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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.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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