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Jewish Students Sue University of Pennsylvania, Allege Civil Rights Violations Amid Rampant Campus Antisemitism
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill testifies during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on holding campus leaders accountable and confronting antisemitism, at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on Dec. 5, 2023. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Two Jewish students have sued the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), alleging that the school violated their civil rights by “selectively” enforcing rules that would punish those who harass and intimidate Jewish students, hiring radical anti-Zionist professors, and fostering a hostile learning environment.
“The harassment and discrimination on campus and in the classroom is intolerable,” said the complaint, filed on behalf of plaintiffs Eyal Yakoby and Jordan Davis in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Plaintiffs and their Jewish peers are routinely subjected to vile and threatening antisemitic slurs and chants such as ‘intifada revolution,’ ‘from the river to the sea,’ ‘F—k the Jews,’ ‘the Jews deserve everything that is happening to them,’ you are a dirty Jew, don’t look at us,’ ‘keep walking you dirty little Jews,’ ‘get out of here k—kes,’ and go back to where you came from.’”
The complaint, viewed by The Algemeiner, alleges that antisemitism at Penn is an “institutional problem” that has been worsening for many years but became acute in September, when the school hosted an anti-Zionist festival that featured several speakers who called for violence against israel and were accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracies. For weeks, the school would not condemn the event, and Penn president Elizabeth Magill recently apologized for not doing so — after it took place.
“Incredibly, Penn’s administration did not just ignore students’ pleas to distance itself from the festival and antisemitic speakers invited to attend but also thumbed its nose at the pleas of Penn’s own trustees and alumni,” the complaint continued. “The antisemitic speakers at the festival lived up to their reputations, inveighing against ‘Jewish supremacism’ and the ‘messianic mindset’ of ‘religious Jews’ who are willing to ‘put up with anything to take over more land.’”
Antisemitic episodes on campus skyrocketed after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, with both students and faculty calling for Israel’s destruction and harassing Jewish members of the campus community. However, the complaint noted, such incidents were hardly new.
In 2018, for example, Penn granted a pro-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) group permission to hold a “teach-in” on campus. In 2019, a group of Penn Law students accused the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of wielding undue influence on school policy and lodging false charges of antisemitism against anti-Zionists with the aim of “hindering our ability to have a balanced conversation about Israel.” In 2020, a professor forced students to take a “privilege quiz” in which Judaism was “ranked as the most privileged” identity category. In 2021, during Israel’s last war with Hamas, Penn’s Center and Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies issued a statement accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and called for the destruction of the Jewish state.
This March, the anti-Zionist group Penn Against the Occupation (POA) hosted Mohammed El-Kurd during its “Israeli Apartheid Week.” Currently a columnist for the left-wing magazine The Nation, the 25-year-old el-Kurd has trafficked in antisemitic tropes, demonized Zionism, and falsely accused Israelis of eating the organs of Palestinians. Over the past two years he has widely toured across American university campuses, heightening concerns about rising antisemitism and harassment against pro-Israel students.
On Oct. 7, as scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies in Israel circulated worldwide, POA members held an “Emergency Solidarity Rally” where one of its members congratulated Hamas on a “job well done.” According to the complaint, the student said, “When they woke up in the morning, and they found the field hands in the house, with a knife, ready to cut their f—king throats. I was late to the news but when I heard it, I smiled. I don’t want to hear that bulls—t, 250, 250, innocent Israelis are dead. F—k ’em. Again, I swear, I salute Hamas.” In the ensuing days, Penn professor Anne Norton said on social media that she was “ashamed” of former US President Barack Obama for condemning Hamas.
The lawsuit went on to recount numerous incidents of alleged harassment, vandalism, and intimidation, concluding that Penn “has failed to fact or has acted with leniency and/or delay in applying its policies when a known or reported incident involved antisemitism or where the victim was a Jewish or Israeli student, including plaintiffs.”
The student are demanding a jury trial and payment for “substantial damages” they have incurred. They are being represented by the Law Offices of Eric A. Shore, P.C. and Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres LLP.
News of the lawsuit came amid a wave of criticism that hit Magill after she evaded answering whether calling for the genocide of Jews on the school’s campus constituted a violation of its code of conduct during a hearing on campus antisemitism held by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday.
“It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman,” Magill said, responding to US Rep. Elise Stefanik (D-NY), who posed the question. “If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment, yes.”
“Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide?” Stefanik asked, visibly disturbed by Magill’s answer. “The speech is not harassment? This is unacceptable Ms. Magill.”
On Wednesday, Magill apologized.
“In that moment, I was focused on our university’s longstanding policies aligned with the US Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable,” she said in a video posted on X/Twitter. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Students Sue University of Pennsylvania, Allege Civil Rights Violations Amid Rampant Campus Antisemitism 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.