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Leading Academic Group Denounces National Women’s Studies Association for Silence on Hamas Atrocities Against Women
Maayan Zin embraces her daughters Ela Elyakim, 8, and Dafna Elyakim, 14, former Israeli hostages, shortly after their arrival in Israel on Nov. 26, after being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, at Hatzerim military base in Israel, in this handout picture released by the Zin family on Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: Zin Family/Handout via REUTERS
A group of feminists and scholars at US universities has issued a searing open letter censuring the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) for not condemning the rapes and other sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The Section for Women Faculty of the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a nonprofit that advocates academic freedom and open exchange in higher education, noted in its letter that since the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught, the NWSA has issued two statements attacking Israel’s military response, neither of which mentioned Hamas’ female victims or the 240 people abducted as hostages to Gaza. Beyond the kidnappings, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and injured thousands more.
NWSA’s silence, AEN argued, is a seismic moral failure.
“We are outraged by the NWSA’s abandonment of women and girls who have experienced horrible atrocities and by its utter refusal to acknowledge the plight of Israeli women and girls in either its recent programming or public statements,” said the letter, which was shared with The Algemeiner. “The two statements that the NWSA released on Oct. 11 and Oct. 31 condemn Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre yet fail to denounce the brutality of Hamas terrorists, who were given orders to rape.”
It added that in refusing to condemn Hamas, NWSA alienated Jewish academics and students of women’s studies — a problem, the group explained, that goes back to 2015, when NWSA endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.
“We are deeply concerned that on account of this indefensible position, Jewish scholars and students are now thoroughly ostracized from the association, and by extension, from the discipline of Gender Studies,” the letter continued. “Jewish feminist engagement in the NWSA has been in decline for a number of years. The organization’s professional standing has truly been diminished by its antisemitism.”
Beyond the NWSA, women’s groups and sexual assault centers on university campuses and even within the United Nations have been noticeably silent on well documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli girls and women, as well as other acts of sexual violence, during their Oct. 7 onslaught.
On Friday, AEN executive director Miriam Elman stressed during a conversation with The Algemeiner that recognizing the traumas Israeli women endured does not exclude advocating for Palestinian women whom Hamas denies basic economic and political freedoms through its enforcement of Sharia law.
“You can show empathy for Palestinian women and girls — and please do — because they are oppressed through subjugation and honor killings,” Elman said. “Many in the section also want to say that they recognize that Palestinian women and girls are impacted by the war. You can do that and also recognize that Hamas systematically used rape as a weapon of war, condemn that, and call for the release women and girls who are still hostages Gaza.”
She added, “There are still young women in their 20s and early 30s still being held hostage. G-d knows what has happened to them since being taken into captivity. NWSA has released two statements that did not say one word about these atrocities.”
Feminist author Phyllis Chesler, a professor emerita of psychology and member of AEN’s Section for Women Faculty — called NWSA’s spurning of Jewish women “craven,” adding that “women’s studies has been more concerned with the alleged occupation of a country that never existed — Palestine — than with the real occupation of women’s bodies in Gaza and throughout the Arab world.”
Founded in 1977 with help from a grant awarded by the Ford Foundation, the National Women’s Studies Association is a professional academic society that claims to have over 300 members and institutional partnership with over 350 university academic departments. In recent years, its public statements have rarely addressed rising antisemitism in the US and across the world, doing so only after neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The group has, however, issued statements in support of Asian Americans, African Americans, and Palestinians.
“Palestinian solidarity is a feminist issue,” NWSA said during Israel’s 2021 war with Hamas while alleging that Israel has “perpetrated” sex crimes against Palestinian women.
Anti-Israel bias in professional academic societies has increased in recent years. Within a year, both the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) and the American Anthropological Association (APA) endorsed the BDS movement, drawing criticism from scholars who condemned the decisions for being “shameful” and “profoundly destructive.”
The problem also exists in prestigious post-graduate academic programs, Elman told The Algemeiner. She noted that over 100 scholars organized by her group recently issued a second letter denouncing the Fulbright Program, as well as the Fulbright Association, for not issuing any statements denouncing Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, despite Hamas abducting one of its alumni, Israeli academic Shoshan Haran, and murdering her husband, sister, and brother-in-law.
The doucment also denounced a separate letter signed by nearly 1,000 Millennial and Generation-Z Fulbright Scholars, all but one of whom participated in the program during the 21st century, that accused Israel of committing genocide and did not reference the Hamas atrocities.
“Haran was an accomplished alumnus of Fulbright, and you can’t say anything about her, you can’t speak out, you can’t say one sentence calling for her release? Their selectivity of empathy is unconscionable,” Elman said. Commenting on the tendency of young scholars to be virulently anti-Israel and to promote falsehoods about the Jewish state, she added, “It’s very concerning that all these young scholars are so morally confused.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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