Friday, May 31, 2024

05/31 Links Pt2: Hamas as a Millennial Movement; Make Hosting Terrorists Illegal; Amnesty had a booth at the pro-terrorist Detroit conference

From Ian:

Richard Landes: Hamas as a Millennial Movement
This is post-colonial rhetoric at its most threadbare. The perspective he formulates in the least attractive way possible, has nothing to do with real racism since all the players involved embody not race but ideological and cultural phenomena. Calling it by the inflated term ‘racist’ impoverishes the historical debate and crams our vision into 75-year old struggle for Palestinian rights, not an 85-year old marriage of Nazi and Palestinian Muslim eliminationist antisemitism. If such accusations were carry weight (and apparently they do), it would forbid us from discussing the role of Hamas since 1988 in carrying the millennial aspiration of that hadith into an active apocalyptic phase, where the first order of business is to kill a Jew, and barring that, get a Jew to kill a Palestinian.

In what historical seminar studying movements such as these, say, of the Annales school of mentalités, would someone analyse a case where two such unusually dangerous movements appear two generations apart, and share such striking similarities, without discussing the many connections and parallels? Who would begin an historical reconstruction of the later movement in the three years after the defeat of their predecessors and allies in 1945, and begin with (their own failure to commit genocide in) 1948 when Israel ‘deprived Palestinians of their rights,’ rather than the late 1930s, when Jihadis and Nazis first joined forces? What historian of mentalités would discuss the rise of multiple, genocidal Jihadi cults in the Muslim world in the subsequent generations, without examining their relationship to the double genocidal failures of the 1940s? Not any seminar I or Omer attended back in the early 1970s, the years before Orientalism took over.

If ‘civilisation’ arises from the organisational treasuring of life, then is this conflict not a civilisational battle with a death cult, which even Muslims find alarming? And is that cult not showing alarming strength? There are historical cases when an active cataclysmic apocalyptic movement ‘took’ inside a given civilisation. And none have happy endings.

And just as it is appropriate to see the two world wars of the 20th century as one ‘thirty-year’s war’ with a brief respite, how much the more likely, in the perspective of an historian, is it to see this battle over the land twixt river and sea as the only, still active, battle front of World War II? Or, worse, the opening of the next round of a global struggle with totalitarian cults of hatred and death that is, apparently, far from over.

Back in the 1990s, when people began to warn about Caliphators (Jihadis, Islamists), about a religious war brewing between the agnostic West and the zealous Middle East, most of us who heard that these true believers were fighting to take over the world and create a global Caliphate, dismissed it as ludicrous fantasy, or, especially after 9-11, dangerous ‘Islamophobia.’ And the only way a millennial historian could respond to that incredulity was to point out that in millennial movements, wrong does not mean inconsequential. Look at the damage done by twelve years of the Tausendjährige Reich.

Now, a generation later the landscape looks more menacing. While we slept…

One of the key moments in the history of all movements that, as millennial analyst Henri Desroche put it, ‘take’ like a forest fire, is the moment they show their real face in public. In most cases, the public gaze repels them and their radical, impossible ideas, sometimes violently. But in the rare and famous cases where ‘going public’ sparks excitement and enthusiasm, the movement gains public authority and a path to taking and exploiting power.

7/10 was the day of revelation. Faced with the savagery of their brethren, the civil-society, human rights Palestinian community cheered. And they were joined by people who, in principle, supported them according to their progressive claims. What is the meaning of these demonstrations on our campuses and around the country. These celebrations of savage sadism, with their attendant cries of ‘revolution’ and accusations of ‘genocide,’ bode ill for the liberal societies in which they appear. They hail a death cult. Why on earth would progressives jump for joy?
Elliott Adrams: American Jewish Anti-Zionist Diasporism: A Critique
Go to enough anti-Israel protests in the U.S., and you’ll inevitably see a few members of the stridently anti-Israel haredi group Neturei Karta, which has taken to mimicking the slogans of radical leftists and Islamists. Elliott Abrams observes that left-wing Jewish anti-Zionists share with these religious opponents of Israel the basic assumption that “a Jewish state cannot exist until the messianic age arrives because the one we have, built by men and women, is not pure enough.”

This view exhibits what Abrams calls “moral blindness,” which he illustrates with an anecdote about the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertesz, told by the Jewish activist Andres Spokoiny:
During a visit to Israel, a foreign journalist, aware of Kertész’s humanist and pacifist leanings, asked him, “How does it feel for you to see a Star of David on a tank?” “Much better than seeing it on my concentration camp uniform,” he answered.

For Kertesz, moralizing about the existence of a Jewish army made little sense when the alternative was the mass murder of Jews. But for today’s generation of American Jews, who share the liberal leanings of their parents and grandparents and face anti-Israel sentiment of unprecedented ferocity, Kertesz’s straightforward answer will seem anything but obvious. And they will have to make difficult choices, especially since, as Abrams writes, the principles of liberalism are themselves changing:
we have seen the many efforts to redefine them on American campuses since October 7. No doubt this was a joyous moment for many leftist Jews, as they watched tent encampments built, classes disrupted, and Israel defamed. But for other American Jews, not quite so far left, it was no doubt painful. Among Jewish students themselves, many had to choose between supporting the Jewish state and the Jewish people—or being ostracized by former friends, excluded from clubs and cliques they had happily joined, and even facing physical danger.

The American Zionist movement dates back to the end of the 19th century and the Zionist consensus dates back over 80 years. The anti-Zionist efforts now underway to shred it are the most energetic, the best financed, and the most dangerous American Jews have experienced. . . . Will younger American Jews see a model for how to live as a Jew and a moral human being in their behavior—or in the siren song of the left as it maneuvers to undermine the Jewish people and the Jewish state?
Mob Education at the Ivies
The developments at Princeton, Brown, and Harvard demonstrate that these institutions of higher learning have lost sight of why they exist in the first place—educational excellence.

Education—especially an Ivy League education—involves acquiring values and priorities that will carry over beyond the four years within the walls of any university. These values are meant to shape young students, who enter college in their late teen years and emerge as adults.

Being an adult means internalizing that actions have consequences and that accountability is vital for the functioning of civil society. On campuses across the country, students are taking away a very different message—a message of entitlement. You can interfere with the learning of your fellow students, trespass on private property, and blatantly disobey direct orders without fear of serious repercussions. In fact, if you double down on the path of obstinacy, intimidation, and harassment, the world will accede to your demands.

What I have found most troubling these last seven months is that this ethos, which represents an inversion of the values an American university ought to impart to its students, has been mainstreamed.

This is the same message that the world has long sent the Palestinians and that our own government has broadcast since Oct. 7. Hamas brutally murdered, raped, mutilated, and burned alive innocent Israeli civilians. In return, they received hundreds of millions in aid, a U.N. General Assembly resolution urging the Security Council to grant Palestine member status, and the U.S. prioritizing the creation of a Palestinian state. Today’s college students are learning the lesson Hamas has internalized: Violence brings rewards.


Anti-Israel Protesters Want to Elect Trump, Who Promises to Crush Protesters Why Rashida Tlaib is joining the one-state horseshoe alliance.
This weekend, Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Detroit, appeared at the “People’s Conference for Palestine,” where she called for the voters to punish Joe Biden at the ballot box. “It is disgraceful that the Biden administration and my colleagues in Congress continue to smear [anti-Israel demonstrators] for protesting to save lives no matter faith or ethnicity,” she exclaimed, “It is cowardly. But we’re not gonna forget in November, are we?”

Also this weekend, the Washington Post reported on plans that Donald Trump is sharing with donors to crush protests by deporting non-citizens participants. “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country,” he promised. “You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.”

In short, Tlaib is so angry at Biden for denouncing antisemitic rhetoric at pro-Palestine protests that she wants to elect the man who is promising to deport them from the country. (And while she phrased it coyly, telling people to punish Biden’s “disgraceful” behavior in November can only describe one kind of recourse, because November is when people vote.)

There is something irrational, at least on the surface, about this horseshoe alliance. Many progressives are already pleading with the anti-Israel left to reconsider its determination to punish Biden, whose campaign it has spent months attempting to disrupt or target with harassment. And some protesters surely do hope merely to move Biden as far left as possible and will climb down eventually.

But the position Tlaib revealed this weekend does have a real logic to it that suggests she may not merely be bluffing.

Tlaib, like the groups organizing the protests, opposes any two-state solution to the conflict and uses the slogan “from the river to the sea” to denote her demand for liberation of the entire territory controlled by Israel. Her speech this weekend confirmed the militant thrust of her position. It contained not even a word of condemnation of terrorism, any mention of the hostages, or acknowledgment that Jewish Israelis possess any rights to live under any future settlement. She treated criticism of antisemitic rhetoric at the protests — the extent of which can be debated, but the existence of which cannot — as nothing more than a smear.

She understands the conflict as one of pure good versus pure evil, with the side of good having no obligations and incurring no guilt, and the side of evil having no rights.

Trump has the same belief structure but in reverse. While Tlaib lambasts Biden for continuing to support Israel’s right to self-defense, Trump and his allies attack him for attempting to constrain its exercise.
Make Hosting Terrorists Illegal
We often hear about the “material support for terror laws,” which were conceived to prevent and hold accountable people and entities from aiding US-designated terror groups. Unfortunately, these laws have lost much of their value over the last several years, as multiple nonprofits have effectively provided terror groups and their members with free PR and other services.

Over the weekend, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib graced the Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan for a surprise appearance at the People’s Conference for Palestine, which featured a cavalcade of terror supporters and even a member of the US-designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The conference, organized primarily by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), featured a speech by the PFLP’s Wisam Rafeedie, during which he called for the “end of the Zionist project in Palestine,” referring to Israel. Prior to the conference, Rafeedie and a co-founder of the PFLP, Salah Salah, released separate endorsement videos calling on the public to tune in. Another key speaker was Sana’ Daqqa, the wife of Walid Daqqa, a PFLP member who died last month in Israeli prison, where he sat since being convicted for kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier in 1984. With speakers like that, it’s unsurprising that the conference also featured calls to dismantle the United States itself.

The PFLP, it’s worth noting, is responsible for orchestrating the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre, in which 26 people were murdered, including 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico. The organization also participated in the October 7th massacre and has held some of the abducted Israeli children who were taken hostage during the assault.

Despite all this, Rep. Tlaib enthusiastically spoke to the conference, seemingly without fear of incurring any sort of ethics complaint from the House. Perhaps that’s because for well over a decade now, US-based pro-Palestinian groups have openly engaged with terrorists with little to no consequences.

For example, the Chinese Communist Party-linked People’s Forum, which sat among the conference's steering committee and even owns the conference web domain, published the first-ever English edition of Rafeedie’s novel, The Trinity of Fundamentals, which was translated from Arabic by PYM. The People’s Forum and PYM hosted Rafeedie for a launch event last year celebrating its release.


Amnesty International had a booth at the pro-terrorist Detroit conference
Human rights NGO Amnesty International had a booth at the Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine, which featured terrorist group members as speakers, honored and quoted terrorists, and promoted armed action against the State of Israel.

In a video posted by event co-organizer Palestinian Youth Movement on Instagram, an Amnesty booth could be seen in the vendor fair at the May 24-26 conference.

Amnesty USA confirmed that it had a table “to share our organization’s work around the world, especially in the ongoing conflict in Gaza,” and “offered participants the opportunity to join our petition calling for a ceasefire in Gaza,” but emphasized to The Jerusalem Post that it did not sponsor or help organize the conference.

“Participating at a conference such as this does not mean we support all the statements made during the conference, nor does it mean we support all participants,” said Amnesty USA Senior Campaign Manager Isra Chaker.

The event featured Wisam Rafeedie, who was noted in previous Amnesty reports as an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – an organization listed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
‘Opposite of inclusive’: A look inside the increasingly hostile environment for Jewish therapists
When someone posted in a private Facebook group for Chicago therapists in March, asking whether anyone would be willing to work with a Zionist client, several Jewish therapists quickly responded, saying they would be happy to be connected to this person.

What happened next sparked fear and outrage among Jewish therapists in Chicago and across the country, and illuminated the atmosphere of intimidation and harassment faced by many Jews in the mental health world who won’t disavow Zionism. Those who replied, offering their services to this unnamed client, soon found themselves added to a list of supposedly Zionist therapists that was shared in a group called “Chicago Anti-Racist Therapists.”

“I’ve put together a list of therapists/practices with Zionist affiliations that we should avoid referring clients to,” Heba Ibrahim Joudeh, the document’s author, wrote. (A request for comment sent to the practice she runs with her husband did not receive a response.) The administrator of the anti-racist group chimed in, praising the list as a way “to be transparent about clinicians who promote and facilitate White supremacy via Zionism.” The comments came quickly: “Amazing, thank you,” one person wrote. “Omg a place I was looking at is on here,” another wrote, with angry emojis.

The only trait shared by the 26 therapists on the list is that they are Jewish. “When I saw this whole list created and my name on the list, I was so confused and in disbelief about how, in 2024, this is considered OK. It was a list of Jews,” said Anna Finkelshtein, a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago who immigrated from Russia as a child. “I do not post publicly about the conflict or about Israel at all, ever. It feels like the only way to feel safe as a Jew in the mental health field is to publically speak out against Israel and condemn it and call it a genocide.”

The anti-Zionist blacklist is the most extreme example of an anti-Israel wave that has swept the mental health field since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and the resulting war in Gaza, which has seen the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians. More than a dozen Jewish therapists from across the country who spoke to Jewish Insider described a profession ostensibly rooted in compassion, understanding and sensitivity that has too often dropped those values when it comes to Jewish and Israeli providers and clients.
Jewish New Yorkers, police brace for pro-Hamas protests at Israel parade
The New York City Police Department announced it will be doubling its normal presence on Sunday’s annual “Celebrate Israel Parade,” devoting half of the officers present to deal with an expected contingent of pro-Hamas protesters.

The New York Jewish community has seen many violent disruptions over the past several years by Hamas supporters.

The parade route runs north on Fifth Avenue from 57th to 74th streets. It has been held annually in New York City since 1964. In 2011, its name was changed from the “Salute to Israel Parade” to the “Celebrate Israel Parade.”

Eden Golan, the Israeli star of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest who came in fifth place overall, is slated to join the parade float sponsored by UJA Federation of New York and to receive a Hero Award at the United Hatzalah gala event that evening, emceed by actor Michael Rapaport.

A survey of Jewish New Yorkers released on Thursday shows significant concern over safety heading into the parade.

While a small sample of respondents answered artificial intelligence-powered questions, bringing the survey’s accuracy into question, the feedback reflected anxiety among the local Jewish community, which has increased since Israel launched a campaign in Gaza following the Hamas massacre of southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.

The majority of those planning on attending the parade up Fifth Avenue said the situation in Israel and the United States since Oct. 7 has impacted their decisions.
Israel-Scotland women’s soccer game delayed after protester ties himself to goal post
Protesters assembled outside Hampden Park in Glasgow on Friday ahead of Scotland’s Women’s Euro 2025 qualifier versus Israel, demonstrating against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

About 400 people, some carrying small coffins and Palestinian flags, gathered at the main stand entrance before kickoff, the BBC reported.

Signs included one reading “Israeli team not welcome in Glasgow.”

The game was delayed by around 45 minutes to detain a protester who was tied to a goalpost with a heavy-duty bike lock and wearing a black t-shirt that said “red card for Israel.”

When the game kicked off demonstrators booed and blew whistles, while fireworks were let off, the BBC said.

A handful of counter-protesters also demonstrated before the game.

The Scottish FA said on May 21 that the game would be played without supporters due to concerns about potential planned disruptions.

The SFA said it had been left with “no option” but to stop supporters from attending “following extensive security consultations with all key parties,” the BBC reported.
Ruthie Blum: Labor Party pipe dreams
Patriotic Israelis should rethink their outrage over recent remarks by newly crowned Labor Party chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Yair Golan. The more open he and his camp are about their ideological identity, the sooner they’ll wind up in the dustbin of history where they belong.

What the former Meretz MK said earlier this month—a mere three weeks before winning by a landslide in the Labor primary—was in keeping with the radical-leftist positions that he’s never had a problem expressing. And that includes during his tenure as deputy chief of the Israel Defense Forces.

So his pearls of post-Zionism on May 7 at the “Choose Leadership” conference in Ganei Tikva were merely honest. For this, he deserves the credit that isn’t due to the so-called “centrists” to his right whose political views are vague or purposely veiled.

Of course, Golan shares the rest of the opposition’s obsessive compulsion to rid the country of its longest-serving prime minister. But his outlook goes beyond an aversion to Benjamin Netanyahu.

In fact, it’s the character of the Jewish state that he seeks to revise. Toppling Bibi and his coalition is simply a necessary first step.

This is where his latest ire-arousing comments come in. Reiterating his public statements during last year’s street protests against the government’s plans to reform the judicial system, Golan urged engaging in the kind of civil disobedience that “put Netanyahu under crazy pressure.”

Asked by a member of the audience at the small gathering what he meant, he gave an example. For instance, he said, “We don’t do [IDF] reserve duty until there’s a change in this government.”

After the video of this little lecture was aired on Channel 14, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara launch a criminal investigation into Golan and the NGO Im Tirtzu filed a police complaint against him for sedition.

For a former high-ranking IDF commander—one who, during the Oct. 7 massacre, heroically rushed to the scene of the Nova music festival and rescued several of the ambushed partygoers from certain death—to encourage “conscientious objection” during the war foisted on Israel by Hamas’s Iran-backed terror machine is indeed jaw-dropping. It’s doubtful, however, that he’ll be charged with or prosecuted for behavior that Baharav-Miara herself, as well as others of her ilk, not only legitimized, but mainstreamed.


Hillel Neuer on the John Batchelor Show: "When it comes to terrorism, UNRWA is rotten to the core."

Israeli amendment surprisingly passes World Health Assembly
Israel scored a rare and significant victory over the Arab Group at the World Health Assembly, as an amendment that the Jewish state introduced to a longstanding resolution of the international forum passed unexpectedly on Wednesday.

The Israeli-drafted amendment calls for the release of the hostages whom Hamas and other terrorists continue to hold in Gaza and denounces the militarization of hospitals by armed Gazan groups. The resolution, as amended, passed on Friday.

The World Health Assembly is the forum through which the 194 member states of the World Health Organization govern the United Nations agency and it is the highest international health policy-setting body.

During the assembly’s annual session in Geneva this week, Israel offered the amendment to a resolution, which has passed every year since 1968 and which criticizes Israel for the state of health in Palestinian-controlled territories.

The amendment passed 50 to 44, with 83 abstentions or absences. That margin forced the Arab Group of countries at the United Nations to either accept the amended resolution or to attempt to vote it down or to abstain.

The resovlution is a recurring item, with which member states tinker here and there year after year. Algeria drafted this year’s iteration on behalf of the Arab Group. Iran, Russia, Cuba, Columbia, Venezuela and others supported it.

Once an amendment to a resolution passes at the World Health Assembly, that resolution cannot be withdrawn without the consent of the country whose amendment was passed—in this case Israel.

Egypt asked Israel to withdraw the resolution on behalf of the Arab Group. Israel declined to give consent.


Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers slams Slotkin for staying silent on Tlaib
Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is taking Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and her fellow Michigan Democrats to task for refusing to condemn an anti-Israel conference — featuring speakers with links to terrorist groups — that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addressed last weekend.

Rogers, who is facing Slotkin in the competitive race for retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) seat, told Jewish Insider that Michigan Democrats were failing their Arab constituents who reject antisemitism by avoiding conversations about the behavior of Tlaib and her far-left colleagues.

“What you’re doing is silencing those Arabs and those Muslims in that district who don’t believe [what Tlaib is saying],” Rogers said, noting that many of them “came to the United States” because they celebrate Western values. He accused Tlaib and others who preach the same message of bringing “the hatred that happens in some of these places around the world to their doorstep.”

“Elissa Slotkin’s refusal to condemn Rashida Tlaib while she continues to spread antisemitism and attends an event with terrorist organizations is pure cowardice,” he told JI. “Slotkin’s astounding lack of judgement and the consequences as a result only lead to more antisemitism and violence towards Jews. America desperately needs leaders who will stand up to this hatred and support the entire Jewish community.”

Slotkin’s campaign spokesperson declined to comment in response.
New York official offers apology but doesn’t retract anti-Jewish media posts
A New York state municipal leader has received blowback for a series of postings on social media.

Deputy Mayor Alexandria Wojcik in New Paltz, N.Y., wrote online about the “geopolitical interests of Zionism,” frequently used the pro-terror term “intifada” and pilloried police for arresting 132 people at the SUNY New Paltz campus. She further characterized anti-Israel activists as “brutally assaulted by law enforcement armed to the teeth in riot gear.”

The Jewish Congregation of New Paltz (JCNP), a Reconstructionist synagogue, released a statement warning that Wojcik’s statements could contribute to “violent uprisings against Jews and Jewish institutions in Israel and elsewhere.” It pointed out that her words allude to “baseless conspiracy theories rooted in centuries-old antisemitic tropes.”

Rabbi Adam Cerino-Jones said the ideas infused in the deputy mayor’s postings “have no foundation in reality, and are used to scapegoat and discriminate against Jewish people.”

In response on Thursday to a query from the Mid Hudson News, Wojcik attempted to apologize for any harm she may have caused though did not retract any of her statements.

“It is unacceptable for any New Paltzian, for anyone, to feel unsafe. My entire life I’ve strived daily to be always anti-antisemitic, anti-racist, anti-hate, anti-bigotry, in all that I do,” she said. “I am sorry to learn that, unfortunately, some of my work has not landed the way I had intended. I sincerely appreciate JCNP for letting me know that is the case.”
Xi announces $69m in aid for Gaza
Beijing will provide $69 million in aid to the Palestinians and an additional $3 million to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Xi Jinping, the president of China, said on Thursday.

“Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing people into tremendous suffering,” Xi said at the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing, the Associated Press reported.

“War should not continue indefinitely,” he said.

Xi also said there should be an international conference to press for the end of the war.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi also spoke at Thursday’s event. “I call on all active actors of the international community to assume their moral and legal responsibilities to stop the outrageous Israeli war,” he said.

The Chinese president said that “commitment to the two-state solution should not be wavered at will,” per state media, which added that Xi addressed leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates and foreign ministers of other Arab states.

He also said that China will host the second China-Arab States Summit in 2026. Saudi Arabia hosted the first summit in Riyadh in late 2022.
China uses Israel-Hamas war to curry favor with Arab states

Australia rejects Palestinian statehood in landslide vote
Australia’s Parliament on Thursday voted down by 80-5 a proposal to recognize a “State of Palestine.” The motion was tabled by the Greens Party.

The motion, tabled by the Greens Party, is “contrary to the traditions of Australian foreign policy,” said Liberal MP Julian Lesser.

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts said “simplistic wedge motions in the house do nothing to advance the cause of peace.”

MP Monique Ryan criticized the Greens, saying, “These debates and motions do not help them any more than they help the people of Gaza or of Israel.”

Denmark, too, recently voted against recognizing “Palestine.”

“We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state, for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in April when the bill was first introduced.

Earlier in May, a coalition of nine states led by the United States voted against a resolution in the United Nations seeking to give the Palestinian Authority, which currently has observer status, full membership in the international body.
South Africa quietly excludes citizens in Israel from voting amid growing tensions
The general elections in South Africa (SA) took place on Wednesday and were the seventh democratic elections held in the country since the end of the oppressive Apartheid regime. While most SA citizens could exercise their constitutional right to vote in a democratic country, SA citizens who are currently in Israel could not do so.

As reported by The Jerusalem Post in November, Israel’s embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, was temporarily closed, with the chief whip of the African National Congress (ANC) amending the parliamentary resolution to include: “… until a ceasefire is agreed to by Israel, and Israel commits to binding United Nations-facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable, and lasting peace.”

Additionally, a few days before the vote the SA embassy in Israel was “closed for business … until further notice,” as stated on their website. According to The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD,) the embassy closed “suddenly … with no provisions.” The embassy’s sudden closure created many issues for SA citizens who are currently residing in Israel, and the SAJBD worked “continuously with International Relations to assist some of these people resolve serious issues including emergency passports, getting documents and a very ill baby requiring an ID for medical care,” it noted to the Post.

In addition to the “serious issues” the SAJB referred to, according to a press release on behalf of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF,) South Africans in Israel (Jewish and non-Jewish,) were unable to vote in their national elections since both the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the Electoral Commission (IEC) failed to inform the public that the temporary closure of the voting mission would not be lifted in time for the elections which were supposed to take place between 17-18 May.


University of Sydney professor tells first year students that Hamas' mass rapes on October 7 are 'fake news' and a 'hoax'
First-year university students have been left 'repulsed' after a professor told them mass rapes committed by Hamas during the October 7 attacks were a 'hoax' and 'fake news'.

Sujatha Fernandes, a sociology professor at the University of Sydney, told her class in April that the media had 'distorted' the war, The Australian reports.

'Western media has played the role of an ideological state apparatus by suppressing coverage of the atrocities, peddling fake news,' Professor Fernandes said.

'[The media] promoted hoaxes that Hamas beheaded babies and carried out mass rape, in order to shore up support for Israel, and distorting events.'

The United Nations (UN) has said there were 'reasonable grounds' to believe Hamas carried out mass and gang rapes on October 7.

Professor Fernandes' continued her lecture by alleging Israel had engaged in 'ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and forced starvation', the report also claims.

A number of students, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were shocked by Professor Fernandes' comments.

One said they didn't commit to four years and thousands of dollars' worth of university classes to be taught by lecturers who 'blatantly promote lies and foster an unsafe, threatening environment'.

Another student who identified themselves as Jewish said it reflected a 'rising trend of anti-Semitism' at the university.

They added that it was particularly concerning for a professor to 'deny undeniable proof of the events of October 7, which Hamas proudly filmed themselves doing'.


Jewish student numbers will ‘plummet’ if universities fail to tackle antisemitism says UJS
Jewish student numbers will “plummet” at universities that fail to tackle antisemitism, the head of the Union of Jewish Students has told the JC.

The warning comes after a letter written by the union calling on higher education bosses to act against rising Jew hate on campus was signed by thousands of current and former Jewish students.

"We’ve had enough,” it opens by declaring.

"October 7th will forever haunt the collective memory of the Jewish people. For some of us, this marked the point at which we learnt of the murder of our loved ones by Hamas,” the letter continues.

"For others, this marked the point at which our loved ones were kidnapped and taken hostage. Yet, for all of us, this marked the point at which an unimaginable escalation in campus antisemitism began.

“On October 7th, antisemitism once again became a permissible form of hatred.”

On campus, the letter claims, there has been an “unprecedented surge” in antisemitism over the past eight months.

It reads: "Emboldened by Hamas’ brutality, our peers declared open season on Jewish students. As we were punched, spat on, and sent death threats, we became increasingly fearful to be openly Jewish on campus.

"Our kippot were covered by baseball caps and our Magen David necklaces were tucked under our tops.”

Swastikas have been drawn in university toilets, graffiti written on "our homes", while lecturers "justified the unjustifiable" by defending Palestinian terrorism, it claims.

The letter concludes by stating: “And so, after eight months of this hate, we tell you that we’ve simply had enough. We’ve had enough of being society’s punching bag, absorbing its anger and hatred. We’ve had enough of constantly feeling on edge as we walk through our campuses.
Faculty Call on California State University System to Address Antisemitic Hatred Fueled by Professors
Over 150 faculty of the California State University (CSU) System, which serves over 450,000 students, have signed an open letter calling on chancellor Mildred García and the board of trustees to address antisemitic behavior that anti-Zionist faculty have defended as free speech and academic freedom.

“Since the massacre of October 7th, we have watched in horror and bewilderment as individual faculty and even whole departments have fomented a hostile and threatening climate for Jewish and Israeli members of the CSU community,” said the letter, which was organized by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), an education nonprofit. “In recent weeks, this has been further exacerbated by new anti-Israel rallies and illegal encampments on several campuses, which are fueling antisemitism.”

The letter explained that anti-Zionist faculty who engage in antisemitic conduct often “conflate” academic freedom with free speech, believing that the former grants them the right to promote racial hatred and discrimination on their campuses. At the same time, the letter continued, they advocate policies — such as an academic boycott of Israel — which would strip Jews and Israelis who support Israel of their right to free speech and academic freedom.

“As defined by the American Association of University Professors, academic freedom ‘is a professional right extended to members of the profession and is subject to certain limitations. Academic freedom means that faculty are free to engage in the professionally competent forms of inquiry and teaching that are necessary for the purposes of the university. It does not mean that individual faculty members are free to teach or publish whatever they want without repercussions,'” the letter continued. “Under the guise of academic freedom, some faculty have pushed a partisan, antisemitic, and anti-Israel political agenda in and out of the classroom and have encouraged their students to do the same.”
University of Pennsylvania Report Disavows BDS but Rejects Globally Accepted Antisemitism Definition
The University of Pennsylvania Task Force on Antisemitism has issued a final report recommending various ways in which school officials should address rising antisemitism on campus, capping off a tumultuous academic year which saw a series of jarring antisemitic incidents that angered Jewish alumni and prompted important philanthropic supporters to forswear ever giving to the university again.

“We recommend that the university re-issue a clear statement on its opposition to divestment, sanctions, or boycotts against Israel,” the report, released on Thursday, said, delivering a major loss to the anti-Zionist student movement at Penn, which had demanded such a policy during a nearly three-week-long protest in the final weeks of spring semester.

“Our university champions academic freedom and values the open exchange of ideas as vital to our educational mission,” it continued. “We believe in building bridges through dialogue, engagement, and collaboration rather than isolation and division. Penn has important and successful scholarly collaborations with Israeli institutions that touch on many areas of our academic expertise and these should continue to grow unfettered and unabated.”

This section of the report added that the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement is “discriminatory” and “anti-intellectual” and called on the university to reiterate opposition to it “immediately.”

Other recommendations denied Jewish civil rights advocates a less clear-cut policy victory. The task force, for example, declined to recommend that Penn adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is widely accepted across the world and describes the ways in which anti-Zionism, both subtly and overtly, employs antisemitic tropes to foster hatred of Jews and deny their right to self-determination.

Describing the IHRA definition as “controversial,” the report explained that other definitions of antisemitism, such as the “Jerusalem Definition” and the “Nexus Document,” are in tension with IHRA’s, preventing them from reaching a consensus about which is best.
Rep. Foxx: ‘Patterns of antisemitism on Yale’s and Michigan’s campuses’
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, has reached out to Yale University president Peter Salovey and the University of Michigan President Santa Ono before each academic administrator submits answers to a written interview about their campuses’ handling of antisemitism following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel and the flurry of student protests, and later, tent encampments, that followed.

“The committee has identified patterns of antisemitism on Yale’s and Michigan’s campuses and a general failure by these universities to protect Jewish students that must be addressed,” Foxx stated on Wednesday when sending letters to both academic leaders. “Presidents Salovey and Ono will be required to appear before the Committee for transcribed interviews and answer questions on their records.”

Salovey’s interview is scheduled for June 20 and Ono’s for Aug. 9. Spokespersons for both universities confirmed to Fox News that the presidents would participate in the inquiry.

On April 22, police at Yale arrested 47 anti-Israel protesters, and a billboard went up near the University of Michigan campus calling for the school to “Stop Jew Hatred on Campus.”
I Am a Professor at Rutgers — There Is Antisemitism on Our Campus
When he testified before the Congressional Committee on Education & the Workforce on May 23, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway admitted that there is a problem with antisemitism at Rutgers and that his administration had been too slow to implement necessary changes in response to it.

Yet, in an opinion article in NJ.com on May 22, Rutgers Professor Todd R. Clear wrote, “Rampant antisemitism at Rutgers? In a word, no.”

Professor Clear’s opinion is diametrically opposed to that of many Jews at Rutgers and members of the investigating Committee, which is focusing on antisemitism on campuses including Rutgers.

The recent disruptive tent encampment by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus was clearly antisemitic in nature. This opinion was expressed by many members of the Congressional committee, and by the testimony of President Holloway at the hearings.

To avoid violent conflict with students, like what occurred at UCLA and elsewhere, the Rutgers administration negotiated with students to have them withdraw, but not before finals on the New Brunswick campus were cancelled for thousands of Rutgers students.

An agreement, which may be discriminatory and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, was reached behind closed doors, thus avoiding objections from other campus stakeholders including JFAS (Jewish Faculty, Administrators, and Staff), Hillel, Chabad, and the Chancellor’s own advisory committee on antisemitism.

Given that encampments at other universities had turned violent and destructive, it is no wonder that Rutgers administration chose to capitulate to avoid violence. But that’s exactly what they did — capitulate, and give in to the demands of antisemitic and anti-Israel bullies.

Professor Clear wrote that he and over 50 Jewish faculty members at Rutgers urged President Holloway last week “to hold his course — to resist the chorus of voices accusing Rutgers of antisemitism.”
Jewish Groups Call for Resignation of Northwestern President Amid Anti-Semitism Controversy
A coalition of Jewish groups called for the immediate removal of Northwestern University president Michael Schill on Thursday, after months of rising anti-Semitism on campus.

The call from the World Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, and over a dozen other organizations came days after Schill’s highly-criticized testimony to Congress.

"President Schill’s testimony before Congress on May 23, 2024, underscored significant leadership challenges at Northwestern University," said the groups in a press statement on Thursday. "Through his short tenure of less than two-years, concerns regarding antisemitism, discrimination, racism and xenophobia have been repeatedly raised. Schill has neither enforced Northwestern’s Code of Conduct, nor proposed any credible solution to address these issues."

The statement also demanded the termination of Peter Barris, the chair of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees.

Groups backing the call to oust Schill include StandWithUs, the Israeli-American Council, the Lawfare Project, the Israel Campus Coalition, Northwestern’s Jewish Business Association, Northwestern’s Jewish Law Students’ Association, and the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern.

Schill has been criticized for failing to protect Jewish students, some of whom said they were spat on, assaulted, and told to "go back to Germany and get gassed" by the anti-Israel protesters, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

He has also come under fire after granting numerous concessions to the anti-Israel protesters—such as hiring professors from the Palestinian territories—in exchange for the students removing illegal encampments from the school’s lawn. Seven Jewish members of Northwestern’s anti-Semitism task force resigned in protest of Schill’s negotiations, forcing the committee to disband.
Sanctioned Penn Students Hold Alternate Graduation Ceremony—And Honor Activist With 'Most Likely To Shot-Put a Zionist' Award
Sanctioned students at the University of Pennsylvania held an alternate graduation ceremony honoring those who "contribute to the fight against genocide." One attendee, an activist affiliated with a local anti-Israel group, received an award titled "most likely to shot-put a Zionist."

The "People's University Graduation," which took place May 22 at a progressive church in Philadelphia, served as an alternate ceremony for students who were barred from attending official Penn proceedings due to their involvement in an illegal anti-Israel encampment. The event included an awards segment—one honoree, Ramsey Abdeljaber, was deemed "most likely to shot-put a Zionist," according to a video of the event.

Abdeljaber, an organizer with the Philly Palestine Coalition, appears to be a graduate student at Penn—he was admitted to the school to pursue a Master of Liberal Arts in the fall of 2023, according to a letter he shared on social media. A man identified as "Ramsey, a UPenn grad student," meanwhile, spoke at a May 8 rally that saw outside activists march to Penn's campus in "solidarity with students and faculty at the Encampment for Gaza," according to Workers World, a communist newspaper. The 28-year-old Rutgers University graduate was also filmed carrying a backpack around campus in November, though he used a garment to cover his face.

Abdeljaber's work with the Philly Palestine Coalition reflects the overlap between outside activist groups and the student protesters who erected unauthorized anti-Israel encampments on college campuses across the country.

A self-described "alliance of Palestinian, Black & Indigenous communities working to uplift Palestinian liberation," the Philly Palestine Coalition played a crucial role in organizing such an encampment at Penn. On April 25, the first day of the Penn encampment, the group called on "all Philly residents to come join us and protect these students protesting against genocide," bring "water, food, [and] tents," and "stay here as long as you can."

The group went on to mobilize activists to provide "jail support" when local police swept the encampment on May 10, arresting 33 participants.
JCRC Statement on Antisemitic Incident at Jackson-Reed High School
The following is a statement from Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, in response to an antisemitic incident Wednesday evening at Jackson-Reed High School in Washington, DC.

“Jackson-Reed High School’s years-long failure to properly address antisemitism is once again on full display. It is beyond outrageous that Jewish and Israeli children and parents who simply attended and participated in an International Culture Night were subjected to unhinged protestors accusing them of being 'genocide lovers' who support 'killing kids.' When children need a police escort just to safely leave a school-sponsored event, something is deeply wrong with that school’s culture.

Last night’s debacle represents a complete failure, both in terms of Jackson-Reed’s obligation to ensure adequate security at school events overall, and in its responsibilities towards its Jewish students and faculty. Sadly, rather than being an outlier, this incident only publicly exposed the type of harassment Jewish students at Jackson-Reed experience on a regular basis.

We demand a full investigation from DCPS and law enforcement officials in response to this disturbing incident, with appropriate discipline for school administrators who clearly failed to provide a safe environment for Jewish and Israeli members of this community during an event on school grounds. We hope DCPS would agree that such hatred directed at children and families has no place in any school, and that such a complete failure in ensuring students’ physical and emotional safety requires a forceful response. The situation at Jackson-Reed is unacceptable and must not be allowed to continue.”


Ontario mom pulls Jewish daughter out of high school after antisemitic 'culture' event
An Ontario mother has pulled her Jewish daughter out of high school fearing she is no longer safe, saying the school is allowing and encouraging pro-Palestinian activists to display and promote threatening antisemitic messages.

“I live in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, and my child is not in school because she’s Jewish. That’s insane,” said Anissa Hersh, after withdrawing her daughter from Burlington Central High School last week.

“I can’t believe that this is happening. My daughter, who does really well at school, she loves school, isn’t able to attend public school, unless she is willing to hide her Judaism.

“There are certain levels of antisemitism that I can deal with,” Hersh said, “however, since October 7, things have gotten much, much worse,” a reference to the date of the deadly 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, followed by an Israeli counterattack in Gaza.

Her daughter, in grade 11 and who did not want to be named, said: “Since October 7, I’ve had a hard time going to school. Mentally I have had to prepare myself each morning.”

They said it started with students making antisemitic comments to her daughter and to her friends about her being a Jew. There were student walkouts about Gaza. One day, a van pulled up beside her on school property and people inside started yelling that everyone needs to rise up and free Palestine, they said.

“But this is not anything that I would have pulled my daughter out of school for; I wasn’t happy about it, and we always contacted the school, and the inaction of the school is infamous,” said Hersh.


Vancouver comics festival bans Jewish artist Miriam Libicki over past IDF service
A comic book festival in Vancouver said it has banned an Israeli-American artist because of her past service in the Israel Defense Forces, after apologizing for allowing her to participate this year.

The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival then deleted its statement apologizing for allowing Miriam Libicki to exhibit at the event, which took place earlier this month, after the Canadian Jewish News published an article calling attention to the affair.

According to the news outlet and social media screenshots, the statement did not name Libicki but referenced her and her work and said she would not be allowed in the festival in the future.

“The concerns regarded this exhibitor’s prior role in the Israeli military and their subsequent collection of works which recount their personal position in said military and the illegal occupation of Palestine,” said the “Accountability Statement,” posted to Instagram.

The statement went on to say her appearance was the result of “oversight and ignorance” and that it “fundamentally falls in absolute disregard to all of our exhibiting artist’s [sic], attendees and staff, especially those who are directly affected by the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Indigenous community members alike.”

In her own statement, Libicki, who explores Jewish identity in her work, called the ban “illegal” and said it was “bad for all artists of all political orientations and backgrounds.” She added, “I have consistently, publicly been pro-peace” and supportive of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Because of the vulnerable populations I work with, I prefer not to discuss my specific political views in public,” she wrote in a statement shared on Wednesday by Jesse Brown, a Canadian Jewish publisher and journalist. “I believe all policing of artists’ personal identities and nationalities is wrong.”

But after the CJN article was published on Wednesday, the festival deleted its “Accountability Statement.” It did not immediately respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment.
Despite string of pro-Palestinian statements, CUNY faculty union rejects Israel boycott
Three years after voting to “consider” boycotting Israel, and weeks after defending a pro-Palestinian student encampment, the faculty union of the City University of New York overwhelmingly rejected a resolution calling for an Israel boycott.

The union’s president actively opposed the resolution, saying that it inappropriately singled out Israel. But insiders say the Professional Staff Congress’ rejection may have had more to do with the union’s salary negotiations than any principled view about the Israel-Hamas war, which has roiled the CUNY system.

The resolution called for the university system to carry out a number of steps that anti-Israel protesters have called for at CUNY and dozens of other colleges and universities across the country this spring.

“Ban all academic trips to the Zionist state, encompassing birthright, Fulbright, and perspectives trips,” the proposal said. “Cancel all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, including events, activities, agreements, and research collaborations.”

The measure, called Resolution in Support of CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment, also demanded that CUNY divest from all “companies complicit in the imperialist-zionist genocide” as well as for full transparency regarding CUNY’s investments.

The resolution also called for the NYPD, which arrested dozens of people when dismantling City College’s encampment weeks ago, to be banned from campus. It called on CUNY to reinstate professors fired for anti-Israel activism — though it did not specify who it was referring to.


Alumni demand Oxford college address ‘terrible environment’ for Jewish students
More than 60 alumni have signed a letter condemning an Oxford college student body for backing a “one-sided” motion on Gaza and BDS.

Alumni of St Anne’s College at the University of Oxford have criticised “the absence of any condemnation of Hamas” in a motion passed by the college student group.

The Junior Common Room (JCR) of St Anne’s voted through a motion on May 12 condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, expressing support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel (BDS) and championing the university’s controversial Gaza encampment.

Alumni, including 11 former Jewish society presidents and two rabbis, have penned a letter to St Anne's Principal Helen King expressing their fears that the JCR motion could exacerbate divisions within the college.

They have urged college leadership to distance itself from the JCR’s motion and reaffirm its support for Jewish and Israeli students.

“We request that the college make a public statement highlighting that this motion reflects the view of the voting members of the JCR only and does not reflect the view of the college or alumni, that college members hold a range of views and that Israeli and Jewish students are welcome at St Anne’s.”


Nurse wretched NYC nurse fired after calling Gaza war ‘genocide’ during award acceptance speech
A nurse at a New York hospital won an award for compassion from her employers — and then got fired for using her acceptance speech to accuse Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.

Palestinian American labor and delivery nurse Hesen Jabr, 34,delivered the fiery remarks as she was being honored earlier this month by NYU Langone Health for her efforts in caring for mothers grieving lost babies.

“It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza,” she said during her May 7 acceptance speech, according to a video she posted on social media.

“This award is deeply personal to me for those reasons,” Jabr said in her brief remarks, during which she twice used the word “genocide” to describe the Israeli war.

Jabr says she was “dragged” into a meeting with NYU Langone’s president and vice president of nursing on her first day back to work after the ceremony, on May 22.

She said in an online posting that the meeting was called to “discuss how I ‘put others at risk’ and ‘ruined the ceremony’ and ‘offended people’ because a small part of my speech was a tribute towards the grieving mothers in our country.”


Looking behind the BBC’s ‘70_ women and children’ mantra
That editorial policy remained in place even as the reliability of figures provided by a terrorist organisation and promoted by assorted UN agencies without independent verification was being called into question by analysts. Moreover, the BBC continued to promote that 70% figure even though – as documented by Gabriel Epstein at WINEP – the data did not back it up and after the UN and the Hamas health ministry had itself stopped using that figure.

“For months after the war began, the Health Ministry reported that 70 percent of those killed in Gaza were women and children, but its own data has not supported the claim since mid-December. The U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stopped reporting the 70 percent figure in January, and the Health Ministry itself quietly dropped the claim in late March.”

Only in recent weeks has the BBC stopped using the 70% figure and it now promotes a more generalised statement such as the example below, failing to clarify the issue of “complete” and “incomplete” records.

“At least 36,170 people have been killed across Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.”

Clearly some serious questions need to be asked about why the BBC – and in particular its ‘fact checking’ and ‘anti-disinformation’ department BBC Verify – was still promoting that “70% women and children” claim even after it became clear that it had no factual basis, thereby misleading BBC audiences with the promotion of a false narrative.


Once again, Jews are at the heart of the election debate
As the election campaign develops, it is a sobering thought that the last time Britain chose a government our community feared an existential threat. Whatever one’s view of the two main parties, it is a relief that that is clearly not the case now. When Keir Starmer became leader of the Labour Party, he pledged that he would drain it of antisemitism and although the job is not finished, he has made real progress. The problem today is more about the left’s general approach to Israel and Jews than it is about the Labour Party. Indeed, Sir Keir has so far been admirable in his defence of Israel’s right to self-defence.

But while the Corbynite threat has gone, it is depressing that for the second election in a row Jews are once again an issue, this time over Gaza. Attempts by some Muslim organisations to build on the conflict to develop sectarian voting are another form of racism with Jews as a target.

For their part, successive Conservative governments have been staunch in support for Israel throughout 14 years in power. It is difficult to imagine any government being more well-disposed to Israel and to the protection of the British Jewish community. Millions of pounds have been spent on our security and Rishi Sunak spoke eloquently outside Downing Street in March about antisemitism.

But although some ministers – including the prime minister – have been vocal about the marches through London, action to stop the regular display of unambiguous antisemitism has been remarkably timid, beyond a few arrests by the police. In a similar vein, the government has repeatedly ruled out proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Labour has been clear in its promise to do so. One early test will be whether this promise is maintained in the party’s manifesto.

Whatever the party, bold words are not enough. We need well-considered and meaningful action to assure Britain’s Jews a safe and fruitful future.
Tories demand answers over Diane Abbott antisemitism probe
The Chair of the Conservative Party has demanded answers from Labour over the party’s investigation into Diane Abbott’s alleged anti-Jewish racism.

In a letter seen by the JC, Richard Holden sought answers to what he called “false comments” over when and how the probe was completed.

Abbott, the veteran left-wing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, the fourth-largest Jewish constituency in the country, was suspended by Labour in April 2023 for writing a letter to the Observer Newspaper and claiming that Jews did not face racism, only prejudice. She later apologised.

On 24 May, Sir Keir Starmer told LBC that the investigation into Abbott was “not yet finally resolved”. However, BBC Newsnight claimed that a disciplinary investigation into her conduct by the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee had in fact concluded in December 2023, with her given a formal warning. Abbott then completed an online antisemitism awareness course required by the party in February 2024.

Holden today demanded clarity, asking: “If Labour concluded its investigation in December 2023, Diane Abbott completed her antisemitism course and was given a formal warning by the NEC in February, why did you say the process was ongoing?” and also whether other Labour officials were aware of the conclusion of the investigation into Abbott “or have they also been lied to?”

Yesterday the Times reported that the veteran left-winger had been prevented from standing as a candidate in the upcoming general election. However, in an interview today with Sky News, Sir Keir said: “No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott", adding that the Labour Whip had been restored to her.


Green Party accused of “stirring division” over Palestinian flag leaflet
The Green Party has been accused of whipping up divisions over the war in Gaza as part of their electoral campaign.

A letter distributed to residents of the new Bristol Central constituency, a seat contested by Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, contains the Palestinian flag and images of destruction.

Labour Friends of Israel board member and former MP for Liverpool Riverside, Dame Louise Ellman attacked the Green Party describing the letter as a “disguised political leaflet.”

She added that “this ought to be a time when progressive politicians are working to bring communities together. Instead, the Greens are purposefully stirring division, which is made more worrying by vile antisemitic incidents relating to a number of Green candidates, including one in Bristol.”

Ellman issued a stern warning, saying that “I have seen what it looks like when a political party turns a blind eye to antisemitism and the damage it does to society. It is time the Greens finally take this issue seriously.”

The letter singles out Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, shadow culture secretary who is also contesting the new seat, saying that “we feel let down by Labour and our local Labour MP in particular. She followed Keir Starmer’s order to abstain from voting for a ceasefire in parliament.”


Over 40% of West Bank Palestinians support violent 'resistance' to establish statehood
Nearly 40% of Palestinians based in the West Bank and east Jerusalem believe that the war against Hamas is serving Palestinian national interests, according to a survey conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center in coordination with in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung.

The survey collected data from 715 Palestinian adults living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with a margin of error of +3%. The data was sourced between May 22 and May 25, 2024.

Despite nearly 40% agreeing that the war is helping Palestinian interests, 30.2% said it harmed them.

The majority of respondents (41.4%) believed that the war would end in favor of Hamas, with only 6.9% expressing the war would end in results favoring Israel. Some 42.6% said it would end with results benefiting both or neither party.

Over half (52.5%) said they expected Hamas to maintain control over the Gaza Strip once the war concluded. A further 17.3% thought Gaza would fall to international administration, 14% to the Palestinian Authority and 6.6% to Israel.



Despite over 40% stating that Hamas would end up in a better position once the war has concluded, 38.5% of respondents felt that normalization between Israel and Arab countries would advance. Only 26% felt the war was a setback in international relations and 29.8% said it wouldn’t impact regional relations with Israel.

While Hamas’s use of civilian populations and infrastructures as human shields has been well-recorded throughout the war and before October 7, 55.1% of respondents thought Hamas would be more popular amongst Palestinians once the war has finished. Only 13.1% predicted a decline in support for the terrorist group. Over a quarter (27.3%) said that Hamas’s popularity was unchanged.
FDD: Hamas Stole Millions From Gaza Bank, Internal Document Reveals
Latest Developments
Israel’s Arabic language spokesperson on May 29 revealed an internal Hamas document showing how the terrorist group orchestrated the theft of hundreds of millions of shekels from banks in Gaza City. Spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that in early February, Hamas operatives warned Bank of Palestine employees in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City not to withdraw money from the bank’s safes. Per Adraee’s post, prominent Hamas member Abu Jihad drafted the document on March 10 detailing the plot to rob banks in Gaza.

Adraee further said that Hamas members stole more than $100 million in separate robberies of Bank of Palestine branches in Gaza City on April 16, April 18, and April 19. “While the residents of Gaza are experiencing an economic and social crisis, Hamas is stealing without any hesitation from civilians in the Gaza Strip for the sake of its survival and the survival of its members, and it finances its terrorist activities on the backs and out of the pockets of the people of the Gaza Strip,” Adraee said.

Expert Analysis
“Hamas is robbing the Palestinians of their aid, their money, and their future. The terrorist group is dedicated to Israel’s destruction and is willing to pay a high price in Palestinian blood and suffering to achieve that goal.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

“Facing an economic crisis of its own making, Hamas stole from Palestinians to avoid bankruptcy. Regrettably for Gazans, Hamas understood that it was likely going to face an extended war with Israel and fell back on a familiar pattern of prioritizing its interests over those of the Palestinian people.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Hamas Steals From Palestinians
The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly filmed Hamas stealing aid deliveries intended for Gazans since the terrorist group carried out its killing spree in southern Israel on October 7. In December, The Daily Beast reported that Hamas duped Palestinians into surrendering their jewelry and other possessions. The Daily Beast also alluded to the draconian conditions Hamas imposes in Gaza, saying that it was “told to stop reporting and forced to delete videos while working on this story.” While Palestinians in Gaza are suffering, Hamas leaders in Qatar and elsewhere abroad are reportedly worth billions, residing in luxury hotels and flying in private jets.


US, Europe stay away from Raisi tribute at UN
The United States and Europe stayed away from a U.N. General Assembly tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

The so-called “Butcher of Tehran,” said to be responsible for the killings of thousands of Iranian dissidents, died on May 20 in a helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and six others.

“The United States will not attend today’s United Nations tribute event for President Raisi in any capacity,” Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said in a statement. “Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. Some of the worst human rights abuses on record took place during his tenure.”

The boycott came just over a week after the Biden administration controversially expressed condolences upon Raisi’s death.

A General Assembly tribute is a long-standing practice for heads of state who die in office, but few, if any, came with the baggage of the 63-year-old Raisi.

By protocol, each regional group sends a representative to give a eulogy, with the United States slotted in as the U.N.’s host country.

But the West and East European groups also boycotted the event, which drew some 100 protesters outside of U.N. headquarters, waving Iranian flags and chiding the global body for attempting to paint Raisi in any kind of positive light.
Lahav Harkov: ‘A weapon of mass distraction:’ How Oct. 7 enabled Iran to advance its nuclear program
An International Atomic Energy Agency report released this week revealed that Iran has amassed enough uranium for three bombs, enriched to nearly weapons grade – a stockpile that has grown precipitously during the months in which Israel and Hamas have been fighting a war in Gaza.

For months, the eyes of the international community and Israel have been elsewhere, enabling the Islamic Republic to continue its race to the bomb.

“For the supreme leader, Oct. 7 was a weapon of mass distraction so he can expand his weapon of mass destruction,” Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said of Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted on X this week that “the goal of Iran’s octopus strategy is to distract Israel with wars against its tentacles (Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and more) so that we don’t deal with stopping Iran.

“We cannot fall into this trap and we must not fall asleep at the wheel,” the post continued. “There is what to do with operational sophistication and diplomatic wisdom. This is an existential danger that must be a top priority for Israel’s leaders.”

Israel’s leadership is “massively distracted by what took place on Oct. 7 with a huge focus on Rafah and much less prioritization on Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Dubowitz said he has learned in meetings in Israel. “It is evidently clear that this would not be a surprise to Tehran.”

In the past, Israel would hold biweekly interagency meetings about the Iranian nuclear threat, but that has not been the case in recent years, and none were held for several months after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
FDD: Analysis of the IAEA’s Iran NPT Safeguards Report – May 2024
Excerpt
For the second time in its quarterly safeguards reports on Iran’s compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has drawn a direct line between Iran’s non-compliance with its comprehensive safeguards agreement (CSA) and concern about Iran’s current ability to make nuclear weapons. In the most recent report, dated May 27, 2024, the IAEA Director General cites Iran’s technical capabilities to make nuclear weapons and comments by Iranian officials about changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine as a reason for increased concern about the correctness and completeness of Iran’s safeguards declarations.

As in several past reports, the IAEA stated that it had not changed its assessment regarding undeclared nuclear material and/or activities at four sites – Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, Marivan, and Turquz-Abad. Concluding that a nuclear declaration is incomplete means Iran has violated its safeguards agreement.

Although Iran admitted that it had misstated the quantities of uranium at the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) and filed a new uranium material declaration, that resolution led to another discrepancy. The IAEA found additional nuclear material unaccounted for, which cannot be explained by accountancy measurement errors, at JHL [Jaber Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratory]. The IAEA’s findings highlight concern that even when Iran admits to undeclared activities or materials, it is hiding something else.
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Incidents of antisemitism in Australia skyrockets in the wake of war in Gaza
Incidents of antisemitism skyrocketed across Australia following October 7, a survey of thousands of Australian Jews has found.

Since the beginning of the war, one in five Jewish adults had personally experienced insults or harassment because of their background, according to the results of the survey, conducted in November.

Some 7,600 Jewish Australians were polled for the research by the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Melbourne’s Monash University and community organisation JCA Sydney, with the findings revealing unprecedented levels of concern about antisemitism.

Australia has seen a vocal protest movement against Israel mushroom since October, with standout incidents including a now-infamous occasion when protestors at the Sydney Opera House were filmed chanting what some believe to be “Gas the Jews”. New South Wales Police have said an expert review had concluded those filmed were actually yelling “Where’s the Jews”, although other antisemitic phrases, including “F*** the Jews” had been chanted.

More than two-thirds of Jewish students studying at Australian universities said they had personally encountered hostility towards Israel from other students at their university, according to the poll.

Earlier this month, education minister Jason Clare labelled University of Melbourne pro-Palestine protesters repugnant for saying "Israel would cease to exist", while the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has remarked the number of antisemitic incidents observed in recent months was higher “than any that I've seen during my lifetime”.

On Monday, Marles visited Mount Scopus Memorial College, a Jewish school in Melbourne graffitied with the words “Jew die” across its entrance last Friday.


G.I. Jew
Toys based on IDF soldiers aren’t new. Model kits have included IDF editions for years, and 3D-printed figurines can be found online. There are also high-end figures for adult collectors, though these usually run about $300 apiece. And G.I. Joe’s Foreign Soldiers Collection included an IDF paratrooper once—back in 2000.

But there were no mass-produced toys designed for children to actually play with.

In May, seven months into the war in Gaza, a new kind of toy soldier hit the market. Giborey Israel, meaning “Heroes of Israel,” is the first Israeli-made line of action figures aimed at kids. And unlike toys based on comic book superheroes, these figures are based on real-life heroes: IDF soldiers and other Israeli security and rescue forces. They’re like G.I. Joes, but with Israeli names and features. They’re G.I. Jews.

Giborey Israel is the brainchild of Israeli brothers Yarden and Elad Stefansky, both independent creative directors and, in Yarden’s case, an avid comics and action-figure fan. “After Oct. 7, we were called to the army and left everything behind, like many others,” Yarden told me in an email interview. “As creative guys, we thought how we can boost the nation’s morale, and that’s where the idea came from.”

Yarden, like many Israelis and Jews around the world, found himself in shock, consumed with existential dread. But the effect on his children is what pained him the most. “They were afraid to sleep alone and to leave the house, and began suffering daily anxiety attacks,” he explained on the company’s website.

When Yarden saw the massive mobilization of Israeli conscripts, reservists, and rescue workers who unhesitatingly went to fight to defend their country, he was inspired to create a toy honoring Israel’s “real life superheroes.” His brother Elad jumped at the idea. They gave it the tagline “There’s someone protecting you.”

That they took inspiration from superheroes and G.I. Joe is apt. Superheroes were created by American Jews as propaganda figures against Nazis. G.I. Joe is also a Jewish invention, produced by originally Jewish-owned toymaker Hasbro (Hasselfeld Brothers), and the 1980s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon was inspired by showrunner Ron Friedman’s childhood bullying by antisemites. (Friedman, in turn, was inspired by Superman, another Jewish creation.) In a way, Giborey Israel is coming full circle.


A Special Thank You to Our Online Heroes Fighting Antisemitism
Your Jewish online heroes.

Some are not Jewish. Let’s give a shout out to them. They don’t have to be in the trenches with us, they choose to. These are truth tellers and seekers. They also get death threats, ugly mail and dm’s. What I think you have noticed is we, the collective ” we” don’t seek out posts from the pro Hamas camp to bombard with harassment. They do. To take that on by choice is nothing short of heroic. Countless creators, if they are dropping bombs, they are truth bombs… The hostage families, who are in a club not of their choosing, speaking out, and the survivors, after enduring the worst brutality in history. Speaking out. We hear you. The IDF, God Bless them, they are heroes full stop.

Does all this sharing fall on deaf ears? I am reminded when I asked a Chabad rebbetzin once during the megillah reading why the children were allowed to run around. Her answer was ” on some level they will hear it,” even through the noise. In the noise of all this Jewish hate I hope even one person hears. If so, then another person will. Maybe this is too optimistic, but she planted a seed.

If you have lost so called friends and followers, you have gained us. We are your people, we are your family.

So I say this to you, our online warriors. As my friend Limor reminded me today. We have Hashem, and Hashem has our back. And in turn we will have your back. Thank you for all you do! Shabbat Shalom.




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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