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Wednesday, December 04, 2024

12/04 Links Pt2: The Closing of the British Mind; Melanie Phillips: The hug of hypocrisy; Oxford Union ‘apartheid Israel’ debate accused of breaking the law by glorifying violence

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Closing of the British Mind
We’ve had Writers Against Books so it’s not unexpected to see the arrival of Artists Against Art.

Jewish sponsorship of the arts in the UK has been deemed vulgar, as the British appear to have swapped culture for kultur. The message, even from artists, is that it would be better to have no art at all than to have a Jewish-sounding name attached to the room that houses it, for example Gertler. Candida and Zak Gertler are generous art patrons in the UK but after pro-Hamas activists occupied a campus exhibition space adorned with the Gertlers’ good name, that name was removed from the space and from the gallery’s board. The Gertlers’ crime? Donating to the Jewish National Fund.

Last year in London, Anita and Chaim Zabludowicz announced they would, over similar complaints, close the Zabludowicz Collection, an institution they founded in 2007 to increase the visibility of avant-garde work by young artists. The “pro-Palestine” left has volunteered for the young artists who depend on such patronage to learn to code, or something. You know, for The Cause.

Let them eat watermelon emojis. After all, Chaim Zabludowicz simply had to be punished for, as Art Forum notes, having cofounded a company that “aims to reject all characterizations of Israel as an apartheid state, as Amnesty International cast it in a 2022 report”—although Zabludowicz “relinquished his role as chairman of the organization in 2013 and departed as director in 2019.”

All of this was back in the news again this week at the presentation of the British art award the Turner Prize. The coveted award went to Jasleen Kaur, a Scottish artist who wowed audiences by draping a car in a large doily. But the art project itself is beside the point; the true art is protesting people with names like Chaim Zabludowicz and Zak Gertler. From the New York Times:

“As the award dinner began, about 100 activists gathered at Tate Britain’s steps and listened to speeches demanding that the Tate group of museums end any association with Israel, including the high-profile donors Anita and Poju Zabludowicz. In a protest letter published online, the activists said the Zabludowiczes have ‘well-documented economic and ideological links’ to Israel’s government through the Tamares Group, the family’s real estate investment business.

“The letter’s signatories included Kaur and two of the other artists nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, Claudette Johnson and Pio Abad.”

The Glasgow-born Sikh accepted the award wearing a Palestinian-themed scarf because, let’s be honest, we’re all Palestinian during award season.

Meanwhile headlining performances by Coldplay and Katy Perry at London’s upcoming major Christmas event have come under fire, as anti-Israel activists have set their pitchforks on the Jingle Bell Ball. (Is nothing sacred?)
The rise of antisemitism in the arts
On December 5 th Rob Rinder will be chairing a discussion about whether Jews are still welcome in the arts in Britain today. There are two striking things about this event. First, that it is taking place at all. As we shall see, it is happening because it is unfortunately very timely and relevant. Second, that the advertisement doesn’t give a location. It just says, “North West London venue.” Presumably, if you sign up you will be e-mailed a location. This may sound a little paranoid but it is unfortunately very realistic.

Recently, there was a very unpleasant anti-Israel demonstration outside JW3, Britain’s largest Jewish cultural centre. Police officers were there to prevent violence, but unfortunately — as so often in London — the police did nothing to stop the aggressive chanting and waving of Palestinian flags to intimidate local Jewish residents. The Jewish Literary Foundation, which hosts Jewish Book Week every Spring, has just been presented with a substantial security bill, which it will struggle to pay. And, finally, the Barnet Literary Festival, which takes place in Barnet Library every year, has had to take place online this year because of the Council’s security concerns.

The larger issue, why Jews are increasingly excluded and discriminated against in British culture, is unfortunately even more pressing. Last year when I went to see Tracy-Ann Oberman starring in The Merchant of Venice 1936 my wife took a plastic bottle of water. The security people at the door asked her to drink from it to prove that it didn’t contain acid, in case she was planning to throw it at the actors.

Last week, the Royal Court Theatre was reported to the Charity Commission for allowing its staff to campaign for the Palestinian cause by wearing “Free Palestine” badges. This was not entirely surprising, since the Royal Court has a history of producing plays by playwrights who are known for being passionate critics of Israel: for example, Perdition by Jim Allen, which was intended to be directed by Ken Loach, and Seven Jewish Children – a Play for Gaza by Caryl Churchill.

Also last week, Nicole Lampert wrote online about the story of Candida Gertler OBE, an Anglo-German art philanthropist and writer, who has donated millions to help struggling young artists. Lampert wrote, “She’s also a Jew and, like most Jews, a Zionist. Of course that meant she was ripe for cancellation. Her name was taken off a donor board at Goldsmiths College and there was an attempt to also have her cancelled from the Tate. Well, they’ve got their way. Another major donor to the arts has decided to walk away rather than be hounded by the bullies who want to see Jews hounded by the bullies who want to see Jews hounded out of public life. Describing why she was quitting all her voluntary positions in the UK arts world, she asked why people were refusing to stand up to these bullies. She has left as a protest, writing: ‘As someone who has dedicated much of my life to supporting contemporary art, championing dialogue, and creating platforms for diverse voices, I can no longer stand silent when institutions, intimidated by violent and aggressive activism that dismisses dialogue or any kind of communication fail to uphold the foundational values f equality and respect. Recent revelations of vile antisemitic sentiments in these spaces have shocked and appalled me. These are not isolated incidents but part of a broader culture that seeks to marginalise and dehumanise Jews.’”
Seth Mandel: Those To Whom Jewish Survival ‘Smells of the Devil’
It’s not about how many Palestinians died but how many Jews lived.

And look at them all there, by the millions. That’s the atrocity. That’s the war crime.

And so in some respects, it’s actually true that the Nakba continues to this day. The attempt to destroy Israel hasn’t stopped and hasn’t succeeded. The Gaza war is indeed a continuation of this phenomenon, of the original intent and meaning of the Nakba.

In 1921, one of the era’s prominent as-a-Jews, Ralph Philip Boas, wrote an article in the Atlantic called “Jew-Baiting in America.” The conceit was one of Boas’s obsessions—that social discrimination is all that’s left of anti-Jewish bigotry in America and therefore not worth complaining about. (Carey McWilliams dismantled this idea in a 1947 essay for COMMENTARY, found here.)

Boas’s essay makes for some amusing reading a century later; he is wrong about everything.

Well, except one thing. He’s at least partially correct when he writes: “At the root of European anti-Semitism undoubtedly lies the shuddering hatred that men always feel for that which they cannot kill. The amazing vitality of the Jew is sufficient reason for believing any tale that is whispered of him; his survival smells of the devil.”

Those who claim a “genocide of the Palestinians” began on October 7, 2023, show that this mindset is found outside of Europe as well. This includes not just the poets who use their award speeches to reveal something foul about their own character, or the protest groups on campus who seek to appropriate October 7 as a day for them to wail publicly and don sackcloth and ashes.

The expounders of the genocide libel are all over the place, everywhere. Do they actually believe it? In many cases, no. What they believe is that the Jew’s survival smells of the devil. And we should freely remind the public that that is what’s actually bothering them.


Oxford Union ‘apartheid Israel’ debate accused of breaking the law by glorifying violence
More than 300 academics have signed an open letter addressed to William Hague, the newly-elected Oxford chancellor, stating that a recent Union debate in which speakers praised the October 7 attacks on Israel broke the law.

The signatories, including Baroness Ruth Deeth KC, Former Principal of St Anne's College, and Sir Vernon Bogdanor CBE, Former Vice Principal of Brasenose College, condemned the “dangerous rhetoric, provocative behaviour, and acts of intimidation” that sullied the event.

Taking place on 28 November, the debate scrutinised the motion: “This house believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide”.

The letter, which was organised by the Pinsker Centre, a campus-based foreign policy think tank, went on to decry the “incendiary remarks made by some speakers in support of terrorist violence”.

The open letter said: “Such statements are morally reprehensible and also in clear violation of the law. Glorifying acts of violence under the guise of advocating for Palestinian rights serves neither justice nor peace. It undermines the legitimate efforts of those seeking a peaceful resolution to this longstanding conflict and alienates those who might otherwise be willing to engage in constructive dialogue.”

Jonathan Sacerdoti, opposing speaker at the debate and the son of a Holocaust survivor, wrote in the Spectator on Monday that the Union had “disgraced itself”, having been breached by forces of “bigotry, hatred and mob rule”.

Sacerdoti, who was joined by three other opposing speakers, two of whom were not Jewish, described the hostile environment of the chamber, from which one pro-Israel activist was ejected after dismissing audience members as “terrorist supporters”.

He described one woman standing during his speech to shout: “Liar. F*** you, the genocidal motherf***er.”

He wrote: “they interrupted every pro-Israel speaker with jeers, coughs, and outright abuse,” adding that Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a senior Hamas founder and leader who defected to Israel and joined him on the opposing side of the debate, “was met with jeering derision and cried of ‘traitor’ and ‘prostitute’ (in Arabic), as he recounted his extraordinary story of moral courage and bravery.”
‘Baseless’ upcoming Amnesty International report is a new ‘blood libel against the Jewish state’
An upcoming Amnesty International report that claims to have evidence that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza has been labelled “baseless” and a “gross distortion”.

The report, titled “’You feel like you are subhuman’: Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza” accuses Israel of carrying out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention “with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza”. It is due to be released tomorrow.

It comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer firmly rejected calls to describe Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza as genocide at a Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in November.

In response to allegations about Israel’s conduct made by Independent MP Perry Bar Ayoub Khan, Starmer said: “It would be wise to start a question like that by reference to what happened in October of last year.”

He went on: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never referred to it as genocide.”

Leading human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky has called the report the “latest assault” by Amnesty against Israel, which it accused in 2022 of operating an “apartheid regime” against Palestinians, an allegation that was rejected by its own officials on the ground.

“This report, written under the guise of ‘international law and human rights’, is utterly baseless and replete with malicious lies, gross distortions of truth and fabrications of law,” said Ostrovsky, CEO of The International Legal Forum.

“To accuse Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza is a gross and egregious subversion and weaponisation of the very term itself, made even more unconscionable given the October 7 attacks were the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

“This report, which also entirely absolves and whitewashes the heinous actions of Hamas, while abandoning the fate of the remaining hostages still in their captivity, is nothing short of a blood libel against the Jewish state.”

Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), also expressed outrage, telling the JC: “Amnesty International has an extensive history of producing false reports”.

He highlighted how Amnesty’s press release for its investigation relies on causality figures produced by Hamas “as if they are reliable, despite analysis by statisticians and other evidence showing fabrication”.

He added: “They do not mention that nearly half of the Palestinian casualties are combatants. They do not observe that the ratio of Palestinian civilians to combatants killed is much lower than normal in urban warfare worldwide, despite the enormous difficulties caused for the IDF by Hamas and other terrorists being embedded in, around and underneath densely populated urban areas.”
Using the name of a dead Jew for anti-Zionist propaganda
An antisemitic scandal is gaining momentum after Jewish publications shed light on an American nonprofit that exploits the name of a late Jewish figure to promote an anti-Israeli agenda.

As referenced in a piece by JNS columnist Martin Sherman on Oct. 6, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention—named for Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish man of Polish origin who coined the word “genocide” during the Holocaust—has been using the Lemkin name while saying Israel is committing “genocide.”

Writer Ira Stoll explored the issue in a Nov. 13 article in The Algemeiner piece, which was referenced online by groups like the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He noted that the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention did not receive permission from the Lemkin family to use the name of the prominent Jewish lawyer, who was also an ardent Zionist and fought antisemitism.

Lemkin died in 1959, while the nonprofit was established in 2021. It has openly promoted a pro-Hamas agenda since the massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, calling to punish Israel for fighting the terrorists.

As Sherman noted in JNS, “Lemkin Institute blatantly evaded mentioning that much of the Gazan death toll is due to the actions of Hamas leadership, which not only used its civilians as human shields but actively urged, threatened and physically prevented them from evacuating war zones for safer locations. Thus, the Jews, the victims of the archetypical genocide (the Holocaust) are now, by some perverted sleight-of-hand, being portrayed as the purveyors of a maliciously contrived and choreographed ‘genocide’ of its attackers.”

According to Sherman, the Lemkin Institute is obsessed not only with Israel but with its ally in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan. The nonprofit accused Azerbaijan—a key Israeli energy supplier and commercial partner—of committing “genocide” during its 2023 operation in Karabakh. This comes despite extremely low estimates of the number of fatalities (mostly combatants from both sides) and the fact that ethnic Armenian civilians were granted passage to their motherland, Armenia.

A simple check of the list of the nonprofit’s official statements in 2023 unambiguously supports this claim. Eleven out of 34 are dedicated to the unrecognized “Artsakh Republic” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The “republic” was created 30 years ago in occupied Azerbaijani regions after the massacre of the local Azerbaijanis by Armenian militants (with the help of the Russian military). Three statements are dedicated to the “leader” of this enclave, Ruben Vardanyan, otherwise known as “Putin’s wallet.” Wanted by the Ukrainian Secret Service for his involvement in the Russian occupation of Ukraine, Vardanyan laundered billions of euros for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Not a single statement was dedicated to the massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7; but, there is a statement titled “Why we call Israeli attack on Gaza genocide” and a condemnation of a letter from European rabbis asking Armenian officials not to use the Holocaust for propaganda purposes.
How Germany’s left amplifies terror propaganda against the west
Berlin’s Police Chief recently advised Jews and members of the LGBTQ+ community to exercise caution in the city, as antisemitism in Germany has escalated dramatically since October 7, 2023. Demonstrations supporting Palestine feature call for Israel’s annihilation, along with terror rhetoric and explicit antisemitism. In neighborhoods like Neukölln, unrest and riots have ensued, with leftist activists protesting with those who glorify Hamas and other terror organizations. People wearing Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades t-shirts participated in queer sit-ins.

Viewing these demonstrations merely as solidarity with Palestinian civilian casualties, as many in Germany do, is naive. University professors have defended students paternalistically as “peace demonstrators” while the students painted Hamas triangles and slogans justifying terror on campus. Experienced observers, however, recognize a deliberate strategy: terror-affiliated actors have long sought to align naive Palestine sympathizers with radical agendas. Almost all major demonstrations in Berlin were organized by groups closely associated with militant Palestinian factions—often the widely designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

One such group is Masar Badil, an organization targeting the Palestinian diaspora in the West that openly seeks to normalize support for antisemitism, aiming to push leftist groups toward active solidarity with Hamas, the PFLP, and other terror groups.

Research by democ reveals that Masar Badil is ideologically and personally linked to the PFLP and has had a European network since 2020 that aims to unite Islamist, far-left, and other extremist movements against Israel and the West.

Through online seminars, demonstrations, and conferences, Masar Badil connects activists with senior figures from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Yemen’s Houthis. Nowhere else can anti-Israel activists interact so freely with senior Hamas leaders via Zoom. Self-described feminist and anti-racist groups have even welcomed Houthi rebel representatives at their events.

At Masar Badil events, terrorists are revered and express gratitude in return. A month after October 7, Hamas spokesperson Hossam Badran addressed European audiences, praising leftist movements in the West for reversing the “Zionist narrative” that portrays resistance as barbaric. Sami Abu Zuhri, head of Hamas’ Political Bureau abroad, openly appealed to supporters to “liberate Gaza and the world from the grip of cursed Jewish lobbies.”

Nasr al-Din Amer of the Houthis was even more explicit: “Individuals with technical and engineering knowledge can contact resistance groups in Palestine directly or, if this is difficult, other dedicated groups outside Palestine.”
The Cairo International Film Festival spreads anti-Israel sentiments and incitement
How does the ruling military authority in Egypt intend to proceed with its relationship with Israel, the country with which it signed a peace treaty on March 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C.?

This question came to mind as I followed the opening ceremony of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) – its 45th edition – which began on the evening of Wednesday, November 13, 2024, and concluded on Friday, November 22. This year’s theme might as well have been: “Promoting hatred and hostility towards Israel.”

Festival president Hussein Fahmy, in multiple press statements, declared that the festival’s management, in support of the Palestinian cause, insists on boycotting any organization or company on “the boycott list” (the Arab boycott list of global companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, among others) that deals with Israel.

Instead, the organizing committee sought funding and support from national organizations and companies. Fahmy added that the Palestinian cause is a cause for all people worldwide fighting for justice, fairness, and dignity. He expressed his solidarity with “occupied Palestine” from his position.

Fahmy also noted, in the presence of many prominent artists, that last year’s festival was postponed in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. He emphasized the solidarity between the Egyptian and Palestinian peoples and also expressed support for Lebanon in its conflict.

Egyptian Minister of Culture Ahmed Hano attended the event and delivered a formal speech, underscoring Cairo's leading role in art in the region, further highlighting the prearranged distribution of roles between him and Fahmy. This reflects the typical duplicity of the Egyptian regime.
The left’s answer to Joe Rogan has an antisemitism problem
As Democrats recover from their bruising defeat last month, one voice looking to help liberals make sense of their loss to President-elect Donald Trump is Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer with 2.8 million followers on Twitch, a video-game streaming platform. More than 7.5 million people tuned in to his election night livestream, more than the number of viewers for either MSNBC or CNN that night.

“I don’t think that the Democratic Party can podcast itself out of this issue,” Piker told CNN last week, responding to criticism that Vice President Kamala Harris hurt her chances by declining to appear with the popular podcast host Joe Rogan. “I think that they need to change their policies.”

Some on the left and in the media have identified Piker, an internet-savvy guru with a loyal left-wing following, as offering something of a solution for the Democratic Party. But despite his cachet among a Gen Z constituency that lives online, Piker comes with his own hate-filled baggage.

Known as Hasanabi on Twitch, Piker has a history of invoking antisemitic tropes when he discusses Israel and the Jewish community. A staunch opponent of Israel’s right to exist, Piker offered justifications for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks just one day later.

He has also mocked people concerned about rising antisemitism worldwide. Last month, after mobs motivated by calls for a “Jew hunt” attacked Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam, Piker claimed that people who called the incident antisemitic were wrong — and that by merely suggesting the incident was antisemitic, they were the ones responsible for more antisemitism.

CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan briefly acknowledged those criticisms, but didn’t press Piker on the matter. “The way you talk about Israel is viewed by some as antisemitic. Are you antisemitic?” O’Sullivan asked.

Piker answered with a straightforward Of course not. “The real problem here,” he responded, “is that I’m an anti-Zionist.” It’s a distinction he has leaned on often in response to criticism that he is, in fact, antisemitic.

CNN is not the only mainstream outlet where Piker has received a platform lately. NBC News profiled him in September, after he attended the Democratic National Convention as an influencer. Top New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon appeared on his stream as a guest the same day Piker devoted a segment to undermining allegations of antisemitism in Amsterdam. (Spokespeople at CNN and NBC did not respond to requests for comment about their decision to feature Piker, and The New York Times did not respond to an inquiry about Herndon’s appearance.)

“It is bewildering that mainstream media outlets continue to platform Hasan Piker, an influencer whose toxic screeds against Zionism and the Jewish state normalize antisemitism, reinforce bigotry and launder terror,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Jewish Insider this week. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told JI in October that “nobody has been a greater amplifier of antisemitism” than Piker.
Jewish, Israeli Americans face ‘substantial’ hiring bias, ADL finds
Jewish and Israeli Americans face “substantial” discrimination in the labor market, according to a study the Anti-Defamation League published on Wednesday.

Jewish American job seekers needed to send 24% more applications to receive the same number of positive first responses from prospective employers as Americans with Western European backgrounds when applying to the same role, the ADL found. For Israeli Americans, the challenge was even greater, requiring 39% more applications.

“This is groundbreaking evidence of serious antisemitic discrimination in the labor market,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL. “On top of increasing antisemitic incidents and growing antisemitic beliefs, this landmark study illustrates the very real need for employers to take anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli prejudice more seriously to have a workplace that works for everyone.”

The ADL tasked Bryan Tomlin, a labor economist and professor of economics at California State University Channel Islands in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles, with submitting applications to online administrative assistant job postings using resumés that were identical except for indicators that the applicant might be Jewish or Israeli.

Tomlin sent 3,000 inquiries to listings across the United States, using identical email text and resumés that differed only in the name of the applicant—selected to sound Jewish, Israeli or Western European—and resumé signals of likely Jewish, Israeli or Western European background.

“Without the benefit of a study of this kind, it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove adverse treatment in the labor market based on one’s religion or cultural identity,” Tomlin said. “This study shows that Jewish and Israeli Americans may be missing out on job opportunities just because of their identity, not their qualifications, and it provides a start toward quantifying some of these more subtle but still harmful symptoms of antisemitism.”

The study notes that because the applications focused on administrative jobs, “the extent to which these results can be applied to other markets is not known.”
Lanterns adorn night sky in Brighton to express solidarity with the hostages
One hundred and one lanterns, each representing a hostage still held in Gaza by Hamas, were held aloft in the night sky on the southern England coast in a poignant display of solidarity with the hostages by Brighton’s Jewish community and its supporters.

Over one hundred members of Brighton & Hove’s Jewish and Israeli communities, as well as non-Jewish friends took part in the display on Monday night on Hove Lawns, using the lanterns to form the shapes of a candle and a ribbon, the symbol for the plight of the hostages.

Brighton resident Adam Ma’anit, whose cousin Tsachi Idan was kidnapped from his home on October 7, told participants that seeing hostage Edan Alexander appear in a video released by Hamas a couple of days prior was a reminder that efforts to get them free and out of Gaza must be “redoubled”.

“This is not a political issue; it is a humanitarian issue. The plight of the hostages should rise above the murk of war,” he said.

The evening also marked the launch of a national campaign aimed at getting people to wear a yellow ribbon, tie ribbons onto things and write to their representatives about the hostages.

Heidi Bachram of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign said at the event: “Emily Damari’s mum Mandy is in the UK advocating for her daughter. She said Emily may never heal after what she’s endured after a year in hell. She must be given the chance to because the alternative is unthinkable. We must never accept this as normal.”

The event, during which speeches were made and the Hatikvah was sung, was organised by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign in partnership with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Sussex Jewish Representative Council and the Brighton & Hove Jewish Community.

Of the 101 people still being held in the tunnels of Gaza by Hamas, 423 days after they were abducted, at least nine are reported to have connections to the UK through British relatives, including British citizen and hostage Emily Damari, who was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.


Long Island shul hosts memorial service for Oct. 7 terror victim Omer Neutra
Family and friends of Omer Neutra, the 22-year-old member of the Israel Defense Forces whose death was confirmed this week, commemorated him in a memorial service on Tuesday at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y.

His mother-turned-activist, Orna Neutra, said after 14 months of believing that her son could still be alive as a hostage in the Gaza Strip: “Now things are clear, but not as we hoped.”

She called her son’s absence “a big hole in my stomach,” adding “our beautiful Omer, so much love and goodness and chesed were committed in your name.”

Omer’s brother, Daniel, said “you were my best friend, you made me who I am, thank you for everything. Laila tov.” In Hebrew, that means “good night.”

Rabbi Elizabeth Zeller of Temple Chaverim said “we believed one thing and came to find out it’s another, and that’s so much of the difficulty that we’re having to process.”

“To know that this whole time we were hoping and praying only to have that really shattered … ,” she added.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul attended the service and spoke privately with the family. Both U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump sent their condolences as well.


Melanie Phillips: The hug of hypocrisy
So let’s get this straight. The mother of a hostage being held by Palestinian Arabs in Gaza asks Britain’s Foreign Secretary to secure the supply of humanitarian aid to the hostages who are being starved and otherwise ill-treated — and in reply, Britain’s Foreign Secretary demands instead that Israel provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza.

Nothing about aid to the hostages. Aid instead to people some of whom themselves took part in the Hamas-led pogrom on October 7; some of whom helped brutalise and desecrate the hostages, both dead and alive, when they were dragged into Gaza during that pogrom; the vast majority of whom say that, even though they may hate Hamas for tyrannising them, they support the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel; and who are all complicit in the Israeli hostages’ 13-month incarceration, even now when Israel is offering a reward of $5 million for anyone who can assist in releasing them.

Lammy’s message wasn’t merely a brutal slap in the face for Mandy Damari, who is in hell over the unthinkable plight of her daughter. It suggests that Starmer and Lammy have the same monstrously twisted attitude that’s been on display in Britain and the west ever since the October 7 pogrom — that Israel is viewed not as the victim of barbarity but as the perpetrator, for which it is victimised yet again by western politicians who grotesquely defame it for defending itself.

Israel has not been restricting aid into Gaza and creating a humanitarian disaster. Where Gazans have been deprived of aid, this is because Hamas has been stealing it — and murdering Gazans who have been trying to access it. The allegation that Israel has not been allowing aid into Gaza is the opposite of the truth, a lie designed to aid Hamas and demonise Israel as part of the Palestinian Arabs’ global strategy of delegitimisation and dehumanisation.

Even while Starmer and Lammy are mouthing platitudes about the hostages, they are writing the truth of Israeli victimisation out of the script and replacing it with the lie of Israeli victimisation of the Palestinian Arabs.

This same twisted attitude lay behind Britain’s support for the UNSC resolution which, in its demand for an unconditional end to Israel’s war of self-defence, sought to remove the military pressure that’s the only way to get the hostages released — as Mandy Damari rightly said.


Nigel Farage meets Emily Damari’s mother and accuses government of ‘pandering’ to Hamas
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused the government of “pandering” to Hamas and said it was not doing enough to secure the release of Emily Damari, a British hostage held by the terror group.

Yesterday, Farage met Emily’s mother Mandy, who is meeting with political leaders to help raise awareness of her 28-year-old daughter’s plight.

After their meeting, Farage posted a video on X/Twitter in which he said he hoped and prayed she was still alive.

The MP for Clacton in Essex lamented that “almost no one in Britain knows that we still have a British citizen being held captive”.

Farage criticised the government for not doing enough to help secure Emily Damari’s release. He also attacked Foreign Secretary David Lammy for posing for a photo with Mandy Damari and, shortly afterwards, tweeting about “humanitarian assistance in Gaza with not a mention – not a mention – of the hostages or Emily at all”.

Farage, who was first elected to Westminster in July, said the Labour government had “written off the Jewish population. They're not interested. You know why?

"There aren't enough of them, and they're losing votes to hardline Islamist candidates and so they’re pandering to Hamas and the pro-Gaza as a side of the argument,” he said, referencing the defeats experienced by several Labour candidates at the general election to pro-Gaza independent candidates.

“The job of a British government isn't just to defend our territory, it's to stand up for our citizens”, Farage said, referring to the Don Pacifico affair, in which merchant and British subject had his house burned down in an antisemitic attack in Athens in 1850.


Norway wealth fund divests from Bezeq for providing telecom services to West Bank settlements
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold all its shares in Israel's Bezeq BEZQ.TA since it provides telecoms services to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it said late on Tuesday.

The decision to divest comes after the fund's ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, adopted a new, tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel's operations in the Palestinian territories.

The $1.8 trillion fund has been an international leader in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment field. It owns 1.5% of the world's listed shares across 8,700 companies, and its size carries influence.

It is the latest decision by a European financial entity to cut back links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country as pressure mounts from foreign governments to end the war in Gaza.

Bezeq, Israel's largest telecoms group, declined to comment.
UKLFI: Islington Council Pensions Committee Advised Against Divestment Targeting Israel
Islington Council Pensions Committee has been advised against proceeding with plans to divest from companies operating in the areas of the West Bank (Judea & Samaria) under Israeli administration.

This follows a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) drawing attention to various matters that had not previously been addressed and warning that proceeding with the plans without addressing them correctly would be irrational and unlawful.
Students boycott Israel at their own peril
Anti-Israel students have always sought convenient, effortless ways to demonstrate their hatred for Israel. In the past, this has meant trying to remove Sabra brand hummus from campus food services. Starting at DePaul University in 2011, efforts to embargo Israeli-made food spread quickly to other campuses (the University of Ottowa in 2014, Swarthmore College in 2018, Dickinson College in 2019 and Harvard University in 2022), but after Oct. 7, student boycott demands grew more expansive. It’s no longer enough to change brands of hummus. Today’s students want to ban everything from Israel.

Graduate students at the City University of New York, for instance, now demand not only a ban on the familiar Sabra prohibition but one on “all fruits and vegetables grown in Israel.” And their list doesn’t end with food. They also demand that the entire CUNY system “cancel all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, including events, activities, agreements and research collaborations.”

What goes unsaid here is that not a single student will ever actually live up to these demands. The rhetorical flourishes are purely for show.

If the thousands of college students calling for a boycott of all things Israel want to live up to their sanctimonious rhetoric, they will have to give up a lot more than one brand of hummus. And they will end up sick, hungry and underemployed.

I call on all anti-Israel, BDS, protesting students and faculty members alike to prove that they aren’t the pikers, posers and half-milers I say they are by following through on their categorical rejection of any contact with, use of, or compliance with, any and all Israeli technologies, companies, products, ideas and universities. I dare these Pecksniffian pretenders to put their futures where their mouths are and abandon entirely anything with the taint of Israel.
Philanthropist son of Holocaust survivors defunds Cambridge over ‘infestation’ of anti-Israel bias
A Jewish philanthropist has defunded Cambridge University over what he describes as an “infestation” of anti-Israel bias that has taken hold of the university since October 7.

Ivan Berkowitz, an American corporate executive, withdrew a £315,000 donation to fund a book project at Trinity College, his alma mater, accusing it of failing to properly investigate the vandalism of a Lord Balfour painting in March.

Speaking to the JC, Berkowitz condemned the university for its “fixation on elevating wokeness at the expense of the Jewish community”, adding that the same “virus” had taken hold in Cambridge’s law faculty, which he accused of shutting down debate on the Gaza conflict.

Speaking about the vandalism of the Balfour painting at Trinity, he said: “There’s a video of the occurrence, and the claim is still that there’s not sufficient evidence.”

Berkowitz, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, said he doubted that the “forensics at Trinity are so bad” that they cannot identify the perpetrator, considering the number of “Nobel laureates sitting at high table in science and physics”.

In March, Palestine Action posted online a video of an activist slashing the 1914 portrait and vandalising it with red paint, but there have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.

The philanthropist was also dismayed at reports claiming that the Master of Trinity, Dame Sally Davies, was considering divesting the college from arms companies linked to Israel following pressure from pro-Palestine student activist groups.


How to take down black antisemites like Ta-Nehisi Coates
As the left has abandoned their original clients to focus on Israel, their claim of acting for social justice can be exposed as fraud. How dare they abandon the gays, the women, the besieged African Christians in the Muslim world. Who are they if they do this?

When Jews respond to attacks on Israel by citing Muslim oppression of these minorities, Israel’s detractors accuse them of engaging in “what-aboutism” by trying to distract from the issue at hand: Jewish conduct. But why should this be the issue at hand? Had the rights community been honest from the start, Muslim oppression of minorities would have been a major target decades ago. The answer to “what-aboutism” is clear: “Are you abandoning black jihad slaves so that you can hit at the Jews or are you campaigning against the Jews to hide Islamist savagery?”

For black antisemites to abandon their African sisters and brothers is egregious. They are turning their backs on their own. Black Jew-haters like Coates, Louis Farrakhan and Marc Lamont Hill—even conservative ones like Candance Owens— ignore the tragedy of blacks murdered and enslaved by Muslims in Africa so they can identify with Arab Muslims against the Jewish state.

Coates claims that it is natural and right to side with the Palestinians because they, like blacks in America, are oppressed by “whites.” To say this, Coates must forget that more than half of Israel’s population are darker-skinned Jews, who are native to the Middle East. Worse, he must deny Muslim mass murder and enslavement of African blacks.

He must obscure the truth that these black victims of jihad are subjected to continuous, brutal violence mirrored in Hamas’s rape and slaughter of Jews. Like the Israelis, burned, hacked and shot to death a year ago, the Africans that Coates ignore suffer the same fate, dragged from their homes and taken hostage. In Algeria, Libya and Mauritania, blacks are trafficked as both grunt and sex slaves, and in the case of Mauritania, owned, like Coates’s own ancestors, as true chattel.

How should defenders of Israel respond to the Coateses of this world?

Here is an opening suggestion: “Mr. Coates you cannot be ignorant of the jihad surging across Africa. Nearly a third of a million black slaves are in Muslim hands today. You cannot be blind to the parallel atrocities committed by jihadists in Nigeria and the jihadist rapes, murders, and abductions of young Jewish women on Oct. 7. Muslim jihadists have been massacring blacks for 1,400 years—including the descendants of the ancient Nubians, from whose language your own name is borrowed. Where is your outrage? Who better than you should lead an effort to emancipate them from servitude and stop the murders?”

The same approach can be applied to a variety of our foes on the left.

To women’s rights groups: “Women in Israel have full rights, but in the Muslim world, they are oppressed. How can you keep silent about crimes against women in Muslim societies while you attack the one country in the Middle East where women are liberated?”

To LGBQT groups: “LGBTQ individuals live freely in Israel. In the Muslim world, they are persecuted, tortured and executed. Why are you silent about their plight in Muslim countries? They will never forgive you.”

To Democrats: “All Muslim countries are ruled by dictators and autocrats whose rule is enforced by brute power. In what democratic universe do activists remain silent about regimes that jail journalists, murder opponents and have no genuine elections?”

For Black Lives Matter and other black groups: “You see Muslims in America as ‘intersectional’ allies because they are, like you, minorities here. But why extend your alliance to their brethren in Africa who are not minorities but the oppressors of minorities and who murder and enslave blacks in Africa? Have you asked Muslims here for their help in liberating Muslim-held slaves in Africa? Where are your public protests against Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan?

Jewish concern cannot be solely to advance Jewish interests. Africans need American Jews to advocate for them, to scream about their plight, and to organize against their slaughter and enslavement. Some of us have begun to do this very Jewish work.


Labour urged to investigate MP Kim Johnson over promotion of Islamist group
Labour has been urged to investigate the conduct of the MP Kim Johnson after she promoted the activities of Islamist advocacy group CAGE on social media.

Last weekend the firebrand MP also sparked further communal anger when she told a pro-Palestine demo that the Israeli military was using drones to “deliberately target children” and carrying out “extermination” in Gaza.

Johnson, who replaced Louise Ellman as MP for Liverpool Riverside, raised eyebrows this week after using her platform on X to promote a film premier put on by Cage International which attempts to link miscarriages of justice around the Birmingham Six, in which which innocent Irish men were jailed, with those of convicted Islamist extremists.

The film, screened by Cage on Monday, claimed the Birmingham Four are “innocent men who were set up by police and have spent the last eight years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.”

The Birmingham Four were Muslim men from the Midlands – Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz – serving life sentences having been convicted in 2017 for planning a terrorist attack on UK soil.

As he confirmed their life sentences Old Bailey judge Justice Globe said the men were gripped by a “long-standing, radical, violent ideology”.

When police arrested the four men in August 2016 they found weapons including a meat cleaver and a partially constructed pipe bomb.

CAGE has repeatedly denies it supports terrorism in any way, claiming it operates as an advocacy group that “explores all avenues, including legal, to challenge the Government’s deep dive into authoritarianism”.

Jewish News understands Labour whips have been made aware of MP Johnson’s decision to promote the CAGE event.


Hamas secretly buried Muhammad Deif's body in Gaza after killed in Israeli airstrike - report
Hamas managed to locate the body of Muhammad Deif, the former military leader of Hamas, under the rubble of an airstrike that eliminated him in the area of Al-Mawasi and buried it in secret, Israeli state broadcaster KAN reported on Wednesday, citing Palestinian sources.

According to KAN's source, Hamas secretly buried Deif's body in an undisclosed location without publicly announcing the location.

The source noted that Hamas believes that if Israel learns of the burial site, the IDF will dig up the grave and take Deif's body to use as a bargaining chip in a hostage deal. Hamas sought to hide Deif's death

According to KAN's report, Hamas also maintained discretion due to the terror group not having previously officially announced Deif's death out of concern that the news "would break the morale of the fighters in the Gaza Strip." Since the assassination, there have been multiple reports in Arab media sources claiming officials from the terror group admitted his death, but Hamas never put out an official statement.

The IDF confirmed in August that its July 13 airstrike targeting Deif succeeded in killing him.

IDF sources indicated that some members of Hamas and Hezbollah have known for some time that Deif was dead but that others may not have known because portions of Hamas are currently cut off from the broader Hamas operational network.


Israel, US behind weakening of 'Axis of Resistance' in Syria, Iranian army chief says
The current situation in Syria has the purpose of weakening Syria and its allies in the Middle East's "Axis of Resistance," Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, said on Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic's news agency, IRNA.

The "Axis of Resistance," also referred to as the "Axis of Evil," is comprised of nations including Iran and Syria, as well as terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, among others.

Bagheri reportedly claimed that Israel and the US had coordinated the rebels' movement in the area.

The comments were made in phone calls with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Iraqi Major General Yahya Rasool, and Syrian Chief of Staff Abdul Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim, the report noted.

The Islamic Republic has reiterated such comments since rebel factions entered Aleppo last week and captured the city.

“The new movements of Takfiri-terrorist groups are part of the plot of the US and the illegitimate Zionist regime,” speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote last week on X/Twitter.

“After defeating the Zionist regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Axis of Resistance will support the Syrian government and people against the new conspiracy like in the past,” he added.


Israel prepares to honor Diaspora victims of antisemitic attacks
For the first time, the Israeli government plans to commemorate the lives of non-Israeli Jews who were killed in antisemitic attacks outside the borders of the country.

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry said it created a special public committee to examine proposals for victims who should be remembered, including submissions from the public. The decision “reflects a new aspect of the Israel-Diaspora relationship,” a source at the Jewish Agency for Israel said.

The government already recognizes at least 155 non-Israeli Jews who have been killed in antisemitic attacks as of June 2024, nine of them killed since October 7, 2023.

People on the list will be remembered at certain national commemorations, such as those held on Memorial Day. There may also be an official state monument in the future.

The committee will implement a government resolution from May 2023 calling for official recognition of Diaspora Jews murdered in antisemitic attacks. The committee is chaired by World Zionist Organization (WZO) chairman Yaakov Hagoel and Diaspora Affairs Ministry Director general Avi Cohen Scali, under the direction of Jewish Agency for Israel Secretary General Josh Schwarcz. It also includes representatives from the Prime Minister’s office, WZO, Diaspora Affairs Ministry, National Security Council, and Jewish Agency.

Inclusion on the list is based on certain criteria, the Diaspora Affairs Ministry said. The victim must have been killed as a result of a hostile act committed by an organization or person considered hostile to the Jewish people, where the goal was to harm the person for being Jewish. The incident must also have been defined as antisemitic by the authorities in the state where the incident happened.

People interested in submitting additional names for inclusion were asked to send a letter summarizing the incident, along with relevant documents, to avivaz@jafi.org.
With rising antisemitism, Jews have to decide to stay or move abroad
In his article titled “To stay or not to stay?” Jonathan Lieberman makes the case that “leaving the place where their families have lived for generations, contributing to the cultural, political, and economic fabric, would not only mean abandoning their heritage but also conceding to the forces of hatred and extremism” (The Jerusalem Post, November 22).

He goes on to say that “many argue that standing firm against antisemitism sends a powerful message that bigotry will not dictate their lives.” And while there is certainly something to be said for that kind of logic, how does a London Jew respond when he receives a flyer on his doorstep that says, “Zionists: Leave Britain or be slaughtered?”

The question then becomes, is it worth fighting to stay in a country where you’re not wanted – to the point of receiving chilling death threats? Even assuming that the police will protect their Jewish population and acknowledging that the mayor has taken a public stand against this kind of threatening vitriol by saying, “he is sickened by the rise in antisemitism in the city and has no place in London,” the question remains.

While it’s true that the best way ignorant antisemites are going to be persuaded is by directly engaging with local Jews and becoming acquainted with who they are, rather than assuming the worst, are they even willing and open enough to agree to meet, speak, and listen?

Probably not, because it is so much easier to remain uninformed, holding on to the ever-growing trendy viewpoint that Jews are the real villains, a characterization which serves to vindicate all others from whatever corrupt evils they espouse, committed, or would like to commit.

It is that one “different” group that is crucial to single out as those without whom the world would be a better place. However, Europe, minus its Jewish population, would then need a new scapegoat to, once again, exonerate all the ills that would invariably come its way. Who would end up filling that vacancy?
French parliament approves bill against antisemites, racists becoming citizens
The French National Assembly approved of a bill to combat rising antisemitism on Tuesday that would deny citizenship, naturalization, or residency to foreigners convicted of having engaged in discriminatory acts against people because of their national origin, race, or religion.

The law, which would also have to pass in the French Senate, was adopted by the parliament late Tuesday with 154 parliamentarians in favor, 72 against, and 43 in abstention.

The "bill to combat antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia," proposed by Republican representative Eric Pauget, explained that it was drafted in response to address the 300% rise in recorded antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2024. 1,673 antisemitic attacks were recorded in 2023, and 887 in the first half of this year.

Though Jews represented about 1% of the French population, according to the Interior Ministry the antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of racist and anti-religious attacks in the country. There was also a warning that anti-Jewish sentiment had increased by 400% in schools in the recent academic year, and "antisemitic" demonstrations had increased by 1200%.

"In the current context of an explosion of antisemitic acts and remarks, a strengthening of our legal arsenal could guarantee greater effectiveness of justice in the repression of hate speech and discriminatory behavior," said the bill. "Contrary to the humanist values ​​of our Republic, these acts must entail the impossibility of becoming French for foreigners who would be the authors of antisemitic, racist or xenophobic acts."
Herzog tells Australian Jews rise in antisemitism most critical issue for Diaspora communities
The “terrible” rise in antisemitism in Australia reflects a trend that is now the most critical challenge for Jews in the Diaspora, President Isaac Herzog tells members of the Australian Jewish community visiting Israel.

Speaking at an event hosted by Voice of the People (VoP), Herzog commends Australia’s strong education and legal systems, emphasizing that Jewish institutions must be secured and protected “to ensure that Jewish life continues without harassment.”

Herzog’s comments come after the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) published a report that there were more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents on the continent during the past year, more than four times than in the previous year. These included anti-Israel protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, anti-Israel activists targeting small businesses owned by Jewish families, Jewish homes targeted with hate graffiti and stickers, and a huge increase in physical assaults against Jews and verbal abuse on the streets.

“This initiative feels more vital and urgent than ever,” says Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler. “The Australian Jewish community and our allies stand with Israel in hope and determination.”

VoP is an initiative led by Herzog to engage Jewish communities outside of Israel to collectively identify, discuss, and address the most pressing immediate and long-term challenges affecting the Jewish people, including the challenges of antisemitism.


Reunited after 81 years: Holocaust survivor meets descendants of family who saved her
After 81 years, the veil of history has lifted, reuniting 86-year-old Gertrude “Trudy” Stricks with the family who saved her from the Holocaust, Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero has reported.

This extraordinary discovery was made possible through the efforts of Maria Grazia Lancellotti, principal of the Roman high school Orazio and a participant in the project “Il Civico Giusto,” the report said.

Trudy and her son, Brian, recently connected with the descendants of Alfredo and Marcella Monaco, the couple who rescued her from certain death during the Holocaust.

For decades, it was believed that Gertrude had perished in Auschwitz. Her name surfaced only in connection with her father, Isidor Stricks, whose tragic fate was marked by the chilling note: “died in a lager” (a Nazi concentration camp). These sparse records reinforced the assumption that young Gertrude had shared the same fate, as extermination camps claimed the most vulnerable first.

Yet Gertrude’s destiny diverged from that of her father. Isidor Stricks, a Polish Jew, fled to Italy from France but was captured near Rome. He was eventually deported and died in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Before his deportation, he managed to pass his five-year-old daughter to Marcella Ficca, an unknown woman standing near the truck carrying him away.

Hidden from the Holocaust
In February 1944, Marcella, who did not speak Polish, took young Trudy under her wing, despite their inability to communicate verbally. Marcella and her husband, Alfredo Monaco, a night doctor at Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, welcomed Trudy into their family, which already included two children. The Monacos were no strangers to courage; they had previously assisted in the daring escapes of prominent Italians Sandro Pertini and Giuseppe Saragat.

Trudy stayed with the Monaco family until June 1944, during which time they sheltered her from the horrors of the Holocaust. Her mother, Fanny Stricks, unaware of her husband’s fate, eventually learned of Trudy’s whereabouts from Rome’s Jewish community. She retrieved her daughter, and the pair sought refuge in a convent, where they lived for a month.

In July 1944, they joined nearly 1,000 other refugees aboard the ship Gibbons, departing Naples and eventually reaching the United States.

Trudy settled in the US and now has a son, Brian. At 86, her survival is a testament to the acts of solidarity and chance that shaped countless lives during those inhuman years.
Chabad announces building of 100 new centers in response to Rabbi Zvi Kogan killing
Chabad will open 100 new centers with locations including Portugal, France, and Russia in response to the kidnapping and murder of emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was found dead in the United Arab Emirates late last month.

The announcement of the new centers came at the end of the Shiva for Kogan.

In a release, Chabad said Keren Hashluchim will provide seed funding for 50 initial centers with an additional 50 to be announced in the coming months.

Centers will be opened in Algarve, Portugal; Andorra, France and Tatarstan, Russia, among other locations.

'Strong positive action is the only response'
“When the most heinous evildoers want us to cower in fear, The Rebbe taught us that strong positive action is the only response," Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, director of the International Conference of Shluchim and Keren Hashluchim, said in the release.

"By supporting new centers in locations near and far, we honor Rabbi Kogan's memory and fulfill the Rebbe's vision of transforming grief into action."
Israeli Film Festival in LA screens 40-plus pictures, draws 7,000 people
The 36th Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles returned in full force after a two-year hiatus.

The screenings, which ran from Nov. 13-16, drew more than 7,000 attendees to see more than 40 features, documentaries and student short films at six theaters in Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and Encino, Calif. Israeli actor/comedian Shaike Levi took home the 2024 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Los Angeles audiences thoroughly embraced the return of the Israel Film Festival, which had been postponed due to the war in the Middle East,” said Meir Fenigstein, the festival’s founder and executive director, of what typically is an annual event.

He added that “as our hearts ache for so many affected by the war, the sense of community was pervasive as people shared, learned and were reminded of all that Israel has to offer.”

Among honors dispensed as part of the proceedings, actress Gal Gadot—the star of “Wonder Woman”—presented the 2024 IFF Industry Leadership Award to Mattel chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz, who led the release of the 2023 blockbuster hit “Barbie.”

Fenigstein said that “residents from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills to the San Fernando Valley gathered to be entertained and celebrate Israeli culture, storytelling, its filmmakers and talent, both behind and in front of the camera.”

Festival favorites included “Come Closer” and “The Child Within Me,” winners of the audience choice awards for Best Feature Film and Best Documentary, respectively.
How an Israeli-Palestinian boy band survived the heat of October 7
Last year, six young Jewish Israelis and Palestinians embarked on their life’s dream as a boy band bound for Los Angeles to record their debut album. But the day after they arrived, full of hope, in the entertainment capital of the world, their dream looked like it could be shattered. It was October 7.

A new documentary series on Paramount+ follows the first Israeli Palestinian boy band from their beginnings on a bootcamp in Neve Shalom – part of the search and audition launched by industry hitmakers James Diener and Ken Levitan (who signed and developed Maroon 5 and Kings Of Leon) to find the most talented singers and musicians in Israel.

As1one were brought together to show the possibilities of co-existence, but that message was painfully put to the test.

As band members Palestinian Christian Aseel Farah (22), Palestinian Bedouin Muslim Sadik Abu Dogosh (21), and Jewish Israelis Nadav Philips (23), Neta Rozenblat (22), Niv Lin (23) and Ohad Attia (22) acclimatised to their swanky new LA pad, news of the Hamas attack filtered through their social media.

Lin was the first to see the horror unfolding on his mobile phone feed and he soon discovered that a friend had been killed at Nova festival; he might have been there with her had he not won a place in the band.

“We were so excited to be in Los Angeles together,” says Farah, eyes lit up then quickly downcast. “But then in the morning, that all changed.”

They feared the band couldn’t continue.

“I said, it's either going to bring us together or break us apart,” Farah says. “It brought us together more, because of what we believe in, as a band, because music unites people. But the shock was really hard to deal with.

He adds, “I was raised differently to any of the guys, and then losing friends from the war, from the attack, and then being very scared for my family, the Palestinians in Israel, and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, was a lot of emotions all of a sudden.”

He points out that they originate from different backgrounds and opinions and that what first inspired each of them is their traditions and identities. October 7 sparked their first political discussion as a group and they talked openly, their arguments ending in brotherly hugs.




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