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Anti-Zionist Faculty at UC Santa Cruz Defy the Law and Betray Jewish Students

McHenry Library at University of California, Santa Cruz. Photo: Jay Miller/Wikimedia Commons

Harvard University, responding to two anti-discrimination lawsuits threatening its Federal funding, recently agreed to acknowledge on its official website, “For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Conduct that would violate the Non-Discrimination Policy if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the policy if directed toward Zionists.” 

The same day that Harvard’s remarkable agreement was announced, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) — which was a party to a recent resolution agreement following a Federal investigation into charges that its faculty created a hostile environment for Jewish students – made a different kind of announcement, which thumbed its nose at the US government and doubled down on condoning faculty antisemitism. 

Prominently displayed on UCSC’s campus-wide Events page was an announcement for an Education Department talk subtitled, “Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education,” whose speaker would explore “why and how it is important to center Palestine and an anti-Zionist commitment within teacher education.” 

The phrase “anti-Zionist commitment” made it crystal clear that the speaker would not be advocating for teaching children how to critique the policies of a sovereign state. Rather, it seemed to imply that she would be arguing for instilling in children as young as pre-school age a visceral hatred for Israel, which happens to be home to half of world Jewry and central to the identity of the vast majority of Jews on the planet.

The only thing missing from UCSC’s announcement of this event were the words “Jews not welcome here” – though that message came through loud and clear.

Tellingly, this talk was also promoted on the website of UCSC’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter, a group that shares the speaker’s “anti-Zionist commitment” and passion for expressing that commitment in educational spaces. It’s worth noting that more than 40% of the Education Department’s core faculty have publicly allied themselves with this group, which was established a few weeks after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre, mutilation, rape, and kidnapping of more than 1,400 Israeli civilians.

UCSC’s FJP is one of more than 160 chapters of the FJP National Network, a project of the US arm of the Hamas-linked Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Established as the academic brigade of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, FJP is tasked with promoting an academic boycott of Israel, or academic BDS, urging faculty to boycott their school’s Israel-related programming, agreements, or projects, with the ultimate goal of eliminating Zionism and Zionists from academia. 

Since its founding, UCSC FJP has diligently executed its marching orders, engaging in academic BDS-compliant behavior that harms their own students, especially those who are Jewish, including by: calling on fellow faculty members to cancel classes “in solidarity with Palestine” and praising graduate instructors for withholding students’ final grades to blackmail the university into boycotting Israel; co-authoring statements demanding the school cut all ties with Israeli universities, including popular study abroad programs, and boycott Jewish campus organizations such as Hillel; and rallying students and faculty to participate in a “March Against Zionism” intended to disrupt a student-organized “Jewish Unity Walk,” by posting to the FJP Instagram page: “UCSC… Let’s make it clear — zionism is not welcome on our campus”. 

The school’s Education Department is not the only academic unit with a significant number of faculty openly expressing an “anti-Zionist commitment.” Nearly half of the UCSC Anthropology Department’s core faculty are affiliated with FJP or have signed a public statement in support of academic BDS, as has one-quarter of the Literature Department. 

But the true prize goes to the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department (CRES), 85% of whose core faculty are either members of FJP, have expressed public support for academic BDS, or both.

Several CRES professors brazenly display their “anti-Zionist commitment” on their office doors, visually accosting the unsuspecting Jewish passer-by with a bevy of posters and stickers expressing deep animus towards the Jewish State and, presumably, Jews who identify with it. They contain images that speak volumes: a rifle-toting keffiyeh-clad woman; an enormous fist over the words Free Gaza; and a map of Israel draped entirely in a keffiyeh next to the words “Free Palestine”. 

Yet even more disturbing than faculty using their positions to express their “anti-Zionist commitment” are whole departments engaging in such behavior, with CRES again leading the pack.

In 2021, CRES issued a statement pledging departmental allegiance to “the struggle for Palestinian liberation” and bringing academic BDS into their teaching and research. CRES also helped launch and closely collaborated with the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ), an antisemitic organization dedicated to producing pseudo-scholarship opposing Zionism and the existence of the Jewish State.

Soon after the October 7 Hamas attack, CRES issued a statement blaming Israel for Hamas’ atrocities, shut down its department to protest Israel’s defensive actions, and urged students to boycott their classes. The department also held a teach-in promising to help graduate teaching assistants “contextualize the unfolding genocide in Gaza” in their classrooms, promoted the student protest “Shut it Down for Palestine,” that closed off all access to the university for several hours, and prominently advertised explicitly anti-Zionist statements.

CRES also acted as the de-facto sponsor of FJP, publicizing an invitation for faculty to join the newly established chapter, which remained on the CRES homepage for the rest of the academic year and beyond.

This academic year, despite efforts by the UC Regents to curb departmental abuse, CRES has continued to express its “anti-Zionist commitment” with impunity. The department’s Fall 2024 newsletter opened with a message from the FJP-affiliated academic BDS-supporting CRES chair, who wrote, “As we return from summer, I want to linger on the joyful note we ended last academic year after feeling uplifted by the solidarity, vision, and conviction of our students and faculty fighting to free Palestine from a globally supported genocide.”

In addition to hosting a series of anti-Zionist events and offering a new course on “Palestine” taught by a professor who has endorsed the call to bring academic BDS into her classroom, this year CRES continued its unabashed promotion of anti-Zionist activism, including by advertising FJP’s “Walk Out for Palestine” event urging “No School, No Work,” which grotesquely took place on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians, and inviting students to join SJP and participate in their “Student Intifada.”

Unfortunately, Jewish students at UCSC who identify with Israel don’t only have to worry about the professors who teach them, but also those serving as administrators tasked with providing academic and social support – many of whom have all endorsed an academic boycott whose goal is to purge Zionism and Zionists from campus life.

An even graver threat to Jewish students is the UCSC Academic Senate. Tasked with reining in faculty abuse, it has instead defended and amplified it. An FJP-authored resolution intended to shield anti-Zionist faculty from accountability was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate. Perhaps the fact that one of its five officers and 20% of its Executive Committee have either expressed support for academic BDS, affiliate with FJP, or both, has something to do with the Academic Senate’s abdication of a crucial shared governance responsibility.

Given the pervasiveness of anti-Zionist expression among faculty at UCSC, it’s hardly surprising that UCSC scores a “5 – Extreme” on AMCHA Initiative’s new Anti-Zionist Faculty Barometer, ranking 4th highest out of 730 schools. Without significant intervention and institutional fortitude, the problem will only get worse. But what can be done?

First and foremost, meaningful steps must be taken to ban the implementation of academic BDS and its promotion by UCSC faculty. A terrorist-linked boycott that shuts down the academic freedom and educational opportunities of students and faculty and incites virulent antisemitism has no place on a college campus.

Next, the administration must acknowledge that FJP, the faculty group expressly established to implement academic BDS on U.S. campuses, must be prohibited from operating on campus, receiving university funds or recognition, or partnering with any official university office, department, or registered student organization.

Individual professors who abuse their positions to express their “anti-Zionist commitment” should be sanctioned up to and including dismissal. Such egregiously unprofessional behavior would never be tolerated in any other kind of workplace and should certainly not be tolerated at a publicly-funded university. While faculty are free to engage in political advocacy and activism on their own time and dime, guaranteeing they will not bring their political commitments onto campus and into their classrooms or administrative offices should be a requirement of continued employment at the University.

Departments that believe working towards dismantling the Jewish state is part of their core disciplinary mission should themselves be dismantled. 

An Academic Senate that screams loudly to protect the academic freedom of anti-Zionist faculty but loses its voice entirely when it comes to prosecuting those same faculty members’ malpractice and abuse has forfeited the privilege of shared governance, and should not be allowed to have a say in the operation of the University. 

UCSC officials who are unwilling or unable to rein in out-of-control anti-Zionist faculty and departmental abuse and ensure that the campus is in compliance with the law should be replaced.

And finally, if UCSC continues to allow faculty antisemitism to flourish, the new administration in Washington should make good on its threat, backed by law, to remove the school’s Federal funding. 

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California for 20 years.

The post Anti-Zionist Faculty at UC Santa Cruz Defy the Law and Betray Jewish Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

The Jewish community of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. Photo: Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Theroux first visited the West Bank in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution — framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the curiosity is gone — though the bemused, slightly smug expression remains. His new BBC documentary, Louis and the Settlers, drops even the soft qualifiers. No “ultra.” No nuance. Just “settlers.” And with that, Theroux makes it clear: half a million Israelis living in the West Bank are one and the same — extremists who, we’re told, want every last Palestinian removed from the land.

This time, the documentary doesn’t begin with questions. It begins with conclusions. And Theroux uses a brief, unrepresentative snapshot of life in the West Bank to draw sweeping indictments of the entire Israeli state.

The message is unmistakable: Israel is the problem. Settlers are the villains. And Palestinians are passive, blameless victims of a colonial project.

Within the opening minutes, Theroux plants his ideological flag. He refers to the West Bank as “Palestinian territory” and describes every Israeli community within it as illegal under international law — a sharp departure from his more qualified approach 14 years earlier.

And while his personal views seep in throughout the film, they become crystal clear during one exchange at a checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier casually refers to their location as “Israel.” Theroux shoots back: “We’re not in Israel, are we?”

And just like that, the BBC and Louis Theroux have redrawn Israel’s borders. No Knesset debate needed.

Erasing History to Blame the Massacre

The timing of this return trip is no accident. The film comes in the shadow of the October 7 Hamas massacres — the day 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, families were burned alive in their homes, and children were dragged into Gaza. And yet, Theroux barely mentions it.

The few passing references to October 7 serve not to inform the audience — but to imply that Israel may be exploiting its own dead to justify further expansion. It’s not an investigation. It’s an accusation. And it allows him to skip over thousands of years of Jewish history in order to frame the current war in Gaza as a convenient cover story for Israeli “aggression.”

Take Hebron, for example. Theroux tells viewers that “in 1968, the year after [the West Bank] was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved in illegally. They now number some 700.” He fails to mention that in 1895 — decades before the modern state of Israel existed — Hebron had a Jewish population of 1,429.

Jews have lived in Hebron since antiquity — it’s where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs. Modern records date the community back centuries, despite discrimination under Ottoman rule and bans on Jewish prayer at holy sites. In 1929, Arab rioters carried out a massacre, wiping out Hebron’s Jewish population. Dozens were murdered; the rest were expelled. Under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, Jews were banned from the city entirely. When they returned after the Six-Day War — not as colonists, but as a displaced community coming home — Theroux picks up the story there and calls it “illegal.”

On the Six-Day War itself, Theroux offers no context. No mention of the Arab armies preparing to destroy Israel. No mention of Israel’s preemptive strike against an existential threat.

According to The Settlers, Israel simply “occupied” — full stop.

Palestinian Terrorism? Not Even a Footnote.

Theroux visits Evyatar, a small Jewish community near the Palestinian town of Beita, and uses it as a stand-in for the entire West Bank. Beita is depicted as a symbol of peaceful resistance: a proud, ancient Palestinian village standing firm against violent settlers backed by IDF soldiers.

It’s a neat story. Too neat. Because missing from the story are years of organized, violent riots from Beita — complete with Molotov cocktails, burning Stars of David, and Nazi swastikas. All carefully omitted to preserve the narrative: Palestinians peaceful, settlers aggressive. Facts that don’t fit? Left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, Israeli nationalism is treated as something sinister and unsettling — a moral aberration to be examined. The notion that Jews might want sovereignty or security is met with thinly veiled suspicion. Yet Hamas’ goal of a Jew-free Palestine, explicitly laid out in its charter, is never mentioned. Nor is the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, which literally incentivizes terrorism by rewarding those who murder Israelis — including women and children.

These aren’t fringe details. They’re central to understanding the region. And Theroux knows it. He just doesn’t care.

The BBC’s Complicity

That The Settlers aired on the BBC — a publicly funded broadcaster once seen as a gold standard of global journalism — says plenty. Not just about Louis Theroux’s agenda, but about the institutional direction of the BBC itself. This wasn’t a rogue filmmaker sneaking bias past the editors. This was bias built into the foundation — signed off, packaged, and broadcast under the banner of credibility.

There is, of course, no problem with scrutinizing Israeli policy, and no issue with questioning the settlement enterprise or highlighting the tensions in the West Bank. But journalism — real journalism — demands context. It demands precision. It demands at least a passing familiarity with the full scope of the story.

Theroux offers none of that. He arrives with a predetermined script and casts his roles accordingly: Hero. Villain. Victim. Oppressor. And when reality refuses to cooperate? It’s left out.

Louis Theroux didn’t return to Israel to understand it. He returned to flatten it. To reduce its complexity to a morality play — and to ensure everyone knows the antagonist is.

The Settlers isn’t a documentary. It’s a hit piece. And the BBC handed him the camera — then applauded the performance.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl

Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Photo: Screenshot

The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces had killed “Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist,” who was connected to the 2002 murder of Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

On Wednesday, India launched “Operation Sindoor,” which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims is targeted at dismantling “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The operation came after Pakistani terrorists killed 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a post on X, the BJP confirmed that during this week’s operation, the Indian army killed Islamist terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in numerous terrorism plots, including the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, and the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base attack.

Azhar’s involvement in the 1999 hijacking led to the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born al-Qaeda member with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who later was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 38-year-old Pearl, who was covering the war on terror as a journalist when he was abducted.

In a statement on X, Pearl’s father, Judea, addressed initial reports regarding Azhar’s death and his connection to his son’s murder.

“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity,” he said.

In 2002, the Jewish-American journalist was abducted and killed by a group of Islamist terrorists connected to Azhar’s militant network, which had ties to al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group aiming to separate Kashmir from India and incorporate it into Pakistan.

On Jan. 27, 2002, an email was sent to several Pakistani and US media organizations, which included several photos, stating that Pearl was being held in “inhumane” conditions to protest the US treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Cuba. Photo: Screenshot

Originally stationed in New Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl later moved to Pakistan to investigate terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

After kidnapping Pearl at a restaurant in Karachi, southern Pakistan, the Islamist terrorists, who identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being an Israeli spy and sent the United States a list of demands for his release.

However, Washington did not meet their demands, and Pearl was ultimately executed after being held captive for five weeks.

His wife, Mariane Pearl, gave birth to a baby boy, Adam D. Pearl, in Paris later that year. On the Daniel Pearl Foundation website, she said, “Adam’s birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that Danny radiated wherever he went.”

The post Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete just days before the Tunisian island was set to host its annual Jewish pilgrimage, which is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

On Wednesday morning, two Jewish men — owners of a jewelry shop in the center of the island, located off Tunisia’s southeast coast — were physically assaulted by a man carrying a large knife.

Although the attack was halted when one of them screamed — alerting members of the local Jewish community who subdued the assailant — one of them was left severely injured.

According to local media reports, the attacker had surveyed the island the day before, visiting several stores to identify those owned by Jews. Local police arrested him shortly following the assault.

After the attack, one of the owners was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries. The 50-year-old Jewish man had his fingers severed during the assault and underwent surgery to reattach them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the attack and expressed his wishes for a swift recovery to the victims.

“This attack comes two years after the previous deadly assault that claimed Jewish lives and the lives of security personnel during the Lag BaOmer celebration,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community,” Saar continued.

Djerba is home to the majority of Tunisia’s Jewish community, numbering about 2,000 people, and is also where the renowned El Ghriba Synagogue, one of North Africa’s oldest synagogues, is located.

The attack comes just a week before Jewish pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island for the Lag B’Omer holiday, when thousands gather annually for three days of festivities. The annual pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue, scheduled for May 15 and 16 this year, draws visitors from around the world.

The synagogue has been targeted in multiple terrorist attacks over the years, including in 1985, 2002, and 2023.

Two years ago, a shooting at the synagogue claimed the lives of two Jewish cousins and three police officers. Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old Israeli goldsmith, and Ben Hadad, a 42-year-old Frenchman who had traveled to join the festivities, were among the victims.

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