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Campus Antisemitism Film by Rapper Kosha Dillz Gets New Release Date After Chicago Venue Cancels Screening
Israeli-American rapper Kosha Dillz performs his new song “Bring the family home,” his response to Hamas’s attacks, in front of a Jewish bakery in lower Manhattan, US, Oct. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Aleksandra Michalska.
An arts theater and non-profit organization in Chicago that supports independent films has rescheduled a screening of a documentary about campus antisemitism by Israeli-American rapper and comedian Kosha Dillz after abruptly canceling the event due to security concerns and out of “an abundance of caution.”
The filmmaker and activist, whose real name is Rami Matan Even-Esh, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday night that after discussions with the venue Facets, the screening of his film “Bring the Family Home” has been rescheduled for June 22. Facets apologized on May 16 for initially canceling the screening that was scheduled for three days earlier.
“Facets Film Forum respects the First Amendment, its protection of free speech and the right to express views through film,” board co-chairs Rich Moskal and Tamara Bohorquez said in a released statement. “We regret any unintended offense our decision to cancel a privately organized, public film screening caused the filmmaker, those seeking to attend the event, and members of our community who have experienced or witnessed oppression or discrimination in any form.”
Established in 1975, Facets is a non-profit organization that focuses on independent film exhibition, distribution, and education, according to its website. It rents out its venue in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood for private screenings and other events.
“Bring the Family Home” is a work-in-progress documentary about the explosion of antisemitism on US college campuses after the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel. The film features first-hand accounts of Jewish students who have experienced tensions, exclusion, and violence at their schools. Kosha Dillz interviewed anti-Israel protesters on college campuses and was sometimes harassed and attacked in the process. The film largely focuses on anti-Israel encampments and sentiments at DePaul University and Northwestern University. Facets is located down the street from DePaul.
Kosha Dillz self-funded “Bring the Family Home,” which shares the same name as a song he released in response to the Oct. 7 attack and kidnappings. It is his first documentary film.
The filmmaker and the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) together organized a premiere of an unfinished cut of the film at Facets on May 13. In a statement shared on Friday, Facets said it approved on April 18 a rental request to screen an unfinished version of the documentary at the downtown Chicago theater. The screening on May 13 was an opportunity to share the project with the community and also a chance to film the documentary’s final cut.
A mere three hours before the screening last week, however, Facets canceled the event. Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner that Facets said the decision was made due to safety and security concerns. The venue said their patrons and staff would not “feel safe” if the scheduled event took place, the filmmaker also noted in a social media post. However, Kosha Dillz believes the screening was canceled for other reasons.
“[Facets] says ‘safety’ and ‘concern’ but ultimately it’s about someone who is Israel[i]/Jewish that has a different point of view but can’t share the same space,” he told The Algemeiner. “They got pressure and were not aware of how BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions]/cancellation campaigns work … and the more popular something becomes, the more likely this will happen. I simply didn’t think it’d happen to me either.”
“To get inundated with the calls and threats, I don’t actually blame them [for canceling the screening],” he added.
Before formally telling Kosha Dillz about the screening being canceled, Facets also removed the marquee outside the venue that advertised “Bring the Family Home” because the venue was receiving complaints about the signage, according to the filmmaker.
“Exclusion is the new form of bigotry,” said Kosha Dillz. “Facets decision to cancel this film under pressure speaks volumes about the silent discrimination that exists in spaces that claim to champion diverse perspectives.”
The Chicago Jewish Alliance posted a series of messages on social media condemning the venue’s decision and also published an open letter blasting Facets following the cancellation, saying that the move left many members of Chicago’s Jewish community “hurt and stunned.” CJA additionally launched an email campaign, urging supporters to send emails to the theater’s leadership about the cancellation. It accused Facets of antisemitism and claimed the venue is “silencing Jews.”
“You canceled a Jewish event because it made people uncomfortable. That is antisemitism,” CJA wrote in an Instagram post. “The film was literally called ‘Bring the Family Home,’ about restoring peace. And you chose fear over integrity.”
“Facets claims to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. But those values seem to vanish when it comes to a proud, outspoken Jewish artist,” read the message that CJA drafted as part of its email campaign. “You didn’t cancel the film because of safety. You canceled it because of discomfort with Jewish visibility. This wasn’t just an inconvenience for dozens of attendees. It was a disgrace. And it sent a message loud and clear: Jewish advocacy is unwelcome at your theater.”
CJA claimed that Facets also blocked the Jewish group on social media. “This isn’t brave. It’s cowardice hiding behind a film reel,” the group wrote in a social media post. “You can’t claim to affirm our shared humanity while silencing our story.”
Facets explained in a released statement on May 16 that on the day of the screening, some community members contacted them and expressed “questions and concerns about the event.” Facets leadership added that while talking to Kosha Dillz when he arrived onsite for the screening earlier in the day, they were told that event organizers took a “precautionary step” and arranged private security for the film screening.
“However, as a very small nonprofit organization with limited staff, Facets determined that we were simply not prepared to provide the level of onsite staffing and coordination necessary to support that evening’s film screening,” the venue said. Facets explained that “in an abundance of caution,” it made the “difficult decision” to cancel the screening set to take place that night.
“In retrospect, we realize this was an overreaction and inconsistent with our mission,” Facets further noted. It concluded by saying that the leadership team at Facets is reviewing its “staffing protocols and training to ensure we are well-prepared to fulfill our commitment to support all future rental events.”
The venue posted a since-deleted statement on Instagram about the cancellation and said that it is “firmly not an antisemitic organization.”
“The cancellation of this event was not an act of antisemitism, but a decision rooted in our commitment to ensuring that hate has no place in our space. Based on the public posts made by Kosha Dillz and the overall tone surrounding the event, we determined that proceeding would not align with our values or our responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of our community,” Facets wrote in the post, without further elaborating about the specific issues it had with the event. “We reject antisemitism in all forms — just as we reject Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and any form of hate or dehumanization,” the venue also said in the now-deleted message.
Facets additionally claimed that its decision to cancel the screening “was made to uphold a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all who attend events at Facets.”
Kosha Dillz ended up premiering his documentary on May 13 at the Wilmette Theatre in the North Shore suburb of Chicago to a “packed house.” The screening was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with the filmmaker and DePaul University student Michael Kaminsky, who was violently attacked and faced threats on campus for voicing support for Israel. Kaminsky appears in “Bring the Family Home.”
Both Facets and the Wilmette Theatre have screened “No Other Land,” an Oscar-winning documentary that is critical of Israel’s military actions in the West Bank and depicts the Jewish state as violent land grabbers and oppressors.
Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner he is appreciative that Facets was open to having a dialogue about rescheduling the screening. “I am happy they are making it right and we are working through it,” he said.
“I think we are all handling it the best we can,” he added on Wednesday. “For myself, I can say it is difficult to handle as emotions are high for what I experienced. I don’t think we can force anyone to do anything. We offered to have a happy ending, and they agreed to screen our work in progress just as the[y] screen ‘No Other Land’ or another rental. Not sure we are gonna be best friends by tomorrow, but the collective gesture is symbolic in a world where people are othered and ostracized permanently.”
“We might be small compared to bigger theatres and filmmakers, but I think this is happening everywhere and people can refer to what we are doing to hold discussions,” he noted.
Facets did not respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment about the cancellation and rescheduling of the “Bring the Family Home” screening.
The Wilmette screening of “Bring the Family Home” will be featured in the documentary’s final cut, and the cancellation at Facets will also be documented in the film. Kosha Dillz plans to return to Chicago in the coming weeks to complete filming and speak with more students, and community members.
“We’re all on the same team of ‘let’s get along,’ ‘let’s stop the war,’ ‘let’s return the hostages,’” Kosha Dillz said in a released statement. “I just didn’t expect that message to be so radical that it would get me canceled at a 50-year-old institution for my very first film screening.”
Watch the trailer for “Bring the Family Home” below.
The post Campus Antisemitism Film by Rapper Kosha Dillz Gets New Release Date After Chicago Venue Cancels Screening first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks
University of California, Berkeley chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons, testifies at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 15, 2025. Photo: Allison Bailey via Reuters Connect.
The chancellor of University of California, Berkeley described a professor who cheered the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre across southern Israel a “fine scholar” during a congressional hearing held at Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Richard K. Lyons, who assumed the chancellorship in July 2024 issued the unmitigated praise while being questioned by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, which summoned him and the chief administrators of two other major universities to interrogate their handling of the campus antisemitism crisis.
Lyons stumbled into the statement while being questioned by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), who asked Lyons to describe the extent of his relationship and correspondence with Professor Ussama Makdisi, who tweeted in Feb. 2024 that he “could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7.”
“What do you think the professor meant,” McClain asked Lyons, to which the chancellor responded, “I believe it was a celebration of the terrorist attack on October 7.” McClain proceeded to ask if Lyons discussed the tweet with Makdisi or personally reprimanded him, prompting an exchange of remarks which concluded with Lyons’s saying, “He is a fine scholar.”
Lyon’s comment came after nearly three hours in which the group of university leaders — which included Dr. Robert Groves, president of Georgetown University, and Dr. Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) — offered gaffe-free, deliberately worded answers to the members’ questions to avoid eliciting the kind of public relations ordeal which prematurely ended the tenures of two Ivy League presidents in 2024 following an education committee held in Dec. 2023.
Rep. McClain later criticized Lyons on social media, calling his comment “totally disgraceful.” She added, “Faculty must be held accountable and Jewish students deserve better.”
CUNY chancellor Rodriguez also triggered a rebuke from the committee members in which he was also described as a “disgrace.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, CUNY campuses have been lambasted by critics as some of the most antisemitic institutions of higher education in the United States. Last year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved half a dozen investigations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, one of which involved Jewish students who were pressured into saying that Jews are White people who should be excluded from discussions about social justice.
During Tuesday’s hearing Rodriguez acknowledged that antisemitic incidents continue to disrupt Jewish academic life, disclosing that 84 complaints of antisemitism have been formally reported to CUNY administrators since 2024. 15 were filed in 2025 alone, but CUNY, he said, has published only 18 students for antisemitic conduct. Rodriguez went on to denounce efforts to pressure CUNY into adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, saying, “I have repudiated BDS and I have said there’s no place for BDS at the City University of New York.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) remarked, however, that Rodriguez has allegedly done little to address antisemitism in the CUNY faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which has passed several resolutions endorsing BDS and whose members, according to 2021 ruling rendered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), discriminated against Professor Jeffrey Lax by holding meetings on Shabbat to prevent him and other Jews from attending them.
“The PSC does not speak for the City University of New York,” Rodriquez protested. “We’ve been clear on our commitment against antisemitism and against BDS.”
Later, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose grilling of higher education officials who appear before the committee has created several viral moments, rejected Rodriguez’s responses as disingenuous.
“It’s all words, no action. You have failed the people of New York,” she told the chancellor. “You have failed Jewish students in New York State, and it is a disgrace.”
Following the hearing, The Lawfare Project, legal nonprofit which provides legal services free of charge to Jewish victims of civil rights violations, applauded the education committee for publicizing antisemitism at CUNY.
“I am thankful for the many members of Congress who worked with us to ensure that the deeply disturbing facts about antisemitism at CUNY were brought forward in this hearing,” Lawfare Project litigation director Zipora Reich said in a press release. “While it is deeply frustrating to hear more platitudes and vague promises from CUNY’s leadership, we are encouraged to see federal lawmakers demanding accountability.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Huckabee Calls for Israeli Investigation Into ‘Criminal and Terrorist’ Killing of Palestinian-American in West Bank
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee on Monday urged Israeli officials to swiftly investigate the killing of Saif Musallet, a 20-year-old American citizen who was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was visiting family in the West Bank town of Sinjil.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Huckabee wrote on social media, in what is one of his strongest condemnations of Israeli settler violence since he was appointed by President Donald Trump in November 2024. “Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
Musallet, a Florida native, was reportedly attacked on July 11 by a group of Israelis while accompanying relatives on family-owned farmland near Ramallah. His family says he was severely beaten and denied medical attention for nearly three hours before succumbing to his injuries. Another Palestinian man, 23-year-old Mohammad al-Shalabi, was shot and killed during the same incident, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli authorities said the violence followed an alleged rock-throwing incident that left two Israelis lightly wounded, a common occurrence in the West Bank which las left scores of Israelis civilians wounded and some killed. The Israel Defense Forces stated they used non-lethal crowd dispersal methods during the clash. The IDF says the incident is under investigation. Two Israeli minors were arrested following the attack, though according to Israeli media reports, neither of them is a murder suspect, and they were subsequently released to house arrest.
Musallet had traveled to the West Bank in early June to visit relatives and potentially meet a bride. Raised in Port Charlotte, Florida, he had recently co-founded an ice cream business in Tampa with his family. His death comes amid an escalation in settler-related violence across the West Bank, which has intensified since the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and the Israeli military’s ongoing campaign in Gaza.
Huckabee has historically defended Israeli settlement activity and has vowed to serve as an unwavering defender of the Jewish state.
Human rights groups and local activists say Musallet’s killing is part of a growing pattern of impunity for attacks on Palestinians, including American citizens. No Israeli suspects have been indicted in several high-profile deaths of Palestinian Americans in recent years, including journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea.
U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL), who represents Tampa, joined calls for an investigation. The State Department said it is aware of the incident and is providing consular support to the family but deferred further comment to Israeli authorities.
Musallet’s funeral was held Sunday in his family’s hometown of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya. His relatives say they are demanding justice not only for Saif, but for all Americans caught in what they describe as an increasingly lawless situation in the occupied West Bank.
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Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations
Miloon Kothari, member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the first report of the Commission. UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré
The Commission of Inquiry (COI), a controversial United Nations commission investigating Israel for nearly five years, has collapsed after all three of its members abruptly resigned days after the United States sanctioned a senior UN official over antisemitism.
Commission chair Navi Pillay resigned on July 8, citing health concerns and scheduling conflicts. Her fellow commissioners, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, followed suit days later. While none of the commissioners directly linked their resignations to the U.S. sanctions, the timing suggests mounting American pressure played a decisive role.
The resignations came just one day before the Trump administration announced sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. Albanese was sanctioned over what the State Department called a “pattern of antisemitic and inflammatory rhetoric.” She had previously claimed that the U.S. was controlled by a “Jewish lobby” and questioned Israel’s right to self-defense. The sanctions bar her from entering the U.S. and freeze any assets under American jurisdiction.
The resignations mark a major victory for critics who have long viewed the inquiry as biased and politically motivated.
Watchdog groups, including Geneva-based UN Watch, celebrated the swift collapse of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), which they say had long operated with an open mandate to target Israel. “This is a watershed moment of accountability,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “The COI was built on bias and sustained by hatred. Its fall is a victory for human rights, not a defeat.”
The COI had faced heavy criticism since its formation in 2021. In July 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari, made comments about the undue influence of a so-called “Jewish lobby” on the media, said the COI would “have to look at issues of settler colonialism.”
“Apartheid itself is a very useful paradigm, so we have a slightly different approach, but we will definitely get to it,” he added.
The Commission was established in 2021 year following the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas group in May. COI is the first UN commission to ever be granted an indefinite period of investigation, which has drawn criticism from the US State Department, members of US Congress, and Jewish leaders across the world.
Following the resignations, Council President Jürg Lauber invited member states to nominate replacements by August 31. However, it is unclear whether the commission will be reconstituted or quietly shelved. UN Watch and other groups have urged the council to disband the COI entirely, calling it irreparably biased.
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