A Lufthansa employee was caught on camera stating "it was the Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems” attempting to justify the removal of all the Jewish passengers.
Man Charged in Portland, OR Synagogue and Mosque Vandalism Spree
A man who once reported about political extremism in Portland, Oregon, was arrested this week in connection with a string of vandalism incidents at synagogues and a mosque there.
Michael Bivins was charged with one count of arson and three counts of criminal mischief, according to Willamette Week, the weekly independent newspaper where many of his articles appeared.
The charges stemmed from three incidents at local houses of worship: a rock thrown through a window at Congregation Shir Tikvah April 30; a fire and graffiti at Congregation Beth Israel on May 2 and 4; and a fire at the Muslim Community Center of Portland May 3.
Bivins had taken photos and video at clashes between police and protesters in Portland, where the Trump administration cracked down on protesters in 2020, according to local media. (The Oregon attorney general who battled Trump is a Beth Israel congregant.) His Twitter account shows that he more recently had begun posting anti-mask content and conspiracy theories about the Biden administration and had also experienced housing instability in the last year.
Police and local Jewish leaders initially said they did not believe the incidents were connected.
“The message I’m giving to my community is that I don’t want anyone sitting in fear,” Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Michael Cahana told Oregon Public Broadcasting after the first incident there. “We don’t believe that this is part of a larger threat. There haven’t been other antisemitic incidents reported around town.”
But as the string continued and the vandal was caught on video, police made the connection. Jewish advocacy groups such as StandWithUs and StopAntisemitism publicized the incidents, connecting them to a broader spike in reported incidents of antisemitism.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who is Jewish and also a Beth Israel member, denounced the vandalism there, which included the words “Die Juden” spray-painted on an outside wall.
“Hate speech and vandalism must never be allowed to terrorize Portland or any community,” Wyden tweeted. “I stand with Rabbi Cahana and our entire synagogue by adding my voice to his when he says we all must be vigilant against these attacks.”
After Bivins’ arrest, which came after he entered a local TV station and asked to speak with a reporter there, Cahana said the episode underscore the importance of reporting even seemingly minor incidents.
“This series of events, which has shaken our community, is an important reminder that even incidents which seem random and unrelated or too minor to bother with, should be properly reported,” he wrote in a letter to congregants. “We are all responsible for one another.”
The incidents at the synagogues came just after Yom Hashoah, the Jewish Holocaust memorial day, while the mosque fire came just after Eid, the festival to mark the end of Ramadan.
The incidents are not the first at Portland-area synagogues in recent years. Beth Israel was the site of a fire in late 2020; that year, Chabad Jewish centers in the city experienced two fires.
Pro-Palestinian Speaker at UC San Diego Sparks Outrage Among Campus Jewish Community
Anti-Israel Protester Assaults New York Man at Palestinian ‘Resistance’ Rally
Actor Mark Ruffalo Quotes Notorious Anti-Israel Activist, Blames Israeli ‘Occupation’ for Temple Mount Violence
Antisemitic Flyers Found in LA During Passover
A spate of antisemitic flyers were found scattered around Beverly Hills and Los Angeles on the morning of April 16th.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the flyers were found “in a neighborhood on the northern end of Beverly Hills” as well as in West Los Angeles and Hollywood, per KTLA. The flyers stated “Every Single Aspect of the Media is Jewish” and “Every Single Aspect of the Ukraine-Russia War Is Jewish.”
On the first day of Passover, the white supremacist group ‘Goyim Defense League’ dropped antisemitic fliers in several Westside neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 17, 2022
Footage of the vehicle in thread. pic.twitter.com/gWjq2kwYeN
Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Ryan Dolan told the Times: “We’re still figuring out where they all are. There is no credible threat to people right now.”
Beverly Hills Mayor Lilli Bosse condemned the flyers in a tweet, stating: “Hate will NEVER Win. We are only stronger.”
Los Angeles City Council candidate Sam Yebri said in a statement that “the timing of this act was clearly intentional,” as they came about during the beginning of Passover, when “Jews around the world sit down to remember the enslavement of generations of Jewish people in Egypt and to celebrate our liberation.” “In that vein, we must remember that only sunlight can drive out darkness,” he added. “We must stand together across our diverse communities and link arms to continue in the fight for equality and tolerance for all, especially on the eve of the Passover and Easter holidays.”
Jewish groups also condemned the flyers.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also said in a statement to the Journal: “These are vile anti-Semitic messages sometimes changed to reflect local prominent Jews. This group has found [a] way to gain notoriety by their cowardly anti-Jewish screeds thrown in Jewish neighborhoods. Fueled by local notoriety and social media platforming. Disgusting and outrageous.” He added that the “expanding expressions of Jew-hatred in society contributes to the normalcy of anti-Jewish hate.”
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez said in a statement to the Journal that they are “disgusted” that the group behind the flyers “continues on their hateful harassment campaign against Jewish Americans, specifically during the Passover holiday. We’re asking local prosecutors and police to carefully examine each individual incident in order to properly identify how to stop this insanity. Enough is enough!”
Funding for ‘Blatantly Antisemitic’ Speaker Draws Concern From Jewish Students at ASU, Duke
High-dollar honorariums that several university student governments paid to bring a controversial Palestinian activist to campus are being denounced by Jewish student groups, pointing to his record of unrepentant antisemitism.
An American college campus tour by 23-year-old Mohammed El-Kurd, in support of his new book, “Rifqa,” has included stops at Arizona State University (ASU), Duke University and American University. Currently a columnist for the left-wing magazine The Nation, El-Kurd has trafficked in antisemitic tropes, demonized Zionism, and falsely accused Israelis of eating the organs of Palestinians.
Ahead of El-Kurd’s recent appearance at ASU, at the invitation of the ASU Palestine Cultural Club (PCC), a coalition of Jewish groups condemned the use of some $9,955 in student government funding for the event — describing his views as diametric to the university’s values of inclusivity and peaceful dialogue.
“We strongly condemn the use of undergraduate student government funding to host a blatantly antisemitic speaker,” ASU Hillel and other groups posted on March 30.
“While we understand the laws of free speech protect even the most horrific hate speech, we are disappointed that funding from [Undergraduate Student Government-Tempe] will be supporting the visit of El-Kurd, and we are further frustrated that other student clubs would deem him an appropriate speaker for our campus community,” the groups said, calling on Jewish students to write to ASU officials to “express their concerns.”
On Tuesday, an Arizona State University spokesperson told The Algemeiner that it was committed to a “safe environment where the free exchange of ideas can take place.”
“As a public university, ASU adheres to the First Amendment and strives to ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression,” he said. “All individuals and groups on campus have the right to express their opinions, whatever those opinions may be, as long as they do not violate the student code of conduct, student organization policies, and do not infringe on another student’s individual rights.”
The PCC did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.
In an apparent audio clip of Sunday’s talk, published Wednesday on Instagram by the StopAntisemitism group, El-Kurd is heard quipping, “I suspect some apartheid lovers are here too,” drawing snickers from the crowd. “I was going to read a couple of poems. If you heckle me, you will get shot.”
The event followed another controversial appearance at Duke on March 31 — organized by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter to coincide with “Israeli Apartheid Week” — for which El-Kurd received $5,000.
The planned speech rekindled a dialogue about the Duke Student Government’s refusal last year to recognize a new Students Supporting Israel chapter, and came weeks after the student body adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism, according to the Duke Chronicle.
On Friday, Duke SSI President Alexandra Ahdoot said that DSG’s handling of the El-Kurd invitation, and its approval of $16,000 in total funding for “Israeli Apartheid Week” programming, is troubling.
“It was extremely frightening, especially given that our student government had recently passed the IHRA definition and had also done an antisemitism training for their senators,” Ahdoot told The Algemeiner. “It just seemed that their purported values were highly inconsistent.”
Ahdoot herself attended El-Kurd’s speech, during which, she said, “he actually had the audacity to call me out personally.”
“Not by name,” she continued, “but he did try to ridicule me in front of the entire audience, saying that this was the most backlash he had ever received for an entire event, and then he said he didn’t care. But what got really under his skin the most was a student who published an op-ed saying that she felt endangered by his presence, and that student was me.”
“There was something interesting I noticed: he used the terms Jews, Israelis, and Zionists interchangeably, which many antisemites do, but I honestly thought he was going to be more careful coming here so that we wouldn’t have anything to use against him; but he was clearly calling out the Jewish people as a religious group.”
During El-Kurd’s remarks, audience members hooted when he mentioned Zionist students and advocates, Ahdoot recounted. Later, a response he gave during the event’s Q&A portion triggered uproarious applause.
“At one point, someone asked, ‘Mr. El-Kurd, we know you say ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ but what about Israelis living in the area?'” Ahdoot recalled. “And, [El-Kurd] says, I quote, ‘I don’t care, I truly sincerely don’t give a f***.’ The audience gave him a standing ovation, it was really deafening. And in that moment I wondered, ‘What has the world come to?'”
Neither a Duke University spokesperson nor the Duke Students for Justice in Palestine chapter responded to Algemeiner requests for comment in time for publication.
On Monday, the Duke Chronicle’s Community Editorial Board wrote an op-ed questioning DSG’s approval of funds for El-Kurd’s speech — as well as that of activist Dana AlHasan, noting she has supported the cause of a man convicted of directing terror attacks. The board asked whether “new standards” for funding of controversial speakers should be adopted, and suggested that financing not be provided to those whose conduct “is clearly objectionable, such as those who promote hate speech.”
“Honorariums are payments of goodwill that reflect the perceived worth of the speaker based on projected student attendance,” the Community Editorial Board wrote. “The honorariums — totaling $5,000 for each of the speakers in this case — are frankly not reflective of the value El-Kurd and AlHasan bring to campus, as their hateful speech marginalizes the Jewish population.”
For ASU's Jewish Community, 'Blatantly Anti-Semitic Speaker' Marks a Broken Promise
In November, somebody plastered flyers all over Arizona State University’s campus in Tempe spouting, "Who controls the world? Jews do.”
But this week, Jewish students at ASU feel out of control and powerless as the campus prepares to host a public speaker who calls Jewish people “neo-Nazis.” Student fees are paying for the event, which will put nearly 10 grand into the speaker's pocket.
Controversy over the symposium has erupted, with Jewish and Muslim students debating where to draw the line between free speech and hate speech. The event lands ASU in the middle, as it strives to promote robust debate but faces allegations of hypocrisy.
Antisemitic propaganda is nothing new to ASU. Similar campaigns ran twice in 2020, with posters reading "Hitler was right," "unity of our blood," and other antiSemitic slogans posted all over campus by the Goyim Defense League, a network of internet troll and conspiracy theorists.
At the time, ASU President Michael Crow said in an official statement, " Arizona State University has a long history of opposing anti-Semitic rhetoric and acts of intimidation whether they occur on our campuses or in the community. We reject and will not accept anti-Semitism or hateful rhetoric of any kind.”
This week, Jewish groups both on and off campus are asking ASU not to break that promise as the university prepares to host a speaker who makes Jewish students and faculty members say they're scared.
Two Palestinian culture clubs at the university jointly invited Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian activist and poet who's described by Jews and gentiles alike as a “known antisemite,” to speak to students this Sunday. ASU’s Undergraduate Student Government approved nearly $10,000 last week to pay El-Kurd’s speaker fee. The sum comes from a programming fee of $25 per semester paid by all students.
“Student fees should never be used to fund hate speech,” said Liora Rez, founder of New York City-based watchdog group StopAntisemitism.
Jewish students like Elizabeth Gofman, a third-year dietetics major and ASU’s Israel on Campus Coalition fellow, are helping to pay El-Kurd without any say in the matter.
“Knowing that my dollars are funding somebody coming to tell my people why we shouldn't exist, it’s heartbreaking,” Gofman said.
El-Kurd’s activism has long been colored by antisemitism, racism, homophobia, and profanity.
Last May, he responded to a tweet about Holocaust education from Jewish author Ben Freeman, who is also gay, saying, “SHUT THE FUCK UP MY GOD YOU ARE SO DELUDED.”
El-Kurd also tweeted in June that Jewish Israelites are “terrorists” and “genocidal.”
He even likened Israeli Jews to Nazis, a harmful analogy that devalues the lives of the 6 million Jewish people who were exterminated in the Holocaust.
During Israel’s 11-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in May, El-Kurd asserted that Zionists have an “unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood.”
To add a splash of racism to the antisemitism, in March he tweeted, “‘Ancestral homeland?’ Then explain why y’all can’t walk around Jerusalem without getting sunburnt?”
When King David conquered Jerusalem in 1000 B.C., he established it as the capital of the Jewish kingdom.
“I’m disappointed in the university as a Jewish student,” Gofman said. “It’s hard knowing somebody is coming to my campus, my home away from home, telling me I deserve to die because of where my ancestors are from. It's very, very scary.”
In his debut poetry collection Rifqa, El-Kurd peddled the dangerous, totally fabricated trope that Israeli soldiers “harvest organs of the martyred [Palestinians to] feed their warriors our own.”
Rez’s group, StopAntisemitism, sent a letter to Crow on Wednesday demanding the university intervene. In the letter, she expressed concern that El-Kurd is “monetarily incentivized to speak at college campuses nationwide while spewing his anti-Jewish hatred.”
ASU took no action.
GEICO Cancels Linda Sarsour’s Speaking Arrangement
US-based insurance company GEICO canceled a scheduled speech by BDS activist Linda Sarsour at their offices on Thursday, the company declared in a tweet.
“We apologize to our employees, customers, and others for our initial plan to invite Linda Sarsour to speak at our internal event celebrating Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Heritage Month. On Tuesday, we quickly canceled the event,” GEICO tweeted in a statement on Thursday.
“GEICO does not condone hatred of any kind, and we do not stand with anyone who does. We are not aligned with any form of exclusion,” the statement continued.
Sarsour’s speech was originally scheduled on April 5th in a company-wide email that was met with public ire, as Sarsour has a history of antisemitic rhetoric and behavior.
"We are horrified a respectable company like @GEICO would choose to feature antisemitic bigot @lsarsour to represent the MENA region,” tweeted Jewish advocacy group Stopantisemitism.org. “Sarsour had to step down from the Women's March due to her open Jew-hatred!"
The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) joined the condemnation of the event, with CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, tweeting that he was “Shocked a company like @GEICO is reportedly partnering with Linda Sarsour, a person who peddles in antisemitic tropes while slandering and delegitimizing Israel.”
Sarsour, a popular human rights activist known for being an organizer of the 2016 “Women’s March” and BDS movement (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) advocate, has previously made inflammatory antisemitic statements, such as when she participated in a rally in support of terrorist Muhammad Alan – an Islamic Jihad activist who served three years in an Israeli prison for his involvement in a suicide bombing – or when she claimed that “Israel that is based on supremacy… on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else," in 2019.
Sarsour most recently made the news in mid-2021 with her comments on the Surfside building collapse in Miami, in which she approvingly replied to a tweet that read “I really don’t understand the IDF’s involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami. Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.”
Shira Silkoff contributed to this report.
Geico Cancels Event with Linda Sarsour after Backlash from Jewish Groups
Geico said it has uninvited Linda Sarsour, an accused antisemite, from speaking at an internal event about diversity after facing scrutiny for the choice.
The insurance giant announced on Thursday that it had canceled the event after Jewish groups denounced the decision to include Sarsour, a former co-chairwoman of the Women’s March who stepped down for her past remarks and relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. She had previously been slated to speak at a Geico event celebrating Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month.
We apologize to our employees, customers, and others for our initial plan to invite Linda Sarsour to speak at our internal event. … On Tuesday, we quickly canceled the event,” the company said in a statement. “Geico does not condone hatred of any kind, and we do not stand for or with anyone who does. We are not aligned with any form of exclusion.”
The controversy was sparked by an email sent out earlier this week sourced from Geico’s “Diversity and Inclusion Planning Center.” The insurance company experienced backlash for the announcement soon after.
The American Jewish Committee, one of the most prominent Jewish organizations in the United States, said that Sarsour’s “extensive record of trafficking in incendiary, antisemitic comments about the Jewish people and Israel makes her utterly unfit” to be part of the diversity and inclusion initiative.
The organization later thanked Geico for canceling Sarsour’s appearance.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, also blasted Geico for the move. He said Sarsour is “a person who peddles in antisemitic tropes while slandering and delegitimizing Israel.”
Another group, StopAntisemitism.org, said it was “horrified” that Geico would pick an “antisemitic bigot” like Sarsour to represent the Middle East and North Africa. Even after Geico canceled the event, the group was looking for answers as to why she was ever involved in the first place.
“Who vetted the initial partnership with Linda Sarsour? Does this mean you have fully cut ties with her?” the group tweeted, among other questions it asked about the decision.
1. Who vetted the initial partnership with Linda Sarsour?
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) April 7, 2022
2. Does this mean you have fully cut ties with her?
3. After looking at your ERG's why isn't there anything for your Jewish employees?
4. Is Geico willing to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism? https://t.co/3IzFuBid8C
Sarsour has faced intense scrutiny for her past remarks and associations. In 2019, she told an American Muslims for Palestine conference that Israel is built upon Jewish supremacy.
“How can you be against white supremacy in America and the idea of being in a state based on race and class, but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else?” she told students at the event to ask liberal Zionists.
Sarsour has also attended events with Farrakhan, who is a virulent antisemite. In 2018, Teresa Shook, a co-founder of the Women’s March, accused Sarsour and other march officials of steering the Women’s March “away from its true course.”
“In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,” Shook said.
The Washington Examiner asked Geico for comment.
Is Social Media Enabling Antisemitism?
On March 6, US social media influencer and content creator, Melissa Chapman, who frequently posted updates about the news in Israel, wrote a comment factually disputing Gigi Hadid’s Instagram post comparing the “human injustice” and “suffering” of Ukrainians to Palestinians. She also posted that comment under Vogue Magazine’s post applauding Hadid.
Five days later, six of Chapman’s Instagram posts that illustrated what happened to Eli Kay, a 26-year-old IDF soldier who was murdered by a Hamas terrorist, were suddenly removed. Instagram determined that her content was violent or dangerous, and warned that she could lose access to her account. A photo of Jews praying with siddurs, mourning for Eli Kay in the Old City where he was killed, was singled out as the reason why Chapman could no longer access branded content tools that allow her to monetize her account until June 10. Her account - @melissaSchapman -was also shadow banned, making it virtually impossible for other users to find her on the site.
Other deleted posts included a tribute to Eli Kay, security guards entering the gates of Jerusalem after he was killed, young men standing by the Israeli flag and people gathering at the Western Wall where Eli Kay worked as a guide. A picture of the murderer, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, with his son, who praised him for being a martyr, was also taken down.
Out of fear of losing her business, Chapman has removed most of her Israel content.
Chapman is not alone. The Consulate General of Israel in New York's media department has been receiving several reports of antisemitic comments on social media, as well as accounts being reported for posting pro-Israel messages.
The consulate said that it is working to find out who is behind these attacks on Jewish influencers, which it is labeling as "cyberbullying."
"It is our duty to fight antisemitism on all fronts, and social media cannot be excused from the conversation,” Asaf Zamir, the Consul General of Israel in New York, declared in a statement. “Jewish influencers should not get banned from a platform for simply posting about their religious heritage and nationality."
Emily Schrader, CEO and co-founder of the digital marketing firm, Social Lite Creative, has also had content removed from Instagram. She posted a video of terrorist Ahlam Tamimi smiling joyfully when she found out she killed eight children in the 2001 Sbarro terror attack and captioned it, “This is what evil looks like.” It was removed 12 hours later.
Michael Dickson, executive director of StandWithUs, an education organization that combats antisemitism and supports Israel, explains that it’s crucial social media platforms "ensure that their algorithms, as well as human oversight, do not confuse the posts that are meant to expose violent content with the posts that are meant to inspire hate and violence.”
In terms of content restrictions, Schrader states, “TikTok has also censored and removed my content countless times about pro-Israel issues. In some cases, the same content has been reposted by other supporters of my work and theirs won't be censored, but mine is! The people reposting have smaller followings than me. I think they are able to post because people mass report mine.” Schrader also notices an extremely disproportionate number of likes and comments compared to the view count.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, explains, “We are often the target of mass reporting campaigns that sometimes results in the ‘downranking’ of our page. We’re thankful for the relationship we have with META so incidents like this are often remedied quickly. However, the majority of Israeli and Jewish influencers and allies do not, unfortunately resulting in their voice and content suppression…It’s essentially a form of censorship.”
The Jerusalem Post reached out to Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. A Meta spokesperson from Instagram replied, “Our policies are designed to let our community share what matters to them while keeping them safe, and we always work to apply these policies as accurately and consistently as possible. Our teams are looking into the accounts flagged by the Jerusalem Post, to make sure we haven’t made mistakes in enforcing our policies."
Melissa Chapman reported to The Jerusalem Post that, earlier today, Instagram gave her back her branded content tools.
Lipstadt Nomination Moves to Full Vote in Senate
Instagram Reverses Ban on Antisemitic Group Without Explanation
“We’re back:” After a four-day ban from the social media platform, those words overlaid a picture of Within Our Lifetime (WOL) leader Nerdeen Kiswani in a March 13th Instagram post.
WOL’s detractors, who applauded Instagram’s decision to ban what they said is not only an anti-Zionist group but “an extremely antisemitic” one, said they were dismayed by what amounted to a wrist slap for WOL. Its account had been taken down after it posted a collage of terrorist women on March 8th in celebration of International Women’s Day.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, told JNS, “I’m extremely disappointed. We have reached out to our contacts [at Instagram], and we have not yet received a reply as to why they were reinstated.” Rez’s group had been one of those petitioning to have WOL’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts taken down.
She said “we think behind the scenes, either CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations[ and possibly Palestine Legal, which works hand-in-hand with them, might have stepped in to get their accounts reinstated, perhaps under the guise of free speech. We do know for a fact that Nerdeen Kiswani is represented by Palestine Legal. So we think that’s what happened.”
Rez said that Instagram’s failure to respond to their requests for an explanation is “sadly, pretty standard. Social media companies are notoriously known for not being transparent. Whether it’s watchdog groups like us, congressional members, law enforcement—it’s an ongoing battle with them. So we’re not surprised that this is happening, unfortunately.”
She said that although social media companies have policy guidelines in place against promoting terrorism on their platforms, they ignore those guidelines or apply them sparingly. “This is a clear-cut example of their own internal failure of enforcing their own set policy,” she said. “It’s been a constant struggle getting them to enforce them.”
Douglas Sandoval, a campus advisor at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), agreed, telling JNS: “We’ve seen time and again where these social media companies don’t take a strong enough stance and lift the restrictions. I don’t think they care enough to understand what the issue really is. At the end of the day, they’re only doing what they feel is necessary to protect themselves. It’s self-preservation, essentially.”
Sandoval considers WOL particularly pernicious because it has found a way to influence campus groups from off-campus, acting as a kind of anti-Zionist think-tank, mentoring leaders of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and imbuing them with still more radical, anti-Zionist ideas.
“They’re able to launch campaigns in the community and invite the campus organizations to take part,” he said. “They realized, ‘Why do we have to work under the auspices of a student government or an administration? Let’s not be accountable to anyone.’ That’s one way they get away with a lot more. If they were an SJP chapter, they would be kicked off campus.”
SJP, despite supporting BDS and being a controversial group itself, rejected Kiswani in 2015 as too radical. Sandoval said Kiswani has now become a popular guest speaker at SJP events.
Kiswani’s efforts are for the time being largely confined to New York, but she is a “rising star,” said Sandoval. A law student at City University of New York School of Law (CUNY Law), Kiswani led a successful effort in December 2021 to push a BDS resolution through the CUNY Law Student Government. The resolution accused Jewish campus groups, like Hillel, CAMERA and StandWithUs, of “surveillance, intimidation, harassment of Palestine solidarity activists on campuses.”
“Their demands call for the elimination of Israel and also for the ostracization of Jews on campus. In their BDS resolution, they called out every organization on campus that had anything to do with Jews, anything to do with Israel and condemned them,” said Sandoval.
Rez said Kiswani harassed a Jewish student at the law school to the point where the victim left. (CUNY’s failure to adequately address the issue led the Zionist Organization of America to file a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against the school.)
“This isn’t a woman who just stays online spewing her hate. Her hate transcends into the physical, everyday world. So we view her as a dangerous individual, a very questionable individual with questionable ties,” she said, noting that Kiswani has been photographed with terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted in two terrorist bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, one of which killed two Israeli students.
An online poll by StopAntisemitism.org in 2020 named Kiswani “Antisemite of the Year.”
Jewish Groups Express Concern Over Upcoming VA Tech Speaker’s “Long History of Targeting the Jewish Community”
Various Jewish groups have called for Virginia Tech to take action over an upcoming speaker’s “long history of targeting the Jewish community,” The Algemeiner and Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported.
The speaker, author Steven Salaita, is slated to be the keynote speaker for the Virginia Tech’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Research Symposium and Exposition on March 23. In a petition, Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emeritus and GPSS Senator Briana Schwam, Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emma Josi, GPSS Senator Amir Gazar, and Friends of Israel at Virginia Tech President Eitan Meyers argued that Salaita “has a track record of making harmful, dangerous, and antisemitic statements, ranging from antisemitic blood libels to defending Hamas’s actions of targeting civilians. He is an avid supporter of a convicted terrorist, Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted in 1970 for bombing a grocery store in Jerusalem, killing two college students, and was arrested in another attempted bombing of the British Consulate.”
They also mentioned that the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC) denied tenure to Salaita in 2014 “because of the antisemitic posts and comments and [he] had to change careers because no university would hire him.” At the time, Salaita had left Virginia Tech for UIUC’s American Indian Studies Department––where he was going to get tenure––but UIUC rescinded their offer over Salaita’s tweets regarding the 2014 Gaza War. Among the tweets in question were those accusing Israel of “rounding up people and murdering them at point-blank range” and claiming that “Israel gets billions in aid, arms, and financial subsidies from the US, yet most Americans condemn imaginary Black women for welfare,” The Collegiate Times reported. Salaita said at a press conference at the time that the university’s actions put “any faculty member at risk of termination if university administrators deem the tone or content of his or her speech ‘uncivil’ without regard to the forum or medium in which the speech is made.” “The ability of wealthy donors and the politically powerful to create exceptions to bedrock principles should be worrying to all scholars and teachers,” he added. Salaita later sued the university, claiming that his comments were protected under the First Amendment; the lawsuit was settled for $600,000.
“Virginia Tech must take action to protect Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus that feel threatened by Salaita’s antisemitic actions,” Schwam, Josi, Gazar and Meyers wrote. “We ask that Virginia Tech leaders uphold the university’s motto of ‘Ut Prosim: That I May Serve’, reaffirm their opposition to giving known antisemites a platform, and condemn the GPSS Research Symposium and Exposition coordinator’s decision to bring Salaita as a keynote speaker due to his antisemitic statements.”
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez sent an email to Virginia Tech’s leadership on March 20 that reiterated the same concerns mentioned in the petition. The email, which was obtained by the Journal, stated in part: “Dozens of students of yours have been contacting our organization pleading for help to keep this rabid bigot off their campus; a petition has been started as well. Jewish students are expressing their safety is at risk when Jew haters like Steven Salaita are allowed to spread their venomous hatred on campus. I and my organization implore you to please make Steven Salaita persona non grata at Virginia Tech.”
Stop Antisemitism also tweeted out a screenshot of some of Salaita’s past tweets; one such tweet was Salaita wishing “all the f—ing West Bank settlers would go missing” after three Israeli teens in the West Banks were kidnapped and killed by Hamas in 2014, the beginning of the 2014 Gaza War. Salaita also tweeted: “F— Israel. F— Israel’s US sponsor. F— every media luminary who whitewashes Palestine. F— every politician who ever voted to fund the Zionist entity. And f— every leftist who ever insisted we had to vote for a Zionist” during the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict. He also tweeted in May 2018 that “Israel was murdering civilians, stealing land, displacing natives, destroying homes, imprisoning children, and implementing apartheid before ‘Hamas’ was even an idea.”
🚨- Steven Salaita was fired from the U. Of Illinois over of his vile antisemitism.
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) March 18, 2022
Why is Virginia Tech Graduate and Professional Student Senate (@VTGPSS) hosting this bigot at their research symposium on March 23rd? pic.twitter.com/gDEhKsECvP
Supermodel Gigi Hadid Pledges Aid to 'Ukrainians and Palestinians'
Jewish Girl's Family Saved During WW2 in Ukraine Repays Favor
Vogue Magazine Condemned for Gigi Hadid's Instagram Post
CNN Opinion: The Disaster We Should Have Seen Coming
As a commander of US Army troops that defeated the Nazi regime in Germany 77 years ago, Gen. Omar Bradley knew a lot about war. Three years after the Second World War ended, he warned, "The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."
In the 10 days since Russia unleashed a massive attack on Ukraine, the effects of "power without conscience" have been on full display -- the civilian casualties, the destroyed homes and offices, the hospitals moving underground, the masses of people fleeing for the safety of neighboring countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion shocked the world. But it was not a surprise. For months, the US government publicly shared intelligence that it was in the works. And for those who had followed the recent history of Putin's actions, the writing was on the wall for years.
When Olesya Khromeychuk's elder brother, Volodymyr, enlisted in the Ukrainian military and fought against the pro-Russian separatists after war broke out in the Donbas region in 2014, he told her, "Little one, don't you realize this is a European war. It just happened to start in eastern Ukraine."
As she wrote for CNN Opinion, Khromeychuk's brother "was killed by shrapnel in 2017 in the Luhansk region on the front. He was fighting against Russian troops that were pretending not to be there. They no longer need to pretend. The Russian president ordered their assault on the whole of Ukraine, targeting the military as well as civilians, including hospitals and ambulances."
Khromeychuk, the director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, added, "I am a historian. I realize that we are living through a moment that will be on every syllabus of European history. Now is the time to decide what place each one of us wants to have in that history. Stand With Ukraine."
There were plenty of warnings. "This terrifying, world-changing conflict in Ukraine did not start in 2022," wrote Natalia Antelava. "Nor did it start in 2014. It began a decade and a half ago when Russia invaded Georgia and got away with it." She recalled interviewing a Ukrainian soldier named Dima in 2015.
Dima was "stoic, determined, calm. He was 23, a software engineer from Kyiv who had only recently decided to leave his job and join the fight. His girlfriend was furious with him, he told me, but fighting was not optional. 'They think we are fighting to join NATO. But we are only fighting for our values and they happen to be the same as Europe's values. We are fighting for them too. I wish they realized it,' he said."
"They do now," Antelava observed. "The whole world is suddenly high on moral clarity. For everyone who has lived on the frontlines of Putin's hatred for liberal democracy, this show of Western unity and the resurgence of liberal values comes as an incredible relief. But it won't last unless we also accept that it already comes too late for far too many."
Liora Rez, whose Jewish ancestors fled Kyiv during World War II, noted that "the United Nations estimates that more than 800,000 refugees have already evacuated Ukraine since the outbreak of war. Many of these refugees are women and children torn apart from their husbands, fathers and brothers who remain in Ukraine, banded in their determination to protect their land and defend their democratic values."
In 1941, more than 33,000 Jews were shot to death by the invading forces of Nazi Germany at a ravine called Babyn Yar, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Last week, Russian troops attacked a TV transmission tower, striking the area of the Babyn Yar memorial site.
"It seems history is repeating itself less than one century later, and the heartbreak I feel stems from the understanding that this unprovoked conflict, started by yet another dangerous man, will lead to so much unnecessary suffering. To remain indifferent is not an option. We all have a moral obligation to halt this tragic suffering through an outpouring of humanitarian aid to the innocent refugees and victims."
In Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Joe Biden fiercely condemned the invasion of Ukraine. Putin "thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined," Biden said. "He met the Ukrainian people."
"Throughout our history we've learned this lesson when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And the costs and the threats to America and the world keep rising." Yet Biden made clear that NATO countries have no intention of directly intervening in the war to counter the Russians, limiting their response to arming the Ukrainians and imposing heavy sanctions.
"Millions around the world watch, outraged, and ask, 'Are we just going to let this happen? Is the world allowing a large, powerful country to swallow up a smaller, weaker one?' And so many people can't believe the world is allowing it to happen," wrote CNN's Marcus Mabry.
During the Cold War, "despite a 'twilight struggle' between the superpowers and their many proxy conflicts and close calls, like the Cuban missile crisis, they never allowed confrontation to escalate to a direct conflict, or worse... There was no nuclear war. No WW III. No annihilation of humanity. Yes, millions were oppressed by Soviet communism. But realpolitik is not, strictly speaking, concerned with that. It is a world Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden grew up in."
"But we have never had to watch realpolitik unfold in real time on 24/7 social media in a world of ubiquitous camera phones," Mabry observed. "And it complicates matters, especially for world leaders, like Biden and Putin. It makes the cruelty of traditional power politics transparent and ubiquitous."
Americans need to stand united against the Ukraine invasion, even when its economic consequences might further raise prices at the gas pump, wrote Garry Kasparov and Uriel Epshtein. Polls show that more than four out of every five Americans -- Republican and Democrat -- support sanctions against Russia. "Anytime Americans agree on something is notable, but it is particularly remarkable given numerous partisan attempts to have us look away, do less and allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to run roughshod over the Ukrainian people..."
"Americans must maintain this unity, continue our support of the Ukrainian people and recognize the fight for democracy is about much more than one country's ability to determine its own fate. The struggle for democracy is also about the ability to live in a world where disagreements can be solved through diplomacy, where human rights are protected and where peace is the status quo."