A leaked internal memo at the BBC reveals the news corporation instructed its staff to slant its reporting of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to vilify Israel and the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is trying to feed the citizens, according to a new report.
As Jonathan Sacerdoti of The Spectator <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-leaked-email-that-blows-apart-the-bbcs-impartiality-claims-over-gaza/">reports</a>, “A leaked internal email from a BBC executive editor reveals that the Corporation has issued prescriptive instructions to staff on how to cover the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The memo, titled ‘Covering the food crisis in Gaza,’ amounts to a top-down editorial diktat that discards impartiality, elevates one side of a deeply contested narrative, and imposes a specific anti-Israel legal-political framing as settled fact.”
The email was sent on Friday, June 25. It commences by contending that “the argument over how much aid has crossed into Gaza is irrelevant,” while enjoining the staff that “we should say” the current distribution system “doesn’t work.”
“It explicitly favours a particular explanation of suffering in Gaza: one that blames the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a relatively new aid body established with US and Israeli cooperation, while glossing over the role of Hamas, the rulers of Gaza and a proscribed terrorist organisation under British law,” Sacerdoti writes, adding that by arguing that the amount of aid doesn’t matter, the BBC ignores that Hamas has been widely reported to be hijacking, obstructing, or reselling aid.
“The BBC’s memo labels the GHF system a failure and instructs staff to say so,” Sacerdoti reports, pointing out, “The BBC – which declined to comment on the email – appears content to accept casualty figures and starvation claims from Hamas-linked bodies or sympathetic NGOs as definitive, while dismissing or omitting Israeli data and counterclaims. The email directs staff to reference ‘mounting evidence’ of starvation and deaths around aid centres, yet makes no mention of Hamas operatives looting convoys, obstructing access, or even firing on civilians attempting to collect food – allegations which have been made publicly by Israel and backed at times by video and eyewitness testimony.”
“Nor is the GHF model simply an improvised, amateur system as the memo suggests,” he continues. “On the contrary, it is a tightly managed, military-grade distribution network designed to ensure aid reaches civilians directly and safely. Operated by vetted personnel with logistical oversight, GPS tracking, and on-the-ground medical and security staff, the GHF has reported a zero aid diversion rate. By contrast, the UN system the BBC nostalgically defends saw multiple convoys looted at gunpoint, with documented losses reaching 90 per cent in some cases.”
Sacerdoti notes that the BBC’s contention that the older model of supplying humanitarian aid (prior to the advent of the GHF) “did work” fails the acid test, as the BBC itself “breathlessly reported widespread hunger under that very system well before the GHF system was in place.”
He then turns to the email’s declaration that it is “indisputable” that Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and thus the entity responsible for preventing hunger. “This claim is presented without qualification, despite the fact that the status of Gaza under international law is disputed,” he points out, adding that Israel has stated it neither governs Gaza nor maintains a permanent presence.
“The BBC’s own editorial guidelines insist that politically contested labels such as ‘occupation’ should be attributed and contextualised, not asserted. That rule has been disregarded,” he states.
“Why is it our national broadcaster seems so desperate to attack the one non-Israeli body which is doing the most to undermine the Hamas stranglehold over Gaza and its people?” Sacerdoti asks rhetorically. “The closer the GHF and Israeli army get to finally defeating the terrorists, the more shrill the BBC’s insistence that the Jewish state is deliberately starving children. They have trouble believing a self-declared Islamic jihadist dictatorship might have designed this level of suffering and torture, but none in believing the Jewish democratic state did so.&#8221;
“The BBC is publicly funded and legally obligated to remain impartial. This latest leaked email suggests it is failing in that duty. As ever, there is virtually no chance the organisation will admit, redress or be penalised for this failing. They never are,” he concludes.

BBC Announce Plans For A Major Shake-Up Of The Corporation

BBC Ordered Staff To Slant Reporting Against U.S.-Backed Gaza Aid Group, Israel

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Israel

Media

Media Bias

Pro-Hamas

World

Columbia University has agreed to pay out an undisclosed sum of money to two janitors who were verbally harassed, physically assaulted, and held hostage during the anti-Israel protests that swept across the campus in the months after the October 7th massacre in Israel.
Lester Wilson and Mario Torres filed a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/columbia-university-janitors-settle-case-being-held-hostage-anti-israel-rioters-campus">civil rights complaint</a> against the school after they were caught up in the student-led siege of Hamilton Hall — and barricaded inside the building with protesters who assaulted them, threatened them with violence, and called them &#8220;Jew lovers.&#8221;
“The university set up the situation and ended up putting them into that situation, now the issue is holding accountable those who carried it out and were responsible for the takeover and the assault,” <a href="https://brandeiscenter.com/columbia-university-janitors-ucla-jewish-community-members-sue-orgs-behind-encampments/">Brandeis Center</a> president Alyza Lewin said of their case.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Columbia janitors trapped, attacked by anti-Israel mob and forced to scrub swastikas settle with school for undisclosed amount <a href="https://t.co/qjN2XdRCJY">https://t.co/qjN2XdRCJY</a> <a href="https://t.co/pEoFSoZM78">pic.twitter.com/pEoFSoZM78</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1948522879714300319?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Trump announced earlier in the week that Columbia University had agreed to pay a penalty to the federal government: $220 million, $20 million of which was to go &#8220;to their Jewish employees who were unlawfully targeted and harassed.&#8221;
Despite the fact that neither Wilson nor Torres is Jewish, they are expected to take their settlement from the $20 million designated to go to employees who were &#8220;unlawfully targeted&#8221; by the protests — most of whom were Jewish.
Both Wilson and Torres had been with the university for five years, and according to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/24/us-news/columbia-janitors-trapped-attacked-by-anti-israel-mob-settle-for-undisclosed-amount/">report</a> published Thursday by The New York Post, have not been able to return to work since the student takeover of Hamilton Hall. Both state that they were injured during the protests.
According to the initial complaint, Torres stated that a masked protester had approached him, saying, &#8220;I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f–k you up.&#8221;
Torres said that he had responded by grabbing a fire extinguisher, which he intended to use in self-defense if necessary, and said, &#8220;I’ll be right here.&#8221;
He said that protesters later beat him, striking his back before he was able to escape the building. Wilson, who also eventually escaped Hamilton Hall, said that he was attacked with piece of furniture.
Prior to the protests, both men reported multiple instances of graffiti — including swastikas — inside Hamilton Hall.
&#8220;Mr. Wilson recognized the swastikas as symbols of white supremacy. As an African-American man, he found the images deeply distressing. He reported them to his supervisors, who instructed him to erase the graffiti,&#8221; he alleged in the complaint. &#8220;No matter how many times Mr. Wilson removed the swastikas, individuals kept replacing them with more.&#8221;
Torres said that he eventually began to throw away chalk that he found left behind in classrooms, saying that he did not want to leave potential vandals anything to write with.

Columbia University Issues Deadline For Gaza Encampment To Vacate Campus

Columbia U Forced To Pay Off Janitors Who Were Held Hostage By Anti-Israel Protesters

anti-Israel

Columbia University

Politics

Protests

Regents of the University of Michigan — who serve unpaid — now have 24-hour security because of threats and harassment from pro-Hamas factions.
UM Regents Jordan Acker, Mark Bernstein, and Sarah Hubbard told <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-859787">The Detroit News</a> that the university assigned them around-the-clock security after their residences were vandalized with pro-Hamas, anti-Israel messages.
“Since Nov. 17, 2023, our regents and executive officers have been subjected to extensive and targeted criminal acts, including vandalism of private residences and businesses,” University spokeswoman Colleen Mastony stated. “These incidents, detailed in a press release, underscore the unacceptable level of threats and harassment directed at our institution’s leaders and their families.”
“We have taken prudent steps to support our regents and executive officers and will continue to rely on our public safety team to continuously assess risk, consult with external law enforcement partners, and allocate resources commensurate with those assessments,” she added.
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“The three regents said they continue to get threats via email and social media, as recently as June 9,” The Detroit News reported, noting that in May 2024, activists erected tents on Regent Hubbard&#8217;s front lawn and left on her doorstep &#8220;scenes of genocide in Palestine.&#8221; Her Instagram account was tagged with the message, “Regents, respond to our demands by the end of your board meeting this Thursday.”
Last December, vandals targeted Regent Acker’s home. Acker, who has three young children, said he has been getting death threats as recently as June 9. Reacting to a jar of urine being thrown through one of his home’s windows, he said, &#8220;Any time your family is being attacked for who you are and for what you believe, I think that&#8217;s a pretty scary moment as an elected official, but it&#8217;s unfortunately the world that we live in these days.&#8221;
“It&#8217;s been really hard on them. It&#8217;s been really hard on my wife. It&#8217;s been really, really hard on my kids, especially my 10-year-old, who was woken up by the glass breaking,” Acker added.
The homes of former President Santa Ono and the university&#8217;s chief investment officer, Erik Lundberg, were vandalized last October. “In March, someone spray-painted ‘Free Palestine’ on the side of UM Provost Laurie McCauley&#8217;s Ann Arbor home,” The Detroit News noted.
“This is something that the university has decided, it&#8217;s important to provide this support to their leadership. So it&#8217;s the regents and it&#8217;s also a number of other leaders at the university that have experienced these threats,” Hubbard said. “I feel that I can have this civil debate with people who have a different opinion than I do, and so it&#8217;s too bad that it has ramped up to this point where we&#8217;re concerned for our safety. It&#8217;s not a concern I have every moment of every day, but it&#8217;s certainly something I worry about because we see it going beyond the vandalism in so many areas around the country and in the world, and we don&#8217;t want to suffer that same result.&#8221;

US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-PROTEST-EDUCATION

Pro-Hamas Activists Trigger 24/7 Security For University Of Michigan Regents

antisemitism

Education

Hamas

Michigan

Security Detail

U.S.

University of Michigan

Parents are fighting back after their three young three children were expelled from the Nysmith School for the Gifted after they raised concerns about antisemitic bullying and harassment — about which the headmaster and owner of the school, Kenneth R. Nysmith, allegedly did nothing.
Parents Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy filed a lawsuit with the Virginia Attorney General&#8217;s Office of Civil Rights against the Nysmith School for the Gifted, Inc., and headmaster Kenneth Nysmith. In it, they alleged that their three children were expelled after they complained about antisemitic bullying and harassment targeting their 11-year-old daughter.
&#8220;The school had allowed anti-Semitism to take root in her class—in, for example, this picture of a social studies class project depicting the attributes of a &#8216;strong historical leader&#8217; &#8230; That photo, featuring the unmistakable face of Adolf Hitler, was shared with the entire school community. It was followed by a pattern of persistent and severe anti-Semitic harassment of Complainants’ young daughter,&#8221; the lawsuit alleges.
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A northern Virginia private school hung up a Palestinian flag in the school gym and taught the kids that H!tler was a “strong historical leader,” before expelling Jewish kids who complained. <a href="https://t.co/sSGphCJTk1">pic.twitter.com/sSGphCJTk1</a>
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1940025635339956552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Vazquez and Roy stated that other students began bullying their daughter because she was Jewish shortly after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis, raping and torturing men, women, and children on October 7, 2023 — and that they&#8217;d informed Mr. Nysmith of the problem at the time.
The suit alleges that children at the school put &#8220;pro-Palestine stickers on school-issued laptops and lockers&#8221; and referred to Jews as &#8220;baby-killers&#8221; who &#8220;deserve to die because of what is happening in Gaza.&#8221;
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&#8220;The bullies told their daughter that everyone at the school is against Jews and Israel, which is why they hate you,&#8221; the complaint alleges.
The complaint was submitted by the complaint Louis D. Brandeis Center.
Read more here:<a href="https://t.co/9qyzHBIAoG">https://t.co/9qyzHBIAoG</a>
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) <a href="https://twitter.com/EFischberger/status/1940041573841998241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The bullies told their daughter that everyone at the school is against Jews and Israel, which is why they hate you,&#8221; the complaint reads.
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&#8220;Mr. Nysmith promised to take action – but did nothing,&#8221; the suit alleges. &#8220;A few weeks later, after Mr. Nysmith decided to hang a Palestinian flag in the Nysmith School gym, the harassment of their daughter grew more severe. Complainants notified Mr. Nysmith that harassment of their daughter had become much worse and pleaded for his help. In response, Mr. Nysmith told them to tell their daughter to &#8216;toughen up&#8217; and abruptly ended the meeting.&#8221;
It was just two days after that meeting that Vazquez and Roy say they were informed that all three of their children were being expelled from the school.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
When the family raised concerns about this and other incidents, the school told them to &#8220;toughen up.&#8221;
Two days after that call, all three of their kids were expelled via email—right before mid-semester grades and after nearby schools&#8217; application deadlines had passed. <a href="https://t.co/Z9OGSLGcBj">pic.twitter.com/Z9OGSLGcBj</a>
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) <a href="https://twitter.com/EFischberger/status/1940041565176496164?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In the letter terminating the students&#8217; enrollment, the headmaster put the onus on the parents, claiming that he could not see a &#8220;path forward&#8221; due to the parents&#8217; &#8220;profound lack of trust&#8221; in both him and the school.

Israeli Flag on Flagpole

Virginia School Under Fire For Expelling Kids Who Objected To Antisemitic Bullying

Gaza

Global Politics

Schools

Syrian-born anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, released from detention despite alleged Hamas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-israel-activist-detained-by-ice-led-activities-aligned-to-hamas-trumps-dhs-says">ties</a>, vowed on Saturday to continue anti-Israel protests while appearing alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at a New Jersey airport.
Khalil, 30, spent 104 days in a Lousina detention center after his March 8 arrest, as the Trump administration sought to deport the Columbia student for allegedly engaging in activities &#8220;aligned to Hamas,&#8221; the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
Immediately upon his Friday release following a court order from U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, Khalil <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/21/us-news/anti-israel-protestor-mahmoud-khalil-makes-emotional-return-home-embraces-wife-and-holds-telling-press-conference-with-aoc/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">bashed</a> the U.S.-funded “genocide” in Gaza, and even vowed to fight for the rights of the “incredible men” he was imprisoned with in Louisiana, per the New York Post.
&#8220;The U.S. government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide,&#8221; Khalil declared at the airport. &#8220;This is what I was protesting. This is what I will continue to protest with every one of you. Not only if they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine.&#8221;
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AOC just imbedded herself with a Terrorist Hamas supporter 👍👍👍 Dems 80/20 &#8211; we&#39;ll take 20 🤣
BREAKING: Mahmoud Khalil Holds Press Gaggle With AOC After Being Released From Immigration Detention <a href="https://t.co/WOiRdLUc5k">https://t.co/WOiRdLUc5k</a> <a href="https://t.co/zk8712HIqG">pic.twitter.com/zk8712HIqG</a>
&mdash; Joni Job (@jj_talking) <a href="https://twitter.com/jj_talking/status/1936485070191423943?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who joined Khalil at Newark Liberty International Airport alongside his wife and their newborn son, claimed the allegations against Khalil were politically motivated.
&#8220;Because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights, he has been accused, baselessly, of horrific allegations, simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,&#8221; the congresswoman claimed to reporters. “We will continue to resist the politicization and the continued political persecution that ICE is engaged in.”
The conditions of Khalil&#8217;s bail included surrendering his passport and travel restrictions limiting him to New York, New Jersey, Michigan, to visit his family, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, where his immigration trial will be held.
Khalil graduated from Columbia in December, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused him of leading “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States,” as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-rules-columbias-pro-hamas-agitator-mahmoud-khalil-can-be-deported">reported</a>.
“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio added, citing the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act, which authorizes the U.S. Secretary of State to deport anyone whose continued residence in the country “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.&#8221;
Defense attorneys for Khalil celebrated the Syrian’s release as a “significant and important victory,&#8221; per the Post.
The Trump administration is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-israel-activist-mahmoud-khalil-released-following-judges-order">appealing</a> Judge Farbiarz’s preliminary injunction and Khalil&#8217;s release on bail to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

US-POLITICS-MIGRANTS-KHALIL-EDUCATION-MIGRATION

Pro-Hamas Agitator Mahmoud Khalil Bashes U.S. ‘Genocide’ With AOC After Judge Orders Release

Courts

Department of Homeland Security

Marco Rubio

State Department

Trump Administration

Professional activist Greta Thunberg was roundly mocked for a video she posted to social media in which she claimed she&#8217;d been &#8220;kidnapped in international waters,&#8221; either by Israeli officials or by forces loyal to Israel.
Thunberg, wrapped in a keffiyeh, stared into the camera and claimed, &#8220;If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel.&#8221; She then called on people to &#8220;put pressure&#8221; on the Swedish government to do everything they could to get her back.
But as critics quickly pointed out, Thunberg&#8217;s &#8220;hostage video&#8221; was recorded and shared before the &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greta-thunbergs-flotilla-circled-by-israeli-forces-en-route-to-gaza">Freedom Flotilla</a>&#8221; — also dubbed the &#8220;Selfie Flotilla&#8221; — was ever even intercepted by Israeli officials. They also noted that once they were detained, Thunberg and her fellow activists were treated humanely — a courtesy not afforded the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
&#8220;Imagine pre-recording a video claiming you were &#8216;kidnapped&#8217; by Israel- then going ahead and doing the exact thing that gets you legally detained. Nice choreography,&#8221; Hen Mazzig posted. &#8220;You weren&#8217;t kidnapped, Greta. You trespassed into an active war zone. You were warned. Repeatedly. And you went anyway-cameras rolling. Real hostages don&#8217;t get to pre-record their statements. Real hostages are held by your Hamas friends underground in Gaza- starving, tortured, and forgotten by activists like you.&#8221;
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Imagine pre-recording a video claiming you were “kidnapped&#8221; by Israel- then going ahead and doing the exact thing that gets you legally detained. Nice choreography.
You weren&#8217;t kidnapped, Greta. 
You trespassed into an active war zone. 
You were warned. Repeatedly.
And you went… <a href="https://t.co/LNJ4aEzx4g">pic.twitter.com/LNJ4aEzx4g</a>
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) <a href="https://twitter.com/HenMazzig/status/1931883778244292843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Greta filmed a video claiming she’s been &#8216;kidnapped.&#8217; In reality, her boat was peacefully boarded, and she’s being brought to shore—where she’ll likely be deported and return to Sweden to continue her selfie activism. The same can’t be said for the 55 hostages still trapped in Hamas’s terror tunnels—starved, tortured, and forgotten for over 20 months,&#8221; Aviva Klompas added.
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Greta filmed a video claiming she’s been “kidnapped.” In reality, her boat was peacefully boarded, and she’s being brought to shore—where she’ll likely be deported and return to Sweden to continue her selfie activism.
The same can’t be said for the 55 hostages still trapped in… <a href="https://t.co/sDyHsNvBst">pic.twitter.com/sDyHsNvBst</a>
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) <a href="https://twitter.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1931879455087079795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;No, @gretathunberg, you little self-righteous provocateur, you are not a &#8216;hostage&#8217; or ‘kidnapped’. You were treated peacefully, with dignity, provided food by Israel and will now get to go home. But you know who actually are hostages?&#8221; Arsen Ostrovsky posted.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
No dear <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GretaThunberg</a>, you little self-righteous provocateur, you are not a &#8216;hostage&#8217; or ‘kidnapped’. You were treated peacefully, with dignity, provided food by Israel and will now get to go home.
But you know who actually are hostages? <a href="https://t.co/eaNWKNhpHX">pic.twitter.com/eaNWKNhpHX</a>
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ostrov_A/status/1932066544546197659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Piers Morgan weighed in as well, saying, &#8220;Oh shut up, @GretaThunberg &#8211; you attention-seeking narcissist. What an insult to the actual hostages in Gaza who really WERE kidnapped. This stupid stunt is all about your ego, and will make zero difference to the plight of innocent Palestinians caught up in this dreadful war.&#8221;
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Oh shut up, <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GretaThunberg</a> &#8211; you attention-seeking narcissist. What an insult to the actual hostages in Gaza who really WERE kidnapped. This stupid stunt is all about your ego, and will make zero difference to the plight of innocent Palestinians caught up in this dreadful war. <a href="https://t.co/T5Tej2fgZ4">https://t.co/T5Tej2fgZ4</a>
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) <a href="https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1931988536812544212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Greta Thunberg records video saying she’s been kidnapped by Israel- then sails directly into a war zone to ensure she’ll be intercepted,&#8221; Brandon Straka posted. &#8220;Even Jussie didn’t have the nerve to announce his hate crime BEFORE it happened.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Greta Thunberg records video saying she’s been kidnapped by Israel- then sails directly into a war zone to ensure she’ll be intercepted. 🤦🏻‍♂️
Even Jussie didn’t have the nerve to announce his hate crime BEFORE it happened. <a href="https://t.co/L6IctcmPhW">pic.twitter.com/L6IctcmPhW</a>
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonStraka/status/1931898283171180884?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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‘Freedom Flotilla’ And Greta Thunberg Prepare To Depart Italy For Gaza

Greta Thunberg Mocked Over ‘Hostage’ Video: ‘Even Jussie Didn’t Have The Nerve’

Greta Thunberg Mocked Over 'Hostage' Video: 'Even Jussie Didn't Have The Nerve'

Greta Thunberg

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Columbia University laid off nearly 180 staff members on Tuesday due to the Trump administration&#8217;s decision to cut $400 million in federal funding over what officials described as the school&#8217;s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
&#8220;We understand this news will be hard,&#8221; Claire Shipman, Columbia University&#8217;s acting president, <a href="https://president.columbia.edu/news/preserving-columbias-critical-research-capabilities">wrote</a> in a statement with other top officials, citing &#8220;intense strain on Columbia&#8217;s finances and research mission&#8221; as a result of Trump&#8217;s cuts to federal funding.
The funding <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-slashes-columbia-funding-citing-inaction-on-anti-semitic-harassment-on-campus">cuts</a> came in early March after Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism determined the Ivy League institution had failed to adequately protect Jewish students from harassment.
“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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/doj-hhs-ed-and-gsa-announce-initial-cancelation-of-grants-and-contracts-columbia-university-worth-400-million">said</a> in a statement at the time.
According to The New York Times, more than 300 multi-year research grants have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/us/politics/columbia-layoffs-trump-research-cuts.html?smid=url-share">slashed</a>, shrinking their approximately $1.3 billion in federal research funds in 2023 to practically nothing.
Among the cut grants was a project examining &#8220;the consequences of structural racism on substance use risk in Puerto Rican adolescents,” as the Times puts it, with a researcher lamenting that it was &#8220;very disheartening to see the wheels of science kind of grinding to a halt in certain ways.&#8221;
Columbia had been temporarily paying the salaries of some affected researchers while departments developed plans to navigate the cuts, although Tuesday&#8217;s layoffs signal an apparent end to this approach.
The layoffs <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/columbia-university-cuts-180-staffers-funded-federal-grants-revoked-tr-rcna205080">affect</a> roughly 20% of research staff &#8220;who have been working, in whole or in part, on impacted federal grants.&#8221;
&#8220;Columbia’s leadership continues discussions with the federal government in support of resuming activity on these research awards and additional other awards that have remained active, but unpaid,&#8221; the Tuesday statement reads. &#8220;We are working on and planning for every eventuality, but the strain in the meantime, financially and on our research mission, is intense.&#8221;
Moving forward, scientists at the university can apply for limited grants to complete their research and support graduate students who would otherwise be terminated, although the university added that it would be &#8220;running lighter footprints of research infrastructure.&#8221;
Columbia has <a href="https://president.columbia.edu/content/fulfilling-our-commitments">attempted</a> to comply with the administration&#8217;s first round of demands, but negotiations to restore the funding remain ongoing.
&#8220;In the coming weeks and months, we will need to continue to take actions that preserve our financial flexibility and allow us to invest in areas that drive us forward,&#8221; officials said.
The cuts are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration targeting universities over allegations of anti-Semitism, with dozens of other institutions facing similar scrutiny.

Pro-Palestinian Protests Continue At Columbia University In New York City

Columbia Axes 180 Staff After Trump Cuts $400 Million In Federal Funding

Anti-Semitism

Protest

In an act of heroic defiance against the oppressive tyranny of Donald Trump, the leadership of Harvard University has bravely declared that, no matter what pressure Trump brings against them, they will not surrender their constitutional right to be the worst people in the country.
The conflict between the university and the administration began after hundreds of Harvard students flooded the campus calling for genocide against the Jews. Further investigation suggested the students may have picked up their antisemitic ideas from what they learned in such Harvard classes as Studies in Antisemitism in which the final exam required students to flood the campus and call for genocide against the Jews. Finally, then-Harvard president Claudine Gay refused to denounce the antisemitic actions and was forced to resign when the board discovered she wasn’t really gay, that just happened to be her name.
Trump reacted cruelly, threatening to deprive Harvard of billions of dollars in federal funding if the University administration does not at least try to demonstrate they possess something vaguely resembling human decency. In order to keep the federal dollars flowing, Trump says, Harvard’s leadership and faculty would have to (one) stop hating Jews, (two), stop teaching their students to hate Jews and (three), hire professors who will introduce students to ideas other than hating Jews or at least hint that such ideas exist or at least refrain from screaming at the students and calling them names when they wonder aloud whether such ideas might exist or if the whole intellectual world resembles the flaming hate-filled hellscape of Harvard University.
But Harvard’s current President, Adolf Ratbag, declares that he absolutely refuses to let a fascist like Trump bully him into humane behavior. In a statement that sounded better in the original German, President Ratbag shook his fist at Shlomo Judenstein, an invisible imaginary enemy who has followed him around since childhood, and shouted, “In a free society, our greatest university cannot compromise our right to sink into a morass of intellectual degradation based on false premises. We have a sacred responsibility to mold America’s best and brightest into dark, gnarled souls reminiscent of images of the damned in medieval paintings of the Last Judgement. It was one thing when Obama insisted we deprive male students of their due process rights whenever they got accused of sexual malfeasance by some girl who once got so drunk she slept with the entire crew team. It was another thing when Biden declared that Title IX required us to give equal treatment to women and men who say they’re women and a pair of poodles who were dressed up in pink sweaters and adorable fluffy hats by a six-year-old who wanted to pretend they were women. At least, those demands were in keeping with our undying commitment to sexual perversity and moral turpitude. But when a thug like Trump demands we have to replace our sterling array of professors who are morally deformed leftist troglodytes with teachers dedicated to shaping young minds to the good, he has crossed the line. As far as we’re concerned, Trump would be worse than Adolf Hitler, if Adolf Hitler were a bad guy.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
To further demonstrate the university’s heroically unyielding stance, Professor Ratbag released this year’s Harvard syllabus to the media. The syllabus promises that the university will continue to provide such classes as Western Civilization 101, What it is and how to destroy it; Introduction to Shakespeare and the King James Bible, How they can light our way if only we set them on fire; and Giving Up Whiteness, in which students will stop using any device invented by a white male beginning on the first day of class at noon and ending around 12:05 because, let’s face it, those bastards invented everything.
The Trump administration says it will continue to withhold funds until Harvard not only changes the syllabus, but also cancels a planned musical based on Mein Kampf and changes the school slogan back to “Veritas” instead of “Look Out, There’s a Jew Sneaking Up Behind You!”
Pledging resistance, President Ratbag and his administration have taken refuge in an underground bunker where they plan to watch the movie “Downfall” over and over in the hope it inspires them with some fresh ideas.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins).

TOPSHOT-US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-PROTEST

Harvard President, Adolf Ratbag, Refuses To Allow Trump To Bully Him Into Humane Behavior

Andrew Klavan

Donald Trump

Harvard

Humor

Ivy League

Jewish

President Trump

Satire

When I enrolled at Indiana University I never thought I would see my peers graffiti “DIVEST NOW” across campus buildings and sidewalks. Now, to make matters worse, those same activists are threatening the university itself with ultimatums and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DCffDcmxmyn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demands</a>.
“IU has until January 13 to respond, or we escalate.”
As a Jewish student at IU, I’ve witnessed firsthand how their actions have disrupted our campus. Their constant protests, graffiti, and inflammatory rhetoric haven’t just created tension, they’ve made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome. Let’s be clear: the demands they’re making aren’t just unrealistic — they’re reckless. Their tantrums have hijacked campus discourse, turning what should be a place for learning into a battleground of intimidation.
So, what exactly are their demands? It’s complicated.
For starters, they’ve called for the resignation of our administrative leaders, including IU President Pam Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav, and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty. Why? Because, according to IU Divest, these administrators failed to properly respond to the group’s accusations—accusations grounded in rhetoric that many students, including myself, see as <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-801408" target="_blank" rel="noopener">antisemitic</a>.
The coalition’s second demand, and the basis for their name, is that IU <a href="https://iuidivest.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immediately divest</a> from any Israeli-affiliated organization. They specifically target IU’s <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/01/iudc-protest-bloomington-faculty-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partnership</a> with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, an institution involved in research collaborations.
But here’s the reality: In 2016, the state of Indiana passed a <a href="https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/house/1378/details" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> prohibiting public funds from supporting institutions that discriminate against Israeli entities. If IU were to adopt the BDS movement’s goals, the university could lose over <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/01/iudc-protest-bloomington-faculty-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$250 million</a> in state funding. That includes money for faculty salaries, scholarships, research, and major campus projects.
Beyond the financial catastrophe, such a move would isolate IU from world-class Israeli institutions in medicine, technology, and academia. It would destroy opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Instead of fostering global dialogue, it would send a clear message that certain students and scholars aren’t welcome. IU would become less attractive to anyone who values academic freedom and global engagement.
And for what? Just to placate the tantrums of homegrown <a href="https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/12/08/column-indiana-university-antisemitic-pro-hamas-graffiti-must-stop/76771278007/">terror</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Tj4RwOpFg/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporters</a> who seem more interested in performative outrage than constructive dialogue?
Then there’s IU Divest’s version of “activism.”
Since Hamas’s murder of 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, and the continued torture of Israeli hostages deep in the dungeons of Gaza, IU Divest continues to threaten the entire Indiana University and Bloomington community with their incessant calls for “resistance” and flagrant intimidation of Jewish students.
For example, two days after their “deadline,” the word &#8216;DIVEST&#8217;, accompanied by Palestinian flags, was <a href="https://x.com/StopAntisemites/status/1879526605481033832">spray-painted</a> in the snow in Dunn Meadow — facing Chabad, a place for Jewish students to gather, a cornerstone of IU’s Jewish student life. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Jewish students at Indiana University were shocked to find &#39;DIVEST&#39; and Palestinian flags painted in the snow outside the campus Chabad—a disturbing act of targeted harassment. 
We urge <a href="https://twitter.com/IndianaUniv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IndianaUniv</a> to take this incident seriously and conduct a thorough investigation… <a href="https://t.co/NTCOCgSNa2">pic.twitter.com/NTCOCgSNa2</a>
&mdash; StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) <a href="https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1879526605481033832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Months earlier, the statue of <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2024/10/iu-statue-vandalism-herman-b-wells-iupd-search-warrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Herman B Wells</a>, a beloved IU figure, was defaced with red paint and a Palestinian flag. Around the same time, a fake bomb was left outside the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering causing panic and fear across the campus community.
Right now, Israel is being pressured to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — many convicted of violent crimes — in exchange for just a few hostages. The irony of IU Divest’s self-righteous language is hard to ignore.
So, if it’s public knowledge that IU can’t legally adopt BDS without devastating consequences, why is the coalition still pushing this?
With all of this in mind, it seems reasonable to wonder if these student activists are merely ignorant ideologues or if this is all just political theater disguising a bigger urge to take out their personal inadequacies on IU’s proud, local Jewish minority.
The group is either ignorant or deliberately trying to intimidate Jewish students at IU. Hopefully, it’s now clear what “divest now” really means for IU and why supporting such a misguided movement is harmful.
This is exactly why Indiana’s state law includes the IHRA definition of antisemitism—because it recognizes the link between movements like BDS and real-world harassment. It’s comforting to see IU’s administration standing firm, but as students, we also have a responsibility to call this out. No student should be silenced. No university should be threatened into breaking the law. And no campaign should be allowed to hide its hostility behind slogans and spray paint.
* * *
Rachel Applefield is a senior at Indiana University studying Law and Public Policy with a minor in Social Welfare Advocacy and a 2024-2025 CAMERA on Campus Fellow.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Campus scene University of Indiana Bloomington

Antisemitic ‘Activists’ Have Turned My Campus Into A Battleground Of Intimidation

College

Indiana University

Opinion

Students

An immigration judge ruled on Friday that Mahmoud Khalil – who was detained over his actions leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University — can be deported, giving him until April 23 to appeal the decision.
Judge Jamee Comans <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/columbia-anti-israel-protester-mahmoud-khalil-can-deported-judge-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave the ruling</a> in a Louisiana court, declaring that the federal government had met the necessary burden of proof to justify removing Khalil from the country.
Judge Comans had requested such proof from the United States government by Wednesday as he was considering the case, and had received a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio wrote that Khalil had led &#8220;antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,&#8221; he added, citing the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act, which gives the U.S. Secretary of State authorization to deport anyone whose continued presence in the country &#8220;would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.&#8221;
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum gave the breaking news update during &#8220;The Story&#8221; on Friday afternoon, getting the live report from National Correspondent Brooke Taylor.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: A judge rules that the Trump administration can move forward with deportation efforts for Mahmoud Khalil. | <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooketaylortv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brooketaylortv</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/marthamaccallum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marthamaccallum</a> <a href="https://t.co/JmAGnd3RPu">pic.twitter.com/JmAGnd3RPu</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1910787248255025369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Khalil spoke after the ruling, complaining that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration had specifically sent him to another jurisdiction to ensure that the ruling would not be fair.
&#8220;I would like to quote what you said last time that there&#8217;s nothing that&#8217;s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness. Clearly, what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,&#8221; he claimed.
&#8220;This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family. I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months,&#8221; he added.

Pro-Palestinian rally in New York City

Judge Rules Columbia’s Pro-Hamas Agitator Mahmoud Khalil Can Be Deported

Columbia University made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-u-prez-gets-flak-from-faculty-for-not-fighting-harder-against-trump">headlines</a> for accepting the Trump administration’s <a href="https://president.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/03.21.2025%20Columbia%20-%20FINAL.pdf">demands</a>: in exchange for the restoration of over $400 million in federal funding — which the federal government revoked from Columbia due to its failure to address violent campus anti-Semitism, a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — the university will expel disruptive students, increase campus security, review its admissions policy, and place certain departments under academic receivership.
The mainstream is, unsurprisingly, aghast. “Columbia has capitulated to the bullies,” <a href="https://www.nyclu.org/press-release/columbia-university-gives-in-to-trump-admin-demands-eroding-academic-freedom-and-student-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a> a statement from the ACLU of New York.
It’s an interesting choice of word, “bullies,” and, for Columbia, rather convenient. Based on <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/what-columbia-university-president-really-told-faculty-members/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaked internal conversations</a> from Columbia, administrators likely would prefer to seem as though they were rapidly bullied into submission by the big bad Republican President of the United States than be forced to admit the reality: that they had been bullied into submission by their own students and faculty over the course of a decade, and now finally have an opportunity to excise extremism from their ranks.
Indeed, the story of the past 15 years or so of American academic life is a story of profound cowardice: people who should have known better and who, in the case of tenured faculty, had the power to act per their conscience without risking their livelihoods, chose instead to give in to a small group of entitled campus radicals who made increasingly deranged demands — campus inquisitions for the accused, struggle sessions for dissidents, a near-total shutdown of academic freedom — while demonstrating poor behavior and poor scholarship that in a saner era would not only have gotten them expelled or fired, but publicly ridiculed.
Eventually, as the dust from the COVID era began to settle and the failures of liberal orthodoxy became apparent, it became more acceptable to discuss internal problems. By 2022, professors began to admit publicly that their students were <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-stunning-level-of-student-disconnection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worse off</a> emotionally and academically after the pandemic, and that colleges had tossed out expectations for them, beginning in the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/on-college-admissions-its-the-woke-fringe-vs-everyone-else/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admissions department</a>; that spring, MIT became the first elite university to <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2022/stuart-schmill-sat-act-requirement-0328" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bring</a> back its standardized testing requirement after relaxing it during the pandemic.
But the real watershed moment on American campuses was October 7, 2023, as college students across the country cheered for murderous Hamas terrorists. For the first time since the Obama administration, there was real internal debate within the liberal mainstream about what had happened to academia, not just with respect to Israel but with respect to the entire toxic sludge of ideology that long preceded the Hamas attack. In December of 2023, the Chronicle of Higher Education, perhaps the nation’s most prominent academic newspaper, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-decade-of-ideological-transformation-comes-undone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> a story titled, “A Decade of Ideological Transformation Comes Undone.” Wrote Lee Gutkin, “College leaders have discovered, maybe too late, that the habit of validation has left them incapable of managing institutions in which real and deep disagreements exist.”
Gutkin was right: when Columbia and other universities were confronted in the spring of the 2023-24 academic year with protests far more objectionable than in the fall, administrators failed to act. At Columbia, things got so bad that even non-Jewish janitors are now filing a Title VI complaint, claiming they were <a href="https://www.thejc.com/news/world/columbia-university-janitors-claim-anti-israel-encampment-accused-them-of-being-jew-lovers-and-spray-painted-swastikas-around-campus-aegd9g7s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> “Jew lovers” by an antisemitic mob and forced to scrub swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti.
Columbia, specifically, did too little too late, disciplining only 40 of the hundreds of students involved and then <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/suspension-most-columbia-students-disciplined-over-gaza-protests-is-removed-2024-08-20/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restoring</a> 38 of them to campus the following academic year. While the university’s schizophrenic actions led to allegations of unfair treatment by both sides, they mostly just showed spinelessness.
It appears now that administrators had been hoping for an out. <a href="https://president.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/03.21.2025%20Columbia%20-%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Columbia’s plan</a> goes far deeper than the Trump administration’s demands of cracking down on anti-Semitism and physical violence: the university is also committing to institutional neutrality, hiring more intellectually diverse faculty, creating spaces for open discourse, and reviewing its admissions practices.
These are not the actions of a university that is begrudgingly complying with a hostile government; they are the actions of administrators who have found an excellent excuse — money — to disregard the activists they were previously beholden to and recommit themselves to the teaching and research that they should have been focusing on all along. As the co-chair of Columbia’s anti-Semitism task force <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/nyregion/columbia-response-trump-demands.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times, “What’s fascinating to me is a lot of these are things we needed to get done and were getting done, but now we’ve gotten done more quickly.”
While there is not a single university that actively wants its federal funding revoked, the looming threat of losing federal funding — one that the Trump administration has now made clear it is willing to make good on — may be excuse enough for the saner voices in universities to attempt to deradicalize. Whatever university administrators may say publicly, they may very well silently be thanking the Trump administration.
* * *
Neeraja Deshpande is an education policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum (iwf.org).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-education-COLUMBIA-demonstration

Columbia University Wanted This

ACLU

American Universities

Department of Education

Leftists

New York City

Pro-Palestinian

Violence

For two years, my soft voice was drowned out at Columbia University, smothered by deafening roars outside our windows. I was spoken over, screamed past, pushed aside by mobs whose chants turned threats into anthems.
I live with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. My predicted lifespan was four years. While I defied the odds, never has my voice been more silenced.
Throughout my life I have faced immense adversity, yet I have prevailed by becoming the first person with my condition to walk the New York Fashion Week runway (February, 2023), the first person with my condition to climb a mountain (Camelback Mountain in Arizona 2022) — producing an internationally awarded documentary combating disability stereotypes — and most recently setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest swim time in my category.
My limited energy is normally invested in advocating for others, but for the first time, my very means of advocacy was heartlessly stolen from me.
For two years, my faint tones were consumed by a campus that refused to listen, dismissed by an administration that chose appeasement over accountability, ignored by a culture that demanded my silence in the name of supposed progress.
For two years, voices chanted for the destruction of my people, fists raised in protest not merely for justice, but for erasure, all while those in power stood by in cowardice. Mobs that disregarded our accessibility and our right to belong stormed our campus walk as I scooted in search of a single accessible entrance. While I fought for a space to exist, countless others with disabilities, some bound to their wheelchairs, were left navigating a campus that refused to see us, let alone accommodate our basic needs. Our identities became a debate, and our safety an afterthought.
Yet my purpose is not to debate the hostility, prove our right to exist, or even to justify our presence at this university. Rather, my purpose is to emphasize one simple truth: now, at last, my soft voice can be heard. Unfortunately, the silence that once suffocated me, was only exhaled in response to intensified government intervention. This government intervention is nothing new and has brought forth three harsh realities: (a) The freedom of a Jew comes at a troubling cost (b) History is repeating itself and (c) Columbia&#8217;s cowardly silence has perpetuated further hostility and segregation – their indifference must end now.
At an unfortunate cost, the world is now witnessing what it takes for Jewish students to experience basic campus safety and dignity. The Trump administration’s cancellation of $400 million in funding, along with the detainment of a former student protest leader with alleged ties to Hamas, has widened the nation&#8217;s eyes to one chilling truth: Columbia’s failure to uphold the rights of Jewish students was not appropriately corrected by institutional conscience but rather it required external force, exposing the depths of negligence.
Columbia’s government funding was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/doj-hhs-ed-and-gsa-announce-initial-cancelation-grants-and-contracts-columbia-university">revoked</a> in direct response to “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” This is a profound failure of humanity, that restoring safety required government intervention at the expense of fundamental freedoms. The price of inaction was paid through imposed financial costs, an obligation that should have been paid through moral courage. It was not.
For a Jew to attend class freely, must a child with cancer lose access to life-saving research?
For a Jew to walk through campus freely, must an international student fear detainment?
For a Jew to learn without threats, must a groundbreaking cure remain locked away due to defunded research?
For a Jew to simply exist, must a first-generation student lose access to financial aid?
Have we truly arrived at another moment in time where, for a Jew to express their identity openly, the future of innovation, education, and opportunity must be compromised? Where an engineering breakthrough must be halted and countless other students must suffer collateral damage simply because Columbia University refused to act until it was forced?
The university administration’s cowardly silence is screaming! While government intervention has never been more necessary, agony pulses through my veins at the realization that this is where campus life has arrived. The university administration had every opportunity to protect its students, yet chose to allow the escalation of intolerance and violence against their Jewish students. And now, that silence has been replaced with an even louder reckoning, one that should never have come at such a cost.
Now, the campus is silent. But this silence has not emerged from understanding or reflection. Campus silence exists only because the cost of inaction became too great — the silence is screaming!
History has proven – that government mandates do not equate to inherent justice. Canceling government funding for needed research and resources is truly an unfortunate crossroads between morality and human equality. Throughout history, intensified government intervention, though imperative, has proven to deepen divisions, inflame resentment, and fuel further segregation.
In 1954, reluctance to properly integrate black children into the school system, following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling against racial segregation (1954), persisted. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to integrate Little Rock Central High School or to protect Black students from violent mobs, making federal intervention essential. In September of 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to forcibly escort nine Black students, known as “The Little Rock Nine,” into the school. While governmental mandates undoubtedly served as one necessary step towards respect for all, one consequence was generational racial strife.
Columbia&#8217;s suffocating silence is the true culprit, forcing external action where institutional courage should have prevailed. The silence on campus will be temporary if Columbia’s leadership refuses to take meaningful action.
Columbia’s administration must summon the courage to acknowledge the undeniable truth, only then will we cultivate true respect for all. One can be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, tall, short, in a wheelchair or running freely. One can come from any faith, culture, or any physical ability but at Columbia one principle must consistently hold true: that all academic thinkers can and should be safely welcomed. When policies are upheld, order will follow.
We must not allow the tides of academic accountability to shift along with the ever changing waves of podcast trends, political climate, public opinion, or what funding is or is not received.
True racial, cultural and ability equality will not persist if Columbia University does not speak up and clearly condemn the open disrespect of students. The current silence is deafening.
Dear Columbia University leadership: dig deep and draw from the depths of your hearts and souls to shatter your indifference and proclaim that respect for all will no longer be up for debate. I urge you to speak out online, in print, and, most critically, stand in person at the Columbia Sundial, a historic gathering place at the heart of campus. The institution’s declaration of justice and respect for all is crucial for both the present and future. Please, replace your silence with a bold message to our diverse, complex world, memorializing it for those not yet born.
Take it from me, someone whose soft voice speaks against the odds – our campus’s silence is screaming.
* * *
Lilian Brasch is an undergraduate student and ability activist at Columbia University, class of 2025.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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At Columbia University, The Silence Is Screaming

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