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California College Professors Bashed Israel; Here’s What They Got Wrong
One of the campus buildings at the University of California, Berkeley. Photo: Max Pixel/Creative Commons.
On November 21, the Palestine, Arab, and Muslim Caucus of the California Faculty Association, a union organized to platform pro-Palestinian voices, hosted a webinar titled “On Weaponizing Antisemitism.”
Rather than attempting to protect all students, the goal of the event was clearly to accuse pro-Israel and Jewish advocacy organizations of dishonestly using the widely embraced International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism to silence pro-Palestinian voices. They defended their claim by highlighting an observed rise in US Islamophobia since the October 7th massacre.
Despite this, the panelists ignored the major surge in antisemitic incidents in the US since Hamas’ massacre. Throughout the event, they refused to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ heinous attacks. They even went as far as denying the Jewish connection to the land of Israel, while expressing antisemitic conspiracies about Jewish power in America.
The moderator, associate professor Sang Hea Kil of San Jose State University’s Justice Studies department, held Israel entirely responsible for the current situation in the Gaza Strip, stating that “the Israeli regime is capitalizing on the October 7th military incursion to create another ‘Nakba,’ by forcing 1.1 million Gazans to forcibly leave their land, while simultaneously bombing them and preventing their escape to safe passage.” However, this cannot be farther from the truth. Israel ordered the evacuation of the civilian population of Gaza City, in accordance with the rule of law. Furthermore, it was Hamas who had been preventing the civilian population from evacuating towards the designated safe zones. Even after the civilians had successfully evacuated, this didn’t stop Hamas from using these safe zones to attack Israeli civilians.
Ironically in Sang Hea Kil’s anti-Zionist diatribe, she highlighted the importance of the anthropological relationship between people and their land, narrow-mindedly comparing the Palestinians to the Native American tribes who lived near her college. For seemingly arbitrary reasons, she denied all evidence proving the analogous connections that Jews have to Israel. As she should know, the contiguous Jewish presence in the disputed territories existed long before the Islamic conquests that brought Arab culture and society to the region.
Later, in an attempt to frame the ongoing war in Gaza, she mentioned “the bombing of hospitals, schools, and UN shelters” as an example of the ongoing “Israeli aggression,” which she claimed is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. She completely ignored the exception outlined in the same document allowing the targeting of such buildings if they are being used militarily, which is exactly what Hamas has been doing for decades. She also called Israel an apartheid state, which has continuously been proven to be a lie.
Judith Butler, a UC Berkeley professor of Philosophy and Gender Studies, argued that although antisemitism exists and needs to be combated, “we must [fight antisemitism] in an international framework that allows all of the forms of hatred to be understood in relationship to each other.” In other words, to properly address any form of hate crimes, people must take into consideration all forms of hate. An example she gave was the recent marches against antisemitism in France, which she claimed are counterproductive because they only address antisemitism.
Since she sweepingly declared that all accusations of Palestinian antisemitism contribute to anti-Palestinian prejudice (which apparently is a subset of Islamophobia), such accusations are by definition illegitimate. This is how she justifies her rejection of the IHRA definition of antisemitism because of her false belief that it grants immunity to Israel.
Hypocritically, while criticizing protests against antisemitism for not including Islamophobia, she ignored the severe degree of antisemitism in Islamic or Palestinian societies, especially the extreme level of support the Palestinians displayed for the October 7th massacre or the rampant antisemitism ingrained in Pro-Palestinian activism.
Not only are the opinions espoused by the webinar morally bankrupt and devoid of reality, but they contribute to an anti-Israel atmosphere on campus and around the world, which could lead to even more violence against Jews and Israelis.
The post California College Professors Bashed Israel; Here’s What They Got Wrong first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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