Free Republic

An annual report by a Uyghur advocacy group revealed ongoing persecution in China's far-western Xinjiang province, with an estimated 1 in 26 Uyghurs jailed, accounting for a third of China's prison population, 3.5 times the world's highest rate of imprisonment. A new Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) report indicates that Uyghurs, Turkic and other non-Han peoples in the Uyghur Region account for more than a third (34 per cent) of China's estimated prison population, despite making up only one per cent of China's overall population. When accounting for the total regional population, the Uyghur region has the highest prison rate...

The recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses came on suddenly and shocked people across the nation. But the political tactics underlying some of the demonstrations were the result of months of training, planning and encouragement by longtime activists and left-wing groups. At Columbia University, in the weeks and months before police took down encampments at the New York City campus and removed demonstrators occupying an academic building, student organizers began consulting with groups such as the National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus protests and former Black Panthers. They researched past protests over Columbia’s expansion into...

UNC fraternity brothers defend the American flag, holding it off the ground as pro-Palestinian protestors on the campus quad try to rip it down. (More info)

Jewish man TASERED by crazed female Palestine activist at UCLA. The Jewish man was assaulted and hit on the head by the woman wearing a mask and headscarf before she pulled out a taser.

Protesters at an anti-Israel “encampment” in Harvard Yard removed an American flag from University Hall, the central administration building, and flew a Palestinian flag in its place Saturday before university staff intervened. The Harvard Crimson reported: Pro-Palestine student protesters at the Harvard Yard encampment flew three Palestinian flags from University Hall on Saturday evening. A group of three protesters hoisted the flags over the John Harvard statue in the Yard, where the University sometimes flies the American flag or flags of the countries of visiting foreign dignitaries. As of 6:34 p.m., Harvard University Police officers were calling Harvard Yard Operations...

@justinamash The GOP field is now set for U.S. Senate in Michigan, and the choice is clear. I’m the only candidate with a record of following the Constitution, cutting spending, protecting free speech, fighting the surveillance state, and opposing the forever war. On August 6, we win big.

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper reacted to 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump comparing the situation on college campuses to Charlottesville by stating that “There has been some anti-Israel sentiment and there has been some antisemitic sentiment,” but “most of them” were “peaceful, most of them in support of Palestinian rights” and “that’s not what the neo-Nazis in the Unite the Right rally were doing. That was not a peaceful march that turned into something ugly. It was ugly from the word go.”

<p>At least nine protesters were handcuffed and loaded into police cruisers at a peaceful, pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday at the University of Texas hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group and a chapter of the national Students for Justice in Palestine. And several more were arrested at the university's South Lawn.</p>

Dozens have been arrested at NYU and Yale, and Columbia cancels in-person classes as discord over the war in Gaza grows among students across the country.The president of Columbia University announced a midnight deadline for students and others to reach an agreement about dismantling an encampment on campus set up in protest. The encampment was set up four days ago on the Manhattan campus’ West Lawn. On Thursday, police made more than 100 arrests when they were called in about an encampment on the South Lawn, and for which Columbia was criticized. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a...

By Jonathan Chait, who’s been a New York political columnist since 2011. This week, The Atlantic published an account of how the war between Israel and Hamas has convulsed a campus (in this case, that of the author, Stanford sophomore Theo Baker). The most explosive details in the story showed activists endorsing violence or anti-Semitism, which has fed directly into the cycle of anger and fear felt by both Jewish and Muslim students. This has predictably set off the same progressive eye-rolling that occurs any time the mainstream media reports on crazy things happening on the left. “Incredibly brave for...

Harvard College suspended the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and ordered the group to “cease all organizational activities for the remainder of the Spring 2024 term” or risk permanent expulsion, according to an email obtained by The Crimson. The suspension comes amid a wave of pro-Palestine student demonstrations across the country, with students staging occupations at universities including Columbia and Yale Universities. Though there have not been occupations at Harvard this semester, the University restricted access to Harvard Yard on Sunday in anticipation of student protests. The PSC was one of several student organizations, including some unrecognized student organizations, to...

A Jewish Yale University student journalist reporting on an anti-Israeli protest at the Ivy League school Saturday night was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag – while her assailant has gone unpunished. Sahar Tartak, the editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, was covering the protest – which saw hundreds of students camping at the campus in support of Palestinians – when she was suddenly surrounded by demonstrators. Tartak said she and a friend were singled out for wearing Hasidic Jewish attire as the crowd formed a blockade around them to interfere with their filming.

Fatah, the “moderate” ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, has admitted on live television that Hamas steals humanitarian aid and kills aid workers in the Gaza Strip. The admission, captured by Palestinian Media Watch, confirms what Israel has been saying all along — and goes further, stating that Hamas is not only responsible for endangering aid workers by hiding among them, but also asserts that Hamas has been killing aid workers directly. Palestinian Media Watch reported (original emphasis):

Days after the Biden administration gave its blessing to a newly formed Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, the PA handed out dozens of bonus payments for security forces who were involved in attacks on Israelis. According to the PA's official news outlets, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service on April 4 provided a grant to 36 families of agency officials who died or were imprisoned as a result of their involvement in anti-Israel security crimes. The reports did not identify the recipients of the grant or its amount, but the purpose was clear. "Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu...

The Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepted at least two projectiles heading for Netivot. Palestinian terrorists fired a barrage of rockets towards the southern Israeli city of Netivot from Gaza on Thursday night, sending over 40,000 people running for shelter for the first time in nearly three months. The Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepted at least two projectiles heading for the city, local reports said. The last time air-raid sirens sounded in Netivot, located about eight miles from the Strip, was on January 16. The Magen David Adom emergency medical service said there were no reports of serious injuries in the...

A Muslim emergency medicine physician, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, said he walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden on Wednesday because of disagreements over the Hamas-Israel war. The symbolic action underscores the deepening division within the Democrats’ intersectional coalition over the Palestinian conflict. Only 47 percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of the Hamas-Israel war, a recent Gallup poll found, down 13 points since October, underscoring a major problem for Biden’s reelection chances. Ahmad turned his back on Biden out of respect for his fellow Palestinians, he told NPR. He said the White House needs to do more...

The State Department said on Wednesday that while the Biden administration remains committed to a “two-state solution” for Israel and the Palestinians, it opposes the Palestinian effort to negotiate statehood at the United Nations. The Palestinian delegation to the U.N. said on Wednesday that it wants the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to vote by the end of the month on giving the Palestinians full membership in the United Nations, which would be tantamount to conferring Palestinian statehood. The Palestinians first submitted a formal application for full U.N. membership in 2011. Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour (pictured) said 140 countries already...

More than two dozen Palestinian, Muslim and Arab groups across Chicago boycotted the White House's invitation to several community groups this week, citing the Biden administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. In a joint letter to the White House on Thursday, leaders of the groups said there was "no point in more meetings" since the administration "already knows the position of the aforementioned groups and our allies across the nation" to have an "immediate and permanent" cease-fire. The groups said "the White House has not only refused to call for a ceasefire, but also enabled this blatant campaign of ethnic...

The Biden White House was caught in a lie on Thursday as it tried to deny that it had tried to meet with the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Chicago as part of an outreach to Arab-, Muslim-, and Palestinian-Americans. As Breitbart news has noted: In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of...

Australia will resume funding to the United Nations’ main Palestinian relief agency, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday, almost two months after pausing ties over allegations that some of the agency’s employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Australia had consulted with UNRWA and other donors and was satisfied the aid agency was not a terror organisation, Wong said. New and additional safeguards would protect aid money, and A$6 million ($3.9 million) in paused funding would be released immediately, she said. “We have children and families that are starving and we have a capacity along with...