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‘You Corrupt the World!’ Jewish Man Wearing Kippah Assaulted in Washington, DC
The suspect who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Jewish man in Washington, DC on June 10, 2024 going on a tirade after he was restrained. Photo: Screenshot from video taken by the victim, Ariel Golfeyz, and provided to The Algemeiner.
A Jewish man wearing a kippah was assaulted in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC on Wednesday morning in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
The attack occurred outside the Foggy Bottom metro station on 23rd St. and I St. in northwest DC on George Washington University (GW) property, next to the university’s hospital and across the street from the GW campus that was the site of raucous anti-Israel demonstrations this past academic semester.
Ariel Golfeyz, 31, from Baltimore, MD, lives in Foggy Bottom near the site of the assault and was on his way to work via the Metro station, listening to music. He told The Algemeiner that he noticed a man — a medium-height black male of slight build with a beard — walking behind him unusually briskly for about a block, but thought little of it.
At 8:35 am, Golfeyz was approached from behind and “sucker punched” while being driven into the bushes and beaten, he recounted. Defending himself, Golfeyz said the altercation lasted a full two minutes before a nearby GW Police Department officer arrived to deescalate the situation. Personnel of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in DC arrived soon afterward.
Golfeyz sustained significant bruising to his face and sought further examination immediately after the incident. He believes he was targeted for wearing a kippah publicly.
Ariel Golfeyz after being assaulted in Washington, DC on June 10, 2024. Photo: Ariel Golfeyz
Ariel Golfeyz after being assaulted in Washington, DC on June 10, 2024. Photo: Ariel Golfeyz
“I was just walking and all the sudden I saw from the right side a fist, and I just fall to the ground and realized at that point in time — you feel your jaw cracking and I realized someone was trying to attack me,” Golfeyz recounted to The Algemeiner. “And immediately after punching me he jumps on me and starts kicking and punching me, and at that point it was just fight or flight. And I just started fighting, covered myself, turned into a ‘curlball.’”
“I just couldn’t get him off of me because he continued kicking and punching,” Golfeyz continued. “I was in mortal physical danger.”
Golfeyz recounted how he grabbed the assailant’s neck and later bit him as a last resort — which, along with the MPD officer, allowed him to break free. Regarding the police response, he commended how officers contained the assailant but was critical of how long it took to respond.
According to video footage recorded by Golfeyz and shared with The Algemeiner, the alleged attacker directed an antisemitic tirade at the victim as he was being filmed and held by police after the assault.
“They’re the cause of all our wars,” the man, who fit Golfeyz’s physical description, could be seen shouting. “The children in Gaza, the children in Palestine, we know! We know who you are! We know the lies that you’ve told, that you have stolen the place of the true children of Israel.”
The man’s comment about the “true children of Israel” may be a reference to Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, which maintains that ancient Israelites were black and contemporary black people are their descendants. Many adherents of this belief push antisemitic conspiracy theories and accuse the Jewish people of being “not the real Jews.”
“You’re a liar!” the man continued ranting, according to the video. “You have stolen our birthright, and we know this to be true, and you have enslaved us, you have enslaved us a people. You now corrupt the banks and you corrupt the world. We know who you are! All of you!”
Video of the tirade can be seen in this link: footage of alleged attacker going on anti-Jewish rant
The alleged assailant could be seen seen expressing similar sentiments in other videos taken by the victim: “They are the ones who brought rap music into our communities … tainting the minds of our children … they control the music scene,” the man shouted.
“Now you hold the world ransom, because you control all the money and all the resources,” he continued. “We know you’ve corrupted our governments causing us to fight in wars overseas, we know what you’ve done! We know that you’re murdering innocent men, women, and children in Gaza!”
“You collect interest on the poor! How can people live with you who hold them captive!” he added.
Both GW police and the MPD took reports on the incident.
Walter James, 38, was reportedly placed under arrest for simple assault and a hate bias crime.
Based on conversations with police and the victim, it appears the suspect was initially going to be charged with simple assault, but it was amended and elevated to a hate crime investigation based on information provided to police by a witness, a homeless woman nearby.
The attack came amid a historic surge in antisemitic hate crimes across the US. In April, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report showing antisemitic incidents in the US rose 140 percent last year, reaching a record high. Most of the outrages occurred after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“Be very cognizant of your surroundings. Use situational awareness in everything you do,” Golfeyz said. “And I would also say don’t trust anyone to come to protect you because no one came to get him off of me, and it took some time for Metro Police to come and get him off of me.”
Golfeyz told the local Fox 5 affiliate in DC that for now on he will most likely be concealing his “religious objects” when walking in public in the US capital city.
The post ‘You Corrupt the World!’ Jewish Man Wearing Kippah Assaulted in Washington, DC first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.