Friday, March 13, 2026

03/13 Links Pt2: Normalizing the grotesque; The Concept of Jewish Collective Guilt Goes Mainstream; US defends Israel at ICJ against South Africa’s allegation of genocide

From Ian:

Normalizing the grotesque
Provoking outrage was the point. Mamdani wanted to take the photo of his love-in with his anti-American friend and shove it into the public’s face, implying, “Suck it up, America, because you can’t do anything about it. We have the power now, and we’re getting stronger.”

Mamdani’s goal was to normalize the grotesque. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a very different kind of New York Democrat, called this “defining deviancy down” 33 years ago in an essay about American culture and society being pulled apart. That’s what Mamdani, Duwaji, and Khalil are doing — trying to pull our culture, society, moral framework, and self-assurance apart.

Like the Islamist forces they support, their deepest desire is to change — that is, destroy — who we are, what we believe, and how we conduct ourselves. That’s why Duwaji posted in joyous celebration of Hamas’s tortures, rapes, and massacres in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The point of Mamdani’s dinner and photo, of Khalil’s activism, of Duwaji’s delight in slaughter is to repudiate the norms that have always guided public speech and conduct in America.

Hamas terrorists did the same on Oct. 7, normalizing the grotesque. They didn’t just slaughter Jews, but captured their enormities on video — they hacked off the head of one victim with an agricultural hoe — and published the evidence on social media around the world. They calculated, rightly to the shock and horror of many of us, that this would attract rather than repel support.

TRUMP GETS THE LAST LAUGH
Horrors, the perpetration of which would once have revolted and alienated every sane person in the West, instead sparked mass support. Hamas terrorists, like their supporters in Gracie Mansion, defy norms to normalize what used to be utterly unacceptable. They seek to wreck the moral parameters of Western civilization. The more that extremists, especially public figures on the Left, reject the traditions of a coherent society, the more they sow doubt in the minds of the population.

It should be disqualifying for the New York mayor to sup with a terrorist sympathizer, but Mamdani wanted to jam his crowbar deeper into a fissure splitting our society. He expected this to encourage his leftist base and demoralize his foes. It probably has. It is a measure of the fantastic success the Left-Islamist alliance has had in its campaign to undermine this couvntry.
Maryland Dems propose bill targeting nonprofits tied to Judea and Samaria
Maryland Democrats introduced a bill that would prohibit certain nonprofit organizations registered to solicit charitable donations from supporting “Israeli settlement activity” in Judea and Samaria and allow lawsuits against groups that violate the measure.

Titled the “Not on Our Dime Act,” HB 1184 was introduced on Feb. 11 by Gabriel Acevero, Ashanti Martinez and Caylin Young, Democratic members of the Maryland House of Delegates. At a March 11 hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee, representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations debated with Lauren Arikan, a Republican delegate, on whether the legislation should also include charitable organizations that support Iranian-linked causes.

“We’re going to have to have these difficult conversations,” Sean Stinnett, a Democratic delegate, said at the hearing, asking supporters of the bill why Jewish advocacy groups felt it was “singling out Israel.”

“There is no other country that is currently building illegal settlements that is condemned by the United Nations, by the ICJ, by the U.S. Department of State under the Obama and Biden administration,” a CAIR representative responded, claiming that Washington is funding this activity with “billions” of dollars.

The bill says a nonprofit registered with the state “may not knowingly engage in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”

It describes “unauthorized support” as aiding or abetting actions by the Israeli government or Israeli citizens in what it defines as “the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Under the proposal, Maryland’s attorney general could file civil lawsuits against nonprofit leaders accused of violating the law and seek “not less than $1,000,000 in damages.” Private individuals could also bring lawsuits seeking injunctions and damages.

Nonprofits found liable would be removed from the state’s registry of charitable solicitations. The state would be required to ensure that organizations that are no longer registered stop soliciting in Maryland, according to a policy note attached to the bill.
Turning Terror Into Context by Abe Greenwald
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What about the part that the New York Times isn’t telling you—or at least not in bold type? Where’s the headline reading “More Than 100 Children in Temple Israel Pre-K at Time of Attack”? Or how about this for a story on the terrorist’s family back in Lebanon? “Synagogue Attacker’s Brothers Suspected of Being in Hezbollah”?

Not at the paper of record. The important thing for the Times, and many other outlets, is to bring everything back around to supposed Israeli crimes.

Even if we were to pretend that Israel is guilty of every invented charge hurled at it, what does that have to do with 100 Jewish American children sitting in classrooms in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on a Thursday afternoon? The only moral statement one need make about yesterday’s attack is that it’s right and just that the perpetrator is dead.

From October 7, 2023, to this day, every last bit of the psy-op against Israel and the Jews has relied on inverting both morality and truth. Hamas attempted a genocide, so Israel is accused of genocide. Zionism is, among other things, a means of preventing genocide, so Zionism itself is framed as a genocidal ideology. Hamas targeted innocents, slaughtered babies, and raped women, so Israel is accused of all three. Hamas kept food from Gazans, so Israel is accused of a starvation plot. Jews are indigenous to Israel, so Israel is accused of colonizing a native population. Jews are attacked across campuses and elsewhere in America, so we’re lectured on Islamophobia. The Iranian regime has been waging a half-century-long war to destroy Israel, so Israel is accused of starting a war with Iran.

Here's another regularly inverted truth: Children die in Israeli airstrikes for the simple reason that genocidal Jew-haters keep trying to rid the world of Jews. This is what liberals might call the “root cause.” If the family of the terrorist who carried out yesterday’s attack was killed in Lebanon, that’s entirely the fault of Hezbollah. That his brothers are suspected of being in Hezbollah perfectly encapsulates the larger pathological loop: In their effort to extinguish the Jews, Jew-haters kill their own—at which point they must go out and try to kill more Jews.

Whether they succeed or fail, the media will be sure to get their message out.


Seth Mandel: The Concept of Jewish Collective Guilt Goes Mainstream
A remarkable exchange took place yesterday on GBN, the British news network. Regarding the attempted mass shooting at Temple Israel in Michigan yesterday, Stephen Kent and Angela McCahey went back and forth on whether, essentially, the synagogue was an understandable target:

McCahey: “This was an Israeli temple, it was aligned with Israel.”

Kent: “A Jewish temple. A Jewish synagogue is not an Israeli temple.”

McCahey: “It’s called the ‘real Israel temple.’”

Kent: “They’re Jewish, they’re the people of Israel.”

McCahey repeated herself once more: “So, they’re called the ‘real Israeli temple,’ yes? And they do align with Israel and their beliefs.”

Kent’s heroic attempts to correct McCahey went nowhere, but bless him for trying.

This exchange is important because we tend to take for granted that of course it’s wrong to kill random Jews because of something that happened thousands of miles away. But this is not actually a universally held principle. It seems barbaric, but it’s true: whether or not all Jews anywhere are considered an outpost of the armed forces of the state of Israel is considered a legitimate debate.

Yesterday, as the terrorist’s identity was released, English-language pro-Hamas propaganda sites reported that the man had lost relatives in an Israeli strike in Lebanon. Thus began a reframing of an attempted massacre of young children as some kind of tit-for-tat. The mayor of the terrorist’s town, Dearborn Heights, put out a statement that mentioned this detail right at the top and never mentioned the words “Jews” or “anti-Semitism.” He did, however, mention Ramadan.

This mayor, Mo Baydoun, said he reached out to the town supervisor of the town where the attack took place. Perhaps the town supervisor can pass on his message to the local Jewish community.

To call Baydoun’s statement cynical would be too kind. It is a sign that the anti-Semitic “collective guilt” rule, as applied to Jews, is gaining purchase in American politics. And it is because there are lots of people out there like McCahey, who are simply blundering out of ignorance or naivete into repeating versions of this calumny.

Yet the designation of synagogues as legitimate subjects of grievance is not new. In early December, a mob descended on a synagogue in New York City that was having an event for those considering making aliyah. Mayor Zohran Mamdani infamously responded: “every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation,” but that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

There was no promotion of activities in violation of international law, of course. Mamdani didn’t even bother to check. He just fed the mob’s idea that synagogues are fair game in the new global intifada.


‘Islamic Movement’ group claims responsibility for Rotterdam synagogue arson
A new extremist group calling itself Ashab Al Yamim or ‘The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right’ has claimed responsibility for an arson attack at a synagogue in Rotterdam on Friday.

The group, which does not appear to have its own social media channels, also claims it was behind the bombing of a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, on Monday and an attack in Greece on Wednesday. Videos of the three attacks have been featured on Telegram channels associated with Hezbollah or the IRGC, suggesting a possible link between Ashab Al Yamim and Iran-related proxy organisations.

After the perpetrators set fire to the A.B.N. Davidsplein shul at 03:40 local time, police in the Netherlands have launched an investigation. There are no reports of injuries following the incident and authorities say the blaze went “out on its own.”

The European Jewish Congress said the repeated claims by the seemingly previously unknown Islamist group “raise serious concerns about a coordinated network targeting Jewish communities across Europe. Attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions are attacks on religious freedom, community safety and the democratic values of our societies.

“Authorities must urgently investigate these incidents, determine whether an organised network is behind them and ensure that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice. This alarming pattern underscores once again the need for heightened vigilance and strong protection of Jewish communities throughout Europe.”
Explosion outside Rotterdam synagogue sparks fire, damages building; 4 arrested
Dutch police said Friday they had arrested four young men on suspicion of setting off an explosion outside a synagogue in Rotterdam that caused a brief blaze and damage to the building.

After the blast, police monitored other synagogues as a precaution and stopped a vehicle near another building driven by someone matching the description of one of the suspects.

“It is not yet clear whether the suspects planned to detonate an explosive or set fire to another synagogue as well,” police said in a statement.

Two men were aged 19, one 18, and the fourth was 17 years old, said police, without specifying any potential motive.

Authorities said they were launching a “large-scale investigation into this serious incident” and appealed for witnesses to come forward.

An unverified video showing an explosion near a building resembling the targeted synagogue circulated on social media on Friday, which police said they were examining as part of their probe.

Justice Minister David van Weel said the attack was “terrible news.”

“We will not tolerate antisemitism, intimidation, and violence. Local authorities are ensuring the safety of synagogues,” he wrote on X.

The minister voiced solidarity with the Dutch Jewish community, adding: “They must feel safe in the Netherlands.”
Mother and three sons in custody over US embassy bomb in Norway
Three brothers and their mother have been remanded in police custody for up to four weeks on suspicion of taking part in the bombing of the United States embassy in Oslo last week, a Norwegian court said in a ruling on Friday.

The US embassy was hit by an explosion on Sunday, and police later said they had apprehended the suspects, accusing them of a "terror bombing" intended to kill or cause significant damage.

The powerful early-morning blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) damaged the entrance to the embassy's consular section but caused no injuries, Norwegian authorities have said.

One of the men has admitted to placing a device, while the three other suspects have denied involvement, their lawyers have said.
Jake Wallis Simons: After the Michigan synagogue attack, what will it take for the West to fight the enemy within?
The latest attack is yet another reminder that subversives from outside the West, harbouring a loathing of the West, are exploiting the liberties of an open society in an attempt to overturn it. Something needs to change, but nobody knows what it is.

We have tangled ourselves up in knots. What will it take for the West to get serious? How long before our leaders absorb Karl Popper’s famous observation that “if we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them”?

The Manchester synagogue attack didn’t do it. Nor did the bombing of the Manchester Arena in 2017, the response to which was immediately defined by the slogan, “don’t look back in anger” and cartoons of bees. So I ask again: what will it take?

The effect upon society may be measured by its magnified effect upon its patriotic and peace-loving Jews, who are reprehensibly thrust into the vanguard of this fight. For Britain’s 270,000-strong community, which now lives behind airport-style security, that tight churn in the stomach has become all too familiar.

This takes its toll on the spirit. One needs only to glance at the psychological literature to find a list of conditions that will resonate with many Jews in London, Manchester and elsewhere. “Intermittent trauma”, for instance, emerges after exposure to harmful events at unpredictable intervals, producing chronic vigilance and anxiety. Then there is “anticipatory anxiety”, a fear of danger even when there is none, also stemming from an uncertainty about when disaster might strike.

These emotions have been part of my people’s experience for so many centuries that the neurotic Jew has become something of a cliché. After the Holocaust, however, the survivors coalesced around a determination to regain control of their destiny, whatever the cost.

The sight of Israeli jets in the skies over Tehran, putting their every ingenuity against the evilest regime on Earth, is the clear result of that decision. The bravery of the security guards in Detroit, who shot Ayman Mohamad Ghazal dead before he could complete his act of depravity, is another result of this epochal change of stance.


First photo of Michigan terrorist who tried to murder Jewish toddlers — as it’s revealed his brothers were Hezbollah
Here is the face of hate — images of the Michigan shooter who tried to murder toddlers at a Jewish pre-K​, law-enforcement sources told The Post​ on Friday, adding that his two brothers were Hezbollah terrorists killed in a recent airstrike.

A 2019 photo obtained by The Post shows Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon, with a blank stare, closely cropped hair and shaven face.

A second image confirmed by The Post shows him with a full beard.

In 2019, Ghazali had been stopped by authorities when he returned to the US from overseas, with him already on their radar for his suspected ties to members of Hezbollah, sources said.

When questioned about his trip, Ghazali claimed he simply went abroad for a hair transplant.

On Thursday, Ghazali ended up ramming his car — loaded with gas canisters and homemade mortar shells fashioned out of commercial-grade fireworks — into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, according to sources and an NBC report.

Security guards opened fire on him and he fatally shot himself in ensuing gunfight as his vehicle burst into flames, officials said.

No children or staff were injured at the school, which is attached to a synagogue.


Michigan synagogue shooter who drove car into Jewish temple is PRAISED by neighbors in Muslim enclave where he lived
A shooter who drove a truck loaded with explosives into a synagogue was praised by locals in his Michigan neighborhood, which is America's most Muslim.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security on Thursday after ramming his pickup truck into the Temple Israel synagogue in the Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield.

Ghazali lived in a $315,600 home in nearby Dearborn Heights. FBI agents were seen searching the residence on Thursday night.

He worked at Hamido, a popular Middle Eastern eatery, where regulars say he was the 'face of the restaurant.' He had been absent from work in the weeks leading up to the synagogue attack, a colleague told The New York Times.

The gunman lost four family members - two brothers, a niece, and a nephew - in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, authorities confirmed.

His longtime neighbor Kandie Zaidieh, who described Ghazali as 'my rock,' was shocked to learn of his involvement in the attack and suspects the tragedy in Lebanon may have played a role in his decision-making.

'Because his brother died, right?' Zaidieh, 60, questioned when approached by the Detroit Free Press. She added: 'He was the best. The best neighbor. Always quiet, a hard worker. He was always pleasant. Everybody liked him.'

Her remarks were echoed by members of the Dearborn Heights community, which has the largest Arab American population in the United States, who said they could not fathom that Ghazali would try to harm anyone.


Dearborn Heights mayor draws backlash over response to Michigan synagogue attack
Mo Baydoun, mayor of Dearborn Heights, Mich., faced criticism on social media following his response to the attack on Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in the western suburbs of Detroit, on March 12.

Baydoun wrote that the suspect, identified by federal authorities as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was a resident of Dearborn Heights who had recently “lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”

“Everyone deserves to worship in peace, and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it,” the mayor stated.

Authorities said Ghazali, a U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, rammed a vehicle into the synagogue complex, which houses an early childhood center, and opened fire before being fatally shot by security personnel. The synagogue’s director of security was injured, and dozens of officers were treated for smoke inhalation. The children and staff inside the building were evacuated safely.

“A conflict halfway around the world is somehow a rationale for trying to blow up a synagogue full of children and murder innocents, according to the mayor of Dearborn Heights,” the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote, calling the mayor’s statement a “disgusting, twisted response.”

Tal Fortgang, legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, stated, “Is it really so hard to say, ‘anyone who believes it is acceptable to harm American Jews in response to Israel’s actions is wrong and unwelcome in our community’?”


‘Deep failure’ in ‘NYT’ framing of Zionism, not Holocaust about attacked Michigan synagogue
The New York Times drew widespread criticism for focusing on the ways that Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which a man rammed with a car and shot at on Thursday, had been founded to support an Israeli state.

“Temple Israel was founded in 1941, dedicated to the formation of a Jewish state,” the Times stated in a headline.

“Seriously, you don’t hate the New York Times enough. A synagogue with a preschool is targeted. The NYT reminds readers it was ‘dedicated to the formation of a Jewish state,'” Honest Reporting, a media watchdog, stated. “The journalistic equivalent of: ‘well … what was she wearing?'”

Jack Simony, director general of the nonprofit Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and a grandson of Holocaust survivors, told JNS that the Times should have focused more on the context of the Holocaust in the synagogue’s founding.

“Temple Israel in West Bloomfield was built in 1941, as the Nazi murder machine began its systematic destruction of European Jewry,” Simony stated. “The Jews of Detroit raised its walls while Jews in Europe were being loaded onto trains.”

During the attack, “grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors were evacuated from the preschool” in the building, according to Simony.

“Thousands of Holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives in West Bloomfield after the war. In 1984, they opened the first free-standing Holocaust museum in the United States, steps from Temple Israel,” he stated. “They did not build a museum to the past. They built a warning about the future.”

“Temple Israel is not just a synagogue,” he added. “It is proof that Jewish life endures.”


Netherlands, Iceland join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ
The Dutch submission also said acts committed against children should be assessed with particular weight, noting that crimes targeting children could be significant in establishing intent to commit genocide.

Iceland, in its own declaration, argued that a finding of genocidal intent should not be limited only to situations in which genocide is the sole possible conclusion from the acts in question. According to the Icelandic position, the existence of other possible motives alongside genocidal intent should not prevent the court from determining that genocide occurred.

Both countries submitted their declarations Wednesday. Their intervention is based on their status as parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which allows states that are signatories to intervene in cases involving interpretation of the convention.

South Africa filed the case at the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top judicial body, on December 29, 2023, alleging that Israel violated the genocide convention.
US defends Israel against South Africa’s allegation of genocide in top UN court
The United States will intervene in the genocide case against Israel brought at the United Nations’ highest court by South Africa, arguing that the accusations are false and warning that a ruling against Israel could undermine international law.

Since late 2023, the International Court of Justice has been considering whether Israel’s military operation in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, amounts to genocide under a treaty drawn up after World War II.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has vehemently denied the allegations, saying it makes efforts to protect non-combatants. It has accused Hamas of fighting from within civilian population centers and of using civilians as human shields.

The war ended with a US-backed ceasefire that took effect in October, though clashes between Israel and Hamas still occur regularly. Gaza is effectively split between Israeli and Hamas control.

In a filing obtained on Thursday by The Associated Press, the US says that the accusations are part of a “broader campaign” against Israel and the Jewish people, to justify or encourage terrorism against them.

Any party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide can intervene to contribute its assessment of the legal questions in the case. In 2023, over 30 countries backed Ukraine in a separate case it brought against Russia.

More than a dozen other countries have filed interventions in the Israel case, including Spain and Ireland. Many take a different view from that of the United States. Iceland and the Netherlands both said this week that they would intervene in the case.


Yisrael Medad: Tucker Carlson’s controversial views: Iran, Israel, and the Temple Mount conspiracy
Tucker Carlson, or ‘Qatarlson’ as he is known in certain circles, released on March 4 a full one hour and 37 minutes of frontal delivery. The show was listed as “War Update: Israel’s True Motives, Potential False Flags, and Oncoming Global Crisis” and contained some rather unique commentary. It also revealed an accelerated downward spin by Carlson into dark conspiracy thinking and continues his anti-Israel crusade.

Of course, this type of thinking has become de rigueur on America’s nationalist Right – the mystifying of politics. Meanwhile, Candace Owens is dredging up the Khazarian myth of Ashkenazi Jewish origin. On her Twitter/X account, she also posted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11.”

In another post, she wrote, “False flags are the Israeli way… Bibi wants a third world war so they can hit a global reset.” Even the Heritage Institute hosted John Daniel Davidson, who, on March 3, published a piece entitled “How Israel ‘Chain-Ganged’ the Trump Administration into war against Iran,” on its website.

Davidson tried to convince his readers that “Israel appears to have succeeded in such entrapment, forcing the Trump administration into a war not necessarily of its choosing or timing.” He seems to have rushed his piece prior to the clarifications of Secretary of State Marc Rubio.

Megyn Kelly declared that the US service members who were killed by the Iranian drone “died for Iran or for Israel. This is clearly Israel’s war.” She added, “Our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or Israel.”

Carlson stepped off the cliff into irrationality by claiming that the conflict with Iran possesses a “religious layer,” but not the one that any normal commentator would think. Not the Ayatollah regime. Not the Shi’ite version of Islam. Not Hamas’s Al-Aqsa campaign. Not the Hezbollah copycat Ayatollah dictatorship. No, Carlson has another target.

First, characterizing Senator Lindsey Graham as having “bloodshot eyes” and a “puffy face,” he quotes Graham as saying, “This is a religious war.” He then, coyly, adds, “Is he trying to ferment a religious war? Probably. He’s an ‘end times’ kind of guy.”

Carlson will not have us think that Iran’s regime masters are interested in a religious war or ‘end times,’ since he avoids discussing the matter. On the other hand, as Ariel University Prof. Ronen A. Cohen has explained, Iran’s adoption of Shi’ite Islam in the 16th century created a state religious framework that sees itself as the authentic manifestation of Islam on Earth.

This concept of earthly governance under the authority of God’s representatives also led to an ambition for Islamic expansion across the Middle East and, ultimately, the globe. It is perceived as the preparation for the reemergence of the Missing Imam’s arrival, the Mahdi. That should be bothering Carlson.


Muslim adviser to Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission resigns over US ‘atrocities’
An adviser to the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission announced her resignation on Friday, accusing the administration of committing crimes and suppressing the free expression of Muslims on behalf of a “Zionist political agenda.”

Sameera Munshi, who is Muslim, wrote in a pair of social media posts that “the injustice and atrocities of this administration at home and abroad” and the removal of a commissioner who used a hearing on antisemitism to express her opposition to Zionism compelled her to resign.

“In this country, people of faith are having their free expression stripped away, and even their lives put at risk, because of their deeply held beliefs about Palestine, all for the sake of a Zionist political agenda,” Munshi wrote. “Even more pressing is this government’s unlawful killing of children and civilians in Iran at the urging of a genocidal state.”

U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Munshi to the advisory board of the commission in May, citing her record of having “courageously spoken out against forcing children to learn radical gender ideology in schools.”

Munshi’s resignation comes one day after the White House formally removed Carrie Prejean Boller, a former “Miss California” who is now a conservative activist, from the commission.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced in February that Boller would be removed from the commission after he accused her of hijacking a hearing on antisemitism to ask Jewish witnesses if they would denounce Israel and claimed that Zionism was incompatible with Catholicism.

“Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” Boller asked Shabbos Kestenbaum, an Orthodox Jewish activist, at the Feb. 9 hearing.


Protesters chant for Hamas and Hezbollah at Al Quds Day rally in New York City
Anti-Zionist protesters chanted for terrorist groups, accused Israel’s supporters of eating babies and raping children, and chanted for death to Israel and the US at a protest for Al Quds Day in New York City on Friday.

Al Quds Day is an annual, anti-Israel event held on the last Friday of Ramadan, established by Iran in 1979. The protest this year took place during heightened tensions due to the US-Israel war with Iran.

The protest on Friday drew several hundred participants and was backed by leftist and anti-Zionist activist groups, including Pal-Awda, the Bronx Anti-War Coalition and the Workers World Party.

“This Al Quds Day holds a special significance as the United States and its puppet Zionist regime wage full-out war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We proclaim our support for the Islamic Republic,” a speaker said, introducing the event.

“Iran is the central pillar in the struggle against US imperialism and Zionism,” he said. “A war against the Islamic Republic of Iran is a war against anti-imperialism, against anti-occupation, against anti-freedom.”

“We remind the enemies that martyrdom is our highest honor and the targeting of the leader only strengthens the resolve,” he said. “We renew our pledge to the path of the martyrs.”

The protesters held signs that said, “Victory to Palestinian and Iranian resistance,” “Free America from Israel,” and with pictures of the ayatollahs.

Several signs said, “Israel weaker than a spider’s web,” referring to threats made by Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah before Israel killed him. A child on the stage held up a photo of Iran’s late leader Ali Khamenei.


California Ed Dept sues Oakland school district over failure to comply with Jew-hatred directives
The California Department of Education filed a lawsuit on March 5 against the Oakland Unified School District, alleging that the district failed to comply with state directives to address Jew-hatred on its campuses.

The complaint, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, stems from an appeal submitted in December by Oakland education attorney Marleen Sacks. In that appeal, Sacks argued that while the district acknowledged discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, its corrective actions were inadequate.

According to court filings, the district previously acknowledged that pro-Palestinian posters displayed in classrooms and on school grounds, as well as instruction that lacked multiple perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, contributed to what the state described as a “discriminatory environment.”

The Oakland Unified School District serves about 34,000 students across 82 schools.

Scott Roark, a public information officer for the state education department, and John Sasaki, the district’s communications director, both declined to “comment on pending litigation.”

In January, the state determined that Sacks’s appeal had merit and ordered the district to implement a series of corrective actions by March 1. These included sending a letter to staff and families condemning antisemitism and outlining response measures, conducting mandatory employee training led by an outside provider who had consulted with a Jewish or Israeli organization, and developing a plan for ongoing professional development to ensure instruction is free of discriminatory bias.

The department also directed certain schools to hold assemblies addressing the Holocaust and the historical meaning of the swastika.

The lawsuit states the department had not seen evidence that the district completed the required steps by the deadline. (JNS sought comment from the district.)
Cornell student assembly votes to cut ties with Israel’s Technion
Cornell University’s Student Assembly on Thursday voted to cut ties with Israel’s Technion University and condemned the university for hosting center-left Israeli politician Tzipi Livni.

The resolutions highlighted how campus anti-Israel activism brings together university politics, unproven international legal allegations and representative groups dedicated to other causes to advance opposition to Israel.

The Student Assembly represents Cornell’s undergraduate student body to the university administration and is meant to improve student life on campus through issues like transportation. Resolutions approved by the assembly are brought to the university president, who can accept or reject the measures.

The resolution targeting the Technion called on Cornell to “terminate its institutional partnership” with the Israeli university, one of Israel’s leading institutions of higher education.

The measure cited “serious ethical concerns” and “complicity in genocide,” alleging that Technion’s involvement with the Israeli military violated international law.

Cornell operates a campus in New York City in partnership with the Technion.

The assembly adopted the resolution on Thursday with 17 votes in favor and five opposed.
King’s College London opens probe after keffiyeh-clad student posts ‘antisemitic’ video targeting professors
King’s College London has written to Instagram to request it takes down a video by a pro-Palestinian student group at KCL, saying it promotes antisemitism and is intimidatory.

The video, uploaded six days ago by ‘KCL Stands For Justice’, features a keffiyeh-clad male accusing four academics at the university War Studies department, at least three of whom are Jewish, of being complicit in “genocide”.

KCL told the JC they were “appalled” to learn of the video, which it is now investigating, and has written to Instagram to request it be taken down.

The four members of faculty targeted – all of whom teach at KCL’s Department of War Studies – are Dr Ofer Fridman, senior lecturer; Dr Ady Schonmann-Bethlehem, visiting professor; Dr Raphael Marcus, visiting research fellow; and Professor David Betz.

The makers of the video, one of whom is wearing a keffiyeh and the other holding up masks of the lecturers, refer to KCL as “Killer’s College London” and accuse the War Studies department of being complicit in “genocide”.

Impersonating Fridman, an Israeli who they say served in the IDF for 15 years, they say, “I don’t think you’re a true academic until you have contributed to apartheid and ethnic cleansing, you know?”


After 152% spike, NYPD changes how it reports hate crimes
A month after the NYPD reported a 152% spike in reported bias crimes in the city, the department has changed its reporting method to one that some hate crime experts say is less transparent and less accurate.

In January, the NYPD reported 58 bias crimes across the city, up from 23 in January 2025 — a jump the department said was driven largely by a spike in reports of anti-Jewish hate crimes. But by the time police reported the figures for February of this year, they had changed their criteria for reporting hate crimes.

Previously, the department reported hate crimes that were being reviewed. Now it only reports hate crimes that have been investigated and confirmed. Under the new method, the NYPD reported 38 hate crimes for the month. It did not provide a comparison to the same period last year.

The NYPD says only reporting confirmed hate crimes will more accurately show what’s happening in the city. But two scholars who study hate-crime reporting cautioned that it’s likely not that simple. They said the new method could make it look like hate crimes are dropping when they’re not.

“It would be erroneous to consider that’s a drop in hate crimes," said Frank Pezzella, a professor at John Jay College and author of the book "The Measurement of Hate Crimes in America."

Three hate crime experts who spoke to Gothamist said the NYPD should publicly report both the number of reported hate crimes and those confirmed by the NYPD. The department did not respond to the experts’ suggestion.

The shift in how the NYPD reports hate crimes comes at a divisive political moment, driven in part by ongoing and escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Antisemitism has been on the rise across the country and remains persistently high in New York City, according to NYPD figures from 2025.




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