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Here’s Just Some of the Boycott and Protest Activity Being Aimed at Israel
As has been widely reported, activists with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeted their efforts on college campuses this year. The connections between campus protests organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace, far-left extremists, and communist organizations are now inescapable:
Documents indicate that Columbia University protest organizers were in contact with counterparts at Princeton University regarding strategy and tactics. Princeton organizers also received legal advice from the National Lawyers Guild.
An organizing guide was issued by the National SJP, and instructed students on occupying and fortifying campus buildings and made reference to the 1968 Columbia riots.
Reports indicate that a number of SJP members who received paid training by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) were responsible for organizing encampments. The USCPR is funded by the Open Society Foundation and other far left foundations.
Anecdotal reports continue to indicate that more Jewish students are shunning elite universities in favor of institutions in the south. A letter from the heads of Israeli universities also decried the rise in antisemitism at American institutions, and offered assistance to Jewish students and faculty who wished to join their institutions. Brandeis University also extended its deadline for students to apply to transfer, specifically in order to allow as many Jewish students as necessary to relocate.
Student governments and other groups also continue efforts to remove Jewish members, including at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where a senator and the president were targeted. At Vanderbilt University the Multicultural Leadership Council also denied membership to Students Supporting Israel. Israeli or Jewish events have also been disrupted or shut down by protestors
Student BDS resolutions and referendums greatly accelerated in April. Only a selection are presented here:
Student governments at the Harvard Divinity School, School of Design, and Harvard Law School passed BDS resolutions. The Harvard Undergraduate Association halted consideration of all referendums after a BDS petition was put forward, which then prompted satirical petitions including “should Harvard remove Jews from its faculty?”
At Rutgers University, a divestment referendum and another calling on the university to end its relationship with Tel Aviv University were approved by the student body.
At Vassar College, a BDS bill was blocked from consideration by the student government after the administration warned that the group’s bylaws and state regulations opened it to lawsuits.
The Columbia University undergraduate student government shelved a resolution that would have required the organization to divest its funds from Israel, but the law school senate and graduate student association approved resolutions.
Cornell University undergraduates approved a divestment referendum.
The University of Maryland student government voted down a divestment resolution.
An important student government resolution was approved at Rutgers University that made Palestinians’ victimization at the hands of the Jews an official doctrine.
Student demands for divestment have been mostly rejected by university administrators and trustees, including at the University of California. At Yale University, the university announced that it would not divest from military industries, but would liquidate holdings in companies retailing “assault weapons” to the public.
Ongoing “negotiations” between administrations and protest organizers, however, produced concessions on divestment or ties to Israel to restore calm, particularly at smaller institutions like Bryn Mawr College. At Portland State University, the university decided to “temporarily” halt donations from aerospace giant Boeing as a concession to students.
Other examples of appeasement emerged at Northwestern University, where the administration negotiated an agreement with protestors to disperse most of their encampment in exchange for an “advisory committee on investment responsibility,” which includes students and faculty. Additional concessions include advising employers not to rescind job offers and to support two Palestinian faculty and five students at university expense. At Brown University, the administration agreed that the university corporation would hold a vote on divestment in October in return for students ending their encampment.
Faculty remain at the forefront of promoting campus anti-Israel bias and antisemitism. Only a sample are presented here:
A group of Princeton University faculty signed a letter vowing to boycott Columbia and Barnard until that university reversed the suspension of pro-Hamas students and organizations. A similar open letter was signed by 1,400 academics including faculty and graduate students from around the world.
A Princeton University faculty member temporarily occupied a building but withdrew before a university deadline.
At number of faculty members attempted to physically defend pro-Hamas occupiers ,which resulted in a number of arrests including at Columbia, Emory University, and New York University.
In one incident, the York University Department of Politics proposed that any defense of Israel be regarded as “anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab.” The report called for “a departmental definition of anti-Palestinian racism,” since, “The struggle for Palestinian self-determination will support the liberation of all humans and non-humans from colonial oppression” and since “Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy.”
Similarly, the City University of New York faculty union announced a special meeting to consider five demands for the administration:
Divest! Immediately divest from ALL companies complicit in the imperialist- zionist genocide, including weapons, tech and surveillance, and construction companies. Commit to full financial transparency regarding CUNY’s institutional investments.
Boycott! Ban all academic trips to the Zionist state, encompassing birthright, Fulbright, and perspective trips. Cancel all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, including events, activities, agreements, and research collaborations.
Solidarity! Release a statement affirming the right of the Palestinian people to national liberation and the right of return. Protect CUNY students and workers who are attacked for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. Reinstate professors who have been fired for showing solidarity with Palestine.
Demilitarize! Demilitarize CUNY, Demilitarize Harlem! Get IOF and NYPD officers off all CUNY campuses, and end all collaboration, trainings and recruitment by imperialist institutions, including the CIA, Homeland Security and ROTC. Remove all symbols of US imperialism from our campuses: Rename the Colin Powell School of Global and Civic Leadership at CCNY and reinstate The Guillermo Morales and Assata Shakur Community and Student Center!
A People’s CUNY! We demand a fully-funded, free CUNY that is not beholden to zionist and imperialist private donors! Restore CUNY’s tuition-free status, protect the union, and adopt a fair contract for staff and faculty.
In the international sphere, reports continue regarding growing informal boycotts of Israeli academics and universities. One reports detail how European and American counterparts have ceased collaborations with Israelis, accused them of “genocide,” and succumbed to student pressure to disinvite Israeli speakers and collaborators.
Attention also continues to be paid to antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in K-12 education, especially “ethnic studies”:
Minnesota adopted a K-12 social studies curriculum emphasizing “decolonization,” which requires students to “describe how individuals and communities have fought” for “liberation against systemic and coordinated exercises of power.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association is considering resolutions to divest pension funds from companies working in Israel, and to support the “liberation for Palestinians and a peaceful solution to the conflict in Palestine” through “Critical Race Theory” and “Critical Social Justice Ideology.”
Britain’s National Education Union issued a statement blaming Israel for the Gaza War and calling on its members to circulate “educational materials” with that message.
Outside of campus, protests earlier in April included the disruption of an Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a New York City fundraiser attended by President Joe Biden, and former presidents Clinton and Obama (at which Jewish women were chased and called “murderous f****g kikes”), a sit-in outside the headquarters of Britain’s National, Health Service, a sit-in at the US Senate cafeteria at which 50 participants were arrested, and an attack on an Israel-Norway soccer match in Skien, which included fireworks and rocks aimed at police.
Anti-Israel protests in Britain continue every weekend, with infrequent arrests of protestors displaying swastikas and other proscribed symbols.
In heavily Jewish Teaneck, New Jersey, car caravans of Palestinians from nearby Patterson have become a regular occurrence. In one case, an event featuring Israeli first responders turned into a face-off between pro-Israel and pro-Hamas crowds.
Efforts to isolate Israel economically were the focus of the A15 global protests. Overall, except for the tourism sector, Israel’s economy appears to be weathering the Gaza war, including in the high tech and defense sectors. International ratings agencies were split regarding the economic outlook, with S&P following Moody’s in downgrading Israel’s credit rating. Long-term issues such as war risks, budget deficits, and government expenditures remain the main concerns rather than BDS.
International companies have also been targeted by the BDS movement. Some, like Starbucks, have no presence in Israel ,and the boycott was driven purely by rumors and by the perception of support from the company’s CEO. One real casualty has been McDonald’s, which has been targeted after its Israeli franchisee offered soldiers free meals, leading to widespread boycotts in Asia and a decline in revenue. In April, the conglomerate bought back the franchise after the retirement of its Israeli owner, leading to speculation that the company would withdraw entirely from the Israeli market.
The tech industry was also the focus of protests, including from Google employees who occupied several New York and California offices, including that of the Google Cloud president to demand the company cease all work in Israel, especially a cloud computing project for the government. Several were arrested, and several dozens were fired.
Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund divested its holdings of Israeli companies, including banks and supermarket chains, for their operations in the West Bank. The stated rationale was the “risk profile” of the companies rather than an explicit political statement. The Irish Communications Workers Union also passed a motion demanding the right for postal workers to not handle mail from Israel.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Here’s Just Some of the Boycott and Protest Activity Being Aimed at Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.
The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.
The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”
Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.
Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”
Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.
In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.
“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.
In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.
Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.
Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.
However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.
This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.
Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.
The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.
The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.
“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”
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Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’
Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect
The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.
On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.
This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.
“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.
“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.
This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.
The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.
For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.
Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.
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Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says
Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.
“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”
NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.
“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.