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Brown University Sends a Message: Extremism Works
More than 200 Brown University students gathered outside University Hall where roughly 40 students sat inside demanding the school divest from weapons manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Amy Russo / USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
At Brown University, extremism works. The tale of how the university’s leadership responded to two very different sets of concerns clearly demonstrates this.
Let’s start with the first set of concerns. Last year, CAMERA authored two reports highlighting serious issues of antisemitism and extremism at Brown University. These reports, which contained copious amounts of evidence about faculty and departments systematically indoctrinating students in their radical worldviews, were sent directly to Brown University’s leadership, including President Christina Paxson.
We documented how university professors, events, and journals were openly spreading blood libels about “Jewish mobs … thirsty for Palestinian blood,” glorifying Hamas and other terrorists, and even teaching students that Jewish identity is nothing but a colonial conspiracy.
Our letters to Paxson not only highlighted these issues, but also made clear our willingness to work with the university to help address these issues in a cooperative manner. We know that students and alumni also raised our reports and other concerns with the university, and that Paxson privately acknowledged to some that our reports “reflect broader concerns about whether universities like Brown maintain integrity and balance in their programming and scholarship on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
And yet, Paxson refused to publicly engage on these issues. More importantly, she refused to address the serious ethical questions we raised regarding anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred being promoted at her university’s Center for Middle East Studies.
Contrast that with Paxson’s response to the displays of extremism and antisemitism pervading the anti-Israel demonstrations on and off campus, including the encampment on the university’s “Main Green” lawn. (Violence and chaos that our reports warned about.)
These “anti-Israel” demonstrators have not just repeatedly violated university rules by setting up camp on university property and violating other reasonable policies. They have also spent months engaging in hateful, extremist displays.
Just days after Palestinian terrorists butchered and raped their way through Israeli communities on October 7, dozens of student organizations described the atrocities as a “just” act and as legitimate “resistance.” At the same time, Brown University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter was organizing rallies, where signs openly declared such “resistance” was “justified” and featured calls to free “political prisoners” (i.e., terrorists) and even genocidal slogans.
Jewish institutions at Brown have been threatened, and chants of “Glory to our martyrs” — a chant literally glorifying terrorists — have rung out on university grounds, as Jewish students have been subject to an assortment of antisemitic and intimidating behavior.
To her credit, Paxson has refused to drop criminal charges against a number of demonstrators who violated the law. That decision should be applauded.
And yet, she caved to their demand to advance a discriminatory Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) vote against the Jewish state in an upcoming meeting of the Brown Corporation.
Think about these actions.
On the one hand, Paxson refused to publicly acknowledge and address serious concerns of antisemitism and extremism brought to her in a professional, respectful manner.
On the other hand, Paxson caved to those who raised their concerns by breaking the law, violating university policies, and polluting the campus with violent and hateful rhetoric.
And to be clear, we know that those professors CAMERA identified in its reports have been involved in stoking this behavior.
All of this raises obvious questions. Why should students bother composing well-reasoned and well-evidenced arguments? Why should students follow the rules, abide by the law, and engage in respectful dialogue? When seeking change at Brown University, under Paxson’s leadership, those methods clearly don’t work.
Is breaking the law and university policies the only way for Jewish students and alumni to have their concerns taken seriously, too? Instead of treating the university administration with respect, should they also have marched through campus chanting genocidal slogans?
Two things are certain, though. First, as American universities are aflame with extremism, antisemitism, and lawlessness, universities have only themselves to blame for the decades-long promotion of faculty members who abuse their role, and indoctrinate students in “resistance.” Second, by rewarding bad behavior instead of respectful dialogue, Paxson, et al. are sowing the seeds of yet more chaos and lawlessness.
David M. Litman is a Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
The post Brown University Sends a Message: Extremism Works first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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