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My University Is Enabling Terrorist Supporters — and All I Can Do Is Write
After weeks of angry protests and chronic trespassing, some anti-Zionist college activists have found limited success convincing their schools to take their demands seriously.
Unfortunately, the chaos that erupted at Denver’s Auraria campus and elsewhere, shows that it’s difficult to put the genie back into the bottle when schools enable mob rule.
Throughout the spring term, colleges all over the country chose to drag their feet, rationalizing the mob violence and rampant antisemitism on their campuses with inappropriate applications of free speech protections that denied anti-Zionism’s violent bigotry.
My school was no different.
As far as I could tell, University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) Chancellor Michelle Marks’ administration was earnest in their attempt to diffuse the pro-Palestinian agitation on campus — if only they were competent enough to realize that the anti-Israel message was just as awful as the feces and drug paraphernalia that those individuals left on my campus.
Why is my school incompetent? First, for some reason, they refused to accept that criminal activity on university grounds should automatically warrant severe disciplinary action.
Second, the official “description” of events in Chancellor Marks’ latest open letter is bafflingly uninformed and outright insulting. And third, the weak acknowledgment of harm caused by terrorist supporters gaslights wary students.
Marks’ description of the protesters as “anti-war” ignores the fact that no protestors ever condemned the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the October 7 Hamas massacre, and the ongoing war.
Instead, these students called upon CU Denver to pressure Israel to leave Hamas in power in Gaza, shrink the size of Israel, and then absorb so many descendants of refugees that Israel would cease to exist.
This also insinuates that people who disagree (like me) are pro-war, and therefore support killing the innocent. This is an inversion of the truth.
Harming Arab civilians is not required to maintain Jewish freedom and safety. But if you ask any campus anti-Zionists how to “free Palestine,” they’ll likely shout about “ending Israel’s occupation” from “the River to the Sea.”
That means destroying the State of Israel.
Whether it means forcibly transferring millions of Jewish families from their homes, expelling seven million Jews, or committing a genocide that would surpass the atrocities of October 7, there is no just or peaceful way to liberate Palestine “from the River to the Sea.”
Later in Chancellor Marks’ message, a paragraph begins with “[Though] we have not witnessed and do not believe there is any concern of violence … Some members of our community have reported feeling fearful and intimated.”
Are they implying that my fear of being harassed because of my beliefs is irrational? In a school system that defines “emotional,” and “cultural” attacks as violence — and where using the wrong pronoun could be a fire-able offense — it is incredible that such a policy is not universally applied to Jewish students as well.
Chancellor Marks’ message closed by directing students to campus resources for those in need of “health and wellness” support and emergency safety, as if to say that the school was refusing to confront the mob violence and incitement to genocide against Israeli and Zionist Jews.
There was no strong condemnation of the protestors’ intimidation tactics, no tangible plan for restoring peace and “fulfilling their mission,” as the chancellor claims, and no assurances to the clearly anxious Jewish community that we would be treated fairly and safely.
For a belligerent mob of students that caused $290,000 of damage while acting like Nazi Brown Shirts, it’s frustrating to see them get off virtually scot-free.
Even though the encampment disbanded a few weeks ago, the harm continues. Since it seems like no one can actually stop these homegrown bigots from coming back in the fall semester with their posters and tents, I will think twice before trusting the administration ever again.
I thought college was supposed to be different.
The post My University Is Enabling Terrorist Supporters — and All I Can Do Is Write first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.