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Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere
Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
My bet is that both Ruth R. Wisse and The Wall Street Journal received more than a handful of nasty comments and threats since her opinion essay (“Harvard is an Islamic Outpost”) appeared in the WSJ last week.
But we should thank her for this powerful piece, where she documents the slow penetration and infestation of Islamist ideology into Harvard and academia at large. This has rapidly accelerated in classrooms and through student action since October 7, 2023. The same process has been happening on numerous other campuses around the US, most prominently at Columbia University.
The ensuing chaos, encampments, limiting campus access to Jewish students and faculty, calls for destruction of Israel and so much more, were encouraged by some campus administrators and faculty as expressions of free speech.
But this conduct has finally been called out for what it is — support for terrorist groups, and an assault on the rights and safety of Jewish students. And as Ruth Wisse compared celebrations of October 7 to Kristallnacht pogroms, she noted that “some people were forced to confront what they tried to ignore.” Some, however, did not — and continued to claim that support for October 7, and calls for genocide against Jewish students, were protected as free speech.
It is incomprehensible that the previous administration let radical leftists, radical Islamists, and their supporters have free rein when it came to endangering the civil rights of Jewish students, and it is incomprehensible that the few student leaders of these antisemitic and anti-Zionist demonstrations were considered heroes and freedom fighters.
This would not have happened if the hate had been directed against any other minority group besides Jews.
Now, Columbia, Harvard, and other universities are grappling with the consequences of their inaction. They do not want to lose the huge amount of Federal money they receive, but they do not want to be seen as acquiescing to Trump and people like him. That might be the reason why Harvard President Alan Garber is finalizing a task force dealing with antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment at Harvard. Unfortunately, this task force is diminished by a concurrent task force “on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.”
Harvard still refuses to admit that it has a unique problem regarding discrimination against Jews.
And as for foreign students who have been allowed to support terrorism in the streets of America and on their campuses, it is tragic — if not a travesty — that they are allowed to extol support for radical and terroristic ideologies that seek to destroy our way of life. They often do not appreciate the freedom they experience here, or tolerate any viewpoints that differ from their own. They do not express gratitude for the opportunity to obtain a great education that they can take back home to improve lives in their countries, but are instead seeking to misuse their visas to advocate for terrorism.
It is a pity that this is lost on some of the best universities in the US. Kol Hakavod to Ruth Wisse.
Dr. Jaroslava Halper has been a professor of pathology at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA for many years. She escaped from communist Prague because of antisemitism, and lack of freedom and free speech. The gradual increase of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in certain circles in her second homeland, and the devastating October 7 massacre by Hamas, led her to realize that more active engagement is necessary to combat antisemitism, including anti-Zionism.
The post Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Japanese Hotel Asks Israeli Guest to Sign Pledge Denying Involvement in War Crimes
Skyline of Kyoto at night. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A hotel in the Japanese city of Kyoto defended itself last week after an Israeli guest informed the Israeli embassy in Japan that staff had insisted that he sign a statement saying he had not engaged in war crimes, prompting a visit from officials at the city’s Medical and Health Center.
The unnamed Israeli traveler, a member of the Jewish state’s Navy reserves and a combat medic, told the Israeli publication Ynet that after showing his passport to check-in at the Wind Villa Guesthouse, “the clerk handed me this form and told me that without signing it, I wouldn’t be allowed to check in.” He called the statement “ridiculous and absurd,” noting that he told the clerk, “We don’t kill women and children. Why would we do that?”
The tourist initially resisted signing until being pressured to do so, saying that “in the end, I decided to sign it because I have nothing to hide,” and that “the statement is true — I did not commit any war crimes, and Israeli soldiers do not commit war crimes. I signed because I didn’t want to create problems, and because this form means nothing.”
The hotel posted the document on X titled “Pledge of Non-Involvement in War Crimes” and then sought to explain its company policy over a series of nine threaded, Japanese-language posts on the social media platform.
The pledge requires guests to sign “I have never committed war crimes,” and then the form offers such examples as “attacks on civilians (children, women, etc.)” and “sexual, violence, forced displacement, or looting.”
In addition, the hotel wants those staying to affirm “I pledge to continue complying with international law and humanitarian law and to never engage in war crimes in any form.”
Wind Villa disputed that it required guests to sign or that it singled out its customer because of his nationality.
“1) We ask all guests who are suspected of having committed war crimes to sign a pledge. 2) It is not discriminatory because it is not only targeted at Israelis,” the hotel wrote on X. “3) Filling out the form is optional, and not filling it out will not mean you will be denied accommodation.”
Wind Villa further justified its actions on the basis that “Israel has a universal conscription system, and the possibility that young men in particular will be involved in military operations after Oct. 8, 2023, cannot be ignored,” referring to the day after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel and launched the current war in Gaza. It also stated that “so far, there have been no guests who have refused to fill out the pledge form, and there have been no cases of guests being refused accommodation. Therefore, there is no violation of the Inns and Hotels Act.”
The Wind Villa is not the only hotel to become embroiled in controversy after allegedly discriminating against Israelis amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Last year, for example, an Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at the Novotel Paris Porte de Versailles after an attendant noticed their Israeli passport.
The post Japanese Hotel Asks Israeli Guest to Sign Pledge Denying Involvement in War Crimes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Favors Upgrading US Free Trade Deal, Economy Minister Says
Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat gestures during an interview with Reuters at the 13th WTO ministerial conference, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Abdel Hadi Ramahi
Israel has proposed revamping its four-decade-old free trade agreement with the United States, its economy minister said on Monday, as it looks to head off tariffs from its closest ally.
An upgraded trade pact would ease restrictions on data sharing that would enable significant collaboration, Economy Minister Nir Barkat told Reuters at a conference in Jerusalem.
He said Israel had already agreed to several requests, which included lifting tariffs on US agricultural goods.
Most US goods are already exempt from Israeli tariffs under a 1985 trade deal. The US. is Israel‘s biggest trading partner with bilateral trade worth an estimated $37 billion in 2024, according to US trade data. Last year, Israel had a $7.4 billion trade surplus with the United States.
President Donald Trump’s administration this month announced sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, including a 17 percent levy on Israeli imports, before saying there would be a 90-day pause with a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports to allow for trade negotiations.
Prior to the sweeping tariffs announcement, Israel said it would lift all remaining import duties on US goods and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump in Washington.
The post Israel Favors Upgrading US Free Trade Deal, Economy Minister Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Three Teens Convicted in Sweden Over Shooting Attack on Israeli Defense Firm
Swedish police use a bomb-disposal robot at a shooting scene near an Israeli target, which the national broadcaster said was a unit of Israeli company Elbit Systems, in Gothenburg, Sweden, Oct. 10, 2024. Photo: TT News Agency/Adam Ihse via REUTERS
Three teenagers were convicted in Sweden on Monday of being involved in a shooting attack on an office of Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems in Gothenburg last year.
A fourth boy, who was accused of actually carrying out the attack by opening fire at the entrance to the building in October, was 13 at the time – too young for him to stand trial under Swedish law.
No one was injured in the shooting. The verdict did not mention any motive for the attack.
One boy who was 15 at the time was found guilty of instigating attempted murder and sentenced to 20 months of juvenile detention, the Gothenburg District Court said in its verdict.
The court said he had persuaded the perpetrator to shoot, knowing there was a considerable risk someone could be killed. The boy’s lawyer declined to comment on the verdict.
The two other teenage defendants were acquitted of being accessory to attempted murder but were found guilty of the lesser charges of being accessory to threats and weapons crime and of involving an underage person.
Swedish police in May last year said they had stepped up security around Israeli and Jewish interests in the Nordic country after officers on patrol heard suspected gunshots near Israel’s embassy in Stockholm.
Sweden has seen an epidemic of gun violence in recent years, primarily driven by criminal gangs. The country’s minimum age for criminal responsibility is 15.
The post Three Teens Convicted in Sweden Over Shooting Attack on Israeli Defense Firm first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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