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Colombia’s president compares Israeli military to Nazis as local protesters burn Israeli flag outside embassy

(JTA) — In the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, Colombian President Gustavo Petro tussled with Jewish leaders on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, and pro-Palestinian protesters burned an Israeli flag outside of the Israeli embassy in Bogotá.
Since the news of the attacks spread on Saturday, Gustavo Petro — a former member of the M19 armed guerilla movement and Colombia’s first left-wing president in decades — has tweeted and retweeted a steady stream of pro-Palestinian messages on his account on X. Still pinned to the top of his profile is a collage of photos of Palestinian children who he wrote were “murdered by the illegal occupation of their territory.”
“The only way for Palestinian children to sleep in peace is for Israeli children to sleep in peace,” his tweet from Saturday reads. “The only way for Israeli children to sleep in peace is for Palestinian children to sleep in peace. War will never achieve this, it can only be achieved by a peace agreement that respects international legality and the right of the two peoples to exist free.”
In another tweet, Petro responded to Israel’s ambassador to Colombia, Gali Dagan, who had told local media he hoped Petro would condemn Hamas’ attacks. “Terrorism is killing innocent children, whether in Colombia or Palestine,” Petro wrote.
Israel’s embassy in Bogotá did not respond to a request for comment. But in response to Petro’s tweets, Marcos Peckel, the director of Colombia’s Jewish communal organization — the Confederación de Comunidades Judías de Colombia — tweeted: “President @petrogustavo The innocent children who died today were Jews and Israelis massacred by Palestinian terrorists.”
Petro tweeted back: “Governments that get used to bombing children do not seem fair to me. God does not bomb children.
Petro also tweeted that Gaza is being “converted into a concentration camp.”
“Concentration camps are prohibited by international law and those who develop them become criminals against humanity,” he wrote in response to a video that shows Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant talking about the situation in Gaza.
In another response to the video of Gallant, who is shown saying that Gazans now lack electricity and a water supply, Petro tweeted: “This is what the Nazis said about the Jews. Democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics… This hate speech if it continues will only bring a holocaust.”
The Confederación de Comunidades Judías de Colombia released a statement about Petro’s comments.
“As the representative organization of the Jewish community of Colombia, we reject the obstinance of President Gustavo Petro in refusing to openly and without subterfuge condemn the savage aggression of which the State of Israel, a great friend of Colombia, was subjected to yesterday by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, as have done the vast majority of democracies of the world, including those governments, including those governed by the progressive and democratic forces that the president so admires,” the group wrote. “The recurring statements of President Petro on X seemed to be justifying the actions of Hamas, its war crimes.”
Vicky Chehebar Kassin, a commissioner for gender equality at the Latin America Jewish Congress, told JTA that “Despite the overwhelming concern we feel from reading our president’s justification of Hamas’ terrorism, we are comforted by the immense number of voices in Colombia who condemn these violations of human rights and war crimes, like the use of rape as a weapon of war, commonly used by terrorist groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram.”
Meanwhile, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside Israel’s embassy in Bogota on Saturday and burned an Israeli flag. Later that night, the embassy was defaced with graffiti showing a swastika, a Jewish star and the word “terror” written in Hebrew. More graffiti added “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine,” “Arafat lives” and “free Palestine.”
In response, Dagan tweeted, “Look at ‘the solidarity’ we receive below at the [Embassy] facilities.”
In contrast to Petro, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — who has been very critical of Israel — expressed solidarity with the Israeli victims on Saturday but crucially did not mention Hamas.
“I was shocked by the terrorist attacks carried out today against civilians in Israel, which caused numerous victims. In expressing my condolences to the families of the victims, I reaffirm my rejection of terrorism in any of its forms,” wrote Lula, whose previous government officially recognized a Palestinian state in 2010.
The flag of Israel was laser projected over the building of Brazil’s National Congress on Sunday in solidarity with the Israeli victims. The projection covered one of the two domes of the landmark building in Brasilia on Sunday, making the dome look somewhat like a big kippah.
“It’s a sign of solidarity and also in honor of all those killed, injured, and missing as a result of this cruel attack,” wrote Senator Davi Alcolumbre, a Jewish congressman who previously served as president of the Senate.
In Rio de Janeiro, the Municipal Chamber’s building was covered by a white and blue laser projection.
“Watching on TV the terrorist and barbaric attacks against Israel, I come to express my solidarity once again with all Israelis and the Jewish people,” Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes posted on social media with a picture of him with Shimon Peres, Israel’s late prime minister.
Marcus M. Gilban contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
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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.
The post ‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Huckabee Calls for Israeli Investigation Into ‘Criminal and Terrorist’ Killing of Palestinian-American in 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.
The post Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.