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‘Systemic Antisemitism’: Columbia University Jewish Community Urges Policies on Campus Antisemitism
Illustrative: Anti-Israel students protest at Columbia University in New York City. Photo: Reuters/Jeenah Moon
Nearly 200 Columbia University faculty have signed an open letter urging administrative officials to at last enact policies which address the scourge of antisemitism and disruption on the campus, an issue that remains unresolved despite its continuing to keep the school locked in a state of crisis.
“In response to civil rights violations and calls for violence being made against Jews on Columbia’s property, we cannot stress enough the need to implement measures of safety immediately. Toward this end, we’ve provided you with the list below of our recommendations” said the letter, addressed to interim university president Katrina Armstrong and shared with the public on Monday. “We truly appreciate your statement that ‘we have to do what’s best for our students,’ as well as the recent suspension and barring of those involved in disrupting a Jewish studies class. Unfortunately, the systemic antisemitism and anti-Western indoctrination at Columbia University continue.”
The letter went on to enumerate 10 policies the university can implement right now to correct the campus climate, including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is widely used by governments and private entities around the world, banning the wearing of face masks which conceal the identities of those who commit violence and destroy school property, and expelling students who, for the purpose of furthering an extremist political agenda, occupy buildings and invade classrooms.
Joseph Massad — an anti-Zionist professor who in 2023 cheered the Hamas-led terrorists who murdered young people attending the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 in southern Israel as “the air force of the Palestinian resistance” — also emerged as a key area of concern of the letter, as he remains permitted to teach the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his courses. At least one professor has resigned in protest of Massad’s good standing with the administration. In doing so, he denounced Massad’s presence on campus as “a complete abandonment of academic integrity and unbiased scholarship.”
“Immediately relieve Joseph Massad of his teaching responsibilities with Columbia students,” the letter continued. “Investigate Massad’s actions to determine if he violated Title VI, and, if substantiated, immediately dismiss him from Columbia University. Remove from positions of leadership and curriculum all Columbia faculty who have violated university policies, including regarding antisemitism, such as professors who have participated in the encampment or who called for violence. Hold accountable faculty who publicly supported calls for violence, including in ways that violate Title VI.”
Lastly, the letter addressed the outstanding case of Professor Shai Davidai, a high-profile Jewish civil rights activist whom the university has allegedly persecuted by investigating him over spurious accusations and suspending his access to campus for emotively criticizing the coddling of primarily left-wing students who endorse terrorism, anti-Jewish violence, and the dissolution of Western civilization.
“Reinstate Professor Shai Davidai’s access to campus,” it said.
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Columbia University remains one of the most hostile campuses for Jews employed by or enrolled in an institution of higher education. Since Oct. 7, 2023, it has produced several examples of campus antisemitism, including a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, brutal gang-assaults on Jewish students, and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting.
Amid these incidents, the university has struggled to discipline members of the anti-Zionist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which just this month committed an act of infrastructural sabotage by flooding the toilets of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with concrete. Numerous reports indicate the attack may be the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon. During the event, the Free Beacon reported, ADP distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.
That was not CUAD’s only alleged violation of school rules as well as the penal law of New York State.
In April, its members commandeered a section of campus and, after declaring it a “liberated zone,” lit flares and chanted pro-Hamas and anti-American slogans, according to reports. When the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrived to disperse the unauthorized gathering, hundreds of students reportedly amassed around them to prevent the restoration of order.
“Yes, we’re all Hamas, pig!” one protester was filmed screaming during the fracas, which saw some verbal skirmishes between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist partisans. “Long live Hamas!” said others who filmed themselves dancing and praising the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization. “Kill another soldier!” they also shouted.
In September, during the university’s convocation ceremony, CUAD distributed literature calling on students to join the Palestinian terrorist group’s movement to destroy Israel.
“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” said a pamphlet distributed by CUAD, a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) spinoff, to incoming freshmen. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”
Other sections of the pamphlet were explicitly Islamist, invoking the name of “Allah, the most gracious” and referring to Hamas as the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Proclaiming, “Glory to Gaza that gave hope to the oppressed, that humiliated the ‘invincible’ Zionist army,” it said its purpose was to build an army of Muslims worldwide.
After almost two years of being accused of cravenly ignoring unlawful and discriminatory behavior, Columbia University has recently made steps towards holding lawbreakers accountable. Earlier this month, it banned from its campus multiple, and suspended another, masked individuals who disrupted an active class last monh and proceeded to utter pro-Hamas statements while distributing antisemitic literature.
The agitators had stormed into Professor Avi Shilon’s course, titled “History of Modern Israel,” on the first day of classes of the new semester last Tuesday. Clad in keffiyehs, which were wrapped on their faces to conceal their identities, they read prepared remarks which described the course as “Zionist and imperialist” and a “normalization of genocide.”As part of their performance, which they appeared to film, they dropped flyers, one of which contained an illustration of a lifted boot preparing to trample a Star of David. Next to the drawing was a message that said, “Crush Zionism.”
Citing these incidents and more, Monday’s letter called on the university to adopt its recommendations “without delay.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Systemic Antisemitism’: Columbia University Jewish Community Urges Policies on Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Not Just Hamas: PA Religious Leaders Agree That Islam Prohibits Israel’s Existence
Palestinians walk at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
One mistake made by world leaders and even many Israeli leaders, is to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a secular Muslim leadership that rejects religious war for Allah — as opposed to Hamas. But this is a fundamental misreading of Palestinians and the conflict.
Fundamentally, the Palestinian Authority’s political leaders, like Hamas’ leaders, and like most of the Palestinian population, are religious Muslims first and Palestinians second.
The message of all PA religious leaders — some appointed by Mahmoud Abbas himself — is to deny Israel’s right to exist on religious Islamic grounds.
According to PA belief, Islamic law states that land that was once under Muslim rule must be liberated from the infidels as a mandatory religious obligation. Since the land of Israel was under Muslim Ottoman rule for four centuries, the PA is prohibited from making a permanent treaty with Israel that it intends to keep.
PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem explained this “fact” to worshippers at a mosque in Ramallah during a Friday sermon that was broadcast by official PA TV:
PA Shari’ah Judge Nasser Al-Qirem: “The Shari’ah legal law of this land, for anyone who doesn’t know, is that it is a waqf land … from its [Mediterranean] Sea to its [Jordan] River, this is its Shari’ah law, from its sea to its river.
The laws of this waqf determine that its status cannot be changed, not by sale and not by purchase, not by collateral and not by exchange… not by addition and not by subtraction… As for the [end] date of this waqf: It is forever and ever, and for all eternity, until Allah inherits the earth and those on it.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Feb. 14, 2025]
Following other PA religious leaders, Al-Qirem taught listeners that “Palestine” — including all of the State of Israel — is a waqf. A waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law.
Palestinians define all of Israel as waqf, and thereby Israel exists on Islamic holy land. Palestinian leaders have explained that under Islamic law Muslims are commanded to free the waqf from non-Muslims.
Similarly, PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who is also PA leader Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, has taught that the Western Wall is exclusively Islamic — according to Allah -– and that Muslims are obligated to fight anyone who challenges this right:
Al-Habbash: “Islam is truth that is indivisible… The rights are indivisible – Give me 60% or 70% of my rights, and tell me: ‘That’s it, that’s yours, take it.’ Perhaps temporarily, yes. [But] strategically, no! … Our rights are non-negotiable. They want to negotiate over Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque – then by Allah, it is better [to be dead] in the belly of the earth than to be on its surface…
There is no negotiation on one millimeter of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the Al-Buraq Wall [i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount[, which is an exclusive permanent Islamic waqf according to Allah’s decree… This is our right, and whoever fights us over our right is an oppressor, and it is a duty to resist the oppressors.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Jan. 20, 2023]
Repeating that Jews have no rights on Temple Mount, Al-Habbash encouraged the “Islamic nation” to “liberate Al-Aqsa with all means,” saying it was their “duty” because it is a waqf:
Al-Habbash: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a pure Islamic right. It is an exclusive Islamic waqf for Muslims (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment), and it is an exclusive right of the Muslims… At the UN podium, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas spoke explicitly about the Muslims’ legal claim to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and [said] that non-Muslims have no right to it… [Israel] knows that it has no right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Jews have no right to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. But they are only fanning the fire of hostility and the fire of religious war…
The duty lies on the Islamic nation and the Arabs in general, with the governments, regimes, states, bodies, religious and popular sources of authority and [all] the peoples, to participate in defending the noble Al-Aqsa Mosque, starting with coming to it… and ending with liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque by all possible means (i.e., including terror).” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 1, 2024]
Already a decade ago, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that Al-Habbash considers all of Israel a waqf:
Al-Habbash: “The entire land of Palestine is [Islamic] waqf and is blessed land … It is prohibited to sell, bestow ownership or facilitate the occupation of even a millimeter of it.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 22, 2014]
The author is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch.
The post Not Just Hamas: PA Religious Leaders Agree That Islam Prohibits Israel’s Existence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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This Jewish Rapper Should Be Praised for His Passover Pride
Rapper Kosha Dillz, dressed as Moses, leading a Passover seder at Coachella in 2022. Photo: @chrism_arts.
Antisemites in America — and especially in New York — are trying to make Jews feel fearful of going about their regular activities. One infamous video that went viral had anti-Israel protestors screaming that Zionists should get off the subway.
Jewish rapper Rami Matan Even-Esh — known as Kosha Dillz — decided to have a Subway Seder despite some negative comments he got last year when he did it. Dillz has visited Israel and performed for released hostages and families of hostages, as well as wounded soldiers.
“I love doing the Subway Seder because it was a breath of fresh air and some people joined in who weren’t having their own Seders,” Dillz told me in an interview.
He said his group did it on the Q train at Union Square in Manhattan at about 6 o’clock on Friday.
“People are glued to the Internet waiting for bad news, so it was nice to do something like this,” he said, adding that he dressed as Moses. “There were Black and Hispanic community members who asked what we were doing and they were receptive that we were taking pride.”
Dillz showed the Jewish pride that we all should, and he was unbowed by the threats he faced. He said showing Jewish pride and fearlessness is important in the wake of rising antisemitism.
“Last year, someone gave me the middle finger,” he said. “This year, we had no problems. Though, of course, online people will do their thing, and someone commented that we were colonizing the train. You have to laugh at them.”
Despite the Passover seder being mentioned prominently in the Christian Bible, Dillz said that many people asked him what Passover was and were unfamiliar with the holiday. He also rapped as part of the event.
“We gave the people dinner and a show,” he said, adding that there was both matzah and gefilte fish. “I think there were some worried about safety but we didn’t have one negative comment at all.”
Dillz, who will soon be releasing a documentary called Bring The Family Home about his trips to Israel since October 7 said the Israeli hostages often get forgotten in discussions, and he hopes they will somehow be returned.
Dillz, who has been a cast member of Wild ‘N Out and performs both music and comedy, said whenever possible, people should look at the bright side of things.
“I think as Jews, when we embrace our culture, we show that we are united and we’re not gonna run away in fear as our enemies might like,” he said.
Dillz, who made a music video against Kanye West when he went on an antisemitic rant, said that there should have been more outrage over the arson attack against Jewish Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence on Passover.
The rapper has taken to the streets recently not only to rap, but also to ask questions of people at anti-Israel rallies, where he calmly asks their opinions, often revealing that they have little knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dillz said that he is genuinely curious to know what they think, but at times people responded by showing ignorance and at other times, they would simply respond with chants designed to intimidate.
As for his Subway Seder, covered by Fox 5 New York, he said it was a success.
“It was really great we could do this,” he said. “When we show our positivity and joy, it’s something that I think is really powerful.”
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post This Jewish Rapper Should Be Praised for His Passover Pride first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Hamas Hostage, Nova Survivor to Debut Artwork Inspired by Captivity in NYC Solo Exhibit
Andrei Koslov in studio with some of his artwork that will be on display in his solo exhibition “So-Real Surreal.” Photo: Provided
Andrei Koslov, a Russian-Israeli artist who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and rescued in an Israeli operation last year, will have a solo art exhibition in New York City next month that will feature 12 original pieces heavily inspired by his time in captivity.
The invitation-only exhibit is titled “So-Real Surreal: An October 7th Survivor’s Story” and will take place on May 8 at Lux Contemporary, located in Chelsea.
Koslov, 28, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has always had a passion for art, specifically painting and drawing in acrylic, oil or just a pencil and paper, he recently told The Algemeiner. He moved to Israel in August 2022 and on Oct. 7, 2023, he was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage at the Nova music festival, where he was working as a security guard, and across southern Israel. Koslov was held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for eight months and one day until he was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces, along with three other hostages, during a daring IDF operation on June 8, 2024. Upon his return to Israel, Koslov took a few months to rest and recovery from the trauma he faced in Hamas captivity, but then picked up the paintbrush once again, he told The Algemeiner.
“I started to paint again and I figured out that I have something to show people, first of all about my experience,” he said. “It’s really close to my heart to paint.”
Koslov met Jewish art dealer and gallerist Emanuel Friedman during a trip to New York, and together they assembled the solo exhibit that will take place at Friedman’s Lux Contemporary.
Some of Koslov’s artwork that will be on display are inspired by thoughts and emotions he has about his time in captivity. “I have been influenced by this experience on my soul and on my mind,” he said. He has also drawn various scenes he remembers from his experience. He said some of the artwork are based on memories and “looks real,” while the experience “was so surreal.”
He also painted “little things that I remember, most of all, that gave me hope during captivity,” he added. “By accident, I put my hope and faith into these little things. For example, I saw a lot of times, two months before I was rescued, a little bird behind the window and I was able to just see its shadow. Or it was a little electronic candle that the terrorists gave us, to be able to see something in the completely dark room. And on the day when they brought us to Gaza, I saw a couple of times pictures on the wall, just maybe it was posters, with the cartoon Bambi.”
Friedman told The Algemeiner they hope to display Koslov’s artwork in museums and exhibitions around the world.
Andrei Koslov in studio with his artwork that will be on display in his solo exhibition “So-Real Surreal.” Photo: Provided
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