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At the behest of a pro-Palestinian organization whose critics say is antisemitic, administrators at more than a dozen Dutch universities are instructing their staff to list their interactions with Israel-related and Jewish organizations.
The order followed a request sent last month by The Rights Forum to the offices of multiple universities. The universities are gathering the information because the group’s request was certified as what is known in the Netherlands as a WOB request, meaning a query certified by the country’s prosecution service under a 1991 freedom of information law and binding on public or state-funded organizations.
It is unclear whether the universities will complete the request by passing on the information to The Rights Forum.
Gerard Jonkman, director of The Rights Forum, wrote that under the WOB request, he is seeking documents or information on “Institutional ties with Israel universities, institutions and businesses and with organizations that propagate support for the State of Israel.”
Reports about the initiative prompted strongly-worded condemnations by Jewish groups and community leaders against The Rights Forum. “The clear inference is that some shadowy Zionist/Jewish cabal is operating in the Dutch university system. This reeks of antisemitism, but it comes as no surprise to me given this group’s reputation,” Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomim Jacobs said in a statement.
The Rights Forum was co-founded by Dries van Agt, a former prime minister of the Netherlands who has often been accused of spreading antisemitic ideas.
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A bipartisan group of American lawmakers has called on the US Department of Education to take steps that have been delayed for years to combat campus antisemitism. Thirty-nine members of Congress sent a letter to the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The letter says that the Biden Administration has long put off codifying rules meant to protect American Jewish college students, including an executive order signed by former US president Donald Trump in 2019, and delayed investigations into antisemitic complaints. Trump’s executive order, which included Jews in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, effectively required the US government to withhold funding from colleges and universities if they fail to confront discrimination against Jewish students.
The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs that receive federal funding.
The lawmakers’ letter called on the Department of Education to formalize the effort as a regulation that would have the force of law. The process would codify the order, providing a stronger legal foundation for Title VI complaints, and give it more durability and permanence. Once formalized, the order would be less likely to be challenged in the future.
The Biden Administration first said it would issue the rulemaking in January 2022, then delayed the move until December 2022.
“After a year with historic levels of antisemitism, we ask that the administration re-prioritize the rulemaking process for Title VI and ensure it remains a priority,” the letter said.
The letter cited FBI statistics showing Jews were the religious group most targeted in hate crimes in 2020, and a survey by the Alums for Campus Fairness group that found a majority of respondents felt campus antisemitism was a serious problem and avoided certain places and events due to their Jewish identity.
HonestReporting last week released a study showing that anti-Jewish hate crimes receive disproportionately little news coverage, by a disturbingly large margin.
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Sudan’s top general has lauded recent ties with Israel, saying that intelligence sharing between the two former adversaries helped arrest suspected militants in his country. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council, said an exchange of intelligence has enabled Sudan to dismantle and arrest groups that “could have undermined the security of Sudan and the region.”
Speaking in an interview with Sudan’s state-run TV aired late Saturday, Burhan said it is legitimate for Sudanese security and intelligence agencies to have ties and exchange visits with Israel. He insisted his country’s relations with Israel are not of a political nature, saying that no senior Sudanese official has yet made a visit to Israel.
The two countries normalized relations late in 2020 as part of a series of US-brokered deals between the Jewish state and four Arab countries. Israel and Sudan have since crafted security and intelligence relationships. Most recently, a Sudanese security delegation visited Tel Aviv last week. In January, Israeli officials, including Mossad intelligence officers, visited Khartoum.
In related news, a senior official from the Israeli military is set to be stationed in Bahrain, local media reported – a historic first for the two countries. The announcement marks the first instance of an IDF official assuming a post in an Arab country. The official, who will reportedly arrive in Bahrain within the coming weeks, is said to be a naval officer who will work as a liaison for the United States Fifth Fleet, which is headquartered in the Gulf country.
Bahrain became the fourth Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. The 2020 deal paved the way for a number of initiatives between the two states. Defense Minister Benny Gantz embarked on his first official visit to the kingdom earlier this month, and inked a security cooperation agreement with Manama.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called on all Israelis to leave Ukraine immediately or at the very latest by Tuesday amid fears of an imminent Russian invasion. Israeli officials believe the window for evacuating citizens from Ukraine is closing fast and could be shut by Wednesday morning.
Israeli flight carriers El Al, Israir, and Arkia added Israel-bound flights departing from Ukraine on Sunday and Monday, to accommodate those who wish to depart.
Earlier, Bennett held an urgent meeting with top Israeli diplomats and security officials to assess the volatile situation on the Ukrainian border, where Russia has amassed troops and artillery. The session included Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and other top officials from Israel’s intelligence agencies.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Saturday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the possibility of helping evacuate Israelis from Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry estimates that some 10 to 15 thousand Israelis are currently in Ukraine, including some 4,500 who registered with the Israeli embassy in Kyiv.
Recommended Reading
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