Latest news with #AntiDefamationLeague
CBS News
18 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
New York State Regents review's definition of Zionism draws the ire of many on Long Island
There is controversy on Long Island over a New York State Regents exam study packet that some say inaccurately defines Zionism and includes factual errors. A mother told CBS News New York on Tuesday she wants more than an apology. What the review packet says Michelle Herman of Melville gives her daughter's 10th grade Global History Regents review packet at Half Hollow Hills East High School a failing grade. It defines Zionism as "an example of extreme nationalism." "To call Zionism extreme nationalism is propaganda. I consider myself a Zionist. There is nothing extreme about Zionism. It is loving my country," Herman said. The review includes historical inaccuracies and bias, including statements like, "Every war ended with Israel gaining more land" and "Jews taking land away from Palestinians." "It's incorrect. It's propaganda. It's biased," Herman said. Anti-Defamation League frustrated by the review packet The Anti-Defamation League says the nine-line summary is similar to what it has seen taught elsewhere. "Completely ignoring the first intifada, the second intifada, and many many decades of terrorist incidents. Before that, all the wars that Israel fought were wars of defense," the ADL's Scott Richman said. "It's skewed to show the Israelis as aggressors, as criminals, and Palestinians are completely innocent actors, and none of that is true." It set off a firestorm of comments at a recent board meeting. No one spoke in favor of the handout. "As a Jewish student sitting in a classroom and seeing the history of my people distorted and mocked was heartbreaking," one student said. Brian Conboy, the interim superintendent of the Half Hollow Hills School District acknowledged it, "contained language and ideas that were factually incorrect and offensive" and was not created by anyone in the district. He added the curriculum going forward will be vetted by experts. "On behalf of our district, we want you all to know that offensive and inaccurate material such as this do not meet our standards of excellence and are not something we take lightly. We can and will do better moving forward," Conboy said. Origin of the review packet remains a mystery The source of the study sheet is still a mystery. The New York State Education Department says it had no hand in it. A spokesperson for the school district said it has not found the origin. Herman said she wonders how many prior grades received the lesson. "We have been indoctrinating our own children and giving them the wrong information," she said. She is calling for accountability -- not to punish, but to educate -- and she wants what is wrong to be righted. The Education Department said it's taking the matter seriously and will continue to monitor and take appropriate action as needed.
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Elon Musk taking New York state to court over hate speech law
Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against the state of New York, arguing that its new anti- hate speech law aimed at social media companies is unconstitutional. The X owner has taken exception to the Stop Hiding Hate Act, otherwise known as Bill S895B, arguing in the suit that it violates basic free speech rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law in December, requiring tech firms to publish their terms of service and file regular reports outlining the steps they have taken to moderate extreme content, hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful material being shared on their platforms. It finally came into effect this week, but Musk is contesting its stipulations on the basis that they would require X to reveal 'highly sensitive information' about its practices, also opposing its potential $15,000 per violation per day fines. The Act was authored by New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and State Assemblymember Grace Lee, in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League, to compel tech giants to take greater accountability for disturbing content hosted and shared across their networks. The authors dismissed the objections raised in X 's suit and called it an attempt to 'use the First Amendment as a shield against providing New Yorkers with much-needed transparency.' Hoylman-Sigal and Lee reportedly rejected an approach from Musk's company last year to discuss the bill and suggest amendments, saying they did not believe it was acting in good faith and would only seek to weaken its provisions. 'Now more than ever, with the rise in political violence and threats emanating from the spread of hate speech and disinformation by President Trump and Elon Musk, New Yorkers deserve to know what social media companies like X are doing (or not doing) to stop the spread of hatred and misinformation on their platform,' the duo said this week. X has also launched a legal challenge against an equivalent law in California, an approach consistent with Musk's efforts to reduce content moderation on X, formerly Twitter, since he acquired the company in 2022. As The Guardian has noted, while Musk styles himself as a 'free speech absolutist,' he has a track record of using his platform to attack media outlets that report unfavorably about his activities. Most recently, he has rebuked The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for reporting on his alleged drug use while working alongside President Donald Trump in the White House. This relationship recently came to a spectacularly acrimonious end, with the two billionaires trading insults on X and Truth Social, respectively.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
Go viral for racist behavior, receive $750,000: inside the new extremist crowdfunding campaigns
Shiloh Hendrix, a white woman based in Rochester, Minnesota, went viral after admitting in a video that she called a 5-year-old Black child the N-word while at a local park on 28 April. Though Hendrix was met with widespread condemnation and denouncement after the incident, she also raised over $750,000 on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, commonly used by extremists to fundraise for far-right causes. Many contributors to Hendrix's campaign, which was created to 'protect [Hendrix's] family' after backlash, used racial slurs and Nazi symbols in their donation names. As of 1 June, over 30,000 people had donated to Hendrix's fundraiser. The support and funding Hendrix received for her racist actions raised alarm bells for many, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which flagged the fundraiser as being used to 'spread hateful talking points and legitimize their ideas'. Experts say the response to her campaign signals the rise of more overt, public support for racist actions, versus their condemnation. Hendrix isn't the first white person to become infamous for racist behavior and receive financial support from members of the public. A legal defense fund for Daniel Penny, a white veteran who killed Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused man, on a New York City subway in 2023, raised over $3.3m on GiveSendGo. The fund was created by Penny's defense lawyers. A similar campaign was started for Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a 2020 demonstration against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. That crowdfunding drive was started by Friends of Kyle Rittenhouse, a group based in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised more than $585,000. Several fundraisers for participants of the 2021 capital insurrection are currently hosted on the website. But experts say that the grassroots nature of Hendrix's fundraiser is concerning. Compared to the success of fundraisers like Rittenhouse or Penny that were largely driven by media attention and conservative politicians, Hendrix's campaign is in support of her usage of a racial slur and was spread by white supremacist circles. 'This particular case stands out because of the horrifying, vile slur that is being defended,' said Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. He added: 'It's illustrative of something that we've seen with regard to online organizing with respect to 'dyed-in-the-wool' racists, as opposed to just more controversial political expression.' Organizations and individuals explicitly supporting white supremacy, anti-LGBTQ+, and QAnon conspiracies raised over $6m on fundraising sites, including GiveSendGo, between 2016 and 2022, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. GiveSendGo hosted the majority of fundraisers, about 86.5% of the money tracked by the ADL. Other experts say that the Hendrix campaign demonstrates a shift in public opinion following Donald Trump's latest electoral victory, one where bigoted acts receive more open, tangible support than ever before. 'There's evidence that in the last few years, we've really seen a normalization of explicitly racialized politics,' said Jennifer Chudy, an assistant professor of political science at Wesleyan University. 'I think the person in the White House has emboldened people who may have felt silently sympathetic in the past towards this white woman, to now be more open about it, to not have any kind of sense of embarrassment or shame [since] this is a position that many in our upper echelons of power endorse and profess.' In many ways, the success of Hendrix's crowdfunding campaign represents an 'anomaly', said Mark Dwyer, an extremism funding investigator with the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. For one, a small group of users on X, known for spreading racist rhetoric online, claimed that they created the fundraiser on GiveSendGo and then reached out to Hendrix, offering her support, said Dwyer. What's more, Hendrix's crowdfunding came after a viral fundraising campaign for Karmelo Anthony on the same platform. Anthony, a Black teenager from Frisco, Texas, allegedly stabbed and killed Austin Metcalf, a white teenager from a rival school, during a track meet. White supremacists encouraged people to donate to Hendrix's fund as a rebuttal to money raised for Anthony's legal defense fund, which Dwyer said likely boosted the campaign's success. Hendrix's video also served as a form of recruitment and camaraderie for folks who may have bigoted views but are not white supremacists. '[Hendrix's video] got in front of millions and millions and millions of eyes. It drove donors that might not necessarily be the hardcore white supremacist, but in their eyes, they don't see what she did as a problem,' said Dwyer. He added: 'People are voting on their views with their dollar. [For] a lot of people, this might be their first action outside of posting on social media to push their views and making a donation.' This latest incident represents a sharp contrast in how the public reacted to racist incidents just a few years ago. With the launch of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, many white people began facing public outrage over problematic behavior, including their harassment of Black people in public spaces. Jennifer Schulte, nicknamed 'Barbecue Becky', was widely criticized in 2018 after calling 911 on a Black family who was barbecuing in an Oakland, California, park. Amy Cooper was fired from her job after a trending video proved that she falsely claimed that a Black birdwatcher threatened her and her dog. 'Karen' quickly became a moniker to describe an entitled, nosy white woman as racial justice protests spread across the globe in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. But Chudy said that high levels of support for the Black Lives Matter movement among white people was also due to a confluence of unusual forces, including the Covid-19 pandemic and viral video of Floyd's murder. She added: 'You had white people who were stuck at home, [with the] typical distractions of their daily life suspended and so they would watch their screens and they saw an unambiguous, violent, lethal interaction between a white police officer and a Black man. We were always going to kind of revert to the norm.' Backlash to support of racial justice also came quickly, best illustrated by the political rise and election of Trump in 2016. 'Trump emerges on the national stage with an explicitly racial agenda of talking about Obama's birth certificate and where he's from,' said Chudy. 'Because Trump is so visible, because he's served in the highest political office in the land twice, that's just a lot of visibility to entrench new norms.' Meanwhile, individuals who were previously sympathetic to racial justice causes largely reduced their support. 'White people might feel like, 'Oh, we already discussed those issues. We already read the books, did the marches. So why is there still something to be upset about?'', said Chudy. In the midst of shifting support, platforms like GiveSendGo have been used as a fundraising tool by 'alt-right' extremists to fund causes. The website advertises itself as a free, philanthropic platform which emphasizes 'providing hope for people's spiritual needs', according to the group's website. 'The most valuable currency is God's love', the website reads, noting that GiveSendGo also partners with 'individuals and organizations dedicated to praying over our campaigns'. In a statement to the Guardian, a GiveSendGo representative defended the platform's choice to house Hendrix's fundraiser. 'Even in situations where we do not personally agree with an individual's past actions or beliefs, we still believe in the importance of personal choice,' said Alex Shipley, the site's communications director. 'Those who agree with the campaign's purpose are free to give, and those who disagree are free not to participate. GiveSendGo is not a place of judgment but a place of generosity, where people can choose how they wish to respond.' Shipley added that the website has a 'terms of service' where content would be subject to moderation or removal. But GiveSendGo has continually maintained a 'laissez-faire' attitude towards racist and bigoted campaigns on their platform, said Dwyer. 'They aren't going to de-platform people, no matter how reprehensible it is, until it reaches a bar of their choosing,' he said. As other regressions in racial progress happen – rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and racist language in politics – open support for folks like Hendrix might become commonplace. 'Based on social media chatter, this was an empowering moment [for white supremacists],' Dwyer said of the Hendrix fundraiser. 'It increases the likelihood of something like this happening again.'
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NYC leaders: Boulder flamethrower attack part of antisemitic terror campaign; NYPD on alert
Jewish leaders and elected officials in New York City expressed horror and outrage over the flamethrower attack on Jewish marchers in Boulder, Colorado, and urged federal and local governments to do more to protect communities from growing antisemitic violence. 'We're witnessing a global campaign of intimidation and terror deliberately directed against the Jewish people,' Anti Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. 'Sadly, none of this is surprising. In fact, it's entirely predictable. This is precisely where anti-Jewish incitement leads. This is exactly what vicious anti-Zionism enables. Elected officials, community groups, media platforms, faith leaders — they all need to commit to taking action before this crisis escalates even further.' Greenblatt joined leaders across the five boroughs to strongly condemn Sunday's fiery attack on a small group of Colorado marchers who were drawing attention to the plight of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. Police in Boulder arrested a 45-year-old Egyptian national who was in the country illegally accused of wielding a makeshift flamethrower on a courthouse lawn where peaceful demonstrators were gathered to raise awareness of Israeli hostages who have remained in custody since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. Cops said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman yelled 'Free Palestine' in a brutal attack that left four women and four men ranging in age from 52 to 88 with severe burns. One of the victims was a Holocaust survivor, police said. 'The attack in Boulder is another example of a wave of domestic terror attacks aimed at the Jewish community,' Jewish Federations of North America President & CEO Eric Fingerhut said in a statement. 'This must be the highest priority for the Trump Administration and Congress.' The NYPD was already on high alert after a gunman shot and killed two Israeli Embassy staffers May 22 outside a Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement officials described that attack a 'targeted' hate crime. 'We're monitoring the horrific attack in Colorado targeting an event for Israeli hostages,' a police department representative said in a social media post. 'The NYPD has already increased our presence at religious sites throughout NYC for Shavuot with high visibility patrols and heavy weapons teams.' Central Synagogue posted a statement on Facebook noting that 'this marks the second violent attack against Jews in the U.S. in less than two weeks. Antisemtiism and violence are not the answer. Our hearts are with the victimes, their families and the Boulder community.' Local officials expressed their outrage. 'Another act of horrific, vile antisemitism and terrorism in our country, as an individual violently attacked a peaceful crowd in Boulder, Colorado, gathered to call for the release of the hostages still held in Gaza since Hamas' terror attacks on October 7, 2023,' Mayor Adams said in a post on the X social media platform. 'Out of abundance of caution, the NYPD is increasing resources at religious sites throughout our city ahead of the sacred holiday of Shavuot. We will not rest until we root out this unacceptable violence and rhetoric from our communities.' Radio host and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said the attack was 'beyond despicable.' 'No one should live in fear for who they are,' Sliwa said in a statement. 'Here in NYC, antisemitic hate is far too common, and City Hall has allowed those who spread hate to take over streets and bridges, trying to intimidate our Jewish neighbors. This cannot continue.' City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called the attack 'devastating and unacceptable.' 'We must always denounce and reject antisemitism, hate and violence in our communities—they make us all less safe,' she said in a statement. 'Praying for the victims of this horrific violence in Boulder, the first responders on the scene, and our communities.'
Wall Street Journal
02-06-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
The Intifada Comes to Boulder
Not all solo acts of terrorism reflect a broader social unraveling, but sometimes they do. When 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at marchers supporting Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday, he was 'globalizing the intifada,' as anti-Israel protesters on campus like to say. Four men and four women in their 50s to 80s were burned in the attack, which used a makeshift flamethrower to set them on fire at midday in a park. According to an FBI affidavit, Mr. Soliman told state and federal investigators he wanted to 'kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.' Note the nod to campus lingo that he was after 'Zionists.' Violent attacks against Jews have been increasing in frequency since the murderous Hamas assault on Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, with 9,345 antisemitic incidents in 2024, up from 3,698 in 2022, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Two young Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were murdered last month in Washington, D.C., by a shooter who shouted 'Free Palestine.' The attacks are intended to terrorize the Jewish diaspora and send a message to Jews that they are targets anywhere in the world. Anti-Israel protesters on campus and elsewhere have adopted the use of the inverted red triangle used by Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam brigades, to designate targets for attack. UCLA protesters carried a sign with the red triangle in a campus march, and it was painted on the apartment building of a Columbia executive.
