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Harvard Student Group Attends Frenzied Pro-Hamas Protest at White House
An anti-Israel protester burns an Israeli flag in front of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on June 8, 2024. Photo: Aashish Kiphayet/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
Members of a prominent Harvard University student group attended a virulently anti-Israel protest in Washington, DC that converged on the White House over the weekend.
Harvard’s African and African American Resistance Organization (AFRO) sent a cohort of members to attend a Saturday demonstration outside the White House to protest Israel’s military operations against the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The group claimed it attended the mass protest to demand an end to what it called a “genocide” of Palestinians.
“AFRO participated in another national mobilization of over 100,000 people against the genocide of the Palestinian people. The Biden administration’s red line was a fiction, and Israel continues to lay siege on Rafah,” the group wrote on Instagram.
“If the White House will not drawn a red line, the people will continue to draw their’s [sic] until the complete and total liberation of Palestine,” AFRO continued.
Saturday’s anti-Israel protest in the US capital drew roughly 100,000 people from cities across the country. The protest, organized by the terrorist-connected Palestinian Youth Movement, attracted many demonstrators who explicitly expressed support for violence against Israel and the United States.
Warning: The below tweet contains explicit language.
Protester holding a “Stand with Hamas” outside the White House @FreeBeacon pic.twitter.com/Vqpb7gFexH
— Tanner Nau (@tannernau15) June 8, 2024
Several attendants hoisted signs urging Americans to support Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza by slaughtering roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Other protesters called for Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim terrorist group based in Lebanon, to “kill another Zionist.”
A protester named Michael from Colorado praised the Oct. 7th terrorist attacks as a “brilliant raid” and referred to Hamas as “armed resistance.”
“I support by any means necessary what Hamas can do to resist the genocide that Israel and the Jews who do it. Yeah, the Jews,” Michael said.
Harvard AFRO, a self-described “militant” activist group which advocates on behalf of black students, has faced an onslaught of allegations of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Three days after the massacre, AFRO signed onto a letter condemning Israel and holding the Jewish state “entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” AFRO has helped spearhead many of the anti-Israel campus protests at Harvard in the eight months following the terrorist attacks on Israel. The group has also demanded that the university divest from companies tied to Israel and terminate partnerships with Israeli academic institutions. In an interview with Hamas-supporting journalist Rania Khalek, leaders of the group dismissed criticism of their conduct as “racist” and “anti-black.”
Harvard University has received widespread criticism over its soft-handed approach to antisemitic incidents on campus. Critics skewered the administration for allowing students to repeat chants calling for the elimination of the Jewish state. University donors, some of whom are Jewish, vowed to stop giving money to the school in response. The controversy over the university’s campus climate intensified when former Harvard President Claudine Gay told a US congressional committee that calling for a genocide of Jews living in Israel would only violate school rules “depending on the context.” Gay was subsequently removed from the presidency after conservative news outlets surfaced her long history of repeated plagiarism.
Alan Garber took the helm from Gay and assembled an antisemitism task force in January to address the concerns of Jewish students and alumni. One of the task force co-chairs Derek Penslar, signed a letter accusing Israel of being an apartheid state. Another co-chair, business school professor Raffaella Sadun, immediately resigned for undisclosed reasons a month later.
The post Harvard Student Group Attends Frenzied Pro-Hamas Protest at White House first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rubio Heads to Israel Amid Tensions Among US Middle East Allies
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to members of the media, before departing for Israel at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, September 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio headed to Israel on Saturday, amid tensions with fellow US allies in the Middle East over Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to reporters before departure, Rubio reiterated that the US and President Donald Trump were not happy about the strikes.
Rubio said the US relationship with Israel would not be affected, but that he would discuss with the Israelis how the strike would affect Trump’s desire to secure the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, get rid of the terrorists and end the Gaza war.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them. We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” he said.
“There are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once. And there is still the hard work ahead once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people the quality of life that they all want.”
Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain next week.
Hamas still holds 48 hostages, and Qatar has been one of the mediators, along with the US, trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would include the captives’ release.
On Tuesday, Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha. US officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.
The strike on the territory of a close US ally sparked broad condemnation from other Arab states and derailed ceasefire and hostage talks brokered by Qatar.
On Friday, Rubio met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House, underscoring competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip. Later that day, US President Donald Trump held dinner with the prime minister in New York.
Rubio’s trip comes ahead of high-level meetings at the United Nations in New York later this month. Countries including France and Britain are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, a move opposed by Israel.
Washington says such recognition would bolster Hamas and Rubio has suggested the move could spur the annexation of the West Bank sought by hardline members of the Israeli government.
ON Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, the United Arab Emirates warned that this would cross a red line and undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that normalized UAE-Israel relations in 2020.
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Netanyahu Posts Message Appearing to Confirm Hamas Leaders Survived Doha Strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a statement posted to social media on Saturday evening, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Qatar-based leadership of Hamas, reiterating that the jihadist group had to regard for the lives of Gazans and represented an obstacle to ending the war and releasing the Israelis it held hostage.
The wording of Netanyahu’s message appeared to confirm that the strike targeting the Hamas leaders in Doha was not crowned with success.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” wrote Netanyahu. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.” He added that “Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
Israel is yet to officially comment on the result of the strike, which has incurred widespread international criticism.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.