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“There is zero debate that two temples stood in that place in scholarly literature,” said New York University professor Lawrence Schiffman. “Mohammed’s ascent ‘happens’ from there only because it is the Temple site.”

By Menachem Wecker, JNS

An article that appeared in The Washington Post just before Passover seems to equate the historical reality of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem and that of the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s miraculous “night journey” to heaven.

“In Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is the site where the First and Second Temples once stood. For Muslims, it [sic] known as the Noble Sanctuary, the place where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven,” wrote Louisa Loveluck, Niha Masih and Miriam Berger. “The night of violence at the al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, adds fuel to an already combustible situation.”

An earlier version of the story had noted: “In Jewish tradition, it is the site where the faith’s First and Second Temples once stood. For Muslims, it is the place from which the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.”

Professors with relevant expertise told JNS that there is no debate in the scholarly community about the reality of the two Jewish Temples, whereas the question about whether Muhammad was a prophet who took a miraculous heavenly journey is not seen as a matter of fact, particularly for those who are not believing Muslims.

“There is zero debate that two temples stood in that place in scholarly literature. Mohammed’s ascent ‘happens’ from there only because it is the Temple site,” Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, told JNS.

“The story about Muhammad going on a miraculous horse all the way from Arabia to Jerusalem and ascending to heaven is a religious belief. It’s like saying that Jacob prayed there,” he said.

The locations of the Herodian Temple, and the Hasmonean Temple before it, “can be proven archaeologically, and is a hard fact,” said Schiffman, adding that numerous Islamic sources prior to the modern period recognized that fact. (In more recent years, some Palestinian leaders have denied long-standing Jewish presence in Israel.)

“They are trying to be neutral, but that confuses the facts,” Schiffman said of the Post.

The post Washington Post ‘confuses facts’ equating reality of Jewish Temples, Muhammad ascension appeared first on World Israel News.

La rassegna stampa internazionale di Byoblu | 95° puntata

Mentre il segretario USA alla Difesa Austin convoca in Germania il “Gruppo di contatto per la difesa dell’Ucraina” per fornire sempre più armi a Kiev e alimentare la guerra in Europa,  …

The post Si Allarga la Ribellione all’Impero del Dollaro | Grandangolo – Pangea appeared first on Global Research.

Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.

But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system.

Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.

The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that could revive the traumas of the attack on Oct. 27, 2018 — often referred to around here as simply 10/27.

The tension can be felt in private conversations and encounters — the griefs, the anxieties, the feelings of being in a media fishbowl.

But each in their own ways, members are finding renewed purpose in honoring those lost in the attack, in the bold practice of their faith, in activism on issues like gun violence and immigration, in taking a stand against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.

“We don’t want to be silenced as Jews,” said Rich Weinberg, chair of the social action committee for Dor Hadash. “We want to be active as Jews with an understanding of Jewish values. … We are going to still be here. We will not be intimidated.”

That was evident even in subtle details of a Passover service held earlier this month in New Light’s chapel, joined by some members of Dor Hadash.

Some offering Yizkor, or remembrance, prayers were doing so in honor of slain loved ones. One prayer was read in memory of the “Kedoshim of Pittsburgh, murdered al kiddush Hashem” — holy martyrs, killed while sanctifying God’s name. The prayer, modeled on prayers for Jewish martyrs of medieval Europe, has been woven into the ritual fabric of Jewish Pittsburgh.

One of those leading Passover prayers was Carol Black, who survived the attack that claimed the life of her brother, Richard Gottfried, and two other New Light members, Melvin Wax and Daniel Stein. They had led much of New Light’s ritual worship.

“Rich and Dan and Mel were our religious heart,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light. “And we had some very big shoes to fill.”

Members such as Black and Bruce Hyde have stepped into them. Hyde said when he once read a passage that had been read by Stein, he felt his presence: “He was up there with me.”

Cohen said the congregation had three priorities after the attack: to memorialize those lost, to continue their ritual life and to further religious education. New Light, like Tree of Life, is part of the moderate Conservative denomination of Judaism.

The congregation dedicated a monument honoring its three martyrs — shaped with images of Torah scrolls and prayer shawls — at its cemetery, where it also created a chapel adorned with stained glass windows and other mementos honoring the victims.

New Light Co-President Barbara Caplan said her dream for the congregation is “that we have many more years of Friday night services, Saturday morning services, holidays together, where we just go on being the family that we are.”

Cohen said the congregation has been overwhelmed by support from Christian, Sikh and other communities and wanted to build on those relationships. It has held Bible studies with local Black churches, and members visited the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, drawing solace from a congregation that lost nine members to a racist gunman in 2015. “I’ve never been part of a group hug of a hundred people,” Cohen recalled.

All three of the modest-sized congregations have been meeting in nearby synagogues since the attack closed the Tree of Life building.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers had been leading Tree of Life Congregation for just over a year when he survived 10/27. He carries the scarred memories of the gunshots that killed seven members: Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon and Irving Younger. Andrea Wedner, Mallinger’s daughter, was wounded in the attack.

Myers continues to speak forcefully against the bigotry behind it.

His mission is “primarily to help my congregation community heal,” Myers said. “But beyond it is to speak up, to be a voice, to say, ‘No, this isn’t okay. It’s not acceptable. It never was. And it can never be.’”

He’d like to think the trial will expose the dangers of rising bigotry, but “it takes a concerted effort to be able to … walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” he said. But it affects more than Jews. ”Someone who is an antisemite is most likely also the possessor of a long laundry list of personal grievances and other groups that that person does not like.”

Members are each recovering in their own ways, congregation president Alan Hausman said.

Each week when he makes announcements, Hausman said he includes this one: “It’s OK not to be OK, and we will get through this together.”

On Sunday, the day before jury selection, the Tree of Life Congregation is having a closure ceremony for its historic building. The congregation and a partner organization plan a major overhaul of the site, which will combine worship space with a memorial and antisemitism education, including about the Holocaust.

“We’re not really leaving, we will be back,” said Hausman.

“Hopefully we’ll be once again a happy, grounded, 160-year-old congregation,” added member Audrey Glickman, a survivor. “Back to being a solid group of people who come together regularly and do our thing.”

Dor Hadash, founded 60 years ago, is Pittsburgh’s only congregation in the progressive Reconstructionist movement of Judaism. Many members are drawn to its interlocking focuses on worship, study and social activism.

It was that activism that appears to have drawn the shooting suspect — who fulminated online against HIAS, a Jewish refugee resettlement agency — to the address where Dor Hadash met. The congregation was listed on HIAS’ website as a participant in a National Refugee Shabbat, which wove concern for migrants into Sabbath worship.

On 10/27, members Jerry Rabinowitz and Dan Leger were gathering for a Torah study when they heard the gunshots and ran to help. Rabinowitz was killed, and Leger seriously wounded.

But the attack has only emboldened Dor Hadash members.

They were soon organizing what became a separate group, Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence, advocating for gun safety legislation. And they redoubled their support for immigrants, refugees and their helpers such as HIAS. The congregation has sponsored a refugee family originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And they have taken a strong stand against rising antisemitism and white supremacy.

“I think advocacy has been a huge part of our healing,” said Dana Kellerman, communications chair for Dor Hadash. Advocacy “isn’t just about making myself feel better,” she added. “It is about trying to move the needle so that this doesn’t happen to somebody else.”

The congregation has been growing since the attack, said its president, Jo Recht. The historically lay-led congregation has hired its first staff rabbi, Amy Bardack. Her formal installation is this Sunday — a date that wasn’t specifically chosen in advance of the trial but that provides a welcome occasion of celebration.

“There are a lot of people who are seeking some way to help so that the world is a more compassionate place,” Recht said.

The post Faith lifted Pittsburgh Jews in long wait for massacre trial appeared first on World Israel News.

“If I don’t go to protect the land of my ancestors, how will I look our children in the eyes?”

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli-Ukrainian was captured and killed by Russian forces in Ukraine, where he was a volunteer soldier for the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian media reported.

Oleksandr Dubovik was killed in Zaitseve, in the Bakhmut region in December.

Oleksandr “Partizan” Israeli volunteer that fall in battle at Bakhmut.
“If I don’t go to protect the land of my ancestors, how will I look our children in the eyes?”
A person with a unique destiny. A native of Dnipro, he moved to Israel , had a home, a family, and a job. pic.twitter.com/tNGC4mSAiR

— Knukli (@11Knuk123) April 21, 2023

According to a report by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform, Dubovik had immigrated to Israel with his wife and two children, aged nine and two, before Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Dubovik then decided to return to his home country as a volunteer fighter.

Dubovik is survived by his wife and two children as well as his parents and younger siblings who also reside in Israel.

On December 23, Oleksandr Dubovik “Partyzan” was seriously wounded when his unit was ambushed near Bakhmut. ruzZian soldiers found him & executed him.
He was born in Dnipro but moved to Israel before the war with his family.
Hero #lviv #RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/0G8rMkoEhC

— TheLvivJournal (@LvivJournal) April 22, 2023

The post Israeli-Ukrainian volunteer captured and killed by Russian forces appeared first on World Israel News.

Instead of prominent reference to one of the most disturbing recent killings, the paper of record noted there was “tension.”

By JNS

A New York Times story about the Palestinian terror attack and subsequent murder of Lucy Dee, and her daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, as they were driving in their car during Passover didn’t mention their names and obscured the tragedy under an anodyne headline.

“It is a compelling, crushing story. And yet The New York Times didn’t highlight the latest killings in its vague headline, which mentioned only ‘tensions,’ ” wrote Gilead Ani, a senior researcher at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA), in a recent analysis. “It didn’t report on the attack in any proportion to its importance, with just four paragraphs of its 35-paragraph story focused on the attack.”

As the CAMERA analysis noted, the Times reported on Palestinian food three times in recent months, including on the day of the funeral of the Dee sisters.

“It does raise questions about the paper’s priorities when we hear more from sisters Tala and Galia Abu Hussein about how their mother arranged the rice, chicken and vegetables on a plate than we hear from any member of the Dee family about the terror that tore them apart,” Ani wrote.

He added that Times headlines tend to use passive voice with Palestinian attacks (“West Bank Erupts in Violence as Officials Pledge to Work for Calm,” “At Least 2 Dead as Driver Rams Bus Stop in East Jerusalem” and “At Least 7 Killed in Attack in Jewish Area of East Jerusalem”). When talking about Israel, however, the headlines are active: “Israeli Raid on West Bank City Kills Nine Palestinians, Officials Say” and “Israeli Raid Kills at Least 5 Palestinians in West Bank.”

The post ‘New York Times’ buries Palestinian terrorists’ murder of Dee sisters, mother appeared first on World Israel News.

The motive of the attacker, a psychiatric patient at the hospital, is unclear.

By World Israel News Staff

Police on Friday shot an assailant who attacked staff and visitors with a knife at a Jewish hospital in Germany’s capital of Berlin on Friday afternoon.

The 45-year-old man, who police said was a psychiatric patient, entered Jewish Hospital on Heinz-Galinski-Strasse, in northern Berlin, and went on a rampage threatening staff, patients and visitors. Police were alerted around 2:30pm local time, but the man would not heed the officers’ request to surrender his weapon. Officers then shot him in the leg, according to local reports.

The attacker was being treated at the hospital for addiction and was moved to another ward after he was shot.

The motive for the attack is unknown.

Founded more than 260 years ago, Jewish Hospital received its name for the Berlin Jewish community which first funded it.

The hospital provides medical care for people of all religions.

The post Assailant attacks staff and visitors with knife at Berlin Jewish Hospital appeared first on World Israel News.

Setting up 250 picket lines across the country, 155,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada have gone on strike. The walkout, the country’s largest strike ever against a sole employer, is a fight against inflation eroding wages into a pay cut.

Federal government workers stage a protest outside a Service Canada building in Scarborough district of Toronto, Canada on April 19, 2023. (Mert Alper Dervis / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Canada is in the midst of the largest strike against a single employer in the country’s history. On April 19, 155,000 public sector workers — who have been without a contract for more than two years — walked off the job, setting up 250 picket lines across Canada. Thus far, the government’s approach to negotiations with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has been, at best, ham-fisted.

The bulk of the workers — 120,000 employees of various government departments who answer to the Treasury Board — are asking for an annual 4.5 percent wage increase retroactive to June 2021, when negotiations with the government began. The government initially offered them 2 percent, which is why many workers on picket lines across the country held placards reading, “2% is for milk.” In the days leading to the strike, the government belatedly came around to the compromise of 3 percent, as offered by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board in February. But with inflation sitting at 4.3 percent, after reaching a high of 8.1 percent in June 2022, the government’s offer amounts to a significant cut.

Workers at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), represented by the PSAC-affiliated Union of Tax Employees (UTE), are asking for a more ambitious 7.5 percent annual raise. The government, however, is offering the same 3 percent to all federal employees. The reason UTE is asking for a larger wage increase is the imbalance that exists between its earnings and those of Canada Border Service Agency workers, who serve a similar function in administering excise taxes.

The workers who walked off the job aren’t the fat cats living off the public dime that right-wingers like to portray. They make an average of Can$40,000 to $65,000 a year, meaning many make below the average Canadian salary of $58,800. They issue passports, process immigration applications, deliver income support (including the support rushed out at the pandemic’s outset), assist veterans, and work in correctional facilities. Due to Canada’s troubled Phoenix payroll system, adopted in 2016, some employees were underpaid and forced to take on debt. Meanwhile, others were overpaid and forced to work for free to repay the excess income, even though it wasn’t their fault.

Treasury Board president Mona Fortier says the government can’t “write a blank check” for public employees, yet a union contract is precisely the opposite of a blank check. It clearly outlines wage and salary expectations for its duration. These workers are simply asking to prevent the further erosion of their wages through inflation, as well as for a suite of other sensible, inexpensive demands.

Remote Work: A Top Concern

PSAC is not only pushing for a wage increase but also aiming to establish the right for workers — whose jobs can be done remotely — to choose whether they want to continue working remotely or return to the physical workplace. By fiat, Fortier demanded public sector workers return to the office at least two days a week by the end of March. “In-person work better supports collaboration, team spirit, innovation and a culture of belonging,” she said. Elsewhere, the government was more blunt, arguing that the ability to work remotely would “severely impact the Government’s ability to deliver services to Canadians and would limit its ability to effectively manage employees within the public service.” In other words, it’s about management’s control over the workforce under the guise of fostering a sense of community.

Workers, of course, began working remotely because they were forced to do so during the pandemic. Now they’re once again being forced to change their work arrangements on the government’s command. For workers who were hired during the pandemic, remote work is all they’ve known. “We’d like the terms of our work to be subject to negotiation, not dictation,” Keegan Gibson, a strike captain with UTE in Edmonton, told me on the picket line.

Chris Aylward, PSAC’s president, said many offices were poorly prepared for workers’ return. “We’ve got members that go into the workplace now, there’s no desk, there’s no computer for them to work at. They’re getting back in their cars and driving back home again,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. PSAC is calling for the government to provide workers with “ergonomic workstation furniture,” as well as a computer and monitor, if necessary. It’s remarkable that this even needs to be requested.

Intimately connected to the freedom to work remotely are questions of work-life balance, particularly for those who commute to work from the suburbs in Canada’s largest cities. Heather Adair, who works for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in Vancouver, lives in the suburb of Langley. She told online news outlet PressProgress that the three hours she spends commuting to Vancouver every day could be better spent with her family. “Not only are they dipping into my pocket, they’re really affecting my work life balance,” Adair said. “A big reason why I joined the government was work life balance, my family is important.”

Toward a More Inclusive Workplace

Workers also want to see enhanced diversity and inclusion efforts in workplaces, including mandatory unconscious-bias training, more support for workers who’ve faced harassment or discrimination, and efforts to have Canada’s diversity reflected in the workforce. Currently, unconscious-bias training is only mandatory for management, while new employees must take an orientation course “which includes diversity and inclusion components,” according to the Treasury Board. Other courses on indigenous issues, anti-racism, and how to deal with harassment in the workplace are optional. A 2020 survey of public sector workers shows that just 8 percent are satisfied with how concerns of racism are addressed in their workplace.

To recruit more indigenous employees, the union is requesting a $1,500 annual bonus for workers who can speak an indigenous language, almost double the $800 bonus for bilingual workers who speak English and French. PSAC is also asking for indigenous employees who have been employed for at least three months to receive five paid days off annually to engage in traditional practices, such as hunting, fishing, and harvesting. The provincial government of British Columbia and territorial government of Nunavut already offer paid leave for indigenous cultural practices.

Additional enticements are necessary to convince indigenous people to work for the very government that dispossessed them and stole children from families to fill Canada’s residential schools. A briefing document from PSAC notes that it’s “incomprehensible” that the federal government, with its stated commitment toward reconciliation with indigenous peoples, “would not offer a modest financial recognition to those (very few) employees who use their Indigenous language at work in service to Canadians.”

Two-Faced Trudeau

In its most recent budget, the federal government committed to passing anti-scab legislation by the end of the year. Additionally, companies that want to take advantage of the full subsidies for green energy investments outlined in the budget will have to pay union wages. These are no doubt positive developments, but the way the government has handled this labor dispute raises questions. “They support us when it’s convenient for their messaging purposes, but when it comes time to pull out the cheque book, they’re a little hesitant for some reason,” Caitlin Fortier, an Edmonton-based Service Canada worker who processes employment insurance and pension payments, told me, expressing a frustration felt by many public workers.

The government hasn’t ruled out imposing back-to-work legislation to break the strike, as it has already done twice during its tenure in power — in 2018 to force postal workers back to work, and again in 2021 to force dock workers at the Port of Montreal to end their strike. This threat has similarly loomed over this current labor dispute. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has only said PSAC must return to negotiations “right now,” adding that “Canadians have every right and expectation to see the services that they expect delivered.”

The government has made an effort to notify CRA workers that they will continue to receive full pay if they cross the picket line. As UTE president Marc Brière notes, this is a confounding message to hear from a government that promised anti-scab legislation less than a month ago. The longer the strike continues, the “more temptation there will be . . . for some people” to cross the picket line, Brière added. The government maintains that it is merely apprising everyone that there’s nothing stopping workers from returning to work during the strike. But this is disingenuous — it conveniently omits the fact that this would amount to being a scab, which would have profoundly negative consequences for the strikers.

To his credit, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh has ruled out supporting back-to-work legislation, but this is not enough. The minority government led by Liberals made a deal with the NDP to gain the necessary support to form a government. For its part, the NDP entered this arrangement in order to secure concessions, such as introducing a means-tested dental-care program and strengthening labor rights. However, the Conservatives, in spite of their right-wing populist leader Pierre Poilievre’s purported support of working-class Canadians, are almost certain to support back-to-work legislation.

Singh has the power to abandon his agreement with Trudeau, forcing the prime minister to rely on the support of Conservatives to implement his agenda. He should do so the second the Liberals violate the spirit, if not letter, of their agreement by ordering public servants back to work. At that decisive moment, Singh must let Trudeau show his true colors while the NDP leader washes his hands of any involvement with a government intent on union busting.

The union’s demands are eminently reasonable. All PSAC asks is for its workers to have the same spending power that they’ve had previously, to allow them to choose where they can work in instances where remote work makes sense, and to build more inclusive workplaces. If that’s a bridge too far for the government, then it says more about Trudeau’s priorities than PSAC’s.

The evidence amply confirms that The Nord Stream was the object of an act of sabotage ordered by President Joe Biden.

Nord Stream –which originates in Russia– transits through the (maritime) territorial jurisdiction of 4 member states of the EU. From a legal standpoint (International Law: UN Charter, Law of the Sea) this was a U.S. Act of War against the EU.

The post Video: America is at War with Europe appeared first on Global Research.

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The post The Bombing of Nord Stream — This Act of War Against Europe Requires Congressional Investigation: Dennis Kucinich appeared first on Global Research.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, the EU granted asylum to millions of Ukrainian refugees. However, international students and other non-Ukrainians caught in the conflict have struggled to receive similar protection.

Relatives of a Zambian student who died in the conflict in Ukraine last September console one another as his coffin arrives at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on December 11, 2022. (Salim Dawood / AFP via Getty Images)

After the Yugoslav wars that rocked Europe between 1991 and 2001, the European Union established a system of temporary protections for displaced people outside the bloc’s external borders. It would take the EU over two decades to activate this directive, which stood unused even during the height of the refugee crisis that began 2015, during which the absence of safe means of entry into the bloc has thus far led to the deaths of 22,993 people at sea.

Following the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the EU triggered the Temporary Protection Directive, offering asylum to the millions of Ukrainians displaced by the bloody war from March 2022. Since then, the number of people who — fleeing either permanently or briefly — left Ukraine since February 24, 2022, when the war began, is estimated at 19,505,596. This is a largest influx of migrants that the EU has witnessed since its founding in 1993.

The Temporary Protections Directive, despite its clear benefits, has one glaring problem: it does not offer protection to everyone in Ukraine suffering from the effects of the war. To be eligible for international protection, you need to be either a Ukrainian national or be a close family member of Ukrainian nationals. Though this covers the vast majority of people living in the country, it leaves out many vulnerable groups. These include non-Ukrainian nationals and stateless people whose legal status in Ukraine is guaranteed by international law, refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and their families, and non-Ukrainian nationals with a permanent residence permit who cannot return to their country of origin for safety reasons.

Many Ukrainians whose African or Asian partners, spouses, or parents did not have citizenship were forced to make the difficult decision of leaving their loved ones or staying with them in a country ravaged by war.

The problem with the directive is that there is no country in the world in which every inhabitant is also a citizen. The Temporary Protection Directive consequently overlooks a considerable number of migrants in Ukraine who are international students — who have also been living, working, and studying in the country since before the war.

It is estimated that there were around seventy thousand international students in Ukraine before the war, many of whom would have been midway or even almost finishing multiyear degrees before the war started.

International students in Ukraine aren’t a particularly recent phenomenon. Over one hundred thousand of them had studied in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the existence of the USSR. The close ties between the socialist bloc and countries predominantly in the Global South, from which much of the current intake of international students is still drawn, persisted despite the collapse of state socialism. Many citizens of countries in the developing world have remained in Ukraine for years and had children and careers there. The main subjects that were studied by international students were medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, computer science, mechanical engineering, and aeronautical engineering, as well as business management, economics, banking, finance, and business administration programs.

In the first weeks of the war, I found myself involved in a number of grassroots online networks to help people escape Ukraine. At first, I seemed to be using my rather rusty Russian to help people with type one diabetes flee the country in order to gain access to insulin in Poland and Hungary. But the more time I spent in the networks of refugees based in Ukraine, the more I found myself meeting people from countries outside of the West and the EU.

These people, mainly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, faced huge difficulties in trying to flee Ukraine. Although some of them were technically eligible for support via the EU’s directive, border police pushed them back as they attempted to flee Ukraine into the EU. They faced racism and harassment for the crime of trying to cross a border during a war.

A lot of the people I encountered were international students, but many had also been living in Ukraine for years and so were permanent residents. They had been working in Ukraine for many years. Some were married and/or the parents of Ukrainian citizens, or their children were born there and had permanent residency. These networks of support and advice were facilitated by Twitter and Telegram groups shared by non-Ukrainian nationals to discuss the difficulties they were facing with one another.

According to many of the people I spoke to, border officials (and in some cases charities) encouraged other non-Ukrainian nationals to offer bribes in exchange for safe passage. Deprived of the international attention that has rightly been focused on the plight of Ukrainian citizens, these refugees often waited for hours without food or water, and were often neglected by international charities.

Online, the global network (onto which I had inadvertently stumbled) that had emerged to help non-Western nationals spread worldwide. I only came across it after a friend sent me a link to one of the many Twitter pages on which refugees discussed their experiences of how difficult it was for them to try and find safety.

International students are often viewed in the West as affluent. From speaking to and reading the testimonies of non-Western refugees online, it is clear that many of them have had to make massive personal sacrifices in order to study in Ukraine. The families of some of these international students sold their property back home just so they could study in Ukraine. Others had their families borrow from loan sharks. These lenders have gone on to harass the families of students who, stuck in Ukraine and in bordering EU countries, are unable to complete their studies.

Some universities held onto first-year students’ passports as part of their application process. Due to the war, these students couldn’t contact the university to go pick up their passports during a very active conflict. These individuals were forced to head straight to the border with hopes for the best, accompanied by their friends, many of whom were other non-Western nationals.

A considerable amount of the students used “education agencies” to help them with the visa and application processes in getting into a university in Ukraine. In exchange for this support, agencies ask students to pay lofty fees, even if they have fled Ukraine and are unable to continue studying. Some of these agencies have used horrific tactics to prey on students and scare them into sending them more money.

International students have shared with me letters they have received from these agencies. In these letters, which are often littered with spelling mistakes, agencies threaten to fine and report to Interpol students unable to satisfy these aggressive demands. Of course, these threats have absolutely no basis in reality. Interpol has far bigger concerns than chasing international students who have crossed a border due to war. The only point of these lies is to spread fear in order to make students fork out cash.

For the non-Western students who have remained in Ukraine, their main reason for doing so is the high cost of migrating. Some students had saved for years to be able to study STEM subjects, and it was their entire life dream to become a doctor or an engineer. While many Ukrainian universities have moved their classes online, remote learning has not been possible for dentistry and other practical degrees. The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria in June of last year issued a statement that degree certificates from Ukraine will no longer be honored by the of council “until when normal academic activities resume”.

The way the EU, UK, United States, and Canada have eased their border regimes for Ukrainian nationals should be a model for a more inclusive and open migrant policy for refugees of all nationalities. Instead, the EU bloc and its allies have reinforced a two-tiered refugee status system, grounded in ideas of citizenship that exclude some of the most marginalized people.