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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.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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