Free Republic

I’m not a fan of the New England Patriots or any Boston-based team, but I do support this move by its owner, Robert Kraft, who is paying attention to the antisemitic and pro-terrorist shenanigans happening at Columbia University, his alma mater. The students are taking over, with the campus reverting to an old Ivy League tradition: hating Jewish people. As the faculty have now joined the students, Mr. Kraft said that he’s no longer going to donate to the school (via CBS News): Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he will no longer donate to Columbia University until the school protects...

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) daughter, Isra Hirsi, recently complained to Teen Vogue about what happened following her suspension from her New York City college after an anti-Israel encampment was formed at Columbia University. Hirsi was suspended on Thursday from Barnard for being involved with the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that was later dismantled by officers with the NYPD, Vogue reported on Sunday. The 21 year old was among 100 others police took into custody during the anti-Israel protest on Thursday, according to the New York Post. ... “After her release, Hirsi faced being evicted from her dorm and inflamed social media...

A Jewish Columbia professor has been blocked from campus after he created a pro-Israel demonstration to counter the student-led Gaza encampment. Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Business School was shown on camera in a fiery face-off with pro-Palestine students on Monday morning. A source told DailyMail.com Davidai's employee card was deactivated after he refused to hold his counter-protest in the designated area and instead staged it beside the pro-Gaza demonstration.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) called on the president of Columbia University to do her “job or resign” amid ongoing unrest and heightened concern for Jewish students’ safety on campus. In a post on social platform X, Fetterman compared aspects of the anti-Israel protests to the infamous Charlottesville rally in 2017, when white supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us” near the campus of the University of Virginia. “I fully agree with the White House — these ‘protests’ are antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous. Add some tiki torches and it’s Charlottesville for these Jewish students,” Fetterman wrote in a statement Sunday night....

New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft announced Monday that he was pulling his support from Columbia University over the ongoing anti-Israel protest at the Manhattan campus.“It was through the full academic scholarship Columbia gave me that I was able to attend college and get my start in life and for that I have been tremendously grateful,” Kraft said in a statement. “However, the school I love so much – the one that welcomed me and provided me with so much opportunity – is no longer an institution I recognize.”“I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to...

Columbia University canceled all in-person classes Monday as pro-Palestinian protests continued to rock the Ivy League institution. Last week, police arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia who had set up an encampment on the New York City campus, as Breitbart News reported. Police arrested the anti-Israel protesters on a charge of criminal trespass. They were reportedly detained with no resistance. Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a note addressed to the school community Monday she was “deeply saddened” by what was happening on campus, according to the Independent. Participants at Columbia University Pro-Palestinian Protest Chant: Oh Al-Qassam Brigades,...

Many years ago, I worked for Virgin Atlantic airline and was fortunate to be awarded a free fam pass on El Al airlines to Israel. I ended up trading the ticket away to another employee but I always regretted not taking this opportunity to visit the Holy Land because of my cowardice. At the time, it seemed like every week there would be a bus blown up or an explosion in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and I wondered how any one could live in such a turbulent environment. I grew up in a poor tenement in Spanish Harlem, where the...

The White House issued a statement in response to the ongoing anti-Israel protests and encampment taking place at Columbia University, describing them as being, “Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous.” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates issued a statement on Sunday acknowledging that American citizens have the “right to peaceful protest,” while adding that “calls for violence and physical intimidation” against the Jewish community are unacceptable. In his statement, Bates said: While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they...

Holder spent several years at Covington before he became attorney general and rejoined the firm after his stint at the Justice Department. He now advises clients on a range of issues including "cultural and social responsibility," raking in as much as $2,295 an hour for conducting racial equity audits.The former attorney general also weighed in on Israel's war against Hamas last week. Appearing alongside former Obama secretary of defense and longtime Israel critic Chuck Hagel, Holder called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "small Man" and described Israel's response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as "extremely disturbing."...Hagel, who served as...

The Orthodox rabbi at Columbia University and Barnard College sent a message recommending Jewish students leave campus and go home, as anti-Israel agitators have continued an "encampment" on campus and participants were caught on camera espousing full-on support for terrorism and supporting violence towards Jewish students. In a WhatsApp message sent to hundreds before the start of Passover, Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of OU-LJIC at Columbia/Barnard, told students to leave "as soon as possible" until the situation improves, noting that "what we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic." "The events of the last few days, especially...

Anti-Israel activists at Yale University in Connecticut set up a "liberation zone" in solidarity with Columbia University in New York City on Saturday. This comes after protesters at Columbia University were heard shouting pro-Hamas slogans, resulting in more than a hundred arrests as they set up an encampment on campus Thursday that continued into Friday. Protesters at Yale were also seen setting up an encampment, laying down a banner that read, "Liberated Zone." The video starts out with students holding the banner and placing it on the ground in front of several students. Surrounding the students are other banners that...

Actress Susan Sarandon — who was dropped last year from a talent agency over her anti-Jewish rant — and Shellyne Rodriguez, the ex-professor who threatened a Post reporter with a machete, were both spotted at an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University Friday. The Oscar-winning “Thelma and Louise” star was seen strolling among demonstrators with “Free Palestine” signs while sporting a grin and an odd leather coat jacket decked out with an image of Bart Simpson on its red leather sleeve. The 77-year-old celebrity has rocked the same quirky get-up at other anti-Israel demonstrations in recent months.

Isra Hirsi, a pro-Hamas protester who participated in protests at Columbia University, has been suspended from Barnard College. Hirsi happens to be the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a member of the Hamas Caucus in Congress, which further shows that the proverbial apple does not fall far from the tree.In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Hirsi complained “in my 3 years at [Barnard College], I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” and explained that she “just received notice that [she is] 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide.”i’m an...

At least 100 protesters were cuffed and hauled away on Thursday afternoon when NYPD cops in riot gear swarmed the campus after the president made the bombshell decision to clear a large anti-Israel protest encampment. After the busts, other Columbia protesters moved to block the fleet of NYPD corrections buses transporting the suspects away from the scene. Dozens of cops in body armor and face shields descended on the Morningside Heights campus shortly after 1 p.m. and surrounded the encampment of a few dozen tents, which went up on Wednesday morning.

Shocking video footage captured the moment a protester near Columbia University declared, “We’re all Hamas” and “Long live Hamas” as protests intensified Wednesday — with dozens of students taking part in a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” as the university’s president faced congressional grilling over antisemitism on campus. The clip shows a female protester with a keffiyeh covering her head and face loudly banging on NYPD barricades erected near the university’s Morningside Heights campus before yelling, “We are Hamas!” In the video, shared on X by watchdog nonprofit StopAntisemitism, the person behind the camera questions the protesters and they reply, “Yes, we’re...

Are you a betting man? As we look at the next six to nine months, as Americans, we know the many possibilities surrounding the coming election. President Trump could be returned to office, or Joe Biden could remain in place, or one or both could somehow be replaced on their respective party’s tickets. Anything is possible. We see the polls, which say President Trump is ahead. We also know our history, the history of the American electorate often voting against their own interest, and we know of the corrupt political machines famous for fabricating votes and stealing elections. All the...

Ten Jewish students have filed a federal civil rights suit against The Cooper Union for failing to protect them and their classmates from antisemitism. The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday cites an Oct. 25, 2023 incident in which the students said feared for their lives while locked in the campus library ... “Cooper Union has failed to adequately protect not just our clients but other Jewish students on campus in the face of pro-Hamas hate,” ... “No student should be subjected to intimidation, fear or hatred when pursuing an education,” ... The suit claims Cooper Union — a...

An Israeli-born Columbia University professor who gained notoriety for ripping the school’s failure to address rampant antisemitism on campus revealed this week he’s under investigation by the embattled Ivy — a probe he said is a “clear act of retaliation and an attempt to silence me.” ... “To say that civil rights are being violated does not begin to capture what Jews and Israelis are forced to endure on campus right now, ... Davidai — who considers himself “the most vocal faculty member in the United States and maybe the world” against antisemitism — declined to share details of the...

The Democratic superlawyer who resigned in disgrace from the #MeToo organization Time's Up after helping former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.) discredit his accusers is now defending Columbia University against a lawsuit alleging that it fosters a pervasive culture of anti-Semitism. Roberta Kaplan filed notice last month to represent Columbia and its sister college, Barnard, against lawsuits that accuse school leaders of enabling an "antisemitic hostile educational environment" in the wake of Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel. Students Against Antisemitism and a group of five Columbia students allege that school leaders have turned a blind eye as anti-Semitic activists...

The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the treacherous migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the capture of a number of boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. The stoppage began when Colombian law enforcement captured two boat captains in the northern city of Necoclí on Monday. The companies that employed them halted all transport services in protest, effectively cutting off the officially estimated 2,000 people a day that enter the jungled passage hoping to reach the United States. It has led to a build up...