Pages

▼

Saturday, May 09, 2026

05/09 Links: The International Criminal Court Is In Bed With Our Enemies; How Hating Israel Became a Career Move; Israel built secret base in Iraqi desert to support Iran air campaign

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: The International Criminal Court Is In Bed With Our Enemies And It’s Time We Clean House
The only action that the ICC has taken so far is disciplinary proceedings against Khan himself. The most that can happen is that he loses his job. His accuser never turned to the Dutch police because she said his official immunity would protect him. However, under the ICC’s rules, the judges could waive that immunity if they wished. The Court’s refusal to allow a criminal investigation of Khan, even as the scope of the scandal expands, demonstrates the institution’s political nature.

At the same time, the Court seems fully intent on proceeding with the Netanyahu prosecution. Such serious prosecutorial misconduct could, at least in the United States, lead to the dismissal of even factually substantiated criminal charges. Here, the evidence does not even show that the alleged crime (purposeful starvation of civilians) even occurred, let alone was committed by the accused. As the dust settles in Gaza, the lack of mass starvation becomes ever more evident.

An American prosecutor would be loath to try a case with such manifest prosecutorial misconduct (notably, senior court officials knew about the allegations against Khan at the time the indictments were made but kept it quiet for six months, when it leaked to the press). But Netanyahu is not facing a jury of his peers, but rather a panel of international judges who likely share the Court’s institutional culture.

Qatar’s involvement shows the ICC to be even more dangerous than its critics thought. The rap against the tribunal has long been that it acts like a global independent counsel – an unaccountable prosecutor with no democratic restraints. But even worse, it now appears that hostile states can coopt it as a political weapon in an ongoing conflict.

This illustrates the need for the Trump administration to take decisive action against the organization. The sanctions the Treasury Department has imposed on individual court officers have inconvenienced them but appear to have done little to fundamentally weaken the organization or change its trajectory. A body politically motivated enough to maintain the Israel warrants in the wake of the growing Khan fiasco will certainly retaliate against Trump and his top officials once they are out of office.

The administration should impose institution-wide sanctions on the tribunal and vigorously enforce them. The ICC recently got some good news as Peter Magyar, Hungary’s prime minister-elect, vowed to rejoin after it had become the first EU country to quit. Magyar prioritized the issue because he is seeking EU funding, and Brussels ties its financial support to adhering to its foreign policy. America must adopt the same tough approach, insisting that countries receiving benefits quit the Court. For Europe, pushing countries to join the ICC is a matter of ideology. For America, pushing back should be seen as a question of national security.
How Hating Israel Became a Career Move
When a Western celebrity’s career stalls, the most reliable career-fixer available right now is loud, extreme hostility to Israel. The path back does not run through coexistence groups, or hostage families, or Israeli and Palestinian peace activists building shared institutions in Jaffa or Haifa. It runs through extremism. Death chants. Concentration camp comparisons broad enough to include everyone except the people who were actually being held in tunnels under Gaza.

This is why people who genuinely want peace get drowned out, and people who want destruction get profiled in Variety. The algorithm is not neutral. It rewards heat. The hotter the take, the bigger the bookings. Bobby Vylan admitted as much on Louis Theroux’s podcast. He told Theroux he would lead the chant again “tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”

Piers Morgan figured out the demand side of this market. He does not bring nuanced voices on his show because nuanced voices do not generate clips that travel. He books the loudest combatants he can find and harvests the engagement. Bob Vylan and Melissa Barrera have figured out the supply side. Different positions in the same marketplace, same business model.

Notice what this kind of activism costs the activist. Nothing. You do not have to fund a hospital. You do not have to learn Arabic or Hebrew. You do not have to sit with a bereaved family or visit a checkpoint or lose a single friend. You post. You wear the keffiyeh on the red carpet. You sign the open letter. The signaling is luxury-tier. The sacrifice is zero.

This is champagne activism. Same shape as champagne socialism. The people who perform it the loudest are the ones who pay nothing for it. Bob Vylan’s chant cost him a UTA contract and bought him an international audience. Kneecap’s visa fight cost them a US tour and bought them a feature film. Barrera’s Instagram posts cost her Scream 7 and bought her Broadway, a production company, and a sympathetic Variety profile. The math is in the bookings.

Real activism is expensive. It is slow. It does not photograph well. The Parents Circle families look at each other’s grief every week and have done for thirty years. Maoz Inon’s parents were murdered in their home on October 7. He has spent every month since standing on stages with his Palestinian friend Aziz Abu Sarah, whose brother was killed by Israeli soldiers, calling for a shared future. They got in a van together last year and drove across checkpoints for eight days to write a book almost nobody outside the peace community will read. That is what it actually costs to do this work. Variety has not profiled them.

We owe those people more attention than we are giving them. They are the ones doing the actual work. Lift them up. Book them. The career algorithm will not change on its own. The least we can do is stop feeding it.
Andrew Fox: “Rape is just part of war”: what happened when I spoke in Amsterdam
The critical point is that the sexual violence on 7 October was no ordinary “feature” of war. It was an orgy of sadism. It went far beyond anything that had occurred in this conflict before. So I responded by describing what I had seen. I made the point that I was not dehumanising Hamas. Hamas dehumanised itself on 7 October, and when Yoav Gallant described Hamas as Israel fighting human animals, he was absolutely correct.

The room then descended into a shouting match. One of the activists at the back was warned by security that he would be removed if he continued. He immediately tried to recast the warning as a threat of violence against him. The performance was instant: provocation first, victimhood second.

To his credit, the moderator did an excellent job of calming the room. Without him, the situation could easily have deteriorated further. Unfortunately, there was also a journalist from a newspaper hostile to our position in the room (he was not invited by the organisers, so draw your own conclusions about how he came to be there, and why). The article that followed was predictable. We were blamed. The activists were cast as victims. The same pattern repeated itself: disrupt, provoke, invert, accuse.

For me, the morning was a lesson. I am primarily a writer, but I have also given speeches. I am a qualified university lecturer and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. However, I have never previously experienced an incident in which pro-Palestinian activists turn up determined to create a scene.

What struck me most was not just the hostility: it was the epistemic closure. These people operate within a sealed universe of alternative facts. There is no argument to be had because there is no shared evidentiary standard. I know what I have seen with my own eyes in Gaza itself during the war. They, on the other hand, have absorbed two and a half years of propaganda via social media, activist networks, campus politics, and the Hamas narrative laundered through supposedly respectable institutions. Those two evidentiary bars are not the same.

That is the truly dangerous part. When two sides disagree about policy, there can still be debate. When two sides disagree about interpretation, there can still be debate. However, when one side insists on living in a manufactured reality, conversation becomes almost impossible.

That is what I saw in Amsterdam; neither serious engagement nor moral seriousness. Not even real anger, in the sense of an emotion tied to facts. What I saw was a political identity built from keffiyehs, flags, slogans, and inverted victimhood. It was a glimpse into how toxic this movement has become. Not because it advocates for Palestinians (there is nothing inherently wrong with advocating for Palestinians), but because so much of the Western pro-Palestinian movement has now fused with denial, propaganda, theatrical intimidation, and the moral laundering of Hamas.

That is the world we are dealing with, and after what I saw in Amsterdam this week, I am more convinced than ever that the fight is not only about Israel, Gaza, or international law. It is about reality itself.


Spectator Editorial: Anti-Semitism is a virus – and it’s spreading
To eradicate a virus, one needs precision. The origin of the threat needs to be identified, as do the circumstances of its incubation and spread, and the vulnerability of specific hosts. The wrong response risks making things worse.

Anti-Semitism is a virus, and, as the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, one that mutates over time. Originally, it was a religious prejudice; post-Enlightenment, it developed into a racial hatred, fuelled by a twisted version of social Darwinism. It was thought that after the unique evil of the Holocaust, the single greatest crime in history, when man became wolf unto man, the virus had at last been defeated.

But in our own time a new variant has emerged. Anti-Semitism now finds its most vigorous form in hostility to the expression of collective Jewish identity, the Jewish home: Israel. It is customary in debates around contemporary anti-Semitism to maintain there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic about criticising Israel. That is true. But what is striking is just how much criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. The very existence of Israel is called into question. That is what anti-Zionism means. No other state on Earth has its right to exist debated so vehemently. The partitions and border re-drawings that followed two world wars generated tensions and conflicts elsewhere, to be sure. But no one calls for an end to Pakistan or the erasure of Jordan. A double standard is applied – one of the oldest markers of anti-Semitism.

More than that, Israel’s actions, especially in its own defence, are held to a different standard than other nations. Israel’s neighbours sought to strangle it at birth. They have, at different times, hosted and funded terror organisations pledged to the elimination of Jewish communal existence. On 7 October 2023, Hamas, funded by Iran, inflicted on Israel the gravest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. In response, Israel has sought to quell that threat to its people and their survival.

That conflict has been ugly and many more innocents have died. But there has been a contrast between Israel and its enemies, and indeed its detractors. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have sought, albeit imperfectly, to minimise civilian casualties. Hamas has worked to maximise them. Detailed work by Lord Roberts of Belgravia for a House of Lords committee has shown how Israel, engaged in the difficult work of urban counter-insurgency, has managed to limit casualties below the level seen in other similar conflicts, including those in which British or American troops were engaged.

But such restraint, which necessarily involves a greater risk to Israel’s own soldiers, has not brought Israel any greater understanding. Instead, the allegation that it is engaging in a genocide has grown in vehemence and volume.

Two strands of anti-Semitism are at work here. The first is the demand that Jews live on terms set by others: they can win sympathy as victims but never understanding, let alone support, when they assert their right to self-defence.

The second is the desire to go further and to erase any historic sympathy for the Jewish people’s plights by making them the equals of their past oppressors – the new Nazis, the gรฉnocidaires of our time.


‘It’s going to be a rough few years’ – Jewish residents of Hackney voice concern as Greens claim historic victory
It is the borough that is home to Europe’s largest community of Orthodox Jews, the 30,000 Charedim of Stamford Hill.

But as Hackney today saw a Green Party which has adopted a stridently anti-Israel position take power, some Jewish residents fear a "rough few years" ahead.

In her victory speech, Zoe Garbett was quick to appeal to her base, claiming that her win was thanks to voters who are “sick of politicians… supporting genocide”.

As the party also took control of the council, this was a landmark political moment for a borough where Labour has held power since 2002.

One local Jewish woman, Zahava told the JC: “The new mayor Zoรซ Garbett has said she's not happy with the way the police have dealt with the right to protest about 'genocide in Gaza'.

“I worry a lot about what happens next. Most people around me sadly have their heads in the sand. I do feel we are in for a rough few years now.”

In October, as a councillor, Garbett caused uproar at a council meeting when in supporting a motion to cut ties with Israel she said: “I want to be really clear what we are talking about... a genocide, apartheid, a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people."

At its autumn conference, the Green party is expected to consider a motion equating Zionism with racism.

Zahava expressed her fear that the bias against Israel may inflame antisemitism.

She said: “I am very concerned. Their idea of Zionism equalling racism is going to make hate crimes much worse in my opinion.”

Zahava is worried that this underlying issue could leak into the local politics of Hackney.

She said: “The whole Gaza manifesto to me means that there will be a lot more protests in the area.”

Another Charedi resident who wants to remain anonymous told the JC: “There is concern that local politics should not become dominated by divisive debates about the Middle East.

“In Stamford Hill, Jewish and Muslim neighbours have lived alongside each other respectfully for many, many years. On my road, a mosque and a synagogue sit close to each other, and relations have remained positive because people have focused on being good neighbours locally, rather than importing overseas conflict into local community life.

“We hope the new mayor and her administration will keep that spirit and focus on practical local issues that bring communities together.”

The resident added that local Jews want the new council to focus on the local concerns such as housing, bin collection, and streets, not international politics.
Ninth arrest made for Golders Green Hatzalah ambulances arson
A Leytonstone resident was arrested in relation to the Golders Green Hatzalah ambulances arson on Thursday, the Metropolitan police announced on Friday, reportedly the ninth arrest in relation to the attack that sparked a wave of arson attacks against London Jewish, Israeli, and Iranian dissident sites.

The 48 year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson, following the March 23 incident in which four Jewish emergency service ambulances were set ablaze.

"The attack on the Hatzalah ambulances caused considerable community concern and we have been working continuously to investigate this incident," Counter Terrorism Policing London head Commander Helen Flanagan said in a press statement. "Our aim is to arrest and charge all those responsible for the arson attacks and other incidents targeted at Jewish, Israeli and Iranian sites in recent weeks."

The Met said that the newest arrest brought the total of people arrested in relation to the wave of attacks to 31. Eight had been charged, and one had been convicted for the arson attempt against the Kenton Synagogue.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, and a 17-year-old boy were charged for the ambulance arson on April 3, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Eighteen year old Dagenham resident Judex Atshatshi was charged for the incident on April 17.

A Portsmouth man was arrested Thursday for involvement in the Finchley Reform Synagogue arson attempt, making him the third to have been arrested in relation to the April 15 incident. The Met said Friday that he was bailed until July.
Anti-Israel Greens win 2 mayoralties, 5 councils in UK local elections; hard-right Reform is big winner
The hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform party was the major success in Britain’s local elections, held on Thursday and counted through Friday and into Saturday. Underlining a shift in British politics away from a broadly two-party system, the UK’s Sky News projected that Reform would be the biggest party in the British parliament were general elections to be held today.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party took a battering, but he said he would not resign. “The right lesson is to listen to voters,” but it “doesn’t mean tacking right or left,” Starmer said Saturday.

There was also considerable success for the far-left, anti-Israel Green Party, which won the mayoralty from Labour in two London boroughs, won control of four councils, and gained hundreds of council seats in urban centers, including in London, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle, as well as university towns such as Cambridge.

The Greens have been engulfed in antisemitism scandals during the campaign, at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat. The party’s Jewish leader, Zack Polanski, made anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian politics a centerpiece of his party’s platform.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made gains across England, Scotland and Wales — though Scottish and Welsh parties took the biggest share of seats in those elections. With almost all votes tallied, the results were grim for Labour, particularly in Wales, where it lost control of the devolved government for the first time since the parliament in Cardiff was established 27 years ago.

The nationalist Plaid Cymru, which wants Welsh independence in the long-term, is now the biggest party, with Reform second and Labour third. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party remains the biggest party but failed to get a majority — winning six fewer seats than in 2021.

In England, Reform picked up nearly 1,500 of the 5,000 council seats available. The Greens also fared unprecedentedly well, winning almost 600 seats.

Labour lost almost 1,500 council seats and ceded control of several local authorities — though results in London were not as bad as predicted.


Australia’s antisemitism inquiry should alarm every Jew
There are moments in a parent’s life when pride and pain arrive together, indistinguishable.

I experienced that moment recently while reading a formal submission to an Australian Royal Commission. It was not written by a distant public figure or an anonymous witness. It was written by my son, Rabbi Dan Lieberman, Chief Rabbi of the Perth Hebrew Congregation.

A Royal Commission is not a panel discussion. It is not a symbolic gesture. It is the most serious instrument a democracy possesses when it believes something has gone fundamentally wrong.

In countries like Australia and the United Kingdom, Royal Commissions are rare. They are convened when ordinary systems fail, when a problem is no longer isolated, no longer containable, and no longer ignorable. They carry legal force: the power to compel testimony, to subpoena evidence, to expose systemic breakdown.

Societies do not reach for a Royal Commission unless they believe they must.

Which is why this moment matters.

Because when antisemitism becomes the subject of a Royal Commission, two truths are being acknowledged, whether explicitly or not.

The first is that this is no longer a collection of unfortunate incidents.

It is something deeper, more entrenched, a structural problem serious enough to demand national scrutiny.

The second is even more striking: it is recognised as such.

Not dismissed. Not minimised. Not explained away. But recognised.

And yet, there is a dissonance here that should trouble us.

If antisemitism is serious enough to warrant a Royal Commission, serious enough to trigger the most powerful investigative machinery of the state, then how is it that, on the ground, so many of the experiences described still feel ignored, downplayed, or inadequately addressed?

How can something be both officially acknowledged as a national concern and yet, in daily life, treated as marginal?


Police investigating alleged anti-Semitic slur at children’s netball game
A woman is being investigated by NSW Police after allegedly directing an anti-Semitic slur at Jewish players during a children’s netball game at Maroubra in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Saturday.

Police were called to the Heffron Park netball courts on Saturday morning and it was alleged that a parent watching from the sidelines had made the slur.

It’s understood that it is alleged the woman said “f**k the Jews” and “they should have all been eradicated”.

The woman was not arrested, and was given a move-on order by police.

In a statement on Sunday, the Saints Netball Club said it was aware of an allegation that a supporter had “made comments of an anti-Semitic nature directed at players of a competing club which is associated with the Jewish community”.

“The Saints Netball Club unequivocally condemns and disavows antisemitism in all its forms,” the club said.

“Such remarks do not reflect the values, principles, or standards of our club, our members, our players, or our wider community.”

It said it offered its “sincerest and most unreserved apologies to the Jewish community” and said the dehumanisation of Jewish people had no place in the sport or wider society.


Israel said to have built secret base in Iraqi desert to support Iran air campaign
Israel reportedly set up a secret military base in the Iraqi desert in February in order to support its aerial campaign against Iran.

According to a Saturday report in the Wall Street Journal, citing US officials and other sources, Israel built the base shortly before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28, to serve as a hub for logistics to support the Israeli Air Force.

It also housed special forces troops and search-and-rescue teams poised to act if any Israeli pilots were downed, the report said. To protect the outpost, Israeli troops even launched airstrikes against Iraqi forces who nearly discovered it in early March, according to the newspaper.

The strikes killed one Iraqi soldier, Baghdad said at the time, after Iraqi media reported that a local shepherd witnessed “unusual military activity,” including helicopters and gunfire in a remote area. According to the Journal, the Israeli strikes succeeded in deterring Iraqi forces from any further investigation.

The IDF declined to comment on the report.

Iraq, which initially blamed the March attack on the US, said at the time: “This reckless operation was carried out without coordination or approval.”

The US was not involved in the operation, sources told the American news outlet.

“It appears there was a certain force on the ground before the strike, supported from the air, operating beyond the capabilities of our units,” a top Iraqi military official said at the time.

The report pointed to a statement made in March by then-Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, when he said that special forces had been conducting “extraordinary” operations during the conflict with Iran.

“The troops of the air force’s special units are currently carrying out extraordinary missions that can spark one’s imagination,” Bar said, without elaborating further.

According to an expert speaking to the WSJ, the western desert of Iraq, where the reported base was located, is a perfect spot for a clandestine military outpost, given its sparse population and vast size.
Tehran importing drone components via Caspian Sea
Iran is circumventing the U.S. naval blockade by importing supplies from Russia via the Caspian Sea, including drone components, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing U.S. officials with knowledge on the matter speaking under conditions of anonymity.

With the Strait of Hormuz largely barred for transit by the U.S. Navy, Tehran has been working “rapidly” to open alternative trading routes, the paper reported.

Four Iranian ports along the Caspian, north of Tehran, are operating tirelessly to bring in wheat, corn, animal feed, sunflower oil and other supplies, according to the officials.

Russia has four main ports on the sea, at Astrakhan, Olya, Makhachkala and Kaspiysk.

The report noted that Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, head of the Association of Iran’s Food Industries, told Iran’s IRIB public broadcaster that the regime is rerouting essential food imports through the Caspian.

The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water, bigger than Japan.

Unlike in the Persian Gulf, the United States cannot prevent the navigation of vessels on the Caspian, to which only Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have access.

“If you’re thinking about the ideal place for sanction evasion and military transfers, it’s the Caspian,” the Times cited as saying Nicole Grajewski, a professor specializing in Iran and Russia at Sciences Po in Paris.

U.S. officials said that the shipment of drone components can help Iran to quickly rebuild its UAV arsenal, which has been reduced by roughly 60% in the recent war.


Civilian, three IDF soldiers charged with spying for Tehran
The Haifa District Prosecutor’s Office indicted a civilian and three Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Friday for allegedly carrying out spying missions for Iranian intelligence agents, the Israel Police said.

The soldiers are suspected of acting on behalf of an Iranian handler before their enlistment.

The four suspects were arrested in March in the wake of an investigation by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), IDF Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200, the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit and the Military Police Investigation Unit, the police said.

The investigation revealed that one of the defendants recruited the other suspects, and that they carried out photography missions across the country and were asked to acquire weaponry, the statement read.

The defendants allegedly documented and transmitted to their handlers photos and videos of various sites, including train stations, shopping centers and security cameras.

Additionally, they transmitted documentation of the Israeli Air Force Technological College (also known as the Techni School) in Haifa where some of the suspects studied, the police added.

Some of the defendants allegedly approached their handler on their own initiative to carry out security missions, and some were involved in vandalizing property as part of the missions, according to police.
IDF hits more than 85 targets across Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces over the past 24 hours attacked more than 85 targets in Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah, the military said in a statement on Saturday.

Among the targets struck were weapon storage facilities, launchers and structures used by the Iranian-backed organization to advance terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, the military added.

In separate incidents, an underground site in the Beqaa Valley used to produce weapons and Hezbollah terrorists operating against Israeli soldiers in Southern Lebanon were attacked, the IDF said.

Also on Saturday, Hezbollah fired explosive drones at Israeli territory near the border, wounding three reservist soldiers, the military relayed in a separate statement.

One reservist sustained severe injuries, while an officer and the third reservist were moderately injured. All three were evacuated to the hospital and their families were notified, the IDF said.

In addition, explosive drones and projectiles were launched at soldiers operating in Southern Lebanon. One drone damaged an unmanned IDF engineering vehicle. No troops were injured in any of the incidents, the IDF noted.

“This incident constitutes another violation of the ceasefire understandings by the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the army stated.
12 said killed in Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, as Hezbollah drones wound 3 troops
At least 12 people were reported killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, as the military said that three reservists were wounded by Hezbollah explosive drones.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a series of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon after issuing evacuation warnings to nine villages.

Hezbollah and Israel have continued to attack each other since US President Donald Trump first announced a ceasefire on April 16, which has now largely unraveled, though fighting remains at a lower level than before.

On Saturday, the terror group launched several salvos of explosive-laden drones and rockets at Israeli forces.

One drone struck Israeli territory, close to the border with Lebanon, seriously injuring a reservist soldier and moderately wounding a reservist officer and another reservist soldier.

The troops were taken to Galilee Medical Center, which said the seriously wounded soldier underwent surgery and was now stable in the intensive care unit. The moderately wounded troops were scheduled for surgery later.

In another incident, the military said an explosive drone struck an unmanned engineering vehicle in southern Lebanon, causing damage. No injuries were caused.

Separately, several rockets launched by Hezbollah at troops in southern Lebanon were intercepted by air defenses, the IDF added.
IDF attacks Islamic Jihad arms production factory in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces, guided by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), struck a weapons production site belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, the two bodies said in a joint statement.

“The site had recently been used by the organization’s production array, as well as by the Hamas terrorist organization, for the production of explosive devices and the storage of additional weapons intended to harm Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating near the Yellow Line,” the statement read.

The Yellow Line runs through the Strip, with the IDF holding about 54% of the territory, east of the line.

The IDF and Shin Bet stressed that measures were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the evacuation of the area and the use of aerial surveillance, before striking the site with precise munitions.

“IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the statement added.

On Thursday, Hamas confirmed that Azzam al-Hayya, the son of Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya, died of wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike.

Al-Hayya died following an Israeli strike in Gaza City’s Daraj Tuffah area late on Wednesday, a source at the city’s Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.
PA’s pay-for slay ‘con game’ revealed by Ramallah court decision, watchdog says
The Ramallah Administrative Court ruled on May 4 against a Palestinian Authority decision to stop paying prisoner Ahmed Firas Hassan his “pay-for-slay” stipend in mid-2025.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a Jerusalem-based monitoring group, said the episode indirectly reveals the P.A.’s “con game” to hide “pay-for-slay” from Western countries.

The Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund provides monthly stipends to those imprisoned in Israel for attacks on Israelis, and to the families of slain terrorists.

Ahmed Firas Hassan’s salary was stopped together along with those of another 1,600 prisoners three months after P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas issued a “presidential” decree transferring the handling of prisoner stipends to a new entity, the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (PNEEI).

PMW said it is not clear why this group of terrorists stopped receiving their monthly stipends.

The P.A. created PNEEI after coming under pressure from Western countries to end “pay-for-slay.” The P.A. claimed PNEEI ended the program because Palestinian prisoners would not receive money for their violent acts, but based solely on their socioeconomic status. PMW has previously shown this to be a transparent attempt to pull the wool over Western eyes. “Pay-for-slay” continues as usual.

The Ramallah court case further cements this basic truth, it said.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), a group established by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, which “regularly collaborates” with U.S.-designated terrorist groups, according to NGO Monitor, brought the case on behalf of Hassan in August 2025, “with the aim of ending the salary crisis of approximately 1,600 prisoners whose salaries were stopped,” according to a May 5 Al-Araby Al-Jadeed report.

PMW said it exposes the P.A.'s “con game” because the P.A.’s lawyers “didn’t even try to argue that the prisoner wasn’t entitled to a salary but instead claimed some technical rationale behind the suspension,” as revealed by ICHR’s attorney Ahmed Nasra to Hebron’s Radio Alam on May 4.


Israel to deport two Gaza flotilla activists detained for past week
Israel will release two foreign activists taken off a Gaza-bound flotilla from detention Saturday, then hand them to immigration authorities ahead of their deportation, the rights group representing them said.

“Today, the [Shin Bet] intelligence agency informed Adalah’s legal team that Global Sumud Flotilla activists and leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek would be released from Israeli detention today, Saturday 9 May 2026,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement, adding the pair “will be handed to Israel’s immigration authorities later today and kept in custody pending their deportation.”

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were brought to Israel for questioning last week after their flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli Navy in international waters off Greece.

Israel has accused both individuals of being affiliated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), a group Washington has said is “clandestinely controlled by Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian terror group. The PCPA is sanctioned by Israel and the US.

The Global Sumud Flotilla was the second initiative in a year aiming to break an Israeli naval blockade on war-ravaged Gaza, which rights groups say has suffered shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel sparked the war in the enclave, though Israel has touted increased aid.

The flotilla’s vessels with 170 activists had set sail from France, Spain and Italy, and were intercepted off the coast of Crete, hundreds of nautical miles (over 1,000 kilometers) from Israel. With the exception of Avila and Abu Keshek, all the activists were freed last Friday in Greece.


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff examines legal claims against Israel in former ambassadors' letter
A group of former UK ambassadors has written to the Financial Times calling for trade and academic sanctions against Israel based on claims that Israel is violating international law.

In this interview, Natasha Hausdorff, Legal Director of UKLFI Charitable Trust, examines these claims and the way international law is increasingly being used in public debates.

The discussion covers the recent death penalty legislation passed by the Knesset, allegations of violence by Israelis in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and access by the Red Cross to Palestinian terrorists imprisoned by Israel.

It includes critical examination of the Advisory Opinion procedure of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), its abuse to purport to adjudicate disputes and to target Israel, and its problematic approach to fact-finding.

Ms Hausdorff observes that the opinions provided under this procedure are not legally binding and have been political in character. She contrasts these with the binding resolution of the UN Security Council on terrorist financing and US laws countering boycotts.

Other issues addressed include the incorrect assumption that rules binding states bind private businesses, the absence of calls to boycott businesses operating in territories occupied by other countries, the status of Judea and Samaria, and the legality of Israelis living there.

It concludes with broader concerns about politicisation, selective application, misrepresentation and weaponisation of international law.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:56 The three main claims in the ambassadors’ letter
03:47 What an ICJ advisory opinion actually means
08:19 Are third states legally required to sanction Israel?
12:25 The legality of settlements under international law
16:35 Is international law being politicised in public debate?


UKLFI: Pro-Palestinian legal team fails in bid to prosecute dual British-Israeli national who rejoined IDF
A UK court has dismissed an attempt to bring a private prosecution under the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 against a dual British–Israeli national, serving as a reservist in the Israel Defence Forces, who returned to Israel and reported for duty on 8 October 2023.

In a detailed judgment, the court found the application to be legally flawed, evidentially deficient, and an abuse of process. The case raises wider questions about the scope of historic legislation, the regulation of private prosecutions and the role of the courts in matters touching on foreign policy, conflict and statehood.

In this interview, leading solicitor and UKLFI Director, Daniel Berke, explains the legal arguments considered by the court, including whether the Foreign Enlistment Act can apply to dual nationals, how “enlistment” is interpreted in the context of reservists and the significance of the court’s findings on the duty of candour and expert evidence.

The discussion also explores the broader constitutional issues, including the boundaries between the judiciary and the executive, and what the ruling may mean for future attempts to use private prosecutions in politically sensitive cases.

This interview reflects legal analysis and commentary on a court ruling. It does not constitute legal advice.

This discussion is presented for educational purposes as part of UKLFI Charitable Trust’s work advancing legal education in policy relating to Israel and to antisemitism.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction and case overview
01:16 – What application sought and why it mattered
07:56 – Why the claim was rejected in law
12:15 – Enlistment vs reserve service and “state of war”
16:02 – Duty of candour, evidence & abuse of process
20:21 – Constitutional issues and wider implications


Mamdani’s Statement on Synagogue Protest Draws Legal Scrutiny
Mamdani, by contrast, reiterated his criticism of the event on Wednesday and doubled-down on his position at a press conference. “I think that critique of the policies of a government is very much separate from bigotry towards a people of a specific religious faith, and there is no tolerance for anti-Semitism,” he said.

Goldfeder’s legal argument centers on what he describes as the constitutional significance of official condemnation. Citing Bantam Books v. Sullivan (1963) and last year’s unanimous Supreme Court ruling in NRA v. Vullo, he argues that a mayor’s statement can chill protected religious activity even without any formal government action.

He also invoked Masterpiece Cakeshop (2018), in which the Supreme Court held that official hostility toward religious motivation constitutes a constitutional violation regardless of whether formal enforcement follows.

Speaking with Belaaz, Goldfeder elaborated on the distinction he sees between permissible political speech and actionable government conduct. “A mayor is allowed to have foreign-policy opinions,” he said. “He is not allowed to use the authority of his office to single out a lawful Jewish religious event for condemnation while that event is being targeted. That is where political speech starts to look like viewpoint discrimination and unequal protection. The mayor is not just another commentator on X. He speaks for the city.”

Goldfeder explained that “If a pattern emerges in which Jewish institutions are treated as ideologically suspect when they need protection, that can become evidence of municipal policy or custom for purposes of civil-rights liability.”

Such a pattern, critics say, has already been demonstrated. Mamdani has previously deleted city statements about protecting Jewish New Yorkers, rescinded an order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, reorganized the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes into a broader office and vetoed a bill requiring buffer zones for protestors at schools.

The Anti-Defamation League’s New York/New Jersey branch said the mayor “had a responsibility to de-escalate. He did the opposite.”

Goldfeder rejected that framing. Aliyah, he wrote, is not a detachable political position for most Jews – it is bound up with theology, history, and religious identity. Official condemnation of a Jewish gathering on those grounds, he argued, “tells Jewish institutions that protection may come with ideological conditions.

The preschool attached to the synagogue did not reopen for regular dismissal that afternoon. For Goldfeder, that was the central fact the mayor’s statement failed to acknowledge. “A Jewish preschool closed early,” he wrote, “and the mayor’s first move was to explain the grievance of the people outside.”


Artists strike to protest Israeli participation ahead of Venice Biennale
About a dozen stalls were shut Friday at the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition ahead of its opening to the public as artists protested the inclusion of Israel in the event.

The exhibit has been beset by controversy in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s opening, with no Golden Lion prizes given for best national pavilion or best participant in the main curated exhibition after the jury quit in protest of Israel’s and Russia’s participation, and loud protests outside the countries’ pavilions.

Friday’s strike was called by the Art Not Genocide Alliance to protest Israel’s inclusion due to the war against Hamas in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023 massacre.

The coalition initially said that some 20 pavilions would be shut, but in the end 12 took part, with some citing a walkout by local workers. Others flew Palestinian flags or displayed pro-Palestinian artwork.

Among those shut were the Belgian, Dutch, Austrian, Japanese, Macedonian and Korean pavilions, while the British, Spanish, French, Egyptian, Finnish and Luxembourg entries closed for several hours, the UK’s Guardian reported.

Visitors trying to enter the British pavilion were met with a sign saying: “Due to the Italian cultural workers’ strike today, it is not possible to open the British pavilion,” the Guardian said.


NYC public schools social worker posted images of bugs on video of Jews celebrating holiday
A NYC Department of Education social worker who’s the ambassador of her high school’s anti-religious bullying program allegedly posted demeaning pictures beneath a video of Orthodox Jews, images critics said echoed “Nazi propaganda,” The Post has learned.

Lauren Camiolo, a social worker at Chelsea’s Landmark High School, uploaded images of beetles four different times in response to a Facebook video of the men celebrating Lag B’Omer, which commemorates the death of one of the founders of Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah.

Critics slammed the social worker’s post comparing Jews to insects, and said that imagery came straight out of Nazi Germany.

“That’s a very dangerous and antisemitic trope coming from Nazi Germany, where Hitler would categorize Jews as subhuman and insects. He said to restore Germany’s greatness, they had to exterminate the insects,” New York City Public Schools Alliance President Karen Feldman said.

Camiolo, 40, who records show has worked at the DOE since at least 2020, ironically serves as the Respect for All liaison at the school, a DOE website says.

She earned $115,665 in 2025, public records show.

The Respect for All program is designed to fight bullying and help schools “foster and maintain safe learning environments that are supportive, inclusive, and free from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of any kind,” a DOE website says.

“When a Jewish student faces discrimination or bias, they have no one to go to if their Respect for All liaison traffics in antisemitism… a lot of kids are hurting,” she added.


UKLFI: Concerns Grow Over Scottish Teachers’ Group Promoting Anti-Israel Propaganda in Classrooms
A teachers’ organisation in Scotland is actively promoting arguably politically partisan and arguably antisemitic materials for teachers to use in Scottish classrooms including to very young children.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to Douglas Alexander the Secretary of State for Scotland, and to Jenny Gilruth, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in the Scottish Government, raising serious concerns about the organization ‘Educators for Peace’ (EFP).

UKLFI has also written to Education Scotland, every Scottish local authority and the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) setting out details of EFP’s worrying activities.

UKLFI has separately referred individuals associated with EFP to the GTCS for investigation into their fitness to teach.

UKLFI is pleased to report encouraging responses from a number of these authorities.

EFP
EFP describes itself as a network of educators promoting “peace pedagogies”. In practice, UKLFI’s letters state that the organisation appears to operate as a vehicle for pro-Palestinian political advocacy that explicitly rejects the legal and professional requirement for teacher impartiality, asserting that: “neutrality and silence becomes complicity.”

Individuals associated with EFP have publicly endorsed calls for “a world without Israel”; characterised Israel as committing genocide and as an apartheid state, and described the Israel Defence Force, an army composed largely of conscripted civilians, as “genocidal maniacs.”

One co-founder has also used social media to assert that Hamas is not antisemitic and to justify the 7 October 2023 attacks, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, as a response to “occupation”. She is also understood to have delivered teacher workshops characterising the “River to the Sea” slogan as a benign expression of self-determination, a position at odds with the Prime Minister and authorities in multiple jurisdictions who have recognised it as antisemitic.


Two men charged with filming antisemitic TikTok videos
wo men have been charged with religiously aggravated harassment over allegations they travelled to a predominantly Jewish area to film antisemitic social media videos for TikTok.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to reports of a hate crime involving a group of men allegedly harassing members of the Jewish community on Clapton Common in north London on Thursday at around 9pm.

The force said officers arrested five men following the incident in Hackney.

The CPS said Adam Bedoui, 20, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, were due to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Saturday over allegations they approached, harassed and filmed Jewish people in Stamford Hill, north London.

Bedoui and Bousloub, both of West Drayton, Hillingdon, west London, are charged with religiously aggravated intentional harassment, contrary to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and intentional harassment, contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.

Two 20-year-old men and a 21-year-old man arrested have been released on bail pending further enquiries, police said.

Huw Rogers, chief crown prosecutor for CPS Direct, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to charge Adam Bedoui, 20, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, with religiously aggravated intentional harassment and intentional harassment following an incident where Jewish people in Stamford Hill were being approached, harassed and filmed.
New York City garden that had barred Zionist members drops the requirement
A New York City public garden that had barred members who believe in “Zionism” has agreed to allow Zionist members, the city’s parks department said on Thursday.

The Sunset Community Garden in Queens had attempted to block Zionist members in 2024, setting off a long-running dispute with city authorities and a court battle.

A spokesperson for the parks department told The Times of Israel on Thursday that the city and the garden had “resolved this case to both parties’ satisfaction, in a manner that safeguards the rights of all members of the community.”

“Garden members will not be required to be anti-Zionist,” the spokesperson said.

Jewish neighborhood residents first raised complaints in 2024 about anti-Israel activism at the Sunset Community Garden.

The garden, located in a city-owned public space, had instituted “community agreements” that required prospective members to pledge support to “oppressed and marginalized people” worldwide, “especially Palestine.”

Another commitment required members to oppose “violent behavior or rhetoric that expresses all forms of hate,” including “Zionist, anti-Semitic, nationalist and/or racist beliefs.”

Membership in the garden allows area residents to participate in gardening activities, and not only visit.


How Shabbat became part of Trump's 250th US anniversary celebration
At the precise moment influential Jewish voices were publicly debating whether Shabbat itself had become obsolete, the US president did something almost politically unimaginable: he formally inserted Shabbat into America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

In an official White House proclamation recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month, US President Donald Trump called on Americans to celebrate their “faith and freedom” and “especially on Shabbat to celebrate our 250th year.”

Not innovation. Not activism. Not identity politics.

Shabbat.

The symbolism of that moment was extraordinary.

At one of the most culturally fragmented moments in modern American life, the White House unexpectedly elevated one of Judaism’s oldest civilizational institutions as part of a national milestone celebration.

Orthodox Jews spent decades fighting to preserve Shabbat from secular erosion. Few imagined they would one day hear an American president publicly elevate it during a national anniversary celebration.

And yet that is precisely what happened.

Only weeks earlier, parts of modern Jewish discourse were openly questioning whether traditional structures like Shabbat still belonged in contemporary life. While some dismissed those conversations as internet provocation, they revealed a deeper tension quietly unfolding inside modern Jewish identity itself.

Increasingly, many Jews are eager to embrace Jewish symbolism while distancing themselves from the religious civilization that gave those symbols meaning in the first place.

Since October 7, Jewish identity has surged visibly across public life. Influencers, celebrities, activists, and public figures proudly wear Magen David necklaces, wave Israeli flags, post hostage graphics, and publicly defend Jews against rising antisemitism.

In many ways, that visible Jewish pride has been important and admirable.

Yet at the very same time, many openly broadcast lifestyles fundamentally detached from the structures that preserved Jewish continuity across generations. Public Jewish pride increasingly coexists alongside open disregard for Shabbat, kashrut, covenantal obligation, and the religious framework that historically sustained Jewish civilization itself.

That contradiction matters.

Because Judaism was never built solely on symbolism. It was built on transmitted obligations, discipline, memory, continuity, and covenant.




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

at