RSS
The Anti-Israel Hate and Moral Bankruptcy at UNC Is Stunning
Students sit on the steps of Wilson Library on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US, Sept. 20, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
On Nov. 28, I attended a now-notorious anti-Israel event titled “No Peace Without Justice: A Round-Table Talk about Social Justice in Palestine,” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
The event was sponsored by two campus departments, and UNC’s Student Life & Leadership program.
One of the speakers, Dr. Rania Masri, said: “Oct. 7 for many of us from the region was a beautiful day.” Masri went on to fawn over Hamas paragliders, and called for “the eradication of Zionism.”
As I reported, not a single panelist or UNC professor in attendance disagreed with Masri. Rather, two panelists openly concurred. In fact, after the event, a panelist – the Rev. Mark Davidson – wrote on social media: “It was a good conversation, and I felt privileged to be part of the panel.”
Danielle Purifoy, a UNC professor of geography, helped organize the event. On Oct. 7 — the day Hamas massacred 1,200 in Israel, used rape and sexual assault as weapons of war, and took hundreds of hostages — Purify tweeted, “Solidarity with folks fighting to free themselves in Palestine” and retweeted, “colonialism is bad for settlers.”
According to a 2022 tax filing, Purifoy was recently board chair of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), where Masri is currently co-director. Ajamu Dillahunt Jr. serves as NCEJN’s current board co-chair. All three are anti-Israel activists.
Public records reveal that Masri wrote to Purifoy and Dillahunt after the event. Rather than apologize for her hateful comments, Masri apologized for getting caught:
I’m reaching out to you, Ajamu, to let you know of attacks that are being made against me, that could have repercussions on NCEJN.
I gave a talk at UNC five days ago, and a statement that I made has been taken out of its historical context and mis-construed. It was stupid of me to say it knowing that Zionists are around the corner and waiting to pounce.
I am truly, very very sorry, for any harm that I have caused — to UNC, to NCEJN, and to the larger movement.
Five days after the event, UNC Provost Christopher Clemens wrote a blistering letter of concern to UNC faculty that included Claudia Yaghoobi, Director of the UNC Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies, and Conghe Song, chair of the Department of Geography and Environment. They were included since their two departments sponsored the Nov. 28 event.
Clemens wrote:
I will admit that I struggle to understand what the rhetoric in this event was supposed to accomplish.
I would like to meet as soon as possible to hear more about the logic of the choices being made and to discuss a particular development on campus that I find chilling. With the exception of abortion, I am not used to hearing members of the academy appear to be enthusiastic about violence against innocent human beings. Yet I see a recurring theme in the classroom, in seminars, in public statements, in emails I receive, and in the public square in which some scholars are unapologetic (at the least) about the rapes and murders of their fellow human beings. Do we have a contingent of faculty who think these things are necessary? Do anti- Zionism and critical whiteness studies weave together into an anti-Semitism? If so, are there scholars who can address it? What are the elements of this conjuncture that it would be productive to explore?
One thing is clear: from the outside, the academy appears to be fostering a banal kind of evil.
In preparation for the meeting with Provost Clemens, Purifoy sent an email to Conghe and Sara Smith. Smith is a UNC professor of Geography who introduced the Nov. 28 panel:
I hope that today’s meeting will go as well as possible. I’ve attached a screenshot of Mark Davidson’s comments about the panel last Tuesday which might be helpful. He and Rania [Masri] approved of my sharing it with you.
In the comments that Purifoy attached, Davidson wrote, “The inmate prison-break from the concentration camp [Gaza] in the early morning hours of October 7 was, from a Palestinian perspective … something to celebrate.” In this single sentence, Davidson compared Israel to the Nazis and celebrated Hamas.
The antisemitism and moral bankruptcy on display at UNC is stunning. I agree with UNC’s Provost Christopher Clemens: “One thing is clear: from the outside, the academy appears to be fostering a banal kind of evil.”
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post The Anti-Israel Hate and Moral Bankruptcy at UNC Is Stunning first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login