Campus Watch February 12, 2025

Anti-Israel Protesters Vandalize Jewish UC Regent’s Home

Anti-Israel protesters vandalized the home of UC Regent Jonathan “Jay” Sures, who is Jewish, on the morning of Feb. 5.

According to The Los Angeles Times, around 50-100 protesters showed up in front of Sures’s house, where they were wearing masks, playing drums and chanting; Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA organized the protest. Protesters held a banner stating, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” The protesters hung banners on the hedges of Sures’s home as well as smeared red paint on the house’s walls, per the Times. Sures told Deadline, “To go to an administrator or a regent’s house to violate the hundred-foot rule, which is what it is in Los Angeles, to disturb the entire neighborhood by pounding on drums, to surround my wife’s car and prevent her from free movement, and to put up signs, threatening my family and my life and vandalize the house, that is a big escalation.” He also told the outlet that the protesters were trying to intimidate him out of his voicing his support for Israel and protecting Jewish students on campus. Sures vowed to press charges if police could identify the masked protesters.

A UC system spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline, “We condemn all crimes and harassment committed against members of our UC community. We will continue doing everything possible to create a safe and welcoming university community for all.”

Anti-Israel Columbia Student Group Holds Teach-in on First Intifada

The Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition and the Palestinian Youth Movement New York City held a teach-in on Feb. 7. The event focused on the First Intifada and what can be learned “from this historic uprising.”

Various figures on social media had called to cancel the event after the initial advertisement for the event allegedly used “a shattered bayonet and stone image” from a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group post, The Jerusalem Post reported. There were also allegations that flyers promoting the event stated the teach-in would involve how to “un-live Jews.” Columbia University issued a statement on Feb. 6 saying: “Promoting violence or terror is not tolerated in our community and is antithetical to what our University stands for. CUAD is not recognized, authorized, or supported by the University. We unequivocally reject materials that glorify violence; it is a breach of our values and not acceptable.” The event organizers denied the allegations, claiming that “bad-faith actors have circulated doctored versions of the event flyer, falsely accused the organizers of promoting violence against Jewish people, and publicly called for law enforcement action based on these blatant fabrications.” 

Georgetown Postpones Event Featuring PFLP Terrorist Speaker

Georgetown University postponed an event that was set for Feb. 11 that would have featured a convicted member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group as a speaker.

Jewish Insider reported that the speaker was Ribhi Karajah, an American citizen who served three-and-a-half years in an Israeli prison after admitting in a plea agreement that he knew about the plans of an August 2019 bombing in the West Bank that killed Rina Shnerb, 17, and didn’t do anything to stop it. Shnerb’s father and brother were also injured in the bombing. Georgetown Law’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter had organized the event. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) denounced the event, the university told Torres’s team that the event was “postponed so that the University could conduct a thorough investigation into serious safety and security concerns that had arisen in connection with the event.”    

SJP Encampment at Bowdoin College Ends After Reaching Agreement With College

A Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) encampment at Bowdoin College in Maine ended after four days when the remaining protesters reached an agreement with the college.

The Bowdoin Orient student newspaper reported that the encampment was established on Feb. 7 on the first floor of the Smith Union building. The college gave the protesters until 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 10 to leave the encampment; those that remained received temporary suspensions and are barred from classes until they receive permission from the dean’s office to return. The remaining protesters were given until 5 p.m. on Feb. 10 to leave or else face further disciplinary measures. Some did leave at 5 p.m. and were escorted out by security; the remaining protesters later exited the building to a cheering crowd after they reached an agreement with college administrators. The exact terms of the agreement are not known, but the Orient reported that the discussions involved the “disciplinary process for students in the encampment, responsibility for shutting down Smith Union and discussions about violations of Title VI policies.” The college did not agree to implement a student referendum passed in May calling for the college “to take an institutional stand against the Israeli government and not make future investments in arms manufacturers,” according to the Portland Herald Press.