Mideast War blowback

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An anti-Israel protest that had seized a Barnard College building on Wednesday ended after a bomb threat, which activists claimed was a ruse to remove them from the site.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest swore on Instagram Thursday to renew protests after the New York Police Department cleared the demonstrators from the Milstein Center.

“We must stand against this latest wave of repression and criminalization as a united student body,” CUAD said. “We will not back down.”

Barnard College President Laura Ann Rosenbury said that activists were evacuated so that the NYPD could search for a bomb and assess the threat.

“Barnard staff in the building immediately notified the masked disruptors about the bomb threat and once again told them to leave. Many of them still refused to leave. Our staff, at risk to their own personal safety, remained in the Milstein lobby, urging the masked disrupters to take the threat seriously. Even when the College activated the fire alarm, the masked protesters put our entire campus at risk by refusing to leave,” Rosenbury said in a Wednesday statement. “The decision to request NYPD assistance was guided and informed entirely by the absolute obligation we have to keep every member of our community safe.”

CUAD dismisses demands, says bomb threat is a "ruse"
CUAD dismissed the bomb threat as a ploy to remove activists, labeling it on social media as “fake.”

During the evacuation, the NYPD said nine people were taken into custody, given desk appearance tickets, and charged with obstructing governmental administration, trespass, and disorderly conduct.

Rosenbury said that she had spoken to the protesters over the phone and was willing to meet with them if they removed their masks. This offer was rejected, with CUAD saying on Instagram that they would remove their masks if Barnard disclosed any Israeli financial ties to the activists.

THE DEMANDS for disclosure, divestment, and amnesty for three expelled students were the same that demonstrators insisted on during last Wednesday’s Milbank Hall occupation.

Investigations have been opened into the University of California's alleged antisemitism under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced on Wednesday.

Part of the investigation will look into whether there has been a pattern of discriminatory employment practices.

The Trump administration on Friday announced that it would cancel approximately $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University "due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."

The move comes just days after the administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism notified Columbia that it was going to conduct a "comprehensive review" of the university's federal grants and contracts.

The task force includes staffers from the Justice Department, Health and Human Services Department, Education Department and the U.S. General Services Administration.

In a statement explaining the cancellation of certain federal grants Friday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon implied that Columbia had not complied with federal antidiscrimination laws.

“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” she said in a statement. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

Shortly after the announcement, Columbia committed to engaging with the Trump administration on the issue in the hopes of restoring the lost federal funds.

“We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding. We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff," a spokesperson for the university told NBC News.

In a post on X later Friday, McMahon said that she had a "productive meeting" with the university's interim president Katrina Armstrong.

"Had a productive meeting with Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong today. Look forward to working together to protect all students on their campus. The Trump Administration will not allow the continued harassment and threats of violence against students," the education secretary wrote.

On Friday, Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights and the head of the Justice Department Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, said in a statement that canceling these federal funds "is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism."

"This is only the beginning," he added.

After the Trump administration's announcement, Brian Cohen, the executive director of The Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia and Barnard said he hoped the move would be a "wake up call" for campus leadership.

“Columbia has an antisemitism crisis, and for months, I have worked with faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni to urge the administration to act quickly to address this crisis and avoid lasting damage to the University," Cohen said in a statement. "I hope this federal action is a wake-up call to Columbia’s administration and trustees to take antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish students and faculty seriously so that these grants can be restored, the vital work of the University can continue, and that Columbia can become, once again, a place where the Jewish community thrives.”

A majority of 29 out of 55 Copenhagen City Council members voted to name a location "Palestine Square", it was announced on Thursday. The new name is set to take effect on April 1.
The discussion to name a Copenhagen square after Palestine has been ongoing for a while, and not without controversy.

In August 2023, a majority of The Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), The Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre), The Socialist People's Party (SF), and The Alternative (Alternativet) supported the proposal to name the square.

The decision had been set for October 9, 2023, but was postponed following Hamas's October 7 massacre.

Danish-Palestinians welcomed the decision, viewing it as "a testament to the strong ties between Denmark and Palestine," according to Palestinian Authority state media WAFA.

Fathi El-Abed, chairman of the Danish-Palestinian Friendship Association, expressed excitement over the decision, calling it a "historic day," adding that "it has been a long and challenging process with ups and downs. But now, we can see that there is a majority in favor of naming a Palestine Square in the heart of our Copenhagen," according to Danish news site DR.

Email campaign of compromise
Thousands of emails were sent to Copenhagen city councillors on Wednesday, urging them to consider Denmark's historical ties to the Jewish community and reject the proposal, DR reported.
The emails emphazised that "public squares should unite, not divide," and stated that the square would remind Jews of the October 7 attack and other attacks by PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, DR reported.

Some of the emails suggested naming the square after an anti-Hamas Palestinian activist, or naming it as "Reconciliation Square" instead, according to DR.

Traffic around the Palace of Westminster in London came to a standstill for much of Saturday as emergency crews tried to reach a man who climbed the Big Ben tower holding a Palestinian flag.

Negotiators were lifted up on a fire brigade ladder platform several times before eventually talking him down. The barefoot man, who appeared to be staging a protest on a ledge several meters (yards) up Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, stepped off the building and onto a cherry picker after a long conversation with negotiators. He got into a waiting ambulance.

Officials said tours of the Houses of Parliament were canceled because of the incident.

Westminster Bridge and a nearby street were closed for much of the day and several emergency services vehicles were at the scene as crowds looked on. Police also blocked off all pedestrian access to Parliament Square.

Canada elected Mark Carney as the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, and he will serve as the successor of Justin Trudeau for Canada’s prime minister role. While vowing to fight Trump’s tariffs, Canada’s Jewish community is not convinced that he will keep the same vow to fight antisemitism, nor is his stance on Israel promising in the Diaspora.

Carney was a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England and has never previously held an elected role in office. He garnered 85.9% of the vote in the four-person race, taking control of the ruling party following Trudeau’s departure after nine years.

Though Carney will take office immediately, he will face Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, in national elections expected in October. According to the Forward, Poilievre has called Canadian Jews “the true Indigenous people” and has even hitchhiked through Israel in his youth. However, following backlash against Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports, Poilievre’s party’s support has narrowed.

More than 335,000 Jews live in Canada, accounting for 0.9% of the population. Since the October 7 Hamas massacre, Canada’s Jewish population has faced a new level of antisemitic attacks. Between firebombs and gunshots at synagogues, antisemitic graffiti, and continued anti-Israel protests, the country has faced an antisemitic power surge.

Trudeau previously criticized the IDF’s Gaza response, backed UN resolutions against West Bank Israeli settlements, and said he would enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Uncertainty surrounding Canadian-Israeli relations under Carney
Even though Jewish leaders nationwide were supportive of Trudeau’s departure, they do not necessarily think Canada-Israel relations will be better under Carney.
The prime minister-designate met with Netanyahu in 2012 when he visited Israel, according to the Forward. Since then, it’s been mixed signals despite condemning antisemitic attacks and calling for stronger enforcement of hate speech laws.

He has made mistakes in political debates and has appeared in social media posts from pro-Palestinian student groups. The Conservative mayor of Hampstead, Jeremy Levi, accused Carney of being silent in recent statements on Israel and antisemitism. On Instagram, Levi wrote, “Silence speaks volumes, and his silence is deafening.”

However, he was cited with a low grade on Palestinian rights by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East due to his lack of clear positions on the matter.

Carney has attended Holocaust memorial events and stated, “Never Again is more than a phrase – it must be a promise.” While balancing public support for Israel’s right to defend itself and the removal of Hamas, he has also supported the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Carney mistakenly said he “was in agreement with Hamas” in answering a question on the governance of post-war Gaza. His chief rival interjected and said their party did not support Hamas, leading him to correct himself to say he supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state without the involvement of the terror organization.

Last month, Carney said, “I support the hard work of reaching a two-state solution, with a viable and free Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the State of Israel.” His critics still describe his response as bland.

Though many say he is not doing enough or speaking up, he was still one of 50 leaders and clergy who signed an open letter calling for the enforcement of law at pro-Palestinian protests, pushing for the identification of hate speech.

His October 7 social media response quoted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: “I learned the perils of language and those of silence. I learned that in extreme situations where human lives and dignity are at stake, neutrality is a sin.”

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil – a Green Card-holding permanent resident of the U.S. – over his leading role in Columbia University's Gaza solidarity encampment protest movement, vowing it would be the first of many similar detentions to come.

Khalil, a recent graduate of the university, was initially detained in New York, then moved to a facility in New Jersey, and is now being held in Louisiana, according to ICE records. Khalil's lawyer, Amy E. Greer, said the transfer was "designed to frustrate the New York federal court's jurisdiction, and isolate Mahmoud far from his lawyers, his home, and his local community of support."

Greer told Haaretz that Khalil has not been charged and is waiting for an appearance before an immigration judge.

Following a petition submitted by Khalil, a New York judge has ruled that the activist will not be deported until the court decides otherwise. The court also decreed that the sides meet on Wednesday to discuss Khalil's petition.

Protesters gathered at Federal Plaza in New York, where Khalil was first detained, ahead of a mass demonstration. At the Columbia University campus, a separate rally consisting of Jewish leaders and school faculty also took place.

ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come," Trump posted on Truth Social a little over 24 hours following the arrest.

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again," he continued.

Trump added that "if you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America's Colleges and Universities to comply. Thank you!"

The White House later posted "Shalom, Mahmoud" over the arrest, echoing its usage of Hebrew following its Friday decision to revoke $400 million in federal funding for the New York Ivy League school.

Shortly before the arrest, U.S. officials confirmed it would use AI technology to determine which student protesters would qualify for arrest and deportation under Trump's order.

House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded to the arrest: "Mahmoud Khalil is a legal permanent resident whose wife, an American citizen, is eight months pregnant. To the extent his actions were inconsistent with Columbia University policy and created an unacceptable hostile academic environment for Jewish students and others, there is a serious university disciplinary process that can handle the matter."

The arrest and detention of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil by ICE has sparked swift condemnation from civil rights groups, Jewish leaders, and free speech advocates.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that the Trump administration "is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy – from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking DEI. As we've repeatedly said: this makes Jews – and so many others – less safe."

Columbia and Barnard faculty, joined by Jewish community leaders and immigrant rights advocates, held a press conference on campus condemning the Khalil's arrest.

"I'm the son of immigrants. And immigrants know a thing or two about ICE. ICE is not about safety. ICE is about fear," said NYC council member Shaun Abreu.

"I am mortified as an American, as a Jew, and as an alumnus of this institution that you [addressing Khalil] have been taken into ICE custody, and I cannot even imagine what you and your family are going through right now," said Rabbi Jason Klein, Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, at the rally.

"[Columbia] President Armstrong, I am concerned that you may not have done enough to protect Mahmoud Khalil and his family."

New York Jewish Agenda, a coalition of progressive Jewish organizations, released a statement saying, "In the long tradition of Jewish advocates who have defended those with whom we disagree, our values call on us to defend the freedom of speech and right to due process – even for those whose expression we may abhor."

Eva Borgwardt, spokesperson for the Jewish group IfNotNow called the arrest "utterly despicable," saying, "Let's be perfectly clear: not only does destroying higher education and abducting students for political speech not keep Jews safe, it actively endangers us.

"Laying waste to our democracy and people's lives in the name of protecting Jews will inevitably foster resentment of us and only grow the antisemitic threats we face."

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia called this arrest "the kind of action one ordinarily associates with the world's most repressive regimes… Universities must recognize that these actions pose an existential threat to academic life itself."

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, also a mayoral candidate, denounced the arrest as "an unconstitutional and egregious violation of the First Amendment, and a frightening weaponization of immigration law."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned the arrest, warning, "If the federal government can disappear a legal U.S. permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear U.S. citizens too."

The Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats simply stated in response, "Free Mahmoud Khalil."

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, called the arrest "unprecedented, illegal, and un-American," adding that the move is clearly "intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate."

According to the habeas corpus petition submitted by Khalil, he was born and raised in Syria after his grandparents were "forcibly removed" from the city of Tiberias with the founding of Israel. He married a U.S. citizen in 2023 and became a permanent U.S. citizen in 2024.

With the Saturday arrest of Columbia University Apartheid Divest senior activist Mahmoud Khalil, the organization that has been involved in a series of confrontations with New York City academic institutions has been thrust back into the spotlight.

The issue of law enforcement action against the group’s leadership cannot be separated from the actions and objectives of CUAD, which perceives itself as a revolutionary force working toward the destruction of the United States and Israel.

The means to achieve this are not just through vandalism and civil unrest, which CUAD directly employs, as the group also supports terrorism at home and in the Middle East, praising the October 7 massacre as the pinnacle of revolutionary action.

CUAD, a coalition of far-left and anti-Israel student activist organizations, led many of the post-October 7 protest actions at Columbia University

In the short term, the protests sought to pressure New York academic institutions to disclose all investments and cut any financial and academic ties with Israel, its institutions, or those in relationship with them.

Yet the revolutionary ideology that motivates CUAD seeks more than these immediate objectives, in the same way that new demands have arisen by activist groups once their calls for a ceasefire were met.
The group sees the United States as an empire, with their fight within “the belly of the beast” inextricably connected to the fight of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Levant.

CUAD, like most anti-Israel organizations, sees the entirety of Israel as an illegitimate project, not limiting their designs to the Green Line. In an October Instagram post, it described 76 years of “Nakba” and Israeli state illegitimacy, further explaining in an October 17 Substack article commemorating the October 7 massacre that it would “not stop demonstrating until Zionism ends.”

“Colonial projects all die, and Zionism will not be saved,” reads the article.

The so-called liberation sought by these activists is a global revolution, highlighted by their calls to restore the US to “Turtle Island” in the same fashion as they propose Israel become “Palestine.” An encampment banner shown in a June 1 CUAD Instagram post called for liberation “From Turtle Island to Palestine.”

We recognize that we must work hard to weaken US imperialism'
In an August 16 Substack article connecting the theories of controversial post-colonial political philosopher Frantz Fanon to practice, CUAD members wrote, “As students living in the US, we recognize that we must work hard to weaken US imperialism.”

CUAD repeatedly describes both Israel and the US as part of the same imperial system, sharing a February 2024 social media post in which Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation was described as being against the “US-Israeli state.”

In a November 21 Substack article describing how a CUAD reading group studies the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)’s Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine, one student supposedly remarked, “The struggle in Palestine is my fight as a Black person in America.”
“The movement for Palestinian liberation is not isolated; it is part of the global anti-imperialist struggle,” the CUAD writer contextualized. “The interconnectedness of struggles against imperialism is critical – revolution sparks revolution.”

CUAD believes that Israel cannot survive without US support and concluded in a November 7 article that by “working against US imperialism at home, alongside the people of Harlem and with an ear for their demands, we believe that we can facilitate its fall. Therefore, we cannot separate the struggle in support of a free Palestine with the struggle against US imperialism.”

The means acceptable to achieve the destruction of Israel and the United States included armed violence and terrorism.

In an October 8 Instagram post in which the CUAD leadership apologized to member Kymani James for coming out against his January statements proclaiming “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and suggesting he was inclined to kill them because of their supposedly evil ideology, CUAD reiterated their support for the tool of political violence.

We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” said CUAD.

“In the face of violence from the oppressor equipped with the most lethal military force on the planet, where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”

The Substack articles posted by CUAD are rife with battlefield reports describing how Hamas and Hezbollah are fighting “heroically” against the IDF. In an August 16 article, CUAD assured a reader that Hamas and the Houthis were progressive forces because of the support of the people and their roles in weakening US imperialism. The rockets fired by the Houthis and other terrorist organizations against Israeli civilian centers are cast in a glorified tone.

“For over a year, the resistance to this genocidal occupation has been a banner of hope for many since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, with the axis of resistance remaining strong,” CUAD wrote in the same newsletter.

CUAD praised Sinwar, October 7 Massacre
In a fawning November 7 Substack tribute, it described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “brave man” who will live in the hearts of many. CUAD praised the October 7 Massacre as “Sinwar’s crowning achievement” because the “Al-Aqsa Flood was the very essence of what it is to resist ‘with what we have.’”

“The act of Palestinian resistance on October 7, known as the Al-Aqsa Flood, breached Israeli security and made significant military advances. [This is] a day that will go down in history.”
Besides Sinwar, the arch-terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah are the icons of CUAD, with the group mourning the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

CUAD documents regularly quote PFLP founder George Habash and deceased Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, such as in a November 21 Substack post in which they praised the concept of “martyrdom” as something only seen as negative by those who had “separated resistance from the path to liberation.”

PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani is a favorite of the group, with his writings featured in events like those depicted in a November 6 Instagram post. Local terrorists are also praised, with convicted murderer and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur’s poetry chanted by students in a September 28 social media video.

Terrorism as an option of action is not just a theoretical exercise for activists in the US, in CUAD’s belief system.

In a June 20 Instagram post, CUAD came out in support of Casey Goonan, who allegedly engaged in an arson spree of a University of California, Berkeley Police Department vehicle, a construction site, a brush area near a library, and another building. CUAD viewed it as a “rational action of targeting state infrastructure” in response to US support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

“CUAD stands in full support of Casey Goonan and all of our comrades who have bravely undertaken the call to escalate for Palestine,” said the coalition.

“The fires on UC campuses have been in direct response to the university’s violent police repression of their own students. The spark ignited on US campuses during the intifada of the last few months cannot be quelled, and further repression will only continue to transform these sparks into flames.”

CUAD denounced those who attacked Goonan’s tactics as ineffective or unwise, saying that they had clear “ethical content.”

The review of PFLP literature to understand terrorism was not an isolated incident, with Substack posts detailing their study of terrorist materials, including a November article about how PFLP and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine operations led a student to say they “highlighted the importance of celebrating resistance as a source of inspiration.”

The October 17 article described how they read Mao Zedong’s On Guerrilla Warfare to analyze and glean “lessons” from the October 7 massacre. On February 8, CUAD drew outrage for holding an event at the People’s Forum to learn “the methods employed to sustain the revolution” from the First Intifada.

Most recently, before Khalil’s arrest, dozens of keffiyeh-clad activists entered Barnard’s Milbank Hall, leaving the hallways graffitied after the occupation ended. The group demanded amnesty for disciplined students and negotiations for their main demands, threatening to continue the occupation and disruption until the administration caved.

Belgian author Herman Brusselmans, who wrote last August, “I get so furious that I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet,” was acquitted Tuesday by the Ghent court in Belgium of charges of Holocaust denial, racism, and incitement to hatred.

Jewish organizations around the world condemned the ruling, saying it would set a dangerous precedent that would make it harder to fight antisemitism in Europe.

Last August, Brusselmans, a well-known writer and intellectual who appears regularly on television, sparked turmoil in Europe’s Jewish community when he wrote a satirical piece in the Belgian magazine Humo describing his wrath after seeing Palestinians dying in Gaza.

“I see an image of a crying and screaming Palestinian boy, completely out of his mind, calling for his mother who is lying under the rubble,” Brusselmans wrote. “I get so angry that I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet.”

“Of course, you always have to remember: Not every Jew is a murderous bastard,” he added. “I imagine an elderly Jewish man shuffling down my own street, dressed in a washed-out shirt, fake cotton trousers and old sandals, and I feel sorry for him and almost get tears in my eyes, but a moment later I wish him to hell.”

The Belgium court ruled that Brusselmans’ statement was a permissable form of free expression and did not constitute a criminal offense.

“The court recognizes that certain members of the Jewish community could possibly take offence at some sentences in some columns, but emphasizes that the author’s expressions of opinion are protected by the right to free speech,” the judge wrote.

Following the ruling, European Jewish Association (EJA) president Rabbi Menachem Margolin called the decision “a deeply alarming message about the state of the fight against antisemitism in Belgium and Europe.’’

“Today, the Belgian justice system has established a grave precedent: hate crime laws are flexible – and when it comes to Jews, they suddenly become malleable,’’ he said.

Following the decision, Brusselmans told the Belgian news service VRT that he wasn’t sure if he would make similar statements in the future.

“That is difficult to answer. I do not know what I will write in the future,” he said. “I write a column every week. I may adapt, I may not. But I am careful.”

Cornell University police detained 17 people Monday evening for disrupting a panel Monday on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Four former Middle East leaders and U.S. ambassadors participated in the event, which proceeded despite repeated verbal disruptions from protesters.

Protestors criticized the university for inviting former Israeli Foreign Minister Tziporah Livni to participate in the panel, calling Livni a war criminal. Livni, a former center-left Israeli leader, was previously accused of war crimes in a suit filed by a UK pro-Palestinian group for her role in a major military offensive in Gaza in 2008.

In a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group Tuesday, campus police can be seen escorting a protester out of an auditorium as they shouted at one of the panelists.

“500 children,” the protester shouted. “500 children in 2014 and you killed them. You are a butcher.”

Students for Justice at Palestine (SJP), the student group that planned and promoted the protest, said Tuesday that police began escorting protesters out of the auditorium shortly after the panelists were introduced, around 6:20 p.m. Police continued to remove other protesters throughout the event as they interrupted panelists one at a time.

Organizers said police brought the protesters to another location in the building, where they were detained “briefly” before being released. Police also requested identification while protesters were detained. Those detained included at least nine students, according to a statement it sent Tuesday.

A SJP spokesperson confirmed at least one person was arrested and then held at nearby Barton Hall for “processing.” That person was handcuffed, unlike others, they said. The group alleged the person was arrested despite complying with police requests to exit peacefully.

The spokesperson said that nine of the 17 protesters said police “informed them they were arrested”, but could not provide verification of any arrests.

The university’s interim president Michael Kotlikoff released a statement Tuesday calling the disruptions “disappointing” and “unacceptable.” Kotlikoff, who organized and hosted the event, added that he felt the discussion was “successful” in spite of the disruptions.

The “Pathways to Peace” panel was promoted as a “wide-ranging public conversation” on the political and ethnic history in the Middle East. It was free to students and members of the public.

“Individuals attempting to shout down speakers and disrupt dialogue seriously compromise our values,” Kotlikoff wrote. “Those who disrupted the Pathways to Peace event were swiftly removed.”

Kotlikoff did not mention any arrests in the statement, but wrote that suspension was the maximum disciplinary action the nine students who participated could face.

Those students will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, he wrote. Staff members involved “will be referred for disciplinary actions” to Human Resources. The statement did not specify how many staff members were involved.

Kotlikoff said that some protesters were neither students or employees but “outside disruptors,” who he said will be barred from Cornell’s campus.

Students for Justice in Palestine “faces suspension as a registered campus organization,” Koltikoff added.

The event featured Livni, former Palestinian Authority leader and prime minister Salam Fayyad and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro. The panel was moderated by retired diplomat Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to a host of Arab nations.

Nearly 100 protesters were arrested Thursday after a sit-in at Trump Tower in New York City to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained over the weekend by federal immigration agents.

The organization Jewish Voice for Peace livestreamed the sit-in, showing hundreds of demonstrators packed into the building's lobby. Some held signs that read "Fight Nazis not students," "Free Mahmoud free Palestine" and "You can't deport a movement."

Many people could be heard chanting "Free Mahmoud."

Protesters arrived in two groups around 11:30 a.m. Police said some entered through a side door and others through the front, dressed in regular clothing before they revealed their "protest gear underneath."

The protesters were wearing red T-shirts that said "Stop arming Israel" and "Not in our name," the group's spokesperson, Sonya Meyerson-Knox, told NBC News. About 300 protesters were present, she said.

"My grandmother lost her cousins in the Holocaust. I grew up on these stories. We know what happens when authoritarian regimes begin targeting people, begin abducting them at night, separating their families and scapegoating," she said. "And we know that it’s one step from here to losing all right to protest and then further horrors happening, as we have seen too well in our history.

The protesters hung two banners along the golden escalator Donald Trump rode down when he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015 before police arrived and started removing protesters from the building, she said.

Police said 98 people were arrested on charges of trespassing, obstructing government administration and resisting arrest. There were no injuries or damage to property, police said.

The protesters being detained could be seen, handcuffed in white zip ties, being escorted into police vehicles and empty city buses.

They shouted "Free Palestine" and "Free Mahmoud" as they were forced out of the gold-adorned building that sits alongside Tiffany & Co., Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana and other luxury retailers on Fifth Avenue.

Some onlookers cheered for the arrestees and joined in their chants, while others seemed annoyed by the disruption to foot traffic.

Standing across the street, Nina Levene, 60, a lifelong New Yorker whose mother is a Holocaust survivor, sneered in disgust. She called the protests "anti-American."

Jewish Voice for Peace said it "demands the Trump administration release Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention."

"The detention of Mahmoud is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by a repressive, authoritarian regime," the group said in a statement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil, 30, a Columbia University graduate and a green card holder, on Saturday. His attorney, Amy Greer, said he was told that his student visa was being revoked.

Khalil's wife, who has not been named, said they had returned home when ICE agents confronted them. She said that they were not shown a warrant and that agents told her to go to their apartment or face arrest.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Khalil was detained in coordination with ICE and the State Department in support of Trump's "executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism." The spokesperson said Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."

Trump and his administration have not provided evidence of the allegations.

On Thursday, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced a lawsuit against Columbia over its "apparent willingness to comply with the Congressional request to disclose private student records."

"Our lawsuit seeks to protect the constitutional rights of students who should not be subjected to political intimidation or invasive government overreach. We will continue to fight for the privacy and dignity of all students," CAIR-NY said.

Columbia Univerity graduate Mahmoud Khalil and seven current students sued the school Thursday in a bid to block it from producing disciplinary records to a House committee as school officials said they were sanctioning students involved in pro-Palestinian rallies last spring.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the committee's request for the records violates the First Amendment and that the university's compliance with the committee constitutes a breach of contract.

Columbia officials declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Just as the suit was filed, the university announced “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions” for those who participated in the occupation of Hamilton Hall at the school's New York City campus.

The university did not say how many students it had disciplined.

Last week, the Trump administration said it would cancel nearly $400 million in federal grants to the university “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Soon after, Columbia committed to engaging with Trump officials in hope of restoring the lost federal funds.

In seeking Khalil's deportation, federal officials have cited a rarely used provision in immigration law that gives the secretary of state the authority to deport someone if it is determined that the person “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

The Department of Homeland Security has said Khalil’s activities "aligned" with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he had distributed "pro-Hamas propaganda" at Columbia's campus.

A lawyer for Khalil, Samah Sisay, said that the arrest violates his free speech rights and that there is no evidence he provided support to a terrorist organization.

Khalil, 30, is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who is married to a U.S. citizen and is a legal permanent resident of the United States.

Federal agents arrested a Palestinian student who had taken part in protests at Columbia University last spring and had overstayed her student visa, officials said Friday.

The student, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was previously arrested for her participation in the protests. Her visa was terminated in January 2022 for lack of attendance, officials said.

Her arrest by immigration officers from the Newark, New Jersey, field office follows the self-deportation on Tuesday of a Columbia doctoral student from India, Ranjani Srinivasan, whom DHS accused of supporting Hamas. The State Department had revoked her visa a week earlier.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”

The latest arrest comes as students at Columbia say they are fearful that they and their friends could be unjustly targeted amid a tense climate on campus, hours after federal agents executed search warrants on two university residences.

Todd Blanche, U.S. deputy attorney general, said Friday that the Justice Department is working with DHS as part of an investigation into Columbia's "harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus."

While school officials told students that no arrests were made and no items seized when DHS agents entered two student rooms on Thursday night, foreign students remained on edge.

The Ivy League’s campus in upper Manhattan has seen renewed demonstrations in recent days following the arrest Saturday of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and legal permanent resident who was publicly involved in negotiations during last year’s school protests.

Many students approached by NBC News declined to comment, but some who agreed to speak asked not to be named for fear of government retaliation.

"This is exactly what I was worried about months ago," said an engineering student from the United Kingdom who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring over the war in Gaza. The student said he was worried about campus raids and other potential intervention by the federal government.

"It's also like, you don't know the scope of the people they're trying to target because thousands of students were involved in this in some capacity. It would have been on camera," the student said, adding, "Logically nothing is going to happen to me, but it's stressful."

Columbia’s American students are rallying around their international counterparts as well after the federal agents searched the two student residences.

Another student, who is American, said she was "shocked" when she read the email from Katrina Armstrong, Columbia's interim president, informing students that DHS had served the university with judicial search warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge.

"It is pretty frightening. The school is doing everything in their power to do their best to keep students safe, but I think there’s a limit to what they're able to do," the student, a junior, said. "Last night was evidence of that limit."

Sebastian Javadpoor, 22, said he was "overcome with rage" upon the latest search warrants.

Javadpoor, who leads the university's student-led Democratic club, said he and about a dozen other student leaders met with school officials to convey their fears.

"We have students who are so scared about the possibility of retaliation, about the possibility of having ICE reported on them, that they're too afraid to call public safety if something happens to them," he said. "They're too afraid to call NYPD. They're too afraid to even seek support and services from the administration itself."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil as part of an effort to revoke his green card and deport him, his lawyers said. Khalil, 30, an Algerian citizen and pro-Palestinian activist, is married to a U.S. citizen and was arrested at his university-owned residential building.

“The Secretary of State has determined that your presence or activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security stated in a document obtained by NBC News.

He is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana, where government officials want him to remain. His lawyers argue that he should be returned to New York and that the administration’s actions violate the First Amendment.

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil filed an amended petition and complaint Thursday that names President Donald Trump as a respondent as the Palestinian activist challenges his attempted deportation for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.

Lawyers for Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, called the Trump administration’s actions against him “targeted, retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protestor because of his constitutionally protected speech," the filing says.

The amended complaint in Khalil's case, filed in federal District Court in Manhattan, details the 30-year-old's whereabouts and what was allegedly said when he was detained by immigration authorities and sent to Louisiana.

The suit alleges that as Khalil was detained in New York on Saturday night, he saw one agent approach another and say, “The White House is requesting an update.”

The case has caused protests from free-speech advocates who argue that Khalil is not being accused of any crime, but is being punished because of his role in lawful protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Khalil's deportation, saying he will remain in the U.S. as the court weighs the challenge to his arrest and detention.

The amended lawsuit also names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Wednesday that the case was not about free speech.

“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with," Rubio said. "No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card.”
Khalil's lawyers in the complaint are asking that a judge free Khalil immediately. They argue that the administration's actions are intended to punish and chill free speech and violate the First Amendment.

"Secretary Rubio made this determination based on Mr. Khalil’s lawful activity protected by the First Amendment: his participation in protests and his statements regarding Palestine and Israel," Khalil's attorneys argue in the complaint.

"Neither Secretary Rubio nor any other government official has alleged that Mr. Khalil has committed any crime or, indeed, broken any law whatsoever," they wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups involved in the case, said Thursday that Rubio is seeking Khalil's removal using a "vague and rarely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act."

"With today’s filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement
Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who is married to a U.S. citizen, played a major role in protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University. His attorneys call him "a mediator, an active participant in, and at times the public face" of the demonstrations at the Manhattan campus.

The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

Anti-Israel activists at Columbia University in New York derided janitors as “Jew-lovers,” during protests on campus last year, according to a discrimination complaint.

The incidents occurred last spring as the activists held a protest encampment at the center of Columbia’s campus and took over Hamilton Hall, a campus building.

The janitors filed a discrimination complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year. The commission was working on an investigation last month, according to records obtained today by The Times of Israel. The investigation was first reported today by The New York Post.

The civil rights complaint that sparked the investigation says the two janitors, Lester Wilson and Mariano Torres, began finding graffiti, including swastikas, on blackboards in Hamilton Hall in November 2023, shortly after the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel.

Torres says he found and was forced to clean swastikas “dozens of times,” on a near-daily basis, in Hamilton Hall classrooms. He began throwing away chalk in the classrooms so the vandals would not be able to leave graffiti, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Neither Torres nor Wilson are Jewish. Torres says that, as a Latino, he felt the swastikas were aimed at him as well as at Jews on campus.

Last spring, the janitors started finding people hiding in Hamilton Hall at night when the building was closed, and found doors left ajar after hours.

The two janitors were in Hamilton Hall when the protesters invaded the building in April and say they feared for their lives.

Torres says masked protesters surrounded him while he was cleaning and blocked him from reaching another colleague.

Torres says that the takeover appeared coordinated, with two masked demonstrators giving orders to the protesters and directing them around the building. The rioters brought supplies including water, food, mattresses, tape, and rope into the building as others put vending machines in front of the building’s entrances.

Two protesters trailed Torres around the building, and a group of masked individuals surrounded him, repeatedly calling him a “Jew-lover,” the complaint says.

One man threatened Torres, telling him, “I’m going to get 20 guys up here to f**k you up,” according to the complaint. Another protester repeatedly hit him in the back.

During the Hamilton Hall takeover, Wilson says in his complaint, the protesters shoved him, rammed furniture into him, and trapped him. When he asked the protesters to release him, they repeatedly called him a “Jew-lover,” “Jew-worker,” and “Zionist,” the complaint says.

The complaint claims Columbia administrators failed to take action against the protesters in the lead-up to the building takeover.

Torres and Wilson suffered physical injuries and psychological trauma that has prevented them from returning to work, the complaint says.

Columbia University signaled Wednesday that it would comply with the Trump administration's demands in return for restoring $400 million in federal funding, saying it would "engage in constructive dialogue with our federal regulators."

The Trump administration canceled the university's federal grants this month, accusing it of "inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” And last week, the administration sent a letter to the university laying out nine demands Columbia must commit to by the end of business hours Wednesday "as a precondition" to restore federal funding.

The university's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, responded Wednesday that Columbia will "not waver from our principles and the values of academic freedom." She also appeared to suggest that the university will comply with the administration's demands.

"Legitimate questions about our practices and progress can be asked, and we will answer them," Armstrong wrote in a letter posted on the university's website. "But we will never compromise our values of pedagogical independence, our commitment to academic freedom, or our obligation to follow the law."

"We will also continue — as is our responsibility and as we have done throughout our history — to engage in constructive dialogue with our federal regulators, including on the work we are doing to address antisemitism, harassment, and discrimination, the tangible progress we are making, and the intensity of our commitment to this ongoing work," she added.

She did not elaborate on the specifics of how the university plans to do both.

The administration's nine demands include that Columbia ban masks, "complete disciplinary proceedings" for some student protesters, formalize a definition for antisemitism, reform its admissions process and place its Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department under "academic receivership," among other priorities, according to the letter the administration sent to Columbia last week.

The administration also called for "long-term structural" changes to the university that it wants addressed in the near future.

Columbia has already complied with at least one of the administration's demands. On Thursday, it suspended or expelled some of the students who participated in the takeover of Hamilton Hall and temporarily revoked the diplomas of some graduates, nearly a year after the takeover.

In her letter, Armstrong acknowledged that antisemitism remained an issue on campus.

“I hope we can agree that the last two years have both highlighted real cracks in our existing structures and have created new problems that this campus community needs to address,” she wrote. “Antisemitism, harassment, and discrimination of any kind are unacceptable and imperil both our sense of community as well as our very academic mission.”

Within an hour before the letter was published, The Wall Street Journal reported that the university was nearing an agreement with the Trump administration. The university declined to comment on the report.

The Trump administration's requests and pause on federal funding represent a broader, unprecedented attempt by the federal government to sway the affairs of higher education institutions.

In February, the Justice Department announced it had launched a task force to “root out” what it called “anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

After months of dormancy, Columbia SJP allegedly reactivated its Instagram account "three minutes before Hamas began its attack on October 7."

Leading US-based anti-Israel activist groups including Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Within Our Lifetime and heads like Mahmoud Khalil had prior knowledge of the October 7 Massacre, alleged a Monday lawsuit by the families of the Hamas-led attack's victims.

The victims are seeking damages for activists aiding and abetting Gazan terrorist organizations, with some groups, whom Hamas members reportedly saw as operatives, reactivating just before the pogrom and others issuing protest and propaganda materials as the event unfolded in southern Israel.

The suit was filed to the New York Southern District Court against Within Our Lifetime and its leader Nerdeen Kiswani, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and representative Maryam Alwan, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace and representative Cameron Jones, and CUAD and Khalil. It seeks compensation and punitive damages for coordination of Hamas and affiliates in their "terror-by-propaganda strategy" and provision of material support public relations operations.

The organizations were believed by the October 7 victims to have "prior knowledge of the October 7 attack" based on the timing of their public relations activity, and according to one hostage were described by Hamas captors as operatives.

After months of dormancy, Columbia SJP allegedly reactivated its Instagram account "three minutes before Hamas began its attack on October 7" announcing a meeting and stating that supporters should "stay tuned."

Statement of support
Eighty-three SJP chapters including Columbia signed and disseminated a statement in support of Hamas on midnight at the end of the day of the attack, leading the suit to insinuate that the content must have been drafted, reviewed, and signed by dozens of organizations "before and/or during the events of October 7 themselves."

The Bears for Palestine solidarity statement honored terrorists "working on the ground on several axes of the so-called 'Gaza envelope' alongside our comrades in blood and arms" and offered support for "the resistance in Gaza" and the Hamas operation as a "revolutionary moment" in Palestinian "resistance."

The statement was shared as part of an October 8 2023 National SJP toolkit, which the suit asserted was disseminated to Columbia SJP, Columbia JVP, and WOL.

Then nation-wide October 12 rallies "included materials that appear to have been created before October 7" according to the suit.

Day of resistance
The Day of Resistance Toolkit included October 7-themed graphics, one of which Kiswani allegedly published on Instagram on October 7, a day before the toolkit was released.
"We must continue to resist directly through dismantling Zionism, and wielding the political power that our organizations hold on our campuses and in our communities," urged the toolkit.

"We are asking chapters to host demonstrations on campus/in their community in support of our resistance in Palestine and the national liberation struggle -- one which they play a critical role in actualizing."

The framers of the toolkit argued that Israeli victims of October 7 were not civilians because they were "settlers," and that all forms of resistance including "armed struggle" is legitimate.

Shlomi Ziv's testimony
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 the public relations wing of Hamas, supported by the terrorist group through shell organizations that were founded by Hamas leaders. The suit 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.

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

The groups allegedly implemented the three part Hamas grand strategy in which the terrorist first uses indiscriminate terrorist attacks against civilians to provoke a response that endangers Palestinian civilians as human shields. Either Israel can't launch military actions due to concern about harming civilians, or the human shields are killed, which allows their use in propaganda. Hamas uses propaganda to demonize Israel, legitimize its efforts, and cast itself as the victim.

Campus groups once seen as activists are now facing questions over glorifying terror and ties to Hamas-linked networks.

The lawsuit filed on Monday against anti-Israel groups that are alleged to have aided Hamas on campus returned focus back to campus activists and their ties to the Palestinian terror group.
This is because "Within Our Lifetime" is not the first group to be sued for ties to Palestinian terror organizations, particularly Hamas, in recent years.

Within Our Lifetime (WOL)
WOL leader, Nardeen Kiswani, is a Palestinian-American born in Jordan.
She was involved in the establishment of NYC SJP in 2015, forming a coalition of chapters across the City University of New York schools.

NYC SJP then evolved into WOL in 2018.

Head of WOL, Nerdeen Kiswani, posted on X/Twitter on October 8, 2024, that "October 7th has always been a day against Nazism, and now it's counterpart Zionism!" while comparing Palestinian "resistance" to a Jewish revolt in Auschwitz-Birkenau which occurred on October 7, 1944.

In June 2024, WOL commemorated the massacre at the Nova Music Festival by setting off flares, waving Hamas flags, and displaying banners with messages that read, "Long live October 7" and "The Zionists are not Jews and not humans."

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
AMP was established in 2006 by University of California, Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian. They are currently based in Chicago and have eight active chapters nationwide, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

AMP has "promulgated antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the government," according to an ADL report, and has expressed admiration for Hamas and Hezbollah.

AMP's roots lie with the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), which was described by Washington as having "disseminated information/propaganda for Hamas."

IAP founders in 1981 included Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who became Hamas Political Bureau chairman from 1992 until 1996, when he stepped back to become deputy chairman in 2013. Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh took over these positions from Marzook.

Marzook controversially admitted in a February 2025 interview with the New York Times that if he had known the destruction that would be brought on Gaza because of the October 7 attacks, he would have never agreed to it.

Despite IAP having officially dissolved in 2004, IAP leaders have engaged in AMP activism, including Osama Abuirshaid, AMP's current executive director, and Rafeeq Jaber, former AIP president who has spoken at AMP events, as well as others, ADL reported.

AMP maintains strong ties with SJP, which Bazian also helped found in the '90s, ADL commented.
In a December 2014 Facebook post, Abuirshaid praised Hamas on the terror group's 27th anniversary, stating, "A distinction is made... between those who form an army for liberation, and those who prepare battalions of agents [for Israel]... a difference between those who avenge the blood of their martyrs, and those who pour [that blood] into Israeli wine glasses," comparing Hamas's attitudes to those of the Palestinian Authority.

An AMP Board Member, Salah Sarsour, was directly implicated in Hamas activity in the West Bank in the 1990s. A 2001 FBI memorandum reported that Jamil Sarsour was arrested in 1998 for funding Hamas and telling investigators that his brother Salah was involved in funding Hamas through fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF).

Salah Sarsour was also arrested and imprisoned by Israel for eight months in 1995 for supporting Hamas, and his brother claimed that Salah became close with the West Bank commander of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades.

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)
After the October 7 massacre, the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) described Hamas's massacre as "a historic win for Palestinian resistance," calling for "not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors," according to ADL.

NSJP openly receives financial support from AMP.

"While there is no hard evidence of direct financial ties to terror groups, NSJP and terrorist organizations have expressed rhetorical support for one another," ADL reported.

NSJP also released a "Day of Resistence" guidebook in which it made clear its pro-Hamas stance and support for the terror group to "completely liberate" all Israeli land.

The guidebook also called for SJP chapters to bring "resistance" to the US by "challenging Zionist hegemony" and "dismantling Zionism" on campuses.

In April 2024, a report by the UK's Daily Mail found that Columbia's SJP chapter received over $3 million a year in funding from "charities" that are linked to Hamas terrorists.

In May 2024, Columbia's SJP's Telegram shared a video of Hamas members, adding a caption reading, "These men will never be defeated."

Holy Land Foundation (HLF)
The Holy Land Foundation, which was previously known as the Occupied Land Fund, was also founded by Abu Marzook along with other Hamas-linked Palestinians.

In 1994, HLF was placed under FBI surveillance and designated as a terrorist organization in their own right in December 2001.

This was due to investigations by Washington, which found that HLF's "charitable donations" to Palestinians included organizations in the West Bank that paid stipends to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and Hamas prisoners, with Hamas being in direct control of these organizations.

In 2004, a US magistrate judge found that both HLF and IAP were liable for the 1996 murder of a teenager in Israel.

In 2008, five senior HLF members were sentenced to long prison terms. Former CEO Shukri Abu-Baker was sentenced to 65 years in prison. Ghassan Elashi, who also founded the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was also sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Mufid Abdulqader was sentenced to 20 years, while Abdulrahman Odeh and Mohammad El-Mezain, the former endowments director, were sentenced to 15 years each.

Then-president Joe Biden pardoned Abdulqader on December 12, 2024.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)
CUAD, a coalition of far-left and anti-Israel student activist organizations, led many of the post-October 7 protests at Columbia University.

CUAD, like most anti-Israel organizations, sees the entirety of Israel as an illegitimate project, not limiting their designs to the Green Line.

The group was notably formed after Columbia University suspended SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace in November 2023.

In an October 17 Substack article commemorating the October 7 massacre, CUAD stated that it would “not stop demonstrating until Zionism ends.”

CUAD believes that Israel cannot survive without US support and concluded in a November 7 article that "we cannot separate the struggle in support of a free Palestine with the struggle against US imperialism.”

CUAD on November 7 also described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “brave man” who will live in the hearts of many and praised the October 7 Massacre as “Sinwar’s crowning achievement” because the “Al-Aqsa Flood was the very essence of what it is to resist ‘with what we have.’”
Besides Sinwar, the arch-terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah are the icons of CUAD, with the group mourning the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

In April 2024, Columbia University banned a senior member of CUAD, Khymani James, for comments made about how he would "fight to kill" against a Zionist.

More than 50 alumni of the University of Amsterdam will return their diplomas on Friday to protest their alma mater’s decision to unilaterally cut ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The board of the school, which goes by the acronym UvA, decided last week to put an end to the school’s student exchange program with Hebrew University because of what it calls “concerns about academic freedom” and the risk that academic cooperation could benefit the Israel Defense Forces.

But critics, including a growing number of Dutch politicians, accuse the university of bowing to the demands of violent anti-Zionist activists who occupied two of its campuses in the Dutch capital in May. Vandalism and violent clashes between police and masked rioters caused more than 4 million euros ($4.3 million) in damage.

At the time, UvA rector Peter-Paul Verbeek was heavily criticized for negotiating with masked protestors and not dismissing their demands to cut all ties with Israeli universities. Instead, the school agreed to set up a committee to examine its ties with outside schools.

The university said this month it had decided to accept the commission’s recommendations to end its cooperation with Hebrew University, as well as some Hungarian institutions. At the same time, it announced it would continue collaborating with the Chinese Scholarship Council, despite concerns of PhD students being forced to share information with Beijing or pledge allegiance to the Chinese government.

Detractors characterized the decision as a double standard toward the Jewish state. In a statement announcing the protest, the 50 alumni expressed “shame” over the school’s behavior.

Their diplomas “are no longer a source of pride,” the alumni added.

On Friday, the alumni will return their diplomas to UvA board chair Prof. Edith Hooge. This will be done on the school’s Roeterseiland campus, one of the sites that had to be cleared by riot police last year.

Among the alumni taking part are former Dutch foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal, who initiated the campaign, former deputy chief justice of the Dutch Supreme Court Ernst Numann, and Ronny Naftaniel, founder of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.

Another notable participant is Keyvan Shahbazi, an Iranian writer who fled to the Netherlands in 1983 after being tortured by the Islamist regime in Tehran.

Rosenthal is currently chairman of the Iran Free Committee, for which he was put on an Iranian terror list. Many Dutch Persians can be seen at pro-Israel protests.

“The quality of universities degenerates when they cowardly have their policies dictated by professional activists who often have no connection to said universities,” the alumni statement said.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee started his Senate confirmation journey to become the next ambassador to Israel on Tuesday.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations asked Huckabee questions concerning conflicts in the region, like the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, as well as ending the conflict and returning hostages home.

He said it’s the first item of business.

“The impact of that massacre continues to this very day the ongoing war and the situation with the hostages including American citizens, makes this assignment urgent,” Huckabee said.

Protesters also interrupted parts of the hearing, shouting “free Palestine.”

Senators asked about the future of the region, like Senator Chris Van Hallen from Maryland.

“Would those Palestinian individuals in an annexed West Bank have the same legal and democratic rights as Israeli Jews living in the West Bank?” Van Hallen asked.

Huckabee said there would be security and opportunity.

“Annexation does not mean displacement of people,” Huckabee said. “If you mean would they be able to live freely, they already do.”

he committee didn’t vote Tuesday on Huckabee. If the committee approves, then the vote heads to the full Senate for confirmation.

Federal authorities detained a Tufts University graduate student Tuesday while she was on her way to break her Ramadan fast with friends, her lawyer said, and the moment was caught on video.

Department of Homeland Security agents apprehended Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national who was maintaining a valid F-1 student visa as a doctoral student, near her home, her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement.

"We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her," Khanbabai said. "No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement online detainee locator system has listed Ozturk as being "in ICE Custody," but it does not include any further details.

"DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right," a senior DHS spokesperson told NBC News.

The spokesperson added: "Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”

NBC News obtained a video showing Ozturk's arrest Tuesday. According to the video, a male agent dressed in plainclothes — who wore a hoodie and a hat — waved at her as he approached her. He said, “Hey, ma’am.”

Ozturk, according to the video, appeared confused and tried to walk around the agent, but the agent stepped in front of her to stop her.

The agent and Ozturk spoke to each other briefly, and the agent then grabbed her hands so he could handcuff her. Ozturk screamed out in confusion, saying, “What’s going on?”

During the exchange, additional agents surrounded Ozturk as they arrested her. A female law enforcement agent said, “OK, it's fine.”

The male agent who initially approached her said, “OK, we’re the police, relax.”

The agents repeatedly said “we are the police” while they handcuffed and escorted her to a black SUV.

“Nearly 20 hours after her detention, there are still no charges, and the government has not told us where she is. This is very bizarre and incredibly concerning,” Khanbabai, Ozturk's attorney, told NBC News.

Khanbabai filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Massachusetts federal court Tuesday to release her. The petition was not publicly available Wednesday morning.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the Trump administration in a three-page order Tuesday from moving Ozturk outside the District of Massachusetts without providing notice.

Talwani said that a "United States District Court does not generally have subject-matter jurisdiction to review orders of removal" but that it does have the ability to "preserve the status quo."

Ozturk is a student in Tufts’ doctoral program for child study and human development, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has a master’s degree from Teachers College at Columbia University.

In March 2024, Ozturk co-authored an opinion essay in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to demands that it “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”

Tufts President Sunil Kumar said in a statement that the school received reports about an international graduate student's being taken into custody by federal authorities at an off-campus apartment building.

He said the university "had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event."

here has been a 186% increase in anti-American and anti-police sentiment among 'pro-Palestinian' groups since October 7, according to a Wednesday report carried out by the US-based think tank Capital Research Center.

The report - titled 'How “Pro-Palestinian” protest groups promote anti-Americanism' - analyzed thousands of social media posts by 496 of the most prominent pro-Palestine groups and activists.

As part of the research, CRC - led by Investigative Researcher Ryan Mauro - compared posts on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Telegram in the 15-month periods before and after October 7, 2023, using 14 common keywords or phrases that express hatred of the United States, the US government and US law enforcement.

Keywords included American imperialism, Belly of the beast, Globalize the intifada, Pigs, Defund the police, AmeriKKKa and So-Called United States.

The key findings included that in the 15 months following the October 7 massacre, the pro-Palestinian movement’s use of "hateful anti-American and anti-police keywords and phrases" increased by 186%.

Anti-American and anti-police social media posts published by the groups received over 23 million views on X and 4.2 million on TikTok.

The number of posts endorsing or promoting anti-American or anti-police violence increased by 3000%. The report noted that this indicates a rapid radicalization of the movement.

Antisemitism as subset of anti-Westernism
The report also stated that the antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment - both dominant parts of the pro-Palestine movement - are inextricably linked to and rooted in anti-Western sentiment.

"Antisemitic and anti-Israeli tropes largely depict Israel as an appendage of a villainized United States. In other words, hatred of Israel is commonly rooted in anti-Americanism, anti-Westernism, and anti-capitalism."

The report also specifically highlighted 78 groups and 30 activists, which it demarcated as having the most malicious speech in their posts.

Of the groups, nearly half were college chapters of national organizations, meaning they receive recognition and most likely student fees from private charitable colleges or government-chartered colleges.

Additionally, two of the groups legally operate as 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofits, 15 groups have an unknown legal status, and the remaining 26 groups are operating as 501(c)(3) “charities,” either as independent nonprofits or as a project of a sponsoring charity.

Examples of such tax-exempt charitable groups include Within Our Lifetime, Palestinian Youth Movement, Code Pink, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and Samidoun.

19 of the 30 most hateful activists are employees of a private or public college or are in the leadership of 501(c)(3) “charities.”

These include Nerdeen Kiswani (co-founder of WOL), Linda Sarsour (MPower Change), and Zahra Billoo (CAIR SA)

"All of the charities tied to these activists and groups that support violence or anti-American, anti-police animus may be at risk of adverse legal consequences, including loss of tax-exempt status," the report added.