The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Since October 7, student activism around the Israel-Hamas conflict has surged, but extremist political organizations, particularly the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), have hijacked the movement to push their own radical agendas. These groups are not driven by a genuine pursuit of peace — but by the opportunity to recruit students and spread misinformation, fueling division and putting Jewish and Israeli students at risk.

Far-left groups like the SWP have long aligned with pro-Palestinian causes, but their involvement goes beyond solidarity. Their rhetoric frequently crosses the line into outright incitement. Far-left organizations frame the October 7 massacre as legitimate “resistance,” glorifying violence and encouraging radical activism. This distorts reality, undermines nuanced discussion, and fosters a toxic atmosphere on campuses. Universities are failing in their duty to protect all students — including Jewish and Israeli students — from this growing hostility.

A critical question arises: why are UK-based political parties prioritizing the Israel-Palestine conflict over pressing domestic issues? For groups like the SWP, this conflict serves as a convenient narrative to illustrate a Marxist struggle between the “oppressed” and “oppressor.”

In their framework, Palestinians are victims, and Israelis are cast as villains without any further analysis or critical thought — a gross oversimplification that strips Palestinians of agency and ignores potential paths to peace. The SWP openly rejects diplomatic solutions, labelling a two-state solution a “fantasy” and advocating for the destruction of Israel and other capitalist countries instead of peaceful coexistence.

These groups openly condone Hamas and justify terrorism. The SWP has repeatedly distributed materials praising Hamas and legitimizing “courageous” violence against Israelis. One of their pamphlets even defends suicide bombings as part of a “long tradition of Palestinian guerrilla actions,” dangerously normalizing terror attacks against civilians. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has pushed conspiratorial claims that Israel used October 7 to justify military action, trivializing mass murder and inciting further division and hatred against Jews.

Despite their extremism, these groups operate freely on UK campuses. The SWP and RCP recruit students by embedding themselves within pro-Palestinian student societies, organizing demonstrations, and distributing propaganda outside university grounds. My own university claims it prohibits external groups from campaigning on campus, yet the SWP has repeatedly been allowed to do so. In Edinburgh, the SWP-affiliated student society posted “Victory for the Palestinians – Why it’s right to resist Israel” just days after the massacre, demonstrating their true intent: to escalate hostility rather than seek justice.

The SWP also collaborates with figures known for their extremist views, hosting them at student events, including a Palestinian surgeon who has openly praised terrorists like Leila Khaled, Ahmad Jarrar, and Maher Al-Yamani — individuals responsible for hijackings and deadly attacks against civilians.

 Another controversial figure frequently platformed is rapper Lowkey, who promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories, referencing the “Zionist lobby” and falsely claiming that “nothing is more antisemitic than Zionism.” A Daily Mail investigation revealed that SWP student societies have even hosted speakers who praised Hamas and celebrated the October 7 massacre, despite Hamas being designated a terrorist organization by the UK, US, and EU.

Universities must take decisive action. SWP and RCP should not be allowed to form societies within student unions or hijack student activism to push their extremist agendas. Their presence on campuses has fostered a culture of radicalization, incited antisemitism, and endangered all students, and specifically Jewish and Israeli students.

If universities continue to stand by, they will be complicit in the spread of extremism. The time to act is now. Radical groups must be barred from embedding themselves in student movements, and institutions must enforce policies that protect students from political extremism. Failure to do so will not only undermine campus safety but also damage the credibility of student activism as a whole.

Dani Port is a student journalist studying at the University of the Arts London, and a writing fellow with CAMERA on Campus.

The post Universities at Risk: How Extremist, Far-Left Groups Exploit the Israel-Palestinian Conflict first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The Shvesters, Chava Levi and Polina Fradkin. Photo: provided.

There are times when a concert is so good, you close your eyes and marvel in meditative greatness. But when I saw The Shvesters at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan on March 20, I kept my eyes open — because my experience was something far better than I could have imagined, and brought me back to nostalgic highlights of my youth.

Singing mostly Yiddish covers, along with Hebrew ones and some English songs thrown in, the Shvesters stand out for their vocal excellence. Chava Levi and Polina Fradkin, who live in Israel, make it look easy. A friend of mine noted that singers on TikTok sometimes don’t translate to the stage. The Shvesters own the stage with nothing more than their voices and a piano player — in this case a talented Moshe Elyakim, who lives in Brooklyn and is Israeli.

“This is the kind of music I love,” Elyakim told me in an interview. “Jazz, Jewish and fun.”

Wearing classic blue dresses, The Shvesters showed meticulous attention to dynamics, diction, chord changes, and creative introductions to songs. You may have heard Simon Cowell on American Idol say that someone doing a cover should “make it their own.” This group has no problem doing that; in fact, it’s their forte.

The highlight of the show was Levi’s interlude in “Eishet Chail” or “Woman of Valor,” where she lets it rip with her soaring vocals. The tearjerker, “Eli, Eli” or My God,” My God,” contains the words of Hannah Szenes, who was killed by the Nazis when she was only 23.

The harmonies of The Shvesters are airtight and magical. “A Yiddishe Mama” made me think of my own mother, while “Oyfyn Pripetshik” and “Tumbalalaika” made me think of my Nana who sang those to me before I would go off to Camp Ramah in West Nyack, New York.

From a vocal standpoint, this is one of the most flawless Jewish music groups you will see. While some may have wished they danced, or did original tunes, that is simply not what they do. Fradkin also displayed  her comedic chops. In between songs, she noted that someone stayed late at a recent show and asked if they could bring an inhaler to Israel for their relative. She also quipped that someone wanted to set their grandfather up with her grandmother, and others wanted to set the two of them up (none are single).

Sean Leviashvili of Manhattan said he was greatly moved by the concert.

“My grandmother sang Yiddish to me, and she passed away 12 years ago,” he told me in an interview for this article. “This was the first time since then that I felt like she was with me.”

Alexandra Sapozhkinov celebrated her 95th birthday with family members at the show. Born in Romania, she told me, through a translator, that she loved all of the songs.

The Shvesters also performed a beautiful rendition of the Israeli classic “Kalaniyot.” One of my favorite songs is “Mi Haish?” or “Who Is The Man?/Who is The Person?” and I was floored by some harmonies I didn’t expect.

Radkin explained before the song that the words tell you how to be a good person, like avoiding “Lashon hara,” or evil speech.

The Shvesters are excellent from a technical aspect, but their best quality is that they sing with emotion, as if they are channeling the great traditions and memories of the past, directly into your hearts and ears. In a time when Jewish pride is sometimes lacking on college campuses, The Shvesters should immediately have a college tour.

A great concert, like a great movie, hugs you like a warm coat, long after the final frame or note. That is certainly true of the performance of The Shvesters.

The group is recording an album, and will no doubt have other tours and shows. You should go, bring them to your synagogue, or just share with your friends to celebrate Jewish pride and Jewish music.

The author is a writer, based in New York.

The post Why The Shvesters Are One of the Best Jewish Music Groups in the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

People walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza, as viewed from the Israel-Gaza border, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Western media outlets love the “human angle” in their coverage of the war in Gaza. They seek personal stories about Palestinians’ deaths — parents, children or the elderly — to put faces on what otherwise looks like a mounting number of civilian casualties.

But they only highlight “human” stories if those deaths make Israel look like the aggressor.

That’s why the death of Oday Nasser Al Rabay, who was murdered by Hamas last week after protesting against the terror group, was not covered.

The 22-year-old Gazan had been kidnapped and tortured by Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades last weekend, his family said, adding that his mutilated body was left in front of their home.

Social media posts showed dozens of mourners at Al Rabay’s funeral shouting “Hamas out” and vowing revenge.

22-year-old Oday Nasser al Rabay protested Hamas’ tyranny. They tortured and executed him, dumping his body at his family’s door.

The media must get it right: These protests aren’t just “anti-war”—Gazans are risking their lives to defy terrorists. pic.twitter.com/u2q79VTCOX

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 30, 2025

Afterwards, according to social media, Al Rabay’s family gave a statement publicly blaming Hamas for his death.

According to Israeli media, Al Rabay participated in the protests along with hundreds of Gazans who took to the streets demanding an end to the war. Their show of anger lasted three days, but now seems to have died down — amid assessments in Israel that Hamas was intimidating protesters.

Meanwhile, Gazans said that five other protesters were also executed by the terror group.

None of this was covered by mainstream media, which were also slow to report on the rare protests against Hamas as they erupted last week.

The omission is blatant because the first social media posts about Al Rabay’s murder started to appear early on Sunday (March 30), and more circulated online since then. News agencies could have sent their freelancers to check it out, talk to the family, or write a story based on reports online.

But instead of covering it, respected news outlets were busy with the usual narrative: AP wrote about the possibility of Gaza bakeries shutting down, Reuters reported on Netanyahu vowing to pressure Hamas, and The Guardian ran a story about Gazans in Israeli jails who don’t know their families had been killed.

Aside from a story in The Telegraph, which is the exception that proves the rule, nothing was reported on Al Rabay’s death in the international media.

And if it wasn’t reported, it’s as if it never happened.

The human angle story of Oday Nasser Al Rabay simply did not serve the inhuman narrative against Israel.

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.

The post Media Refuse to Report on Gazan Protestor Murdered By Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.