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Friday, February 21, 2025

02/21 Links Pt2: Columbia students, stand with humanity and against barbarity; BBC removes Gaza doco following ‘terrorist propaganda’ claims

From Ian:

David Friedman: Columbia students, stand with humanity and against barbarity
To Columbia’s faculty and administrators: Academic freedom is not a shield for moral abdication. If you champion free speech, wield it with integrity to denounce terrorism unequivocally. Silence in the face of terror is not neutrality; it is a dereliction of duty.

To the members of Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voices for Peace (a grotesque misnomer for those who promote violence), Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and others who rally behind Team Mohammed: When you chant “violence is the only path forward," you are glorifying the murder of Sara and Matthew and the kidnapping of Sagui. You are celebrating the kidnapping, torture, and butchering of innocent children, parents, and grandparents. When you shout “Globalize the intifada!” you are endorsing not just past atrocities but future violence against Jews worldwide, including in the United States.

Your allegiance to a cause that sanctifies bloodshed is a stain on your humanity. If you genuinely believe in these causes, reflect deeply on the moral abyss you have embraced. And if your support is merely performative or driven by peer pressure, know that you are pawns in a dangerous ideology that would discard you as readily as it did the lives of innocent mothers, children and elderly, and fellow Columbia students.

To those at Columbia, and on campuses elsewhere, who remain indifferent—who just want to focus on classes, social lives, and future careers: Your desire for normalcy is entirely understandable and while we sympathize with you, we also encourage you to heed the post-World War II words of regret from German pastor and theologian Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist…then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Today’s targets are Jews; tomorrow, it could be you. This is your moment to educate yourself on a critical issue of our time and become engaged.

To all Columbia students, faculty, and administrators: Now is the time to reject the moral rot of excusing barbarism and supporting terrorism. Instead, act to honor the lives of those like Sagui and the legacies of those like Sara and Matthew as well as Ariel, Kfir and Oded. Stand with humanity and on the right side of history. Choose moral clarity over moral equivalence. Choose courage over complacency. History will judge us all—may it judge us favorably.
Gil Troy: Campus intifada shaped a generation of thoughtful, passionate, and proud Jewish students
These violations of academic standards, classroom etiquette, administrative and professorial responsibility, and basic decency constitute mass educational malpractice.

Garbage in, garbage out. Three generations of activist professors, imposing their oppressed-oppressor and settler-colonialist binaries often targeting Israel, have raised students and teachers who parrot these lies. They think teaching involves radicalizing the classroom, even if they harm some students.

Four factors ripped the mask off Canadian niceness. A rapidly growing, rabid, pro-Palestinian movement of Muslims has been raised to despise Jews, not “just” Israelis, and import thuggish mob politics into Western democracies. Second, the campus’s illiberal liberals obsess about Israel.

Convinced that Israel is committing genocide, they decided that, from “woke” kindergarten to “woke” math, all protests are legitimate. Third, the media firestorm delegitimizing Israel’s actions and demonizing Netanyahu’s government, while minimizing Palestinian crimes, makes Israel look hateful.

Finally, Canada’s weakening national identity and many Canadians’ polite passivity tolerates the intolerable, even as their Jewish neighbors suffer.

All, however, is not lost. At the University of Ottawa, when anti-Zionist goons tried banning me from campus, top administrators, including President Jacques Frémont – a human rights expert – appeared, so the masked cowards didn’t.

At McGill last year, an older non-Jewish colleague approached a Jewish colleague whose “Zio-courses” were protested, found four tall, strong professors nearby, and assured their buddy they had his back. I kept meeting non-Jewish students and professors resisting these outrages, while in Ottawa, many non-Jewish religious leaders attended my talk – on the holiest day of the North American year, Super Bowl Sunday, hours before kickoff.

Most importantly, I met wonderful students. They love Israel, Zionism, the Jewish people and Western values. They laugh off many of their fellow students’ excesses. They refuse to be cowed. They reassured me – and us – that they made new friends, discovered community as extended family, and clarified who they are, what’s important to them, and who they want to be.

They are this moment’s pearls – produced by the grit of Jew-hating oysters – reflecting the best of us and our civilization. Their world has been “turned upside down,” as one student told me. But many students landed on the right side of history and are making their stand.
Fetterman: Palestinian support of Hamas comes with ‘accountability’
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) condemned the scenes in Gaza on Thursday, where Hamas paraded the coffins containing what were believed to have been the remains of four Israeli hostages down the streets of Khan Younis to cheers from Palestinian locals. Three of the bodies were identified as Oded Lifshitz, Kfir Bibas and Ariel Bibas.

Speaking to Jewish Insider from the Capitol on Thursday evening, the Pennsylvania senator said Hamas’ hostage transfer ceremony that took place earlier in the day was indicative of the level of support the terror group has among the Palestinian people. Fetterman argued that such support came with “accountability” attached to it.

“I think it just really reflects just how much of a lot of the population in Gaza supports Hamas and the kind of terrible things that they do. Every time they have these releases, they have people cheering it like they’re cheering for the [Pittsburgh] Steelers or something,” Fetterman said.

“It just reinforces that they actually really want that kind of leadership. Maybe there’s some accountability with everything that happened. I mean, you elect terrorists and you cheer them,” Fetterman continued. “It seems it might attach some accountability to a lot of it. If you’re cheering at dead babies and children, I think there’s some accountability in all of it.”

Fetterman also took issue with the prisoner release that Israel had to adhere to in exchange for the remaining hostages, specifically criticizing the release of Mohammed Abu Warda, a former Hamas commander responsible for several suicide bombings that killed a total of 45 Israelis, as part of the deal.

“I read that the IDF identified that that actually wasn’t them,” Fetterman said, referencing that the coffin containing what was believed to be Shiri Bibas’ body instead held the body of an unknown Palestinian. “They had to release a prisoner that was involved in 45 killings. I just look forward to those prisoners, the ones that killed people, I hope Israel follows up and wastes them. You know, they should never forget and forgive. I fully support that.”

“The fact that they kidnapped, tortured and murdered children, I’ll never understand why you still have people in our country to protest and support that kind of absolutely vile, repugnant stuff. It’s almost normalized in the media,” he added.


Rubio calls Trump a ‘peacemaker’ on Iran, pledges to prevent it from getting nuclear weapons
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that President Donald Trump is a “peacemaker” who would “prefer to avoid” taking military action against Iran — while adding that Iran will not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon under the Trump administration.

In an interview with journalist Catherine Herridge on his first 30 days in office, Rubio was asked about Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon and Trump’s directive to attack Iran if it were to assassinate him. “Suffice it to say, if the United States chose to do so, it could bring about the end of the Iranian regime,” he said. “But the president is a peacemaker — he’d prefer to avoid that.”

“How we prevent a nuclear Iran, I’m not going to discuss the options available to us, or anyone else for that matter,” Rubio said. “But I want to be abundantly clear — the Iranian regime can never be … allowed to possess a nuclear weapon where they can hold the world hostage and where they could potentially attack Israel.”

Rubio also added that a beneficial implication of reopening normal diplomatic relations with Russia was to discourage them from allying with Iran. “There are items in the world where we have a common interest. I’m not sure the Russians are fans of the Iranian regime having nuclear weapons, as an example,” Rubio said.

Discussing Hamas’ release of deceased hostages earlier in the day, Rubio said the fact of the Bibas children being kidnapped and their coffins being paraded around Gaza before their release “tells you who we’re dealing with with Hamas. This is not a government, this is not simply an ideological movement, these are evil, terrible people. And the idea that they would ever be allowed to continue to have arms, to be militarized, and to control territory anywhere in the world is unfathomable.”

“Hamas cannot be allowed … to do three things,” he continued. “Terrorize the people of Gaza, attack Israel, and actually be a government or anything like a government.”


What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Why is Israel handing Gaza back to Hamas?
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

Ahead of a fateful day for Israelis in which Hamas, for the first time, will release the bodies of hostages who died on October 7, 2023, or in captivity, including potentially the Bibas family, Rettig Gur discusses how the iconic little red-haired boys have entered all Israelis’ heart to become everyone’s children.

We hear how the series of staged hostage-release ceremonies are a way for the terrorists to mock Israelis and show Gazans who’s in charge. He wonders what could make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue with this farce into a second phase of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

We hear about a recent poll from the Israel Democracy Institute on support for proceeding to the second stage of the ceasefire agreement and learn that an overwhelming majority of Arab respondents — and a large majority of Jewish respondents — support continuing with the second stage if the first stage is completed as agreed.

But for a prime minister who wants to remain in power, is the will of the people enough for him to take a step that is unpopular with his coalition? What could be on the horizon that is a grand enough gesture to secure the next election?





Sa’ar: Trump’s Gaza plan does not replace need to eradicate Hamas
President Donald Trump’s proposal to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza does not replace the need for Israel to meet its war aims of eradicating Hamas and ensuring they can no longer threaten Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization’s mission to Israel during an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Thursday.

“With regards to Trump’s idea, I will put it this way,” Sa’ar began. “If someone wants to emigrate and on the other side you have a country willing to accept [them], that is legitimate and it is moral, as in any other part of the world which is in conflict. I think it’s a new suggestion, a fresh one.”

However, the minister added, “It’s not instead of what we declared as our red lines for the future [of Gaza], because I cannot have a guarantee it will be successful … I want to give it a chance according to the principle I just said, but at the same time … it is clear we need a total demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. This is the most important thing.”

Sa’ar said it was a mistake that Israel did not insist on demilitarization after the past rounds of fighting Hamas in Gaza. At the same time, he said “it’s a huge question” how to enforce it.

Sa’ar said that Hamas was seeking a “Hezbollah model in the Gaza Strip,” which means someone else would nominally govern but Hamas would remain the strongest force. “It’s totally unacceptable,” he said.


Gaza plan requires Hamas removal, no forced relocation, Saudi officials say
The key element of Saudi Arabia’s plan for Gaza is the removal of Hamas from power and its disarmament, without relocating Palestinians to Arab states, a source within the Saudi royal family told KAN News on Thursday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to host a meeting of Arab leaders on Friday to discuss the initiative, which is being positioned as an alternative to the proposal put forward by former US president Donald Trump. The summit will include leaders from Egypt, Jordan, and five Gulf states, KAN reported.

A senior Egyptian official added: “The US administration has conveyed to Arab states that it is open to alternative plans regarding Gaza, beyond Trump’s initiative.”

Donald Trump's controversial vision for Gaza’s future
Earlier this month, Trump outlined a controversial vision for Gaza’s future, which included relocating Palestinian residents.

Speaking to Fox News, he said: “We will build beautiful and safe communities for 1.9 million Gazans. Maybe five communities, maybe six, or perhaps two. But we will create safe communities for them, a bit farther from the dangerous place they are in now. In the meantime, I will own the land. Think of it as real estate development for the future.”

Last week, it was reported that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar were planning a joint summit to discuss Gaza’s future.


Former UN envoy Erdan urges Trump to press Qatar to take Gazans
Gilad Erdan, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, called on U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Qatar to take in all the residents of the Gaza Strip, instead of Jordan and Egypt.

“Qatar is the source of all evil in the Middle East, along with Iran,” he told Israel’s Channel 14 TV network on Monday.

Erdan, now global president of American Friends of Magen David Adom, sent a letter to Trump, pointing out that Qatar is a small and wealthy country with only 300,000 residents, and it “should host not just Hamas leaders but all Hamas supporters. It has plenty of room and a silver sea,” he said.

The Gulf state, he added, “can replace all the Indian workers and other foreign workers who are there” with the Palestinians from Gaza.

Everything should be done to delegitimize Qatar and “expose its true face,” he said, noting that the West’s cooperation with Doha in the past was a mistake.

“Qatar is not only a sponsor of terrorism, it is also funding the boycott and delegitimization of Israel at universities in the U.S. that damages our image,” he said.
UKLFI evidence published by Foreign Affairs Committee
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) made a written submission to the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which has an ongoing inquiry into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UKLFI’s submission has now been published.

UKLFI’s submission points out that allegations against Israel based on incomplete or erroneous information and their consequences – such as arrest warrants, arms bans, boycotts and divestment – undermine Israel’s confidence and trust in the international community and international institutions.

In particular, UKLFI warns that Israel is likely to resist any further territorial concessions if it is not confident that the world will allow it to defend itself against attacks from the territories it leaves.

At the same time, misinformation and vilification of Israel encourage many Palestinians to believe that violence and atrocities are a legitimate and effective way of achieving political gains.

UKLFI’s submission goes on to discuss several areas where inaccurate and partial information relating to Israel has been relied on by international bodies, referring to detailed analyses carried out by UKLFI or UKLFI Charitable Trust:
the Palestinian casualty figures produced by Hamas-run entities,
the reports by the IPC and FEWS NET of famine and starvation in the Gaza Strip,
the grounds given by the ICC Prosecutor for warrants for the arrest of Israeli leaders,
misrepresentations of the ICJ’s provisional measures orders in the case brought by South Africa against Israel alleging genocide,
information relied on in the ICJ’s advisory opinions, and
the whitewashing of UNRWA’s links to Hamas.

The submission concludes that a fair and honest treatment of Israel and its conduct is crucial to ensure that all parties are held accountable for their actions, creating a foundation for mutual understanding, reconciliation and sustainable peace.
Prof Alan Dershowitz discusses Trump's vision for Gaza with Daniel Berke in NJA webinar
In this National Jewish Assembly webinar, Professor Alan Dershowitz discusses the legality of Trump's vision for Gaza, the International Criminal Court, the rights of Israel and Palestinians, and other current issues with Daniel Berke, a Director of UKLFI.




David Collier: How I uncovered the latest BBC scandal but why couldn’t they have done such basic checks?
I didn’t sleep at all on Monday night. I had watched BBC2’s documentary on Gaza and then had begun to look more closely at the children the BBC had placed in front of the camera inside it. One of them in particular had stood out, and the more I scratched away at the identity of the narrator Abdullah, the more astonished I became.

It had started at about 11pm with me being led astray by a mistaken identity. In a news clip about Gaza in November 2023, Channel 4 had also featured Abdullah – but had misnamed him, and even claimed another man (who turned out to be his uncle) was his father.

But by 1am I had his real name. By 3am I had identified his father and realised the Hamas connection. And from there until I published my findings at 7am, I kept going back over every small detail because I simply could not believe the enormity of the error the BBC producers had made.

The BBC had used the son of a Hamas government minister as the narrator for their documentary – and neglected to tell the audience.

As my post about all this went viral on X, and news of the error began to circulate publicly – the BBC quickly scrambled into defensive mode. Initially they said they had ‘full editorial control’ – then they began to backpedal and lay the blame at the door of the independent production company – and eventually they apologised for the oversight (yet still refused to take the programme offline).

But the apology just does not even begin to address the problem. The BBC clarification claimed that they did not know that Abdullah’s father was Ayman Alyazuri – the Deputy Agricultural Minister in Gaza. But how can the BBC possibly spend months following a child around in Gaza and put him on camera – without knowing who the child’s father is? Where is the safeguarding?

It took me just 10 hours to watch the documentary, find major problems, and publish my findings. In addition, everything I found was publicly available. This means that the BBC cannot possibly have undertaken the most basic checks that are demanded in its own editorial guidelines.

Let’s be clear. This is not the first time the BBC has been caught publishing things it should not, nor is it even the first time the BBC has apologised. But it is the size of the error, the number of mistakes, and the fact that this time, there is simply no excuse whatsoever – that makes the episode a landmark one that will long be remembered.
BBC removes Gaza documentary from iPlayer following ‘terrorist propaganda’ claims
The BBC has removed a controversial Gaza documentary from its iPlayer platform following intense public backlash and governmental intervention.

The astonishing move comes after investigator David Collier disclosed that 14-year old Abdullah, one of four children featured in the one hour programme, ‘Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone’, is actually the son of Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri, a senior official in the Hamas government, with family links to one of its founding members.

Whilst the broadcaster apologised for failing to reveal the information, corporation insiders dismissed broadcaster’s response as insufficient and “a slapdash cover-up”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy vowed yesterday to raise concerns about the documentary with corporation executives following its screening by BBC2 on Monday night. The programme has also been heavily promoted on the corporation’s I-Player service.

In a statement seen by Jewish News, the broadcaster says: “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” features important stories we think should be told – those of the experiences of children in Gaza.

“There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company that made the film. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”

In a letter today to the director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, former BBC1 controller Danny Cohen said: “We are glad to hear that this documentary is being removed from iPlayer pending investigation. The numerous editorial failings of the programme are extremely serious. We look forward to receiving full and transparent answers to the 21 questions asked yesterday. We have one further serious question with regards to the editorial standards of this programme:
“By now you’ll have seen this very serious allegations of deception in the editing of a key scene featuring Zakaria at the Al-Aqsa hospital following what the film describes as an Israeli attack on the al-Bureij Camp.

“Can you confirm that all the daytime footage in this hospital sequence (11.07-15.29) was shot on the 245th day of the war as viewers are informed via the full-screen caption at the start of the sequence? If not, can you explain why this sequence is compliant given the BBC’s mandatory editorial guidelines on editing chronology? Is it somehow the BBC’s case that you regard this apparent conflation of sequences shot on multiple days as ‘legitimate media artifice’ rather than ‘unacceptable audience deception’?”
Government wades into Gaza doc row as Nandy vows to raise concerns with BBC chiefs
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has vowed to raise concerns about the BBC’s documentary on Gaza’s children with corporation bosses.

Asked if she was concerned that the corproration might have breached editorial guidelines with the screening of the film Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone, Nandy said:”It’s something that I will be discussing with them, particularly around the way in which they sourced the people who were featured in the programme.”

The Culture Secretary’s comments came after the BBC insisted it “had not been informed” by the producers of the disturbing documentary that the main narrator was the teenage son of a senior Hamas minister.

The film Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone was screened by BBC2 on Monday night, and the programme has also been heavily promoted on the corproration’s I-Player service.

Nandy confirmed she had watched the film herself on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to LBC presenter Nick Ferrari, Nandy said it was not for her to tell the BBC whether or not they should call Hamas terrorists, adding the corporation must be allowed to “act with independence.”


Michael Rapaport Calls for ‘Corroded’ NYT to Be ‘Shut Down’ over Its Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War
Actor Michael Rapaport slammed the New York Times, which he called untrustworthy and “a rotten corroded snot hole” that should be “shut down.”

“The New York Times is just a title. It’s not a fair trustworthy source of news. It’s a rotten corroded snot hole. It should be shut down once & for ever,” Rapaport wrote in a Wednesday X post, sharing an article by the Jerusalem Post featuring a study on the newspaper’s “imbalanced” coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

the Jerusalem Post article shared a study published last month by Yale professor Edieal Pinker, which found that the New York Times‘ coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has created “sympathy for the Palestinian people” while simultaneously “diminishing Hamas’s responsibility for their situation and the continuation of the war.”

“Little mention is made of Israeli casualties post-October 7 or of Palestinian acts of violence post-October 7,” the study noted, adding that “very few articles mention any Israeli suffering that is not directly related to the events of October 7.”

Pinker’s report also found that the word “Israel” was mentioned three times more frequently than “Hamas” in the articles examined.

The study also pushed back against the argument that the reason “Israel” appears more often is because the Jewish State has “more independence than the Palestinians and thus will have more freedom of action.”

If this were true, there would be less of an imbalance in the ratio of mentions of Hezbollah and Iran, but the data suggests the imbalance was the same, Pinker argued.
‘A terrorist financier lives here’: LA Jewish activists protest outside estate of former Qatari PM
Dozens of Jewish-American activists gathered outside the Los Angeles estate of former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani on Sunday in protest against Doha’s support for Hamas.

The demonstration was led by Rabbi Pini Dunner, spiritual leader of the Beverly Hills Synagogue. Protestors—carrying signs reading, “A Terrorist Financier Lives Here” and “HBJ – Go Back to Qatar”—chanted for the return of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.

“Bin Jassim brought Hamas to Doha and funded them with $30 million monthly in Gaza,” Dunner declared during the rally. “He is personally responsible for the Oct. 7th massacre. How is it possible that after all this, he lives in a luxurious mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles?”

“Qatar pretends to be a mediator, the ‘honest broker’ of the Middle East,” the rabbi noted. “But you know what they really are? They are financiers and supporters of terrorism. All they care about is sowing destruction and chaos in the world and then pretending to solve it.”
‘Schumer turned his back on Israel’: Van Orden urges American Jews to reconsider their alliances
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), a retired Navy SEAL, businessman, and actor, was the first US government official not stationed in Israel to come here after the October 7 massacre.

He served in the Navy for 26 years, during which he had five combat deployments, and retired as a senior chief.

Van Orden remains deeply engaged in global security matters.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in Jerusalem on Wednesday, during a 48-hour visit to Israel, he discussed his personal oath to the Jewish people, his meetings with wounded soldiers, Israeli cabinet ministers and security officials, and the broader political implications of US-Israel relations.

Van Orden did not hesitate when he heard about the October 7 massacre.

“When I retired [from the Navy], I made a personal oath between me and God that if something like October 7 happened, I would help the Jewish people,” he said. “Not the country of Israel – the Jewish people.”

Van Orden said that commitment, rooted in his deep Christian faith, led him to board a plane to Israel immediately.


Antisemitic foreign students ‘need to be kicked out’ of US, Bondi says
The nation’s chief law-enforcement officer threatened on Thursday to expel foreign students engaging in antisemitic protests on college campuses.

“All of our students deserve to be safe,” Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb. 20.

“These students, who are here on visas who are threatening our American students, need to be kicked out of this country,” she added.

Many university campuses erupted in protests after Israel defended itself against Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks. Many demonstrators sympathized with Hamas, whose charter calls for genocide against Jews, and attacked Jewish students trying to go to classes.

“These aren’t peaceful protests,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that a new U.S. Justice Department task force will investigate and prosecute federal crimes, terrorist acts and civil rights violations by Hamas supporters, including actions on college campuses.

Bondi was not alone. At her confirmation hearing last week, Linda McMahon, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, said that she would move to revoke student visas from foreign students threatening their Jewish colleagues, which would require them to go back home.
California public school district settles lawsuit, agrees to retool antisemitic ethnic-studies courses
The Santa Ana Unified School District—a more than 135-year-old public school district in southern California—settled a lawsuit on Feb. 20 brought by major Jewish organizations. The district, which operates 50 schools with some 36,000 students, agreed to pause several of its ethnic studies courses and remove antisemitic content from the classes and vowed to teach about Israel and the Palestinians more factually.

Marci Miller, director of legal investigations at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which brought the suit a year ago with the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that the groups filed the motion after discovering that the district’s ethnic studies steering committee was holding meetings in direct violation of the law.

“We support ethnic studies. We believe it should show all perspectives, and it should be taught according to the law and created in a transparent way,” Miller told JNS. “We understand the importance of ethnic studies in California. All perspectives should be taught.”

“We don’t want things done in secrecy any longer,” she added. “The community needs to know what’s happening.”

Per the suit, the district’s ethnic studies curriculum was “developed in secret and infected with antisemitism.” JNS has reported that ethnic studies programs, which California mandates under the law, can feature Jew-hatred. Under the settlement announced on Feb. 20, the California district will disband its ethnic studies steering committee permanently. (JNS sought comment from the Santa Ana Unified School District.)

“The district will stop working with the outside consultant. who expressed antisemitic views,” per the Jewish groups, and the district “will allow for meaningful, substantive input from members of the public before any new courses are presented to the board for approval.”


UCLA Anti-Zionist Groups Rally to Protest Suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine
Anti-Zionist groups at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Tuesday rallied to protest a suspension imposed on Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) earlier this month over its vandalism of a Jewish UC board member’s home, deploying legions of activists to the campus for a demonstration at Dickinson Plaza.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, on Feb. 5 some 50 members of SJP and the allied campus group Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine amassed on the property of Jay Sures — a Jewish member of the Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California (UC) system — and threatened that he must “divest now or pay.” As part of the demonstration, the students imprinted their hands, which had been submerged in red paint to symbolize the spilling of blood, all over Sures’ garage door and cordoned the area with caution tape.

The behavior crossed the line, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in an email sent to the entire student body, and he suspended both groups while commissioning the school’s Office of Student Conduct to complete a thorough investigation into the incident.

“There should never be room for is violence,” Frenk said. “No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work, and live — much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold.”

Following the disciplinary action, rumors circulated that SJP intended to flout its suspension by holding a demonstration to call for a “future free of Zionism.”

“SJP may be suspended, but you can rally in our name,” the group posted on Instagram on Monday.


Guardian weaponises the Holocaust against the Jews
For at least the fourth time since Oct. 7th, 2023, the Guardian has published content weaponising the Holocaust against the Jews.

The latest iteration is in the form of a long cartoon co-created by Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman (“Two artists, one catastrophic war … Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman on Israel-Gaza and the ceasefire – cartoon”, Feb. 14). Sacco is a anti-Israel artist best known for his journalistic graphic narrative called Footnotes in Gaza, while Spiegelman is a Jewish cartoonist who wrote Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, a graphic novel published in 1991 depicting Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

In the novel, Jews are mice, and the Nazis are cats.

Despite growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, Spiegelman shares Sacco’s animosity towards the Jewish state, having once described Israel as a “sad, failed idea“.

Turning now to the Guardian cartoon: the words in bold and red at the top, as you can see below, “Never Again!…And Again…And Again…And, Again”, make it clear that the Holocaust is being evoked. It shows both Sacco and Spiegelman drawn into Gaza, beginning in the first two frames: (Sacco is on the left, while Spiegelman is on the right and, per the character in this graphic novel, appears as a mouse).

We see how Israel’s military response to Hamas’s war of aggression is framed as “revenge”, rather than a rational state actor engaging in self-defense, as any other state would do when faced with an invasion of its territory from a terrorist group. The “eye for an eye“ trope, which is often used by anti-Semites to indict Judaism as an unforgiving religion, is employed, alongside the bloodstained hands of the Israeli prime minister.


Abbas ousts PA minister for criticizing Martyrs’ Fund shakeup
P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas fired Qadura Fares, head of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, for criticizing his apparent decision to cut stipends to terrorists in Israeli jails, Ynet reported on Tuesday.

On Feb. 11, Fares, head of the Ramallah-based committee, along with several other P.A. officials, denounced Abbas’s decree, calling for its immediate withdrawal, AFP reported.

He said it would impact “35,000 to 40,000” families inside and outside Gaza, Judea and Samaria. “I urge you to reconsider this matter and withdraw this decree,” Fares said at a press conference.

Although reports have interpreted a Feb. 10 statement by Abbas as bringing an end to the pay-for-slay program, or “Martyrs’ Fund,” in which terrorists are rewarded financial compensation for attacking Jews, the announcement, published on the P.A.’s English-language WAFA news site, said Ramallah was transferring its payment allocation system from a ministry to an “independent” foundation.


Hamas Official Says At Least 2.3 Million People Alive in Gaza, Undermining Claims of ‘Genocide’
During an interview with anti-Israel social media personality Jackson Hinkle, a Hamas leader claimed that over 2 million people are still alive in the Gaza Strip, undercutting the notion that a so-called “genocide” has taken place in the war-torn enclave.

Citing recent comments made by US President Donald Trump that roughly 1.7 million people remain in Gaza, Hinkle asked interview guest Basem Naim, a Hamas official and former Gaza Minister of Health, whether he believed that far more people had died in the enclave than originally thought. Naim immediately dismissed the claim, clarifying that over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are still alive.

“Donald Trump has come out a few times and he says the population in Gaza is 1.7 to 1.8 million. Of course, before [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel] the population was much more than that, 400,000 to 500,000. Do you think his statistics are accurate, and if so, where did all those people go? Because we see the Ministry of Health in Gaza, they say the [Palestinian] death toll registered officially is over 40,000 [during the Israel-Hamas war],” Hinkle asked.

“I have no idea about his intentions to mention this number. But officially, there are 2.3 million-plus Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” Naim said.

The senior Hamas official added that around 200,000 Palestinians have fled the Gaza Strip to other areas for safety reasons both before and after the current war. He claimed that many Palestinians left for academic or professional reasons.


Hezbollah Twists Western Ideas and Values—And Media Play Along
In his recent speech, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem demanded that Israel respect the ceasefire agreement and withdraw from southern Lebanon by February 18. He framed it as a matter of “national sovereignty” and condemned any delay as “implementing the demands of the occupation.” Major media outlets—including Voice of America, France 24, ABC News, and Reuters—picked up his statements with little scrutiny.

These reports followed stories of a woman killed and several others wounded while trying to return to their villages on Sunday, February 16—two days before the withdrawal deadline. Voice of America, in the very last paragraph of its report (where fewer readers are likely to see it), mentioned that the Lebanese army had actually warned citizens not to enter areas where its troops had not yet deployed. None of these outlets included the IDF’s account, which stated that it had fired warning shots after spotting unidentified individuals gathering in a military zone.

The framing in these reports is unmistakable: civilians trying to return home, only to be killed and wounded by occupation forces poised to violate international agreements. Meanwhile, Hezbollah—the supposed defender of the people—invokes “sovereignty.” It all fits neatly into a narrative designed to evoke sympathy from Western readers, making it easy to distinguish good from evil.

But here’s the reality: Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S., much of Europe, and many Arab countries, isn’t fighting for actual sovereignty or national independence. Anyone familiar with its history knows that Hezbollah exploits these concepts to justify its own armed control over Lebanon, all with the Iranian regime’s backing. And despite its rhetoric about international agreements, it is Hezbollah that has systematically violated those very agreements.

Take UN Resolution 1701, for example. Signed by Lebanon in 2006, it required all armed groups in the country to disarm, allowing only the Lebanese Armed Forces to possess weapons. Hezbollah never complied. Instead, it amassed a vast arsenal, smuggling in weapons from Iran via Syria. Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has fired rockets at northern Israeli towns almost daily. By November 2024, 45 Israeli civilians had been killed, over 60,000 residents had fled their homes, and countless businesses and farms were destroyed.

Yet Hezbollah isn’t the only one with a selective memory when it comes to international agreements. The UN has largely ignored Hezbollah’s blatant violations of Resolution 1701. No new resolutions have been passed calling on Lebanon to enforce it. Meanwhile, since the IDF entered Gaza in October 2023, Western media have meticulously covered Israel’s military operations. Hezbollah’s near-daily rocket attacks, which have forced millions of Israelis into shelters, have been relegated to footnotes—if they’re mentioned at all. After all, the media are far less interested in the casualties of the “oppressor.”

And what does Hezbollah’s version of “sovereignty” actually mean? In Europe, national sovereignty is understood as an expression of the people’s will, not the ability of armed militias to impose their rule.


MEMRI: American National Bolshevik And Face Of White Jihad Movement Jackson Hinkle, Who Has Close Ties To Russia, Takes Middle East Tour, Beginning In Qatar To Meet With Hamas Leadership, Then Lebanon Where He Will Attend Funeral Of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah
Jackson Hinkle is an American social media personality, a self-described "Conservative Communist," and a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un, South African extremist Julius Malema (Economic Freedom Fighters), Hamas, and Hezbollah. Hinkle is the founder of the American Communist Party and runs a social media-based media outlet called, "Legitimate Targets," which he uses to promote his anti-NATO, pro-Russian, pro-Iranian, and anti-Israel viewpoints. Hinkle is emblematic of the broader White Jihad movement, and represents a growing fascination among Western extremists with Hamas and Hezbollah.

In October 2024, Hinkle made headlines for interviewing representatives of the terrorist-designated Houthi movement on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. He has since followed this with a trip to Qatar and Lebanon, during which he interviewed leaders of Hamas. He plans to attend the funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

While the provision of material support to designated terrorist groups – including Hamas and the Houthis – is illegal under 18 U.S. Code § 2339B, it appears that meeting with, and platforming, members and leaders of these groups is not currently illegal under U.S. law.


Lawler, Cherfilus-McCormick introduce new Iran sanctions legislation
Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), the chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, introduced legislation this week that would place sanctions on additional parties involved in Iran’s petrochemical trade, some of which were not targeted in previous sanctions legislation.

The bill, the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act, follows two Iran oil sanctions bills that Lawler led in the previous Congress, which passed into law last year. The backing of Lawler and Cherfilus-McCormick, who hold key positions on the Foreign Affairs Committee, suggests that the bill could receive serious bipartisan momentum.

The legislation imposes sanctions on those involved in the export, sale or processing of Iranian petrochemical products, including banks and financial institutions, insurance providers, ship-flagging registries, pipeline builders or operators of processing facilities; any or all subsidiaries, successors and aliases of such entities; owners or majority shareholders of such entities; corporate officers of such entities; and family members of individuals involved in such activity.

“Our regional partners and allies in the Middle East are counting on us to stop Iran before it’s too late,” Lawler said in a statement. “The new sanctions imposed in the Iran Enhanced Sanctions Act will give us a broader ability to quash Iran’s illicit oil trade for good.”

The sanctions would also apply to anyone who conducts a “significant transaction with, for, or on behalf of” anyone covered by sanctions put in place in the SHIP Act, one of Lawler’s oil sanctions bills in the previous Congress. Anyone who violates or attempts to violate the sanctions would be subject to U.S. prosecution.

“We must take all necessary measures to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and to halt its support for terrorism,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation will tighten sanctions on Iranian oil — a crucial source of revenue for the regime — enhancing the security of the United States and our regional allies, including Israel.”
Man who stabbed novelist Salman Rushdie guilty of attempted murder
Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed and partially blinded the novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a New York arts institute, was found guilty on Friday of attempted murder.

Matar, 27, can be seen in videos of the 2022 attack rushing the Chautauqua Institution's stage as Rushdie was being introduced to the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm, some of which were shown to the jury during the seven days of testimony.

Rushdie, 77, was stabbed with a knife multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand, blinding his right eye and damaging his liver and intestines, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery.

The writer was among the first to testify at the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, calmly describing to jurors how he believed he was going to die and showing them his blinded eye by removing his adapted spectacles with a blacked-out right lens.

Matar was found guilty of attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree for stabbing Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum, a non-profit group that helps exiled writers, who was conducting the talk with Rushdie that morning.


Belgian railway company urged to apologize for WWII deportations
An expert working group has recommended that the SNCB/NMBS national railway apologize for the role it played in the deportations of Jews to death camps during the Second World War.

The 12-person group was set up by the federal government in the wake of a historical study. Documents show that the SNCB received nearly 51 million Belgian francs in the 1940s in the form of a tax credit.

“As far as recognition of the victims is concerned, the SNCB must not only express regret but also present an official apology for the role played by Belgian Railways at the time in organizing the deportation rail convoys,” stated one of the recommendations of the group headed by Françoise Tulkens, a former vice president of the European Court of Human Rights.

The company is also asked to implement various memorial initiatives and organize a day of remembrance to recall the tragedy of the deportations, for example, through an announcement in train stations.

A recommendation is also made to the federal government and all public administrations and bodies to integrate the moral dilemmas faced by the actors of the time into the training of managers, civil servants, magistrates, police and military personnel.

“It’s a question that’s more topical than ever,” Tulkens said as she presented the report, “The Belgian Railways and the deportations during the Second World War,” to the Belgian Senate’s Committee on Institutional Affairs at the Parliament.

A monitoring committee must be established to monitor the implementation and impact of these recommendations.

The expert group called for a broader commitment to combating antisemitism, racism and intolerance. Not only the federal government but also other levels of government and the private sector must be involved.

While the group is committed to reparation, it has not asked for compensation for the victims, 80 years after the events.
Berlin police arrest suspect in stabbing at Holocaust memorial
German police arrested a suspect in the stabbing on Friday evening at Berlin's Holocaust memorial that seriously injured a man two days before a watershed national election.

Berlin's police department gave no details on the identity of the suspect or his possible motive.

"Our forces have detained a suspect in the vicinity of the crime scene," city police posted on X/Twitter. "Investigations continue."

Video of the scene showed emergency vehicles and heavily armored police lined along one side of the memorial site, a vast field of grey concrete pillars where the attack took place. The memorial is across a street from the US Embassy.
Russian teen arrested for planning attack on Israeli embassy in Berlin
An 18-year-old Russian national with possible links to Islamic State has been arrested on suspicion of planning to bomb the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the Berliner Morgenpost reported on Friday.

The teen, who is from the Chechen region of Russia, was arrested on Thursday and placed in investigative custody on Friday in Brandenburg, local police said in a statement.

The teen was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport after he had already checked in for a flight to Turkey. He reportedly planned to then fly to the Islamic State caliphate to join ISIS, receive training, and then return to Germany with weapons.

Berliner Morgenpost reported that he had contact with other ISIS supporters in Germany who shared his views and had already left the country to join the terrorist organization.

Chechen teen radicalized online
The Chechen teen became radicalized on the internet, and was not planning on carrying out his attack alone, the Bild reported.

The newspaper named the suspect Ahkmad I., a Russian national who lived in Potsdam. The area of Russia he hails from is a majority Muslim area of the country.

The Joint Counter-Terrorism Center in the capital was already aware of the case and had been discussing it, German media reported.


Berlin film festival faces new antisemitism accusations
The State Security Police of the Federal Criminal Police Office, which is responsible for political crimes, is investigating an incident that took place during the Berlin International Film Festival.

At the premiere of the film "Queerpanorama," which is not part of the main competition, Hong Kong director Jun Li read on stage a speech by Iranian actor Erfan Shekarriz, who stars in his film. The speech criticized the German government and its cultural institutions, including the Berlinale, for backing the "apartheid, genocide and the brutal extermination of the Palestinian people."

The speech also included the controversial slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which refers to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and therefore includes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Many activists for Palestinian rights describe it as a call for peace and equality after decades, in which millions of Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation. Critics of this slogan see it as a call to dismantle Israel and remove or exterminate the Jewish population from the land, which is why German courts have on different occasions charged people who have used it with incitement to hatred.

This is specifically the case since the German Interior Ministry has added the slogan to a list of forbidden signs and slogans, calling it "a trademark" of Hamas. Some courts in Germany though have objected to this interpretation of the slogan as a call for violence against Jews and against the state of Israel. It remains up to every court to decide in specific cases whether the slogan is punishable or not.

Critics of the Ministry of the Interior's interpretation of the slogan also point out that other variants of the slogan such as, "From the river to the sea — the Israeli flag is all you'll see" are not criminalized in Germany even though they can be seen as denying Palestinians the right to self-determination.

Last year, criticism of Israel's policies during the awards' ceremony — in particular by the Israeli and Palestinian directors of the documentary "No Other Land" — led to accusations of antisemitism and calls by German politicians to better manage such potential crises in the future.
Florida nonprofit parts with pediatrician calling for ‘elimination of the state of Israel’ after JI exposé
A Jacksonville, Fla., nonprofit that promotes diversity to build local civic engagement announced on Thursday that a pediatrician with a lengthy history of incendiary anti-Zionist posts on social media will step down from its board of directors, citing a recent investigation by Jewish Insider that uncovered the doctor’s offensive posts.

Dr. Mobeen Rathore, a pediatrician and infectious diseases expert at the University of Florida, had shared posts that referred to Zionism as “the root of all evil” and called for the elimination of the state of Israel. He has since made his account on X private.

“Words are powerful and we should strive to use them as a tool for connection, not division,” OneJax CEO Elizabeth Anderson said in an email to the foundation’s supporters on Thursday. “We cannot and will not allow the actions of any single individual [to] undermine the decades of work OneJax has dedicated to fostering mutual respect and understanding.”

Rathore is a past chair of the board of OneJax, a 55-year-old organization that “envisions a united Jacksonville.” According to OneJax’s website, the organization’s mission is “to foster mutual respect and build bridges of understanding among people of all beliefs, faiths and backgrounds in a spirit of shared humanity.”

In her email, Anderson explained why the decision to part with Rathore is not a question of free speech, but rather an assessment of the impact that one’s rhetoric can have on others and on the mission of an organization they serve.
Yves Saint Laurent faces backlash for ad featuring antisemitic Palestinian rapper
French fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) has ignited a firestorm of controversy by selecting Palestinian rapper Marwan Abdelhamid, notorious for his antisemitic statements, as the face of its latest restaurant campaign.

This has prompted calls for a boycott from Jewish organizations and customers worldwide. Abdelhamid is known by his stage name Saint Levant.

YSL’s new campaign, which debuted Monday evening, promotes “Saint Laurent Sushi Park,” the brand’s new Japanese dining venture in Paris, developed in partnership with chef Peter Park.

Abdelhamid, 24, has recently ascended to prominence in the global music scene while simultaneously becoming a source of controversy due to his antisemitic rhetoric.

In November, he incited outrage during a performance in Amsterdam by publicly endorsing attacks against supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team, declaring, “This isn’t the first time they [the Jews] come to a country that isn’t theirs and start shit.”

Born in eastern Jerusalem to parents of diverse heritage (Algerian, French, Palestinian and Serbian), Abdelhamid spent his formative years in Gaza and received his education at an American school.
UKLFI: Fake Monday.com ad on Victoria Line promotes anti-Israel propaganda
Monday.com is a work platform that helps businesses manage tasks. It does frequently advertise on the tube, but this time the fake ads are being used to display antisemitic propaganda and abusive accusations against an Israeli company, including genocide, ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure.

Having been notified by a passenger about this false advertisement, UKLFI has contacted Transport for London (TfL) to request that the adverts be removed.

The advert is in the same style as Monday.com’s genuine adverts, but says “Monday.com – for whatever you run. Even … An apartheid state.” And then it lists “Genocide”, “Ethnic Cleansing” and “Cultural Erasure” as projects run by different people, along with their status of “Needs attention”, “On track” and “At risk”.

This display of an unauthorised advertisement is a criminal offence under Section 224(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) 1990. UKLFI has pointed out that TfL should take immediate action to remove all such advertisements in its network.

Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: “TfL need to act now to prevent further and continuing distress to its passengers caused by such propaganda displayed potentially all over the London Underground network”.
Israeli Singer Noa Kirel Leads New Rom-Com Series With Argentine Pop Star Agustin Bernasconi
Israeli singer Noa Kirel is starring alongside Argentine actor and fellow pop singer Agustín Bernasconi in a new music-centered romantic comedy series that will begin filming in March, The Algemeiner has learned.

The 25-episode series “NOA,” which will be filmed entirely in Argentina, is a global co-production from Argentina’s FAM Contenidos and Israel’s entertainment studio Sipur.

In the series, Noa (Kirel) travels to Argentina to meet her boyfriend, after months of having a long-distance relationship, but things don’t turn out the way she thought they would. She then meets Tomy (Bernasconi), “a young man who tries to reconcile with his past and forge a new life away from music, all while Noa begins a journey of discovery in search of her musical identity, while dealing with pressure from her parents and her new reality in Buenos Aires,” according to a provided synopsis.

Kirel is a singer, rapper, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She competed on behalf of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 and finished third with her song “Unicorn.” She was also formerly a judge on “Israel’s Got Talent.”

Bernasconi is an Argentine actor, singer, composer, and musician, with over 100 million views on YouTube.

“It will be a great experience to star in the series with Noa,” said Bernasconi. “She is an exceptional artist, and we complement each other very well.”

“NOA” producer and Dori Media Group founder Yair Dori, who originated the series, said: “I am very proud to be part of this great project, which I believe will have a very solid performance worldwide.”
US Christians reaffirm Israel’s right to biblical heartland ahead of Trump annexation decision
A group of American Christian leaders are publicly reaffirming the Jewish people’s right to the biblical heartland of Israel, ahead of a key U.S. decision on Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

The move comes weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to announce whether or not he supports the Israeli annexation of Judea and Samaria—a goal backed by many evangelicals including some administration officials—amid international plans to rebuild post-war Gaza.

The declaration will be made public on Tuesday at the annual National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Dallas, an international association of evangelical communicators, and is expected to be signed by thousands of Christian pastors and religious leaders from across the U.S. before being presented to the American president.

“We reaffirm the Jewish people’s inalienable right to the biblical heartland of Israel and reject all efforts—both from the United States and the international community—to pressure the Jewish people to relinquish their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria,” the declaration reads.

“We recognize the undeniable biblical and historical ties of the Jewish people to this land and have consistently brought this issue to the attention of our members, elected officials, the media, and corporate America,” said Troy A. Miller, president and CEO of the NRB Association. “We reaffirm our commitment to standing with Israel against any challenge to its rightful sovereignty.”

“This resolution is a crucial affirmation of the Jewish people’s undeniable connection to the biblical heartland,” said Susan Michael, director of the American Christian Leaders for Israel and president of the U.S. office of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. “At a time when Israel’s sovereignty is under relentless attack, it is vital that we stand firm in recognizing Israelis’ historical, legal and moral rights to their ancestral homeland.”




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