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As School Year Begins, Palestinian Student Groups Get Increasingly Violent, and Colleges Appear to Take Action

NYU Stern School of Business. Photo: Wikipedia commons.

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’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday

US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”

The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.

Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.

He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.

The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.

Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.

“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.

Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.

Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.

“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”

The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.

Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.

Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.

A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.

The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg

FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.

Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.

“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.

“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”

Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.

Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.

Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.

“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.

The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.

FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.

Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.

In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.

The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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