Eli Sharabi reunites with his family after his release from Gazan captivity. Photo: IDF spokesperson’s unit

Supporting Hamas’ propaganda, senior Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Jibril Rajoub has falsely stated that all the Israeli hostages left “with smiles and in good health”:

Jibril Rajoub, Fatah’s Central Committee Secretary General: “Trump is interested in talking only about the suffering of the Israeli prisoners [the hostages], despite everyone leaving with smiles and in good health.” [emphasis added]

[Anadolu (Turkish state-run news agency), March 3, 2025]

Of course, this was a total lie as the before and after pictures show:

Rajoub’s statement echoes the PA’s mocking of the hostages exposed by Palestinian Media Watch.

In an editorial in its official daily, the PA wrote that the Israeli hostages came out of Hamas captivity “as if they had been in vacation resorts”:

PA editorial: “They [Hamas] handed over the hostages with gifts and in good health! … completely committed to the agreement, with the release of [Israeli] hostages without dust on their clothes, as if they had been in vacation resorts! They [Hamas] did not protect only their lives but also their welfare.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2025]

Upon the release of four Israeli female soldiers in January, Hamas claimed the Israeli hostages were handed over “in full physical and mental health.” Most of the released Israeli hostages have reported that they underwent starvation, abuse, torture, and were deprived of access to fresh air and daylight.

On the other hand, Rajoub and other PA officials continue voicing the medical libel that Israel deliberately “kills” Palestinian imprisoned terrorists by either using them as guinea pigs or by not providing them with proper medical treatment.

Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam: “We are loyal to the path of the living Martyrs, the beloved prisoners who are dying as Martyrs and being murdered on a daily basis. In the last two days we received many prisoners who left the [Israeli] prisons like skeletons and every day were subjected to medical murder, and not medical neglect, in a deliberate manner and a deliberate policy (sic.).”

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, April 17, 2024]

Contradicting this repeated PA libel, a released terrorist prisoner admitted that although it may be slow, the Israeli Prison Service does provide terrorists with medical treatment:

Released terrorist prisoner Saad Al-Din Jaber: “The Israeli Prison Service, in general, does not treat cases of illness seriously. They try, they send you to a hospital, they bring you [there], the processes are slow. That does not mean that they do not treat people; they treat people but very slowly.”

Official PA TV host: “Less than the minimum.”

Saad Al-Din Jaber: “Until my turn comes, my illness might get worse. If I had a minor problem, it could develop into a serious illness. That’s the problem with the issue. I want to speak about the issue fairly. The treatment exists, but very slowly.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 31, 2025]

Similarly, the director of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club admitted that the imprisoned terrorists are well cared for:

PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Director Amjad Al-Najjar: “The reports that reached us from released prisoners and visits by lawyers [to prisoners] teach that a very short time ago some of the clothes were brought into the [Israeli] prisons, and [the prisoners] were given grey pajamas … They were given winter coats, and this is very important at the current time, especially in the Ofer Prison and at some of the detention points.”

[Official PA TV, Dec. 23, 2024]

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.

The post Palestinian Authority: Israeli Hostages Left ‘With Smiles and in Good Health’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

College students hold dueling demonstrations amid Israel’s war with Hamas in April 2024. Photo: Vincent Ricci via Reuters Connect.

Most American adults, including college students, support the Trump administration’s cancellation of federal funding to universities which fail to address the campus antisemitism crisis, a new poll commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) and conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research has found.

A striking 66 percent of US adults expressed “total support” for cutting federal grants and contracts to higher education institutions that “do not do enough to protect Jewish students or address antisemitism.” Only 34 percent said they “oppose it.”

A strong, but less overwhelming, majority of college students, 56 percent, said they approve of the cuts, compared to 44 percent who oppose them.

Meanwhile, a majority of US adults, 54 percent, indicated support for the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who led raucous anti-Israel campus protests and, according to the federal government, expressed support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Only 25 percent said they oppose his deportation.

College students are more conflicted about the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Khalil, who was an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover during the 2023-2024 academic year and organizer of several demonstrations which caused lockdowns at Barnard College this academic year. Forty percent of those surveyed, a plurality, approve of removing him from the US while 37 percent disapprove.

“The American public has sent a clear message: universities must be held accountable for failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment,” ICC chief executive officer Jacob Baime said in a statement. “Amid a rising crisis of antisemitism, too many academic institutions have neglected their duty.”

He continued, “With 66 percent of US adults and 56 percent of college students supporting the withdrawal of federal funding from schools that tolerate such failures, these findings signal that administrators must act decisively to ensure a safe, inclusive environment for Jewish students.”

The survey was conducted over three days in March, with 1,000 US adults and 450 college students participating.

The survey results come amid US President Donald Trump’s following through on his threat to inflict severe financial injuries on colleges and universities it deems soft on antisemitism or excessively “woke.”

In March, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a measure that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money.

Later, the Trump administration disclosed its reviewing $9 billion worth of federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University, jeopardizing a substantial source of the school’s income over its alleged failure to quell antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity on campus following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.

Princeton University saw $210 million of its federal grants and funding suspended too, prompting its president, Christopher Eisgruber, to say the institution is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.”

Additionally, 60 universities are being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over their handling of campus antisemitism, a project that will serve as an early test of the administration’s ability to perform the essential functions of the agency after downsizing its workforce to increase its efficiency.

Trump’s deportation policy has, as indicated by the ICC’s survey results, proved to more controversial and, unlike his cancelling of taxpayer funds, difficult to implement. Khalil’s deportation is being delayed by the courts, and several other foreign anti-Israel activists selected for deportation have retained counsel who are so far staving off US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts to repatriate them to their countries of origin.

Alex Joffe, anthropologist and editor of BDS Monitor for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in March that the administration’s actions are legal and safeguard US interests.

“The Trump administration’s new policy of deporting pro-Hamas demonstrators who are not citizens is an important step toward addressing problems related to Hamas in America,” he explained in a statement. “The Immigration and Naturalization Act clearly gives the Secretary of State the authority to deport aliens on a variety of grounds, including endangering public safety and national security.”

Joffe added that the expatriates selected for deportation violated the conditions of their residency in the US by “giving material support to a designated terrorist group (be it Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Houthis)” and “organizing demonstrations, which have included violence and the destruction of property.” In arguing his position, he pointed to the case of Brown University physician Rasha Alawieh, whom the federal government deported to Lebanon after learning that she had attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, who was the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

“Overall, however, due to the Trump administration’s haphazard messaging, the evidence showing the threats to public safety and national security has been overshadowed by allegations that the deportation policy is an effort to quash free speech and chill public discourse. The terrorist connections and revolutionary motivations of groups such as Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Within Our Lifetime have similarly been ignored by most media. So, too, has the role of their various funders and amplifiers, including left-wing American foundations [and] the Chinese Communist Party” Joffe continued. “The administration’s communications skills need to improve significantly on these issues to provide more detailed information on bad actors, their motivations and backers, and not simply superficialities that stir outrage.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Trump Admin’s Crackdown on Universities Over Campus Antisemitism Supported by Most Americans, Poll Shows first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Washington, DC. Photo: Screenshot

Anti-Israel activists who falsely accused a Washington, DC rabbi of stalking were directed to pay his $182,000 of legal bills, according to a recent ruling by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld — who is the former rabbi at Ohev Shalom synagogue and current Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Elimelech in Washington, DC — was falsely accused of stalking two anti-Israel activists in mid-2024 after he prayed outside the Israeli embassy for the hostages taken by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. The activists were seeking a restraining order against Herzfeld.

Atefeh Rochvand and Hazami Barmada staged a months-long protest outside of the embassy, and Herzfeld arrived at the facility three times during their protest. One time was to pray for the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, and two other times were to observe the protests and make comments toward those conducting them.

While Herzfeld was there to pray, an anti-Israel group harassed him — crowding near him, waving flags in his face, and blaring sirens, according to video circulated on social media. They also called him a Nazi.

DC rabbi harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters while praying for hostages wins $182K
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Judge orders pro-Palestinian activists to pay damages to Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld after falsely accusing him of harassment during his prayer vigil for Israeli hostages outside the embassy in… pic.twitter.com/bcdsUn2Daf

— Ynetnews (@ynetnews) April 7, 2025

“It was the loudest outdoor scene I’ve ever seen in my life, it was ear-splitting, it was deafening,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I never saw anything like that in DC.”

The petitioners never alleged that Herzfeld tried to contact or interacted with them on any other occasions. According to the ruling, they even referred to his presence as “hilarious” while he was there.

Videos submitted to the court contradicted the stalking claims that Rochvand and Barmada made against Herzfeld.

“There is no evidence that Respondent [Herzfeld] ever threatened the Petitioners [Rochvand and Barmada],” the ruling read. “There is no evidence that he ever followed, monitored or placed them under surveillance. The only times he ever saw them was at the location of the protests on three occasions (only two with regard to Ms. Rokhvand).”

It continued, “The evidence suggests that his presence on those occasions was not an attempt to locate Petitioners or any other particular individuals; he was going to the embassy to pray, observe the protests and at times (March 21 and May 2) make his own comments regarding the protests.”

Nevertheless, Rochvand and Barmada wrote in a comment to The Daily Wire that they “were shocked by the tone and findings outlined in the subsequent order granting outrageous legal fees. Albeit ultimately deemed ‘protected speech,’ the evidence at trial showed Rabbi Herzfeld and his cohorts, on multiple occasions, came inappropriately close to females and made offensive and vile remarks to intimidate them.”

One of these comments, they said, was when Herzfeld asked them, “Why do you support the raping of innocent women?” — likely referring to the gender-based sexual violence that took place during Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack across southern Israel.

The judge commented, “The Petitioners may very well have been offended by what the Respondent said on May 2, just as the Respondent was likely offended when Petitioner Barmada called him a Nazi and a supporter of terrorizing children on March 21, 2024.” He concluded, “These comments, while offensive, are constitutionally protected.”

Due to the false nature of the anti-Israel activists’ claims, the court ruled they had to pay Herzfeld’s legal fees, which were $182,000.

In the interview with Fox News Digital, Herzfeld spoke about his experience during the ordeal.

“It was Shabbos, my parents were over, and my children were there, and I come home from prayers. And my wife was, you know, horrified that police had – she said police came to our door and they left and they – and they gave me, you know, this temporary restraining order,” Herzfeld said.

Fox reported that Herzfeld “said it was highly stressful and was extremely embarrassed at the thought that his neighbors, who saw police arrive at his door, could have thought there was merit to the case.”

It went on to explain how he dealt with the stress of the trial. “I was reciting Psalm 121 to myself, ‘I lift up my eyes to the mountains from where will come my help,’” he said.

“I was reciting Psalm 132 [sic] to myself from the depths to – you know, to God as a prayer – ‘From the depths I call out to you, Please, God, answer me.’”

The post Anti-Israel Activists Who Falsely Accused Washington, DC Rabbi of Stalking Forced to Pay $182K of Legal Bills first appeared on Algemeiner.com.