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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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Merz Says Criticism of Israel in Germany Has Become Pretext for Hatred of Jews
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends celebrations of the newly completed renovation of Reichenbach Strasse synagogue in Munich, Germany, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelika Warmuth
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.
Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
“‘Criticism of Israel‘ and the crudest perpetrator-victim reversal is increasingly a pretext under which the poison of antisemitism is spread,” he said.
Germany is Israel‘s second biggest weapons supplier after the US, and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
Last month, however, Germany suspended exports of weaponry that could be used in the Gaza Strip because of Israel‘s plan to expand its operations there – the first time united Germany had acknowledged denying military support to its long-time ally.
The decision followed mounting pressure from the public and his junior coalition partner over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In his speech in Berlin on Wednesday, Merz mentioned his about-turn, saying that criticism of the Israeli government “must be possible,” but added: “Our country suffers damage to its own soul when this criticism becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews, or if it even leads to the demand that Germany should turn its back on Israel.”
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Israeli Anti-Missile Laser System ‘Iron Beam’ Ready for Military Use This Year
Iron Beam laser defense system. Photo: X/Twitter screenshot
A low-cost, high-power laser-based system aimed at destroying incoming missiles has successfully completed testing and will be ready for operational use by the military later this year, Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Co-developed by Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems, “Iron Beam” will complement Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow anti–missile systems, which have been used to intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, by Hezbollah from Lebanon, and by the Houthis in Yemen.
Current rocket interceptors cost at least $50,000 each while the cost is negligible for lasers, which focus primarily on smaller missiles and drones. “Now that the Iron Beam’s performance has been proven, we anticipate a significant leap in air defense capabilities through the deployment of these long-range laser weapon systems,” the ministry said.
After years in development, the ministry said it tested Iron Beam for several weeks in southern Israel and proved its effectiveness in a “complete operational configuration by intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios.”
The first systems are set to be integrated into the military‘s air defenses by year-end, it said.
Shorter-range and less powerful laser systems are already in use.
Iron Beam is a ground-based, high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, and UAVs.
“This is the first time in the world that a high-power laser interception system has reached full operational maturity,” said defense ministry Director-General Amir Baram.
Rafael Chairman Yuval Steinitz said that Iron Beam, which is built with the company’s adaptive optics technology, “will undoubtedly be a game-changing system with unprecedented impact on modern warfare.”
For its part, Elbit was working on the development of high-power lasers for other military applications, “first and foremost an airborne laser that holds the potential for a strategic change in air defense capabilities,” CEO Bezhalel Machlis said.
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Iran and European Ministers Make Little Progress as Renewed UN Sanctions Loom, Diplomats Say
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian and European ministers made little progress in talks on Wednesday aimed at preventing international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program being reimposed at the end of this month, two European diplomats and one Iranian diplomat said.
Britain, France, and Germany, the so-called E3, launched a 30-day process at the end of August to reimpose UN sanctions. They set conditions for Tehran to meet during September to convince them to delay the “snapback mechanism.”
The offer by the E3 to put off the snapback for up to six months to enable serious negotiations is conditional on Iran restoring access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium – and engaging in talks with the US.
The status of Iran‘s enriched uranium stocks has been unknown since Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.
TALKS WITH EUROPEANS FOLLOWED ACCORD WITH IAEA
Wednesday’s phone call between the E3 foreign ministers, the European Union foreign policy chief, and their Iranian counterpart followed an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency last week on resuming cooperation, including, in principle, the inspection of nuclear sites.
Several Western diplomats have said, however, that the accord is not detailed enough, sets no timeframe and leaves the door open for Iran to continue stonewalling.
There has also been no indication of a willingness from Iran to resume talks with Washington.
Iran says it is still refining how it will work with the IAEA.
In the call, Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi expressed willingness to reach a “fair and balanced” solution, according to a statement on Iranian state media.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered into dialogue with the International Atomic Energy Agency with a responsible approach … on how Iran will fulfil its safeguards obligations in the new situation … It is now the turn of the opposing parties to use this opportunity to continue the diplomatic path and prevent an avoidable crisis,” Araqchi said.
GERMANY SAYS IRAN HAS NOT MET CONDITIONS
Germany’s foreign ministry said on X that the E3 had “underscored that Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to reach an extension of Resolution 2231,” adding that sanctions would be reimposed unless there were “concrete actions in the coming days.”
The sanctions would hit Iran‘s financial, banking, hydrocarbons, and defense sectors.
Four European diplomats and an Iranian official said before the call that the most likely scenario would be the E3 going ahead with a reimposition of sanctions.
An Iranian diplomat said Tehran had reiterated that it would retaliate if the decision to restore UN sanctions was made.
“The understanding in Tehran is that the UN sanctions will be reimposed. That is why Tehran refuses to give concessions,” an Iranian official said.
The West says the advancement of Iran‘s nuclear program goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran says it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.