The campaign called “Not My NUS” was sparked following rising tensions between student bodies over the NUS’s perceived lack of support for pro-Palestine activism and students being penalized over protest action.

A public letter to the NUS Board of Directors was published on July 11 which listed the many grievances of student groups against the NUS. The letter was undersigned by over 200 student officers, societies, and groups across at least 55 campuses.

The letter claims that the NUS has remained “neutral” amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza which is a “strategy” which “shields the oppressor.” The letter also details other issues such as the adoption of the controversial IHRA definition of anti-Semitism which equates criticism of Zionist and Israel to anti-Semitism.

The letter warns the NUS that if they fail to support pro-Palestine activism or implement a list of changes mentioned in the letter, that they face disaffiliation by student groups.

The letter has received backing from 10 legal, academic and human rights bodies, including ELSC, CAGE UK, BRISMES, and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) has informed 5Pillars that they are fully behind the campaign and have issued a call for other societies to abandon the NUS.

Source: 5Pillars

Former United States President Bill Clinton is facing backlash from US Muslim and Arab Americans after saying Israel has been “forced” to kill civilians in Gaza and suggesting the country was in the Holy Land “first” – before the Palestinians.

Speaking at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Michigan, a crucial swing US state with large Arab and Muslim populations who the Democrats are trying to win over, Clinton said he understood people’s concerns about the bloodshed in Gaza, but said Israel had no choice but to inflict large civilian losses, even as it is accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice.

“Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded. They’ll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself,” Clinton said.

“I’m going to do everything I can to convince people they cannot murder their way out of this, either side,” he later added.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza broke out, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 people in the Palestinian enclave, the majority women and children. A United Nations-backed commission has accused Israel’s military of “crimes against humanity” during the war, including forced starvation and intentional attacks on civilians, as well as blaming Palestinian groups for war crimes.

Clinton also stirred controversy when he said Israelis were in the Holy Land “first”.

“I got news for [Hamas]—[Israelis] were there first, before their faith existed,” he said, avoiding reference to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homes in 1948, during the war that established Israel.

Insulting and Islamophobic

Arab- and Muslim-American leaders slammed Clinton for antagonizing communities whose votes Democrats have been courting in the razor-tight November 5 US election.

Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of the US’s first Arab-majority city, Dearborn, said remarks by Clinton and other Democratic leaders were not helping the party’s case with his community.

“When you see the remarks of former President Bill Clinton, talking about how Israel is forced to kill civilians … it gets extremely frustrating,” Hammoud told Al Jazeera. “When you have surrogates like Liz Cheney campaigning across the state of Michigan, talking about how even Dick Cheney – the war criminal – is supporting Vice President Harris, is that supposed to be a welcoming message to this community?”

Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at the Arab Center Washington DC, wrote on social media: “Hard to think of a more counterproductive way to send this message.”

Robert S McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “Bill Clinton’s callous and dishonest attempt to justify the Israeli government’s attacks on civilians in Gaza was as insulting as it was Islamophobic.”

Despite traditionally voting Democratic, many Arab Americans are turning away from the party this year due to anger over President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel amid wars in Gaza and Lebanon, a position Harris has maintained.

A recent survey suggests more Arab Americans support Republican candidate Donald Trump than Harris, a trend that could prove important in Michigan.

The Democrats have been accused of being tone-deaf in their comments on Israel and the Palestinians, and focusing their messaging towards pro-Palestinian progressives on warning of the dangers of Trump, rather than action to stop Israel from continuing its wars in the Middle East.

Palestinian American comedian Amer Zahr, who is running for school board in Dearborn, said it is “baffling” how out of touch the Harris campaign is with the Arab community.

“It’s hard to imagine anything more insulting than what Bill Clinton said about us. He invoked the oldest Zionist tropes in some bizarre effort to convince us to vote for Kamala Harris,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera

Vice President Harris and Walz, the governor of Minnesota, are trying to woo Muslim voters furious over President Joe Biden’s administration’s staunch backing of Israel during its year-old war in Gaza against Hamas.

Harris has pledged continued support for Israel while emphasizing her push for a ceasefire, words Walz echoed on Thursday, while promising a role for Muslims.

“Vice President Harris and I are committed that this White House… will continue to condemn in all forms anti-Islam, anti-Arab sentiments being led by Donald Trump, but more importantly, a commitment that Muslims will be engaged in this administration and serve side by side,” Walz said during an online meeting organized by Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy group that recently endorsed Harris.

The Nov. 5 election between Harris and Republican Trump is expected to be tight, especially in battleground states like Michigan, home to a large Muslim American population. The U.S. continues to back Israel as it targets Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Though Emgage has endorsed Harris, other Muslim groups have urged supporters not to back her in the election, especially after Democrats rejected requests for a Palestinian speaker at the party convention in August.

Harris has offered no substantive policy differences on Israel from Biden, who stepped aside as presidential candidate in July.

Trump has said he would reinstate a “travel ban” he imposed as president restricting the entry into the United States of people from a list of largely Muslim-dominant countries. Biden rolled back the ban shortly after taking office in 2021.

“The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating,” Walz said. Harris is working to ensure “the suffering in Gaza ends now, and the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom and self determination.”

The Israeli military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say. Israel was responding to an incursion by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7, 2023, which Israel says killed around 1,200 people and abducted about 250 hostages.

Gaza has suffered a humanitarian crisis with nearly all its 2 million people displaced and widespread hunger in the enclave.

Other speakers at the event included Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who both suggested that Harris could represent a shift from Biden’s approach in the Middle East.

“I know she is a listener. She is able to change her mind,” Ellison said, adding Harris was not born in the 1940s, as Biden and Trump were. “I’m not promising you a rose garden” if Harris is elected, Ellison said. “But we’ll be pushing on a door that’s not locked.”

It was unclear whether Walz, the first speaker, remained on the Zoom call to listen to other remarks. He took no questions.

While other Muslim groups have not supported Republican candidate Donald Trump, some are backing Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Source: Reuters

Candidates to become the UK Conservative Party’s new leader have thrown their weight behind Israel following the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon.

Robert Jenrick, attending a meeting of the Conservative Friends of Israel wearing a hoodie reading “Hamas are terrorists”, said the Star of David should be shown at every entry point to the UK to show the country’s support of Israel.

He also said if he became prime minister that he would move the UK embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, emulating former US President Donald Trump.

“If the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I will build it myself,” he told the audience.

“I want this country to be the most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and for the Jewish community. So that at every airport and point of entry to our great country there is the Star of David there as a symbol that we support Israel, we stand with Israel. We are friends and allies of Israel, and Israelis are welcome in our country.”

His rival Kemi Badenoch also made pro-Israel comments as she attempted to win over fellow MPs and the 172,000 members of the Conservative Party following the announced resignation of Rishi Sunak in the wake of defeat at the July general election.

Speaking to Sky News at the opening of the Conservative Party conference on Sunday, Badenoch said she welcomed the killing of the Hezbollah leader last week.

“I would be congratulating Prime Minister Netanyahu, I think what they did was extraordinary. Israel is showing that it has moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West as well,” she said.

Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign across Lebanon in recent days, targeting areas in Beirut as well as the south and the east of the country.

The continued bombings have raised concerns that the Israeli army may be preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon.

Israeli tanks have been seen amassing near the Lebanese border, with ABC News quoting a US official who said that Israel may conduct a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said Israeli attacks have displaced up to 1 million people in Lebanon, calling it “the largest displacement movement that may have happened” in the country’s history.

Sunday’s attacks were particularly severe in northeastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, where at least 17 members of the same family were killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the town of Zboud.

Beirut’s streets remain filled with people who fled last week’s attacks on Dahiyeh as they search for temporary shelter.

Source: Middle East Eye

Sheikh Qaradaghi said: “We must not leave Lebanon or Gaza easy prey for targeting and division, for the sake of a sectarian or political disagreement, as the enemy does not differentiate between Muslims in its genocide against them, as anyone who is not with them is against them.

“What is required by Shari’ah is to stand as one against the Zionist project and against the Zionist genocide in any country. What we are witnessing today in terms of attacks on Lebanon and Gaza is an attack on the dignity of our peoples and our lands, and we cannot allow it to continue.”

The International Union of Muslim Scholars was founded by Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradhawi and is headquartered in Qatar, but is comprised of leading scholars from around the globe.

Sheikh Qaradaghi is a renowned Kurdish scholar who is now based in Qatar.

Here is a translation of his statement from the original Arabic:

“In the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. What is happening in Lebanon today is a blatant aggression on land and people, the destruction of people’s homes, the killing of civilians including children and women, and part of the policy of Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing group to expand the State of Israel to include Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Lebanon and Jordan. The annexation of the Golan has actually been achieved.

“It is not just a disagreement with a political or partisan faction. Distinguishing between problems of a sectarian nature and issues that affect the Ummah as a whole is a duty upon all Muslims and free people of the world. We must not leave Lebanon or Gaza easy prey for targeting and division, for the sake of a sectarian or political disagreement, as the enemy does not differentiate between Muslims in its genocide against them, as anyone who is not with them is against them.

“What is required by Shari’ah is to stand as one against the Zionist project and against the Zionist genocide in any country. What we are witnessing today in terms of attacks on Lebanon and Gaza is an attack on the dignity of our peoples and our lands, and we cannot allow it to continue.

“Our disagreement with the partisan policies of some Lebanese or Palestinian parties does not give us the right to support any aggression targeting peoples. We must not rejoice when the Lebanese or Palestinian people are attacked under any pretext. This aggression is a blatant assault, and Muslims and their governments must work to prevent it.

“As the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, I call upon our Islamic and Arab nation to do their duty in the face of the Zionist aggression and genocide, and I also urge that an urgent Arab-Islamic summit be held to discuss and stop this rampant Zionist madness that targets not only Gaza and Lebanon, but also extends to all Arab and Islamic capitals and countries.

“Our responsibility requires us to take immediate action to stop the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and to demand an end to the brutal bombing of Gaza. We also call for providing our people in Gaza with everything they need to confront the siege, whether on the military, food, or economic level, or any type of support necessary for their continued steadfastness.

“Arabs and Muslims have many cards, including announcing the cutting off of oil and gas until the aggression stops, as well as the political and economic boycott of the Zionist entity, and the severing of diplomatic relations. Our silence in the face of this aggression deepens the tragedies of our peoples, and we must work according to the jurisprudence of priorities and awareness of the present and realise the meaning of God’s saying: ‘And hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of God,’ and His saying: ‘And do not dispute and [thus] lose courage. God is the helper.’”

Source: 5Pillars 

he US anti-Semitism envoy has triggered a backlash over remarks she made about the pager attacks in Lebanon last week, which have been blamed on Israel.

At a recent event held by the Israeli-American Council, a moderator commented that “after October 7, there was a feeling around the world that Israel was weaker”.

In response, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said: “Do you want a beeper?”

The moderator later said: “I have a few.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demanded that the Biden administration fire Lipstadt, calling her remarks “dangerous”.

“Special Envoy Lipstadt’s callous remarks are not only disgusting, but also dangerous,” CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert McCaw said in a statement.

“At a time when our nation’s government claims it is working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Lebanon, her flippant celebration of state-sponsored terrorism undermines diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader war in the region,” he said.

He said joking about the loss of innocent lives, especially children, is a disgrace and should have no place in US foreign policy discussions.

“It sends a message to the world that the US government condones or even celebrates the slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians. This is not just immoral, it’s irresponsible,” he said.

McCaw said the Biden-Harris administration must immediately fire Lipstadt “and make clear that the United States does not support or celebrate state violence and terrorism against vulnerable populations”.

Lipstadt was confirmed by the US Senate on March 30, 2022 as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, with the rank of ambassador, according to the State Department.

At least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 others injured in explosions of pager and radio devices across Lebanon on September 17 and 18. While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has not denied or confirmed its involvement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 last year.

Randy Fine, the Republican state representative for Florida, is facing a wave of anger and accusations of Islamophobia after celebrating the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

“Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerrorist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a post announcing Eygi’s killing last weekend.

Eygi, a US citizen, was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses said she was unarmed and “standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman” when she was shot.

Fine’s comments have sparked widespread condemnation, calling attention to growing concerns about Islamophobia from US officials.

Many expressed outrage at his apparent endorsement of the killing of an American citizen by a foreign military.

Critics also highlighted what they saw as a double standard in the treatment of public figures. Several people posted about Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who faced backlash and censure for her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, along with its Florida chapter, has called for the Florida legislature to censure Fine for his tweet.

“We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the murder of an American by a foreign government and encouraged more such killing. Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people,” stated Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy executive director, on Monday.

“We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this hateful, un-American rant,” the statement added.

His account on X is filled with posts using hashtags like “#MuslimProblem”, “#BombsAway” and “#MuslimTerrorists”.

Cair has highlighted various instances of Fine using langauge that “dehumanises all Palestinians and uses Islamophobic tropes,” including a comment that read: “Proud to stand with my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, in condemning the Islamic terrorism coming out of Gaza. I fully support Israel using maximum force to punish these animals. #NoMercy.”

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 16,825 children, in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Source: Middle East Eye

CAIR asserts that the desecration of Islam’s sacred text further demonstrates that the Israeli actions in Gaza are targeting both Islam and the Palestinian people.

One video aired by Al Jazeera Arabic reportedly shows Israeli soldiers burning and tearing copies of the Quran in the Bani Saleh Mosque in northern Gaza. Another video allegedly depicts Israeli forces destroying the historic Grand Mosque in Khan Younis, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza. Al Jazeera said the footage was obtained from cameras of Israeli soldiers and from drones.

“By once again filming themselves burning Qurans and destroying mosques, the forces of the far-right Israeli government have confirmed that their war on the Palestinian people in Gaza is also a war on Islam itself,” said CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, in a statement. The group also called on United States President Joe Biden to denounce Israeli abuses. “The Biden administration must condemn this religious desecration and suspend weapons transfers to the Israeli government to force an end to its campaign of slaughter and starvation in Gaza.”

Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim countries and organizations to condemn and express outrage against Israeli forces for burning copies of the Quran and to take action to defend Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine. Additionally, Pakistan has condemned Israel’s bombing of the historic Grand Mosque in Gaza’s Khan Younis and urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to protect the Palestinians by putting an end to Israeli violations of international law, the Pakistani foreign office said.

Destroying or desecrating a Quran is a grave offense under Islam and an insult to the faith of some 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide. During the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Israel has completely destroyed 610 mosques and partially destroyed 214, as well as three churches, according to the Gaza media office. The “Al-Omari Mosque” of Gaza, which was 14 centuries old, was also destroyed. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and turned large parts of the besieged Palestinian territory into rubble.

Source: CAIR

Arab Americans, many (though not all) of whom have historically aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, were relieved for another reason. To them, Biden has been the single-biggest cheerleader of Israel’s punishing and relentless assault on Gaza, which has over nearly 10 months claimed the lives of at least 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the U.S. and the U.N. While the president has shown deep empathy with Israelis since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, he has struggled to convey the same level of sympathy towards Palestinians—and, at one point, even cast doubt on the extent of the Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

“I don’t think he was as balanced as he could have been, and that was really hurtful to a lot of people,” says Jasmine El-Gamal, an Arab American and former Middle East adviser at the Pentagon.

While many Arab Americans might have anticipated this from Trump, who’s made no secret of his disdain for Palestinians (he notably used their identity as a slur against Biden during their debate last month), El-Gamal says they expected more from the purported “empath-in-chief.” Biden’s failure to treat rising anti-Semitism and rising anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia with an equal sense of urgency left many feeling particularly deflated. “They’re similar threats, and they should be addressed with similar urgency, and I don’t think that was the impression that was coming out of the Biden administration,” El-Gamal says, noting that it made her and others feel “deprioritized as a human being because of your identity.”

That feeling had a tangible impact: Within the first month of the war, Arab American support for Biden and the Democratic Party dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. Michigan, a critical battleground state that boasts one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, appeared all but lost.

With Biden out of the race, the prevailing question now is: Can Harris win them back? So far, there seems to be a guarded optimism. Several Arab American activists and analysts who spoke with TIME say that their community is still waiting to see what changes, if any, the presumed Democratic nominee will pledge to bring to U.S.’s policy on Gaza should she win in November. Most all of them recognize that Harris has the potential to have a better relationship with Arab Americans than her predecessor—a relatively low bar that shouldn’t be too difficult for Harris to clear. But they don’t want her to take their support for granted, either.

“There’s a sense of hope,” James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, tells TIME of Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid. His organization’s latest nationwide poll of Arab Americans, conducted in May, found that an overwhelming majority (79%) have an unfavorable view of the president. Although AAI doesn’t yet have polling on views towards Harris, Zogby says that she has largely been seen as more empathetic. “She’s reached out to the community and individuals in different ways to let them know of her concern and her staff have been responsive,” he says, “which is far different than the White House.”

For those who couldn’t countenance a vote for Biden but regard Trump as a threat to the country, the vice president’s candidacy offers a much-needed reprieve. Despite the deep animosity towards Biden, Zogby says AAI’s polling has shown that the Democrats could win back much of support they lost among Arab American voters—many of whom joined the “uncommitted” campaign in a bid to pressure Biden to change tack on Gaza—if there’s a meaningful policy shift.

In the aforementioned poll, 60% of those surveyed said they’d be more likely to vote for Biden in November if he were to demand an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza or if he were to suspend diplomatic support and arms shipments to Israel until they implement a ceasefire and withdraw forces from Gaza. While Biden has unveiled a proposal to end the war that would involve a six-week ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from populated areas of Gaza, he has been less willing to withhold military aid to Israel, save for only the largest of munitions.

While Harris hasn’t articulated any major policy deviations from Biden when it comes to Gaza—like the president, she has repeatedly pledged support for Israel’s security and self-defense—she hasn’t been seen as driving the administration’s policies on this issue either. Instead, she has offered Americans a rhetorically different approach. In March, she became the first senior administration official to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. She was also quicker than Biden to sound the alarm about the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged enclave, where scores of Palestinians have been forced to live in inhumane, famine-like conditions, and explicitly laid blame on the Israeli government for its part in creating the crisis.

Unlike Biden, whose longtime devolution to the Jewish state has earned him the reputation of being perhaps most pro-Israel American president in history, Harris has long been regarded as being more evenly empathetic when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians. Hala Rharrit, a former American diplomat and Arabic language spokesperson in the U.S. government who resigned earlier this year in protest of the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, tells TIME that the State Department often relied on her speeches when communicating to the Arab world for this reason.

Some Arab Americans are hopeful that this record could make Harris uniquely suited to mending the divide within the Democratic Party as a result of the war on Gaza. “I think she’s the only one who can unite us,” says Sami Khalidi, the president of the Dearborn Democratic Club and a former 2020 Biden delegate who is due to reprise his role at the upcoming Democratic convention in Chicago. He notes that while Arab Americans in his community still want to wait and see who Harris might pick as her running mate, “they favor her over Trump.”

Not all Arab Americans share this view. Indeed, many will be of the belief that Harris’s record, as Biden’s vice president, is inextricable from current U.S. policy. “There’s a genuine and really deep-seated anger and hurt that the Arab American community and the Palestinian American community, in particular, has felt,” Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank and policy network, tells TIME, noting that while these communities may be able to engage with Harris in the way they were unable to with Biden, “There’s still going to be a lot of Palestinian Americans and progressive Americans who are like, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough of the establishment Democratic Party,’ and this kind of ties into a deeper resentment around electoral politics.” Some “uncommitted” delegates have already signaled that they will withhold their endorsement unless Harris commits to big policy shifts, such as ending military aid to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington offers an early test of how Harris will approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should she win the presidency. Many Arab Americans and progressive Democrats perturbed by Israel’s conduct in Gaza were cheered by Harris’s decision not to preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress—a scheduling conflict, her team said, that many nonetheless regarded as a clear snub. But perhaps the clearest sign of her strategy will be revealed following her meeting with the Israeli premier later today, in which she will reportedly tell him that “it is time for the war to end.”

“I don’t think anyone expects her to drastically announce a shift from Biden, especially when she is running [for the presidential nomination],” Matt Duss, the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and a former chief foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, tells TIME. “But I think there are things she can say that will indicate a different path.” One option championed by several of Democratic lawmakers is to consistently apply U.S. laws to future military aid to Israel, which prohibits American tax dollars from going to foreign military units suspected of committing human rights violations.

“I’m optimistic, but I’m waiting,” says Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American who earlier this year became the second political appointee to resign over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. He and others tell TIME that while they are realistic about what is possible when it comes to U.S. policy in the Middle East, they also believe that there is leeway for change. “It is past time for talking points,” Habash says. “You also have to back it up with action.” If Harris does, he says, maybe Arab Americans will too.

Source: Time Magazine

– Increasing pressure on supporters of Palestinian cause is an ‘attempt to silence legitimate criticism … and get us to stop scrutinizing the actions of the Israeli state,’ says Brendan Ciaran Browne of Trinity College Dublin.

The growing pressure on pro-Palestine academics and students in the UK is part of a “wider witch hunt against Muslims” by Zionists, according to a leading British academic.

“There is a dramatic increase in pressure on academics and students in universities,” David Miller, a researcher and writer on Zionism, Islamophobia and propaganda, told Anadolu.

“This is a campaign by the Zionists to remove especially Muslims from public life … This is an attempt to drive Muslims out of public life because Muslims are much more likely to raise the question of Palestine.”

Miller also emphasized that academic censorship is “a global issue” that is not just limited to the UK.

“In particular we see what the Zionists want to do with academia in Palestine, where every single university in Gaza has been destroyed, razed to the ground … and they have selectively assassinated significant numbers of staff, including the people in charge of these universities,” he said.

According to the Scholars Against the War on Palestine (SAWP), a collective of academics from around the world, Israel has bombed all 11 of Gaza’s universities since last October, while also damaging or destroying nearly 390 schools.

Israeli attacks have also killed at least 333 educators and academics, with more than 700 others injured, SAWP data shows.

“We see what the Zionists want to do and we see that is the context for all of the attacks they’ve been making over many years in the West, and in of course, the UK,” said Miller.

Miller narrated how he was personally affected as the University of Bristol sacked him in 2021 for “some comments … about Zionist organizations.”

He challenged the decision and a tribunal ruled in February this year that the professor was wrongfully dismissed.

“So, this is a live issue, which is having a deeper effect in the UK, in terms of people’s jobs lost, students expelled, visas denied,” he said.

The situation has worsened since last October and there have been “tons of complaints” against doctors, lawyers and other professionals, he said.

“We need to see this not just in the context of ideas about censorship, but indeed in terms of a witch hunt against Muslims in public life, and a witch hunt against anyone who will talk about Palestinian rights,” Miller stressed.

“It will only get worse until and unless our society learns that you have to fight back against this kind of thing.”

‘Attempt to silence legitimate criticism’

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

It has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians in Gaza and injured over 83,500 others, most of them women and children, and stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

All of this, along with the mounting censorship and pressure, has made any work for Palestine and Palestinian liberation more important than ever before, according to Brendan Ciaran Browne, an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest university.

“Lots of people are being attacked for their work on Palestine, lots of people are being smeared, and there are attempts to silence people for pointing out what has clearly been demonstrated to be a case of genocide against Palestinian people.”

Pro-Palestine voices have always been met with accusations of antisemitism for criticizing the state of Israel, he said.

“The conflation of the two is deeply problematic and we have seen in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, a rapid increase in the attempt to link the two together,” said Browne.

This is all, he asserted, part of an “attempt to silence legitimate criticism.”

“It’s an attempt to try and get us to stop scrutinizing the actions of the Israeli state, which as the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and lots of nation states around the world have clearly highlighted, is acting in a way that is contrary to international law,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency