Tuesday, March 25, 2025

03/25 Links Pt2: Hamas’s American Mouthpieces; The appeasement of Iran; Former hostage tells of being sexually assaulted in Gaza; Argentina to declassify Nazi-era documents

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Hamas’s American Mouthpieces
The Internet is abuzz today over a lawsuit filed against several anti-Semitic organizations. The suit alleges, with a fair amount of evidence, that these groups aren’t merely pro-Hamas in outlook but that they coordinate their messaging and actions with Hamas and other terror groups.

The complaint is thorough and damning, and can be read in full here. But this is yet another case in which the legal implications serve to highlight the absolute depravity, and in some cases, inherently evil character of these so-called pro-Palestinian organizations. The defendants and their supporters will argue that these groups’ actions are permitted under the law. But there is no legitimate argument that these groups possess a single morally redeemable attribute.

Let’s start with the basics. In 1988, the complaint notes, Hamas and its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, created the Palestine Committee to be its American support network. One of the groups in that committee was the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), founded by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal. After an IAP affiliate was found liable for Hamas fundraising, it dissolved and its core formed American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Students for Justice in Palestine and its post-university counterpart Within Our Lifetime grew out of that effort, as did the organization currently at the center of several anti-Semitism scandals: Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

This background is important to establish the following: The groups conducting anti-Zionist marches, riots, and encampments all grew from the original initiative of the terrorist organization that massacred 1,200 innocents on 10/7, took hundreds hostage, and subjected 10/7 victims and captives to sexual torture.

The complaint itself includes several eyebrow-raising allegations that should make apologists for these groups stop in their tracks.

First up: “Three minutes before Hamas began its attack on October 7, Columbia SJP posted on Instagram ‘We are back!!’ and announced its first meeting of the semester would be announced and that viewers should ‘Stay tuned.’ Before the post, Columbia SJP’s account had been dormant for months.”

Groups named in the suit also echoed Hamas’s public pronouncements. For example, they echoed Hamas’s call for a Day of Rage (though one of the groups used the phrase Day of Resistance) on the same day. “The advertisements for these events included clear references to many materials produced and provided by AMP/NSJP and even Hamas itself.” The days of rage on behalf of Hamas caused the closure of Jewish schools and other institutions in New York as well as Columbia’s campus, all out of security concerns. “Jewish students at Columbia University and Barnard College were advised to lock their doors and remain inside for their own safety.”

These marches took place in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, well before Israel’s counteroffensive ground incursion in Gaza began. Columbia’s march prominently featured Mahmoud Khalil, the Syrian-born U.S. permanent resident that the Trump administration is trying to deport for omitting certain past affiliations on his official application. At that point, not even a week had passed since the Hamas attacks. These organizations—again, which grew out of a coalition founded by a current Hamas leader—were essentially gloating in lockstep with Hamas.
The Rise of Civil Terrorism
Last week, a North Dakota court ordered the environmental organization Greenpeace to pay $667 million in damages for libel, vandalism, and acts of violent obstruction aimed at halting the construction of an oil pipeline. The ruling sets an important precedent: coordinated forms of disruptive protest that go far beyond anything that might be characterized as speech will be punished. (Greenpeace, by the way, has also accused Israel of genocide.)

Greenpeace’s actions seem to fit the description of what Tal Fortgang calls “civil terrorism,” and aren’t so different from the tactics employed recently by anti-Israel groups. Fortgang explains what addreses the problem these tactics pose as one of criminal law:

Masked criminals attacked several Citibank locations in New York City one night last September. They brandished no guns and demanded no cash. Instead, they squeezed epoxy and cemented stickers on debit-card readers, damaged door locks, and vandalized windows with profanities and threats of future violence. Rather than keep their identities hidden, the marauders filmed their work and posted it to their enterprise’s Instagram page.

Over the last few years, but especially since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, this type of organized criminal mayhem has increasingly become part of American life. The criminal bands that have arisen act for ideological reasons. They operate where they believe that they have the most latitude: on college campuses and in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions. And their beliefs are overwhelmingly leftwing: radically environmentalist (“Just Stop Oil”), anarcho-socialist (Antifa), and, most often, anti-Israel.

Fortgang notes that the movement employing these tactics

includes groups that openly support, and likely coordinate with, foreign terror organizations and hostile regimes. . . . In July 2024, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines confirmed that Iran is encouraging and funding some of these demonstrations.

Because civil terrorism utilizes illegal activity, the beginning of a policy agenda to fight it must start with enforcing existing laws—and investigating reasonable suspicions of wrongdoing.
Melanie Phillips: The appeasement of Iran
A criminal case in America that’s just ended has directed a spotlight onto Britain’s lackadaisical attitude to Iranian terrorism. Two men were found guilty of what the US Department of Justice called a “brazen plot” to murder a female Iranian dissident on American soil.

The Iranian regime has been trying to silence this dissident, Masih Alinejad, for years. Alinejad, a journalist, author and activist who has lived permanently in America since 2014 and has consistently drawn attention to Iran’s human rights abuses, has suffered harassment, intimidation and previous attempts on her life.

In 2020, Iranian intelligence officials and assets plotted to kidnap her from the US for rendition to Iran. In the case that finished last week, two members of an eastern European organised crime gang had been hired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to murder her in New York.

The court heard that a hitman with an AK-47 had camped outside her Brooklyn home to kill her. She had spotted one of the plotters behaving suspiciously while she was gathering tomatoes and cucumbers from her garden.

After the convictions of her would-be assassins, Alinejad — who has nine million Instagram followers, especially among young Iranian women in revolt against the regime’s brutal enforcement of the hijab to cover their hair — noted the silence about the convictions by left-wingers who had “called me an Islamophobe” as well as by “the campus protesters chanting ‘I am Hamas’.”

The same left-wing “feminists,” of course, who have ignored or tried to deny the rape, mutilation, torture and burning alive of young Israeli women during the atrocities of October 7 2023. The same liberal world that demonises Israel and the west while sanitising and appeasing their Islamist attackers. And the west’s resolute refusal in particular to deal with the Iranian regime that is pledged to destroy it is beyond perplexing.


Former hostage tells ‘Times’ about being sexually assaulted in Gaza
Ilana Gritzewsky, who was freed on Nov. 30, 2023 after 55 days of Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, spoke with the New York Times about being sexually assaulted as a hostage.

Gritzewsky, 31, was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack. Her partner Matan Zangauker, 25, remains in Gaza captivity.

Gritzewsky told the Times that the terrorists who invaded Nir Oz beat and molested her as they drove her to the coastal enclave. A gunman burned her leg by pressing it against an exhaust pipe, and another kidnapper groped her repeatedly, she said.

Along the way, Gritzewsky fainted and woke up in the Strip “surrounded by gunmen, half-naked, terrified and vulnerable.”

She woke on the floor in a building, with her clothes removed and surrounded by terrorists, she told the Times. She isn’t sure what occurred while she was unconscious but said that she gestured to the terrorists and told them that she was having her period.

“I felt they were disappointed,” Gritzewsky told the Times. “I don’t think I have ever been so thankful for my period.”

Over the 55 days, Gritzewsky was moved from place to place, mostly above ground, including in private residences ostensibly of Gaza civilians, in a hospital and, just before her release, in a tunnel.

One of the terrorists identified himself as a math teacher and another said he was a lawyer, according to Gritzewsky, who told the Times that the two stole her earrings and a bracelet.

She told her captors that she was suffering from a chronic digestive disease but was not given any medication.

Terrorists interrogated her about her mandatory Israel Defense Forces service, which she completed around a decade ago.

At one point, a captors hugged her and told her, while pointing his gun at her, that even if there would be a hostage deal, she would not be released, because he wanted to marry her and have children, Gritzewsky told the Times.


Western Academic Feminists Choose Solidarity with Palestinians over Believing Israeli Women
It was predictable that Hamas officials and their radicalized international supporters would deny that sexual violence against Israeli women and men was committed on 7 Oct. 2023.

But denials from the academic field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies are more surprising because they appear to violate two of the field's salient principles: support for women's sexual autonomy and insistence that women who lodge charges of sexual violence should be believed.

Instead, a number of academic feminists have embraced Hamas, along with all the reactionary patriarchal baggage of radical Islam, thereby abandoning their own stated values.


Erin Molan in Tears: Mom of Slain Nova Festival Hero Demands the World See the UNCUT Oct. 7 Vision
Join Erin Molan for an emotional and unforgettable interview with Raquel Ohnona Look, mother of Alex Look from Montreal, Canada. Alex was a brave young man who tragically lost his life protecting others during the Nova Festival attack by Hamas on October 7. In a tearful and heartfelt discussion, Raquel shares the painful details of that day and Alex’s courageous final moments as he shielded people in his shelter. She reflects on the challenges of coping as a mother in a world that often seems out of step with the gravity of these events. Raquel highlights the Montreal community’s uplifting solidarity, their strength, and her firm hope for a brighter future. She passionately calls for the release of the unedited October 7 footage and urges the world to remember the victims’ names and legacies. Watch as Erin is visibly moved by Raquel’s resilience and sorrow in a story that will touch and inspire you.




Kfar Aza Oct. 7 memorial forms unforeseen stop on trail envisioned by murdered Ofir Libstein
Among the visionary ideas of Ofir Libstein, the late head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, was a tourist trail that would tell the story of Jewish settlement in the Negev Desert, as well as the challenges of security and lack of water in the region close to the Gaza Strip.

Between 2021 and 2023, Libstein worked with architect Zvika Pasternak on 14 stations, telling stories of different sites, starting with the period before Israeli independence.

The trail runs along a pipeline that was laid in 1947 to bring water to the desert area.

On September 27, 2023, Libstein marked the trail’s opening with a celebration.

Ten days later, he was dead — murdered by Hamas terrorists as he tried to defend his community in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

His son, Nitzan Libstein, his mother-in-law, Bilha Epstein, and his wife’s nephew, Netta Epstein, were also slain.

They were among 64 Kfar Aza residents killed, as some 250 gunmen swarmed around the kibbutz. Throughout the border region, thousands of invading terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. They abducted 251 to the Gaza Strip, including 19 from Kfar Aza.

According to Pasternak, Libstein’s dream was for the trail’s 15th station to be built at Kfar Aza.

“A few weeks after his death, I asked Ofir’s wife, Vered, for permission to create a memorial site at Kfar Aza,” Pasternak told The Times of Israel.

With permission granted, he set to work with the bereaved families.

Opened to the public earlier this month, but not yet formally dedicated, the memorial continues the design language of the other 14 stations by using a stylized pipe to tell the story of October 7, locate the site on a map of the trail, and provide a QR code that leads the visitor to an explanatory film.



From Munich 1972 to October 2023 – the media myths fuelling antisemitism
A few weeks ago, I saw the film September 5 about the deadly attack on Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics.

It resonated because it highlighted the gulf between the public reactions to that atrocity and to 7 October when Palestinian terrorists slaughtered, mutilated, raped and burned-alive some 1,200 Israeli citizens – mostly non-combatants, including babies, infants, pensioners and women – and abduced some 230 more.

In 1972 – ignoring the street mobs in Damascus, Tripoli, etc – so few people supported Palestinian terrorists, that they would have probably fitted inside a London phone box. The overriding public reaction was abhorrence for the terrorists and sympathy for Israel.

Flash forward to 7 October 2023 and we saw a very different public reaction. Despite, in the intervening 51 years, Israel signing (and honouring) peace deals, handing back territory (including Gaza) and giving autonomy to the Palestinian Authority, an alarmingly high number of people (including UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez) seemed to feel that Palestinian terrorists were somehow “justified” in slaughtering, butchering, raping and kidnapping citizens of a sovereign nation. Israel was condemned for defending itself and accused of “genocide” for attempting to eradicate the terrorist threat – despite terrorist leaders openly declaring their intention to repeat the savagery.

So what changed between 5 September 1972 and 7 October 2023 to cause this abhorrent, inhumane reaction and a terrifying resurgence in antisemitism?

A large number of people – including some quite intelligent ones, and some Jews – have been persuaded to believe a flimsy, Soviet-fabricated narrative that would be obviously fake to anyone who did even the slightest historical research, and also persuaded to believe that Palestinians are victims of Jews even though Palestinians have been slaughtering Israeli non-combatants – and diaspora Jews – since long before they had the “justification” of “Occupation,” “Settlers” or Bibi Netanyahu.

Of course Palestinians are victims – of regional geo-politics, theo-politics, Muslim imperialism. Just not of Jews.

And then, of course, there’s media – notably, the BBC and the Guardian – which has promoted the Palestinian narrative, inflamed Israel hate and driven an upsurge in Jew-hate – and not just in the UK, but around the globe – by consistently reporting the conflict in ways that minimise (or ignore entirely) threat and harm to Israel, while amplifying threat and harm to Palestinians.

This may happen because the myths and fairytales have made them “sympathetic” to the “poor Palestinians” or because they are actively hostile, but whatever the motivation, the bias – in particular at those twin bastions of middle class morality – has been instrumental in rekindling the always-smouldering embers of Jew-hate.
UKLFI: BDS Challenged at Bristol and Bath
A BDS motion by Bristol City Council and demands for divestment by the Avon Pension Fund Committee have been robustly challenged by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

According to UKLFI, the Bristol motion was based on false information and unlawful, and its implementation would breach fiduciary duties, the Local Government Act 1988 and the Equality Act 2010. Divestment by the Avon Pension Fund Committee as demanded by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) would also breach fiduciary duties.

Council officers have now advised the Avon Pension Fund Committee against divestment targeting Israel. They propose either divestment from all aerospace and defence (A&D) companies or a continuation of the current policy on responsible investment.

The Avon Pension Fund is the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for Bristol City Council (Bristol CC) and a number of other local authorities nearby. Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) Council is its administering authority.

Deputations and motions
The Avon Pension Fund Committee received a deputation from the PSC on 13 December 2024, urging divestment from aerospace and defence companies that supply Israel and from companies that allegedly facilitate or profit from Israel’s actions in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

The Avon Pension Fund Committee now intends to review its aerospace and defence investments at a meeting on 28 March 2025.
Lawsuit Targets Anti-Israel Campus Leaders for ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Hamas
A lawsuit filed Monday in the Southern District of New York alleges a coordinated campaign of support between several American nonprofit groups and organizations and prominent anti-Israel activists, and Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a spokesperson for CUAD, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8. Other defendants include Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder and leader of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian activist group; Maryam Alwan, a representative of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine; and Cameron Jones, a representative of Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace.

The plaintiffs include Columbia students as well as parents of hostages who were abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Khalil’s arrest on March 8 sparked a heated debate across the country about the limits of freedom of speech and association. But this suit claims that debate misses the point entirely.

“This case is not about individuals and organizations independently exercising their free speech rights to support whatever cause they wish—no matter how abhorrent,” the complaint argues. “Rather, it is about organizations and their leaders knowingly providing substantial assistance—in the form of propaganda and recruiting services—to, and in coordination with, a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.”

The lawsuit notes one plaintiff, Shlomi Ziv, was taken hostage on October 7 and that his captors “bragged about having Hamas operatives on American university campuses” and “showed him Al-Jazeera stories and photographs of protests at Columbia University,” organized by the various defendants.

Filed by attorneys at the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), Schoen Law Firm, Greenberg Traurig, and Holtzman Vogel, the lawsuit seeks “compensatory and punitive damages” against defendants for “violating the Antiterrorism Act and the law of nations,” according to the suit filed Monday.

In filing the complaint, Mark Goldfeder, the lead attorney at NJAC, hopes to “make it clear that the right to propagandize on college campuses is important, but it does not encompass coordinating with a terrorist organization or breaking university rules. They are not independently endorsing Hamas.” The defendants, he believes, “are providing material support.”

According to the lawsuit, “as soon as October 8th, the national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine—a group that was suspended from Columbia’s campus and has since acted under the guise of CUAD—handed out toolkits to its chapters, including those at Columbia University, urging ‘real’ support to Hamas (not just rhetoric), in response to Hamas’ ‘call for mass mobilization.’ ”
Anti-Israel groups aided Hamas on campus, knew of attack beforehand, Oct. 7 victims say in lawsuit
Plaintiff Shlomi Ziv, who was held hostage for 246 days before being rescued in an IDF operation, alleged that “Hamas captors bragged about having Hamas operatives on American university campuses” and showed him photographs of protests at Columbia University organized by the defendants.

The suit alleged that the defendants operated as Hamas’s public relations wing, supported by the terrorist group through shell organizations that were founded by Hamas leaders.

It detailed, echoing past suits by October 7 victims against NSJP, that Hamas had founded a group of support organizations in the US, including the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine. After the US government exposed the groups, it was alleged that the key members founded American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which in turn created the National SJP, which serves as an umbrella organization for different chapters.

According to the lawsuit, the AMP controls and funds NSJP. Columbia SJP is a branch of SJP, and WOL is a rebranded New York City Students for Justice in Palestine. JVP works nationally as a partner of SJP, and the Columbia branch works closely with its local counterpart – so much so that the suit alleged that Khalil is the de facto president of both Columbia SJP and JVP.

The groups together allegedly used CUAD, a coalition of over a hundred groups, as a puppet to allow them to continue to operate on campus after they had been suspended in November 2023. The suit said that the CUAD social media accounts roused from dormancy after the groups had been banned. Immediately after Khalil’s March 8 arrest, CUAD’s social media accounts temporarily entered a lull of activity.

“Upon information and belief, and based upon statements made to plaintiff Shlomi Ziv by his Hamas captor, Hamas and AMP/NSJP provided financial, organizational, and other support to CUAD and the Columbia AMP/NSJP affiliates for the encampment,” read the suit.

The suit maintained that through organizational ties, answering the terrorists’ call to arms, and providing material support through the production and dissemination of pro-terrorist propaganda and advocacy, the defendants served as the public relations wing of Hamas.

The groups allegedly implemented the three-part Hamas grand strategy that works as follows: Terrorists conduct indiscriminate terrorist attacks against civilians to provoke a response that endangers Palestinian civilians who are used by Hamas as human shields. Either Israel cannot launch military actions due to concern about harming civilians, or the human shields are killed, which caters to Hamas’s propaganda goals. Hamas then manipulates the situation by using propaganda to demonize Israel, legitimize its efforts, and cast itself as the victim.

NSJP appeared to respond directly to a Hamas call for a global December 11 strike for Gaza, posting the same day on Instagram that they were striking “in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they demand a permanent ceasefire and a liberated Palestine free from colonial apartheid.”

Columbia SJP and JVP joined with a Barnard College protest, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator.In April, CUAD established the encampment on Columbia grounds that received backing from WOL in an attempt to pressure the academic institution into cutting all academic and financial connections with Israel.

Activists repeatedly declared support for the October 7 massacre during the several-week occupation of the campus.

This eventually expanded into the seizure of Hamilton Hall, where, according to the university, activists were breaking doors, “mistreating our public safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property.”

In January, CUAD activists disrupted a Columbia Israeli history class. When Barnard students were expelled for the incident, CUAD called for further disruptions and led two occupations of Barnard buildings. During the occupation of the Milstein Library, CUAD allegedly disseminated official Hamas pamphlets.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referenced these pamphlets in a March 10 press briefing in which she said Khalil was arrested and had his green card revoked on March 8 for supporting Hamas.

Two IDF reservists studying at Columbia, who now count among the suit’s plaintiffs, argued that they had come back from fighting Hamas to find that their “affiliates” on their campus were causing mental anguish and suffering.Another Columbia student plaintiff said that she experienced emotional distress from pro-Hamas protests occurring outside her window, with demonstrators glorifying the people who wounded her IDF soldier brother.

These plaintiffs, along with US citizen Iris Weinstein Haggai, whose parents were taken by Hamas, brought their claim against the defendants under the Antiterrorism Act.

Plaintiff Talik Gvili, the mother of slain patrol officer and captive Ran Gvili, Roee Baruch, the brother of slain hostage Uriel Baruch, and James Poe, the father of murdered hostage Leo Poe, brought their claims against the defendants under the Alien Tort Statute for the aid provided in violation of the Law of Nations.

“This case gives voice to heretofore seldom spoken facts. JVP, WOL, CUAD, the Students for Justice in Palestine collective, and student leaders on campuses throughout the country are serving as instruments of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that hates the United States and the very values these anti-Israel college protesters claim to represent.

“The leadership of these campus protesters knowingly affiliates with those who applaud any form of physical, emotional, or economic harm that can be inflicted upon citizens of Western democracy,” the NJAC associate director, Ben Schlager, said in a statement.


Honestly with Bari Weiss: Will Mahmoud Khalil Be Deported?
The morning of March 8, Mahmoud Khalil was detained at his apartment in New York City. Khalil is a 30-year-old Algerian citizen. He was born in Syria and is of Palestinian descent.

He came to this country on a student visa in 2022, married an American citizen in 2023, became a green card holder in 2024, and finished his graduate studies at Columbia University in December 2024.

Mahmoud was also the spokesman and negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that says it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” and which played an active role in the rioting that took over Columbia buildings last spring.

He has not been charged with any crimes—at least not so far. But the White House wants to deport him on the grounds that he poses a threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went as far as to post on X: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

Many of us believe that Khalil’s ideology is abhorrent. He enjoyed the United States’ educational system—attending one of our most prestigious universities—while advocating for America’s destruction and for a group that seeks the genocide of the Jewish people.

At the same time, the case for his deportation is not clear-cut. Here’s the divide:

Some say this is an immigration case. As Free Press contributing editor Abigail Shrier has put it: “This is an immigration, not a free speech case. It’s about whether the U.S. can set reasonable conditions on aliens for entry and residence.” But others say this is, in fact, a free speech case that cuts to the heart of our most cherished values.

To figure all this out, we’re hosting three of the smartest legal minds we know. Eugene Volokh is an expert on the Bill of Rights who is currently a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He’s also a contributor to Reason magazine, where he runs his own blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder is a practicing lawyer and the director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. Just yesterday, he filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the Southern District of New York against Khalil and several others for material support for terror. Jed Rubenfeld is a Free Press columnist and a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School.


Antisemitism experts, Jewish officials set to testify at Senate campus antisemitism hearing
Antisemitism experts and Jewish officials from a range of political and organizational backgrounds are set to testify at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s hearing on campus antisemitism on Thursday, the committee announced.

The witness panel is set to include Carly Gammill, director of legal policy at StandWithUs; Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad); Charles Asher Small, the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP); Rabbi David Saperstein, the director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and Kenneth Stern, the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate.

The hearing is a long time coming, with former chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) repeatedly refusing requests to hold a dedicated hearing on campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

Gammill is a constitutional lawyer who has worked to fight antisemitism in a variety of venues, including on campus, through the legal system.

Shemtov has long been a fixture of bipartisan administrations and on Capitol Hill, and is the founder and leader of TheSHUL of the Nation’s Capitol at the Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Washington.

ISGAP has highlighted antisemitism issues on campuses and in university curricula, particularly drawing connections between donations from Qatar and other nations and universities.


UNC Charlotte Hits Students Supporting Israel Event with ‘Riot Control’ Security Fee Due to ‘Bullies’ and ‘Terrorist Supporters’
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is forcing the Students Supporting Israel (SSI) group to pay a hefty $5,000 in security fees for “riot control” at its “Triggered” campus event featuring a panel of IDF soldiers, the student organization has announced. Students for Justice in Palestine and related groups have demanded the event be canceled.

The event at UNC Charlotte, scheduled to place Tuesday evening, will feature speakers discussing “the importance of Israel defending itself from terror threats and misguided propaganda, and the way Israeli society stepped up to volunteer following October 7,” SSI said in a press release.

But “despite SSI students’ efforts to share the story of Israel’s self-defense against terrorism, and our overwhelming adherence to campus policies and protocols, UNC Charlotte administrators are succumbing to pressure from these radical anti-Israel groups,” the organization added, citing a burdensome $5,000 campus security fee being imposed on the pro-Israel student group.

“This excessive charge requiring 22 security personnel (16 police officers and 6 staff security!), not only creates financial barriers and stifle our freedom of expression, as most student groups would be deterred by such a significant cost,” SSI said.

“It also makes Jewish students pay to be kept safe on their own campus following threats against them,” the organization added. “If we let a university charge pro-Israel groups thousands in security fees to make Israeli voice heard, which pro-Israel speakers will be censored on campus next?”

“Jews are NOT an exception to campus protection and should not pick up the university’s riot control bills!” SSI exclaimed.

Moreover, the pro-Israel student organization views the hefty security fee imposed by UNC Charlotte administrators as a means for the university to “pander” to anti-Israel groups — including students, faculty, and community members — and aide in their attempts to shut down the event.

“After defacing and defaming the Tour’s poster online, [Students for Justice in Palestine] and its affiliates attacked administration at UNCC, demanding that this event be cancelled and creating a petition with their demands with over 300 signatures,” SSI said.
Columbia student, 21, arrested during anti-Israel protest faces deportation by Trump admin: lawsuit
A Columbia University junior who was arrested earlier this month during an anti-Israel protest and is facing deportation sued President Trump and other high-ranking officials Monday to stop the feds from throwing her out of the country.

Immigration authorities are attempting to deport 21-year-old Yunseo Chung — who moved to the United States from South Korea nearly 15 years ago with her family — at a time when the Trump administration has said it wants to boot noncitizens whom officials deem a threat to foreign policy.

Chung, who is a legal permanent resident and has called the US home since she was 7 years old, was not in federal custody as of Monday. Her lawyer would not tell the New York Times where she is other than to confirm she is still in the country.

The college student apparently landed on the feds’ radar after she and other students were arrested March 5 during a sit-in at a Barnard College academic building in protest of punishments that the Columbia-affiliated school doled out to anti-Israel agitators.

She was charged with obstructing governmental administration and issued a desk appearance ticket by the NYPD.

A few days later, Department of Homeland Security agents visited Chung’s parents’ home searching for her as a federal agent reached out to the student around the same time via text message, according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.

When an attorney representing Chung contacted the agent, she was told the State Department was revoking Chung’s legal status and had an administrative warrant for her arrest, the legal papers state.

The lawsuit also revealed her dorm was among two Columbia-owned residences raided by federal law enforcement on March 13 — a development which interim school president Katrina Armstrong said at the time left her “heartbroken.”

Chung’s legal team argued that the actions by the Trump administration were an attempt to “chill” her free speech rights.

“The government’s retaliation against Ms. Chung comes in a broader context of retaliation against other noncitizens who have exercised their First Amendment rights,” her legal team argued.


Columbia President Talks Out of Both Sides of Her Mouth on Masking and Disciplinary Process
Publicly, Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong says she's committed to implementing the reforms the Trump administration is demanding. Behind closed doors, she is telling colleagues not much is going to change.

In a weekend meeting with roughly 75 disgruntled faculty members, Armstrong told colleagues that, despite national news headlines indicating the school had genuflected before the administration, there would be "no change to masking" and that the university’s disciplinary process "remains independent" and "has not been moved to my office."

Armstrong said something different days earlier when announcing several changes to the school’s operating procedures. In a memo presented to the Trump administration on Friday, she indicated that "face masks or face coverings are not allowed for the purpose of concealing one’s identity" and that anyone wearing a face covering during a protest is subject to a mandatory ID check.

The memo also touts "improvements to our disciplinary process, including the University Judicial Board," which "will be situated within and overseen by the Office of the Provost, who reports to the President of Columbia."

The Trump administration released a Monday statement lauding those policies and other changes as "a positive first step in the university maintaining a financial relationship with the United States government."

Armstrong’s announcement on Friday did not trigger the reinstatement of the approximately $430 million in federal funds the administration has pulled from Columbia. But it was supposed to unlock "long-term" negotiations to restore the funding—if Armstrong implements them, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

"They have to abide and comply with the terms that we have set down and talked with them and they've agreed to," she told reporters on Monday. "And that was kind of the basis to get them to the real first step of total negotiations to restore the funding … So they'll have to do that."

Armstrong's doublespeak calls into question whether Columbia will indeed make it to the negotiating table. Recent developments at the Ivy League school's Morningside Heights campus suggest her private comments are more in line with reality than her public memo.


The Houthis Are the New Barbary Pirates
Beginning in 1784, shortly after America achieved its independence from Great Britain, raiders from the Ottoman provinces of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, known as the Barbary Pirates, would attack American merchant shipping, capturing sailors for whom they initially extorted ransom and subsequently protection money in the form of tribute from the U.S.

For 15 years, American merchant ships were victims of unceasing harassment. Attempts to negotiate an arrangement that would put an end to this state-sponsored terrorism met with no success. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson went to war against the Barbary states. By 1805, a series of American naval victories led to a peace treaty with the ruler of Tripoli. The U.S. defeated the forces of Algiers in 1815.

Two centuries later, America is once again fighting a war overseas to protect its shipping, as well as that of its allies and friends. The Houthis are today's Barbary Pirates.


Syria’s Descent into Sectarian Infighting
On Saturday, Israeli jets struck two military airbases in Syria, part of an ongoing attempt to prevent the war-torn country from again becoming a strategic threat. Kyle Orton, having recently visited Syria, provides some important background to the most recent upheavals, and specifically the attacks by members of the Sunni Arab majority on followers of the Alawite faith:

The Alawis are an esoteric sect, their doctrines formally kept secret from most of their own community. . . . Alawite theology is a swirl of Neoplatonism, a gnostic-inflected version of the Trinity, and a reverence for the Prophet Mohammad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali as a manifestation of God—a belief that orthodox Muslims regard as plainly beyond the bounds of the faith.

The rise to power in Syria of Hafez al-Assad in 1970, and the subsequent instrumentalization of the Alawis as the backbone of the dynastic regime, above all in the army, challenged what many Sunnis saw as the laws of nature—namely, Alawi subordination. To mitigate this, Hafez drew on the Alawis long-practiced protective mechanism of taqiya (dissimulation), securing a fatwa in 1973 from Lebanon’s Shiite hierarchy declaring Alawism a form of Islam. Hafez’s gambit failed in theological terms, with few Sunnis convinced, but it did contribute to the Alawis’ waning ability to forge an identity independent of the regime.

Bashar took the lessons of the 1970s and 1980s to construct his strategy for survival when rebellion returned to Syria in 2011, setting out to transform the struggle from an uprising against autocracy into a sectarian civil war by deliberately radicalizing the insurgency. In creating space for Sunni jihadists, Assad—and Iran, which quickly took over the regime’s security apparatus—hoped to frighten the Alawis and other minorities (and the Sunni bourgeoisie) into clinging to the regime, and to make international actors like the U.S. wary of supporting the anti-Assad movement.

To make doubly sure of the Alawis’ loyalty, the line between the community and the regime was deliberately blurred even further by a series of regime-orchestrated massacres early in the war, using Alawi civilians, armed with knives and pistols, to murder at close quarters their Sunni neighbors.
Mordechai Kedar: Israel should support the South Azerbaijan's independence from Iran
The independent state of Azerbaijan was established in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. For many years, the people of Azerbaijan lived under imperial rule, such as the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The creation of the Republic of Azerbaijan finally allowed the Azeris to live as a free nation.

It is not widely known that, besides the citizens of Azerbaijan, there are many Azeris who still live under imperialist rule, a regime that crushes their culture and oppresses them daily – the rule of the ayatollahs in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

During the wars between the Russian and Persian empires in the 19th century, the Azerbaijani people were divided into Northern Azerbaijan (under Russia/the Soviet Union) and Southern Azerbaijan, located in the northwest of Iran.

The term Southern Azerbaijan refers to the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan. In these provinces, Azerbaijanis constitute the largest ethnic group in the region so Azerbaijani Turkish is the most widely spoken language.

The free Republic of Azerbaijan is a tolerant country, allowing all the communities living within it to enjoy religious freedom and cultural autonomy. A prime example of this is the Jewish community in Azerbaijan, which is not restricted in any way by the Azerbaijani government (which is a Shi’ite Muslim country – like Iran).

Azerbaijani Jews have no issues praying as Jews, wearing a kippah in public, and teaching Hebrew. In Southern Azerbaijan, residents do not enjoy such freedoms from the Iranian authorities.

A journalist at Gunaz TV, Mahboub Tisheh, a South Azerbaijani dissident, testified about life in the area: “South Azerbaijanis face systematic discrimination in every aspect of life – our language is banned from our education system, our culture is suppressed, and our economic resources are plundered to benefit Tehran.”
US sanctions 3 Iranian officials linked to death of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson
The United States has imposed sanctions on three Iranian intelligence officers for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of former FBI Special Agent Robert Levinson, the US Treasury and State departments said in press releases on Tuesday.

The sanctions on Reza Amiri Moghadam, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and Taqi Daneshvar of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security are the latest linked to the disappearance of the former FBI agent, who Washington believes was abducted in Iran and died in captivity.

As a result of the sanctions, any property of the men under US jurisdiction must be blocked, and Americans are generally barred from dealing with them. Foreign persons also risk blacklisting for dealing with them.

“Iran’s treatment of Mr. Levinson remains a blight on Iran’s already grim record of human rights abuse,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “The Department of the Treasury will continue to work with US government partners to identify those responsible and shine a light on their abhorrent behavior.”

Levinson, who was working as a private investigator, disappeared in March 2007 after traveling to an island controlled by Iran for a meeting seeking information on alleged corruption, but the Washington Post reported in 2013 that Levinson, who had retired from the FBI, was working for the CIA and had gone on a rogue mission aimed at gathering intelligence on Iran.

The three sanctioned individuals all played a role in Levinson’s abduction, detention, and probable death, as well as efforts to cover up Iran’s responsibility, the Treasury Department said.


Argentina to declassify Nazi-era documents
Argentine President Javier Milei has announced the declassification of government archives related to Nazi activity in the country, aiming to reveal details about how fugitive war criminals fled to Argentina after World War II.

During a meeting with officials from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Milei confirmed that researchers and the public would soon gain access to these historical records. The files are expected to shed light on the “ratlines”—escape networks used by Nazis to evade justice and resettle in South America.

Historians estimate that Argentina harbored around 5,000 Nazi war criminals, including high-profile figures such as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele. The newly available documents may provide fresh insights into the extent of local support that facilitated their arrival and protection.

The initiative aligns with Milei’s commitment to government transparency and historical accountability. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed the move, calling it an important step toward justice.

The declassified materials will be housed in Argentina’s General Archive of the Nation and made available for public and academic research.
Leading AI tools demonstrate ‘concerning’ bias against Israel and Jews, new ADL study finds
Four leading AI large language models — including Meta and Google — display “concerning” anti-Israel and antisemitic bias, according to new research from the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL study — which the group calls “the most comprehensive evaluation to date of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in major LLMs” — asked GPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and Llama (Meta) to evaluate statements 8,600 times and received a total of 34,400 responses. The statements fell into the following categories: bias against Jews, bias against Israel, the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish and Israeli conspiracy theories and tropes (excluding Holocaust), Holocaust conspiracy theories and tropes and non-Jewish conspiracy theories and tropes. Some of the prompts included ethnically recognizable names and others were left anonymous, which resulted in a difference in the LLMs’ answers based on the user’s name or lack thereof.

The ADL said that all four of the LLMs had “concerning patterns” related to bias against Jews and Israel. But Meta’s Llama, the only open-source model in the group, demonstrates “pronounced” anti-Jewish and anti-Israel biases, according to the study. GPT was the lowest scoring model in categories of questions about broad anti-Israel bias as well as specifically about the war, and both GPT and Claude demonstrated particularly high anti-Israel bias.

The research also found a discrepancy between how the LLMs answered non-Jewish conspiracy questions with Jewish and Israeli conspiracy questions. Every LLM, other than GPT, showed more bias on average in answering Jewish-specific conspiracy questions than other types of conspiracy questions.

In a statement to Jewish Insider, a Meta spokesperson said that the report used an older model, and not the most current version of Meta AI.

“People typically use AI tools to ask open-ended questions that allow for nuanced responses, not prompts that require choosing from a list of pre-selected multiple-choice answers,” Meta said. “We’re constantly improving our models to ensure they are fact-based and unbiased, but this report simply does not reflect how AI tools are generally used.”


New play depicts Holocaust through the eyes of a dog
It is always interesting to see an innovative theatre performance that takes a traditional theme and portrays it from an unusual angle. And Israeli-born theatre maker Shahaf Beer is doing exactly this with The Jewish Dog, a play that depicts the Holocaust through the eyes of a dog.

Based on the book Der Yidisher Hunt by Asher Kravitz, Shahaf Beer’s new contemporary performance bridges stories from World War II with the present day. Shahaf, who now lives in London says : “I grew up in Israel and the Holocaust was talked about a great deal. My grandparents and parents left Poland before it happened but my grandfather’s vast family all perished.

“I felt, as someone who is aged 28, that I am the last generation to hear the testimony of the survivors. As a contemporary theatre maker I wanted to find a way to portray the Holocaust but in a modern way. Then by chance I read Asher Kravitz’s book, and this seemed to be the solution, to portray it through the eye of a dog that lived through it all.”

The performance filters the darkest period of modern Jewish history through the naive perspective of a dog, offering a view of the subject as never seen before. The adaptation is a visual storytelling using close-circle-camera projection, as the dog guides us through the experience of living in Berlin in the 1930s.

The performance is 60 minutes long with Shahaf as the lead artist and music composed by Eyal Arad.
Pakistani Civic Leaders Visit Israel
Sabin Agha, a Pakistani investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, recently visited Israel with a delegation of Pakistani civil society leaders organized by Sharaka, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting dialogue and coexistence in the Middle East.

She said that despite the general pro-Palestinian sentiment in Pakistan, state repression has prevented mass anti-Israel protests from breaking out.

Agha wondered what was so egregious about Israel to warrant the Pakistani passport being marked with "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel."

"I wanted to find out what Israel has done to Pakistan. And I found out completely the opposite," she said.

"Whenever we would go to a restaurant or meet people on the streets, if we mentioned...I'm from Pakistan...there was an opulence of smiles and warm welcomes. 'Oh, you're from Pakistan, welcome to Israel.'"

One participant, S., said of Pakistani society, "We are an antisemitic nation. The state has peddled this narrative for a long time, and seminaries are preaching it day in and day out."

Even in the supposedly cosmopolitan city of Karachi, the main street has been painted with American and Israeli flags so that pedestrians trample on them.
Hebrew University cancer researcher awarded Israel Prize for groundbreaking work
The Hebrew University’s Prof. Yinon Ben-Neriah has been awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for his pioneering research in cancer research.

A physician, immunologist and internationally recognised cancer researcher, Prof. Yinon Ben-Neriah has spent decades investigating the biological links between chronic inflammation and cancer. His discoveries have paved the way for new therapies and helped revolutionise how certain cancers are treated.

The Israel Prize committee praised his “groundbreaking” work, stating: “Prof. Ben-Neriah is a groundbreaking researcher in the field of cancer research who discovered mechanisms for cancer development that led and still leads to the creation of drugs to treat the disease. Ben-Neriah’s research has been published in scientific forums and in the best and highest-quality professional journals in the world.”

They added: “His research led to the development of anti-cancer drugs, from anti-inflammatories to cancer inhibitors. One of his discoveries led to the development of a drug for the treatment of blood cancer patients that is widely used worldwide.”

Prof. Eli Pikarsky, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University, said: “We are incredibly proud of Prof. Ben-Neriah’s achievements and this well-deserved recognition. His innovative research has changed the way we understand and treat cancer, and his work exemplifies the values of excellence and impact that define our faculty. He continues to inspire the next generation of scientists and physicians.”




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