RSS
UC Berkeley President Walks Back Positive Statements on Pro-Hamas Protesters, Israel Boycott
Aftermath of pro-Hamas group’s occupation of a University of California, Berkeley administrative building. Photo: Michael Wai Lee via Reuters Connect
University of California, Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ has issued a message assuring Jewish faculty that the school will not boycott and divest from Israel, according to a letter shared with The Algemeiner.
The letter — written to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate — followed concerns that Christ expressed agreement with the ideology and aims of pro-Hamas protesters in a previous missive announcing a settlement for ending a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in which students lived for several weeks and refused to leave unless the school adopted an anti-Israel stance. In it, Christ commended the protesters as “professional” and “productive” while describing Israel’s prosecution of its war against Hamas as “horrific,” sentiments that were reportedly dictated by the protesters as a condition of their cooperation.
“I plan to make a public statement by the end of the month sharing my personal support for government officials’ efforts to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” Christ said. “Such support for the plight of Palestinians, including protest, should not be conflated with hatred or antisemitism.”
Christ, who will soon retire from academia, did say that the protesters’ demands for a boycott of Israel and divestment of holdings in countries linked to it are nonviable, but she hesitated to formally denounce the latter, saying only that it is prohibited under California law.
In the latest letter, however, Christ announced “new campus programs to provide antisemitism education to larger numbers of students, faculty, and staff.” Additionally, she said that her earlier comments do “not in any way, open the door to, or have anything to do with, divestment from entities based on the fact that they do business with Israel or are situated in Israel.” The outgoing chancellor also denounced rising antisemitism on the campus as “deeply disturbing” and expressed support for the school’s Jewish Studies and Israel Studies fields — statements that drew praise from Jewish faculty leader and political science professor Ron Hassner.
“The chancellor’s statement is evidence of Berkeley’s ongoing support for Jewish Studies and Israel studies. That, in turn, is a function of respect for our Jewish students and faculty community,” Hassner told The Algemeiner on Monday. “While masked anti-Israel protesters engaged in violence, racism, intimidation, and property destruction, the Jewish campus community responded with quiet dignity. While protesters made quixotic ‘foreign policy’ demands, the Jewish community called for safety, coexistence, and antisemitism education. I’m glad campus ignored the former and embraced the latter.”
Christ’s initial praise of pro-Hamas students troubled many on campus given their actions during the 2023-24 academic year, particularly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
In February, a mob of hundreds of student and non-student protesters shut down an event at the UC Berkeley Zellerbach Library featuring Israeli reservist Ran Bar-Yoshafat, forcing Jewish students to flee to a secret safe room as the protesters overwhelmed campus police.
Footage of the incident showed a frenzied mass of anti-Zionist agitators banging on the doors of the Zellerbach. The mob then, according to witnesses, eventually stormed the building — breaking windows in the process, according to reports in The Daily Wire — and precipitated the decision to evacuate the area. During the infiltration of Zellerbach, one of the mob — assembled by Bears for Palestine, which had earlier proclaimed its intention to cancel the event — spit on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively.
“You know what I was screamed at? ‘Jew, you Jew, you Jew,’ literally right to my face,” the student who was attacked said to a friend. “Some woman — then she spit at me.”
Shaya Keyvanfar, a student, later told The Algemeiner that her sister was spit on and that the incident was unlike any she had ever witnessed.
“Once the doors were closed, the protesters somehow found a side door and pushed it open, and a few of them managed to get in, and once they did, they tried to open the door for the rest of them,” Keyvanfar said. “It was really scary. They were pounding on the windows outside — they broke one — they spit at my sister and others. They called someone a dirty Jew. It was eerie.”
UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor for communications and public affairs Dan Mogul told The Algemeiner the next day that the incident left a “black mark” on the university’s history.
During May’s encampment, the protesters — members of UCB Divest — resorted to physically attacking Jews, committing what the school’s newspaper described as “an aggravated assault and attempted robbery” of a Jewish demonstrator’s pro-Israel flag. In the end, the pro-Hamas agitator who instigated the incident punched a Jewish student in the face and paramedics had to be called to the scene. Despite this incident and others in which Hamas symbols were paraded across the campus, Christ’s public statements portrayed the protesters actions’ positively. That she agreed to negotiate with them instead of ending a protest which disrupted university business and promoted racial hatred not seen in the US since the 1950s frustrated faculty.
“Their mission statement ends with ‘in solidarity without compromise, from the river to the sea,’ a phrase identified by Congress as antisemitic and calling for genocide and the destruction of Israel,” over 300 professors said in a letter to University of California Board of Regents president Michael Drake, which was first obtained by The Jewish News of Northern California. “In negotiating with UCB Divest and in agreeing to their demands to review the holdings of the endowment, the chancellor has given legitimacy to this virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic group.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post UC Berkeley President Walks Back Positive Statements on Pro-Hamas Protesters, Israel Boycott first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
RSS
Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
RSS
Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.