Allister Heath: Antizionism is a totalitarian conspiracy theory rotting the West from within
Antizionism is a psychosis dressed up as a theory of justice, the ultimate pathological, nihilistic, anti-Western brew, a disgusting concoction of Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Third Worldism and critical theory, fused together with aspects of Nazism, Christian anti-Semitism, Islamism and Cold War Soviet nostrums.Exclusive: Labour’s Middle East policy let antisemites use antizionism as a cover, claims Badenoch
The genocide libel justifies doing to Israel what the allies did to the Nazis. It trivialises the Holocaust, absolving Europeans of residual guilt. It banalises the actual genocidal behaviour of Islamist countries. It redefines normal military practices as illegitimate, making self-defence impossible. It rewards Hamas’s monstrous human shield strategy. It rationalises intifada terrorism as freedom-fighting.
Antizionists support a neo-Inquisition that identifies and cancels Zionists. They want to force British Jews to denounce Israel, to renounce friends and family, to pass a purity test. Modelled on the Cultural Revolution’s struggle sessions and the “taking of the knee” ritual, antizionists celebrate “good Jews”, in politics or the arts, who have turned against Israel, who have proved their loyalty, who “converted”, who humiliated themselves.
The antizionists have blood on their hands. Their lies have worked. They have radicalised white Lefties, and emboldened recently arrived extremists. The hatred is atavistic, and follows the pattern of a social contagion. Each time Israel is attacked, UK anti-Semitic violence instantly surges. Anti-Jewish pogroms trigger more Jew-hatred, especially when Israelis are raped and butchered.
Psychologists call this arousal transfer: one violent act heightens other people’s aggression level. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, violence against Jews triggers a quasi-ecstatic reaction in sick minds, and a collective bloodlust ensues. Maniacs detect weaknesses, and go in for the kill. Many suffer deindividuation: they lose their sense of self, and join in the mob.
Is that who we have become? Is the Leftist-Islamist alliance here to stay? Is anti-Semitism the New Normal? I refuse to accept it. This is not Britain. This is not us.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has told the JC she believes Sir Keir Starmer’s Middle East policy has been picked up as a “signal” by “people who use antizionism as a cover for antisemitism”.‘Woefully inadequate’ plea deal, with just a year in jail, for man who killed elderly Jew in LA, Jewish groups say
The leader of the opposition accused the prime minister of being “too preoccupied with his own problems” to consider the consequences of actions taken to “appease his backbenchers”, including recognising the state of Palestine.
In a wide-ranging interview, in Barnet, north London, on the final day of campaigning before tomorrow’s local elections, Badenoch also called for the Nakba Day protest scheduled for May 16 in the capital to be banned.
In critical comments the day after Starmer held a crisis summit on antisemitism at No10, Badenoch suggested his own government’s foreign policy had been at least in part responsible for the situation.
Looking back to the increasingly anti-Israel line Labour took after coming to power in 2024, she claimed that Starmer “had trouble with his backbenchers, his MPs weren’t supporting [him], and so he did things like recognising Palestine while there were still hostages held by Hamas.
“That sort of action, which he did to appease his backbenchers, sent a signal to a lot of people who have been using antizionism as a cover for antisemitism.
“I don’t think he realised the repercussions of those sorts of actions.”
The JC joined Badenoch on a campaign visit to Barnet the day before local elections, as she toured seven London boroughs in a Conservative-branded black cab.
She criticised some Labour MPs, as well as Green and pro-Gaza independent politicians, for extreme anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitism.
The plea deal, under which Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, who admitted to charges related to the 2023 death of a 69-year-old Jewish man near Los Angeles, gets probation and a year in jail, is “woefully inadequate,” according to Joshua Burt, a regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
It also “emboldens others to act in anger against the Jewish community,” Burt told JNS.
Alnaji, 52, pleaded guilty to all charges, including felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury, on Tuesday after initially pleading not guilty. Paul Kessler died from injuries sustained in an altercation with Alnaji on Nov. 5, 2023.
The attack occurred in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles, amid competing pro- and anti-Israel rallies. Alnaji struck Kessler with a megaphone, and the sexagenarian fell and hit his head on the pavement.
The Ventura County Superior Court has suggested it will place Alnaji on probation, with up to a year in jail, according to the county district attorney’s office. Erik Nasarenko, the district attorney, stated that “Alnaji should be sentenced to prison for his violent behavior, and our office strongly objects to any lesser sentence.”
Under state law, Alnaji could spend four years in jail.
Tom Dunlevy, supervising senior deputy district attorney for Ventura County, told JNS that “the judge offered probation if Alnaji pled guilty, but with a custodial sanction of up to 365 days in jail as a term of probation.”
“If the court places the defendant on probation, they then set the terms of probation,” he said. “One of those terms could be an amount of jail time up to a year in jail.”
Michael Oren: The End of the Diaspora?
Speaking at pro-Israel events around the world for nearly fifty years, I rarely receive a question I haven’t heard a hundred times. But at a recent conference of American Jewish donors, someone asked me a question that was utterly and terrifyingly unique. “Do you think Jews have a future in the United States?”We all know who is to blame for the rise in anti-Semitism – and it is not Israel
Only a few years ago, that question would have been unthinkable to most American Jews, much less asked out loud. Yet now, every person in my audience agreed that the answer may well be “Tragically, American Jewry is doomed.”
That is certainly the case for many Diaspora communities where the future for Jews looks bleak. During my last visits to Canada and Australia, and in my many conversations with British Jews, I heard repeatedly how the situation for Jews in those countries has become intolerable and will only get worse. While governments pay lip service to fighting antisemitism, acts of Jew-hatred multiply daily and are rapidly normalizing. The brutal stabbing of two Jews in London, and even the massacre of Jews on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, are no longer aberrations. Rather than discourage antisemites, such atrocities spur them to commit more.
In America, meanwhile, synagogues and Jewish community centers are resembling fortresses with armed guards positioned at their entrances. Soon they’ll look like their European counterparts with soldiers and armored vehicles outside. Jewish parents increasingly fear sending their children to Jewish schools and summer camps or participating in family religious services. Wearing visible signs of Jewishness–kipot, Stars of David–has become hazardous.
Clearly, we are witnessing a profound and most likely irreversible change in Diaspora Jewish life. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in the fight against antisemitism, yet the hatred keeps metastasizing. Soon, Diaspora Jews will have to decide just how much harassment and physical threat they are willing to endure, and whether being an identified, practicing Jew is worth the risk. In time, even thoroughly assimilated Jews may also be targeted. Many Diaspora Jews will determine not to let the antisemites win and continue the fight in their host countries. Whether they can win or not remains to be seen. Others will decide to make aliyah.
On Monday, at a hastily convened meeting of police, university and health leaders and unions in Number 10, the Prime Minister said Britain must have a “whole-of-society response to eradicating anti-Semitism. Everyone has a responsibility to stand with Jewish communities”.Toronto Convention to Feature Figure Described as Leader of Muslim Brotherhood’s “Intelligence Arm” in Europe
Many of us have been doing exactly that, Prime Minister, for two years and seven months since the worst slaughter of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. And no, you do not get to deflect the blame for anti-Semitism onto the British people in general. We know who the culprits are.
Criticising the Arts Council for funding organisations that promote the work of artists accused of anti-Semitism, and calling on the council to withdraw or claw back money from organisations that “provide a platform for anti-Jewish hate”, is welcome. It’s a start. But what is urgently needed is the abolition of a two-tier system that sees police and other groups protecting Islamists at the expense of Jewish safety.
Absolutely no to an “anti-Muslim hostility” definition, which will only serve to silence the fears that need to be heard. Yes to a ban on incendiary marches, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, whose vile members, quite unbelievably, are allowed to move freely in this country when they are banned in Arab countries.
And let us see no more purity tests for British Jews, like the one posed by Sir Tony Brenton, former British ambassador to Russia. In The Times, Sir Tony suggested that if Jews here were more critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, they might improve their chances of not being stabbed. Shocking victim-shaming. What other ethnic group is held to that standard?
It was great to see Kemi Badenoch giving a fiery riposte to a pro-Palestine sympathiser who asked, “What about the rise in attacks on Muslim people?”
“Let’s stop pretending something else is happening,” the Tory leader shot back, declaring that she would always stand with British Jews.
That is one of the stark choices on the ballot paper on Thursday. Vote for the Right, either Reform or Conservative, who will take a stand against anti-Semitism, or vote for the lunatics who indulge the Jew-haters and will end up destroying our way of life.
Please vote. Your country needs you, now more than ever.
On May 16–18, the Muslim Association of Canada is scheduled to host its fifth annual convention at Toronto’s Enercare Centre, a City-owned facility at Exhibition Place governed by Exhibition Place’s Board of Governors.NYPD officer hospitalized after anti-Israel protesters try to remove barriers outside Park East Synagogue
Jewish Onliner reviewed the speaker lineup and found multiple speakers with publicly documented associations, past positions, or institutional links involving Hamas-linked figures, Muslim Brotherhood branches, or organizations designated under terrorism-related authorities by the United States, Israel, the UAE, or other governments.
Several of the speakers appear to have had ties with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the now-deceased spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who advocated for suicide bombings against Israelis and was banned from entering the United States and several European countries before his death in 2022.
The convention's three-day agenda includes sessions titled "The Art of Dawah—How did Gaza Call Humanity to Islam," "Lessons from Gaza," and "From Rubble to Revival: Gaza, the Ummah, & Our Shared Responsibility."
The convention features Anas Altikriti, CEO and founder of the London-based Cordoba Foundation. According to Islamist Portal, an Arabic-language site that tracks Islamist movements and figures, some Arab and foreign media outlets have described Anas Altikriti as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “intelligence service” and as leader of its alleged “intelligence arm” in Europe.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated the Cordoba Foundation as a terrorist organization. Altikriti has been described as "a key spokesman and lobbyist for the Brotherhood in Britain" and has personally acknowledged his Muslim Brotherhood connections, stating in a 2005 interview: "My family is Muslim Brotherhood."
A New York City Police Department officer was hospitalized with a leg injury after anti-Israel protesters tried to remove barriers outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, where a pro-Israel event was taking place on Tuesday evening.
“During the course of the demonstration, individuals attempted to remove barriers. As a result, an officer sustained an injury to his leg and was transported to a local hospital for treatment,” an NYPD spokesman told JNS. “Also, water was thrown on officers from a building on the demonstration route.”
The NYPD spokesman told JNS that there were no arrests during the demonstration, which lasted about three and a half hours.
Community Security Services, a nonprofit that protects Jewish communities, told JNS that it had a dozen volunteers and two vehicles near the synagogue, which was the site of a protest on Nov. 19, when anti-Israel demonstrators blocked people from entering and exiting the synagogue. That protest was one of the factors that motivated city legislators to introduce a bill, now a law, calling on the NYPD to make a plan for a protest-free “buffer zone” around houses of worship.
“This time, everyone entered and left safely,” CSS stated.
In footage from the protest, demonstrators can be seen lifting barriers as police officers try to keep the barricades in place. Protesters chant, “NYPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same.” (IOF refers to Israeli forces as the “occupation.”)
Hezbollah flags can also be seen in footage. “How is it OK to wave terrorist flags in front of a Jewish daycare?” stated Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Justice Department’s task force on Jew-hatred.
“What would have happened if these Jihadist terrorist supporters were able to get inside?” he wrote. “They support the murder of all Jews! The Jewish community should not live in constant fear! Don’t think your community won’t be next.”
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, wrote that the protest was “disturbing” and that the department’s civil rights division “will investigate.”
Mob of Pro-Hezbollah / Hamas shitheads raging against law enforcement and terrorizing the NYC Jewish community near a synagogue and day care.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) May 6, 2026
Where’s my party’s condemnation? https://t.co/SXyIx3BLPR
New York Democrats condemn Park East demonstrators’ rhetoric as Mamdani doubles down
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated on Wednesday his criticism of an event held at Park East Synagogue the night prior, even as fellow Democrats condemned the extremist speech and actions of protesters who sought to break the police cordon outside.
Pressed on Tuesday about plans for protests at the Manhattan shul, Mamdani released a statement strictly criticizing the “Great Israel Real Estate Event” held inside — which included, among other offerings, advertisements for settlements in the West Bank — with no mention of the previous disturbance the same pro-Hamas activist group caused outside Park East last November.
Mamdani’s spokesperson told the far-left Drop Site News ahead of the event that the mayor was “deeply opposed” to its promotion of settlements that are “illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians.” Still, Mamdani’s administration said it has “also been clear that we are committed to ensuring safe entry and exit from any house of worship.”
Questioned Wednesday morning about the protest, the police response and the influence his own rhetoric might have on antisemitic incidents citywide, Mamdani reaffirmed his earlier stance.
“I think that critique of the policies of a government are very much separate from bigotry toward people of a specific religious faith,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference. “When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land that includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank, in settlements that are a violation of international law, that is something I firmly disagree with and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with, because it has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.”
Mamdani also lauded the NYPD’s enforcement of a security perimeter around the synagogue, which demonstrators tried to push through, and added that the right to protest is “sacrosanct.”
But much as the mayor and his allies stressed the West Bank property advertisements, the protesters outside the synagogue did not call for a peaceful two-state solution along the internationally recognized borders established in 1949. To the contrary, they waved the flag of Hezbollah — an Iran-backed terror group that seeks Israel’s destruction — defaced images of the late Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson and shouted “we don’t want no Zionists here,” “death to the IDF” and “we don’t want no two-state, we want ‘48.”
There's an Israeli consulate office in NYC, but instead of protesting Israeli government policy there, these mobs choose to harass random American Jews at their homes, schools, businesses, and synagogues. So I don't think they really care about Israeli government policy.
— Kathryn Paisner (@KathrynPaisner) May 6, 2026
Claire Valdez, Mamdani-backed congressional candidate, breaks with the mayor re: NYPD's handling of last night's protest ⬇️ https://t.co/N3ldeEtEkS pic.twitter.com/KUdctyy8nL
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) May 6, 2026
If you need any more of a stark reminder what @NYCMayor Zorhan Mamdani stands for it is this: a mob of pro-terror, anti-semites clad in their native terror schmattas, carrying the flags of our enemies outside an orthodox Jewish synagogue exercising no doubt what the mayor would… pic.twitter.com/6SsKpAIVir
— Daniel S. Loeb (@DanielSLoeb1) May 6, 2026
A Jewish couple was surrounded and harassed last night outside the Park East Synagogue event. Masked individuals shouted. "You rape men, you rape children. "You f**king sociopath, I see it in your eyes." Jews are starting to feel the danger of the Mamdani leadership. pic.twitter.com/cVC7KLIX46
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) May 6, 2026
There was a Hezbollah flag outside.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 6, 2026
That’s not “pro-Palestinian.” That’s support for a terrorist group.
It’s anti-Israel and it matters.
Enough of the sugarcoating, @nytimes. Tell readers what these protesters are actually signaling. https://t.co/ImC4oj9pBy pic.twitter.com/hV5CLpO8JS
Democratic Sex Therapist Making Strong Run for Texas House Seat Slams 'Jews Who Own Hollywood,' the 'Synagogue of Satan,' and Israeli 'Blood Money' in Wild Social Media Rants
A Texas Democratic House candidate has repeatedly used her social media to promote a raft of conspiracy theories targeting Jews—including accusations that they are part of the "synagogue of Satan."Pelosi backs anti-Israel Democrat who alienated Houston’s Jewish community
Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist, surprised Lone Star State political observers in March after she led the field in the Democratic primary for Texas's 35th Congressional District, securing 29 percent of the vote and advancing to a runoff election. Despite operating on a shoestring budget, with less than $2,200 in the bank, according to Federal Election Commission records, she has been significantly outperforming expectations.
"I didn’t expect this but it’s time to talk about spiritual warfare," she said in a video posted to her Facebook page in October 2025. "They want to push the rapture as quick as possible so that they can see this coming of Christ … This is the way that all of the Jews who own Hollywood, they use books and movies to create realities."
"[Jesus] was trying to warn us. He was trying to warn us about these exact same people, who worship Satan."
"The entire Bible start to finish is about displacement from land, and all colonizers since babylon worship the synagogue of satan, in my perspective. inversion is their greatest weapon of control, so stay sharp," Galindo added in the video caption.
Accusing Jews of "inversion" is a classic antisemitic trope.
Rep. Al Green (D-TX), a vocal critic of Israel competing in a closely contested runoff against a fellow House Democrat later this month, announced in social media posts on Monday that he had received a coveted endorsement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the powerful former House speaker.
Jewish community leaders in the Houston area were surprised to see Pelosi’s endorsement, especially as it appeared to break with her precedent of declining to engage in member-on-member races.
It also fueled ongoing frustrations with Green’s alleged lack of outreach to Houston’s sizable Jewish community — a potentially critical constituency in what is expected to be a close election.
The endorsement wasn’t straightforward — by Tuesday afternoon, Green’s original post had been removed, raising questions about his claim. Neither Pelosi nor her team had confirmed the purported endorsement before it was suddenly deleted without explanation.
On Wednesday, however, the endorsement had been reposted across Green’s social media accounts, albeit with slightly altered imagery.
“Speaker Pelosi is a leader I have stood beside through the most consequential fights of our time,” Green said on Wednesday. “Her endorsement of our campaign is a profound honor. We carry this moment forward, together, for the people of New CD 18 and the country we love.”
WATCH — Mayor Mamdani punts when asked about my report in the Washington Free Beacon
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 6, 2026
Read it herehttps://t.co/wj82c7tzRs https://t.co/SWF0XHDFCF
NYPD releases footage of suspects in antisemitic vandalism spree in Queens
The New York City Police Department on Tuesday released security camera footage of suspects in a series of antisemitic vandalism incidents in Queens.
“On five separate occasions between May 3 and May 4, swastikas and antisemitic statements were spray-painted at several locations in Queens,” the NYPD tweeted.
The incidents are being investigated as hate crime criminal mischief, according to the post.
Police urged anyone with information to contact the NYPD Crime Stoppers tip line or send a direct message to its social media accounts.
Elected officials on Tuesday demanded immediate action, as antisemitic hate crimes have surged across New York City and after Nazi symbols were found scrawled across synagogues, a Holocaust memorial and private homes in Queens.
“Let me be clear. Justifying hate, vandalism or violence by pointing to the actions of a foreign government is scapegoating, and it is wrong,” Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) said at a rally, which was organized by Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, outside Congregation Machane Chodosh.
“No community should be targeted because of disagreements with another country,” the congresswoman said at the rally. “I’m grateful to the NYPD and the 112th Precinct for their swift response and to the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, who has taken over the investigation into this horrible vandalism.”
The incidents occurred the same day that the New York City Police Department released hate crime data from April, during which 59% of all confirmed and reported hate crimes in the city targeted Jews.
It's those white Christian Nazis painting swastikas on synagogues again. 😉 https://t.co/5hRjciUguf
— Angela Van Der Pluym (@anjewla90) May 6, 2026
A swastika was spray-painted on a memorial to victims of Kristallnacht outside a synagogue in Queens, New York early Monday morning, along with homes and a car. Authorities say recent data shows Jewish New Yorkers accounted for 60% of hate crime victims last month.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 6, 2026
The NYPD is… pic.twitter.com/qRjGNhcONs
Has Mamdani figured out who did it yet? https://t.co/mktUVcMYuf pic.twitter.com/JBrFcfsFlp
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 5, 2026
Horror antisemitism Royal Commission testimonies mark pivotal moment for Australia’s global reputation
Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has finally begun holding public hearings - marking the first meaningful attempt to confront the antisemitism taking hold in Australian society.
For most Australian Jews, the need for such a commission has been obvious for months, if not years.
Ever since the October 7 massacre in Israel, there has been a surge in antisemitism unlike anything seen in living memory.
Statistics suggest at least a 300 per cent increase.
From the scenes outside the Sydney Opera House, where the massacre was celebrated and people chanted “f*** the Jews”, to the horrific attack in Bondi in December 2024 - where 15 people at a Chanukah celebration were gunned down - the trajectory has been unmistakable.
What some initially dismissed as isolated or politically-driven tensions has revealed itself to be something deeper, older, and far more dangerous.
Promisingly, Commissioner Virginia Bell, who is heading the inquiry, acknowledged as much in her opening statement, noting that hostility towards Jewish Australians, “simply because they’re Jews”, is often expressed in ways that can be traced back to the Middle Ages, if not earlier.
Commissioner Bell believes this spike in antisemitism is “clearly linked to events in the Middle East” meaning Israel’s war against Hamas and other terror proxies.
But as she also noted, this hostility has existed for thousands of years, long before the October 7 attacks.
The context may change.
The underlying patterns do not.
For Jews, this is not theoretical.
It is lived experience - reinforced by generations who learned, often too late, what happens when warning signs are ignored.
'Intifada is not just a political word, it legitimises murder.'
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 7, 2026
Sheina Gutnick, daughter of Bondi hero, the late Reuven Morrison, who was murdered in the Chanukah attack. She was the first witness to speak at this week's Royal Commission. pic.twitter.com/sXmhMJW43W
Jewish Australian says police told him Jew-hatred case was ‘wasted effort’
A Jewish Australian man told a public inquiry on Tuesday that police in New South Wales discouraged him from pursuing a complaint against a man who allegedly threatened him and used antisemitic slurs, saying it would be “a lot of wasted effort.”‘Children bearing the brunt’: Sharri Markson confronts heartbreaking RC testimony
Nir Golan testified before the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion that the incident occurred in October 2023, when a man approached him on the street and “started calling me all sorts of racial slurs, among them ‘dirty Jew.’” Golan said he was wearing a kippah at the time.
According to Golan, the man performed a Nazi salute and pointed “a gun finger at my forehead, imitating like he wanted to kill me.” When Golan began recording the encounter on his phone, the assailant “started getting physical,” Golan said.
“No one intervened, unfortunately, except for an American tourist who jumped in. That tourist ended up getting bashed pretty badly,” he said. “I broke down and started shaking uncontrollably and crying again. No one came to my aid. No one came to help. No one came to do anything.”
Golan said he filed a police report and provided video and photos of the incident, but was told a Nazi salute was not illegal and that the case was unlikely to proceed.
“I was eventually told by the police that there’s not much that they could do and the case would ultimately get thrown out, and it would be a lot of wasted effort for nothing and encouraged to drop it,” he told the commission.
Sky News host Sharri Markson confronts heartbreaking testimony on the third day of the Royal Commission.
“A 13-year-old girl gave powerful evidence to the royal commission today about the experience of being a child living in Australia during this antisemitism crisis,” Ms Markson said.
“She spoke about how scared she is to go to sleepovers and school camp. She's even worried about catching the train.
“It's a heartbreaking perspective of how Jewish children feel isolated growing up in Australia.
“A Sydney mother also gave evidence about taunts at school to the point where her children became reluctant to show their Jewish identity publicly.
“Blake Shaw, who works at a Jewish school in Melbourne, described primary students being harassed on school excursions.
“The picture of antisemitism within the school system among children and even teachers has been far greater than I ever realised.
“To think children are bearing the brunt of this crisis is deeply sad.”
Indeed, as @ZionistFedAus President @jeremyleibler explains at the Royal Commission yesterday, it is not that difficult to draw the line between legitimate criticism of actions by the Israeli government and outright antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/bUuzUnPDjC
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 6, 2026
After Bondi: AIJAC's Joel Burnie on Fear, Antisemitism & Australia’s Future
The first hearings of Australia’s Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion have begun – and the testimony has been described as harrowing.
Speaking with Canberra 2CC radio host Stephen Cenatiempo, AIJAC Executive Manager Joel Burnie reflects on the experiences shared by Jewish Australians following October 7, the rise in antisemitism across Australia, and why he believes this is not just a Jewish issue — but an Australian one.
.@KrogerMichael tells @SharriMarkson that "ad-hoc" responses to antisemitism are “not working.”
— Osher Feldman (@OsherFeldman) May 6, 2026
He’s proposing a "Stop Jewish Hate" campaign, a "Bridging the Gap" model for the community. Including yearly reports for accountability and national coordination.
Watch for more. pic.twitter.com/mTvqpJx0zl
Accused shooter in Bondi Beach attack faces additional charges
A Muslim man accused of murdering 15 people in an antisemitic terror attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach is facing a slew of additional charges, newly released court records show.Man charged after swastika shirt worn outside Royal Commission hearings
Naveed Akram, 24, who is being held in a high-security prison, has already been indicted for scores of serious crimes, including murder and committing an act of terrorism.
He is now also facing 19 additional charges, including multiple counts of shooting with intent to murder, wounding with intent to murder, and discharging a firearm with intent to resist arrest.
His father and alleged co-conspirator Sajid, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack, which was the worst act of terrorism in the country’s history.
Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, were killed by father-and son gunmen in the shooting at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, the first night of Chanukah.
A 68-year-old man has been charged for allegedly wearing a shirt with an offensive symbol near Royal Commission hearings into antisemitism.
Police patrolling outside the third day of hearings in Sydney’s CBD allegedly saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a swastika emblazoned on the front about 11am on Wednesday.
Authorities issued the man, who identified himself to police as Ian Minus of Killarney Heights, with a move-on direction, which he complied with.
About 2.45pm on Thursday, the man was arrested at Manly Police Station and charged with behave in offensive manner in public place and cause prohibited Nazi symbol to be displayed in public place.
He was given conditional bail to appear before Manly Local Court on Wednesday, May 27.
Mr Minus had been sitting at a nearby café before walking past media crews in the area.
Police were alerted to the shirt, which featured an alleged swastika in the colours of the Israeli flag and surrounding the Star of David - alongside a slogan referencing antisemitism.
Under the swastika, on the t-shirt read: “Anti-Semitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!”.
When questioned about his presence near the commission, he denied any link to the hearing.
“Proud to be accused.”
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) May 6, 2026
That was the slogan printed next to a swastika worn by a man outside Australia’s royal commission on antisemitism today while Jewish Australians inside were testifying about abuse, terror, and fear.
One 13 year old girl described still having nightmares… pic.twitter.com/xqOwgSx8LL
Alex Hearn: Cowardice led people to go along with a small, organised mob stirring up hatred against Jews
For two and a half years we heard “globalise the intifada” on our streets, and now we see it in practice – our blood on the streets. I reported a socialist outside my local tube station giving out newspapers calling for intifada but the police denied its context and meaning. It is a relief that the Prime Minister finally admits it’s racist, but if he knew it was racist, why did he allow it to go unchallenged for two years?Seth Mandel: ‘Let’s Stop Pretending That Something Else Is Happening’
After the Heaton Park shooting we heard the same platitudes and clichés. "No place for antisemitism" – when there clearly is one. “This is not who we are” when this is clearly what Britain has become. The government did what was easiest: threw money at security. Of course we are grateful for protection but synagogues and Jewish schools have become fortresses and it addresses nothing. Do we build walls around entire neighbourhoods now?
After the Golders Green stabbings, Keir Starmer said the response needed to be “swift, agile and visible”, but the only thing swift and agile was his exit to avoid an angry crowd. I'm glad he was booed – people are rightly angry, frustrated and distressed. We have waited two and a half years for a Prime Minister to act and been let down by successive governments, Conservative and Labour alike.
We are at the stage where doctors spout Nazi-grade racism online, where one in five students wouldn't share a house with a Jew, where a Jewish professor had his classroom stormed and was threatened with beheading. Where being Jewish is “antagonistic”.
There is a war on Jews in this country and it didn't need a Führer. It just needed a population willing to look away, a set of institutions ready to comply, and the world's most durable prejudice.
But if collaboration is the mechanism, then refusing to collaborate is the answer. Not from the government – they have shown us who they are – but from the venues that cancelled Jewish events to appease a mob that hadn't arrived, from the anti-racist organisations that looked away while British streets were filled with hate, from the colleagues, neighbours and friends who went quiet when it mattered most. None of them were ordered to comply – they chose to. Which means they can choose to stop. The threat level is severe but the real danger was never the mob. It was everyone who made it easy for them.
In his introduction to his Cold War history, The Atlantic and Its Enemies, Norman Stone recalls the way Margaret Thatcher stood firm in the face of “often contemptuous” criticism. He then writes, in one of the all-time great told-you-so’s by a modern historian: “I myself drew some flak for writing in the press, fairly frequently, in support of her. So be it: I was right. Nowadays there are 400 German students at Oxford, the largest foreign contingent, and they are not there because the truth is in the middle.”Hamas killed our son on Oct 7. Now, Britain is not safe for us
Hear, hear. The desire to believe that “the truth is in the middle” is one of the seemingly permanent weaknesses of a certain class of Western intellectuals and politicians. One manifestation of this: As a wave of anti-Semitism washes over the free world, politicians tie themselves in knots to portray the global intifada as stemming from legitimate grievance. One politician who doesn’t fall into that trap—one of Europe’s few, it must be said—is UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
Yesterday, talking to the residents of a town in Essex, Badenoch was interrupted by a Gaza leftist who wanted to pretend that what’s happening to Britain’s Jews is happening to Muslims and others, too. Badenoch would have none of it. She responded that, in effect, the truth of the anti-Semitism crisis is not in the middle:
“I go to Jewish primary schools that have security guards outside. I don’t see that outside any other primary school in this country. I go to supermarkets that have security guards. I go to businesses, Jewish businesses, that are having their windows smashed in. Gail’s bakery having graffiti sprayed all over it. We need to stop pretending that this isn’t happening. We do not want the 1930s repeated again. And what we see are people making excuses for this. You will never get excuses from me.”
The heckler wasn’t satisfied. What about protecting non-Jews, the heckler wanted to know. Not taking the antisemitismandislamophobia bait, Badenoch again insisted on grounding the conversation firmly in reality: “The people who’ve died and who’ve been killed were Jewish people in synagogues. Let’s stop pretending that something else is happening.”
My son, Jake, was born and raised in London, but on Oct 8 2023, even as the scale of Hamas’s massacre the day before was becoming clear, there were people celebrating his murderers on the streets he once walked.EXCLUSIVE JN POLLING: UK voters believe more protection needed for British Jews
In the months and years since, I have avoided going into central London every time the pro-Palestinian brigade gathers for demonstrations. I cannot bear to witness them and what they stand for. I call these events “hate marches” because that’s exactly what they are. These people are supporting the killers of my boy, my son, my future.
I remember being at a vigil in Brighton in July 2024 for the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas when a march “for Palestine” went past us. They deliberately took a route which brought them into contact with us, and they screamed that we were baby killers. I was carrying a poster of my slain son at the time.
Long before the slew of recent attacks on Jews on Britain’s streets, such horrific scenes of so-called “protest” should have been evidence enough that our country has become gripped by anti-Semitism. Jake himself knew long ago that this evil was rearing its head. He saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave the UK for Israel in 2021, when he was 24.
He had been a talented musician, touring the world as a bass guitarist. His band, Desolated, played to thousands of people. But Jake gave up on those dreams, fearing that he could not pursue such a future from here.
The tipping point for him was a video he saw of a convoy of vehicles, driven by heinous men, patrolling Jewish areas with megaphones, blaring out that they wanted to rape Jewish women and children. The fact that the police didn’t seem to stop them really shook him.
Within two months of that, he had decided to leave Britain behind for Israel, making use of the right granted to all Jewish people, as well as their children, grandchildren and spouses, to settle in the country. “It doesn’t feel safe in the UK for us, and I don’t see a future for us here,” he told me as he left. He was a visionary – he sensed something that I hadn’t yet felt.
More than a third of British people believe the government and law enforcement are not doing enough to protect Jews amid an unprecedented wave of violent attacks, according to exclusive new research for Jewish News.
The weighted poll of more than 2,000 people, conducted over the weekend by More in Common, also showed a clear majority – three in five – believe it is time that school pupils are be taught about Jew-hate as part of the national curriculum, with more than sixty percent support from voters of all of the main political parties. Just 15 percent expressed opposition.
Worryingly, however, a plurality of voters (40%) say that Britain would be neither better nor worse off if Jews left the country because of antisemitism. 32 per cent say Britain would be much worse off, just 4 per cent say Britain would be better off, and 24 per cent say they don’t know. The “much worse off” view is strongest among Conservatives (47%) and Reform voters (44%), and among older Britons. It is weakest among 18-24s (22%) and 25-34s (29%) – the youngest cohort is significantly less likely to see Jewish departure as a national loss.
These findings are published a day after Downing Street convened leaders from across society to develop a “whole society” approach to tackling antisemitism after a series of arson attacks against synagogues and other Jewish sites and the stabbing of two men in Golders Green.
A third of the British public (34 per cent) say the Government and police are not doing enough to protect the Jewish community in Britain, against 32 per cent who say they are doing the right amount and just 8 per cent who say they are doing too much. While worry for Jewish friends and neighbours is markedly higher in London than in elsewhere in the country (29% to 16%) – perhaps an indication of the higher likelihood of Londoners to know Jewish people, as 65 percent of people nationwide said they don’t have any Jewish friends or neighbours at all. However, the capital’s citizens are also least likely to say that the government and police are not doing enough (25% to 34%), instead being the most likely to say the response is “the right amount” (42% to 32%).
This was certainly a weird one.
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) May 6, 2026
I was asked to discuss @Policy_Exchange’s polling which claimed that “among the British Muslims living in the polled areas, there are worrying levels of anti-Semitic conspiratorial beliefs and support for the criminalisation of blasphemy. The… pic.twitter.com/G2Zbde1GMU
Lib Dems suspend councillor over ‘Israel lobby’ and ‘paymasters’ posts
A Liberal Democrat councillor has been suspended by the party pending an investigation after fresh scrutiny over her social media activity reignited controversy surrounding earlier comments about the “Israel lobby” and political “paymasters”.Antisemitism allegations are a ‘badge of honour’, says Bradford independent candidate who made ‘revolting’ anti-Jewish posts
Councillor Sam Ammar, who represents Bromsgrove Central in Worcestershire, was reported by Jewish News in January over a Facebook post in which she claimed the Labour Party was “influenced by the Israel lobby” and referred to MPs acting on behalf of unnamed “paymasters”.
The comments prompted criticism from the Jewish Labour Movement, which said the language echoed antisemitic tropes about Jewish influence and financial control.
Ella Rose-Jacobs, national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said at the time: “This is a textbook example of antisemitic tropes to accuse Jewish people and Israel of controlling politics and the Labour Party through power and money.
“We call on Sir Ed Davey and the Liberal Democrats to do the right thing and take action.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson initially told Jewish News the party had spoken to Ammar and that the original post had been removed.
Following the publication of the article, Ammar disputed the interpretation of her comments and the public criticised Jewish News’ coverage on social media, accusing the paper of having “defamed” her and describing our coverage as “anti-Palestinian.”
An independent candidate standing in Thursday’s local elections in Bradford, who pledges to give half of his councillor's pay cheque to Palestine, has said being called an antisemite is a “badge of honour”.Zack Polanski is a joke that isn’t funny anymore
Sharat Hussain, who is aiming to win the seat for Toller Ward, posted on X on May 4: “Antisemitism has been weaponised and prostituted by Zionists to the point where it is now a badge of honour to be called an Antisemite!”
He has also posted antisemitic caricatures on his Instagram story.
One featured a caricature of a Jewish man with a large nose, rubbing his hands together, with the caption: “You gonna finish that... yummy foreskin?”
The picture also includes the caption: “I fund Labour.”
The other image posted by Hussain is a similar-looking caricature of a man holding up a placard which reads: “Imagine being so vile, sneaky and disgusting that laws have to be created to keep normal people from hating or condemning you.”
The two posts are no longer publicly available but were pictured by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), while the post on X is still visible.
A spokesperson for the CAA said: “These graphics belong in Nazi Germany – not, as it is alleged, on the social media page of an independent political candidate for the upcoming local elections. This rhetoric is revolting, and has no place in our public discourse."
In a political campaign also posted on his X on march 23, Hussain, who is seen in his election portrait wearing a keffiyeh, promises to donate 50 per cent of his wages to Palestine. The average annual salary for a non-cabinet member councillor is approximately £10,000.
As well as this pledge, he also promises to work towards a “safer community” and “cleaner streets”.
On this score, the Green Party is now the prime offender, picking up where Corbyn’s Labour left off. There have been a slew of stories of late about Green local-election candidates and activists spewing pond-scum anti-Semitism. And no, we’re not talking about ‘criticisms of Israel’, as some remain determined to dress it up. We’re talking about calling Jews ‘cockroaches’, dismissing October 7 as a ‘false flag’, and openly praising the rapists and butchers of Hamas. At least 25 Greens have a history of anti-Semitism. Two were arrested last week on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.Polanski reposts message from former councillor who called for Jewish event to be ‘blown up’
And what is the Green Party doing about it? Only a handful of these candidates have been sanctioned. Mark Adderley, standing in Crystal Palace in south London, was suspended after his rants about ‘the chosen people’ were uncovered, but his local party is still urging people to vote for him. Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali has even been encouraging some ousted candidates to take legal action against his own party.
Polanski says these are just a few bad apples, that there are anti-Semites in every party, that the establishment is just trying to take him down, etc. Presumably the media are choosing only to report on the Greens’ Jew haters. Perhaps he thinks Bibi Netanyahu put them up to it.
But this won’t wash. The Greens have succumbed to anti-Israel hysteria, which is the seedbed of the new anti-Semitism. All the ancient anti-Semitic tropes about Jews – as baby killers, puppeteers, sneaky subversives – have just been dolled up as ‘anti-Zionism’. And as the Greens’ candidates list attests, the Jew haters aren’t even bothering to make the distinction anymore.
Polanski, himself a Jewish man, can hardly be accused of being an anti-Semite. But he has become a prisoner of his own low-wattage worldview. The anti-Israel zealot cannot compute the new anti-Semitism, because doing so would require admitting he is part of the problem.
Plus, it would require admitting that much of this Jew hatred is coming from Muslim communities, which the Greens are desperate to court in our more ‘diverse’ cities. Political calculation meets moral cowardice.
Zack Polanski is a joke – a tit-whispering millennial virtue-signaller who seems to be in politics primarily for the retweets. But he’s a joke that isn’t funny anymore.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has reposted a message from a former councillor who was investigated by police after calling for a Jewish Labour Movement conference venue to be “blown up”.
Polanski shared a post on X from Harriet Bradley, which read: “VOTE GREEN FOR HOPE, KINDNESS, CHARITY AND PEACE,” followed by green heart emojis.
The repost comes ahead of this week’s local elections, the first major round of council elections since Polanski became Green Party leader in September 2025.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski reposted a message from former Bristol councillor Harriet Bradley, who was previously investigated over comments targeting a Jewish Labour Movement conference.
Bradley, a former Labour councillor in Bristol and former university lecturer, was investigated by Avon and Somerset Police in December 2023 after posting “Somebody blow up the venue!” in response to an announcement about a forthcoming Jewish Labour Movement conference in north London.
The post was later deleted.
At the time, police said the matter had been recorded as “an incident of malicious communications” and was under investigation.
Bradley later apologised for the comments, saying: “I want to offer an apology on what was a very ill-considered stupid tweet, I am ashamed of having made it.
“It has had awful consequences for me obviously, and I’d like to apologise to anybody who was upset, offended, frightened even.”
The Jewish Labour Movement conference was due to feature senior Labour figures, including Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson and Pat McFadden.
Mike Katz, national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said following the original post: “There is a real feeling of uncertainty around the Jewish community.”
Bradley had previously been suspended by the Labour Party in 2019 over a separate social media post deemed antisemitic.
When I organised @JewishLabour’s conference in 2024, we had to report this woman to the Police for threatening to bomb the venue
— Jack Lubner (@JackLubner) May 6, 2026
It made headline news and was reported on by the BBC
Why are these people attracted to the Green Party? Why does Polanski welcome their support? pic.twitter.com/H7va3Njdrs
Polanski is at it again - the attacker was not handcuffed, he still had a knife in his hand! https://t.co/jRRrNEuTwZ pic.twitter.com/jlV73YxHMr
— David Taylor MP (@DavidTaylor85) May 6, 2026
Palmeira Square where we had our 7/10 memorial was named after Sir Isaac Goldsmid who built the area. He gifted land to the local church and was active in the campaign to get Jews the vote and sit as MPs. Neither of which they could do. It feels like an insult to have an… pic.twitter.com/cLGzHSs6uZ
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) May 6, 2026
New Hampshire hearing shows growing threat of Holocaust denial
When I learned that Holocaust deniers had infiltrated a New Hampshire legislative meeting and tried to insert their view into the state’s Holocaust education efforts, I was personally outraged.ADL report says 2025 one of most violent years for American Jews
My grandparents, my mother’s first husband and their 5-and-½-year-old son were murdered by Zyklon-B gas in a Birkenau gas chamber in August 1943 - dying cruelly in exactly the way that Germar Rudolf, who was invited by a state lawmaker to testify before a legislative committee, says no Jews were killed.
Rudolf is a prominent figure among Holocaust deniers. For more than 39 years, his “Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust” has sought to delegitimize and undermine the historical record of the mass murder of 6 million European Jews during World War II by promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and characterizing the Holocaust as a myth. Holocaust denial cloaked in 'truth-seeking'
Historian Deborah Lipstadt describes Rudolf as “a hardcore denialist. He says no gas chambers, no plan to kill the Jews. It’s all a myth.” In the course of a 2007 trial in Germany, in which he was convicted of inciting racial hatred, he dismissed the Holocaust as “a gigantic fraud.”
Holocaust denial is not merely the manifestation of an insidious and dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theory. It constitutes a moral clear and present danger motivated by a perverse determination to radically downplay if not expunge altogether the annihilation of 6 million Jews during World War II from the historical narrative.
The alarming reality, however, is that because Holocaust denial is generally considered to be less harmful than other variants of antisemitism, it is far too often allowed to fester and foment under a spurious guise of freedom of speech.
By failing to prevent Rudolf from testifying and not striking his testimony from the official record when he questioned whether and how my grandparents and my brother were murdered, the chairperson of this New Hampshire state House committee lent credence to Rudolf’s nefarious agenda. Sadly, this is anything but an isolated incident.
Confronting and refuting Holocaust deniers has come to resemble the classic Whac-a-Mole arcade game except that unlike trying to hit inoffensive plastic facsimiles of burrowing mammals with a mallet, exposing, ostracizing and utterly discrediting Holocaust deniers is both urgent and deadly serious.
Professional charlatans such as Rudolf, David Irving, Frank Leuchter, and Ernst Zündel have made Holocaust denial a career and can be dismissed as such. But I am increasingly unnerved by mainstream or quasi-mainstream figures who spout or otherwise provide a veneer of credibility to Holocaust denial claptrap.
Although incidents of Jew-hatred declined overall in the United States in 2025, last year was one of the most violent years for Jews in the country, according to a new audit published by the Anti-Defamation League.Toronto Police charge teenager in shooting of two synagogues
The 203 antisemitic assaults in 2025 represent a 4% increase from the 196 in 2024, and assaults with a deadly weapon rose nearly 40%, from 23 in 2024 to 32 last year.
Vandalism and harassment declined 21% and 39%, respectively, from 2024 to 2025, per the ADL audit.
There was a dramatic decline—66%—of Jew-hatred on college and university campuses, and campus incidents related to anti-Israel protests were down 83% between 2024 and 2025, according to the audit.
The audit attributed the decrease of incidents on campuses to the “decline of the anti-Israel encampment movement that drove the spike in incidents on campuses in the spring of 2024.”
In 2025, 45% of incidents involved Israel or Zionism, down from 58% in 2024, according to the report. The most incidents (1,160) occurred in New York, followed by California (817), New Jersey (687), Florida (319) and Pennsylvania (281) in 2025.
Overall, the audit found 6,274 reported instances of antisemitism in 2025, a 33% decline from the 9,354 in 2024. Still, it was the third-largest number that the ADL has recorded.
An 18-year-old man was charged with shooting at two Toronto-area synagogues in March; the Toronto Police Service and York Regional Police announced on Wednesday.Queensland car parts owner charged after antisemitic social media posts
The suspect, who is not being named because he was 17-years-old when he allegedly fired shots at the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue and Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (the BAYT), has been charged with two counts of discharging a firearm into a place, two counts of mischief to property over $5000, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possessing a prohibited devices, careless storage of a prohibited device, and occupying a vehicle with a prohibited device.
On Friday, Canadian law enforcement had announced that they were seeking a suspect for his involvement in both shootings.
The suspect had allegedly fired at the BAYT on March 6, causing damage to the synagogue's front doors. Two people were inside the house of worship at the time, but were not injured.
The owner of a Brisbane car parts business has been charged and is due to appear in court on 17 May after posting videos promoting Holocaust denial, Nazi imagery and open antisemitism on his company’s social media accounts.Brussels cathedral installs plaques apologizing for medieval pogrom depicted in stained glass
Adam Gibbs, owner of Panel House in Slacks Creek, appeared in multiple videos on the business’s Instagram page dressed in a caricatured Jewish costume, including a fake beard, moustache and sidelocks.
In one clip, he asked to buy “six million headlights” with a fake bag of cash, only to be told he could afford “271,000” — figures that reference both the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust and a distorted figure used by Holocaust deniers to minimise its scale. The video, posted on April 8, has since been removed from Instagram, while another, also featuring Gibbs dressed as an Orthodox Jew and mentioning “Rabbi Mountain Dew”, remains online.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Queensland president Jason Steinberg said the fact that an individual felt empowered to use social media to broadcast Nazi symbols and Holocaust denial to a wide audience was “a chilling reminder of how emboldened antisemitism has become in Australia”.
He warned that “for too long, we have watched this kind of vile rhetoric move from the fringes to the mainstream”, rejecting any suggestion it could be dismissed as harmless. “This isn’t ‘online noise’ or ‘lighthearted’. It is a direct assault on the safety and dignity of our Jewish community,” he said, noting that antisemitic incidents in Australia, including in Queensland, had reached “record, deeply troubling levels”.
He expressed gratitude to Queensland Police for their “thorough investigation” and for treating the matter with “the gravity it deserves”, adding that hate speech and the display of prohibited symbols were not only offensive but criminal.
“We now await the outcome of the charges and trust that the law will send a clear message,” he said. “Queensland has zero tolerance for those who seek to revive and celebrate the evil ideologies of the Holocaust.”
More than 650 years after Jews in Brussels were executed and expelled following false antisemitic accusations, church officials at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula have installed a plaque apologizing for the persecution commemorated in its stained glass windows.Israel, US decry reported plan to indict mohels in Belgium
At a ceremony on April 27, Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Mechelen-Brussels and Rabbi Albert Guigui, the chief rabbi of Brussels, unveiled four plaques, written in Dutch, French, English and Hebrew, providing historical context for the windows and an apology for the antisemitic persecution tied to the events they depict.
The plaques, which Terlinden signed, state that “baseless accusations of the desecration of the Eucharistic host were made against Jewish communities” in medieval Europe and that the accusations “led to persecution, massacres, and unjustifiable expulsions.” The windows show Jews being executed at the stake in response to their alleged attacks on the Eucharist, bread that Catholic doctrine considers a literal representation of Jesus’ body.
“Theological and social anti-Judaism is in direct contradiction with the Gospel of Christ, which calls for truth, justice, and brotherhood,” the plaques say. “We ask forgiveness from the Jewish people for the suffering these accusations have caused.”
The stained glass windows in the cathedral depict the “Brussels Host Desecration,” an antisemitic accusation in 1370 that Jews had desecrated communion wafers, leading to the execution of Jews in Brussels and the expulsion of the city’s Jewish community.
The windows have drawn scrutiny for decades, particularly as the Catholic Church sought to reckon with its history of antisemitism. In 1969, shortly after the landmark Nostra Aetate declaration rejecting longstanding anti-Jewish Catholic doctrine, the Archbishop of Brussels ordered that several paintings be removed and a plaque be mounted to offer context about the remaining depictions.
Belgian prosecutors reportedly decided on Wednesday to indict three Jewish circumcisers for unlawfully conducting the procedure, prompting condemnations by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.
“The prosecution of these religious figures (mohels), one of whom is American, is WRONG and won’t be tolerated,” Bill White, the U.S. Ambassador in Brussels, wrote on X. “Belgium will be thought of now as antisemitic by the world. Until this is resolved—there is no way around it,” he added.
White was responding to a post on X by Sa’ar, who wrote that with the decision to prosecute the mohels, “Belgium joins a short and shameful list, together with Ireland, of countries that use criminal law to prosecute Jews for practicing Judaism. This is a scarlet letter on Belgian society.”
The controversy over circumcision is unfolding amid other tensions in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel and Belgium, where the government includes left-wing parties with hostile attitudes to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and the Jewish state.
Last year, Belgium joined South Africa’s disputed genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In February, Conner Rousseau, chairman of the Flemish Vooruit Party, which is part of the federal ruling coalition, posted a video that juxtaposed Trump and Adolf Hitler.
Neither the federal prosecutor’s office nor that of the Flemish Region, the Belgian state where Antwerp is situated, announced the indictments. They did not reply in time for publication to a JNS query requesting more information on the subject. However, a government source confirmed to JNS on Wednesday that the political echelon had been informed of a decision to indict.
Belgium have just announced the indictment of the three Mohels who were investigated last year in Antwerp.
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) May 6, 2026
With this act Belgium joins a short and shameful list, together with Ireland, of countries that use criminal law to prosecute Jews for practicing Judaism.
This is a…
Kela raising $200 million at $1 billion valuation with backing from Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt
Kela, the defense technology startup founded by Hamutal Meridor, is in the process of raising $200 million at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion, a round that would make it a unicorn less than two years after its founding.
The funding round is led by Stripe and D1 Capital Partners, with participation from Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt. Existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Lux Capital, are also participating.
People familiar with the company say the rapid and sizable fundraising reflects a sharp increase in its business activity, with contract volume already reaching $50 million in 2025.
Kela was founded in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Meridor, together with Alon Dror, Jason Manne and Omer Bar-Ilan. The company is developing an operating system for modern militaries designed to connect and manage the multiple components required to conduct military operations.
Kela's founders include Meridor, a graduate of Unit 8200, who previously managed Palantir’s Israeli operations, a company that develops combat management systems and has garnered significant interest since its IPO on Wall Street. In recent years, she was a partner at the Vintage investment fund. Kela’s CEO is Dror, a graduate of the Talpiot program who served for about a decade in the defense sector, first as tank commander and later in roles at the Directorate of Defence Research & Development where he was awarded the Israel Defense Prize. Other co-founders include Manne, an aeronautical engineer with a decade of experience in weapons development in the Israeli Air Force and the Intelligence Corps’ elite Technology Unit (Unit 81), and Bar-Ilan, an experienced engineer and serial entrepreneur who previously led the algorithms team at Rafael.
I’m having way too much fun right now.
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) May 6, 2026
Somebody built an LLM trained only on pre-1931 material when a lot of the propaganda people treat as historical fact didn't even exist yet.
So I asked it some very basic questions.
The answers are incredible. Check these out.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/dlRRV3Pfet
Prompt:
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) May 6, 2026
Was Palestine an independent country before the British occupation?
3/ pic.twitter.com/hrjpvfxMUs
Reminder:
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) May 6, 2026
This is an experimental model trained on historical material from before 1931. Some answers may contain errors, outdated assumptions, or unsourced claims. Verify independently before treating anything as definitive history.
Check it out here:https://t.co/WlNi2oEHDw
“This is Palestine”
— Josh (@_j0sh_a_) May 6, 2026
* Shows a map of the 12 tribes of Israel:
> TRIBO RUBEN (Reuben)
> TRIBO MANASSE DI LA DA IORDANO (Manasseh beyond the Jordan)
> MANASSE TRIBO QUA IORDANO (Manasseh on this side of the Jordan)
> NEPTALIN TRIBO (Naphtali)
> ZABULON TRIBO (Zebulun)
> ASSER… https://t.co/YmGvJfpLbs
Contrary to popular belief, Jews living in the land of Israel, spoke Hebrew for daily activities - not only religious rituals, long before Eliezer Ben Yehuda was born.
— Josh (@_j0sh_a_) May 6, 2026
This fact was documented in real time not only by Jews, but also non Jews visiting the Land of Israel reported… pic.twitter.com/1AbAAbX8gu
Dude got a watermelon mezuzah 🍉
— Josh (@_j0sh_a_) May 6, 2026
Thinking it has nothing to do with Israel 😅 pic.twitter.com/fchb5pM0F8
Archeological evidence for the kings of Palestine 🇸🇩: pic.twitter.com/SDQ3sXxzLN
— Josh (@_j0sh_a_) May 6, 2026
I have just landed in Panama City to begin a historic official visit to Panama and Costa Rica.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) May 6, 2026
This is the first-ever visit by an Israeli President to Panama, a nation that is a true friend and partner of the State of Israel. I look forward to meeting with my friend President… pic.twitter.com/1r1TsDb8ri
Plot twist: Israel was probably part of your day today pic.twitter.com/lsRC71g4P0
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) May 6, 2026
Noam Bettan, Israel’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, shared a powerful message ahead of the May 12 competition. We’ll be cheering him on every step of the way. 🇮🇱⭐️🎤 pic.twitter.com/JIXc0R8IUb
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) May 6, 2026
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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