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I Graduated UCLA in May; But My Fight for Israel On and Off Campus Has Just Begun
Law enforcement officers clear out a pro-Hamas protest encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Los Angeles, California, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/David Swanson
It has been six months since I graduated from UCLA, and my life looks a lot different now than it did as a Bruin.
The shift from being a student — a title that brought me immense pride and purpose — to navigating the uncertainty of a post-grad life has been both freeing and disorienting. This period of uncertainty, paired with the endless opportunities it presents, looms over me daily as I navigate the “figuring-it-out” chapter of my young twenties.
Yet amid the consistent changes and challenges of this transition, I’ve noticed glimpses of an unfamiliar sense of calm. At first, I couldn’t identify its source — it wasn’t as though life after graduation had suddenly become easier. But on the anniversary of October 7 — a day meant solely for grief, honor, and respect — the feeling made sense.
UCLA administrators continue not to enforce the changes they said they’ve made — such as time, place, and manner policies or a Four-Point Plan for a “safer and stronger” community — to conduct on campus, thereby allowing disruptive anti-Israel protests to continue.
However, reading about the Students for Justice in Palestine protest in the news felt starkly different than experiencing it on campus. For the first time in a year, there was a degree of separation between my heartbreak over what my community continues to endure, and the false narratives and blatant antisemitism perpetuated on college campuses.
The chants of “365 days of genocide” and “Israel is a terrorist state” felt no less painful this year, but I wasn’t forced to face them in person.
This distance did not make the commemoration of October 7 any less excruciating, nor does it make the image of 100 hostages continuing to be tortured underground any less vivid. It does not lessen the frustration of watching a preparatory emergency exit video at my temple during the High Holidays, or the anger that political leaders continue to advocate for ceasefires and two-state solutions while Hamas militants are embedded within UNRWA’s school systems.
But not having to worry about being blocked from the library or hearing “From the River to the Sea” echo across campus minutes before taking a final exam has made every day since graduation feel a little bit lighter. I’ve also noticed something else — or, more accurately, the absence of something. What happened to the flurry of social media posts my peers once shared about the campus protests and the ongoing war?
Unfortunately, their silence isn’t due to newfound understanding or engagement with Jewish perspectives; it’s because they no longer feel the pressure of social capital or the need to perform activism for an audience. Since they are no longer students and therefore the issue no longer directly affects them, they no longer need to utilize social media as a way to gain validation in the echo chamber of university life. While it’s been a relief to no longer see these posts, the fact that such harmful narratives were so casually spread and normalized remains deeply troubling.
Just because I am no longer facing anti-Jewish behavior on campus head-on — or seeing my peers’ constant posts — doesn’t indicate in the slightest that the fight is over. For Jews around the world, “Never Forget” means that we must always remember our people’s darkest moments on their darkest days. Our right to defend ourselves is a matter of life and death, not a symbolic gesture to project morality.
The tradition of Hanukkah shows us that it is indeed possible to remain hopeful and resilient, especially when it seems impossible. As the story goes, there was only enough oil to keep the Temple’s menorah burning for one day, but the flame miraculously stayed alight for eight. It is imperative to keep the memory of that miracle alive not only as an ode to our history, but also as a reminder that miracles can happen when we remain committed to being unapologetically Jewish.
Hanukkah means “dedication.” Judah the Maccabee’s fight against the Greek occupation of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem allowed for its rededication, ensuring that Jewish faith and culture would endure. Though I am no longer a college student, I am committed to rededicating my passion for Jewish advocacy.
Whether through writing, my pursuit of a legal education, or engaging with my community, I will continue to use my voice to challenge antisemitism and ensure that the flame of our history and hope burns brighter than ever.
Emily Samuels is a recent graduate of UCLA.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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