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UNC Keeps Breaking Legal Obligations with Anti-Israel Events; Will the Legislature or Officials Act?
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
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has repeatedly abandoned its legal obligation to be institutionally neutral “on the political controversies of the day.”
On Feb. 16, I attended a campus panel titled, “News Media Frameworks for Israel/Palestine” that five UNC departments and institutes sponsored. Only about 25 people attended this overtly anti-Israel event.
All five panelists were well known anti-Israel activists. As I previously reported, four panelists signed a 2021 statement pledging to promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel “in the classroom and on campus.” The fifth panelist signed a statement saying, “We acknowledge our complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.” Five UNC administrators from the event’s sponsoring organizations also signed the 2021 statement condemning Israel’s “oppression” of the Palestinian people.
The event began with UNC professor Nadia Yaqub requesting that the audience not record. This was reminiscent of when UNC hosted the notorious 2019 “Conflict Over Gaza” conference, which made international news for featuring an antisemitic rap performance. As I reported at the time, the 2019 UNC audience was also instructed not to record. It was wise that some in attendance ignored this directive, because it was the publication of a recording of the antisemitic performance that forced UNC into a Resolution Agreement with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
Why is UNC — a taxpayer-funded public university — so afraid of having their anti-Israel events recorded?
About 55 seconds into her opening remarks, Yaqub told the audience that Israel is fighting “Palestinian resistance groups.” Not a single panelist spoke up to disagree, and to let the audience know that the United States and many other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
During the Feb. 16 UNC event, Israel was accused of targeting Palestinian journalists and the families of journalists. Israel was repeatedly accused of genocide, and accused of having a history of starving Palestinians. This went unchallenged. Hamas’ use of rape as an instrument of war, Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, and Hamas’ practice of building terror tunnels under and near hospitals and other Palestinian civilian sites were not mentioned a single time.
Students and the community were provided a one-sided demonization of Israel that ignored the legal requirement of institutional neutrality without including a single pro-Israel or even neutral voice to challenge the biased panel and the two hours of Israel-bashing speeches.
The so-called Gaza Ministry of Health was discussed as if it were a well respected institution that can be trusted to provide accurate information to the public. If a single pro-Israel or even neutral speaker had been included on the panel, the audience may have heard that Hamas runs the Gaza Ministry of Health, which could more accurately be described as the voice of an internationally-recognized terrorist organization.
Sitting near me were students taking notes throughout the event, which made me wonder, were they actually receiving university credit for attending this biased, anti-Israel event?
While Yaqub was not listed on the flyer as a panelist, she was clearly in charge of this event. Yaqub’s Zoom account was used to project the three panelists who participated remotely, and Yaqub introduced the speakers and moved around the small room as host. She also signed the 2021 statement pledging to promote BDS “in the classroom and on campus.”
In January, Yaqub spoke at a UNC Faculty Council meeting to oppose a resolution, titled “Condemning Antisemitism on Campus.” The resolution sought to condemn remarks made by Rania Masri, a recent speaker on UNC’s campus, who described the Oct. 7 massacre as a “beautiful day.”
Yaqub told Inside Higher Ed that she did not believe Masri’s comments were “objectively antisemitic,” and that “what actually happened on that day [Oct. 7], and who actually committed what, is still very unclear.”
Why would UNC and the five sponsoring departments and institutes ever think that Yaqub is equipped to lead what should have been an institutionally neutral event on Israel and the Palestinians?
The panelists suggested three media sources to the audience, which Yaqub wrote on the blackboard. They are +972, Jadaliyya, and Mondoweiss. All three of these publications are stridently anti-Israel. For example, UNC doctoral student Kylie Broderick is Managing Editor of Jadaliyya, which has a long history of promoting BDS. Broderick is a well known anti-Israel activist who has recently tweeted “F—k Israel.” Mondoweiss’ current social media banner says in bold text, “STOP THE GENOCIDE.”
Does UNC actually believe that presenting a panel which consists entirely of like-minded anti-Israel activists, and recommends only anti-Israel publications to its students and community, is going to be institutionally neutral on the issue of Israel and the Palestinians? It is time for the Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees, and the legislature to make changes at UNC, so that the law on institutional neutrality is followed.
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post UNC Keeps Breaking Legal Obligations with Anti-Israel Events; Will the Legislature or Officials Act? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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