RSS
Harvard Can Keep Its Jewish Community Safe — When It Wants To
Harvard University student smiling while chanting “Palestine will be Arab” during a demonstration at Harry Elkins Widener Library. Photo: Israel War Room/Twitter
I felt physically safe. Thirty minutes into the September 22, 2024, Summit on Antisemitism, Zionism, and the Crisis in Higher Education at Harvard’s Sanders Theater, I was pretty confident there would be no violence against us.
Surprisingly, no one tried to disrupt the event — even though there were almost 1,000 proud Jews there (students, faculty, parents, alums, and other Zionists) who believed in the right of Israel, an existing country, to continue existing.
Dozens of police officers guarded us both inside and outside the building. There was an established perimeter, metal detectors, bag searches, bomb-sniffing dogs, and printed tickets that we had to display, even when returning from the bathroom. With alums and presumably donors in the room, as well as a group of renowned speakers, including Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt (Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism), Harvard wasn’t taking any chances. Nor were the event planners — Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA) with Harvard Hillel and Chabad.
It felt good to feel safe, and I was grateful to Harvard — until it fully sunk in that Jews now need a full security force to come back to our alma mater for an event about Jews and Israel.
And Harvard is the reason why this vast amount of security is needed.
Prior to the September 22 event, HJAA had already extensively documented the Jew and Israel hate on Harvard’s campus in its May 2024 report, which I co-authored. Its title is “The Soil Beneath the Encampments: How Israel and Jews Became the Focus of Hate at Harvard.”
Our research demonstrated that Harvard’s curriculum and education programs systemically planted and spread the seeds of this Jew-hatred well before October 7, 2023. Propelling this education were hundreds of millions in funding from Middle Eastern authoritarian countries and many hundreds of Harvard faculty members (and visiting instructors, fellows, staff, and graduate students), unified by little else than their virulent, obsessive hatred of the “Zionist, colonial state.”
Dozens of students that HJAA interviewed after October 7th told us that they were afraid for their physical safety on campus because of their Jewish identity or their sympathy for Israel. A student who lived on Harvard Yard next to the protests and encampments had explained, “There were days I was afraid to leave my room because there were people outside chanting, ‘End the occupation’ and ‘globalize the intifada.’”
“It’s scary to walk through the protest,” another student told us. “I usually walk through the back doors [or the] side entrances at [the] science center.”
An Israeli student said that she felt “safer in Israel than here. I just think everyone knows my identity, and the only thing that protects me from people hurting Israelis is that they have too much to lose because they are Harvard students.”
We heard from dozens of Jewish and pro-Israel students who said that even before the October 7 massacre, bullying, harassment, and exclusion by classmates, faculty, teaching fellows, and proctors was the norm for them.
When students reported these offenses, some Harvard administrators suggested mental health support — presumably because not all Jews were afraid, and, therefore, those who were afraid needed counseling, instead of help combating the actual problem. We can’t imagine Harvard applying that standard to other minority groups.
Perhaps my concern that our Sept. 22 event would be violently disrupted was excessive. No one actually threatened violence. The online posts opposing our event the night before only said “as Palestinians continue to be murdered by the Zionist state, Harvard props up the genocide. Harvard Chabad and Hillel have invited speakers who have directly participated in mass murder onto our campus,” and “Harvard continues its unwavering support of the Zionist entity. We will not stand for genocidaires on our campus.”
Then again, as the great Einat Wilf, a speaker at the Summit, previously explained, societies obsessively embracing anti-Zionism have often devolved into violence against their Jewish communities, with the most respected voices and institutions (universities included) lending such attacks the imprimatur of rationality and respectability.
I wonder how many Summit audience members owe their lives to an ancestor who was very afraid. My husband does. His maternal grandmother not only believed what the Jew-haters were saying in Europe in the 1930s, but she was afraid enough to act. She fled her home in Poland in 1939, never to see her 150 relatives again.
Harvard and other campuses by no means resemble 1938 Germany. But it is hard to fault us for early pattern recognition.
Jessica Levin, a Harvard graduate, is the Vice President for Education of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA) and the co-author with Zoe Bernstein of HJAA’s May 2024 report, “The Soil Beneath the Encampments: How Israel and Jews Became the Focus of Hate at Harvard.”
The post Harvard Can Keep Its Jewish Community Safe — When It Wants To first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
RSS
US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
RSS
US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.