South Africa seeks halt to Israel's Rafah offensive at World Court

Wed, May 15, 2024 

ICJ holds public hearings on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, in The Hague

By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - South Africa will ask the top U.N. court on Thursday to order a halt to the Rafah offensive as part of its case in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, come after South Africa last week asked for additional emergency measures to protect Rafah, a southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians have been sheltering.

It also asked the court to order Israel to allow unimpeded access to Gaza for U.N. officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators. It added that Israel has so far ignored and violated earlier court orders.

On Thursday, South Africa will present its latest intervention seeking emergency measures starting at 3 p.m.(1300 GMT).

Israel, which has denounced South Africa's claim that it is violating the 1949 Genocide Convention as baseless, will respond on Friday. In previous filings it stressed it had stepped up efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza as the ICJ had ordered.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations told Army Radio on Wednesday the short notice the court gave for the hearings did not allow sufficient legal preparation, adding that was "a telling sign".

The Israel-Hamas war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the attack that started the war, according Israeli tallies.

South Africa accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians. In January, the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, allow in more humanitarian aid and preserve any evidence of violations.

The hearings on May 16 and 17 will only focus on issuing emergency measures, to keep the dispute from escalating. It will likely take years before the court can rule on the merits of the case.

The ICJ's rulings and orders are binding and without appeal. While the court has no way to enforce them, an order against a country could hurt its international reputation and set legal precedent.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, additional reporting by Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem; Editing by Anthony Deutsch, William Maclean)

Turkey says it will apply to intervene in ICJ genocide case against Israel

Reuters
Tue, May 14, 2024

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visits Venezuela

ANKARA (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday that Turkey decided to submit its declaration of official intervention in South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Earlier this month Fidan announced the decision to join the case launched by South Africa as Ankara stepped up measures against Israel over its assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 people and launched after militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage.

"We condemned civilians being killed on October 7," he told a press conference with his Austrian counterpart.


"But Israel systematically killing thousands of innocent Palestinians and rendering a whole residential area uninhabitable is a crime against humanity, attempted genocide, and the manifestation of genocide," he added.

A foreign ministry official said Turkey had not yet submitted the formal application to the ICJ.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

World Court to hold hearings over Israel's Rafah attacks

Updated Tue, May 14, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah


By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The U.N.'s International Court of Justice will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday to discuss new emergency measures sought by South Africa over Israel's attacks on Rafah during the war in Gaza, the court said Tuesday.

The measures form part of an ongoing case South Africa filed at the ICJ in December last year accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during its offensive against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has previously said it is acting in accordance with international law and has called the genocide case baseless and accused Pretoria of acting as "the legal arm" of Gaza's ruling Hamas militants.

South Africa will address the court on Thursday after it asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, last week to order Israel to cease its Rafah offensive and allow unimpeded access to Gaza for U.N. officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators.

Israel will present its side of the case on Friday, according to the court schedule.

The war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the attack that started the war, according Israeli tallies.

The hearings in The Hague will only focus on issuing emergency measures, to keep the dispute from escalating, before the court can rule on the merits of the case, which usually takes years. While the ICJ's rulings are binding and without appeal, the court has no way to enforce them.

(This story has been corrected to fix the day from Monday to Tuesday in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Macfie)

ACLU backs efforts to sink bill stripping any nonprofit that 'bankrolls terrorists' of tax-exempt status

Brianna Herlihy
Wed, May 15, 2024 

FIRST ON FOX: A new bill that would strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits found to be materially supporting terrorists – which passed the House with broad bipartisan support – is facing lobbying efforts to sink it by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The bill, introduced by Reps. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., and Brad Schneider, D-Ill., passed the House of Representatives in April by a sweeping vote of 382-11. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Angus King, I-Maine, have pushed a companion version of the bill. A spokesperson for Cornyn called the legislation a "commonsense" proposal to ban tax breaks for anyone who "bankrolls terrorists."

The ACLU has joined calls for Congress to kill the bill from groups like Council on American-Islamic Relations and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) – the center of a recent lawsuit alleging that it and National Students for Justice in Palestine are "collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."

The ACLU argued in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital that the prohibitions instituted by the bill, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, are already illegal under current law.

IRS URGED TO PROBE TAX-EXEMPT GROUPS SUPPORTING ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate along NYPD police lines outside of Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

The group also claimed "the legislation raises serious constitutional concerns," and because it "vests vast discretion in the Secretary of the Treasury, it creates a high risk of politicized and discriminatory enforcement."

However, Kustoff, one of only two Jewish Republicans in Congress, is baffled by the opposition.

"Several weeks ago, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to pass bipartisan legislation I introduced that does one simple thing: take away the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that give financial support to terrorist groups and organizations," he told Fox News Digital.

"This bill and its purpose are clear and simple. The American taxpayer should not unknowingly be funding terrorists. It should be a no-brainer," he said.

"Now, there are some left-wing radical groups, and at least one pro-Hamas group, trying to influence the United States Senate," he said.

"Even in deeply divided Washington, 382 Members of Congress agree that any organization that funds terrorism should not receive tax-exempt status under the U.S. tax code," he said.

Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn.

The ACLU claimed in its letter that "there has been no evidence presented as to the necessity of this legislation, and the lack of guardrails creates the potential for a future administration to weaponize this legislation to further its own political motives to target U.S. nonprofits, exposing them to stigmatizing and financially devastating punishments."

It also claimed the bill raises due process concerns, alleging it "switches the burden of proof about whether a nonprofit provides material support from the government to the nonprofit."

However, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values disagrees. "A tax exemption from the federal government is not a right, it’s a privilege. The burden of proof is on the organization to demonstrate that it is not using its tax exemption to engage in activities forbidden by a tax-exempt organization."

Under the current U.S. tax code, an entity’s tax-exempt status is suspended if it is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a terrorist organization, which includes groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda.

Cornyn says the legislation would extend the current prohibition to include organizations that provide material support or resources, such as finances, services or training, to a terrorist organization within the past three years.

Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU said in a statement, "While it is already illegal under current law to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, by vesting vast discretion in the Secretary of Treasury, this bill creates a high risk of politicized and discriminatory enforcement."

"As drafted the lack of due process protections would hand current and future presidential administrations a tool perfectly designed to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups on both ends of the political spectrum," Hamadanchy said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

"If this legislation isn’t necessary, how is it that American Muslims for Palestine are still tax-exempt? Within 36 hours of the atrocities of October 7, AMP’s campus arm, Students for Justice in Palestine, had already emerged with a detailed 'Day of Resistance' toolkit for campus chapters to hold activities in support of Hamas," said Menken.

"They declared that they not only support the messaging of Hamas, but they part of it," Menken said, referring to the toolkit document released by the groups.

AMP, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, is currently under investigation by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares for allegedly soliciting contributions in the commonwealth without first having registered with the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Miyares also announced in November that he is investigating allegations the group may have used funds raised for illegal purposes under state law, including benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.

Earlier this month, a major U.S. and global law firm, Greenberg Traurig, filed a federal lawsuit representing nine survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel, arguing that NSJP and AMP are working in the United States "as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."

Through NSJP, AJP Educational Foundation Inc. – also known as AMP – allegedly "uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond," according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia, Alexandria Division.

The litigation alleges AMP "serves as Hamas’s propaganda division in the United States" and "was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups."

AMP’s co-founder and current chairman, Hatem Bazian, supported the first SJP chapter as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the lawsuit notes.

In an email to Fox News Digital, a representative for AMP said it does not support the bill "due to the inherent flaws in the proposed bill."

The proposed legislation "grant[s] the Secretary of the Treasury broad discretionary powers to terminate the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations based solely on a subjective declaration that they are ‘terrorist supporting organizations,'" the representative said.

The representative also said AMP utilizes donations "completely within the United States to support its mission of educating American Muslims and the American public on the rich history and culture of Palestine."

Hamas chief says Israeli amendments on ceasefire proposal led to deadlock

Nidal al-Mughrabi
Wed, 15 May 2024 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel on Wednesday for a deadlock in Gaza ceasefire negotiations and reiterated key demands including that any agreement provide a framework for a permanent end to Israel's offensive in the enclave.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian group said it agreed to a truce proposal from Qatari and Egyptian mediators that Israel previously accepted.

Israel disputed this, saying the three-phase proposal

approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down. Ceasefire talks in Cairo broke up this month with no agreement.

"They also introduced amendments to the proposal that put the negotiation into a deadlock," said Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, in a televised speech.

Haniyeh said his group was determined to pursue all available ways to end the war in Gaza, leaving the door open to more mediation efforts, but he held to the group's key demands.

"Any efforts or agreement must secure a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive pull-out from all of the Gaza Strip, a real prisoner swap deal, the return of the displaced, reconstruction, and lifting the blockade," said Haniyeh.

Israel says it wants to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal but has so far refused any commitment to end the military offensive in Gaza, which it said seeks to annihilate Hamas.

Haniyeh, whose group has been running Gaza since 2007, rejected any post-war settlement in Gaza that excludes the group. "Hamas existed to stay," he said.

"The movement (Hamas) will decide, along with all national factions, the administration of the Gaza Strip after the war," said Haniyeh.

Israel says Hamas can't have any role in ruling Gaza after the war is over. Its ally, the United States, says it wants to see Gaza and the West Bank reunited under Hamas' rival, the Palestinian Authority, which currently has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Health authorities in Gaza say the war has killed almost 35,000 people since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 were taken hostage on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, additional reporting by Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)

House Democrats Fume Over Unprecedented Israeli Rebuke Of Lawmakers

Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Updated Wed, May 15, 2024 

One week after Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. sent dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives an unprecedented rebuke, congressional staff say they’re still fuming over the letter, a note that accused lawmakers of aiding the Palestinian militant group Hamas, of misrepresenting Israeli policy and of inappropriately trying to influence President Joe Biden.

The situation reflects how intense tensions between the Israeli government and many influential Democrats have become as Israel escalates its U.S.-backed military campaign in Gaza and conditions darken for the 2.3 million Palestinians there, congressional aides told HuffPost. They cast the move from the Israeli diplomat, Michael Herzog, as a sign of both Israel’s disregard for U.S. concerns about matters like humanitarian aid for Palestinians and its lack of respect for members of Congress, including many who are generally supportive of the U.S.-Israel alliance.

“It really is a stunning document,” said one Democratic staffer. “The tone of this letter is not reflective of the fact that the U.S. is the primary guarantor of Israel’s security. An unaware reader would assume that Israel is the superpower in this relationship and the U.S. the recipient of aid.”

Multiple parts of Herzog’s message were “verging on offensive,” argued another Democratic aide, pointing as an example to an assertion that Congress is overlooking the brutal Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

“It seems that Hamas’s massive invasion on October 7th, its ruthless massacre of Israelis and the kidnapping of hostages to Gaza have been too easily forgotten,” the ambassador wrote in his message, which Politico first reported on.

HuffPost this week obtained copies of the letter received by multiple lawmakers.

Sent on May 8, Herzog’s missive represents the Israeli response to an earlier May 3 letter from House Democrats to Biden arguing Israel is violating a U.S. law that outlaws sending weapons to countries blocking American aid. Led by Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), both moderates, that letter was signed by 88 Democrats, the most who’ve so far signed a statement alleging Israel is breaking the law. It was released days before the Biden administration issued its own opinion denying that is the case. (No Republicans signed the May 3 letter.)

The two aides, both of whom work for lawmakers who signed the Crow-Deluzio letter, and others described the Israeli pushback as more intense than what they have experienced previously — mirroring heightened disputes as critics of the Gaza war become more vocal, skepticism about it gains broader currency and its toll becomes harder to deny.

“Never before have we received such a harsh letter from the Israeli government. But then again, never before have we been so critical of their actions,” the second aide said. A third aide to another legislator who signed the congressional letter highlighted both Herzog’s Oct. 7 claim and his suggestion that House Democrats were aiding Hamas as particularly disturbing.

And a fourth staffer, a senior foreign policy aide, told HuffPost that, in addition to sending Herzog’s letter, the Israeli embassy had reached out to multiple signatories of the May 3 statement for meetings or calls.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

In his letter, Herzog suggested U.S. lawmakers were not adequately doing their jobs. “It is disappointing that you have reached this determination on such a sensitive matter without having conducted sufficient due diligence to learn, check and corroborate the full facts of the matter, without requesting information from Israel, an ally of the United States, or listening to its side of the issue and without waiting for the U.S. Administration to reach its own conclusion, instead attempting to lead it towards a pre-determined one,” Herzog wrote.

The May 3 letter from Democrats included a condemnation of Hamas and a demand for it to release Israeli hostages. The lawmakers also decried an April 13 attack on Israel by Iran, which backs Hamas, following an Israeli strike on an Iranian embassy on April 1. And the majority of signatories had just days earlier voted for $26.4 billion in additional U.S. aid to Israel. Still, Herzog implied they were bolstering Israel’s enemies.

“I believe we can agree that a Gaza not ruled by Hamas is the future we all want to see. I wonder if the position expressed in your letter helps bring this future closer or pushes it further away,” Herzog wrote. “Denying Israel the weapons it needs to defeat Hamas and creating daylight between our countries on the basis of unsubstantiated claims may serve to embolden Hamas and fuel its perception that time is on its side.”

The ambassador closed with an ominous warning to the U.S. lawmakers, writing: “People who genuinely care about the security of Israel should be extremely careful in calling for curtailing U.S. security aid. ... Both friends and foes of the United States, in our region and elsewhere, are taking careful note and drawing conclusions.”

In a notable contrast, Herzog and his team did not make similar protests to the seven senators who signed a March 12 letter similarly arguing Israeli aid restrictions made it illegal for the country to receive U.S. military support, a Senate aide told HuffPost. That letter, however, was released before a fresh wave of condemnations of Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid from Biden, following the deaths of several international aid workers, as well as limited concessions from Netanyahu on the issue.

The first House aide called the Israeli gambit “embarrassing.”

“It’s disrespectful but unsurprising from a government that has repeatedly made clear they do not care about the attitudes of the American public, or their representatives,” that aide added.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. defended Herzog’s letter and Israel’s approach to aid.

“The letter of the 88 members of Congress ... is based on unsubstantiated claims and jumped to conclusions before the U.S. administration concluded its investigation. Therefore, we felt it was important to share the facts of what’s happening on the ground,” the spokesperson argued in a statement to HuffPost. Saying Israel “has many friends in Congress from both sides of the aisle,” they said the amount of assistance entering Gaza has “drastically increased” and continued: “Hamas started this war, fully knowing the harm and suffering it would inflict upon the Palestinian people.”

The spokesperson also pointed to the Biden administration’s recent report denying any Israeli violation of international and U.S. law regarding humanitarian aid.

On Feb. 8, Biden responded to growing outcry over Israel’s actions — including turning back trucks full of assistance, launching attacks on humanitarian facilities and a refusal to use all available aid routes — by pledging to issue a report on whether Israel’s conduct in Gaza was in line with international and American law.

Palestinians walk through the debris after an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. via Associated Press

Calls for accountability further intensified when, on April 1, an Israeli airstrike killed several workers with the food aid nonprofit World Central Kitchen. By that point, food was already so scarce in parts of Gaza that famine had begun there, according to an April 2 cable from the U.S. Agency for International Development revealed by HuffPost. Officials at USAID concluded that Israeli aid policy was breaching U.S. law, according to an internal assessment obtained by Devex later that month.

The administration issued its report on Israel’s conduct on May 10. It described “deep concerns during the period since October 7 about action and inaction by Israel that contributed significantly to a lack of sustained and predictable delivery of needed assistance at scale,” saying Palestinians are still receiving “insufficient” aid.

But citing some tweaks to Israeli policy following pressure from Biden in April, the administration claimed Israel was abiding by U.S. statutes.

Outside humanitarian groups said Israel’s shifts in aid policy in April produced “no significant improvement” — and that even small gains have been almost fully lost in recent days, as Israel has advanced on the remaining section of Gaza outside its military’s control.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who mandated Biden’s assessment of Israeli compliance with international law, called the administration’s findings on aid “especially” lacking amid a generally disappointing report.

“For the greater part of the period since October 7, the Netanyahu government has restricted the flow of humanitarian assistance and that they have not facilitated the distribution of humanitarian assistance. That’s why we have the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that we have now,” Van Hollen told reporters on May 10.

USAID chief Samantha Power and Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, have said famine is now underway in Gaza.

“It looks at a snapshot right now and says that they find that the Netanyahu government is not currently in violation,” Van Hollen said of the report, “but they entirely duck the question of the conduct of the Netanyahu government with regard to humanitarian aid up to this point.”

Herzog’s letter and the Israeli spokesperson’s May 15 statement to HuffPost also focused on changes implemented in recent weeks. “At no point during the war has Israel had a policy of deliberately withholding humanitarian aid from entering Gaza,” the ambassador argued — though Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Oct. 9 he had implemented “a complete siege” on the region, providing “no electricity, no food, no fuel.”

The push-pull in Congress over Israel’s Gaza operation is continuing to heat up, with defenders of the country’s actions particularly focusing on quelling public challenges from Democrats. 

Democratic Majority for Israel, an ardently pro-Israel group, pushed House Democrats not to sign the May 3 letter, one aide told HuffPost. The aide noted the organization is now sending congressional offices copies of comments from national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who on Monday affirmed “ironclad” U.S. support for Israel and tempered the impression that Biden is winding down U.S. support for the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

On Tuesday, after Sullivan’s comments, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Biden is seeking to provide Israel with an additional $1 billion worth of arms.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed around 35,000 Palestinians so far, according to local authorities. The Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, per the Israeli government.

Crowd Erupts After Columbia Grad’s Mic Cuts Off When She Mentions Gaza

Edith Olmsted
Wed, May 15, 2024 

YouTube

The crowd at a Columbia University graduation ceremony burst into an outraged uproar after the speaker’s microphone appeared to turn off when she mentioned Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza.

Saham David Ahmed Ali, a candidate for a Masters degree in Public Health, was invited to make remarks on behalf of the graduating class at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

During her address on Tuesday, she talked about her experience as a Columbia student amid the campus protests opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which administrators ordered to be violently disbanded by police.

“It feels dystopian to walk through Mailman’s halls everyday, scrolling through social media everyday, standing in our classrooms while I witness the genocide of the Palestinian people,” Ali said.

“The silence on this campus, and the pressure to say nothing while administration and professors assert ‘we are here for you,’ while we are actively witness the most televised genocide of our lives made me lose hope,” she said.

“Do they not see the decimation of the healthcare system in Gaza? The attacks on hospitals? Humanitarian workers? The mass graves outside of Al-Shifa hospital, found while we sat in our classrooms learning about—” Ali’s voice was cut off, as the microphone fizzled in front of her, appearing to turn off.

Ali pursed her lips, and cocked her head to the side, as the crowd in front of her burst into an uproar of indignant hollering. A moment later, she leaned down to speak into the microphone, which jolted back to life, only to turn off again a few seconds later.

As she stood quietly in front of her classmates and their families, a cheer began to grow throughout the audience. “Let her speak! Let her speak,” they cried.

After a moment she leaned down, and was able to resume her speech. “Whatever cause you have dedicated yourself to in this field… it is all intrinsically connected to other injustices in the world, including the liberation of the Palestinian people,” she said, calling for her fellow students to advocate for the victims of injustice in Sudan, Armenia, Tigray, Uyghur, Haiti, Yemen, Somalia, and Congo.


A spokesperson for the university denied that the microphone was cut off. “The momentary loss of audio during the speech was an unintentional technical glitch,” the spokesperson told the New York Post.

Online, Zionist critics have begun vehemently attacking Ali for her speech, claiming that she was attacking Jewish people by mentioning Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 34,500 people.

Although Columbia president Minouche Shafik chose to cancel commencement, she has been unable to thwart student protesters who insist on standing up to their university. On Friday, a zip-tie wearing student protester tore up her diploma onstage. Columbia University is currently under federal investigation for allegations of anti-Palestinian racism.

Medics at UCLA protest say police weapons drew blood and cracked bones

Molly Castle Work and Brett Kelman

USA TODAY
Updated Wed, May 15, 2024 

Inside the protesters' encampment at UCLA, beneath the glow of hanging flashlights and a deafening backdrop of exploding flash-bangs, OB-GYN resident Elaine Chan suddenly felt like a battlefield medic.

Police were pushing into the camp after an hours-long standoff. Chan, 31, a medical tent volunteer, said protesters limped in with severe puncture wounds, but there was little hope of getting them to a hospital through the chaos outside. Chan suspects the injuries were caused by rubber bullets or other “less lethal” projectiles, which police have confirmed were fired at protesters.

“It would pierce through skin and gouge deep into people’s bodies,” she said. “All of them were profusely bleeding. In OB-GYN we don’t treat rubber bullets. … I couldn’t believe that this was allowed to be (done to) civilians — students — without protective gear.”

The UCLA protest, which gathered thousands in opposition to Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza, began in April and grew to a dangerous crescendo this month when counterprotesters and police clashed with the activists and their supporters.

In interviews with KFF Health News, Chan and three other volunteer medics described treating protesters with bleeding wounds, head injuries, and suspected broken bones in a makeshift clinic cobbled together in tents with no electricity or running water. The medical tents were staffed day and night by a rotating team of doctors, nurses, medical students, EMTs, and volunteers with no formal medical training.

At times, the escalating violence outside the tent isolated injured protesters from access to ambulances, the medics said, so the wounded walked to a nearby hospital or were carried beyond the borders of the protest so they could be driven to the emergency room.

“I’ve never been in a setting where we’re blocked from getting higher level of care,” Chan said. “That was terrifying to me.”

Three of the medics interviewed by KFF Health News said they were present when police swept the encampment May 2 and described multiple injuries that appeared to have been caused by “less lethal” projectiles.

Less lethal projectiles — including beanbags filled with metal pellets, sponge-tipped rounds, and projectiles commonly known as rubber bullets — are used by police to subdue suspects or disperse crowds or protests. Police drew widespread condemnation for using the weapons against Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept the country after the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Although the name of these weapons downplays their danger, less lethal projectiles can travel upward of 200 mph and have a documented potential to injure, maim, or kill.

The medics’ interviews directly contradict an account from the Los Angeles Police Department. After police cleared the encampment, LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said in a post on the social platform X that there were “no serious injuries to officers or protestors'' as police moved in and made more than 200 arrests.

In response to questions from KFF Health News, both the LAPD and California Highway Patrol said in emailed statements that they would investigate how their officers responded to the protest. The LAPD statement said the agency was conducting a review of how it and other law enforcement agencies responded, which would lead to a “detailed report.”

The Highway Patrol statement said officers warned the encampment that “non-lethal rounds” may be used if protesters did not disperse, and after some became an “immediate threat” by “launching objects and weapons,” some officers used “kinetic specialty rounds to protect themselves, other officers, and members of the public.” One officer received minor injuries, according to the statement.

Video footage that circulated online after the protest appeared to show a Highway Patrol officer firing less lethal projectiles at protesters with a shotgun.

“The use of force and any incident involving the use of a weapon by CHP personnel is a serious matter, and the CHP will conduct a fair and impartial investigation to ensure that actions were consistent with policy and the law,” the Highway Patrol said in its statement.

The UCLA Police Department, which was also involved with the protest response, did not respond to requests for comment.

Police face-off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, early on May 2, 2024. Police deployed a heavy presence on US university campuses on May 1 after forcibly clearing away some weeks-long protests against Israel's war with Hamas.

Jack Fukushima, 28, a UCLA medical student and volunteer medic, said he witnessed a police officer shoot at least two protesters with less lethal projectiles, including a man who collapsed after being hit “square in the chest.” Fukushima said he and other medics escorted the stunned man to the medical tent then returned to the front lines to look for more injured.

“It did really feel like a war,” Fukushima said. “To be met with such police brutality was so disheartening.”

Back on the front line, police had breached the borders of the encampment and begun to scrum with protesters, Fukushima said. He said he saw the same officer who had fired earlier shoot another protester in the neck.

The protester dropped to the ground. Fukushima assumed the worst and rushed to his side.

“I find him, and I’m like, ‘Hey, are you OK?’” Fukushima said. “To the point of courage of these undergrads, he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s not my first time.’ And then just jumps right back in.”

Sonia Raghuram, 27, another medical student stationed in the tent, said that during the police sweep she tended to a protester with an open puncture wound on their back, another with a quarter-sized contusion in the center of their chest, and a third with a “gushing” cut over their right eye and possible broken rib. Raghuram said patients told her the wounds were caused by police projectiles, which she said matched the severity of their injuries.

The patients made it clear the police officers were closing in on the medical tent, Raghuram said, but she stayed put.

“We will never leave a patient,” she said, describing the mantra in the medical tent. “I don’t care if we get arrested. If I’m taking care of a patient, that’s the thing that comes first.”

The UCLA protest is one of many that have been held on college campuses across the country as students opposed to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza demand universities support a ceasefire or divest from companies tied to Israel. Police have used force to remove protesters at Columbia University, Emory University, and the universities of Arizona, Utah, and South Florida, among others.

At UCLA, student protesters set up a tent encampment on April 25 in a grassy plaza outside the campus’s Royce Hall theater, eventually drawing thousands of supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times. Days later, a “violent mob” of counterprotesters “attacked the camp,” the Times reported, attempting to tear down barricades along its borders and throwing fireworks at the tents inside.

The following night, police issued an unlawful assembly order, then swept the encampment in the early hours of May 2, clearing tents and arresting hundreds by dawn.

Police have been widely criticized for not intervening as the clash between protesters and counterprotesters dragged on for hours. The University of California system announced it has hired an independent policing consultant to investigate the violence and “resolve unanswered questions about UCLA’s planning and protocols, as well as the mutual aid response.”

Charlotte Austin, 34, a surgery resident, said that as counterprotesters were attacking she also saw about 10 private campus security officers stand by, “hands in their pockets,” as students were bashed and bloodied.

Austin said she treated patients with cuts to the face and possible skull fractures. The medical tent sent at least 20 people to the hospital that evening, she said.

“Any medical professional would describe these as serious injuries,” Austin said. “There were people who required hospitalization — not just a visit to the emergency room — but actual hospitalization.”
Police Tactics ‘Lawful but Awful’

UCLA protesters are far from the first to be injured by less lethal projectiles.

In recent years, police across the U.S. have repeatedly fired these weapons at protesters, with virtually no overarching standards governing their use or safety. Cities have spent millions to settle lawsuits from the injured. Some of the wounded have never been the same.

During the nationwide protests following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, at least 60 protesters sustained serious injuries — including blinding and a broken jaw — from being shot with these projectiles, sometimes in apparent violations of police department policies, according to a joint investigation by KFF Health News and USA TODAY.

Fractured skulls, lost eyes: Police break their own rules when shooting protesters with ‘rubber bullets’

'Less lethal' can still maim and kill A visual guide to weapons police use on protesters

Those maimed say enough is enough Police use of rubber bullets, bean bag rounds has left a bloody trail for decades.

In 2004, in Boston, a college student celebrating a Red Sox victory was killed by a projectile filled with pepper-based irritant when it tore through her eye and into her brain.

“They’re called less lethal for a reason,” said Jim Bueermann, a former police chief of Redlands, California, who now leads the Future Policing Institute. “They can kill you.”

Bueermann, who reviewed video footage of the police response at UCLA at the request of KFF Health News, said the footage shows California Highway Patrol officers firing beanbag rounds from a shotgun. Bueermann said the footage did not provide enough context to determine if the projectiles were being used “reasonably,” which is a standard established by federal courts, or being fired “indiscriminately,” which was outlawed by a California law in 2021.

“There is a saying in policing — ‘lawful but awful’ — meaning that it was reasonable under the legal standards but it looks terrible,” Bueermann said. “And I think a cop racking multiple rounds into a shotgun, firing into protesters, doesn’t look very good.”

This article was produced by KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. KFF Health News is the publisher of California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UCLA protest violence: medics say police broke bones and drew blood

SCOTLAND

STV industrial dispute ends after staff accept improved pay offer

Lucy Jackson
Wed, 15 May 2024

Journalists at STV voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay deal that amounts to an increase of up to 6.7 percent (Image: Colin Mearns)

AN industrial dispute at a Scottish television station that saw some programmes taken off air has ended after staff accepted an improved pay offer, a union has announced.

Journalists at the broadcaster STV, who had twice walked out this year over demands for a 6% pay rise, voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay deal that amounts to an increase of up to 6.7%, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has confirmed.

The deal includes backdated pay increases, guaranteed bonuses, enhanced family policies and an agreement to undertake a joint exercise to review working practices and pay anomalies.

READ MORE: Council workers in Scotland could go on strike over pay

The union says the deal came after striking union members attended the company’s annual general meeting on May 1 and secured commitments from chief executive Simon Pitts to engage in further talks.

Nick McGowan-Lowe, NUJ national organiser for Scotland, said: “This has been a slow and difficult dispute, but we have finally reached a pay offer that has been accepted by our members.

“Our members at STV have secured an improved settlement not just for the newsroom, but also for their other 400 colleagues across STV, who now have a guaranteed bonus in July and a further, increased potential bonus payable next year, as well as significant improvements to the maternity and adoption leave terms.

“None of this would have been achieved without the solidarity, determination and professionalism of STV’s journalists, who deserve fair pay and respect within the company as the public face of STV’s brand, and the leadership of our workplace reps.

READ MORE: Strikes called off after ScotRail dispute with guards resolved​

“We look forward to working with STV in addressing issues over workload and the commitment to the company to revert to a flat percentage award applied on an across-the-board basis in 2025.”

Newsroom staff around Scotland walked out for 24 hours on March 28 and again on May 1 when the company held its AGM in Glasgow.

On both dates STV pulled live news bulletins from the schedule and replaced them with alternative programming.

STV has been contacted for comment.

WHITE MEN RULE OK!

Texas university leaders say hundreds of positions, programs cut to comply with DEI ban

ACACIA CORONADO
Updated Tue, May 14, 2024

FILE - Ivy grows near the lettering of the an entrance to the University of Texas, Nov. 29, 2012, in Austin, Texas. Texas universities eliminated or changed hundreds of jobs in recent months in response to one of the nation's most sweeping bans on diversity programs on college campuses, school officials told lawmakers Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)


AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas universities eliminated or changed hundreds of jobs in recent months in response to one of the nation's most sweeping bans on diversity programs on college campuses, school officials told lawmakers Tuesday.

In the fullest public accounting of the new Texas law to date, the head of the University of Texas system announced that its nine academic and five health campuses alone had cut 300 full- and part-time positions. Those campuses combined also did away with more than 600 programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion training.

"You may not like the law, but it is the law,” University of Texas Systems Chancellor James Milliken said.


Milliken was one of several chancellors who GOP state senators called to the Texas Capitol to testify on how campuses are complying with the law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last year. Texas is among about one-third of states across the nation that have taken steps to limit or prohibit DEI initiatives and practices.

Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton, in a letter to chancellors in March, said he was concerned that some campuses were trying to skirt the law or find loopholes, such as renaming employing titles or campus offices.

“This letter should serve as a notice that this practice is unacceptable,” Creighton wrote in the letter.

Republican lawmakers in about two dozen states have filed bills seeking to restrict DEI initiatives this year, according to an Associated Press analysis using the legislation-tracking software Plural. Meanwhile, Democrats have sponsored measures supporting DEI in at least 20 states.

Last month, the flagship University of Texas campus in Austin — one of the largest campuses in the U.S. — announced the closure of the school's Division of Campus and Community Engagement and the elimination of jobs in order to comply with the ban.

Earlier this year, the University of Florida announced more than a dozen terminations in response to a similar state ban.

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told lawmakers the legislation “makes it crystal clear” that “if you tread back into the bad waters, something bad is going to happen to you.”

On Monday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved diverting $2.3 million of state funds for advancing diversity to instead serve public safety and policing. The move comes as North Carolina’s public university system will consider changing its diversity policy before the legislature steps in.

In Oklahoma, the head of the University of Oklahoma’s Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center announced earlier this month that he was forced to terminate its National Education for Women Leadership program because of an anti-DEI executive order signed by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt last year. The program trained more than 650 women from dozens of colleges and universities across the country over the past 20 years.

“As one of only a handful of women to have held leadership positions in the Legislature since statehood, I believe this program’s elimination is a terrible loss,” said Democratic Oklahoma state Sen. Kay Floyd in a statement.

———-

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report





Texas Senate panel holds hearing on DEI, antisemitism. What UT chancellor said of protests

Lily Kepner, Austin American-Statesman
Wed, May 15, 2024 

University of Texas System Chancellor J.B. Milliken said elements of the pro-Palestinian protests over the past few weeks at UT were antisemitic in response to a question from the Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee, citing testimony from a Jewish UT student who spoke to the panel of his experience.

The subcommittee on Tuesday held hearings with university system chancellors over their institutions' compliance with Senate Bill 17, a state law that went into effect in January and bans public universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices or related functions, and the hearing also focused on antisemitism on campuses and free speech policies born from Senate Bill 18, a 2019 law that made public universities' outdoor spaces traditional public forums.

Outside of the chancellors and counsels, the committee had three invited panelists — a UT student, a UT professor specializing in the First Amendment and the policy director of the Anti-Defamation League — with the student and league speakers discussing increasing antisemitism and fear affecting Jewish students due to recent pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. No pro-Palestinian representatives were included in the subcommittee's agenda.

Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the author of SB 17 and the subcommittee's chairman, asked Milliken and Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp, "If you both recognize, especially what happened on the UT campus and across the country, that these were anti-Jewish protests in their very nature?" referring to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses.

Milliken affirmed that elements of the protests were antisemitic, and said he'd agree that they were anti-Jewish. Sharp said the protests at Texas A&M campuses have been less intense, but that he has no tolerance for antisemitism.

The protests at UT called on the university and the UT System to divest from Israeli weapons manufacturers. More than 130 people were arrested over two protests at UT — the first on April 24 and another on April 29 when demonstrators set up a surprise encampment that was quickly dismantled by police.

University of Texas graduate Jackie Compos, right, marches with others from the UT campus to the Capitol ahead of a Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on campus free speech and Senate Bill 17, the bill banning diversity initiatives in Texas public colleges.

Antisemitism and campus free speech

UT sophomore Levi Fox testified to the panel about his experience with antisemitism on campus, including an encounter with a UT professor he said had approached him and verbally harassed him with an antisemitic threat.

"People ask how the Holocaust happened," Fox said. "Auschwitz wasn't built overnight. It was built as Jew hatred gradually became accepted and when society was desensitized to hate."

Fox said he knows people who have hidden their Judaism or are afraid of being seen going into Jewish spaces for fear of being targeted.

Courtney Toretto from the Anti-Defamation League said this year has had the greatest number of antisemitic incident reports since the group started collecting data decades ago. Toretto also spoke about the impact of chants like "From the river to the sea" and the "intifada," which she said call for the destruction of Jewish people in Israel.

"Many Jewish students report feeling isolated and targeted by these protests. While ADL vehemently supports the right to free speech and peaceful protest, we draw the line when conduct on campus crosses the line into harassment that threatens public safety and (students') well-being," Toretto said.

Fox told the American-Statesman after his testimony to the subcommittee that he is a staunch believer in free speech, and he hopes the Legislature guards free speech and protects Jewish students by encouraging more Holocaust education in schools. Asked when protests crossed the line, he said when there is violence and intimidation.

"There is no category of speech in United States law known as hate speech," Steven Collis, director of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center and a professor at UT's Law School, told the subcommittee. But speech that incites violence or raises a "reasonable fear of imminent bodily harm" can be limited, he said.

Public universities are allowed to set reasonable restrictions and rules for protesting as long as they are implemented in a content-neutral way, he said.

"They try to conflate antisemitism with a student's right to protest and to free speech, which is wrong in and of itself," Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, told the Statesman after the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, which he chairs, held a news conference Tuesday over SB 17 and the right to protest.

Islamophobia was not mentioned as part of the subcommittee's agenda or at the panel. During the public testimony portion of the meeting Tuesday some speakers asked for there to be "equal protection of free speech."
SB 17 compliance, difficulties and successes

Milliken and Sharp asserted their commitments to following SB 17 exactly as written. But UT System's general counsel, Daniel Sharphorn, told the subcommittee that the system has struggled with the law's effects on grants.

"We've struggled mightily with how to handle the grants," Sharphorn said. "Part of it is talking to the granting agency to know what laws we're dealing with. ... Right now, I don't know that we've learned enough to know what the impact is going to be."

Brooks Moore, Texas A&M System's general counsel, said he thinks the accreditor's language is broad enough that he is not worried.

Milliken said the system has reallocated about $25 million that was previously used toward DEI, according to what the institutions have reported. The system closed 21 offices, eliminated 311 full- and part-time positions, and cut about 681 contracts, programs and trainings, Milliken said.

UT System Chancellor J.B. Milliken said at Tuesday's hearing that he believed the pro-Palestinian protests at UT had been antisemitic.

The 311 eliminated positions include the 49 former DEI staff positions that UT President Jay Hartzell cut April 2 as part of a reorganization after SB 17 that included the closing of the adapted Division of Campus and Community Engagement, a UT System spokesperson confirmed.

Also in April, four months after the compliance deadline, UT-Dallas announced that it would close a new office created to comply with SB 17 and eliminate about 20 staff positions that had been adapted.

Creighton said there's compliance as written, and then there's compliance "beyond the four corners of the document." He said UT seemed to take a "holistic approach," including finding other duplicative efforts and inefficiencies and making changes, and he asked how it came to those conclusions.

Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the author of Senate Bill 17, listens to UT System Chancellor J.B. Milliken during Tuesday's hearing.

"Our board made a pretty strong statement about this last fall, that this is the law of the land, that we will fully commit to implement every element of it," Milliken said.

Sharp said the Texas A&M System had fewer DEI resources to start with, and only eight positions across the system had been eliminated, not including student positions.

Both systems asserted their ability to audit their institutions by this summer and work with state auditors.

Milliken initially said that all systems have worked together to ensure uniform compliance, but differences later emerged. In response to a question from Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, Sharp said that Texas A&M has not changed its financial support of student groups because it is exempt from the law. At UT-Austin, sponsored student groups who had been under the now-closed Multicultural Engagement Center lost their university funding due to SB 17.

Milliken said the sponsored groups were different because they had their own university spaces and other privileges, and they are now registered organizations, which do not receive university funding.

West also asked if there is a reporting process for eliminated programs that people feel are overcompliant with the law. Milliken said the power to reinstate any programs would fall to the presidents of the institutions.

From left, Aman Odeh, sits with Jessica and Gracie I. in the overflow room to watch the subcommittee hearing.

Creighton, Milliken and Sharp also stated their commitment to helping ensure access to all. Milliken pointed to the Promise Plus endowment at the UT-Rio Grande Valley campus, which covers all tuition for students whose families makes a combined income of less than $100,000.

Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas Chapter of the NAACP, spoke at the news conference the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and other organizations held at the same time as the hearing. In an interview with the Statesman, he said DEI is intended to help all, and the absence of it has created a "hostile" environment at UT.

"If you think somebody's not included in DEI, change the definition and the scope and keep the existing people," Bledsoe said. "That shows again that it's a lie."

UT student Levi Fox answers questions from Sen. Brandon Creighton during the hearing. Fox said he had experienced antisemitism on campus.

The Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hears from UT student Levi Fox, center left, Anti-Defamation League Policy Director Courtney Toretto and First Amendment lawyer Steven T. Collis.




Under scrutiny from legislators, Texas university leaders attest to how they’re complying with the state’s DEI ban

Sneha Dey
Tue, May 14, 2024 

The Senate Committee on Education held a hearing on antisemitism, free speech and compliance with the state's DEI ban on May 14, 2024. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Public university leaders tried to demonstrate their schools can still build diverse student bodies in a post-DEI reality and acknowledged a rise in reports of antisemitism on campuses at a wide-ranging hearing Tuesday that covered some of the most explosive issues rattling higher education in the state.

In their first public testimony since the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices went into effect, university system administrators explained to the Texas Senate subcommittee on higher education how they were complying with the state law. They said they have redirected millions of dollars away from their now-defunct DEI offices toward redoubling recruiting efforts and developing alternative student support programs.

“Every dollar spent on bloated university bureaucracy should be redeployed to ensure that all Texas students regardless of race, are college ready and heavily recruited for those that want to apply to a college,” said State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who shepherded the DEI ban through the Legislature last year.

Lawmakers put an end to DEI offices when they passed Senate Bill 17 during the 2023 legislative session. The law went into effect in January. Opponents of DEI programs and training said those programs indoctrinated students with left-wing ideology and forced universities to make hires based on their support of diversity efforts rather than on merit and achievement.

Creighton called Tuesday’s hearing after he and GOP leaders expressed concerns that colleges were not fully complying with the law. The Conroe Republican has not provided specific examples about what reports of noncompliance he has received or discussed them at the hearing.

Creighton pressed Texas Tech University leaders about how they were changing the culture at the West Texas school so that DEI practices did not reemerge.

Texas Tech came under fire last year after its biology department asked job candidates to submit so-called diversity statements and gave them negative marks for failing to articulate the difference between “equality” and “equity.” Diversity statements are typically one- to two-page letters in which job candidates are asked to share their experiences working with diverse populations and their commitment to helping a diverse group of students succeed. Critics have characterized them as political litmus tests.

University leaders said the closures of DEI offices and programs have meant they now have new funds available to spend. University of Texas System administrators said they freed up $25 million in their budget after closing 21 offices, eliminating 311 full- and part-time positions and canceling 681 trainings related to DEI.

The Texas State University System saved $3 million and the University of Houston System about $750,000 after eliminating their DEI programs and positions.

Lawmakers last year blasted DEI programs as ineffective but recognized Tuesday that Texas colleges still have to build and maintain student bodies that reflect the state’s population.

“We all support diversity. We want to include more students in the kinds of opportunities that our higher education can provide,” Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, said. “Part of that includes recruitment.”

One school system, Texas Woman's University, opened a center for first-generation students in the months following SB 17’s implementation. Chancellor Carine Feyten described it as “race- and gender-neutral.”

Half of the system’s incoming students are the first in their families to go to college. Research shows that schools across the country have a harder time retaining first-generation students than their peers.

“I come before you today to report we scrubbed our house from top to bottom, we reorganized and that we are ready to serve our diverse student body just as effective,” Feyten said.

Protesters marched from the UT-Austin campus to the Capitol before the Senate committee hearing. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

The hearing happened the same day that about two dozen protesters marched about a mile from UT-Austin’s Tower to the Texas Capitol to protest the DEI ban.

Many of the protesters said they were frustrated with how universities have complied with SB 17, pointing to the firing of dozens of employees at UT-Austin since January and the closing of centers and programs that used to serve students from marginalized backgrounds.

UT-Austin senior Maggie DiSanza said she greatly benefited from the Gender and Sexuality Center, one of the offices that shut down. She said she wouldn’t have enrolled at UT-Austin as a senior in high school if she had known those programs would close.

Rising UT-Austin junior Shelydon Ely said that the elimination of spaces like the Multicultural Engagement Center has made students like her feel less welcome on campus and has put the responsibility of supporting underserved students on the students themselves.

“I still have two more years here, but I worry even more for students that are coming here expecting to feel welcome and then they don't have these programs and resources that they expected to have when they come,” Ely said.
A rise in antisemitism

Lawmakers also pushed leaders to acknowledge and respond to an uptick in reports of antisemitism on college campuses amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

UT-Austin student Levi Fox told state senators that verbal attacks and a pervasive fear for his safety have disturbed the end of his spring semester. One history professor told him and a group Jewish students “they’ll come after you and put you in the oven.”

“I have seen firsthand Jewish students taking off yarmulkes or hiding their Stars of David that are hanging around their neck or skipping Hillel Shabbat because it's been a tough week,’” Fox said. “It's horrifying to see my friends be scared to be Jewish. I never thought I would see that.”

Universities cannot restrict hate speech under the First Amendment, free speech experts say. But Middleton questioned whether recent acts of antisemitism invite government intervention to look at the intersection of free speech and religious freedom.

“It is un-Texan and un-American to have to hide your faith,” the Galveston Republican said.

About 73% of Jewish college students across the country have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the start of the 2023 school year, a report from the Anti-Defamation League said.

Israel launched its siege on Gaza after Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. During the attack, Hamas took about 250 people hostage and killed 1,200 Israelis. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 77,000 people wounded, two-thirds of whom were women or children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

U.T. System Chancellor J.B. Milliken testifies before the Texas Senate Committee on Education on May 14, 2024. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have broken out in universities across the country as protesters call for schools to divest from firms and weapons manufacturers that support Israel. Last month, protests at UT-Austin ended in violent clashes with the police and the arrest of more than 130 people, sparking debates about free speech protections and who gets to enjoy them.

Some students and faculty have criticized the response as heavy-handed but state leaders have cheered on Texas university administrators when they’ve called law enforcement to shut down protests.

“There's a misconception that you can commandeer public property on a campus — a publicly funded university campus — and disrupt finals week, disrupt the flow of foot traffic,” Creighton said on Tuesday.

When asked about the recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations, University of Texas System Chancellor J.B. Milliken said he saw them as anti-Jewish. Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said that while protests on his campuses have been respectful, he acknowledged he had a pro-Israeli “bias” on the issue after recruiting students with strong ties to the country.

The hearing comes as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Texas Senate, has signaled he wants the chamber to propose new laws to prevent antisemitism, protect free speech and enforce the DEI ban on college campuses during next year’s legislative session.

Ikram Mohamed contributed to this story.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Texas Tech University, Texas Woman's University - Board of Regents, Texas State University System, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas System and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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UNC board votes to shift $2.3 million in DEI funds to police, public safety

MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press
Tue, May 14, 2024 


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/WNCN) — As North Carolina’s public university system considers a vote on changing its diversity policy, the UNC-Chapel Hill board voted Monday to cut funding for diversity programs in next year’s budget.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees unanimously approved a change that would divert $2.3 million of diversity spending — known as DEI for diversity, equity, and inclusion — from state funds to go toward public safety and policing at a special meeting to address the university’s budget.

One board member told CBS 17 that he believes the DEI programs only divide campuses

“The DEI efforts seemed counterproductive to that effort to treat people based on who they are as a human, not based on any kind of characteristic they might have,” Board of Trustees budget chair Dave Boliek said.

The board’s vote would only impact UNC-Chapel Hill’s diversity funding, which could result in the loss of its diversity office.

UNC will join the ranks of other notable public universities that have stripped diversity spending, such as the University of Florida in Gainesville, which announced in a March memo it was reallocating funds to faculty recruitment.

But unlike UF, which implemented its funding rollback after the state Legislature passed a bill banning diversity program spending at state universities, UNC “set the tone” on funding cuts before the North Carolina Legislature stepped in, budget chair Dave Boliek said.

Much of the conversation Monday was around protests these past few weeks, but board member Dave Boliek said the active shooter that killed a faculty member at the beginning of the fall semester was a factor for him.

“We’re going ahead and, you know, sort of taking a leadership role in this. That’s the way I view it,” Boliek said on Monday after the vote.

The change would go into effect at the start of the 2024-2025 fiscal year on July 1, Boliek said. Any jobs that could be impacted would occur after that date, although Boliek said he wasn’t sure how many positions may be affected.

But the decision about whether the spending cut would remove UNC’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion will be up to the university’s flexible management plan, which is operated by interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and his team. The diversity office has 12 staff members, including a chief diversity officer, according to its website.

The budget, which includes the $2.3 million amendment, will now be submitted to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, UNC spokesperson Kevin Best said in an email.

The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks. The budget committee vice-chair Marty Kotis said law enforcement has already been forced to react to protests, but they need more funding to keep the university “safe from a larger threat.”

“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,” Kotis said. “It takes away resources for others.”

But Boliek, who is also running for state auditor in Tuesday’s runoff elections, said the timing of the reallocation was “happenstance” and that internal conversations on diversity spending cuts have persisted for almost a year.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions last year — in which UNC was sued for its admission policies — the board has continually considered how it should handle university diversity programs, he said. Diverting more money toward public safety was also a concern for the board in the aftermath of a fatal August shooting on the UNC campus that left one faculty member dead.

“It makes sense where we can take money that I believe is not being productively used and put it to something that is more productive, and that is providing public safety,” he said.

Before the start of North Carolina’s short legislative session, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters there was interest in pursuing anti-DEI legislation but wanted to let university boards review their diversity policies first.

At least 20 states have seen Republican bill proposals seeking to limit diversity and inclusion programs in several public institutions such as universities.

Now, all eyes are on the UNC Board of Governors, whose 24 members are expected to vote next week on changing its diversity policy after the board’s university governance committee voted to reverse and replace the rule last month. The change would alter a 2019 diversity, equity, and inclusion regulation that defines the roles of various DEI positions at 17 schools across the state — and it would appear to eliminate those jobs if the policy is removed.

If the alteration is approved, it will take effect immediately.

University of North Carolina to dump 'divisive' DEI, spend funds on public safety

Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
Updated Mon, May 13, 2024 at 6:16 PM MDT·2 min read

Amid campus protests nationwide and a push to revise diversity policies at state public universities, the Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted Monday to redirect the $2.3 million that funded diversity, equity and inclusion programs toward public safety measures.

The unanimous decision comes ahead of a vote next week by the UNC Board of Governors that’s expected to limit DEI initiatives and may lead to personnel layoffs. The board's governance committee approved the change for all public colleges and universities in April, but the move requires a vote by the full board.

Trustee Marty Kotis, vice-chair of the budget committee, said the funds are needed for campus policing and safety in light of the pro-Palestinian protests that swept through college campuses in late April and earlier this month. At UNC Chapel Hill, 36 demonstrators were detained – six of them arrested – and the U.S. flag was replaced by a Palestinian one during an April 30 protest.

“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,” he said.

The American flag is surrounded by a temporary barrier at Polk Place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on May 1, 2024. The day before, protesters removed the American flag and raised the Palestinian flag following arrests and the breaking up of an encampment on campus.

Kotis also called DEI policies, first implemented at North Carolina’s flagship university in 2017, “discriminatory and divisive,’’ according to Chapel Hill-based public radio station WUNC.

“I think that DEI in a lot of people’s minds is divisiveness, exclusion and indoctrination,” Kotis said, according to WUNC. “We need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”

The UNC Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which did not respond to USA TODAY messages seeking comment, says in its website that it aims to “celebrate all members of the Carolina community, to broaden our collective understanding, and foster a sense of belonging by uplifting diverse identities, cultures, experiences, and perspectives.’’

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, a noted UNC alumna, retweeted a story by the Raleigh News & Observer reporting on the DEI story, but she did not comment on it.

Hannah-Jones, who created the acclaimed 1619 Project for the New York Times Magazine exploring the legacy of slavery in the U.S., was appointed to a professor position at UNC in 2021, but the Board of Trustees rejected the journalism department’s recommendation and denied her tenure, leading to an outcry from students and faculty. She eventually turned down the post and joined the Howard University faculty instead.

North Carolina is only the latest in a string of states taking aim at DEI programs in public universities, a move spearheaded by conservatives. Texas and Florida are the two largest states to banish them, behind GOP governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, respectively. North Carolina has a Democratic governor in Roy Cooper, but Republicans have at least a 20-seat majority in both the state Senate and the House.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: University of North Carolina to dump 'divisive' DEI, spend on safety