RSS
These Outrageous Antisemitic Incidents Occurred Across the US in July
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
Many of the anti-Israel protests in July were centered on the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US. A variety of American Palestinian groups urged Netanyahu to be “arrested.” Prior to Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, some 200 protestors were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda. Mobs also besieged the hotel where he was staying, with Palestinian Youth Movement infiltrators filming themselves releasing maggot and insects, and pulling fire alarms overnight.
Prior to the speech, thousands of protestors mobbed Washington, D.C., burning American flags and waving Hamas flags, assaulting police, and vandalizing monuments with graffiti including “Hamas is coming.”
Classic antisemitic imagery, including Netanyahu depicted as a demon with horns and fangs dripping blood, were common. Police, including many brought in from other cities, used tear gas to disperse the crowds, but US Park Police later reported that less than three dozen members were deployed to protect monuments. Those arrested were later released, and many charges were dropped.
The riots were condemned from across the political spectrum, including the White House.
Other pro-Hamas protest activities during the month included:
July 4th disruptions in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, which featured burning the American flag.
Vandalizing a Seattle Holocaust museum with the words “Genocide in Gaza.” Local police declared the act was not a hate crime.
A planned protest outside a Michigan Holocaust museum and demands that the museum condemn Israel.
Protestors who unfurled pro-Hamas banners from the roof of the Australian parliament building.
The Royal Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam being vandalized by pro-Hamas activists with red paint, which they stated “symbolizes the blood of the Palestinians that is currently flowing through the streets of Gaza.”
Emailed bomb threats “in the name of Palestine” forced the evacuation of the Pennsylvania Capitol Complex.
An Israeli owned factory in New York City was attacked along with two in Britain with alleged connections to Israel. A non-Jewish owned diner on Long Island with hostage posters in the windows was also vandalized.
Attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions were routine in July:
Protests outside a New York City synagogue hosting an Israeli real estate fair.
A Pittsburgh synagogue and the Jewish Federation headquarters were vandalized.
A Los Angeles synagogue was vandalized twice in one week.
Vandalizing a Sydney synagogue with a banner reading “sanction Israel.”
A thwarted plot to destroy an Athens synagogue resulted in arrests. This followed attacks on a Chabad house and an Israeli owned hotel.
Two Toronto synagogues were attacked, and a school and a school bus were burned.
Elsewhere, a variety of symbols associated with Jews continue to be appropriated for the Hamas cause. One especially obscene example was an Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam that was vandalized with the word “Gaza.”
In Bergen, Norway, a mural of Anne Frank wearing a keffiyah sparked controversy. The anonymous artist claimed that “The killings of the innocent women and children in Gaza must stop now. I feel sure that Anne Frank … would support me in this demand.”
Students
Reports indicate that anti-Israel students are investing heavily in summer training activities. A number of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) summer camps sponsored by the National Students for Justice in Palestine have been noted, including at the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, and San Francisco State University.
Threats against universities and Jewish students also escalated in July. Unionized student workers associated with the United Auto Workers at Columbia University voted to endorse BDS, and threaten to strike if its demands are not met.
At New York University, the administration condemned the People’s Solidarity Coalition aka the People’s Front, which had issued a statement embracing “armed struggle” as part of its efforts to “dismantle NYU’s involvement in settler-colonial occupation, genocide and imperial wars. We localize the Palestinian liberation struggle within the imperialist University, and take up the fight against NYU’s global empire, which collaborates in the interests of Zionist colonialism and U.S. imperialism.”
In another example, the University of Wisconsin Madison SJP chapter threatened that “We will no longer normalize genocidal extremists walking on our campus. … ANY organization or entity that supports Israel is not welcome at UWM. This includes the local extremist groups such as Hillel, Jewish Federation, etc.”
The larger revolutionary framework of anti-Israel and anti-American protests was described in a posting by the University of Illinois Chicago SJP, which stated “Inshallah amerikkka and israel will fall within our life time. Death to all police and colonial empires.”
The repercussions of the post-October 7 campus unrest continue to reverberate for university administrations. One report indicates that the protests cost the University of California system $29 million, with UCLA alone incurring $10 million in security and $400,000 in cleanup expenses.
Several universities have quietly announced that divestment from Israel is not being considered, including the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California system. The University of Minnesota regents proposed to sidestep the issue with an “investment neutrality” policy, while the University of Edinburgh has postponed consideration indefinitely. The London School of Economics stated that divestment was effectively impossible.
Disciplinary action against pro-Hamas protestors continues to emerge:
At Northwestern University, three employees and one graduate student were arrested for obstructing police, who were attempting to break up an encampment. Charges were then dropped by the Cook County prosecutor.
Two additional protestors at the University of Illinois were charged, bringing the total to five.
Pro-Hamas students at the University of Texas were suspended for two years.
At Harvard University, suspended students were reinstated after faculty complaints, and their diplomas were conferred.
A variety of pro-Hamas student groups at George Washington University were reportedly being sanctioned.
In Britain, the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham obtained court orders disbanding campus encampments.
The University of Melbourne has reportedly threatened to expel pro-Hamas protestors after disciplinary proceeding. The protestors complained that “surveillance technology” had been used to identify them.
Other universities continue to make a variety of concessions to protestors:
After negotiations with the pro-Hamas elements encampment, the University of Wisconsin-Madison apparently agreed to cut ties with two Israeli companies and to condemn the “plausible genocide” by Gazans.
The University of Liège announced that it was conceding to student demands to confirm it had no collaborations with Israeli universities, that it would request a review by the European Council on Israeli participation in European-wide projects, and that it was rejecting a series of donations and collaboration with specific companies.
University of Toronto encampment participants were provided with amnesty by the university as a condition for vacating the campus.
The University of Windsor agreed encampment demands to accept more “scholars at risk” and students from Gaza, “enhanced anti-racism initiatives,” and to greater investment transparency.
Cambridge University agreed to review its investments as part of an agreement with the pro-Hamas encampment. It also confirmed it did not have investments in specific Israeli companies.
University administrations continue to adopt a variety of measures to ensure the fall semester will be quiet. The University of California Regents voted to ban political statements by academic departments. The move comes after numerous departments posted anti-Israel statements on their websites, particularly after October 7.
Restrictions on protests were also instituted by the Indiana University regents, and have been proposed at Harvard University, including a ban on overnight camping. Most substantively, a Federal court has ordered UCLA to develop a plan to protect Jewish students from the discrimination and harassment that underpinned the 20224 encampments.
But while antisemitism task forces, invariably paired with “Islamophobia” task forces, have provided useful documentation of campus harassment and intimidation, their mostly modest recommendations have been ignored.
Efforts to “educate” staff members regarding antisemitism within the existing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mechanisms that dominate campuses have thus far been unsuccessful.
Faculty
As faculty prepare for the fall semester, a number of developments point to the continued domination of campus politics and discourse by the anti-Israel movement. Unions remain key mechanisms for anti-Israel forces to maintain control:
A petition circulated at Rutgers University calls on the faculty to demand the school’s American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers members call for divestment and for cutting ties with Tel Aviv University.
Six Jewish faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) have sent a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the US Court of Appeals asking to hear their case against the Professional Staff Congress.
A series of resolutions proposed at the American Federation of Teachers convention demanding an end to US military aid to Israel and protect pro-Palestinian protestors were removed from consideration by the leadership as “unconstitutional.”
A series of resolutions were proposed to the National Education Association convention supporting BDS, demanding the end of US military aid to Israel, and supporting teaching about the “Nakba.” The convention and consideration of the resolutions was halted by a strike of union staff.
The isolation of Israeli academia at the hands of international colleagues continues to expand. New reports indicate that the number of foreign students applying to study at leading Israeli universities has declined precipitously since October 7, and many international faculty are planning on leaving. The declines are especially critical in the hard sciences and life sciences, with local academics warning that Israel may become a closed scientific monoculture on par with China or Iran. Most analysts cite the impact of the BDS movement and fear of having a record of Israeli collaboration. Other reports cite a growing wave of Israeli academics leaving the country for overseas positions. Most, however, cite domestic politics, the security situation, and the high cost of living.
More positively, an open letter signed by some 3,000 academics denounced Israel boycotts.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was first published.
The post These Outrageous Antisemitic Incidents Occurred Across the US in July first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.
The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.
The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”
Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.
Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”
Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.
In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.
“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.
In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.
Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.
Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.
However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.
This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.
Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.
The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.
The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.
“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”
RSS
Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’
Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect
The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.
On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.
This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.
“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.
“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.
This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.
The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.
For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.
Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.
RSS
Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says
Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.
“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”
NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.
“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.