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Virginia Democrats Block Jewish Civil Rights Attorney’s Appointment to University Board

George Mason University students walking across campus on December 12, 2024. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner

Democrats in Virginia have launched an effort to block several appointees of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, including a Jewish civil rights attorney who was picked for an important post at George Mason University (GMU) that would see him continue reforming the school’s handling of antisemitism.

In the summer of 2024, Youngkin selected Kenneth Marcus — chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, former assistant US secretary of education for civil rights, and one the most consequential litigants in the fight to eradicate campus antisemitism — to serve on GMU’s Board of Visitors, a role in which he has addressed longstanding issues affecting Jewish GMU students, including recent threats to their safety that were widely reported in the media.

However, Marcus’ appointment came while Virginia’s General Assembly, a bicameral legislature which has the final say on gubernatorial appointees, was in recess. While he served in the unpaid role, it was never confirmed by lawmakers. That left the door open for his appointment to be rejected, the first steps towards which took place earlier this week when Senate Democratic members of the privileges and elections committee, a body which oversees appointments and submits them to the General Assembly for a final vote, removed his name from a joint resolution containing the names of appointees whose confirmation is pending.

Their reasons for opposing the decorated attorney’s appointment to Virginia’s largest public university remain unknown, as no arguments enumerating concerns about Marcus’ beliefs, conduct, or political affiliations have been put forth.

The Democrats’ opposition to his appointment came as a surprise, Marcus, a native of northern Virginia, told The Algemeiner on Thursday during an interview.

“No one in the Virginia Senate reached out to me to express any concerns, so I don’t know what the issue is. There is nothing that I have done during my tenure at George Mason that has been particularly controversial other than that I have been both active and outspoken in addressing antisemitism,” Marcus explained. “It would be disturbing if my work on antisemitism has been controversial with the General Assembly because the actions that we’ve been taking have been both legally required and necessary.”

He continued, “What’s happening at George Mason is deeply concerning, and there has absolutely been a need to take serious action. That work has been important, but it is also ongoing and is by no means done. Much, much more needs to be done.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, George Mason University has been the center of two investigations involving the potential for mass casualty events motivated by antisemitism.

In December, a GMU student was permanently trespassed and arrested in Falls Church, Virginia for allegedly planning to manufacture a weapon of mass destruction for use in a jihadist attack on Israel’s General Consulate in New York City. FBI agents apprehended the student, GMU freshman and Egyptian expatriate Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, after he had allegedly discussed his plot, in which he considered a variety of options for creating as many Jewish casualties as possible, with an undercover informant.

Hassan’s case was the second time in less than a month that GMU students were arrested due to suspicion that they were preparing to commit a mass casualty event.

Earlier that month, the university criminally trespassed and suspended two siblings — the current co-president and former president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — after a law enforcement search of their off-campus home uncovered “four weapons unsecured, along with more than 20 magazines with 30 bullets each,” Hamas paraphernalia, and “arm patches” which said “kill them where they stand” — a phrase others have translated as “kill Jews where they stand.”

Additionally, George Mason University is currently under investigation for a series of antisemitic incidents which took place on campus after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. In one widely reported outrage, a pro-Hamas student stormed through the campus tearing down posters of missing Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas. That student was filmed, and when an attempt was made to expose their identity, the university accused the student who captured the hateful behavior of doxxing and suggested that he could be punished. At the time, many Jewish students said that the idea that the university would discipline anyone for unmasking antisemites is startling and disreputable.

Given the immensity of the issues that remain to be addressed, Marcus hopes that “cooler heads will prevail” in the General Assembly. He recognizes, however, that they may not.

“I have to think that cooler heads will prevail and that the General Assembly assembly will change course, but I don’t know that,” he said. “There’s still time and I know that many people are having conversations and that’s a healthy part of the process. I am a volunteer part-time public servant asking questions and trying to make sure that George Mason students are well educated and kept safe. If my name is not restored presumably that means that my tenure would end and I would not receive answers to the questions I’ve been asking and would no longer have an opportunity to work to protect George Mason University and its students.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Virginia Democrats Block Jewish Civil Rights Attorney’s Appointment to University Board 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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