RSS
I’m a Jewish College Student; Hatred Inspire Me to Fight Back and Engage — Others Can Do the Same
George Washington University students assembled at the campus’ Kogan Plaza on Oct. 9, 2023 to mourn those who died during Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner
As Jewish students return to campus this Fall, many are clouded by fear and distrust: fear of harassment from anti-Israel mobs, retaliation from anti-Zionist professors, and distrust toward administrators who bear the responsibility to protect them. While these concerns are understandable, Jewish students should not succumb to defeatism.
My aim is not to push every Jewish student toward activism, nor to justify parents paying high tuition fees simply for their children to be forced to confront campus antisemitism. However, amid the current campus crises, Jewish students have the opportunity to transform obstacles into opportunities for growth in ways that no traditional classroom experience can offer.
I entered George Washington University (GWU) three years ago with an air of naivité that allowed me to express my Israeli, American, and Jewish identities with utmost pride.
The slurs of “racist,” “colonial apologist,” “extremist,” “anti-immigrant” among others from my classmates surely offended me, but they also perplexed me. I deemed myself liberal and “progressive.” Wasn’t I the embodiment of diversity with family roots in Dagestan, Egypt, Israel, France, Mexico, and America?
During my freshman and sophomore years, I encountered blatant antisemitism on campus, including the desecration of a Torah scroll along. I also experienced my first run-ins with Intifada rallies and Israeli Apartheid weeks. My peers subtly ostracized me in seminars.
As my involvement in Jewish life increased, I heard physical threats against me from members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Following the threats, around the time that I published “Semites are here to Stay” in October 2022, I faced a moral dilemma: should I put myself at risk by continuing to speak out on this issue, or pull away to keep myself safe?
As 2023 neared, my Jewish friends were sharing that they had been “spat on” on the library steps, and were being excluded from student organizations; professors like Dr. Lara Sheehi were intimidating or harassing Israeli students in class. My friends’ experiences, above all, lit a fire inside of me to act. Yet, my dilemma remained.
Conversations with family friends and one notable Professor of Holocaust Memory imbued me with the words of Pirkei Avot: “It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.”
My instinct was to understand the root of such defamatory beliefs about me, my people, and my two home countries. I sought an intellectual coping mechanism, exploring anti-Zionism and its permeation into academia. As antisemitism in my International Affairs courses continued, I also craved a forum to critically think and debate — what I was receiving in Philosophy courses. Eventually, I changed my major from International Affairs to Philosophy, where I’d excavate how my peers formed their ideas by asking difficult questions and formulating my own.
In classes where I was often the only pro-Israel student, and sometimes the only Jew, I chose to write papers and deliver presentations about Israel and Jewish life. In my Frankfurt School course, my final project Israel on the Utopian Horizon analyzed the Israeli Protest Movement through philosophies of Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Martin Buber, and José Munoz. Aside from quenching my personal academic interests, the project demonstrated how Israel embodies the liberal Frankfurt School principles that my non/anti-Zionist peers admired.
Another project in my course “Power,” used Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish to describe how universities have become like “Intellectual Panopticons” that lead to “Self-Censorship.” The panopticon concept represents a prison-like mechanism where constant surveillance enforces social control. Using Jonanthan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind and drawing from my personal experience, I argued for reimagining individualism as responsible citizenship — expressing disagreement respectfully and assertively, even if standing alone. Once again, I demonstrated how many of my peers were misusing and abusing Progressive ideals against those holding political differences.
Unsurprisingly, those words I had penned during my sophomore year would become a reality. Despite widespread opposition, I formed the GW Student Association Antisemitism Task Force in early 2023. Approaching adversarial audiences by altering my communication style to make statements appear uncontroversial — and flipping my opposition’s arguments against them — provided instrumental lessons in persuasion. I even invited members of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), who pledged anti-normalization, on board; they could no longer delegitimize my initiative by tarnishing me on the basis of my Israeli, Jewish, and American identities.
I could not have achieved these goals on my own. Outreach is a key ingredient in the recipe to success. The advice from public intellectuals like Einat Wilf, legal powerhouses like the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and other Jewish organizations like AMCHA were instrumental to formulating my approach. GW Hillel placed QR codes around their building and sent emails to Jewish community members to make public comments at the Student Senate meeting where a vote on creating an antisemitism task force would take place. Over 30 students showed up, and public comments that night ran for nearly an hour. In the end, the task force passed unanimously.
While the task force was dismantled by the following year’s Student Association president, its work has continued. Since the October 7th terror attacks, my peers and I consistently meet with professors and administrators to understand university conduct policies; we have learned to convey our perspectives to administrators who tread to take action. We’ve examined state and Federal law pertaining to Title VI, boycotts, and more. We engage with policy makers on the state and Federal level. We organize and advertise GW and DC-wide events. Most importantly, we have learned to engage substantively with prevalent and opposing views, block out hate, and hold our heads high with robust Jewish spirit.
My story is much less about what I accomplished, but the knowledge, skills, and strong sense of character I gained. Understanding your rights and learning to articulate information to diverse audiences are as important in school as in relationships and the workplace.
Rather than resenting my college experience, I am all the more grateful for it. Indeed, becoming comfortable with discomfort, and learning practical wisdom, is what college — the bridge to independence — is all about.
The author is a senior at George Washington University.
The post I’m a Jewish College Student; Hatred Inspire Me to Fight Back and Engage — Others Can Do the Same first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
RSS
US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
RSS
US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.