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After Violent Attack at North Carolina Library, Jewish Victim Receives New Threat
Police in Asheville, North Carolina, have made one arrest, charged two others with “ethnic intimidation,” and shared photos of about 10 people of interest since two Jewish residents and a senior citizen were beaten and dragged out of the West Asheville Library during an anti-Israel event on June 29.
The three victims are pro-Israel. The event — which was labeled an “Anarchist Bookfair” — attracted about 60-80 anti-Israel activists.
The two Jewish victims, David Moritz and Monica Buckley, along with 79-year-old Bob Campbell, were interviewed by The Algemeiner.
Moritz, the son of Holocaust survivors, informed The Algemeiner that he recently received a threatening letter in the mail, which said, “Stop harassing others before it’s too late.”
Moritz reported the letter to police.
On the day of the event, Asheville police arrested and charged Taylor Danielle Zarkin with “two counts of resisting, delay, and obstruct.” The police report states that Zarkin’s employer is the “Asheville Public Library.”
Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, issued a statement: “We are aware the arrest report states the person’s employer is Asheville Public Library System. To clarify, this person is not and has never been a Buncombe County employee.”
Asked to clarify this information, a police spokesperson told The Algemeiner that Zarkin’s “employer of record on the arrest report is due to the fact that is what she indicated to officers at the time of her arrest.”
The June 29 event, “Strategic Lessons From the Palestinian Resistance,” was hosted by Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair (ACAB) at the West Asheville Library, and was one of multiple anti-Israel sessions that took place during the three-day anarchist book fair. According to the Anti-Defamation League and others, the same acronym — ACAB — is commonly used to mean “All Cops Are Bastards.”
The morning after the group’s 2023 book fair, two Asheville police cars were set on fire and destroyed. The police chief said at the time, “This is just pure anarchist behavior.”
Last month, the Asheville police announced they were investigating vandalism on two vehicles belonging to residents that had been graffitied with an anarchist symbol. In 2022, the Asheville police investigated vandalism committed at a local pregnancy services business, which included a graffitied anarchist symbol and a threat: “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you!”
The June 2024 anarchists’ event, held in a public library, glorified Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terrorist group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped approximately 250 hostages.
In a recently uploaded video, the audience is clearly seen and heard celebrating the Oct. 7 attack and the taking of hundreds of hostages with applause, finger snapping, and cheering.
The anarchists’ event also attacked the United States. In a second recently uploaded video, a presenter declares that “everyday life in America is below humanity.”
The Buncombe County statement explained that “an outside group reserved a meeting room at West Asheville Branch Library under the name Another Carolina Bookfair for the purpose of an unspecified workshop. This was not a county sponsored event.”
If the Buncombe County statement is accurate, it suggests that book fair organizers attempted to conceal from officials that they are anarchists by omitting the word “anarchist” from their name.
Moritz, one of the Jewish residents attacked at the June 29 event, told The Algemeiner, “I think the library has to review their policy with respect to allowing hate speech in the library as well as speech meant to incite violence. This is not acceptable.”
Residents — alarmed by the attacks on local Jews and a senior citizen — were hoping to hear from local officials and to participate in the Buncombe County Library Advisory Board Meeting scheduled for July 11.
That meeting — the first regularly scheduled meeting following the library attacks — was canceled. According to the Buncombe County website, three of the last five scheduled meetings of the Library Advisory Board have been canceled. Residents will now have to wait until the next scheduled meeting, which is on Sept. 12.
As reported by The Algemeiner, Moritz, Buckley, and Campbell were quietly seated along a far wall at the library on June 29, when a presenter stopped the event to express concerns that it was being live streamed by “Zionists.” Buckley was streaming the public event.
The presenter drew everyone’s attention to the three pro-Israel attendees and asked the other attendees (who were mostly masked) how to deal with the “Zionists” in the audience. The presenter joked about the possibility of a “murder here.”
The pro-Israel attendees were told to leave, with multiple people yelling out, “bye.” One attendee said, “They are not f—king welcome here,” and another was heard saying, “I don’t trust them.”
A video that was circulated on social media shows that Moritz, Buckley, and Campbell were then surrounded by large men chanting “Free Palestine” and clapping their hands directly in the victims’ faces. Buckley’s phone was then stolen.
Buckley told The Algemeiner that when she attempted to retrieve her phone, she came under mob attack, as did Moritz and Campbell. All three reported being attacked and violently dragged out of the public library. Some of this is visible on the video footage.
Campbell, a 79-year-old veteran with cancer and a heart stent, was badly beaten with large bruises clearly visible on his body. Local police encouraged Campbell to see a doctor, who found he had “severe contusions.”
During the assault, Campbell’s phone was also taken. Both phones were later found nearby.
Moritz left the event with a huge welt clearly visible on his forehead.
The city’s mayor, Esther Manheimer, issued a statement: “The members of the Asheville community deserve the right to enter any community spaces with a feeling of security. We will not tolerate violence, either against or carried out in our community. Asheville is a city that has thrived and honored the diversity of all its residents. We will continue to do so and not be cowed by individuals resorting to violence.”
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post After Violent Attack at North Carolina Library, Jewish Victim Receives New Threat first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.