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Friday, September 13, 2024

09/13 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Intimidate the Jews Day; The warped and deadly prism of ISM; What could Israel expect from a Harris administration?

From Ian:

How Bernard Lewis Came to America
Today’s podcast focuses on what universities are doing wrong, but it’s also worth thinking about what American universities have done right. Martin Kramer looks into the story of how the great scholar of the Islamic Middle East, Bernard Lewis, came to the U.S., and how that changed his career—and American history.

In the years following the Second World War, many British academics made the transatlantic move, accepting positions at American colleges and universities. It was a case of both push and pull. The war had left British higher education strapped for funds, while American academia was booming, fueled by the federal government and major foundations. The resources of Oxford or London paled in comparison to those of Harvard or Yale.

In 1974, those factors led Princeton University to recruit Lewis from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, which has since declined into a cesspool of academic anti-Semitism. In the years that followed, he wrote a number of scholarly books, and also wrote profound essays that reached a wider audience:

It was at this desk that he wrote a famous series of Commentary articles that transformed him into a major public intellectual. They included “The Palestinians and the PLO” (1975) and “The Return of Islam” (1976). It was also here that he wrote “The Anti-Zionist Resolution” for Foreign Affairs (1976), and “The Question of Orientalism,” his rejoinder to Edward Said, for the New York Review of Books (1982).

Had Lewis not made the crossing in 1974, his voice might still have been heard in America, but it would have been distant and faint. His decade-plus in that splendid Princeton office transformed him from a British don into an American public intellectual, with a reach extending from network studios to the White House.
Melanie Phillips: Intimidate the Jews Day
How disgusting is this. October is the month when decent people will mark the start of the Hamas-led genocidal assault on southern Israel, when thousands of Arabs from Gaza stormed across the border fence and butchered, raped, beheaded or burnt alive 1200 Israeli women children and men and dragged 250 others into the hellholes of Gaza where a maximum of 100 are thought to remain alive in horrific conditions.

That is what these PSC activists obscenely plan to commemorate by glorifying those savages and grossly defaming an Israel that is still fighting for its life against the war of extermination being waged against it that started on October 7 — a war that the PSC fanatically supports.

Oh — and of course the rescheduled march is on a Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath); these marches often are. So Jews walking to synagogue in central London will again be forced to take action to avoid intimidation and possible physical threat arising from this march, its antisemitic placards and its chants for Israel to be eliminated and its support for Hamas. As they have been forced to do for the last eleven months.

What’s important, however, is the reason why this march is intolerable on any day.

The point here is that, as Rich points out, these “protest” marches and demonstrations are always exercises in sickening intimidation of the Jewish community. Yet for eleven months they have been permitted on the grounds that there is a “right to protest” and these demonstrators are merely exercising that right.

But that’s not so. These are hate marches. Not only are specific crimes being committed on them — such as support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation; calls for jihad; calls for the destruction of a foreign country, Israel, “from the river to the sea”; and calls for murderous terrorist violence against Jews in the chant “globalise the intifada!” The very purpose of these hate marches is to terrify Jews, to glorify and incite holy war and to demonstrate Islamist control of British public space.

The reason they have been allowed to continue is partly because politicians and the police fear provoking violence if they are tacked effectively, but mainly because of a reluctance to be seen to challenge the ostensibly sacrosanct right of free speech. But there is no such absolute right. Even the grand-daddy of liberalism, JS Mill, acknowledged that freedom had to be limited if it did harm to others.
The warped and deadly prism of ISM
Who Is Jonathan Pollak?
Pollak was perhaps the most quoted witness to the death of Eygi, providing interviews to many newspapers and broadcast networks. Incredibly, Pollak is also on the staff of the Israeli Haaretz newspaper.

The ISM production team immediately went into action, volunteering interviews, posting a Wikipedia page dedicated to Eygi, providing a graduation photo of her wearing a keffiyeh and releasing videos of her dying moments. The ISM staff followed the Rachel Corrie playbook.

Pollak claimed, “What happened today [Eygi’s death] is no accident. … The shot was taken to kill. … It was an intentional killing … because she was an American citizen.”

President Biden, Vice President Harris and the secretaries of state and defense echoed the ISM’s charge against Israel. Jonathan Pollak, founder of Anarchists Against the Wall, is seen in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, arrested during a protest, Jan. 15, 2020. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

The anarchist admitted that Eygi had arrived in Israel several days earlier and that it was the first protest the inexperienced woman had joined. CBS reporter Elizabeth Palmer asked Pollak, “Essentially, you are asking [volunteers] to be human shields.” Pollak responded firmly, “No! They are participating in the struggle for human liberation.”

Pollak put the shooting in the context of Israel’s “genocide.” He told his own paper, Haaretz, that the soldier who shot the activist “did it because he knows he can get away with it. The context is the escalating violence and genocide in Gaza.”

Pollak is true to his agitprop. In 2010, he also charged that he witnessed Israeli border police firing a tear-gas grenade directly at 21-year-old American student Emily Henochowicz. Unfortunately for him, a video showed that the projectile ricocheted off of a cement barrier before hitting her.

Moreover, Henochowicz suggested in an interview in 2010 that Pollak may have been the catalyst for the border police shooting tear gas at the protesters:

DEMOCRACY NOW: What happened just in the period before the Israeli soldiers began firing their tear-gas canisters?

HENOCHOWICZ: Well, Jonathan Pollak climbed up on this fence and put a Palestinian and Turkish flag up at the checkpoint.

Why ISM is dangerous to volunteers and other living things

The International Solidarity Movement depends on “internationals” serving as human shields. As Pollak told CBS News, “They are not human shields; they are participants in the struggle for human liberation.” (It sounds like something I once saw on a Viet Cong poster.)

Most ISM “volunteers” are in the territories for only several weeks. They are quickly thrown into the front lines, where, as human shields, they become PR assets. They cannot learn the basics of language, the legal rules of civil disobedience, history or the essentials of living in political and military minefields.

The following are ISM’s recommendations to volunteers on how much time to spend “volunteering for peace.” Finding oneself in a West Bank donnybrook is a prescription for trouble.

“Two weeks is the minimum time commitment; longer is much better to ensure consistency, relationship-building, and skills honed and passed on to new volunteers. We suggest a minimum of a three-week stay to better integrate into the work, help with relationship-building, and ensure consistency across our volunteer group, although two weeks is acceptable if necessary.”

Ask Emily, Rachel or Eygi. American citizenship, good intentions and parents’ credit card are no guarantees that you won’t be “pimped out” as a shaheeda martyr.


Israeli government’s antisemitism envoy gives failing grade on efforts to combat anti-Jewish hate
Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Israeli government’s antisemitism envoy, said this week that governments, universities and other organizations are failing to take the necessary steps to properly combat antisemitism and called for the U.S. to make more of an effort to lead on the issue. She also characterized the growth of global antisemitism as the harbinger of a global antidemocratic and authoritarian movement.

Asked whether any government, university, company or entity has been effective in combating antisemitism over the past year and can serve as a model for others, Cotler Wunsh said, “No one has done it right so far.”

“We can only do it right if we acknowledge [antisemitism] as the national security threat that it is,” Cotler-Wunsh told Jewish Insider on the sidelines of the inaugural MEAD Summit in Washington, D.C., this week. “I call it an additional war front that has been raging for decades … It actually impacts the entire international rules-based order [because] it co-opted and weaponized that international rules-based order. So the only way to actually do this right is to have a comprehensive or holistic strategy.”

She said that embracing and utilizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism is the key first step to properly combating antisemitism.

Cotler-Wunsh argued that the U.S. “has the capability, and I’m going to say the responsibility, to lead the way, not just theoretically but in making a clear statement” that nations should use and implement the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism as a key part of the fight to combat antisemitism.

Cotler-Wunsh has been calling on U.S. officials to offer stronger and clearer support for IHRA since she was named to her role in September 2023.

She also said that the past year has shown the need to either extend the State Department antisemitism envoy’s mandate to cover domestic antisemitism within the United States, or to create a domestic envoy, as some in Congress have proposed.

“At the end of the day, it is for me about the United States and other democracies understanding that antisemitism is just a predictor… [of] the extremism that endangers the national security of the countries in which it is thriving,” she said. “That’s what thousands of years of Jewish history show us.”

She said that Arab states that have normalized relations with Israel recognize the threat that antisemitic extremism poses to themselves and to the region.

Cotler-Wunsh also linked rising antisemitism to the emergence of an alliance of authoritarian countries and regimes including Iran and its proxies, China, Russia, North Korea and Venezuela.

“This is a moment for courage and leadership that will have to come from democratic countries” — the United States in particular — “that recognize this as our shared responsibility, and Oct. 7 as, just like 9/11, just one more moment in which there was an attack of barbarism on our shared civilization,” she said. “Hope is not just something that’s going to happen on its own — requiring leadership with moral clarity and courage.”
Irwin Cotler talks Iran, the Hamas war and Canada’s arms embargo
Irwin Cotler, former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, sat down with JNS at his home in Montreal on Wednesday to discuss Canada’s approach to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Cotler discussed Ottawa’s recent arm embargo on Jerusalem and its resumption of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

He traced the eruption of Jew-hatred on North American campuses to the ’70s and discussed the tenets of the Israeli Defense Forces as the most moral army in the world.

Cotler, an emeritus professor of law at McGill University and an international human rights lawyer, also served as Ottawa’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism. He emphasized the importance of implementing in Canada the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism and listed concrete actions to overcome threats targeting Jewish communities.

Finally, the international chair of the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights detailed his perspective on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Do you believe the Canadian government has been supportive enough of Israel since Oct. 7?
A: The record is mixed. The Canadian government made some important and timely statements but the actions it has taken have not been supportive. We are engaged in a battle between democracies and tyrannies.

In this battle, democracies should stand together. In that sense, Canada has not been sufficiently supportive.

Canada says it recognized Israel’s right to defend itself. At the same time, it became one of the first countries in the G7 to impose an arm embargo on Israel. As we speak now, the foreign minister just extended the nature of that arms embargo.

Doing that, in the midst of a just war that Israel is prosecuting as it exerts its right to self-defense, means rewarding Hamas. While it is not the intention, it ends up being the effect.

Canada does not recognize the full nature of the Iranian threat for all the reasons we have discussed. Canada also criticizes Israel’s actions with respect to humanitarian assistance as it moved to be one of the first countries to refund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), despite compelling evidence of UNRWA’s complicity with Hamas. We should have never rushed to refund UNRWA. We should have engaged in holding UNRWA accountable.

There has not been a full appreciation as to the extent to which Israel is involved in an existential conflict in which it is confronting an axis of evil.

I also believe that the Canadian government should not accept Hamas’s statements about civilian casualties. If it were the Islamic State and Canada was involved in the fight, it would never be accepting their version of what is happening.

In the example of the “bombing of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, Canada rushed to condemn Israel. Then it turned out that it wasn’t a hospital that had been bombed but a parking lot, it wasn’t Israel that was responsible but an errant misfired missile of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and it wasn’t 500 people who were killed but 50. Canada never fully apologized for those false indictments, and there have been others.

The IDF prides itself on being a moral army. You are a human rights expert, why do you agree?
A: Even when prosecuting a just war with a moral army, immoral things occur. Israel like any other democracy must be held responsible for any violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. It should not get a free pass because of the horrors of the Holocaust and the likes of it. I believe that Israel acknowledges that.

Israel has a robust code of ethics and rigorous legal oversight, within the army and outside the army with for instance Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

There is a framework of accountability. If you compare the IDF to other armies and you look at the civilian combatant ratio, the evidence speaks for itself. The civilian combatant ratio is 1:1, whereas amongst many other democratic allies it is 9:1.

There has been immense suffering. It is undeniable, but even when considering Hamas’s statistics of 40,000 fatalities, 20,000 are terrorists and Hamas does not distinguish between combatants and civilians when it puts out these statistics.

I must add that Hamas also falsifies its casualties and statistics which are sometimes taken at face value by the media.

There is no armed conflict in which immoral acts don’t occur, but on the whole, Israel stacks up well against other armies in the same type of urban density context against a genocidal statelet.
Qatar, the ‘source of evil in the Middle East’
Qatar, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, today plays a central role in the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. But Yoni Ben-Menachem, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS that the Gulf country is part of the problem in the region, not part of the solution.

Qatar, he said, is “the source of evil in the Middle East.” It preaches against normalization with Israel, and fully supports the ideology of “from the river to the sea,” he explained. According to Ben-Menachem, for many years, Qatar “was deceiving Israel by sending money to Gazans because they wanted a foothold in Gaza.”

And get it they did, he said. “Israel made a big mistake in giving Qatar a foothold in the negotiations to release the hostages,” he added.

The supposed U.S. pressure on Qatar to in turn pressure Hamas “is all a big lie, because the Democratic Party has no leverage on Qatar and they don’t even want to go in that direction,” he said.

The Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it is doing everything in its power to pressure Qatar to get Hamas to agree to a hostage deal.

Critics point out, however, that Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Air Base, which contains America’s largest military base in the Middle East, and that the Biden administration could easily threaten to move it out of Qatar.

In addition, Qatar is designated as a “major non-NATO ally” by the United States. The Biden administration should be threatening to remove this prestigious designation, critics argue, but has failed to do so.

According to Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), there are “two interconnected reasons” the Biden administration has failed to do everything to get the hostages released.

First, he told JNS, is the Biden team’s “transparent desire for a Gaza ceasefire, come hell or high water, and its readiness to let Hamas leaders refuse to take ‘yes’ for an answer to their demands while they sit comfortably in their Doha hotels.”

The second reason is that Qatar has “adroitly (mis)portrayed itself as indispensable to U.S. interests in the Middle East, including negotiations with the Taliban, reconstruction aid for past Gaza conflicts, and building the massive Al Udeid base for U.S. forces.”

In May, The Washington Post cited an unnamed U.S. official as saying the Biden administration had told Doha to expel Hamas if the group continues to reject a ceasefire deal with Israel.

That has yet to happen.

“On the contrary, they say Qatar is fighting terrorism,” Ben-Menachem told JNS. “This is the biggest joke.”
Jonathan Tobin: What could Israel expect from a Harris administration?
That is a prescription for unrelenting pressure on Israel to stand down in its war on Hamas, make more concessions to Hezbollah in Lebanon and acquiesce to an Iran that is on the verge of joining the nuclear club. Cutoffs of weapons, a green light to the lawfare against Israel in the United Nations, more sanctions against Israelis and fewer against Palestinian terrorists will become a real possibility.

If Israel survived eight years of Obama’s appeasement of Iran and unrelenting efforts to tilt the diplomatic playing field in favor of the Palestinians, it will likely survive a Harris presidency, even if the road ahead will be even more dangerous than past confrontations. Yet as Oct. 7 and Iran’s escalations have shown, the Jewish state’s security dilemmas are far more perilous than they were from 2009 to 2017.

Would another Trump presidency be better for Israel? That is what Republicans believe and, given his record, they have reason to think so. But it’s also true that the influence of right-wing Israel-haters like Tucker Carlson on Trump and worries about who will fill the roles that staunch friends of Israel had in his first administration are issues that need to be resolved. These are questions for a separate essay.

Israel has already paid a high price in blood and suffering for Biden’s disastrous foreign policy. But as a Harris presidency looms as a real possibility, supporters of Israel, especially among the Democrats, need to take seriously the question of whether her campaign platitudes and hair-splitting about antisemitic mobs is a harbinger of a true turn against the Jewish state or just a continuation of Biden’s equivocal policies.
Three new polls offer three different takeaways on the Jewish vote in 2024
Experts say that surveying Jewish voters is difficult, and there is limited publicly available polling on the demographic group this election. The trio of new polls collectively paint a more complex portrait of Jewish voter preferences in a highly consequential election year — even as some Democratic observers expressed skepticism that Harris is at risk of losing meaningful ground to Trump.

“Every four years, Jewish Republicans say that this is the year Jewish Americans are going to tack Republican, and then every subsequent November it proves not to be true,” countered Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist who has long been involved in Jewish causes and helped co-found JDCA. “Every four years. This year will be no different and Harris will get 70-75% of the Jewish vote.”

Because Teach Coalition’s polls were conducted before the Democratic National Convention last month as well as other meaningful events in the campaign, its results are potentially less indicative of current voter sentiment than the surveys led by JDCA and Pew.

Teach Coalition’s pollster also used a different methodology than the other surveys, first reaching voters with common Jewish surnames and only then asking them to self-identify as Jewish — an approach that could overlook a meaningful subset of Jewish respondents. The poll shared publicly does not include demographic details on voters — unlike JDCA, which identified its respondents by Jewish denomination, among other things.

Bradley Honan, the lead pollster for the Teach Coalition survey, did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

“In America’s deeply divided and polarized political environment,” Gerstein, the pollster for JDCA, said in an email to JI earlier this week, “the vast majority of American Jews identify with the Harris camp and express extraordinary contempt for Trump and the Republican Party.”

But another poll commissioned by Teach Coalition suggests Harris’ support could also be dwindling in New York — home to the largest Jewish population in the country. In a survey of six competitive House districts that could determine the balance of power in Congress, Harris won 56% of the vote among Jewish respondents, with a 19-point lead over Trump. In 2020, however, Biden claimed 63% of the Jewish vote in the state, according to the AP/Fox voter analysis.

“Jews in these areas are not hermetically sealed from their neighbors,” Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said of the survey results in Pennsylvania and New York. “Many of them are not going to think about things the way Jews in New York or California do because they’re in a different environment. They’re more likely — overall — to be a ‘swing vote,’ and that’s what our poll shows in the aggregate.”

If accurate, the New York survey in particular could have down-ballot ramifications as Democrats seek to regain a majority in the House. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who is facing a Democratic challenger in a Hudson Valley swing district that includes a sizable Jewish constituency, said that the Jewish vote could be decisive in November.

“Certainly in a district like mine, where I have large Orthodox and Hasidic populations as well as secular and Reform Jewish populations, the issues of combating antisemitism and supporting Israel matter,” he told JI last week. “We see that reflected not only in the polls but in the response we get within the community writ large — and I think that obviously is going to have an impact on the outcome of the election.”
Rashida Tlaib parts ways with anti-Israel consultant for terrorism-linked groups
“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has cut ties with a political consultant the Washington Examiner reported this year has a history of working for groups linked to Palestinian terrorist factions.

The reason for the Tlaib campaign’s decision is unclear, and her campaign manager, Carolina Toro-Roman, as well as the consultant, Rasha Mubarak, did not reply to requests for comment. Mubarak, a longtime ally of Tlaib, operates a Florida-based firm called Unbought Power that has raked in over $435,000 in payments earmarked under “fundraising consulting” from Tlaib’s campaign and leadership PAC since 2020, Federal Election Commission filings show.

“Our campaign is no longer working with Rasha Mubarak’s firm Unbought LLC, so if you need any assistance in fundraising or have questions on how to support congresswoman Tlaib, please know I am here to help,” Toro-Roman wrote in an automated email to the Washington Examiner in response to a press inquiry directed to Mubarak’s former Tlaib campaign email. “In solidarity, Carolina and Team Tlaib.”

The development is significant given the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Tlaib’s campaign shuffled to Mubarak and her limited liability corporation registered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mubarak, who has also consulted for a joint “Squad” fundraising committee, recently held key roles for organizations connected to terrorists, the Washington Examiner reported in May. Mubarak once posted on social media that she was tired of hearing the “lie” that “Israel has the right to defend herself” against terrorism.

She was also arrested in May at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for disrupting a speech by pro-Israel Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), shouting, “Fetterman, you don’t care about people, your legacy is genocide. … Free Palestine,” according to an affidavit obtained by the Washington Examiner. Mubarak was charged with trespassing and has a pretrial conference hearing scheduled in October, Florida’s Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.

“If you are too radical and damaged for Rashida Tlaib, that says a lot,” said veteran Democratic strategist Jon Reinish, who was involved in successful efforts to oust “Squad” Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

In late May, the Washington Examiner reported on Mubarak’s work on behalf of terrorism-linked groups.
Spain hosts European, Muslim nations in talks on push for a Palestinian state
Spain, hosting a high-level meeting on Friday of several Muslim and European countries on ways to end the Gaza war, calls for a clear schedule for the international community to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We meet to make another push for the end of the war in Gaza, for a way out of the unending spiral of violence between the Palestinians, the Israelis… That way is clear. The implementation of the two-state solution is the only way,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares tells reporters.

In attendance were his counterparts including from Norway and Slovenia, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza that includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

Albares says there was “a clear willingness” among the participants, who notably do not include Israel, “to move on from words to actions and to make strides towards a clear schedule for the effective implementation” of a two-state solution, starting with Palestine joining the United Nations.

Israel was not invited because it was not part of the contact group, Albares says, adding though that “we will be delighted to see Israel at any table where peace and the two-state solution are discussed”.
Firms market homes in West Bank settlements to Jews in U.S., stoking controversy
Israel subsidizes settlements in the West Bank, making property there cheaper.

But selling that real estate is problematic under international law. Bill Van Esveld at Human Rights Watch said that the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice, the U.S. and most other governments agree: “It’s not Israeli territory. It’s Palestinian. International law is actually quite simple. It’s really a bright-line rule: There’s no appropriation and transfer of property for settlements in occupied territory. It’s not allowed.”

And so, noted Brian Finucane, a former State Department official now at the International Crisis Group who recently wrote about the issue: “The U.S. should be taking steps to encourage U.S. persons not to engage in settlement activity in the West Bank.”

Finucane added that, practically speaking, the U.S. may not be able to deter individual purchases of occupied land by Americans.

“The ability of the U.S. government to target or push back against these real estate sales in the United States, that may be limited,” he said. “But the U.S. has a lot of policy tools to tackle the settlement project writ large.”

On the contrary, said Eugene Kontorovich, head of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University, the U.S. government shouldn’t be involved in Americans’ property transactions in the West Bank — at all.

“The United States has simply never said that there is any legal obstacle to American citizens either buying or selling properties in these locations,” Kontorovich said. “There’s absolutely no rule that would prohibit an American citizen from buying a house anywhere — in a place on which there’s not sanctions, maybe like Russia or North Korea. I think it’s a made-up issue which has been used to justify acts of violence and vigilantism outside synagogues.”
‘Alarming’: Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi headlines pro-Hezbollah mosque event
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi was a star attendee at an event hosted in a pro-Hezbollah mosque by a controversial Greens council candidate.

The Sayeda Zainab Centre in Banksia hosted a movie screening of Palestine Under Siege on August 3 where the firebrand Greens Senator was in attendance and spoke on stage. The same mosque has used its Facebook page to promote Lebanese terrorist organisation Hezbollah.

Recent posts from its Facebook page show footage of the funerals of Hezbollah fighters.

Other posts show photos of children wearing T-shirts with the Hezbollah logo and referred to the terrorist group’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah as “His Eminence”.

The Australian government declared Hezbollah a terrorist organisation in 2021 and the group has been escalating its attacks on Israel following the October 7 massacre.

The Sydney event was organised by Greens Bayside council candidate Peter Strong who previously claimed the Israeli Defence Force was worse than ISIS or Hamas.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph this week, Mr Strong called the IDF “total terrorists” who “are worse than Hamas or ISIS”.

“Israel have dodged any ceasefire initiative, all they want to do is commit genocide and take more Palestinian land,” he said.

Mr Strong is a candidate in council elections tomorrow.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Ms Faruqi should face consequences for appearing at the mosque.

“The Greens have done more to erode Australian values of respect, equality and tolerance than any other group engaged in public life,” he said.

“There should be consequences for public officials who draw salaries from our income to appear at a mosque that posts in support of Hezbollah.”


Behind the Headlines Damning New Report exposes the BBC’s Bias Against Israel
The Sunday Telegraph this week published a new damning report on our national broadcaster the BBC and its coverage of the Israeli – Hamas war. The report reveals that the news corporation breached its own editorial guidelines 1500 times.

The report produced by British lawyer Trevor Asserson analysed the BBC coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas over a four month period starting with the mass terror attack against the Jewish state on October 7th. The report revealed institutional bias against Israel in its news coverage across all its media platforms.

The damning report also discovered that BBC had constantly downplayed the terrorism and genocide committed by Hamas, while at the same time presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive state.

This report has huge ramifications for the BBC in its coverage of the war in Gaza as it cannot be trusted to report the truth and as a direct consequence is somewhat responsible for inflaming Jew Hatred in this country and around the world at the licence payers expense.


Haverford ‘doubled down’ on Jew-hatred since May lawsuit, per complaint before US District Court
On May 13, the Deborah Project, a public-interest law firm, filed a lawsuit under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act accusing Haverford College in Pennsylvania of creating a hostile environment for Jews. Five days later, at the highly-ranked private liberal arts school’s graduation ceremony, Haverford gave awards to multiple people accused in the complaint of Jew-hatred.

The Deborah Project filed an amended, 278-page complaint on Sept. 9 before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in which the firm accuses Haverford of “doubling down on every policy at issue in this case,” as well as making a “mockery” of and leveling a “calculated insult” at the Jews who told the administration repeatedly that they are unsafe at the school.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, told JNS that the college not only decided to go forward with the awards five days after the complaint was filed, but it knew for months that Jews were feeling unsafe and neglected on campus. Students had complained since October, for example, about social posts by a professor Tarik Aougab.

“There were many, many, many complaints about his callousness and repeated all kinds of things that he did throughout the year that were insulting to Jews, so it’s not like it happened when we filed our complaint,” Lowenthal Marcus told JNS. “The people who are being insulted here are the Jews who complained all year bitterly.”

“Absolutely, they knew of everything. Repeatedly. Well-documented. Absolutely no surprises,” she said of the Haverford administration. “That’s why it’s deliberate indifference.”

The amended complaint that the firm filed relates to alleged Jew-hatred on campus that occurred since the initial complaint, and things about which the firm didn’t know when it filed the first complaint, according to Lowenthal Marcus.

“They’re completely emboldened,” she said, of the school administration. “That’s the issue. There’s no concern what it’s doing to the Jewish population at the school.”

“What’s different at Haverford—there’s more of an informed support for allowing what we’re complaining about at the school. It’s very much about free speech, except at the same time, microaggressions are policed carefully. It’s really truly a double standard,” she said. “The Jews are the compliant model students, customers, fill-in-the-blank. They complain quietly and write letters to the editor, while the other side screams and yells and breaks things. The louder you are, the more compliant the administration or institution is.”
Nine anti-Israel demonstrators, two counterprotesters charged in University of Michigan incidents
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged nine anti-Israel demonstrators and two counterprotesters involved in incidents at the University of Michigan relating to the school’s anti-Israel protest encampment.

“The right to free speech and assembly is fundamental, and my office fully supports every citizen’s right to free speech under the First Amendment,” Nessel said on Thursday announcing the charges. “However, violent and criminal behavior, or acts that trample on another’s rights, cannot be tolerated. I hope today’s charges are a reminder to everyone who chooses to assemble, regardless of the cause, that the First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity.”

The AG’s office said that some participants in the encampment attempted to physically block police officers who were clearing the encampment at the request of university officials.

Nessel’s office charged seven demonstrators with trespassing and assaulting or resisting police, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Two were charged with misdemeanor trespassing, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in prison.

Nessel said that she is only charging those who attempted to block the officers from clearing the encampment, and is pursuing felony charges against those who “physically placed their hands or bodies against police” or “physically obstructed an arrest.”

“The police must be allowed to do their jobs, to secure public safety without unnecessary risks of harm or violence, and these laws are in place to prevent such risks,” Nessel said. “All students should know, whether on- or off-campus, in a sanctioned demonstration or an unpermitted encampment, disobeying the lawful commands of law enforcement is a crime, and especially so when you use physical force to counter a police action.”

Two other individuals, one Michingan alumnus and one unaffiliated individual, are being charged for activities related to a counterprotest.

One is being charged with disturbing the peace, carrying a potential 90-day sentence, and attempted ethnic intimidation, carrying a maximum one-year sentence, for kicking over flags set up by the anti-Israel demonstrators.

The other is being charged with two counts of malicious destruction of personal property for taking flags from demonstrators, breaking some and throwing them in the trash. The offense carries a maximum 93-day sentence.

The charges against counterprotesters are all misdemeanors.

“A college campus should be a place where the exploration and sharing of ideas and opinions is able to flourish, but conviction in your ideals is not an excuse for violations of the law,” Nessel said.


The Josh Hammer Show: Stop Antisemitism on the American University Campus (Feat. Liora Rez)
Liora Rez, founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism, joins Josh to discuss the many challenges faced on campus not merely by Jewish students, but by all defenders of the West.
Anti-Israel Groups Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Coordinated Traffic Blockade
Several anti-Israel organizations that formed an illegal blockade across the highway leading to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport are facing a class action lawsuit from travelers who were trapped in the traffic jam.

Left-wing groups, including the Tides Center—a George Soros-funded dark money network—Community Justice Exchange, and National Students for Justice in Palestine, among others, coordinated a "multi-city economic blockade" on April 15 targeting major airports, highways, and bridges. In one instance, activists shut down access to O’Hare, backing up traffic and forcing some travelers to walk with their luggage to the airport.

Keffiyeh-clad activists handcuffed themselves, linked arms with drain pipes, and later sat side-by-side on Interstate 190 leading to the Chicago airport. The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed a lawsuit on Monday against the organizers for "imprisoning" thousands of travelers in vehicles on their way to O’Hare, according to the complaint.

"All traffic into the airport stopped for almost three hours because of the blockade. People missed flights and downstream commitments. Vacations, interviews, weddings, and other important lifetime events were cast aside as the activists forced the public to participate in their demonstration by falsely imprisoning them," the complaint says. "These innocent Americans were dragged into the conflict because the Defendants and foreign terrorist organization Hamas have decided a propaganda offensive in America is their best weapon against Israel."

Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute cofounder and litigation director Ted Frank told the Washington Free Beacon the First Amendment does not protect criminal activity.

"These sorts of abusive roadblocking tactics have been used with impunity over the last few years, and the organizations seem to think that they can do that too," Frank said.

"But when you injure people, when you commit torts against individual people, there’s not just criminal enforcement, but also civil enforcement," he added. "We hope that this lawsuit vindicates that principle, vindicates the rights of the people who were adversely affected, encourages other such lawsuits, and discourages such tactics in the future."

Police arrested 40 protesters in the O’Hare blockade. Thanks to a "bail and legal defense fund" organized by A15 Action and Community Justice Exchange, a Tides project, the defendants received bail money and legal assistance. The online fundraiser was hosted by ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary fundraising platform, which earns nearly 4 percent of each contribution.

Other activist groups named in the lawsuit include Jewish Voice for Peace, the WESPAC Foundation, Dissenters, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and the AJP Education Foundation, also known as American Muslims for Palestine. Four people "directly involved in orchestrating or promoting the blockade" were also named: Jinan Chehade, Superior Murphy, Simone Tucker, and Rifqa Falaneh.
Anti-Israel Protester Arrested for Defacing Union Station During Netanyahu's Summer Visit
Authorities on Friday arrested an anti-Israel protester who was caught on video defacing federal property outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., during Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit in July.

Isabella Giordano, 20, used red spray paint to write "Gaza" on the Columbus Fountain and vandalized the base of two flagpoles in Columbus Circle on July 24, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The Towson, Maryland, native has been charged with "willfully injuring or depredating any property of the United States" and is set to appear in court Friday afternoon.

The incident occurred during a chaotic protest at Union Station in response to Netanyahu's address to Congress about Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. The pro-Hamas agitators threw human feces at U.S. Park Police officers, burned an American flag, and graffitied slogans such as "abolish the U.S.A" and "Hamas is coming" on several monuments. Vice President Kamala Harris, who snubbed Netanyahu's address for a sorority event in Indiana, waited a day before condemning the protest.

The Union Station protesters "interfered with law enforcement’s ability to place individuals under arrest," authorities said.

"Politically motivated violent and destructive behavior, regardless its motivation, is a crime—not protected speech," U.S. attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement Friday.

"Today’s federal prosecution should make clear that those who engage in politically motivated violence and destruction in the District of Columbia should expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Graves added.
Banned Anti-Israel Student Group at Penn Throws Red Paint on Ben Franklin Statue
A banned anti-Israel student group took credit Thursday for throwing red paint on the University of Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Franklin statue.

"Penn, your hands are red," Up Against the Occupation, which goes by (u)PAO, posted on Instagram hours after the vandalism. "You are complicit in the Palestinian genocide."

An "autonomous group" had vandalized the statue as a "visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs who have been murdered by the [Israel Occupation Forces] and the university’s complicity in this genocide," continued the post, which included photos and a video of the vandalism.

Senior Noah Rubin, an orthodox Jew and former president of the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee, demanded accountability.

"Actions must have consequences. Blatant support for terrorism has become common at Penn from students and professors," Rubin told the Washington Free Beacon. "The university must hold the vandals, and their supporters, accountable."

After Penn revoked its status as a registered student group in April, (u)PAO was forced to change its name from Penn Against the Occupation. The Office of Student Affairs said it "failed to comply with policies that govern student organizations at Penn, despite repeated efforts to engage with the group and to provide opportunities to resolve noncompliance." The move prohibited it from affiliating itself with Penn in any way, but the group continued to engage in anti-Israel protests.

In its Thursday post, (u)PAO called the Franklin statue "a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism." It was also the site of anti-Israel protests and an encampment that inflamed Penn’s campus after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.

In April, "Zios Get Fuckt" was spray painted on the statue, relying on an anti-Semitic slur Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke coined. The statue was covered in keffiyehs and signs throughout the encampment. The Button, another signature statue on Penn’s campus, was also vandalized with anti-Israel sentiments in the spring, including "Penn Funds Genocide."
In New Zealand, Antisemitism in the Classroom—and Beyond
In November 2023, just weeks after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, New Zealand’s Holocaust Centre in Wellington issued a report focusing on Jewish children age 9 to 18 that revealed that 50% of responding parents reported their children had faced antisemitism in their school since Oct. 7.

“Pre-Oct. 7, we received one or two complaints a year,” said Deborah Hart, the centre’s board chair, who commissioned the report. “After [Oct. 7], the steep rise in complaints we were getting was incredibly concerning and we wanted to know how big this problem was.”

In a follow-up report compiled in July 2024 by the same organization, that number shot even higher: A staggering 80% of respondents said their children had suffered antisemitic episodes in their schools.

These reports, which have more than 30 respondents each, have not been made public to protect the location and identity of children, who are often the only Jewish people in their local area, but the data can be backed up with New Zealand police statistics. New Zealand’s Holocaust Centre found that antisemitism was not limited to one place or demographic in the country. “We have police crime statistics, so we know that there was a 530% increase in the targeting of Jews between 2022-2023,” said Hart. “In New Zealand, Jews are just 0.2% of the population. Unfortunately, Jewish New Zealanders are 160 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a Maori New Zealander, who are also targeted.”

When asked what these antisemitic incidents may look like, Hart was frank: “It looks like graffiti and abuse online. In schools it’s everything ranging from name-calling to physical abuse. And some of it is particularly nasty, like a child who went swimming and when he came back to put on his shirt, it was covered in swastikas. Or a report of a child locked in a room with kids outside screaming ‘Free Palestine,’ and when he came out, they tried to assault him with a broom handle.”

In response to this worrying increase in antisemitism, Hart would like to see an antisemitism envoy appointed in New Zealand, mirroring efforts in countries like Australia and the United States, and for the Holocaust to be part of New Zealand’s mandatory education curriculum. None of these have happened so far, but some initial funding has been provided by New Zealand’s government to support an education package put together by the Holocaust Centre to be sent out to teachers and schools across New Zealand to combat antisemitism. “We are developing the education package so it’s pedagogically sound and easy for teachers to use,” said Hart.

Since Oct. 7, Kadimah college in Auckland—New Zealand’s only Jewish school, which has classes from kindergarten to Year 8—has been on high alert from extremism from right- and left-wing groups.

“It’s a bit upsetting,” said Darya Bing, the chair of the school board of trustees. “When you speak to people about it, they are really shocked. Most New Zealanders are very kind and very lovely people who are not at all aware of the outcomes to the Jewish community. Your common reaction will be: ‘What? What do you mean have security guards outside your school?’”
Abbott reminds schools Jew-hatred ‘never acceptable in Texas’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, reminded colleges and universities in the Lone Star State about their responsibility to protect Jewish students.

“As I have already made clear, antisemitism is never acceptable in Texas and there is zero tolerance for acts of antisemitism on Texas college and university campuses,” Abbott wrote in a letter to school chairmen and regents.

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, and in light of recent events and rising tensions in Gaza, it is crucial that Texas colleges and universities stay vigilant,” he wrote. “It is imperative that you continue taking the necessary steps to combat antisemitism on your campuses and ensure a safe environment for Jewish staff, students, and faculty.”

“Texas will continue to stand with Israel and the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism,” he added.

In March, Abbott issued an executive order “addressing acts of antisemitism in institutions of higher education.”


FactsForPeace: Queers for Israel, the most open and accepting country in the region.
We are queers for Israel: Ask us anything. 🏳️‍🌈 Israel is the most queer-friendly and accepting country in the Middle East and one of the most queer-friendly in the world. These conversations are tough but need to be had.




Welcome to Melbourne in 2024: Nauseating moment 'anti-war protester' chants support for THREE terrorist groups on our streets
An Aussie protester was filmed screaming support for three different terrorist organisations at an 'anti-war' demonstration on the streets of Melbourne.

The man, who was waving a Hamas flag, was one of the 1,200 demonstrators who descended on the Land Forces 2024 weapons expo at Melbourne Convention Centre on Wednesday morning.

Dressed in a hoodie, sunglasses and a cap, he was filmed shouting: 'Hamas, Houthi, Hezbollah! Mashallah, Mashallah!', the latter phrase meaning 'God has willed it' in Arabic.

All three groups - Hamas, Houthi and Hezbollah - are listed as terrorist organisations by the Australian government.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, was first listed in March 2022 and is described as a 'an ideologically and religiously-motivated violent extremist organisation'.

'Houthi', which is officially known as the Ansar Allah movement, is an Islamic extremist faction in Yemen, while Hezbollah is an Iran-backed political party and paramilitary group in Lebanon.

The protester was also wearing a t-shirt with a black-and-white picture of Ayatollah Khomeini, the former Supreme Leader of Iran.

Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bloody coup that saw thousands of political prisoners killed.

In 1988, Khomeini infamously issued a fatwa ordering Muslims around the world to kill British novelist Salman Rushdie following the publication of his book Satanic Verses.

The Booker-prize-winning novelist lost an eye after an audience member at a lecture ran on to the stage and stabbed him 15 times in 2022.

US-Lebanese dual citizen Hadi Matar, who was aged 24 at the time of the attack, is awaiting trial for attempted murder.

The protester at the Melbourne anti-war rally also appeared in another video where he repeated his terrorist-sympathising chants.

In the footage, he then walked up to the camera and leered: 'What are you scared of bro, huh?' in a distinct Australian accent.
‘Hateful bunch of activists’: Greens slammed for their ‘hypocrisy’ on violent protests
Sky News host Danica De Giorgio has slammed the Greens as a “sinister, hateful bunch of activists”.

This comes after Greens Defence spokesperson David Shoebridge joined protesters on Friday afternoon in targeting the last day of the Land Forces event at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“The hypocrisy – how can he seriously be out there promoting peace; yet failing to even mention the disgusting behaviour of the protesters,” Ms De Giorgio said.

“God help this country in the event of a Labor-Greens minority government led by Anthony Albanese and the de facto prime minister Adam Bandt.”




Iran hires Hells Angels, other criminal gangs to hunt down regime critics
Iran hired Eastern European criminals to attack Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Zeraati was stabbed four times in March and left bleeding on a sidewalk.

British investigators told the Washington Post that the attackers had not been from Iran and had no discernible connection to its security services.

The attackers had reportedly been criminals hired from Eastern Europe who faced few barriers to entering Britain via Heathrow Airport in the days before the attack - and flying out just hours after the stabbing.

“We deny any link to this story of this so-called journalist,” the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said in a post on X the day after the attack.

Investigators said that it might not have been a mistake that Zeraati had survived the attack but that it had, perhaps, been intended as a warning to fellow critics.

The Washington Post said that this was just one case highlighting Iran’s exploitation of criminal networks behind a number of recent plots orchestrated by the IRGC and Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The publication said it surmised this following interviews with senior officials in more than a dozen countries and a review of hundreds of criminal court documents from the US and Europe. Hells Angels

Iran had also allegedly commissioned plots against a former Iranian military officer living under an assumed identity in the US, an exiled Iranian-American journalist in Brooklyn, a women’s rights activist in Switzerland, multiple LGBTQ+ activists in Germany, and at least five journalists in Iran International.

Earlier this year, the US Justice Department filed criminal charges against Naji Sharifi Zindashti after he allegedly sought a $350,000 USD contract with two Hells Angels in Canada to kill a defector and his wife.

The hired Hells Angels assassins had reportedly exchanged encrypted messages with Zindashti, where they promised the murder would be symbolically vicious, according to the report.
Paraguay to open Jerusalem embassy by end of year
The Republic of Paraguay will open its embassy in Jerusalem by the end of 2024, in a sign of support for Israel in Latin America, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano said on Thursday.

The embassy move, which had been planned before the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, is a diplomatic boon for Israel at a time when it has faced international opprobrium over the 11-month-old war triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre.

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will travel to Israel for the inauguration of the embassy in Israel’s capital, Ramírez Lezcano said in an interview with JNS.

“It is the government’s intention to open the embassy in Jerusalem before the end of the year,” Ramírez Lezcano told JNS. “Work is being done on the logistical aspects for the opening.”

He added that preparations were underway for a state visit by the president this fall for the opening of the embassy.

“The upcoming embassy move shows that the relationship between Paraguay and Israel is entering a new era of unprecedented bilateral cooperation and growth,” said Leopoldo Martinez, Latin America director of the Washington-based-Israel Allies Foundation.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is scheduled to travel to both Paraguay and Argentina next week, where he will meet the presidents of the two countries, both staunch Israel allies who have pledged to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.
How Ed Sheeran brought joy to wounded IDF soldiers
My daughter and son-in-law are typical first generation olim who made aliyah in their late teens/early twenties, married, had kids and work hard at several jobs to make a living, and Baruch Hashem they manage and are extremely happy – but, like many others, it’s tough and opportunities for relaxation on their own are few and far between.

So, I was delighted to hear that they were jetting off to Cyprus for one night to the Ed Sheeran concert earlier this week. It was the first time they had left the kids and gone abroad (even for one night) and they were obviously a little nervous as to whether their “elderly” parents (my wife and I) would cope.

Imagine then, my distress when, after they had been gone less than 2 hours, my daughter called me from the airport in floods of tears. My heart sank, and as is my usual habit, I immediately catastrophized about what dreadful thing could have happened in such a short period of time.

When she had composed herself sufficiently to be coherent, it transpired that what had caused her upset was the sight of 180 Israelis on their way to the same concert. Many were amputees, double amputees and other assorted injured soldiers of the IDF, together with some 40 bereaved young adults aged 14-22, all of whom lost an immediate family member on or since October 7th. Lior Suchard, the famous mentalist (whom we have all seen on our El Al safety instructions) joined the group as well.

This was part of the amazing Hagshamat Halom (Fulfilling the Dream) initiative which aims to help make dreams come true for those with special needs.

The trip was a four-day getaway which included attendance at the Ed Sheeran concert later that day. Other activities including, a boat trip on the Blue Lagoon, a visit to a fishing village, a water park, a show by Kamikaze who came especially from Israel and a private performance by Lior Suchard.

The excursion was part of the ongoing attempt by One Family to reach every single person who has lost a loved one on or since October 7 and introduce them to the support groups and programming they offer – as well as other bereaved Israelis who share their loss and grief.
Kassy Akiva: “Fulfilling Biblical Prophecy”: Group Of Israelis Restore King David’s Family Tomb
A group of Israelis are restoring one of Judaism’s holy sites, the tombs of King David’s ancestors.

Yishai Fleischer, the international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, said the restoration of the tombs of Jesse and Ruth “is fulfilling biblical prophecy.” Fleischer is referring to the Old Testament verse Isaiah 11:10, which states Jesse’s “resting place will be glorious.”

“The nations of the world will come to the root of Jesse [and] King David,” Fleischer said.

Jesse and Ruth were King David’s father and great-grandmother, respectively.

Restored buildings at the tomb include a synagogue, a small learning and dining space, a room for a scribe to write the Book of Ruth, a garden, bathrooms, and more.

According to Fleisher, when renovations began a few years ago, the buildings were decrepit and lacked running water and electricity.

“We kind of built them back up, restored them so that they don’t collapse,” he said. “I think that God held them up until we came in and fixed it and made it so they would stand.”

“It was all filled with dirt and dead animals and who knows what else,” he added. “We brought electricity, we fixed those ceilings and we fixed the building so it doesn’t fall down anymore.”

Builders on the site have crafted stone walls, laid tile flooring, and painted railings to enhance both functionality and appearance. To make the location more attractive to tourists and for group gatherings, they have also installed benches, running water, electricity, air conditioning, and movie screens.

Located on a hilltop in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, the Tomb of Ruth is under Israeli control in the city of Hebron, in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank).

Hebron is also the home to the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. According to the Bible, Abraham purchased a burial cave at the site, which became the traditional burial place for Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rachel, Jacob, and Leah. A large structure built over the burial caves in the first century BCE was later turned into a church by Crusaders, a mosque by the Turks, and is now divided into two areas for Jewish and Muslim worshipers.

According to the Bible, Hebron is the place King David was crowned and ruled for the first seven years of his reign before moving to Jerusalem.

One of the earliest documented mentions of the site as Jesse’s tomb comes from a student of the prolific Torah scholar Nachmanides around 1290. The earliest mention of the site as Ruth’s tomb is in the 1835 Love of Jerusalem by Haim Horowitz.

“Even if it’s not the tomb of Ruth it’s the place where we commemorate and celebrate Ruth,” Fleisher said.






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