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US Democrats Try to Stop Bills Designed to Punish Campus Antisemitism

US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) speaks during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled ‘Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism’ on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, Dec. 5, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Democrats in the US House of Representatives attempted to ensure legislation which would punish universities that fail to protect Jewish students against antisemitism would die in committee and never reach the floor for a vote, according to a new report.

Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee all voted against the University Accountability Act (UAA), which would levy a tax on universities found to have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to prevent or respond to antisemitic hate incidents, Jewish Insider reported. They also voted against the Protecting American Students Act (PASA), legislation aimed at taxing the endowments of universities that admit more foreign students than American ones. It was prompted by reports that foreign students overwhelmingly contribute to antisemitism on college campuses.

“Universities — many of whom have ever growing foreign student populations and receive massive amounts of foreign funding — focus more on appeasing those with antisemitic views on their campuses than protecting all students, upholding their institutional values and holding those accountable who violate such policies and values,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) said, commenting on the bill’s necessity.

Both bills were introduced by Republican lawmakers — including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA). Democrats denounced them as inane and potentially injurious to higher education, according to Jewish Insider (JI).

“This bill fails to address the issue head-on and focuses on punishing schools instead of working to improve them,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said, as quoted by JI, railing against the UAA. “I’m concerned about this bill’s unintended consequence: the very real potential for creating a vicious cycle of aggressive and tendentious claims against universities.”

Malliotakis has said, however, that the UAA stands to prevent antisemitism and protect American taxpayers from funding colleges that refuse to address it.

“If these schools are receiving generous tax benefits from the federal government at the expense of American taxpayers, they should be doing more than simply giving a slap on the write to perpetrators of hate,” the congresswoman, alluding to the many times when students who committed antisemitic hate incidents eluded punishment, said earlier this month in a statement announcing the bill. “Our legislation seeks to hold these institutions accountable with lofty financial punishments that would encourage them to investigate and crack down on instances of antisemitism and help foster a safer academic environment for all students, regardless of their gender, race, or religion.”

The debate over the bill comes as many Democrats have hesitated or refused to acknowledge the antisemitic component of the anti-Zionist movement on the left, which opposes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Meanwhile, higher education experts and Jewish leaders have pointed to anti-Zionist activists’ own behavior and public remarks as evidence of anti-Jewish animus.

In April it was revealed that a principal organizer of pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia University, Khymani James, filmed himself proclaiming that Zionists, a category that includes a vast majority of Jews around the world, should be murdered and that they are fortunate that he has not begun killing them himself.

In September, one day before a high profile anti-Zionist event took place at the University of Pennsylvania, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner. Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

In February, at the University of California, an anti-Zionist demonstrator spat on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively. That incident was concurrent with an anti-Zionist mob’s descending on an event organized by the school’s Jewish community speakers, which forced the mostly Jewish audience to flee to a secret safe room.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a life-long progressive and steadfast supporter of Israel, has noted on social media numerous times that left-wing and right-wing anti-Zionists promote similar antisemitic tropes. Last month, he criticized blogger Briahna Joy Gray, who previously served as press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, for tweeting that Israel trains dogs to “rape Palestinian prisoners,” an accusation which bears little to no difference from the antisemitic conspiracies promoted daily by neo-Nazi websites such as “The Daily Stormer.” Days earlier, he lambasted Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi who supports marrying teenage girls to older men, for trafficking in false claims of a “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza, a falsehood that has been uttered many times by Democratic lawmakers such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

“Nick Fuentes is a racist and an antisemite, a white nationalist and a white supremacist to the core,” Torres tweeted. “When a liar tells you that there is a ‘genocide’ in Gaza, see it for what it is: a lie.”

The hateful and paranoiac quality of anti-Zionist activists’ rhetoric is reflected in the conduct of pro-Hamas protesters on college campuses, Asaf Romirowsky — an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East — told The Algemeiner in May, explaining that the country is witnessing a synthesis of Marxism and fascism which cannot tolerate a liberal-democratic state in which Jews have an active role in public life nor the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

“The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews,” he said. “They are violent, verbally and physically. People are ending up in the hospital with injuries. This is analogous to Nazi Germany, and that should be a wake-up call to the American people.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post US Democrats Try to Stop Bills Designed to Punish Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Washington Warns UK, France Against Recognizing Palestinian Statehood

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaves Downing Street, following the results of the election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville

i24 NewsThe United States has warned the UK and France not to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference scheduled for June 17 in New York, the Middle East Eye reported Tuesday.

France and Saudi Arabia will co-host this conference on the two-state solution, with Paris reportedly preparing to unilaterally recognize Palestine. France is also pressuring London to follow this path, according to sources from the British Foreign Office.

French media reports indicate that French authorities believe they have the agreement of the British government. Meanwhile, Arab states are encouraging this move, measuring the success of the conference by the recognitions obtained.

This initiative deeply divides Western allies. If France and the UK were to carry out this recognition, they would become the first G7 nations to take this step, causing a “political earthquake” according to observers, given their historical ties with Israel. The Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer threatened last week to annex parts of the West Bank if this recognition took place, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

In the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary David Lammy publicly opposes unilateral recognition, stating that London would only recognize a Palestinian state when we know that it is going to happen and that it is in view.

However, pressure is mounting within the Labour Party. MP Uma Kumaran, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the government was elected on a platform that promised to recognize Palestine as a step towards a just and lasting peace. Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, believes that there is no legitimate reason for the United States to interfere in a sovereign decision of recognition, while highlighting the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump on this issue.

The post Washington Warns UK, France Against Recognizing Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Police, Shin Bet Thwart Suspected Iranian Attempt Perpetrate Terror Attack

A small number of Jewish worshipers pray during the priestly blessing, a traditional prayer which usually attracts thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on the holiday of Passover during 2020, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 12, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.

i24 NewsThe Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police thwarted another Iranian attempt to recruit Israelis, according to a statement on Tuesday, arresting a resident of East Jerusalem for allegedly carrying out missions for the Islamic Republic.

Iranian agents recruited the suspect, who in turn recruited members of his family. He is a resident of the Isawiya neighborhood in his 30s, and is accused of maintaining contact with a hostile foreign entity to harm the state by carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews.

The suspect had already begun perpetrating acts of sabotage and espionage, including collecting intelligence about areas in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and Mahane Yehuda Market. He also hung signs, burned Israeli army uniforms, and more in exchange for payment totaling thousands of shekels.

He was also charged with planning a terror attack in central Israel, including setting fire to a forest, and was told to transfer weapons to terrorist elements in the West Bank.

The suspect’s sought the help of family members, including his mother. A search at his home revealed sums of cash, a spray can used in some of his activities, airsoft guns, suspected illegal drugs, and more.

His indictment is expected to be filed by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office.

The statement said that the case is yet another example of Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis. “We will continue to coordinate efforts to thwart terrorism and terrorist elements, including those operating outside Israel, while attempting to mobilize local elements in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Shin Bet and Police said.

The post Police, Shin Bet Thwart Suspected Iranian Attempt Perpetrate Terror Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Pro-Russian, Anti-Israeli Hackers Pose Biggest Cybercrime Threats in Germany

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt holds a chart showing the development of antisemitic crime, during a press conference on Figures for Politically Motivated Crime in the Country, in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Cybercrime in Germany rose to a record level last year, driven by hacker attacks from pro-Russian and anti-Israeli groups, the BKA Federal Crime Office reported on Tuesday as the government said it would boost countermeasures to combat it.

“Cybercrime is an increasing threat to our security,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. “It is getting more aggressive but our counter-strategies are also becoming more professional,” he said.

Some 131,391 cases of cybercrime took place in Germany last year and a further 201,877 cases were committed from abroad or an unknown location, a BKA report said.

The actors behind the hacker attacks on German targets were primarily either pro-Russian or anti-Israeli, said the BKA, adding targets were mostly public and federal institutions.

Ransomware, when criminals copy and encrypt data, is one of the main threats, said the BKA, with 950 companies and institutes reporting cases in 2024.

German digital association Bitkom said damage caused by cyberattacks here totaled 178.6 billion euros ($203.87 billion) last year, some 30.4 billion euros more than in the previous year.

Dobrindt said the government planned to extend the legal capabilities authorities could use to combat cybercrime and set higher security standards for companies.

The post Pro-Russian, Anti-Israeli Hackers Pose Biggest Cybercrime Threats in Germany first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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