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Massachusetts Institute of Technology Accused of Ignoring Antisemitism
Joe Gindi of Rutgers University, Yasmeen Ohebsion of Tulane University, and Kevin Feigelis speaking to the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on February 29, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ignored numerous complaints of antisemitic discrimination, according to harrowing testimony provided during a “round table” meeting on campus antisemitism at the US Capitol on Thursday.
Held by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the meeting marked another phase in Congress’ investigation of antisemitism at US colleges and universities, an inquiry that aims to determine whether administrators have willfully ignored bigotry when Jews are its victims.
In December, the committee questioned three presidents of elite universities — Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill of University of Pennsylvania, and Sally Kornbluth of Massachusetts Institute of Technology — about their efforts to address the problem. While Gay and Magill were ultimately forced to resign from their positions, Kornbluth evaded scrutiny. The testimony of one Kornbluth’s students, Talia Khan, suggested that higher education watchdogs should have focused on on her as well.
“In the past five months, I’ve become traumatized,” Talia Khan, a student, told the committee. “MIT has become overrun by terrorist supporters that directly threaten the lives of Jews on our campus. Members of the anti-Israel club on our campus has stated that violence against Jew who supports Israel, including women and children, is acceptable. When this was reported to president Kornbluth and senior MIT administration, the issue was never dealt with. Then, administrator pleaded ignorance when we reminded them that no action had been taken, saying that they either forgot about it or missed the email.”
Khan went on to recount MIT’s efforts to suppress expressions of solidarity with Israel after Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, which included ordering Jewish students to remove Israeli flags from public display while allowing Palestinian flags to fly across campus campus. It is a “scandal” Khan explained, alienating both Jewish students, staff, and faculty, many of whom resigned from an allegedly farcical committee on antisemitism. Staff were ignored, Khan said, after expressing fear that their lives were at risk, following an incident in which a mob of anti-Zionist amassed in front of the MIT Israel Internship office and attempted to infiltrate it, banging on its doors while “screaming” that Jews are committing genocide.
“No action was taken to discipline this behavior,” Khan explained. “We have DEI administrators, an inter-faith chaplain, and faculty who have openly supported Hamas as martyrs, harassed individual Jewish students online, and publicly supported antisemitic blood libel conspiracy theories. The MIT administration seems only to listen to those faculty and members of the MIT corporation who help them continue to gaslight Jewish students and faculty, telling us we’re being over dramatic and should just, quote, ‘Go back to Israel if we don’t feel safe studying here.’”
In the past, Kornbluth has suspended anti-Zionist groups for breaking campus rules, but she has always maintained that she does not disagree with the content of their speech.
The committee also heard statements from Jewish students of Tulane University, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, The Cooper Union, and Harvard University.
“I hope that our universities will wake up and realize that a lot of what they have been doing in our interactions is lip service and placation,” Tulane University Yasmeen Ohebsion told The Algemeiner early Friday morning, during an interview about the meeting. “Words are shallow if action doesn’t follow them.”
Noting that campus administrators “have failed Jewish students by repeatedly brushing hate against Jews under the rug,” Hannah Schlacter, a second-year student at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, called on Congress to address campus antisemitism through legislation.
“I’d like to see Congress create legislation that allows accountability to occur,” Schlacter said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “One possibility is that if the Department of Education opens an investigation into a university regarding discrimination, the Congress freezes the university’s nonprofit tax status and federal funding until the issue is resolved.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Massachusetts Institute of Technology Accused of Ignoring 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.