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‘Heinous’: Bloodstained Palms Protest at Top Berlin University Over Gaza War Fuels Antisemitism Fears
Students at Berlin’s UdK University display palms stained with red to symbolize blood during a Nov. 13 pro-Hamas protest. Photo: Screenshot
A group of pro-Hamas students at one of Germany’s top universities have staged several protests throughout the month of November, turning their campus into an ideological battlefield that has left Jewish students feeling under siege.
On Wednesday, around 30 students at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) — widely recognized as one of the leading art colleges in the world — called a “Strike for Palestine.” After the university administration prevented the group from assembling outside the main entrance, stating that the protest had not been properly registered, the students moved to the university’s cafe where they issued a call for a boycott of Israeli universities.
A statement from the group shared with the Berliner Zeitung attacked the UdK for its alleged “complicity with this genocide” — a reference to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They demanded the severing of the UdK’s ties with two Israeli institutions, the Bezalel College of Art and Shenkar College, “in view of their active support for the Israeli occupation forces (also known as IDF).” The statement also called on UdK faculty to cancel their lectures as a gesture of solidarity with the protesters. Posts on Instagram encouraging attendance at the protest denounced Israel for “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Wednesday’s action came a fortnight after around 100 students at the university gathered for another pro-Hamas protest. Carrying banners declaring “Stop Genocide,” “End Colonialism,” and “Free Palestine,” the students sat around a table with their palms facing outwards painted in red ink to symbolize blood.
While the gesture was apparently intended to condemn the German government’s support for Israel’s defensive military operation, several observers noted a striking similarity with the notorious lynching of two IDF reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in Oct. 2000.
“Every Jewish student, actually anyone who has studied Israel’s recent history, will interpret the red hands differently: In October 2000, near Ramallah, two Israeli reservists were arrested for making a wrong turn and detained in a police station,” wrote Claudius Seidl of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a lengthy article on the Nov. 13 protest at UdK. In an outburst of intense violence reminiscent of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel, Nurzhitz and Avrahami were brutally murdered and their bodies mutilated by a Palestinian mob while both were in the custody of Palestinian Authority (PA) police officers.
One of their assailants, Aziz Salha, appeared at the window of the police station following the murder of the two Israelis, delightedly displaying his blood-stained palms to the appreciative crowd gathered outside. A photograph of Salha’s gesture quickly went viral and has kept its place as one of the most unsettling images captured during the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist organizations.
Aziz Salha displays his bloodstained palms following the Oct. 2000 murder of two IDF reservists in Ramallah. Photo: Wikipedia
While the Nov. 13 protest was underway, Norbert Palz — the president of the UdK who had earlier issued a statement condemning the Hamas pogrom — attempted to reason with the group but was shouted down. According to Seidl’s account of the protest, the barracking of Palz was orchestrated by Tirdad Zolghadr, an Iranian-born arts curator who has been a visiting professor at UdK since 2022.
Following that protest, Jewish students at UdK began reporting incidents of harassment. A music student from Israel was spat on by an Arab man in the street outside the university after he was overheard speaking in Hebrew; the student later said that he was advised by the police officers to whom he reported the incident not to speak Hebrew “too loudly.” Meanwhile, in another incident, a female Israeli student was reduced to tears after pro-Hamas students told her she was to blame for the Oct. 7 atrocities as she had served in the Israeli army.
Neither student has ventured to the UdK campus since these incidents. Josefine von der Ahé, an art student at UdK, meanwhile told Seidl that she attributed “the receptivity of so many students to the stories of ‘evil Israel’ to profound ignorance of the State of Israel and its history.”
Several Berlin politicians condemned the protests at UdK. Adrian Grasse, who sits in the Berlin parliament for the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the BZ news outlet that the “heinous events at the UdK are part of a development at the Berlin universities that I am following with increasing concern. With aggressiveness, hatred, defamation, and even the demand for the destruction of Israel, such actions make no contribution to peace and mutual understanding.”
Laura Neugebauer, an MP from the left-wing Green Party, similarly condemned the protests.
“Berlin universities must be places where Israelis and Jews can study safely and freely,” she said. “There can be no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ here.”
The UdK’s origins stretch back to the foundation of the Prussian Academy of Arts in the latter part of the 17th century. The present school was formed through the merger of a music college and a fine arts college in 1975.
The post ‘Heinous’: Bloodstained Palms Protest at Top Berlin University Over Gaza War Fuels Antisemitism Fears first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank
Israeli military, Jenin area, West Bank, August 31, 2024. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org — Israel’s security forces recently thwarted an attempt by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle heavy weaponry to Palestinian terrorist cells in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Wednesday.
Israeli intelligence believes that the arms were sent by Unit 4000 — the special operations division of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization — and Unit 18840, the special operations unit of its Quds Force in Syria.
Among the weapons seized by Israel were 40 standard large Claymore mines, including detonators and wireless activation systems; 37 handguns; 33 improvised Claymore mines; 24 RPG-18 and RPG-22 rockets; 20 60mm mortar shells; seven Hunter sniper rifles; six RPG-7 launchers; six M16 rifles and 1 M4 rifle, along with ammunition; three 107mm rockets; and two 60mm mortar barrels, the joint statement said.
The majority of the weapons were buried in a location that was discovered by Israeli forces after the shipment was intercepted.
SEIZED: Iranian weapons used to arm terrorists in Judea and Samaria
The smuggling was orchestrated by Iran’s IRGC 4000th Division, led by Jawad Ghafari, and the Quds Force’s Unit 840 in Syria, commanded by Etsar Bakri.
The weapons seized included rockets, Claymore… pic.twitter.com/AlUn08pGye
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 27, 2024
The statement noted that Israeli security forces in recent months have “identified attempts by Iranian forces to resume smuggling advanced weapons into Israel, intended for the Judea and Samaria area [the West Bank].”
“This is part of an ongoing Iranian campaign to destabilize the region’s security by arming terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria, to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” it continued.
The IDF and Shin Bet vowed to “continue to monitor and thwart in advance any Iranian activity aimed at smuggling weapons into Israel and the Judea and Samaria area.”
In two separate operations in the past week, Israel Police officers foiled attempts by Israeli Arab citizens to smuggle large quantities of ammunition from northern Israel across the West Bank security barrier.
On Monday, a female resident of the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Qasim was pulled over by police officers near Yokneam. A search of her vehicle revealed several boxes containing more than 6,000 ammunition rounds.
On Friday, two men from Ma’ale Iron, a local council made up of five Arab towns near Megiddo, were caught attempting to transport a larger stockpile of over 20,000 bullets. The Arab suspects were pulled over at a junction a mere minutes’ drive away from the Samaria security barrier.
Earlier this month, Palestinian terrorists in western Samaria for the first time tried to fire a rocket with powerful explosives at Israel’s central region. The terrorist rocket, whose warhead contained high explosives with the potential to cause mass casualties, was discovered in bushes in the village of Budrus near Ramallah, about six miles from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel Hayom reported on Nov. 13.
The outlet noted that this marked the first time that a “high quality” (e.g., non-improvised) rocket warhead was found in the West Bank. It was also the first time a rocket was located in the area but outside northern Samaria.
In June, Palestinian Authority security officials told Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster that Iranian-backed terrorist groups might be able to fire advanced rockets at central Israel from the West Bank within a year.
The Islamic Republic continues to instigate terrorism in the West Bank by flooding the area with weapons, The New York Times reported in April, citing American, Israeli, and Iranian officials.
The majority of the weapons smuggled into the West Bank are small arms and assault rifles, analysts said. However, the US and Israeli officials said that the Islamic Republic is also smuggling in advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
In the first six months of 2024, the West Bank saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to data made public by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders).
During that period, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges, and 109 shootings.
Terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in the West Bank between January and July, the rescue group said.
The post Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence
McGill University has canceled an on-campus event planned by Jewish students—and temporarily halted bookings for all extracurricular activities—following threats of violence along with a death threat, as outlined in a […]
The post McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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US Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strip Funding From Universities That Boycott Israel
US Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) at a press conference in Bergenfield, New Jersey, US on June 5, 2023. Photo: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
US Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to cut off federal funding from universities that engage in boycotts of Israel.
The legislation, titled “The Protect Economic Freedom Act,” would render universities that participate in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel ineligible for federal funding under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, prohibiting them from receiving federal student aid. The bill would also mandate that colleges and universities submit evidence that they are not participating in commercial boycotts against the Jewish state.
“Enough is enough. Appeasing the antisemitic mobs on college campuses threatens the safety of Jewish students and faculty and it undermines the relationship between the US and one of our strongest allies. If an institution is going to capitulate to the BDS movement, there will be consequences — starting with the Protect Economic Freedom Act,” Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement.
Gottheimer added that the legislation is necessary to thwart the surging tide of antisemitism on college campuses. Although the lawmaker noted that students are allowed to engage in free expression regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, he argued that blanket boycotts against Israel endanger the lives of Jewish students and community members.
“The goal of the antisemitic BDS movement is to annihilate the democratic State of Israel, America’s critical ally in the global fight against terror. While students and faculty are free to speak their minds and disagree on policy issues, we cannot allow antisemitism to run rampant and risk the safety and security of Jewish students, staff, faculty, and guests on college campuses,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “The new bipartisan Protect Economic Freedom Act will give the Department of Education a critical new tool to combat the antisemitic BDS movement on college campuses. Now more than ever, we must take the necessary steps to protect our Jewish community.”
The legislation instructs the US Department of Education to keep a record of universities that refuse to confirm their non-participation in anti-Israel boycotts. The list of universities in non-compliance with the legislation would be made publicly available.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre acrosssouthern Israel, universities across the country have found themselves embroiled in controversies regarding campus antisemitism. In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Israel, hordes of students and faculty orchestrated protests and demonstrations condemning the Jewish state. Student groups at elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia issued statements blaming Israel for the attacks and expressing support for Hamas.
Several high-profile universities have also shown a significant level of tolerance for anti-Jewish sentiment festering on their campuses. Northwestern University, for example, capitulated to demands of anti-Israel activists to remove Sabra Hummus from campus dining halls because of its connections to Israel. At Stanford University, Jewish students have reported being forced to condemn Israel before being allowed to enter campus parties. Students at the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University launched unsuccessful attempts to convince the university to divest endowment funds from companies tied to Israel.
The post US Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strip Funding From Universities That Boycott Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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