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Academic Association’s ‘Emergency Motion’ on Pro-Palestinian Speech Draws Rebuke from Leading Academic Nonprofit

Pro-Hamas students rallying at Harvard University. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder

The Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a  higher education nonprofit, on Monday issued a searing letter denouncing that Modern Language Association’s (MLA)  passing of an “emergency motion” that endorsed pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses, arguing that its neglecting to mention pro-Israel speech is indicative of anti-Israeli bias.

“The motion that the [MLA] has now endorsed fails to preserve campuses as welcoming learning environments where academic freedom and free expression are guaranteed for all,” AEN’s letter said. “The motion also establishes a virulently anti-Israel orthodoxy, despite the fact that disagreements and debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have a long history in English and foreign language departments.”

Founded in 1883, the MLA is a professional association of linguistics and literature scholars comprising, according to self-reported figures, 25,000 members across the world. Voting for the motion discussed in AEN’s letter took place at the organization’s annual convention earlier this month. 140 present members (out of 279) of the Delegate Assembly, who are elected to their positions, could have voted in favor of another motion affirming the right of free speech for all, AEN noted, one that regarded both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict equally, but chose the latter instead and voted against the former by a “wide margin,” according to reporting by Inside Higher Ed.

In addition to favoring pro-Palestinian speech, the motion specifically endorsed the notion that anti-Zionism is not antisemitic, contrary to the beliefs of the majority of the Jewish community, as well as condemnations of US support for Israel and Israel’s military response to Hamas’ atrocities, which included some 1,200 murders, mostly of civilians, rapes of Israeli women, and the taking of 240 hostages, many of which were children or elderly. The alternative motion called for defending from “threats, harassment, and violence all faculty members, students and staff regardless of their position on the conflict in the Middle East,” even though much “pro-Palestinian” speech has been pro-Hamas, defending and rationalizing Hamas’ crimes.

“But politics and policy were not only at stake in the choice,” AEN’s letter continued. “The identities of Jewish and Palestinian students, faculty, and staff, along with their allies, were on the table for judgement. In endorsing a divisive and exclusionary motion, the DA found one identity worthy of the MLA’s action and the other lacking. Such a denigration of the beliefs and experiences of a core MLA constituency is intolerable.”

MLA has in the past avoided endorsing extreme anti-Zionist measures, such as in 2017, when it rejected a motion to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), which would have required its members to, among other things, commit to denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel and and terminating any and all projects with Israeli institutions of higher education. However, that was six years ago, before two wars between Israel and Hamas titled opinion in higher education strongly against Israel and triggered a wave of antisemitism on the campus unlike any seen in the West since the 1930s.

MLA’s endorsement of a resolution affirming only the rights of Palestinians and pro-Palestinians could be a harbinger of its politicization and embrace of anti-Israel advocacy guided by political rather than scholarly goals, AEN executive director Miriam Elman told The Algemeiner in a statement on Tuesday. MLA’s “emergency motion” function, she explained, is new, allowing the Delegate Assembly to exclude the general membership from participating in important votes. Now, once it votes to endorse a motion, that measure is fast-tracked to MLA’s Executive Council, where it is all but guaranteed to be formally adopted by the organization.

The arrangement gives outsized power to the Delegate Assembly’s “radical caucus,” whose influence is growing and stands to shape the future of MLA in the coming years.

“The MLA can be proud of having of having members from over 100 countries,” AEN executive director Miriam Elman told The Algemeiner  in a statement on Tuesday. “All are respected, except for Israelis. Basically, the MLA Delegate Assembly has just told them that they are no longer welcome.”

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Oct. 7. In a two month span after that day, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Academic Association’s ‘Emergency Motion’ on Pro-Palestinian Speech Draws Rebuke from Leading Academic Nonprofit 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.

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