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South African Jews Forcibly Removed While Protesting Minister’s Call to Intensify Pro-Hamas Campus Protests
Jewish protesters being harassed outside the Sandton Convention Center in South Africa. Photo: Provided by South African Jewish Board of Deputies
South Africa’s Jewish community on Friday protested Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor’s recent call for students and university leaders to intensify the anti-Israel demonstrations that have engulfed college campuses across the US, chanting “no space for Jew hate” as they were forcibly removed despite demonstrating peacefully.
Members of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) gathered at the entrance of the Sandton Convention Center, a major venue for hosting events in South Africa, to protest what they described as an incitement to violence and antisemitism by a senior government official.
The Jewish activists were met with verbal and even physical abuse, with some people attending a conference at the center pointing and shouting “Zionist” at them in an accusatory tone.. In one case, someone physically pulled a poster out of a protester’s hands, spat in her face, and told her to “f—k off,” according to the SAJBD.
The police ended up physically relocating the protesters from outside the entrance of the convention center as they shouted, “No space for Jew hate.”
The SAJBD noted that the peaceful demonstration was solely meant to raise awareness about the threat to the safety of Jewish students on university campuses and was limited to 15 people, thereby within in the legal parameters for a public gathering.
The protest was in response to comments that Pandor made while delivering a lecture at the University of Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Titling her lecture “The Responsibility of the Academy in a Time of Genocide,” Pandor urged greater university and student activism and boycotts against Israel for what she called its “scholasticide” and “systemic obliteration of education” in Gaza.
Pandor accused Israel of deliberately targeting schools and libraries during its military campaign in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by the Hamas terror group.
Hamas launched the ongoing conflict with its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel and massacre of civilians, leading the Israeli military to launch a campaign aimed at destroying the terror organization and freeing the hostages kidnapped during its onslaught. Pandor did not mention that Hamas terrorists embed themselves within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeer civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
During her speech, Pandor encouraged those in attendance to become anti-Israel activists.
“My expectation is after our talk you will become activists,” she said. “As educators, advocates, activists, civil society and state structures, we should all play a role in the global struggle in search of truth and justice.”
She added, “It is our collective responsibility to raise our voices in solidarity with the people of Palestine who are fighting for their survival in the midst of the genocidal campaign being waged against them.”
Pandor then turned to the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations that have erupted across university campuses over the past month, calling on South Africa to do more in support of the movement.
“We are also buoyed by the growing mobilization on college campuses across the world in support of the just cause for freedom and justice of the people of Palestine,” she said. “We hope that this unprecedented activism by students in the US will also spur greater activism among student movements here in South Africa, and spur more vocal support from our university administrators, some of whom have remained silent.”
For over three weeks, university students have been amassing in the hundreds at a growing number of schools, taking over sections of campus by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.
The protests initially erupted across the US but have since spread to university campuses around the world, primarily in the West.
In a statement shared with The Algemeiner, SAJBD national director Wendy Kahn lambasted Pandor’s comments.
“We were horrified that Minister Pandor at a lecture at the University of Johannesburg called to import the violence and antisemitism that is plaguing university campuses in the United States to our local campuses in South Africa. What an irresponsible call,” said Kahn, who noted that Pandor’s remarks came as students were preparing for their final examinations.
“Can you imagine if this starts to incite violence and intimidation on our own campuses in our country?” she continued. “We should do everything to make sure the education of our students continues and is not compromised in any way. This would compromise not only Jewish students who will experience the antisemitism but all the students at our universities where there will be a stand-still to education.”
The SAJBD called on Pandor to retract her remarks encouraging campus demonstrations against Israel, arguing that such rhetoric risked being especially dangerous just three weeks out from South Africa’s general elections.
“This is unacceptable,” Kahn concluded. “We call on you to stop this kind of incitement. It doesn’t belong in South Africa.”
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been one of the harshest critics of Israel since Oct. 7.
South Africa temporarily withdrew its diplomats from Israel and shuttered its embassy in Tel Aviv shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, saying that the Pretoria government was “extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians” in Gaza.
In December, South Africa hosted two Hamas officials who attended a government-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians. One of the officials had been sanctioned by the US government for his role with the terrorist organization.
Earlier this year, the South African government failed in its bid to argue before the International Court of Justice that Israel’s defensive war in Gaza constituted a “genocide.”
The post South African Jews Forcibly Removed While Protesting Minister’s Call to Intensify Pro-Hamas Campus Protests first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Putin Speaks to Trump, Condemns Israel’s Strikes on Iran, Kremlin Says

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meet in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to US President Donald Trump for 50 minutes on Saturday, condemning the Israeli military operation against Iran and expressing concern about the risks of escalation, the Kremlin said.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Trump, for his part, described events in the Middle East as “very alarming,” according to Ushakov. But the two leaders said they do not rule out a return to the negotiating track on Iran’s nuclear program, Ushakov said.
On Ukraine, Putin told the US leader that Russia was ready to continue negotiations with the Ukrainians after June 22, according to state news agency RIA.
Trump reiterated his interest in a speedy resolution to the conflict, the Kremlin aide said.
Putin also congratulated Trump on his 79th birthday.
The post Putin Speaks to Trump, Condemns Israel’s Strikes on Iran, Kremlin Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sunday’s US-Iran Nuclear Talks Cancelled, Oman Says

FILE PHOTO: Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi attends a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 11, 2023. Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday in Muscat will not take place, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on X on Saturday. Oman has been mediating the talks.
Albusaidi’s statement came a day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against Iran, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon.
A senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Sunday’s talks had been cancelled.
Washington, however, remained committed to the negotiations and hoped “the Iranians will come to the table soon,” the official said.
The post Sunday’s US-Iran Nuclear Talks Cancelled, Oman Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Talks with US ‘Meaningless’ After Israel Attack, But Yet to Decide on Attending

USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear program is “meaningless” after Israel’s biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy, but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks on Sunday.
“The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory,” state media on Saturday quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.
“It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,” Baghaei was quoted as saying.
He said Israel “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington’s permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.
Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the United Nations Security Council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear program.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was set to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment program is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord.
The post Iran Says Talks with US ‘Meaningless’ After Israel Attack, But Yet to Decide on Attending first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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