Mayor Kraham comments on recent attacks on Jewish community
Kraham issued the following statement:
'Following the horrific terrorist attacks in Colorado, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, I am deeply troubled by a growing wave of antisemitic violence and hate across our nation.
'We must fiercely condemn these acts of violence and reject hateful antisemitic rhetoric of all kinds. They have no place in our community, our government or our politics.
'Over the last few weeks, I've been in touch with Binghamton's Jewish faith leaders to reaffirm the City's commitment to the safety of our Jewish friends and neighbors. The Binghamton Police Department will continue to work closely with places of worship and faith-based community organizations to ensure security and peace of mind.'
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Mayor Kraham comments on recent attacks on Jewish community
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Hunger-striking women demand Israel return the body of Palestinian activist killed in settler clash
UMM AL-KHAIR, West Bank — Nearly two dozen Bedouin women, enrobed in black, sat on the floor of a modest hut that baked under the desert sun of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The room was quiet, the women still. The women are on a hunger strike to call for Israeli authorities to release the body of a beloved community leader killed during a clash with a Jewish settler last week. They say they will continue until the man's remains are returned for burial in his hometown of Umm al-Khair. Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video. Israeli authorities said they would only return the body if the family agrees to certain conditions that would 'prevent public disorder.' The villagers say those include limiting attendance for a funeral that would normally draw hundreds and burying him at night in a nearby city. 'We want him to be buried here in Umm al-Khair and have a respectable funeral without any conditions. What did we do to deserve this treatment? We did nothing,' said his mother, Khadra Hathaleen, 65, who is among the dozens of women, aged 15-70, from the village who are on strike. The hunger strike, in its sixth day Tuesday, marks a rare public protest by a group of Bedouin women accustomed to mourning in private. Their move reflects their anger over Awdah's death as well as what they perceive as Israel's attempt to dictate unreasonable conditions that violate their customs, beliefs, and right to the land beneath them. But beyond that, they say they have been forced to speak up after repeated settler attacks and Israeli raids have targeted their husbands, sons and fathers. Adding to their outrage, the settler suspected in the shooting, Yinon Levi, was quickly released by an Israeli court from his house arrest. The plight of Palestinians in this area of the West Bank, known as Masafer Yatta, was featured in 'No Other Land,' an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule. Al Hathaleen, a political activist and an English teacher, was a contributor to the film and close friend of its Palestinian co-directors. It documents life in a region where Jewish residents are building new settlements and expanding old ones on hilltops ringing Palestinian villages — all while Israeli military bulldozers arrive frequently to demolish Palestinian homes they say amount to illegal construction. Palestinians say its nearly impossible to secure Israeli permits to build on their lands. Four Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year, according to UN data. Witnesses said that the confrontation that led to Al Hathaleen's death began after settler excavators began digging on village land. Some Palestinians threw stones after one excavator injured a young man from the village, witnesses said. The Israeli military said that during the confrontation Palestinians hurled rocks at an Israeli civilian, who opened fire toward the 'terrorists.' Levi, a well known settler who is under international sanctions for violence toward Palestinians, was briefly arrested last week. He was quickly freed from house arrest, with a judge ruling there was no proof that Levi fired the fatal bullets. Video shot by a Palestinian witness showed Levi firing a gun twice and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. In the footage, Levi accused the group of throwing rocks at him. It did not show where his shots landed. But residents said that he fired the bullet that hit Al Hathaleen in the chest, and that no one else in the encounter was armed. Israeli military and police did not respond to requests for comment on who else could have fired the fatal shot. Levi could not be reached for comment; multiple calls to his phone went unanswered. Since the killing, Israeli forces returned to the village and arrested 18 men. Villagers said at least one remains in jail — the hunger strikers are also demanding his release. On Monday, a week after Al Hathaleen was killed, Levi was back within eyesight of the village, the sound of his excavators pummeling the ground audible from the hut where the hunger-striking women sat. To Sara Hathaleen, it was a reminder of the village's vulnerability. 'They come at 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the morning,' said the 39-year-old, who is Al Hathaleen's sister-in-law. 'It's like a horror, because we hear their cars and we know that they are coming for us. We don't know who will be next, or who they will take next.' Most of Umm al-Khair's residents are related — some closely, some distantly — and nearly all share the surname Hathaleen. Al Hathaleen and his wife use an alternate spelling. Sara Hathaleen said her own husband, Aziz, was detained by Israel after the killing and released Tuesday. 'We want to have a voice and to take part,' she said. 'The men are hurt by settlers or taken by the army, put in prison, and are not available.' Three of the women on strike — Al Hathaleen's mother, sister and widow — have needed medical attention, according to Sara Hathaleen. Israeli military and police did not respond to requests for comment on the strike. Myassar Hathaleen, 32, sat in the fasting hut with the other women. Since she stopped eating, her breast milk has dried up and she wakes at night to her infant crying to be breastfed. Her brother, Hamid, was arrested the day Al Hathaleen was killed and he has not yet been released. 'We're striking because the world needs to wake up,' said Myassar. 'We don't want to make any problems. We just want to live in justice, and in silence.' Hanady Al Hathaleen, 24, said that she will settle for nothing less than a proper burial for her husband in his hometown. 'Awdah was killed here because he was resistant, in his own way,' she said. 'He was killed here and he must be buried here. The land of Umm al-Khair drinks from his blood.' Frankel writes for the Associated Press.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
David Mamet storms out of interview over 'inquisition' on his conservative views
Playwright and author David Mamet stormed out of an interview after a conversation around his rightward political shift turned contentious. Mamet, the Tony and Pulitzer-winning mind behind plays like "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Speed-the-Plow," appeared on the "Talk Easy" podcast Sunday, Aug. 3, to discuss his expansive canon of work and his recent embrace of President Donald Trump. When host Sam Fragoso pressed Mamet on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, led by supporters of the president, the playwright offered an empathetic view, saying: "I think that Donald Trump said to those people, 'Go protest peacefully and patriotically,' and some of them were doing that. Some of them were rioting." When Fragoso countered that such a view was more "generous" than Mamet's approach to protestors demonstrating against the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 or the war in Gaza, Mamet grew agitated. "Why do you have me here today?" he said. "It seems to me that what we're talking about here is a little bit more toward an inquisition rather than a dialogue." Fragoso, seemingly trying to temper the conversation, said he was "genuinely curious" about Mamet's viewpoints. Still, the writer took specific offense to the reference to anti-war protests on college campuses. "Twenty months prior to my birth, they were throwing Jewish kids into the ovens. So American Jews of the midcentury, our main tactic of accommodation was to keep our heads down and work harder and try to be liked," he said, referencing the Holocaust. "You know what, I'm not going to debate the Columbia riots with you. Ask me something else," Mamet said. Despite his request to reorient the conversation, the two had seemingly hit a point of no return, with Mamet circling back to what he saw as the antisemitism running rampant throughout the protests. Protests against the war in Gaza, which spread across college campuses but found a locus at New York's Columbia University, were viewed by some in the Jewish community as promoting antisemitic tropes and encouraging violence against Jews. Proponents of the protests argued they were merely centered on a critique of the state of Israel and U.S. support of it, not the Jewish people writ large. Sam Fragoso, David Mamet spar over a punching joke The two then veered into a back-and-forth about a quip from Mamet that Fragoso looked like he had never been punched in the face. While both men maintained even tones of voice, the acrimony between them was clear with Mamet calling Fragoso "squishy" (a reference to the host's feelings-forward approach) and Fragoso seeming disappointed with the turn the conversation had taken. "I'm a Jew," Mamet said. "The River to the Sea means kill all the Jews. Support the antifada means kill all the Jews." Those phrases, used among student protestors to voice support for a liberated Palestinian people, were viewed by some in the Jewish community as manifestations of hate. "For you to say, on the other hand, there may be some people out there that were involved in peaceful protest is (a) loathesome piece of antisemitism," Mamet said. "You don't know what … you're talking about. Thank you for talking to me." He then got up, leaving Fragoso alone at the interview table looking a bit exasperated and confused, before he turned to the camera and said: "And that was David Mamet." Their exchange reflects a larger fault line in the American and Jewish populace, as the war in Gaza stretches into its second year, and warnings of widespread famine in the area grow louder. While some agree with early views of student protestors that Israel is carrying out a campaign of cruelty and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, others insist Hamas, the militant group in control of the region, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the war, is solely responsible for the suffering.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Harvard negotiations over settlement with White House intensify, Trump administration says
The apparent acceleration comes as other universities, including nearby Brown University, have settled their own disputes with the administration. Trump's team has alleged problems on campuses including widespread antisemitism, diversity practices that they say are discriminatory, and national security concerns over international students, staff, and faculty. Advertisement Talks have 'definitely sped up' since the other settlements, said the administration official. The White House believes Harvard is ready to cut a deal, and the administration 'stands ready to land the plane,' they added. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up While the official could not comment whether there is any agreement on financial terms, they said the White House has long expected Harvard to have the largest settlement of the major universities due to the scope of the violations alleged by the administration. Harvard rejected a series of sweeping demands from the Trump administration in April, prompting the government to cancel nearly $3 billion in research grants, to try and ban the Cambridge institution from hosting international students, and to threaten the university's accreditation. Harvard has sued the government over the canceled funding and its efforts to bar the school from hosting international students, the latter of which a judge blocked until the case is decided. Advertisement The university returned to the negotiating table in June to try and strike a deal with the Trump administration to restore its federal funding. President Trump initially said a deal Just in recent weeks, the government has alleged Harvard violated civil rights laws by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus, launched an investigation into Harvard's participation in a visa program that adds to earlier attempts to bar the school from hosting foreign students, and opened a review of Harvard's employee records. The renewed talks have put Harvard in an extraordinarily difficult bind. Many students, faculty, and alumni supported Harvard's resistance to the Trump administration and fear that any deal could compromise the institution's academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Others are more open to a deal, but believe there are redlines that Harvard should not cross. In his April letter rejecting the government's demands, Harvard President Alan Garber said that no government 'should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.' In recent weeks, universities such as Columbia and Brown have reached deals with the Trump administration to restore canceled funding. The Advertisement Brown, meanwhile, But Harvard has always been the administration's largest target. As Harvard goes, officials have said, more universities could follow. Tal Kopan can be reached at
