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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF says 3 key terrorists killed in recent strikes, including leader of Oct. 7 Kissufim attack

2025-04-30

[IsraelTimes] Recent Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed three prominent terror operatives, including a Hamas terrorist who led the attack on Kissufim on October 7, 2023, the IDF announces.

According to the military, a strike in Gaza City on Thursday killed Ali Naddal Husni Sarfiti, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Sarfiti had been jailed in Israel between 2002 and 2015 for involvement in terror activity, including providing military training and planning a suicide bombing on behalf of the PFLP, the IDF says.

“After his release, he operated in recent years to carry out terror attacks in Israeli territory,” the military says, adding that he was in contact with terror operatives in the West Bank and transferred millions of shekels to them for the attacks.

Additionally, the IDF says recent strikes in Gaza killed Sa’id Abu Hasnan, a member of Hamas’s Nukhba force in the terror group’s Deir al-Balah Battalion, “who infiltrated [Israel] and commanded the infiltration at Kissufim” on October 7; and Mustafa al-Mutawwak, chief of operations in Hamas’s Jabalia Battalion, who led attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza.

Palestinians report 3 killed in Israeli strike in Gaza’s Khan Younis
[IsraelTimes] Three Palestinians were killed an Israeli drone strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-linked Shehab news agency reports.

There is no comment from the IDF on the alleged strike, which comes amid offensive operations in the Gaza Strip.

There is no verification of the toll and Hamas-run authorities do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Four killed in overnight Gaza strikes, Hamas-controlled authorities say
[IsraelTimes] Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight killed four Palestinians, according to local health officials from Hamas-controlled authorities.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense agency says a number of people were additionally injured in an Israeli airstrike on tents near the Al-Iqleem area.

The figures cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

There is no comment from the Israeli military, which has said in the past that it is targeting terror operatives and infrastructure in the Strip.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

France complains after Israel bars entry to officials; denies claims groups linked to PFLP

2025-04-30

[IsraelTimes] France condemns Israel’s decision to cancel the entry visas of 27 French left-wing lawmakers and local officials two days before their planned visit to the country, says a French government spokesperson.

“The decision… is regrettable, unhelpful, and potentially harmful to France-Israel relations,” says the official at a press briefing.

The spokesperson says entry was denied to two French delegations “led by associations working toward cooperation” that “included several elected officials who were scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories.”

Israel’s interior ministry said visas for the French officials were canceled under a law that allows authorities to ban people who could act against Israel.

In a statement on Monday, Israel’s embassy in France said any individual or delegation associated with the Decentralised Cooperation Network for Palestine or the France-Palestine Solidarity Association (AFPS) would not be permitted to enter the country because, according to the embassy, they were linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.

“Keep your nasty, stinky Communists to yourselves. we have enough of our own here, we don’t need more.”

“The public allegations made by the Israeli Embassy in France, which imply a possible link between these associations and terrorist organizations, are unacceptable,” says the French official, adding that “France calls on the Israeli authorities to reconsider their decisions, which undermine actors working toward a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Link

Fifth Column

Universities/Black Bloc/Iran proxies all together: Round-up 4/6-4/12/2025

2025-04-13

Stories I happened across while wandering through the internet last week.

University Apologizes For Inaction After Student’s Antisemitic Abuser Pleads Guilty
[DailyWire] Nearly a full year since college soccer player Noam Nedivi came forward with his story of antisemitic abuse, his university is apologizing for not only its failure to protect the student, but also actions that derailed his college experience.

Lawrence Technological University actually kicked Nedivi off his team and declined to protect him from a roommate who subjected him to months of antisemitic verbal and physical abuse. The Michigan school has now formally apologized after his former roommate and teammate, Zavier Chimienti, pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and misdemeanor domestic violence in October.

The ordeal, first reported by The Daily Wire nearly a year ago, included Chimienti harassing Nedivi with anti-Jewish slurs, Nazi salutes, and full-on physical abuse.

“Last year, a Jewish student reported verbal and physical antisemitic abuse committed by another student on campus,” LTU’s administration wrote in a press release. “The student’s complaint should have been handled better. In that way, we failed him and the LTU community, and caused unnecessary pain to our student. We apologize to our student for the hurt caused him [sic].”

Nedivi told The Daily Wire that he is relieved the situation has come to an end, but he’s far from satisfied.

“I am glad that most of the truth has come to light, but LTU’s campus was a hostile environment for me for more than a year after I reported Zavier’s harassment in my own campus apartment,” Nedivi said. “He was never suspended at any point, even after he pleaded guilty in state court.”

Nedivi added that the lack of prioritization of his safety made him decide to finish his degree online. “LTU acted more like a criminal organization than a university trying to protect me,” Nedivi added. “LTU’s administration deliberately falsified evidence, made up lies to ruin my reputation and kept me from accessing critical student resources.”

Princeton Radicals Disrupt Event With Naftali Bennet, Yelling 'Genocide' and Pulling Fire Alarm
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Anti-Israel activists at Princeton University disrupted a speech by former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, setting off a fire alarm and calling him "a fucking war criminal." The agitators joined a larger group after getting kicked out, where they told Jews to "go back to Europe" and flashed pro-Hamas hand gestures.

During Bennett’s Monday speech, which was sponsored by Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life, roughly a dozen agitators shouted, "We charge you with genocide! You’re a fucking war criminal!" and held posters with a red handprint as they marched out of the event, footage posted by the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) showed. Princeton students and faculty led the disruption, according to AMP. A video from the Princeton Palestine Liberation Coalition, meanwhile, showed a fire alarm going off. "GENOCIDE ALARM ACTIVATED," the group wrote. Princeton's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter also shared footage of the disruption on its Instagram story.

After school officials escorted the agitators out of the event, they joined several dozen more outside and continued protesting for nearly three hours, an attendee told the Washington Free Beacon. They shouted down Jews, saying, "go back to Europe." They also used their fingers to form upside-down triangles, a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets.

AMP’s national arm was recently accused of serving as Hamas’s "propaganda arm in New York City" and is facing a Senate committee investigation over its role in fueling anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses, the Free Beacon reported. Its founder and chairman Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has called for Israel’s dismantling and once argued that "it’s about time we had an intifada in this country."

On Saturday, AMP helped organize an anti-Israel march in Washington, D.C., that included speeches from Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad, notorious anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, and Grant Miner, the Columbia University graduate student expelled for storming a campus building. It also featured murals honoring Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists.

CU Boulder pro-Hamas protestors barge into class – get yanked out by their keffiyehs
[CollegeFix] A trio of pro-Hamas student activists recently barged into a University of Colorado Boulder classroom and were promptly hauled back out by their keffiyehs.

The Daily Camera reports after entering the “Designing for Defense” class last week, one of the activists went to the front of the room and prepared to read a statement, whereupon a man who appeared to be the instructor said “No, you may not.”

He then grabbed the statement and said “Get out.”

Soon after, a video from the Buffs 4 Palestine Instagram page shows two men, one of whom “appeared to be [neither] an employee or student,” according to the Camera, dragging the activists from the room.

The pro-Hamas student organization has been in “bad standing” since October due to violations of university policy. These include “disrupting a career fair” and “using amplified sound.”

In a statement, the university said it “condemns acts of violence and does not tolerate classroom disruptions, both of which violate state law and university policies.”

12 anti-Israel protesters charged with felonies for barricading themselves in Stanford president’s office
[IsraelTimes] Twelve protesters are charged with felony vandalism for their actions during a June 2024 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest at Stanford University in which demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the office of the school president. Those charged, ranging in age from 19 to 32, entered the building and demonstrated a “conspiracy to occupy” it, prosecutors say, adding that at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. All suspects wore masks, they say. Dozens of other protesters surrounded the building and chanted: “Palestine will be free.”

At the time, the university said 13 people were arrested during the protest, one police officer was injured, and the building suffered “extensive” damage.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from universities, including Stanford, over allegations that they failed to stop antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students.

Northwestern SJP Chapter, Quoting PFLP Terrorists, Urges Members to 'Build an Intifada' and 'Destroy Amerika'
[WashingtonFreeeBeacon] Northwestern University's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter held an anarchist training session for its members at which it cited propaganda from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group urging U.S. students to "build an Intifada" and "destroy amerika."
Northwestern's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter featured two radical pamphlets as part of its materials for the Thursday training, titled "Organizing Safety 101." One of those, an anarchist pamphlet, quoted a PFLP leader and called on students to "build an Intifada" so they could "destroy amerika." The other, crafted by the SJP chapter, featured a PFLP cartoon on the cover and encouraged students to "channel [their] anger" so they could "aid in the fight" against Israel.

a mob of Yale students shouting "VIVA VIVA PALESTINA" as they tear down an American flag on campus, and cheer as it hits the ground.

pic.twitter.com/oZmZWed6MU
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 11, 2025

US administration seeking consent decree on Columbia over campus antisemitism — WSJ
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration is working to force Columbia University into a consent decree that would legally bind the school to follow federal guidelines in how it combats antisemitism, the Wall Street Journal reports. The newspaper, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that the potential consent decree is part of the administration’s negotiations with the university over freeing up $400 million in federal funding that has been blocked.

Columbia University says in an emailed statement that it “remains in active dialogue with the Federal Government to restore its critical research funding.”

Any consent decree with Columbia could last for years and would give a federal judge oversight powers for ensuring that the school adheres to any agreements it meets with the federal government on how it addresses antisemitism, the Journal says.

Link

Fifth Column

Yale terminates scholar’s contract for alleged ties to terrorist organization

2025-03-30

[CollegeFix] Yale Law School has terminated the contract of research scholar Helyeh Doutaghi over alleged ties to a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Samidoun.

The Buckley Beacon independent student newspaper reported Friday that the move comes after she was put on administrative leave March 5.

Alden Ferro, a spokesperson for Yale Law School, told the Beacon: “Over the last three weeks Yale has repeatedly requested to meet with Doutaghi and her attorney to obtain clarifying information and resolve this matter. Unfortunately, she has refused to meet to provide any responses to critical questions, including whether she has ever engaged in prohibited activity with organizations or individuals who were placed on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list (‘SDN list’).”

“As a result of her refusal to cooperate with this investigation, Ms. Doutaghi’s employment with Yale — which was set to expire this April — has been terminated effective immediately.”

The terror-ties allegations were first reported by the Jewish Onliner on March 2 and quickly picked up by the Beacon.

Doutaghi had been a deputy director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale Law School since Sep 2023. Her position was set to expire shortly.

The U.S. Treasury Department stated that Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization” in a 2024 news release designating the group as a terror organization.

Doutaghi was identified by Samidoun itself as a “doctoral student of international law and a member of the international Samidoun network” in a July 2022 article.

On March 17, a petition was launched in Doutaghi’s defense, accusing Yale of unfairly railroading her based on anonymous, AI-researched allegations. It has more than 1,000 signatures thus far from professors in the U.S. and Canada.

“Dr. Doutaghi is an internationally recognized and published scholar of international law, political economy, and armed conflict. She completed her PhD in Legal Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) in 2024,” the petition states.

“Her PhD Thesis examined the origin, mechanisms, and effects of US and international sanctions against Iran. Throughout her studies, she has always advocated for the rights and self-determination of oppressed people, including Palestinians,” it states.

“We call on Yale University, Yale Law School, and the Law and Political Economy Project to take accountability for the measures taken against Dr. Doutaghi, including restitution of damages and a public statement clearing Dr. Doutaghi’s name and restoring her reputation.”

The Jewish Onliner reported that Doutaghi participated in an April 2022 panel titled “Palestine and Iran – Changing the Global Balance of Power” with Khaled Barakat, designated as a PFLP terrorist by the U.S.

Masar Badil, the organization that hosted the panel, is also considered to be a PFLP front.

In April 2023, Doutaghi participated in the “Liberation Conference” in Ottawa hosted by Masar Badil and posed for a photo under a Samidoun flag. Other attendees included Charlotte Kates, a senior Samidoun member and the wife of Khaled Barakat.

Doutaghi was scheduled to speak at a postponed October 2024 panel she organized titled “The Resistance Front and the New Global Order-Making,” which was sponsored by Samidoun. Khaled Barakat was also listed as a scheduled speaker.

Link

Home Front: WoT

New Report Shows U.S. Charities Helping Fund Groups Linked To Hamas and PFLP

2025-03-22

[DailyWire] A number of tax-deductible charities and financial service providers are helping fund groups linked to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a new report alleges.

Published by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, the report accuses terrorist-linked groups of raising funds in the United States through tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations and through donor-advised financial service providers.

“The sharp rise in violent anti-Semitism in the wake of the October 7th massacre highlights the urgent need for greater vigilance in preventing the diversion of aid and NGO funding to terror and hate,” Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, Founder and President of NGO Monitor told The Daily Wire. “This includes systematically investigating and documenting the support that IRS-registered charities receive from and provide to individuals and organizations linked to designated terror groups or active in spreading hate propaganda.”

The report cites several NGOs tied to the PFLP and designated as terror groups by Israel, including the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). NGO Monitor accuses Al Mezan of having members with ties to both Hamas and the PFLP.

The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), a 501(c)(3) based in Washington, D.C., claims on its website that in 2025 it provided funds to Al Haq, Al Mezan, DCI-P, and PCHR. Its website does not state how much it has given, but according to 2023 IRS filings, FMEP granted $10,000 to Al Mezan, and $58,000 to Al-Haq.

Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, provided $800,000 between 2020-2023 to Al Haq, $250,000 between 2023-2025 to Al Haq Europe, $170,000 to Al Mezan in 2023, and $450,000 to Al Mezan between 2021-2024.

Grassroots International has been soliciting donations for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which the group has called a “long-term partner,” according to NGO Monitor.

Other tax-deductible American charities that provided funds include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) which granted $100,000 to DCI-P for 2020-2022 and Cultures of Resistance Network which has funded Al-Haq, DCI-P, the UAWC, and Al Mezan, according to NGO monitor.

A 2023 report from the New York Post revealed that RBF shelled out millions since 2018 directly or indirectly to six anti-Israel organizations, some of which openly celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack on civilians. In response, RBF rejected and claimed that their “grantee organizations support, materially or ideologically, acts of terrorism.”

NGO Monitor’s report points out that the Alexandria, Virginia-based Charities Aid Foundation, which facilitated donor-advised grantmaking, lists DCI-P as a member of its “vetted network” of charitable organizations.

The report added that Al-Haq and the Hind Rajab Foundation — whose founder boasts his ties to Hezbollah — use the San Francisco-based Stripe Inc. to process donations.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, founded in Belgium, initiated legal proceedings to seek the arrests of IDF veterans, including American citizens, and has demanded the arrest of former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, in 2003 claimed he “joined the Hezbollah resistance against Israel,” called the September 11, 2001 attacks “sweet revenge” and is reportedly on the U.S. no-fly list. A Jerusalem Post report from last month reports that Jahjah has family and business links to actors designated as part of Hezbollah’s terror funding network.

Al Mezan’s director, Issam Younis, participated in a 2017 panel discussion alongside now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at an event that was also attended by leaders of other U.S.-designated terror organizations including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and PFLP. One of Al Mezan’s board members from 2010 to 2022 was Nafiz Al-Madhoun, the former Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council, according to NGO Monitor.

UAWC has been identified by a USAID audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP and a 2022 audit by the Dutch government found that 34 individuals held politicians in both UAWC and PFLP between 2007-2020. Two of UAWC’s financial officers were arrested in 2019 for leading a PFLP terror cell that murdered a 17-year-old Israeli in a bombing.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Al-Haq as a terrorist entity in 2021 because it operated on behalf of the PFLP. In 2018, the group had its online credit card donations shut down by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express because of its PFLP ties, reported NGO Monitor. The group’s director, Shawan Jabarin, has been identified as a leading PFLP member by the Israeli Supreme Court and has identified several PFLP events. He also was part of the 2017 panel alongside Sinwar and Younis.

PCHR’s founder and director, Raji Sourani, was imprisoned in 1979 for three years for being a member of the PFLP and denied entry to the United States in 2012, according to the report. He admitted his PFLP affiliation in a 2014 speech in Gaza where he said he was “proud” of the organization where he “fought in its ranks.”

DCI-P was designated as a terror entity by Israel in 2021, which claimed it operated on behalf of the PFLP. The group was reportedly cut off from Citibank, Arab Bank PLC, and the U.S.-based Global Giving crowdfunding because of its terror ties. Numerous members with PFLP ties have been employed and appointed as board members, according to NGO monitor.

Stripe, FMEP, Open Society Foundation, Grassroots International, RBF, and Cultures of Resistance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Link

Fifth Column

Anti-Israel groups protest at White House, across US against renewed Gaza violence

2025-03-19

[IsraelTimes] Anti-Israel protest groups are holding rallies at the White House and across the US against Israel’s renewed air campaign in Gaza.

The Palestinian Youth Movement, an anti-Israel activist group, announces protests in cities including Washington, New York, San Francisco, Dallas and Los Angeles.

The group’s New York branch shares videos of a crowd in Times Square chanting “end the Zionist occupation” and marching through Manhattan shouting “imperialism will fall.”

BREAKING: Thousands of protestors in NYC march through the streets, condemning Israel's attacks on Gaza and calling for a free Palestine pic.twitter.com/IvZmM9J1U2
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) March 18, 2025

At the White House, the group posts footage of protesters chanting, “Gaza, Yemen, make us proud, tear this occupation down” and “stop the US war machine.”

The protests come after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group, called on activists to “take to the streets, to besiege the White House… to deliver a clear message to the murderers.”

“Gaza and its resistance will not be broken,” the group says in a message shared by anti-Israel activist groups in the US.

Link

Fifth Column

Columbia Encampment Leader Known for Owning 'Emotional Support Rabbit' Among Students Expelled for Storming Hamilton Hall

2025-03-15

[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Aidan Parisi, the son of a longtime State Department official who emerged last spring as a Columbia University encampment leader and is best known for owning an "emotional support rabbit," was among the students Columbia expelled for storming Hamilton Hall, he announced Thursday night.

Is Dad one of those State Department officials who is being downsized or one of those valuable enough to keep on staff?

Parisi, a graduate student in Columbia’s School of Social Work, wrote on X that he was among the student activists expelled nearly a year after they stormed and occupied Hamilton Hall. Last spring, Parisi, the son of longtime State Department official Elizabeth Daugharty, emerged as a constant presence in the illegal encampment that plagued campus for weeks in April. He was also suspended shortly after his involvement in a pro-Hamas event, "Palestinian Resistance 101," held on campus in March 2024, which featured a number of terror-tied speakers who explicitly called for violence against Jews.

Columbia announced Thursday evening that it punished students who stormed Hamilton Hall with multi-year suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations. The university declined to say how many were sanctioned, but Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)—the Ivy League school’s most notorious anti-Semitic student group—claimed 22 students across Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, were disciplined, including nine expulsions.

Grant Miner, the president of Columbia’s graduate student union who was arrested for storming Hamilton Hall, was also expelled Thursday. The self-described "medievalist" is the son of veteran California lobbyist and former Arnold Schwarzenegger aide Paul Miner, who owns a $1.8 million Sacramento home, the Washington Free Beacon reported. In October 2023, just two days after Hamas's terror attack on the Jewish state, the younger Miner was photographed at a New York City rally holding a sign that read, "Resistance against occupation is a human right."

Last spring, Parisi had pledged to "resist" what he called "institutional repression" at Columbia and praised the "intifada." He also has a long history of anti-American and anti-Israel activism, having posted a photo of the two nations’ flags burning on July 4, 2020. "No love for any colonizer flag," he wrote in his caption.

It’s unclear what role Parisi played in organizing the "Resistance 101" event, but when Columbia suspended him over his involvement, he refused to leave his university apartment, saying that doing so would require him to find "housing that would accept his emotional support rabbit."

That event, which CUAD hosted and the Free Beacon attended virtually, featured speakers who explicitly endorsed terrorism against Jews.

One speaker, Charlotte Kates, a leader of the Israeli-designated terror group and U.S.-designated terror financier Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, praised Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack for showing "the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism." Kates’s husband, Khaled Barakat, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) activist, also lauded the terror group's airplane hijackings as "one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in." Shortly after the event, Columbia student radicals launched the anti-Israel encampment and eventually stormed Hamilton Hall.

In October, the United States sanctioned Samidoun and Barakat for providing support to the PFLP, a terrorist organization that participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.

Parisi also contributed to the mayhem that engulfed campus, serving as a leader of the unauthorized encampment zone and a participant in the overtake of a campus building, for which he was arrested on April 30.

Parisi, meanwhile, was spotted Tuesday at a violent anti-Israel protest in New York City against the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student activist and foreign national whom the Trump administration moved to deport over his pro-Hamas campus organizing. Police arrested several agitators after they refused to clear the roadway in front of City Hall.

In February, Parisi and two other Columbia encampment leaders sued the university, alleging that its disciplinary actions against them caused "severe emotional and psychological harm." One of their attorneys, James Carlson, stormed Hamilton Hall last spring and clashed with a facilities worker.

The defense attorney did? Oh dear.

CUAD is also organizing a campus protest Friday afternoon, vowing to "mass disrupt" Columbia and "all genocidal institutions."

Link

Fifth Column

The University Jew hate-Antifa nexus 3/2 - 3/9: Trump attention starts to yield results

2025-03-09

ADL report card finds some campuses fixing responses to antisemitism
[IsraelTimes] Survey of 135 schools finds many universities have enacted major policy changes, but many still failing to properly protect Jewish students.

ADL gave A grades to eight schools: Brandeis University, CUNY Queens College, CUNY Brooklyn College, Elon University, Florida International University, University of Alabama, University of Miami, and Vanderbilt University.

Notable improvements were identified at CUNY Queens College, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, SUNY Purchase College, SUNY Rockland Community College, Tufts University, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University, all of which moved up by two grades. Harvard, Tufts University and UNC Chapel Hill had previously received failing grades.

The ADL gave failing marks to 13 schools: California Polytechnic State University, DePaul University, Evergreen State College, Haverford College, Loyola University New Orleans, Pitzer College, Pomona College, Portland State University, Scripps College, The New School, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Illinois – Chicago, and University of Minnesota.

Columbia University and its sister school, Barnard College, both received D grades. While both schools have made progress in enforcing antisemitism policies, violent protests continue to threaten Jewish students, with anti-Israel activists disrupting a History of Modern Israel class at Columbia in January and occupying a building on Barnard’s campus in February.

Deborah Lipstadt: Why I Won’t Teach at Columbia
[TheFreePress] I was Biden’s antisemitism envoy. I had been considering an academic appointment at the Ivy League institution. Not anymore.

Until last week, I had been seriously considering teaching at Columbia University next year as a visiting professor. But I’m now convinced that to do so would be folly—to serve as a prop or a fig leaf. Moreover, I feel doing so would mean putting myself and my students at risk.

[X]

🚨BREAKING

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with the Dept of Education and GSA, announced a comprehensive review of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants in light of the university's failure to adequately respond to rampant antisemitism on campus. pic.twitter.com/9al8B7SxBn
— Shelley G (@ShelleyGldschmt) March 4, 2025

US feds weighing cut to $50 million in Columbia U contracts due to antisemitism
[IsraelTimes] Antisemitism task force also reviewing $5 billion in grants to NY institution; Trump threatens funding to colleges that ‘allow illegal protests’

Anti-Israel demonstrators protest former PM Bennett at Columbia University
[IsraelTimes] More than 200 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gather in front of Columbia University in New York to demonstrate against former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who was at the campus for a speaking engagement. None of the individual protesters at the event, many of whom wore masks or traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, agree to speak with AFP journalists.

“The decision to host a man with such a violent and openly discriminatory record sends a message that the university values some voices over others,” a spokesperson for Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition — one of the groups taking part in the protest — says in a statement.

Anti-Israel activists release new footage of Columbia building takeover last year
[IsraelTimes] An anti-Israel activist group releases new footage of protesters preparing to clash with police inside a Columbia University campus building last year. The protest group, Unity of Fields, says it is releasing the footage in response to the expulsion of a student involved in the takeover. The footage comes out as the Trump administration threatens the university’s funding due to antisemitism. Unity of Fields, formerly known as Palestine Action US, is a hardline anti-Israel activist group that is not formally tied to the campus. The group has released other footage related to Columbia in the past, such as anti-Israel vandalization around the campus.

Protesters forcibly occupied the building, Hamilton Hall, last spring, prompting a police crackdown and dozens of arrests. After police cleared the building last year, the NYPD said many of those arrested were not university students or affiliates. Most had their charges dropped.

BREAKING: Columbia has issued its first expulsion for alleged involvement in the occupation of Hind's Hall.

In response, we are releasing never before seen footage of the Battle of Hind's Hall--which was smuggled out in a militant's bra--with a message to the Student Intifada: pic.twitter.com/j0YFBvvvYU
— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) March 4, 2025

Columbia University Instructor Cancels Class for Anti-Israel Protest, Day After Radicals Storm Campus Building
[FreeBeacon] Philosophy lecturer Conor Cullen has signed letters expressing ‘solidarity’ with Columbia pro-Hamas encampments

Yale Law School Scholar Is Member of US-Sanctioned Terror Fundraising Organization
[FreeEacon] .Helyeh Doutaghi, deputy director of Yale Law School’s Law and Political Economy Project, placed on “immediate administrative leave” as university investigates allegations of membership in Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government in October in an announcement that described it as a "sham charity" and a "front organization" for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a foreign-designated terrorist organization.

Samidoun’s website indicates that Doutaghi, whom it describes as "a doctoral student of international law and a member of the international Samidoun Network," delivered a speech in Iran at a Samidoun-sponsored screening of the film Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight. Abdallah, the founder of the Lebanese Armed Military Forces, was sentenced by a French court to life in prison in 1987, convicted of complicity in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attaché Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov, as well as involvement in the attempted 1984 assassination of the then-American consul general in Strasbourg, Robert Homme.

US feds open civil rights probe into antisemitism at University of California public system
[IsraelTimes] The US Department of Justice opens a civil rights investigation into antisemitism at the University of California, one of the leading public university systems in the US.

The federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism says the probe will investigate whether the university system has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.

“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” says US Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

Most federal probes into campus antisemitism are filed under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination in institutions that receive federal funding.

Jewish legal groups are also seeking to expand the use of Title II, a law that prohibits discrimination in public spaces.

BREAKING: Terror supporters are currently outside of the Ohio State University Hillel harassing Jewish students, chanting for a “global intifada.”

Can you imagine the outrage if Jews showed up outside of the Muslim student association and harassed them? pic.twitter.com/XuQCTsmwRQ
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 6, 2025

Link

Fifth Column

Anti-Israel activists hold funeral event for terror chief Nasrallah in NYC

2025-02-24

[IsraelTimes] Several dozen anti-Israel protesters hold a funeral for Hezbollah terror leader Hassan Nasrallah in New York City.

The protest takes place in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on the same day as Nasrallah’s funeral in Lebanon.

The protesters chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free,” “Settlers settlers go back home, Palestine is ours alone,” and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada.”

Several people in the crowd hold photos of Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. A Hezbollah flag hangs at the head of the group.

Several dozen pro-Israel counterprotesters blow air horns, wave Israeli and American flags and chant, “USA.” Police separate the two groups.

“Fuck Palestine,” a passerby shouts.

Unlike most anti-Israel rallies in the city, there appear to be more pro-Israel counterprotesters.

Courtesy of Skidmark, the Jerusalem Post reports on the organizers of the thing:

A vigil for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, Hezbollah’s former executive council head, was scheduled to be held in New York City on Sunday, mirroring the terrorist group’s funeral ceremony in Beirut earlier in the day.

The Bronx Anti-War Coalition

…the usual communist Black Bloc protest group doing the bidding of Iran because they hate Jews as a matter of principle …

called on supporters' to bring flags, flowers, and candles to Washington Square Park to pay tribute to Nasrallah and Safieddine, “who both ascended to martyrdom” when killed in separate Israeli airstrikes last year.

“Let us demonstrate to the world in the heart of the empire that the path of Resistance is immortal,” the group said Saturday on Instagram.

The revolutionary group shared calls from Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to participate in the funeral service in Beirut.

Betar US, a Revisionist Zionist movement, on Saturday said it would film the event and provide footage to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A brilliant idea! No point in giving it to the NYPD, who wouldn’t be permitted to act on it anyway.

It urged US citizens to protest at the event and bring Israeli and American flags.

“Nasrallah killed hundreds of Americans and Jews,” Betar US said on X/Twitter. “This is a terrorist event.”

ALLEGATIONS OF 'ZIONIST' PLOT TO ATTACK
Within Our Lifetime

…Palestinian anti-Israel group, also working for the Mad Mullahs of Iran, among others…

leader Nerdeen Kiswnani said Zionist groups were planning to attack the event.

“Regardless of where you ideologically lie, they shouldn’t be emboldened enough to crash every pro-resistance pro-Palestine event and action in NYC,” he wrote on X.

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Fifth Column

Hamas/Iran proxies on campus, the Antifa/Black Bloc nexus: Round up for 2/2 -2/14

2025-02-16

Survey: 83% of Jewish US college students have experienced antisemitism since Oct. 7
[IsraelTimes] Poll by ADL and Hillel International finds two-thirds of Jewish students not confident in their universities’ abilities to prevent antisemitism on campus. Published on Thursday, the survey found that two-thirds (66%) of Jewish students and 60% of non-Jewish students said they were not confident in their university’s ability to prevent antisemitic incidents.

Jewish professor quits Columbia, citing ‘systematic’ anti-Israel bias on campus
Prof. Avi Friedman, award-winning business school instructor, lashes NY university for having anti-Zionist activist professor Joseph Massad, who celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, teach a class on Israel. Massad received tenure from Columbia in 1999 and has long taught about Israel and the Middle East. His Israel course, called “Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Societies,” drew widespread criticism ahead of the spring semester this year.

Another professor, Lawrence Rosenblatt, said in December he was resigning due to the course. Days later, Columbia released a statement saying Massad’s comments about the Hamas attack “created pain for many in our community and contributed to the deep controversy on our campus.”

Friedman added that Columbia’s role as an “epicenter of the intifada movement” in the US was not an accident, but resulted from “years of institutional cultivation.” (One of the student protest leaders who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live” claimed in a recent court filing that the statement was partially based on university reading material.)

US Justice Department launches task force aimed at combating campus antisemitism
[IsraelTimes] The US Justice Department on Monday announced a task force to combat antisemitism at schools and colleges, the latest move by the Trump administration to crack down on anti-Jewish discrimination on campuses. The task force will include officials from the Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services, the Justice Department said in a statement. The group will be led by Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Trump administration opens antisemitism probes into 5 colleges, including Columbia
[IsraelTimes] US Department of Education investigating Columbia, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, University of Minnesota, and Portland State University, says it’s putting all schools ‘on notice’

[X]

Close to 200 Columbia faculty sign letter urging university president to take steps to protect Jewish students pic.twitter.com/yndK91Pshi
— Luke Tress (@luketress) February 3, 2025

At Trump’s direction, US medical schools to be investigated for antisemitism
[IsraelTimes] Department of Health and Human Services to probe Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins universities for Title VI ‘reports of antisemitic incidents during their 2024 commencement ceremonies’

Federal judge tells private NYC college told it must face antisemitism lawsuit from Jewish students under Title VI
[IsraelTimes] Jewish students have accused Cooper Union of failing to come to their aid when they locked themselves in a library out of fear during an anti-Israel protest in Oct. 2023.

Georgetown University Law student group to host speaker linked to Israeli teen’s killing
The university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter will host Ribhi Karajah, a member of the U.S.-designated terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on Feb. 11, Jewish Insider reported. The “former Palestinian political prisoner” will give a talk on “arrest, detention, and torture in the Israeli military system,” according to an Instagram post by LSJP.

Yale Jewish students kicked out of own center during pro-Palestinian protest.
[CollegeFix] Yalies4Palestine (Yale’s SJP) protest took place during closed-door talk by former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett on January 21st.

BREAKING: The Bowdoin Encampment students have been suspended by the administration. They have until 5 pm to "vacate campus." pic.twitter.com/GHwNGxXi5x
— Stu (@thestustustudio) February 10, 2025

Wesleyan SJP group hosts "Anti-Zionist" Tu Bishvat, Israeli Arbor Day
[ToniAiraksinen] Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the elite Wesleyan University are hosting a Tu B'Shvat Seder for the [anti-Israel] community to rally around. Notably, the event has the approval of the school’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life as it is giving the students space to host their seder. The event was coordinated with a shadowy group called “Beyond Empire” which claims to be founded by Wesleyan University students, according to their Instagram page.

Tu B’Shvat (the 15th of the month of Shvat, roughly February) is an agricultural holiday marking the best time to plant food trees in Israel. It refers back the commandment in Leviticus 19:23 about when trees in ancient Israel might first be harvested. Without the Jewish-Israel connection it has no meaning.

Bowdoin College disciplines SJP students after pro-Palestine encampment violates policies
[CampusReform] A Justice in Palestine chapter recently hosted an encampment at Bowdoin College, for which various protesters were immediately disciplined, with some receiving suspensions. The SJP group posted to Instagram on Monday following the announcement of the suspensions, condemning the school and blaming it for the 'weaponization of a disciplinary process.'

Link

Home Front: WoT

Report: How USAID funded Palestinian Arab terrorism

2025-02-11

[IsraelNationalNews] The US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has of late been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, has for years funneled money to terrorist entities in the Palestinian-controlled territories, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday, citing several former and current US officials who have worked with the agency.

According to the report, the officials fought with the agency over funding for groups that worked to undermine Israel or maintained ties to terror organizations and the organization would work to conceal how taxpayer funds were spent.

The report mentions how in November 2022, USAID granted $100,000 to an organization led by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID gave $900,000 "to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh."

The report also notes that the Biden-era administrator of the agency, Samantha Power, actively fought pro-Israel policymaking at the State Department and that USAID staffers even recently urged the Biden administration to halt military funding for Israel.

One State Department official told the Free Beacon: "They weren't even in line with some of the Biden administration's policies. It's more than just problematic grants to anti-Israel organizations. It's also their role in the internal approval processes and statements within the administration. There's an entire bureaucratic process they're a part of. They carry out their obstructionist ideology on that front as well."

US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) confirmed the report, in which he was also quoted, writing on X: "The full story of USAID funding Hamas is vast, and much of it was done in secret. Before and after October 7, USAID flowed uncountable hundreds of millions of dollars toward Hamas which enabled it to launch the attack and keep battling Israel afterward.

The Senator continued: "They lied about the nature of that aid in public databases, refused to disclose what groups were getting the money, and gave tens of millions in American cash to be distributed without American supervision.

"They internally admitted the aid would benefit Hamas, and even exempted themselves from anti-terrorism laws, but in public issued denials."

Cruz added: "For all four years of the Biden administration, I prevented them from confirming a Middle East administrator because they wouldn’t acknowledge what they were doing because continuing their secret pro-Hamas programs was more important to them."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'Legends of the Resistance': Whom Israel Gave to Hamas in Exchange for Hostages

2025-01-21

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Hamas and Israel, after nearly 15 months of constant consultations, have reached a consensus on a hostage exchange. Following agreements reached earlier in the Qatari capital of Doha, both sides pledged to ensure the transfer of people on agreed lists and then move on to a more comprehensive settlement of the protracted conflict. However, the implementation of the agreements is still in question.

There are many in Israel who see their military-political defeat in a diplomatic victory and would not mind renegotiating the agreements already reached.

CONTOURS OF EXCHANGE
Tel Aviv agreed to hand over 1,890 Palestinian prisoners to its opponents in exchange for the release of 33 Israeli hostages. Thus, the “exchange rate” of prisoners was 87 to 1 in favor of Hamas, which caused a storm of jubilation among Palestinian factions and protests from the far-right forces in the Israeli parliament.

However, Israeli negotiators still managed to avoid a repeat of the infamous “Shalit deal” (2011), where the ratio was 1 to 1027 in favor of Palestine, and to get Hamas to include all living hostages in the exchange lists.

In addition, Tel Aviv decided to stretch out the hostage exchange process as long as possible, so as not to pander to Palestinian propaganda and not to fuel the belief in the “absolute triumph” of Hamas.

In the first round, 90 Palestinians were exchanged for three Israeli women.

The parties also chose Saturday as a permanent exchange day, agreeing to provide lists no less than a day before the chosen date.

As a result, by the end of the first stage of the deal (tentatively scheduled for March 5, 2025), Hamas and Tel Aviv expect to fully fulfill their obligations.

THE OLD GUARD
In the first exchange, Hamas released only civilians. An exchange of IDF prisoners is planned for the coming weeks.

However, many legendary and significant figures in the Palestinian movement were freed.

Thus, among others, veteran of the resistance and commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) Zakaria al-Zubeidi was released. He played a leading role in the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and seriously strengthened the potential of the Brigades, and the commanders he trained, in particular Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, caused many problems for the Israeli army and intelligence services.

For the past five years, al-Zubeidi has been held under special conditions in Gilboa prison, which is eloquently called "Israeli Alcatraz." The name of the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was erased from the lists by Israeli negotiators until the very last moment.

Also released was the deputy head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Khalida Jarrar, a figure well known not only in the Middle East. In the past, she was the official representative of Palestine to the Council of Europe and a fighter for the rights of prisoners. Jarrar, who had been held in solitary confinement for the past year and a half (something that far more seasoned field commanders were not “honored” with), became a symbol of oppression not only for the PFLP, but also for other Palestinian factions.

However, the high-profile names listed are only a small part of the extensive exchange list. And it may include much more odious figures.

Thus, back in May 2024, Arab media wrote that Hamas negotiators were fighting for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the most popular anti-Israeli politician and the founder of the youth militant wing of Fatah (the Tanzim movement).

Barghouti's release could well challenge the political monopoly of current Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, subsequently triggering a drift in Fatah from being a relatively neutral faction towards Israel towards direct confrontation and the formation of a political coalition with Hamas.

Thus, living symbols of resistance, belonging to different groups and movements, have already found themselves at liberty. However, the "common denominator" for them was Hamas, which played a decisive role in their release from captivity. This significantly raises the prestige of the movement and its "political weight" in Palestine, especially in conjunction with the laurels of "the winner of the IDF."

This fact will probably manifest itself in the medium term, setting a trend for all Palestinian-Israeli relations.

THE LINE OF SCHISM
As noted above, the Israeli government's decision to support the deal with Hamas provoked an explosion of indignation among the conservative wing.

Many felt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “publicly capitulated” to the Palestinian forces (and by extension to Iran, which is celebrating the Palestinian victory as its own).

The leader of the far-right party "Jewish Power", Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who throughout the conflict criticized Netanyahu for "indecisive and half-hearted measures" against Hamas, resigned. Along with him, fellow party members - Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu and Minister of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Yitzhak Wasserlauf - also left their posts in the government. "Jewish Power" distanced itself from the ruling coalition.

Another opponent of the Hamas deal, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also publicly criticized Netanyahu for his cowardice. And, although he did not resign like other "hawks", he demonstratively voted against the Hamas deal at a Knesset session. However, Smotrich quickly realized that he would not be able to gather a protest electorate around himself alone, especially after his recent quarrel with Ben-Gvir over disagreements on judicial reform, and therefore hastened to welcome the return of his fellow citizens from captivity.

After distancing Ben-Gvir's supporters, Netanyahu's government lost at least six votes in the Knesset, leaving the gap with the opposition at a minimum (62 votes to 52). And the deepening conflict with Smotrich threatens the loss of at least seven more mandates and, as a result, the loss of control over parliament (especially if the right-wing parties decide to officially join the opposition bloc).

In this case, the early elections that Netanyahu has so carefully avoided could become a reality. This means that Israeli hawks have a convenient pretext to force the prime minister to torpedo the deal with Hamas immediately after the last Israeli hostage leaves the enclave.

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