RSS
MIT joins Harvard and Penn on list of schools facing federal civil rights investigations
(JTA) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Davis, both of which have recently experienced widely publicized episodes of conflict around Israel, are among six new institutions facing U.S. Department of Education investigations.
The department has indicated it is taking a newly aggressive approach to addressing it and Islamophobia on campus since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and is announcing new investigations at a rapid clip, dramatically increasing the pace of civil rights inquiries that it opens.
All of the investigations relate to allegations of mistreatment owing to “shared ancestry,” but the department does not publicly reveal the incidents or complaints that cause it to open inquiries. None of the latest targets would comment on their investigations’ nature, and many said they were not told why they were being investigated.
Still, it is almost certain that at least some of the investigations are related to antisemitism.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth, who is Jewish, came under heavy criticism at a recent congressional hearing for failing to say whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate university code. The school recently decided to partially suspend pro-Palestinian student protesters who staged a disruptive event on campus property.
MIT’s communications department did not immediately return requests for comment about its investigation. The school had previously been the only one of the three represented at the congressional hearing without an active federal investigation, as the Department of Education has previously announced inquiries into Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
And UC Davis entered the news in October when a professor, Jemma Decristo, posted threats to “Zionist journalists” on social media. “One group of ppl we have easy access to in the US is all these zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation,” Decristo wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Oct. 10. “They have houses w/addresses, kids in school[.] They can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.” The post concluded with emojis of a knife, an ax and blood drops.
A UC Davis spokesperson said the university could not comment on the current status of Decristo’s employment, but the professor’s faculty page has been removed from its website.
“UC Davis is committed to fostering a climate of equity and justice where all can feel welcome and thrive, free of harassment or discrimination,” UC Davis spokesperson James Nash told JTA, adding that the university would be fully cooperating with the investigation. “We take all claims of harassment seriously.”
The other new active investigations are at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Drexel University, and two public school districts: one in Springfield, Illinois, and the other in Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. The schools join an expanding roster of dozens of active civil rights investigations on campuses across the United States since Oct. 7, including ones involving antisemitism at Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers and Tulane.
The opacity with which the office has treated its civil rights investigations has frustrated some university administrators. While some schools have indicated to JTA that they know what their investigations are related to, others have said they were not informed.
“It’s frustrating to know that you’re under investigation but you don’t know what for,” one communications staffer of a university under investigation, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told JTA. “At the same time, it is the Department of Education and we don’t want to antagonize them.”
A view of a building on the University of California, Davis campus. (Joseph DeSantis / Getty)
None of the schools that responded to requests for comment would say whether their investigations were related to antisemitism.
A spokesperson for UIC said the university “strives to be a place where everyone feels welcome and where all people – no matter what color, race, ancestry, age, sex, interests, sexual orientation including gender identity, religion, disability, national origin, or marital status – can share perspectives and viewpoints to learn from one another,” but would not comment on its Title VI investigation.
A Drexel spokesperson similarly said, “Drexel does not tolerate acts of bias, discrimination and harassment.” On Oct. 11 the president of Drexel said the university was investigating a suspected case of arson outside a Jewish student’s dormitory.
A spokesperson for Springfield Public Schools District 186 told JTA their investigation was related to a complaint “filed by a parent on behalf of their child” but would not say what it was related to. Last year a high school student in the district faced hate crime charges in connection with antisemitic graffiti found at the school.
A spokesperson for Chandler Unified Schools told JTA it was “unable to provide details” about their investigation. The school district experienced an antisemitism controversy in 2021 when a woman at a school board meeting accused “the Jews” of developing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Opening an investigation does not mean the Department of Education believes the complaint has merit, only that it falls under the department’s purview.
—
The post MIT joins Harvard and Penn on list of schools facing federal civil rights investigations appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
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.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login