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Here’s How Colleges Should Respond to Destructive BDS Resolutions on Campus
Clocktower Quad at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Photo: Warren LeMay/Wikimedia Commons.
On November 7, 2024, the Duke Divestment Committee (DDC), a close ally of Duke Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), petitioned the Duke Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility (ACIR) to call for Duke to “Divest direct and indirect holdings in all companies and entities that support or profit from Israeli apartheid…”
This proposal was based on false antisemitic propaganda, and it promoted dangerous blood libels against the Jewish people. The baseless accusations of apartheid and genocide are more than just words — they have led to global violence against Jews, which has also spread to US college campuses.
On December 10, 2024, the Duke ACIR rejected the DDC’s proposal. Faced with the option to cave into the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Duke University leadership decided to stand up for truth and justice, and abide by the university’s mission statement to foster a “community of students who embrace growth, collaboration, creativity and integrity.”
While the decision of ACIR and Duke’s president seem to be a victory for truth over propaganda, the student initiative still spread vicious lies about Israel — lies that will likely be believed by many students who haven’t done their own research on the topic. And these anti-Zionist antisemitic groups will likely spin their defeat into more hateful rhetoric against Israel, the Jewish people, and Duke University.
This decision should be levered by Duke into a different BDS initiative — Build, Develop, and Share. This BDS initiative would stand in contrast to the destructive and antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement, and flip the narrative on anti-Israel and pro-Hamas propagandists.
Israel is known as “The Start-up Nation” — with around one start-up for every 1,400 people. It would be a catastrophe if the BDS movement was successful in driving capital away from Israel. It is not possible to strangle the Israeli economy and support the Arab Israeli community at the same time. Growth and innovation are contagious. The BDS movement is not pro-Palestinian or pro-Arab. It is anti- Israel. SJP and similar groups’ hatred for Jews blinds them to the harm they cause to Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
As students graduating from universities in the United States seek interesting and challenging careers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, there is a vibrant startup ecosystem raging across the Middle East. Founders and venture capitalists are investing in a vital, diverse and inclusive “Silicon Wadi.”
One example of a company that is focused on growing start-ups founded by Arab Israelis is Nazareth-based NGT Healthcare. NGT is an “early-stage medical device and life sciences venture capital fund.” Consistent with its mission, NGT has funded companies in Israel started by Arab entrepreneurs (35%), employ Israeli Arabs (29%), that are supported by Arab investors (25%), and are managed by Arabs (25%). This is a very odd version of “apartheid.”
Since the historic Abraham Accords were signed, the UAE has invested more than $10 billion, alongside Israel, to bolster the economic cooperation between the two countries. These funds were invested across many sectors, including energy, manufacturing, water, space, healthcare, and agri-tech.
At the same time, oceans away, on “elite” US college campuses, millions of dollars have been wasted on repairing damage caused by SJP and anti-Israel activists. Time, money and energy are scarce resources that are currently being wasted on students who seek destruction over dialogue.
Anyone who cares about a future generation of Jews and Arabs prospering together, should be looking towards the Silicon Wadi as a beacon of hope. Universities who care about the growth, collaboration, creativity, and integrity of their students, should be looking towards Silicon Wadi as a beacon of tech and innovation — and should be boycotting groups like Students for Justice in Palestine.
The writer was a CAMERA on Campus fellow at Duke University in 2020/21. He now works at start-ups in New York City.
The post Here’s How Colleges Should Respond to Destructive BDS Resolutions on Campus first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.