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Fifth Column
Paleo-love/Jew hate at America’s universities: week of 5/11-5/17/2025
2025-05-18
A bunch of articles seen at Legal Insurrection:
U. Maryland Students Hold ‘Sit-In’ to Demand School ‘Stand Up’ to Trump
The Diamondback reports over a dozen student groups took part, including members of Indigenous UMD, Campus Queers and Allies, and the Anti-Imperialist Movement at UMD.

According to a statement from UMD’s 17 for Peace and Justice chapter, sit-in participants came up with seven total demands which university officials need to heed.

These include not cooperating with federal officials regarding “requests to monitor students and staff” and providing “identifiable information,” not assisting ICE and “other federal agencies targeting university community members,” and providing “institutional and financial support to university community members impacted by new policies.”

Sit-in participants “wrote postcards” to UMD President Darryll Pines “demanding action” on these and other items,
…and did all the usual protest nonsense. So derivative,
(Pines is one of over 400 university “presidents, chancellors and officials” who signed a letter via the American Association of Colleges and Universities “expressing their strong opposition to political interference in higher education,” The Black Explosion reports.)

House Committee Requests Interview With President of Northwestern Regarding Campus Antisemitism
A U.S. House committee has sent a letter to Northwestern University President Michael Schill requesting that he interview regarding recent instances of anti-Semitism at the school. The April 28 letter from the Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by Chairman Tim Walberg, demands a transcribed interview and further accountability from Schill over escalating anti-Semitism on campus.

The committee initiated its investigation in 2024 following a wave of assaults and harassment against Jewish students. Despite Schill’s prior testimony and promised reforms—including increased security, revising student conduct codes, and creating a task force—the committee stated that it finds the university’s follow-through inadequate. Key allegations include a Jewish student being spat on and told to “go back to Germany and get gassed,” widespread harassment during a 2024 anti-Israel encampment and anti-Semitic graffiti during Passover.

“Since your testimony at the Committee’s May 23, 2024 hearing, despite Northwestern’s claims to the contrary, the Committee has not seen your commitments to discipline, enforcement, and security come to satisfactory fruition,” the letter states.

New York Lawmakers Blast CUNY Leader After Anti-Israel Chaos Erupts at Brooklyn College
“It is unacceptable but not surprising that almost two years after October 7th — after an investigation into CUNY and several public hearings — we are still grappling with disruptive and criminal behavior against Jewish students, encampments and masked agitators on campus,” reads a May 9 letter to Brooklyn College chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez exclusively obtained by The Post.

The letter was signed by Councilmembers Inna Vernikov, Farah Louis, Mercedes Narcisse, and Robert Holden, and Assemblymembers Kalman Yeger, Lester Chang, Eric Ari Brown, Jamie Williams and Alec Brook-Krasny.

Arizona Outlaws College Campus Protest Encampments at Public Universities
“You still have the right to protest peacefully, but encampments do not have a legal right to be on campus”

Anti-Israel Yale Students on Hunger Strike Told Their Demands Will Not be Met
“They’re demanding that Yale divest from defense contractors, sever ties with Israel, and adopt a rigid political agenda”
All six members of Yalies4Palestine.
Separately, up nawth in Canada:
Faculty Association at U. Toronto Votes to Divest From Israelv
One of the prominent driving forces behind the motion was the UofT Faculty and Librarians for UPP Divestment group. It announced that all people who pledged support to the motion were anonymous, due to alleged fears of a “penalty for taking a public anti-war, anti-apartheid or anti-occupation position.”

The faculty also said it was fearful of “doxxing,” particularly against “indigenous colleagues, colleagues of color, [and] junior [or] precarious colleagues.”

The motion passed by 52% of the vote

[X]

NYU says student denied diploma after he ‘lied’ about graduation speech condemning Israel
Logan Rozos’s speech on Israeli ‘genocide’ draws applause from some in audience, condemnation from pro-Israel groups; university says he ‘lied about the speech he was going to deliver’. NYU, which is attended by Trump’s son, Barron, has largely avoided the president’s ire so far.

Rozos, an actor and member of the Gallatin Theater Troupe, was selected by fellow students to give the liberal arts program’s address. He said he felt a moral and political obligation to speak to the audience about what he called the atrocities in Gaza. The speech drew loud cheers from the crowd along with a standing ovation from some graduating students.

“They are bending over backward to crack down on speech that runs counter to what the current administration in Washington espouses,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU.

“Myself and many of my colleagues are frankly appalled at the decision that’s being made to deny a student speaker his diploma,” Ross added. “This is a very good example of an administration falling down on the job.”
Yourself isn’t nearly as well educated as you fondly imagine, if that this the grammar you think appropriate when representing yourself as an elite educator.




Report finds 11 percent of arrested Columbia protesters use they/them pronouns
[CampusReform] Nine of the students that were arrested at Columbia University for taking over the school’s library reportedly ask to be referred to with 'they/them' pronouns. Those numbers are according to a report by The Washington Free Beacon, which noted that one of the students’ senior thesis was on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

Released Columbia U protester, Mohsen Mahdawi, claimed built guns to 'kill Jews', arrested at border as drug mule
The allegation is contained within U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford’s April 30 opinion on Mahdawi’s motion for release.

In the alleged incident, Mahdawi visited a Vermont gun shop in the summer of 2016, expressing interest in purchasing a “sniper rifle and an automatic weapon.” Mahdawi said, according to the government’s allegation, that he “had considerable firearm experience and used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.”

There also appears to be corroborating evidence for Mahdawi making statements about “killing Jews.”

“The store owner gave the police the name of a fellow gun enthusiast who stated that he had a similar conversation with Mr. Mahdawi at the ‘Precision Museum’ in Windsor where the enthusiast served as a volunteer tour leader,” Judge Crawford’s opinion states. “During that conversation, Mr. Mahdawi allegedly told the enthusiast, ‘I like to kill Jews.’”

According to Crawford’s opinion, the government also pointed in its brief “to an incident in January 2019 when Mr. Mahdawi was stopped at the border and found to be carrying drugs.”

Cornell students raise thousands for pro-Palestine concert after school drops anti-Zionist singer
The students created the concert following the cancellation of an anti-Israel singer, Kehlani, at the main event run by the school.
Link


Fifth Column
University/Israel hate/Black Bloc nexus: week of 4/13-4/19
2025-04-20
‘Death to Israel’ graffitied on Northwestern University building during Passover
[IsraelTimes] School’s Jewish president says vandalism took place hours after his own Passover seder and that those responsible will face discipline from the university as well as criminal charges. Also spray-painted on a university building was an inverted triangle, a symbol that has been used by Hamas to signify Israeli targets and has also been adopted by some pro-Palestinian protestors.

Earlier this month, Northwestern became one of seven universities that saw steep funding cuts from the Trump administration over its response to campus antisemitism. It was the first non-Ivy League school to face the funding cuts and has $790 million on the line. Schill received widespread criticism last year when he became one of the first university presidents to come to a deal with pro-Palestinian protestors, with some Jewish organizations at the time calling for his resignation.

Harvard canceled ‘anti-Zionist’ Passover seder. Pro-Palestinian students met anyway.
[CollegeFix] Organizers say Passover event is part of 'call for the total liberation of all people, from every river to every sea.'

Trump admin freezes $2.2 billion to Harvard after school resists demands
Seen in comments, added here to get them in the searchable record.
[CollegeFix] Harvard 'will not accept' the administration’s 'proposed agreement,' university president says.

Penn anti-Israel students, faculty hold ‘interfaith vigil’ for ‘martyrs of Palestinian genocide’
[CollegeFix] 'Over five hundred days of unimaginable genocide in Gaza.'

Georgetown student government to hold vote on Israel divestment during Passover
[CollegeFix] Student association broke ‘every single rule’ related to its procedure, senator

Harvard Law Publishes Fond Reminiscence From Student Facing Criminal Charges for Assaulting Jewish Classmate
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Harvard Law School published a blog post from one of the students facing criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate. The post is from former Harvard Law Review editor Ibrahim Bharmal.

Bharmal's criminal case could also impact that future. Along with Harvard divinity school graduate student Elom-Tettey Tamaklo, Bharmal was charged last May with misdemeanor assault in connection with his behavior at a "die-in" protest that took place shortly after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo were captured on camera accosting an Israeli business school student, surrounding him and making it difficult for him to walk freely as keffiyeh-clad onlookers shouted, "SHAME!"

Footage of the ordeal, first reported in the Washington Free Beacon, prompted outrage from prominent Harvard Business School alumni, including former Sen. Mitt Romney (R.), who cited the school in an October 2023 letter as proof that university leaders were "paralyzed" in the face of "expressions of hate and vitriol against Jews." Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) and Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) similarly savaged Harvard after the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office accused the university of stonewalling an investigation into the protest.
Harvard nonetheless published Bharmal's blog as the Trump administration reviewed its $9 billion in federal grants and contracts. On Friday—one day after Harvard published Bharmal's blog—the administration demanded from the school a series of policy changes and reforms, including the expulsion of Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo, both of whom remained in good standing at Harvard in the months following the "die-in." Harvard rejected those demands on Monday, and the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in Harvard grants hours later.

Bharmal was supposed to be arraigned last June, a month after he was charged. But local prosecutors twice postponed the arraignment because Harvard police declined to perform a "follow up investigation" into the "die-in," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office told the Free Beacon in September. The investigation would have helped "identify any additional perpetrators" and generate "inculpatory/exculpatory evidence." Attorneys told the Free Beacon at the time that they had never heard of police refusing an investigation request from prosecutors.

Berklee College of Music Professor Attacked Jews as 'Vile Predators' and Blamed Them for Slavery
[WFB] 'All these so-called Jews mad, because how dare I make them face the facts of their sordid past and present,' Nicholas Payton said in 2020.

A top official at the Berklee College of Music has a years-long history of posting anti-Semitic and historically inaccurate claims about Jews, accusing them of oppressing black people and blaming them for slavery, a Washington Free Beacon review found. In September 2024, the Massachusetts music school made a splashy announcement that Nicholas Payton would become chair of their brass department.

Though Payton expressed his animosity toward Jews more aggressively during the summer of 2020, his anti-Semitism predates the emergence of Black Lives Matter. In 2010, he spewed invectives at the Jewish owner of Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Owner Ben Jaffe's family created the institution to preserve and celebrate traditional New Orleans jazz music, but in a 2010 blog post, Payton griped that Jaffe had made too much money off the hall's success and that his behavior was "endemic of those who have controlled things in the music industry since its inception," the New York Times reported in 2022.

ICE Arrests Columbia Student Activist Who Endorsed Oct. 7 Attack
[WFB] ICE officials detained a Columbia University graduate student who led a coalition of anti-Israel groups and endorsed the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Jordan-born Mohsen Mahdawi had his green card revoked by the Trump administration and was taken into custody on Monday in Burlington, Vt., where he was scheduled to take a citizenship test. Mahdawi is facing a deportation order that would send him to the West Bank.

But Mahdawi, a graduate philosophy student in Columbia’s School of General Studies, has also said he "can empathize" with Hamas over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 slaughter and has publicly called for the destruction of Israel. Last year, he honored his cousin Maysara Masharqa, who served as a prominent field commander in the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a U.S.-designated terror group that participated in the attack alongside Hamas.

Most recently, Mahdawi served as co-president of Columbia’s Palestinian Students Union, a coalition of anti-Israel student groups, including Columbia’s suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chapters. The union has organized protests calling for Columbia’s divestment from Israel alongside Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student organization behind the illegal encampments that plagued the school last spring and led to the violent storming of a campus building, Hamilton Hall.

Mahdawi’s detention is the Trump administration’s latest move in its effort to deport pro-Hamas green card and visa holders, fulfilling one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises. Mahdawi joins two other Columbia students who have faced removal proceedings. On Friday, a federal immigration judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, a fellow protest leader and encampment negotiator who has been detained since March 9, can be deported.

Mahdawi has served as a leader in anti-Israel campus groups since first moving to the United States more than a decade ago. In another interview, he recalled throwing rocks at an Israeli military tank when he was a child. In addition to serving as the co-president of Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union, Mahdawi is also a Visionary Advisor for the Columbia Buddhist Association and a member of Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

At Harvard-Hosted 'Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,' Law Students Target the Pages of Firms That Criticized School's Response to Anti-Semitism
[WFB] Anti-Israel Harvard Law School students organized a workshop on the Ivy League campus earlier this month to edit the Wikipedia pages of more than a dozen prominent law firms, singling out some that threatened to stop recruiting at the school over its failure to rein in anti-Semitic activity. Harvard’s National Lawyers Guild chapter, a left-wing legal advocacy group, hosted the "Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon" on April 2 at Harvard Law’s WCC student center, according to an announcement on Harvard Law’s website.

Third-year Harvard Law student Corinne Shanahan, an organizer with Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, organized the clinic for students to "gather data to edit the Wikipedia pages of Big Law firms to reflect cases they have recently argued." Two days later, Harvard Law student Aashna Avachat edited the Wikipedia pages of 14 law firms, mostly to add details of their representation of clients that the activist students deemed to be unsavory, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of Wikipedia edit logs.

Avachat edited the pages for the firms Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to soften the language about anti-Semitic activity on college campuses. Amid a wave of anti-Semitic protests following the Hamas attack on Israel, the two firms warned Harvard Law and others that they would cut back on recruiting on their campuses for failing to rein in anti-Semitic incidents. The edit logs show Avachat changed the term "antisemitic incidents" to "pro-Palestine protests," and reworded references to "incidents targeting Jewish students" to incidents that the law firms "described … as antisemitic." Avachat herself was involved in one incident at Harvard in which her law school classmate, Ibrahim Bharmal, accosted and shoved a Jewish student during an anti-Israel "die-in." Avachat said she witnessed the incident and claimed Bharmal was protecting "peaceful protesters" against an "aggressive" Jewish student.

Georgetown Eyes Vote on Israeli Divestment Resolution Sponsored by School of Foreign Service Student
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] School's student government postponed the vote, originally set to be held during Passover, after pushback from Jewish groups

[YouTube] Let’s talk about Georgetown University’s Hamas Problem
Half hour Michelle Tafoya podcast — she interviews an analyst from the Middle East Forum. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the video.


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.



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


Home Front: Politix
Trump admin freezes $1B in federal funding to Cornell
2025-04-09
Will there be as much savings to the budget from reducing grants to universities as it is from ending 80% of USAID spending?
[NYPOST] The Trump administration is freezing more than $1 billion in federal funds to Cornell and $790 million in funding for Northwestern University in response to civil rights investigations at both schools.

''The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations,'' a Trump admin official told Fox News.

The pause largely involves grants and contracts to both schools with the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, two administration officials told the New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
A spokesperson for Northwestern told The Post they haven't received any notice from the federal government regarding a funding freeze — stating they were informed of President Trump's supposed decision by members of the media.

''Federal funds that Northwestern receives drives innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world's smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer's disease,'' the rep for Illinois institution said.

''This type of research is now at jeopardy. The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.''

Both Cornell and Northwestern were both included on a list of 60 colleges and universities that the Department of Education's civil rights arm warned earlier this month could have federal funding taken away over alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment on campus.

The institutions and shamed included six of the eight Ivy League institutions — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Yale — and local schools Rutgers, Rutgers-Newark, Sarah Lawrence, three branches of the State University of New York, The New School and Wellesley.
Related:
Cornell: 2025-04-06 Charity run by wife of pro-Israel US senator defaced with ‘genocide’ slogan
Cornell: 2025-04-01 Good Morning
Cornell: 2025-04-01 Anti-Israel Cornell student slated for deportation says he’s leaving the US
Related:
Northwestern University: 2025-03-23 Lawfare: Pro-Palestinian students, faculty sue UCLA over handling of anti-Israel demonstrations
Northwestern University: 2025-03-02 The Jew hate-Black Bloc nexus in American universities 2/23-3/1: The feds take an interest
Northwestern University: 2024-12-23 ‘Deeply troubling’: Top universities ‘refused’ to stop antisemitism, house report says
Link


Fifth Column
Lawfare: Pro-Palestinian students, faculty sue UCLA over handling of anti-Israel demonstrations
2025-03-23
Because riots and harassing Jews just isn’t nearly enough.
[IsraelTimes] 35 students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists say school failed to protect activists at campus encampment amid clashes with counter-protesters

A group of 35 pro-Paleostinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists filed a lawsuit Thursday against the University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Los Angeles, over its handling of last year’s anti-Israel, pro-Paleostinian demonstrations.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles came days after the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed in June against the university by Jewish students and a Jewish professor, accusing it of failing to protect them.

The demonstrations at UCLA became part of a movement last spring at campuses nationwide against the Israel-Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 war, sparked by the terror group’s onslaught on October 7, 2023.

Many Jewish students at the university said they were made to feel unsafe due to antisemitic statements and banners at the demonstrations.

Last month, the Trump administration opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University.

UCLA was repeatedly roiled by protests and the way administrators were handling the situation.

The student encampments attracted particular scrutiny last April after campus police failed to promptly intervene when protesters erected physical barricades on campus, preventing pro-Israel students from crossing. School security instead instructed Jewish students to avoid the encampments.

The tensions culminated the night of April 20 when a group of counterprotesters began dismantling an anti-Israel, pro-Paleostinian encampment.

The lawsuit said UCLA failed to protect the demonstrators when dozens of people, some in white masks and some draped in Israeli flags and armed with fireworks, hammers, baseball bats and other weapons, attacked the encampment while the loud sound of crying babies played on the jumbotron.

Several protesters were maimed during the incident, which happened after private security had left and police had not yet arrived, the lawsuit said.

"Encampment members witnessed the mob’s extreme violence, threats of violence, and UCLA’s failure to intervene," it said. "They saw people get their heads split open, suffer from open wounds and concussions, scream in pain and fear, with fireworks and mayhem all around them."

The university did not immediately respond Friday to an email from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named seeking comment.

Los Angeles Police and California Highway Patrol officers arrested dozens of protesters on May 1 and 2 as the camp was cleared.

The episode led to the reassignment of the campus police chief and the creation of a new campus safety office. A subsequent attempt to set up a new camp was also blocked.

The lawsuit also named the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and 20 people it describes as members of a "mob." It sought monetary damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protesters.

Last June, three Jewish students and a Jewish professor sued the university saying it allowed pro-Paleostinian protesters to block them from accessing classes and other parts of campus. The students alleged they experienced discrimination on campus during the protests because of their faith and that UCLA failed to ensure access to campus for all Jewish students.

A federal judge ruled in a preliminary injunction last year that the university cannot allow pro-Paleostinian protesters to block Jewish students from accessing classes and other parts of campus.

On Monday, the Trump administration filed a brief supporting the Jewish students and professor in their case against UCLA.

"DOJ has thrown down the gauntlet: if university administrators aid and abet mistreatment of Jews, they will pay the price," said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and an attorney for the students and professor.

"This is a wake-up call for every university that allows antisemitic hatred to fester unchecked. No Jewish student or professor should ever again face this kind of terror on their own campus."
Related:
UCLA: 2025-02-01 Buh-bye: Chinese organizer of Hamas rallies at UCLA arrested, visa revoked
UCLA: 2025-01-25 Hezbollah official admits to funding protests to destabilize the West; Trump signed EO to deport foreign students who support Iran proxy terror groups as Zionist group uses facial recognition to ID foreign protesters
UCLA: 2025-01-12 Rutgers SJP staged a protest outside of the Chabad House on campus, chanting “globalize the intifada.”…and more
Link


Fifth Column
The Jew hate-Black Bloc nexus in American universities 2/23-3/1: The feds take an interest
2025-03-02
Barnard College expels 2 students who disrupted Israel history class last month
[IsraelTimes] Anti-Israel student coalition at US institution shares footage of activists interrupting class, saying course ‘legitimizes the zionist entity’; Hillel president praises expulsion. Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement that the punishment “marks a serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment against the Israeli war machine.”



NYC university system’s faculty union backtracks after Israel boycott vote
[IsraelTimes] CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress, representing 30,000 members, reverses support for divisive divestment measure due to ‘irregularities’ in voting.

The union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), has been a battleground for anti-Israel activism for years, and some Jewish professors have long accused the group of bias and discrimination.

The vote to boycott Israel was divisive within the union, and drew criticism from the CUNY administration, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and two groups representing Jewish and pro-Israel faculty in the CUNY system.

The union leadership opposed the boycott, and the vote was controversial and close, so the leadership checked whether alternates had voted when they were not allowed to and found the irregularities, Philipp said.

Passing an Israel boycott vote could have hurt the union in negotiations with city and state officials who oppose such a measure.

George Washington University Retaliated Against Jewish Students Who Lodged Anti-Semitism Complaint, Federal Probe Finds
[FreeBeacon] A federal civil rights investigation uncovered evidence that the George Washington University faculty retaliated against Jewish students based on "shared ancestry-related advocacy" by placing them in a remediation program after the students lodged an anti-Semitism complaint against an anti-Israel professor. The Department of Education also ordered the school to conduct a review of former GW psychology professor Lara Sheehi’s social media posts—which included calls to "destroy Zionism" and described Israelis as "genocidal fucks"—to determine if the comments created a "hostile environment" for Jewish and Israeli students.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights raised the concerns in a confidential settlement letter with GW on Jan. 16, which followed a two-year investigation, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. As part of the settlement, GW agreed to "review and revise" its anti-discrimination policies and train professors against "unlawful discrimination." The school also agreed to expunge any disciplinary action from the students’ records.

A group of Jewish and Israeli psychology students at GW filed the civil rights complaint in 2023, saying the school failed to protect them after they were "singled out for repeated and persistent harassment" by anti-Israel professors and classmates in the program and later subjected to retaliation when they complained. StandWithUs, the group that brought the complaint on behalf of the students, told the Free Beacon that the settlement letter was a positive step.

Northwestern University Mandatory Anti-Discrimination Training Pushes Unverified CAIR Data
[FreeBeacon] 'This omission is not an oversight; it reflects Northwestern's ongoing pattern of sidelining Jewish concerns in response to activist pressure,' anti-Semitism expert says.

All Northwestern students, faculty, and staff across all departments, must watch the nearly 20-minute video training, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, and is part of a 3-hour online course created by the university.

"Reports from Northwestern University faculty and staff suggest that its so-called anti-discrimination training does the opposite of what it claims," Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern president Michael Teplitsky told the Free Beacon. "Instead of fostering genuine inclusion, it selectively elevates certain perspectives while excluding Israeli students from the conversation—despite these students facing some of the most severe harassment and intimidation on U.S. college campuses."

US federal task force to visit 10 campuses to tackle antisemitism
[IsraelTimes] The US Department of Justice says an antisemitism task force will visit 10 university campuses that saw antisemitic incidents since October 2023.

The visits stem from US President Donald Trump’s executive order to combat antisemitism that was issued last month, part of a wider effort by the new administration to pressure universities to crack down on anti-Jewish discrimination.

The head of the task force, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, says the group will meet with university leaders, students, staff and law enforcement.

“The task force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate antisemitism, particularly in schools,” Terrell says in a statement.

The universities that will be visited are:
Columbia University
George Washington University
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
New York University
Northwestern University
The University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of Minnesota
The University of Southern California

The visits are announced after anti-Israel protesters at Barnard College, an affiliate of New York’s Columbia University, invaded a campus building on Wednesday, injuring a university employee. The protest was widely condemned by state and national lawmakers.

NY governor orders Hunter College to remove Palestinian studies job listing
[IsraelTimes] New York’s governor has ordered a state school to remove a job posting for a Palestinian studies teaching position this week, saying she wanted to ensure “antisemitic theories” would not be taught.

The job posting at Hunter College had called for a historian “who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to settler-colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality,” according to screenshots published by the New York Post, which first reported the job announcement.

Following the coverage, Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, ordered the City University of New York school to remove the posting “and conduct a thorough review of the position to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom,” her office says in a statement.

The CUNY Board of Trustees agreed, and university officials have since removed the posting for a “Palestinian Studies Cluster Hire,” which was marked as expired on Friday.

“We find this language divisive, polarizing and inappropriate and strongly agree with Governor Hochul’s direction to remove this posting,” say Chairperson William C. Thompson Jr. and Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, adding they will work “to tackle antisemitism on our campuses and combat hate in all of its forms.”

The governor’s statement adds that no class is being canceled.

Courtesy of Grom:
Rutgers lecturer, UNRWA official join Hamas-affiliated org webinar
[Jpost] Hamid Abdeljaber, a lecturer for Middle Eastern Studies and former press officer for the UN, spoke in the webinar titled “UNRWA after the ban law and the arrival of Trump,” which aired on the Facebook page of the European Palestinian Information Center. UNRWA media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna also spoke at the livestream event, claiming, “At the end of the day, we at UNRWA were one of the victims of what happened on October 7,” Jewish Insider quoted.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey) reacted to Abdeljaber’s participation in the webinar, “It’s outrageous that yet another Rutgers faculty member, Hamid Abdeljaber, spoke on an antisemitic webinar tied to Hamas, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. Not only did Hamid defend Hamas as part of a so-called ‘resistance,’ but he also celebrated its actions while promoting harmful antisemitic tropes and false narratives," he said in a released statement.

He continued, "This is just the latest example of rampant antisemitism on campus that threatens the safety of Jewish students. It follows a Faculty Union December 2024 vote to approve an antisemitic BDS resolution. Last year, a university-funded center openly promoted antisemitic, anti-Israel propaganda. Jewish students at Rutgers deserve to feel safe and welcome on campus and in the classroom."
Link


Fifth Column
‘Deeply troubling’: Top universities ‘refused’ to stop antisemitism, house report says
2024-12-23
[CollegeFix] Report reveals universities likely violated Title VI, calls for increased ‘viewpoint diversity’

A U.S. House of Representatives committee report released Thursday detailed how universities likely violated Title VI by failing to protect their Jewish students on campus.

Following "a more than 7-months long investigation into antisemitism on American college campuses," the Committee on Education and the Workforce found that administrators "refused to crack down on antisemitism," states the 43-page Staff Report on Antisemitism.

"In fact, many colleges handed down disparate disciplinary actions for Jewish students versus their antagonists—the students who engaged in antisemitic behavior, encampments, and intimidating tactics such as campus checkpoints and tax-exempt organizations that enabled and funded violent mostly peaceful campus protests, among other troubling findings," it states.

The report also blames federal government departments and agencies for "entirely avoid[ing] any accountability for institutions to which they award millions of dollars annually."

The key findings of the report include that universities "granted shocking concessions" to "antisemitic encampments" and neglected to "enforce their rules and impose meaningful discipline."

Further, some "radical faculty" hindered meaningful action while "so-called university leaders expressed hostility to congressional oversight and treated campus antisemitism as a public relations issue, not a serious problem demanding action."

The committee recommends that universities enforce conduct policies, "forcefully reject antisemitism," "recognize that discrimination against ’zionists’ is an unacceptable antisemitic civil rights violation," and increase "viewpoint diversity."

"The House-wide investigation has uncovered deeply troubling realities about how antisemitism has been allowed to fester unchecked, including in universities and institutions across the country, with little to no accountability or oversight to prevent its continued spread," the report states.

It specifically cites Columbia University, University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Los Angeles, Harvard University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Yale University, and others as the schools responsible for some of the worst violations.

"Columbia stands out for its egregious failure to combat antisemitism on its campus, despite its president acknowledging that the University was in violation of its Title VI obligations," the report states.

In February, the committee subpoenaed Harvard for withholding documents in the House’s antisemitism probe, The College Fix previously reported. Then in August, the committee subpoenaed Columbia requesting information on anti-Israel protesters’ Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 Solidarity Encampment.

"On October 8th, the world saw that antisemitic hatred was alive and well at American institutions of so-called ’higher’ education. As a result, the reputation of many of these schools has been in free fall," Chairwoman Virginia Foxx stated in a news release announcing the new report.

"Stopping that free fall comes down to one word: accountability. We need accountability because without it, we cannot guarantee that Jewish students have the safe learning environment they deserve," she stated.

MORE: Bill to combat campus antisemitism stalled in Senate
…stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But Republicans will have a majority in the 2025 Senate session so this can be readdressed then — an issue that I understand is a priority for President Trump as well.
Link


Fifth Column
The Hamas-university nexus, doing Iran’s work for the vicious joy of it: 11/24-11/30
2024-12-02
The following are from Legal Insurrection:
Openly Pro-Hamas Students Take Over Administrative Building at Sarah Lawrence College
[LegalInsurrection] Students and faculty are handing out fliers with Sinwar’s face, describing how successful Oct. 7th was.

Georgetown Student Claims School of Foreign Service ‘Coddles’ Violent Anti-Semites

Pro-Israel Group Compiles List of Foreign Pro-Hamas College Students, Hoping Trump Will Deport Them
“has about 30 names of students from nations such as Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Canada, and the United Kingdom currently enrolled in some of the nation’s top universities”

Zionist org preps list of foreign pro-Hamas students, hoping Trump will deport them

A Zionist organization is compiling names of foreign students on visas in the US who spewed anti-Israel bile at campus protests — and is hoping President-elect Trump will give the haters a one-way ticket back home.

So far, the group, Betar, has about 30 names of students from nations such as Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Canada, and the United Kingdom currently enrolled in some of the nation’s top universities, including Columbia, UPenn, Michigan, Syracuse, UCLA, The New School for Social Research, Carnegie Mellon, and George Washington University.

“We have started commencing lists of Jew-hating foreign nationals on visas who support Hamas,” said Ross Glick, director of the US chapter of Betar.

Betar has IDed the haters using a combination of facial recognition software and “relationship database technology” to weed out people who were busted at antisemitic campus protests over the last year.

“One of our issues is processing power, there is just so much video to work through,” Glick said.

Betar is already in contact with “prospective” Trump administration appointees in the Justice Department about how best to take action on those identified, Glick said.

Among those on the list is Momodou Taal, a British national and PhD candidate in Africana studies at Cornell University, who was suspended twice for participating in a pair of on-campus Palestinian protests, most recently in September. University officials initially told Taal that the latest incident would lead to his F-1 visa being revoked, Newsweek reported. The Ivy later backed down.

Rutgers Faculty Set to Vote on BDS Measure
The faculty of Rutgers University is set to vote in early December on a BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) referendum that aims to have the school pull out of its collaborations with Tel Aviv University, stop investing in companies that do business with Israel and in Israel Bonds.

Spearheading the vote is the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT), the union that represents more than 5,000 employees at Rutgers. The union is led by Todd Wolfson, a Rutgers professor in the media department, who also serves as the president of the national AAUP.

The national AAJP in August reversed a longstanding policy that opposed academic boycotts, saying that such boycotts “can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.”

In its BDS resolution, the union claims that there is “scholasticide in occupied Palestine” and that Israeli universities “play a key role in supporting Israel’s system of apartheid rule.”

Two from the Daily Caller:
University Leaders Secretly Promised ‘Amazing Wins’ For Anti-Israel Protesters As They Stormed Campuses
University leaders secretly negotiated with anti-Israel protesters and hoped to give them “amazing wins” despite publicly condemning them, a report released Thursday found.

Uncovered emails reveal multiple university administrators at Columbia University and Northwestern University engaged in negotiation efforts with protesters while demonstrations continued to rage on campus, according to the report from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Northwestern President Michael Schill appointed two “radical anti-Israel” professors, Jessica Winegar and Nour Kteily, to oversee negotiations with protesters, the report found. Messages obtained by the committee expose that Kteily applauded Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota for following in Northwestern’s footsteps and conceding to protesters’ demands.

Columbia’s leaders meanwhile drafted a “menu” of options to concede to each of the protesters demands, including providing amnesty to many of the students involved in the encampment that overtook the campus for weeks, formally reviewing divestment demands from protesters, funding scholarships for students in Gaza and the West Bank, and creating a $10 million “resilience fund” for Gaza. Administrators also approved of a program in collaboration with a Palestinian university in which “Hamas is active on campus.”

America’s Largest And Most Expensive DEI Program - University of Michigan - Is About To Go Up In Flames
The University of Michigan’s (UM) multi-million dollar diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program - $250 million since 2016 - may soon be dismantled. The university’s board of regents has reportedly asked UM president Santa Ono “to defund or restructure” the DEI office amid growing criticism and public pressure, according to emails shared on X. The board is expected to vote on the matter on Dec. 5.

The major catalyst of this change, Sailer explained, was the series of fiery protests that ravaged college campuses across the country after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which were “absolutely a big part of the story.”

A bunch from Campus Reform:
University of Rochester anti-Israel groups blast university's handling of anti-Semitic posters, say it's an example of 'Anti-Palestinian racism'
Four students involved in an incident where anti-Semitic “wanted” posters were put up around the University of Rochester campus have been arrested.
Multiple student-led pro-Palestinian groups took to Instagram following the arrests and response from the University to claim that they are being treated unfairly.
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Democratic Socialists of America were among the groups that made the post.

Some Jewish patients reportedly hide identities as UCSF faces accusations of bias and activism
Faculty at UCSF’s medical center have raised concerns about anti-Semitism, claiming it has created an environment where Jewish patients hide their identities.
They also criticize mandatory training sessions for promoting ideological activism and undermining professionalism.
Recently, Rupa Marya, a professor at UCSF, was suspended for statements she had made about an Israeli student who was taking one of her classes.

Anti-Israel group at Columbia calls for removal of Jewish organization Hillel
Columbia University’s “Palestine Working Group” (PWG) recently called for the elimination of the Hillel Jewish student organization, accusing it of supporting Israel’s “imperialist” agenda.
Critics, including the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish advocacy groups, condemned the statement as antisemitic and reflective of a broader trend of hostility toward Jewish campus organizations.

NYU activists protest 'pro-apartheid wall,' call for 'student intifada'
A group of nearly 4 dozen anti-Israel student activists recently protested against a 'pro-apartheid wall' outside of New York University's Gould Plaza.
Students were also said to protest the increased police presence as a result of the wall, as well as promote other pro-Palestine political causes.
The NYU activists were said to have left the demonstration to join other local, anti-Israel student activists at Columbus Circle in response to the National Students for Justice in Palestine’s “International Day of Action.”

Chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, org accused of ‘influencing student-led antisemitic activism,’ formed at George Washington University
The professors said they ‘stand in solidarity with the students and grieve the continued atrocities against the people of Palestine.’
A study by a group opposed to anti-Semitism recently found that ‘the presence of FJP chapters correlates strongly with the rise of violent antisemitic behavior on campuses.’
The formation of the group was mentioned by professors Peter Calloway, helen [sic] DeVinney, Amr Madkour, Sara Matthiesen, and Dara Orenstein in an Oct. 28 op-ed published in The GW Hatchet.
FJP chapters have been spreading across American higher education, including to schools like the Universities of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Harvard. FJP members routinely participate in anti-Israel protests similar to those engaged in by activist student groups.

Reps. Virginia Foxx, Josh Gottheimer introduce bill to cut off taxpayer funds from schools that boycott Israel
The “Protect Economic Freedom Act” would crack down on ‘nonexpressive commercial boycotts of Israel.’
‘Enough is enough. Appeasing the antisemitic mobs on college campuses threatens the safety of Jewish students and faculty and it undermines the relationship between the U.S. and one of our strongest allies,’ Foxx said.

Florida professors complain about threats to 'academic freedom' over course reviews of anti-Semitism
Some Florida public university professors have expressed reservations about being asked to review course materials for anti-Semitism.
In August, State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues tasked the system's university presidents with examining courses for 'antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias.'

CUNY announces free speech task force after controversy over anti-Israel protests
The City University of New York (CUNY) announced plans to create a free speech task force in response to tensions surrounding anti-Israel protests on its campuses.
Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez emphasized balancing free speech with campus safety and zero tolerance for hate.

University of Michigan appoints Title VI coordinator amid campus anti-Israel protests
The University of Michigan hired Anlyn Addis as its new Title VI coordinator to address discrimination and harassment issues on campus, following anti-Israel protests.
This role aligns with a U.S. Department of Education agreement aimed at ensuring compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws.
Campus Reform recently reported about two Jewish students at UMich being attacked, prompting a police investigation and an official condemnation from the university administration.

Mizzou president doubles down on barring SJP from homecoming parade, rejects latest demand letter
University of Missouri President Mun Choi has reaffirmed his decision to deny Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from participating in the school's homecoming parade out of safety concerns.
On Friday, the Mizzou SJP chapter took to Instagram to share that President Choi had stood by his decision and rejected the groups latest list of 'demands.'
According to the SJP chapter, Choi’s response came after the group teamed up with other organizations to send him a letter concerning the school’s “pattern of mistreatment and exclusion.”

”After months of silence and discriminatory actions, the administration not only barred MSJP from participating in this year’s Homecoming parade but also publicly labeled us as a threat to public safety,” the letter read. “This dangerous lie has placed Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students at greater risk of harm and and has fueled slander from Zionist groups both on and off campus.”

Signatories of the letter also included Mizzou’s Young Democratic Socialists of America, the Legion of Black Collegians, the Muslim Student Organization, and Progressive Jews of Mizzou.
Related:
Betar 11/10/2024 Israel-hate at the universities 10/27-11/9
Betar 11/06/2024 UK anti-Israel activists who ‘abducted’ busts of Weizmann post threats on social media

Betar 12/25/2018 Christmas being celebrated

Link


Fifth Column
Hamas and Antifa in the universities, step 1 is institutional neutrality: Round-up for the week of September 9
2024-09-15
Brown University trustee resigns in protest of upcoming vote on Israel divestment
[IsraelTimes] Politically conservative, multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman decries school’s ‘stunning failure of moral leadership’ in agreeing to student protesters’ demand in letter also published in the Wall Street Journal; university criticizes his ‘misunderstanding’ of decision.

Repeat protester, 40, charged over flag-burning at Columbia anti-Israel protest
[IsraelTimes] James Carlson, unaffiliated with school, faces accusations of arson, trespassing and more after setting stolen Israeli flag on fire, helping break into Hamilton Hall.

Carlson is not a student, staffer or faculty member at Columbia, Bragg’s office said. The son of the late advertising executive Dick Tarlow, he owns a multi-million dollar townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn and has a history of arrests dating to 2005, according to the New York Post,. He is one of more than a quarter of the people arrested at the Hamilton Hall protest who were not affiliated with Columbia, according to the NYPD.

Punitive punishments dished out to university students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests
”You embarrassed our beloved school. Now you will pay! BWAHAHAHAH”
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Students who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests last spring are now being punished by universities with protracted suspensions and mandatory contrition essays. As the fall term gets underway, college authorities figuring out the right disciplinary actions to take against the groups who gathered on campus and erected encampments as they demanded their schools sever financial ties with Israel.

Students for Justice in Palestine plans 'Day of Action' one day after 9/11
[CampusReform] The group will be hosting the day of action for its student followers as a means to continue to protest in favor of Palestine on college campuses.

University Of Pennsylvania Adopts Institutional Neutrality In Wake Of Israel-Hamas War.

After Gaza protests, University of Wisconsin system rules college heads must stay neutral
[IsraelTimes] Move comes after one chancellor struck a deal in May to end pro-Palestinian campus protests by agreeing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to discuss cutting ties with Israel

Universities are trying a new strategy on Israel and Gaza: Say nothing
[IsraelTimes] After suffering intense blowback for statements on Oct. 7 and war, many schools have codified policies of political neutrality.

“The practice of issuing statements supports some members of our community while disregarding others, intentionally or otherwise,” Maud Mandel, the president of Williams College and a Jewish Studies scholar, wrote in a letter to campus last week explaining her own decision to remain neutral after Oct. 7 — a decision she has now codified into college policy. “It makes some issues visible while leaving many more unseen.”

She wasn’t the only one to opt out. This week the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College and the University of Alabama’s campuses were some of the latest schools to announce they would institute a broad policy of “institutional neutrality” on world events that do not directly affect the populations of their universities. Yale University, too, announced it would be exploring whether to adopt a similar policy.

These schools join around two dozen others that already have codified some policy of political neutrality, according to the campus free-speech organization FIRE, which supports adopting such policies. Most of them have only been implemented within the past few months. And Jewish leaders, many of whom pushed for strongly-worded university statements in the wake of Oct. 7, are divided on the issue.

In a statement to JTA, Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman called institutional neutrality “a good step forward in returning campuses to their core missions of education, learning and research.”

But, he said, the policy “is not a panacea that solves the problems of harassment, intimidation and discrimination directed at Jewish students.”

The list of schools that adopted a neutrality policy this year includes elite universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Southern California, all schools that faced significant unrest over campus responses to Oct. 7. It also includes some large public universities and systems, including Syracuse, and the University of Texas. The University of North Carolina adopted such a policy in July 2023.

Neutrality is also the word of the moment for closely-watched university investments in Israel. The University of Minnesota recently said its investing strategy would “adopt a position of neutrality” and that “investment decisions continue to be based on financial criteria already defined in policy.”

But other Jewish activists in the campus space are against institutional neutrality. Speaking to Jewish Insider, Mark Yudof, chair of the pro-Israel Academic Engagement Network and former president of the University of California system, said the idea had “iffyness” when it came to Israel because what happens there does directly affect Jewish members of campus.

“If you’ve had assaults of women, racist misbehavior, if Jewish students can’t cross campus safely, I expect presidents to speak out about that and I don’t want institutional neutrality to say they can’t look out for the best interests of students, faculty and staff,” Yudof said. At least one Jewish college president, Oakland University head Ora Pescovitz, said she opposed neutrality.

Even schools that had already embraced institutional neutrality before Oct. 7 found themselves wading into the dialogue on Israel. Notably, Michael Schill, the Jewish president of Northwestern University, condemned Hamas after Oct. 7, even as he used the same statement to endorse a policy of institutional neutrality. Months later, Schill was pilloried by Jewish groups including the ADL, who called for his resignation for brokering a deal with his school’s pro-Palestinian encampment; Northwestern this week announced an investigation of a faculty member who took part in the encampment, and said it is canceling his classes for the semester.

Bill Barr: Mob Rule and Moral Bankruptcy at Columbia
[TheFreePress] Antisemitism isn’t borne of ignorance at my alma mater. Antisemitism is taught there.

Link


Home Front: Politix
US: Jill Stein announces Muslim convert as VP running mate
2024-08-18
[NEWARAB] US Green Party candidate Jill Stein announced her pick for her vice-presidential running mate at an online event on Friday night - academic, activist and Moslem convert Rudolph "Butch" Ware.
Perhaps they’ll split the Moslem vote with the Democrats and the Republicans. But it still won’t be enough to get the Green Party out of the small single digits as their share of the vote.
The announcement came after days of speculation over who Stein would choose in her, by all indications, quixotic campaign for president.

Over the past several days, multiple names - mainly Arab Americans - have been floated as Stein's VP contender, however Ware's name did not appear in most major news reports on the subject.

After Stein announced him as her running mate, Ware described himself as a "willing warrior with resolve in the cause of liberation."

Stein, who ran for president in 2016 and in 2020, followed up by saying, "We're going to turn the empire upside down." She went on to praise their alliance as a Jewish woman and a Moslem man, describing their ticket as unstoppable.

The web event lasted nearly an hour and 45 minutes with around the first hour and a half dedicated to the run-up to the VP pick. The discussion mainly focused on the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 and the duopoly of the two-party system that prevents multiple parties from running for president.

Though Stein appears to have no viable path to the presidency, raising concerns among many that she is a potential election spoiler, she does have a significant following in the Arab and Moslem communities. This is mainly due to her unconditional support for a ceasefire in Gaza and for a US arms embargo on Israel.

"She's the only campaign with a principled stance on Paleostine. We should all get behind her," Amer Zahr, a comedian and activist from Dearborn told, whose name has been in the news recently as a potential running mate for Stein told The New Arab.

Wikipedia’s Rudolph "Butch" T. Ware III page is rather bare bones (he apparently doesn’t use the III socially):
Rudolph "Butch" T. Ware III is a historian of West Africa at the University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Santa Barbara. He formerly taught at the University of Michigan and before then at Northwestern University.[1][2] He received his Ph.D. in history in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania.
Related:
Jill Stein 06/24/2024 Dearborn's Lebanese-American mayor warns Biden has not 'earned my vote'
Jill Stein 04/29/2024 Jill Stein (remember her?) arrested at Washington University in St. Louis while supporting a protest
Jill Stein 12/09/2023 2024 White House hopefuls shred DOJ, 'deep state' over timing of Hunter Biden indictment: 'Slow-walked'

Link


Home Front: Politix
Chicago Republican answers attacks from mayor, governor over blame for city's violent crime
2024-07-15
[JustTheNews] Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has joined Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in blaming Republicans for violent crime in the city. A Chicago Republican says the issue is the Democrats’ “bad policies.”

Pritzker said there is more violence in Chicago because Republicans defunded community violence interruption programs.

“You end up with, and the study from Northwestern shows it about Illinois, you end up with more violent crime,” Pritzker said. “It’s Republicans that have caused this problem.”

The governor referred to a Northwestern University study published last year that found that individuals who completed the full Chicago Real Economic Destiny Program were 73% less likely to have an arrest for a violent crime in the two years following enrollment than those who did not participate.

The Northwestern researchers also found that the rate of firearms victimization remained statistically unchanged during the study period.

Pritzker announced $100 million in private funding from civic groups in an attempt to prevent more violence. The state budget includes $180 million in taxpayer funds for violence intervention and youth summer jobs programs.

On several occasions, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed Republicans for the issues around crime for what he said was decades of community disinvestment.

South Side GOP Chairman Devin Jones is the 18th Ward Republican Committeeman. He said the criticism was strange in a city which has no Republican elected officials at any level.

“The issue is the bad policies of the city of Chicago, of Cook County and the state of Illinois,” Jones said.

The most recent criticism of Republicans by Pritzker and Johnson came after more than 100 people were shot in Chicago from July 4 through July 8.

Jones said the GOP is not to blame for violent crime in Chicago.

“So this is a Brandon Johnson and his progressive allies issue and not an issue of Republicans or some other boogeyman party. This is their problem. It is his [Johnson’s] fault and four of his predecessors. This all rests with them,” Jones said.
Link


Fifth Column
UF taking firm stance on campus pro-Hamas protesters
2024-05-01
[FOX35ORLANDO] The University of Florida is taking a firm stance on campus protesters amid ongoing demonstrations at schools across the country in support of the Paleostinians in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

"The University of Florida is not a daycare"
Campus police and the Florida Highway Patrol reported the arrest of nine individuals on Monday for failing to adhere to protest regulations.

UF, like many other colleges and universities, has been grappling with protests by students and faculty. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
 recent measures have been implemented, with the campus administration announcing new rules and warnings that violators would be treated as trespassers.

"The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences," the university said in a statement.

"For many days, we have patiently told protesters — many of whom are outside agitators — that they were able to exercise their right to free speech and free assembly. And we also told them that clearly prohibited activities would result in a trespassing order from UPD (barring them from all university properties for three years) and an interim suspension from the university," the statement continued.
The Times of Israel adds more about other schools:
At some recent rallies, protesters have been met with counterprotesters accusing them of fomenting anti-Jewish hatred. The pro-Paleostinian side, including some Jewish activists opposed to the Israeli actions, say they are being unfairly branded as antisemitic for criticizing Israel’s government and expressing support for human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
In dealing with the protests, university officials have struggled to strike a balance between allowing freedom of expression and stamping out hate speech.

The issue has taken on political overtones in the run-up to the US presidential election in November, with Republicans accusing some university administrators of turning a blind eye to antisemitic rhetoric and harassment.

White House spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday denounced non-peaceful forms of student protests, calling the occupation of campus buildings "the wrong approach."

"Hate speech and hate symbols have no place in this country," Kirby added. "A small percentage of students shouldn’t be able to disrupt the academic experience... for the rest of the student body."

BIDEN AGAINST ’INTIFADA’
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his other leg......
 US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier...
 condemned protesters’ use of the term "intifada" during the latest spate of demonstrations, the White House said.

For Israelis, the Arabic word "intifada," literally "uprising," conjures traumatic memories of mass waves of deadly terror attacks in 1987-1993 and again in the early 2000s.

Extremist protesters have regularly called for a renewed intifada against Israel and for "globalizing the intifada" in protests that have wreaked havoc across campuses in recent weeks.

Biden "condemns the use of the term ’intifada,’ as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. "President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful."

"Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America," Bates added.

Biden opposes last night’s takeover of a building at Columbia University by anti-Israel protesters, the White House said.

"The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach. That is not an example of peaceful protest," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says during a press briefing.

The College Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
 of America, the US Democratic Party’s student organization, released a statement in support of the protests, calling the actions of the protesters "heroic."

"There is nothing more American than the right to protest peacefully for what is right," the statement read, commending "the bravery of students across the country who have been willing to endure arrests, suspension and threats of expulsion to stand up for the rights and dignity of the Paleostinian people.

"Our position is clear:
Very clear, indeed. Jeremy Corbyn had nothing on you lot,
We stand with those protesting for peace and we find all calls for violence, such as those against Jewish and Moslem students, wrong," the statement said. "Those spreading hate have no place in the movement for peace."

ARRESTS IN CALIFORNIA, DEALS ELSEWHERE
Students at dozens of campuses from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, to New England have set up similar tent encampments to demonstrate their anger over the Israeli operation in Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation.
At Cal Poly Humboldt University, police early on Tuesday swarmed the campus, where students were occupying a school building, and starting detaining people, local media reported. Some 25 people were said arrested. Police on Monday had declared the protest an unlawful assembly and warned people they faced arrest if they did not disperse. According to The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, protesters at Humboldt had taken over Siemens Hall and redubbed it "Intifada Hall," spraying graffiti inside and vandalizing the campus president’s office.

Civil rights groups have criticized law enforcement tactics on some campuses where police have clashed with protesters and have used chemical irritants.

Police detained about 30 protesters at their encampment at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill early on Tuesday, according to a university statement, noting that students had trespassed into classroom buildings overnight.

At the University of Texas at Austin, police arrested dozens of students whom they hit with pepper spray at a pro-Paleostinian rally on Monday.

Northwestern University reached an agreement with demonstrators that will see them take down their "Gaza solidarity encampment." The students agreed to take down all but one of the nearly 100 tents erected on the school quad since Thursday. In exchange, Northwestern agreed to take several steps to expand student engagement in the school’s financial investments.

Northwestern also agreed to fund the tuition of five Paleostinian undergraduates and hire two visiting Paleostinian faculty members in addition to providing a temporary space on campus for Middle Eastern and Moslem students until their existing house finishes renovation.

Jewish and pro-Israel groups slammed the agreement.

"Today, Northwestern University declared itself a safe space for antisemitism," the Israeli Consulate in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
 tweets. "We are appalled by Northwestern’s decision to turn its back on Jewish and Israeli students who have been targets of hateful harassment and intimidation. This decision rewards the pro-terror, anti-Israel, and anti-America aggressors on campus."

Brown University in Rhode Island also reached a deal, with students removing their encampment from school grounds in exchange for the institution listening to their arguments for divesting from Israel. The move represented a first major concession from an elite American university.

In a statement, Brown President Christina Paxson said students had agreed to end their protests and clear their camp by 5 p.m. local time Tuesday and "refrain from further actions that would violate Brown’s conduct code through the end of the academic year."

In turn, "five students will be invited to meet with five members of the Corporation of Brown University in May to present their arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from ’companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza.'"

Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his other leg......
 The Washington Post reported that a Jewish student is suing Columbia University for failing to provide adequate protection for Jewish students. According to the report, the lawsuit claims Columbia allowed the protests to drive Jewish students off campus rather than take steps to ensure their safety. The decision by the faculty to offer remote learning for students who felt unsafe as a result of the protests created "two very different educational experiences for Jewish and non-Jewish students," the report cited the lawsuit as stating.
Separate but unequal. Eventually one university will proudly declare that its quota for Jews is 50% — like that one fabled university in imperial Russia, each Jewish student will have to bring his own non-Jew, and ensure that he manages to make it all the way to graduation.
Related:
University of Florida: 2024-04-03 Texas university clears DEI offices, fires employees in light of new state law: report
University of Florida: 2024-03-21 Arizona State University professor sues school over DEI training: 'simply racism'
University of Florida: 2024-03-02 University of Florida eliminates DEI office, will put its $5M toward recruiting faculty
Related:
College Democrats of America: 2015-07-27 DNC speaks to empty College Democrat event
College Democrats of America: 2011-02-08 The end of the Blue Dogs?
College Democrats of America: 2007-07-29 Clinton: Create public service academy
Related:
Chapel Hill: 2023-12-12 Here's how we know COVID-19 crimes have been decades in the making
Chapel Hill: 2023-11-13 Dark money pass-though Arabella Advisors tied to group organizing anti-Israel protests
Chapel Hill: 2023-08-09 UNC admissions will bar consideration of race, including in essays, after Supreme Court ruling struck down school's affirmative action policy
Related:
Northwestern University: 2024-04-27 Gaza ‘solidarity encampment' shakes up Northwestern campus but leaves no clear winners
Northwestern University: 2024-02-11 US seeking answers after Chicago brothers, Louisiana mom detained in Gaza, West Bank
Northwestern University: 2024-01-27 Trump Vows Appeal Of $88.3m Carroll 'witch Hunt' Verdict
Related:
Brown University: 2024-04-27 Columbia drops midnight deadline for razing anti-Israel camp as 550 arrested across US
Brown University: 2024-03-06 I wash my hands. Why Victoria Nuland decided to resign
Brown University: 2023-12-14 Brown protesters arrested, Haverford students end sit-in as war tensions roil campuses
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