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World-Renowned German Research Institute Fires Top Academic Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts
The Max Planck Society marks its 75th anniversary in 2023. Photo: Reuters/Swen Pförtner
One of the world’s leading institutes for research into the natural and social sciences has fired a prominent academic over posts he wrote on social media that glorified the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel.
Prof. Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese-Australian scholar of anthropology, was dismissed from the Max Planck Society in Germany on Wednesday for posts that were deemed “incompatible” with the institution’s “core values.”
Hage, who has been based at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in the city of Halle since Apr. 2023, previously taught at universities including Harvard in the US, the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and the University of Nanterre — Paris X in France.
In several posts on Twitter/X following the Oct. 7 assault — in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 200 seized as hostages amid widespread atrocities including mutilation and mass rape — Hage accused Israel of “genocide” and compared the State of Israel with the former Nazi regime in Germany.
“The Palestinians, like all colonized peoples, continue to demonstrate that their capacity for resistance is endless. They don’t just dig tunnels. They can fly over walls,” Hage wrote in one post that lauded Hamas.
In an official statement, the Max Planck Society — which employs more than 5,000 scientists and researchers with an annual budget of $2 billion — said that “researchers abuse their civil liberties when they undermine the credibility of science with publicly disseminated statements, thereby damaging the reputation and trust in the institutions that uphold it.”
“The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is constrained by the mutual duties of consideration and loyalty in the employment relationship,” the statement continued.
Hage’s dismissal was welcomed by Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in comments quoted by the Welt news outlet.. At the same time, he called on the institute to take “precautions to ensure that these cases no longer occur in the future.”
In a lengthy thread on X/Twitter posted after he learned of his dismissal, Hage insisted that he had “never called for even disliking, let alone hating, Jews.”
He went on: “Like Muslims, Christians, Greek, Lebanese or Chinese, in this regard there are some nice Jewish people and some who are pains in the ass. Nice Jewish people are particularly likable.”
In a swipe at his German hosts, he added: “And here I am living in the very cultures that elevated Jew-hating, the burning of Jewish books and stores, and the putting of Jews in concentration camps and mass murdering them, into a macabre fine art, and I am being moralized on how not to be antisemitic and what I should do to love ethno-religious states.”
The post World-Renowned German Research Institute Fires Top Academic Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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