DOJ Finds George Washington University ‘Deliberately Indifferent' to Anti-Semitic Abuses
The assessment was leveled after a civil rights investigation, according to an Aug. 12 statement.
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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Israel hasn't prosecuted a single suspect for Oct. 7 attack
Advertisement Israel has killed many of the senior Hamas figures from Gaza who were seen as masterminds of the attack. But some in the country worry that the extensive delays in prosecuting the suspects in custody will allow some perpetrators to escape justice. Palestinians and rights groups have other concerns. They say Israel has systematically violated the detainees' rights by holding them without charge or trial in harsh conditions, with limited access to legal counsel. Sweeping gag orders keep most details of their cases under wraps, and for most of these detainees, there is no trace of them in any public records. The way Israel detains those prisoners 'effectively erases these individuals from public awareness and strips them of fundamental rights,' said Nadine Abu Arafeh, a lawyer who has represented detainees from Gaza in other cases in Israeli courts. 'Families in Gaza live with questions: Are their loved ones alive?' Advertisement Israel's Justice Ministry declined to comment. The delays in moving the Oct. 7 cases forward are at least partly because of the chaotic way that law enforcement agents, stretched beyond capacity, collected evidence right after the attack, according to Moran Gez, a former senior prosecutor who oversaw cases of detainees suspected of involvement in the attack, and Yulia Malinovsky, an opposition lawmaker briefed on the issue. The regular criminal justice system was ill-suited to handle the sheer volume of evidence and the compromised state of some of it, they said. Gez said she retired to open up a private practice. Israel has extensively documented the atrocities of Oct. 7, in some cases based on footage recorded by the attackers themselves. Several thousand Palestinian militants from Gaza took part in the assault, according to the Israeli military. They stormed more than a dozen communities, a music festival attended by thousands of people, and several military bases in southern Israel. They killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages back to Gaza, in an attack that, according to the United Nations, involved war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. Amid upheaval and shock across Israel in the aftermath, investigators skipped many steps in the collection of evidence, according to Gez and Malinovsky. Some bodies were swiftly buried before forensic examination. The volume of killings made it nearly impossible for ballistic experts to trace bullets to specific weapons. Survivors who witnessed the events often did not immediately report their experiences to legal authorities, and they quickly scattered across the country before authorities could contact them, Gez said. Advertisement Simcha Rothman, a lawmaker from Israel's governing coalition, blamed state prosecutors for failing to find ways to adapt legal proceedings to the unusual scale and nature of the attack. Other considerations may have contributed to the delay in prosecutions. Israeli security agencies objected to having the cases of attack suspects move forward earlier in the Gaza war, according to Rothman. But they have since dropped that objection, he said in an interview. Malinovsky said she believes that senior Israeli officials feared that pursuing the cases could intensify public scrutiny of the failures by the government and military or undermine negotiations to exchange Palestinian detainees for Israeli hostages. 'They don't want that discourse,' she said of the government. The prime minister's office declined to comment on the reasons for the delay in prosecutions. The prison service and Justice Ministry would not provide any information on the detainees. Lawmakers in Israel recently took a first step toward putting some of those suspected of direct involvement on trial. The Knesset, or parliament, passed an initial vote in late May to establish a dedicated tribunal to try suspects in the attack. But the bill requires several more votes, and it will likely be months before the first detainees go to court. Rothman and Malinovsky were co-authors of the bill, which was meant to bypass legal hurdles to prosecutions by establishing a special tribunal of 15 judges with some capacity to override the ordinary criminal system. The bill proposes charging participants in the attack with offenses of genocide, which are punishable by death under Israeli law. Advertisement All of the roughly 2,700 Palestinian detainees who were rounded up in Gaza over the course of the war are designated as 'unlawful combatants,' which, according to Israeli law, means they can be held without charge or trial. Under the terms of a cease-fire earlier this year, Israel released about 1,000 of the 'unlawful combatants' to Gaza, in addition to women and minors detained in Gaza throughout the war. If negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a new cease-fire progress to a deal, some of the remaining detainees could potentially be exchanged for the remaining hostages in Gaza. The lengthy detention of so many people without trial 'risks becoming a life sentence without the usual protections of the criminal process,' said Monica Hakimi, a Columbia Law School professor and an expert on international law. At least 48 of these Palestinian detainees have died in custody, according to data from the military and prison service provided in response to freedom of information requests filed by Physicians for Human Rights — Israel, a rights group. In late July, Israeli lawmakers extended emergency provisions that allow the ongoing detentions of prisoners suspected of involvement in the attack in detention awaiting prosecution through January 2026, an indication that they may not face charges for at least six more months. 'This is a problem,' Rothman told lawmakers before the extensions. 'It's a malfunction.' This article originally appeared in
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Palestine statehood is a cruel fiction, Democrats need a new agenda ASAP and other commentary
Foreign desk: Palestine Statehood = Cruel Fiction The history of Palestinian terrorism does not by itself make 'subsequent recognition of statehood impossible,' observes Philip Cunliffe at Compact, but the real question is 'what is it that is being recognized?' We can't ignore the 'brute fact that there is no independent Palestine to recognize.' Gaza 'has been reduced to ruins' while the 'West Bank is honeycombed with Israeli settlements.' Hamas, the putative power in Gaza, is 'cowering in tunnels.' Offering 'the mirage of statehood' under these conditions is 'worse than a mistake; it is to trade in illusions.' Advertisement While the Palestinian diplomatic class will 'enjoy the hospitality at international conferences,' statehood 'will do nothing for ordinary Palestinians.' Violence that erects fictional states 'is not only morally reprehensible but also politically futile.' Pollsters: Democrats Need New Agenda ASAP Wall Journal Journal polling shows 'Trump's approval rating is 6 points underwater,' and Kaiser Family Foundation surveys find 'nearly two-thirds (63 percent) hold an unfavorable view' of the president's 'big, beautiful bill.' Advertisement Yet congressional Democrats loudly assailed 'large-scale cuts to social and healthcare programs without offering a coherent agenda or alternative,' lament Douglas Schoen & Carly Cooperman at The Hill. 'To have any chance of taking at least one chamber of Congress, Democrats need a new agenda' that addresses 'immigration, the economy, education, and energy policy.' Remember: 'The centrist, forward-looking agenda put forward by former President Bill Clinton pulled the party out of the political wilderness.' A similar 'middle-of-the-road agenda' can 'save Democrats today.' From the right: Zohran's Coddled Lefty Base Advertisement Zohran Mamdani's 'dreams of turning America's capitalist engine into a national beacon of entitlement' are selling because 'New York is now a city with hundreds of thousands of little Zohran Mamdanis,' fumes Tablet's Armin Rosen. While 'New York has gotten more right-wing' in recent years, 'the city's much more numerous liberals have polarized in the other direction.' And much of Mamdani's support comes from 'young and often childless transplanted degree holders living off public or family subsidies,' who are either 'insulated from the consequences of urban decline' or think leftism is the solution. 'Mamdani's impending victory' is the result 'of the slow death of New York's pragmatic and productive middle class' and the rise of a new class of city dwellers who enable 'an activist government' to experiment on society. Advertisement Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Space beat: Wonders of a Nuclear Moon Base As NASA's new interim head, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just 'directed the agency to put a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor on the moon by decade's end,' cheers Ross Andersen at The Atlantic. 'This is not a lark. If humanity means to establish a permanent settlement on the moon, nuclear power will almost certainly be essential to its operation. And a lunar base may well be the most wondrous achievement in space exploration that people reading this will see during their lifetime.' Just imagine: 'an astronomer at a lunar base,' peering out 'from a porthole, seeing the Earth shining in the sky,' while a crater-sized radio dish on the other side — 'a giant ear' — listens for 'messages from other Earths' and beyond. Conservative: Academia's Smug Lawlessness 'American universities act with impunity' in 'breaking the law' to engage in 'race-based hiring,' reports John Sailer at City Journal. It's an 'open secret' that schools 'engage in preferential treatment' in hiring, such as 'prioritizing candidates' from 'underrepresented groups.' A recent memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi 'singles out the use of 'unlawful proxies' ' in hiring, or 'workarounds' such as 'diversity statements' that 'advantage applicants' who 'discuss experiences intrinsically tied to protected characteristics.' Advertisement Universities have 'long used such criteria as racial and ideological proxies in faculty hiring,' and thereby 'have developed ready-made career paths for scholars who share a commitment to social justice.' Bondi's guidance, properly enforced, will create a 'massive reckoning' for American universities that continue to violate a 'longstanding principle' of anti-discrimination law. — Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump deploys National Guard for D.C. crime but called Jan. 6 rioters ‘very special'
On Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob committed a month's worth of crime in the span of about three hours. The FBI has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts that day, and more than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with the police. (Citywide, Washington currently averages about 70 crimes a day.) But President Donald Trump's handling of the most lawless day in recent Washington history stands in sharp contrast to his announcement Monday that he needed to use the full force of the federal government to crack down on 'violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals' in the nation's capital. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up After a prominent member of the Department of Government Efficiency, known by his online pseudonym, 'Big Balls,' was assaulted this month, the president took federal control of Washington's police force and mobilized National Guard troops. His team passed out a packet of mug shots, and Trump described 'roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.' Advertisement President Trump speaks at a rally near the White House in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, before some supporters marched to riot at the US Capitol. KENNY HOLSTON/NYT That was nothing like the message he delivered to the mob of his supporters on Jan. 6, when he told them, as tear gas filled the hallways of the Capitol: 'We love you. You're very special.' 'If we want to look at marauding mobs, look at Jan. 6,' said Mary McCord, the director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law and a former federal prosecutor. 'If you want to look at criminal mobs, we had a criminal mob and he called them peaceful protesters.' Advertisement In one of his first actions upon retaking the presidency, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack. The president issued pardons to most of the defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He has sought to rewrite the history of the riot and called those arrested 'hostages.' He has selected a passionate defender of Jan. 6 rioters to run the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, and his administration even hired a former FBI agent who was charged with encouraging the mob to kill police officers. The agent, Jared L. Wise, has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force established to seek retribution against Trump's political enemies. 'He is showing one-sided support for violence that supports his political agenda,' said Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has studied the Jan. 6 defendants for more than four years. Pape said the hiring of Wise only underscored the message sent by the pardoning of the rioters. 'What he is doing, of course,' Pape said, 'is sending the signal to everybody that you will not just be pardoned, he will not just give you moral support, but he will reward you with high-level positions and opportunities.' Advertisement Trump has also shifted his position on police officers who used deadly force, based on the circumstances involved. Casting himself as a champion of the police, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons this year to two D.C. police officers who were convicted after a chase that killed a young Black man in 2020. But Trump took the opposite view of the use of deadly force during the Capitol riot, condemning the police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt and calling the officer, who is Black, a 'thug.' The president's crackdown on Washington was put in motion by an assault against 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who was part of Elon Musk's job-slashing effort. Trump shared a photograph that appeared to show Coristine sitting in the street around 3 a.m., bleeding and shirtless. Two teenagers have been arrested in the case. 'If D.C. doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City,' Trump said. Crime in Washington is declining, a point many Democrats have made as they railed against Trump's actions as federal overreach. Last year, violent crime hit a 30-year low. 'Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,' Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, wrote on the social platform X. 'Now, he's activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders.' Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Trump's takeover of Washington's police force was unjustified. 'As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here's reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low,' she wrote on social media. Advertisement Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, hit back at critics of the president's crackdown. 'I think it's despicable that Democrats cannot agree that we need more law and order in a city that has been ravaged by violence, crime, murders, property theft,' Leavitt said. Pape said that while Coristine's injuries were troubling, they were similar to those suffered by police officers on Jan. 6. The indictments against Jan. 6 defendants, Pape said, were full of photos of 'cops getting beaten up unbelievably with metal poles and all kinds of things, and they're being beaten pretty severely.' McCord said she believed Trump's takeover of the Washington police would most likely be 'performative' and not make a lot of difference functionally on crime. 'This feels like very much a way to send a message: I have control. I can use it, and I will use it,' she said. But the move also reeks of hypocrisy, McCord said. 'It's the hypocrisy of saying essentially that he supports our police, our law enforcement across the country, and wants to enact policies that support the police,' she said, 'yet that didn't apply when it came to all of the law enforcement officers on Jan. 6.' This article originally appeared in .
