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Boulder City Council Member Refuses to Sign Statement Condemning Antisemitic Terror Attack
Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 2, 2025. Photo: Boulder Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
Taishya Adams, who serves on the city council in Boulder, Colorado and is a regular critic of Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hamas’s control of Gaza, has broken with her colleagues by rejecting a statement to condemn the Sunday terrorist attack in Boulder targeting Jews marching in support of the Israeli hostages remaining in captivity in Gaza.
“Conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism is dangerous and factually incorrect,” Adams told Boulder Reporting Lab when asked about her decision. “I just returned from Palestine where I saw and experience[d] what every minute terror looks and feels like. We will continue to see an increase in vigilante justice when we do not hold leaders accountable to war crimes.”
Adams had previously called for the council to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza, a position the body rejected.
Rather than join her municipal colleagues, the councilwoman released her own response to the attack where she stated that her decision to pass on signing “did not reflect any lack of empathy or support for Jewish community members – or an attempt to somehow justify the horrific act committed by this individual. Whatever his motivation, violence and terror are NEVER the answer.”
Adams explained that she felt the statement lacked “an acknowledgement that, based on his recorded comments, this was both an act of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. If we are to prevent future violence and additional attacks in our community, I believe we need to be real about the possible motivations for this heinous act. Denying our community the full truth about the attack denies us the ability to fully protect ourselves and each other.”
The statement which Adams rejected included the support of Boulder’s Mayor Aaron Brockett and Mayor Pro Tem Lauren Folkerts, alongside council members Matt Benjamin, Tina Marquis, Ryan Schuchard, Nicole Speer, Mark Wallach and Tara Winer. City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde also signed.
Boulder’s leaders stated that “as our community continues to reel from the act of violence and terror that occurred on our beloved Pearl Street Mall yesterday, we, as Boulder City Council members and city manager, acknowledge in the strongest possible terms that this was a targeted, antisemitic attack.”
The statement – which made no mention of Israel, Hamas, or Gaza – called for standing “in solidarity and sadness with those directly impacted by the attack as well as Boulder’s entire Jewish community. We are united in condemning this hateful act of terror against Jewish people.”
Alleged attacker Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces charges including attempted first-degree murder after deliberation; attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference; first-degree assault, including against an at-risk victim older than 70, and possession of an incendiary device for a Molotov cocktail and makeshift flamethrower attack on the “Run for Their Lives” event which resulted in burns for 12 people. The court has scheduled him to see a judge on Thursday.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said that Soliman could receive as much as 384 years in prison for the attempted murder charges alone. A potential life sentence also hangs over Soliman’s head should a jury convict him of a federal hate crime charge filed against him. Investigators say that he claimed he had planned the attack for a year, waited until after his daughter’s high school graduation, planned to die during his antisemitic act, and said he sought to “kill all Zionist people.”
Bishop Grewell, the acting US attorney for the district of Colorado, said on Monday that “he acted because he hated what he called ‘the Zionist group.’”
According to the Trump administration, Soliman, an Egyptian who reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” during the terror attack, lives in the United States illegally, having overstayed his visa. His wife and children now face deportation.
“Today, DHS and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado, terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. Soliman, she added, “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.”
According to the FBI and police, Soliman’s family has cooperated with the investigation.
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn called the attack “shocking,” adding that “seeing this man throwing Molotov cocktails onto human beings is just disgusting.”
Oren Segal, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence, said that “when you have 600-plus days of rhetoric that is not just about opposition to Israeli government policy but that often features language that dehumanizes Israelis, Zionists and Jews, it creates an atmosphere in which these plots and attacks are much more likely.”
The post Boulder City Council Member Refuses to Sign Statement Condemning Antisemitic Terror Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.