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Why Are Ivy League Schools Quietly Rewarding Student Anti-Israel Protest Leaders?
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
The past academic year saw an unsettling rise in antisemitism on American college campuses, as anti-Israel protests swept through some of the Nation’s most prestigious universities.
Initially, college administrations, seemingly paralyzed by indecision, justified these disruptions under the guise of protecting students’ rights to express themselves — even as protesters commandeered campus spaces with “anti-Zionist” encampments that effectively ostracized and attacked Jewish students.
The situation reached a breaking point after disastrous Congressional hearings led to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and UPenn’s Liz Magill, casting a harsh light on university leadership’s ineffectual handling of protests.
At institutions like Harvard and Columbia, these demonstrations escalated into aggressive actions, prompting reluctant administrators to call in police and impose disciplinary measures on some student protest leaders.
While these resignations and official responses might have signaled a potential turning point, evidence suggests that little has truly changed.
Harvard University, for example, has long grappled with allegations of campus antisemitism, from the Cornel West tenure controversy to recent scenes of blatant hostility toward Jews. Last year, one of the most disturbing incidents unfolded at the Harvard Business School during a “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” protest, where a pro-Israel student attempting to film the event was reportedly surrounded and assaulted by a crowd chanting, “Shame, shame, shame.”
While Claudine Gay’s resignation marked an official acknowledgment of the crisis enveloping Harvard, other troubling signs remain.
The university has quietly backtracked on some disciplinary measures imposed on student agitators. A prominent example is Prince Aviunce Williams, a Harvard class of 2025 student and co-founder of the African American Resistance Organization (AFRO), who received a full academic scholarship to attend Harvard. After leading campus rallies where the Hamas slogan “From the River to the Sea”—a call for Israel’s destruction — was chanted, Williams faced suspension.
However, he announced in July that Harvard had reversed its decision, releasing a video in which he declared, “Make no mistake, the reversal of these charges is not a reflection of the good nature of the institution but a demonstration of the power of our organizing. When I rejoin my peers this fall, we must understand our movement is working, that our momentum is growing, and that Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”
At Columbia University, there was a similar surge in antisemitic incidents with even faculty joining in. Among the most disturbing was tenured professor Joseph Massad’s article for Electronic Intifada, in which he lauded Hamas’ October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians as “astonishing” and “incredible.”
This appalling endorsement of terror sent shock waves through Columbia’s Jewish community, yet the administration chose not to act, signaling a worrying tolerance for such extremism.
The administration’s stance toward faculty echoes its inaction on student-led protests. Johannah King-Slutzky, a doctoral student and prominent activist, epitomized protesters’ sense of entitlement when she led a press conference demanding “humanitarian aid” for students occupying campus buildings.
King-Slutzky, despite her role in leading the disruption, now teaches a required undergraduate course, “Contemporary Western Civilization,” in Hamilton Hall — the very building she helped occupy, leading to the arrest of 22 students.
And while Columbia had promised firm disciplinary action, an August Congressional report reveals that 18 of those arrested remain in good standing, underscoring the administration’s reluctance to impose meaningful consequences.
Columbia student Khymani James made headlines after he was banned from the university for inciting violence against “Zionists,” declaring that they “don’t deserve to live.”
However, just six months later, the coalition of anti-Israel groups that initially apologized on his behalf reversed course and doubled down on support for violence against Israel.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) posted a statement on Instagram retracting their previous apology: “Last spring, in the midst of the encampments, [CUAD] posted a statement framed as an apology on behalf of Khymani James,” the post read. “We deliberately misrepresented your experiences and your words, and we let you down.” CUAD’s message reaffirmed its endorsement of armed “resistance.”
Now, James is suing Columbia University, seeking to overturn his suspension and regain his campus standing.
Yet, nothing illustrates how some of the most antisemitic student leaders have reveled in their notoriety, building careers from the infamy, quite like The New York Times’ recent piece about the extremist group Within Our Lifetime, led by former CUNY law student Nerdeen Kiswani.
Published earlier this month, the article paints the group as one that “galvanized pro-Palestinian activists,” while reducing well-documented antisemitism to mere “accusations.”
The article even romanticizes Kiswani’s arrival at a Columbia University encampment “on her wedding day in April, still wearing her traditional red and white dress,” while downplaying the more troubling aspects of her “activism” for Within Our Lifetime, a group frequently linked to aggressive and violent anti-Israel protests.
But these high-profile cases reflect a deeper, more pervasive trend within these universities. Institutions like Harvard and Columbia seem more intent on appeasement than on confronting the root issue of antisemitism.
So, has anything truly changed? With quiet reversals of disciplinary actions and selective inaction, it seems that higher education is simply poised to look the other way when it comes to the safety and rights of Jews.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Canadian University Hires Convicted Terrorist Who Bombed Paris Synagogue to Teach ‘Social Justice’
Hassan Diab attending a 2012 rally calling on the Canadian government not to extradite him to France. Photo: Reuters Connect
Carleton University in Ontario, Canada is being castigated for hiring convicted terrorist Hassan Diab — who carried out a 1980 bombing of a synagogue in Paris, which killed four Jewish worshippers and injured dozens of others — as a professor.
Diab, 70, is teaching at least one course in Carleton University’s sociology department this fall, according to B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish civil rights group. He will lecture on “social justice in action.” So far, no high level administrative official has attempted to explain what merited his being hired.
A former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who is currently the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by French law enforcement, Diab was found guilty in 2023 in absentia of detonating a bomb at Rue Copernic synagogue on Oct. 3, 1980, an attack which coincided with Shabbat. The French court last year sentenced him to life in prison and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Decades passed between the incident and Diab’s conviction, owing to his elusiveness and oscillations of a criminal justice system which ordered his extradition on charges of terrorism, dropped them, and then reinstated them when the case reached France’s highest judicial body, the Court of Cassation. Throughout the proceedings, Diab has professed his innocence and even compared himself to Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer falsely convicted of espionage in a landmark case that sparked antisemitic violence across France.
“Despite being handed a life sentence by a French court, Hassan Diab continues to live freely in Canada, while Carleton University, unconscionably, continues to allow him the privilege of teaching at a Canadian institution,” B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement, which included a link to a petition calling for the termination of Diab’s employment. “The university has ignored B’nai Brith’s formal request to terminate his position, allowing Diab to remain in a position of authority over students.”
It continued, “Carleton’s silence is deeply disturbing. Its decision to continue to employ Diab not only presents a danger to the well-being of its students, but it is an insult to the memory of innocent victims of his heinous crime and an affront to all Canadians who value law and order. This must change! We must act now!”
Carleton University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian academic, is not the first PFLP terrorist to find refuge in academia. Leila Khaled, who hijacked a Tel Aviv-bound plane in 1969 and attempted another hijacking, this time of an El Al flight, in 1970 — has been invited to speak at San Francisco State University, the University of California, Merced, and New York University. Additionally, Khaled has a strong following among radical activists in the American anti-Zionist movement, in which she is highly praised as “the poster girl of Palestinian militancy.” American lawmakers, however, have described Khaled as “unrepentant” and suggested that inviting her to an American campus violates anti-terrorism laws.
In Diab’s case, Carleton University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, in which he is currently employed, has effusively advocated ignoring France’s request for extradition, which would result in Diab’s serving the life sentence to which he was sentenced for his crime.
“Dr. Diab has been caught in a political nightmare in which the existence of accuse has become the foundation for a guilty finding in a trial with no official transcripts and no opportunity for appeal,” the department said in 2023. “While our hearts go out to the victims, families, and communities hurt by this act of antisemitic terror, causing further damage to the life of an innocent man and continued harm to his family will not heal their pain. Canada must refuse to extradite Hassan Diab and end his 15-year long ordeal.”
Jewish civil rights leaders in France, however, support the court’s findings and have demanded Canadian compliance with the two countries’ extradition treaty.
“Forty-three years after the attack on the Rue Copernic synagogue, Hassan Diab is sentenced to life imprisonment,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), said following the verdict. “Everything must now be done to enforce the international arrest warrant. CRIF calls on Canada to cooperate with the French justice system. CRIF expresses its solidarity with the families of the victims, who have devoted their lives to ensuring that justice is done.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Pro-Israel Supporters Encouraged to Back Trader Joe’s as Chain Faces Pressure to Boycott Israeli Products
Bamba snacks for Trader Joe’s. Photo: Trader Joe’s.
A pro-Israel activist organization is urging the public to show support for Trader Joe’s as the chain of grocery stores faces pressure to stop stocking Israeli products in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state.
The anti-Israel activist group Code Pink recently launched a petition pressuring Trader Joe’s to stop selling Israeli products in its stores “until Israel respects international law and human rights for Palestinians.” The items mentioned in the petition include Israeli feta cheese, Bamba puffed peanut snacks, and crushed garlic and ginger cubes from the Israeli brand Dorot.
“While Trader Joe’s claims it is ‘transforming grocery shopping into a welcoming journey full of discovery and fun,’ it is certainly not fun to discover that — one year into this genocide — you are still carrying Israeli products,” the petition reads. “We urge you to be on the right side of history. Stop stocking Israeli goods in your stores until Israel ends the occupation, respects international law, and ensures full and equal rights for Palestinians.” The petition has garnered a little more than 14,000 signatures and has a goal of reaching 15,000.
In response, the pro-Israel activist organization EndJewHatred launched a counter-campaign over the weekend, calling on its supporters to “show Trader Joe’s some love” and purchase the Israel-made items from their local Trader Joe’s locations. Pro- Israel supporters are being urged to call the customer relations department at Trader Joe’s and tell the representative on the line, or leave a message, saying: “Thank you for carrying Israeli products! I’m so appreciative that I am able to buy products made in Israel.” EndJewHatred said supporters can also leave possible feedback about Israeli products on the Trader’s Joe’s website.
In mid-October, activists in support of Code Pink shared a video on social media of them visiting a Trader Joe’s store, where they sang loudly about a boycott of Israeli products and pulled Israeli items off shelves. The section of the store that carried the Israeli snack Bamba was referred to as “the apartheid aisle” and “genocide aisle” by protesters in the video. Another protester said that when she looks at the Dorot crushed garlic cubes from Israel that is sold in Trader Joe’s, it looks like the item “is dripping in blood.”
“I can see children being killed,” she claimed, while holding the frozen product. “I can’t even look at it,” another activist added.
The protesters in the clip also approached the store manager, who explained that while she “completely sympathizes” with their concerns, stores have no say in merchandising decisions. “We, as store managers, cannot do anything about this — in terms of supplies. Trader Joe’s, as a corporation, makes merchandising decisions, at a higher level,” the manager said.
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Hundreds of Runners Dedicate Race in New York City Marathon to Hamas Hostages
A runner in the New York City marathon is wearing a shirt honoring one of the hostages during the race on Nov. 3, 2024. Photo: Liri Agami
More than 150 runners dedicated their race in the New York City marathon on Sunday to five hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists and still held captive in the Gaza Strip since the deadly massacre that took place in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The runners competed in the 26.2-mile race while wearing shirts that featured images of hostages Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher, Evyatar David, Ohad Yahalomi, and Edan Alexander, five athletes who previously completed marathons and triathlons, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Near the finish line at Columbus Circle, the NY Hostages Families Forum and many of its supporters showed support for the runners while waving Israeli flags adorned with yellow ribbons, which has become a symbol calling for the safe return of the hostages abducted last Oct. 7.
Yamit Ashkanzi, Steinbrecher’s sister, said the 31-year-old hostage “loves to run” and ran every Saturday morning in the kibbutz where they lived. “On that tragic day [on Oct. 7] she wasn’t able to run and ever since she’s been held hostage,” Ashkanzi added. “It warms our hearts that people will be running today with Doron’s picture and to know that she’s in so many people’s hearts. To know they are running for her because she can’t run for over a year now.”
Levy’s father Yoni Levy said, “When I see Naama’s picture in the huge marathon, I feel her absence so deeply and how it hurts that she’s not here. Naama participated in triathlons and races with deep passion and courage and if she would have known people would be running for her, she’d be excited and thankful for the support and for people fighting to bring her home.”
Some runners also competed in the marathon while wearing shirts that said “Bring Them Home Now” and a group of 260 runners representing the Shalva Center in Israel, which supports individuals with disabilities, competed in the marathon wearing yellow shirts, in solidarity with the hostages. Together the group also sang Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” minutes before starting the race. The runners included IDF soldiers, those wounded in the Israel-Hamas war, and family members of those killed in the ongoing conflict.
Also at the marathon, Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz filmed a music video for his song “Marathons in the Rain” while running in the race to raise money for Blue Card, an organization that aids Holocaust survivors.
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