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As Trump Takes Office, Will the New Administration Help Stop Radicalism on 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
The new Trump administration promises to shift the landscape for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and anti-Israel politics.
A new Executive Order orders action to combat antisemitism, including deporting violent and terror-supporting non-citizens, and the administration’s efforts to remove the Federal DEI enterprise removes a key support for anti-Israel and antisemitic policies at universities receiving government funds.
The effectiveness of these and other measures remains unclear — but the new and supportive rhetoric must be contrasted with the new administration’s established pattern of pressuring Israel to make concessions.
Responding to increasing scrutiny, higher education professionals have rebranded DEI courses and offices, and more evidence has accumulated that university administrations are working to dilute or replace the focus on campus antisemitism. At Northwestern University, critics have noted that a required training program on discrimination and harassment omitted Israel and Zionism as targeted categories, but included “anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian biases.” The University of Toronto also launched a working group on Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian discrimination.
Universities and localities continue, however, to act against students who have violated regulations and laws:
- The University of Rochester expelled four students for putting up “wanted posters” targeting Jewish faculty and staff. The students also face criminal mischief charges;
- A University of Chicago student was arrested and charged with aggravated battery in connection with an October 2024 anti-Israel protest. Students later protested outside the president’s residence in support of the arrested individuals;
- Another four Case Western students were arrested and charged with felonious vandalism in connection with a November building takeover;
- Two Dartmouth College students were found guilty of misdemeanor trespass after refusing to leave an encampment in October 2023;
- A Northwestern University Ph.D. graduate pled guilty to a firebomb attack and lighting fires “in solidarity with Palestinians” at the University of California at Berkeley;
- At Princeton University, 14 students and others will stand trial in April on charges of defiant criminal trespassing in connection with an April 2024 takeover of a university building;
- New York University suspended 13 students who held a sit-in that disrupted the university library in December. One of the students accused the school of “targeting brown and Arab students;”
- Three University of Michigan students were charged with misdemeanors in connection with a fall 2024 “die-in.”
Divestment now appears nearly dead on American campuses. In January Johns Hopkins University rejected divesting from Israel as inappropriately political and impractical, as did the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Maine system. At the University of Georgia, however, students disrupted a board of regents meeting to demand divestment.
This follows a spate of protests by medical professionals, including a letter of support from the American Academy of Pediatrics to then Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in support of Hamas doctor Hussam Abu Safiya who was arrested in Gaza. “Call out sick for Gaza” protests occurred at Boston area hospitals including Harvard Medical School.
Physicians associated with Columbia University also complained administrators had engaged in “the erasure of Palestinian morbidity and mortality and “systematic repression and censorship of health-oriented discussions of the genocide.” The support for Hamas demonstrated by physicians at their medical school graduations is an ominous foreshadowing of future mistreatment of patients on the basis of religion or national identity that has already been documented in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Faculty
In the faculty sphere, one of the most notable developments in January was a resolution approved by the American Historical Association (AHA) members at its annual meeting to condemn “scholasticide” in Gaza. The resolution alleged that Israel had intentionally and systematically destroyed Gaza’s educational infrastructure using US weapons. Once approved the resolution moved to the executive committee before being sent to the full membership. The executive committee, however, vetoed the resolution, stating that “it lies outside the scope of the association’s mission and purpose.”
The AHA’s executive committee’s decision follows a similar one by the Modern Language Association to prevent a BDS resolution from being put to the full membership. The moves suggest that academic leaders — with the notable exception of the umbrella American Association of University Professors, which has endorsed “individual” Israel boycotts and whose leadership is strongly hostile to Israel — are perceiving BDS as a losing issue from the perspective of disciplinary reputation and perhaps legal and public relations liability. There is a schism between younger academics inculcated with the ideology of “scholar-activism” and an older generation.
Despite or perhaps as a result of small signs of resistance to BDS by leaders of academic organizations, faculty unions have emerged as centers of Israel hatred.
Resolutions demanding divestment area are also means to split the faculty and more importantly, leverage affiliated union support. In one example the City University of New York Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) union voted to divest from Israel. A Jewish faculty group then filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights.
The union vote was condemned by the university and New York State governor Kathy Hochul (D). The refusal of the Supreme Court to hear an earlier case regarding the union leaves in limbo the question of whether Jewish and other faculty can be fairly represented by a politicized union.
In an example of the mendacity and mediocrity that characterizes so many anti-Israel faculty members, Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke claimed that she had been forced to retire as a result of her “pro-Palestinian” activities. Her claim that the move was “termination dressed up in more palatable terms” was belied by report from an outside law firm which documented her persistent harassment and defamation of Israeli and Jewish students and “prohibited racial stereotyping.”
Franke has now filed a grievance against the school’s Office of Institutional Equity accusing it of “a pattern and anti-Palestinian racism.”
In a related development, the Islamist group CAIR declared that Columbia was a hostile campus for pro-Palestinian students.
Reports continue to accumulate regarding the routine incorporation of anti-Israel materials into coursework in disciplines as varied as English and music. At the University of Pittsburgh, faculty also offered extra credit for attending anti-Israel protests and berated students for their support of Israel and “Jewish privilege.” A video taken at the Barnard College English department shows that every faculty member’s door is decorated with anti-Israel flyers.
Other examples of campus propagandizing include a panel entitled “Feminist and Queer Solidarities with Palestine” to be held at the University of California Berkeley in February. A description of the panel promises to “look at how Zionism has weaponized feminism, so as to serve Israel’s genocidal intent, by upholding debunked accusations of systematic Hamas mass assault.” After the event was publicized, the university removed the description from its website.
Students
With the semester underway campus protests against Israel have resumed but at lower level:
- At Cornell University protestors vandalized a statue in the center of campus with “Divest from death” and “occupation=death” and red paint. When interviewed, the anonymous protestors stated their goal was the elimination of Israel;
- At Columbia University “New York City Resists with Gaza” and “Columbia University Apartheid Divest” destroyed the sewage system at the International Affairs Building with cement and spray painted graffiti there and on the business school. In a social media posting the groups stated they had “attacked two targets” to note the death of Hind Rajab and to resist “One of Columbia’s most recent violent gentrification projects into Harlem, the construction of which was conditioned on the creation of Columbia’s Apartheid Global Center in ‘Tel Aviv’”;
- Columbia University protestors vandalized the campus with “Land back, nothing less than liberation.” Demonstrators also held several protests off campus;
- Also at Columbia masked protestors entered a modern Israel history class, reading manifestos and handing out leaflets saying “Curse Zionism.” The university president condemned the incident, warned that police presence on campus might be expanded, and later suspended one ‘”affiliate” for participating in the incident and barred two others from campus. A faculty group also condemned the incident;
- At Yale University, a speaking appearance by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the Hillel was protested by students and others who attempted to block entrance to the building and who then occupied the building’s lobby;
- Protestors at Oxford University occupied a campus library. They stated the building had been renamed the “Khalida Jarrar Library” after the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;
- At Ohio State University, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter held a protest outside of the Chabad house during a Holocaust remembrance event, which included several former Israeli soldiers.
Pushback to university disciplinary efforts is also continuing. At the University of Chicago, a lawsuit has been filed by Palestine Legal, the lawfare arm of the BDS movement, on behalf of a student who had been disciplined and removed from student housing.
But in a sign that the anti-Israel movement and “Palestine” as an organizing principle continue to alienate fellow students, the black feminist group at George Washington University “Black Defiance” announced it had left the Student Coalition for Palestine “after repeatedly experiencing anti-Blackness and racism.”
Finally, in the new semester student governments quickly regained their place as centers for anti-Israel activity:
- Several student governments at the University of California at San Diego have divested their holdings from Israeli companies;
- The Concordia University Student Union passed a BDS resolution. Only 858 students out of 49,898 enrolled voted;
- The Rutgers University student government rejected use of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
- The student government at the University of Toronto held a fundraiser for Gaza during a meeting.
K-12
Evidence continues to accumulate regarding deep and pervasive bias against Israel and Jews at all levels of K-12 education. Efforts to coverup and downplay incidents also continue locally.
In a settlement reached with the Howard County Public Schools (MD), the US Department of Education noted that authorities had failed to report incidents where Jewish students were abused, including “posting of swastikas; mimicking Nazi salutes; threats to kill and stating preference for death of Jewish people; using the term “Jew” as a slur; calling a Jewish middle school student a “dirty Jew,” telling her to “go back to the gas chamber.”
Teachers and their unions continue to push “liberated ethnic studies” and “anti-Palestinian racism” in curriculums.
Arts/Culture
Social media and web platforms continue to be key battlegrounds regarding Israel and antisemitism. Wikipedia’s highest adjudicating body, the Arbitration Committee, has barred a number of editors who had systematically distorted the platform’s coverage of Israel, Palestine, and related topics.
The move came after months of revelations regarding the manner in which the group had conspired via back channel communications to edit pieces in order to blame Israel for the current conflict and accuse it among others things of “settler-colonialism” and “genocide.” Six pro-Hamas editors were barred in addition to two pro-Israel editors. A recent report also uncovered a group of pro-Hamas editors conspiring to manipulate French Wikipedia.
The move against pro-Hamas editors came after the Heritage Foundation announced a project to identify anonymous Wikipedia editors responsible for anti-Israel bias.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a significantly different version of this article first appeared.
The post As Trump Takes Office, Will the New Administration Help Stop Radicalism on College Campuses? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says He Told Israel’s Netanyahu Not to Act Against Iran
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Feb/ 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week not to take actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran.
“I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution now,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. “That could change at any moment.”
Israel earlier rejected a report in the New York Times that Netanyahu has been threatening to disrupt talks on a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran by striking Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities.
Citing officials briefed on the situation, the newspaper said Israeli officials were concerned that Trump was so eager to reach a deal with Iran that he would allow Tehran to keep its nuclear enrichment facilities, a red line for Israel.
Israel was particularly concerned about the possibility of any interim deal that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear facilities for months or even years while a final agreement was reached, the paper reported.
US officials were concerned Israel could decide to strike Iran with little warning and said US intelligence estimated that Israel could mount an attack on Iran in as little as seven hours, the paper reported.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in response to the article which said simply: “Fake news.”
The New York Times said it stood by the report.
“The New York Times reporting on this matter is thorough and based on discussions with people directly familiar with the matter. We remain confident in what we published,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The paper said Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, and David Barnea, head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad, met Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome on Friday.
The two then traveled to Washington for a meeting on Monday with CIA director John Ratcliffe, before Dermer met Witkoff again on Tuesday.
One of the main sticking points in the talks between US and Iranian officials has been US insistence that Iran give up its nuclear enrichment facilities, a demand Iran rejects.
On Monday, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said she had a “very candid conversation” with Netanyahu on the negotiations with Iran.
She said she told the Israeli prime minister that Trump had asked her to convey “how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.”
Trump bypassed Israel on his trip to the Middle East this month and has made policy announcements that have shaken Israel‘s assumptions about its relations with the US.
Netanyahu has dismissed speculation about a falling out with the US administration, while Trump has also brushed off any suggestion of a break.
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Antisemitism Spike Is Top Concern in Survey of Global Jewish Population
Israeli President Isaac Herzog looks on during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not pictured, in Washington, DC, on Oct. 25, 2022. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS
A study polling more than 10,000 Jews across the world that was released on Wednesday by Voice of the People shows that worries about rising antisemitism now dominate lists of community challenges across demographics.
Working together with the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel, the group led by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the findings of the report will inform a council of 150 Jewish leaders from around the world.
“This is not just a data set — it’s a global Jewish reality check,” Shirel Dagan-Levy, CEO of Voice of the People, said in a statement. She added that the survey shows “a community that is hurting, but also more united than ever in its desire to stand tall, protect its heritage, and shape a stronger, safer future.”
Researchers focused on identifying what Jews saw as leading problems in their communities. Top responses included rising antisemitism (76 percent agreeing), Israel-diaspora relations (56 percent), Jewish-non-Jewish relations (49 percent), polarization within the Jewish world (49 percent), and preserving Jewish culture and heritage (46 percent).
“Antisemitism surging to unprecedented levels since Oct. 7 was the top concern by a wide margin,” Voice of the People said in a press release. “Respondents cited personal experiences of hate speech, exclusion, and discrimination — particularly in schools, universities, and on social media. Many reported suppressing their Jewish identity in public out of fear. The level of concern cut across age, geography, and level of observance.”
Neta Danciger, chief marketing and product officer of Voice of the People, added that “to truly hear the voices of our global Jewish community, we had to meet them where they are — online, across continents, and across generations.” She continued, “By combining the reach of digital and social media with a rigorous, community-driven survey model, we were able to capture authentic, real-time insights that reflect not only the challenges Jews face today, but also the resilience and unity that define our future.”
On connections between Israel and diaspora Jewish communities, researchers found a mix of results, both that some younger diaspora Jews felt greater distance from Israel while others felt a surge of emotional connection.
Nearly half of Jews described greater feelings of alienation from some non-Jewish spaces, particularly those of a progressive ideological orientation, due to what Voice of the People described as “misinformation, anti-Israel rhetoric, and ignorance about Jewish history” being “key drivers of mistrust and social isolation.”
As concerned as Jews were with those outside of their community, equal numbers also saw the internal divisions among politics, ideology, and generations as a problem in need of attention.
The survey noted some of these differences according to age.
Gen Z (82 percent) and millennials (81 percent) most identified antisemitism as a top problem. “Younger respondents expressed acute distress over hostility in social and digital spaces, with many reporting a sense of betrayal from progressive allies and a struggle to safely and confidently express their Jewish identity. Campus-based antisemitism and social media harassment were cited frequently,” Voice of the People stated.
Members of Generation X in particular (78 percent) tended to hide public expressions of their Jewish identity to avoid antisemitism while Baby Boomers and Silent Generation respondents (68 each) focused their concerns on “the future of Israel, Jewish continuity, and a sense that historical cycles of persecution may be repeating,” according to Voice of the People.
Researchers also identified geographic trends.
Jews in Israel (89 percent) said they felt strong concerns for Jews in the diaspora, seeing rising antisemitism as a threat to the collective Jewish future.
In the United States, respondents (78 percent) described failures of institutions to offer support, especially in academic and professional settings, while in the United Kingdom, 81 percent said they felt a need to conceal their Jewish identity in public.
Of those living in France, 73 percent said they worried about antisemitic rhetoric, public hostility, and misinformation.
For Jews in Argentina (87 percent) and Mexico (84 percent) concerns about rising antisemitism went alongside a greater sense of pride in their Jewish identity.
Majorities in South Africa (75 percent) and in Australia (65 percent) supported education, solidarity, and local activism to counter antisemitism.
The survey also offered respondents the opportunity to provide open-ended answers to questions such as “How have recent events impacted your sense of Jewish identity and community?”
One person quoted in the report answered that “it has made me more acutely aware of antisemitism and that very few people or communities care about what happens to us except us.”
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Global Leaders Sound Alarm on Surge of Antisemitism at IHRA Conference
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis speaking at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) conference in Jerusalem on May 27, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis warned that anti-Zionism has become “the new antisemitism,” amid mounting global concern over a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes
Speaking at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, Mirvis asserted that anti-Zionism is increasingly being weaponized to mask anti-Jewish sentiment, disguised as legitimate political criticism of Israel.
Hosted by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, the annual IHRA conference — held last year in the United Kingdom — began with a moment of silence honoring the two Israeli embassy staffers murdered in Washington, DC last week.
IHRA is an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries dedicated to combating antisemitism and promoting Holocaust research and education. In 2016, IHRA adopted a “working definition” of antisemitism which in the ensuing years has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum. It is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations.
In his speech, Mirvis emphasized Jerusalem’s vital role as both Israel’s capital and the enduring spiritual and cultural center of Jewish identity and faith.
“For Jews, the very presence of Almighty God is manifest here in this holy city more than in any other place on earth. And God gave this city and this land to the Jewish people for all time,” Mirvis said during the two-day conference.
“Israel is not just a geopolitical reality for the Jewish people. It is far more than that. It’s the center of our Jewish religion,” the Jewish leader continued. “So therefore, if you are anti-Zionist, you are also anti-Jewish. But more than that, you’re anti-Judaism, and your animosity affects the very wellbeing of Jews right around the world.”
“Anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism”
The Chief Rabbi addresses the opening of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Conference in Jerusalem for parliamentarians and government representatives from around the world. pic.twitter.com/ecu08YlR1r
— Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) May 28, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, anti-Israel activism has sparked a rise in antisemitic incidents. In this context, longstanding antisemitic stereotypes are increasingly being directed at Israel, with the term “Zionist” weaponized to mask deep-rooted antisemitic tropes under the pretense of legitimate political critique.
At the same event, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech, calling on European leaders to resist the growing demonization of the Jewish state.
Anti-Israel protesters in European countries “are basically challenging Western civilization [and] free societies as we understand them,” Netanyahu said. Many of these leaders “want to control the rampant attacks that are then directed at them for having relations with Israel, for having contact with it.”
“What you try to do is try to corral your victim when in fact, your countries are the victim. Because what is being done is an attempt to deny Israel, and in fact all free societies the ability to fight these barbarians,” the Israeli leader continued.
“Don’t succumb to the vilification, don’t succumb to this complete aversion of morality,” Netanyahu said. “I urge you to fight antisemitism not only because it’s right. I urge you to fight antisemitism because it will save you.”
During his speech, Netanyahu also warned that Israel is fighting “not merely a seven-front war [against Iran-backed proxies in the Middle East], but an eight-front war,” describing it as a broader struggle of “civilization against barbarism.”
“The most important thing you have to do in fighting antisemitism is to stand up and not be cowered,” the Israeli premier continued. “Do not be afraid to speak up. Speak up, stand up for the truth, stand up for the Jewish people, stand up for civilization.”
During the conference, Saar also delivered a speech in which he condemned international leaders and governments seeking to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
“If these initiatives will be successful, Israel will simply be eliminated,” the top Israeli diplomat said. “There will be another Holocaust – this time on the soil of the Land of Israel.”
“The ancient desire to eliminate the Jewish people has become stronger. It has become a plan of action for our enemies,” he continued.
Noting that 80 years have passed since the Holocaust, Saar emphasized IHRA’s vital role in “safeguarding and passing on the stories and lessons of the Holocaust to future generations.”
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