The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they happen.
New School inks deal with anti-Israel protesters to vote on divestment
The New School in New York says it has reached a deal with anti-Israel protesters to hold a vote on divestment, in exchange for a Gaza solidarity encampment being dismantled.
According to a statement from the school, an investment board will hold a vote on June 14 to end any investments in companies in line with calls made by anti-Israel student protesters and a slew of faculty members who launched their own demonstrations following a police crackdown.
“They call for complete divestment from industries implicated in military and police violence in Gaza and the West Bank, and all global militarized conflict such as companies or subsidiaries involved in weapons manufacturing, military supplies and equipment, military communication, and public surveillance technology,” the statement reads.
The agreement also gives those involved in protests amnesty.
The statement coincides with one by the school announcing that Joel Towers will take over as school president.
Towers previously headed the Parsons School of Design, whose faculty has been involved in the anti-Israel protests.
“We will continue to strengthen our commitment to academic excellence and freedom, and foster openness and mutual respect,” he says in a statement.
Hezbollah claims 2:30 a.m. attack on north
The Hezbollah terror group has claimed responsibility for shooting a rocket at northern Israel about an hour ago.
The Iran-backed group says it targeted a group of soldiers with missiles and artillery. The claims cannot be verified.
There is no comment from the Israeli military.
Yale students stage graduation walkout to protest Gaza war
Scores of graduating students have staged a walkout from Yale University’s commencement exercises, protesting the Israeli war in Gaza, Yale’s financial ties to weapons makers and its response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Ivy League campus.
The walkout began as Yale President Peter Salovey started to announce the traditional college-by-college presentation of candidates for degrees on the grounds of Yale’s Old Campus, filled with thousands of graduates in their caps and gowns.
At least 150 students seated near the front of the audience stood up together, turned their backs to the stage and paraded out of the ceremony through Phelps Gate, retracing their steps during the processional into the yard.
Many of the protesters carried small banners with such slogans as “Books not bombs” and “Divest from war.” Some wore red-colored latex gloves symbolizing bloodied hands.
BREAKING: Bloody Hands and Banners as a huge amount of Yale Students, Faculty, and Parents walk out of graduation. pic.twitter.com/1Kgz60LqxD
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 20, 2024
Other signs read: “Drop the charges” and “Protect free speech” in reference to 45 people arrested in a police crackdown last month on demonstrations in and around the New Haven, Connecticut, campus.
The walkout draws a chorus of cheers from fellow students in the crowd, but is otherwise peaceful, without disruption. No mention of it is made from the stage.
Knesset committee okays rules curtailing Meron Lag Baomer pilgrimage
A Knesset committee has given the go-ahead to a set of emergency regulations meant to largely shut this year’s Lag Baomer gathering on Mount Meron in northern Israel over security concerns.
Under the regulations green-lit by the Knesset National Security Committee, a single traditional bonfire will be lit on the mountain at the gravesite of second century rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, with participation capped at 10 approved guests.
Two more bonfires will also be permitted at a Bnei Akiva yeshiva on the site, with 10 more guests each, pending the approval of Heritage Minister Meir Porush.
Porush will also have the power to approve permits for representatives of families of those killed in a deadly crush at the site in 2021 to attend a memorial prayer, along with residents of the adjacent town of Meron.
The annual Lag Baomer pilgrimage regularly draws hundreds of thousands of participants to Meron, largely from the ultra-Orthodox community. The minor Jewish holiday begins Saturday night.
The mountain is home to a key military air control station that has been targeted several times by Hezbollah missiles launched from Lebanon, leading officials to call for the pilgrimage to be canceled this year.
The emergency measures must be passed in two more Knesset readings to become law.
Rocket sirens sound in north
Rocket sirens have sounded in four communities near the border with Lebanon.
Residents of the largely evacuated towns of Shtula, Even Menahem, Shomra and Netuah are told to take shelter.
University of California graduate students call strike over arrests of protesters
Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz have walked off their jobs called a strike, the first campus to do so as part of a systemwide protest against a public university they say has violated the speech rights of pro-Palestinian advocates.
United Auto Workers Local 4811 represents 48,000 graduate students who work as teaching assistants, tutors, researchers and other academic employees on the 10-campus UC system. Organizers say the campuses will not strike all at once, opting instead for rolling strikes, to protest the arrests and forcible ejection by police of union members who participated in demonstrations calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
Rebecca Gross, a UC Santa Cruz graduate student in literature and union leader, says at least 1,500 people were on strike Monday and had no plans to return to work until the union reaches a deal with the university. Students and researchers are not teaching, grading or working in their labs, and they are withholding data, she says.
“Police were unleashed and given the go-ahead to arrest protesters,” at the Los Angeles, San Diego and Irvine campuses, she says.
University officials say the strike is unlawful and in violation of the union’s contract, which prohibits work stoppages. Both sides have filed unfair labor practice complaints with the California Public Employment Relations Board.
Biden: Gaza not a genocide, US wants Hamas beaten
US President Joe Biden says his administration “stand[s] with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas.”
“We want Hamas defeated, and we’re working with Israel to make that happen,” Biden says at a White House event marking Jewish American Heritage Month.
“Contrary to allegations made against Israel in the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide,” Biden asserts.
He adds that he is working to boost humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza but stresses that the crisis is Hamas’s doing.
Biden notes that American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents Rachel and Jon are in the audience and pledges to not cease in his efforts to bring their son home.
Also addressing the event is Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who laments the antisemitism Jewish students are facing on college campuses amid the wave of anti-Israel protests.
Emhoff, who is Jewish, stresses that the Biden administration has the backs of Jewish students amid the escalation of hate and is working to combat it.
Italy rejects ICC equivalency between Israel and Hamas
Italy foreign minister says it is “unacceptable” to equate the Israeli democratic government with the Hamas terror group.
The comments are Antonio Tajani’s first on the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas.
“It seems to me truly singular, I would say unacceptable, to equate a government legitimately elected by the people in a democracy with a terrorist organization that is the cause of everything that is happening in the Middle East,” Tajani tells a TV show.
Three suspected drones heading toward Israel downed by fighter jets, warship — IDF
Israeli fighter jets shot down a “suspicious aerial target,” thought to be a drone, that was heading toward Israel from the direction of Syria, the military says.
The apparent drone was downed outside of Israeli airspace, according to the IDF, and alerts were activated in open areas in the Golan Heights.
Separately, fighter jets and one of the Navy’s Sa’ar 4.5-class missile ships shot down two more targets heading toward Israel from the “eastern direction,” the IDF adds.
The announcement comes as a twin drone attack on Eilat is been claimed by the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The apparent drones did enter Israeli airspace and no sirens sounded, the IDF says.
Amid the incident, people in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat reported seeing interceptions.
Interception in Eilat a short while ago. Likely another drone fired by Iraqi militias. pic.twitter.com/atqz6JSx6A
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) May 20, 2024