Latest news with #Nazism
Newsweek
a day ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Russia Says Nazism Making Comeback in West
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. 🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur. Nazism is making a comeback in the West, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The key Putin ally also said that Russia is fighting alone against the entire West. This is a breaking news story—more to follow.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Columbia genocide scholar may leave over new definition of antisemitism. She's not alone
NEW YORK — For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University, has used Hannah Arendt's book about the trial of a Nazi war criminal, 'Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,' to spark discussion among her students about the Holocaust and its lingering traumas. But after Columbia's recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech, Hirsch fears she may face official sanction for even mentioning the landmark text by Arendt, a philosopher who criticized Israel's founding. For the first time since she started teaching five decades ago, Hirsch, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is now thinking of leaving the classroom altogether. 'A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,' she told the Associated Press. 'I just don't see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.' Hirsch is not alone. At universities across the country, academics have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of federal funding cuts. Promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the definition lists 11 examples of antisemitic conduct, including applying 'double standards' to Israel, comparing the country's policies to Nazism or describing its existence as 'a racist endeavor.' Ahead of a $220-million settlement with the Trump administration announced Wednesday, Columbia agreed to incorporate the IHRA definition and its examples into its disciplinary process. It has been endorsed in some form by Harvard, Yale and dozens of other universities. While supporters say the semantic shift is necessary to combat evolving forms of Jewish hate, civil liberties groups warn it will further suppress pro-Palestinian speech already under attack by President Trump and his administration. For Hirsch, the restrictions on drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and questioning Israel's founding amount to 'clear censorship,' which she fears will chill discussions in the classroom and open her and other faculty up to spurious lawsuits. 'We learn by making analogies,' Hirsch said. 'Now the university is saying that's off limits. How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?' A spokesperson for Columbia didn't respond to an emailed request for comment. When he first drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism two decades ago, Kenneth Stern said he 'never imagined it would one day serve as a hate speech code.' At the time, Stern was working as the lead antisemitism expert at the American Jewish Committee. The definition and its examples were meant to serve as a broad framework to help European countries track bias against Jews, he said. In recent years, Stern has spoken forcefully against what he sees as its 'weaponization' against pro-Palestinian activists, including anti-Zionist Jews. 'People who believe they're combating hate are seduced by simple solutions to complicated issues,' he said. 'But when used in this context, it's really actually harming our ability to think about antisemitism.' Stern said he delivered that warning to Columbia's leaders last fall after being invited to address them by Claire Shipman, then a co-chair of the board of trustees and the university's current interim president. The conversation seemed productive, Stern said. But in March, shortly after the Trump administration said it would withhold $400 million in federal funding to Columbia over concerns about antisemitism, the university announced it would adopt the IHRA definition for 'training and educational' purposes. Then this month, days before announcing a deal with the Trump administration to restore that funding, Shipman said the university would extend the IHRA definition for disciplinary purposes, deploying its examples when assessing 'discriminatory intent.' 'The formal incorporation of this definition will strengthen our response to and our community's understanding of modern antisemitism,' Shipman wrote. Stern, who now serves as director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, called the move 'appalling,' predicting it would spur a new wave of litigation against the university while further curtailing pro-Palestinian speech. Already, the university's disciplinary body has faced backlash for investigating students who criticized Israel in op-eds and other venues, often at the behest of pro-Israel groups. 'With this new edict on IHRA, you're going to have more outside groups looking at what professors are teaching, what's in the syllabus, filing complaints and applying public pressure to get people fired,' he said. 'That will undoubtedly harm the university.' Beyond adopting the IHRA definition, Columbia has also agreed to place its Middle East studies department under new supervision, overhaul its rules for protests and coordinate antisemitism training with groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. Last week, the university suspended or expelled nearly 80 students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said Columbia's actions were an overdue step to protect Jewish students from harassment. He dismissed faculty concerns about the IHRA definition, which he said would 'provide clarity, transparency and standardization' to the university's effort to root out antisemitism. 'There are undoubtedly some Columbia professors who will feel they cannot continue teaching under the new regime,' Marcus said. 'To the extent that they self-terminate, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be so bad for the students at Columbia University.' But Hirsch, the Columbia professor, said she was committed to continuing her long-standing study of genocides and their aftermath. Part of that work, she said, will involve talking to students about Israel's 'ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide' in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 60,000 Palestinians have died in 21 months of war — most of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry — and where experts are warning of rising famine. 'With this capitulation to Trump, it may now be impossible to do that inside Columbia,' Hirsch said. 'If that's the case, I'll continue my work outside the university's gates.' Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.
DW
4 days ago
- Politics
- DW
Russia to crack down on what it deems 'extremist' content – DW – 07/25/2025
In a fresh move to restrict free speech, Russia's parliament has approved legislation punishing those who browse what the state deems as "extremist" online content. How will this affect users? On July 25, Russia's upper house approved a new censorship law that introduces fines for anyone caught searching for or accessing content officially labeled as "extremist." The law will take effect once signed by Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The sweeping legislation doesn't stop there — it also imposes penalties for promoting VPN services, the very tools many Russians rely on to bypass government censorship and access blocked information. After Russia's lower house, the State Duma, endorsed the law on July 22, a small group of people protested outside Russia's parliament, for the first time in a long while. One of the signs read "For a Russia without censorship. Orwell wrote a dystopia, not a manual." Police quickly detained the man holding it. The classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, published in 1949, is widely interpreted as a warning against totalitarian rule, inspired by the government oppression the author observed in Nazism and Stalinism. Another protester was Boris Nadezhdin, who had been expected to be the only liberal candidate in the 2024 presidential election. At the time, the electoral commission refused to register his candidacy. "The first stage was banning websites. Now they're banning people from searching the internet. This is already close to thoughtcrime," Nadezhdin told DW, alluding to Orwell's same novel, and its central theme of citizens being punished for thinking differently than the state. The new legislation stands out even among the dozens of censorship laws the State Duma has passed before and after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to the bill, simply searching for so-called "extremist materials" online will now be considered an administrative offense, punishable with a fine of up to the equivalent of €55 ($64). Previously, punishment required some form of engagement with banned material, such as posting a critical comment on social media. What counts as extremist materials is defined by a list maintained by Russia's Justice Ministry. It currently contains over 5,000 entries. Officials and lawmakers claim the law targets those who systematically seek banned content, not average citizens casually browsing, but have not offered clarification over what constitutes systematic searches. The registry features flyers, pamphlets, books, newspapers, films, video clips, works of visual art, and songs. In theory, it is meant to include content that incites interethnic hatred, as well as writings by leaders of Germany's National Socialist Workers' Party and Italy's fascist party. In reality, the list also includes works criticizing the government, or speaking out against authorities. One of them is the 2002 book by Russian defector and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko. Titled Lubyanka Criminal Group, this nonfiction work details how Russian security services allegedly staged the bombing of residential buildings in Moscow in 1999 and other terror acts in an effort to help Putin rise to power. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The blacklist also includes materials from the religious movement Jehovah's Witnesses, which Russia designated as extremist in 2017. In 2023, journalists from the independent Russia news outlet 7x7 reported that the list of "extremist" materials has been growing by hundreds of new entries every year. Between 2011 and 2022, nearly 15,500 administrative cases were opened for the distribution of "extremist" content. That's an average of 1,300 cases per year, most of which resulted in fines of up to about €50. The law has sparked widespread public outcry, with even ordinarily pro-Kremlin figures posting critical messages on social media. Margarita Simonyan, for example, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, complained that the new law would prevent her from investigating and "shaming" extremist organizations. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, authorities have added dozens of prominent Russians and organizations critical of the war to its list of banned extremists and terrorists. Among them are writers, musicians, journalists, and popular bloggers, including, for example, the writer Boris Akunin, or TV host Alexander Nevzorov. Meta, behind Facebook and Instagram, was declared extremist in March 2022, following an announcement that the company would permit posts endorsing the killing of Russian soldiers on its platforms, which Russia said constituted "Russophobia." State Duma deputy head Sergei Boyarsky, from the conservative ruling United Russia party, sought to reassure citizens, claiming that using Meta's social networks, or searching for materials created by people declared extremists would not be punished. According to him, fines would only apply to searches for content officially classified as extremist. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In reality, it's hard to predict how Russian police will enforce the new law. "Everything will depend on the particular person in uniform who's been given the power to interpret your guilt," Dmitry Zair-Bek, head of the human rights legal project Pervy Otdel, told DW. According to him, it's likely that, as is already happening, Russians' phones will increasingly be checked during border inspections. Another possible scenario would be if Russia adopted the kind of policing practices used in neighboring Belarus. There, platforms like Instagram, X, and YouTube, which are blocked in Russia, remain accessible. However, subscribing to banned channels on these platforms is prohibited."Censorship in Belarus exists in physical space. Police are asking to check citizens' phones on trains and in student dormitories. Refusing is nearly impossible," Dmitriy Navosha, a co-founder of the international online sports publisher told DW. Access to his website is not restricted in Belarus, but the site was labeled as extremist after Navosha repeatedly spoke out against Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko and the security forces' violent crackdown on protesters in 2020. As a result of the extremism label, visitors to the online sports site risk punishment simply for viewing its content. Since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has severely tightened restrictions on free speech, such as banning the spreading of what it deemed "false information" about the war, and tightening "foreign agent" designations for outlets and organizations considered to be politically active with the help of foreign funding. In the spring, the governmental anti-corruption agency, the Russian Investigative Committee, reported that 605 cases had been opened under two new articles of the Criminal Code since 2022 — one for spreading "fake news" about the Russian army, and another for "discrediting" the armed forces. Under these laws, Russian citizens have been fined or imprisoned for calling Russia's actions in Ukraine a war, rather than a "special military operation," as well as for posting on social media about events such as the killing of civilians by Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. At the end of 2024, the human rights organization Memorial reported that at least 10,000 political prisoners were being held in detention across Russia. When Russian President Vladimir Putin signs this new law, the number of people being punished for exercising free speech could rise significantly.
New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Daughter of holocaust survivors may leave job at Columbia due to university's new antisemitism definition
For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University, has used Hannah Arendt's book about the trial of a Nazi war criminal, 'Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,' to spark discussion among her students about the Holocaust and its lingering traumas. But after Columbia's recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech, Hirsch fears she may face official sanction for even mentioning the landmark text by Arendt, a philosopher who criticized Israel's founding. 8 Marianne Hirsch is a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University. AP For the first time since she started teaching five decades ago, Hirsch, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is now thinking of leaving the classroom altogether. 'A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,' she told The Associated Press. 'I just don't see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.' Hirsch is not alone. At universities across the country, academics have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of federal funding cuts. 8 After Columbia's recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, Hirsch is thinking of leaving the classroom. AFP via Getty Images Promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the definition lists 11 examples of antisemitic conduct, such as applying 'double standards' to Israel, comparing the country's policies to Nazism or describing its existence as 'a racist endeavor.' Ahead of a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration announced Wednesday, Columbia agreed to incorporate the IHRA definition and its examples into its disciplinary process. It has been endorsed in some form by Harvard, Yale and dozens of other universities. While supporters say the semantic shift is necessary to combat evolving forms of Jewish hate, civil liberties groups warn it will further suppress pro-Palestinian speech already under attack by President Donald Trump. 8 'A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,' she said. AP For Hirsch, the restrictions on drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and questioning Israel's founding amount to 'clear censorship,' which she fears will chill discussions in the classroom and open her and other faculty up to spurious lawsuits. 'We learn by making analogies,' Hirsch said. 'Now the university is saying that's off-limits. How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?' A spokesperson for Columbia didn't respond to an emailed request for comment. The 'weaponization' of an educational framework 8 In addition to Columbia, academics in other universities around the country have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of federal funding cuts. AFP via Getty Images When he first drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism two decades ago, Kenneth Stern said he 'never imagined it would one day serve as a hate speech code.' At the time, Stern was working as the lead antisemitism expert at the American Jewish Committee. The definition and its examples were meant to serve as a broad framework to help European countries track bias against Jews, he said. In recent years, Stern has spoken forcefully against what he sees as its 'weaponization' against pro-Palestinian activists, including anti-Zionist Jews. 'People who believe they're combating hate are seduced by simple solutions to complicated issues,' he said. 'But when used in this context, it's really actually harming our ability to think about antisemitism.' 8 For Hirsch, the restrictions on drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and questioning Israel's founding amount to 'clear censorship.' GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Stern said he delivered that warning to Columbia's leaders last fall after being invited to address them by Claire Shipman, then a co-chair of the board of trustees and the university's current interim president. The conversation seemed productive, Stern said. But in March, shortly after the Trump administration said it would withhold $400 million in federal funding to Columbia over concerns about antisemitism, the university announced it would adopt the IHRA definition for 'training and educational' purposes. Then last week, days before announcing a deal with the Trump administration to restore that funding, Shipman said the university would extend the IHRA definition for disciplinary purposes, deploying its examples when assessing 'discriminatory intent.' 'The formal incorporation of this definition will strengthen our response to and our community's understanding of modern antisemitism,' Shipman wrote. 8 Stern has spoken forcefully against what he sees as its 'weaponization' against pro-Palestinian activists. AP Stern, who now serves as director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, called the move 'appalling,' predicting it would spur a new wave of litigation against the university while further curtailing pro-Palestinian speech. Already, the university's disciplinary body has faced backlash for investigating students who criticized Israel in op-eds and other venues, often at the behest of pro-Israel groups. 'With this new edict on IHRA, you're going to have more outside groups looking at what professors are teaching, what's in the syllabus, filing complaints and applying public pressure to get people fired,' he said. 'That will undoubtedly harm the university.' Calls to 'self-terminate' 8 The university's disciplinary body has faced backlash for investigating students who criticized Israel in op-eds and other venues. Derek French/SOPA Images/Shutterstock Beyond adopting the IHRA definition, Columbia has also agreed to place its Middle East studies department under new supervision, overhaul its rules for protests and coordinate antisemitism trainings with groups like the Anti-Defamation League. Earlier this week, the university suspended or expelled nearly 80 students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said Columbia's actions were an overdue step to protect Jewish students from harassment. 8 Earlier this week, the university suspended or expelled nearly 80 students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. AP He dismissed faculty concerns about the IHRA definition, which he said would 'provide clarity, transparency and standardization' to the university's effort to root out antisemitism. 'There are undoubtedly some Columbia professors who will feel they cannot continue teaching under the new regime,' Marcus said. 'To the extent that they self-terminate, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be so bad for the students at Columbia University.' But Hirsch, the Columbia professor, said she was committed to continuing her long-standing study of genocides and their aftermath. Part of that work, she said, will involve talking to students about Israel's 'ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide' in Gaza, where more than 58,000 Palestinians have died, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. 'With this capitulation to Trump, it may now be impossible to do that inside Columbia,' Hirsch said. 'If that's the case, I'll continue my work outside the university's gates.'
IOL News
5 days ago
- General
- IOL News
Green Shoots: Our anger is key to hope, and our humanity
It is hard to write about things that lighten the heart, that cheer the soul, that tickle our funny bone and make us laugh with abandon. I think it was the people's poet Mzwakhe Mbuli who asked how he could be expected to write about the beautiful daisies when the horror of apartheid is what was his lived reality? What I really want to write about and explore with you are the green shoots of hope that emerge when we change our behaviour and attitudes, the things that are within our ambit of control, the things that would make for a better world – kindness, love, integrity, compassion. And I will do that – I have no desire to pontificate and lecture everyone about politics and rights and all those things. 'Green Shoots' has to resonate with you who take the time to read the thing, and hopefully move you to think about helping to create a better world. Today, I don't know if I can do that easily. Today, I have been absorbing the images coming out of Gaza of starving children, clinging to life because that is at the core of every human – to survive. And the Gazans have shown more of that desire to live than most. I remember. It was the Jews in the concentration camps and ghettoes who showed the same determination to resist their extermination. It was they who refused to die at the hands of the most barbarous system the world had seen. Nazism enabled the most horrendous atrocities to be visited on a people. History is full of these atrocities. It is filled with the stench of genocide – and the inhumanity of the perpetrators. In Namibia, colonial Germany tried to exterminate the Herero and Nama people, and today are being forced into making reparations. In South Africa, the British interred Afrikaners and black Africans in concentration camps, starving them into a submission that would not happen, that they refused. In Europe, Hitler and his thugs killed 6 million Jews, Sinti, and Roma people, and did all they could to destroy resistance to the Reich. The argument made by Israel is that the Jewish people needed a place they could call their own, where they could be free of the persecution that most of Europe visited on them. This is why they came to Palestine. It didn't matter that there were people living there – they claimed a God-given right to take over. Anything born out of such violence cannot be maintained without more violence. Israel, with the backing of the USA, UK, and others, has taken that violence to levels even the most zealous of the Nazis and their ilk could not imagine. Ethnic cleansing first by bombardment, then by starvation. How can we not be angry? But let it not be an impotent anger, where we throw our hands up, hopeless in the face of unspeakable evil. Let us be filled with a rage that says no to evil, that drives us to not shut up when the issue is raised in our social interaction and conversations, but instead to challenge anyone who says Israel is simply defending itself, or that Israel is defending the holy land, or whatever other narrative the evil ones try to spin. Speak out. Our anger now must drive our refusal to lose our own humanity by giving in to hopelessness. Even if we are not in the halls of the United Nations, we maintain the spark of humanness and love and justice and kindness by affirming our solidarity with those who survive in spite of Israel's genocidal actions. Our anger must nurture the hearts and minds of our children who must know that we were not okay with this, that we didn't keep quiet while the most monstrous human atrocities are being carried out in full view of the world. Don't feel impotent – don't give in to 'there's nothing I can do that will change this'. Resist. At all times resist the lure of despair. If those in Gaza can still live, can resist, who are we to give up?
