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Protestors Bring Violence, Vandalism, and More to College Campuses
Law enforcement clash with pro-Hamas demonstrators at the University of Michigan on Aug. 28, 2024. Photo: Brendan Gutenschwager/X
Violent anti-Israel protests continued in September, as new FBI statistics show that Jews were the most frequent targets of hate crimes in the US in 2023.
In Australia, pro-Hamas demonstrators including Students for Palestine, Extinction Rebellion, and Disrupt Wars fought with police outside a Melbourne arms fair; they also attacked police horses with acid and rocks, resulting in multiple injuries and arrests.
Thousands of protestors marched through Lower Manhattan in what organizers called “Flood NYC for Gaza,” waving Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian, and Syrian flags. The White House condemned the appearance of Hamas flags.
Other anti-Israel protests took place in New York City, in one case ostensibly in connection with the shooting of a knife wielding criminal on a subway platform, and with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before his address to the United Nations.
In London and Edinburgh Barclays Bank branches were vandalized as was a Berlin Holocaust memorial with the words “Jews are committing genocide.”
In response to an April protest that shut down Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and delayed travelers, a public interest law firm filed a class action lawsuit against a variety of anti-Israel organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. BDS funders such as the Tides Center, its Community Justice Exchange, National Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, AJP Education Foundation, Inc., and the WESPAC Foundation, were included in the lawsuit.
On campus, the semester opened with a variety of anti-Israel protests and vandalism at schools across the country.
The most serious incident was an assault on a Jewish student at the University of Michigan, who was approached by a group, asked whether he was a Jew, and then beaten. T
The university president condemned the incident, but no suspects have been apprehended. A series of other assaults on Jewish students and a Jewish fraternity at the school occurred, but their motives are unclear. Two Jewish students were also attacked near the University of Pittsburgh campus.
Student anti-Israel protests were also held in Chicago and Bay Area universities, Columbia University, McGill University, and elsewhere. A number of protestors at the University of Michigan were arrested and will be prosecuted by the state.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) accused Democratic State Attorney General Dana Nessel of doing so because she is Jewish.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer initially declined to support the Attorney General’s decision, but later reversed course — and a group of House Democrats did so, apparently without naming Tlaib.
Elsewhere the Drexel University Chabad house was vandalized with “free Palestine” propaganda, while a mezuzah was torn down at Harvard from the door of a Jewish student.
Overall the ADL reports a 2,000% increase in antisemitic incidents on California campuses alone.
In a significant incident, members of the Baruch College Hillel were harassed by SJP members outside a midtown Manhattan restaurant, who shouted “Back to Brooklyn, out the Middle East” and “Where’s Hersh you ugly ass b***h?”
At Harvard University, Jewish and Israel-related events are now patrolled frequently by university police.
Across the country, vandalism of university property has become routine:
Pro-Hamas students vandalized a statue of Benjamin Franklin at the University of Pennsylvania, stating it was “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.”
A lawn at McGill University, which had been destroyed by anti-Israel protestors in the spring, was again torn up.
The ROTC building at the University of North Carolina was vandalized, and a Palestinian flag was raised.
George Washington University trustees’ homes were vandalized by the Student Coalition for Palestine.
Various landmarks at Georgetown University were vandalized, including with the Hamas triangle symbol.
A building at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities was vandalized with slogans including “Zionists off campus,” “Intifada is here,” and “glory to the resistance.”
Direct student harassment of Jewish faculty also renewed in September, including at the UC Berkeley law school, where students handed out flyers condemning a ‘Zionist’ professor outside of his class.
At MIT, pro-Hamas students harassed a talk by an Israeli professor and stole food provided for the event.
Students also resumed harassment of administrators, as at Pomona College, where dozens of protestors screamed outside the president’s house late at night.
Students arrested during a sit-in at Wesleyan University, whose president had written an op-ed praising campus protests, held a protest outside of his house. The Cornell University “Coalition for Mutual Liberation” disrupted a job fair and chanted “We will work, we will fight. No more jobs in genocide” and “F*** you Boeing.”
Anti-Israel students and faculty at the University of Minnesota marched in protest against that institution’s recently announced neutrality policy.
As has long been the case Students for Justice in Palestine is taking the lead in organizing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests on campus:
The National SJP announced a Week of Rage would begin on October 7.
The Rutgers University SJP chapter protested its suspension in front of an administration building, stating menacingly that it was “Strike Three” for the university.
At William and Mary College, the SJP chapter led a walkout and chanted “intifada revolution” and “we don’t want two states, take us back to ‘48.”
At the University of Minnesota, SJP protestors along with students from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), UMN Divest, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) disrupted the inauguration of the school’s new president.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition released a statement praising the Houthi missile attack on Israel, noting the support for the attack from Hamas, the PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and ending with “Glory to the resistance.”
Student governments also remain at the center of organizing campuses against Israel. At the University of Michigan, the student government voted again to hold the budget for various student groups hostage until the administration adopts BDS.
The UCLA student government also passed a resolution demanding the administration revoke its ban on encampments. The University of California at Santa Cruz voted to adopt a BDS policy with its own funds but delayed implementation when it discovered the move would violate state and Federal laws. In contrast, the McGill University Student Union revoked the club status of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights group. The Cornell University SJP chapter was also denied recognition by the administration, as was the University of Illinois SJP chapter.
These positive steps were counterbalanced, however, by the restoration of the University of Wisconsin’s and Harvard’s pro-Hamas student groups.
Columbia University’s new president, Katrina Armstrong, also apologized to anti-Israel students who were “hurt” after New York police were forced to clear spaces they occupied during the spring semester. The refusal of New York University’s anti-Israel groups to participate in anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training sets up a confrontation with the administration.
After protests aimed against campus Hillel by SJP members, Baruch College attempted to block a campus Rosh Hashanah celebration. The Hillel director stated “We were told by the administration that the campus can’t guarantee the safety of Jewish students because of other agitators who want to hurt, intimidate or harass them.” The decision was reversed only after political pressure, including from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). The university denied the allegation.
After criticism, University of Maryland administrators denied the school’s SJP permission to erect an October 7th “commemoration of martyrs” on the school’s main plaza. CAIR and Palestine Legal have sued the university, claiming First Amendment rights have been violated.
Faculty members continue to take leading roles in anti-Israel protests, typically claiming they are there to protect their students and “defend free speech.”
A new report highlights the growing role of Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapters in organizing campus protests. It notes that campuses with chapters were far more likely to have faculty helping students write statements and cosponsor events, in addition to producing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements from academic departments.
At Columbia, the second investigative report on antisemitism detailing incidents on campus was also met with hostility by faculty who claimed it was poorly researched and, more importantly, that the effort was in “bad faith” and “conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”
For their part, University of Pennsylvania faculty joined anti-Israel students protesting outside the presidential debate held in Philadelphia last month.
The deep embedding of anti-Israel bias by faculty into courses through the selection of topics or readings remains difficult to perceive or counter. Challenges to overtly political and one-sided courses are invariably met with charges of censorship and that “academic freedom” is being defied.
The participation of faculty in straightforward indoctrination sessions held outside the classroom was exemplified by the “The People’s Conference For Palestinian Solidarity” at the University of Geulph, which included sessions aimed at high schoolers.
In another example, a faculty member at Wilfred Laurier University offered students extra credit for attending a pro-Hamas protest and drove students to the rally.
The sheer loathing for Israel embodied by some faculty was reflected in the appearance at Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies of United Nations special rapporteur and global antisemite Francesca Albanese. She reiterated her stance that the October 7 massacre was “legitimate resistance,” that Israel is a “military dictatorship,” and that Israeli operations are “genocidal.”
K-12 Students
One of the most notable developments in the new school year is lawfare from CAIR and its partners directed against antisemitism training.
The San Francisco Unified School District was forced to reschedule antisemitism training for teachers after anti-Israel groups including CAIR, and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (JVP), as well as the BDS supporting union, United Educators of San Francisco, objected to the involvement of the ADL, American Jewish Committee, and the local Jewish community.
Evidence also continues to emerge of teachers conspiring to evade oversight and directly indoctrinate students against Israel.
Video emerged of Los Angeles teachers discussing methods to bring “pro-Palestine” content into lessons, transport students to rallies, and avoid getting fired.
Teachers also continue to manipulate students into participating in anti-Israel activities.
In Toronto, middle school students were forced to participate in a march for “Palestine” after being told they were going to “observe” an event having to do with Canada’s First Nations.
Jewish students were also told to wear blue in order to identify themselves as “colonizers.” A Jewish student who expressed discomfort was told, “You’ll get over it” by a teacher.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a significantly different version of this article was first published.
The post Protestors Bring Violence, Vandalism, and More to College Campuses first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.