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Rashida Tlaib Introduces Anti-Israel Amendment to Bill Meant to Reduce Foreign Influence on US Universities
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has introduced an anti-Israel amendment into the Republican-led DETERRENT Act, which aims to crack down on foreign gifts and contracts at American universities, arguing that the Jewish state’s relationships with US institutions of higher education should be closely monitored.
While speaking on the House floor on Tuesday, Tlaib stated that Israel should be added to the “countries of concern” influencing American universities. Tlaib, one of the most outspoken anti-Israel members of Congress, claimed that the Republican Party has advanced the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act in order to “scapegoat” the issues plaguing US higher education on countries such as Iran, Qatar, and China.
The DETERRENT ACT, if passed, would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to limit contracts with specific foreign entities and countries adversarial to the United States, mandate faculty and staff reveal gifts and contracts from foreign actors, and require that certain foreign investments within endowments be disclosed.
“We know that President Trump is the biggest threat to our education system in America right now, not someone in North Korea or China, so please give me a break,” Tlaib said in her remarks, adding that she tacked on an amendment to ensure the bill includes “countries whose leaders have active arrest warrants issued against them by the International Criminal Court [ICC]” and “countries actively on trial with the International Court of Justice [ICJ] for violating the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Meanwhile, South Africa has been pursuing a case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
US and Israeli leaders have lambasted both the ICC arrest warrants and ICJ case as baseless, counterproductive, and indicative of a deeply entrenched anti-Israel bias at both institutions.
During her speech, Tlaib pointed to her colleagues’ support for Israel as supposed evidence of their ineffectiveness in “holding countries with human rights abuses accountable” and their unwillingness to “uphold international law.” The firebrand progressive then accused her colleagues of engaging in aggressive action to protect the “Israeli government apartheid regime” by supporting the detainment and arrest of non-citizen college students who protest Israel.
In the 17 months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, Tlaib has levied a series of withering criticisms toward the Jewish state. Tlaib, the only Palestinian American woman elected to the US Congress, has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza as well as causing a famine, despite the Israeli military’s efforts during the war to mitigate civilian casualties and allow aid to enter the enclave.
“This is not about transparency, as it is claimed. It’s truly about destroying freedom of speech,” Tlaib asserted.
The DETERRENT Act was advanced due to concerns over American universities being targeted by foreign adversaries, seeking to use their financial influence to censor free speech and distribute anti-Western propaganda. Following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the topic became a key issue in Washington as campuses became a hotbed of anti-Zionist and anti-American protests.
Critics have also raised alarms over lavish financial gifts and investments given to American universities by countries with close ties to terrorism such as Qatar, which hosts several high-ranking Hamas leaders who often live in luxury outside of the Gaza Strip.
Some observers argue that Qatar severely curtails academic freedom at American schools. Prestigious universities such as Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Northwestern operate campuses in the Middle Eastern country. Texas A&M announced plans to shutter its Qatar campus in February 2024.
The legislation also comes as the Trump administration has moved to detain and deport non-citizens accused of supporting internationally recognized terrorist groups. Specifically, the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian legal resident from Syria who completed post-graduate studies at Columbia in December who was apprehended by federal authorities for supporting Hamas, has sparked outrage among liberal lawmakers.
Tlaib decried Khalil’s arrest and penned a letter to Homeland Security Kristi Noem, demanding that Khalil be “freed from DHS custody immediately.” The missive also claimed that the arrest of Khalil represents another example of the Trump administration’s purported “anti-Palestinian racism” and accused the White House of trying to dismantle the “Palestine solidarity movement in this country.”
The post Rashida Tlaib Introduces Anti-Israel Amendment to Bill Meant to Reduce Foreign Influence on US Universities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.