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Wednesday, January 14, 2026

01/14 Links Pt2: The Jewish Test; Lessons in Leadership – with President Isaac Herzog; How anti-Zionism emerged as a modern ideology; Home Secretary: West Midlands Police chief ‘no longer has my confidence’

From Ian:

The Jewish Test
Near the Colosseum in Rome stands the Arch of Titus, built by the Emperor Domitian in 81 A.D. to honor his brother as a god. The triumphal monument testifies to the divine power of Titus by memorializing his defeat of the monotheistic Jews 11 years earlier. A relief panel shows legionaries marching in procession, carrying sacred objects looted from the Second Temple during the destruction of Jerusalem: the seven-branched Menorah, the Table of Showbread, the ritual trumpets. On the base of the arch, a modern visitor has scrawled three words in Hebrew: Am Yisrael Chai. “The people of Israel live.”

Two thousand years ago, a Roman emperor built an arch to commemorate the defeat of the Jews. Today, Rome is a museum. The Jews survive. Israel has been reborn in its ancestral land.

Empires rise and fall. The Jews alone among peoples are eternal. Their survival is one of history’s great mysteries. Conquered, dispersed, and persecuted, a small tribe endured across millennia. From antiquity to the modern age, Jews moved from empire to empire, barred from land ownership, excluded from politics, and confined to narrow professions while pressured to convert. In times of eased repression, many assimilated, while others adapted and flourished. With repression’s return, survival again took precedence. A faithful remnant preserved communal cohesion and carried tradition forward without territory, army, or state.

To explain the mystery of Jewish survival, European observers have repeatedly reached for supernatural causes. Their accounts tend to fall into two camps. The first interprets Jewish endurance as demonic. Its most influential exponent was Martin Luther, who insisted that “the devil … has taken possession of this people,” leading them to worship not God but “their gifts, their deeds, their works.” Accusing them of usury, deception, and moral corruption, Luther concluded that “no heathen has done such things and none would do so except the Devil himself and those whom he possesses, like he possesses the Jews.”

The second camp retained the supernatural frame but reversed its moral valence. Instead of demonic possession, it discerned divine design. St. Augustine argued that the continued existence of the Jews after their defeat by Rome served a specific function within Christian history. God preserved the Jewish people so that they might remain living custodians of the Scriptures, whose antiquity and integrity underwrote Christian claims about prophecy and fulfillment. For that reason, Augustine insisted, the Jews were to be neither exterminated nor gathered back to their land and restored politically. Citing Psalm 59, he emphasized that Scripture does not say only, “Slay them not, lest they forget Your law.” It adds, “Disperse them.” Survival without dispersion would have frustrated the divine purpose. Scattered among the nations, Jews endured as witnesses—preserving the texts of the old covenant while, through their continued subordination, testifying to the triumph of the new.

America rejected Europe’s supernatural framework altogether. The Puritans identified with the Israelites of the Hebrew Bible and saw America as a second Promised Land. They did not treat the Jews as cursed enemies. The covenant they imagined was shared, not hierarchical. Meanwhile, the Enlightenment had stripped Jewish survival of theological mystery altogether, grounding civic life in the equality of individuals before the law. From its founding, the United States absorbed Jews into public life as fellow citizens rather than symbols—neither demonic nor providential, but equal participants in a common political order.
Melanie Phillips: Britain’s cultural emergency
There’s been deep shock that a Jewish MP, Damien Egan, was barred by a school in his constituency, Bristol Brunel Academy, from visiting it last September after being invited to speak there about democracy and public service.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, teachers and activists from the school and the National Education Union objected to him being given a platform on the grounds that he is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

The union wrote gloatingly in September:
This is a clear message: politicians who openly support Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are not welcome in our schools.

The incident was revealed by the Communities Secretary, Steve Reed, when he told a meeting of the Jewish Labour movement that a Jewish MP had been refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency “in case his presence inflames the teachers”.

Reed called this “an absolute outrage”. Labour’s antisemitism adviser Lord Mann described as “one of the most serious incidents of antisemitism” that has happened in Britain.

Others have expressed their horror. What has become of us as a society, they lament, when an MP is prevented from visiting a school in his own constituency? How can this have been allowed to strike both at the core precepts of education and at the basis of parliamentary democracy?

Clearly, such people haven’t been paying attention. They’re shocked because they haven’t realised what’s been happening in acute form ever since the Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel on October 7 2023, and in less extreme form long before that.

The real concern should be not just that the exclusion of Egan is an attack on education and democracy. More fundamentally, it’s the result of a set of poisonous lies to demonise and destroy the Jewish state, and represent it as such an abominable evil that every Jew who supports it (which most do) are also evil in turn. This puts a target on the back of every Jew in Britain unless they denounce Israel for daring to defend itself against genocidal attack.

This monstrous calumny has now achieved the status of settled wisdom among the educated classes. That hasn’t just happened as a result of the “pro-Gaza” campaign that’s been roaring out of control for the past 27 months. It’s the result of a process that’s been going on for decades.
Seth Mandel: Kathy Hochul, Keep Our Names Out of Your Mouth
In between then and the Hamas rally, violent incursions of synagogues took place outside New York, too. At a synagogue in Los Angeles, anti-Semitic “protesters” broke in and smashed things up during an event. Then Mississippi’s largest synagogue—the same one firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights era—was burned to the ground by a man who claims he was acting against the “synagogue of Satan.” A few days later, the remains of a California shul destroyed in last year’s wildfires was vandalized.

And this is just the past six weeks.

The enemies of the Jews across the political spectrum, though especially the “globalize the intifada” set, have engaged in a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and violence at synagogues around the world, very much now including America. If you cannot say that without saying “and Islamophobia,” as the spineless Gov. Hochul did in her speech, you’d be better off not saying anything at all.

It’s not merely that “and Islamophobia” gives anti-Semitism the “all lives matter” treatment. In promoting a false equivalence between the two, Hochul has slandered the Jews of New York and put them in continued danger. She has also equated the victims and the perpetrators in a moment of moral obtuseness and political recklessness.

It’s not that I don’t understand why other cultures would strain to hitch their wagons to the Jews: We are the world’s eternal people, always standing back up in time to watch our pursuers fall into the ash heap of history.

But the “and Islamophobia” nonsense needs to stop, and Jewish leaders must insist on it. The next time Kathy Hochul, or any other of America’s sponge-willed political mediocrities, considers suggesting that being Jewish is itself “Islamophobic,” they should say nothing at all. If you can’t give us the basic respect we deserve, then just keep our names out of your mouth altogether.


Boundless Israel: Lessons in Leadership – with President Isaac Herzog
In this episode of Boundless Insights, host Aviva Klompas is joined by Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, for a conversation about leadership at a time of profound national strain.

Since October 7, Israel has been carrying deep loss alongside urgent questions of accountability, responsibility, and unity. Trust has been shaken, and Israelis - together with Jews around the world - are grappling with how a wounded society begins to heal.

President Herzog shares what he has learned from time spent with hostage families and the bereaved, and why acknowledgment and presence matter for national repair. He also shares how October 7 has changed Israeli society, how he understands unity after rupture, and how he thinks about Israel’s relationship with world Jewry at a moment when many feel both deeply connected and deeply vulnerable.


How anti-Zionism emerged as a modern ideology
Anti-Zionism is often presented as simply a political critique of Israel. But in reality, it frames Zionists as a hostile, genocidal group, while often collapsing Jews and Israelis into the same stereotype due to their support for the Jewish State. From that perspective, anti-Zionists can quickly fall into racist tropes against Israelis, flattening identities into caricatures and seeing scapegoating Israel in broadly conspiratorial ways.

The consequences ripple outward. Some anti-Zionists end up sidelining Muslim and Palestinian voices that don’t fit a rigid ideological script, diverting attention from corruption and repression elsewhere in the Middle East. It also reshapes identity politics, excluding Jews from multicultural events, and turning “Zionist” into a charged label that Jews are pressured either to renounce or wear as provocation.

On this week’s episode of The Jewish Angle, Phoebe Maltz Bovy sits down with Adam Louis-Klein, a writer and academic currently completing his PhD in Anthropology at McGill University. He is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism and a pundit who covers this topic in the media. As he explains, by creating an activist organization with academic roots, Louis-Klein is on a mission to help Zionists prepare responses to public anti-Zionist claims while reframing the discussion entirely.
Adam Louis-Klein: How anti-Zionism emerged as a modern ideology

Adam Louis-Klein on Why He Founded the Movement Against Antizionism | Quillette Cetera Ep. 60
Adam Louis-Klein is an anthropologist and PhD candidate at McGill University. His research focuses on Indigenous cosmologies in the Colombian Amazon and comparative forms of peoplehood. He is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism (MAAZ), which challenges antizionist ideology as a distinct form of anti-Jewish hatred. His writing and advocacy explore the intersection of academic discourse, identity, and political propaganda.


Man wanted for Melbourne synagogue firebombing arrested in Iraq — Australian police
Iraqi officials have arrested a man wanted by Australian Federal Police as a person of interest in the investigation into a spate of firebombings, including an antisemitic attack on a Melbourne synagogue, police said on Wednesday.

The December 2024 arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne gutted much of the building.

Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador in August after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation traced the funding of the individuals who set fire to the synagogue — as well as the suspects in a Sydney arson attack targeting the Jewish community — to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security and that she had identified him as her “number one priority.”

Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said in a statement that Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami had been arrested as part of a drug investigation, after a request from Australia.

Barrett said Iraqi officials had made an independent decision to arrest the man in their own criminal investigation, after Australian Federal Police provided information to Iraqi law enforcement late last year.

“This arrest is a significant disruption to an alleged serious criminal and his alleged criminal enterprise in Australia,” she said in a statement.

In October, Barrett said that in addition to being a suspect in arson attacks in Australia linked to the tobacco trade, the man was “a person of interest in the investigation into the alleged politically-motivated arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue” in Melbourne.

Hamad, previously convicted in Australia for drug trafficking offenses, was deported from Australia to Iraq in 2023.
Liberal Senator urges police to stop ‘insensitive’ Sydney anti-protest rally
Liberal Senator Dave Sharma has expressed his hope for a planned breach of Sydney’s protest ban to be quashed, calling out demonstrators for “continuing with their demonisation of Israel”.

Pro-Palestine group Stop the War on Palestine has announced plans to rally in Sydney on Friday to oppose ongoing protest restrictions, as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia.

Last week, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon extended the ban affecting much of Sydney for another 14 days, following the initial two-week restriction period declared on Christmas Eve in response to the Bondi massacre.

Stop the War on Palestine has insisted it “won't be intimidated or silenced” and NSW Police are set to respond to the protesters on Thursday.

Speaking to Sky News Australia on Wednesday night, Senator Sharma said he thought the planned rally was “extremely ill-advised and very insensitive”.

“I hope NSW police and NSW authorities do not allow it to go ahead,” he said.

The Liberal Senator questioned why protesters continued to rally against Israel, but were not protesting the violent crackdown on demonstrations in Iran as the death toll continues to rise amid violent unrest in the Middle Eastern country.

“Instead, they're continuing with their demonisation of Israel and, by extension, their intimidation of the Jewish community a mere one month after the worst terrorist incident on Australian soil in our history,” Senator Sharma said.

“I just think these people have no regard for their fellow Australians and they are single-minded in their purpose, which is to make the Jewish community feel unwelcome in their own country."
Bondi massacre has left ‘very deep wounds’ on the Jewish community
Liberal Senator Dave Sharma says the aftermath of the Bondi massacre has left “very deep wounds” on the Jewish community.




Randa Abdel-Fattah calls for Zionists to be de-platformed
Controversial author Randa Abdel-Fattah has called for Zionists to be de-platformed despite blaming "racism" for her own removal from the Adelaide Writer's Festival guestlist.

Ms Abdel-Fattah made the astonishing claim to former ABC journalist Jan Fran on her "We Used To Be Journos" podcast - which she she co-hosts with fellow ABC alumni and pro-Palestine activist Antoinette Lattouf - on Wednesday.

The author at the centre of the Adelaide Writers’ Week scandal has also taken defamation action against SA Premier Peter Malinauskas.

"(Zionism) should not be platformed and celebrated in the name of 'free speech'. It is about as ridiculous as saying that a white supremacist is entitled to take to a stage and defend the right to subjugate black populations, or a misogynist can take to the stage and talk about the inferiority of women," Ms Abdel-Fattah said.

Some have lauded Ms Abdel-Fattah as a free speech champion in recent days after dozens of writers walked away from the Adelaide Writer's Festival, culminating in the cancellation of the event altogether.

However, during her podcast interview with Fran, Ms Abdel-Fattah appeared to express reservations about free speech.

"This sort of moment can be hijacked as a question about, like, liberal ideas of free speech only, because that can be a dangerous slippery slope because not all free speech is equal," she said.

Last week, Ms Abdel-Fattah described her cancellation from the Adelaide Writer's Festival on X as “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship”.

However, in 2017 she sought to censor celebrated Somali-born ex-Muslim writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, by stopping her from touring Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.

In 2024, Ms Abdel-Fattah had also campaigned to have a Jewish writer Thomas Friedman removed from the Festival guest list because his pro-Israel views upset the Palestinian community.


Sydney Islamic centre is SHUT DOWN - after links with one of the alleged Bondi shooters emerged
A Sydney council has shut down an Islamic centre in Bankstown after links to one of the alleged Bondi attackers emerged last month.

The City of Canterbury-Bankstown Council issued a 'cease use' order to the Al Madina Dawah Centre in December after finding it did not have the required approvals to operate as a prayer hall.

The Bankstown centre announced it had permanently closed on Wednesday.

Controversial preacher Wissam Haddad previously lectured at and ran the centre.

Alleged Bondi Beach terrorist Naveed Akram was identified as a follower of Haddad and had worshipped at the centre. He was also involved with Haddad's Dawah Van street group.

In June, the Dawah Van was stripped of its charity status following an ABC Four Corners investigation, which found it was radicalising young Australians while receiving taxpayer-backed concessions.

There is no suggestion Haddad was involved in the Bondi attack.

Earlier this year, Haddad was found by the Federal Court to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act over a series of antisemitic lectures.
ASIO to continue to monitor NSN, Hizb ut-Tahrir members after group disbands
The ASIO Director-General has flagged members of groups such as the National Socialist Network and Hizb ut-Tahrir will continue to be monitored even after they disband, as a result of the new laws which could come into effect next week.

Mr Burgess addressed a parliamentary committee hearing to discuss intelligence and security ahead of new hate speech laws being debated next Tuesday.

The government’s Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 is comprehensive package of reforms seeking to crack down on hate preachers who radicalise children, and increase penalties for hate crimes.

Other measures include factoring in extremist motivations into sentencing, creating a new offence for inciting hatred to intimidate and harass, and expanding the ban on prohibited symbols.

A new framework could also be created to allow the Home Affairs Minister to list organisations as “Prohibited Hate Groups”, making it a criminal offence to be a member, recruit, support or donate to a listed group.

Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam asked Mr Burgess whether ASIO had any “concerns” about the new hate group listing regime enshrined in the bill which could pass next week.

Mr Burgess flagged that groups such as the National Socialist Network and Hizb ut-Tahrir “know how to stay on the right side of the law”.

“The problem with that is that is part of their insidious strategy to have the potential to rise and increase tension in society,” Mr Burgess said.


French Textbook Condemned for Calling Victims of October 7 Attacks “Jewish Settlers”
A French high school textbook is under scrutiny after describing the 1,200 victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks as “colons juifs“ (Jewish settlers), according to LICRA, France’s International League Against Racism and Antisemitism. Adding to the controversy, the textbook is published by Hachette Education, a major French publisher of school textbooks and pedagogical resources for teachers and students. Hachette’s parent company is currently embroiled in a corruption scandal involving Qatari influence.

The textbook, “Objectif Bac” for the HGGSP (History-Geography, Geopolitics and Political Sciences) curriculum, was authored by Vincent Adoumié, one of France’s most credentialed educators, holding dual agrégations in both history and geography and teaching France’s elite preparatory classes.

The textbook defines “colons juifs” in the preceding paragraph as referring to “installation de colons juifs dans certains territoires palestiniens” (installation of Jewish settlers in certain Palestinian territories), clearly referencing the West Bank. Yet it then applies this same term to October 7 victims, writing:

“In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers during a series of attacks by Hamas, Israel decided to strengthen its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip.”

The Alleged Qatar Connection
The controversy takes on additional significance given the ownership structure of Hachette’s parent company, Lagardère. According to financial data available on Easybourse, Lagardère S.A., which owns Hachette Livre and its educational division, counts Qatar Holding Company as its third-largest shareholder at 11.47%. Qatar Holding LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatari government’s Qatar Investment Authority, has been a major investor in Lagardère since 2011.

The Corruption Scandal
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, chairman of both Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Qatar’s beIN Sports empire, was indicted in February 2025 on charges of complicity in vote-buying and abuse of power related to Lagardère. French investigators allege Al-Khelaïfi helped Lagardère CEO Arnaud Lagardère secure Qatar Holding’s favorable votes during a crucial 2018 shareholders meeting, in exchange for appointing a Qatar-friendly diplomat to Lagardère’s supervisory board.
French publisher withdraws textbooks that called Oct. 7 victims ‘Jewish settlers’
French publisher Hachette said Wednesday it was recalling three textbooks for high-school students that refer to the victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught in Israel as “Jewish settlers.”

The worst attack in Israeli history saw thousands of terrorists from Gaza kill some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seize 251 hostages from communities close to the border and from a nearby music festival.

The study manuals for final-year students refer to all the victims as “Jewish settlers” — a term usually used to describe Israelis living in West Bank settlements, while the Gaza-area communities are within Israel’s internationally recognized borders.

“In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a large-scale humanitarian crisis in the region,” they state.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized them as “intolerable.”

He said they were a “falsification of the facts” that amounted to revisionism, in a post on the social media platform X.
West Midlands Police chief ‘no longer has my confidence’ says Home Secretary
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said West Midlands Police chief constable Craig Guildford “no longer has my confidence” after a damning report into the force’s decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa.

A review by a policing watchdog into West Midlands Police sent to the Home Office is “damning” and shows “confirmation bias” over the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match against Aston Villa in Birmingham, the Home Secretary has told MPs.

West Midlands Police (WMP) “failed to consult representatives of the local Jewish community early enough” when it was considering banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the team’s game with Aston Villa, the police watchdog said.

Police “overstated” the level of disorder at a previous fixture involving Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam and the extent to which Israeli fans were responsible for it, the watchdog also found.

While the report did not find evidence of antisemitism within West Midlands Police conduct on the matter, it still represented a damning indictment of Chief Constable Craig Guildford’s leadership.

The report accused the police of “confirmation bias” over travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, and of seeking to find evidence to back up their already taken decision to ban Israelis from the Europa League match in Birmingham.

“The force told us it decided to take this approach in an effort to avid increasing community tension,” added the report.

In his letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Sir Andy Cooke wrote: “Well before WMP prepared its written report to the Sag (Safety Advisory Group), it consulted regional and national representatives of the Jewish community through the Community Security Trust (CST).

“But the force failed to consult representatives of the local Jewish community early enough, despite being warned by a CST representative that he did not speak on behalf of the local community. In fact, by the time the force did consult locally, it had already recommended to the Sag that the ticket allocation for away fans be reduced to zero.”
Stephen Pollard: He shames his uniform and his force – police chief needs to resign
There is more. At the first hearing, WMP’s assistant chief constable, Mike O’Hara, said that it was acting on Birmingham’s own Jewish community’s wishes after extensive consultation with Jewish representatives. This was pure fabrication. Those representatives were incensed that no one from WMP would speak to them until after the ban had been imposed – and they were, of course, entirely opposed to a ban. After this untruth was exposed, O’Hara’s response was the pathetic claim that it was “not my intention” to mislead anyone.

This is almost the least of it. All along WMP has said the ban was intended to protect local Muslims from violent racist Maccabi fans. But last week, hours before the second select committee hearing, intelligence was revealed showing the real reason Maccabi fans were banned: what WMP described as “high confidence intelligence” that “elements of the community” were looking to “arm themselves” to fight Jewish fans.

When Guildford was asked why he had hidden this from the committee, he replied: “This is the first time specifically that you have asked for that detail.” One committee member, Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid, burst out in response: “Absolutely outrageous.”

The key problem for WMP is that there is no evidence Maccabi fans posed any threat, so they had to make it up. WMP insisted that at a match against Dutch team Ajax in November 2024, Maccabi fans went on a violent assault against local Muslims. But the evidence shows the opposite: the violence was perpetrated by Muslim gangs conducting a “Jew hunt” for “cancer Jews”.

Not a single Maccabi fan was charged with any offence in Amsterdam. Guildford told MPs, however, that on a Zoom call with the Dutch police they confirmed WMP’s view of events. The only problem is that no record exists of this call ever having taken place, with no notes or record. We have to rely on Guildford’s veracity to believe it.

And even if one was tempted to believe him, Dutch police then issued on the record contradictions of every one of the assertions made by WMP about what supposedly happened. To believe Guildford, the Dutch police must have had to lie to every reporter they spoke to, the Dutch courts, the mayor of Amsterdam and everyone else – except Guildford, the only man they told the truth to.

It is still not too late for Guildford to do the right thing and go – although he will deserve no credit, since he has clung on to the bitter end, resisting what deserves to be his fate with all the bluster at his disposal. He shames his uniform and his force.


BBC criticised for Maccabi fan ban interview at mosque where preacher called for death of Israeli ‘oppressors
The BBC faces questions over an interview about the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban with an official from a mosque where a preacher called for Israeli “oppressors” to be killed.

The Masjid Al Falaah mosque is a short walk from the Villa Park stadium in Birmingham where the fixture with the Israeli team took place on November 6.

Since the interview last October, it has emerged that the mosque had previously hosted several preachers whose sermons featured extremist language.

There are now calls from senior politicians for the corporation to exercise “extreme care” when selecting interviewees in the future.

Al Falaah is one of eight mosques consulted by West Midlands Police (WMP) before the decision to ban the away team’s supporters was made.

The interview was part of a news report broadcast two weeks before the fixture against Aston Villa.

Speaking to BBC Midlands about the fan ban, Al Falaah’s general secretary, Adil Parker, said: “The decision has been made on surely an independent analysis by the police which deemed this fixture has to be high risk.

“High risk means a risk for our local community here, for places of worship and other people which live here. It is really important that the safety and security of all the local community is at the centre of this fixture, so we welcome this decision.”

In October last year, during a packed prayer session referring to the war in Gaza, a preacher said of the “oppressors”: “Count them by numbers and kill them all and don't let any of them get away.”


Apprentice contestant struck off medical register over social media posts
A former contestant on TV show The Apprentice who sent a string of antisemitic, racist and sexist posts on social media has been struck off the medical register.

Dr Asif Munaf posted and reposted “seriously offensive” comments from his X account @DrAsifOfficial on 36 occasions between October 2023 and last July.

He appeared on the 2024 edition of the BBC series fronted by business tycoon Lord Sugar.

Among the antisemitic posts was one in which he wrote: “You only have to go to North London to see the Jewish love for a bakery. Lots of bagel shops and many of them very nice with great coffee. Does the obsession with baking and ovens explain the uncontested and unproven claims of 6 million Jews and 40 beheaded babies in ovens?”.

The doctor also posted: “9/11 wasn’t an inside job. Let’s call it for what it really is. A Jewish job.”

Dr Munaf, registered under his full name Mohammed Asif Munaf, did not attend the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing and was not legally represented.

At a previous hearing he denied his posts were antisemitic and added they were “not befitting of someone as educated as myself “and were said in the heat of the emotion”.
Starmer pledges action against anti-Israel union activists who blocked Jewish MP’s school visit
Keir Starmer has promised action against the far-left anti-Israel trade union activists who campaigned for the cancellation of a school visit by a Jewish MP.

At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons on Wednesday, the Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp branded the campaigners as antisemites and said Damian Egan had been “prevented from visiting a school in his constituency because he is Jewish”.

Jewish News exclusively revealed that September’s visit to his former school in Bristol had been cancelled after NEU union activists, including teachers, organised a protest.

They said they opposed the visit by the Labour MP for Bristol North East, because they viewed him as supportive of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, as a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Starmer responded to the MP’s question by saying: “Can I start by thanking you for raising this case, because it is very serious, very concerning, and all members of parliament should be able to visit anywhere in their constituency, schools or other places without any fear of antisemitism.

“We do take this seriously. We are providing more funding for security and support we’re putting in across the country, and we will be holding to account those who prevented this visit to this school.”

Communities Secretary first raised the fact that at “Jewish colleague” had a school visit cancelled as he spoke to Jewish News‘s Justin Cohen at Sunday’s Jewish Labour Movement conference.
Antisemitism Has a Campus Problem
University campuses have been at the forefront of the country’s ongoing discussions around antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Over the past few months, campuses across the United States have been replete with antisemitism. Earlier this month, a suspect was charged with attempting to set fire to San Francisco Hillel, which serves Jewish students at several nearby universities, including California State University. Meanwhile, towards the beginning of 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice officials visited 10 universities, including Harvard, Columbia, New York University, and Johns Hopkins University, in response to documented incidents of antisemitism earlier this year.

As the founding Director of Data and Analytics at StandWithUs, an international non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism and Israel education, these events have provided resolve for our efforts to provide evidence-based, peer-reviewed research on antisemitism trends.

Our latest research on campus antisemitism across North America reveals what administrators are not brave enough to admit: antisemitism has a campus problem. The threat of campus-based antisemitism is systematic, escalating, and the dangerous radicalization of an entire generation.

Our research polled a total of 159 student leaders across North America, with roughly 89% identifying as Jewish. The remaining 8% identified as Christian. Seventy-two percent of these students have experienced antisemitic incidents, and 82% of these students say that they witnessed an antisemitic incident.

Verbal abuse was the most common form of these experiences. Seventy-eight percent of students say that they’ve heard phrases like, "Oink oink piggy piggy, we're going to make your lives sh*tty” to “G-d sent Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land” or even “dirty Jew” while shaking coins at them.

One student reported that another student told all of his friends not to communicate with a Jewish student because she was a “Zionist”. In response to this, the professor brought the entire class to a mandated show for a class that was biased against Israel.

These hurtful words don’t stop at the campus facilities either. Nearly 60% of respondents experienced doxxing campaigns where personal information was shared online to incite targeting, similar to the 2024 doxxing campaign perpetuated against Jewish and pro-Israel students at Penn State.
DePaul University suspends Students for Justice in Palestine chapter
DePaul University suspended a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter until late next year, a spokesman for the private Catholic school in Chicago told JNS.

“DePaul SJP has been subject to the university’s disciplinary process and is currently suspended until fall 2027,” the spokesman said on Tuesday. “While on suspension, student organizations do not have access to university funds or space reservations.”

The chapter posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a letter from the office of DePaul’s dean of students dated Nov. 10. In the letter, the office seemed to say that the group was suspended until fall 2027 and that “any additional conduct violations while suspended may very well result in dismissal.”

The group shared images that appeared to show that it had been sanctioned on Aug. 6 after administrators determined that an SJP social-media post in May stated that Israel is “the world’s largest skin bank” and that there are “documented cases of organ and skin theft from Palestinian bodies.” The language violated university policy.

Under the Aug. 6 sanction, which was set to last until June 15, 2026, the chapter was “restricted from all operations, including events, use of official student organization social-media accounts, recruitment, space reservation and funding,” per the student group’s post.
Experts: ‘Absurd’ Stanford students say ‘genocide’ in Gaza justifies breaking law
Defense attorneys tried to sell a jury an outrageous justification for the actions of five anti-Israel current and former Stanford University students, who occupied and vandalized the school president’s office in June 2024, by claiming in court on Friday that the students opposed Israeli “genocide” in Gaza, legal experts told JNS.

“Anybody who tries to bring in a political defense to a murder charge or a vandalization charge or whatever, it’s not an exonerating feature. It’s an aggravating feature,” said Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch professor of law at New York University and James Parker Hall distinguished service professor of law emeritus at University of Chicago.

Under the defense’s logic, “everybody can sack the president’s office, because each side can accuse the other of genocide,” Epstein told JNS.

Defenses can’t mention irrelevant things, according to Epstein. “That’s the way in which the prosecutor has to argue this,” he said. “Otherwise, this thing becomes a show trial.”

Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a former assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights, agreed.

“As a legal matter, there is no question that vandalism is a crime that should be prosecuted, regardless of whether it conveys a political message,” he told JNS. “The defendants seem to think that there should be an anti-Zionism exception to our criminal laws and policies, as if to say that Jews are so far outside the law as to justify whatever one wants to do to them.”

“Too many university administrators have acted in the past as if they think the defendants are right about this,” Marcus said.
NFL linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair wears ‘stop the genocide’ eye black in postgame interview
In his postgame interview on Monday night, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair said the things you’d expect to hear, like crediting his teammates for a dominant playoff win and praising his coach.

But on the Pro Bowler’s eye black was a message that you don’t see every day on ESPN: “STOP THE GENOCIDE.”

Al-Shaair, who is Muslim, has long been a vocal pro-Palestinian advocate.

In December 2023, as a member of the Tennessee Titans, Al-Shaair chose to support the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund through the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” program.

“Given the recent events in Israel and Gaza, this nonprofit provides medical aid and essential supplies to children injured and left homeless by the bombings in Gaza,” he said in his entry about the charity.

Al-Shaair supported the same charity in 2024 and 2025 as a member of the Texans, and has worn cleats that read “FREE” on one side, referring to the “Free Palestine” movement, and “Surely to Allah we belong and to him we will all return” on the other. The cleats also featured the text, “AT LEAST 41,788 Palestinians killed, 10,000+ estimated to be under the rubble, 96,974 wounded.”


Argentine pundit apologizes for linking fires to Israelis
A prominent Argentine radio host, who is also a professor of journalism, apologized on Tuesday for repeating conspiracy theories linking Israelis to wildfires in Patagonia.

Marcela Feudale, who hosts the “Feudalísima” show on Radio 10, a major national station with a 16% share of the listenership in Argentina, read the apology on air five days after she claimed to have learned from “good sources” that two Israelis were responsible for the devastating wildfires sweeping across Argentina’s southernmost region.

“I made a mistake and I apologize,” said Feudale on Tuesday. “I recognize that my comment contributes to the spread of hate speech. If the fires were intentional, it has nothing to do with nationalities, religions, or communities that deserve my respect.”

Her apology followed criticism by Argentine President Javier Milei, who on Saturday retweeted on X a rebuke of Feudale by Mauro Berenstein, the president of the DAIA umbrella of Argentine Jewish communities. “The dark side of Argentina. Period,” Milei wrote about Feudale, who has been a vocal critic of him and his government.

In the tweet that Milei reposted, Berenstein wrote: “Singling out ‘two Israelis’ as responsible for the fires without evidence is irresponsible and dangerous. It generates stigmas, reinforces anti-Jewish narratives and hatred. The media have a huge responsibility: a lie is not an opinion. At DAIA, we will not stand for it.”

On Monday, the Chequeado fact-check site determined that claims of Israeli involvement were “false and misleading narratives” devoid of any factual basis.

The Argentine-Jewish Iton Gadol newspaper reported that the rumors surfaced in antisemitic rhetoric, including in hateful messages to the Chabad House in Bariloche, a lakeside Patagonian city that draws many thousands of tourists, including hundreds of Israelis, each year.
Mississippi synagogue arson suspect hid extremism behind ‘scripture-backed fitness’ persona
The US suspect accused of torching Mississippi’s largest synagogue posted an antisemitic cartoon on Instagram shortly before his attack, and built a website for a strange brand of Christian “scripture-backed fitness” that relied heavily on Jewish sources. But little in his online presence would have indicated beforehand that he was preparing for an arson attack.

On Monday, Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, confessed to setting the Beth Israel Congregation on fire at around 3 a.m. Saturday morning, according to a criminal complaint filed in the federal Southern District court of Mississippi.

He referred to the temple as the “synagogue of Satan” during his confession, and said he laughed as he told his father what he did.

The blaze destroyed portions of the synagogue building and rendered the synagogue unusable for the foreseeable future.

Pittman is expected to face preliminary court hearings on Tuesday, January 20. He is charged with first-degree arson against a place of worship, a crime that comes with a prison sentence of five to 30 years and restitution for damages caused. If the court determines that his actions were motivated by hate, that term may be doubled, according to a statement by the district attorney.

The federal government has not yet filed hate-crime charges against Pittman.

According to the local news site Mississippi Today, Pittman grew up in Madison, one of Mississippi’s wealthiest cities, and seemed like an unlikely person to commit a hate crime. He was an honor roll student at the private Catholic school he attended, and played on the baseball team at Coahoma Community College, where he studied after graduating high school. Until shortly before he attacked Beth Israel on January 10, he mainly used his numerous social media accounts to post about baseball, Christianity and his exercise routines.


Anti-Zionist graffiti defaces rubble of Pasadena synagogue destroyed in wildfire
The remains of a synagogue in southern California destroyed in last January’s Eaton wildfire were vandalized over the weekend with anti-Zionist messages.

The rabbi of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center and the Anti-Defamation League decried the vandalism as antisemitic.

“The vandalism of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center is antisemitism — full stop,” ADL Los Angeles senior regional director David Englin said in a statement. “This was a deliberate act of hate meant to intimidate a Jewish community already rebuilding after last year’s fire, and it comes at a time when antisemitism is already at unprecedented levels in California and nationwide. Targeting a synagogue is simply unacceptable and represents an attack on our entire community.”

Photographs of the graffiti showed that it was scrawled in black spray paint on an exterior wall fence and read “RIP Renee” followed by “F— Zionizm” [sic].

The first words appeared to be a likely reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old unarmed Minneapolis resident whose killing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is igniting a nationwide spate of anti-ICE activism.

Anti-Zionist graffiti has been painted on synagogues around the country over the last two years amid a spike in anti-Israel sentiment during the war in Gaza.
Suspect nabbed for synagogue arson in Germany
Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with suspected arson on Tuesday outside a synagogue in Giessen near Frankfurt.

Security camera footage of the incident outside the Beith-Jaakov synagogue shows a man with a black backpack performing a gesture that appears to be the Nazi salute before setting fire to a large heap of cardboard boxes pressed against the facade of the building housing the synagogue. He then walks away.

Police told the DPA news agency that the man was 32 years old, appeared to have acted alone, and that his motives are unknown.

The chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said that the arsonist’s raised hand “was a poignant reminder that Nazism has not died out.“ German authorities and the leaders of the free world must declare war on the rising extremism in Europe,” he told JNS. “Governments in the West must immediately increase security at Jewish institutions—synagogues and schools.”

Last year, Germany recorded a historic spike in antisemitic incidents, with 8,627 cases—the highest annual figure ever documented. This constituted an 80% increase over the 2023 total.


Memorial tree honoring antisemitism victim vandalized in southern France
Unidentified vandals cut down an olive tree over the weekend in the town of Saint-Genis-Laval, near Lyon, that had been planted in September in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young French Jew who was kidnapped and murdered in 2006 by a group known as the "Gang of Barbarians."

It was the second time in recent months that a tree planted in Halimi’s memory was targeted. In August, a similar memorial tree was felled near Paris.

Halimi was 23 when he was abducted, tortured for 24 days, and killed in a case that shocked France and became a symbol of anti-Jewish violence. He was targeted solely because he was Jewish.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned the vandalism and pledged to bring those responsible to justice. “Our outrage is shared, and our determination to fight antisemitic and anti-religious acts, which today stain the memory of an innocent person, is absolute,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The regional prefect, Fabienne Buccio, also denounced the act on X, calling it a “despicable hate crime.” She said the local gendarmerie had launched an investigation.

Saint-Genis-Laval Mayor Marylène Millet condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” describing it as “shameful.” The municipality said a police complaint was filed Sunday morning. Although the tree was “severely damaged,” it is not currently in danger of dying, according to city services, which implemented immediate protective and recovery measures.


Zimbabwean teen returns to Israel to thank the doctor who saved him
A Zimbabwean teenager whose life was saved as a baby by one of the most complex pediatric heart surgeries ever performed in Israel has returned to the Jewish state—this time as a healthy 15-year-old—to thank the surgeon who saved his life and to undergo a routine pacemaker battery replacement.

Takudzwa Chitima was just 21 months old when he arrived in Israel in 2012, suffering from a rare and life-threatening congenital heart condition. Without advanced surgery, doctors warned, he was unlikely to survive.

The chain of events that brought him to Israel began thousands of kilometers away, in Zimbabwe, where his father, Chance, worked for an Israeli entrepreneur installing irrigation systems. When the Israeli employer, Eran Tal, learned of the infant’s condition, he and his family refused to accept that the child’s fate should be determined by money or geography.

After the family was quoted more than $20,000 for treatment at a private hospital in South Africa—an impossible sum—they helped connect them with Save A Child’s Heart, the Israeli-based organization that provides life-saving cardiac care to children from developing countries.

Takudzwa was brought to Israel and treated at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, where he underwent a technically demanding double-switch open-heart operation performed by Lior Sasson, director of pediatric cardiac surgery.

“I remember little Takudzwa was so tiny,” Sasson recalled. “When I reviewed his echocardiogram, I saw that he had one of the most complicated cardiac anomalies that exists. It’s called congenitally corrected transposition, where the ventricles are completely inverted. It’s a very complex condition.”

Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) is exceptionally rare, accounting for less than 1% of all congenital heart defects, with an estimated incidence of one in 30,000 to 50,000 live births. The surgery saved Takudzwa’s life but resulted in complete heart block, requiring the implantation of a permanent pacemaker.

“It was a long procedure,” Sasson said. “He also had rhythm abnormalities. We implanted a pacemaker that lasted many years. Now he’s back only to replace the battery. Seeing his smile—and his mother’s—and hearing that he had a normal childhood means the world to me.”




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