britain with alleged connections to Israel. A non-Jewish owned diner on Long Island with hostage posters in the windows was also vandalized.
Attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions were routine in July:
Protests outside a New York City synagogue hosting an Israeli real estate fair.
A Pittsburgh synagogue and the Jewish Federation headquarters were vandalized.
A Los Angeles synagogue was vandalized twice in one week.
Vandalizing a Sydney synagogue with a banner reading “sanction Israel.”
A thwarted plot to destroy an Athens synagogue resulted in arrests. This followed attacks on a Chabad house and an Israeli owned hotel.
Two Toronto synagogues were attacked, and a school and a school bus were burned.
Elsewhere, a variety of symbols associated with Jews continue to be appropriated for the Hamas cause. One especially obscene example was an Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam that was vandalized with the word “Gaza.”
In Bergen, Norway, a mural of Anne Frank wearing a keffiyah sparked controversy. The anonymous artist claimed that “The killings of the innocent women and children in Gaza must stop now. I feel sure that Anne Frank … would support me in this demand.”
Students
Reports indicate that anti-Israel students are investing heavily in summer training activities. A number of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) summer camps sponsored by the National Students for Justice in Palestine have been noted, including at the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, and San Francisco State University.
Threats against universities and Jewish students also escalated in July. Unionized student workers associated with the United Auto Workers at Columbia University voted to endorse BDS, and threaten to strike if its demands are not met.
At New York University, the administration condemned the People’s Solidarity Coalition aka the People’s Front, which had issued a statement embracing “armed struggle” as part of its efforts to “dismantle NYU’s involvement in settler-colonial occupation, genocide and imperial wars. We localize the Palestinian liberation struggle within the imperialist University, and take up the fight against NYU’s global empire, which collaborates in the interests of Zionist colonialism and U.S. imperialism.”
In another example, the University of Wisconsin Madison SJP chapter threatened that “We will no longer normalize genocidal extremists walking on our campus. … ANY organization or entity that supports Israel is not welcome at UWM. This includes the local extremist groups such as Hillel, Jewish Federation, etc.”
The larger revolutionary framework of anti-Israel and anti-American protests was described in a posting by the University of Illinois Chicago SJP, which stated “Inshallah amerikkka and israel will fall within our life time. Death to all police and colonial empires.”
The repercussions of the post-October 7 campus unrest continue to reverberate for university administrations. One report indicates that the protests cost the University of California system $29 million, with UCLA alone incurring $10 million in security and $400,000 in cleanup expenses.
Several universities have quietly announced that divestment from Israel is not being considered, including the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California system. The University of Minnesota regents proposed to sidestep the issue with an “investment neutrality” policy, while the University of Edinburgh has postponed consideration indefinitely. The London School of Economics stated that divestment was effectively impossible.
Disciplinary action against pro-Hamas protestors continues to emerge:
At Northwestern University, three employees and one graduate student were arrested for obstructing police, who were attempting to break up an encampment. Charges were then dropped by the Cook County prosecutor.
Two additional protestors at the University of Illinois were charged, bringing the total to five.
Pro-Hamas students at the University of Texas were suspended for two years.
At Harvard University, suspended students were reinstated after faculty complaints, and their diplomas were conferred.
A variety of pro-Hamas student groups at George Washington University were reportedly being sanctioned.
In Britain, the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham obtained court orders disbanding campus encampments.
The University of Melbourne has reportedly threatened to expel pro-Hamas protestors after disciplinary proceeding. The protestors complained that “surveillance technology” had been used to identify them.
Other universities continue to make a variety of concessions to protestors:
After negotiations with the pro-Hamas elements encampment, the University of Wisconsin-Madison apparently agreed to cut ties with two Israeli companies and to condemn the “plausible genocide” by Gazans.
The University of Liège announced that it was conceding to student demands to confirm it had no collaborations with Israeli universities, that it would request a review by the European Council on Israeli participation in European-wide projects, and that it was rejecting a series of donations and collaboration with specific companies.
University of Toronto encampment participants were provided with amnesty by the university as a condition for vacating the campus.
The University of Windsor agreed encampment demands to accept more “scholars at risk” and students from Gaza, “enhanced anti-racism initiatives,” and to greater investment transparency.
Cambridge University agreed to review its investments as part of an agreement with the pro-Hamas encampment. It also confirmed it did not have investments in specific Israeli companies.
University administrations continue to adopt a variety of measures to ensure the fall semester will be quiet. The University of California Regents voted to ban political statements by academic departments. The move comes after numerous departments posted anti-Israel statements on their websites, particularly after October 7.
Restrictions on protests were also instituted by the Indiana University regents, and have been proposed at Harvard University, including a ban on overnight camping. Most substantively, a Federal court has ordered UCLA to develop a plan to protect Jewish students from the discrimination and harassment that underpinned the 20224 encampments.
But while antisemitism task forces, invariably paired with “Islamophobia” task forces, have provided useful documentation of campus harassment and intimidation, their mostly modest recommendations have been ignored.
Efforts to “educate” staff members regarding antisemitism within the existing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mechanisms that dominate campuses have thus far been unsuccessful.
Faculty
As faculty prepare for the fall semester, a number of developments point to the continued domination of campus politics and discourse by the anti-Israel movement. Unions remain key mechanisms for anti-Israel forces to maintain control:
A petition circulated at Rutgers University calls on the faculty to demand the school’s American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers members call for divestment and for cutting ties with Tel Aviv University.
Six Jewish faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) have sent a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the US Court of Appeals asking to hear their case against the Professional Staff Congress.
A series of resolutions proposed at the American Federation of Teachers convention demanding an end to US military aid to Israel and protect pro-Palestinian protestors were removed from consideration by the leadership as “unconstitutional.”
A series of resolutions were proposed to the National Education Association convention supporting BDS, demanding the end of US military aid to Israel, and supporting teaching about the “Nakba.” The convention and consideration of the resolutions was halted by a strike of union staff.
The isolation of Israeli academia at the hands of international colleagues continues to expand. New reports indicate that the number of foreign students applying to study at leading Israeli universities has declined precipitously since October 7, and many international faculty are planning on leaving. The declines are especially critical in the hard sciences and life sciences, with local academics warning that Israel may become a closed scientific monoculture on par with China or Iran. Most analysts cite the impact of the BDS movement and fear of having a record of Israeli collaboration. Other reports cite a growing wave of Israeli academics leaving the country for overseas positions. Most, however, cite domestic politics, the security situation, and the high cost of living.
More positively, an open letter signed by some 3,000 academics denounced Israel boycotts.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was first published.
The post These Outrageous Antisemitic Incidents Occurred Across the US in July first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
A Dallas School District Is Being Investigated for Antisemitism; Here’s How Other Schools Can Avoid That Fate
On July 15, 2024, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) informed my organization that it opened a civil rights investigation into the Dallas Independent School District (“DISD”) in response to our complaint that a student was subjected to years of “severe, pervasive and persistent harassment” solely because of his Jewish identity.
The team at StandWithUs argued that DISD violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally-funded programs such as public schools.
After months of witnessing the harassment, receiving reports of discrimination, and being offered educational training by StandWithUs, DISD is only just now (hopefully) taking antisemitism seriously — and that is only because of legal force.
Here’s what happened:
In September 2023, we sent a letter to the principal of Hillcrest High School in Dallas and the DISD Superintendent urging them to address antisemitism and ignorance at the school, and offering our support.
We described one student’s experience — being called a “dirty Jew” and a “filthy kike,” being told by classmates “Bye kike, hope the Nazis grab you tonight,” and “go back to Auschwitz, you don’t belong here.” School leadership consistently ignored or downplayed the seriousness of these incidents. One teacher told the student, “You shouldn’t let antisemitism bother you so much.” Swastikas discovered on school property were simply covered up.
Despite our letter and subsequent meetings with school leadership, DISD allowed the hostile environment to continue. After exhausting all other administrative options, we submitted our complaint to the US Department of Education. The student bravely returned to school and was barraged with mistreatment by teachers and administrators.
We recently contacted DISD to highlight this alarming retaliation, inquire about remedial steps, and again offer our support. We urged the district not to wait for an OCR investigation to do the right thing. But we never heard back.
Now that OCR is investigating, DISD is forced to utilize its resources to respond: the district’s attorneys are presumably reviewing hundreds of documents and social media posts, and its teachers and administrators are likely being contacted during their summer breaks to meet with the OCR investigator.
Our story didn’t have to be this complex and lengthy — and it shouldn’t take legal action for school districts to do the ring thing.
Here is how school districts can direct their resources to avoid the mess DISD is in now:
Teach staff about the definitions of antisemitism and procedures required to address all forms of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (“HIB”) and discrimination, and ensure that antisemitism is an explicit part of the discussion on these topics. Engage staff, bring up tough questions, and use real life examples, including those from the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Provide age-appropriate education to students about the dangers of antisemitism, including clear examples and consequences of discriminatory conduct. Teach about Jewish history and heritage the same way you teach about other ethnic and racial groups. To paraphrase Dara Horn, please don’t only teach kids about dead Jews.
If a student complains about HIB or discrimination, put it in writing and offer your immediate support. Validating feelings and showing empathy go a long way, and doing so does not mean you admit a violation of policies. Act immediately and consistently, with no double standards. Whether or not a formal complaint is submitted, check in after a few days. That is not an admission of a violation of your policies; it is simply showing concern for a student who was hurt.
If there is a larger pattern of discrimination in the district, address it head-on. Send a note to families about specific concerns of antisemitism — not just hate in general — and then immediately take concrete steps to address the problematic climate, not just the individual incidents.
Conduct investigations transparently and with urgency. Share the results in clear terms. If remedies are required, create a timeline for implementation. Follow up to review the impact of the remedies. If the issue remains unresolved, keep trying to fix it. If you hold a schoolwide assembly about antisemitism, and the next day, swastikas are drawn on desks, you have not fixed the problem.
Ensure that the group most impacted has a voice in the conversation.
If your district does not already have one, they should hire a Title VI Coordinator who will ensure meaningful and equal compliance.
There are a few weeks until school starts again. Let’s encourage our districts to use that time wisely, and to use their precious resources towards protecting all students, including those who are Jewish and/or Israeli.
Jenna Statfeld Harris is a Senior Staff Attorney, specializing in K-12 education, at the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department. She is the lead attorney in the DISD case.
The post A Dallas School District Is Being Investigated for Antisemitism; Here’s How Other Schools Can Avoid That Fate first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, Omar Slapped With Lawsuit for ‘Inciting’ Columbia University Anti-Israel Encampment
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Photo: Mike Jourdan/Flickr.
Three progressive US lawmakers are facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly “inciting” anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.
The lawsuit, filed by five anonymous students, names Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Jamaal Bowman (NY) — all members of the so-called “Squad” of far-left members of the House of Representatives — as key instigators of the “extreme and outrageous” anti-Israel protests on the Ivy League campus. The lawsuit also implicates nearly a dozen pro-Palestinian groups.
“The Gaza Encampment was extreme and outrageous conduct. It was illegal. It violated university rules. Its occupants harassed, followed, physically blocked, intimidated, and bullied Jewish students,” the lawsuit says.
Starting in mid-April, dozens of student organizers at Columbia University commandeered the South Lawn and erected an encampment in protest of Israel’s military campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The students vowed not to dismantle the encampment until the university agreed to boycott and divest from all Israel-related entities, including divesting from companies that do business with the Jewish state and cutting ties with Israeli universities.
The demonstration, which included chants in support of Hamas and calls for Israel’s destruction, quickly grew in numbers amid allegations that Columbia wasn’t doing enough to punish rampant antisemitism on campus.
The lawsuit argues that the three lawmakers were among the “outside champions” who encouraged the protests. The three progressives issued statements defending the at-times violent protesters and criticizing law enforcement.
“If any kid is hurt tonight, responsibility will fall on the mayor and [university] presidents,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X/Twitter on April 30.
Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, and Omar each visited the encampments at Columbia University in a show of support for the campus agitators. Omar suggested that Jewish students critical of the Columbia University anti-Israel protests were “pro-genocide,” sparking a firestorm of outrage. Bowman defended the anti-Israel protests as “peaceful” and said he was “outraged” at Columbia administrators for calling in police officers to protect the campus.
Two of the five claimants in the lawsuit are Jewish, according to the New York Post.
An anonymous Columbia Jewish sophomore told the Post that he “did not feel safe” on campus.
“During the protests, I witnessed numerous offensive and antisemitic signs and messages, including antisemitic skunk posters with the Star of David,” the Columbia student recalled.
The Columbia protests drew widespread criticism for rhetoric that many observers considered antisemitic. Student activists openly waved flags representing the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups. A group of Columbia student protesters made headlines for chanting “burn Tel Aviv to the ground.” Several campus groups issued statements categorically banning “Zionist” students from membership. In May, police revealed that anti-Israel protesters who occupied an academic building at Columbia had signs that read “death to America,” death to Israel,” and “long live the intifada” — the last of which refers to a violent Palestinian uprising.
In response, several prominent Columbia Jewish alumni have vowed to no longer donate funds to the Ivy League university. The US Congress summoned Columbia President Minouche Shafik to testify on the alleged antisemitic campus climate at the university. The Committee on Education and the Workforce initiated an investigation into antisemitism at Columbia.
“In a civilized community, one does not call for the obliteration of a major metropolitan area, praise terrorists, or threaten death and destruction upon our classmates and their families, friends, and coreligionists,” the lawsuit reads.
The claimants allege that the campus agitators and their supporters “not only consciously disregarded the rights of others, but the impact on the rights of others was the point of the protest: the more disruption [they] could cause for the university and the [students], the more leverage they thought they would have for their agenda.”
Omar, Bowman, and Ocasio-Cortez have all routinely lambasted Israel and called for the US to lessen its support to the Jewish state.
The post US Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, Omar Slapped With Lawsuit for ‘Inciting’ Columbia University Anti-Israel Encampment first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
North Carolina State University Settles Antisemitism Complaint
Signage for the US Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Office in Washington, DC, on Nov. 28, 2023. Photo: Gen Namer via Reuters Connect
North Carolina State University (NCSU) has settled a civil rights complaint which accused school officials of failing to respond to a series of antisemitic incidents in which a Jewish student was allegedly subjected to bullying, violent threats, and doxxing.
Brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the complaint alleged that the Jewish plaintiff was abused by her peers for supporting Israel. Anti-Zionist students, it said, frequently uttered threats while walking past her on campus and also published her picture and private information online.
The alleged misconduct wasn’t limited to students. In another incident, the administration told the student nothing could be done when, in her first week on campus, she discovered swastika graffiti all over the walls of a tunnel on campus.
As part of the settlement, an outcome achieved during an “early” mediation process administered by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the university agreed to update its anti-discrimination policies to adhere to a 2019 Trump administration executive order which recognized anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, include antisemitism in its programming on racial and ethnic hatred, and hold regular meetings with Jewish organizations on campus. The university will also base its handling of future antisemitic incidents on North Carolina’s Shalom Act (House Bill 942), which explicitly refers to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
“The Brandeis Center’s settlement with NCSU represents a significant step forward in our efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses,” Brandeis Center chairman and founder Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “This settlement paves the way for meaningful change on both NCSU’s campus and on college campuses throughout the country.”
He continued, “The settlement agreement includes a commitment to abide by Executive Order 13899 and North Carolina Statutes, including North Carolina House Bill 942, which explicitly references the IHRA definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples for combating antisemitism. We commend the university for its commitment to include references to these important tools in the settlement agreement and in their revised anti-discrimination policy.”
Brandeis Center senior counsel Robin Pick added, “NC State has the opportunity to be a leader and a model for other universities in the fight against antisemitism.”
Other universities have recently settled legal complaints prompted by allegedly poor, and potentially illegal, responses to antisemitic incidents.
In July, New York University (NYU) agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money to settle a lawsuit brought by three students who described the university’s approach to handling antisemitism as “deliberate indifference.” In resolving the case, NYU avoided a lengthy trial which would have revealed who and which office received but failed to address numerous reports that NYU students and faculty “repeatedly abuse, malign, vilify, and threaten Jewish students with impunity.”
In May, Columbia University settled a lawsuit which accused President Minouche Shafik of fostering a hostile learning environment by appeasing pro-Hamas rioters who convulsed the campus with unauthorized demonstrations for weeks.
One university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has managed to defeat a lawsuit prompted by campus antisemitism. Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the university refused to enforce rules which prohibit discrimination when Jews were victims. That same judge, a Democratic appointee and former political operative, will determine the fate of another lawsuit against Harvard University which makes similar accusations.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post North Carolina State University Settles Antisemitism Complaint first appeared on Algemeiner.com.