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Thursday, June 12, 2025

06/12 Links Pt2: Federal judge: Trump can’t deport Mahmoud Khalil; Will BBC Verify apologise for spreading disinformation?; Why privileged Israelophobes can’t handle Azealia Banks

From Ian:

Gerald Steinberg: From Durban to Geneva: How the global human rights industry turned on Israel
When Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were founded in 1961 and 1978 respectively – both by Jews and Zionists – they quickly earned reputations as principled defenders of universal human rights. Yet over time, both organisations have drifted from their original mission of confronting the world’s most brutal regimes. Today, they are increasingly politicised, with a marked and obsessive hostility towards Israel.

The hostile takeover became clearly visible in August 2001, when the NGO Forum of the UN’s Conference on Racism brought 5,000 activists from self-proclaimed human rights groups to Durban, South Africa. The orchestrated assemblage declared Israel to be guilty of apartheid, genocide, colonialism, among similar propaganda labels.

This was the beginning of NGO-led lawfare, boycott campaigns and other forms of demonisation based on exploiting the principles and frameworks of human rights. Twenty-two years later, immediately after the October 7 atrocities, the world-wide propaganda attacks (“the 8th front” of the war) highlighted the same slogans in much more virulent form, feeding blood libels, antisemitic violence and intimidation.

The failure of the Israeli government, including the IDF, as well as the leaders of major Jewish organisations, to recognise and prioritise systematic responses to NGO warfare allowed this danger to fester and expand. The malign political influence of groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and their numerous allies increased continuously. But the IDF and various ministries paid little attention to their propaganda reports, parroted in headline articles by prominent journalists around the world, which labelled every response to mass terror as a “war crime”.

In 2009, the Goldstone report (the UN “Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict”) accused Israel of “possible crimes against humanity”, with recommendations for possible action by the newly created International Criminal Court. Amnesty International wrote the list of alleged war crimes, and the majority of the more than 500 citations of “evidence” in the final document were sourced to 50 anti-Israel NGOs. Months later, after Judge Richard Goldstone met with critics (including myself), he acknowledged that his document was deeply biased and inaccurate, but the damage was done.

The threat of international legal action against soldiers got the attention of the IDF, government lawyers and other officials, but the responses were ad hoc. The counter-strategy consisted of claims that the IDF was “the world’s most moral army”, that Israel investigated all allegations of violations, as well as numerous learned legal briefs arguing that the ICC and other international frameworks lacked jurisdiction.

This approach had little to no impact on the lawfare and propaganda campaigns that singled out Israel for demonisation. On the contrary, the advocacy NGOs and their allies in the media, UN, and university campuses (particularly under the headings of human rights and international law programmes) amplified the highly disproportionate attacks, and their influence increased with every round of the Gaza conflict.
Why privileged Israelophobes can’t handle Azealia Banks
We live in an age of grotesque double standards and cloying fakery from celebs. The overwhelming majority seem to think that their job is not to entertain us, but to strike fashionable poses and shove hypocrisies down our throats.

And then there’s Azealia Banks. She is, as the kids say, a real one.

The 34-year-old rapper from Harlem has been controversial for quite some time, sounding off on social media on a variety of topics. But last week she outdid herself by bluntly standing up for Israel at a time when pretty much all of the luvvie class has gone the other way.

‘I’m a Zionist’, she posted last Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, this unleashed a torrent of largely hostile commentary. Many young, privileged Westerners now unthinkingly loathe Israel. For them, a black rapper’s refusal to toe the ‘progressive’ line just doesn’t make sense.

It’s been particularly difficult for woke, finger-snapping white girls. They’re normally only too eager to shout ‘yaaas queen!’ when a black woman speaks. But on this occasion, they’re struggling, as Banks has not stuck to the script.

It should be said that, at points, Banks’s Israel commentary has veered off into dodgier, identitarian territory. ‘BITCH DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY FUCKING BLACK CHILDREN HAVE BEEN MURDERED AT THE HANDS OF ARABS?’, she tweeted last week. Then there was this: ‘I do not support the expansion of genocide of any more peoples of the world at the hands of Arab Muslims.’ Banks, it seems, was referring to the the centuries-long Arab slave trade, which involved the enslavement of millions of Africans right up until the 20th century.

No wonder Banks got progressives’ knickers in a twist. We know that blaming anyone other than the bad white / Jewish man for slavery and genocide is enough to trigger a mass-casualty event at Columbia University.

We live in an age where female celebrity takes mainly two forms: Meghan Markle’s grandiose self-delusion and manufactured virtue, or hectoring harpies with pronouns in their bios. But here comes Banks to shred her opponents openly, and with the most inventive use of swear words I have ever heard. And I grew up in Brooklyn!


David Collier: Will BBC Verify apologise for spreading disinformation?
BBC Verify is meant to be an elite ‘fact-checking’ unit for one of the largest broadcast news organizations in the world. Instead, it turns out BBC Verify is just another obsessive anti-Israel unit manned by amateur hacks – a bunch of student journalists who cannot leave their activist days behind them, clearly do not understand what ‘fact-checking’ or professional journalism actually mean, and do not have editors, news directors, and producers ensuring journalistic integrity.

The European Hospital Strike
In the afternoon of May 13, 2025, reports began surfacing (at 16:25 BST) of an Israeli strike *on* the European hospital in Al-Fukhkhari, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian propagandists immediately went to ‘fantasy town’, with Mariam Barghouti even going as far as suggesting Israel was ‘carpet bombing’ the hospital. This episode turned into another of those catastrophic media events – during which global media rushed to jump into the rabbit hole Hamas had nicely dug for them.

In anticipation of the media turning this into a fake-news circus, Israel reacted swiftly, and almost as soon as news broke about the strike, Israel was using various channels to officially inform the world that the target was a key Hamas control centre. The additional information that began circulating from ‘insider sources’ was so accurate, that by 17:08 BST, just 45 minutes after the news was breaking, I had already posted that Mohammed Sinwar may have been eliminated.

This means that within an hour, some accurate information was already available to counter the fake news. Israel had targeted a Hamas hideout in tunnels that ran underneath the hospital grounds, and had possibly eliminated the Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. Mainstream media just CHOSE to ignore (or downplay) all these claims, and run all the headlines pushing the Hamas propaganda instead.

BBC Verify and the European Hospital Strike
Which brings us to BBC Verify – the BBC’s ‘fact-checking’ unit. At the time I pointed out that there was only one issue about the Israeli strike that really needed open source ‘verification’, and that is whether Mohammed Sinwar and / or other Hamas leaders were using hospital grounds as cover, or not. Beyond this, BBC Verify had absolutely no reason to be involved.

Yet get involved they did. The BBC Verify team produced a video lasting 2 minutes and 26 seconds. They really did not have much to say, so spent the first 56 seconds just rolling shocking footage of the strike on civilians. Nowt to verify there at all and nothing was in dispute. The next 30 seconds were spent discussing the type of bomb the IDF had used (also not in dispute). Having spent half the time shocking the audience through running conflict porn, BBC Verify then spent the rest of the clip drawing doubt on Israel’s version of events.

If BBC Verify is a fact checking unit – then why on earth did they jump in before any facts could be verified? And even then – all they did is draw inferences trying to suggest Israel had made a mistake. But Israel had not made a mistake. Israel conducted a surgical strike which took out not just the current Hamas leader, but also other key Hamas terrorists.

The entire logic of the Verify team was wrong. Why did Israel need to have provided precise evidence within hours of the strike? Israel’s failure to publicly provide precise evidence within hours of the strike should not have been used by ‘fact-checkers’ to infer a mistake had happened. It is a textbook example of demonization of the Jewish state, assuming the worst and forcing Israel to disprove an assumption after the fact. In short, it is BBC Verify showing institutionalized antisemitism.

In addition, it does not matter what you think of the conflict. It is a visible fact that on most occasions in the conflict in which Israel stated it believed it had struck a key terrorist hideout – it did turn out that the terrorist leader truly was killed in the strike. There are dozens of examples since October 2023 and this vital context is not really in dispute.

BBC Verify did not mention this context at all. They rushed in believing Israel had made a mistake without waiting for evidence. Did they want to report the news or simply shock viewers? Shocking viewers based on footage that has vital context removed from the story and leads the audience into believing a false narrative: Isn’t that what BBC Verify was actually set up to counter?


BBC apologises for article claiming Jews spit on Christians in ‘holiday ritual’
The BBC has issued an apology for publishing a video that claimed observant Jews spit on Christians in a “holiday ritual”.

On 5 October 2023, BBC Arabic released an article entitled “Sukkot: Spitting and Assault on Christians and Harassment of Muslims on the Jewish Holiday,” alongside a similarly titled video.

During the clip, a caption made the claim about how observant Jews celebrate Succot in Israel by spitting on Christians.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) complained to the BBC about the caption, which was corrected days later to say: “Some observant Jews consider spitting on Christians a holiday ritual.”

There have been arrests in Israel related to spitting on churches, with the suspects mainly from certain strict Charedi sects, but the practice is not an accepted part of mainstream Jewish celebrations.

But it took the broadcaster 19 months to issue a written apology to Camera.

“We apologise for the errors and thank you for your patience in waiting for this reply/confirmation of corrections that were made in October 2023,” a BBC spokesperson said.

BBC Arabic took over 400 working days to rectify a separate article that linked “fanatical Jews” to the 9/11 terrorists – exceeding the maximum limit of 65 working days.

The article, published on the 22nd anniversary of the attacks, sparked outrage at the time with Lord Carlile, the government’s former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, issuing a warning to the BBC about publishing “deliberate and sometimes even casual antisemitism”.
Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table: Inside the Mind of the Israeli Religious Right with Rabbi Yishai Fleisher
Rabbi Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron - a Middle East hotspot, King David's first capital, and home of the Mearat Hamachpela - the Tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs. He is also an elected Councilman in one of the largest Jewish community in Judea - Efrat - and an advisor for international affairs to Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir. Rabbi Yishai is a popular English-language podcaster and YouTuber on the topics of Israel, Judaism, and the Middle East and has appeared in major media outlets including CNN, Piers Morgan, and more. Yishai is a rabbi, a graduate of Cardozo Law School in NYC, a former paratrooper, and continues to serve in the IDF reserves.


Israeli fan refunded after being ‘ambushed’ by pro-Palestine messaging at Massive Attack gig
An Israeli music fan said he felt “ambushed and unsafe” during the controversial Massive Attack performance at London’s Victoria Park on Friday evening.

The audience member, who asked not to be identified, received a full refund from the festival organisers after complaining that the heavily politicised show had been falsely advertised.

The JC spoke to the Israeli music lover, who attended the Lido music festival in east London over the weekend to see Massive Attack, an electronic hip-hop fusion band he had enjoyed for years.

“When we arrived at the festival in Victoria Park, we saw a lot of ‘Free Palestine’ pins and t-shirts. We didn’t make anything out of it,” the fan said.

Before the band – who rose to fame in the 1990s – took to the stage, though, The Crown actor Khalid Abdalla delivered a speech about Palestine solidarity.

Abdalla, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), told the crowd: “The Palestine solidarity movement is the civil rights movement of our time, it is the anti-apartheid movement of our time, it is the anti-genocide movement of our time, and that is why so many Jewish people all over the world are at the core of this movement, fighting for a world in which ‘never again’ means never again for anyone, and in which this brutal Israeli occupation ends.”

But the Israeli man, who attended with four other British-Israeli friends, said he had no idea the set itself would be political.

“I wanted to hear Massive Attack, as someone who grew up on their music. I had no idea about any of their political views; I am not really on social media, so I didn’t know it was going to be like that. They lost me as a fan,” he said.

He went on: “Just when Massive Attack were about to go on stage, we saw this movie they put on the screen. They [Massive Attack] weren’t on stage, so we didn’t understand what was happening. We got closer and closer and saw it was a propaganda movie from the PSC.”

“In seconds, suddenly the crowd was chanting ‘Free Palestine.’

“It felt really hostile to hear all these people chanting and happy to be in solidarity for Palestine and against Israel.”

“We were the minority in the crowd, and it felt like we couldn’t be who we are. What is really disturbing is the fact that people don’t [understand] our view or our trauma."


Israeli show 'Remnants' receives Canadian festival award for portrayal of grief after October 7
The show deals with grief, bereavement and the meaning of Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. At its center is Rona, a withdrawn and cynical teenage girl whose older sister was murdered at the Nova music festival on October 7. She is angry, pushes away her parents and friends, and refuses help. Her mourning is raw and intense. But during preparations for her school’s Memorial Day ceremony, she meets Oren, whose father, an army officer, was killed when he was a child.

On the festival's official website, "Remnants" was introduced as "a groundbreaking children's drama that explores the aftermath of tragedy through the eyes of 14-year-old Rona, who is reeling from her sister's death in the October 7th terror attack. As her school prepares for Memorial Day, Rona grapples with grief and resentment, feeling her sister’s memory is being forced to fade. "

"Her unexpected friendship with Oren - who lost his father as a young child - leads them both on a journey to confront their pain and family struggles, ultimately seeking healing. "Remnants" is the first scripted series to address the events of October 7th, thoughtfully introducing themes of loss and bereavement to young audiences directly impacted by this national tragedy. Premiering on Israel’s first National Memorial Day since the attack, it offers a powerful space for children to explore and process their emotions."

The show also features veteran Israeli actress Michal Yannai, who plays Rona's mother, Tali. Yannai has been a children's entertainment star since the early 80s, but began her major breakthrough in the early 90s, hosting a children's show on Arutz Hayeladim (Israel's Kids' channel).
A year after my murdered daughter Shani’s burial, I was attacked for honoring her memory - opinon
I write these words not only as a grieving father but as a Jew who will not be silenced.

My daughter, Shani Louk, was brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7 at the Nova music festival. The brutality of her murder shocked the civilized world, and she tragically became the most famous victim of that Holocaust-level massacre.

Her bloodied body was paraded through the streets of Gaza. Her face became one of the most recognized images of that horrific day, which marked the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Nazi genocide.

Since that moment, I have tried to carry her memory as a torch of light through the unbearable darkness.

When one of the world’s leading press organizations chose the horrific photo of Shani’s brutalized and lifeless body in the back of a Hamas pickup truck surrounded by five terrorists as their photo of the year, many in the Jewish community objected to the savage image.

But, despite the incurable pain every gaze at that photo causes me and my family, I supported the choice. Let the world see what Hamas did to my child.

Let the world see what Islamist terrorists do to Jews.


Former hostage reveals why she shook hands with Hamas militant at Red Cross handover
Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz has revealed previously unknown details behind her warm interaction with a Hamas militant during her Red Cross handover in Gaza after 16 days in captivity.

In a video of the handover, the then 85-year-old was seen turning back to the masked Hamas militant who had escorted her to the checkpoint, shaking hands with him, and saying “Shalom”.

The encounter, which caused headlines around the world, confounded many. However, last night, in conversation with Senior Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and her daughter Sharone at New North London Synagogue, Yocheved shone a new light on the situation.

Translating on behalf of her mother, Sharone explained: “The person she shook hands with was a paramedic, and on the way to the point where she was passed to the Red Cross they had a conversation in which he said that it’s time to throw away the politicians and to reach an agreement.”


Trump admin can’t deport Mahmoud Khalil, federal judge rules
Michael Farbiarz, a district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, ruled on Wednesday that Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate who the Trump administration alleges has terror ties, cannot be deported on foreign-policy grounds.

In a 14-page order, Farbiarz wrote that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to justify Khalil’s removal by citing “a compelling foreign-policy interest” but found that the administration’s legal reasoning may not withstand constitutional scrutiny.

“Khalil’s career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled, and this adds up to irreparable harm,” Farbiarz wrote.

The judge did not block Khalil’s detention or removal on other grounds, such as alleged omissions on his green card application.

Federal agents arrested Khalil, who is from Syria, on March 8. He is being held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, La. Khalil, who holds a green card and is married to a U.S. citizen, led the pro-Hamas mobs at Columbia University.

The ruling does not go into effect until June 13 at 9:30 a.m., to give the Trump administration time to respond and file an appeal.


Muddling through the 'Madleen': How Israel got the better of Greta Thunberg
On Monday morning May 31, 2010, the producers at Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau did not stop calling me.

They wanted me to go on the air and provide Israel’s perspective on what was happening on the Mavi Marmara ship that was bound for Gaza.

I absolutely refused because I had no way of knowing what had happened on the ship, nor did any of my sources. While Israelis have a reputation for telling you to go straight when you ask for directions, whether they know the correct route or not, I have always educated my children that sometimes the smartest thing to say is “I don’t know.”

The reason no one knew what was happening was that the IDF did not tell anyone and did not seem to care that the other side was controlling the narrative. The soldiers were portrayed as the aggressors and the people on the ship as peace activists, even after they attacked and wounded the soldiers with metal poles and chairs until they lost consciousness.

The escalation ended with nine Turkish activists killed, and Israel was forced to pay more than $20 million to their families and apologize to Turkey in 2016.

Such mistakes could have easily been repeated with this week’s arrival of the Madleen boat carrying 12 activists, including high-profile Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. An Al Jazeera journalist was on board, ready to report the worst.

Had the IDF stormed the boat aggressively and harmed anyone on board while being livestreamed on the activists’ phones, the incident could have done great damage to Israel’s deteriorating international reputation. Thunberg, 22, has become a heroine to young progressives around the world, making her handling especially sensitive.

But something astonishing happened.

The IDF willingly lost a fight.

How Israel's Foreign Ministry handled the Madleen Gaza flotilla incident
THE ARMY relinquished control over how the Madleen would be handled and framed and gave it over to the Foreign Ministry, which isn’t used to winning turf wars.

Check the IDF’s X/Twitter account and WhatsApp channel in any language. You won’t find a single mention of the Madleen or anyone who was on it. The Foreign Ministry sent representatives to the IDF war room, who were in constant contact with the naval soldiers who intercepted the vessel.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit sent photographers who took pictures that quickly became the international narrative of what had happened. The photo of a female soldier giving a sandwich to Thunberg smiling in a frog hat went viral, making Israel look magnanimous.
I survived October 7: Gaza tourist Greta Thunberg's ridiculous 'kidnapping' claims are a slap in the face to REAL victims... now her stunt has backfired
Before her deportation from Israel, Greta was asked to watch footage compiled by Israel of what happened on October 7. But Greta and her compatriots refused.

If they had bothered to open their eyes, they would have likely seen the brutality of that day: people dragged, tortured, beheaded and gunned down. That is the 'resistance' that Greta seems to support.

A true 'resistance' wouldn't attack civilians, brutally rape women, mercilessly kill the innocent or use infant hostages as bargaining chips.

I once believed that Greta Thunberg was legitimately attempting to save the planet. Now, it's clear to me that she has lost her way.

She isn't helping Palestinians. She is helping Hamas manipulate the world's sympathy. But I don't think she's evil. I think she has been manipulated, like millions of others, by people smarter than her, people with agendas.

She doesn't realize that she's a pawn in their propaganda war that seeks to destroy Israel and the Jewish people.

But we're still here. Scarred. Mourning. Fighting. Trying to bring our people home. Trying to live without fear.

For many Israelis, we don't want revenge. We want our people back. We want to live in peace. But peace won't come from lies, nor will it come from PR stunts and social media posts.

It will only come when people stop repeating propaganda and start acknowledging the truth, even the parts that are inconvenient to their narrative.

So, I'll tell her myself: Greta, you weren't kidnapped. You were detained for attempting to enter a restricted warzone and flown back to Sweden.

The people who were kidnapped are either dead, traumatized or still trapped in a living nightmare.

Say their names. Tell their story. Demand their release!

Greta, if you ever truly cared about justice, now would be the time to show it.


Charity Commission launches probe into British charity working with Hamas
The Charity Commission has opened a review into a UK registered charity that says it has worked with a Hamas-run government ministry to distribute cash in Gaza, the JC can reveal.

London-based Save One Life UK – whose head of communications and trustee also works at UCL in diversity and inclusion – is being investigated by the commission over the charity's cash distribution programme in Gaza.

Information on the Save One Life UK website states that the charity is “working with the Ministry of Social Development in Gaza” to deliver cash to “those most in need”.

The Ministry of Social Development in Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a UK-proscribed terror group.

“Beneficiaries are pre-vetted and approved for assistance by the Ministry, and the financial assistance is directly distributed, accounted for and audited and is distributed strictly in line with the principles of zakat,” the Save One Life website says about its cash donation programme.

Save One Life UK was established in 2011 and has raised millions from its base in Newham, east London. It denies working with any terrorist organisations.

The charity’s communications manager and trustee, Addeel Khan – who also works at University College London (UCL) – did not respond to questions about Save One Life's connections with the Hamas-controlled ministry.

Khan is the director of equity, inclusion and culture at UCL and oversees the team responsible for addressing antisemitism at the university. According to his LinkedIn, he was previously the head of EDI at the British Red Cross, led international communications at the UK Home Office, and has been a board member at Save One Life since 2019.

In a live-streamed video to raise funds for Save One Life, Khan was interviewed about the cash distribution programme and said the charity works with the Hamas-run ministry to vet beneficiaries.
University of Birmingham suspends Friends of Palestine society after protest chants
The University of Birmingham’s Friends of Palestine society has been suspended by the Guild of Students following a protest held on Nakba Day last month.

The suspension came after footage from the 15 May demonstration showed students chanting slogans including “Resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “Israel is a terror state”. The university adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism in 2020, which includes “calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology” as an example of antisemitism.

The Guild has not publicly detailed the grounds of suspension, but a statement posted by the society on Instagram said: “We reject this suspension entirely and fully intend to appeal the outcome of their investigation, if necessary.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism, which obtained and shared video of the protest, welcomed the decision. A spokesperson said: “This decision vindicates Jewish students at the University of Birmingham. For all their virtuous anti-racism rhetoric, our universities have become epicentres of Jew-hatred… Universities and students societies across Britain should follow this decision and take concrete steps to protect their students.”

One Jewish student told the group: “Hearing these kinds of slogans on campus made me feel unsafe and uneasy… I hope other universities will impose similar measures.”

The Friends of Palestine group also accused the Guild and university of “enabling complicity” in what it described as genocide and said the Nakba Day march had been used as a “pretext” to silence them.

The group also cited previous disciplinary action against pro-Palestinian student activists, including evictions, cancelled negotiations and blocked student newspaper coverage. It ended its statement declaring: “We will persist and resist until our voices are listened to… Our activity is only suspended when Palestine is liberated.”
‘Additional questions’ lead House ed panel to ask Sarah Lawrence for more documents on Jew-hatred
The House Education and Workforce Committee sought documents on March 27 from Sarah Lawrence College, a nearly 100-year-old private liberal arts school in Bronxville, N.Y., about how it responded to Jew-hatred on campus.

The school responded, but in the interim, new questions have been raised, so Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Burgess Owens (R-Utah), chairs respectively of the committee and its subcommittee on higher education and workforce development, wrote to the school asking for more documents.

The new request “comes amid reports of a hostile antisemitic environment, in which faculty and administrators are reportedly contributing to antisemitic harassment of Jewish students on the Sarah Lawrence campus,” the committee said.

The congressmen noted reports that a Jewish student, Sammy Tweedy, had “been harassed and bullied throughout the 2022-23 academic year” and “received violent and threatening text messages from members of Sarah Lawrence’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine” following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

One such note told him that he “should have been killed in Israel,” the congressmen wrote.

“He left Sarah Lawrence, in part because of the college’s ‘refusal to protect him.’ Multiple other students have also left Sarah Lawrence or considered doing so because of antisemitism on campus,” they wrote.


Sham Palestinian Charity Sanctioned Over Work With Hamas Has Also Partnered With Elite US Universities
A sham Palestinian charity added to the U.S. terrorist sanctions list this week has worked closely with elite American universities—including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia—to promote anti-Israel propaganda.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury said the West Bank-based Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which describes itself as a "civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners," has "long supported and is affiliated" with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist group that took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

The designation came as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown against "fraudulent" charities linked to Hamas and the PFLP, which includes sanctions against five other organizations.

Addameer has a long history of partnering with prominent colleges and student groups to push unverified allegations against Israel, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

Addameer’s 2019 annual report listed multiple meetings it held "with its friends and partners," including many of the groups at the center of the anti-Israel campus movement: Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia Law School, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Adalah, and the Arab American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Addameer took credit in its report for helping to organize an "event by students from Columbia University shortly after their return from Palestine. The students used the information we gave them during the brief and afterwards."

Addameer added that "students from different universities in the U.S." filmed its briefings, screening the footage during events.

In 2022, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic partnered with Addameer to submit a joint report to the United Nations accusing Israel of the "crime of apartheid under international law."

The report pushed false claims about Israel, including allegations that it has a system of "Jewish Israeli supremacy" and a "deliberate policy of land confiscation, dispossession, and illegal settlement."


Hamas’s new Gaza leader: A Hebrew-speaking ‘ghost’ with a $750,000 price on his head
The new head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Az al-Din Haddad, keeps an extremely low profile, speaks Hebrew and carries photos of Israeli hostages on his cellphone, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday

According to the report, which cited Arab and Israeli officials, as well as a former hostage who met him while in captivity, Haddad helped plan the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 abducted as hostages to Gaza, triggering the ongoing war with Israel.

A Hamas official told the Journal that Haddad, 55, is known as the “Ghost of al-Qassam” because of his low profile. He has survived several attempts by Israel to assassinate him and has a $750,000 bounty on his head. His two sons were both killed this year during the war.

An unnamed released Israeli hostage said that he met Haddad five times in Gaza, even sleeping in the same apartment as him. In their first meeting in March 2024, Haddad insisted on speaking in Hebrew and told the hostage and others with him that he was responsible for all of the captives. Haddad then showed them photos of hostages he had on his phone.

The former hostage said that Haddad was concerned about how captives would describe their treatment. When the hostage told him that some of their guards are better than others, Haddad responded, “This is life. There are good people, and there are bad people.”

At the time, Haddad seemed cordial, asking the hostage if there was anything he needed. However, at a later meeting in January, the terror chief was colder, keeping his face covered, and complaining about alleged Israeli war crimes.


A double helix of hope’: CNN’s Van Jones calls for renewed Black-Jewish alliance
“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s (AJCF) 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan.

Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities. In January, he led an AJCF-Exodus Delegation to Poland, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

“It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement, in which American Jews played a meaningful role. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.”

Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis.

“We have to do it again,” he said. Following the recent shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week that American Jews face an “elevated threat.”

Wednesday’s event was held in support of AJCF’s anti-hate educational center based in Oswiecim, Poland. In attendance — in full uniform — were several alumni of the American Service Academies Program, a 16-day educational initiative in Poland run by AJCF for a select group of cadets and midshipmen from the academies for the U.S. Military, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Most of the participants are not Jewish and come from rural towns.

At the dinner, AJCF announced plans to partner with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to bring Black and Jewish leaders on the program to learn about shared history. The group also announced the recent purchase of a new facility, which will be located across the street from the current one and will focus on genocide prevention education.


IDF, Israeli doctors save critically ill Syrian girl in secret rescue
A 12-year-old Syrian girl was secretly evacuated to Israel last week for urgent heart treatment and has since made a full recovery, Rambam Medical Center in Haifa revealed on Thursday.

The girl was transferred from southern Syria by the Israel Defense Forces in coordination with the “Yitro – Jews for Druze” organization, which also funded her hospital care.

She arrived at Rambam Medical Center’s Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital in critical condition and underwent a life-saving heart procedure in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Her condition rapidly improved, and she was discharged four days later. She returned to southern Syria earlier this week, where she reunited with her father.

The girl was accompanied throughout her hospitalization by her mother. Her identity and the precise nature of her condition were not disclosed, due to the sensitivity of the operation.

“This complex and moving humanitarian effort could not have been possible without the IDF,” said Amnon Bartal, chairman of the Yitro organization. “We’re also deeply grateful to the medical staff at Rambam for their professionalism and compassion. We remain committed to medical excellence and saving lives.”
Jewish D-Day veteran returns to Normandy for 81st commemoration
Mervyn Kersh, 100-year old D-Day veteran, at Normandy, June 2025.

One of the last living Jewish D-Day veterans received a hero’s welcome in Normandy last week, as he returned to the hallowed ground where thousands of Allied troops perished in an attempt to liberate Nazi-occupied France during the second world war.

Mervyn Kersh, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday, travelled to pay tribute on the 81st anniversary of the June 1944 D-Day landings.

Accompanied by his daughter Lynne, he recalled being sent ashore towards enemy fire when he was just 19 years old, telling ITV News “in the early hours of the morning, you could see the coastline coming closer and it suddenly dawned on me what was happening,” adding that he read from a book of Psalms and “felt better after it.”

Wreaths were laid at Gold Beach, one of the five designated D-Day landing areas, whilst parades, parachute jumps, a fly-past and a remembrance service honouring the thousands who died that day was held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, attended by the last surviving veterans, who are now in their late 90s and older.

Kersh and fellow veteran Stanley Fisher are among an estimated 60,000 Jews who served in the British Armed Forces during the war. Both landed in Normandy in 1944 and were later stationed near Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated by British forces in April 1945.

A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day.
Argentine President Javier Milei receives Genesis Prize in Jerusalem
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, received the $1 million Genesis Prize in Jerusalem on Thursday in recognition of his unequivocal support for Israel at a time of growing international isolation over the 20-month-long war against Hamas in Gaza.

The unabashed philo-semite who dramatically shifted Argentina’s foreign policy toward an unprecedented alliance with the United States and Israel after decades of both left-wing and right-wing Argentine governments backing Arab countries became the first non-Jewish honoree to receive the prize.

“In the year when Israel is fighting its longest war in history against the most evil terror organization and the isolation of Israel grows, it is especially important to recognize those non-Jewish voices who unabashedly support our people and our country,” said Israeli statesman Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and an earlier recipient of the Genesis Prize, at the award ceremony at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.

“You are a real hero to the Jewish people,” he stated.

The former prisoner of Zion, who spent nine years in Soviet prison, including more than half in solitary confinement, before being released and immigrating to Israel, noted that he knows all too well what isolation is and why it is so important that such voices as the Argentine leader be heard around the world.

“Remember you will always find in me an ally of Israel, and my country has sided on the right side of history,” Milei said in Spanish as part of his acceptance remarks.

The organization said that the Argentine leader will donate the prize money to launch an initiative aimed at improving diplomatic relations between Israel and Latin American countries, recently dubbed “the Isaac Accords,” after the landmark 2020 Abraham Accords, and combating antisemitism in the region.
How Columbia Hamas Supporters Led Me To Convert to Judaism
When I began studying at Barnard College of Columbia University in 2015, I was on a full-ride scholarship. Coming from a foster-care type upbringing, I had no family. No friends in NYC. And no support system. But I was full of hope, excitement and dreams to study.

But when a student knocked on my door my after I moved in with a Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) petition against Israel, I paused. Was this a friend or foe? What was this about?

I had only vaguely heard of Israel and Palestine, and I didn’t feel comfortable signing the petition. Geopolitics wasn’t my strong suit. And I barely heard about Israel or Palestine before. So, I told the girl that I couldn’t sign it till I did more research, and she left, seemingly ok with that response.

Days later, she again asked me to sign the BDS petition.

I still hadn’t researched the conflict, so I declined again. Then next day, I recall that the girl had tagged me in the Barnard and Columbia Class of 2018 Facebook pages, which had each hundreds of members, that “Toni Airaksinen is an apartheid supporting Zionist who doesn’t care about Palestinians and people of color.” I was aghast.

I never said any of that. What’s a Zionist?

Suddenly, new acquaintances turned into vicious enemies. In searching for help, I learned that to Barnard students, Israel and Zionism was antithetical to the social justice orthodoxy they fought for.

Palestine and Hamas supporters and their allies targeted me, banged on my door at night, sent me thinly veiled death threats through Tumblr and Facebook, and stalked me through the campus grocery store, often hurling slurs under their lips.

I was forced to stop eating at the Barnard dining hall because students would “accidentally” bump into me, making me drop my tray. Instead, I found refuge at Columbia University’s dining halls and began taking all my classes at Columbia instead, where the students didn’t know me and it was easier to blend in, at least for a few months.

By not agreeing with students on Palestine, I was branded a hater of people of color, a supporter of “apartheid” and “segregation” – basically, evil.


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