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When Will North Carolina or Congress Investigate Duke University for Allowing Calls for Israel’s Destruction and Other False Claims?
Duke University. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Duke University has apparently permitted an entire academic department to publicly align itself against Israel.
In 2021, Duke’s Department of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies endorsed a public statement declaring, “We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine …We do not subscribe to a ‘both sides’ rhetoric.”
The Duke gender studies website presently features a section titled, “Donation Suggestions for Palestine,” which provides links to 12 organizations including Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss, which are both stridently anti-Israel publications. There are no suggestions for donations directed towards Israel.
Anna Storti is Assistant Professor in the department. On Oct. 7, 2023, while Israelis were actively being murdered, raped, mutilated, and taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists, Storti was reposting anti-Israel complaints on X.
In 2020, Storti tweeted “f[***] the usa” and in 2024, posted, “F[***] these cops. Shame on the admin who call them on their own students…It’s all about Free Palestine…this month and always. Liberation within our lifetimes.”
She also reposted on X the slogan, “From the river to the sea.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) explains the meaning of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”:
This is a cry for Israel to not exist. It is calling for a Palestinian state that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – effectively erasing and destroying the entire Jewish state.
Emily Rogers, Secondary Faculty in Duke’s gender studies department, was detained at the UNC anti-Israel encampment in 2024 and banned from that campus. Rogers told a local progressive paper, “We won’t stop till universities disclose and divest” and “We won’t stop ‘til all of Palestine is free.”
Mishana Garschi, Postdoctoral Associate in the Duke gender studies program, reposted on X, “having a phd and being a zionists is nuts, you need to return that damn degree because you clearly lost all sense of critical thought [sic].” She also reposted, “zionism is monstrous [sic]” and “The Israeli occupiers don’t care about the hostages [sic].”
Last week, I reported in The Algemeiner that Frances Hasso, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the same department, excitedly announced on X, “HAMAS OFFICIALLY DEFEATS ISRAEL!”
Hasso has repeatedly made social media posts using the antisemitic slur “Zio” — and also reposted on X, “Noone was raped on October 7 [sic].”
Last week, Hasso reposted a protest flyer that said in huge print, “ZIONISTS OUT!” with accompanying text, “We have found out from a trusted source that the British Museum is hosting an event ‘for Israel’ … It is our duty to confront zionists wherever they appear [sic].”
Would Duke University ever allow a professor to remain on staff after reposting: “PALESTINIANS OUT! It is our duty to confront Palestinians wherever they appear”?
In 2021, Hasso pledged to promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel “in the classroom and on campus.”
In 2024, Hasso convened a Duke conference, the Palestine Seminar, where 12 other Duke departments and programs participated, including the Provost Initiative on the Middle East, the Department of History, the Department of English, and the Program of Literature.
Hasso also taught the Duke University Global Palestine course in 2025.
The confidence demonstrated by the Office of the Provost in Frances Hasso, along with support from 11 additional programs and departments, highlights serious concerns about Duke University’s leadership and their ability to identify and combat antisemitism.
The Duke history and gender studies departments each presently feature identical glowing reviews of Hasso’s recent book on their websites. These reviews allege that Israel is committing “Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine.”
Duke University is not merely permitting Hasso to instruct; they are actively endorsing her. It is a disgrace that the institution offers Hasso repeated opportunities to “educate” students.
In addition, many faculty in Duke’s gender and feminist studies department have signed public, anti-Israel statements.
Priscilla Wald, Ara Wilson, and Kimberly Lamm each signed letters supporting various academic boycotts of Israel.
Anne Allison, Hasso, Charles Piot, Wald, Anne-Maria Makhulu, Jessica Namakkal, Gabriel Rosenberg, Ranjana Khanna, Adriane Lentz-Smith, and Kathi Weeks signed a 2021 statement declaring, “We acknowledge our complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians” and “express our solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
In 2023, Michael Hardt, Hasso, Rogers, Storti, and Robyn Wiegman endorsed a letter titled “Scholars Against the War on Palestine,” which demanded an immediate ceasefire, asserting their solidarity with Palestinians. The letter criticized Israel extensively while failing to acknowledge, even once, the violent assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 or the hundreds of hostages held by Hamas-affiliated terrorists at that time.
Last week, I detailed years of anti-Israel publications at Duke University Press. As an example, a recent Duke Press publication actually accuses Israelis of viewing Palestinians as rapeable. The author added, Israelis “carry their rifles as an extension of phallic power.”
Duke University has permitted an entire academic department and its university press to align against Israel. This is hostile towards the vast majority of American Jews that believe in the existence of a Jewish State. Clearly an investigation is in order.
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post When Will North Carolina or Congress Investigate Duke University for Allowing Calls for Israel’s Destruction and Other False Claims? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah
An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.
“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.
Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.
This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.
The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.
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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks
Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.
Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.
Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.
The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.
The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.
“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.
Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.
Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.
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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia
Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.