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Cornell University Pursuing Disciplinary Charges Against Anti-Zionist Hecklers of Pro-Peace Event

Cornell University anti-Israel protesters set up encampment on the University’s Arts Quad, May 3, 2024. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
Cornell University has initiated disciplinary proceedings against over a dozen anti-Zionist students, staff, and non-Cornell-affiliated individuals who disrupted a “Pathways to Peace” campus event that was held to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians on March 10.
According to a statement by interim president Michael Kotlikoff, 17 protesters organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) heckled and jeered a panel comprising “Middle East leaders and US ambassadors,” violating the “educational process” and the university’s community standards. No sooner had they started than they “were swiftly removed,” Kotlikoff said.
Cornell University Police identified 17 people responsible for what Kotlikoff called an “unacceptable disruption.”
Nine students will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for “appropriate action,” he added, which includes the possibility of suspension. Staff members involved in the disruption would be referred “for disciplinary actions through Human Resources,” while outside disrupters were to be issued “issued persona non grata status, barring them from Cornell’s campus.”
As an additional measure, Kotlikoff has also imposed an interim suspension on SJP for its orchestrating the unauthorized protest. The move could, on paper, deactivate the group for the remainder of the semester.
“Events like Pathways to Peace represent our ambition to embrace diverse viewpoints and engage in difficult conversations,” he said. “Cornell must be a place where all voices can be heard and none are silenced.”
Cornell University and Students for Justice in Palestine have sparred all academic year, with SJP pushing the limits of what constitutes appropriate conduct. In Sept., school officials suspended over a dozen students who disrupted a career fair, an action which saw them “physically” breach the area by “[pushing] police out of the way.” In Feb., the university amnestied some of the protesters, granting them “alternate resolutions” which terminated their suspensions, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
In January, anti-Zionist agitators at Cornell kicked off the spring semester with an act of vandalism which defamed Israel as an “occupier” and practitioner of “apartheid.” The students drew a blistering response from Kotlikoff, who said that “acts of violence, extended occupations of buildings, or destruction of property (including graffiti), will not be tolerated and will be subject to immediate public safety response,” but the university has declined to say how it will deal with the matter since identifying at least one of the culprits in Feb.
Anti-Zionists convulsed Cornell University’s campus during the 2023-2024 academic year, engaging in activities that are without precedent in the school’s 159-year history. Three weeks after Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel, now-former student Patrick Dai threatened to perpetrate heinous crimes against members of the school’s Jewish community, including mass murder and rape. Cornell students also occupied an administrative building and held a “mock trial” in which they convicted school president Martha Pollack of complicity in “apartheid” and “genocide against Palestinian civilians.” Meanwhile, history professor Russell Rickford called Hamas’s barbarity on Oct. 7 “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian rally held on campus.
By the end of the year, Pollack announced her resignation as president of the university, a decision which followed the installment of an illegal “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the campus in which pro-Hamas students had lived and protested the university’s investments in companies linked to Israel.
Despite some inconsistencies, the Kotlikoff administration has pursued campus lawbreakers. In Feb., it ordered the arrest of a fourth individual, Sumitra P. Pandit, involved in the Sept. career fair protest, pressing charges for obstruction and unlawful assembly.
“Pandita was identified as one of several people refusing to compl with lawful orders of the police to remain outside…and physically forcing their way past officers who were preventing the group’s entrance to the building,” Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) said on Feb. 7. “The investigation into the incident is continuing. All defendants charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Cornell University Pursuing Disciplinary Charges Against Anti-Zionist Hecklers of Pro-Peace Event first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

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
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”