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George Washington University Students Hold ‘Jewish Pride’ Rally as Pro-Hamas Encampment Remains on Campus
“Show Your Jewish Pride” rally at George Washington University G Street Park on May 2, 2024. Photo: Dion J. Pierre
Washington, DC — George Washington University (GW) was the stage of two dueling demonstrations on Thursday as Jewish students held a rally just a block away from the school’s pro-Hamas encampment, an illegal occupation of school property which has become an emblem of surging campus antisemitism in America.
“When Jewish students across the country are harassed — yelled at, spat on, concerned, and blocked from the very places they have a right to be — we respond with songs of hope and humanity, as a community,” GW senior Sabrina Soffer told a crowd of hundreds that gathered in blistering heat. “This is our defiance. We respond to slurs by mobs wishing our existence away by flying our flags high — tapestries of our past and present, our people and purpose.”
The rally, titled “Show Your Jewish Pride,” was a student-led initiative organized by a consortium of student groups, including GW for Israel (GWI), Students Supporting Israel (SSI), and the Jewish Students Association (JSA). Soffer, their principal leader and organizer, has appeared all over national media to spread awareness of rising antisemitism, and, last year, she delivered a soaring speech before hundreds of thousands of people at the March for Israel in Washington, DC.
Nearly a dozen speakers addressed the crowd on Thursday as Israeli and American flags rippled in the wind. One of them, Leat Corinne Unger, drove to Washington from New York to advocate the release of the more than 100 Israeli hostages still held captive in Gaza by the Hamas terrorist group. One of them is her cousin, Omer Shem Tov, who was abducted while attending the Nova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7.
“He is my cousin. He was 20 when he was kidnapped. He celebrated his 21st birthday three weeks into captivity, and it’s been 209 days since we last heard from him,” Unger told The Algemeiner during an interview. “It’s a nightmare that has lasted for 209 days. I hope that everyone will remember that we’re all fighting numerous battles on many fronts, but the most important priority is to bring our brothers and sisters home. I don’t think we can be whole, healed, and proud until they’re home. Even after Omer gets home, if there is anyone who is still there, I’m going to be fighting for them.”
Unger added that Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel upended her life.
“It changed me and put everything into perspective,” she continued. “I’m no longer a speech pathologist. I’m no longer a learning specialist. I’m no longer a director of a school. I’m now a full fledged advocate of my people.”
Since Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents have reached record levels around the world, including in the US and Europe.
Another speaker on Thursday, pro-Israel activist and social media influencer Lizzy Savetsky, told The Algemeiner that showing solidarity with Jewish students has become her life’s mission.
“I think this is the most important work that I could be doing right now,” she said. “Fighting antisemitism is overwhelming. It’s a global issue, but what we’re seeing on college campuses right now and the lack of protection and the lack of advocacy for Jewish students is shocking and extremely disturbing. So I just want to be there for them and let them know they’re not alone. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be a Jewish student on campus right now.”
Following the event, Savetsky resolved to walk through GW’s pro-Hamas encampment and invited The Algemeiner to join her. Wearing a t-shirt that said “Shalom” — which means “peace” in Hebrew and is often used as a greeting — she was promptly noticed by two protesters who proceeded to follow her every step while lodging accusations of anti-Palestinian racism. Others soon noticed her presence, and the mass of students and faculty erupted into chants of “Zionist go home!”
Savetsky was accompanied by Lauren Kagen, a social media director for the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC).
“What was most shocking was the presence of faculty,” Savetsky told The Algemeiner after the encounter. “This is supposed to be an educational institution, and how can Jewish students feel safe attending their classes when their professors are out there protesting against them? But I am so proud of our people and who we are. Our love will prevail over their hate, and seeing all of that just encourages me to keep on fighting.”
The Metropolitan Police Department has declined to help George Washington University remove the pro-Hamas encampment from campus, according to numerous reports. Republican lawmakers have called for the students to be arrested.
“They are in blatant violation of university policy, but we won’t be intimidated,” GW senior Skyler Sieradzky said.
GW has been one of many college campuses to be engulfed in the anti-Israel demonstrations that have swept across the country.
For over two weeks, university students have been amassing in the hundreds at a growing number of schools, taking over sections of campuses by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.
The protests initially erupted across the US but have since spread to university campuses around the world, primarily in the West. The Algemeiner has reported on how in many instances the faculty, rather than the students, have been the key forces driving the demonstrations and keeping university presidents on their heels.
The protests have erupted amid a surge in antisemitism on university campuses. In the months since Oct. 7, anti-Zionist activists inspired by Hamas’ barbarity have bullied and even assaulted Jewish students while demanding that colleges implement a full boycott of Israel — an action that would purge schools of Jews and Zionists, experts have told The Algemeiner. According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents on college campus rose 321 percent in 2023, disrupting the academic lives of Jewish students and leaving them uncertain about the fate of the American Jewish community.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post George Washington University Students Hold ‘Jewish Pride’ Rally as Pro-Hamas Encampment Remains on Campus first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday

US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg

FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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