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‘Zionist Pedophile Rabbi’: UCLA Pro-Hamas Rioters Continue Year of Carnage
Law enforcement officers detain a demonstrator, as they clear out a pro-Hamas protest encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Los Angeles, California, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/David Swanson
A chaotic situation continues to unfold at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where pro-Hamas protesters have been rioting and committing obscene acts of intimidation and antisemitism.
“Shame on you,” “F—k you,” “You are not safe here!” a swarm of students who installed the latest pro-Hamas encampment at the school screamed while encircling UCLA administrative vice chancellor Michael J. Beck. Things took an even darker turn when Rabbi Dovid Gurevich of the Chabad House at UCLA was encircled by protesters, who had covered their faces with keffiyeh scarves.
“Zionist pedophile Rabbi,” “F—king pedophile,” they said according to videos posted to social media, gradually encroaching on the rabbi. “We love a good Jew — we hate Zionists.”
The rabbi stood his ground amid other shouts of references to antisemitic conspiracies. According to the Daily Bruin, the protesters engaged in other disturbing behavior, including parading around campus with “fake bloody mummies” and “body parts.” Marching through the campus, they proclaimed solidarity with Hamas terrorists, chanting, “We will honor all our martyrs.”
On Monday night, the UCLA Police Department said that it had arrested 25 protesters. A melee between the officers and protesters reportedly broke out in which one student was injured by a rubber bullet. Reports estimate that over 100 protesters remain on school property, however. It is not clear when or how law enforcement will clear them.
Jewish activists widely commented on the carnage on the social media platform X/Twitter, expressing fear about what appears to be a perilous moment in American history.
“The Chabad Rabbi of UCLA was just physically assaulted live on camera,” said Harvard University student Shabbos Kestenbaum. “The students subsequently began calling him a ‘Zionist pedophile Rabbi,’ telling him to ‘go back to Poland.’ We are in such a dark, dangerous time in our country, with almost no leadership fighting back.”
Others, commenting on the swarming of vice chancellor Beck, suggested that UCLA’s admissions committee potentially selected the students to reward their allegiance to the politics of the far left.
“You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at this UCLA administrator,” said Noah Pollack, a contributor to the Washington Free Beacon. “These are the people he wanted on campus. These are the people his admissions committee selects for. And now he gets to live with them while they threaten and humiliate him.”
Emily Austin, a pro-Israel activist and sports broadcaster, told The Algemeiner in a statement: “These students feel comfortable engaging in what increasingly looks like domestic terrorism because the authorities allow it. They do and say the most abhorrent things knowing there will be no consequences. This is a result of weak leadership, especially in California, where leaders’ failures stretch far beyond the campus.”
The riot at UCLA continues an unprecedented year in higher education in which students emerged in the hundreds and thousands to declare solidarity with Hamas, terrorism, and efforts to destroy Israel, the world’s only Jewish state. Their demonstrations followed Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, when the terrorist organization murdered over 1,200 people, kidnapped more than 250 others, and perpetrated systematic sexual violence during the terrorist group’s invasion of southern Israel.
At UCLA, anti-Zionist protesters have installed their third encampment, the first of which saw them block off entire sections of campus through which they blocked Jewish students from passing. Violence, destruction of property, and open calls for murdering Jews have defined all three demonstrations, revealing what experts have described to The Algemeiner as the complete radicalization of higher education.
Examining the role of faculty in fostering the riots and antisemitism on college campuses is paramount, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), said when the demonstrations began. He explained that since the 1960s, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he stressed, must be challenged.
“This is 1984,” he said, alluding to George Orwell’s classic novel about a dystopian state. “As we can see, these rallies are not peaceful as their supporters have insisted. 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. If these are the institutions that should be the vanguard of American democracy and Western values and this is what they are producing, we should be seriously questioning the functionality of higher education as a whole.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Zionist Pedophile Rabbi’: UCLA Pro-Hamas Rioters Continue Year of Carnage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Holds Secret Talks With Hamas on Gaza Hostages, Source Says
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
The Trump administration has been conducting secret talks with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza, two sources briefed on the conversations told Reuters.
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the sources said, confirming a report by Axios.
Until recently the US had avoided direct discussions with the Islamist group. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
Such talks run counter to long-standing US policy against direct contacts with groups that Washington lists as terrorist organizations.
The previous US role in helping to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Gaza war has been dealing with Israel and Qatari and Egyptian mediators but without any known direct communications between Washington and Hamas.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment.
It was unclear when or how the Israeli government was informed of the talks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for Hamas.
The sources said the talks have focused on gaining the release of American hostages still held in Gaza, but one said they also have included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce.
One of the sources said the effort includes an attempt to gain the release of Edan Alexander, of Tenafly, New Jersey, believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to return to the region in coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
The post US Holds Secret Talks With Hamas on Gaza Hostages, Source Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kremlin Says Iran’s Nuclear Program Will Be Subject of Future Russia-US Talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that future talks between Russia and the United States would include discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, a subject it said had been “touched upon” in an initial round of US-Russia talks last month.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Russia has agreed to assist US President Donald Trump’s administration in communicating with Iran on various issues, including on Tehran’s nuclear program and its support for regional anti-US proxies.
The Kremlin has not confirmed that but has made clear that Iran is now one of the subjects that will be discussed in more detail by Washington and Moscow.
“So far there is only an understanding that the Russian position really is that this problem of Iran’s nuclear dossier should be solved exclusively by peaceful political and diplomatic means,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We believe that there is potential for this, because Iran is our ally, our partner, and a country with which we are developing comprehensive, mutually beneficial, and mutually respectful relations, and Russia is ready to do everything possible for this. The United States is aware of this.”
Trump last month restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran which includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such intention.
Russia has deepened its ties with the Islamic Republic since the start of the Ukraine war and signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Iran in January.
The Kremlin said that the subject of Iran was touched upon during Russia-US talks in Saudi Arabia last month.
“It was touched upon in Riyadh,” Peskov said. “But not in detail, not in detail.”
Asked specifically about the Bloomberg report, Peskov said: “Look, the topic of Iran was on the agenda, it was touched upon, but at the same time, not in detail.”
The post Kremlin Says Iran’s Nuclear Program Will Be Subject of Future Russia-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Israeli Military Chief Assumes Command With Gaza Ceasefire in the Balance
The new Chief of the General Staff, Major General Eyal Zamir, visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, March 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israel swore in a new commander of its military on Wednesday as a standoff over the fragile ceasefire in Gaza increased the risk of a resumption of fighting without an agreement to bring home the rest of the hostages still held by Hamas.
Eyal Zamir, a former tank commander who had retired after 28 years with the rank of Major General before being called back into service, was promoted to Lieutenant General, before formally assuming command from General Herzi Halevi, who stepped down over the security disaster of Oct. 7, 2023.
“The mission is not yet complete,” he said in an address as he assumed command, saying that Hamas had not yet been defeated.
“We will not forgive, we will not forget. This is an existential war. We will persist in our campaign to bring our hostages home and to defeat our enemies,” he said. Fighting in Gaza has been halted since January under a truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the United States that has allowed the exchange of 33 Israeli hostages and 5 Thais for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
A related war in southern Lebanon, which broke out after Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces launched missile strikes against Israel after the Oct. 7 attack, has also been silenced by a separate ceasefire agreement.
But Israeli ministers and officials have warned that their forces could resume fighting if there is no agreement on bringing back the 59 hostages that remain.
Israeli troops have pulled back from some of their positions in Gaza but talks that were intended to agree to the release of the hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces before an end to the war have not begun.
Israel has called for an extension of the truce until after the Jewish Passover holiday in April to allow the release of the remaining hostages, while Hamas has insisted on proceeding to talks on a permanent end to the war before agreeing to any further releases.
COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
Zamir’s appointment comes as a series of official inquiries have begun to examine the failures that allowed thousands of Hamas-led terrorists to storm Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages in one of the biggest military and security disasters in Israel’s history.
Halevi led the military during the Israeli campaign in Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
But he announced in January, soon after the Gaza ceasefire deal was agreed, that he would step down from his command, accepting responsibility for the military‘s patchy and uncoordinated response to the Oct. 7 attack.
On Wednesday, as he handed over his command, he called for a wider examination of the failures on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The establishment of a state commission of inquiry is necessary and essential – not to place blame, but first and foremost, to understand the root of the problems and allow for correction,” he said.
Both the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency have acknowledged that their failures allowed the attack to take place, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted a more general inquiry that would look at the responsibility of his government.
The post New Israeli Military Chief Assumes Command With Gaza Ceasefire in the Balance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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