World
Israel's president releases blistering statement on US university encampments: 'Resurgence of antisemitism'
Israel’s president weighed in on the massive antisemitic encampments that have sprouted up at elite colleges and universities across the United States, condemning the “masked cowards” who “smash windows and barricade doors.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed those in the Jewish community on these campuses and around the world that feel victimized by the demonstrations.
“In the face of violence, harassment, and intimidation, as masked cowards smash windows and barricade doors, assault the truth and manipulate history, together, we stand strong,” President Herzog said in a video address.
“As they chant for infitada and genocide, we will work together to free our hostages held by Hamas and fight for civil liberties of the entire free world and our right to believe and belong and the right to live proudly, peacefully and securely as Jews and as Israelis anywhere,” he added.
UCLA FORCED TO MOVE TO REMOTE LEARNING AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS, ENCAMPMENT ON CAMPUS
Israel’s president weighed in on the massive antisemitic encampments like the one at the University of California, Los Angeles, which police and other law enforcement officers cleared on May 2, 2024. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
Herzog’s address comes as a multi-agency group of law enforcement officers on Thursday moved onto the University of California, Los Angeles campus to remove an anti-Israel encampment that was declared unlawful.
“We see prominent academic institutions, halls of history, culture and education, contaminated by hatred and antisemitism fueled by arrogance and ignorance, driven by moral failings and disinformation,” Herzog said. “We watch in horror as the atrocities of Oct. 7 against Israel are celebrated and justified. We hear you. We recognize your heroic effort. We are with you. We are here for you.”
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“Dear sisters and brothers, to our friends on campuses and in Jewish communities across the United States and all over the world, to those who stand by and defend the Jewish people and the state of Israel, to all people of good will, the people of Israel are with you,” he continued. “We hear you.”
Herzog added: “We see the shameless hostility and threats. We feel the insults, the breach of faith and breach of friendship. We share the apprehension and concern.
President Herzog’s comments come as anti-Israel agitators formed an encampment on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
His comments come just days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be recognized on Monday, May 6.
UCLA FALLS TO ANARCHY AFTER COUNTERPROTESTERS CONFRONT ANTI-ISRAELI ENCAMPMENT: ‘HORRIFIC ACTS OF VIOLENCE’
“Together we will overcome this resurgence of antisemitism. Do not fear. Stand proud. Stand strong for your freedom. Israel stands with you. Israel cares for you,” Herzog concluded.
Police officers detained anti-Israel protesters who chanted antisemitic remarks and slogans on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles. (ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
In contrast, Iran has expressed support for anti-Israeli demonstrations that have erupted across elite U.S. colleges and universities.
Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian defended the hundreds of students who have been arrested at UCLA, Columbia University, the University of Southern California, UT-Austin and others for disrupting campus facilities and trespassing.
“The suppression and harsh treatment of the American police and security forces against professors and students protesting the genocide and war crimes of the Israeli regime in various universities of this country is deeply worried and disgusted by the public opinion of the world,” the foreign minister said on X, according to a translation.
He added: “This repression is in line with the continuation of Washington’s full-fledged support for the Israeli regime and clearly shows the dual policy and contradictory behavior of the American government towards freedom of expression.”
Police at UCLA faced off against a left-wing mob on Thursday morning, when officers dismantled an anti-Israel encampment and took agitators into custody.
Officers wearing riot gear knocked down a plywood barrier surrounding UCLA’s Dickson Plaza, where the anti-Israel encampment was being held, entered the area and began conducting arrests throughout the morning.
A team of marine mammal experts had spent several days in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, searching for a sea lion with an orange rope wrapped around its neck. As the sun set on Dec. 8, they were packing up, for good, when a call came in.
The tangled animal, a female Steller sea lion weighing 330 pounds, had been spotted on a dock in front of an inn, leading into the bay in southwestern Canada.
The rope was wrenched four times around her neck, carving a deep gash. Without help, the sea lion would die.
The team had been trying to find the sea lion for a month, and on that day, with daylight running out, the nine members that day knew they needed to work fast. They relaunched their boats and a team member loaded a dart gun and shot her with a sedative.
“Launching the dart is the easiest part of the whole operation,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, executive director of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which conducted the rescue alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It’s everything that happens after that, that you just have no control over.”
Steller sea lions, also known as northern sea lions, are the largest such breed. They are found as far south as Northern California and in parts of Russia and Japan. A male Steller sea lion can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.
The Cowichan Tribes Marine Monitoring Team assisted the rescue society, calling it whenever the sea lion was spotted. The tribe named her Stl’eluqum, meaning “fierce” or “exceptional” in Hul’q’umi’num’, an Indigenous language, according to the rescue society.
After Stl’eluqum was sedated, she jumped from the dock into the water. Recent torrential rains and flooding had stirred up debris, making the water brown, and harder to spot the sea lion, Dr. Haulena said.
Several minutes after the sea lion dived into the bay, the drone spotted her and the team moved in.
The rope had multiple strands and it was wrapped so deeply that she most likely wasn’t able to eat, Dr. Haulena said. At first, the team had trouble freeing her.
“You couldn’t see it because it was way dug in underneath the skin and blubber of the animal,” Dr. Haulena said.
After unraveling the rope, the team tagged her flipper, gave her some antibiotics and released her.
Freeing the sea lion was the culmination of weeks of searching and missed moments. The first call about the tangled marine mammal was made to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline on Nov. 7, according to a news release from the rescue society. Then the society logged more calls.
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium, searched for several days for the sea lion. The day they found her was the last of the rescue effort because bad weather was forecast for the area around the bay. The call that led them to Stl’eluqum came from the Cowichan Tribes, Dr. Haulena said.
The society, Dr. Haulena said, cares for about 150 marine mammals from its rescues every year — sea lions, otters, harbor seals and the occasional sea turtle. The group gives medical care to animals it takes in, such as Luna, an abandoned newborn sea otter who was three pounds when she was found and still had her umbilical cord attached.
Many of the society’s rescues involve animals tangled in garbage or debris, Dr. Haulena said.
Stl’eluqum was tangled in nylon rope commonly used to tie boats or crab traps, he said. When sea lions get something caught around their necks it can grow tighter until it cuts into their organs, sometimes fatally, he said.
“It’s our garbage; it’s our fault,” Dr. Haulena said. “It’s a large amount of animal suffering and not a good outcome unless we can do something.”
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Polish authorities have foiled a suspected ISIS-inspired plot to attack a Christmas market, charging a student accused of preparing a mass casualty bombing, according to officials.
The case comes as Germany and the U.K. also raised security measures around religious and cultural events after the Sydney shooting Sunday in which 16 people were shot dead at a Jewish Hanukkah party on Bondi Beach.
Polish authorities say the suspect, identified as Mateusz W., 19, was detained in late November at an apartment in Lublin by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
According to Jacek Dobrzyński, a spokesperson for the Minister’s Coordinator of Special Services, investigators believe the teen had been studying how to make explosives and intended to join a terrorist organization to help carry out the attack.
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Polish authorities foil an alleged ISIS Christmas market bombing plot targeting holiday shoppers. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The purpose of the crime was to intimidate many people, as well as to support the Islamic State,” Dobrzyński said in a statement shared on X.
Items linked to Islam and digital storage devices were seized, and the suspect has been remanded for three months as the Szczecin branch of ABW continues its investigation.
At a news conference, Dobrzyński also referenced a June case in which three 19-year-olds were charged over alleged extremist plots, including a reported plan to attack a school in Olsztyn.
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Authorities arrested five on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria. (Juergen Sack/Getty Images)
“You are familiar with this issue from Olsztyn; now we have another example of preparing an attack before Christmas,” he told reporters, according to GB News.
In Germany, police in Lower Bavaria also arrested five men on Dec. 12 on suspicion of preparing an attack on a Christmas market, according to reports.
Authorities said an Egyptian national described as an Islamic preacher had allegedly called for an assault during gatherings at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area, per Euronews.
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In the U.K., counterterrorism officials have stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities. (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Image)
Special operations forces carried out the arrests, and investigators believe the group had begun early-stage preparations.
In the U.K., counterterrorism officials stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities on Tuesday.
“Sadly, as shown by the appalling attack on Sydney’s Jewish community during a Hanukkah event, we know they can also be a target for terrorist activity,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell said in a press release.
He cited large festive gatherings, religious services and Christmas markets as potential targets.
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In the release posted Tuesday, he urged the British public to report anything that “doesn’t feel right” as part of the annual winter vigilance campaign.
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities say they separately disrupted a New Year’s Eve plot in Southern California.
Four alleged members of an extremist anti-capitalist, anti-government group suspected of rehearsing coordinated bombings against sites linked to two U.S. companies were arrested on Monday.
Thousands of dinosaur footprints have been found in a national part in northern Italy known as the Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio Branchi.
Experts say they are from enormous herbivores that lived there 210 million years ago in the Triassic period.
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