Bowdoin College has previously said that it will not tolerate unlawful occupations of its buildings.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Bowdoin College’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter will hold on Tuesday a mass rally to protest disciplinary charges brought against an estimated 50 student-members who received interim suspensions and other sanctions for illegally occupying an administrative building earlier this month.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, SJP installed an encampment inside Smith Union to demand a boycott of Israel and signal its opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposal that Gazans who were displaced by the Israel-Hamas war be resettled elsewhere while the Palestinian enclave is transformed into a hub for tourism and job creation.

Bowdoin, moving quickly to quell the disruption, persuaded its students to abandon the effort after just four days by levying interim suspensions on several dozen of them and notifying their families.

The consequences so far have stuck, SJP decried in a statement which alleged that some students are now ineligible to dwell in their dormitories and attend class.

This week, the group continued, eight of them will participate in hearings that will determine whether they receive full suspensions. SJP is calling for them to be amnestied and restored to good standing.

“Our peers who bravely remained in the encampment have been evicted from campus, unable to attend class (virtually or in person), and are now being subject to a flawed and non-transparent disciplinary process, all for continuing Bowdoin’s long history of student activism,” SJP posted on Instagram on Sunday. “We will not be silent as our friends face retaliation for standing against a genocide.”

It continued, “Walk out of class with us at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and join us for a rally outside Moulton Union to demand amnesty for the Bowdoin Eight.”

Bowdoin College has previously said that it will not tolerate unlawful occupations of its buildings.

“We heard from some members of the our community that these events have left them feeling vulnerable,” college president Safa Zaki said in a statement to the campus community, explaining that SJP transgressed “policies governing building use and student behavior.”

She continued, “These rules are not symbolic. They are designed to ensure that members of the community can feel welcome and safe in every space on campus and have fair access to those spaces.”

The college — located in Brunswick, Maine and once the subject of a landmark study which accused it of promoting the excesses of left-wing ideology — is not the only higher education institution that has been convulsed by anti-Israel activity this semester.

Columbia University was a victim of infrastructural sabotage last month, when an extremist anti-Zionist group flooded the toilets of an academic building with concrete to mark the anniversary of an alleged killing of a Palestinian child.

The targeted facilities were located on several floors of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), according to Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean of the school, who addressed the matter, calling the behavior “deplorable, disruptive, and deeply unsettling, as our campus is a space we cherish for learning teaching, and working, and it will not be tolerated.”

Numerous reports indicate the attack may have been the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

During the event, the Free Beacon reported, ADP distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.

In a separate incident on Feb. 5, roughly 50 members of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, along with the group Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) amassed on the property of UC Regent Jay Sures 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.

UCLA responded to their vandalism and intimidation by imposing interim suspensions on both groups.

Republicans in Washington, DC have said that anti-Zionist extremism on college campuses “will no longer be tolerated in the Trump administration.” Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has enacted a slew of policies aimed at reining in their disruptive and discriminatory behavior.

Continuing work started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — Trump’s recent “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”

The order also requires each government agency to write a report explaining how it can be of help in carrying out its enforcement.

Another major provision of the order calls for the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, intellectual and material, such as Hamas contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction.

The post Anti-Israel students at Bowdoin College to protest suspensions over ‘Gaza encampment’ appeared first on World Israel News.

Columbia’s handling of the Tuesday class storming could provide a window into how the school’s administrators assess the Trump administration’s threats.

By Jessica Costescu and Lexi Boccuzzi, The Washington Free Beacon

Columbia University announced Thursday that it had identified and suspended one of the pro-Hamas students who stormed an Israeli history class and targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers two days prior.

Whether that suspension sticks could provide early insight into how seriously the Ivy League school is taking threats from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

“In connection with Tuesday’s disruption of a History of Modern Israel class, Columbia University has identified and suspended a Columbia participant, pending a full investigation and disciplinary process,” a university statement read.

“Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our University community, and will not be tolerated.”

The school leveled similar suspensions on students who participated in illegal anti-Israel protests last spring. But it went on to drop the overwhelming majority of those suspensions.

Of the 40 students arrested or disciplined when the university called police to campus to clear an anti-Israel encampment on April 18, only 2 remained suspended by Aug. 6, according to disciplinary data released by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Police arrested another 35 students for failing to leave a second encampment on April 29, but none of them faced suspensions. Thirty-one of those students were in good standing with Columbia by early August.

And of the 22 that were arrested in Hamilton Hall after storming the campus building, only 3 faced suspensions. A fourth was on disciplinary probation from a prior hearing, while the remaining 18 were in “good standing,” according to the congressional report.

At that time, federal oversight into Columbia and other elite higher education institutions was limited to the GOP-led House.

While the Biden administration launched investigations into complaints of anti-Semitism at some universities in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, it settled many of those complaints on terms favorable to the schools.

In the Senate, meanwhile, then-majority leader Chuck Schumer privately assured Columbia’s leaders that their “political problems are really only among Republicans,” according to a House report released late last year.

Those Republicans now control the House, Senate, and White House, and they’ve pledged to crack down on schools that go easy on pro-Hamas radicals.

Trump, for example, has said that U.S. colleges “will and must end the anti-Semitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support.”

He’s also threatened to deport campus radicals in the country on student visas, saying, “As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.” Congressional Republicans in both chambers have echoed those sentiments.

Columbia’s handling of the Tuesday class storming, then, could provide a window into how the school’s administrators assess those threats.

Should it suspend more students connected to the storming—and keep those suspensions in place—the moves would suggest that interim Columbia president Katrina Armstrong is keen to take a stronger stance against student radicals under the Trump administration.

Armstrong has already enlisted the lobbying firm of Trump transition alumnus, Dan Murphy, to “provide strategic counsel and advocate on issues related to higher education and appropriations,” according to disclosures filed with Congress.

A Columbia spokeswoman did not answer questions on the details of the suspension and how long it would last.

The student suspended Thursday kicked off the semester by storming an Israeli history class alongside three other pro-Hamas activists. They targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers that glorified Hamas, showed a trampled Star of David, and advocated violence.

One flyer stated, “THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW,” using an upside-down triangle—a symbol that Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—to spell “TOMORROW.” The flyer depicted a truck full of Hamas terrorists brandishing RPGs and machine guns.

Another flyer, with the caption “CRUSH ZIONISM,” depicted the Star of David underneath a boot. A third encouraged students to “BURN ZIONISM TO THE GROUND.”

In response, Columbia posted a security guard outside at least one Jewish studies course on Wednesday. The university announced that it “mobilized the Public Safety team to prevent future incidents, including identifying and directing additional resources to classes at increased risk for disruption.”

The post Columbia promptly suspends student that stormed Israeli history class. It has a long history of dropping similar suspensions appeared first on World Israel News.

Students were suspended for up to 4 years which is long enough to make it unlikely that the students serving them will return to the University of Florida.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Anti-Zionist faculty at the University of Florida (UF) are demanding lighter sentences for six student protesters who the university suspended for as long as four years as punishment for their role in occupying the campus in an attempt to intimidate officials into boycotting and divesting from Israel, according to The Independent Alligator, the school’s official newspaper.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, UF’s disciplinary body was set on slapping the students’ wrists, sentencing most to probation only based on recommendations from “hearing bodies,” until its new dean, Chris Summerlin, intervened and issued full suspensions for as many as four years.

The harshest suspensions — including four years for Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, and three years for other students — while not being formal expulsions, are long enough to make it unlikely that the students serving them will return to the University of Florida.

“We, as faculty at the University of Florida, must stand in solidarity with students because they are being deprived of educational opportunities without justification. In fact, it is clear that the University of Florida is bypassing its own policies and processes to issue these suspensions,” a faculty group known as Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) wrote to Summerlin earlier this month.

“Chris Summerlin overruled the recommendations of the Student Conduct Committee by finding the student-protestors responsible on all charges and suspended the students for 3-4 years. At our university, a three-year suspension is equivalent to an expulsion given that students suspended for more than three semesters must reapply to the university before returning.”

Propagating falsehoods about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the professors continued, “We know that UF values free speech and viewpoint diversity and respect President [Ben] Sasse’s stated commitment to them …We issue this statement as faculty who value the honor code and mission of this university, and wish to protect the integrity of the institution which we serve.”

Speaking to the Alligator, UF spokesman Steve Orlando defended the punishments, stressing that “students who break rules face consequences.”

He continued, “UF clearly, patiently, and repeatedly communicated existing rules to protesters and then the university enforced those rules — just like we said we would. The University of Florida upholds free speech and enforces the rules. We expect our students to act like adults and take responsibility for their actions.”

Summerlin’s suspensions may not be the only consequences six students may face.

According to earlier reports, they were part of a group of nine who local law enforcement arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office.

They are taking their chances at trial, after having rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.

One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanley Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — has proclaimed that they will contest the state’s cases.

“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement.

“We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”

The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules, a course of action that experts believe is a deterrent against similar behavior in the future.

Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate.

As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.

However, some colleges have “downgraded” disciplinary measures levied against pro-Hamas demonstrators.

Harvard University infamously did so earlier this month, feeding an impression that it initially punished the students to temper a wave of negative publicity prompted by dozens of allegations that it declined to regain control of the campus despite a surge in antisemitic rhetoric and harassment.

The amnestied students reviled the university anyway, accusing it “caving in” and vowing to continue what they call the “student intifada.”

The post Anti-Zionist University of Florida professors demand light sentences for pro-Hamas rioters appeared first on World Israel News.

The seven students have reportedly submitted appeals to overturn their punishments that are pending.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The University of Florida (UF) has handed down severe and potentially life-altering punishments to seven pro-Hamas rioters who participated in occupying the campus in an attempt to intimidate officials into boycotting and divesting from Israel, according to Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the university’s College of Journalism and Communications.

UF’s disciplinary body was set on slapping the students’ wrists, sentencing most to probation only based on recommendations from “hearing bodies,” until its new dean, Chris Summerlin, intervened and issued full suspensions for as many as four years.

The harshest suspensions — including four years for Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, and three years for other students — while not being formal expulsions, are long enough to make it unlikely that the students serving them will return to the University of Florida.

The seven students have reportedly submitted appeals to overturn their punishments that are pending.

Summerlin’s suspensions may not be the only consequences that the students will face.

According to Fresh Take Florida, the students were part of a group of nine that were arrested by local law enforcement for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office.

They are taking their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.

One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — proclaimed on Tuesday that they will contest the state’s cases.

“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”

The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules, a course of action that experts believe is a deterrent against similar behavior in the future.

Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate.

As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.

One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.

“The University of Texas at Austin provided a world-class learning environment where every student can thrive,” said a letter, as quoted by the outlet, sent to one of the students who was placed on deferred suspension.

“At this juncture, suspension appears to be the appropriate consequences for these serious infractions.”

It continued, “However, recognizing your commitment to educational growth, we want to offer you an alternative path to avoid suspension by proving that you have learned from this experience. We offer you the choice to accept a deferred suspension.”

Administrators and faculty have also been disciplined for their conduct amid a wave of anti-Israel demonstrations that upended campus life at universities across the US this past semester.

On Monday, Columbia University announced that three administrators have been placed on involuntary leave for sharing communications which “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” while serving on the job, president Minouche Shafik said in a statement.

The action followed an explosive Washington Free Beacon report which revealed that administrators Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, Matthew Patashnick, and Josef Sorett, who is dean of Columbia College, sent a series of text messages which denigrated Jews while spurning their concerns about rising antisemitism and the fate of Israel, denouncing them as “privileged” and venal.

“Whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community that is antithetical to our university’s values and the standards we must uphold in our community,” Shafik said.

“We are taking action that holds those involved in this incident accountable … more broadly, we will launch a vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination [sic] training for faculty and staff this fall, with related training for students under the auspices of university life.”

The post University of Florida hands down years-long suspensions to pro-Hamas rioters appeared first on World Israel News.

As part of their punishment, students must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The University of Texas at Austin has levied disciplinary sanctions against four students who illegally occupied the campus as part of a pro-Hamas demonstration aimed at pressuring the university to boycott and divest from Israel.

Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate.

As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.

One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.

“The University of Texas at Austin provided a world-class learning environment where every student can thrive,” said a letter, as quoted by the outlet, sent to one of the students who was placed on deferred suspension.

“At this juncture, suspension appears to be the appropriate consequences for these serious infractions.”

It continued, “However, recognizing your commitment to educational growth, we want to offer you an alternative path to avoid suspension by proving that you have learned from this experience. We offer you the choice to accept a deferred suspension.”

The University of Pennsylvania has also disciplined pro-Hamas rioters for their conduct this past semester.

According to a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) splinter group — Freedom School for Palestine — four students have been “placed on semester-ling or year long suspension.”

Harvard University and Stanford University barred several of its protesters from graduation, withholding their degrees pending further review of their conduct.

Meanwhile, Columbia University reportedly suspended over a dozen protesters, some of whom vandalized school property.

Administrators and faculty have been disciplined for their conduct too.

Last week, Drexel University president John Fry announced that professor Mariana Chilton “has been placed on administrative leave” for participating in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia.

Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, is accused of and criminally charged with stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.

Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.

On Monday, Columbia University announced that three administrators have been place on involuntary leave for sharing communications which “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” while serving on the job, president Minouche Shafik said in a statement.

The action followed an explosive Washington Free Beacon report which revealed that administrators Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, Matthew Patashnick, and Josef Sorett, who is dean of Columbia College, sent a series of text messages which denigrated Jews while spurning their concerns about rising antisemitism and the fate of Israel, denouncing them as “privileged” and venal.

“Whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community that is antithetical to our university’s values and the standards we must uphold in our community,” Shafik said.

“We are taking action that holds those involved in this incident accountable … more broadly, we will launch a vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination [sic] training for faculty and staff this fall, with related training for students under the auspices of university life.”

The post University of Texas at Austin disciplines pro-Hamas rioters appeared first on World Israel News.

Penn’s handing down disciplinary sanctions came nearly two months after it finally cleared protesters from school property with the help of the Philadelphia Police Department.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The University of Pennsylvania has suspended four pro-Hamas protesters who participated in illegally occupying the campus, according to an activist group that helped organize the demonstration.

“The [university’s] administration has continued to endorse Zionist ideology and bent to the will of their donors in order to prioritize their profit and image.

In their most recent attempt to stifle pro-Palestinian speech, they have suspended four of their own students,” a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) splinter group — Freedom School for Palestine — wrote on Instagram.

“It is clear that Penn is not an institution of education but a corporate power which serves to oil the gears of the global war machine (and then beat, jail, and suspend those who protest this) [sic],” the post continued, adding that the students were “placed on semester-long or year-long suspensions.”

Freedom School for Palestine — which helped organize a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in which pro-Hamas students lived for weeks and refused to leave unless administrators agreed to boycott and divest from Israel — also implored the public to flood the administration’s office with messages demanding revocations of the suspensions, claiming that the students have been “robbed of their income, health insurance, and access to education.”

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) commented on the report on Wednesday.

“Penn continues to review student conduct cases in connection with campus demonstrations this spring,” it said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner.

“The university affords due process to all students in accordance with our policies and recommends sanctions as appropriate on a case-by-case basis.”

Penn’s handing down disciplinary sanctions came nearly two months after it finally cleared protesters from school property with the help of the Philadelphia Police Department.

The university had attempted to negotiate with the protesters, but its patience wore thin amid their escalating conduct.

After hours of discussions failed to yield a settlement acceptable to both sides, interim president Larry Jameson publicly called the protesters a safety hazard while noting that they had committed acts of vandalism, including defacing a statue of Benjamin Franklin, one of the United States’ Founding Fathers, and “The Button,” a sculpture built in the early 1980s.

In addition to divestment from Israel, the demonstration’s leaders demanded that the university vacate a suspension of Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine, which the school shut down after multiple rules violations.

Frustrated with the university’s refusing to grant them any concessions, masses of new people joined the encampment, expanding it over a larger area of school property and forcing the university to request additional security on campus.

“The protesters refused repeatedly to disband the encampment, to produce identification, to stop threatening, loud, and discriminatory speech and behavior, and to comply with instructions from Penn administrators and Public Safety,” Jameson said after the tents were dismantled.

“Instead, they called for others to join them in escalating their disruptions and expanding their encampment, necessitating that we take action to protect the safety and rights of everyone in our community.”

Antisemitism fueled by anti-Zionism exploded at the university long before the “encampment” was set up, an action which was precipitated by Israel’s military response to Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.

In September, it hosted “The Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which included speakers such as Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, who once promoted antisemitic tropes, saying in an interview, “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”

Another controversial figure invited to the event was former Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters, whose long record of anti-Jewish snipes was the subject of a documentary released last year.

One day before the event took place, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner.

Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Former Penn president Elizabeth Magill, who refused to stop the university from hosting the festival, resigned from her post in December, ending a 17-month tenure marked by controversy over what critics described as an insufficient response to surging antisemitism on campus.

The University of Pennsylvania will continue to deal with the events of this academic year for some time.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging a US congressional investigation of antisemitism there, which the House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched after Magill failed to provide acceptable answers about her handling of the problem during a hearing in December.

The ruling cleared the way for Congress to continue an inquiry that could complicate Penn’s attempts to repair a perception that it coddled antisemites because they claimed to be partisans of the progressive left.

As part of its inquiry, the committee, led by US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), subpoenaed the university for a trove of documents, including reports and correspondence, which would provide a window into how administrators discussed antisemitism on campus.

Such documents have already proved injurious to Columbia University, which according to reports by The Washington Free Beacon, derided Jewish students’ concerns about rising antisemitism, calling them “privileged” and “wealthy.”

The post University of Pennsylvania suspends pro-Hamas rioters for full semester, activist group says appeared first on World Israel News.

Demonstrators chanted in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and threatened to harm Jews.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have formally told anti-Israel protesters that they will be suspended from school if they refuse to end unauthorized demonstrations in which sections of campus have been commandeered and occupied for the past two weeks, according to statements issued on Monday.

“The continuation of the encampment presents a significant risk to the educational environment of the university,” interim Harvard president Alan Garber said in a note to the school community.

“Those who participate or perpetuate its continuation will be referred for involuntary leave from their schools. Among other implications, students placed on involuntary leave may not be able to sit for exams, may not continue to reside in Harvard housing, and must cease to be present on campus until reinstated.”

Garber noted that students residing in tents on Harvard Yard — a collection of structures that has been described as an “encampment” — has forced the rescheduling of exams and disrupted the academic lives of those who have continued doing their homework and studying for final exams, responsibilities that the protesters have seemingly abdicated.

“There are many ways for our community to engage constructively in reasoned discussion of complex issues, but initiating these difficult and crucial conversations does not require, or justify, interfering with the educational environment and Harvard’s academic mission,” Garber continued.

“Our disagreements are most effectively addressed through candid, constructive dialogue, building not on disruption, but on facts and reason.”

MIT delivered a similar ultimatum to anti-Zionist protesters there, even promising not to severely discipline students against whom the school has already filed disciplinary charges if they leave by 2:30 pm.

That deadline expired and, according to the Daily Wire, the protesters formed a human chain and resolved to continue on.

“You must swipe you ID as you leave the encampment, and we will keep on file the stamp from your exit swipe showing you departed by 2:30 pm,” MIT chancellor Melissa Nobles said in a school-wide notice.

“For those who do not leave the encampment voluntarily by 2:30 pm … if you either have been sanctioned by COD [the Committee on Discipline] or have a pending COD case related to events since Oct. 7 but choose to stay in the encampment past the deadline, you will be placed on an immediate interim full suspension lasting at least through [MIT] commencement activities, and you will be referred to the COD.”

Nobles continued, “This means you will be prohibited from participating in any academic activities — including classes, exams, or research — for the remainder of the semester. You will also be prohibited from participating in any academic activities — including classes, exams, or research — for the remainder of the semester. You will also not be permitted to reside in your assigned residence hall or use MIT dining halls.”

As the deadline approached the pro-Hamas activists shouted “We are intifada,” according to numerous reports, while officers reportedly dressed in riot gear arrived at the scene.

Further reports indicated that the encampment was later dissolved without issue.

“Looks like this worked! Encampment being cleared out as we speak!” MIT student Talia Khan tweeted. “These folks will be suspended according to MIT.”

Khan later told The Algemeiner: “I hope MIT goes through with their promised suspensions.”

At Harvard, some faculty have encouraged students to remain non-compliant with Garber’s directive.

Remarks of Professor Walter Johnson — whose anti-Zionist faculty group posted an antisemitic cartoon on social media in February — surfaced on X/Twitter after its publishing in which he accused the university of deception.

“There’s no room for reasoned discussion about this action!” Johnson bellowed while amplifying his voice with a megaphone. “If Harvard will not disclose its investments in the occupied territories, in the Israeli military, and in Gaza it does not make sense to repeat the words ‘civil discourse and reasoned interchange.’ It does not make sense to repeat the word ‘veritas!’”

For nearly three weeks, college students have been amassing in the hundreds at a growing number of schools, taking over sections of campuses by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel.

Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus.

In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.

On many campuses — including George Washington University in Washington, DC, New York University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, and University of Southern California, among others — members of the faculty have attached themselves to demonstrations, encouraging students to support terrorism, antisemitism, and further violent convulsions aimed at overthrowing the US government.

The post Elite universities deliver ultimatum to anti-Israel demonstrators as school year draws to a close appeared first on World Israel News.

The judge rejected the Arizona State University students’ lawsuit claiming their school was causing them “irreparable harm.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The U.S. District Court in Arizona on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought by student protestors against their university over their suspension due to their anti-Israel activities on campus.

Twenty students wanted the court to force the Arizona State University (ASU) Board of Regents to reinstate them due to the “irreparable harm” it was causing them not to attend class.

One of them, a senior, will not be able to graduate due to the suspension.

They also alleged that their First Amendment rights to free speech had been abrogated by the administrative move that followed their arrest for trespassing after they refused to leave the pro-Hamas encampment they participated in along with hundreds of other protestors.

Their lawyer, David Chami, told ABC News that ASU’s decision to suspend was made “even before they had all the evidence, all the facts,” which is “contrary to what we do in this country — innocent until proven guilty, right?”

However, Judge John Tuchi ruled that the plaintiffs had not presented sufficient evidence of either claim, and refused to grant a temporary injunction that would allow them back into class.

The trespassing charge was not addressed at this time.

Some 50 other students, faculty members and outsiders had also been detained overnight April 26 after refusing the college administration’s demand to clear the lawn they had occupied the previous day.

The police entered after the protestors had been clearly told that they were violating the university’s campus-use policies and the Student Code of Conduct.

“Peaceful expression of views is always acceptable,” the school had added in a statement, “but demonstrations cannot disrupt university operations. ASU is committed to maintaining a secure environment for everyone.”

ASU’s move to bring in the police and dismantle the encampment only one day after it was set up was an unusually quick move. On most campuses, similar encampments have been allowed to remain for many days, and in some cases, weeks, while administrations negotiate with the protestors instead of enforcing their own rules.

According to a Fox News report Saturday, the police have so far made over 2,200 arrests on 49 college campuses throughout the United States.

The protests, which universally demand that the schools divest from Israel due to its alleged crimes in going to war with Hamas after the terror organization massacred 1,200 people in a surprise invasion on October 7, 2023, have typically become hate-fests full of violent rhetoric and actions.

While consistently calling for the destruction of Israel, the demonstrators have also turned against fellow Jewish students, many of whom have been repeatedly assaulted physically or verbally as they try to get to class or their dorm rooms.

The post Court denies anti-Israel students’ plea to lift their suspensions appeared first on World Israel News.

Joy Wallace also suggested Home Secretary Priti Patel’s skin color was the result of “a strong sunbed.”

By World Israel News Staff

The British Labour Party has suspended a councillor over a series of incendiary tweets that included accusing a rabbi of being “paid handsomely” to criticize former party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Councillor Joy Wallace also called Rachel Riley, a Jewish presenter on the British game show Countdown, a “witch” for opposing the former Labour leader in since-deleted posts, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.

Wallace also made derogatory remarks about British Home Secretary Priti Patel’s Asian heritage, saying her skin color might be the result of “vitiligo or a strong sunbed.”

Wallace’s suspension means she is barred from attending any party meetings or events and cannot hold office within the party.

The news came as the party is facing questions into its screening process in the wake of a spate of suspensions, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Last month, fellow Labour councillor from the borough of Haringey, Ibrahim Ali, was suspended after the newspaper unearthed his remarks defending Islamic State terrorist known as “Jihadi John” as a “beautiful young man.”

That month also saw Milton Keynes councillor Ansar Hussein suspended over antisemitic social media posts about Israel, the report said. Hussein has since apologized for the posts.

The Jewish Chronicle also exposed an article shared by Newham councillor Belgica Guana, titled: “The so-called ‘Holocaust’ is propaganda in an ongoing war between the Jews and those with the courage to stand up to them.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of racism extremely seriously. They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

Corbyn’s five-year term as Labour chief was marred by persistent reports of antisemitism within the party. In January of this year, Corbyn was barred from being reinstated as a member of parliament.

The post UK Labour party suspends councillor who said rabbi was paid to criticize Corbyn appeared first on World Israel News.