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Rutgers Faculty Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Against Israel

The Endowment Justice Collective, a coalition of organizations at Rutgers University, held a “die in,” Piscataway, New Jersey, March 19, 2024. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect

Faculty unions at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey have passed a resolution calling for the adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

According to an announcement issued by the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 58 percent of faculty “voted” yes to divest from corporations linked to Israel and suspend all programs with Tel Aviv University, while 38 percent “voted no.” A similar resolution was approved by the university’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), an affiliate of the AFL-CIO which represents adjunct professors, with 62 percent voting yes.

“Our unions have many fights ahead of us,” said a joint statement issued by the two groups last Friday. “We will need to work together to resist the Rutgers administration’s ongoing attempts to undermine our contract victories. We will face the consequences at Rutgers of the incoming Trump administration’s looming assault on all of higher education.”

It continued, “In confronting the challenges that 2025 will bring, we will be stronger if we are united across union, rank, department, school, and campus — as were during our victorious strike in 2023. Together we fight! Together we win!”

Launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation-state. It seeks to isolate the country with economic, political, and cultural boycotts. Official guidelines issued for the campaign’s academic boycott state that “projects with all Israeli academic institutions should come to an end,” and delineate specific restrictions that its adherents should abide by — for instance, denying letters of recommendation to students applying to study abroad in Israel.

The unions’ passing a resolution which calls for BDS comes amid new scrutiny of the role faculty — specifically the group Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) — have played in fostering campus unrest, extremism, and antisemitism — a problem which drew fresh attention this week when it was announced that Columbia University is allowing a professor who cheered Hamas’s atrocities against Israelis last Oct. 7 to teach a course on Zionism. At Rutgers, for example, this month’s resolution was heavily promoted by FJP, which accused the university of supporting genocide in over a dozen social media posts it published to promote it.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, FJP is a faculty spinoff of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group with numerous links to Islamist terror organizations, FJP chapters have been opening on colleges since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, its members, which include faculty employed by the most elite US colleges, have fostered campus unrest, circulated antisemitic cartoons, and advocated severing ties with Israeli companies and institutions of higher education.

According to a study by the campus antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, titled “Academic Extremism: How a Faculty Network Fuels Campus Unrest,” its presence throughout academia is insidious.

Using data analysis, AMCHA was able to establish a correlation between a school’s hosting an FJP chapter and anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity. For example, the study found that the presence of FJP on a college campus increased by seven times “the likelihood of physical assaults and Jewish students” and increased by three times the chance that a Jewish student would be subject to threats of violence and death — as happened at Rutgers University in November 2024, when freshman Matthew Skorny, 19, called for the murder of a fraternity member he identified as an Israeli, saying on the popular social media forum YikYak, “To all the pro-Palestinian ralliers [sic] … Go kill him.”

FJP also “prolonged” the duration of “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” protests on college campuses, in which students occupied a section of campus illegally and refused to leave unless administrators capitulated to demands for a boycott of Israel. The study added that such demonstrations lasted over four and a half times longer where FJP faculty were free to influence and provide logistic and material support to students. Professors at FJP schools also spent 9.5 more days protesting than those at non-FJP schools.

“So much attention has been focused on, for example, Students for Justice in Palestine, the encampments, and all of the unrest. The primary face of that has been students and student groups, and they’ve occupied the attention of administrators, member of Congress, and the public, but if you look more deeply — behind closed classroom doors, at departmental events, and statements, or the activity of groups like [FJP], you find an even more important predictor and determinative factor precipitating antisemitism,” AMCHA executive director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin told The Algemeiner recently during an interview in which she discussed the latest research on faculty antisemitism.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Rutgers Faculty Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Iran Denies Any Meeting With US Next Week, Foreign Minister Says

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS

Iran currently has no plan to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday in an interview on state TV, contradicting US President Donald Trump’s statement that Washington planned to have talks with Iran next week.

The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran was assessing whether talks with the US were in its interest, following five previous rounds of negotiations that were cut short by Israel and the US attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The US and Israel said the strikes were meant to curb Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons, while Iran says its nuclear program is solely geared toward civilian use.

Araqchi said the damages to nuclear sites “were not little” and that relevant authorities were figuring out the new realities of Iran’s nuclear program, which he said would inform Iran’s future diplomatic stance.

The post Iran Denies Any Meeting With US Next Week, Foreign Minister Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Ireland Becomes First European Nation to Advance Ban on Trade With Israeli Settlements

A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Ireland has become the first European nation to push forward legislation banning trade with Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — an effort officials say is meant “to address the horrifying situation” in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Irish Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris announced that the legislation has already been approved by the government and will now move to the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade for pre-legislative scrutiny.

“Ireland is speaking up and speaking out against the genocidal activity in Gaza,” Harris said during a press conference.

The Irish diplomat also told reporters he hopes the “real benefit” of the legislation will be to encourage other countries to follow suit, “because it is important that every country uses every lever at its disposal.”

Joining a growing number of EU member states aiming to curb Israel’s defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Ireland’s decision comes after a 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal.

The ICJ ruled that third countries must avoid trade or investment that supports “the illegal situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Once implemented, the law will criminalize the importation of goods from Israeli settlements into Ireland, empowering customs officials to inspect, seize, and confiscate any such shipments.

“The situation in Palestine remains a matter of deep public concern,” Harris said. “I have made it consistently clear that this government will use all levers at its disposal to address the horrifying situation on the ground and to contribute to long-term efforts to achieve a sustainable peace on the basis of the two-state solution.”

“Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are illegal and threaten the viability of the two-state solution,” the Irish diplomat continued. “This is the longstanding position of the European Union and our international partners. Furthermore, this is the clear position under international law.”

Harris also urged the EU to comply with the ICJ’s ruling by taking a more decisive and “adequate response” regarding imports from Israeli settlements.

“This is an issue that I will continue to press at EU level, and I reiterated my call for concrete proposals from the European Commission at the Foreign Affairs Council this week,” he said.

Last week, Ireland and eight other EU member states — Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden — called on the European Commission to draft proposals for how EU countries can halt trade and imports with Israeli settlements, in line with obligations set out by the ICJ.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the latest move by European countries, calling it “shameful” and a misguided attempt to undermine Israel while it faces “existential” threats from Iran and its proxies, including Hamas.

“It is regrettable that even when Israel is fighting an existential threat which is in Europe’s vital interest — there are those who can’t resist their anti-Israeli obsession,” the top Israeli diplomat said in a post on X.

The post Ireland Becomes First European Nation to Advance Ban on Trade With Israeli Settlements first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Justice Department Warns of Threats to Jewish Targets as Concern Mounts Over Iranian Sleeper Cells

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to the national anthem as Air Force officers salute during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

The US Department of Justice is closely tracking potential threats to the Jewish community nationwide amid growing concerns over Iranian sleeper cells launching attacks and fallout from recent American and Israeli military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated the Trump administration’s recent warnings about potential Iran-linked sleeper cells and domestic radicalization, following escalating tensions in the Middle East during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

During her testimony on Capitol Hill, Bondi reassured lawmakers that all federal agencies are working around the clock to keep Americans safe and are closely monitoring any potential national security threats.

Sleeper cells are covert operatives or terrorists embedded in rival countries who remain dormant until they receive orders to act and carry out attacks.

“Iran, of course, is a threat. They have been a threat, and they always will be a threat to our country,” Bondi said in her testimony. “And we are working hand in hand with all of our agencies to protect Americans and to keep us safe.”

Tehran’s ability to coordinate or inspire attacks on American soil has long been a concern for US law enforcement and intelligence officials — a fear that only deepened after US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in 2020.

According to Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, the threat from sleeper cells remains credible due to the Iranian regime’s ongoing desire to avenge Soleimani’s death.

“Tehran takes its reputation seriously and holds long-standing grudges,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner. “Its defeat in the recent 12-Day War, when top generals, nuclear scientists, and major nuclear infrastructure were lost, will likely deepen its motivation to retaliate, including the possibility of action on US soil.”

Last weekend, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a former member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with suspected Hezbollah ties, a former Iranian army sniper, and a terror watchlist suspect during a sweep targeting illegal Iranian migrants across the country. Both the IRGC and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy based in Lebanon, are US-designated terrorist organizations.

When entering the US, Iranian migrants are flagged as “special interest aliens” and undergo heightened federal screening for possible terrorism ties, given Washington’s designation of Tehran as a state sponsor of terrorism.

In last weekend’s ICE operation, five of the 11 Iranians arrested had prior criminal convictions, including grand larceny as well as drug and firearm possession.

Bondi noted that the administration had arrested 1,500 undocumented Iranian immigrants in the US, saying she would discuss the issue further in a classified setting.

“Have they invaded our country? Absolutely,” Bondi said.

For decades, Iran and its proxy Hezbollah have established a strong foothold in the Western Hemisphere, leveraging alliances with governments such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to expand their influence and support terrorist operations and illicit activities.

Backed by Tehran with an estimated $700 million in annual funding, Hezbollah is regarded by experts as the world’s most technically sophisticated terrorist organization, although the group suffered severe losses during its war with Israel last year. Active in at least 15 US cities, the Islamist movement was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist group prior to 9/11.

“While the [Iranian] regime often tries to obscure its role to deflect responsibility, that effort doesn’t always succeed, especially given how deeply Israel has penetrated its intelligence apparatus,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner.

“To hedge against these vulnerabilities, Tehran has strengthened ties with Western criminal networks. This allows the regime to distance itself from the assassination and terror plots it orchestrates,” he continued.

Following the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, law enforcement agencies across the country have ramped up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives amid growing fears of retaliation.

Beyond facilitating illicit financing, these operatives act as sleeper agents, poised to carry out terrorist attacks on US soil on behalf of Iran if given such an order.

According to NBC News, Iranian officials warned Trump during last week’s G7 summit that they would deploy “sleeper cells” to carry out attacks on American soil if Washington decided to strike.

Although no specific or credible threats have yet emerged, US Customs and Border Protection says the threat of sleeper cells has “never been higher.”

But this is far from a recent development. It’s an ongoing pattern, with Iranian and Hezbollah agents repeatedly documented over the past two decades surveilling and collecting intelligence on multiple targets throughout the US.

“Tehran has a record of using Iranian nationals to carry out assassination plots and attacks inside the United States,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner. “These operations are typically run by either the Ministry of Intelligence or the IRGC, often through coordination between specialized departments.”

One notable case is the foiled 2011 plot in which US authorities uncovered an Iranian plan to assassinate the then-Saudi ambassador to the US by bombing Café Milano, a Washington, DC restaurant frequented by American officials.

In May 2023, the Justice Department announced that Alexei Saab, 46, was sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for receiving military-type training from Hezbollah, marriage fraud, and making false statements.

In 2000, Saab entered the United States, where he lived while remaining a Hezbollah operative who “continued to receive military training in Lebanon and conducted numerous operations.” According to law enforcement and Saab’s own admission, he surveilled various “soft targets” in the US for potential future attacks.

One Hezbollah operative told the FBI during interviews in 2016 and 2017 that if the US and Iran went to war “the US sleeper cell would expect to be called upon to act.” That operative, Ali Mohamed Kourani, and another Hezbollah member were carrying out preoperational surveillance for potential Hezbollah attacks in the US and Panama, according to federal prosecutors.

The post US Justice Department Warns of Threats to Jewish Targets as Concern Mounts Over Iranian Sleeper Cells first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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