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How Anti-Zionist Faculty Captured a University of California Campus and What It Means for the Future of Jews in America
“Let’s make it clear – zionism is not welcome on our campus” read a recent Instagram message, which was followed by raised fist and Palestinian flag emojis.
At first blush, this posting appeared to be one more bullet in the barrage of vitriolic hatred and harassment aimed by anti-Zionist students groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Israel’s supporters on campus, especially Jewish students, in the aftermath of Hamas’ genocidal attack on Israel last fall.
But that’s not the case. The above message shunning the campus presence of Zionism — and by obvious extension, Zionists, which the vast majority of Jews identify as — wasn’t authored by students at all.
Rather, it came from their professors — more than 100 of them — founders of a Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
Let that sink in. A large group of faculty at one of the finest public university systems in the world is using a popular social media platform to proclaim the modern-day equivalent of the ubiquitous Nazi-era slogan “Juden sind hier unerwünscht” (“Jews are not wanted here”).
Even more chilling is the fact that the faculty group’s message was part of a larger post urging their colleagues and students to attend an on-campus “March Against Zionism” organized by an allied anti-Zionist student group, whose goal was “to make it clear that the racist settler-colonial ideology of zionism is not welcome on this campus!”
Like the student brownshirts in the early 1930s, who vilified and bullied Jewish students and professors until they were completely purged from German universities, the student organizers of the faculty-supported “March Against Zionism” threatened to — and actually did — disrupt a Jewish student gathering and harass its participants.
Much ink has been spilled discussing the explosion of antisemitic harassment on college campuses nationwide since October 7, with a lot of it describing the outsized role played by anti-Zionist student groups like SJP. However, a recent study conducted by my organization of the anti-Zionist activism of faculty at the University of California found that they play a crucial role in fomenting campus antisemitism, and nowhere is that more obvious than at UC Santa Cruz.
In fact, if one wants to understand how antisemitism could engulf US campuses at warp speed after the Hamas attack, one need look no further than UCSC and the faculty group that has committed itself to purging Zionism and Zionists from campus and collaborates with anti-Zionist student groups to get the job done.
Like its nine sister campuses and nearly 100 campuses across the country, UCSC became home to a chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, or FJP, after the Hamas attack. Established in response to a call from the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), FJP chapters are intended to provide support for student groups like SJP and to engage them and their fellow faculty in advancing the implementation of an academic boycott of Israel (the academic arm of the BDS movement) on their campuses.
USACBI’s overarching goal is combating “the normalization of Israel in the global academy.” To that end, the organization’s guidelines call for boycotting educational programs in or about Israel, and canceling or shutting down pro-Israel events and activities; encourage academic programming and campus events that portray Israel in a wholly negative light, as a pariah state unworthy of normalization; and condone the denigration, protest, and exclusion of pro-Israel individuals on campus. All of these academic BDS-associated activities have had a devastating impact on students and faculty who want to study in or about Israel, or who identify with the Jewish State.
FJP’s anti-Zionist impact and the resulting harms have played out in two distinct campus arenas.
First, in its collaboration with SJP and similar student groups, FJP has amplified the students’ anti-Zionist messaging and activity, and given them academic legitimacy. For instance, FJP at UCSC was co-sponsor of an SJP-authored BDS resolution that passed overwhelmingly at a student senate meeting, during which Jewish students who opposed the resolution were prevented from speaking, heckled, and harassed.
Afterwards, the faculty group celebrated the resolution’s passage by posting a message stating: “Major congrats to y’all, and to every other UC student body that has voted to divest in recent weeks. WE KEEP GOING UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE!”. UCSC’s FJP has also used its clout to protect anti-Zionist students from being prosecuted for abusive behavior, as when it joined in a statement calling on the UC Regents to drop charges against students who had unlawfully disrupted a Regents meeting with demands for the University to boycott Israel.
Second, FJP’s mutually beneficial collaborations with academic departments have significantly strengthened the anti-Zionist reach and impact of both FJP and the individual departments with which the group collaborates. Consider, for example, that it was academic BDS-supporting leaders of UCSC’s Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) department who founded the campus FJP chapter, that more than 60% of CRES’ principal faculty are members of the faculty group, and that an invitation to join FJP and help “organize for Palestine” has been prominently displayed on CRES’ departmental homepage since November. It’s therefore not surprising that CRES has become a primary beneficiary of the group’s political muscle in its time of need.
As documented in a recent report by my organization, CRES’ extensive use of departmental resources for anti-Zionist activism — including helping to establish and support an institute whose mission is to dismantle Zionism, publishing statements and hosting educational events blaming Israel for Hamas’ October 7 massacre, shutting down the department as part of a “global strike” against Israel, and much more — has raised significant concern among the UC Regents. Although CRES’ use of departmental resources for political activism is in violation of university policy and state law, UCSC administrators have been unwilling or unable to stop them. As a way of addressing the problem, the Regents have been deliberating over a policy prohibiting departments like CRES from using their university website for making political statements. Although it only deals with one small part of the problem, the proposed policy is a step in the right direction. And yet, for CRES and other politically motivated and directed departments, it is a step too far.
In an effort to thwart any attempt to limit their anti-Zionist activism, CRES and other UCSC anti-Zionist faculty deputized FJP to help spearhead an academic senate resolution calling on the administration to defend the faculty’s “right” to continue engaging in political advocacy (which they euphemistically call “public scholarship”), and to resist any attempt by the UC Regents to stop them. The UCSC faculty’s overwhelming support for the resolution now makes it virtually impossible for their administration to challenge CRES or other faculty whose anti-Zionist activism violates university policy or state law.
Think about it: Within a few short months, a faculty group that takes its marching orders from a nationally-coordinated campaign to rid US campuses of Zionism and Zionists has enabled the ideological capture of its institution by anti-Zionist faculty, and effectively neutralized administrative attempts to stop it.
The only hope of derailing this out-of-control train lies with the UC President and Regents, who have the authority to hold campus administrators accountable for not enforcing university regulations and the law. If UC leaders are unwilling or unable to exercise their authority, it won’t be long before the University of California, and in short order universities across the country, become wholly inhospitable and unsafe for their Jewish members, echoing the darkest chapters of Jewish history.
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California Santa Cruz for 20 years.
The post How Anti-Zionist Faculty Captured a University of California Campus and What It Means for the Future of Jews in America first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rashida Tlaib Set to Speak at Terrorist-Connected Conference for Second Consecutive Year
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 11, 2025. Photo: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the US Congress, is set to headline the upcoming People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, sharing the stage with individuals who have voiced explicit support for terrorist organizations.
The three-day event, scheduled for Aug. 29-31, brands itself around the theme “Gaza is the Compass” and will feature dozens of anti-Zionist activists, academics, artists, and political organizers. Tlaib, who has long been one of the most strident opponents of US military support for Israel, is slated to deliver remarks on the final day of the conference. Her presence at the event, which will also include cultural performances and youth programming, underscores her continued alignment with organizations that reject Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.
Tlaib’s appearance at last year’s iteration of the People’s Conference for Palestine sparked intense backlash, with critics pointing out the event’s connections to Wisam Rafeedie and Salah Salah, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization.
The conference is convened by a coalition that includes the Palestinian Youth Movement, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, among others. Several of these groups have maintained ties with PFLP, openly supported boycott efforts against Israel. and called for an arms embargo in the wake of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. The programming highlights sessions on “Documenting Genocide” and “Breaking the Siege,” rhetoric that critics argue mischaracterizes Israel’s actions as it seeks to defend itself against terrorist attacks following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
The Detroit gathering is expected to attract thousands of attendees, with dozens of speakers and activists scheduled to participate. Among the roster are well-known anti-Israel figures such as Linda Sarsour, Miko Peled, and Chris Smalls.
Sarsour, a far-left political organizer, said in a 2015 “Millions for Justice” event that “the same people who justify the massacre of the Palestinian people and call it collateral damage are the same people who justify the murder of black, young men and women.” In 2019, she accused Israel of perpetuating “Jewish supremacy,” asking, “How can you be against white supremacy in America … but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else?”
Peled, a far-left Israeli activist, has stated that Israel does not “have a right to exist” as the Jewish state abd labeled the Israel Defense Force (IDF) a “terrorist organization.” He stated that the Israeli education system teaches Jewish children to view Palestinians “as culturally inferior, violent, and bent on the annihilation of the Jews.”
Arabs comprise about 21 percent of Israel’s population and include full rights of citizenship, including the ability to serve in parliament and on the Supreme Court as well as the ability to protest openly against the government.
Abed Abubaker, a self-described “reporter” from Gaza, is expected to make a physical appearance at the Detroit conference later this month. Abubaker has repeatedly praised the Hamas terrorist group as “resistance fighters” on social media and won a “journalist of the year” award from Iran’s state-controlled media outlet PressTV. In a January 2025 post, he showered praise on long-time Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, saying that the terrorist’s “love of resistance and land is seen very clearly.” In a March 2025 post, Abubaker posted that international supporters of the Palestinian cause should “attack your governments.” He also defended Hamas’s murdering of dissidents, saying that the victims were “collaborating” with Israel.
The event will also host Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment movement at Columbia University. Khalil rose to national prominence after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him in March for what the Department of Homeland Security alleged to be leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Khalil became a permanent US resident last year. The activist also drew scrutiny last month after he refused to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughters throughout the Jewish state during a CNN interview.
Panels at the conference will touch on subjects such as US military aid, legal accountability, and grassroots organizing, all presented through an anti-Israel lens, according to the event website.
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Tennis Officials Ignore Pressure to Cancel Israel’s Upcoming Davis Cup Matches in Canada
Israeli athletes competing in the Davis Cup 2025 Qualifiers Israel vs. Germany. Photo: IMAGO/Paul Zimmer via Reuters Connect
Tennis officials are ignoring demands by hundreds of anti-Israel activists to cancel a Davis Cup match-up with Israel slated to take place in Halifax, Canada, next month.
The Davis Cup – the world’s largest annual international team competition in the sport — is organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). As a member of the ITF, Tennis Canada is a nonprofit that leads the growth, development, and promotion of tennis and events related to the sport within Canada, including the Davis Cup matches in September. Israel and Canada are both scheduled to compete on Sept. 12 and 13 at Scotiabank Centre in a series of matches that will determine which country advances to the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers.
Both ITF and Tennis Canada said it will not ban Israel from competing in the matches, despite pressure to do so.
“We recognize this is a highly complex situation that goes far beyond sport. However, Israel has not been excluded from international sporting events, and it has not been suspended by the International Olympic Committee,” an ITF spokesperson said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “Across tennis, careful consideration is given to the participation of teams and players representing every nation, and the safety of all players, tournament staff, and supporters is always paramount at every event. We will continue to work closely with Tennis Canada in relation to this event.”
In an open letter published on Monday, which The Algemeiner has obtained a copy of, more than 400 Canadian and Canada-based scholars, coaches, athletes, Olympic medalists, sports journalists, and sports officials called on Tennis Canada to cancel the matches with Israel in September. Among the letter’s signatories, 106 are based in the Atlantic Canada region, where the matches will take place.
The anti-Israel activists, including three United National Special Rapporteurs, argued in their letter that it is “unconscionable” to allow Israeli athletes to participate in the matches in light of the Jewish state’s alleged “ongoing genocide in Palestine” during the Israel-Hamas war. They also called on the Canadian government and Tennis Canada to “forbid Canadian athletes to compete against Israeli athletes at the Davis Cup and all other international events.”
The letter additionally urged Canadian officials to follow other nations who “refuse to legitimize Israel’s crimes” by pulling out of international sports competitions in which Israel is participating. Just last week, Jordanian tennis player Abdullah Shelbayh withdrew from a tournament in Greece to avoid facing a competitor from Israel.
“Sport is an important space for engendering national sentiment. For this reason, it has, both in the past and today, played an essential role in both promoting national sentiment tied to genocide and in producing national sentiment essential for dismantling apartheid states,” the letter stated in conclusion. “As such, this is an important moment for Sport Canada and Tennis Canada to promote social justice and stand on the right side of history … sport sanctions against the nation [of Israel] are an essential tool for demonstrating Canada’s ongoing disapproval of Israel’s actions.”
In June, Canada issued sanctions against Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
In response to Monday’s letter, Tennis Canada said the matches with Israel scheduled for September will continue to take place as planned.
“Tennis Canada acknowledges the ongoing and deeply complex situation in the Middle East,” it said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “As a national sports organization, our mission is to promote the sport of tennis and create opportunities for players and fans to engage with the game in a spirit of respect and inclusivity. Our focus remains on ensuring a safe, fair, and professional competition for all athletes, staff, volunteers, and spectators.”
The organization added that it will work closely with ITF and authorities “to ensure this event is conducted in accordance with international sporting standards and with the well-being of all participants as our top priority.”
In a post on X, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) applauded Tennis Canada and the ITF for not caving to the pressure and for “providing opportunities for athletes to compete while ensuring the event remains safe and focused on tennis.”
“A small mob of extremists cannot be allowed to decide who plays tennis in Canada,” the CIJA added.
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‘Nazi Summer Camp’: Fidelity Investment Employee Launches Antisemitic Tirade Against Jewish Journalist
Danielle Gordon, who harassed Jewish author, journalist, and mother Bethany Mandel. Photo: Screenshot.
A telecenter operator who was, until recently, employed by Fidelity Investments launched on Monday a volley of antisemitic insults at a Jewish journalist via social media after learning that her children attend a summer camp which fosters pride in Zionism.
“F—k you and f—k your kid who goes to Nazi summer camp!” Danielle Gordon, the now-former employee, wrote to Bethany Mandel, author and contributor to the “Mom Wars” Substack. “Free Palestine from you sick f—ks!”
The exchange began when Mandel publicly discussed the presence of a paraglider over the camp’s property which, due to lingering trauma caused by the memory of the use of paragliders in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — which preceded an explosion of antisemitic incidents across the US — appeared to pose an imminent security threat. Gordon seemingly took umbrage at Mandel’s concern for Jewish life and the lives of her children, and hastily fired off the messages from an account which listed her legal name.
“I found it troubling that she sent such antisemitic vitriol when she’s just a working class, college educated white woman living in Denver — that is how far this rot has spread,” Mandel told The Algemeiner on Monday after her sharing of Gordon’s messages amassed over a million views on X. “Antisemitism has become normative discourse for people of her demographic.”
Mandel continued, “That word, Zionist, triggered her very much, and she had no qualms about coming at me, coming at my kids … There should be consequences for talking like this.”
On Tuesday, StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights group based in New York City, reported that Fidelity Investments promptly fired Gordon from her role, citing anonymous reports from people close to the situation. The corporation, however, has so far declined to publicly comment on the matter.
“Internal Fidelity employees have confirmed that Danielle Gordon’s employment has been terminated. Fidelity Investment Services deserves recognition for acting swiftly and decisively, sending a powerful message that violence and blatant antisemitism have no place in our society,” StopAntisemitism said in a statement. “At a time when moral clarity is often missing, their response sets an example we should all uphold.”
A source separately confirmed with The Algemeiner that Gordon no longer works at Fidelity.
This incident comes just weeks after another sudden outburst of hatred against Jews.
Earlier this month, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University (FSU) — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Deckerhoff has denied assaulting the student when questioned by investigators, telling them, “No I did not shove him at all; I never put my hands on him.” However, law enforcement charged her with misdemeanor battery and described the incident in court documents as seen in viral footage of the incident, acknowledging that Deckerhoff “appears to touch [the man’s] left shoulder.” Despite her denial, the Democrat noted, she has offered to apologize.
Days later, an unknown person or group graffitied swastikas and other hateful messages on the grounds of the Israeli-American Council’s (IAC) national headquarters in Los Angeles, underscoring the severity of the antisemitism crisis in the US.
“F—k Jews,” one cluster of graffiti said.
“BDS,” the message added, referring to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.
Elsewhere, the vandal defaced the property with a symbol representing the Nazi paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) group, several more swastikas, and, scrawled in capital letters, the word, “BURN.” Local law enforcement is on the case, numerous outlets have reported since the incident.
Mandel and the male Jewish FSU student were not the first victims of violence or harassment motivated by antisemitic anti-Zionism in the US. In some cases, such incidents have been fatal.
In June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by a national Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
Less than two weeks later, a man firebombed a crowd of people who were participating in a demonstration to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages who remain imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. A victim of the attack, Karen Diamond, 82, later died, having sustained severe, fatal injuries.
Another antisemitic incident motivated by anti-Zionism occurred in San Francisco, where an assailant identified by law enforcement as Juan Diaz-Rivas and others allegedly beat up a Jewish victim in the middle of the night. Diaz-Rivas and his friends approached the victim while shouting “F—k the Jews, Free Palestine,” according to local prosecutors.
“[O]ne of them punched the victim, who fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness,” the San Francisco district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down. A worker at a nearby business heard the altercation and antisemitic language and attempted to intervene. While trying to help the victim, he was kicked and punched.”
The wave of hate continues a pattern of year-on-year surges in acts of anti-Jewish bigotry.
In 2024, according to newly released FBI statistics, hate crimes perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups noted that this surge, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.
A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.