AOC's office vandalised by pro-Palestine protesters
The outside of the Left-wing congresswoman's office in the Bronx was smeared in red paint on Sunday, and a sign reading 'AOC funds genocide in Gaza' in red letters was displayed on the shutters outside.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a long-time critic of Israel and the war in Gaza, angered many of her supporters on Friday when she broke with her progressive allies to vote against an amendment cutting millions of dollars in aid for Israel's missile defence.
A group calling itself the Boogie Down Liberation Front has taken responsibility for the graffiti.
'The Bronx is sick and tired of people like AOC and [New York congressman] Ritchie Torres using us as a stepping stone for their own political careers,' the organisation said in a statement.
'The Bronx stands with the people of Palestine and we denounce the hypocrisy of AOC who voted to fund Israel's ongoing genocide and starvation campaign in Gaza. F–k AOC!'
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia congresswoman, had proposed the amendment to the defence department appropriations bill cutting $500 million from Israel's 'Iron Dome', arguing that unlike the US, Israel 'seems to have their defence and debt under control'.
The measure only attracted six votes in support, two of them from Ms Ocasio-Cortez's Left-wing grouping known as the 'Squad', Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
In a post on social media on Saturday, the congresswoman argued the amendment would have failed to stop the war in Gaza while depriving Israel of a means of defending itself.
'Marjorie Taylor Greene's amendment does nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza. Of course I voted against it,' she said.
'What it does do is cut off defensive Iron Dome capacities while allowing the actual bombs killing Palestinians to continue.
'I have long stated that I do not believe that adding to the death count of innocent victims to this war is constructive to its end. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.
'I remain focused on cutting the flow of US munitions that are being used to perpetuate the genocide in Gaza.'
Ms Ocasio-Cortez was mocked last month for calling herself a 'Bronx girl' despite having grown up some 30 miles north in Yorktown, Westchester County.
'I'm a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully,' she wrote on social media, referring to Donald Trump, the US president, who was born in Queens.
The congresswoman has since claimed she grew up 'between the Bronx and Yorktown' and that the experience 'deeply shaped' her views on inequality.
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The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Antisemitism training designed by pro-Israel groups is becoming compulsory at US colleges. What's in it?
Near the end of an antisemitism training video that Northwestern University students are required to watch, the narrator urges viewers to play a guessing game. Six statements pop on to the screen – the viewer must choose whether they were made by 'anti-Israel activists' or the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. Among the statements: 'Every time I read Hitler, I fall in love again.' The video reveals that the statement was made by an 'anti-Israel activist'. The narrator then states: 'The fact that you can't tell the difference is terrifying.' He adds that for most Jews, being anti-Israel and antisemitic 'are the same'. The video is part of a wave of controversial antisemitism trainings being implemented by universities across the US starting this school year, in response to Trump administration threats to pull funding for institutions that, in its view, fail to adequately address campus antisemitism. It is not clear how universities will enforce student participation. The Northwestern training was produced by the Jewish United Federation (JUF) , a pro-Israel advocacy group, and it drew pushback from some students. The Hitler statement was probably tweeted in 2013 by a high school student, members of pro-Palestinain Northwestern groups found. They accused JUF of cherrypicking a child's comment made 12 years ago to portray all criticism of Israel and Zionism as antisemitic. Moreover, the Hitler comment was placed among statements that legitimately criticize the Israeli government and are not antisemitic. The broader goal is to silence opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza, said Micol Bez, a Jewish graduate student at Northwestern who is supportive of Palestinian rights. 'We were shocked by the video … which directly vilifies the movement for rights for Palestinian people and non-Zionist Jews who stand against genocide,' Bez said. 'It explicitly requires students to adopt the position that there's no room for anti-Zionism, and that all anti-Zionism is antisemitic.' The trainings' opponents, many of them Jewish, say the material does little to protect Jews. They accuse the Trump administration of wielding often false claims of antisemitism for two ends – to cut funding for universities as the president wages a culture war on higher education, and to help rightwing pro-Israel groups silence legitimate criticism of Israel. At least 60 universities so far have been investigated by the US Department of Education for potential violations of Title VI, a law that prohibits schools from discrimination based on race, ethnicity and religion. Columbia University, City University of New York, Harvard University and Barnard University are among those implementing the antisemitism trainings, which were generally developed after the Trump crackdown, and may aim to appease the Trump administration. At Northwestern, which is under multiple federal investigations for alleged antisemitism, the university emailed students in March to say that the implementation of the training 'will adhere to federal policy including President Donald Trump's Jan. 29 executive order, 'Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism''. Students who do not complete the training cannot register for classes, while graduate students can lose stipends. Bez said she had viewed the training, but had so far refused to officially complete it and the university had put a hold on her registration. Introducing the training has not helped Northwestern's relationship with the Trump administration. Even after implementing it, the administration cut $790m in research funding. Trump is now trying to extract further concessions. 'They thought this would save them – it did not,' said Noah Cooper, a Northwestern sophomore and an anti-Zionist with Jewish Voice for Peace who completed the training. The Guardian reviewed training materials developed by the JUF and the Anti-Defamation League, which both push pro-Israel agendas in the US, and found the overarching message is that criticism of Israel or Zionism is antisemitic. The materials advise students on how to respond to antisemitic or anti-Israel speech, and spread a pro-Israel message. That includes tips on effective online debating, media strategies and how to pressure administrators into cracking down on anti-Israel campus speech. Some Jewish and free speech groups have raised a litany of concerns about the materials, including that they are often one-sided, misleading, vague and sometimes historically inaccurate. Not only did the trainings do little to protect Jews from antisemitism, the universities and Trump may even be endangering Jews because they are 'allowing antisemitism to be used for other political purposes', like attacking higher education, said Jeremy Jacobs, executive director of J Street, a center-left, pro-Zionist lobbying and cultural organization. 'If people start to see that their universities, their medical research and their neighbors' immigration status and right to due process are being endangered because the Jewish community is pressuring for enforcement in ways that go way too far – that will generate actual antisemitism,' Jacobs added. In an email, a Northwestern spokesperson said students 'are not required to agree' with the antisemitism trainings and stressed that the speaker in the video said he did not speak for all Jewish people. 'However, he does represent how many in the Jewish community feel when targeted with certain actions and words, and we believe it is important for our students to have an understanding of that,' the spokesperson wrote. The ADL also has created their own antisemitism training and is partnering with Columbia among other universities to implement it. A centerpiece of their 'Think. Plan. Act.' toolkit for higher education is a section titled 'How can I be prepared for antisemitic and anti-Israel bias on campus? Scenarios and best practices.' It lays out 10 hypothetical antisemitic and 'anti-Israel situations', why the ADL views them as a problem and advises students on how to respond. One scenario explains why someone spray-painting swastikas on a Jewish fraternity home is a problem, while another example examines why fliers criticizing the Israeli government for demolishing Palestinian homes is similarly an issue. A third raises concerns over a hypothetical 'charge that a sponsored Israel trip Is 'pro-apartheid propaganda''. Lumping together examples of legitimate criticism of Israel's government and obvious antisemitic acts is designed to convince students and administrators that the actions are similarly problematic, critics say. It also appears to raise the specter of Title VI discrimination violations, said Veronica Salama, an attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union. However, Title VI doesn't protect against criticism of countries, and a term like 'anti-Israel situation' has no legal meaning, Salama said. But the ADL's intent is evident, she added. 'The tactic is to scare universities into placing a limitation on this type of speech for fear that they will get hit with a Title VI lawsuit or be investigated by the Trump administration,' Salama said. The ADL's hypothetical scenario involving flyers critical of Israel's demolition program encapsulates many other issues that those who reviewed the material or completed a training raised. The scenario begins with a student leaving their dorm room to find a flyer taped to the door 'warning that your residence hall will soon be demolished'. 'The rest of the flyer contains 'facts' about how many Palestinian homes have been demolished by the Israeli military to collectively punish and 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians,' the toolkit continues. The ADL is referring to the highly charged debate over Israel's mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. The training material then offers the Israeli narrative around the demolitions, claiming they target 'terrorists' and 'deter others from terrorist action'. Other homes were demolished because they were 'built without proper permits', the ADL states. 'While you may agree or disagree with these Israeli government actions, the charge that Israel has demolished these homes to 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians is inaccurate and inflammatory,' the ADL material states. The Palestinian perspective on the demolitions is not found in the training material, and excluding their side story is a problem, those who reviewed the material said. As many as 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank alone, including refugee camps, are estimated to have been forced from their homes since the beginning of 2024, in addition to millions more in Israel and the Palestinian territories in previous decades. A UN special rapporteur in March warned of an 'ethnic cleansing' in the West Bank as Israel has accelerated demolitions. Meanwhile, the Israeli military often won't issue building permits to Palestinians. The antisemitism training video was shown as part of a new mandatory bias training called Building a Community of Respect and Breaking Down Bias. The antisemitism video is shown alongside a separate video made in partnership with The Inclusion Expert, a bias training company, on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias, and a third video about campus protest. The Islamophobia training covers forms of bias and racism toward Arab, Muslim and Palestinian people. But, unlike the JUF antisemitism video that presented a pro-Israel viewpoint on the conflict, there was no historical context or basic arguments for the Palestinian cause. Nor did it mention what has happened in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack. 'The point was not to foster conversation or give people a nuanced view of this conflict,' Northwestern's Cooper said. 'The point was to get people to agree on one particular worldview.' The trainings also drew criticism because they are often vague, and demand different standards for the Israeli and Palestinian causes. The ADL concedes that the hypothetical flyers criticizing Israel over its demolition of Palestinian homes 'could represent legitimate political discourse'. But it states that the flyers would be 'less acceptable' if the university administration had approved of them. 'What this training is saying is, 'If your school allows let's say Students for Justice in Palestine to put up a flyer like this, then they are necessarily violating Title VI', and that is just not true,' Salama said. The ADL's material repeatedly advises students on how to respond to criticism of Israel and antisemitism. It suggests pressuring administration to respond, contacting Hillel, reporting issues to the ADL or writing op-eds, among other actions. 'Strategize with your friends, campus Hillel and/or representatives of the pro-Israel community about countering the false allegations made in the flier and further educating about Israel's security challenges,' the ADL states. Northwestern students pointed to a list of controversial statements and claims made throughout the antisemitism training video, called 'Antisemitism Here/Now'. It employs a controversial and legally dubious definition of antisemitism written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, that critics say equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The video states that Israel was founded in 1948 'on British land', and refers to the West Bank as 'Judea and Samaria', the biblical name controversially used for the region by the Israeli government. The original Jewish homeland comprises parts of modern-day Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, the video states. Bez questioned why the university did not utilize Northwestern scholars on the region and its history, and instead hired an outside pro-Israel group to develop the training. 'The content is incredibly unscholarly and has really, really egregious claims,' Bez said. 'It erases the pain and suffering of Palestinian people, and normalizes language that is being used to push the occupation.' In a statement, a Northwestern spokesperson said, 'part the University's mission is exposing our students to viewpoints that are different, and in some cases challenging, from their own – a key part of Northwestern's mission.' Meanwhile, as the narrator attempts to conflate Judaism and Zionism, it states that the 'vast majority' of Jewish people are Zionist. 'I am an anti-Zionist Jew and it doesn't make me feel good, safe or protected in the way the video claimed to,' Cooper said.
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
PGA-LIV talks non-existent as new CEO takes over with full plate
July 30 - Adam Scott helped hire Brian Rulapp, the new CEO of the PGA Tour, as part of the tour's search committee and player Policy Board, and he understands better than most the important role Rulapp will play in negotiations with LIV Golf. There is hope from the tour that Rulapp, a veteran of two decades with the NFL, can energize stalled talks with LIV. Many prominent players would like to unify the divided tours, but optimism has dwindled since a February session with LIV and President Donald Trump at the White House. Scott was part of the PGA contingent that huddled in D.C. with representatives from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the financer of LIV Golf. Since then, he said there's "not much happening." "I don't know if more White House visits are really necessary. It was really quite an experience, I have to say," Scott said Wednesday. "Those conversations haven't advanced far from there." Scott is focused on the course this week at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. He's under pressure in the event as the FedEx Cup playoff would start without him if he can't improve on his current standing (85th). The mild-mannered Scott calmly said he's embracing the "do or die" position in North Carolina starting Thursday. It's the same part of Rulapp's demeanor that convinced Scott he was the right man for the tour's CEO job. "I think he's coming in at a very interesting time in the professional game and I think that calm demeanor's going to serve him well," Scott said. --Field Level Media
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
Republican US Senator Grassley clashes with Trump over nominations
July 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley said on Wednesday he was "offended" and "disappointed" by President Donald Trump's social media posts targeting him for refusing to end a custom that allows Democratic senators to effectively veto new nominees to serve as judges and prosecutors in their states. At the start of a Senate Judiciary hearing on four of Trump's judicial nominees, Grassley, an Iowa Republican, took issue with the president's call late Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social for an end to the so-called "blue slip" process in the Republican-led Senate. Senators by custom must return blue slips, named for the color of the form, in order for any district court or U.S. attorney nominees from their states to advance and receive a hearing before the committee. Trump in a post on Tuesday called on Grassley to have the "COURAGE" to end "hoax" and "scam" blue slips, which he said are allowing Senate Democrats to "have an ironclad stoppage of Great Republican Candidates" to serve as judges and U.S. attorneys. Trump then early Wednesday reposted messages from Truth Social users focused on the 91-year-old senator's age and encouraging him to comply with Trump's wishes. "I was offended by what the president said, and I'm disappointed that it would result in personal insults," Grassley said. The custom has allowed senators in both parties to block nominees they opposed in their home states and ensure the White House consults with them to find acceptable picks. Senator Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat, during Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure resisted calls by progressive advocates to do away with blue slips when he chaired the panel. He thanked Grassley for likewise standing by the custom. "I hope it continues to be the case," he said. Grassley responded: "Yes." Trump's tirade came after New Jersey U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, effectively blocked the nomination of Alina Habba, the president's former personal lawyer, to serve as their state's top federal prosecutor by refusing to return blue slips. After judges in New Jersey also declined to appoint her to the position of U.S. attorney, the Trump administration withdrew her nomination and pursued a new maneuver to keep her in the job in an acting capacity that included firing the prosecutor whom a federal court had tapped to replace her.
