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Hockey player removed from U of Michigan team after vandalism outside Jewish center
(JTA) — A hockey player at the University of Michigan has been removed from the team after being implicated, along with another varsity athlete, in an incident of anti-LGBTQ vandalism outside a campus Jewish center.
The announcement last week by the elite hockey team, which said sophomore Johnny Druskinis had been removed “for violating team rules,” came more than a month after the incident, which occurred on Aug. 22.
It also came weeks after the two perpetrators — Druskinis and sophomore women’s lacrosse player Megan Minturn — made a public apology in front of 350 people at a Shabbat dinner in the Jewish Resource Center, the building whose sidewalk they had defaced. The center has declined to press charges against the students, and has indicated that it does not want to see the students face further punishment.
“As far as the JRC is concerned, these students aren’t bad people and certainly don’t need to have their lives ruined,” read a statement by the center that was posted this week, in the days following the hockey team’s announcement. “While they made a poor choice, they sincerely apologized, and we have high confidence they won’t repeat such actions ever again.”
According to surveillance video and photos circulated by the Ann Arbor Police Department, the vandals, one male and one female, spray-painted male genitalia and a homophobic slur on the sidewalk outside the center, a hub for the Orthodox outreach group Olami. The female perpetrator also spray-painted her initials. Earlier reports on social media that they had tagged the building with antisemitic imagery were incorrect, the Jewish Resource Center said.
Soon after the incident, the university’s president, Santa Ono, condemned the vandalism, noting that it came shortly after a Jewish fraternity at the school was spray-painted with a swastika.
“We strongly denounce this act of vandalism and all antisemitic acts. These incidents are in direct conflict with the university’s deeply held values of respect and inclusion and have no place within our community,” Ono said, according to CBS Detroit. “We are proud of our thriving Jewish life in Ann Arbor and on our campus.”
The two athletes’ identities were later verified by the student newspaper, the Michigan Daily, which reported that the perpetrators had contacted the Jewish Resource Center soon after the incident, seeking to apologize, and did so at a Sept. 8 Shabbat dinner. During the apology, students present told the Daily, the athletes said they had been intoxicated at the time and asked for forgiveness.
“Obviously, apologies can be faked, but from what I saw, it seemed genuine,” sophomore Sarah Ostad told the Daily. She added that, while the rabbis at the Jewish Resource Center appeared ready to forgive the students’ actions, “I don’t know if I feel like that. And I don’t think most people feel like that.”
In September, after the identity of the perpetrators began circulating on social media, the university announced that Druskinis had been removed from the hockey team. But university officials have not been forthcoming with more information.
A spokesperson for the university’s athletic department did not provide details to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency regarding the decision or share a copy of the team’s rules. The hockey coach declined to address the issue at a recent press conference. Ann Arbor police also announced that the perpetrators had been identified, but did not confirm wether they were Druskinis and Minturn. University officials have likewise not commented on Minturn’s status on the women’s lacrosse team, and did not respond to JTA requests for comment on her.
The Jewish Resource Center also did not respond to JTA requests for comment. But its statement noted that the themes of the Jewish holiday season concern “judgment” as well as “understanding and forgiveness.”
“We feel continued news coverage of this incident is unwarranted and unfortunate,” the JRC statement said. “From our perspective, it was put to rest weeks ago.”
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The post Hockey player removed from U of Michigan team after vandalism outside Jewish center appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians
US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
The post Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.
The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
The post Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home
Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.
Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.
Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.
His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.
His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.
“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.
The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.
The post Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home first appeared on Algemeiner.com.