UC Berkeley’s hostility toward free speech is well-established. The school appears in the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s (FIRE) annual list of the ten worst colleges for free speech.
(A7) A Jewish law student at the University of California, Berkeley was punched in the face by an anti-Israel protester who was apparently serving as a “security guard” for the protesters.
In a video posted to social media by The Jewish News of Northern California editor Gabe Stutman, the student, Noah Cohen, was accosted by the female “guard” while he was attempting to film the anti-Israel protests on campus.
The woman asked Cohen, “Where you headed, man?”
Cohen replied, “Jay, you can’t do this.”
The woman then said, “Yes, I absolutely can.”
When Cohen said he would go to the police, the woman ran at him and attempted to grab him, ignoring his warnings not to touch him.
Cohen then appeared to stumble back and said that she just punched him in the face.
According to Stutman, the woman who assaulted Cohen did not seem to be a student or professor at the university and was older than the students.
Cohen told Stutman that the protests are peaceful “until you don’t comply.”
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“And if someone wanted to walk into the entrance of California Hall with an Israeli flag on their back, it definitely would not be peaceful,” Cohen said.
The university administration and police are aware of the incident and are investigating it.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the New York Post that a criminal investigation has been opened.
The assault at UC Berkeley comes as a pro-Israel protester was assaulted and threatened with a taser at another University of California campus, UCLA.
Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University, where the current wave of protests began two weeks ago, broke into a building on campus this morning, Hamilton Hall, and unfurled a large sign with the word “intifada.”
The protest at Columbia University was condemned today by White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates and White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Bates said that President Joe Biden “condemns the use of the term ‘intifada,’ as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days.”
“President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Bates said.
Kirby, meanwhile, said that the protester’s actions do “not comport with the idea of peaceful protest.”
UC Berkeley has been the site of violence by anti-Israel protesters even before the current wave of protests began two weeks ago. In February, Jewish students were forced to evacuate a theater on-campus as a mob of anti-Israel protestors violently stormed a pro-Israel event.
Several hundred protestors chanted “Intifada! Intifada!” while banging on the doors of the Zellerbach Playhouse. A glass door was shattered by the protestors and multiple students were injured during the incident, including a young woman who was hurt while attempting to hold a door shut while the protestors attempted to break in.
Security guards ordered the event attendees to evacuate via underground tunnels out of the building for their own safety.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls Jewish settlements, “illegal by international law”, hours after terrorist attack near Maale Adumim kills one and wounds 7. Photo Credit: AP
(JNS) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched down in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, ahead of meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and other top officials.
Blinken traveled to Jordan earlier Tuesday, visiting a warehouse of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, where aid shipments from U.S. charities are gathered.
“I’m now able to go to Israel tomorrow and go over with the Israeli government the things that still need to be done if the test is going to be met of making sure that people have what they need,” Blinken told reporters in Amman.
“And I’ll be doing that tomorrow directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government,” he added.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum summit in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, Blinken urged Hamas to accept Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” hostages-for-ceasefire offer.
The top American diplomat is touring the region to press for a ceasefire as the Israeli military prepares to enter Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip. Jerusalem says the operation in Hamas’s last bastion in Gaza is essential to winning the war, but the Biden administration opposes a full-scale invasion.
It is Blinken’s seventh Mideast diplomatic swing and ninth visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre and ensuing war.
“Now, the quickest way to bring this to an end is to get to a ceasefire and the release of hostages. And as you said, there’s been an extraordinary effort that’s been made—and I really want to thank, profoundly, our friends from Qatar and Egypt who have been playing an instrumental role in trying to get this ceasefire and release of hostages—a major effort that’s been made over the last couple of months to get to that ceasefire, to get the hostages out,” Blinken said at the WEF meeting in Riyadh on Monday.
“And right now, as you said, Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily—extraordinarily—generous on the part of Israel. And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron also described the Israeli proposal as “generous” at the WEF summit on Monday.
Hamas reportedly met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Monday to discuss the latest Israeli proposal, presented over the weekend, and are expected to deliver a response soon. A senior official with the terror group said on Sunday that they had “no major issues” with the most recent plan.
According to Cameron, the phased agreement includes potentially the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages during a 40-day pause in fighting, with the second stage involving talks on ending the war and planning for post-war control of Gaza.
“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal,’” said Cameron.
The New York Times, citing three Israeli officials, reported on Monday that Israel had lowered its demand from 40 hostages to be released immediately to 33. This is because Jerusalem now believes that some of the 40, which include women, the elderly and the sick, have died in captivity.
An estimated 133 hostages remain in Gaza, 129 of whom were among the 253 kidnapped by Hamas during its Oct. 7 onslaught on the northwestern Negev. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 34 of the 129.
Hebrew media reported on Monday evening that an Israeli delegation was heading back to Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a potential deal.
Israel is readying an invasion of Rafah, where four of the final six Hamas battalions are concentrated. Noncombatants are being evacuated as part of these preparations, but Blinken said on Monday that the United States “has not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected” and thus is still against the operation.
(DCNF) An anti-Israel protester who sought “humanitarian aid” for those who forcibly occupied a building on the campus of Columbia University appeared nonplussed when questioned by reporters.
Columbia students occupying Hamilton Hall are demanding the university provide them food so they can continue their occupation:
The protesters seized Hamilton Hall, an administration building on the Manhattan campus of the Ivy League school, early Monday morning, at one point preventing one of the workers in the building at the time from leaving while they demanded the school not take action against the demonstrators and end financial ties with Israel. The protester, identified as Johannah King-Slutzky by journalist Jordan Schachtel in a post on X, gave a press conference Tuesday where she discussed requests from the protesters occupying the building. (RELATED: Jewish Columbia Student Files Lawsuit Accusing School Of Failing To Protect Jewish Students)
A student fixes a Palestinian flag as student protesters bring tents and supplies back into the protest encampment in support of Palestinians after a midnight deadline for protesters to leave the encampment on campus passed and it was reported to have been extended to 8 a.m., during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 23, 2024, REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
A student fixes a Palestinian flag as student protesters bring tents and supplies back into the protest encampment in support of Palestinians after a midnight deadline for protesters to leave the encampment on campus passed and it was reported to have been extended to 8 a.m., during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 23, 2024, REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
“First of all, we’re saying that they’re obligated to provide food for students who paid for a meal plan here,” King-Slutzky said at the start of a video posted on X.
A reporter asked a question of King-Slutzky regarding the request for food and water.
“To allow it to be brought in,” King-Slutzky responded. “I guess it’s ultimately a question of what kind of community and obligation Columbia feels it has to its students. Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill if they disagree with you? If the answer is no, then you should allow basic… I mean, it’s crazy to say because this is an Ivy League campus, but this is basic humanitarian aid we’re asking for, like could people please have a glass of water?”
“But they put themselves into that deliberately in that situation and position,” a reporter said.
King-Slutzky, who described herself in her biography on Columbia’s website as “a political strategist for leftist and progressive causes,” paused for a moment after the reporter’s question.
“No one is asking for anything,” she claimed. “We’re asking them to not violently stop us from bringing in basic humanitarian aid.”
King-Slutzky later admitted she did not know if any effort had been made to provide supplies, but reiterated they were looking for a commitment that food and water would be allowed into the building. (RELATED: ‘Useful Idiots’: Alan Dershowitz Rips Pro-Hamas Students, Compares Them To ‘Hitler Youth’)
The protest started when demonstrators lit flares and chanted anti-Israel slogans hours after Columbia University President Dr. Nemat Shafik was grilled by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York during an April 17 House Education Committee hearing titled “Columbia In Crisis: Columbia University’s Response To Antisemitism,” Fox News reported.
Protesters at multiple demonstrations at Ivy League schools since a deadly attack by the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas against Israel have made statements like “resistance is justified,” including an Oct. 15 protest where attendees chanted a slogan that has connotations of wiping out Israel after a Cornell University professor called the attacks “exhilarating.”
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Late on Tuesday evening, the NYPD took decisive action at Columbia University, addressing a prolonged and escalating conflict on campus. Responding to a situation that spiraled into violence, law enforcement was tasked with reclaiming control of Hamilton Hall, a significant and historical academic building, from a group characterized by the police as pro-terror and anti-Israel, as was reported by The New York Post on Tuesday evening.
For weeks, Columbia University had been the backdrop for intensifying protests, marred by growing discontent and disruptive actions. The situation reached a critical point when protesters, escalating their tactics, forcefully occupied Hamilton Hall, effectively paralyzing academic operations and challenging the institution’s governance, according to the information provided in the Post report. This bold maneuver prompted the university administration to call for NYPD intervention after substantial hesitance, signaling a shift towards restoring order and safeguarding its educational mission.
As the clock struck just past 9 PM, hundreds of NYPD officers, including specialists from the Emergency Service Unit, converged on the Morningside Heights campus. The report in the Post indicated that their target was clear, but the path was not. Protesters had barricaded the front doors of Hamilton Hall, displaying a brazen defiance that met the officers with both physical and symbolic barriers.
About 100 officers were deployed, arriving on buses ready to address the situation as it unfolded. Additional officers, equipped with riot gear and zip-tie handcuffs, were stationed strategically around the campus, poised for action, as per the Post report.
In a strategic response, the NYPD deployed its Mobile Adjustable Ramp System, a tactical vehicle that allowed officers equipped in riot gear to enter the building through a second-floor window, as per the information contained in the Post report. This maneuver was a testament to the complexity and tension of the operation, highlighting the lengths to which the police were prepared to go to secure the premises.
Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves noted the use of distraction devices, which were deployed to disorient the occupiers and facilitate a safer, more controlled breach. The Post reported that these devices, known in common parlance as “Flash Bangs” emit a “very loud bang” and as such, were instrumental in the successful execution of the operation.
The protestors, many of whom concealed their identities with surgical masks or keffiyehs—a scarf symbolizing Palestinian nationalism—were forcibly removed from Hamilton Hall and subsequently loaded onto NYPD buses, as was detailed in the Post report. During this operation, the emotional and confrontational nature of the protests was palpable. The report added that some demonstrators continued to express their stridently anti-Israel views vocally, while others were visibly distressed, with at least one individual observed crying amid the unfolding chaos.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 1, 2024
Outside the immediate vicinity of the building, the tension spilled over to nearby areas, including off-campus housing. NYPD officers stationed there faced hostile receptions, with incendiary shouts comparing the NYPD, KKK, and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), shedding light of the deep-seated animosity among some segments of the protestor group towards these institutions, the Post report said.
In response to the events that unfolded on Tuesday night, Columbia University issued a statement within minutes of police action on campus, expressing regret over the necessity of police intervention. According to the information in the Post report, the university detailed that the occupation, vandalism, and blockade of Hamilton Hall had escalated to a level that endangered community safety and forced public safety personnel out, leaving the administration with no other viable options but to act decisively to protect its community and prevent further escalation.
As the situation inside Hamilton Hall was brought under control, NYPD officers did not stop there. They moved on to the South Lawn, where protestors had set up a “mini tent city,” the Post reported. Despite a previously issued deadline by the university for vacating the area, the encampment had remained. The report in the Post also indicated that Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves confirmed that the individuals in the encampment were removed, signaling a comprehensive effort to clear all protest activities from the campus grounds.
Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry described the operation as having “gone very well,” a testament to the NYPD’s planning and execution under challenging circumstances, the Post affirmed. The operation resulted in approximately 100 arrests, according to police sources.
This group of protesters, later charged with third-degree burglary, criminal mischief, and trespassing, had barricaded themselves inside, effectively disrupting the campus operations, the report in the Post said. Simultaneously, another group involved in a less aggressive but still unlawful protest on the South Lawn faced charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Despite the dispersal of crowds and clearance of the protest sites on Tuesday evening, the NYPD planned to maintain a presence on Columbia’s campus through to the university’s commencement on May 15.
The Ivy League university’s administration stated that the decision to call in the NYPD was a direct response to the protestors’ actions, rather than the cause they advocated, the report in the Post noted.
The NYPD also took stringent measures to control the situation, which included blocking pedestrian and vehicular traffic along 114th Street and Broadway. This action came amid vocal opposition from onlookers, who expressed their disapproval with chants of “Shame, shame, shame!,” the Post report explained.
Approximately 45 minutes before police action commenced, Columbia University issued a shelter-in-place directive to its students due to “heightened activity” at the Morningside campus. Noted in the Post report was that this precautionary measure came with a stern warning that failure to comply would result in disciplinary action, indicating the seriousness with which the university was treating the potential threat to safety.
The onset of NYPD mobilization prompted a critical reaction from Columbia’s Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Indicated in the information in the Post report was that the faculty body issued a scathing statement, condemning the university administration for not taking up the faculty’s proposals to defuse the tensions. The statement held the university leadership, including the president, senior staff, and the Board of Trustees, accountable for what it described as “disastrous lapses of judgment” that escalated the situation to the current crisis, the Post report added. The group expressed grave concerns about the potential for injuries resulting from police actions on campus, reflecting deep divisions between faculty and administration over handling the protest.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban had earlier confirmed the department’s readiness to intervene at Columbia University, similar to its response two weeks prior when student protesters first established a mini tent city. As per the Post report, Commissioner Caban emphasized, “Once the university asks for our help, the NYPD will be there ready to assist them.”
In a startling development, NYPD brass disclosed that the group that forcibly entered Hamilton Hall, causing considerable property damage, included individuals identified as “professional outside agitators,” according to the Post report. These individuals, not affiliated with Columbia University or the pro-Palestinian cause, employed aggressive tactics reminiscent of past rallies. Their methods included dragging metal barricades inside the building and using furniture to barricade doors, actions that significantly escalated the conflict.
The building, symbolically renamed “Hind’s Hall” by the protesters in memory of Hind Rajab—a young Palestinian victim of the Middle Eastern conflict—became the epicenter of the protest after the university threatened to suspend students who failed to leave the previously established encampment.
The protest at Columbia is part of a broader trend observed across elite universities in New York City and nationwide. The report in the Post recalled that on April 17, anti-Israel protesters set up dozens of tents on campus in solidarity with the Hamas, pro-terror cause. This initial act of protest quickly expanded, leading to significant disruptions and a robust response from the university and law enforcement.
Among those arrested was the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a prominent member of the “Squad,” highlighting the national interest and the high-profile nature of the incident. A was previously reported in the Post, In response to the protest, Columbia University imposed suspensions on involved students, threatening their eligibility for upcoming graduation.
Despite these measures, the protesters returned to campus within 24 hours, prompting the administration to attempt once again to disperse the demonstrators, the report in the Post indicated. The university’s efforts to control the situation struggled against the persistent and rowdy presence of the students. Prepared for further escalation, busloads of additional officers were on standby, though they ultimately were not deployed.
Palestinian mourners and gunmen wave the green Hamas flag at the funeral of a Palestinian terrorist who was killed in an Israeli military raid in Nur Shams, October 20, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90
Paul Roland Bois
The White House has reportedly been considering whether or not to accept Palestinians from Gaza as refugees amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
According to internal federal documents obtained by CBS News, senior officials in the Biden administration and U.S. agencies have “discussed the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents.”
The documents show that welcoming Palestinians under the United States Refugee Admissions Program has been proposed as a means to bring people into the country from war-torn Gaza. CBS News added:
Top U.S. officials have also discussed getting additional Palestinians out of Gaza and processing them as refugees if they have American relatives, the documents show. The plans would require coordination with Egypt, which has so far refused to welcome large numbers of people from Gaza.
Potential refugees would need to pass various security and medical screenings before they could be granted access to the United States and the numerous benefits associated with refugee resettlement in the country, including permanent residency, housing assistance, and a pathway to American citizenship.
While exact numbers are difficult to estimate, local public health officials say as many as 34,000 Palestinians have died in the Gaza conflict, while several hundred thousand have been displaced from their homes. Egypt and other neighboring countries in the region have refused to take in refugees. Israel launched its incursion into Gaza following the horrific October 7 terrorist attack at the hands of Hamas last year, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, including women and children.
The White House Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have not commented on the report about the United States looking to import Palestinian refugees.
“The proposals to resettle certain Palestinians as refugees would mark a shift in longstanding U.S. government policy and practice. Since its inception in 1980, the U.S. refugee program has not resettled Palestinians in large numbers,” noted CBS News.
“Over the past decade, the U.S. has resettled more than 400,000 refugees fleeing violence and war across the globe. Fewer than 600 were Palestinian. In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. welcomed 56 Palestinian refugees, or 0.09% of the more than 60,000 refugees resettled during those 12 months, State Department statistics show,” it added.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
A mob of angry students attacked German Ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Oliver Owcza when he attempted to visit Birzeit University in the West Bank on Tuesday.
The mob chased Owcza off campus, surrounded his armored vehicle, and pelted it with rocks because students were furious about Germany’s support for Israel.
Owcza was visiting the university, which is located about six miles from Ramallah, for a meeting of European Union (EU) diplomats at the Palestinian Museum. A mob descended upon the venue, harassing all of the assembled EU heads of mission until they left the campus.
The German ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Oliver Owcza, was chased, and his vehicle was attacked by students at Birzeit University in Ramallah earlier today. pic.twitter.com/slm7qI0I5B
“The students’ movement refused those visitors to come to the museum because of their position on the genocide in Gaza. For that, we asked them to leave,” one of the protest leaders said.
The mob seemed especially angry at Owcza, rushing him to his car with chants of “Out! Out!” and then attacking the vehicle. German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert was also hounded from the museum by students who threw their shoes at him, breaking the windshield of his car as he tried to drive away.
The Palestinian Museum distanced itself from both the mob action and the EU diplomats. Administrators insisted they “did not invite any of the ambassadors from the countries who attended today” and received no “list of invitees’ names,” although they did admit to renting a room to the Belgian embassy.
The museum statement praised Belgium, “which has stood with the Palestinian voice and cause since the beginning of the aggression against our people in Gaza,” but added, “If we had known of the presence of ambassadors from non-supportive countries, we would have refused to rent the hall.”
The German government did not immediately release a statement, but Owcza posted a passive response to the attack on social media.
“Peaceful protest and dialogue always has its place,” he said. “We regret that today’s meeting of EU Heads of Missions at the National Museum in Birzeit was unduly interrupted by protesters. Nevertheless, we remain committed to constructively work with our Palestinian partners.”
The Palestinian mob’s anger against Germans may have been inflamed by news on Tuesday that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) would not order Germany to stop sending weapons and assistance to Israel.
The ICJ’s panel of judges voted 15-1 to reject a case brought by Nicaragua that claimed providing arms to Israel was tantamount to supporting genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.
“Germany is not a party to the conflict in the Middle East — quite the contrary. We are working day and night towards a two-state solution. We are the biggest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians,” the German Foreign Ministry said in response to the ruling.
(AP) — Law enforcement officers with an arrest warrant demanded that a man come out of a house in North Carolina before four were killed by gunfire, the victims unable to survive shots coming from inside the dwelling, a witness and officials said Tuesday.
Still reeling from Monday’s attack — the deadliest against U.S. law enforcement officers since 2016 — investigators in Charlotte said they weren’t sure whether there was a second shooter and that more work was needed to determine what happened.
“Charlotte isn’t going to be the last place that this happens,” Mayor Vi Lyles said, “but Charlotte will be the place that will heal — that will heal with dignity and respect for everyone.”
A task force made up of officers from different agencies had arrived in the suburban neighborhood to try to capture Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, who was wanted for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and fleeing to elude in Lincoln County, North Carolina.
Those killed were identified as Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks. Four other officers were wounded in the shootout, and Hughes was also killed.
An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a 40-caliber handgun and ammunition were found at the scene.
An AR-15 is able to penetrate traditional body armor and allowed the shooter to “unload several rounds towards our officers within a matter of seconds,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings.
Multiple law enforcement vehicles respond in the neighborhood where several officers on a task force trying to serve a warrant were shot in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. (Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
He said more than 100 spent rounds were found, though it wasn’t clear how many were fired by the suspect. At least 12 officers also fired guns.
“Even though officers were trying to take cover, they were at a disadvantage because the suspect was up at a higher level and they were returning fire from a lower position,” Jennings said, noting that the gunman was “shooting from upstairs.”
It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement in one incident since five officers were killed by a sniper during a protest in Dallas in 2016.
Hughes’ criminal record in North Carolina goes back more than a decade. It includes prison time and convictions for breaking and entering, reckless driving, eluding arrest and illegally possessing a gun as a former felon, according to state records.
Members of FBI talk with each other at the scene of a shooting on Galway Drive in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Khadejeh Nikouyeh/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
Star Pulliam, a cousin of Hughes, said he had just bought the home where the shootout occurred. Pulliam said the pair were close and talked nearly every day. She said Hughes was an electrician for more than 15 years. He posted short videos of complex electrical wiring on his LinkedIn profile.
Despite past struggles with the law, Pulliam said it seemed to her like Hughes “had been straightening his life out,” she said.
Saing Chhoeun, who lives next door, recalled hearing several demands that Hughes leave the home. There was no response, he said, but then a car alarm went off about the same time as gunfire.
He said an armored vehicle was subsequently parked between the house and the wounded officers to serve as protection during a rescue attempt. After a three-hour standoff, the home was torn open by specialty vehicles.
“I don’t know how many rounds were fired. But then it got quiet,” Chhoeun told The Associated Press.
Multiple law enforcement vehicles respond in the neighborhood where several officers on a task force trying to serve a warrant were shot in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. (Khadejeh Nikouyeh/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
Two females who were inside the house, including a minor, were cooperating and have not been charged, the police chief said, adding that investigators weren’t pursuing additional suspects.
Jennings said Monday that a second shooter was suspected of firing at police. But by Tuesday, he was backing off and said that possibility was still being checked.
Before taking questions from reporters, officials expressed sorrow and awe for the slain and wounded officers.
Eyer was recently honored as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer of the month, partly for working to get guns off the streets. Jennings said he was killed while responding to others who were facing gunfire at the scene.
“We saw … officers going into the line of fire to save their brothers in blue, who have gone down in the act of trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said. “To me, that’s truly heroic.”
A Charlotte Mecklenburg police officer walks in the neighborhood where several officers on a task force trying to serve a warrant were shot in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Residents in the neighborhood of modest brick homes expressed fear a day later.
“We’ve been here such a long time — you raise your children here — and then all the sudden you have this tragedy,” said Yearly Washington, who has lived there for 35 years.
The last marshal killed in the line of duty was in November 2018. Chase White was shot in Tucson, Arizona, by a man wanted for stalking local law enforcement.
The Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, headquartered in Charlotte, is comprised of 70 federal, state and local agencies collaborating to capture crime suspects.
“This is a loss for the entire country,” said Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis, who traveled to Charlotte. “Losing a deputy, losing task force officers, is like losing a family member because, quite frankly, they are family members.”
___
Contributing to this report were John Raby and Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia; Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland; and Ed White in Detroit.
(JNS) The University of California, Los Angeles is allowing anti-Israel protesters to block Jewish students from entering the library of the state school in the city’s Westwood neighborhood, according to audio of a phone conversation between a parent and the UCLA police.
“Are the protestors allowed to not allow a student who pays tuition access to their class in the library?” the concerned mother is heard asking.
Parent @UCLA gave permission to release this audio of her phone call with @UCLAPD as they describe the school’s directive to allow protestors to restrict the movement of Jewish students.
“Are the protestors allowed to block students who are paying tuition from classes? No, but… pic.twitter.com/qBo9TKci3v
“No, they’re not allowed, but unfortunately they have kind of taken over that little area. … the police are not intervening with that right now and this is coming from the university,” the police representative says.
“So the university has taken a stance that they will not in fact allow or help Jewish students get to their classes? That this is going to be tolerated?” the parent asks.
“We have received a directive to not intervene at this time, yes,” the police representative answers.
The audio was posted by @stephsvox, who also posted a video of anti-Israel protesters taking over access to an area near the school library, demanding they show the right wristbands to enter and blocking “Zionists.” The protesters form a wall to prevent a student from entering as shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is Greatest” in Arabic and was shouted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel, is heard in the background.
Here’s another one from an another friend’s son @ucla. Protestors take over access to area near school library demanding wrist bands and approval to each student passing.
“So you won’t let me in because I’m Jewish?”
“Ummm no… we have a couple Jewish students here … are you… pic.twitter.com/Vf4Kv0KVeS
“So you won’t let me in because I’m Jewish?” the student is heard asking.
“Ummm no… we have a couple Jewish students here. … are you a Zionist?” one of the protesters says back.
“Yes of course I am” the student says.
“Well yeah, we’re not gonna let Zionists in.”
The Jewish Faculty Resistance Group (JFRG) at UCLA, an organization of UCLA faculty, postdoctoral researchers and staff established to support Jewish students, noted in a statement on Sunday that numerous instances of antisemitism were reported at an anti-Israel encampment on campus.
These included protesters hurling antisemitic chants such as “Globalize the intifada,” and “From the river to the sea,” a Jewish student being physically assaulted for holding a sign that said, “Israel is not apartheid, come talk,” and another Jewish student verbally accosted by a professor and accused of supporting genocide for displaying an Israeli flag.
JFRG also noted “pro-Hamas students using posters with inverted red triangles—the same red triangles Hamas uses to mark victims for violence. These students are marking Jewish UCLA students for violence. A direct threat to the peace and safety of Jews at UCLA.
“These examples and the encampment’s exclusion of Jews from entering the public area of Royce Quad are against UC [University of California] policies and highlight the escalating intimidation and harassment against Jewish students on campus,” the JFRG said.
The group condemned the UCLA administration for failing to enforce its own rules and thus furthering the “isolation and exclusion of Jewish students and faculty.
“Even before the events of the past two weeks on college campuses, JFRG warned UCLA and the UC regents that their continued acquiescence to antisemitism on campus would result in further acts of antisemitism and even violence,” the group said.
“No matter how UC leadership spins it, they have allowed the UCLA campus to become a hostile and toxic environment for Jewish students and faculty,” JFRG added.
“The UC must enforce its policies under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, ensuring that Jewish students, faculty, and staff are protected from discrimination and harassment,” the group said.
Anti-Israel encampments have overtaken many college campuses in the United States in recent weeks, demanding that they divest from companies doing business with Israel. They have often veered into antisemitism and violence, with the epicenter at Columbia University in New York, where Jewish students are suing the school over its failure to protect them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Knesset, March 6, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
(JNS) The Israel Defense Forces will enter the Hamas stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza irrespective of the outcome of hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
“The notion that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” said the premier during a meeting at his office in Jerusalem with the Heroism Forum, which represents bereaved IDF families, and the Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages.
The military “will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there—with or without a deal—to achieve total victory,” he said.
The families at the meeting urged Netanyahu “to continue achieving the goals of the war and to withstand the international pressure,” according to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with members of the Heroism Forum, which represents bereaved IDF families, and the Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, April 30, 2024. Credit: GPO.
The War Cabinet will decide within the next 72 hours whether to launch a military operation to destroy Hamas’s remaining terror battalions in Rafah, Ynet reported earlier on Tuesday.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has approved final battle plans for the operation, which will be accompanied by the evacuation of the city’s civilian population.
The hostage deal being discussed with Hamas includes significant compromises by Israel and, for the first time, Jerusalem is considering ending the war in the Gaza Strip, Axios reported on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said that the offensive in Rafah would be suspended if a deal to free the abductees is secured. “The release of the hostages is the top priority for us,” he stated Saturday, adding that “if there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government will lose its legitimacy if it forgoes the mission and instead accepts the “humiliating surrender” proposed to Hamas during talks.
In a video message shared on X, Smotrich urged Netanyahu to order the IDF to immediately enter Rafah “with all its might.”
Agreeing to the terms currently on the table would be tantamount to “a victory for the Nazis at the expense of hundreds of brave IDF soldiers who fell in battle. It would impose a death sentence on the [133 remaining] hostages and, above all, constitute an immediate existential danger to the State of Israel,” said Smotrich.
U.S. President Joe Biden has told Netanyahu that his administration will not support a major offensive against Hamas in Rafah. Instead, the Biden administration favors a limited operation aimed at attacking high-value Hamas targets and securing the Gaza-Egypt border.
Despite intense international opposition to a major offensive in Rafah, Israel has repeatedly stated that it is necessary to win the war to ensure that Hamas is not able to regroup and threaten Israel again.
According to a Harvard CAPS Harris poll released on Tuesday, 72% of Americans believe Israel should proceed with the battle, while 28% support Hamas’s continued terror rule in Gaza.
A Timeline Tracing Columbia University’s Descent into Anti-Semitic Anarchy
By Lieba Nesis
The escalating antisemitism at Columbia University where cries to “Kill Jews” and replay the October 7th Hamas massacre 10,000 times have sent shockwaves throughout the world. The vandalism and violence currently occurring as protestors took over the Hamilton Hall building at 12 AM Monday evening, April 29th, after being given a 2 PM deadline to vacate without Mayor Eric Adams or Columbia president Minouche Shafik taking action is inexplicable. How did this two-week chaos evolve?
While the encampments may have began at 4AM Wednesday April 17th as hundreds of students pitched tents to coincide with President Minouche Shafik’s disastrous three hour Congressional testimony-this antisemitic hate has been brewing for years. Starting with the current president Minouche Shafik who denied in her testimony that “long live the intifada” and calls to wipe Israel off the map were antisemitic. She readily criticized the only Jewish professor Shai Davidai by condemning his behavior and saying he had harassed 50 students; failing to mention it was all social media related as he called out antisemitic students on Twitter after the University failed to take action. Shafik and her three collaborators Claire Shipman, David Schizer and David Greenwald were not under oath for the House Committee on Education and Workforce testimony ensuring there will be no criminal consequences for their continued perjury.
Columbia University will not recover from this. There is nothing peaceful about this protest.
Shafik denied that any anti-Jewish protests had occurred on campus in the past six months: as she was quickly contradicted by all three panelists with Claire Shipman recounting Jewish students being targeted at Columbia Law School on admitted students day. Shafik also told Congressman Jim Banks she was unaware of Columbia’s antisemitic Social Work orientation materials that included a glossary where Ashkenormativity was defined as a “system of oppression that favors white Jewish folx.” More bad news was a recent New York Post article where Yale Professor Ahmed Mobarak accused Shafik of intellectual theft and plagiarism as she removed a co-author’s name from a 1994 research paper. Despite Columbia’s bedlam on April 24th its Board of Trustees said they “strongly support” Shafik as “someone who takes a firm stance against hatred, harassment and discrimination”.
The festering Jew hatred at Columbia has been brewing for nearly a decade. In 2018 Holocaust Scholar Elizabeth Midlarsky’s office was vandalized and spray-painted with swastikas and the word “Yid”. Nobody was arrested and the attacks increased with four antisemitic attacks in 2020 and no action by Columbia. Former esteemed President Lee Bollinger who was forced to step down in 2023 after 21 historic years at Columbia was a hardline Israel supporter voting against BDS and raising the alarm bells in March 2020 against the “anger, hatred, demonization and invidious discrimination” he was witnessing against Jews on campus-one of the reasons he was forced to resign. Since Shafik took reign in October 2023 the school has become a cesspool of Jew hate. The events leading up to April 17th’s chaos reveal its inevitability as hate groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), along with 94 other Jewish hate groups on campus, have been running things at Columbia since October 7th. An October 5th post from SJP Columbia saying “we are back first general meeting to be announced soon stay tuned” as a map showing an eradicated Israel and the Arabic words for “Violence, Revolution” appear in the background reveal they had prior knowledge of Hamas’s October 7th massacre.
Columbia’s protests are far from organic having been funded by Jew haters George Soros, Wall streeter Felice Gelman, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and former orthodox Jew Howard Horowitz from WESPAC. Some of the groups members are Jewish as they held a seder and shabbat meal at the encampment while calls for the genocide of Israel could be heard in the background. The escalation over the past six months can be traced to the university’s inaction as actual terrorists are currently entrenched on campus as reflected by this timeline:
October 4th- Dr. Minouche Shafik is inaugurated as president with little fanfare-3 days later the anti-Jewish mayhem begins
October 5th-SJP Columbia warns of violence and revolution two days before the Hamas massacre and starts planning its demonstrations as it knows an attack is brewing
October 7th-1200 innocent Israeli civilians are killed while many are raped, beheaded and mutilated with over 250 hostages taken
October 9th- SJP and JVP Columbia sign a letter praising Hamas and its massacre as an “unprecedented historic moment” and saying they are in full solidarity with Palestinian resistance
October 11-A 24-year-old Israeli student hanging pro-Israel fliers is assaulted on the Columbia campus
October 12-the biweekly threatening protests of SJP and JVP begin as Columbia is forced to close its campus to the public early in the day due to the aggression of the Palestinian groups with Jewish student Caroline Smith saying she felt “dispirited” and unsupported from the University. Professor Shai Davidai raises the alarm bells to Columbia’s leaders that an out-of-control antisemitism is going unchecked. Being that the school is private property they are allowed to limit free speech especially when it calls for the destruction of Israel and should have shut down on campus protests at this stage
October 23- Columbia calls off its annual Giving Day where alumni contribute money due to the dueling protests between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian
Mercilessly murdering civilians in their homes. When they say “Globalize the Intifada” the mean to globalize this. https://t.co/4m09q3W53A
October 30-Over 100 Columbia professors sign a letter defending students who backed the October 7th terror attack and further call Israel an apartheid state
Nov 1-Shafik announces the creation of a task force to combat antisemitism after violent anti-Israel protests become habitual
November 10th-Columbia suspends SJP and JVP for holding an unauthorized school walkout and “repeatedly violating University policies relating to holding campus events” as an unlawful sit-in at the Social Work school is held. The anti-Israel organizations continue to hold protests and form under a new group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) without any oversight basically functioning as before the suspension
Once you understand what Intifada means, you feel a sickness move through you. It’s destabilizing for us- Jewish people in the West to hear it used against us to intimidate, abuse, and cause fear.
Nov 14-400 students rally on campus to protest the termination of SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace): while 200 faculty members walk out the next day to protest SJP and JVP’s suspension
December 5th-House Committee calls on leaders of Harvard, U of P, and MIT to answer for antisemitic demonstrations. President Minouche Shafik reveals her disregard for the unfolding crisis as she travels to the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai-shouldn’t this hearing have been a priority?
January 19-another unlawful anti-Israel protest is held. Two Jewish students spray harmless fart spray at venomous participants and are the only Columbia students in this whole morass to be expelled until May 2025.
March 21-A Columbia University Task Force set up to combat antisemitism refuses to settle on a definition allowing rampant anti-Jewish chants such as “from the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free” and “Long Live the Intifada” to permeate the University
— 🇺🇸Jamie🇮🇱 #JusticeForMalkiRoth (@JaRaNo1128) April 23, 2024
March 24-a culmination of hundreds of anti-Israel events peaks with a scary March 24th “Resistance 101” event at Columbia’s Q House-an LGBT special interest community at the University-hosted by CUAD and 94 other student groups. Charlotte Kates a member of terror group Samidoun along with Khaled Barakat a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine activist join “Within Our Lifetime” Founder Nerdeen Kiswani who calls for Israel to be wiped off the map. These three terrorists praise Hamas’s October 7th”resistance” along with Hezbollah and exhort attendees to employ armed resistance against Israel-essentially using Columbia’s grounds to recruit domestic terrorists. Aidan Parisi, a graduate student in Columbia’s School of Social Work, who organized the event is suspended but refuses to vacate his dorm. His suspension is later lifted as he becomes a leader at the current Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The other three students organizers also have their suspensions lifted. There are a couple of major student agitators on campus including Parisi, Khymani James, Cameron Jones, Maryam Alwan, Maryam Iqbal, and Mahmoud Khalil. Had they been suspended initially most of the radicalism would have been contained.
April 7-Shafik finally sends out a letter acknowledging the Hamas “terror attack” in Israel as her April 17th Congressional hearing draws closer-fooling no-one.
April 17-Hundreds of students pitch tents on the South Lawn of Columbia at 4 AM. Hours later Shafik along with her idiotic supporting staff appear in Washington for the House Committee Hearing where they admit they can’t even define antisemitism. It becomes clear she not only doesn’t care about antisemitism but allows it to thrive under the guise of free speech. Shafik admits professors Joseph Massad and Mohamed Abdou who praised Hamas’s atrocities continue employment while Jewish professor Shai Davidai is being investigated. While Professor Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is immediately fired in 2022 for an innocuous tweet containing a photo of a Sudanese model and saying her dark skin was a “beautiful sight to behold” professors who advocate for the killing of Jews continue to retain employment. Shafik allows the dangerous encampment to endure. Enabling the sprinklers to douse the tents, calling university security to block the protestors are all actions she declines to take
April 18-Shafik finally calls the NYPD who arrest 108 students who are all released from custody hours later with their suspensions also dropped along with any notation on their records. Shafik once again shows her gross incompetence as she remains in Washington at a Bezos Earth Fund dinner while chaos ensues at Columbia. She later complains she was unable to eat due to repeated phone calls.
April 19-Students arrive with more tents on the West lawn along with an escalation in aggression as Shafik remains paralyzed. Terrorist leader Nerdeen Kiswani joins the encampment to celebrate her wedding as she calls for the eradication of Israel and revolution.
April 21-Columbia Chabad Rabbi Eli Buechler tells 290 Jewish students in a Whatsapp chat they should leave because they are no longer safe in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy
April 22-Professor Shai Davidai is refused entry to Columbia campus while Hamas sympathizer Mohamed Abdou who Shafik claimed was fired socializes with protestors on campus along with Hamas massacre photographer and participant Motaz Azaiza and disgraced actress Susan Sarandon. At the encampment Arab movies are watched, Arab prayers are held, and leader Khymani James tells zombie like students to form a human chain to block Zionists seeking to enter. That same day hundreds of professors sign open letters denouncing the suspension of students and join a walkout as they rally on campus to back the antisemitic protests. Among these professors is currently employed Joseph Massad who praised October 7th as “astounding” and “awesome” in a much condemned article. Shafik says the school needs a reset as she encourages students to learn online and faculty to work remotely-basically meaning Jewish students should stay far away. Major Columbia contributor Robert Kraft halts donations due to “virulent Jew hate”
April 23-Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appears on Columbia campus where he is vigorously booed. He denounces the rampant Jew hatred, demands Shafik resign and threatens to urge Biden to call the National Guard
April 24-Shafik extends the Monday night deadline-requiring student encampments to pack up-until an unknown time. She fails to utilize Eric Adams offer of the NYPD or Hochul’s offer of the National Guard. Feckless Eric Adams as usual fails to take charge of the chaotic situation. Shafik makes some half-assed deal to remove a couple of tents and some outsiders from the encampment but ultimately proves her presidency is an unmitigated disaster. Due to Columbia’s success Jew hatred has spread to over 40 colleges but has largely gone untolerated at other universities as NYU boards up its campus and arrests of students at Emerson, USC and UT Austin later follow. The feckless Board of Trustees at Columbia say they strongly support Shafik for her “firm stance against harassment.”
April 25-Congresswoman Ilhan Omar joins her supposedly suspended 21-year-old Barnard attending daughter, Isra Hirsi, on campus. Omar calls it an honor to see the anti-war encampment firsthand
April 26-Columbia bans the leader of the Gaza encampment, Khymani James, from campus after a January video resurfaces of him telling a Columbia administrator Zionists “don’t deserve to live.” Whether he is suspended or expelled from the school is unclear. This dangerous individual not being kicked out in January is astounding as he is both head of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and a major force in the “peaceful encampment” who forced “Zionists” out. Once again Columbia chooses to back the aggressors as its Senate votes for a resolution that accuses the administration of violating academic freedom and breaching the due process rights of antisemitic students and professors. Additionally, an investigation of the administration begins. Representative AOC visits the encampment and poses for selfies.
A Facilities worker who was in the building exited the building at around 12:40 a.m., after shouting at the protesters occupying the Hamilton lobby to let him leave. As he left #HamiltonHall , he yelled at the crowd,
“They held me hostage.”
April 28-The tents and virulent anti-Jewish chants continue despite a supposed deadline to leave campus four days prior. Students continue to demand Columbia divest from Israel while calling for a Gaza ceasefire. Columbia’s mayhem strikes fear in the heart of every university as they rethink their entire playbook on permitting protests as crackdowns become increasingly aggressive. Jewish hate spreads to UCLA, Emerson and U of T.
April 29-Students are given a 2 PM deadline to vacate the tents or otherwise suspensions will ensue. Once again “fired” antisemitic teacher Mohamed Abdou is seen at the campus protest. Students flout the deadline and continue aggressive anti-Israel chants. Columbia professors don yellow and orange vests as they use their bodies to protect Jew-hating students
12 AM that day April 30-Students see little consequences for their violence so they break windows and barricade themselves in Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. Once again grossly incompetent hard-partying Mayor Eric Adams fails to use the NYPD despite the requirement that in “exigent circumstances” they must be called. Students who oppose the barricades are assaulted and maintenance workers are temporarily held hostage. Columbia is in full lockdown. The May 15th graduation is in jeopardy as are the Jewish student lives! Hamilton Hall continues to be barricaded for the entirety of the day
New York County Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that former President Donald Trump violated a gag order during his trial, holding him in criminal contempt and threatening him with jail time for any further infractions.
Merchan also ordered Trump to remove the “seven offending posts” from Truth Social.
“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge wrote in the order:
ORDERED, that Defendant pay a $1,000 fine for each of the nine violations of this Court’s lawful order by the close of business on Friday, May 3, 2024; and it is further ORDERED that Defendant remove the seven offending posts from Defendant’s Truth Social account and the two offending posts from his campaign website by 2:15pm Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
Merchan had the authority to send Trump to jail for up to 30 days for allegedly violating his gag order. Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg backed down from asking the judge to jail Trump for allegedly violating the order, according to court reporters.
Trump appeared to call Bragg’s bluff. Trump said in April that it would be a “GREAT HONOR” to become a “modern-day Nelson Mandela” in the “clink” for speaking the truth about Merchan.
The gag order prevents Trump from making public comments about witnesses participating in the trial, counsel other than Bragg, “members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or … the family members of any counsel or staff member, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with … counsel’s or staff’s work” on the case. It also encompasses prospective jurors.
“The gag order has to come off,” Trump previously told reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse. “People are allowed to speak about me, and I have a gag order, just to show you how much more unfair it is.”
“They can say anything they want,” Trump said about his political foes. “They can continue to make up lies and everything else. They lie. They’re real scum. But you know what, I’m not allowed to speak.”
“So why am I gagged about telling the truth?” Trump questioned. “I’m only telling the truth. They’re not telling the truth.”
Bragg charged Trump with 34 felonies in the criminal case concerning alleged election interference and a legal retainer paid to Michael Cohen. The trial is the first-ever criminal trial of a president of the United States. Trump could face jail time if convicted.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Michael M. Santiago/Getty)
A majority of Americans doubt Trump’s criminal trial will conclude with a fair outcome, a CNN poll on Friday found. Increasing numbers of Americans see the criminal trial of Trump as irrelevant to his fitness for reelection, the CNN poll further found, while only 13 percent believe Trump is being treated the same as other “criminal defendants.”
Only about one-third of American adults believe Trump did anything illegal regarding the case, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found Tuesday.
The case is New York v. Trump, No. 71543-23, in the New York Supreme Court for New York County.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
(TJV) Columbia University has declared that pro-Palestinian protesters who have occupied Hamilton Hall on its campus will be expelled, according to a recent statement. The university stated that the protesters had escalated the situation by damaging property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances. Consequently, the students who remained in the encampment are facing suspension, with restrictions from academic and recreational spaces, limited to accessing only their individual residences, and seniors being ineligible to graduate, ABC News reported
NEW: Columbia protester tells Fox News reporter to get out of her face after he asks multiple questions including why they held three janitors hostage.
Reporter: “Do you feel like it was right to hold 3 of the janitor workers hostage inside of the building?”
Video footage depicted protesters at Columbia’s Manhattan campus locking arms in front of Hamilton Hall, carrying furniture and metal barricades, and breaking through a glass door. Hamilton Hall holds historical significance as a center of campus protests throughout history, notably during a 1968 Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War protest. An Instagram post from protest organizers renamed the hall “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a child allegedly killed by the Israeli state.
Despite several 911 calls, the NYPD has not intervened, as Columbia University has not requested assistance. The campus remains closed to non-essential personnel, with restricted access for specific dorm residents and essential employees.
One of the Columbia janitors who confronted a Biden voting Hamashole wrecking his building last night, This underpaid blue collar worker has 100 times the guts of the Columbia U President (or the US President for that matter) pic.twitter.com/GzQmhbodT2
— Rogue1-the Jeff Faria Project (@PatriotsOfMars) April 30, 2024
The student protesters demand divestment from businesses with ties to Israel, likening the situation in Gaza to apartheid in South Africa. Columbia University has suspended negotiations with the protesters and initiated measures to ensure campus safety and a smooth commencement ceremony.
President Minouche Shafik expressed disappointment in the lack of consensus and emphasized the importance of celebrating the graduates’ achievements. Students who refuse to leave the encampment face suspension until June next year, losing access to campus facilities, housing, and healthcare.
Protester Sueda Polat criticized the university’s inflexibility and arrogance, expressing willingness to resume negotiations if divestment from Israel is considered. Columbia University, however, affirmed its decision not to divest from Israel, acknowledging the discomfort experienced by some Jewish students and affirming its commitment to creating a welcoming environment for all community members
Former President Donald Trump stated that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate their own religion.” (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
(DCNF) Former President Donald Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his leadership and said his hopes for a two-state solution have evaporated during a Time Magazine interview published on Tuesday.
Terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing over 1,200 civilians and kidnapping hundreds of others, with Netanyahu coming under fire since the attack and subsequent conflict. Trump said the criticism directed at Netanyahu over the attack is justified and also attacked the prime minister for being skittish on helping with the assassination of Iranian Qasem Solemaini, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’, during his presidency.
“Well, I had a bad experience with Bibi,” Trump told Time. “And it had to do with Soleimani, because as you probably know by now, he dropped out just before the attack. And I said, ‘What’s that all about?’ Because that was going to be a joint and all of a sudden, we were told that Israel was not doing it. And I was not happy about that. That was something I never forgot. And it showed me something. I would say that what happened on — the October 7 should have never happened.”
“I think it’s had a profound impact on him, despite everything,” Trump added. “Because people said that shouldn’t have happened. They have the most sophisticated equipment. They had —everything was there to stop that. And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn’t know about it, and I think he’s being blamed for that very strongly, being blamed.”
Trump also complimented Netanyahu’s rival and war cabinet member Benny Gantz, but neglected to comment on whether he would prefer to work with him over the current prime minister if the former president is reelected. However, he said he believes others could be effective leaders of the country.
“And I will say this, Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7,” Trump added.
Trump previously held the belief that a two-state solution could be possible for Israel, but now believes it will be extremely difficult, the former president told Time.
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(A7 )Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video statement today (Tuesday) in which he addressed the threat by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials and said that this would be a distortion of justice and history.
Netanyahu began by addressing the plans for the IDF to enter Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas battalions in Gaza. “We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice. We will destroy the Hamas battalions there, we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the return of all our hostages,” he said.
Netanyahu added: “There are many forces trying to prevent us from doing this. Recently another force joined them – the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This court has no authority over the State of Israel.”
“The possibility that he will issue arrest warrants for war crimes against IDF commanders and political leaders, this possibility is a scandal on a historic scale.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Knesset, March 6, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
(JNS) A meeting of the Israeli War Cabinet scheduled for Tuesday evening was canceled amid coalition infighting over a possible hostages-for-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist organization.
The proposal currently being discussed with Hamas reportedly includes significant compromises by Israel and, for the first time, Jerusalem is considering ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
New terms conveyed to Egypt include a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza, a demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously dismissed as “delusional.”
A Hamas source told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya on Tuesday that Israel responded “to some degree” to its demand for a “permanent ceasefire.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu met privately with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after the latter threatened to withdraw his party’s six lawmakers from the governing coalition.
“I concluded a meeting with the prime minister [that took place] at my request,” Ben-Gvir said in a video statement posted to X, explaining that he urged Netanyahu to conquer the last Hamas stronghold of Rafah, continue the war and reject flawed deals with the terrorist group.
“The prime minister heard these things, promised that Israel would enter Rafah, promised that the war would not end and promised that there would be no reckless deal,” said the Otzma Yehudit Party leader.
“I think the prime minister understands very well what it will mean if these things do not happen,” Ben-Gvir said.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich skipped a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, instead calling a gathering of the seven lawmakers from his Religious Zionism Party at the Knesset.
“Accepting the deal on the table amounts to the undeniable raising of a white flag and a victory for Hamas,” Smotrich told reporters, calling on Netanyahu not to let Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar “humiliate us again.
“This is exactly what Sinwar planned to achieve when he set out to butcher us—accepting this agreement while postponing the occupation of Rafah is the fulfillment of his victory plan, which is Israel’s surrender plan,” added the finance minister.
Following the faction meeting, Smotrich declared to journalists that he is “ready to pay the political price” to prevent the “existential danger” posed by the return of Hamas terrorists to northern Gaza and the release of murderous Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails.
“A government that submits to international pressure, stops the war in the middle, avoids immediate entry into Rafah and returns to Egyptian mediation proposals that leave Hamas existing in any configuration will instantly lose its right to exist,” he said.
On Sunday, Smotrich had already warned that the government headed by Netanyahu will lose its legitimacy to govern if it accepts the “humiliating surrender” proposed to Hamas through Egypt.
In a video message, Smotrich urged the premier to order the Israel Defense Forces to immediately enter Rafah “with all its might.”
Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed that the IDF will be ordered to enter Rafah irrespective of the outcome of the ongoing talks with Hamas.
“The notion that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” said the premier during a meeting at his office in Jerusalem with the Heroism Forum, which represents bereaved IDF families, and the Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages.
The military “will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there—with or without a deal—to achieve total victory,” he claimed.
Netanyahu said he stressed to the families his commitment to achieving “all of the objectives of the war, including the return of all of our hostages.
“We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice,” the prime minister said. “We will evacuate the civilian population so that we can focus on the terrorists, as we have done until now.”
Jerusalem has repeatedly emphasized that telling Israel to refrain from operating in Rafah is equivalent to demanding that it lose the war.
Many of the 133 hostages still in the hands of Hamas more than 200 days after the Oct. 7 massacre are believed to be held in Rafah. IDF special forces rescued two captives from the city in February.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a member of the broad Security Cabinet, said Saturday that the offensive in Rafah would be suspended if a deal to free some of the hostages held in the coastal enclave is secured.
The War Cabinet has three members—Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz—and three observers: Minister-without-Portfolio Gadi Eizenkot, Shas Party chairman Aryeh Deri and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
The U.S. military’s cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid has risen to $320 million, a U.S. defense official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 U.S. service members, mostly from the Army and Navy.
Still, the cost has roughly doubled from initial estimates earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters, when asked about the costs. “This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days.”
Democratic president Joe Biden announced the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to ease access for relief supplies into Gaza over land routes. By opening a second route for aid, this one by sea, Biden administration officials hope to avert famine in northern Gaza.
The terror group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, prompting Israel’s military campaign against the group in the Gaza Strip.
Wicker and some other lawmakers have questioned whether the Gaza pier is a worthwhile endeavor, particularly given the risk that U.S. military personnel could become targets of Hamas militants.
“How much will taxpayers be on the hook once—or if—the pier is finally constructed?” Wicker asked. “For every day this mission continues, the price tag goes up and so does the level of risk for the 1,000 deployed troops within range of Hamas’ rockets.”
Concerns about the threat to American troops getting caught up in the Israel-Hamas war were underscored on Thursday as news emerged of a mortar attack near the area where the pier will eventually touch ground. No U.S. forces were present, however, and they were miles offshore—beyond mortar range.
Biden has ordered U.S. forces to not step foot on the Gaza shore.
The pier will initially handle 90 trucks a day, but that number could go up to 150 trucks daily when it is fully operational. The United Nations said last week that the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza during April was 200 and that there had been a peak on Monday of 316.
A senior Biden administration official said last week that humanitarian aid coming off the pier will need to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land.
That is despite the aid having already been inspected by Israel in Cyprus before being shipped to Gaza. Israel wants to prevent any aid getting to Hamas fighters that boosts their war effort.
The prospect of checkpoints raises questions about possible delays even after aid reaches shore. The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza.
The United Nations has appealed for $2.5 billion to try and meet the most urgent needs of the people living in the Gaza Strip between April and December.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Michelle Nichols; editing by Jonathan Oatis.)
