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Anti-Jewish Violence Persisted in November: The Scene from Cities and College Campuses

Pro-Hamas Columbia University students march in front of pro-Israel demonstrators on Oct. 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Photo: Roy De La Cruz via Reuters Connect

November was marked by escalating attacks on Jews worldwide.

In Amsterdam, Israelis visiting to attend a soccer match were chased and assaulted by gangs of thugs and criminals. These riots were condemned by national politicians, as well as the mayor who later regretted using the word “pogrom” and expressed concern for the marginalized Muslim perpetrators.

rampage through Montreal also saw Muslim and leftist protestors burn effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, burn cars, and smash windows. The Montreal riots came after campus disruptions and walkouts organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) led to one local college being closed.

A coalition of anti-Israel groups also promised “global escalation” and carried out disruptions of Thanksgiving holiday travel and celebrations, including the Macy’s Parade in New York City.

Additional attacks were reported:

Other pro-Hamas protests included:

Other incidents included:

At the University of Manchester, a bust of Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president and a noted chemist, was “abducted” and then “beheaded” by the domestic terror group Palestine Action, who filmed the entire episode.

The bust of another university faculty member was also stolen and destroyed. The theft was intended to highlight the Balfour Declaration which, as the group put it, “began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away.”

Most seriously, two individuals were arrested in Pittsburgh, including one self-described “Hamas operative,” and charged with vandalizing a local Jewish facility and collecting explosive materials for a mass casualty attack. Mohammad Hamad’s accomplice is Talya Lubit, a Dickinson College graduate in Middle East studies.

University administrations

University administrations appear unsure how to respond to the incoming Trump administration, though many had already acted after the US Congress made it clear that their conduct in the 23-24 academic year was completely unacceptable.

In the meantime, some pushback against obvious student excesses has continued:

At the same time, Columbia University has agreed to a $395,000 settlement for two Israeli students who were suspended after being falsely accused of using a “chemical weapon” against pro-Hamas protestors in the spring semester.

Students

The overall volume and intensity of student protests against Israel have been more subdued in the Fall semester, alternately attributed by pro-Palestinian students and faculty to exhaustion and repression.

On other campuses, the protests continue unabated. Several student strike days saw walkouts and building occupations, in part as a response to the National SJP’s ‘Take a Building Challenge,’ including at the University of Arizona and Sarah Lawrence College. A building at Sarah Lawrence remains occupied with little university reaction.

An ‘International University Day of Action’ organized by SJP saw walkouts at the Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and other institutions. Some 85,000 students in Quebec reportedly walked out, including at Concordia University (where a woman was filmed shouting at Jews about a “final solution coming your way”).

Campus Jewish institutions are increasingly frequent targets of protests.

Students at Columbia demanded the university “sever all ties with Hillel,” At Harvard University, the appearance of a former Israeli soldier prompted calls of “Zionists not welcome here,” while at Brooklyn College protestors outside the Hillel chanted “We don’t want no Zionists here” and “You support genocide.”

Pro-Hamas protestors also harassed donors at a fundraising dinner hosted by the Harvard University president.

Walkouts were also held, as unionized students and employees continued to conflate “Palestine” with campus labor issues, for example at UCLA where students rallied for a strike as well as for Gaza. An “anti-Veterans Day” protest was also held at Columbia University by pro-Palestinian students to “honor the martyrs’ and reject the ‘American war machine.”

Despite the almost uniform repudiation of BDS by university administrations and trustees, Trinity College and Macalaster College, student governments continue to pursue these mechanisms, either in earnest or as means to undermine social cohesion on campus. Pro-Hamas students, including at Yale University and Princeton University employ the tactic of aiming divestment at “weapons manufacturers” rather than Israeli companies as a whole.

Efforts by student governments to directly boycott Israel also continue. In an ironic turn of events, however, the University of Michigan student government leaders who held the organization hostage and demanded that it support BDS and Gaza have now been impeached for dereliction of duty, incitement of violence, and seizing control of social media accounts. They will now face trial by a student judiciary panel.

Student governments were also the scene of complaints regarding invitations to outside speakers opposed to Hamas, especially Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef.

Finally, CAIR and other Islamist organizations continue to file complaints and lawsuits alleging Islamophobia of various universities. A variety of “human rights” groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch also issued an open letter complaining that some 20 colleges and universities have employed “excess force” against pro-Hamas protestors.

Faculty

In the wake of the Trump electoral victory, the tone of “resistance” regarding Israel continued unabated. This was seen in faculty defenses of students participating in building takeovers, as at the University of Minnesotaprotest votes by University of Michigan faculty against trustees who refused to divest from Israel, and in protests to commemorate Palestinian “martyrs,” including at New York University.

In an interview, the president of the American Association of University Professors struck a defiant tone regarding the profession and its involvement with political issues, including boycotting Israel.

At the same time, some faculty recognize that Israel boycotts have compromised academia’s social standing and legal positions. One example of the latter is a decision by the leadership of the Modern Language Association to prevent a boycott resolution from being put forward to the full membership. But individual faculty continue to emphasize the unique evil of Israel in course offerings, which are then defended under the banner of academic freedom.

Medical education continues to be a locus of especially notable antisemitism.

Reports on how the University of California at San Francisco Medical School curriculum has been comprehensively restructured around “social justice” are examples of how institutions continue to embed racism under the rubric of opposing white supremacy and “settler colonialism.”

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a different version of this article appeared. 

The post Anti-Jewish Violence Persisted in November: The Scene from Cities and College Campuses 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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