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UN’s Albanese. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, sparked outrage during a talk at Columbia’s Barnard College,
justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and referring to Israel’s actions as “genocide.” When asked by student Eden Yadegar whether she considered all Israelis legitimate targets, Albanese reportedly shrugged. Yadegar asserted that the event "normalized antisemitism." This comes days after Albanese communicated much of the same rhetoric at Princeton where Tigers for Israel President Maximillian Meyer
challenged Albanese directly on double standards and antisemitism.
DEEPER: ADL's backgrounder, Francesca Albanese In Her Own Words, has more on her track record and statements.
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(Source: Maximillian Meyer | @EYakoby | X/Twitter) |
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Texas. Earlier this week, Ammer Qaddumi, a University of Texas at Austin student, filed a lawsuit
against the school as well as its president and vice president. He claimed UT-Austin violated his First Amendment rights after he was arrested this spring during an anti-Israel demonstration after police instructed the protesters to disperse. Although Qaddumi sought an injunction to delay a disciplinary hearing during his lawsuit, the court denied his request. This lawsuit follows widespread campus protests that led to the arrest of more than 130 students, whose charges were later dropped by the county’s district attorney.
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Chicago K-12. Well, that was fast… The appointment of Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson as president of the Chicago Board of Education rang alarms in the Jewish community given a trail of his social media posts that ADL and others characterized as antisemitic, offensive and dangerous. So his resignation on Thursday, just a week after being sworn in, comes as a relief. ADL, which had called for Johnson’s resignation, praised the decision
to step down as “the right thing for the future of Chicago children and schools.”
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Duke. A petition
has been launched by Duke University faculty members, urging the school to join Harvard, Stanford and others in adopting institutional neutrality in the wake of the polarized campus climate after the 10/7 Hamas terrorist attacks. The petition calls on Duke to refrain from issuing statements on current events that do not directly affect the institution’s “academic mission.” The petition also notes that the university should not suppress “non-disruptive protests.” As one of the signatories, Thomas Pfau, asserted, “Institutional neutrality would, in a way, exercise as a restraint on university administrators to not confuse their job with their personal
views.”
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Auraria. In a troubling turn of events, the Denver City Attorney’s Office has quietly dismissed charges
against more than 40 anti-Israel protesters arrested during a disruptive demonstration on the Auraria campus last spring. (The campus is shared by three local schools.) The dismissals come after serious discovery violations, including the failure to provide critical evidence. The encampment, which caused significant damage to the campus, featured anti-Israel chants like “From the river to the sea.”
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Montclair State. After criticism
over “excessive” and “unconstitutional” protest and speech restrictions, Montclair State University has revised its new policies, which the New Jersey school enacted to maintain safety and enable students to focus on their studies. The revised limits are still drawing some complaints, including from Ross Marchand of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, who asserted that the impact of these policies “effectively means that most outdoors spaces on the campus are off limits to students.” |
