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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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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.