Columbia U Commencement Speaker Slams Israel for “Genocide” & University’s “Silence” On It; Mic Cut Off
Edited by: Fern Sidman
In a surprising turn of events at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health’s commencement ceremony on Tuesday, the class speaker’s microphone cut off multiple times during her speech, which sharply criticized both the university and Israel. According to a report that appeared on Wednesday in the New York Post, the incident, involving student Saham David Ahmed Ali, has sparked widespread discussion and controversy.
Ali, chosen as the class speaker, began her address by expressing her dissatisfaction with Columbia University’s stance on the ongoing Gaza conflict. Describing her experiences on campus as “dystopian,” she criticized the administration’s perceived silence and lack of action regarding what she termed the “genocide of the Palestinian people,” the Post report said. Midway through her hate filled address, her microphone appeared to malfunction, cutting off her words just as she was condemning the university’s silence.
Video footage from the event shows the microphone glitching several times, each interruption met with chants of “let her speak” from the audience. The information in the Post report indicated that despite these technical difficulties, Ali managed to continue her speech after a brief pause, ultimately delivering a 15-minute address filled with scathing critiques of Columbia University and Israel.
In response to the incident, a spokesperson for Columbia University stated that the audio issues were purely technical and unintentional. “The momentary loss of audio during the speech was an unintentional technical glitch,” the spokesperson told The Post. This explanation, however, has done little to quell suspicions among some students and observers who believe the interruptions were a deliberate attempt to silence Ali’s anti-Israel message.
Ali’s speech did not shy away from strong language and stark imagery. She described the emotional toll of walking through the university’s halls while witnessing what she called “the most televised genocide of our lives” on social media, as was reported by the Post. She lamented the disconnect between the administration’s reassurances and the grim reality she felt was being ignored.
Furthermore, Ali echoed the demands of the anti-Israel student group Apartheid Divest, which has been active on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus for several weeks. The group has called for the university to divest from companies they believe are complicit in the occupation of Palestinian territories, as was indicated in the information contained in the Post report. Ali also advocated for the removal of NYPD officers from the campus and the granting of amnesty to students who were arrested during protests.
The incident has intensified ongoing debates at Columbia University regarding free speech, academic freedom, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Supporters of Ali argue that her speech highlighted crucial issues and called for necessary action from the university. Critics, however, view her remarks as divisive and potentially harmful to the university community.
TEL AVIV—Arab-Israeli journalist Yoseph Haddad hates extremists, and the feeling is mutual.
While Haddad was fighting for the Israel Defense Forces in the 2006 Lebanon war, Hezbollah terrorists nearly blew off his right leg with an anti-tank missile. In August, a group of Palestinian men attacked Haddad and his family on an airplane in Dubai. And, last month at an anti-Israel rally outside Columbia University’s main entrance, a protester wearing a keffiyeh and a face covering punched him in the mouth.]
“I’m not saying the anti-Israel protesters at American universities are the same as terrorists, but I am saying they are bringing the same extremist mentality from the Middle East,” Haddad, 38, a reporter at Israel’s i24News and a pro-Israel activist, told the Washington Free Beacon. “I know the mentality because I’m an Arab. I know what they mean when they chant for ‘intifada.’”
In a three-hour interview at a Tel Aviv cafe on a Friday afternoon last month, Haddad said the anti-Israel protests that have roiled more than 100 universities across the United States in recent weeks are misunderstood as a feature of American democracy. In fact, according to Haddad, the protests are an anti-democratic import from the Middle East—and should be handled accordingly.
“The anti-Israel and [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] activists behind these protests are people who are from the Middle East or whose families are from the Middle East,” said Haddad, who has long been involved in opposing the BDS movement and has given talks at dozens of U.S. universities. “These people fled horrible dictatorships, but instead of embracing democracy and flourishing, they are abusing democracy for their own anti-Israel and anti-America agenda.”
The protesters have occupied university campuses with tent encampments, violently taken over school buildings, clashed with police, bullied Jewish students, and advocated genocidal violence against “Zionists.” The protests’ core demand is that universities divest from Israel amid its war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which carried out a historic bloodletting in the Jewish state on Oct. 7.
Many of the protesters are among the surging ranks of foreign students at U.S. universities, and others are outside agitators, according to students and authorities. Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the campus groups organizing the protests, has documented links to charities that the U.S. government shuttered for funding Hamas.
Haddad recalled that the crowd of protesters he confronted at Columbia’s New York City campus last month was mostly Arabic speaking, “and if I didn’t speak with them in Arabic, it wasn’t because they were locals but because they were from [non-Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern countries] Afghanistan or Pakistan.”
After Haddad was assaulted, he filed a police report and canceled his planned talk with Columbia campus group Students Supporting Israel. He later identified a local Arab-American man as his assailant.
“There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing,” the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of public information told the Free Beacon.
I was physically attacked by pro-terror protesters before my lecture at Columbia University. Instead of a lecture, I had to file a complaint with the police. They may have drawn blood but these cowards will never stop me. pic.twitter.com/X3G0zXSsVx
— יוסף חדאד – Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 19, 2024
Haddad argued that various Middle Eastern forces have fueled the protests: Radical anti-Israel faculty from the region indoctrinate students, and Persian Gulf regime Qatar, a key backer of Hamas, ideologically “weakens the administrations” with billions of dollars in funding.
“The people who know what’s going on here are lying and brainwashing the people who don’t know what’s going on, and it’s working,” Haddad said. “Especially among the progressive extreme, it’s easy for them to feel affiliated with the Palestinian cause because the pro-Palestinian groups draw the Palestinians as the victim, as the one who is oppressed by the ‘apartheid’ State of Israel.”
Kyle Shideler, the director for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C., recently gave a similar analysis to Tablet magazine:
What you’re seeing is a real witches’ brew of revolutionary content interacting on campuses. … On the left-wing side, you have a broad variety of revolutionary leftists, who serve as rent-a-mobs, providing the warm bodies for whatever the leftist cause of the day is. And on the other side you have the Islamist and Palestinian networks: American Muslims for Palestine and their subsidiary Students for Justice in Palestine, CAIR, the Palestinian Youth Movement. We’re seeing a real mixture of different kinds of radical foment, and it’s all being activated at the same time.
Many university administrations have wavered in enforcing their own rules against the protesters, with Harvard University on Tuesday becoming the latest to make concessions as part of a hudna of sorts with the reprobate students.
Haddad likened such attempts at appeasement to Israel’s policies toward Hamas in the years before Oct. 7.
“Part of the reason we got Oct. 7 was our weakness toward terrorism,” Haddad said. “Part of the reason American universities are about to undergo total destruction is their weakness toward the protesters.”
Haddad’s rhetoric once sounded overblown to some Israelis. During an April panel discussion on Israel’s left-leaning Channel 13 news, Haddad called for the IDF to immediately respond “with power” to an uptick in Palestinian violence led by Hamas. Otherwise, he warned, the country would pay a “much heavier” price in the future.
“I’m an Arab who knows this region well. I mean no disrespect to anyone here, [but] it’s time for the IDF to speak Arabic,” Haddad said, using a term that refers to embracing Middle Eastern ruthlessness. “When we won’t speak this language … this postpones the end. And remember, when you postpone the end, the payment is much heavier, much heavier.”
Haddad’s co-panelists objected, with the host quipping: “Violence has always solved things around here amazingly.”
But Haddad continued: “Do you know what I’m hearing from people from Lebanon, from Syria, from Gaza, from the West Bank? They tell me, ‘Yoseph, Israel fell off—you’re fighting among yourselves, your army is not prepared.’ In response to [Hamas] rockets, the heaviest bombardment since the second Lebanon war, this is how you respond? Wow, great, wonderful—we will continue like this.”
Haddad also raised the alarm before Oct. 7 about the Arab threat to U.S. universities. Following an April 2022 visit to a university in Santiago, Chile, home to the largest Palestinian population outside the Middle East, Haddad told Hebrew media that the fearful state of Jews on the campus was a preview of where American universities were headed.
“Jewish students, of whom there are less than a hundred, are vastly outnumbered by Palestinian students, and are routinely harassed each time tensions with Israel arise. Some former students even reported having pictures of injured Palestinians being put on their classroom desks every day,” Haddad’s fiancée, Emily Schrader, wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed expanding on his argument.
“The problem with ignoring what’s happening in Chile … is that the same path Chilean campuses have followed over the last few years is the path that U.S. campuses are now rapidly taking. … We must stand united with Chilean Jews in the fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and we must take Chile’s situation as an example, before it gets to that point on U.S. campuses.”
Already famous in Israel before Oct. 7, Haddad has since become something of a national icon. Israel’s Channel 12 news in late October aired a profile that lauded him as the closest thing the country has to an official spokesman. On Monday, Haddad served as one of the torch lighters in Israel’s national Independence Day celebration, a high honor in recognition of his public diplomacy. As he lit the flame, he shouted in Arabic, “The people of Israel live!”
During Haddad’s interview with the Free Beacon, at a table on the street in south Tel Aviv, Israelis constantly interrupted to solicit selfies, handshakes, or hugs.
Yoseph Haddad, center (Andrew Tobin)
“This is what gives me the strength to continue—the unbelievable, endless support and love,” Haddad said after posing for a photo with a pair of rifle-toting IDF commandos. “Israelis are grateful for what I do because I’m proud of my identity as an Arab, but I’m also proud of my identity as an Israeli, and I fight for my country.”
Haddad acknowledged that his relationship with other Arab Israelis is more complicated. Last year, partly in response to death threats from the community, he started carrying a pistol whenever he left his apartment in Nazareth, the Arab city in northern Israel where he grew up.
But the Oct. 7 attack has apparently inched Arab Israelis, who comprise about one fifth of the population, closer to Haddad, who is Christian, even as Arabs and Muslims around the world have sided with Hamas. A March survey by the Israel Democracy Institute think tank found that 44 percent of Arab Israelis support the IDF, more than double the rate before the war.
“When the protesters in the United States chant, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ they are not helping us, and they are not helping the Palestinians,” Haddad said. “What they are really calling for is total death, because I can tell you, if the Jewish people go down, they are not going down quietly.”
Google execs are ready to make changes to the company’s message board in a bid to ease tensions. Credit: AP
Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to Google’s developer conference on Tuesday, demanding an end to the tech giant’s collaboration with the Israeli government amidst the country’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Google I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif., faced a protest on Tuesday by a group calling itself No Tech for Genocide, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The group held two events, including a rally at a nearby park and a protest at the conference’s entrance, where roughly 90 people gathered for 90 minutes, chanting slogans and holding signs.
Pro-Hamas protesters at Google event
Pro-Hamas protesters at Google event
The protest at Google’s developer conference began at around 9:30 a.m., with protesters moving toward a bag checkpoint, leading to the conference’s entrance being closed. Attendees were redirected, causing a delay in the event’s proceedings.
Protesters demanded that Google cancel its cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, known as Project Nimbus. They believe the company’s technology is being used by the Israeli military for surveillance of people in Gaza through facial recognition, leading to the arrest and detention of Palestinians. Google has stated that its technology is used to support numerous governments around the world and that the Nimbus contract is for work running on its commercial cloud network and not for sensitive or military workloads.
One of the protesters, Ariel Koren, a former Google employee, shared her thoughts with the crowd: “We want to make sure that every single person who comes here and who might think that today’s a day about celebrating technological advancements — every single one of those people needs to understand that the reality is much darker than what Google has painted.” Koren alleges that the company retaliated against her in 2021 after she raised concerns about the contract. Google investigated the case and found no evidence of retaliation.
Andres Haro, a software security engineer, expressed his concern after witnessing the protest: “I feel that it is worth a shot to listen to others when they have a point of view.” Haro shared his plan to research Project Nimbus further, indicating the protest’s impact on attendees.
Roni Zeiger, who participated in the rally on Tuesday at Charleston Park, near the Google event, stated, “We’re asking more questions about what role we and our employers are playing in the world. World events have continued to evolve, and… people, including employees, are asking harder questions and wanting to work at places that are consistent with their values.”
The protest at Google’s developer conference coincided with Palestinians’ commemoration of their displacement during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. The protest also comes after more than 50 Google employees were fired following sit-ins and protests that took place at Google office locations last month protesting Project Nimbus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant (Likud) clashed Wednesday over the future governance of the Gaza Strip after the current war with Hamas, revealing cracks within the ruling Israeli coalition government.
In a televised statement released Wednesday evening, Gallant called on the prime minister to make “tough decisions” regarding Israel’s exit strategy from the Gaza Strip, pressing the premier to commit to not restoring Israeli governance, either military or civil, over the coastal enclave.
While Gallant emphasized that Israel must “dismantle Hamas’ governing capabilities in Gaza,” it must also establish “a governing alternative in Gaza,” and avoid extended Israeli control over the Strip.
“The end of the military campaign must come together with political action.”
“The ‘day after Hamas,’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’ rule. This, above all, is an interest of the State of Israel.”
Gallant warned that he “will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military rule in Gaza. Israel must not establish civilian rule in Gaza.”
“I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip, that Israel will not establish military governance in the Gaza Strip, and that a governing alternative to Hamas in the Gaza strip will be raised immediately.”
The defense minister said that the government had thus far refused to debate competing plans for the post-war Gaza Strip, putting off such discussions until after Hamas has been defeated.
Netanyahu responded to Gallant’s address Wednesday evening with a brief video statement rejecting the defense chief’s call for Israel to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to an alternative Arab governing body.
“I am not willing to replace Hamastan with Fatahstan,” Netanyahu said, referencing Fatah, the largest faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization, which rules the Palestinian Authority.
“After the terrible massacre of the 7th of October, I ordered the destruction of Hamas. IDF soldiers and our security forces are carrying that out.”
“So long as Hamas continues to exist, no other force will be allowed into Gaza to manage civil affairs – and especially not the Palestinian Authority.”
“Eighty percent of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the terrible massacres of October 7th. The Palestinian Authority supports terror, encourages terror, and funds terror.”
A Palestinian man outside an UNRWA office in Gaza City protests cuts to aid, June 20, 2023. Photo by Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock.
(JNS) Some 15 terrorists were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli air strike on a Hamas command center located in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Among those killed in the strike were members of Hamas’s Nukhba force who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו על בסיס מודיעין מדויק של שב״כ ואמ”ן בשיתוף חטיבת האש של אוגדה 99 חדר לחימה מרכזי של חמאס הממוקם בבית ספר של אונר”א בנוציראת, בו שהו מחבלים מהזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס>> pic.twitter.com/uPtdp7Sg7e
The incident was yet another example of Hamas’s cynical use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields, according to the IDF.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically exploits international institutions and uses the civilian population as human shields in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” said the military.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו על בסיס מודיעין מדויק של שב״כ ואמ”ן בשיתוף חטיבת האש של אוגדה 99 חדר לחימה מרכזי של חמאס הממוקם בבית ספר של אונר”א בנוציראת, בו שהו מחבלים מהזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס>> pic.twitter.com/uPtdp7Sg7e
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 14, 2024
Throughout the war against Hamas, which is now in its seventh month, Israeli soldiers have found missiles and military gear hidden among U.N. relief supplies in Gaza.
In January, Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis destroyed an underground weapons factory belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad where arms were found hidden in sacks belonging to UNRWA.
In February, the IDF announced the discovery of a massive Hamas tunnel complex underneath UNRWA’s central headquarters in Gaza.
That same month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a visiting delegation of U.N. ambassadors that UNRWA had been “totally infiltrated” by the terrorist group.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told journalists in February that the Jewish state had intelligence showing that 30 UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 terror attack.
Netanyahu called for the U.N. agency to be replaced.
“I think it’s time that the international community and the United Nations itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end,” he said.
“It has been in the service of Hamas [in] its schools and in many other things. I say this with great regret because we hoped that there would be an objective and constructive body to offer aid. We need such a body today in Gaza. But UNRWA is not that body. It has to be replaced by some organization or organizations that will do that job,” he added.
(Breitbart) The consumer price index rose 0.3 percent in April compared with the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, prices are up 3.4 percent, according to the Department of Labor.
Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent increase in the month-t0-month figure and a 3.4 percent rise over 12 months.
Last month, the Labor Department said the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent from the prior month and 3.5 percent compared with a year earlier.
Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3 percent for the month. Compared with a year ago, core inflation is up 3.6 percent, slightly less than the 3.8 percent reported in March.
The index of food was flat in April compared with the previous month and is up 2.2 percent compared with a year earlier. Grocery store prices decline 0.2 percent while restaurant prices rose 0.3 percent. Energy prices climbed 1.1 percent compared with the prior month, boosted by 2.8 percent increase in gasoline prices.
The prices of goods excluding energy fell 0.1 percent, the second consecutive monthly decline. New car prices dropped 0.4 percent and used car prices fell 1.4 percent. Car insurance prices rose 1.8 percent in April. Clothing prices rose a steep 1.2 percent.
Services prices rose 0.4 percent compared with March and are up 5.3 percent over the year ago level.
Inflation surged in the first few months of this year after declining last year from decades-long highs. When the consumer price index jumped higher in January, many analysts said it was likely a seasonal anomaly and forecast inflation would soon start falling again. Instead, inflation came in higher than expected in February and March as well. Over the first three months of the year, core inflation rose at a 4.6 percent annual rate. That is the highest three-month annualized inflation for any period between August 1991 and 2020, according to Harvard economist Jason Furman.
Consumer inflation hit its recent peak of 9.2 percent in June of 2022 and then retreated as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates at a record pace. The unsnarling of supply chains was a major disinflationary force in the prices of goods.
The Fed came into the year anticipating that it would cut rate its benchmark federal funds interest rate three times. But officials said that rate cuts would not start until the data gave them more confidence that inflation would return to their target of two percent. The worse-than-expected inflation reports in January, February, and March have caused officials and markets to pare back rate cut expectations, with markets moving to reflect expectations of just one or two cuts by the end of this year.
People gather for “Solidarity Jummah” outside of Columbia University on Friday, April 26. Credit: AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura-
Columbia’s Top 10 Nutty Hamas Loving Professors Exposed
By Lieba Nesis
Columbia’s cesspool of antisemitism proceeds as graduates from the School of Social Work ripped up their diplomas on May 12th as the main commencement was canceled due to safety concerns. Another first includes Columbia’s Union Theological Seminary, with a $127 million endowment, voting to divest from Israel’s War on Gaza. The only US higher education institution to divest, President Dr. Serene Jones boasted, “we do it with humility and a sense of moral conviction.” As Harvard promises to reinstate all suspended students and reassess its investments in Israel its capitulation to terroristic demands is reprehensible.
Columbia has become the paradigm of what can go wrong as its faculty remains a linchpin for the raging antisemitism that forced the school to close, while its main hall was broken into as knives and hammers were found inside. As far back as March 2016, 40 Columbia faculty members signed a petition to divest from companies that “profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people.” Most of the antisemitism stems from the Middle Eastern South Asian and Africa Studies (MESSAS) department as well as the English and comparative literature and anthropology departments. Standing with Columbia’s Jewish hate groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), these professors have influenced and participated in the anarchy that has gripped campus since Hamas’s massacre of October 7th.
The one thing they weren’t expecting was the lone assistant professor in the Business School, Shai Davidai, who risked his profession, sanity and life to combat the raging Jew hatred that was met with zero blowback. After the firing of president Lee Bollinger on June 30 2023, whose staunch opposition to BDS and campus antisemitism led to his departure, mayhem ensued at Columbia as Hamas lovers were given free rein. Beginning with October 30th when over 144 Columbia faculty members signed a letter declaring Hamas’s terrorist attacks a legitimate “military action” and calling Israel an apartheid state Jews have been forced to flee for their lives as chants “Go Back to Poland” and “Let’s Burn Tel Aviv to the Ground” reverberate. On Monday April 22nd hundreds of faculty joined the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to praise the out-of-control students and their right to “free hate speech”-the same day Shai Davidai’s university access card was deactivated. On April 29th hundreds of Columbia faculty linked arms wearing orange and green vests to protect vandalizing students who refused to voluntarily dismantle the unlawful encampment. Much of the faculty knew the Hamilton Hall break-in was taking place while university staffers Violet Bupp Chickering and Gabriel Yancy actually participated.
Here is a list of the most egregious and influential Pro-Hamas faculty members who must be fired due to their 24/7 preoccupation with the destruction of Israel:
Joseph Massad:The 61-year-old from Jordan is a tenured professor in Columbia’s MESSAS program teaching Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History. He began teaching at Columbia in 1999 and was awarded tenure just ten years later despite his controversial writings which included a 2006 essay that called out Zionism for its own hatred of “Jewish Jews and of the Palestinians.” It wasn’t until the October 7th Hamas massacre that Massad’s antisemitism was spotlighted after he wrote an October 8th article for The Electronic Intifada praising the “stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance over the Israeli military on the first day of fighting.” Raping, beheading and burning civilians is not one-to one fighting. He also called Hamas’s takeover of military bases where dozens of defenseless male and female soldiers were slaughtered “incredible”, “astounding”, “innovative” and “astonishing.” He called Hamas’s use of motorized hang gliders which enabled their rapid killing of Nova festival goers “innovative.” On April 17th Columbia President Minouche Shafik appeared before the House Committee claiming to be “appalled by his statements” while stating “he has been spoken to” and “no longer chairs the academic review committee at Columbia. “ She also stated that while Massad remains on the faculty to her knowledge he is no longer teaching-another one of her blatant lies with no repercussions as she wasn’t under oath. In a response to CNN, Massad said he wasn’t removed as chair, nor was he spoken to or under investigation. In fact Columbia’s Provost, Angela Olinto, apologized to him for the harassment he received. Shamefully, Massad recounted his chair Gil Hochberg, who is Jewish and Israeli, saying his article was descriptive and educational for her 14-year-old son. And Yes Massad was on campus April 22nd to support his Jew hating mentees as they spewed venom at passing “Zionists” and threatened Jews with death.
Joseph Massad
Gil Z. Hochberg-This Ransford Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at MESAAS and its Chair, is rancid indeed, despite her Jewish lineage. Hochberg received a PhD in comparative literature from UC Berkeley and is a major proponent of the BDS movement. Her 2015 book “Visual Occupations” condemned Israel for “erasing the history and denying the existence of Palestinians, by carefully concealing its own militarization.” She justified the Palestinian glorification of suicide murderers as a “defiant practice of anti-colonial national remembering.” She equated the mandatory service in the Israeli army at the age of 18 as “precisely the same” as Palestinians who celebrate martyrs-it should therefore be no surprise she and her son praised Massad. Her 2021 book “Becoming Palestine” discusses the “reality of Israel’s existence as a settler-colonial state that oppresses and marginalizes Palestinians.” In an interview she called for the banishment of Israel as she said “as we become Palestine, the very raison d’être of this entity called Israel is necessarily eliminated.” Hochberg, whom Massad said is Jewish and Israeli, largely lives in the shadows as do her other keffiyeh clad friends, and little information on her age, family and whereabouts are made public-fire her!!!!!
Gil Hochberg
Rashid Khalidi-Thankfully this Jew hating Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia since 2003 is departing with his retirement conference held on May 3rd-at recently divesting from Israel-Union Theological Seminary. A former PLO spokesman Rashidi in 2016 called the Trump transition team out “for infesting our government… hand in glove with a similar group within the Israeli government.” He justified the October 7th attacks by saying “Violence is bred by occupation.” His colonization of Columbia will soon be over.
Rashid Khalidi
Hamid Dabashi-The 72-year-old tenured Iranian professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia is the author of over a dozen anti-Zionist books. The MESAAS professor told Al Ahram in a 2004 interview: an Israeli Jew contains “a vulgarity of character that is bone deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture.” He further remarked “maiming and murdering of another people has left its deep marks on the Israeli faces-the way they walk , the way they talk, the way they handle objects, the way they greet each other”-this is straight out of Hitler’s playbook. President Lee Bollinger strongly condemned these remarks as outrageous yet he still remained employed. In May 2018 Dabashi attributed every “dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act in the world” to Israel. Equating Israel to ISIS and the Nazi’s while referring to AIPAC as “Gestapo apparatchiks” as an active member of BDS are all part of this antisemite’s vernacular.
Hamid Dabashi
Katherine Franke-Her stint at Columbia began in 2009 as this James L Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia who specializes in Gender and Sexuality Law as well as being the founder and director of Columbia’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law was banned from entering Israel in 2018 due to her antisemitism as chair of the board of The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). From August 2020 to May 2021 she was a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) steering committee and is an active member in BDS. She called students who served in the IDF “dangerous” and said they should be banned from campus. She was a leader in CCR from 2018-21 and Palestine Legal since October 2023. She initiated the shameful October 30th faculty letter calling Hamas’s attack a “military action” and Israel an “apartheid state.”
Katherine Franke
Mohamed Abdou-This visiting professor in modern Arab studies at Columbia teaches a weekly class on “Decolonial-Queerness and Abolition”. Days after the October 7th attack he declared “Yes I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.” And yet Columbia hired this self described “North African Egyptian Muslim anarchist” to teach. On April 17th Shafik told the House Committee he was terminated “and his files will show he will never work at Columbia again”. Subsequently, he was spotted numerous times at the Gaza tent encampment claiming he was still employed as Shafik’s unsworn testimony was once again a lie. On April 16th he tweeted, “I don’t see any American dream-I see an American nightmare.” The entirety of his Twitter is devoted to destroying Israel and its advocates-kudos to Columbia for hiring this hater after the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust.
Mohamed Abdou
Najam Haider-A professor of Religion and the chair of the Department of Religion at Barnard he consistently uses his Twitter account to call out “Israel’s genocide.” He joined the October 30th letter calling Hamas’s attack a legitimate military action. This man is truly a Jew “Haider”-perfect for Barnard.
Najam Haider
Nadia Abu El-Haj-This 58-year-old anthropology professor at Columbia received tenure in 2007. Her father is Palestinian and she spent years studying in Tehran and Beirut. She is a leader in the BDS movement campaigning in 2015 to get the American Anthropological Association to pass a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. In her 2002 book “Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society” she claimed Israel archaeologists falsified evidence to prove they lived in the area and said “ancient Israelite kingdoms are a pure political fabrication.” In March she engaged in the usual trope of controlling Jews by tweeting “I wonder how much money Columbia is spending on its antisemitism Taskforce, and are similar resources spent on Islamophobia”. Her jew hating tweets frequently quote Rashida Tlaib one of which said “Congress must stop funding this violent Israeli Apartheid regime.”
Nadia Abu El Haj
Joseph Howley-This Columbia University Associate Professor of Classics called the Hamas attacks a legitimate military response in an October 30th letter. The Jewish Howley is also one of the leaders of “Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine”-an organization dedicated to Palestinian freedom. He is active in BDS and JVP. He continually espouses his hate for Israel which he denies is antisemitic as he reposts tweets from mentors Nadia Abu and Katherine Franke. At the heart of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment he praised the students in a viral TikTok as he called on Columbia to divest from Israel calling the far right and Trumpsters evil hegemonies while decrying “Israeli war crimes and atrocities in Gaza.”
Joseph Howley
Munir Atalla-An adjunct assistant professor of film and media at Columbia he organized a Pro-Hamas rally in Times Square on October 8th as a leader of the Palestinian Youth Movement calling on the US to halt aid to Israel. Referring to Gaza as an open-air prison he justified Hamas’s violence as a “right of occupied people to resist.” He was one of the many faculty supporting the Gaza solidarity encampment on April 22nd-let’s say hasta la vista to Atalla!
(AP) — Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other Dutch party leaders said Wednesday they have brokered a provisional coalition deal in a move that brings closer a government driven by the hard right in yet another European Union nation.
The party leaders said that they will put the text to their party backbenchers before a full government deal can be announced. The parties still have to agree on a prime minister, who is expected to be a technocrat from outside the party structures.
With “hard right” (editorialized by AP language) and populist parties now part of or leading a half dozen governments in the 27-nation bloc, they appear positioned to make gains in the June 6-9 election for the European Parliament.
“We have a deal among negotiators and we will return to the position of prime minister at a later moment,” said Wilders. He has reluctantly acknowledged he will not succeed Mark Rutte and instead has pushed for an outsider.
The name of a prime minister was still elusive, and even though Wilders won the election, he was considered by many too risky to be the national leader.
Speculation has centered on Ronald Plasterk, from the Labor Party, who shot back to prominence this year when he became the first “scout” to hold talks with political leaders about possible coalitions.
Wilders has called Plasterk a “creative spirit” with political experience but who is also distanced enough from the current political scene.
“If you want a government to succeed, you need a prime minister that unites,” said Pieter Omtzigt, leader of the centrist New Social Contract party. Outgoing Prime Minister Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the populist Farmer Citizen Movement are also in the coalition deal.
Wilders’ Party for Freedom won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament, and the four parties combined hold a comfortable majority of 88 seats.
After two decades in the opposition, Wilders seemed to have a shot at leading a nation that long prided itself on its tolerant society, but he has stepped aside in the interests of pushing through most of his agenda.
From Finland to Croatia, hard-line right parties are part of European governing coalitions, and hard right or populist prime ministers are leading Hungary, Slovakia and Italy.
President Joe Biden proposed two dates to debate former President Donald Trump Wednesday morning, with a list of guardrails including no live audience, according to The New York Times.
AP Reported: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to agree on a timetable to participate in two debates before the November general election, as the Democrat announced that he will not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades.
Biden’s campaign instead proposed that media organizations directly organize the debates with the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, with the first to be held in late June and the second in September before early voting begins. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, said he was “Ready and Willing to Debate” Biden at the two proposed times in June and September.
Still the two camps remain far part on key questions of how to organize the debates, including agreeing on media partners, moderators, location and rules — some of the very questions that prompted the formation of the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987. Biden’s proposal would exclude third-party candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Biden suggested that Trump and himself face off in two televised debates, one in June and one in September, though the president said he will not participate in an event put on by the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to the NYT. The president also said he did not want to debate in front of a live audience, rather his team wants the debates held in a television studio to avoid the reaction from in-person viewers.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal, I’ll even do it twice,” Biden said in a Wednesday debate message.
“So let’s pick dates Donald, I hear you’re free Wednesdays,” the president continued, alluding to Trump’s court appearances.
Later Wednesday morning, Biden said that he “received and accepted” a debate invitation from CNN scheduled for June 27, before telling Trump, “anywhere, any time, any place.” Trump accepted the invitation as well, setting the stage for the first debate in the general election.
I’ve received and accepted an invitation from @CNN for a debate on June 27th. Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place.
As a part of their debate dates proposal Biden also only wants networks that hosted the 2016 Republican primary debates and the 2020 Democratic primary debates in 2020, the NYT reported. Those networks include CNN, ABC News, Telemundo and CBS News.
“There should be firm time limits for answers, and alternate turns to speak — so that the time is evenly divided and we have an exchange of views, not a spectacle of mutual interruption,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden campaign chair, said in a letter obtained by the NYT.
“A candidate’s microphone should only be active when it is his turn to speak, to promote adherence to the rules and orderly proceedings,” she continued.
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.
The Biden campaign also wrote that they wanted to keep the forum to two candidates, excluding independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the NYT reported. If the debates were handled by the Commission on Presidential Debates, Kennedy has potential to reach the 15% polling threshold, the qualifying number to be on the stage.
Trump responded to the proposal, agreeing to the time of the event, in a statement on Truth Social.
“I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds,” Trump wrote. “That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll get there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!’”
The Trump campaign had been calling on Biden to debate the former president after the president admitted in an interview with Howard Stern that he was interested in debating.
“I don’t know if you’re gonna debate your opponent,” Stern said.
“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when, but I’m happy to debate him,” Biden replied.
Trump responded with a message of his own on May 9, telling Biden to set up a debate.
“Let’s set it up right now,” Trump said in a video message on Truth Social. “I’m ready to go anywhere that you are.”
The Biden campaign justified their decision to ditch the Commission on Presidential Debates, citing concerns about the original dates proposed, the Washington Post reported. The campaign also voiced concerns over the ability to get candidates to stay within the rules of the commission, the letter reportedly read.
“The Commission’s model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn’t necessary or conducive to good debates,” Dillon wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Post. “The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering.”
(DCNF/Breitbart) Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was rushed to the hospital after being shot several times by a single assailant, according to multiple reports.
Fico is fighting for his life, in critical condition. Fico is still being operated on, hours after the attack.
UPDATE: Slovak media reports is a 71 year old man from Levice, a historic town 50 miles to the south of where the attack took place. Denník Nreports the alleged attacker is a poet and “member of the leftist Rainbow Literary Club”.
Breitbart reported: Right-wing publication Konzervatívny denník Postoj (‘The Conservative Daily Post’) claims to be able to name the suspect as Slovakian author, poet, and activist Juraj Cintula. According to the publication he has published three collections of poetry and is a member of the Association of Slovak writers. He has publicly expressed himself against violence, and eight years ago said he was founding an organisation called Left Against Violence.
Video posted on X appeared to show Fico’s security detail moving him to a car shortly after he was hit in the chest and abdomen while visiting Handlova, a town about 90 miles from the country’s capital, Bratislava, for a cabinet meeting. A suspect in the shooting is in custody, The Associated Press reported.
WATCH:
‼️ The shooter has been detained, according to preliminary police reports, he was aiming precisely at the prime minister – HNonline.
“I’m shocked,” Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova said, according to the AP. “I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a quick recovery from this attack.”
Fico was airlifted to a hospital after being rushed into the car, the Daily Mail reported. He was in surgery being treated for wounds to his abdomen, according to the Romanian news outlet Digi24.
WATCH:
#BREAKING VIDEO: Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot, the Tasr News Agency reports.
According to information, the prime minister was shot several times in the chest and abdomen and is in serious condition. The attacker has been detained. -Pravda pic.twitter.com/ZleAF8UZ02
Fico won a third term as prime minister in the Sept. 30 elections, campaigning on a pro-Russian message, according to the AP. Critics feared that Fico would take an approach similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the AP reported.
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Erdogan wants to destroy the good and still growing friendly relationships Israel and Egypt now have with Greece and Cyprus, age-old Christian enemies of Islamist Turkey. Photo Credit: AP
Senior Hamas leaders planned to establish a military base and terror cells in Turkey and neighboring countries, according to secret papers discovered by the Israeli army.
The UK outlet The Times reported that the documents, which were found in a home belonging to Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar’s chief of staff, laid out a plan regarding Hamas’ expansion throughout the Middle East region.
The strategic documents indicated that Hamas needed “to act with a greater effort to create military centers that will form the basis for special operations that can strengthen the resistance on a military, diplomatic and moral level.”
It also included a three-year plan that stressed the importance of “establishing many military cells and safe houses in many countries,” including Turkey and other nations in the region.
These bases would be used to plan and carry out terror activity across the globe, gather intelligence, and strengthen Hamas’ diplomatic and military abilities.
According to the Times report, the documents also included a framework for Hamas’ future terror strategy.
Hamas was planning to target Mossad officers and other influential Israelis who are public figures, as well as stepping up kidnappings and naval attacks.
It’s unclear which parts of the plan came to fruition before the October 7th terror onslaught that left 1,200 dead in Israel.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long maintained warm relations with Hamas, expressing that he does not view the group as a terror organization.
Erdogan recently hosted Qatar-based Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, with the Turkish president placing the blame for the current fighting in the Strip entirely on Israel.
A number of Hamas terrorists wounded in battle with the IDF are currently being treated in Turkish hospitals.
Members of Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stand guard in the street in Rafah. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
Joel B. Pollak(Breitbarrt)
A Palestinian columnist writing in Arabic in a Qatai newspaper declared this week: “We do not want a ceasefire, we want ongoing war. Victory is at hand.”
Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti, writing in the Qatari daily Al-Watan, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), made the case for war to continue as a means to highlight the Palestinian cause.
Al-Barghouti argued that the world had forgotten about the Palestinians until the October 7 terror attack, but now — thanks to the spectacular violence, and to protests in the west, the “free world” is united behind the Palestinians:
O heroes of the resistance in Gaza, thank you. You showed the whole world how honor takes precedence to life, how faith stands fast in the face of weapons, how blood triumphs over pain and how the free believer stands tall in the face of the bullet. You proved with your resistance that peoples who surrender have never been safe and have no future, whereas peoples who fight for their freedom and honor will surely achieve their destination someday…
O people of Gaza, history has never seen a people braver than you, more patient than you [in the pursuit of] the truth, or more generous in sacrificing for the sake of Allah. O our people in Gaza, despite the martyrs and wounded, you are the springboard of the hoped-for national future of the Arabs and Muslims… No matter how deep the wound, we will continue to resist, because this enemy understands only the language of force. Even if Palestine sacrifices millions of martyrs and wounded, we will continue to resist. We do not want a ceasefire, we want ongoing war. Victory is at hand…
Hamas has repeatedly broken ceasefires — including the ceasefire that had been in place prior to its unprovoked attack on October 7, and a truce in November for hostage releases.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said that NYC Public Schools has begun a full investigation into how the “vile show of anti-Semitism” took place at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica Hills, Queens. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
ByJohn Binder-Breitbart
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is floating the idea of having newly arrived migrants become lifeguards for the city’s public pools, declaring them “excellent swimmers.”
On Tuesday, during a press briefing, Adams complained that the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in New York City over the last few years remain ineligible to work.
HAHAHA NYC Mayor Eric Adams says he wants illegals to become NYC lifeguards because they are “excellent swimmers” pic.twitter.com/nhimINNB9w
Instead, Adams said he would like to see migrants be offered lifeguard jobs at the city’s public pools and beaches because they are “excellent swimmers.”
“Let me just take your imagination for a moment. If we had a migrant and asylum seeker plan that states ‘Those jobs that we are in high demand, we could expedite [work permits],’” Adams said:
How do we have a large body of people that are in our city and country, that are excellent swimmers, and at the same time we need lifeguards? And the only obstacle is that we won’t give them the right to work to become a lifeguard. That just doesn’t make sense. But if we had a plan that says ‘We have a shortage of food service workers, those who fit the criteria, we’re going to expedite you.’ [Emphasis added]
…
We have all these eligible people waiting to work with the skills they need to fill the jobs but we’re unable to allow them to work because bureaucracy is in the way. That just does not make sense. [Emphasis added]
Adams has long been a proponent of using the southern border as a mere checkpoint where migrants can pass through with work permits into the United States to take jobs.
Last October, while traveling through Latin America, Adams suggested that the world’s migrants deserve a “right to work” in the U.S. regardless of the impact that mass immigration has on the job prospects and wages of Americans.
“When you look at Colombia, they have really shown how to absorb individuals into their societies, and one of the most important ways to do it is to allow people to work,” Adams said. “Nothing is more humane and, nothing is more American than your right to work, and we believe that is a right we should extend.”
RELATED: Human Smuggler Dumps Illegals in the Street, Swims Back to Mexico After Texas DPS Troops Chase Him
Texas Department of Public Safety
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
(AP) — Two men accused of plotting to gun down Jews in an Islamic State-inspired attack in northwest England were held without bail Tuesday after appearing in a London court.
Walid Saadaoui, 36, and Amar Hussein, 50, were accused of planning to use automatic weapons to kill Jews, police and military personnel, prosecutors said in Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The duo face charges of preparing terrorist acts between Dec. 13 and last Thursday.
The charges come as incidents of antisemitism in the U.K. hit a record high last year — with a spike following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.
“This is one of a number of recent and ongoing cases that demonstrate why the Jewish community needs such extensive security measures,” said Amanda Bomsztyk, northern regional director of the trust.
A third man, Bilel Saadaoui, 35, was accused of making arrangements for the expected death of his brother, co-defendant Walid Saadaoui.
He pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism.
Defense lawyer Angelo Saponiere said Bilel Saadaoui was a family man unaware of the alleged plot.
The three were arrested last week by Greater Manchester Police. They were held without bail and scheduled to appear May 24 for a hearing in the Central Criminal Court.
It is incumbent upon the Biden Administration to support Israel’s actions in Rafah, recognizing that such support is not merely an endorsement of military action but a commitment to facilitating a strategic blockade against a terrorist organization that continues to jeopardize the stability of the region and the safety of countless civilians. Photo Credit: AP
(AP) — The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it would send more than $1 billion in additional arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday. But it was not immediately known how soon the weapons would be delivered.
It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be revealed since the administration put another arms transfer, consisting of 3,500 bombs of up to 2,000 pounds each, on hold this month. The Biden administration, citing concern for civilian casualties in Gaza, has said it paused that bomb transfer to keep Israel from using those particular munitions in its offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The package disclosed Tuesday includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the congressional aides said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public.
There was no immediate indication when the arms would be sent. Two congressional aides said the shipment is not part of the long-delayed foreign aid package that Congress passed and Biden signed last month. It wasn’t known if the shipment was the latest tranche from an existing arms sale or something new.
The Biden administration has come under criticism from both sides of the political spectrum over its military support for Israel’s now seven-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza — at a time when Biden is battling for reelection against former President Donald Trump.
Some of Biden’s fellow Democrats have pushed him to limit transfers of offensive weapons to Israel to pressure the U.S. ally to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. Protests on college campuses around the U.S. have driven home the message this spring.
Republican lawmakers have seized on the administration’s pause on the bomb transfers, saying any lessening of U.S. support for Israel — its closest ally in the Middle East — weakens that country as it fights Hamas and other Iran-backed groups. In the House, they are planning to advance a bill this week to mandate the delivery of offensive weaponry for Israel.
Despite the onetime suspension of a bomb shipment, Biden and administration officials have made clear they will continue other weapons deliveries and overall military support to Israel, which is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid.
Biden will see to it that “Israel has all of the military means it needs to defend itself against all of its enemies, including Hamas,” national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. “For him, this is very straightforward: He’s going to continue to provide Israel with all of capabilities it needs, but he does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular type of operation in a particular place. And again, he has been clear and consistent with that.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans for the $1 billion weapons package to Israel.
In response to House Republicans’ plan to move forward with a bill to mandate the delivery of offensive weapons for Israel, the White House said Tuesday that Biden would veto the bill if it were to pass Congress.
The bill has practically no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But House Democrats are somewhat divided on the issue, and roughly two dozen have signed onto a letter to the Biden administration saying they were “deeply concerned about the message” sent by pausing the bomb shipment.
One of the letter’s signers, New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, said he would likely vote for the bill, despite the White House’s opposition.
“I have a general rule of supporting pro-Israel legislation unless it includes a poison pill — like cuts to domestic policy,” he said.
In addition to the written veto threat, the White House has been in touch with various lawmakers and congressional aides about the legislation, according to an administration official.
“We strongly, strongly oppose attempts to constrain the President’s ability to deploy U.S. security assistance consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week, adding that the administration plans to spend “every last cent” appropriated by Congress in the national security supplemental package that was signed into law by Biden last month.
A Nassau County judge said in a May 10 order that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman did not have the authority to issue the order imposing the transgender athlete ban without corresponding action by the Nassau County Legislature. Credit: AP
By: Tom Ozimek
A judge struck down an executive order issued by New York’s Nassau County that barred male players from competing at county-run facilities in any league that doesn’t correspond to their biological sex or that isn’t a coed or mixed league.
Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Francis Ricigliano said in a May 10 order that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman did not have the authority to issue the order imposing the transgender athlete ban without corresponding action by the Nassau County Legislature.
“Precedent has repeatedly established that an executive cannot enact his/her own view of what persons should be protected from discrimination without regard to laws enacted by the legislature,” the judge wrote.
Mr. Blakeman issued the executive order on Feb. 22, prohibiting the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation & Museums from issuing permits for the use of county facilities for competitions or sports events in which males participate in female-designated teams and leagues. The ban only applied to female-identifying males while allowing the department to issue permits for events in which women compete in men’s leagues or events.
“There is a movement for biological males to bully their way into competing in sports or leagues or teams that identify themselves or advertise themselves as girls’ or female or women’s teams or leagues,” Mr. Blakeman said at a Feb. 22 press conference, explaining the rationale for the ban.
“We find that unacceptable. It’s a form of bullying,” he said at the time.
Mr. Blakeman also argued that allowing female-identifying males to compete in women’s sports poses a safety risk to female competitors due to men’s generally superior strength and size, while also depriving women of opportunities.
The move drew backlash, with New York Attorney General Letitia James threatening to sue if the ban wasn’t overturned, prompting Mr. Blakeman to sue Ms. James, accusing her of unconstitutional discrimination.
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) sued Mr. Blakeman over the order on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a recreational women’s flat track roller derby league that welcomes female-identifying males to participate in its activities.
The plaintiffs argued that the executive order violated numerous laws and, according to Curly Fry, a member of Roller Rebels, was “transphobic and unjust.”
Gabriella Larios, staff attorney at the NYCLU, said in a statement that the group is “gratified that the court has struck down a harmful policy that belongs in the dustbin of history.”
Mr. Blakeman told media outlets in a statement that he disagrees with the decision.
“Lack of courage from a Judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits. Unfortunately, girls and women are hurt by the Court,” he said. remove
Mr. Blakeman did not respond to inquiry from The Epoch Times as to whether he intends to appeal.
The overturned Nassau County executive order mandated that sports organizations applying for permits in Nassau County facilities must designate teams according to a team member’s biological sex.
Teams were to be designated into one of three categories: males, men, or boys; females, women, or girls; or coed or mixed, including males and females.
The order barred the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation & Museums from issuing permits for the use of county facilities for competitions or sports events in which boys or men participate in female-designated teams and leagues.
