Pro-Hamas Columbia University students march in front of pro-Israel demonstrators on Oct. 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Photo: Roy De La Cruz via Reuters Connect

A Columbia University organization which calls itself the “Palestine Working Group” (PWG) is waging an aggressive campaign to gut Jewish life, calling for the abolishment of the campus’ Hillel chapter in a recent statement.

“Hillel is complicit in manufacturing propaganda and consent for the Zionist entity’s imperialist and colonial projects,” PWG said on Monday, issuing its invective on the Instagram social media platform. “The program works directly with Israeli universities and provides Columbia and Barnard students with funding to vacation to ‘Israel’ — an ethnostate responsible for the murder of over 180,000 Palestinians in the last year alone. Sever all ties with Hillel. Academic boycott now.”

Reputed to be the largest Jewish collegiate organization in the world, Hillel International is a “home away from home” for the 180,000 students at over 850 colleges who avail themselves of its religious services, relationship building opportunities, and recreational activities. PWG’s assault on it appears to have been prompted by an upcoming event at Columbia, in which Israeli journalist Barak Ravid will speak as a guest of the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life — where the Hillel chapter serving both Columbia and Barnard College students is located — and the Institute of Global Politics (IGP).

“The Institute of Global Politics and the Kraft Center will be hosting Barak Ravid, a Zionist, pro-Trump journalist to discuss the ‘Israel-Hamas War,’ PWG said in its statement. “Evidently, Columbia doesn’t believe the Zionist entity’s demolition of Beit Lahia and the blockage of Khan Younis, in just this past week alone, justifies the use of the word genocide.”

PWG has since deleted the statement from its Instagram page, but not before it was widely shared on social media, where it has been lambasted.

“Hundreds of thousands of Jewish students visit Hillel to celebrate Jewish holidays, connect with their Jewish identities, and safely gather in community,” Jewish on Campus, a nonprofit organization, said about the outrage. “When students single out Hillel and attempt to exclude one of the lone Jewish organizations from their campus, their Jewish classmates are denied their right to live as Jews. A call to push Hillel off campus is antisemitism, plain and simple. We won’t be silent.”

Columbia University professor Shai Davidai, who has allegedly been persecuted by school officials for describing the pro-Hamas movement as one which flagrantly supports terrorism and murdering Jews, told The Algemeiner that PWG is showcasing its illiberal values.

“The fact that these student organizations find it objectionable to host a speaker just because of their religion and/or nationality tells you everything you need to know about them,” he said. “It’s time for Columbia to decide whether it stands for open support for terrorism or open exchange of ideas.”

The campaign to kick Hillel chapters off college campuses is not new. The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) launched the initiative, titled “Drop Hillel,” in October, just weeks after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.

“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 said in a manifesto published in concurrence with its launching. “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.”

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.

The #DropHillel campaign comes amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published in September 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.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Anti-Israel protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Esther Verkaik

Jews hunted and beaten in the streets of Amsterdam, the same happens four days later in Berlin: both are connected to the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom of 1938.

Yet beyond the antisemitism, something strange is happening: police protection was mostly absent, most of those arrested have been released, and the mayor of Amsterdam has actually apologized for her earlier condemnation, now blaming the attack (at least partly) on the Jewish victims.

America is not immune from this disturbing trend, but we can stop it if we try. Here’s what you need to know.

Israel’s Maccabi football (soccer) team had just finished playing Amsterdam’s Ajax team, when the attack squads struck. As fans left the stadium, the attackers hunted, chased, and mercilessly beat any victims who couldn’t prove they weren’t Jewish.

Meticulously planned in advance by members of Amsterdam’s Muslim population, some were armed with clubs, or even small explosives. Four days later, the same happened after a football match in Berlin.

Israeli intelligence had warned Dutch authorities in advance but Holland did not take action. Numerous victims say that police were nowhere to be found for hours.

Some Dutch police habitually refuse to protect Jewish communities on the basis of “moral objections.” In a dark irony, some police even refuse to protect Holland’s Holocaust museum: making it a symbol not only of Holland’s dark and horrific past, but also of Holland’s dark and horrific present.

Police commanders apparently take these antisemitic “moral” objections seriously, thus legitimizing a horrific hatred that should not be tolerated in the slightest.

In a shocking turn of events, Amsterdam’s mayor apologized to Holland’s Muslim community for calling the pogrom a “pogrom” and (incorrectly) accused the Jewish victims of being “also violent.” Out of an unknown number of attackers, only 63 were arrested, and all but four were released.

The subsequent attack in Berlin followed an almost identical pattern. When police do not protect Jewish communities, when intelligence agencies ignore warnings, when perpetrators are not brought to justice, Europe sends a message loud and clear: we accept this. Despite superficial condemnations, Europe’s actions invite even more antisemitic and anti-Western violence.

This is nothing new.

I was in Chicago when thousands turned out to a “protest against Israeli policies,” waiving Nazi flags, shouting “death to Jews,” and burning papier-mâché Jews in effigy. Despite headlines, this was neither a “protest” nor was it against “Israeli policies” but rather a violent hate march against American Jews. The year was 2009.

I came with a small group of five counter-protesters until the police ordered us to leave, saying they could not protect us. While I understand the officers were just trying to keep us safe, their decision actually violated the very spirit of American democracy.

For example, in 1954, when hate mobs in Little Rock, Arkansas, tried to prevent Black students from attending public school (as ordered by the Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education) the local police were overwhelmed — so President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne. Eisenhower understood that the law is the law, and civil rights are civil rights: not only for the loudest and most violent, but for everyone.

Flash forward to today, when Jewish students are forcibly blocked from entering school buildings on university campuses: a civil rights violation that, legally speaking, is almost identical to the one in 1954. Just like in Little Rock, just like in Amsterdam and Berlin and Chicago, the police are nowhere to be found.

But unlike Little Rock, neither the schools nor the White House did their civic or legal duty, and the violence has gotten progressively worse: because we, as a society, have allowed it.

How did it start?

Modern antisemitism became especially organized at the Durban conference in 2001. At this United Nations sponsored event, which included Nazi rhetoric and anti-Jewish attacks, the Palestinian government announced a long term strategy, later entitled the “diplomatic intifada.”

As part of this plan, Palestinian groups and their allies (such as Iran and Qatar) invested billions of dollars and decades of work into shaping opinions, education, and political lobbying in the West. Their efforts have been successful, in part because Western societies have allowed them to be.

What can be done?

There are some campuses where anti-Jewish violence has not succeeded, despite attempts. For example, when a small minority of Arab students at Israel’s Haifa University supported the October 7 massacre on social media, they were immediately subject to suspensions, mediation, and disciplinary actions (such as mandated community service). As a result, Haifa (both the city and the university) remains a bastion of Jewish-Arab coexistence, one of the most flourishing examples in Israel, even during this time of war.

When students became physically violent on certain American campuses, such as Vanderbilt and Dartmouth, university officials promptly called the police and pressed appropriate charges, leaving the campuses free and safe for all. Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says that teaching real tolerance on an ongoing basis at the classroom level, combined with appropriate enforcement when necessary, has proved a winning combination on his campus.

In short, when we, as a society, refuse to tolerate hate crimes, they decrease. When we allow them, we invite more.

As far back as October 2023, presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that if elected, he would cancel student visas from foreign students who engage in antisemitic violence. Since becoming President-elect this month, Trump declared that campus antisemitism violates civil rights laws, and accordingly, universities that permit such violence will lose their academic accreditation with respect to Federal funding.

Europe and the United States already have appropriate laws that balance free speech with civil rights and basic human safety. When we properly enforce our laws, our societies reflect our values and flourish. When we fail, our societies deteriorate. The tide of anti-Jewish and anti-Western hate is not invincible, but it is up to us to take appropriate measures, to stand by our values, and to protect our world.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.

The post How Do We Stop Pogroms and Riots in Amsterdam, Germany — and America? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the media following a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, US, July 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The US Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted against an effort to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel, rebuffing three separate resolutions spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to deprive the Jewish state of weapons amid its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

Though lawmakers largely voted to preserve weapons sales to Israel, a total of 19 senators — 17 Democrats and two independents — supported at least one of the three measures to block weapons transfers to the Jewish state, indicating a growing partisan divide on the issue. Every Republican senator voted against the attempted arms embargo.

The Senate rejected S.J.Res.111, a measure to ban the sale of tank cartridges to Israel, by a margin of 79 to 18. The measure received support from Sanders as well as Sen. Angus King (ME), a fellow independent, and Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Dick Durbin (IL), Tim Kaine (VA), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Jeff Merkley (OR), Peter Welch (VT), Jon Ossoff (GA) Raphael Warnock (GA), Chris Murphy (CT), Tina Smith (MN), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Ben Ray Lujan (NM), Martin Heinrich (NM), Mazie Hirono (HI), Brian Schatz (HI), and Ed Markey (MA).

Other anti-Israel resolutions sponsored by Sanders, S.J. Res. 113 and S.J. Res. 115, which targeted sales of mortar rounds and precision-guided bombs, were rejected on the Senate floor by similar margins. 

A quartet of lawmakers — Sanders, Merkley, Van Hollen, and Welch — announced  their effort on Tuesday to limit the Jewish state’s access to much-needed arms, accusing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of recklessly endangering civilian lives in Gaza. 

During his speech on the Senate floor, Sanders lambasted Israel for allegedly violating the “internationally-recognized human rights” of Palestinians and blocking “US humanitarian aid” from being distributed in Gaza. Thus, Sanders argued that it is “illegal for the United States government to provide Israel with more offensive weapons.”

Sanders also repudiated Israeli officials, stating that their “extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas; it has waged an all out war against the Palestinian people.”

Ossoff, who is Jewish, accused the IDF of behaving with “reckless disregard” for the lives of Palestinian civilians. He slammed the Jewish state for supposedly failing to “provide safe passage for food and essential medical supplies” in Gaza and criticized Israel for engaging in “conduct” that allegedly undermined American interests. Lamenting the resolution’s failure, Ossoff stated that Israeli officials needed a “message” that the Jewish state must “have mercy for the innocent.”

Van Hollen urged the Biden administration to walk back the “blank check” afforded to Israel in the form of access to American weapons. The senator accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of refusing “compliance with American laws” by restricting “humanitarian assistance” in Gaza and refusing to follow “international humanitarian law” while using US weapons. 

Van Hollen recently accused the Jewish state of “ethnic cleansing” during an appearance on the Zeteo” digital network.

The Biden administration urged senators to vote against the resolution, dashing hopes among progressives that the White House would capitulate to efforts to undermine Israel’s war against Hamas during the president’s final months in office. The White House stated that the weapons are both critical to Israel’s defense and are not slated for delivery for the next few years, “so the likelihood of them being used in this iteration of the Gaza context is very low.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who is Jewish, slammed members of his own party for voting to disarm Israel. “We’ve been at the forefront of every movement in this country when other minority groups needed help; we were the ones who stood up. And when we needed them, they abandoned us, period,” Moskowitz wrote in reaction to the votes.

Similarly, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) ripped into his colleagues for supporting the anti-Israel measures. 

“This one I really don’t understand. It’s counterproductive to the safety of the communities. I don’t understand why we would want to prevent Israel from having the technology to have precision use of its munitions,” Cardin wrote. 

Meanwhile, J Street, a progressive Zionist group that has been critical of Israel, lauded the Democratic senators who supported the “symbolic but deeply meaningful vote” which would have ended the “black check support” for the Jewish state’s war against terrorists. 

“What the large number of supporting votes does indicate is growing concern over the direction that the far-right government of Israel is leading the country. It is a manifestation of deep discomfort over the extent of the human tragedy the Israeli government is inflicting on Gaza and the lack of any commitment by the Netanyahu government to a feasible post-conflict plan for governance and security that leads toward a resolution of the underlying political conflict,” J Street President Jeremy Ben Ami wrote.

Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Hamas-ruled Gaza, 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. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations, direct attacks, and store weapons.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last month that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.

The Israeli government has ramped up the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza in recent weeks under pressure from the United States, which has expressed concern about the plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.

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