Monday, March 18, 2024

03/18 Links Pt2: Hamas used Gazan journalists for the Oct.7 massacre; Glazer’s Oscars speech condemned by Son of Saul dir.; Berkeley Is a Safe Space for Hate

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: ‘History has come for Israel, it’s come for Ukraine and it will come for the West next’
Weiss is known for her coverage of anti-Semitism in America, and calling out its manifestations is one of the things she’s best known for. Her first book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism, published in 2019, was spurred by the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh the previous year. But when we met in New York in 2021, long before the Hamas massacre of October 7, Weiss had told me that, as an American Jew, she’d always felt she could hold her head up high, in contrast to those of us in the Old World. “I had an arrogance, a sense that, you know, anti-Semitism was for Jews of other times, certainly, but also other places. And I remember reading about things that would happen, and places, especially like France, and thinking that could never happen here. I have been disabused of that idea.”

The America that has roiled and reared up since Trump, since the Black Lives Matter movement swept over, and since October 7, has illuminated a new reality for Jews in the US. Weiss explains: “When we’re free, when freedom and liberty thrive, Jews thrive. Because, by their very existence, Jews represent the freedom to think differently, the freedom to believe differently, the freedom to raise their families differently. What we’re seeing now is a turn against freedom. In the grand sense, there’s the turn against the idea, even of the free world and [there’s this] kind of moral equivalency, whether it’s from the Leftists who glorify Hamas, or Rightists like Tucker Carlson [who] glorify tyrants like Putin.

“It’s also coming internally from… elite culture here in the States. I’m sure it’s the same in the UK, where the ability to discern between free and unfree, good and bad, and better and worse, seems to have been erased. The fact that there are whole realms of American life where in order to succeed you kind of need to tamp down or hide your Jewishness is a sign of that.”

Weiss went on a trip to Israel in January with young producers from the Free Press. As well as having drinks with Douglas Murray, she interviewed Lucy Aharish, Israel’s first Muslim-Arab presenter, married to Fauda star Tzachi Halevy, who is Jewish, and held an event in Jaffa with Natan Sharansky, the human-rights activist and former Soviet prisoner, to whom Alexei Navalny began writing in prison. I ask her what she’d like to happen in Israel in the medium term, but she scoffs at the question, because she feels it’s none of her business.

“The thing that really struck me [about the Israel trip] was the clarity, on the right and left, like, we know what we’re fighting for. We know what’s at stake. We know how thin the fence is that separates civilisation from barbarism. And I think if you ask most Americans, even many plugged-in Americans, a question like, ‘Would you fight for America? What are you willing to die for?’ I don’t even think they would have the capacity.

“Many people, especially many of our elites, well, there’s no sense of duty and responsibility. Leaving Israel [was] walking back into a society that I don’t think has fully recognised the history that has come for Israel and has come for Ukraine, and maybe will soon come from Taiwan, will come for us. How can you even conceive of war if you don’t even understand what it is that people are willing to fight and die for? And what are you willing to fight and die for?” Weiss’s coverage of October 7 in the Free Press has largely reflected her stance of staunch support for Israel’s response and the moral importance of its fight for survival, especially in the face of global condemnation.
Fury over ‘sickening’ LRB article saying Israel leverages Shoah to ‘slaughter children’
For well-to-do Jews, Mishra argues, the Holocaust and an affiliation to the Jewish State, “turned into a badge of identity and moral rectitude”.

Now the essayist argues that “Gaza has become for countless powerless people the essential condition of political and ethical consciousness in the 21st century [...] it seems that only those jolted into consciousness by the calamity of Gaza can rescue the Shoah from Netanyahu, Biden, Scholz and Sunak."

Mishra goes on: “Many of the protesters who fill the streets of their cities week after week have no immediate relation to the European past of the Shoah. They judge Israel by its actions in Gaza rather than its Shoah-sanctified demand for total and permanent security.”

The piece has drawn widespread derision from Jewish figures. Writing in The Times, JC columnist, Hadley Freedman, noted “the left-wing intelligentsia only tries this kind of provocative thought experiment with Jews”. The JC’s Anshel Pfeffer tweeted, “There [are] plenty of ways of criticising Israel over the war in Gaza but writing 8000 words lecturing Jews that they are like Nazis and anyway the Holocaust actually wasn’t so special so they should stop obsessing about it says more about this pseud than it does about Israelis or Jews.”

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, wrote that the essay demonstrated the major challenge of “Holocaust inversion, especially when turned against Jews in conjunction with sickening blood libels.”

Political correspondent, Lahav Harkov, called the article “disgusting”, and said the writer’s use of “the concept of the Holocaust as a ‘universal reference point’ is part of the problem [...] It led to the idea that the Holocaust was not unique, and was also some kind of purifying experience from which Jews were ennobled and therefore supposed to behave a certain way”.

The argument over the LRB front page is the latest in a history of controversy between the journal and the Jewish state.

On 18 October, LRB published a letter signed by hundreds of writers which condemned Israel but failed to mention the October 7 massacre. The letter claimed, “The State of Israel commits serious crimes against humanity” and accused Israel of “genocide”.

The Hebrew Writers Association in Israel, representing 800 writers and artists, wrote a public letter condemning LRB for their initial response to the war. The group then denounced LRB when they failed to respond to their letter.
Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech condemned by Son of Saul director: ‘He should have stayed silent’
László Nemes, the director of acclaimed film Son of Saul, has criticised The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars acceptance speech.

Speaking at the ceremony on Sunday, Glazer said he and his producer, James Wilson, “stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.”

Glazer’s words have met with both applause and opprobrium, including from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who on Monday called them “morally reprehensible”.

The ADL posted on social media: “Israel is not hijacking Judaism or the Holocaust by defending itself against genocidal terrorists. Glazer’s comments at the #Oscars are both factually incorrect & morally reprehensible. They minimise the Shoah & excuse terrorism of the most heinous kind.”

This sentiment was echoed by Nemes, who – like Glazer – won the foreign language Oscar for a film about the Holocaust; in Nemes’ case his 2015 movie Son of Saul, about a Jewish prisoner forced to work in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. US Holocaust survivors’ foundation calls Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech ‘morally indefensible’

“The Zone of Interest is an important movie,” Nemes writes. “It is not made in a usual way. It questions the grammar of cinema. Its director should have stayed silent instead of revealing he has no understanding of history and the forces undoing civilisation, before or after the Holocaust.

“Had he embraced the responsibility that comes with a film like that, he would not have resorted to talking points disseminated by propaganda meant to eradicate, at the end, all Jewish presence from the Earth.”
This is how Hamas used Gazan journalists for the Oct. 7 massacre
PEOPLE WHO HATE Jews can be journalists, but they should not be reporting about the Jewish state. Therefore, Reuters is wrong to continue paying for pictures from photojournalist Doaa Rouqa, whose social media posts, revealed by HonestReporting, have celebrated rockets fired at Israel and called Hamas’s attacks “brave resistance.” Last week, HonestReporting also revealed a disturbing social media post by Reuters Executive Editor Simon Robinson, who shared an extremely problematic essay titled “The Shoah after Gaza.”

There is also plenty of evidence of journalists collaborating with Hamas that did not come through HonestReporting.

The IDF revealed evidence that two Al Jazeera journalists were active terrorists in Hamas. Mohammed Wishnah held a senior role in the terrorist group’s anti-tank unit and taught young jihadis how to fire anti-tank missiles and make incendiary devices. Ismail Abu Omar was found to have accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel on Oct. 7, going to Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Gaza-based journalist Muthana Al-Najjar entered Israel on Oct. 7 and shocked Israelis with his stand-up to camera reports from Kibbutz Nahal Oz as gunshots were heard in the background. He did not wear a press vest or a helmet to make him identifiable as a member of the press, and clearly did not feel under threat from the Hamas terrorists in his midst.

Al-Najjar filmed the kidnapping of terrified Shiri Bibas and her small children, Ariel and Kfir, instead of trying to save their lives. He also shared a picture showing two of the terrorists triumphantly stepping on the body of a murdered Israeli, with a comment translated from Arabic: “Their dead under the feet of the warriors of al-Qassam Brigades.”

While Al-Najjar actively knew he was part of a Hamas plan, others listed here might not have. But the line in the Hamas document that Dayan revealed says clearly that the terrorist organization intended to take advantage of journalists, and on Oct. 7 it did just that.

After HonestReporting asked questions about the Gazan photojournalists, reporters from media outlets that we put on the defensive interviewed me and asked what evidence we had. When I honestly – and perhaps foolishly – replied that we had merely raised questions and did not claim to have answers, I was attacked personally and falsely portrayed as if I had backtracked and undermined my organization’s report.

Ilana Dayan’s report and the others mentioned here answer the questions and validate the work that HonestReporting is doing as a media watchdog. We asked legitimate questions, and now the answers are out there.


David Collier: BBC Verify – a hostile land of make believe – part one
Everyone makes mistakes. But I learnt a long time ago that the true levels of integrity and professionalism are seen in how people react when things go wrong. BBC Verify was caught basing a story on the words of an Iranian regime mouthpiece. Its response was to deflect, deny and double-down. This reaction trashed its own legitimacy and reputation far more than the error itself did. Through its own actions BBC Verify confirmed that it will defend itself over and above the truth. Just like the used car dealer who spins you a line after he sells you a dud – BBC Verify has shown that it is not to be trusted at all.

Then, just to prove that the BBC is total oblivious to its own failings, just a few days after I caught them with the Iranian mouthpiece, I caught them making sourcing errors again. And before I had a chance to make all that public, they did it a third time. I had started off trying to check levels of bias in BBC Verify reporting, and I am now simply drowning in evidence. I have never had to do this before but because of the amount of information I need to get across, I am writing this as a series. When it is done, I will stitch them together in a downloadable PDF. But for now, this is part one. The headlines
A check of BBC Verify articles shows a clear bias against Israel
The BBC verify lens is set up to prosecute only Israel
The reliance on BBC Arabic destroys the credibility of BBC Verify
BBC Verify has numerous agency problems – resulting in articles consistently built upon unreliable witnesses.
Analysis of social media activity of the BBC Verify team underscores the bias.
Almost none of the BBC Verify team bothered to post anything until long after October 7
Some of the BBC Verify team have reposted the opinions of anti-Zionists and shared other fake news material demonising Israel
It is clear the BBC is wrong when it says BBC Verify do not have an (anti-Israel) agenda.
BBC Ignored Complaints About Journalists’ Anti-Israel ‘Terrorist’ Posts for Over a Year
The BBC ignored complaints about several journalists, including one who called Israel a “terrorist apartheid state,” for more than a year and even allowed them to report on the current Israel-Hamas war.

In 2022, HonestReporting uncovered social media posts written by journalist Marie-José Azzi, who is based in Lebanon and has worked for the corporation since 2019, that said Israel was a “terrorist” and “apartheid” state in tweets that were supportive of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

We also revealed a number of posts from an account belonging to Jordan-based BBC television and radio producer Layla Bashar Kloub, which described all Israelis as “terrorists” and suggested only Arabs have any right to be in Israel.

Meanwhile, UK-based BBC video curator Hala Hindawi labeled Israeli Jews “settlers” and accused the country of “targeting children” in remarks posted to her Twitter account (now X). The latter remark is reminiscent of ancient blood libels in which Jews were accused of killing children for their blood to be used in religious rituals.

We complained to the BBC in August 2022 that the posts breached the corporation’s impartiality and social media usage guidelines.

In response, the BBC said that while it could not comment on individual staff matters, such cases would be “dealt with appropriately” where its rules had been breached.

However, it appears the BBC failed to take action against any of the journalists named and, even more disturbingly, allowed them to work on the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
SIR MICHAEL ELLIS: It's no surprise to me that two BBC reporters have been exposed for 'liking' pro-Hamas videos - because anti-Israel bias is blatant at our national broadcaster
The BBC is a much-treasured national institution and its journalists provide an invaluable public service, often in dangerous circumstances.

But in recent months we have witnessed a disturbing erosion of one of its most priceless attributes: a commitment to impartiality.

While the BBC’s duty to be impartial is seen as so precious that it is enshrined in the Corporation’s Royal Charter as the foremost of its ‘public purposes’, its coverage of the Israeli-Hamas war is obviously not impartial.

And that puts it in dereliction of duty. Claiming to be neutral while in fact being biased is a form of corruption, as it skews the delivery of accurate and reliable news and diminishes the public’s trust.

It pains me to say that BBC managers are failing to stop the rot. Erroneous reports are not being corrected, or are aired without responsible checks. These have inflamed community tensions here in the UK and harmed diplomatic efforts internationally to end the violence.

Take the report last week that accused Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldiers of beating and humiliating doctors in a Gaza hospital.

Of course, such actions are very disturbing if true and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron publicly called for ‘answers’ to the ‘very disturbing’ claims.

But, as revealed in The Mail on Sunday today, two BBC journalists credited with working on the story, Soha Ibrahim and Marie-Jose Al Azzi, have ‘liked’ multiple online posts in support of Hamas, including videos of people in Lebanon and Tunisia dancing in celebration and waving Palestinian flags on the day of the October 7 terrorist attacks.

In addition, Ms Al Azzi described Israel as a ‘terrorist apartheid state’ in a now-deleted post from 2018.

How can the BBC claim to be impartial when individuals such as these are involved in its news-gathering? It responded to these findings by saying that it takes ‘allegations of breaches of our social media policy very seriously’. But, sadly, it is not the only instance of blatant anti-Israel bias at our national broadcaster.
The BBC is urged to suspend two journalists who 'liked' pro-Hamas videos celebrating the October 7 terror attacks
The BBC is facing calls to suspend two journalists who shared anti‑Israel posts or 'liked' videos celebrating the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on social media.

Last night, Nicola Richards, Tory MP for West Bromwich East and an officer for Conservative Friends of Israel, called for the Corporation to suspend the BBC Arabic journalists while it investigates.

Soha Ibrahim and Marie-Jose Al Azzi were credited with reporting on a BBC story which carried claims Israeli soldiers beat and humiliated Palestinian medics during a hospital raid in Gaza last month.

The BBC's report last week led to international condemnation of Israel, with Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron calling for 'answers from the Israelis'.

On the day of the Hamas attacks on October 7, Ms Ibrahim 'liked' videos of people in Lebanon and Tunisia dancing and waving Palestinian flags, and Egyptian football fans chanting 'we sacrifice our souls, our blood for Palestine'.

London-based Ms Ibrahim, who has worked for the BBC for 12 years, also 'liked' a post on October 7 which celebrated 'the first of the martyrs of the operation', it was revealed in The Mail on Sunday yesterday.

Meanwhile Ms Al Azzi, who has worked at the BBC since 2019 and is based in Lebanon, described Israel as a 'terrorist apartheid state' in a post from 2018 that has since been deleted, according to anti-Semitism researchers.

Ms Richards told the Mail: 'The BBC have got a responsibility not just in the UK, but around the world. People rely on them for impartial news.'

Antisemitism tsar John Mann said: 'Any journalist who likes anything that is overtly racist is clearly not credible. I am sure they will want to investigate these allegations thoroughly.'


The Islamist threat is all too real – Gove understands it needs tackling
Responding to the Government’s new definition of extremism, the Muslim Association of Britain called the move “cynical… Orwellian” and an “erosion of civil liberties”.

The response was a case study in how Islamists use the language of liberalism to pursue illiberal objectives. For the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is one of several organisations declared extremist by Michael Gove in Parliament last week. Previously, an expert government report called it “the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK”.

Its concern for civil liberties does not apply to those who criticise Islamism, comment on Islam in ways it dislikes, or depict Mohammed in ways it finds offensive. It demands “action” against those who blaspheme – even if the blasphemers are not Muslim. It is among the organisations pushing for an official definition of “Islamophobia”, a one-religion blasphemy law that would be used to limit scrutiny of Islamists.

British politicians and those with responsibility in wider society urgently need to understand who these extremists are, which organisations speak for them, and where their ideas come from. If they fail to do so, not only violence but political subjugation awaits us.

Extremists insist, and sincerely believe, that they act in the name of Islam. Sermons by some imams – held in British mosques, often broadcast online for all to see – quote the Koran and sayings of Mohammed recorded in hadiths to justify hatred and violence. One hadith claims Mohammed said, “The hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’”
Anti-Zionism Is an Abhorrent Ideology Regardless of Antisemitism
This strain of anti-Zionism, which encompasses almost the entire Palestinian national movement, has made it quite clear for decades in word and deed that the entirety of the land “from the river to the sea” must be cleansed of Jews, one way or another.

The October 7 massacre and kidnapping and the consequent humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas are the direct result of this strain of anti-Zionism. So is the entire nearly century-long Palestinian predicament. Anti-Zionism, not Zionism, has been the cause of every Palestinian refugee and death since before the establishment of Israel.

The second strain of anti-Zionism is the even more delusional Western form, the advocates of which insist that all they want is to dissolve Israel into a single “democratic” state of Palestine, with equal rights for both Jews and Arabs. Of course, there is no prospect of any such “democratic” Palestine: only the brutal, theocratic dictatorship of the terrorist organization Hamas or the thuggish autocracy of the PLO.

These Western anti-Zionists are apparently unaware that fewer than 10% of Palestinians support such a goal. Moreover, not only is much of the Palestinian national movement eliminationist, as mentioned above, but according to surveys on traditional antisemitic beliefs unrelated to Israel or its activities, Palestinians are among the most antisemitic people in the world.

Why Israel’s Jews would repudiate their national identity and suicidally dissolve their state to become a minority among such a people, is a question these anti-Zionists appear too detached from reality to answer.

The bottom line is that Israel has existed as a legal fact for 75 years, and calling for its destruction or dissolution is extreme, immoral, illegitimate, and a recipe for endless violence.

If the massacres and kidnappings on October 7 and the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s war of self-defense in Gaza are not desirable outcomes — and if people still believe in the international order and the illegitimacy of advocating genocide and the destruction of recognized UN member states — then anti-Zionist advocacy of any sort must be socially and politically stigmatized regardless of whether anti-Zionism is considered antisemitic.
The Communist Origins of Anti-Zionist Antisemitism
The antisemitism disguised as ‘anti-Zionism’ now sweeping campuses and cities didn’t just happen. It was a strategy devised by the communist bloc, particularly the Soviet Union.

The communists weaponized anti-Zionism as part of their war on the free world, and those seeds are still bearing fruit. In this event, you will hear about how it started, and how it’s still going strong with the same manipulative themes devised by the KGB.

This event is hosted by the Legal Insurrection Foundation.

We’re pleased to host Izabella Tabarovsky. Izabella is a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism. She is a senior advisor with the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center; a Fellow with The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) and a Research Fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism; and a contributing writer to The Tablet. Her writings have appeared in Fathom, Sapir, Quillette, and Newsweek, among others, as well as in several essay collections, including Jewish Priorities: 65 Proposals for the Future of Our People (Post Hill Press);The Rebirth of Antisemitism in the 21st Century: From the Academic Boycott Campaign to the Mainstream (Routledge); and Mapping the New Left Antisemitism: The Fathom Essays (Routledge). Follow her on X @IzaTabaro.

Legal Insurrection Foundation founder and president, William Jacobson will also participate in the discussion moderated by Kemberlee Kaye, Operations and Editorial Director for Legal Insurrection Foundation.
NDP's anti-Israel motion is a moral test for this country
The horrors of conflict and the suffering of Gazans under the yoke of Hamas’s belligerence are tragedies that cannot be overstated. Yet, amidst this turmoil, Israel is committed to increasing aid. The expedited construction of a roadway in northern Gaza to facilitate aid, collaboration with Jordan and Egypt to expedite assistance and the convening of aid organizations for efficient delivery, all attest to Israel’s earnest efforts to mend the wounds of war, not deepen them.

However, the NDP’s motion undermines these noble endeavours, misguidedly championing a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state — a gesture that serves as a trophy to Hamas’s campaign of nihilistic violence.

Such a move doesn’t just reward terror, it legitimizes it, emboldening Hamas as the de facto voice of the Palestinian cause, to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority’s already waning influence. This isn’t support for peace, it’s an endorsement of Hamas’s strategic objectives, an action that’s diametrically opposed to the assertion that Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, must never be allowed to lead.

Further complicating this debacle is NDP MP Don Davies’ tweet suggesting there is an equivalence between the innocent Israeli civilians who are being held under barbaric conditions by Hamas and the Palestinians who are being held by the Israeli justice system on terrorism charges.

There is no justifiable comparison between perpetrators of terrorism who were arrested under Israeli law, and toddlers and the elderly taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. Israeli prisoners have the right to access lawyers, to contact their families, to health care and to a trial in a court of law — none of which are afforded to the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

This isn’t foreign policy, it’s laundering Hamas propaganda through the halls of Canadian democracy, a dangerous false equivalency that dehumanizes the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre and emboldens the terrorists who are responsible for it.

And where does the Liberal government stand amidst this unfolding saga? Its tepid response is a far cry from the robust support one might expect for an ally in distress. If the Liberals stand for anything, this must be their red line. The Canadian public watches closely, their judgment poised to weigh heavily on a government that folds when its principles are tested.

The crux of the matter, the heart around which all else orbits, is the precipice on which Canadian foreign policy teeters. For half a century, Canada has championed a two-state solution brokered through dialogue and mutual concessions. This motion, if passed, doesn’t just tilt at windmills, it dynamites the very foundation of this longstanding policy, granting a victory to terrorists and making this beleaguered Liberal government look weak.

This decision transcends partisan lines and political calculations. It’s a question of who we are as a nation and what we stand for on the global stage. Do we side with democracy and peace, or do we capitulate to the demands of terror?

The answer must be clear, resolute and unwavering: MPs must reject this motion, affirm our alliance with Israel and uphold the principles of negotiated peace that have guided our foreign policy for decades. Anything less is a concession to terror, a betrayal of our values and a dark omen for the future of international diplomacy.
Jewish Canadians feel abandoned by politicians, police and you
Until now, members of the Jewish community in York Region have looked at what has been happening in Toronto and felt lucky to have YRP policing their community. The relationship had been fairly decent until the protests and the police reaction, or non-reaction, to what happened.

“They followed people to their homes,” Rabbi Rothman said of the protesters, who had one clear mission, to intimidate Jewish Canadians.

“We have people afraid to come now,” Rabbi Korobkin said.

Imagine people being afraid to go to temple to worship in Canada.

I’ve been going to Catholic church my whole life and I’ve never been afraid to do so. I’ve also never seen a police officer at a Catholic church unless they were going to mass.

At every synagogue I’ve been to over the past several months there have been paid duty police officers there as well as private security guards. The Jewish community has even had to establish their own rapid response security team to respond to incidents in conjunction with police.

While security at Jewish schools, community centres and places of worship has long been high, the measures have only increased since October 7. It’s no wonder that many Jews in Canada no longer feel safe or welcomed.


New Partnership Aims to Revive Black-Jewish Alliance
A new partnership has its sights set on reviving the formidable Black-Jewish alliance, which toppled the Jim Crow laws in the segregated south in the 1960s and prompted a massive expansion of social and civil rights in the US.

The Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a nonprofit which promotes academic freedom and free speech, is partnering with South Carolina State University and Voorhees University — two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) — on a project that will involve hosting a series of student and faculty seminars on the history of “Black-Jewish solidarity,” from the creation of Rosenwald Schools for Black children following the abolition of slavery to the advent of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

“As Jewish scholars fled Nazi Germany, they unfortunately found many barriers in the US academy,” AEN executive director Miriam Elman said in a press release sent out Thursday. “But an exception were HBCUs that provided visas and employment to 50 German Jewish scholars, saving their lives. Black and Jewish communities in the US forged a unique bond as a result of these experiences.”

Elman added, “This initiative will drawn on this inspiring history by empowering HBCUs to help combat contemporary antisemitism and disturbing efforts by extremists to create divisions between Black and Jewish communities.”

Funded by an AEN Antisemitism Education Initiative grant — a project aimed at promoting awareness of diversity in the Jewish community and campus antisemitism — the seminars will also cover the history of antisemitism, Zionism and Jewish self-determination, and the ways in which Jews and Blacks can come together to oppose contemporary antisemitism and anti-Black racism in an age of rising hate.

“This grant may mark a new beginning, but the bond between our communities is not new — it is steeped in history,” Voorhees University president Ronnie Hopkins proclaimed in Thursday’s press release. “Our students are poised to become the future leaders of various fields, including industry, business, science, and law. It is imperative they are equipped to combat all forms of hatred, including antisemitism.”
Dumisani Washington: The spiritual battle for Black America
As I grew up in a Christian home, the Nation of Islam, mainstream Islam or Louis Farrakhan were not topics of discussion, so watching this in my 30’s was a novelty. I was struck by how the pastors and the attendees so readily received Farrakhan’s obvious conflation of Quranic and Biblical theology. Clearly, he was deceiving the people and his reception was cult-like.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I heard Farrakhan’s antisemitic rantings. I’ve since lectured and written extensively about Farrakhan’s Jew-hatred, including in my book Zionism & the Black Church.

Though Farrakhan’s speech provides much to unpack, I will focus on the final five to six minutes. This is how the conclusion begins:

"What I gave is prophecy that you can find in the Bible and Quran, that Israel is not gonna stay in the Middle East … and when that war triggers all of the countries that it will trigger, the war of Armageddon will be all over the earth. China will be involved. Russia will be involved. … North Korea will be involved. And there’ll be no hiding place for anyone."

Farrakhan references the international war against Israel (at Armageddon) explained by the prophet Ezekiel and implies that the result of that war will be Israel’s removal. The Bible states exactly the opposite. Let’s be very clear: Farrakhan’s statement is tantamount to calling God a liar.

Shortly after, Farrakhan directly addressed Israeli officials attempting to reach Black American youth.

"This [younger generation of Black Americans] refuse to be controlled by the [pro-Israel] forces that controlled their fathers and their grandfathers. That is over! So, I say to Israel, 'Leave the Black youth alone! Don’t come into our community trying to kill us to satisfy your blood lust.'”

Let’s review. Louis Farrakhan:
-Suggests that Armageddon means the end of Israel.
-Infers that Black Israel supporters (many of whom base their sentiments on the Bible) are controlled by Israel/Jews.
-Warns Israel to “Leave the Black youth alone!” after attempting to indoctrinate Black youth with false prophecies, and
-Claims that Israel is trying to kill Black youth to “satisfy your blood lust”—yet another Jew-hating blood libel.

For over 3,500 years, leaders much more powerful than Minister Louis Farrakhan have declared the end of [the Peop;le of Israel]—and that the Jewish homeland would cease to exist. All of those leaders are gone. Israel is still here—and will always be here.

“'I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,' says the Lord your God." (Amos 9.14-15)


'He dumped Israel': Donald Trump accuses Biden of abandoning support
Former US president Donald Trump accused successor Joe Biden of abandoning his support for Israel and telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave office during an interview on FOX News with presenter Howard Kurtz on Sunday.

"And all of a sudden, he dumped Israel. That’s what he’s doing. He dumped Israel," said Trump in a clip of the interview.

After Kurtz interjected, Trump doubled down, saying, "I mean, he just said, essentially, that Bibi Netanyahu should take a walk."

Additionally, Trump called on Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza quickly, saying, "Do it [end the war] quickly, and return to a world of peace."
EU to sanction violent West Bank settlers as Hungary drops veto
The European Union is set to sanction settlers engaged in violent actions against innocent Palestinians, as Hungary dropped its veto of the move.

The United States and the United Kingdom have already issued sanctions against such Jewish extremists.For the EU to follow suit, it would need consensus from all 27 of its member states.

Hungary had been the sole country opposing such a step. On Monday, Budapest had appeared to drop its veto of the move as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Foreign Affairs Council, made up of the bloc’s foreign ministers, could level sanctions against Jewish extremists.

“We failed at the last Foreign Affairs Council having agreement on that. It seems that today all will agree on putting sanctions on both: Hamas and the violent settlers who are harassing Palestinians in the West Bank,” Borrell said.

A diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post that Budapest had considered it wiser to allow the issue of setter sanctions to move forward in exchange for movement on other issues, such as expanding the list of Hamas terrorists personally sanctioned by the European Union, the diplomat speculated.


Florida reviewing finance firm that punishes Elbit for protecting Israelis
As one major investment firm takes concrete steps to ensure its processes of rating companies are no longer affected by anti-Israel sources, another major financial company is being accused of engaging in practices that boycott the Jewish state.

Last month, Chicago-based Morningstar, which manages and advises on about $264 billion in assets, released a comprehensive report that it commissioned to address concerns that one of its subsidiaries has engaged in anti-Israel bias.

JNS has learned that the financial arm of the State of Florida is researching the practices at New York-based MSCI, a financial company with some $5.2 billion in assets.

Like Morningstar, which allegedly assigned damaging ratings to a dozen companies that it said committed “human rights violations” simply for conducting business in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, MSCI’s environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) ratings appear to downgrade companies for the same reason.

ESG ratings purport to provide socially conscious investors with information about the records of companies on the environment and human rights, but critics have long said that the ESG industry is steeped heavily in left-wing politics and on that basis, punishes companies whose business, often bound by fiduciary duties to shareholders, doesn’t align with its own.

Using a publicly available search tool on the MSCI website, JNS found that MSCI has tagged nine companies that generated ESG controversy ratings at Morningstar for doing business in Judea and Samaria with its own such ratings.

Those businesses are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bank Mizrahi, Caterpillar, CEMEX, Elbit Systems, Heidelberg Materials, Motorola and PayPal.
Non-Jewish students must fight anti-Israel initiatives on college campuses
In the months since the war between Israel and Hamas began, American college campuses have been rocked by anti-Israel, and, far too often, blatantly antisemitic incidents.

Many of these have been driven by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which describes itself as “a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice, and equality” and advocates for companies, organizations, and individuals to divest and economically boycott Israel.

BDS has also long been condemned for what many consider its role in fomenting antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment, particularly on college campuses, an issue which has received increased attention since Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack, in which more than 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed and some 250 taken hostage, which sparked the current war in Gaza and a surge in anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations throughout the country.

However, new polling by Schoen Cooperman Research, conducted on behalf of Israel on Campus Coalition, shines a troubling light on the danger Jewish college students now feel because of BDS and similar anti-Israel movements.

Further, the data reveals the necessity — and likely success — of a campaign that would mobilize Jewish students against the spread of BDS on campus as well as work to inform the broader student body about the dangers posed by this nefarious movement.

Alarmingly, the survey revealed that Jewish students on college campuses feel under attack solely because they are Jewish. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of Jewish college students say that as Jews, they are less safe on campus than they were before the war in Gaza began.

That number mirrors a report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Hillel International last November, which found 73 percent of Jewish college students reported experiencing or witnessing antisemitism on campus.
Berkeley Is a Safe Space for Hate
The antagonism between progressive dogmas like “equity” and the battle against antisemitism has become almost axiomatic. Audre Lorde, the godmother of intersectionality and contemporary grievance politics, once proclaimed there was “no hierarchy of oppressions.” In the activist left’s worldview, however, Jews, read as white or even “super-white,” are relegated to the bottom of the new pecking order. Antisemitism rates at best as a minor concern and at worst the excusable indiscretion of subalterns.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs also take direct aim at the dominant political ethos of most Jews in the post-emancipation West—which has not been socialism so much as liberalism. Emancipation in 18th- and 19th-century Europe was premised on the notion that Jews ought to be seen first and foremost as individuals, not as members of an amorphous, indigestible mass. Despite the ambivalence at the heart of emancipation, the liberal ethos enabled European Jewry to reach the fore of the continent’s commerce, culture, and politics in a few generations. Antisemites, then and now, count heads: How many Jews are in this profession or that institution.

Jewish organizations have wrongly responded to the rise in hate against our community in seeking inclusion into the DEI framework, incorporating education about antisemitism into their anti-bias trainings. At UC Berkeley, the diversity dean now sends out emails for Jewish Heritage Month, these having been added to the rotation of other vital communications about “Transgender and Nonbinary Empowerment Month” and “Becoming a LatinX-Thriving Institution.” Presumably, the diversity office would agree its mission of “perpetuating beauty in the center of injustice” through “actionable solutions that lead to transformative change” encompasses battling antisemitism. But only a fool would take them at their word: Anti-antisemitism and “anti-racism” have been made to rest on mutually exclusive predicates.

The disparity in DEI’s treatment of antisemitism and anti-Black racism gives up the game, if nothing else. DEI and “decolonization” also reinforce one another in a shared assertion that historically disenfranchised groups have more moral value and greater rights than others—including the “right” to commit senseless violence. The entire “equity” edifice must be demolished; to do otherwise nourishes a parasitic bureaucracy that traduces academic freedom, contributes to antisemitism, and spreads a poisonous anti-liberalism into wider society.
Ahead of Israeli Lawyer's Return to Berkeley, WFB Editor in Chief Asks: Do the Adults or the Mob Run the Show?
Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson appeared Saturday on CNN, where she previewed Israeli lawyer Ran Bar-Yoshafat's return to the University of California, Berkeley. Bar-Yoshafat's first appearance on campus was shut down last month by an anti-Semitic mob, and protesters are again planning to target his Monday speech.

"Mr. Yoshafat had to be evacuated, they broke windows, they physically harassed students," Johnson said of the ordeal. "Mr. Yoshafat is returning to the Berkeley campus on Monday in an attempt to redo this event."

"Protests are planned, and last month, after this happened, the chancellor of Berkeley said this was an attack on the fundamental principles of the university," she continued. "So I'm watching to see who runs this school, is it the protesters, or are the adults in charge there?"

Bar-Yoshafat's first Berkeley event, which was organized by two pro-Israel student groups and scheduled to take place in late February, was abruptly canceled after an anti-Semitic mob rushed the venue. Violent protesters choked a female student attendee, spit in another's face, and shouted "Jew, Jew, Jew."

Berkeley launched a hate crime probe in connection with the event. The school cited "two alleged incidents" of "overtly antisemitic expression," as well as "allegations of physical battery."

Berkeley administrators offered no apology to Bar-Yoshafat in the wake of the violent protest, he told the Free Beacon.
Jewish students in NYC area urged not to apply to Cornell University after antisemitic incidents: ‘Not a safe place’
A group combating antisemitism has mailed a brochure to all high schools in the New York City metropolitan region urging them to discourage Jewish students from applying to Cornell University because of perceived Jew hatred on campus.

“Considering Cornell? Cornell is not a safe place for Jewish students,” the group Alums for Campus Fairness claims in the brochure.

Cornell, the leafy Ivy League university in upstate Ithaca, is among the New York colleges being investigated by the US Department of Education over complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus.

A 21-year-old Cornell student was arrested last October for allegedly making violent threats against his Jewish peers in a series of online messages. The threats came just days after graffiti was scrawled on campus sidewalks, including “F—k Israel” and “Zionism = Racism.”

Meanwhile, Cornell University history professor Russel Rickford was caught on camera at a rally telling students that Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel was “exhilarating” and “energizing.”

Jewish students blasted his remarks as an antisemitic incitement of violence.

The brochure also noted that some Cornell student groups also defended Hamas’ terrorism.

“Cornell refuses to enforce the student code of conduct, fostering a hostile climate that endangers Jewish students,” the group’s brochure said.

Avi Gordon, executive director of Alums for Campus Fairness said of the brochure, “As a national network of alumni dedicated to countering antisemitism on campus, we felt an obligation to warn prospective Jewish students and their families about Cornell’s failure to protect our community.”

The group demanded that Cornell define and denounce antisemitism or adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s statement on antisemitism, which says, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
'Israelis should be burned to death’: Israeli employees experience wave of antisemitism
"I have been working at Amazon in New York for nine years, and until October 7, I have not experienced anything antisemitic there," said Michael (a pseudonym; all names in the article are pseudonyms), an Israeli-American who works for the company as a software developer.

"There have always been good relations between the Israelis who work here and the other employees. This is a company that has never had demonstrations, protests, or expressions of antisemitism, not even when Israel was involved in previous operations. But since the Black Sabbath, something has changed. It didn't happen all at once. It was a process," he said.

Manifestation of the antisemitism
"At first, there were small things, like being ‘forgotten’ from post-work social gatherings. Then, in office conversations, some employees denied the October 7 massacre and started talking about war crimes committed by Israel.

Some said that all Israelis should be drowned in the sea and similar things like that. It's unpleasant to hear, especially from people I was on good terms with, and now they see me as an enemy. Then they started sending messages in WhatsApp groups that I’m part of, like 'I stand with Palestine,' 'It's time to free occupied Palestine,’ and 'Israelis should be burned to death.’ On the walls there are Free Palestine stickers, and in the elevators, you will see graffiti in Arabic, I assume they are against Israel."

The magazine entitled The European Conservative revealed last January that Amazon employees were found to have been spreading pro-Palestinian and antisemitic messages after internal communication documents were leaked from the company. "It happened on Slack, the messaging platform," said Michael.

"They wrote that the Israelis were raping Palestinian women and beheading children. My main fear is that someday it will escalate from words to actions, and there is no one here who is really protecting us."

In the news, it was noted that several Israelis complained to the authorities about this.

"Supervisors are afraid to deal with the pro-Palestinian and Arab employees in the company and prefer to be neutral," explained Michael. "So neutral, it has become anti-Israel. I feel that I do not have the support of the management."

Amazon responded in a statement, "We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind in the workplace. We investigate any reported behavior of this nature and will take appropriate action against any employee found to have violated our policies, including termination of their employment."
Controversy at McGill : Pro-Palestinian protests
On Thursday, February 22, McGill students on their way to classes in the Bronfman Building or coffee at the Couche-Tard were faced with pro-Palestinian groups blockading multiple entrances to the building.

That morning, McGill Alert and Communications sent emails informing students that some classes had been moved to Zoom and others were canceled. Students attempting to attend class in the Bronfman Building were penalized by groups of students spreading hate and misinformation. As a Jewish and Israeli student, I, for one, will continue to purchase coffee from the Bronfman Couche-Tard, while proudly wearing my Star of David necklace.

This was not the first time that groups were chanting against Israel on the McGill campus – specifically against McGill’s student exchange program with Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem. However, this was the first radical protest right at the doors of a building funded by the Jewish Bronfman family.

In mid-February, a pro-Palestinian protest took place in front of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, a medical intuition initially founded to cater to Jewish patients and doctors, when no other hospital would allow a Jewish doctor to practice.

All students wishing to attend classes on Thursday morning were blockaded by anti-Israel protesters. Whether students agreed with the anti-Israel groups or not, they were not able to enter their classes. As a McGill student, I strongly emphasize that it should be our right to attend class as scheduled. Protests at McGill: inappropriate actions and antisemitism claims

A school building houses student learning and working faculty members. It is completely inappropriate and goes against McGill’s policy and city laws to block an entrance or exit to a building.

Protesting directly in front of Jewish-funded or Jewish-catered institutions makes it harder for groups to claim they are not antisemitic. The anti-Israel groups radicalized their cause by inappropriately taking that right away from students.
Fairfax Schools To Let Students Opt Out Of Holocaust Lesson, Citing Students With ‘Different Experiences’
Fairfax County contains a hotbed of Muslim extremism. A mosque there, attended by several 9/11 hijackers as well as the Fort Hood terrorist, was presided over by the father of Abrar Omeish, who until this year was a member of the Fairfax County school board. Omeish voted against an FCPS resolution offering a moment of silence for victims of 9/11 and another for victims of October’s Hamas attacks on Israel, said the decisive World War II victor at Iwo Jima was “unfortunate,” and gave a graduation speech encouraging students to “remember your jihad” and reject capitalism.

Jennifer Katz, a founding member of United Against Anti-Semitism and a Jewish parent of two FCPS students, told The Daily Wire that hearing from a Holocaust survivor is supposed to be emotionally difficult, and is part of gaining a full understanding of the tragedy.

“If a specific student is directly tied to the Holocaust or a Holocaust survivor, and the topic is too sensitive for them, then it can be handled on an individual basis. To make a blanket opt out option is misguided and wrong,” she told The Daily Wire.

“Given the hostile climate for many Jewish students nationwide, mandatory Holocaust education is more important than ever. The Holocaust is more than just learning that six million Jews were killed, it’s learning how this was able to happen in the first place,” she said.

The opt-out of the Holocaust lesson in FCPS, whose school board is entirely Democrat, is a reversal from the Left’s position on opt-outs on topics like transgenderism and anti-racism, which typically holds that hard truths are often uncomfortable, that it is the role of a school to instill certain values, and that on some issues, there are not two sides, but only good and evil.

“When a parent chooses to censor a lesson over its content, their child loses the opportunity to engage with a different perspective. This robs the child of the benefits to critical thinking, social development, and civic engagement that come from grappling with diverse perspectives. In engaging with difference, we promote the type of informed thinking that forms the bedrock of democracy. In avoiding difference, we stifle it,” an education researcher wrote in Time Magazine, layout out the dominant view of Democrat politicos, who have sought to prevent parents from opting their students out as schools have increasingly pushed Democrat politics under the guise of diversity and inclusion, social emotional learning, sed ed, and other topics.


PreOccupiedTerritory: The Jewish Corpses Didn’t Resist, So It Wasn’t Rape by Muhammad El-Kurd, Palestine activist and commentator (satire)
We’ve all had quite enough of the over-the-top descriptions of Hamas actions on October 7. The Zionist narrative has become so pervasive and has colonized the media, so that all one hears in relation to that date is about Palestinian brutality and depravity, with only marginalized but brave voices questioning the dishonest framing about Hamas “raping even the corpses” near Gaza. It’s not rape because the bodies didn’t resist. I can’t believe so many people don’t understand that.

You can talk all you want about beheadings, mass murder, and other acts of legitimate resistance, but we cannot ignore the falsehoods. Those undermine the entire set of Zionist claims. Even the incidents caught on camera show not a single Israeli corpse trying to stop the men having sex with them. They weren’t drugged or asleep, either. And they didn’t say a word to indicate any refusal! I swear, this feminism thing has gone too far. And now it’s being weaponized against Palestinians.

We should have expected this. Every social and political sin gets wielded against us. No one even lets us hijack airplanes anymore – remember that?! I guess I wonder why I thought things might proceed differently.

Do not even get me STARTED on the “taboo” against baking a baby to death in the oven while you gang-rape his mother. The baby certainly didn’t say “No” either. If that even happened. Like the Holocaust.


Guardian revives last month's Hamas aid convoy libel
The IDF’s investigation of was based in large measure on aerial sattelite footage of the incident.

The IDF said that a second incident occurred a short time later at another spot at El-Nabusi Square, where armed Palestinians reportedly fired on the trucks and stole supplies. In the third stage, a large group of Palestinians descended on the trucks, but also came close to surprised Israeli forces stationed nearby to protect the deliveries. According to the IDF, once the large group of Palestinians were a few dozen meters away from forces, they fired in the air and issued warnings to stay away. When the same Palestinians reportedly continued to come closer to forces, they fired at the Palestinians’ legs.

What’s even more telling is that Emma Graham-Harrison is the same reporter who co-wrote a Guardian article on March 1st about that very incident – an article which included not only Israel’s denial, but also the testimony of a Palestinian eye-witness which backed the military’s version of events. The Guardian journalist, presumably in order to give credence to the Israeli ‘siege within a siege’ narrative of ‘aid workers’ in the current article, decided to promote a Hamas libel that she knew Israel refuted.

We complained to editors asking that they revise the sentence in question to more accurately reflect the available evidence regarding the incident.
BBC News in ‘can’t be bothered to do journalism’ mode on aid convoy story
As reported by the Times of Israel and others, contrary to the BBC’s portrayal, the Hamas health ministry did not merely ‘say’ that “20 people had been killed as they waited for aid”: it directly accused Israeli forces of having killed them:
“The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip accused Israeli troops of opening fire from “tanks and helicopters” at the civilians gathered at Kuwait Square late Thursday, killing 21 people and wounding more than 150 others.”

Just after noon on March 15th the IDF published the results of its investigation into the Hamas allegations, including video footage.
““A review of our operational systems and IDF troops [on the ground] found that no tank shelling, airstrike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan crowd in the area of the aid convoy,” the military said.

The IDF also issued aerial footage of what it said showed Palestinian gunmen opening fire amid the crowd during the first incident, an hour before the aid trucks had arrived.”

The original version of this BBC report was amended to include parts of that statement at around 13:00 Israeli time. Nevertheless, at least five subsequent versions of the report, including the one currently appearing on the BBC News website, continued to amplify a terrorist organisation’s propaganda that had not been verified by the BBC and that ‘he said – she said’ account.

Notably, readers of this report are not provided with any background information, including on relevant topics such as Hamas’ efforts to incite violence during Ramadan, Hamas’ record of stealing humanitarian aid or the activities of armed criminal gangs which loot aid and then sell it at inflated prices.

There is of course no excuse for the BBC’s ‘can’t be bothered to do journalism’ presentation of this story which results in the failure to inform BBC audiences what happened – and what did not – and the uncritical amplification of any and every old propaganda put out by a terrorist organisation.


Global News Gives Airtime To Pro-Palestinian Activist Yara Shoufani Who Defends Hamas Terrorism
All it would take is a simple 2-minute Google search to find out who Yara Shoufani is (a pro-Palestinian activist who defends Hamas terrorism) but it seems that Global News Toronto can’t even be bothered to do that in advance of its reporting, which raises the question: Does Global News do any due diligence prior to choosing who to give a platform to?

Case in point, on March 16, Global News Toronto covered a protest outside the King Edward Hotel where Prime Minister Trudeau was having a fundraising event.

During the protest, Global News interviewed Yara Shoufani. What was left untold by Global News is that Shoufani is a senior member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, a group that openly celebrated Hamas’ October 7 massacre of 1,200+ Israelis.

As we exposed previously, the day before Hamas’ genocidal massacres on October 7, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, a federal research-funding agency, announced two grants each valued at $105,000 of taxpayer money, awarded to Yara Shoufani, a researcher at York University for her PhD for her work entitled: “Palestinian Urban Displacement in Israel: Anti-Colonialism and the Right to the City.”

During the interview with Global News, Shoufani said the following:
“The Prime Minister thinks that it is appropriate to host a fundraising event with $1,700 tickets for purchase, while his government continues to send arms to Israel on month six of its ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

Not only did Global News give Shoufani a platform to spread disinformation, but the news outlet seemingly did not know who it was talking to, as Yara Shoufani has a long and sordid history of making statements that reasonable Canadians would find appalling.


October Rockets Reuters Makes Hezbollah Attacks A Thing of the Past
Alongside the rocket attacks, Hezbollah drone and deadly anti-tank attacks have continued regularly until March 13 (and since, with the most recent rocket attack targeting Shtula, Shumra, Zarit and Even Menachem as these words are written, at 5:15 am ET, March 17). The Institute for National Security Studies details (screenshot at left) Hezbollah’s daily attacks against Israeli targets through Feb. 20 (along with IDF strikes against Hezbollah). Indeed, there have been many, many more Hezbollah attacks against Israel, rockets and otherwise, since October than in October. Daily reports detailing Hezbollah attacks on Israel are also available at the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, and are updated (as of this writing) until March 14.

Many of Hezbollah’s attacks have been deadly, killing numerous civilians along with soldiers. Most recently, on March 4, Hezbollah’s anti-tank fire killed a foreign agricultural worker in Moshav Margaliot and injured nine more. On Jan. 14, a Hezbollah missile attack killed an elderly mother along with her son at their home in Kfar Yuval. Electrician Shalom Aboudi was killed by a Hezbollah missile attack Nov. 12, as he attempted to repair lines damaged in an earlier Hezbollah strike. Additional civilian casualties killed in Hezbollah attacks since October include 60-year-old Eyal Uzan (Dec. 7);

Nearly 100,000 Israelis from the north are still evacuated from their homes because of the ongoing Hezbollah fire.

Though CAMERA communicated with editors about the misrepresentation of Hezbollah attacks as a phenomenom of the past, Reuters has yet to amend the misleading passage falsely suggesting that Israel is the only


MEMRI: Chinese Foreign Ministry Official To Hamas Leader Isma'il Haniya: Hamas Is Part Of The Palestinian National Fabric; China Will Maintain Its Ties With It
On March 17, 2024, a Hamas delegation led by Isma'il Haniya, head of the movement's political bureau, met in Qatar with Wang Kejian, an official in the Chinese foreign ministry. The meeting was also attended by China's ambassador to Qatar, Cao Xiaolin. According to a statement issued by Hamas after the meeting, China, unlike the U.S. and some European countries, recognizes it as a legitimate part of the Palestinian fabric.

The following are details about the meeting, as presented in Hamas' statement.

Posted on Hamas' Telegram channel, the statement notes that the sides discussed "the political developments on the ground that are relevant to the situation in the Gaza Strip, the ways to stop the war our [Palestinian] people are facing, and the delivery of urgent aid to rescue [the people], especially in light of the killing, starvation, massacres and attempts to create chaos."

Haniya said that he was "proud of the close relations between the two friendly peoples" and hailed the role played by China in the UN, the Security Council and the International Court of Justice, as well as the aid it has dispatched to the Gaza Strip. The statement adds that Haniya "stressed the need to act quickly to stop the aggression and massacre, cause the occupation army to withdraw [from the Gaza Strip], return the displaced [Gazans to their homes] and provide what is needed to rebuild [the Strip]. In addition, [he called] to promote the political goals and aspirations, namely the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and to implement the [Palestinians'] right of return and right to self-determination."

Kejian, for his part, "stressed the close and historical relations between the Palestinian and Chinese peoples, as well as China's unwavering positions on the Palestinian issue and its support of the Palestinian people's just demands for freedom, independence and the establishment of the Palestinian state." He [too] called to stop the war, end the killing of the Palestinians and meet their humanitarian needs. The statement noted that he "emphasized that the Hamas movement is part of the Palestinian national fabric and that China is acting to preserve the relations with it."[1]
PMW: PA hypocrisy: Embrace Hamas or condemn Hamas based on political expediency
The PA received much attention over the weekend for having condemned Hamas. However, it is important to recognize that the Fatah statement was not a condemnation or an attempt to distance itself from the atrocities of October 7 nor from Hamas terror in general. It was merely an issue of internal politics, reflected by criticism of a statement by Hamas attacking Mahmoud Abbas.

Regarding the October 7 atrocities, the PA and Fatah have emphasized that they are proud to have never condemned Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash explained:
“From the leadership, from President Mahmoud Abbas to the last of the people in the Palestinian leadership – has anyone heard from us one word against the Hamas Movement or against any Palestinian?”

[Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 6, 2023] 

On the contrary, the PA and Fatah have consistently defended, justified, and glorified the October 7 massacre. Fatah Jenin branch member Abd Al-Rahman Abu Al-Rub gloated:
“We say to our people and to the members of the Palestinian people: A morning of victory, and morning of joy, a morning of pride. We ask Allah to send a blessing to our heroic Martyrs in the Gaza Strip … We [call] to all our brothers and to all our Palestinian people that they are compelled to take action and participate in this story of heroism.”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 8, 2023]

At the end of November, when everyone knew the details of the horrific rapes, torture, and slaughter, Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub described the October 7 massacre as heroic:
“What happened on October 7 was an earthquake, an unprecedented incident, and a war of defense full of epics and acts of heroism that the Palestinian people has been waging for 75 years.”

[Al-Anba, Kuwaiti news website, Nov. 26, 2023]


Keep Iranian funds frozen, 12 attorneys general tell Biden
Washington must stop releasing money to Iran, the attorneys general of Iowa, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden in mid-March.

“Your administration has already given almost $1 billion to the U.N. agency that employed terrorists. We urge you to stop before compounding the problem by giving access to as much as $10 billion to one of the world’s top funders of terrorism—Iran,” the 12 chief state lawyers wrote.

JNS reported in December that a Biden administration official revealed, seemingly for the first time, that Iran had made “transactions” on funds released by Washington.

“As our states’ top law enforcement officials, we write, five months after the horrific Iran-sponsored terror attack on Israel and five months into non-stop Iran-sponsored terrorism directed against U.S. interests, to urge you to stop giving sanctions relief to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the 12 wrote.


Alternate Reality: Iran Becomes President of UN Conference on Disarmament
he Islamic Republic of Iran assumes the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament on Monday, a rotating position that will keep Iran in control over the international body from March 18 to March 29, and from May 13 to May 24.

The 2024 session of the body, which is the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, is divided into three successive parts: from January 22 to March 28, from May 13 to June 28, and from July 29 to September 13.

In addition to Iran, Israel, India, Iraq and Ireland are also set to preside over the conference this year.

The irony of Iran leading this body becomes amazingly clear when considering the agenda of this year’s conference, as announced by the UN Office at Geneva and quoted by Iran’s Nour News:
1. cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament;
2. prevention of nuclear war;
3. formation of a comprehensive program of disarmament; and
4. transparency in armaments, among other issues.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran holding this position while developing a nuclear bomb and being found to have committed serious human rights breaches is an embarrassment for the UN system,” the Liberal Senator for Tasmania and Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Claire Chandler wrote in a post Monday on the X social media platform.

“We urge all world leaders to STOP legitimizing a radical regime that sponsors terrorism around the globe, kills its own people for protesting for their human rights, and is racing to build a nuclear bomb to threaten the world,” UN Watch director Hillel Neuer wrote on a petition seeking 12,800 signatures.


Mahsa Amini’s Death in Iran Custody Was ‘Unlawful’, Says UN Mission
A fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations said on Monday that the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of Iran‘s morality police was “unlawful” and caused by violence and that women in the country remain subjected to wide-ranging discrimination.

The death of 22-year-old Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, in Sept. 2022 while in custody for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed months of mass protests across Iran. Her death marked the biggest challenge to Iran‘s clerical leaders in decades.

“Our investigation established that her death was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities,” Sara Hossain, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She said the protests that followed were marked by “egregious human rights violations,” including extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, and ill-treatment, as well as rape and sexual violence.

“These acts were conducted in the context of a widespread and systematic attack against women and girls, and other persons expressing support for human rights,” Hossain said.

“Some of these serious violations of human rights thus rose to the level of crimes against humanity.”


Austrian Government Announces News Measures to Counter ‘Orgy of Hatred’ Targeting Jews
In a bid to counter what she called the “orgy of hatred” targeting the Jewish community, Austria’s constitutional minister on Monday announced that the central European country’s strategy against antisemitism would be enhanced by a series of measures focused on the internet.

Addressing a press conference in Vienna, Karoline Edtstadler unveiled a package of 15 goals to reduce antisemitic agitation online. These include the use of AI to detect and combat antisemitic hate speech, a campaign across all media formats warning of the dangerous consequences of antisemitism, enabling the Austrian Communications Authority to impose stricter regulations on online platforms under the terms of Austria’s Digital Service Act, and organizing a summit sponsored by the federal chancellery to address antisemitism online that will include the relevant stakeholders.

Describing the measures, Edtstadler emphasized that “the internet is not a legal vacuum.”

The minister’s announcement came less than a week after the IKG, Austria’s Jewish representative organization, disclosed new data showing that 2023 was the worst year for antisemitism in Austria since it began maintaining records in 2008.

A total of 1,147 incidents were reported — a 60 percent increase on the previous year’s total of 719 incidents. The vast majority of last year’s incidents occurred after the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
French Holocaust memorial damaged in act of vandalism
A facade for the Shoah Memorial in Drancy, France was damaged in an act of vandalism last Tuesday, said local authorities.

The Seine-Saint-Denis Prefect Jacques Witkowski condemned the smashing of the glass window, the prefecture said Tuesday.

"The Seine-Saint-Denis Prefecture is outraged by this antisemitic act which targets a place of memory," the local authority said on X on Wednesday.

Drancy was an internment camp for Jews en route to death camps

The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CFIF) and the European Jewish Congress said on Wednesday and Thursday that the targeting of the Drancy memorial was aimed at erasing the memory of Holocaust victims and the history of antisemitism.

According to the memorial center, the Paris suburb of Drancy was the site of a World War II internment camp for Jews, where they were held until deportation to German extermination camps. Between 1942 and 1944, "approximately 63,000 of the 76,000 Jews deported from France went through Drancy."
Trial begins for UK neo-Nazi who attempted to attack immigration lawyer
Prosecutors in the United Kingdom began to lay out their case against Cavan Medlock, 31, for alleged threats in September 2020 against an attorney, Toufique Hossain, while bringing a knife, handcuffs, and Confederate and Nazi flags into a law firm, according to news reports in the British media.

Medlock, who was also accused of preparing to unleash acts of terrorism, pleaded not guilty to attempting to attack Hossain.

But witnesses such as trainee attorney Efrat Idelson at the Duncan Lewis law firm in Harrow, a town in Greater London, say otherwise. “He was very violent, aggressive, and his comments were very racist and antisemitic,” said Idelson, who witnessed the attack, wrote the BBC.

Medlock made his views clear in interviews with police: “I would say I was a National Socialist, yeah, and I do believe Hitler should have won.”

He said he brought confederacy and swastika flags with him to the law firm as a rallying call, part of his goal to “inspire other nationalists.”

Evidence seized from Medlock’s phone suggested that he had researched Hossain and targeted the attorney due to his focus on immigration.


Florida Chabad synagogue and community center set aflame in arson
The Florida Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center was ravaged by a fire in an act of arson early Saturday morning, causing damage to the synagogue, Hebrew school, and community center, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, Fort Lauderdale Police Department, and Las Olas Chabad said.

Security footage showed a man placing what appeared to be a flammable substance into the grill of a minivan parked outside the center. The arsonist, in custody and identified by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department as Scott Hannaford, 50, had attempted to set fire to other objects outside the center, including what appeared to be an electrical box. Fire Rescue said on Saturday on social media that the fire leaped from the vehicle to the building.

Hannaford had come prepared with materials needed to commit arson, and it did not seem a crime of opportunity but a targeted attack, Las Olas Chabad codirector Rabbi Chaim Slavaticki told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. His belief was informed by previous interactions with the alleged arsonist.

“It’s not just an attack on the community, it’s an attack on the entire city and the Jewish people,” said Slavaticki.

Events that proceeded the fire
The Friday evening before the fire, the alleged arsonist had blocked the rabbi and his wife from entering an alleyway by the facility when they sought to park the car before Shabbat and a Hebrew School family dinner. Slavaticki said that the arsonist screamed at the rabbi and raised his middle finger.

The Chabad had negative interactions with Hannaford in the past, but Slavaticki said that while the center’s neighbors saw Hannaford around the area, they didn’t have such clashes with him. Consequently, Slavaticki personally believed that Hannaford was targeting the Jewish community.

FLPD said that based on the information it had at the time, the arson was an isolated incident and was not considered a hate crime. Hannaford was a transient suffering from mental illness and has been charged with arson, criminal mischief, and possession of cocaine.


Pro-Hamas Goons Target Effy’s Cafe on NYC’s Upper West Side
New Yorkers living on the city’s Upper West Side of Manhattan came together on Monday to help the owners of the popular kosher Effy’s Cafe clean up a horrific, vicious mess left by pro-Hamas anarchists.

This is not the first time the cafe has been targeted.

In response, X social media user Shai Davidai wrote, “No other way to say this: A kosher restaurant was targeted for for being Jewish. This is happening in the zip-code with one of the highest concentration of Jews in the US. We will not let them replay the 1930s in Germany. This time we’re fighting back.”

On the sidewalk in front of the Israeli Jewish eatery, located on West 96th Street, spray-painted in large black capital letters, was the following: “FORM LINE HERE TO SUPPORT GENOCIDE.”

The front windows and door were slathered with huge amounts of red paint that had obviously been thrown at the restaurant.

Neighbors in the area came together and worked for hours to help remove the graffiti, purchasing the supplies themselves from local stores, according to X social media user Melanie Notkin.


Kindertransport refugee who escaped the Nazis dies aged 100
Tributes have flooded in after the death of Kindertransport refugee Henry Wuga, who has died aged 100.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Trust, said: "We are heartbroken at the passing of Henry Wuga MBE.

"Henry was a gentleman: charming, dapper and above all, a force for good.

"The work that he, and his late wife Ingrid did, in sharing their testimonies, made an immense impact on thousands of people across Scotland.

"Thank you for everything Henry. We will miss you."

Wuga, who celebrated his 100th birthday in February, was also a well-known chef.

Forced to leave school at the age of 14 following the implementation of the Nuremberg racial laws, on the advice of his mother he “learnt a trade" and began an apprenticeship as a junior chef in a kosher hotel in Baden-Baden.

After six months of a 12-month apprenticeship, he decided to go home on 8 November, 1938 – the day before the pogrom that became known as Kristallnacht.

He escaped Germany in May 1939 via the Kindertransport to Scotland, where he was subsequently arrested and interned for 10 months on the Isle of Man for “corresponding with the enemy”, because he had been sending letters to his mother via uncles in Paris and Brussels – a serious offence in wartime.

He was a passionate educator and devoted years of his life educating people about the Holocaust.

The Holocaust Memorial Trust said he had made an immense impact by sharing his testimony.
Harari writes a flawed piece referencing the Jewish exodus from Arab countries
This article by the celebrated author and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari is notable for describing the trauma experienced by Israelis who hail from Arab and Muslim countries (like his own family): it is not often that you read about this in The Financial Times. However, Harari’s argument is marred by moral equivalence. The Palestinian trauma of displacement was purely avoidable. It is a result of the failed Arab and Muslim campaign to eradicate the Jewish state. Unlike the Arab states who have wiped out their Jewish communities, Israel has never attempted transfer or ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, despite the calls of a few extremist politicians.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is fuelled by the mutual horror of destruction. The current war has confirmed Palestinians’ deepest fears. After the Hamas attack on October 7 2023, calls for the utter destruction of the Gaza Strip and their mass killing and expulsion have become routine in the Israeli media and among some members of Israel’s ruling coalition. On October 7, the deputy Speaker of parliament, Nissim Vaturi, tweeted “Now we all have one common goal — erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.” On November 1, Israel’s minister of heritage, Amichai Eliyahu, posted “The North of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes.” And on November 11, Israel’s minister of agriculture, Avi Dichter, said that “we are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba”.

If it wasn’t for Egyptian resistance and international pressure, it is not unreasonable to believe that Israel would have attempted to drive the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip into the Sinai desert. As it is, according to Palestinian health officials, Israeli forces have so far killed more than 31,000, including combatants but largely civilians, and have forced more than 85 per cent of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip — almost 2mn people — out of their homes.

Israelis carry their own historical traumas. The founding event of modern Jewish and Israeli identity is the Holocaust, when the Nazis exterminated about 6mn Jews, and wiped out most of Europe’s Jewish communities. Then in 1948, the Palestinians and their Arab allies made a concerted effort to annihilate the nascent state of Israel, and to kill or expel all its Jewish inhabitants.

In the wake of their defeat and subsequent Arab defeats in the 1956 and 1967 wars, Arab countries took revenge by destroying their own defenceless Jewish communities. About 800,000 Jews were driven out of their ancestral homes in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. At least half of Israeli Jews are the descendants of these Middle Eastern refugees. Jewish fears of murder and expulsion are not just the outcome of such historical memories.
How 4,500 Jews were rescued from Syria in the 1990s
Credit for the rescue of the remnant of Syrian Jewry usually goes to Judy Feld Carr, a Canadian housewife who raised funds to ransom individual Jews in the 1970s and 80s. The funds were delivered to Damascus Rabbi Abraham Hamra in order to provide bribes to the secret police. But the release between 1992 and 1995 of 4,500 Jews, held hostage by the butcher of Homs, Hafez al-Assad, may be attributed to the efforts of a US-based committee, the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, which operated between 1988 and 1992. Egyptian-Jewish philanthropist and committee vice-president Clement Soffer, the recipient of several awards and honours, here describes their work :

The Egyptian Jewish hero Eli Cohen, one of the greatest spies the world has ever known, recorded that Syria had appointed a huge number of secretive government officials. This led to the following situation:

In 1972, Steven Shalom, son of community leader Isaac Shalom, in association of Congressman Steven Solarz, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee in Congress, sought to assist the remaining Jews in Syria. As a goodwill gesture towards the US, Syria released 14 Jewish women, allowing them officially to come to the USA. The move was designed to improve relations between Syria and the US. The Jewish Congressman Solarz represented the Brooklyn district where many Syrian Jews lived. They had reached out to Judy Feld Carr to raise funds to pay for some of these women’s travel expenses. The 14 rescued women came to Brooklyn, NY. Six got married and eight returned to Syria owing to a clash of cultures and because they were missing their families.

Jews were not treated as equal citizens in Syria: they were not allowed to travel abroad as complete families for fear that they might escape. Only one individual from each family was allowed to travel for business or medical reasons. If he did not return on the last day of his exit visa, his family was never heard from again. Jews could not travel between cities unless given permission and supervised by the mukhabarat secret Syrian police. Each family was assigned three mukhabarat to oversee Jewish families. Their mail was opened and read and their ‘phones tapped. Their Palestinian neighbours spied on them.

The bribes were paid to the secret police to reduce the pressure exerted on that community. Jewish men were killed in the street at random, women were raped in their apartments. Some were thrown into jail for no reason or falsely accused by their neighbors.

Some of Judy’s funds were used to bribe the mukhabarat to allow families to escape to Lebanon. A couple of families succeeded but many were arrested at the border and suffered untold punishments at the hands of the mukhabarat after their arrest.
Justice Salim Joubran - a symbol of Israeli coexistence between Jews and Arabs
I was a young intern in my first week of work at the chamber of Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who passed away over the weekend, and I prepared legal research for Justice Joubran on a specific issue. A few days later, the Justice called me into his room, and to my surprise, he asked me to examine the issue in sources of Jewish law, as he was interested in adding legal references to the Mishnah and Talmud in the judgment he was writing.

After several weeks under Justice Joubran, I understood that I should not have been surprised at all. Justice Joubran was a symbol of Israeli coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein rightfully wrote about him, "Justice Salim Joubran is a symbol of an Arab proud of his ethnicity, a Christian proud of his tradition, an Israeli proud of his Israeli identity, and a judge proud of his contribution to justice in the State of Israel."

Justice Joubran was the first Arab-Israeli Supreme Court Justice, whose life path and values demonstrate the realization of the Declaration of Independence and the Israeli story, according to which the State of Israel " will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex ", alongside the call "for the Arab people, residents of the State of Israel...to take part in building the state on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its institutions." There was no instance in which Justice Joubran refused an invitation from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a lecture in Israel or around the world, to represent Israel, and to share his personal story as the first Arab-Israeli Supreme Court Justice. There is no need to elaborate on the contribution of Justice Joubran and his life story to the international status of the State of Israel.
10,000 Foreign Construction Workers to Arrive in Israel by June
Israel's Ministry of Housing has begun a plan to bring 40,000 more foreign workers to Israel for the construction industry.

By the end of June, 10,000 foreign workers will arrive from India who will replace the foreign workers from China and Moldova, who left after the war.

So far, 1,200 workers from India have arrived and another 1,200 more are now being processed.

Also by the end of June, "the process of absorbing about 10,000 foreign workers from other countries such as Georgia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, and more will begin," said Eldad Nitzan, Chairman of Foreign Workers' Manpower in the Construction Industry at the Chamber of Commerce.

The goal is to ultimately bring 65,000 foreign workers to Israel to replace Palestinian workers.
Special labels will mark fruits and vegetables from regions affected by Gaza war
For the first time in Israeli supermarkets, labels on the packaging of fruits and vegetables from southern Israel will bear the message "Grown in Gaza border region and Western Negev."

"The new labeling that will soon be seen on the shelves of our supermarket chains, mini markets and greengrocers, will help consumers choose products grown in the Gaza border region and the Western Negev and support the farmers of the south who are experiencing difficult times and have been personally and financially harmed," said Yoram Avigad, CEO of Negev Produce, an agricultural cooperative owned by kibbutzim from the Western Negev region and the surrounding area that sell and market agricultural produce from the region.

"The move puts a spotlight on a critical issue for the State of Israel, the long-term economy and its ability to maintain food security, since without strong Israeli agriculture Israel will depend more and more on the import of vegetables and fruits and in times of crisis even suffer from significant shortages that will harm all citizens," Avigad also said.

The war has put the issue of the state's ability to take care of food security in an emergency on the agenda. Attacks by the Houthis and the deterioration of relations with countries like Turkey have only intensified the fact that Israel is an "island economy," highlighting the importance of developing local agriculture for food security.


Pop singer Mayer Malik boosts IDF soldiers morale with live performances on the Israel-Gaza border

Ancient Jewish revolt-era ‘safe rooms’ revealed in the Galilee
Archaeological work at an ancient Jewish site near the Sea of Galilee has revealed a complex of underground bolt holes that were likely used by Jewish villagers during revolts against Roman rule, some 2,000 years ago.

The ongoing excavation of “the most extensive hiding complex discovered to date in the Galilee” has revealed “about eight hiding cavities” with “connecting tunnels… dug at 90 degrees, to hamper the heavily armed Roman soldiers chasing the rebels,” the Israel Antiques Authority said in a Monday statement announcing the find.

The underground cavities in some cases had tunnels connected directly to the community mikveh or houses in the village, and one hiding space was created out of a converted Second Temple-era water cistern.

The cavities were found to contain hundreds of broken ceramic and glass dishes, utensils, traces of non-perishable food and other small artifacts, including a ring with the central stone missing.

The areas “weren’t for living, they were like small, underground bomb shelters,” said Prof. Yinon Shivtiel of the Zefat Academic College, one of the excavation directors.

Speaking to The Times of Israel by phone from the dig site, he explained that during the period of the First Jewish Revolt, also known as the First Jewish-Roman War (66-70 CE), and during the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-136 CE), Jews could hide out underground or conceal certain people or items when Roman patrols were in the area.




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