#

Jewish leaders and legislators were stunned to learn Tuesday that the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union operating in New Hampshire, voted to break ties with the nation’s most prominent Jewish advocacy organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The NEA’s national Representative Assembly voted Sunday to approve a resolution stating the NEA “will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.”

The ADL has provided educational materials and classroom content to address antisemitism and teach about the Holocaust for years, and is generally viewed as a political ally of the left-leaning teachers’ union.

However, the ADL has also supported Israel during its war in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas. Additionally, it has denounced some pro-Palestinian protests that it says devolved into antisemitism. For example, the ADL has declared the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” an antisemitic call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil-fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” said NEA delegate Stephen Siegel, according to the news outlet Mondoweiss.

Megan Tuttle, president of the 17,000-member New Hampshire chapter of the NEA, is listed as a delegate at the assembly. However, the NH-NEA declined to respond to requests for comment.

“It is profoundly disturbing that a group of NEA activists would brazenly attempt to further isolate their Jewish colleagues and push a radical, antisemitic agenda on students,” the ADL said in a statement.

“We will not be cowed for supporting Israel, and we will not be deterred from our work reaching millions of students with educational programs every year.”

State Rep. Paul Berch (D-Westmoreland), who is Jewish, told NHJournal he was “profoundly disappointed that the NEA has targeted the ADL.”

“Rather than attacking the messenger, the NEA should turn its attention to the rise of antisemitism in our elementary and secondary schools, as well as on our college campuses,” Berch said.

Across the partisan aisle, state Rep. Judy Aron (R-Acton), who is also Jewish, denounced the NEA’s actions.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, though, given the liberal issues they support,” Aron added. “Anti-Israel sentiment is one of them. I just wonder if the NEA’s Jewish members will think twice about what their dues support.”

One group that was pleased by the NEA’s actions is the anti-Israel Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“This principled move is a significant step toward fostering respect for the rights and dignity of all students in public schools, who must receive an education without facing biased, politically-driven agendas,” CAIR said.

The NEA and ADL clashed last year over a Massachusetts Teachers Association webinar on teaching Islamophobia and attacks against Palestinians that the ADL said were thinly disguised attacks on Jews and Israel. 

According to CBS News, the webinar featured two political science professors from UMass Boston, a member of the group Jewish Voices for Peace, and Merrie Najimy, the former president of the MTA. Yael Magen, a mother who watched the webinar, told CBS the whole presentation was “troubling.”

“It was so many inaccurate historical events that are very troubling,” Magen said. “There was a slide that said Israel does not equal the Jewish people. There was a slide that said that Zionism is oppressive and is a propaganda machine.”

The MTA would not provide the video for review, telling CBS News it was not available to the public.

Najimy was on hand for Sunday’s vote, rallying activists to ditch the ADL.

“Why would we partner with an organization that does us harm?” Najimy asked.

State Rep. James Spillane is a leader of the NH-Israel Caucus in the State House. He told NHJournal the caucus “sincerely hopes that the New Hampshire NEA and its delegates will assure our state that they condemn the actions of the national body, and they did not vote to support them.”

When radical leftist Elias Rodriguez murdered Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim on May 22 in Washington, D.C., the group Unity of Fields went to work.

On the day of the shocking murder, the group made its position clear with a post on Twitter/X, “We ain’t condemning sh*t.” They also posted a link to a petition celebrating Rodriguez and calling for the accused murderer’s release.

“Elias Rodriguez’s act was fully justified, at that place where legal and moral duties meet,” the group declared.

Who are these antisemitic extremists celebrating violence? They are the same Marxists behind the attack on Elbit Systems in Merrimack, N.H., just weeks after the Hamas terror rampage in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Elbit Systems is based in Israel.)

When Democratic Party activist Calla Walsh and her allies attacked Elbit, they were part of Palestine Action U.S. Today, they call themselves Unity of Fields (UoF), a reference to efforts by Palestinian terror organizations to coordinate their attacks on Israel and Jews across multiple fronts during the 2021 Israel-Hamas war.

Whatever its current name, the organization comprises the same collection of radical Marxists who surround notorious multimillionaire — and one-time New Hampshire resident — James “Fergie” Chambers. That includes Walsh, who wrote in a May 2023 essay for Unity of Fields that Rodriguez simply “brought the war home” when he murdered Lischinsky and Milgrim.

“[W]e must uphold armed struggle against imperialism, abroad and here, such as the alleged actions of political prisoner Elias Rodriguez, who brought the war home,” Walsh wrote.

Unity of Fields’ website hosts printable versions of Rodriguez’s terrorist manifesto as well as guides and manuals for conducting “anti-imperialist action.” It also posts reports from radical protests across the country, and printable posters celebrating people like Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack. Israeli soldiers killed Sinwar in October. 

On the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Unity of Fields issued a statement calling for more terror.

“If victory over the US Empire and its zionist [sic] proxy is possible, it will be because struggles against them have erupted all over the world — Bring the war home! Two, three, many Al-Aqsa Floods!”

Al-Aqsa Flood is the Hamas name for the Oct. 7 attack. 

Walsh, Bridget Shergalis, Sophie Ross, and Paige Belanger were all convicted of misdemeanor charges for their attack on Elbit, which was done under the Palestinian Action US banner. They were sentenced to 60 days in jail.

James “Fergie” Chambers interviewed from his new home in Tunisia.

Walsh and the other women have long been linked to Chambers and his Marxist Commune in the Berkshires. Chambers moved from the commune to the Upper Valley in New Hampshire to take advantage of the Granite State’s friendly tax laws and easy access to legal firearms.

Chambers is an heir of the wealthy Cox family, who has made his radical and anti-Israel sentiments well known. He called Oct. 7 “a moment of hope and inspiration,” and told Mother Jones magazine, “the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the US.”

Aside from hating America and Israel, Chambers is a big fan of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling Vladimir Putin a “great man.”

It appears that law enforcement has been very interested in Walsh, Chambers, and their friends. Walsh’s cell phone was seized by FBI agents after her arrest in Merrimack, opening up her contact list to federal investigators. Carrying a personal cell phone to an “action” is the type of security breach considered a no-no in the manuals published on Unity of Fields’ website. 

“Enabling my personal phone to get seized is one of the greatest tactical errors I have ever made; it exposed and endangered not only me but every single contact I had on that phone,” Walsh wrote.

After Walsh’s cell phone seizure, Chambers left his home in New Hampshire and moved to Tunisia in North Africa. Along with the stunning desert views, Tunisia offers no extradition treaty with the United States. 

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found the number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. hit a new record in 2024, and the Granite State contributed to that disturbing trend.

The audit, released Tuesday, reported 9,354 antisemitic incidents recorded in the U.S. last year. It’s the highest number since 1979, when the ADL first began collecting data.

Also noteworthy: It’s the first time most of the incidents (58 percent) were related to Israel or Zionism.

The ADL audit found reports of antisemitic incidents rose 51 percent in the Granite State last year, the highest rate of increase in New England.

The jump comes from two different ends of the political spectrum, according to Samantha Joseph with the ADL. 

Patriot Front, the white supremacist hate group, accounts for a large share of the increase, as do multiple leftwing groups behind campus protests this year.

“There continues to be a lot of white supremacist activity, and Patriot Front is responsible for the majority of that,” Joseph said.

But left-wing extremists also embraced antisemitism during protests against Israel’s war on Hamas, Joseph said. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, in which approximately 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds taken hostage, saw some left-wing extremists openly support Hamas within hours of the attack. Since that day, more left-wing extremists have been open in their antisemitic views.

For example, a group of progressive activists vandalized the Israeli-owned Elbit Systems in Merrimack just weeks after the Hamas attack.

“Oct. 7 is the watershed moment that changed the trajectory,” Joseph said. 

Tracy Richmond, with the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire, said keeping up with reports of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack is almost a full-time job. The federation works closely with the ADL to keep the community informed.

“Since Oct. 7, we have heard about more and more instances of antisemitism within our state,” Richmond said. “We work hard to make sure that the citizens of New Hampshire know they can reach us with any concerns, and we will continue fighting against hate as long as these events occur. This goes for our public schools, the private high schools, and all the colleges throughout New Hampshire.”

The ADL tracks protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, but Joseph pointedly said that protesting the government of Israel or its policies is not antisemitism. The ADL only counts incidents that cross the line into blatant hate mongering by protestors or organizers.

Some of those incidents include the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack being celebrated on the University of New Hampshire campus as part of the Palestinian Solidarity Coalition’s “Week of Rage.” During that celebration, protestors chanted the slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” widely viewed as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

UNH also saw protestors take up other Hamas slogans like “Smash Zionism” and “Globalize the Intifada” during protests held throughout the year.

In Manchester, a protest put together by a plethora of Marxist groups like the ANSWER Coalition, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Congress of Workers’ Organizations featured a speaker who said, “It is the Zionists, ironically the new Nazis of the 21st century, who by theology is rooted in Jewish supremacy. Although only specific kinds of Jews.”

But slogans and chants weren’t the only things tracked. Last year, Jewish students and professors at Dartmouth College were targeted with a threat of violence. An anonymous email sent to several Dartmouth offices justified the threat by citing violence against Palestinian women and children, as well as Islamophobia.

So far, New Hampshire has not been mired in antisemitic violence, though that is happening in other parts of the country, Joseph said. 

“We are seeing an increase in assaults, which is very worrisome,” she said.

The Israeli flag, the white and blue banner with the Star of David, is the official symbol of the state of Israel, one of America’s closest allies. And yet the City of Nashua told a federal judge Israel’s flag is too controversial to fly at City Hall Plaza.

The Pride flag, on the other hand, is more than welcome on Nashua city property, despite being an entirely political symbol of the LGBT movement.

Nashua’s Assistant Corporation Counsel Jonathan Barnes said flying Israel’s flag would spark a flood of angry phone calls and threats, while “reasonable citizens” wouldn’t be bothered by the Pride flag.

Those revelations came last month in federal court as part of the city’s legal defense against a lawsuit filed by resident Beth Scaer. The city rejected her requests to fly the Pine Tree Riot flag and a banner promoting girls-only sports on Nashua’s public flagpole. Scaer claims she’s the victim of viewpoint discrimination by the Democrat-controlled city. She is represented by the Institute for Free Speech and local counsel Roy McCandless.

In the wake of the lawsuit, Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess quietly ended the city’s community flag pole tradition.

During the Nov. 5 hearing before Judge Talesha Saint-Marc, Nashua’s Assistant Corporation Counsel Jonathan Barnes compared the Pine Tree Riot flag to a Nazi flag and a flag for the Soviet Union.

Barnes also brought up the city’s decision to reject a request by Nashua resident Nick Scalera to fly the Palestinian flag on a day set to remember the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He says that proves the city was not discriminating based on a particular viewpoint.

And, Barnes added, “If someone applied to fly the Israel flag, I would say you would probably reject that, too, because it’s just — you don’t want to wade into those waters. You want to be able to conduct your city business without getting inundated with angry phones, e-mails, and people threatening you on Twitter, or X, whatever it’s called now.”

Saint-Marc noted that “at one point the city accepted the Pride flag. That’s still a controversial position.”

Barnes responded by invoking American Freedom Defense Initiative v. King County (2016) In that case, ads featuring the images of Islamist terrorists were rejected by the transit system, which argued they weren’t suitable. AFDI sued, lost in the lower courts and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case. The district court ruled the space was a “limited public forum” and that the system’s restrictions were “reasonable and viewpoint neutral.” 

“In American Freedom Defense Initiative the ban on less controversial advertising was upheld. It wasn’t all controversial advertising,” Barnes argued.

“So, in the grand scheme of things, you know, there are Pride flags flown all over the country. The White House lights up with the colors in June. There are parades all over the country. There might be some people that are upset by that, but there are some people that are upset by the American flag. They would sooner (fly) the Soviet flag fly. Most reasonable citizens don’t find that subject matter to be controversial,” Barnes said.

“The Pride flag?” the judge asked.

“Correct,” Barnes replied.

“I think some reasonable citizens may disagree,” Saint-Marc said, to which Barnes replied, “Some might, but it’s less controversial than, say, a swastika.”

The city’s argument that the official flag of the nation of Israel is too controversial to fly, and suggesting that “reasonable citizens” would object, raised eyebrows.

“The City of Nashua’s terrifying argument demonstrates why free speech is so important,” said Institute for Free Speech attorney Nathan Ristuccia. “We cannot trust the government to decide whose views are too controversial to be permitted.”

Steve Bolton, Nashua’s long-time lead corporation counsel, tried to clean up the city’s position. He told NHJournal Barnes’ comments about Israel were part of a speculative argument that does not reflect the views of Mayor Jim Donchess or the Board of Aldermen.

“It was hypothetical, but that’s certainly not the position of the City of Nashua,” Bolton said.

Barnes was not in the office Wednesday and did not respond to requests for comment.

Israel is a United States ally and the only democracy in the Middle East. It’s also fighting a war against antisemitic terrorist organizations backed by Iran following the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in which 1,300 people were murdered. 

For his part, Scalera does not understand how Nashua is deciding which flag to fly. He said he was told the city would not fly the Palestinian flag due to the ongoing war.

“The City of Nashua has not shied away from flying the flags of foreign nations, especially foreign nations involved in active conflict. For example, in the wake of Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine, the City proudly raised the Ukrainian flag in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, as well as the Ukrainian population here in Nashua,” Scalera told NHJournal.

Scalera was also told by members of the Board of Alderman that Nashua would not allow a flag from a territory, like Palestine, that is not officially recognized as a nation.

“However, Nashua has also raised the flag of Kurdistan, which is at this point in time an autonomous region, and hopefully one day a nation-state, but nevertheless was not one at the time of the flag raising,” Scalera said.

Documents filed in the case show the city recently approved a day celebrating the Dominican Republic, which is currently accused of ethnic cleansing for its handling of Haitian refugees. The city also flew a Pride flag last year on orders from Donchess. However, a request for a pro-life flag to celebrate the overturning of the Roe vs. Wade decision was rejected.  

“Censorship,” said state Sen. Kevin Avard (R-Nashua) when asked about the case.

“It all boils down to whom the mayor and alderman of Nashua are comfortable offending and who they would rather not. The Pine Tree ‘Appeal to Heaven’ folks, or the Rainbow Flag-LBTQ community. It doesn’t sound like they want to hear from people of faith.”

And Rep. Judy Aron (R-Acworth), a Jewish member of the New Hampshire House and an outspoken defender of Israel, called the city’s actions “sad.”

“If the leaders of the City of Nashua can’t handle free speech, then perhaps the decision to end the traditional program is sad and disappointing but probably a good decision.”

Aron offered her own solution. “They should just fly a white flag of surrender.”

For years, the University of New Hampshire had a reputation for fostering free speech and a diversity of ideas on campus. But that reputation has been under assault of late, and now its standing in the latest Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) annual rankings for campus speech has fallen from third in the nation to 59th.

“I did not expect such a drop,” State Rep. Daniel Popovici-Muller (R-Windham) told NHJournal. He was the prime sponsor of a new law protecting free speech on campus passed earlier this year.

As disturbing as UNH’s fall may be, it still hasn’t hit Ivy League levels. The university with the worst free-speech climate in the country is right across the state line in Massachusetts: Harvard.

“Harvard University retained its position as the lowest-ranked institution for free speech for the second consecutive year,” according to the report. “Harvard, Columbia University, New York University all received an ‘Abysmal’ rating for their speech climates. The University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College round out the bottom five.”

Dartmouth College was ranked 224, one of the 30 worst-performing schools in the country.

The top five states: University of Virginia, Michigan Technological University, Florida State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and Georgia Tech. UNH, on the other hand, maintains pro-speech policies, according to the FIRE report, but the latest student survey exposes troubling trends. FIRE’s free speech report found a huge majority of UNH students (77 percent) support shouting down speakers with whom they disagree. Another 42 percent indicated using violence to stop speakers they disagree with is sometimes acceptable. 

A UNH representative told NHJournal the university has an excellent free speech climate, as evidenced by the many events held on campus.

“The University of New Hampshire has a long and proud history of supporting the First Amendment. Over the course of the last school year, UNH permitted a variety of Free Speech events across the ideological and political spectrum,” UNH Executive Director of Public Relations Tania deLuzuriaga said.

But the ACLU of New Hampshire criticized how UNH handled anti-Israel protests on campus, using the police to stop pro-Palestine protesters from setting up a large-scale “encampment” on campus. While police ended up arresting 12 people during the May protests, but all but one of those charged had their cases dropped. 

Popovici-Muller worked with FIRE and UNH when he created the free speech protection law (HB1305), signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu this summer. When he first started working on the issue in 2023, Popovici-Muller said, conservative and religious groups were being silenced at the school. 

“There has been a pattern of certain groups being treated differently from others when it comes to free speech,” he said.

The Christian group Free Exercise Coalition (FEC) had to lawyer up and file a federal complaint when it was denied official recognition as a student group at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law by the Student Bar Association (SBA) last year.

State Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) is one of a handful of Democrats who supported Popovici-Muller’s bill. She was a bit taken aback that more Democrats were not on board. The right to protest was instrumental in the fight for liberal ideals like civil rights, women’s liberation, and against the Vietnam War, she said.

“Free speech is a liberal, leftist concept going all the way back to John Locke,” Read said. “We need to uphold those values. If one side can violate basic rights, that will be used against us as soon as the power shifts.”

New Hampshire Democrats who saw Popovici-Muller’s bill as only benefiting conservatives changed their minds when the pro-Palestinian protests started, Read said.

It shouldn’t matter what the viewpoint of any particular group or individual happens to be, Popovici-Muller said. A public institution like a university must respect everyone’s right to speak and assemble. 

“You cannot stack the deck. If you have the power to stack the deck today in your favor, in the future it will be stacked against you,” he said. “The university is facing a very challenging environment where lots of people don’t understand treating all speech equally regardless of its content.”

As Granite State college campuses prepare for a new semester to begin in the coming weeks, the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire has written Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire urging them to ensure the safety of Jewish faculty and students.

“Our goal at the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire is to protect Jewish students and faculty, to ensure they are safe and feel comfortable on campus. It’s not our job to decide who gets prosecuted for breaking the rules and who doesn’t,” Federation board chair Tracy Richmond told NHJournal. “All we are asking is that the universities follow and enforce their own rules and policies, and that they do so consistently.”

In the letter, sent to Dartmouth’s Sian Beilock and UNH’s Elizabeth Chilton, the Federation wrote, “As you know, there has been a surge of antisemitism since Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Sadly, New Hampshire has not been immune, and our universities have faced the same disruptive anti-Israel protests as schools in other states.”

“Jewish students have the right to access education free from intimidation, harassment, and discrimination. Furthermore, there is no legitimate justification for students who encourage violence,” the Federation added.

Neither Beilock nor Chilton responded to NHJournal’s request for comment. And according to Richmond, the schools have yet to respond to the Federation’s letter dated July 25.

The fundamental message, Richmond said, is that institutions should impose the same rules on all students, and they should enforce them as well.

“We ask you to make it clear that activists cannot disrupt the functioning of the university without penalty. We ask UNH to protect viewpoint diversity, civil discourse, and the rights and safety of Jewish and pro-Israel students,” the Federation wrote. “We urge you to continue consistently enforcing rules and ensure that students and faculty that break them face disciplinary consequences.”

Both UNH and Dartmouth were rocked by protests in May, part of a national effort by pro-Palestinian and some pro-Hamas groups. More than 100 people were arrested between the two schools, the majority at Dartmouth. Nearly all of the people arrested at UNH recently had their cases dropped.

While some protesters focused their message on how Israel is waging its war with Hamas, others expressed anti-Jewish sentiments, including the antisemitic chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.” At UNH, protesters chanted, “U.S., Israel — go to hell!”

The antisemitism isn’t limited to campuses. Across the U.S., there has been a surge in anti-Jewish violence, including mobs pouring into the streets of Washington to protest a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Those protests featured the burning of American flags, waving Hamas flags, assaulting police, and vandalizing monuments with graffiti including “Hamas is coming.”

In New Hampshire, Marxist radicals with Palestinian Action U.S. targeted the Israeli-owned Elbit Systems facility in Merrimack for destruction during a protest weeks after the Oct. 7 terror attack.

The Federation’s letters to UNH and Dartmouth come as U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns denied a motion to dismiss the antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard, ruling that the Ivy League school “failed its Jewish students,” based on the evidence.

According to The Wall Street Journal, six Jewish students brought the federal lawsuit claiming they didn’t feel safe on campus and that Harvard didn’t punish antisemitic student protesters and faculty members. Stearns wrote in his ruling that Harvard’s public statements that it would discipline students and faculty accused of antisemitism were mostly “proved hollow.”

Richmond told NHJournal the Harvard ruling is a win that will help hold institutions, like colleges, accountable.

“I am thrilled Harvard is being held accountable and I believe they should have their day in court to explain their policies and behavior,” Richmond said.

Colleges already have rules in place protecting students from discrimination and violence, Richmond said. The Federation wants to make sure those rules don’t get ignored when it comes to protecting Jewish students and faculty.

“And if these institutions have rules in place, and Jewish students or faculty still don’t feel safe on campus — that’s the problem,” Richmond said.

“We wrote to UNH and Dartmouth to let them know that, when the new semester begins and students return to campus, the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire is here, and we will be watching.”

The extremist left-wing group behind the assault on Elbit Systems in Merrimack is under FBI investigation, NHJournal has learned.

As Calla Walsh set off smoke bombs from the roof of the Elbit Systems of America facility, images of her protest were pushed out on social media by Palestine Action US. The group is the American offshoot of an anti-Israel organization based in the U.K., and it gets financial support from local millionaire — and self-declared Communist — James “Fergie” Chambers. Chambers put up bail for Walsh and her two co-defendants after their arrest on charges stemming from the Merrimack incident.

Walsh’s connections to Palestine Action US and Chambers have caught her in the FBI’s crosshairs.

Merrimack Police Detective Kevin Manuele’s probable cause statement seeking court approval to search Walsh’s cell phone states the FBI is already interested in Chambers and Palestine Action US. 

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation was conducting an investigation into the group that was involved as well as their leader Chambers, who is known to the FBI,” Manuele wrote.

The FBI generally does not publicize details of ongoing investigations, but the information came to light as part of a court battle over Walsh’s cell phone. Merrimack police seized Walsh’s it during her arrest at Elbit, and the progressive teen activist has been demanding its return, according to court records.

Weeks after the November arrest, FBI Agent Kevin Leblanc took possession of the phone as part of that agency’s inquiry into Chambers and Palestine Action US. The phone has since been returned to Merrimack Police. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella won’t release it unless Walsh agrees to let Granite State investigators search it for information. In lieu of that, Formella’s office went to court this month seeking approval to look at the phone’s contents. 

Jeffrey Odland, Walsh’s defense attorney, is objecting on grounds that the attorney general’s actions violated her Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

“The State’s seizure of [Walsh’s] phone and subsequent request to search are constitutionally unreasonable due to the 184-day delay in the state applying for judicial permission to search,” Odland wrote. 

Manuele’s probable cause statement indicates there is likely evidence of conspiracy on Walsh’s phone beyond her actions with co-defendants Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis, and Paige Belanger. All four women have ties to Palestine Action US, as well as Chambers.

Palestine Action US spearheads attacks on Elbit, even publishing a since-deleted map of all Elbit facilities in the United States on its social media platforms. It also broadcasts messages to “shut down Elbit,” according to Manuele.

Walsh, a self-identified Communist and “anti-imperialist,” has a long history of protesting against Elbit. After a 2022 arrest at the Cambridge, Mass. Elbit facility, Walsh expressed her displeasure with police on social media.

“Cambridge pigs are still pigs. They serve to protect capital and empire,” Walsh wrote.

She also posted a message on social media calling Israelis “the scum of nations and pigs of the Earth.”

Walsh and Chambers appear in a photo together at the Cambridge protest which was shared by Palestine Action US, according to Manuele. Palestine Action US promoted the Merrimack incident with photos of Walsh, and it used the picture of a masked Walsh holding smoke bombs on top of the Elbit Systems building in later promotional images shared to social media.

Calla Walsh, Fergie Chambers and Paige Belanger protesting Elbit Systems on Oct. 30, 2023 in Cambridge, Mass. (Via Instagram)

Chambers is a member of the Cox family, worth about $34 billion, according to reports. Chambers essentially negotiated an early inheritance with the family trust, allowing him to walk away with a reported $250 million which he used to start a Marxist commune in the Berkshires, as well as a “People’s Gym” in the Upper Valley. He also supports left-wing protests and funds bail for activists like Walsh.

Chambers denied being a Palestine Action US leader, though he’s often described as a co-founder.

“PAL Action is not now and never was an ‘org,’” Chambers wrote NHJournal. “It is a social media platform that shares news of direct actions people have taken against Elbit or other weapons companies. We’ve shared things in Cali, VA, TX, MA, NH, etc. If someone sends us [something], we share it. Bears zero connection to who did it.”

When it comes to Palestine Action USA, Chambers is just another member of the organization that isn’t an organization, he said. Chambers got attention in recent months for his outspoken opposition to Israel, America and capitalism, among others. 

“Israel does not deserve to exist,” Chambers told LA Magazine. “It is a false state propped up by the West.” 

Walsh is a political star in her own right. She gained fame as a 16-year-old activist who helped push Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) to victory in a primary race against Joseph Kennedy III. 

Walsh is also an avowed fan of Hamas and Iran’s repressive, authoritarian regime run by religious fundamentalists. She recently took to social media to lament the death of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi because he did much to help overthrow the West through terror.

“Even if they don’t explicitly identify as communist, by dealing blow after blow to US imperialism, Iran, Hamas, Ansar Allah & the entire Axis of Resistance are doing far more to create the conditions for communism to be possible than literally any Western armchair communists,” Walsh wrote.

She also wrote last week that Iran, Russia, and China work together to help Hamas operate.

“Remember the full picture. The Palestinian resistance doesn’t take orders from Iran, but their capacity to resist would be much weaker w/o Iran’s support, and that support would be impossible w/o Iran’s close relations with China & Russia, which allows Iran to bypass sanctions,” Walsh wrote. 

But the latest news for Walsh isn’t all bad. The court order banning her from communicating with Ross and Shergalis was recently lifted.

Walsh said she’s looking forward to hugs with friends.

A woman with ties to a Massachusetts Marxist commune and who expressed support for Hamas days after its terrorists murdered 1,300 Israelis is facing justice in New Hampshire. 

A grand jury returned felony indictments against Paige Belanger, 32, of Alford, Mass., for allegedly being part of the violent protests at the Merrimack Elbit Systems facility, an Israeli-owned weapons developer.

Belanger is now facing state prison time on charges of riot, criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, and conspiracy to commit burglary for her role in the Nov. 20 incident during which smoke bombs were ignited from the building rooftop by protesters.

Belanger joins pro-Palestinian progressives Calla Walsh, 19, Bridget Shergalis, 27, and Sophie Ross, 22, on the dock. The women all have one man in common: multimillionaire James “Fergie” Chambers. He uses his family fortune to further his Marxist goals.

According to Canary Mission, a group that documents antisemitic hate, Belanger is a member of Palestinian Action USA, part of the antisemitic BDS movement. Chambers is listed as one of the American founders of Palestinian Action USA, though he told NHJournal he’s not a leader in the group. Belanger also listed herself as the secretary for the Berkshire Communists, a “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective” reportedly bankrolled by Chambers.

Chambers put up the bail to get the women out of custody after their initial arrests, something he told NHJournal he does for many activists on the extreme left.

The Marxist left is the prime mover behind many of the anti-Israel protests that have sprung up since the Oct. 7 Hamas murders, and the Israeli military response. The New Hampshire chapter of the Party of Socialism and Liberation coordinates many of the protests.

However, funding for the groups comes from sources closer to the mainstream Democratic Party. A recent report found billionaire Democratic families and major contributors to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, the Soros family, Rockefeller family, and Pritzker family, are also handing cash to anti-Israel groups that organized recent college campus protests.

Election Commission data by RealClearPolitics found congressional Democrats running for reelection have taken more than $6.5 million from the three major donors who are also bankrolling the anti-Israel protests roiling college campuses.

New Hampshire’s own Rep. Chris Pappas collected nearly $60,000 from the same people funding anti-Israel and anti-U.S. protests.

Belanger is due in the Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua June 13 for her arraignment.

Students protesting against Israel’s war with Hamas are “useful idiots” enabling a murderous terror organization dedicated to killing Jews, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday.

“This is a war… this isn’t a policy dispute. This isn’t some geographic border discussion. This is one group, a terrorist organization called Hamas that wants to wipe out every Jew on the planet. That’s like their written goal and they don’t shy away from that at all,” Sununu said during an appearance on Drew Cline’s WFEA radio show.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have appeared on the campuses of the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College, as well as at town council meetings and city halls. Chanting “Long Live the Intifada” and “U.S., Israel, Go to Hell,” they’ve expressed their anger over both the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, and the existence of the nation of Israel itself.

They are part of a national movement that began soon after the Oct. 7 terror attack, when Hamas members and Gaza civilians swarmed across the border into Israel and murdered, raped, and injured thousands of Israelis. Hamas still holds an estimated 128 hostages, among them five American citizens.

On May 1, a dozen protesters were arrested at UNH while trying to set up an illegal encampment on the campus. There were arrests at the Dartmouth campus in Hanover as well.

Sununu said the college students taking part in the protests are being used by groups with hateful intentions, like the Palestine Solidarity Coalition at UNH.

“They’re kind of using these students, as I would call them, useful idiots, frankly, to promote, ‘Oh, we’re just freedom fighters. This is genocide against Gaza.’ No, it’s genocide against the Israelis and it has been for 50 years now…” Sununu said.

There are numerous radical groups organizing the protests tied together by extremist ideology, and a willingness to work with governments hostile to the United States, according to research by the Network Contagion Research Institute.

Shut It Down for Palestine is an umbrella organization for several radical left-wing groups created on Oct. 11, days after the Hamas attack. Also known as SID4P, the group includes The People’s Forum, ANSWER Coalition, International People’s Assembly, Al Awda NY, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, and it has working ties with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist group dedicated to overthrowing the United States.

According to the NCRI report, the individual groups are part of an influence network tied to Neville Roy Singham, a far-left businessman who has allegedly disseminated Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

“The People’s Forum, IPA, and ANSWER Coalition serve as the conduit through which CCP–affiliated entities have effectively co–opted pro–Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti–American, anti–democratic, and anti–capitalist agenda. These three far–left SID4P Convenors are part of a network linked by close financial, interpersonal, and ideological ties to Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, a power couple within the global far–left movement with close ties to the CCP,” the NCRI report states.

Sununu said Thursday the college students getting caught up in the protest movement are easy targets for bad actors like SID4P groups, in part because they know so little about the history of Israel or the Middle East.

“When you don’t have good education in the classroom, the vacuum gets filled by social media and propaganda with these kids,” Sununu said.

Sununu isn’t alone in his view that the protests are being fueled by antisemitism. A Fox News poll released Wedensday found voters oppose the protests by a nearly 60-40 split. Large majorities of voters on both sides of the political aisle also decried the protests as both “pro-Palestinian” and “anti-Israeli.”

“About 6 in 10 voters say the protests are pro-Palestinian (62 percent) and anti-Israeli (58 percent). All other descriptions of the protests are under 50 percent, but not by much: anti-war (49 percent), antisemitic (46 percent), anti-American (43 percent), and pro-Hamas (42 percent),” according to the Fox News poll.

After months of concerns from district parents about his connection to anti-Israel protests, Andres Mejia, the head of SAU 16’s Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Justice (DEIJ) Department, is resigning.

The news comes just days after an NHJournal report highlighting the six-figure salaries some DEI directors are receiving from public schools in the state.

However, the district says there is nothing to read into Mejia leaving his post this month, well before the end of the school year.

Mejia did not respond to a request for comment. But SAU 16 Superintendent Esther Asbell said he simply needed to start his new job.

“Andres was asked by his new employer to be available as soon as possible,” Asbell said.

His departure was first reported by Granite Grok.

Mejia, reportedly earning a $153,380 salary, has been a controversial figure since first being hired. He serves in the leadership of the Black Lives Matter Seacoast chapter, which has been helping organize anti-Israel protests for months.

Like many similar protests that claim to be pro-Palestinian, the group started agitating against Israel immediately after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,300 Israelis on Oct. 7. Chants of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,” viewed by the Anti-Defamation League as a call for genocide, feature heavily at those demonstrations.

When at least one parent complained to Asbell about Mejia’s role in BLM during the anti-Israel protests, asking how he could defend students against bigotry when BLM was engaging in antisemitic rhetoric, Asbell defended Mejia.

“Upon review of (district policy) I do not believe our DEI-J director is in violation of the policy by holding a position as Vice Chair of Seacoast BLM,” Asbell wrote earlier this year.

It’s not the first time Mejia’s BLM association raised concern in the school community. Challenged by parents during a public meeting in 2021, Mejia refused to distance himself from the group.

“I am Black, and I can never separate myself from Black Lives Matter,” Mejia said. “My life matters.”

Since then, BLM Seacoast has publicly opposed having police officers in public schools, giving qualified immunity protection for police, and it supports having government monitoring of the personal social media accounts of police officers.

Though he’s not a classroom teacher, Mejia is also one of the lead plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit over the so-called “divisive concepts” law. The pending lawsuit was filed soon after the legislature passed an anti-discrimination law that banned teachers from “teaching that any one group is inherently inferior, superior, racist or oppressive.” The words “divisive concepts” appear nowhere in the actual statute, though the term is often used by progressives opposed to the law.

Ironically, Mejia is one of a handful of other DEI professionals whose role is to dictate what teachers are allowed to teach.

Asbell said SAU 16 is ready to hire another DEIJ director.