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    Billionaire Donor Barry Sternlicht Assails Brown’s Deal With Protesters

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    One of Brown University’s major donors, the billionaire real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht, on Friday sharply criticized the school’s agreement to hold a board vote on cutting investments tied to Israel, calling it “unconscionable” and saying he had “paused” donations to the school.Brown is among a small number of universities that have agreed to discuss their investments in companies that do business in Israel, in order to persuade student protesters to dismantle encampments. Mr. Sternlicht, in a scathing email to The New York Times, which he copied to Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, said the arrangement amounted to sympathy for Hamas, which attacked Israel in October, and described students protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza as “ignorant.”“There should never be a vote when people do not have the facts,” he wrote. “It’s not education, it’s propaganda.”Mr. Sternlicht, 63, said no deal with protesters could be fruitful because the two sides did not agree on “facts and moral clarity,” as well as the scale of Israel’s invasion of Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, in which about 1,200 were killed and another 250 were taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent intense bombardment of the tightly packed area has left more than 34,000 dead and drawn international condemnation.He cited the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in wars in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, asking: “Where were the protests?”“As far as wars go, Israel has been quite muted,” Mr. Sternlicht wrote.The blowback from Mr. Sternlicht, who has described himself as a political independent and whose name is on a Brown residence hall, shows how quickly the issue of divestment from Israel may vex universities. Until a week ago, even discussing the subject was widely considered a nonstarter, as it was sure to divide a large swath of students and faculty from many of the businesspeople whose donations fill university endowments.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Columbia’s President Urges University to ‘Rebuild Community’ in Video

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      Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, released a video message late on Friday, following several weeks of tension over Gaza war protests on campus that have spawned a wave of antiwar activism at universities across the country.On Tuesday, those tensions erupted after Dr. Shafik asked the New York Police Department to clear a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters and encampments on campus. Police officers in riot gear arrested more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University.It was the second time in two weeks that Columbia officials had asked the police to enter the Manhattan campus to remove demonstrators. On April 18, another 100 or so Columbia students were arrested. The decision to bring law enforcement on campus, and also to request that they remain on campus until May 17, has drawn criticism from many members of the Columbia community, including faculty, alumni and students.Over the last six months, the university has released numerous letters to its students, faculty and alumni regarding the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, the war in Gaza and the related protests and unrest on campus. But the video released on Friday was the first one by Dr. Shafik released on the school’s Vimeo page in months. In the video message, Dr. Shafik discussed the need for the community to work together to return civility to the campus after weeks of unrest.“These past two weeks have been among the most difficult in Columbia’s history,” Dr. Shafik said. “The turmoil and tension, division and disruption have impacted the entire community.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rebuilding All Destroyed Gaza Homes Could Take 80 Years, U.N. Report Says

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      Rebuilding all the homes destroyed by Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip could take until the next century if the pace of reconstruction were to match what it was after wars there in 2014 and 2021, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday.Citing data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the U.N. report said that as of April 15, some 370,000 homes in Gaza had been damaged, 79,000 of which have been destroyed. If those destroyed homes were rebuilt at the same pace as they were after the two previous wars — an average of 992 per year — it would take 80 years, according to projections in the report from the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.The report detailed the war’s socioeconomic impact on the Palestinian population and said “the level of destruction in Gaza is such that the required assistance to rebuild would be on a scale not seen since 1948” to replace public infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.The report said that even if Israel were to allow five times as much construction material into Gaza after this war as it did after the war in 2021 — “the most optimistic scenario” — rebuilding all of the destroyed homes would still take until 2040. That projection does not account for the time it would take to repair the hundreds of thousands of homes that were damaged but not destroyed.The cost of rebuilding Gaza is increasing “exponentially” each day the fighting continues, Abdallah Al Dardari, the director of the U.N.D.P.’s regional bureau for Arab states, speaking over a video call from Amman, Jordan, said at a news conference on Thursday.Mr. Al Dardari said that before “some sort of normalcy” can be established for Palestinians in Gaza, an estimated 37 million tons of debris must be cleared to allow for the construction of temporary shelters and, eventually, the rebuilding of homes.The report also found that the unemployment rate for Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza surged to roughly 46 percent from about 26 percent after six months of war.Over those six months, poverty rates in the Palestinian territories more than doubled, to an estimated 57.2 percent from 26.7 percent. That means 1.67 million Palestinians were pushed into poverty after the war began, the report said. Its estimates were based on a poverty line of $6.85 a day.The effects of the war on Palestinians both in and out of Gaza “will be felt for years,” the report said. More

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      Palestinians in Gaza Express Gratitude for U.S. Campus Protests

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      Thousands of miles away from the campus protests that have divided Americans, some displaced Palestinians are expressing solidarity with the antiwar demonstrators and gratitude for their efforts.Message of support were written on some tents in the southern city of Rafah, where roughly a million displaced people have sought shelter from the Israeli bombardment and ground fighting that Gazan health officials say have killed more than 34,000 people.“Thank you, American universities,” read one message captured on video by the Reuters news agency. “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza your message has reached” us, read another nearby.Tensions have risen at campuses across the United States, with police in riot gear arresting dozens of people at Columbia University on Tuesday night and officers across the country clashing with pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had erected encampments and seized academic buildings at other institutions. The protesters have been calling for universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel, and some have vowed not to back down.The protests have come at a particularly fearful time in Rafah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowing to launch a ground invasion of the city to root out Hamas battalions there despite glimmers of hope for a temporary cease-fire.Palestinians “are very happy that there are still people standing with us,” said Mohammed al-Baradei, a 24-year-old recent graduate from the dentistry program at Al-Azhar University who spoke by phone from Rafah.“The special thing is that this is happening in America and that people there are still aware and the awareness is growing every day for the Palestinian cause,” he added.Akram al-Satri, a 47-year-old freelance journalist sheltering in Rafah, said Gazans are “watching with hope and gratitude the student movement in the United States.”“For us this is a glimmer of hope on a national level,” he added in a voice message on Wednesday.Bisan Owda, a 25-year-old Palestinian who has been documenting the war on social media, said in a video posted to her more than 4.5 million Instagram followers that the campus protests had brought her a new sense of possibility.“I’ve lived my whole life in Gaza Strip and I’ve never felt hope like now,” said Ms. Owda.Nader Ibrahim More

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      Columbia Tells Protesters to Clear Out Encampment or Face Suspension

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      University officials have given students, who have occupied a central lawn on campus for nearly two weeks, until 2 p.m. to leave.Columbia University has given students until 2 p.m. on Monday to clear out from the pro-Palestinian encampment that has occupied a central lawn on its campus for nearly two weeks, warning them that they will face immediate suspension if they do not leave by then.The move is an attempt to clear the encampment without calling in the Police Department, whose intervention on April 18 at the request of Columbia administrators led to more than 100 student arrests and incited an international movement to build similar encampments on dozens of university and college campuses.Students in the encampment on Monday morning received a notice from administrators stating that negotiations with student protest leaders were at an impasse. It urged the students to clear out voluntarily to allow the school to prepare the lawn for graduation ceremonies on May 15.“The current unauthorized encampment and disruption on Columbia University’s campus is creating an unwelcoming environment for members of our community,” the notice stated. “Please promptly gather your belongings and leave the encampment.”Students will be not be punished for their participation in the encampment if they sign a form promising not to break any university rules through the end of the next academic year. Students in the encampment who already face discipline from previous violations, but who are there anyway, may not be eligible for the same deal, the document stated.The notice also warned students that they might still be held accountable for discrimination and harassment charges stemming from their involvement in the encampment even if they did sign the form.For those who do not leave, it was not immediately apparent how Columbia would enforce the clearing of the encampment. Last Friday, Nemat Shafik, Columbia’s president, in a statement to the community, all but ruled out calling in the Police Department again to clear the space.“We called on N.Y.P.D. to clear an encampment once,” she wrote, in a notice co-signed by the co-chairs of Columbia’s board of trustees, “but we all share the view, based on discussions within our community and with outside experts, that to bring back the N.Y.P.D. at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community.”Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and the lead negotiator on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student coalition that has organized the encampment, called the deadline “just another intimidation tactic from the university.”“The university is dealing with this matter as a disciplinary issue, not as a movement to divest from war,” he said.He said the encampment would be holding a meeting at noon to discuss next steps. Last week, when the university threatened to crack down, but then backed off to allow time for negotiations to play out, some students opted to stay and others to leave.Anna Betts More

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      More Than 170 Protesters Arrested at Northeastern and Arizona State University

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      The police made arrests at Northeastern University, Arizona State and Indiana University on Saturday, as more schools move in on encampments protesting the war in Gaza.Nearly 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday at Northeastern University, Arizona State University and Indiana University, according to officials, as colleges across the country struggle to quell growing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments on campus.More than 700 protesters have been arrested on U.S. campuses since April 18, when Columbia University had the New York Police Department clear a protest encampment there. In several cases, most of those who were arrested have been released. More

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      Blinken to Meet With Arab Officials in Saudi Arabia About Israel-Gaza War

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      The U.S. secretary of state plans to raise the issues of hostages held by Hamas, a potential cease-fire, humanitarian aid and a long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday to speak with top Arab officials and try to figure out possible solutions for the thorniest issues of the Israel-Gaza war, including humanitarian aid, reconstruction and hostages, the State Department said on Saturday.One of Mr. Blinken’s priorities on Monday and Tuesday will be discussing “ongoing efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza that secures the release of hostages,” a department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement. He added that Mr. Blinken would underscore his belief that it is Hamas that stands in the way of a cease-fire for the Palestinian people, since the group is not budging on the hostage negotiations.Saudi Arabia is hosting a three-day meeting of the World Economic Forum, and top Arab officials, including Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic counterparts, are attending. They include senior ministers from Qatar and Egypt, which have been the two Arab mediators in multiple rounds of talks over a potential hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas.The forum’s website says Mr. Blinken will be in a half-hour public “conversation” starting at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, the final day of the conference.American officials are pushing for Hamas to release about 40 of the 100 or more hostages it is holding in exchange for the liberation of many more Palestinian prisoners and a six-week cease-fire. U.S. officials say that would be the first step in securing a permanent cease-fire, and Israel supports the proposal. However, Hamas has insisted on a commitment to a permanent cease-fire, and many Arab officials, including in Saudi Arabia, have been calling for the same; those officials say that such a cease-fire should take place immediately.Posters of hostages who were taken on Oct. 7 are displayed in Tel Aviv. American officials are pushing for Hamas to release about 40 of the 100 or more people it is still holding. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Aid Flows to Gaza Are Rising, U.N. says, but More Is Needed

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      Israel says the number of trucks entering the enclave has doubled to an average of 400 a day. The U.N. disputes that, but agrees that the pace of deliveries has quickened.Under intense international scrutiny, Israel has expedited the flow of aid into Gaza this month, but humanitarian groups say that more is needed as severe hunger grips the enclave, particularly in the devastated north.Israel’s efforts — which include opening new aid routes — have been acknowledged in the last week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially the north, where experts have warned for weeks that famine is imminent.The increased levels of aid are a good sign, but it is too early to say that looming famine is no longer a risk, said Arif Husain, the chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program.“This cannot just happen for a day or a week — it has to happen every single day for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Husain said, adding that the main need was for more food, water and medicine. “If we can do this, then we can ease the pain, we can avert famine.”The aid groups have long complained that only a trickle of aid is entering the enclave, blaming harsh war conditions, strict inspections and limits on the number of crossing points. Israel has maintained that the restrictions are necessary to ensure that neither weapons nor supplies fall into the hands of Hamas.Trucks lined up on the Egyptian side of the border near the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel says an average of 400 trucks are crossing into Gaza each day, but the United Nations counts less than half that.Atef Safadi/EPA, via ShutterstockWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why Does the U.S. Arm Ukraine With Fanfare and Israel in Secret?

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      President Biden flanked by Javelin antitank systems in 2022 as he discussed arming Ukraine. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters When the Biden administration ships arms to Ukraine, it pulls out the megaphones. It announces its shipments and hails its own efforts “to support the brave Ukrainian people as they defend their country,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken […] More