Southeast
UNC braces as anti-Israel group dubbed 'voice for Hamas' condones 'armed rebellion': 'By any means necessary'
Anti-Israel agitators at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are vowing resistance “by any means necessary” as the 2024-2025 school year officially begins on Aug. 18.
An unofficial anti-Israel student group called UNC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), representing Chapel Hill, posted a commitment to “resist by any means necessary” and said it condones “all forms of principled action” in a July 31 Instagram post.
The group, which has received funding from Hamas-linked groups, according to research from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, is responding to the arrest of some 40 agitators on campus in May, when they set up an encampment on the school’s quad to protest the Israel-Gaza war.
“We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated,” SJP wrote in an Instagram post on their account with more than 14,000 followers. “A group of the defendants has released these points of unity to express their commitment to collective defense, fighting as a unified bloc for ALL their charges to be dropped while not losing sight of the ultimate goal of Palestinian liberation.”
UNC CHAPEL HILL BOARD VOTES TO DISMANTLE DEI PROGRAMS, USE FUNDS ON CAMPUS POLICE AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS
Red paint stains the steps of the chancellor’s building at UNC Chapel Hill on May 11, 2024. Earlier in the day, students vandalized the building in protest of the Hamas-Israel war. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
The points outlined in the Instagram post include support for “the right to resistance, not only in Palestine, but here in the imperial core.”
“We condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion, necessary to stop Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and to dismantle imperialism and capitalism more broadly.”
The post further says that the “goals” of the United States and Israel “are the same: to colonize, kill, and steal in service of capitalist greed.”
Anti-Israel protesters replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag during a demonstration at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus on April 30, 2024. (Heather Diehl/The Daily Tar Heel)
Irina Tsukerman, fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Arabian Peninsula Institute and also president of Scarab Rising, Inc., a security and geopolitical risk strategic advisory firm, told Fox News Digital that SJP is a national organization with local chapters, and while some of the group’s followers may be on college campuses, they also have supporters who are not college students and some who are not even U.S. citizens.
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Anti-Israel demonstrators clash with police at UNC Chapel Hill on April 30, 2024. (Travis Long/News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“They do an outstanding job of portraying themselves as voices for Palestinians, whereas they are actually voices for Hamas,” Tsukerman said. “I think many people follow without really knowing them or their agenda. … Also, the people who follow SJP get sucked into believing it’s an actual human-rights effort … it’s people who are born activists, and not all of these people are even U.S. citizens.”
Steve McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, told Fox News Digital that schools should take rhetoric posted by SJP on social media “seriously” because they have a duty to “protect their campus communities.”
UNC STUDENT WHO DEFENDED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB ‘HONORED TO GIVE BACK TO THE NATION’
UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators had replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
He similarly described the group as “anti-Western, anti-civilizational revolutionaries.”
“Their goals are political or ideological. They obviously have to do with Gaza. … They have been one of the organizations that’s been behind helping students to organize and stage the various protests and encampments that we’ve seen on campuses around the country. Now … they say we condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion. Well, another word for armed rebellion in this context is terrorism,” McGuire said.
UNC FRATERNITY BROTHERS DEFEND REINSTATED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB WHO REPLACED WITH PALESTINIAN FLAG
Steve McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni said UNC administrators should be prepared for protesters to set up encampments and demonstrations in the fall as they did in the spring. (Makiya Seminera/File)
He added that administrators should be prepared for protesters to set up encampments and demonstrations in the fall as they did in the spring. ACTA is issuing a guide for colleges to respond to campus encampments on Tuesday to help colleges prepare for a response.
“They see the universities as one instrument that they can use to try and advance their revolutionary cause.”
“That’s one of the reasons, I think, that college and university leaders need to recognize that … while free expression is something that needs to be protected in America, on the other hand, they have every right and responsibility to protect the rights of others, to ensure the safety of members of their campus communities, and also to protect the integrity of their institutions,” McGuire explained.
Tsukerman noted that social media misrepresents how many students are actually following the group’s support and activity among students.
Protesters stamp red handprint stains on the chancellor’s building at UNC Chapel Hill on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
She said members of the group gather those who align themselves with “generic anti-Capitalist, radical leftist movements that are not about any specific agenda other than opposing Western systems,” Tsukerman said. They use “21st-century means of amplifying their voices” and shared goals, which are “anti-Israel, anti-capitalist and anti-democracy,” she added.
Chapel Hill made headlines in the spring when anti-Israel protesters replaced an American flag on Chapel Hill’s quad with a Palestine flag and interim UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts stepped in with law enforcement officers to return the American flag.
POLICE AT UNC CHAPEL HILL DETAIN AT LEAST 30 ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS, CROWDS TRYING TO FORCE INTO BUILDINGS
About 1,000 anti-Israel demonstrators rally at the South Building after a “Gaza solidarity encampment” was removed by police early on April 30, 2024, at UNC Chapel Hill. (Travis Long/News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
When activists, some who were not affiliated with Chapel Hill, tried to take the flag down a second time, a group of students, including fraternity brothers, stepped in to stop Old Glory from hitting the ground. A photo of the moment went viral on social media.
UNC’s University Board of Trustees last week approved Roberts as Chapel Hill’s 13th chancellor despite the criticism he drew for calling in campus police to respond to protests and the encampment in May.
EMORY UNIVERSITY POLICE ARREST CONVICTED FELON WHO CROSSED STATE LINES TO JOIN ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS
UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on April 30, 2024. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
“There is no higher calling than supporting our mission every single day,” Roberts said after being named chancellor, according to a press release. “To me, this University stands — above all else — for the ideal of public service, for helping the people of this state and all those who are touched by this place to achieve their greatest potential. As chancellor, I promise to be guided by that principle as we work together to carry North Carolina into the future.”
SJP’s Chapel Hill arm and the Southern Student Action Coalition, along with other progressive student groups, called Lee an “authoritarian” and a “general” after he was named chancellor.
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Three people were killed and one other was injured in a crash in Augusta County, Virginia, Monday night involving a train and a passenger van, according to officials.
Virginia State Police said a 15-passenger van carrying four passengers was traveling from a solar panel work site in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, when it was struck on the driver’s side of the vehicle shortly after 8 p.m. by a Norfolk Southern train traveling toward the city of Waynesboro, WHSV reported.
Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene at 8:13 p.m. by the Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, according to the outlet. Another woman passenger was transported to Augusta Health to treat her injuries.
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS INJURED DURING TURBULENCE ON FLORIDA FLIGHT
Three people were killed and one other was injured in a crash in Augusta County, Virginia, Monday night involving a train and a passenger van. (Getty Images)
The crash happened at the intersection between the train tracks and a private road on the 100 block of Wayne Ave., police said. The initial call came at 8:08 p.m.
“Witnesses, they just heard the train toot their horn,” police Sgt. C.J. Aikens told WVIR. “They looked up, they just saw the impact.”
Police spoke with the train’s conductor and engineer and concluded that it does not appear the train was exceeding normal speed.
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Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene while another woman passenger was transported to Augusta Health for her injuries. (Virginia State Police)
The victims’ identities have not yet been released as police work to notify their families.
The incident remains under investigation.
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A new poll suggests former President Trump holds a slim five-point advantage over Vice President Harris in the battle for Florida’s 30 electoral votes.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, stands at 47% support among likely voters in Florida in a USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV survey released on Tuesday, with Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, at 42%.
The survey of 500 likely Sunshine State voters indicates Democrat-turned-independent Robert F. Kennedy at 5%, Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver at 1%, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West registering at less than 1%.
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A new poll indicates former President Trump with a five-point advantage over Vice President Harris in Florida. (Getty Images)
Florida was once the largest of the battleground states in presidential elections. Former President Obama narrowly carried the state in his 2008 and 2012 White House victories, and Trump edged out Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton to win the state in 2016.
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But four years ago, in his 2020 re-election defeat, Trump won Florida by 3.3 points over President Biden, which was the biggest winning margin in the state in a presidential contest in 16 years.
Former President Trump leaves after speaking at a campaign rally at the Trump National Doral Golf Club on July 9, 2024, in Doral, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
And in the 2022 midterms, conservatives surged at the state level, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis winning re-election by 19 points and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio securing a third term in the Senate by more than 16 points.
“While not exactly a flashing red warning light for Trump, the survey is a caution sign for anyone who thinks the race is sure to be a blowout in Florida,” Suffolk University Research Center director David Paleologos said.
New voter registration numbers released Monday in Florida indicate Republicans with a 1 million person advantage over the Democrats. That marks a vast turnaround from four years ago, when Democrats held a slight edge in voter registration.
“Given those circumstances, I was surprised that Harris is within striking distance being only five points down,” Paleologos added.
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A Fox News poll conducted in June, when President Biden was still at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, indicated Trump with a four-point 50%-46% advantage in Florida.
But Trump’s polling margins over Biden expanded after the president’s disastrous debate performance against his GOP challenger in late June.
Biden’s rambling and uneven answers at the debate fueled questions over whether the 81-year-old president had the physical and mental abilities to handle another four years in the White House and sparked a chorus of calls from within his own party to end his 2024 campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally, July 30, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Democrats quickly coalesced around Harris after Biden’s blockbuster announcement three and a half weeks ago that he was ending his re-election campaign and endorsing his vice president to succeed him at the top of the party’s ticket.
Harris has enjoyed a bump in the polls and a surge in fundraising since taking over as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.
The new poll indicates Harris matching Trump for voter enthusiasm in Florida, with 89% of each group saying they are very or somewhat excited to vote for the candidate they’re supporting. Enthusiasm among Biden voters in Florida stood at just 60% in a USA Today/Suffolk poll from June.
The new survey was conducted Aug. 7-11 with a sampling error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
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Southeast
Florida man kills one, injures two with semi-truck after being kicked out of gentleman's club: Police
A Florida man has killed one and injured two others after crashing a semi-truck into a Tampa gentleman’s club early Tuesday morning.
The truck driver is in custody and in critical condition after the incident. The unnamed driver was kicked out of the establishment around 4:00 am Tuesday for unknown reasons leading up to the deliberate crash.
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“Around 4:19 am, officers responded to a call for a truck vs pedestrian in the parking lot of the Emperors Gentleman Club located at 5718 E. Adamo Drive,” read a Tampa Police statement shared with Fox News Digital.
The cab of a semi-truck crashed into the entrance of Emperor’s Gentleman’s Club in Tampa, killing one and injuring two others. (WTVT)
“Upon arrival, officers found the truck had crashed into the front area of the building that leads to the entrance,” the statement continued.
According to police, witnesses at the scene shared that the unnamed driver “had just been kicked out of the club” before returning to crash into the entrance of the gentleman’s club, hitting a group of people present.
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The Tampa Police described the victim and the two other injured parties present as “adult males.”
The two injured men are hospitalized currently but expected to survive the incident.
The Emperor’s Gentleman’s Club in Tampa was the scene of a fatal deliberate crash in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (WTVT)
“This is an unbelievably tragic and completely avoidable incident,” said Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “We will work to get justice for the victims and their families. We are thinking of all those impacted including the innocent bystanders who witnessed this horrific ordeal.”
The Tampa Police Department will release more information as it becomes available, including charges pressed against the semi-truck driver.
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