Wednesday, November 27, 2024

11/27 Links Pt2: The International Criminal Court’s Folly; Jews Are Being Told to Hide in Berlin. Again.; How to defeat the antisemitism of the progressive left and strengthen America

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: The International Criminal Court’s Folly
Supporters of the ICC should be embarrassed that its decision was cheered by Hamas and Hezbollah. Those groups understand that the court’s indictments of Israeli officials will make it more difficult for Israel to defend itself. Yet the ICC cannot deter dictators and warlords, because they can fall into its hands only if they lose power. If they remain in power despite their atrocities, a minor crimp in their travel plans is more than offset by the power and wealth they will enjoy. The three Hamas leaders indicted by the tribunal have already been killed by Israel; they might have preferred a cell in The Hague.

Leaders of democracies must make different calculations; they rotate out of power, and their private benefits in office are relatively minimal. ICC warrants against them, even if entirely unjustified, could deter them from vigorously and lawfully prosecuting defensive wars, for which their civilian populations would pay the price. Thus, the prosecutions of Israeli officials will actually make war crimes more likely, by tipping the scales against liberal democracies.

All of this poses a threat to the U.S.—as a non–member state that engages in a high level of global armed conflict—as well as to its leaders and soldiers. The ICC could recognize the Islamic State in the Levant as a “state” for purposes of its jurisdiction, just as easily as it recognized Palestine, and investigate American officials for alleged crimes during the U.S.-led campaign against the terror group. That campaign, started during Barack Obama’s presidency, included battles in Mosul, where an effort to evict approximately 5,000 ISIS fighters in the city led to perhaps 10,000 civilian deaths and the destruction of the city. The ICC did not have jurisdiction, because Iraq had not joined the treaty—but the Palestine precedent shows that this is not an insurmountable problem.

Gershom Gorenberg: Israel’s disaster foretold

The ICC’s disregard for law also threatens American troops on counterterror missions in countries that have joined the ICC. Washington has long relied on treaties signed with such countries as a safeguard against Hague jurisdiction, but the tribunal’s boundless view of its powers gives no assurance that those treaties will be honored.

This is not far-fetched: The ICC is already investigating alleged U.S. crimes in Afghanistan. Indeed, the ICC prosecutor recently suggested that sitting U.S. senators may have committed crimes against the court’s charter by speaking out in support of bipartisan legislation that would impose sanctions on the body.

Not all efforts to solve the world’s problems work—some backfire. The high aspirations with which the tribunal was founded should not shield it from the consequences of its decision to pursue other agendas.
Melanie Phillips: Dismantle the United Nations
The United Nations was created after World War II to bring the world together to promote peace and justice. Yet most countries aren’t democracies and don’t uphold human rights. It’s hardly a surprise, therefore, that the world body does not uphold peace and justice but promotes the precise opposite.

Its institutionalized malice against Israel has spread evil far more widely than in the Middle East.

The lies and distortions about Israel regurgitated by the United Nations and its satellite institutions and NGOs, along with the courts dispensing international “human rights” law, are treated as unchallengeable truths by the West because this whole “humanitarian” infrastructure is treated as a veritable religion of peace and justice.

In fact, it’s an unstoppable geyser of moral and intellectual corruption. In teaching the West that lies about Israel are truths and truths are lies, it has turned what the West tells itself is morality and conscience into an agenda of evil.

This has ensured that the West can no longer distinguish more generally between victim and oppressor, reality and propaganda, right and wrong.

The United Nations should be dismantled. It’s the pivot of the apparatus that has twisted the Western mind. Treating it and international law as the moral arbiters of the global order is not just a sick joke. It has made the world sick, too.
Jews Are Being Told to Hide in Berlin. Again.
In view of its Nazi past, Germany does not intrude; it is religious freedom über alles. (Still, when talk segues into incitement, the government does intervene. Last summer, it closed down Hamburg’s Islamic Center, also known as the “Blue Mosque.” The charge: aiding and abetting terrorism. Throughout the country, several affiliates have been declared verboten because of ties to Hamas or Hezbollah.)

Add into this mix Islamic studies centers in universities generously supported by regimes in the Middle East. These are not generally dispassionate scholarly institutions, but outfits teaching “postcolonialism” and the sins of the West—Israel above all.

Perhaps this sounds familiar to American (or British or Dutch or French) ears. The vast majority of people on both sides of the Atlantic want tighter controls on immigration and the speedy deportation of malfeasants. Due process and asylum laws, among the West’s noblest attainments, render such wishes brittle, legitimate as they may be. Though dented by Donald Trump’s trifecta (winning the White House and both House chambers), the faith of those who dominate elite culture—postcolonialism, cultural relativism, and wokeism—will not quickly fade.

Back to the Fatherland, formerly the engine of deadly Jew-hatred. Polls measure less than 20 percent of the general population holding antisemitic views. This is decidedly less than in Poland (48 percent) and Hungary (42 percent).

Given Germany’s murderous past, the country relentlessly makes amends. Last year, just days after October 7, the federal government doubled its subsidy for the Central Council of Jews to 22 million euros, a bit more in dollars. It is heartening that Germany keeps funding lots of Jewish museums and staging a plethora of commemorative rituals, like “Never Again” pledges on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the first nationwide Nazi pogrom in 1938. Berlin sells U-boats at a steep discount to Israel, submarines that are one leg of the country’s nuclear triad. (The other two are American state-of-the-art strike planes and homemade long-range missiles.)

That’s the good news. The bad news? Surging antisemitism imported from the Middle East and North Africa. Plus demography: The Jewish community is literally dying. If the current rates of decline persist, Germany will be judenrein at the end of the century.

Hiding religious symbols, as Berlin’s police chief advised, is just a well-meaning Band-Aid, unless the powers that be get serious about arresting, prosecuting, and deporting malfeasants, and taking a hard look at what is being taught in mosques and Islamic centers—including those at publicly funded universities—and closing them down, like Hamburg’s Blue Mosque and its affiliates throughout the country.

In the U.S., the rethink started before Trump II. But look at the Netherlands after the Amsterdam soccer pogrom. The government reacted in horror—it must not happen here! And yet Amsterdam will honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is charged with crimes against humanity. So will London and Canada.

Is this unconscious antisemitism? Let’s put it this way: Given the global and singular condemnation of the Jewish state in the name of “anti-Zionism” after October 7, it is hard to ignore what may be the real thrust. After the Shoah, unalloyed antisemitism has been strictly verboten in the West. But sublimation, repression, and projection do come back, Dr. Sigmund Freud has taught. And Israel sure makes for a handy substitute for the Jew. But this time, the Israel Defense Forces pack more punch than the armies of Germany, France, or Britain.


Yisrael Medad: Gaza and its Jews, their past and future
Between 1948 and 1967, no Jewish civilians lived in Gaza, and after 2005, those who had returned to resettle the area (more than 8,000) were expelled in fulfillment of then-Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. The Palestinian Authority/Fatah Party took control until they were quickly and violently ousted by the Hamas terrorist organization in June 2007, two years after the Israelis had vacated. Then came the invasion of Hamas from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Obviously, the presence of Jews resettling the Jewish national homeland is not necessarily a cause of Arab terror.

Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly expressing opposition to plans for Jews to resettle Gaza or at least become neighbors with the Gazans—terming the idea “not realistic”— there were two significant gatherings to promote the idea. One was during this past Sukkot holiday near Gaza and the other, in Jerusalem, back on Jan. 28. Both were attended by ministers and Knesset members from coalition parties.

In a recent essay in Mosaic, Shany Mor argued, among other points, that what was wrong with the “settler movement”—one that was engaged in “state capture”—is that ultimately, wherever they were, they were a main cause of Arab violence, Fatah or Hamas. Justifying his thesis, he wrote:

“When a settler was murdered [at Homesh], the perverse logic of the entire settlement movement took over … the threat to their safety remained and was, if anything, more acute, so more soldiers needed to be sent there to protect them, and roadblocks had to be set up, and so forth. The Jenin sector, once the quietest part of the West Bank, quickly became, together with nearby Nablus, not just a focal point of skirmishes among settlers, the army, and Palestinian militants, but also the epicenter of a new wave of terrorism targeting Israelis in central Israel.”

Of course, no Jews present in Gaza for 23 years is a fact that does not alter his thinking. Nor does the lack of Jews anywhere across the former Green Line in Judea and Samaria for 19 years affect it.

I’m not sure that resettling Jews in Gaza at this moment in history is doable or even advisable. And for sure, partisan protest gimmicks like trying to cross over into the Strip during the war are insane. But instead of Jews arguing among themselves, a better discussion would focus on asking Arabs why they can live in Jaffa, Nazareth and Haifa, yet any suggestion of Jews living among Arabs is non-acceptable and non-negotiable.

Liberals and human-rights activists should equally be asked if the banning of Jews from Gaza can be defined as principled apartheid. Diplomats should be pressed to explain why they are supporting a policy of an exclusive uni-ethno state—moreover, one that is autocratic, theocratic and unsustainable economically.
How to defeat the antisemitism of the progressive left and strengthen America
Historically, Jews are most at risk when antisemitism is mainstreamed and becomes government policy. That was true during the Inquisition, the Holocaust, Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union. DEI is a present-day manifestation of this phenomenon. Jews have every reason to worry about their place in America if the antisemitism of DEI is allowed to fester and become further entrenched in our schools, places of business and political institutions.

Now that Republicans have won the White House and control of both Houses of Congress, there is much that can be done to beat back this hateful ideology.

Congress must immediately pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. That definition, alone, will make it impossible for any American institution to continue its DEI programs legally.

Newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has made clear that he intends to bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the floor of the Senate for passage when Congress convenes next year. The Republican House adopted it months ago, however, the risible and cynical current Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), refused to allow the Senate to vote on the legislation so as not to alienate the antisemitic pro-Hamas protesters whose votes Harris tried so desperately to win.

It is also critical for the new administration to publicly debunk the false narratives espoused by the progressive left against Israel. Their allegations that Israel is a colonial settler apartheid state engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people are utterly false and fact-free. In contrast to the Biden administration, which allowed these blood libels to fester and grow, Trump’s proposed foreign-policy team of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, United Nations Ambassador Elise Stefanik and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will rally to Israel’s defense militarily and rhetorically.

We must also do a better job of educating our children about the history of antisemitism, the Middle East and Zionism. This cannot happen if textbooks and curricula for our schools, including elementary schools, are paid for by the enemies of Israel, such as Qatar. Likewise, colleges must be given the choice of either accepting funds from foreign sources like Qatar or accepting federal funding. They cannot have both. We must be sure we are educating, not indoctrinating, our children.

Antisemitism is a sign of a sick society. We must inoculate ourselves against this ancient plague. If the Trump administration carries through on these priorities, it will go a long way towards defeating antisemitism at home and abroad. It also will help protect and defend America’s national security. Israel’s enemies are our enemies. When Israel wins, America wins. Most importantly, when America’s Jews flourish, America flourishes.
Fighting the Legal Battle against Academic Boycotts
If international terrorism like the murder of Rabbi Kogan represents an additional front in the war to destroy Israel, so too does the movement to boycott Israeli scholars and universities, argues Netta Barak-Corren:
It is hard to overstate the stakes of this front not only for Israel, but for countries all over the world who benefit from Israel’s scholarly contributions to many fields. The boycott has already scotched research collaborations in medicine, computational biology, chemistry, informatics, political science, child welfare, and more.

In America, some legal and legislative remedies have already been used against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Such legal means, Barak-Corren explains, are also available in Europe:
Through the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Israeli researchers and institutions have access to EU grants, which constitute some of the largest sources of research funding in the world. The regulations for such funding include nondiscrimination rules as a condition for eligibility, . . . meaning that universities or researchers who terminate collaborations with Israeli collaborators will violate their contractual commitments and risk their eligibility for funding.

Although there are laws in the United States that prohibit government contracts with entities that participate in the BDS movement, these laws mainly apply to commercial activity. . . . It is perhaps timelier than ever to push similar legislation through Congress.
Stars of David with Elon Gold: Swell Ariel Or Is the Friend Who Shows Up
Swell Ariel Or talks to Elon about her role in the first scripted series about October 7th, her goal of fostering conversations about modern antisemitism while highlighting the importance of consuming knowledge from all side. Swell also reveals the real reason why she disinvited Elon to her birthday party.


Sens. Ossoff and Warnock cast troubling votes in a time of need
Today, we stand united to say: Sen. Ossoff and Sen. Warnock, your vote demonstrated a failure to hear your Jewish constituents.

This war has been painful to each of us and to millions who have been directly impacted by it — in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. We join the chorus of leaders who want the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, to be freed and the fighting to stop. But depriving our ally of the weapons it needs while it fights a war against a maniacal, anti-American, anti-Israeli Iranian regime and its proxies will, as the Biden administration said, only serve to prolong the fighting rather than end it.

With this vote, you showed indifference to the pro-Israel community while granting approval to fringe voices like that of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The overwhelming majority of mainstream Jewish organizations stands firmly against the votes you took. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, AIPAC, Jewish Democratic Council of America and Democratic Majority for Israel all opposed these dangerous resolutions.

Instead, you sided with often fanatical and uncompromising organizations and individuals who consistently fight against pro-Israel policies and work to weaken the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said “no friend of Israel” should support blocking these sales. Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog said, “Anyone urging you to ban critical arms to Israel during an existential war is NOT pro-Israel.” You ignored them, too.

We are proud that the Senate voted overwhelmingly to reject this deeply misguided legislation. But your calculated decision to vote in this troublin


Israel will appeal to ICC against arrest warrants
The Prime Minister’s Office announced Israel’s intention on Wednesday to appeal to the International Criminal Court in The Hague against its decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and to demand a delay in the implementation of those warrants.

Israel’s notice of appeal shows in detail the degree to which the ICC decision to issue the arrest warrants is “baseless and without any factual or legal foundation whatsoever,” the PMO said in a statement.

“Should the ICC reject the appeal, this will underscore to Israel’s friends in the United States and around the world how biased the ICC is against the State of Israel,” the PMO said.

In a meeting between Netanyahu and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the senator updated the Israeli premier on efforts he is advancing in Congress against the ICC and countries that have cooperated with it.

Graham has threatened to sanction America’s allies if they enforce the ICC’s arrest warrants against the two Israeli leaders.

“To any ally—Canada, Britain, Germany, France—if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham told Fox News on Nov. 23.
France Believes Israel’s Netanyahu Has Immunity From ICC Arrest Warrant
France said on Wednesday it believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is seeking his arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza, given Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.

France‘s view, issued a day after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah brokered by the US and France, was condemned by rights groups. Other countries including Italy have also questioned the legality of the mandate.

A statement by the French Foreign Ministry said it would continue to work closely with Netanyahu.

Paris has taken almost a week to come up with a clear position, after the court in The Hague issued arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a leader of the Hamas Palestinian terrorist group.

After initially saying it would adhere to the ICC statutes, France‘s foreign ministry fine-tuned that in a second statement on Nov. 22 amid concerns that Israel could scupper efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying it noted that the court’s decision merely formalized an accusation.

On Wednesday, the ministry pointed out that the Rome Statute that established the ICC provided that a country cannot be required to act in a manner incompatible with its obligations “with respect to the immunities of States not party to the ICC.”

“Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other relevant ministers and will have to be taken into consideration should the ICC request their arrest and surrender.”

The French ministry statement, referring to what it called the historic friendship between two democracies committed to the rule of law, said France intended to continue to work closely with Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities “to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East.”
What You DON'T Know about the ICC Decision Against Israel w/ Anne Herzberg | The Quad Interviews
There is a lot more to the story than meets the eye! "The Quad" host Fleur Hassan-Nahoum sits down with NGO Monitor Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg to unpack the International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Herzberg reveals the unknown history of the #icc and how it has been used against the Jewish state since its inception. This is a story that doesn’t begin on Oct. 7th, but rather decades ago when Israel’s enemies began using the United Nations to attack it.




Anti-Israel Groups Plan Coordinated Protests in ‘Global Escalation’ Over Thanksgiving Holiday
A coalition of radical anti-Israel groups is planning a "global escalation" in dozens of cities across the United States throughout the Thanksgiving holiday season.

The "Global Escalation" coalition describes itself as "a collective effort from people who share the understanding that we must urgently step up our actions to stop this genocide." It directs activists to protest in their area and provides resources on how to organize and improve their security strategies. Some of the cities listed include New York, Chicago, Sacramento, Denver, and Charleston.

"We reject a world where genocide and war crimes go unpunished. In 3 days, for 3 days, withdraw from participating in the global economy to reject this new ‘normal,’" the coalition posted Sunday on Instagram. "Disrupt any and all entities that allow or enable genocide. Disrupt the finances fuelling or profiting from genocide."

"Join direct action and strikes around the world: refuse labour, stop spending, and hit the pockets of those fuelling or profiting from genocide," the post continued.

In Charleston, S.C., for instance, a participating anti-Israel group is planning to "start [a] car caravan to interrupt business as usual through the central arteries" of the city.

And in Chicago, the local chapters of the Palestinian American Council, Students for Justice in Palestine, and American Muslims for Palestine will protest at a large shopping mall to "reject capitalist ‘holidays.’"

The coalition’s website boasts that it "will bring together people and movements around the world to step up the collective resistance by going on strike, refusing to shop and by taking direct action. It will be the first of a series of blows that will force change."

"By halting revenue over one of the most profitable times of the year, the people stand in solidarity with all communities harmed by the same colonial forces worldwide, rejecting the celebration of colonial legacies like ‘Thanksgiving Day’ on the 28th," the site continues. "The efforts will culminate on the 29th, coinciding with the Friday Day of Rage and the opening of the infamous ‘Black Friday’ season. Most importantly, November 29th marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."


US Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strip Funding From Universities That Boycott Israel
US Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to cut off federal funding from universities that engage in boycotts of Israel.

The legislation, titled “The Protect Economic Freedom Act,” would render universities that participate in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel ineligible for federal funding under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, prohibiting them from receiving federal student aid. The bill would also mandate that colleges and universities submit evidence that they are not participating in commercial boycotts against the Jewish state.

“Enough is enough. Appeasing the antisemitic mobs on college campuses threatens the safety of Jewish students and faculty and it undermines the relationship between the US and one of our strongest allies. If an institution is going to capitulate to the BDS movement, there will be consequences — starting with the Protect Economic Freedom Act,” Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement.

Gottheimer added that the legislation is necessary to thwart the surging tide of antisemitism on college campuses. Although the lawmaker noted that students are allowed to engage in free expression regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, he argued that blanket boycotts against Israel endanger the lives of Jewish students and community members.

“The goal of the antisemitic BDS movement is to annihilate the democratic State of Israel, America’s critical ally in the global fight against terror. While students and faculty are free to speak their minds and disagree on policy issues, we cannot allow antisemitism to run rampant and risk the safety and security of Jewish students, staff, faculty, and guests on college campuses,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “The new bipartisan Protect Economic Freedom Act will give the Department of Education a critical new tool to combat the antisemitic BDS movement on college campuses. Now more than ever, we must take the necessary steps to protect our Jewish community.”
Brooke Goldstein: DePaul University Enabled Violent Attacks and Brain Injury on Jewish Students
My name is Brooke Goldstein. I am the founder and executive director of The Lawfare Project, and the founder of the #EndJewHatred civil rights movement. I have dedicated my career to upholding the legal rights of the Jewish people, a fight that is all the more pressing after the wave of Jew-hatred unleashed in America and around the world following the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.

In 2021, a few years before October 7, a Jewish student identified a major problem at DePaul University. She went public about “a long history of antisemitism on DePaul’s campus … without DePaul doing anything really substantive to address this situation.”

In a clear call for action, she said that, “DePaul, as an administration and as a university, doesn’t fully understand what is required for Jewish students in particular to feel safe in their campus community.”

The unprecedented wave of hatred launched against Jews and Israelis at DePaul University over the past year is a direct result of the administration’s failure — not just to help its Jewish community feel safe, but to actually keep its Jewish students safe.

Jew-hatred has become systematized in higher education, and we are now seeing the consequences playing out on campuses across the country — including at DePaul University.

Radicalized agitators who openly support foreign terrorist organizations target Jewish students with calls for their genocide.

“From the river to the sea” is a call for genocide.

“Globalize the intifada” is a call for worldwide violent attacks on Jews, like we see in the streets of New York City and Amsterdam, and on campus here at DePaul.

Jews are dehumanized, deprived of the right to openly express their identity, and the civil rights of Jewish students are ignored and violated — their minority status disregarded, and the harm and violence they endure is minimized. All of this is unacceptable.
London university lecturer used Hamas propaganda material to ‘indoctrinate’ students
A King’s College London academic used a Hamas propaganda document to encourage her students to sympathise with the terror group, the JC can reveal.

Dr Rana Baker, a lecturer on Middle Eastern history, led a seminar earlier this year in which she handed out the Hamas text titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and suggested students think about the terrorist organisation as a “liberation” movement.

She also remarked on the “collaboration between Zionists and Nazis” and the “deployment of the Holocaust as a justification to build an exclusive Jewish state”.

In March, as part of a seminar on the 1948 war and “Palestinian Arab identity-formation”, Baker distributed to students excerpts from a Hamas tract that justified the October 7 attack.

Originally published by the Hamas Media Office in January, the 18-page document claims that October 7 was a “necessary step” and a “normal response” to Israel’s actions, and that any civilian casualties “happened accidently” and in the course of the “confrontation” with Israeli forces.

In preparation for the seminar, Baker also prepared a hand-out with various sources from the 1948 war, which finished with an extract from “A Reminder to the World, Who is Hamas?”, the fourth section of Hamas’s 2024 document.

Given to students ahead of the class, the selected passages falsely presented Hamas as peaceful. They claimed that Hamas’s conflict was with the “Zionist project”, not with “the Jews because of their religion”, and that the terror group “rejects the persecution of any human being”.
Children’s Theatre School reported for Activist Teaching
A children’s theatre school in Brighton has been reported to the Regulator for Community Interest Companies (the CIC Regulator) for breaches of regulations, following its activist teaching.

ThirdSpace is an East Sussex based theatre school for children, teenagers, and young adults in the area. It is a Community Interest Company (CIC) – a special type of company that benefits the community rather than private shareholders. CICs are not charities under English law and are not regulated by the Charity Commission; instead they are regulated by the Regulator for CICs.

UKLFI has written to the CIC Regulator, pointing out that ThirdSpace Theatre carried out activities which were not for the public benefit, and that could have been interpreted as political campaigning, which are not allowed under the rules for CICs.

ThirdSpace encouraged children to join a school strike in November 2023 so they could rally for Palestine. The rally involved children chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and copies of a newspaper with the headline “Intifada Now” were handed out. Afterwards ThirdSpace posted on Instagram that they were very impressed by the young people who staged the anti-racist strike which was “led by three young performers from ThirdSpace.”

ThirdSpace created performances with divisive political content, much of which had the effect of stirring up hatred against Jews and Israelis.

At the Christmas (December 2023) performance of the ThirdSpace group, one of the children performed “The Gaza Monologues” and another performed “Don’t Mention the Children”, another anti-Israel poem, often quoted by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

They are planning to perform a show inspired by a poem by the (now deceased) Palestinian Refaat Alareer, based on the theme of kites. Alareer had a history of posting virulently antisemitic content on social media. His poems about kites were redolent of the burning kites that were sent over by Hamas to burn Israeli fields some years ago, and also of the more recent paragliders, driven by machine gun wielding terrorists, who gunned down hundreds of innocent party goers on 7 October 2023.
Occidental College reaches agreement with Dept. of Education over Title VI complaint
In response to a federal Title VI complaint filed against Occidental College in April alleging a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students, the Los Angeles-based private liberal arts college agreed on Tuesday to implement a series of initiatives to mend the campus climate, including the adoption of the widely used International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

The complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of four Occidental students, stated that since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, the university enforced policies against Jewish students while ignoring antisemitic declarations and violations on campus. Examples provided in the complaint include Jewish and Israeli students being accosted and harassed by demonstrators on campus, being “unable to carry out” their jobs on campus as a result of antisemitic behavior and an allegation that that Occidental faculty “engaged in hateful rhetoric that emboldened the student protestors.”

“On the first day of class following Oct. 7, a professor told her students that she felt ‘invigorated’ from Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack and encouraged students to share their excitement,” the complaint states. “Students clapped and snapped in response to their professor while an Israeli student watched in horror.”

Under the new agreement, the college said that going into the 2025-26 school year, it will consider the IHRA working definition of antisemitism when reviewing complaints of potential antisemitic harassment or discrimination and will incorporate the definition into educational materials. Other terms in the agreement include requiring training for all students on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, appointing an associate director of Jewish student life and updating the college’s time, place and manner policies to place limitations on the hours and conduct of demonstrations on campus.

Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin said in a statement that the settlement “demonstrates Occidental College’s commitment to counter all forms of contemporary antisemitism.”
Harvard Chaplains Omit Antisemitism From Statement on Antisemitic Incident
Harvard University’s Office of the Chaplain and Religious and Spiritual Life is being criticized by a rising Jewish civil rights activist for omitting any mention of antisemitism from a statement addressing antisemitic behavior.

The sharp words followed the office’s response to a hateful demonstration on campus in which pro-Hamas students stood outside Harvard Hillel and called for it to banned from campus. Such a demand is not new, as it began earlier this semester at the direction of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) organization, which coordinates the lion’s share of anti-Zionist activity on college campuses.

As seen in footage of the demonstration, the students chanted “Zionists aren’t welcome here!” and held signs which accused the organization — the largest campus organization for Jewish students in the world — of embracing “war criminals” and genocide.

Addressing the behavior, Harvard Chaplains issued a statement, which is now being pointed to as a symbol of higher education’s indifference to the unique hatred of antisemitism, as well as its permutation as anti-Zionism.

“We have noticed a trend of expression in which entire groups of students are told they ‘are not welcome here’ because of their religious, cultural, ethnic, or political commitments and identities, or are targeted through acts of vandalism,” the office said, seemingly circumventing the matter at hand. “We find this trend disturbing and anathema to the dialogue and connection across lines of difference that must be a central value and practice of a pluralistic institution of higher learning.”


The BBC fact-checking unit accused of political bias
A month later, the corporation’s reporting of the deaths at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on October 17 presented a major test for Verify. A breaking news report on the BBC News channel stated it was “it is hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike or several airstrikes”. Shortly afterwards, western countries including Britain concluded that the deaths were most likely to have come from a misfiring Islamic Jihad rocket, something reported by the BBC.

Two days after the incident that killed several hundred people, a Verify video was reporting that the situation was “still unclear” and that there were “competing claims and counterclaims”. Seven days after this, Verify produced a report looking at it again, which included the line “the exact cause of the blast is still contested”, despite reporting the UK, US and French governments had attributed the deaths to Palestinian militants. More than 1,700 words of analysis of witness accounts, the bomb scene, expert views and videos of projectiles seen on the night, ended without conclusion. Verify said it was not able to establish the truth about the footage of the rocket or draw findings from what the reporters learnt from the crash site.

A BBC spokesman said: “Without access to the site or physical evidence, most experts are of the view that it is hard to give a truly definitive verdict.”

“Maybe the hospital of Gaza made them more cautious and has led to them being less definitive but, if that’s true, what’s the point?” says the Conservative source. “I don’t see what it’s adding, other than a great big salary bill.”

Assumptions such as the one made in the moments after the blast mean the existence of Verify only adds to the spotlight on the BBC’s own errors. Although not directly related to Verify, in January the BBC apologised for reporting unverified claims from Hamas that the IDF had carried out “summary executions” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“BBC Verify seems to have an unhealthy obsession with stories related to Israel,” says Cohen. “In the year of a UK election, a US Presidential election, the war in Ukraine, conflict and famine in Sudan, climate change threats and much more it is striking how often BBC Verify has focused on the Israel-Hamas conflict.”

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC holds itself to high standards of impartial reporting and rejects the suggestion that we are biased in any way in this conflict. This is a challenging and polarising story to cover, and we are dedicated to providing impartial reporting for audiences in the UK and across the world.”

Verify endured further controversy over its coverage of the war in Gaza when it used an Iranian-backed journalist as its eyewitness source for the deaths of 122 Palestinians, who were killed when an aid convoy was mobbed. Verify quoted claims by Mahmoud Awadeyah, who works for the Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian outlet with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that Israeli soldiers had fired “purposefully” and “directly” at the men trying to get to their food on the trucks. His social media feed has reportedly featured posts that appear to praise a January 2023 terrorist attack that left seven Israelis dead.

The BBC responded to this at the time with a statement to the Jewish Chronicle: “The BBC is not allowed access into Gaza, but we use a range of accounts from eyewitnesses and cross reference these against official statements and footage, including from the IDF. The fact that someone has expressed an opinion on social media doesn’t automatically disqualify them from giving eye-witness testimony. It is simply wrong to claim an agenda on our part – and ignores much of the journalism we have done, including BBC Verify accounts of the Supernova festival massacre.”
BBC staff quit journalists’ union after being told to dress in Palestinian colours
The National Union of Journalists has confirmed to Jewish News that BBC journalists have resigned from the union after it distributed directives from the TUC urging workers to dress in Palestinian colours, or wear a keffiyeh, as part of a Day of Action for Palestine.

The TUC has called for a permanent ceasefire, the cessation of violence in Gaza and release of all hostages. But in recommending Palestinian dress as part of the event, due to take place on Thursday 28 November, some NUJ members at the BBC feel their union has crossed a line.

One BBC staffer said the suggestion was a clear breach of the BBC’s commitment to impartial reporting, telling The Times: “BBC journalists, who pride themselves on impartiality and who fought to keep their NUJ free of politics, are being encouraged to break the BBC’s editorial guidelines by supporting a political cause”. They added that they were reconsidering their NUJ membership after the “hypocritical and antisemitic” action.

Jewish staffers at the BBC say that Nigel Lewis, the broadcaster’s director of HR, has been alerted to the situation and raised it with HR leads across the Corporation. BBC Security has also been made aware of potential flashpoint situations. created by the wearing of Palestinian flag colours or headscarves.

In a message to NUJ members, the journalists’ union now says that “clearly members working across the BBC and in public service broadcasting have important duties in relation to impartiality and work within social media guidelines the NUJ would not wish members to breach”.

Just as clearly, the union has been alarmed by the response and the resignations. Jewish chat groups speculate there might be at least a dozen more people handing in their NUJ membership cards.

Charlotte Henry, a freelance journalist who has also resigned, wrote on her newsletter, The Addition, that the union had become “a hostile environment for Jews, and I can no longer be part of that”.

The TUC was unable to say whether it had ever previously asked workers to wear the national colours of one side or another in a conflict. It did confirm, however, that it has never asked members to wear Ukraine coloured clothing during the country’s conflict with Russia.

As far as the Palestinian cause goes, however, the TUC is not simply asking participants to “wear something red, green, black or a Palestinian keffiyeh” to their workplace, but “visibly show solidarity” by posting pictures of themselves in such clothing on social media.


After Being Confronted With Facts, PBS Continues to Give Voice to Anti-Israel Propaganda
Earlier this month, I wrote about a PBS Newshour report that inaccurately described international law, and then portrayed Israel as breaking the law.

Not only did PBS refuse to correct this claim, but it has doubled down with more biased reporting. On the November 11 edition of PBS Newshour, Nick Schifrin began his report by saying, “this weekend, an independent famine review committee affiliated with the United Nations declared that across Northern Gaza, starvation, malnutrition and excess mortality are, quote, rapidly increasing, and famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.”

But the statement that Schifrin referenced was not based on data.

The fuller passage that was quoted says, “It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas. Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.” [Emphasis added.]

When it comes to the UN, bias against the Jewish State is pervasive and ubiquitous, and the claim that there is such a thing as an “independent” committee affiliated with the UN is itself suspect. Such assumptions, therefore, ought to be met with some degree of skepticism. Schifrin, instead, elevated this biased assumption to a fact, and led his report with it.

Schifrin then introduced his guest, Jan Egeland, the head of a Norwegian NGO, who was permitted to make baseless claims about the way Israel is conducting this war — and PBS allowed those claims to go unchallenged.

Egeland falsely called Israel’s bombing in Gaza “indiscriminate,” and said that Israel is “carpet-bombing” Gaza.

In reality, Israel is targeting Hamas infrastructure in Gaza, just as it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon. The problem, as CAMERA and Algemeiner readers surely know, is that Hamas infrastructure is embedded and interwoven within civilian infrastructure. But only someone blind to what’s happening in Gaza — and the actions and tactics being used by Hamas — could claim that Israel is “carpet bombing” Gaza.


Councillor who joked about ‘Jew process’ gave Green Party antisemitism training
A Merseyside councillor who joked that complaints of antisemitism in Labour should be labelled “Jew process” rather than “due process” gave antisemitism training to the Green Party.

Jo Bird, who is Jewish, was expelled from Labour in 2021 for supporting the Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW), which had been proscribed by the party.

She had previously been investigated by Labour for reacting to the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report into antisemitism in the party by claiming racism against Jewish communities was deemed more “worthy of resources” than other ethnic minorities.

The JC has previously reported that Bird has stated that she believes there is “privileging of racism against Jews as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism” and joking that the way Labour dealt with complaints of antisemitism should be labelled “Jew process”, rather than “due process”.

A JLM spokesperson told Jewish News: “The idea that the Greens would use someone who was expelled from the Labour Party for antisemitism training shows what deep, deep denial they are in about the left antisemitism crisis in their Party.”

The JLM statement prompted a furious response from the Green Party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski, who is also Jewish.

In a post on social media he wrote: “Why would the Jewish Labour movement – a group standing alongside a government enabling genocide – comment on training within the Green Party? Who do they think they are?”


Lessons from a few hours in Jenin
According to the World Atlas, the P.A. has the sixth-largest per capita security force in the world—an astonishing 1,250 “police officers” per 100,000 people. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has reported that “by late 1998, the P.A. security services … had in almost every regard violated the letter of the agreements reached with Israel,” turning the Palestinian Authority-governed areas into “one of the most heavily policed territories in the world.”

Yet somehow those P.A. security forces can’t find a single bomb-making lab after 29 years in Jenin, while the Israelis found four of them over the space of a few hours.

Now let’s take a look at how the P.A. responded to the latest Israeli operation in Jenin.

Its leaders should have been celebrating, right? After all, the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and J Street keep telling us that the P.A. is opposed to terrorism. Peace Now and The Washington Post insist that the P.A. is “moderate” and is against the “extremists.” So the P.A. should have been delighted that the Israelis were catching and eliminating terrorists.

Not quite. The P.A.’s official news agency, Wafa, denounced “the Israeli assault on Jenin city.” It accused the Israelis of “killing young men” (not terrorists) and “besieging a house” (not a terrorist hideout). Wafa also claimed that Israel was causing “widespread destruction” and “targeting emergency responders.”

In short, what the P.A. wanted the Palestinian Arab public to believe is that evil Israel is once again massacring innocent young Arabs, destroying their cities and murdering their emergency medics. In short, the P.A. wants the Arab public to hate Israel and Jews. Some peace partner!

There was one final note of irony in the Wafa report. It concluded by mentioning that following the operation, “the Israeli military has withdrawn” from Jenin. Well, isn’t that odd? Israel’s critics are constantly claiming that Israel “occupies” those territories. If so, why are they withdrawing? Where are they going? Who is left to “occupy” Jenin?

The answer, of course, is that the “occupation” claim is a lie. The Wafa report accidentally let the cat out of the bag. There are no Israeli “occupiers.” They went into Jenin for a few hours, hit the terrorists and left. Which is how it’s been for the last 29 years since the day the occupation ended.

So there you have it in a nutshell: An enormous sized P.A. security force that refuses to enforce security, a “peaceful” P.A. that incites the public to war against Israel and an “occupation” lie that is spread even when the P.A. itself admits there are no Israeli occupiers. Just another Thursday in the Middle East!
Two weeks after his 89th birthday, Abbas names possible successor
Rawhi Fattouh, 75, will temporarily replace Mahmoud Abbas in case of the death of the octogenarian leader of the Palestinian Authority, Ramallah announced on Wednesday, two weeks after Abbas’s 89th birthday.

The P.A.’s official Wafa news agency reported that Abbas on Wednesday signed a declaration that should his position become vacant, Fattouh will serve as the organization’s supreme leader “pending the holding of presidential elections as per the Palestinian Elections Law.”

Abbas claimed that he issued the order in an attempt to “maintain stability” during a period in which the P.A. was “facing many challenges.”

The last election for the position of P.A. chief was in 2006, which means Abbas is currently in the 20th year of his original four-year term.

Fattouh, a longtime Abbas confidant who now leads the Palestinian National Council—the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization—served as P.A. interim chief after Yasser Arafat’s death in November 2004.

Born in 1949 in the Gaza Strip, Israeli analysts have considered the P.A. official “dull and lacking political influence or ability to actually rule.”

In March 2008, Israeli border guards caught Fattouh with 3,000 cell phones in his car, which he tried to smuggle from Jordan into Judea and Samaria using his Israeli-issued entry permit. The incident reportedly “enraged” Abbas, and he banned Fattouh from entering his offices.

Last year, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revoked Fattouh’s VIP entry permit after he paid a visit to a released Palestinian terrorist who served decades in jail for killing a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.


Israel needs to take action against antisemitism
ONE IMPORTANT realm in which Israel can provide support is in the legal arena. Within the limits of local laws and regulations, Israel should help provide information and support to legal challenges against boycotts, discrimination, and antisemitism. The government of Israel should also facilitate training programs for lawyers in the Diaspora, equipping them with the skills needed to counter illegal discrimination and lawfare against Jews and Israel.

Israel must also strengthen and build upon its ties to Diaspora communities by focusing on unity and helping bolster Jewish identity. Strengthening Israel-Diaspora relations is an end in itself but it will also help Diaspora Jewry facing antisemitism. Such efforts could be carried out through online learning environments, Zionist youth movements, Jewish summer camps, and empowering local Israeli consulates to work more extensively and effectively with local communities.

Indeed, in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre and the explosion of antisemitism, Diaspora Jewry is seeking a stronger connection with Israel. The Jewish state should embrace them and implement a strategy at the highest levels of government.

Unfortunately, there is too often a lack of such a strategy in the Israeli government. There are several government ministries or semi-governmental organizations that aim to strengthen Israel-Diaspora ties, including the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office, Diaspora Affairs Ministry, Education Ministry, and what are known as the “National Institutions” – the Jewish Agency, World Zionist Organization, United Israel Appeal, and Jewish National Fund. While each has its own niche and varying degrees of effectiveness, much more can be done by coordinating their efforts.

The Israeli government should form an inter-ministerial committee for Israel-Diaspora relations, with representatives of the aforementioned ministries on the director-general level, as well as high-level representatives of the Finance Ministry and National Institutions. The committee should be co-chaired by the Prime Minister’s Diaspora affairs adviser and the Prime Minister’s Office director-general, whose job includes effective coordination between government ministries.

Currently, there is no Diaspora affairs adviser at the Prime Minister’s Office. One should be appointed and empowered at the earliest opportunity. Alternatively, the leadership of the task force should be in the hands of the Foreign Ministry, at the director-general level.

Global leaders have a crucial role to play as well. In this big world that we inhabit, values, decency, and moral clarity matter. Now, more than ever, we need world leaders to wake up and act. Apologies without action are simply words with little meaning.

When we stand together, we not only defend Jews but we also defend the rights to democracy and freedom. When we say “Never Again,” we also need to say now and always.
Why Holocaust education isn’t enough to combat antisemitism today
Education should emphasize how Israel embodies Jewish resilience and self-determination. It is vital to showcase the diversity of Israeli society, where Arabs live freely, participate in democracy, own businesses and serve in the Knesset. For example, Mansour Abbas, an Arab Israeli politician, leads the Ra’am Party and has wielded significant influence in Israeli politics. Similarly, Arab citizens of Israel excel in various fields, from sports to medicine, challenging the false narrative that Israel is an apartheid state.

Highlighting these realities counters the misinformation that often fuels antisemitism, especially on college campuses and via social media. It also reframes Jewish history from one of victimhood to one of strength, agency and contributions to global society.

To make antisemitism relevant to broader audiences, it is essential to connect it to universal values and struggles. For example, antisemitism is often referred to as the “canary in the coal mine” of societal hatred—when Jews are targeted, other minority groups often follow. By framing it as a barometer of broader social decay, educators can help non-Jewish audiences see the fight against antisemitism as their fight, too.

Moreover, addressing antisemitism in a modern context requires debunking pervasive myths, such as the claim that Jews wield disproportionate power or influence. Perpetuated by figures across the political spectrum, these falsehoods fuel contemporary antisemitism and must be confronted directly. Education should empower students to recognize and challenge these stereotypes, whether they appear in media, politics or everyday conversation.

To do so, we need a comprehensive approach that integrates the following elements:
1. Expanded historical education: Teach about antisemitism’s long history, from ancient prejudices to modern-day manifestations, across different cultures and regions.
2. The story of Israel: Highlight Israel’s history, diversity and contributions to global society. Show how Israel exemplifies Jewish resilience and counters narratives of oppression.
3. Contemporary antisemitism: Address how antisemitism operates today, from conspiracy theories to campus activism. Equip students with the tools to recognize and confront it.
4. Jewish contributions: Celebrate the cultural, scientific and artistic achievements of Jewish people throughout history. Shift the focus from victimhood to vitality.
5. Holocaust education in context: Continue teaching about the Holocaust but frame it within the broader story of Jewish perseverance. Use survivor testimonies to humanize the experience and connect it to present-day issues.
6. Interfaith and cross-cultural alliances: Partner with other minority groups to address shared challenges. Stress the interconnectedness of fighting hatred in all its forms.

The fight against antisemitism requires more than remembrance; it demands understanding, action and the courage to confront hatred in all its forms. Only by equipping people with the knowledge and tools to do so can we hope to ensure a future free from its scourge.
Rabbi’s wife and children forced to leave
A Rabbi’s family who were by themselves while he was away have had to leave their home for their own safety after it was vandalised on Tuesday night.

The attack on the Chabad St Kilda synagogue where Rabbi Effy Block lives with his family saw the property defaced with messages including “Free Gaza” and “Jews Kill babies” on the front gate, door, and the wife’s car.

Speaking from New York where he’s at a conference, Rabbi Block described the incident as “shocking” and “appalling”.

He emphasised that despite the traumatic experience, the community’s response would be to display more Jewish pride.

“Our reaction is to go full force ahead with Jewish pride,” Rabbi Block told the AJN.

“We are not embarrassed or intimidated to be Jewish or to display our Jewishness, and we will continue going full throttle.”

The rabbi said this incident is taking place at a time of rising antisemitism in Australia, highlighting that his wife now does not feel safe in their home and has been forced to relocate with their children until his return.

“It’s unfathomable in Australia,” he said. “There’s no words to describe the disgrace and feelings of disappointment.”

“To come into someone’s home, to come literally up to the front door, to come inside the premises, and to write “Jews kill babies” … we don’t publicly tell people where our address is, but they had the audacity to come into [a] private home” Rabbi Block said.

Despite the traumatic experience, the rabbi’s wife, who wishes to remain anonymous, has remained resolute.

“While I felt shaken and shocked, I am also now inspired to continue our work promoting Judaism with pride,” she said.

“This is antisemitism pure and simple, but we will not back down.”


Zach Sage Fox: With over a million TikTok followers, this Thanksgiving I’m thankful it’s to be banned
It’s a tough Thanksgiving to be thankful as a Jew in America... yet I actually am.

In this past year, antisemitism has skyrocketed on the streets and at schools, yet little legislation has been passed to combat it. Certainly, none has come out of Washington. In this new Congress, however, that very well may change. I’m an independent voter who often splits his ticket and is willing to praise either party for pushing a good idea or critique bad ones.

Yet, it’s clear that Chuck Schumer, as head of a Democrat Senate, had little appetite to fight the Jew hate coming disproportionately from his own party. It's ironic since he’s the highest-ranking Jew in Capitol Hill history. Then again, Jews are known for having differing opinions. I mean, the most famous one ever started his own religion... but I digress.

Although this is an opinion article, sadly, that last statement about the Senate is a fact. The Republican-controlled House passed a historic bill called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, often referred to as the "anti-Zionism is antisemitism" bill, last spring, aimed at finally ripping the mask off Jew-haters. In this case, their Kafias and N-95 masks. These are people using a phony disdain for the single Jewish state as a cover-up for hating the Jewish people at large.

It came after weeks of college antisemitism hearings, one where my own viral report, “Gaza Graduation,” was played as a testimony for three of the university presidents on trial. However, months after that, the Senate has refused to touch the bill. A shameful state of affairs since I actually think Biden might have signed it.

What the split US government did get right this past year, though, was the TikTok ban. It was a rare display of bipartisanship passed by a divided D.C., and I nearly teared up when I read the headlines. As someone who has spent the last year interviewing Gen Zers about the war in Israel, it quickly became clear the common denominator of their empty rage was coming from the CCP-controlled app, now in well over half their hands.
travelingisrael.com: Jerusalem crash course – All my guiding around the city in one course!!
If you want to hear everything I have to say on my Jerusalem tour (and if you like my videos and want to support my work), then you’re going to love my Jerusalem crash course


Shalom Nagar, hangman of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, dies aged 88
Shalom Nagar, the Israeli prison guard who by chance, and against his wishes, was selected to hang convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, died Tuesday aged 88.

Nagar, who was 26 when carrying out the sentence, remained unknown for three decades after the execution that was performed at Ramle Prison in the early hours of June 1, 1962. Israeli authorities kept quiet on details of how the death sentence was carried out, with only a brief initial announcement made on Kol Yisrael radio.

Then, in 1992, an Israeli radio station researching material for a report marking 30 years since the execution came across Nagar’s name. In the years that followed, he gave various media interviews — including to a German outlet — describing the six months he spent watching over Eichmann during his trial, and how he came to be the one who carried out the execution, the first and only death sentence ever enacted by the State of Israel.

Nagar was born in Yemen in 1936 and arrived in Israel aged 12, an orphan. He served in the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade and later joined the Israel Prison Service, where his path would cross that of Eichman.

Eichmann, a key architect of Nazi Germany’s Final Solution, went into hiding after the Second World War and was snatched from Argentina by Israeli intelligence in May 1960 to be put on trial in Jerusalem for his role in the mass murder of six million Jews. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

During his trial, he was held first in the north of the country and then at Ramle Prison, where Nagar was among 22 carefully selected prison staff watching over him who became known as “Eichmann guards.”

Nagar explained in interviews that the guards chosen for the job were handpicked to ensure none of them had a personal motive to kill the prisoner. Many prison service guards at the time still carried the numbers tattooed on their arms by Nazis during the Holocaust, and they were not even permitted to enter the floor where Eichmann was kept in a special wing of the prison. Ashkenazi guards, descended from European Jews who suffered the brunt of the Holocaust, were not allowed into the cell complex where Eichmann was held, Nagar told Mishpacha.

Eichmann was held in a cell that was part of a series of interconnecting rooms. One guard sat closely watching him, separated by bars from the prisoner, another sat in an adjoining room watching the first to make sure he didn’t attack their ward, and a commander sat in a third room watching over the other two.

Authorities were concerned that Eichmann would try to kill himself, and the guards were to prevent that “at any cost,” Nagar said, but there was also fear that someone would try to poison the prisoner.

Nagar said the food was brought in a sealed container and the duty guard watching over Eichmann would sample it first, a task Nagar himself also performed.

If the guard was still alive after two minutes, the rest of the meal was passed on to Eichmann.
How Did a Salvadoran Colonel Save 40,000 Jews in WW2? | Unpacked
As the Holocaust raged, one Salvadoran diplomat quietly defied the Nazi regime. José Arturo Castellanos Contreras secretly forged Salvadoran passports to save Jewish families from Nazi extermination, turning a small consulate into a refuge for thousands.

His bold actions defied his own government and the Nazi war machine, showing that even the quiet bravery of one individual can change the course of lives—and history.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:37 Life prior to WW2
02:23 Contreras appeals for help from the Salvadoran government
03:20 Forging documents for Mandl
04:01 Forging fake passports and visas
05:03 Pre-signed blank nationality certificates
05:54 Legal validation of forged documents
06:08 Rediscovery of Contreras' story
07:29 Holocaust denial


First woman accepted into Israeli Special Forces unit, making history
For the first time in Israeli history, a woman has been accepted into Sayeret Matkal, the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) most elite commando unit, often compared to the US Special Forces or Delta Force.

According to Kan public broadcasting, the soldier successfully passed the grueling selection process, which includes a rigorous five-day screening that tests both physical and mental endurance.

Kan reported on Wednesday that this historic achievement follows her earlier success in the unit’s initial selection day.

While she has completed the most demanding phases, the soldier must now undergo a short and mostly technical final process before beginning her training in Sayeret Matkal, a unit renowned for its intelligence-gathering missions and high-risk operations behind enemy lines.

This milestone comes more than a year after the IDF announced a pilot program aimed at integrating women into Navy SEALs on a trial basis. According to Kan, this initiative is part of broader efforts by the IDF to explore gender inclusivity in its elite units.

In March, Kan reported that 17 women successfully passed the unit’s selection day, marking the beginning of the program.
London opens its heart to brave Israeli war widows in need of support
V Tal’s husband Chen was a professional soldier, a sniper in an elite counter-terrorism unit.

She never worried about him. “In ten years only two soldiers from his unit had lost their lives,” she said. “We believed that nothing bad would happen.”

But on October 7, Chen died a hero in the town of Sderot, fighting until he’d used the last bullet from his second gun, even though he had been shot himself. Now Tal is the single mother of their four children.

Lior’s husband Gal had finished his tour of duty in Gaza and was heading home for Chanukah last December.

He died in a car accident in southern Israel. “I cannot accept it,” said Lior. “Not in combat, not in a mission. I lost three people, my husband, my best friend and the father of my kids.”

Tal and Lior are just two of Israel’s hundreds of new war widows, bereaved in the conflict that started when Hamas attacked on October 7. They were part of a group of 12 women who visited London this week, sightseeing and shopping, visiting the theatre and museums and being pampered on a spa day staffed entirely by volunteers from the local Jewish community. They had a meeting with Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely on Monday.

The trip was a joint venture between the British charity GIFT, which funded the visit by selling ‘bring them home’ necklaces, and the Israeli organisation OneFamily, which supports bereaved families and wounded service personnel. In a country that has fought as many wars as Israel, OneFamily’s job is immense and touches many lives.

The widows, aged from 28 to 42, left their children at home in Israel with family and babysitters. They stayed with volunteer hosts, and, said Lior, felt “surrounded by a huge hug. No stress, no worry, and the rooms are better than at a hotel. They thought of everything to make us feel at home.”

For Tal, it was heart-warming “knowing that the community in London is thinking about us and caring about us. It’s not about sending money. People really care and are with us”.




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

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