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At the University of North Carolina, Teachers Attack Israel with the Lie of ‘Genocide’ and Students Threaten Violence
In May, Students for Justice in Palestine poured red paint which resembles spilled blood on the steps of the South Building, an office for administrative staff and the chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photo: UNCSJP/Screenshot
The 2024-25 school year has recently begun at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where faculty members and students are continuing their anti-Israel activism and indoctrination.
In an email promoting a Sept. 6 event titled “Teach Palestine,” Nadia Yaqub — Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies –wrote to her fellow UNC academics: “As the genocide against the people of Gaza continues, many of us feel we cannot proceed with our teaching as if nothing is going on.”
The event flier asks, “Are you concerned by the ongoing genocide in Gaza? Are you looking for ways to bring Gaza or Palestine/Palestinians in general into your courses?”
In her email about the event, Yaqub added, “The workshop is open to faculty, staff, and graduate students from across the university, and we hope to present ideas and strategies that are applicable in any field.”
According to Yaqub’s email, all fields at UNC — such as mathematics, computer sciences, and speech-language pathology, just to name a few — should or can be used to focus on events in Gaza.
Community members I have spoken with expressed concern that Yaqub is clearly trying to stop students from getting a proper education in their respective fields in order to promote her political agenda.
Multiple sources report that donors and community members are outraged, and are contacting UNC with concerns about institutional bias and classroom activism. Many wonder if this planned workshop will fall outside of North Carolina state law on institutional neutrality, which clearly specifies, “The constituent institution shall remain neutral, as an institution, on the political controversies of the day.”
On Sept. 1, 2024, the UNC Campus Y promoted the “Teach Palestine” workshop on social media. They posted the flier the very same day the world learned the devastating news that six Israeli civilians had been executed by Hamas in Gaza. The Campus Y post did not mention those murders, and seems to be a clear signal that the Campus Y does not care about or consider Jewish life and suffering.
In Nov. of 2023, the Campus Y published a “A Solidarity Statement with Palestine.” The statement begins:
We, as the executive board of the Campus Y, stand in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora in their struggle for land and freedom from settler colonialism. We reject the idea that recent eruptions of violence are indicative of a ‘conflict,’ and uphold that they are indicative of pushback to the Israeli government’s oppression and genocidal erasure of Palestinian people and land, an ongoing process since the 1948 Palestine War and the Nakba.
The statement added: “We would like to emphasize that the Y remains a safe space for all students to decompress; particularly our Arab, Muslim, and especially Palestinian communities.”
The solidarity statement also promised that the Campus Y would continue collaborating with the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (UNC-SJP) which is pro-Hamas. Referring to this now suspended chapter as pro-Hamas is not hyperbole; it is factual.
On Oct. 7 — when Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — UNC-SJP proclaimed on social media: “It is our moral obligation to be in solidarity with the dispossessed, no matter the pathway to liberation they choose to take. This includes violence.”
On Oct. 12, UNC-SJP held a “Day of Resistance Protest for Palestine” on campus. The event flier celebrated terrorism by featuring a Hamas paraglider en route to kill Israelis and commit other atrocities. In a widely circulated video, a protester screamed, “All of us Hamas.”
I interviewed two Jewish students who silently counter-protested that day. They told me that they were approached by activists who allegedly brandished knives.
In 2020, the Campus Y supported a boycott of an upcoming Hillel trip. The Executive Board of the Campus Y stated that they “voted to sign onto the petition started by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to boycott the Hillel Perspectives trip, which sends student leaders from UNC’s campus on a fully funded spring break trip to multiple cities in Israel and Occupied Palestine.”
Towards the end of last school year, the Campus Y was briefly closed by the university due to safety concerns. Sources tell me that campus officials were concerned that the Campus Y was being kept open late, past closing hours, to support the anti-Israel protesters in ways such as providing bathrooms to those in the encampment.
Over the summer, UNC-SJP made national news when they announced their support of “armed rebellion” and “revolutionary violence.”
In a manifesto from late July, UNC-SJP proclaimed, “We emphasize our support for the right to resistance, not only in Palestine, but also here in the imperial core. We condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion.”
UNC-SJP also made an ominous social media post that some community members and faculty feel is a threat. The suspended chapter wrote, “The time has run out for peace policing … In this hour we urge all people of conscience to heed Palestinians’ calls to escalate autonomously and without reservation.”
Sources tell me that the State Bureau of Investigation has been asked to investigate the potential threats from these UNC-SJP statements.
In addition, on Aug. 24, the Chapel Hill Courthouse near campus was vandalized with graffiti saying “Kill Cops,” “Jihad Now,” and “Death to Cops.”
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post At the University of North Carolina, Teachers Attack Israel with the Lie of ‘Genocide’ and Students Threaten Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Vows to Press on with Offensive
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Israeli planes and tanks pounded the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City overnight Saturday to Sunday, destroying buildings and homes, residents said, as Israeli leaders vowed to press on with a planned offensive on the city.
Witnesses reported the sound of explosions non-stop overnight in the areas of Zeitoun and Shejaia, while tanks shelled houses and roads in the nearby Sabra neighborhood and several buildings were blown up in the northern town of Jabalia.
Fire lit the skies from the direction of the explosions, causing panic, prompting some families to stream out of the city. Others said they would prefer to die and not leave.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces have returned to combat in the Jabalia area in recent days, to dismantle militant tunnels and strengthen control of the area.
It added that the operation there “enables the expansion of combat into additional areas and prevents Hamas terrorists from returning to operate in these areas.”
Israel approved a plan this month to seize control of Gaza City, describing it as the last bastion of Hamas. It is not expected to begin for a few weeks, leaving room for mediators Egypt and Qatar to try and resume ceasefire talks.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday vowed to press on with the offensive on the city where famine has been declared, which has raised alarm abroad and objections at home. Katz has said that Gaza City will be razed unless Hamas agrees to end the war on Israel’s terms and release all hostages.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel’s plan to take over Gaza City showed it wasn’t serious about a ceasefire.
It said a ceasefire agreement was “the only way to return the hostages,” holding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for their lives.
The proposal on the table calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages held in Gaza and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Once a temporary ceasefire begins, the proposal is for Hamas and Israel to begin negotiations on a permanent ceasefire that would include the return of the remaining hostages.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said that Israel would immediately resume negotiations for the release of all 50 hostages – of whom Israel believes around 20 are still living – and an end to the nearly two-year-old war but on terms acceptable to Israel.
‘HUNGRY AND AFRAID’
Around half of the enclave’s two million people currently live in Gaza City. A few thousand have already left, carrying their belongings on vehicles and rickshaws.
“I stopped counting the times I had to take my wife and three daughters and leave my home in Gaza City,” said Mohammad, 40, via a chat app. “No place is safe, but I can’t take the risk. If they suddenly begin the invasion, they will use heavy fire.”
Others said they will not leave, no matter what.
“We are not leaving, let them bomb us at home,” said Aya, 31, who has a family of eight, adding that they couldn’t afford to buy a tent or pay for the transportation, even if they did try to leave. “We are hungry, afraid and don’t have money.”
A global hunger monitor said on Friday that Gaza City and surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine that will likely spread. Israel has rejected the assessment and says it ignores steps it has taken since late July to increase aid.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
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Iran Signals Willingness to Scale Back Uranium Enrichment to Ease Tensions
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iran may be prepared to significantly reduce its uranium enrichment levels in a bid to stave off renewed UN sanctions and limit the risk of further strikes by Israel and the United States, according to a report published Sunday in The Telegraph.
Citing Iranian sources, the paper said Tehran is considering lowering enrichment from 60% to 20%.
The move is reportedly being championed by Ali Larijani, the newly appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who is holding talks with regime leaders.
“Larijani is trying to convince the system to reduce the level of enrichment in order to avoid further war,” a senior Iranian official told the paper.
The proposal, however, faces stiff resistance from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has long opposed concessions on the nuclear program. Still, the report suggests Iran’s leadership may be open to greater flexibility, including the possibility of reviving engagement with Western powers.
Last month, i24NEWS reported exclusively that a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to travel to Iran. The team of technical experts would seek to resume monitoring of nuclear sites, inspections that have been heavily restricted in recent years.
The development comes amid mounting regional tensions and could represent a critical turning point in the long-running nuclear standoff.
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Major Brush Fire Erupts Near Jerusalem, Evacuations Underway
A view of the new Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast train seen over the HaArazim Valley (“Valley of Cedars”) just outside of Jerusalem, Sept. 25, 2018. Photo: Yossi Zamir/Flash90.
i24 News – A large brush fire broke out Sunday in the Cedars Valley area, near Route 1 and the Motza interchange, prompting an emergency response from Jerusalem district fire services. Several water-bombing planes were dispatched, and authorities have declared a “fire emergency.”
As a precaution, residents of Mevaseret Zion are being evacuated. Access to the town from Route 1 has already been blocked, and officials are weighing a full closure of the major highway.
Fire crews from the Ha’uma station are on site working to contain the flames, while motorists in the area are urged to heed traffic updates and follow instructions from emergency services.
Eight firefighting aircraft are currently operating above the blaze in support of ground teams. The fire comes amid one of the hottest, driest summers on record, with conditions fueling a series of destructive wildfires across the country.
Officials warn the situation remains critical, as the blaze threatens a vital transportation corridor leading into Jerusalem.