RSS
Anti-Israel Protests Are Growing; Here’s What You Need to Know
Student protests against Israel expanded greatly in February, with university administrations largely unwilling and unable to enforce regulations regarding what has euphemistically become known as “expressive activity.”
Some of the worst events include:
At the University of California at Berkeley, hundreds of masked pro-Hamas protestors shouting “intifada, intifada” attacked a theater where an Israeli speaker was to appear, smashing a window and forcing the Jewish students inside to be evacuated through tunnels.
At Columbia University, pro-Hamas students held an unauthorized protest on the main quad in which they dyed snow red and chanted “There is no safe place, Death to the Zionist state,” and “We don’t want two states. We want all of it.”
A pro-Hamas sit-in at Stanford University ended after 120 days, when university administrators agreed to formally hear protestors’ demands. The protestors stated they would resume their sit-in if the demands were not met.
Protestors at Stanford disrupted a Family Weekend welcome session hosted by the university and provost.
Brown University students undertook an “indefinite” hunger strike in support of divestment that lasted eight days. Harvard students undertook a 12 hour hunger strike in sympathy. Students at McGill University and Dartmouth College students also announced hunger strikes.
A talk by a Jewish Studies faculty member at San Jose State University advocating a “two state solution” was disrupted by pro-Hamas protestors who rejected the presence of a “Zionist.” After a violent confrontation the faculty member was escorted from the building by police.
At the University of Leeds, the Chabad rabbi who returned from reserve military service in Israel was driven into hiding by threats from Muslim students which came after a campaign orchestrated by Muslim Green Party members, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Muslim Council of Britain.
Walkouts and demonstrations were also held at Georgetown University, Stony Brook University, the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, Tufts University, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, McGill University, Condordia University, and other schools.
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions continue to be proposed in student governments:
The University of California at Davis student government voted in favor of a divestment resolution that prohibits any of the organization’s $20 million budget being invested in Israel.
A divestment and boycott referendum at Pomona College was also approved by the student body. The referendum had been criticized by the president as potentially antisemitic, a comment that was angrily rejected by organizers.
The Cornell University student government rejected a BDS resolution. In the aftermath a rally was held at which speakers condemned the student government and praised the “armed resistance in Palestine” as well as the Houthis.
The UCLA student government passed a BDS resolution, which alleged that Israel is engaged in “apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.” The vote came shortly after the graduate student association passed a similar resolution.
After a public hearing that was disrupted by BDS activists, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees agreed to review its investments in Israel.
The impact of campus protests were seen in the vandalizing of the University of Wisconsin Hillel building, unspecified threats emailed to the Brown University-RISD Hillel, identical active shooter threats emailed to a variety of individuals at Cornell University, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College, and assaults against Jewish students at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Strasbourg.
Figures collected by Hillel International indicate that more than 1,000 antisemitic incidents have occurred on campuses since October, include 44 assaults.
Faculty remain at the forefront of campus anti-Israel activities. The participation of faculty, staff, librarians, graduate students, and others indicates the depth to which anti-Israel ideology has penetrated the entire academic enterprise and compromises pedagogy now and in the future.
Among the worrying incidents:
The American Association of University Professors signed a call issued by labor unions including the United Auto Workers demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Harvard Faculty for Justice in Palestine reposted a student produced image showing a hand with a Star of David and a dollar sign lynching Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdul Nasser. The classically antisemitic image, drawn from a 1960s era black power pamphlet, set off a firestorm of criticism.
Harvard’s Kennedy School hosted the antisemitic UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. Among other things Albanese accused Israel of “weaponizing” antisemitism and stated that Hamas had not displayed “aggression” against the Jews.
Reports also continue regarding informal boycotts of Israeli academics by international publications and foreign institutions. These appear strongest in the humanities and social sciences, but have spread to medicine and other scientific disciplines.
Investigations of colleges and universities by the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act expanded in February. Investigations were launched into the treatment of Jewish students at Yale University, Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and others, as well as several local school districts.
Congress continues to be involved in addressing campus antisemitism. Congressional subpoenas have been issued to several universities including Harvard and Columbia, for documents related to their responses to anti-Israel and antisemitic protests. The situation has largely devolved along predictable party lines.
Focus also remains on anti-Israel bias in K-12 education. The American Federation of Teachers, a strong Biden ally, issued a statement calling for a ceasefire but avoided the condemnations of Israel used by other school unions.
Publicity has led schools to organize mendacious programs to proclaim “balance,” such as in a New York City high school where an anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace activist was invited to give a talk to balance a Palestinian activist’s “story of forced displacement, exile and resistance.” New York City public school teachers were also documented discussing means to bypass rules in order to teach about the “genocide in Gaza.”
The pedagogical impact of blatantly antisemitic curriculum in K-12 education was illustrated in Hayward, CA. The city had invested heavily in an organization “to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression and remove those barriers to learning,” and which indoctrinated grade schoolers with concepts such as “resistance” and “Palestine.”
Similarly, the role of university Middle East studies in cementing anti-Israel attitudes was highlighted in an analysis of the curriculum produced by the Brown University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which is dominated by anti-Israel activists. The curriculum describes Israel as an imperialist project, Jews as alien outsiders, and Israel as a violent illegitimate entity that routinely commits war crimes. According to its creators, the curriculum is used in hundreds, if not thousands, of schools.
As a result of surging harassment and intimidation, Jewish students continue to transfer out of school districts, such as Oakland, CA.
Non-academic protests in February continued to target transportation links and city centers, with the goal of disrupting daily life. These included the Golden Gate Bridge, New York City bridges and tunnels, the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River connecting Tennessee and Arkansas, major roads and intersections in and around Washington D.C., the Pennsylvania capitol, and central London on Saturdays. In Brussels, pro-Hamas protestors also disrupted the Flemish Parliament.
Protests also targeted institutions allegedly connected with Jews and Israel:
In Toronto protestors targeted Mt. Sinai Hospital, founded by the local Jewish community, raising Palestinian flags and shouting “intifada, intifada.” Political authorities including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident.
In New York City, protestors inside the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum unfurled banners demanding a “ceasefire,” and accused Jewish members of the boards of trustees of complicity in “genocide, apartheid” and “settler colonialism.” No arrests were made.
Protestors also targeted the Jewish Museum, where anti-Zionist cultural workers disrupted a talk about the October 7 massacres and claimed an exhibition was “imperial propaganda” and a means to “manufacture consent for genocide.”
Individual members of Congress and Parliament have been targeted:
The Brooklyn office of Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) was vandalized for a second time.
Protestors swarmed a fundraiser for Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and a police officer was struck by a demonstrator.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was heckled by pro-Hamas protestors at a talk in Ireland who accused him of being a “Zionist” and a “genocide denier.”
The protests are the most obvious manifestations of rocketing antisemitism and hate crimes in Britain, France, and the US, as are the escalating numbers of violent assaults, such as the stabbing of a Jewish individual in Paris, the beating of a Jewish individual in New York City, an assault against a Jewish student at Columbia University, an attack on a megachurch in Houston where a woman armed with a rifle with the words “Free Palestine” on the barrel began shooting and was quickly killed by police, and the kidnapping and torture of a Jewish individual in Melbourne, allegedly orchestrated by an anti-Israel activist.
A poll conducted by the AJC reports that 46% of American Jews have changed their behavior since October 7 as a result of fear of antisemitism. Jewish schools also report that their security costs have almost doubled since October.
Jewish and Israeli cultural and sports figures continue to be targeted and canceled over their origins or perceived support for Israel:
Singer Matisyahu’s performances in Tucson and Santa Fe were canceled for security concerns and staff shortages, after staff members at the venue refused to work for his show. Local BDS and pro-Hamas groups took credit. A performance in Berkeley was protested by those who accused the singer of supporting “genocide.”
A Cambridge (MA) performance by Israeli singer Ishay Ribo sponsored by the Harvard Chabad was boycotted and protested by the staff and Hamas supporters. The performance proceeded.
An International Women’s Day event in Toronto rescinded an invitation to cyclist Leah Goldstein to be the keynote speaker after activists complained about her service in the Israeli military in the 1980s. The entire event was later canceled.
Calls continue to eject Israel from the Eurovision song contest. The sponsoring organization has thus far rejected the demands. The Israeli song submitted to the contest which references October 7 was rejected by competition organizers as “too political” prompting Israeli threats to withdraw from the competition.
A number of private Manhattan art galleries were vandalized with pro-Hamas graffiti including “Stop selling to Zionists. Stop working with Zionists.”
Hundreds of artists have signed an open letter demanding that Israel’s national pavilion be banned from the Venice Biennale.
The Berlin Film Festival’s social Instagram account displayed a series of messages accusing Israel of genocide. Organizers claimed the account was “hacked.” The winners of the festival expressed support for “Palestine” and others made anti-Israel speeches.
An Australian WhatsApp group of hundreds of Jewish creatives was breached and messages were released leading to several participants being threatened, doxxed, and removed from bands, theater groups, and other venues. The move was defended as ‘”whistleblowing” since Jewish creatives had expressed concern regarding pro-Hamas journalists and organized letter-writing campaigns.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a different version of this article appeared.
The post Anti-Israel Protests Are Growing; Here’s What You Need to Know first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Jewish Cemeteries Vandalized in Cincinnati, Montreal
Vandals in Canada targeted a Jewish cemetery. Photo: Screenshot
Vandals have targeted notable Jewish cemeteries in Cincinnati, Ohio and Montreal, Canada, sparking outcry and concern over mounting threats of antisemitism.
Vandals at Montreal’s Kehal Yisrael Cemetery placed memorial stones in the shape of a Nazi swastika on top of tombstones. Ones with the last names Eichler and Herman were targeted in the antisemitic attack.
Placing memorial stones on graves is an ancient Jewish custom to memorialize the dead. Jewish cemeteries oftentimes have stones nearby tombstones for mourners.
Canadian leaders decried the vandalism.
“It is absolutely abhorrent and revolting to defile the dead with swastikas,” Jeremy Levi, the Jewish mayor of a Jewish-majority suburb of Montreal, commented on X/Twitter. “This desecration at the Kehal Israel cemetery in Montreal is beyond contempt. [Canadian Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, step aside and get out of the way so we can reclaim our country. May this Kohen’s neshama have an Aliyah on high.” One of the tombstones vandalized belonged to a Kohen.
The leader of the Conservative Party in Canada’s parliament and candidate for prime minister, Pierre Poilievre, lambasted Trudeau and denounced antisemitism. “We cannot close our eyes to the disgusting acts of antisemitism that are happening in our country everyday,” he posted on X/Twitter. “The prime minister must finally act to stop these displays of antisemitism. If he won’t, a common sense Conservative government will.”
Canada, like many countries around the world, has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile in Cincinnati, vandals targeted two historic Jewish cemeteries this past week, toppling and shattering ancient tombstones — some dating back to the 1800s.
According to a statement from the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, 176 gravesites in Cincinnati’s West Side were ruined “in an act of antisemitic vandalism.”
“Due to the extensive damage and the historical nature of many of the gravestones, we have not yet been able to identify all the families affected by this act,” the statement continued. “Our community [is] heartbroken.”
The Cincinnati Police Department and the FBI are investigating the incidents.
The destruction of monuments is the latest in a greater trend of antisemitic vandalism. In an incident over the weekend, vandals in Australia targeted war memorials dedicated to Australian veterans who sacrificed their lives in Korea and Vietnam with pro-Hamas graffiti.
A couple weeks earlier, vandals in Belgium defaced two memorials for Holocaust victims with swastikas and a phrase calling for violence against Israel. In Germany, meanwhile, at least seven stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks in the sidewalk meant to mark Jewish homes seized by the Nazis, were defaced with the message “Jews are perpetrators.”
The US, Canada, Europe, and Australia have all experienced an explosion of antisemitic incidents in the wake of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, and amid the ensuing war in Gaza. In many countries, anti-Jewish hate crimes have spiked to record levels.
According to the B’nai Brith, antisemitic incidents in Canada more than doubled in 2023 compared to the prior year.
The post Jewish Cemeteries Vandalized in Cincinnati, Montreal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Launches Probe Into Anti-Israel Rapporteur for Allegedly Accepting Trip Funded by Pro-Hamas Organizations
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 United Nations has opened an investigation into allegations that its special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories accepted an all-expense paid trip to Australia from various pro-Hamas groups.
In November 2023, Francesca Albanese allegedly traversed around the Australian continent on a trip whose high price tag was covered by anti-Israel organizations, according to documentation acquired by UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the UN.
Albanese initially landed in Sydney and subsequently enjoyed flights into Melbourne, Adelaide, and Canberra, as well as Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand. The glamorous excursion is estimated to have cost a staggering $22,500.
The UN Investigations Division of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) told UN Watch last week that it had alerted the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the allegations of financial impropriety levied at Albanese.
In a letter sent to UN leadership last month, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer outlined evidence based on multiple sources indicating that Hamas-supporting organizations funded Albanese’s trip to Australia, which has been experiencing an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), an organization that lobbies Australian politicians on behalf of the pro-Palestinian cause, claimed on its website that it “sponsored Ms. Albanese’s visit to Australia” to speak at its annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide. During the lecture, Albanese thanked AFOPA for “organizing such a busy visit,” in which she met with numerous Australian politicians and foreign ministry officials.
Free Palestine Melbourne (FPM) and Palestinian Christians in Australia (PCIA) both claimed to have “supported her visit to Victoria, ACT [Australian Capital Territory] and NSW [New South Wales].” Both groups also publicly declare that they participate in explicit lobbying of Australian politicians in an attempt to “change their minds” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While on her visit, Albanese served as a keynote speaker at a PCIA fundraiser. FPM encourages politicians to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel on the international stage economically and politically as the first step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.
Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN) said it was “honored to support” Albanese’s visit. The organization’s president, Nasser Mashni, openly endorses the terrorist group Hamas and has stated that the eradication of Israel is necessary to secure “the liberation of earth.” APAN states that it “facilitated a range of meetings” for Albanese with Australian parliamentarians.
Palestinians in Aotearoa Co-ordinating Committee (PACC) and Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) both organized and likely bankrolled Albanese’s trip to New Zealand, according to UN Watch. At the behest of these groups, Albanese helped lobby a New Zealand sovereign wealth fund to divest from Israel-linked companies.
Albanese outright denied that her trip was funded by Palestinian lobbying organizations, insisting that the UN footed the bill.
“Yet another trail of egregiously false claims agst me,” she tweeted. “My trip to Australia was paid by the UN as part of my mandate’s activities. Continuous defamation agst my mandate may be well remunerated,but won’t work. It just wastes time that should be used to help stop violence in [the Palestinian territories].”
Albanese did not present any documentation confirming that the UN paid for her travel and accommodations. Rather, she pointed at a statement from AFOPA reading, “Ms. Albanese was authorized by the UN to accept AFOPA’s invitation to deliver the Edward Said Memorial Lecture. The UN funded Ms. Albanese’s travel & accommodation costs. No Palestinian Solidarity group paid for this trip.”
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 April, Albanese issued public support for the pro-Hamas protests and encampments on American university campuses, saying that they gave her “hope.” She has also repeatedly falsely accused the Jewish state of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza and enacting “apartheid” in the West Bank without condemning Hamas’ terrorism against Israelis.
In February, Albanese claimed Israelis were “colonialists” who had “fake identities.” Previously, she defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” Israeli “occupation” at a time when over 1,100 rockets were fired by Gaza terrorists at Israel. Last year, US lawmakers called for the firing of Albanese for what they described as her “outrageous” antisemitic statements, including a 2014 letter in which she claimed America was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”
Albanese’s anti-Israel comments have earned her the praise of Hamas officials in the past.
Additionally, in response to French President Emmanuel Macron calling Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel the “largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century,” Albanese said, “No, Mr. Macron. The victims of Oct. 7 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
Video footage of the Oct. 7 onslaught showed Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas celebrating the fact that they were murdering Jews.
Nevertheless, Albanese has argued that Israel should make peace with Hamas, saying that it “needs to make peace with Hamas in order to not be threatened by Hamas.”
The UN did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The post UN Launches Probe Into Anti-Israel Rapporteur for Allegedly Accepting Trip Funded by Pro-Hamas Organizations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Law Firm Implores Northwestern University to ‘Nullify’ Deal With Pro-Hamas Group
Northwestern University president Michael Schill looks on during a US House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on anti-Israel protests on college campuses, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
A Jewish civil rights organization has issued a blistering legal letter to Northwestern University, demanding the “nullification” of a series of concessions school president Michael Schill granted a pro-Hamas group to end an illegal occupation of school property.
Northwestern was one of dozens of schools where pro-Hamas Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters set up “encampments” on school property, chanted antisemitic slogans, and vowed not to leave unless administrators agreed to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state.
After hours of negotiating with protesters, Schill agreed to establish a new scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contact potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, and create a segregated dormitory hall to be occupied exclusively by Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students. The university — where protesters shouted “Kill the Jews!” — also agreed to form a new investment committee in which anti-Zionists students and faculty may wield an outsized voice.
Writing on behalf of StandWithUs, a New York City-based law firm — Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres LLP — told the university’s board of trustees on Monday that the agreement violated federal law, as well as its own polices and bylaws.
“This outrageous capitulation to accommodate the demands of antisemitic agitators — who openly espoused vicious antisemitism, assaulted, spat on, and stalked Jewish students and engaged in numerous violations of Northwestern’s codes and policies — only enables and encourages future misconduct,” the letter said. “It is in plain violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, risks triggering state anti-BDS sanctions, and apparently was made without the required approval of the Board of Trustees and in contravention of Northwestern’s bylaws and university statues.”
It added, “Accordingly, this purported agreement not only unlawfully rewards antisemitism but has severely and perhaps irreparably damaged Northwestern’s reputation, but it has also exposed Northwestern to potential liability and jeopardizes it access to federal and state funds.”
Schill was grilled about the deal — which has been referred to as the Deering Meadow Agreement — last month during a hearing held by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) called it a “unilateral capitulation” and accused Schill of failing to protect Jewish students from the violence of the anti-Zionist protesters, incidents of which Schill described as “allegations.” Later, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for his resignation from office, citing a slew of alleged offenses, including his revealing that no Jewish students or faculty were consulted before he conceded to the protesters’ demands. Schill, the ADL stressed, also confessed to appointing accused antisemites to a task force on antisemitism that ultimately disbanded when its members could not agree on a definition of antisemitism.
Schill, however, has forcefully denied that he acceded to any of SJP’s core demands, including their insistence on boycotting and divesting from Israel and companies that do business with it. His critics, including StandWithUs chief executive officer Roz Rothstein, maintain that he did.
“Northwestern has surrendered to agitators’ unlawful conduct and outrageous demands in a move that threatens to set a national precedent for university leadership, enabling and supporting the complete breakdown of civility, policies, and the law,” Rothstein said on Monday. “At a time when Jewish and Israeli students across the country are under unprecedented attack, Northwestern’s leadership shouldn’t engage in patchwork unlawful actions but instead strive to be a part of the solution.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Law Firm Implores Northwestern University to ‘Nullify’ Deal With Pro-Hamas Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.