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Hate Exploded Across College Campuses Surrounding the October 7 Anniversary
The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University, located in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on April 25, 2024. Photo: Reuters Connect
October’s anti-Israel protests were focused on the tragic anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 massacres, and the Israeli response that began the now year-long war. Campus protests included student walkouts, building takeovers, and vandalism at numerous universities including Columbia University, Pomona College, Tufts University, the University of Virginia, and Princeton University.
At Concordia University, demonstrators were dispersed with tear gas after breaking windows of university buildings.
The homes of the University of Michigan president and Chief Information Office were also vandalized, as was the office of the Detroit Jewish Federation. McGill University canceled classes for October 7, apparently for fear of widespread celebrations of the Hamas massacre. In New York City a Jewish counterprotestor was assaulted as pro-Hamas protests spread across Manhattan.
Other October protests included the attempted blockade of the New York Stock Exchange by 200 Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) protestors, which resulted in arrests, the vandalizing of offices across Britain belonging to the asset management firm Allianz, as well as a factory making parts for F-35 jets.
Bomb threats were called into New York area synagogues on Rosh Hashanah, while antisemitic materials were distributed across the Detroit area. Protestors outside a Jewish cultural center in London chanted “Palestine Is Not Your Home” and accused participants in an October 7th event sponsored by Haaretz featuring both left wing Israeli and Palestinian speakers of being “genocide supporters.”
Attacks on Jews and Jewish sites were common in October. These included the vandalizing of a Chabad sukkah in Pittsburgh by two Muslims males who were then indicted by the US Justice Department. More serious were a New York City car ramming attack aimed at a visibly identifiable Jew on Yom Kippur and a Chicago area shooting of a Jewish male on Simchat Torah, also by Muslim males.
The campus and other protests have been underpinned by a variety of funding and organizing groups. One key group is Samidoun, which was sanctioned as a “sham charity” and front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) by the US Treasury Department in October. Canada jointly announced similar sanctions on the Vancouver-based organization.
Samidoun has provided training to and jointly sponsored campus and other protests with Within Our Lifetime, Palestine Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other anti-Israel and pro-Hamas organizations.
In addition to the aforementioned college protests, pro-Hamas vandalism was also noted at American University, Georgetown University, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Pennsylvania, where signs were defaced with the words “Sinwar lives,” and where protestors later broke into a board of trustees meeting to shout their demands.
Anti-Israel protestors also disrupted a talk by George Washington University’s president during alumni weekend.
More ominous were statements from a variety of student groups in support of violence. A statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said that they “support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.”
The school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter quoted dead Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s objectives “that Operation al-Aqsa Flood was launched with the objective to liberate Palestinian prisoners, the holy sites, and land of Palestine that has been occupied by the Zionist entity since 1948, in the context of the escalation of imperialist violence against Palestinians in scale and brutality over the past few years.”
The University of Michigan’s JVP chapter stated similarly that “Death to Israel is a moral imperative.” That posting was condemned by the university president, and was removed by Instagram.
A number of SJP chapters also mourned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, while over 100 Columbia University clubs released a statement mourning Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Similar praise for Sinwar as a “leader, fighter, and martyr” was offered by other SJP chapters in the US, such as at John Jay College, which lauded Sinwar’s “life of honor,” as well as in Britain by numerous Arab and Muslim student groups.
A new target for anti-Israel protests in October were job fairs. Protestors at a variety of schools including Cornell University, Tufts University, Case Western University, and the University of Massachusetts attempted to take over job fairs on the grounds that companies represented included “weapons manufacturers.” Protestors were removed from these and other events including at Temple University, where the Islamist group CAIR later alleged that police had removed a student’s hijab.
Despite the widespread failure to convince administrations or trustees to boycott Israel, student governments continue to support the concept of divestment.
The Rice University student government passed several referenda demanding divestment and condemning Israel. The University of Massachusetts student government passed a resolution reaffirming its support for divestment, as did a resolution by the University of California at Berkeley student government, and a student referendum at American University. Anti-Israel activists were also also permitted to make presentations to trustees at McMaster College.
Divestment was also supported by the Northwestern University graduate student union, and a poll of Columbia University engineering students. The City University of New York Graduate Center’s student government also passed a resolution barring purchase of any product “that support or benefit from the US-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine” including Starbucks and Israeli-produce. In contrast, the student government at Binghamton University overturned a BDS resolution that was adopted in 2023.
At the University of Michigan the student government had been taken over by BDS supporters who refused to fund any student clubs until the university divested from Israel. The university then funded clubs directly, which forced a petition to the student government which ended the crisis. The student government was then unsuccessfully petitioned to send its budget to Gaza universities. This move failed as well, and resulted in insults and death threats against opponents.
Strikes by graduate student unions as a means to protest university policies on Israel continue to emerge. A series of strikes by University of California graduate student unions were cut short by a court injunction for violating the terms of the union contract with the state.
Attacking Jewish organizations has become a formal strategy of pro-Hamas groups on and off campuses. The CAIR-backed Drop Hillel campaign, which claims to be Jewish run but which is fronted by National Students for Justice in Palestine and Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapters, demands that Hillels be banned from campuses over their support for Israel.
The campaign has received attention at a variety of campuses including Duke University, claims that “Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes.” It claims further that Hillel is a lynchpin in campus harassment of anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian students and in Israel’s “racist and settler colonialist practices.”
A report by UCLA’s antisemitism task force has detailed the antisemitic harassment and violence that emerged after October 7th, which culminated in the spring encampment and subsequent riots. The report noted that Jewish students were harassed and then prohibited from entering parts of campus. Some 100 physical assaults were also recorded.
Finally, in an especially grotesque turn, anti-Zionist students erected a number of “Liberation Sukkahs” at a variety of universities including Columbia. Similar unauthorized installations at the University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University were dismantled by authorities, who were then accused of “antisemitism” by protestors.
The Hillel sukkah at Simmons University was vandalized with the words “Gaza Liberation Sukkah,” while the JVP chapter posted a note on social media stating,“This is not antisemitism. Drop Hillel.”
Faculty support for explicitly anti-Israel viewpoints is reflected in speaking invitations to pro-Hamas UN rapporteur and antisemite Francesca Albanese at Princeton University, Brown University, Barnard College, Georgetown University, and elsewhere. A talk on the October 7th massacre by Palestinian Christian theological Sari Ateek at Virginia Theological Seminary is another example of an invitation to a known Hamas supporter.
“Faculty for Justice in Palestine” chapters also have taken the lead in organizing campus protests. October examples include Columbia/Barnard calling for the boycott of local Harlem businesses, and the University of Pennsylvania’s joining an Indigenous Person’s Day protest and calling for the university to break ties with a local high tech firm.
Faculty leadership is also represented by efforts from the “International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network” to associate Zionism with ‘white supremacy.” These faculty are in turn members of various “critical studies” programs working to created anti-Israel and antisemitic K-12 curriculum.
In one example of an organized disruption, Harvard University faculty staged a silent demonstration in a university library in violation of new rules and in support of students who had similarly disrupted a library study area. In response, some two dozen faculty members had their library access temporarily restricted. Teaching staff at Simon Fraser University are voting on an Israel boycott resolution.
University responses to faculty provocations have been sporadic. In an extreme example, Muhlenberg College has fired a faculty member, Maura Finkelstein, who expressed support for Hamas and attacked “Zionists” on social media. One of the posts in question stated: “Do not cower to Zionists … Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Do not make them feel comfortable. Why should those genocide-loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat-out racist. Don’t normalize Zionism. Don’t normalize Zionists taking up space.”
While the terms of her firing have not been made fully clear by the college or by Finkelstein herself, her implicit threat to “Zionists,” which created a hostile teaching environment, may have played a role.
Elementary and secondary school teachers and their unions continue to be at the forefront of anti-Israel activism. In Seattle, a controversy emerged after it was revealed that the “Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference” included a number of anti-Israel presentations, including one by a well-known BDS supporter on “Incorporating K-12 Literature About Palestine — Preparing for False Allegations of AntiSemitism.”
Similar “social justice” teacher training was reported in Chicago, where a group offered sessions to promote “informed discussions on global issues, particularly settler colonialism, and we believe that addressing the complexities and misconceptions surrounding the Palestinian cause can contribute to promoting anti-racism and dismantling systems of oppression.”
The impact of pro-Hamas teacher training was evident even in the immediate aftermath of October 7, 2023 — when California teachers began to ask students, “What does Palestinian freedom mean to you?” and “How are you engaged with the Palestinian freedom struggle?”
The background of the immense anti-Israel bias that has been built into K-12 curriculum and teacher activities was partially explained by a new report that noted how the New York City Department of Education has allowed unions and foreign supported activist organizations to provide curriculum materials and teacher trainings.
Foreign entities including the American branch of the Qatar Foundation and local entities such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is supported by Communist Chinese Party entities, are among those discussed.
In Los Angeles, Jewish teachers have filed a suit against the United Teachers Los Angeles union over dues that support anti-Israel activities. Since the union is the sole bargaining representative, union dues are automatically deducted from teachers’ salaries.
The suit details the pervasive anti-Israel activities undertaken under the union’s aegis before and after October 7, 2023, including advocacy for the racist Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The union has now also voted to call for an arms embargo against Israel.
Jewish schools also continue to be targets for vandalism and other attacks. In Canada, shots were fired for the second time at a Jewish school.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a significantly different version of this article first appeared.
The post Hate Exploded Across College Campuses Surrounding the October 7 Anniversary first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Criticizes Arab-Islamic Summit Statement, Flags Objections After Doha Meeting
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, attends the emergency Arab-Islamic leaders’ summit in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: Hassan Bargash Al Menhali / UAE Presidential Court/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has criticized the final statement of the Arab-Islamic Summit held in Doha on Monday as insufficient, in the wake of last week’s Israeli attack targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Qatar.
In a statement released shortly after the summit, Iran reaffirmed its “unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination,” while arguing that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot adequately address the Palestinian issue.
According to the Iranian delegation, “the only real and lasting solution is the establishment of a single democratic state across all of Palestine, through a referendum involving all Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories.”
On Monday, Qatar held a summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the aftermath of last week’s Israeli strike on Hamas, with leaders gathering to express support and discuss regional responses.
The Sept. 9 strike targeting leaders of the Palestinian terrorist group in Doha marked a significant escalation of Israeli military operations, reflecting Jerusalem’s broader efforts to dismantle the terrorist group amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Expressing solidarity with Qatar, summit leaders condemned Israel’s strike, labeling it “cowardly, illegal, and a threat to collective regional security.”
In the final statement, the heads of state declared that “an assault on a state acting as a neutral mediator in the Gaza crisis is not only a hostile act against Qatar but also a direct blow to international peace-building efforts.”
Alongside the United States and other regional powers, Qatar has served as a ceasefire mediator during the nearly two-year Gaza conflict, facilitating indirect negotiations between the Jewish state and Hamas.
However, Doha has also backed the Palestinian terrorist group for years, providing Hamas with money and diplomatic support while hosting and sheltering its top leadership.
During the summit, Arab and Muslim leaders called for a review of diplomatic and economic relations with Israel while firmly opposing any attempts to displace Palestinians.
In the final statement, the heads of state also emphasized resisting Israel’s efforts to “impose new realities on the ground,” urged enforcement of International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants for Israeli leaders over war crime allegations adamantly denied by Jerusalem, and coordinated actions to suspend Israel’s UN membership.
Although Iran participated in the summit and endorsed the declaration, its delegation issued a separate statement shortly afterward clarifying that doing so “must in no way be interpreted, explicitly or implicitly, as recognition of the Israeli regime,” reaffirming its rejection of the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Iranian leaders regularly declare their intention to destroy Israel, the world’s lone Jewish state.
The statement also stressed that the Palestinian people have the right to employ “all necessary means to achieve their inalienable right to self-determination,” emphasizing that backing this cause is “a shared duty of the international community.”
As the heads of Arab and Islamic states convened for a summit on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned he did not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders “wherever they are.”
During a diplomatic visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed strong support for Israel’s position, even as Washington previously voiced concerns over the strike in Qatar, a US ally.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Rubio said the only way to end the war in Gaza would be for Hamas to free all hostages and surrender. While the US wants a diplomatic end to the war, “we have to be prepared for the possibility that’s not going to happen,” he said.
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“Your Name Was Included”: UC Berkeley Cooperating With Trump Administration, Admits to Disclosing Names
Students attend a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at University of California, Berkeley during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Berkeley, US, April 23, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is cooperating with the Trump administration’s inquiry into campus antisemitism, providing materials containing the names of some 160 people identified in disciplinary reports and other official documents.
As first reported by The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s official campus newspaper, the university’s Office of Legal Affairs notified every person affected by the mass disclosure, writing to them on Sept. 4.
“Last spring, the [US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR]] initiated investigations regarding allegations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination at UC Berkeley. As part of its investigation, OCR required production of comprehensive documents, including files and reports related to alleged antisemitic incidents,” chief campus counsel David Robinson wrote. “This notice is to inform you that, as required by law and as per directions provided by the UC systemic Office of General Counsel, your name was included in report as part of the documents provided by OGC [Office of General Counsel] to OCR for its investigations on Aug. 18, 2025.”
He added, “These documents contained information about reports or responses related to antisemitic incidents.”
Anti-Israel activists told the Californian that the university is helping the Trump administration hunt witches.
“I think the message was sent to anybody has who has ever been accused of antisemitism, which of course, includes a lot of Palestinians,” one said, claiming that he has been falsely accused. “Whenever we teach about Palestine, it usually leads to an investigation. I think they flagged and sent all of that information to the federal government.”
Students for Justice in Palestine, infamous for its ties to jihadist terror organizations, also criticized the move, charging that the administration had promised to conceal their identities and thereby obstruct the government’s inquiry.
“Chancellor Rich Lyons should not have given assurances that he wouldn’t be giving our information to the federal government,” the group said. “Beyond that, he should never have bowed down so easily. I would think that a university that prides itself on being this liberal haven would at least stand up to a fascist like Donald Trump.”
UC Berkeley came under scrutiny in 2024 after a mob of hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and non-students shut down an event at its Zellerbach Hall featuring Israeli reservist Ran Bar-Yoshafat, forcing Jewish students to flee to a secret safe room as the protesters overwhelmed campus police.
Footage of the incident showed a frenzied mass of anti-Zionist agitators banging on the doors of Zellerbach. The mob then, according to witnesses, eventually stormed the building — breaking windows in the process, according to reports in The Daily Wire — and precipitated the decision to evacuate the area. During the infiltration of Zellerbach, one of the mob — assembled by Bears for Palestine, which had earlier proclaimed its intention to cancel the event — spit on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively.
Other incidents, including the university’s employment of a lecturer who tweeted antisemitic images — one of which accused Israel of organ harvesting, a blood libel — the rewarding of academic benefits for participating in anti-Zionist activity, and the banning of Zionist speakers from Berkeley Law, have raised concerns about anti-Jewish hated on campus. In 2017, The Algemeiner ranked UC Berkeley as number five on “The 40 Worst Colleges for Jewish Students.”
In August, an Israeli professor sued the university, alleging that school officials denied her a job because she is Israeli — a claim its own investigators corroborated in an internal investigation, according to her attorneys at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Filed in the Alameda County Superior Court, the complaint is seeking justice for Dr. Yael Nativ, who taught in UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies as a visiting professor in 2022 and received an invitation to apply to do so again for the 2024-2025 academic year just weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel.
A hiring official allegedly believed, however, that an Israeli professor in the department would be unpalatable to students and faculty.
“My dept [sic] cannot host you for a class next fall,” the official allegedly told Nativ in a WhatsApp message. “Things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here.”
Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) later initiated an investigation of Nativ’s denial after the professor wrote an opinion essay which publicly accused the school of cowardice and violations of her civil rights. OPHD determined that a “preponderance of evidence” proved Nativ’s claim, but school officials went on to ignore the professor’s requests for an apology and other remedial measures, including sending her a renewed invitation to teach dance. After nearly two years, the situation remains unresolved.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israel Issues Travel Warning Ahead of Jewish Holidays Amid Rising Attacks, Discrimination Targeting Israelis Abroad
A flag is flown during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, outside the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Israel has issued a travel warning ahead of the upcoming Jewish high holidays and the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities, alerting citizens of heightened terrorist threats against Israelis and Jewish communities abroad.
On Sunday, the National Security Council (NSC) urged travelers to stay alert, cautioning that the two-year anniversary of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel could trigger attacks by Iran-backed or Hamas-linked terrorist groups targeting Jews and Israelis abroad.
“The recent period has been characterized by continued efforts to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets by the various terrorist organizations (most of them led by Iran and Hamas),” the NSC said in a statement.
“Oct. 7 may again serve as a significant date for terrorist organizations,” the statement read.
Israeli officials warned that the threat mainly stems from Iran and its terrorist proxies, which have increasingly targeted Jews and Israelis beyond Israel’s borders.
In recent months, the NSC reported that dozens of plots have been thwarted, even as violent incidents — including physical attacks, antisemitic threats, and online incitement — have continued to rise.
“With the war ongoing and the terror threat growing, we are witnessing an escalation in antisemitic violence and provocations by anti-Israel elements,” the NSC said in its statement.
“This trend may inspire extremists to carry out attacks against Israelis or Jews abroad,” it continued.
According to the NSC, Iran remains the leading source of terrorism against Israelis and Jews worldwide, acting both directly and through proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Iranian motivation is growing in light of the severe blows it suffered in the framework of ‘Operation Rising Lion’ and the growing desire for revenge,” the NSC said in a statement, referring to the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Amid rising tensions over the war in Gaza, Israeli officials have previously warned of Iranian sleeper cells — covert operatives or terrorists embedded in rival countries who remain dormant until they receive orders to act and carry out attacks.
In light of this reality, the NSC also warned that social media posts revealing ties to Israeli security services could put individuals at risk of being targeted.
“We advise against posting any content that suggests involvement in the security services or operational activities, including real-time location updates,” the statement read.
This latest updated warning comes amid a growing hostile environment and a shocking surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes targeting Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Across Europe, Israelis are facing a disturbing surge of targeted attacks and hostility, as a wave of antisemitic incidents — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions — spreads amid rising tensions following recent conflicts in the Middle East.
On Saturday, a 29-year-old Israeli and his sister were attacked by three Palestinian men while on vacation in Athens, Greece.
According to local media reports, the two siblings were walking through the city’s center when three unknown individuals carrying Palestinian flags approached them, shouting antisemitic slurs.
The attackers assaulted the Israeli man, a disabled Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran, scratching him, throwing him to the ground, and striking him with their flagpoles, while his sister attempted to intervene and protect him.
October 7 is a global war against Jews & Israelis.
Pro-Palestinian radicals just attacked an Israeli man in Syntagma Square, Athens. via @N12News https://t.co/IZR2IdNrUI pic.twitter.com/9S2o4IjtO6
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) September 14, 2025
Greek authorities arrested all five individuals involved in the incident. According to the Israeli man’s father, his son was placed in a cell with 10 Arabs, where he was reportedly beaten again and feared for his life.
In a separate antisemitic incident earlier this year, a group of Israeli teenagers was physically assaulted by dozens of pro-Palestinian assailants — some reportedly armed with knives — on the Greek island of Rhodes.
After leaving a nightclub, the teens were followed to their hotel, where they were violently assaulted, leaving several with minor injuries.
In another example of rising anti-Israel sentiment and hostility toward Jewish communities, one of Britain’s most prestigious military academies, the Royal College of Defense Studies, announced Sunday that it will bar Israeli students from enrolling next year, citing concerns over the war in Gaza.
In Belgium, two IDF soldiers attending the Tomorrowland music festival were arrested and interrogated by local authorities following a complaint from the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), an anti-Israel legal group that pursues legal action against IDF personnel, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.
According to HRF, the soldiers were seen waving the flags of the IDF’s Givati Brigade, which they claimed has been “involved in the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza and in carrying out mass atrocities against the Palestinian population.”
In France, a 34-year-old Algerian man was sentenced to 40 months in prison for threatening passengers with a knife and making antisemitic death threats after boarding a train at Cannes station.
In another incident earlier this year, a Jewish man wearing a kippah was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in Anduze, a small town in southern France.