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As School Year Begins, Palestinian Student Groups Get Increasingly Violent, and Colleges Appear to Take Action
Anti-Israel protests continued to escalate throughout August. Pro-Hamas protestors blocked the I-405 freeway in Los Angeles, vandalized AIPAC headquarters in Washington, D.C., vandalized elementary schools in Stamford, CT, and Bethesda, MD, and smashed the windows of a Ralph Lauren store in Manhattan.
Patrons attending a production of Fiddler on the Roof in London were harassed, as were children at a science museum in south London, and Hezbollah and Hamas flags were waved at various demonstrations including those mourning Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Sporadic demonstrations against Israel were also held at the Paris Olympics.
An Israeli owned factory in Britain was again vandalized and a Jewish man in Brooklyn was stabbed by an individual yelling “free Palestine.” The individual was charged with attempted murder and a hate crime.
Thousands of protestors were bused into Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. On the first full day, barriers were torn down, but the number of protestors appeared far below the tens of thousands anticipated. Bomb threats were called in to hotels hosting delegates, American and Israeli flags were burned, the Israeli consulate was picketed, and dozens of arrests were made.
In contrast to other groups, Jewish groups were made to keep their locations secret. A session held by an Orthodox group was nevertheless disrupted by pro-Hamas protestors.
The eliminationist goals espoused by the protestors, along with their fundamental anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, is a threat to all Americans. But press accounts emphasized the minimal turnout and underplayed the seriousness of the messages and the movement.
The situation was markedly worse on college campuses.
In the faculty sphere, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement endorsing academic boycotts. Without mentioning Israel the statement claimed:
when faculty members choose to support academic boycotts, they can legitimately seek to protect and advance the academic freedom and fundamental rights of colleagues and students who are living and working under circumstances that violate that freedom and one or more of those rights. In such contexts, academic boycotts are not in themselves violations of academic freedom; rather, they can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.
An early indicator of faculty involvement in the semester’s anti-Israel activities was a request on social media for Columbia and Barnard’s faculty to appear at the institutions’ gates to “protect” pro-Hamas protestors, who were disrupting students moving into their dorms.
Threats from New York University’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine to “withhold their labor” represent another level of coercion against the institution, as well as fellow faculty and students.
The most notable college administration related event of August was the sudden and unexpected resignation of Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, who will leave the US and return to Britain for a position in the Labour Party led Foreign Office. Her tenure of 13 months is the shortest in Columbia’s history.
Shafik is the third Ivy League president to resign. Her handling of the post-October 7 campus crisis had been harshly criticized on all sides. For their part, Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter stated “any future president who does not pay heed to the Columbia student body’s overwhelming demand for divestment will end up exactly as President Shafik did.” Columbia’s Jewish Voice for Peace chapter commented “The students of Columbia will never forget the sheer violence unleashed upon us by Minouche Shafik, and we will not be placated by her removal as the university’s repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues.”
Legal action in response to the 2023-2024 school year continues to play out.
In one notable case, a Federal judge issued a ruling that excoriated UCLA for permitting pro-Hamas protestors to shut down portions of campus to Jewish students who identified as Zionists, saying: “In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith.”
The university had argued that it bore no responsibility “because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters.” The judge instructed the university to present a plan to address the issue, or prepare to shut down operations entirely. Observers suggest that the ruling will motivate other universities to take steps to protect Jewish students from harassment and abuse.
A Massachusetts court also permitted a lawsuit under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against Harvard University to proceed. The suit alleges the university permitted antisemitic harassment against Jewish students to proceed unchecked. A similar suit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was dismissed by the same judge, who ruled the university at least took steps to restore “civil order and discourse to its campus.”
In another suit, a Federal court ruled Jewish MIT students did not have to pay dues to the graduate student union, which had endorsed BDS. The students had claimed the union’s decision violated their religious beliefs and freedom of association.
Graduate unions, frequently affiliated with the United Auto Workers or United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, have become a notable target for the BDS movement. Additional lawsuits are pending including at the University of Chicago.
In general, universities have spent the summer revising policies regarding protests, access, encampments, masking, and various “expressive activities” such as signage and departmental statements, to avoid the breakdowns seen in the 2023-2024 school year.
Institutions with specific guidelines and prohibitions include the University of California system, the California State University, and University of Texas systems.
In a particularly specific example, New York University issued new guidelines that mentioned “code words” like “Zionist:”
Using code words, like “Zionist,” does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH Policy. For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists. For example, excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a “no Zionist” litmus test for participation in any NYU activity, using or disseminating tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies about Zionists (e.g., “Zionists control the media”), demanding a person who is or is perceived to be Jewish or Israeli to state a position on Israel or Zionism, minimizing or denying the Holocaust, or invoking Holocaust imagery or symbols to harass or discriminate.
In some cases, such as Columbia, faculty involved in anti-Israel protests are involved in creating new guidelines. The AAUP has also condemned new guidelines, calling them “overly restrictive” and a threat to democracy.
Institutions have also mandated civic dialogue and antisemitism and Islamophobia training programs.
Jewish faculty and students have expressed concerns that the fall semester will repeat or intensify the disruptions of the past year.
Another significant policy change are the increasingly widespread adoption of “institutional neutrality,” in which universities refrain from issuing statements regarding situations that do not directly affect it.
Institutions adopting such policies now include Harvard University, Cornell University, the University of Texas system, the University of South Carolina, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Johns Hopkins University, Emerson College, and Purdue University. The University of Minnesota’s institutional neutrality policy extends to its investments.
Institutions have also quietly announced that divestment from Israel will not be considered. This was made clear in a long statement from the Oberlin College trustees, and a short statement from the head of the University of Pennsylvania trustees, who also condemned the BDS movement.
San Francisco State University, however, announced that it was divesting from four American companies including Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar as part of a deal with protestors. The move was specifically described as a move away from companies involved in “weapons manufacturing” rather than Israel.
At the same time, however, many universities and district attorneys have quietly dropped disciplinary cases against students who disrupted campuses in the previous school year, including at the University of Chicago and Cal State Humboldt. In the latter case, protestors did several million dollars worth of damage to a building. Columbia University students who had been arrested during the May building takeover nearly all remain in good standing, and will return this fall. Suspended students from several universities have filed lawsuits to have punishments lifted.
George Washington University administrators, however, have urged local authorities not to drop charges against students and have barred several from campus, even as they (and the University of Vermont, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ohio State University, and Rutgers University) have barred SJP from campus for the fall.
In a sign of changing Jewish attitudes towards the Ivy League, a report notes that the Ramaz school in Manhattan will not send any students to Columbia for the first time in its history. Another sign is a sharp rise in new enrollments and transfers at Yeshiva University, Brandeis University, and Touro University.
Over the summer, we learned that pro-Hamas students had participated in training sessions held at various campuses. Reports indicated that the training emphasized organizing tactics, as well as Marxist-Leninist and jihadist ideologies. Evidence also emerged of students conspiring with outsiders and discussing how to fabricate allegations against Jewish faculty members, specifically Shai Davidai of Columbia University.
The tone of pronouncements from various SJP chapters was frank regarding planned disruptions and revolutionary intent.
The University of North Carolina SJP chapter stated its “support for the right to resistance, not only in Palestine, but also here in the imperial core,” and condoned “all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion, necessary to stop Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and to dismantle imperialism and capitalism more broadly.”
Columbia University’s SJP issued a statement claiming that, “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization” and that “Our intifada is an internationalist one-we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people. We reject every genocidal, eugenicist regime that seeks to undermine the personhood of the colonized.”
The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University SJPs also issued an Instagram image with red Hamas targeting triangles above President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Jewish organizations on campus have also been targeted by pro-Hamas demonstrators. Protestors outside of the Baruch College Hillel called to “bring the war home,” and carried signs saying “Let the intifada pave the way for people’s war.”
Masked protestors also waved Palestinian flags outside the Temple University Hillel and the Toronto Metropolitan University Hillel.
In response, at the end of the month, the Columbia SJP’s Instagram account was permanently deleted, as was that of the New York University SJP.
A spokesperson for Meta, owner of Instagram, stated that Columbia SJP’s “account was disabled for repeated violations of Meta’s dangerous organizations and individuals policies.”
The use of the encrypted messaging app Telegram by student and Chicago protest organizers pointed to a high level of organization and security. The inclusion of pro-Hamas and pro-Iran Resistance News Network content on various Telegram channels also suggested outside facilitation or sponsorship of pro-Hamas protests.
Early campus disruptions this semester have included Columbia University, where even before the semester began, the Chief Operating Officer’s apartment building was vandalized, while at the beginning of school new students moving in were harassed and the convocation was disrupted.
Student governments will remain a focal point for anti-Israel agitation.
At the University of Michigan and the New School, the pro-Hamas leadership of the student governments voted to freeze all funding of student groups until the administrations gave in to their demands for divestment. These are efforts to leverage student bodies against administrations, even at the risk of backlash against themselves. The move quickly backfired at the New School when the university administration transferred funding responsibility from the student government to itself. The Michigan administration has announced a similar move.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where an extensively different version of this article appeared.
The post As School Year Begins, Palestinian Student Groups Get Increasingly Violent, and Colleges Appear to Take Action first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Nominates Marco Rubio for US Secretary of State
US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he will nominate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to serve as secretary of state in his incoming administration, a potential signal that the next White House will take a more adversarial posture toward Iran.
Trump’s confirmation came a couple days after several media outlets reported that he was expected to tap Rubio, 53, to head the US State Department. The move to place a lawmaker known for his hawkish foreign policy views as the nation’s top diplomat has mollified concerns among some critics that the second Trump administration would adopt a more isolationist approach to international affairs.
“Marco is a Highly Respected Leader, and a very powerful Voice for Freedom. He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said in an official statement. “I look forward to working with Marco to Make America, and the World, Safe and Great Again!”
Rubio issued a brief statement advocating an approach of “peace through strength” to international relations.
“As Secretary of State, I will work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda. Under the leadership of President Trump we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else,” Rubio said on X/Twitter.
Since his election to the Senate in 2010, Rubio has developed a reputation as a foreign policy hawk, advocating for greater investments in the US military and a tougher approach to adversaries such as Iran, China, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Rubio’s policy views have previously resulted in conflict with more isolationist members of the Republican Party, who have argued that the US should step back from international conflicts and increase focus on domestic issues.
The selection of Rubio also indicates the incoming Trump administration will be diplomatically supportive of Israel.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Rubio has steadfastly signaled his support for the Jewish state, resisting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and underscoring the importance of Israel achieving a decisive win against Hamas.
He stated in October 2023 that Israel has “no choice but to seek the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza,” adding that “this tragically necessary effort will come at a horrifying price” and that “the price of failing to permanently eliminate this group of sadistic savages is even more horrifying.”
In May 2024, the senator cautioned that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization in Lebanon, could soon break out into full-scale war.
“The imperative that Israel has at some point to address it, even though there’s a real threat there of a full-scale war with Hezbollah, which militarily is a lot more challenging and destructive,” Rubio said.
Last month, Rubio condemned Iran’s direct attack against Israel after the Iranian regime fired a barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state.
“I urge the reimposition of a maximum pressure campaign against Iran and fully support Israel’s right to respond disproportionately to stop this threat. The United States will continue to stand with Israel,” Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio has also assigned blame to Iran for fomenting instability and chaos in the Middle East, adding that the regime has also acted as the “primary” oppressor of its own civilians.
“The primary source of violence, conflict, suffering, and instability in the Middle East is the criminal ‘Islamic Republic’ regime which has also oppressed the people of [Iran] for almost [45] years,” Rubio said on X/Twitter.
Beyond Rubio, Trump has also handpicked other administration members with pro-Israel bonafides. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a lawmaker who has gone viral for her blistering repudiations of university presidents over their response campus antisemitism, has been selected to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. Trump also selected Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to serve as his next national security adviser.
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Trump’s Top National Security Picks Have Expressed Strongly Pro-Israel, Anti-Iran Views
US President Donald Trump is interviewed by then-Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, US, April 6, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President-elect Donald Trump’s selections for national security adviser and defense secretary have a history of making statements in support of Israel’s right to defend itself from neighboring threats.
In the week following his resounding victory at the polls, Trump has swiftly moved to fill his incoming cabinet with allies of Israel.
Among his top national security picks, the president-elect has chosen US. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to serve as his national security adviser and nominated Fox News host and Army National Guard officer Pete Hegseth as the next secretary of defense.
Waltz, a Green Beret and former Pentagon policy adviser, has developed a hawkish reputation on foreign policy matters. He supported Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran in October, arguing that the Jewish state should target Kharg Island, a major hub of the regime’s oil exports. The representative also suggested that Israel attack Iran’s nuclear facilities outside of Tehran. The lawmaker has openly criticized the Biden administration for allegedly holding Israel back from a full force retaliation against Iran.
Waltz has also argued that the US should attempt to weaken Iran through sanctioning the Chinese buyers of Iranian oil, saying that isolating Iran economically would cripple their ability to finance the operations of terrorist groups such as Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah. He has also helped spearhead bipartisan efforts to recategorize the Houthis in Yemen as an official international terrorist organization, a move that he argues would isolate the group by making financial transactions with them illegal.
On Tuesday, Trump raised eyebrows by tapping Hegseth to head the Pentagon. Hegseth, a former infantry officer in the Army National Guard deployed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has repeatedly expressed affinity for Israel. Hegseth, a devout Christian, argued on television that Jews have a right to live in Israel on Biblical grounds. In his 2020 book, American Crusade, Our Fight to Stay Free, he stated that Israel is “central to the story of Western civilization” and that the Jewish state is “inextricably linked” to America.
“If you love America, you should love Israel. We share history, we share faith, and we share freedom. We love free people, free expression, and free markets,” he wrote. “And whereas America is blessed with two big, beautiful oceans to protect it, Israel is surrounded on all sides by countries that either used to seek, or still seek, to wipe the nation off the map.”
During a 2016 trip to Israel, Hegseth said that he was “struck by the pervasive sense of purpose which permeates Israel and its people who understand the special nature of its founding and defense.” He also said that America can “learn from Israel” and that the Jewish state “is indispensable for the future of the West and human freedom.”
Following the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force responsible for overseeing Iran’s proxies and terrorist operations abroad, Hegseth urged then-President Trump to bomb Iran’s nuclear production facilities.
“I happen to believe that we can’t kick the can down the road any longer in trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. They used the killing of Soleimani as an excuse to say ‘we’re scrapping the Iran Deal.’ We all know they were scrapping it anyway,” Hegseth said on Fox News, adding that America should notify Iran of its plans to destroy its “nuclear production facilities,” “key infrastructure,” “missile sites,” and “port capabilities.”
Hegseth also argued that attempts to restrain Israel from direct confrontation with Iran are “ridiculous” and that the Islamic regime represents an “existential threat” to the Jewish state.
“Israel wants to deal with Iran, we should let them … If it was not for Israel, Iran would have had the bomb already,” he said.
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American Jewish Organizations React to Trump’s Choice for US Ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee looks on as Donald Trump reacts during a campaign event at the Drexelbrook Catering and Event Center, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, US, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
American Jewish organizations were quick to react to US President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he would choose former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the next US ambassador to Israel after he assumes office in January.
“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East!” Trump wrote in his announcement.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, has long been a vocal pro-Israel voice. He has repudiated the anti-Israel protests that erupted in the wake of Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7 and criticized incumbent US President Joe Biden for sympathizing with anti-Israel protesters during his speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). The incoming ambassador also lambasted the anti-Israel encampments at elite universities, stating that there should be “outrage” over the targeting and mistreatment of Jewish college students.
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), posted on X on Tuesday that his organization “looks forward to working with Gov. Huckabee and newly appointed Special Envoy for the Middle East Steven Witkoff to strengthen the US-Israel relationship, bolster Israel-diaspora relations, and promote strong connections between American Jewry and Israel.”
Other Jewish communal organizations, such as the Jewish Federations of North America and the Anti-Defamation League, have so far not made statements.
The Republican Jewish Committee (RJC) said it was “thrilled” with the choice. “As a man of deep faith,” the RJC wrote, “we know Governor Huckabee’s abounding love of Israel and its people is second to none.”
It continued, “As the Jewish state continues to fight an existential war for survival against Iran and its terrorist proxies, Governor Huckabee will represent America’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security with distinction.”
On the other side, however, the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) called Huckabee “utterly unqualified for this role” and argued that “his extremist views with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not further the national security interests of the United States or advance prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Huckabee told Israel’s Army Radio in his first interview since the announcement of his ambassadorship that “of course” the annexation of the West Bank is a possibility during Trump’s second presidential term.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to the US-Israel relationship,” the JDCA concluded, “Donald Trump will continue to only be motivated by his own narrow self-interest, and we’re deeply concerned about what that means for the United States and Israel.”
J Street also opposed the choice, writing in a statement that “Huckabee, a right-wing, evangelical minister with a long history of championing settlement expansion, annexation, and a radical ‘Greater Israel’ agenda, holds principles and espouses views that — if now implemented — would shatter the foundations on which a healthy and strong US-Israel relationship has been built over the past 75 years.”
J Street on Monday urged the Biden administration to withhold offensive weapons from Israel as part of a partial arms embargo, arguing that the United States needs to hold Israel accountable for alleged human rights “violations” before Trump takes office.
Huckabee has taken positions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict considered further to the right than most American Jews and politicians. The former governor has defended Israel’s right to build settlements in the West Bank, acknowledging the Jewish people’s ties to the land dating back to the ancient world.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee has said, referring to the biblical names for the area. “There is no such thing as settlements — they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such thing as an occupation.”
Huckabee has also argued, including during his 2008 US presidential campaign, that any future Palestinian state should be created from land in Arab countries, rather than from territory that Israel captured in 1967 during the Six-Day War.
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