Tuesday, June 09, 2026

06/08 Links Pt2: ICC's Khan suspended after finding he committed serious sexual misconduct; BDS Was Never About Groceries; How UN ‘human rights experts’ became a tool of dictatorships

From Ian:

Shabbos Kestenbaum: The war on campus Jewry has nothing to do with Gaza
The ceasefire did not stop this. The hostage deal did not stop this. This was never contingent on Israel’s war against Hamas.

University administrators already have the tools they need: codes of conduct, anti-discrimination policies, rules for recognized student organizations and election oversight procedures. What they lack is the will to use them.

I have testified before Congress. I sued the richest university in the world. I know what institutional cowardice looks like up close. I also know what accountability looks like because I forced it. Harvard settled, and a federal judge allowed that case to proceed after rejecting the university’s motion to dismiss. These things happen when people stop accepting excuses and start demanding enforcement.

Student governments were built to represent all students, not to be captured by factions that plan to exclude Jews from democratic participation. Universities were built to be institutions of learning, not battlegrounds where Jewish students must hide their identity to earn social acceptance.

The answer to every pressure to surrender our institutions and redefine our identity on other people’s terms has always been the same: a deeper commitment to our communities, to one another and to our unassailable right to define for ourselves what Jewish life means.
Shai Davidai: BDS Was Never About Groceries
Unlike traditional antisemitism, which openly demonizes Jews, American Intellectual Antisemitism cloaks itself in the language of social justice, decolonization, and human rights. Jews are recast not as a vulnerable minority but as White settler-colonial oppressors, while the world’s only Jewish state is framed as uniquely illegitimate. By framing Israel as uniquely evil, the ideology allows highly educated people to openly express animus toward Jewish collective existence as a moral virtue.

American Intellectual Antisemitism doesn’t criticize Israel’s policies. It treats the existence of a Jewish state itself as a moral crime.

The BDS movement perfectly embodies this ideology. Although its supporters present BDS as a human-rights initiative, its founder, Omar Barghouti, has repeatedly made clear that the movement opposes “a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.” By singling out the world’s only Jewish state for boycott while showing little interest in sanctioning China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, the movement treats Israel, in effect, as “the Jew among the nations.” That is precisely why college professors spearheaded the fight to boycott Israel long before BDS became mainstream. Beginning in 2013, academic associations across North America voted to boycott Israeli universities and scholars. Not China. Not Russia. Only Israel.

Of course, criticizing Israeli policies is not inherently antisemitic. Israelis themselves criticize their government constantly, as do many non-Israelis who are clearly not antisemitic. A person can oppose settlement expansion, criticize military actions, support Palestinian statehood, and express deep concern for Palestinian civilians without denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or supporting the terrorist regimes that seek to annihilate it. It is when criticism of Israel’s policies shifts into opposition to Israel’s existence that antisemitism enters the conversation.

That is what distinguishes American Intellectual Antisemitism from legitimate political criticism. Replacing complexity with ideological absolutism, it sets as its goal the marginalization and eventual destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.

That is why what happened at the Park Slope Food Coop matters. The vote was not an isolated controversy. It was just another step in the normalization of an ideology that views anti-Jewish hostility as virtuous. It was a real-life demonstration of how ideas once confined to seminar rooms now openly shape American civic life.

We can continue playing whack-a-mole, fighting one BDS resolution after another as they emerge in co-ops, unions, schools, nonprofits, and professional organizations. We can continue reacting each time anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-American hatred erupts in a different city, campus, or institution. Or we can finally confront the departments, academic associations, and intellectual frameworks that legitimized this ideology long before it reached neighborhood institutions like the Park Slope Food Coop.

If we want to confront the ideology, we must go to the source. And that source lies behind the closed doors of presidents’, provosts’, and deans’ offices at our elite universities.
Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid withdraws from French festival after boycott pressure
The Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid said he would not attend FID Marseille, an international film festival taking place in July, according to a report in Le Monde. Several directors who had planned to participate withdrew their films from the festival to protest the inclusion of Lapid, because they support a cultural boycott of Israel.

Lapid, 51, who has been living in France since 2021, was invited to serve on the festival jury. Tsveta Dobreva, director of the FID, told Le Monde: "We invited Nadav Lapid solely out of respect for his filmmaking. That is the only criterion at FID. Then I started receiving calls demanding that he be disinvited. At first, I didn't respond because I fully accepted our decision. But the pressure continued and intensified."

She said the festival considered alternate plans, such as that Lapid would present his first film, Policeman, at an event that would include a discussion and the launch of a book of interviews with Lapid published in French. But then activists called to boycott FID if Lapid were involved in the festival at all. "Selected filmmakers began withdrawing their films; in the end, about 10 of them did so,” she said.

Lapid told Le Monde he decided to withdraw to save the festival embarrassment. He is one of Israel’s leading filmmakers and is known for his biting criticism of the Netanyahu government, which is the subject of his latest film, Yes, which was released in 2025. His 2019 film, Synonyms, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and his film, Ahed’s Knee, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021. Lapid has accepted money from the Israeli government-supported Israel Film Fund for several of his films, including Yes.

While he chose to bow out, he nonetheless criticized the festival’s handling of the controversy, telling the newspaper: "FID didn't realize it was facing such a campaign of threats. Maybe they should have accepted a bit more responsibility in a moment like this… For a year, it was my film Yes that was attacked. And now, suddenly, it was my mere presence that became unacceptable. I asked myself: 'What do they want exactly? That I stop making films? That I leave France? How far will this go?'"


ICC chief prosecutor suspended after probe finds he committed serious sexual misconduct
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has been suspended pending a vote by member states on his fate, the court’s governing body said Monday, following a probe into accusations of sexual harassment made against him.

A diplomatic source briefed on the decision told Reuters the court’s governing body’s executive bureau has ruled Khan, 56, had committed serious misconduct following an 18-month-long probe into accusations that the prosecutor had non-consensual sexual interactions with a female aide in his office. The source added that the bureau has recommended the prosecutor should be removed from office.

The ICC’s governing body will send its conclusion on to all 125 ICC member states, which will vote on Khan’s fate in a special session. His removal will require a majority in a secret ballot, with sixty-three countries needing to support a measure to remove him.

In a press release, the bureau confirmed it made a decision on the disciplinary proceedings against Khan and referred the matter to the Assembly of States Parties — which will be convened as soon as possible to discuss the case, but did not give details about what it decided.

“The decision of the bureau and the related documentation will remain confidential,” the press release said.

It added that Khan’s suspension pending the assembly meeting “is not an indication of the final outcome.”

Khan’s lawyers said in a statement that he rejected the decision in the strongest terms, and repeated he denies any wrongdoing. “The decision is unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence,” the statement said.
How UN ‘human rights experts’ became a tool of dictatorships
UN human rights experts' double standards
This pattern of selective outrage is pervasive. In March, 32 UN experts condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as “illegal.” In January, only 7 UN experts condemned Iran’s slaughter of civilian protestors.

Palestine expert Francesca Albanese said she would not speak on the massacre of Iranian protesters, claiming it falls outside her mandate. Yet she routinely comments on unrelated matters to defend the regime and attack Israel.

She has circulated disinformation, including a fake AI-generated image accusing the US and Israel of intentionally bombing a girls’ school, repeatedly resorted to Holocaust distortion, warned of the “Israelization of Europe,” and amplified a social media post calling Israel “pure evil.” She has been condemned for antisemitism by France, Germany, the US, and Canada, among others. The US rightly sanctioned her.

These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a system increasingly shaped by authoritarian influence over appointments, funding, and institutional priorities – transforming an independent mechanism into a vehicle for ideological advocacy, weaponized against the West.

Reform is urgently needed. Democratic states must insist on transparent, merit-based appointments, eliminate politicized mandates, and impose meaningful oversight. But where mandate holders engage in persistent bias or disinformation, reform alone is not enough. Consequences are required.

The United States took an important step by sanctioning Francesca Albanese. Other governments should follow and extend such measures to additional rapporteurs who abuse their mandates to subvert human rights. Nor should democratic states continue funding a system so clearly compromised.

Human rights cannot be protected by mechanisms captured by those who violate them. Until the UN confronts this reality, its “experts” will continue to legitimize the very regimes they are meant to expose.


‘Zionist’ Mirren incident an attack on British values, warns Dowden
An incident in which actress Helen Mirren was labelled a “Zionist bitch” by a pro-Palestine supporter was an attack not only on the her but on “our shared values in this place of freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” Tory ex-minister Oliver Dowden has warned.

Speaking during a debate on extremism in the House of Commons, the Hertsmere MP noted that Mirren, accompanied by her husband Taylor Hackford at the time, chose not to press charges after discussing the matter with police.

However, Dowden emphasised, “The police should treat such assaults with the utmost seriousness.”

Security Minister Dan Jarvis responded by acknowledging the “important point” Letwin had raised.

Jarvis said he was “shocked, but not surprised” after viewing footage of the incident, which was posted online.

He agreed that “the police have got an important job to do in terms of cracking down on this activity,” and assured MPs, “Let me give him an absolute assurance of the priority this government attaches to antisemitism—we will do everything we can to stand against it.”

Earlier, during Home Office Questions, Jewish Labour MP Damian Egan expressed concern about the rise of extremism across the political spectrum, as well as the threat posed by Islamist extremism.

He urged the government to recognise extremism and social cohesion “as a first-tier national security priority.” Jarvis confirmed that this was “a priority area” for the government, adding that while there is no specific offence of extremism, police have a range of tools and powers to counter extremist activity.
Police will not investigate activist’s anti-Israel rant at Dame Helen Mirren
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it will not investigate the abuse shouted at Dame Helen Mirren by an anti-Israel agitator in London.

The Oscar-winning actress. 80, was called a “Zionist b****” while walking with her husband, film director Taylor Hackford, 81.

The incident, which occurred last year, had initially been treated by Scotland Yard as a possible hate crime, but officers have since decided not to take the matter further.

Following discussions with Mirren and Hackford, the Metropolitan Police closed the case without launching a formal investigation.

Footage of the encounter, which recently resurfaced and went viral on social media, shows Mirren smiling and asking the man if he was “ok” as he approached the couple while recording them. The unidentified man then launches into an abusive tirade, saying: “And there is Helen Mirren, the avowed Zionist. You said Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust.

“And she was very happy the Palestinians’ houses were gone. You are an evil Zionist b****. And you [Hackford] as well, f*** you and all.”

Mirren turns to look away, while Hackford, an American film director known for films such as The Devil’s Advocate and An Officer and a Gentleman, told the man to “f*** off”.

The actress has long been a supporter of the Jewish state, having hitchhiked around the country following the Six-Day War and spent time volunteering on a kibbutz with her Jewish then-boyfriend. She has also been a vocal critic of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.


Massie touts USS Liberty conspiracy theories in House speech
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Monday to accuse Israel of intentionally killing Americans during the attack on the USS Liberty during the Six-Day War.

The 1967 incident, in which 34 U.S. sailors were killed and another 171 wounded, is a focal point for anti-Israel conspiracy theorists, who reject the official explanations from the United States and Israel that the attack was the result of friendly fire by Israeli forces, who believed they were attacking an Egyptian ship.

Massie, who has blamed pro-Israel groups for his defeat in his primary election in May, indulged in those conspiracies to accuse the Jewish state of intentionally targeting the reconnaissance vessel.

“This was an effort to kill everybody on board,” Massie said on the House floor. “There was no intention of taking prisoners after the 25 grueling minutes of attack on this virtually unarmed ship.”

Israel took responsibility for mistakenly attacking the Liberty within hours of the incident on June 8, 1967, and has since apologized and paid millions of dollars in restitution to the families of victims and to wounded survivors.

Massie cited a list of former U.S. officials who have raised doubts about the conclusions of repeated American investigations of the attack, including former CIA director Richard Helms.

“None of these distinguished men think this was an accident,” Massie said. “They think it was intentional murder by the country of Israel, either as a false flag operation or because they simply didn’t want anybody observing what they were doing that day.”

Despite every U.S. and Israeli government investigation concluding that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, Massie called for another probe of the attack.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said that Massie’s decision to speak about the USS Liberty might signal his intent after leaving Congress to join the anti-Israel media ecosystem.


Controversial influencer Ms. Rachel set to be hosted by Congressional Dads Caucus
The Congressional Dads Caucus is hosting children’s influencer Rachel Griffin-Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, as a featured guest at a reception in Washington on Tuesday, according to an invitation obtained by Jewish Insider. Griffin-Accurso has faced scrutiny and criticism over antisemitic activity and for hosting a pro-Hamas Palestinian journalist on her social media accounts.

Griffin-Accurso is one of 10 “special guests,” including “leaders, advocates, creators, entertainers, and changemakers who are helping redefine fatherhood and caregiving in America,” at the Tuesday reception.

The reception is co-hosted by the Dads Caucus, founded by Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), to advocate for policies including childcare affordability and accessibility, paid family leave and the child tax credit, ahead of the group’s Dad Ambassador Awards. The event is co-hosted by Equimundo, which describes itself as a nonprofit focused on promoting gender equality and preventing violence.

Gomez, whose office sent the invitation email to staffers for other Dads Caucus members, did not respond to a request for comment.

Griffin-Accurso faced criticism in early 2026 for liking an Instagram comment reading “Free america from the Jews.” She later apologized and said that the “like” was accidental. But she also engaged with conspiracy theories framing the incident as a set-up.
Jewish Dems face choice of voting for anti-Israel candidates or helping GOP, experts say
Jewish Democrats are facing a choice that they don’t want to make this fall: Elect a candidate whose views on Israel are abhorrent to them or help Republicans keep control of the House and Senate and prevent a check on U.S. President Donald Trump.

“It is concerning that there are an increased number of Democrats vocalizing views on Israel that are not aligned with the values and views of the vast majority of American Jews,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told JNS.

“There’s a handful of them and they’re increasing in number, and they’re increasingly loud,” Soifer said. “Their voices have been heard on this campaign trail in ways that we have not seen before, and we are concerned about that.”

“I’m not blind to it,” she told JNS.

Such rhetoric has the Republican Jewish Coalition eager to woo disaffected Jewish Democrats.

“Our message to Jewish Democrats is simple: If your party won’t stand with the Jewish community, you don’t owe them your vote,” Sam Markstein, the group’s political director, told JNS. “There is only one party today where American Jews can be proudly Jewish and loudly pro-Israel, and it is the Republican Party.”

Outside groups have involved themselves in races involving Jewish Democrats, to the concern of some.

During his first term, Tom Malinowski, a former New Jersey Democratic congressman, was endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. But when he ran earlier this year for an open seat and suggested that he was open to limiting some aid to the Jewish state, AIPAC spent more than $2.3 million against him.

Malinowski continued to receive backing from J Street, which has called for an end to U.S. security funding to Israel.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America attacks “Zionists” for the actions of the Israeli government, although the DSA has never, for example, gone after Russian-Americans for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NYPost Editorial: Will Graham Platner’s ‘Jewish conspiracy’ theories consume the Democratic Party?
Whenever he gets in trouble — which is pretty often — Graham Platner has a ready response: It’s the Jews!

OK, he mostly just says “AIPAC,” and waves at Benjamin Netanyahu ultimately calling the shots, but he’s still making it sound like an international Jewish conspiracy.

The Democratic candidate for a Maine US Senate seat has been hit by reports he has a history of abusing women, revelations that he long (and until last month) maintained an active profile on the “Kik” predator app, plus his own admissions to sexting multiple women since his 2023 wedding.

All of it after he inked over his decades-old Totenkopf tattoo.

Sen. John Fetterman last week slammed his fellow Democrats for defending this guy, listing off all the ugliness, including the Nazi tat; Platner responded: “You’ve become a stooge for AIPAC.”

Of course, that’s also what he says about his GOP opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, though he has to tell massive whoppers about how much AIPAC money she’s received to justify it.

Nationally, the Democrats have gone blind, deaf and dumb to the sort of thing they used to call “dog whistles,” but which in this case are blaring sirens and lights flashing “JEWS JEWS JEWS.”

Blind or complicit: Platner’s key guest at his rally last Saturday was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the richest members of Congress, who came to Bar Harbor to defend Graham and rail about the fabled “Epstein Class.”

The Epstein Class, a group originally named — but never defined — by Khanna, refers to a shadowy cabal of pedophiles who evidently run the country for nefarious purposes.

The term may not be explicitly antisemitic; you can consider it just a coincidence that it all plays off Jeffrey Epstein’s evil . . . but consider how Khanna praised Platner for “telling the truth about the billionaire class, about the Epstein class, about AIPAC, about foreign wars.”

Vile as Jeffrey Epstein was, he and his circle had nothing to do with promoting “foreign wars,” nor were any of them prominent AIPAC sponsors.

So what are Khanna and Platner — who also rants about the Epstein Class — talking about?
Socialist Operatives Behind Scandal-Plagued Platner and 'Squad' Member Summer Lee Recruited 'Independent' Dan Osborn To Run in Deep-Red Nebraska
Moraff, a Yale Law School graduate, and Fan, an academic who coauthored the Harvard Business School case study "The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations," met while working for Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign. At that time, Moraff was an active X poster who regularly used the social media site to attract volunteers for Sanders's campaign in Massachusetts and to discuss broader political strategy with other left-wing activists.

He became more private over the following years, locking his X account around the time he was Lee's campaign manager. Moraff has also said little about his experience recruiting and working with Osborn, though his fingerprints are on the beginnings of Osborn's 2024 campaign. The campaign's original finance director, Brad Chester, is a DSA member who, like Moraff, worked on Sanders's 2020 presidential bid. In late 2023, the campaign paid more than $7,000 to Bread and Roses, a DSA-linked consulting firm managed by former staffers for Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). Osborn said a year later that he "love[s] Bernie" but needed to "peel off some conservatives" to defeat Fischer.

Moraff and Fan have been more willing to discuss their work with Platner. In December, the pair recounted their efforts to recruit a Senate candidate in Maine with Politico, revealing that they only turned to Platner after ironically determining that another prospective candidate, union leader Chris Williams, had "a skeleton in the closet." They met with Platner's mother at her fine dining restaurant and then met with Platner himself, deeming him "exceptional." After huddling with another left-wing operative, Morris Katz, who has advised Osborn and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, Platner launched his Senate bid.

Moraff and Fan told the Wall Street Journal that they were unaware of many of Platner's scandals before they were reported by the news media, though they had paid a research firm "a whole chunk of money" to vet the candidate.

"Did the vetting process turn up the tattoo that became so controversial?" interviewer Aaron Zitner asked. "No," Moraff responded. "The Reddit posts, did that turn up in the vetting process?" Zitner followed up. "The firm sent us a thing, and it had some of the posts, but it didn't have all of them," Moraff said. "Yeah," added Fan.


Stephen Pollard: For some Celtic fans, just breathing Israeli air made Robbie Keane impure
The Nazis believed that Jews were a source of disease. Hitler and other Nazis referred to Jews as "bacilli", "parasites" and "germs"; the mere presence of Jews was enough to infect German society.

That belief, it seems, is shared by a cadre of supporters of Celtic Football Club, the storied Scottish champions who are currently looking for a manager to replace Martin O’Neill, the 74-year-old who last season pulled off one of the great footballing feats in taking Celtic to their 56th league title.

The front runner for the job is Robbie Keane, the former Irish striker and an ex-Celtic (and Spurs) player. Keane has made an impressive start to his managerial career, winning league titles in his first two jobs. He is regarded as one of the most promising young managers and looks an excellent fit for Celtic. Except for one thing.

For a section of Celtic supporters, Keane is toxic. A parasite. Infected. Because one of those managerial jobs was with Maccabi Tel Aviv, with whom Keane won the Israeli league in 2023-24. For those Celtic supporters, any connection with Israel – with Jews, if we are being clear about what is really going on here – is enough to render Keane beyond the pale.

Keane is not Israeli. He is not Jewish. He is an apolitical figure who has never at any point expressed support for Israeli action in Gaza or elsewhere. All he has done is work in Israel.

For these Celtic fans, the mere fact that he has breathed the same air as Israelis is enough to make him toxic. He has, in their eyes, been infected by those around him in the Jewish state and he cannot be allowed to bring that infection to Celtic.


Green Party candidate who said October 7 attacks were 'courageous' lands cabinet role in charge of children and families in Birmingham
A newly elected Green Party councillor who previously described the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel as 'courageous' has been appointed to a senior role overseeing children and families at Birmingham City Council.

Kamel Hawwash, who won a council seat in last month's local elections, was named Cabinet Member for Children and Families as part of Birmingham's new coalition administration involving the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents.

The appointment has sparked criticism over Hawwash's past comments on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

On October 16, 2023, less than two weeks after Hamas launched its deadly assault on Israel, Hawwash shared a post on his website titled '10 days since Al-Aqsa Flood: Courage in the face of aggression.'

Hamas referred to the October 7 attacks as 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood'.

Hawwash, a former professor of civil engineering at the University of Birmingham and former chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has previously made several controversial statements regarding Israel.

Among them were claims that Israel had 'killed its own citizens, including children' during the October 7 attacks, allegations that have been widely disputed.

He has also described Zionism as 'Jewish supremacy' and suggested that 'millions' would mourn the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, despite Hamas being a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.


California mayor who claimed that Bondi massacre was ‘false flag’ set to lose reelection bid
A California mayor who has garnered controversy after sharing conspiracy theories that cast the Bondi Beach Massacre as a false flag attack and identified Hamas as a defensive force appeared set to lose his reelection bid, according to preliminary results published on Friday by Contra Costa County.

Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez won 19.50% of the June 2 primary election, according to the initial results, falling behind the 37.55% of votes for City Councilwoman Claudia Jimenez and the 28.82% won by Golden Gate Park Gardens culture director Ahmad Anderson. The two leaders appear to be set for a November run-off election.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of San Francisco celebrated Martinez's uncertified loss in a Sunday Facebook post, asserting that after an antisemitic conspiracy scandal, voters had sent the message that "antisemitism has no place in public office."

"This result is a victory for everyone who stood with the Jewish community in confronting antisemitism and demanding accountability," said the JCRC. "We are grateful to the thousands of community members, allies, and elected leaders who spoke out and refused to stay silent." Martinez claimed Hanukkah terror attack was 'Israel's false flag'

Martinez had faced scrutiny for sharing several posts on LinkedIn asserting that the December Bondi Beach terrorist attack was a false flag attack. The posts were made soon after two terrorists shot and murdered 15 participants of an Australian Hanukkah event.

One post shared by Martinez wished peace to "all the victims of Israel's false flag attack," and another asserted that one of the shooters was a former IDF soldier. Other posts asserted that the "root cause of antisemitism is the behavior of Israel and Israelis" and that Hanukkah had been "weaponized as a political tool."

Martinez later apologized, explaining that antisemitism existed before the creation of Israel, and emphasized that "we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism."


Palestine protester ’caused serious disruption by climbing Big Ben’
A pro-Palestine protester caused “serious disruption” by climbing Big Ben barefoot and sitting on the London landmark for more than 15 hours, a court has heard.

Daniel Day, 30, denies intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance by climbing the Elizabeth Tower, often referred to as Big Ben, on March 8 last year.

Day, of Palmerston Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, is accused of scaling the Elizabeth Tower in Westminster, London, at around 7.20am on March 8 and not coming down until after midnight.

Prosecutor David Matthew told Southwark Crown Court that Day’s actions triggered an emergency services reaction which caused “serious disruption”, including Westminster Bridge being shut.

Mr Matthew said Day “succeeded in blocking up what is a major part of the central London road network”.

CCTV played in court showed Day, wearing a black coat and a baseball cap, using his hands to scale the building while holding a Palestine flag.

In videos from Day’s Instagram account shown to jurors, the protester can be heard shouting “free Palestine”, “from the river to the sea” and “Israel is a terrorist state” from the side of the Elizabeth Tower.


Oxford student subjected to anti-Semitic smear campaign in union election
A student has described how he was the victim of an anti-Semitic smear campaign while running for a senior position in the Oxford Union.

Ben Ashworth, 20, was accused of supporting genocide and taking money from the “pro-Israel lobby” in a slew of social media posts during the election for secretary of the union.

The posts by his fellow students – including references to him as “Ben Netanyahu Trashworth” – were made after he visited Israel on a fact-finding trip to better understand the Gaza conflict.

George Abaraonye, the former president-elect of the union, who was ousted last year after celebrating the shooting of Charlie Kirk, the US Right-wing activist, reacted to one of the posts with a laughing emoji.

And the abuse of Mr Ashworth, a second-year history student, reached such levels that his fellow students dropped him from their electoral pact because they feared he would “bring down the whole team”.

He described the union – which has been engulfed in multiple scandals in recent years – as a “breeding ground for anti-Jewish hatred”, where anti-Semitism had been “allowed to fester”.

Mr Ashworth has called for a vote of no-confidence in Arwa Elrayess, the union’s president, who – as revealed by The Telegraph this week – previously said Hamas would be “lauded as heroes” and claimed that their actions in attacking Israel were “proportional”.

Mr Ashworth’s case is part of a wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate incidents that have swept across British university campuses since the Oct 7 terror attacks and the Israeli military campaign in Gaza that followed.

Research published by the Union of Jewish Students in March claimed that anti-Semitism had been “normalised” on campuses, while a survey this month found that more than a quarter of undergraduates believe the Oct 7 attacks were “defensible”.


ABC, media companies to be hauled before antisemitism Royal Commission
The ABC, major traditional media companies and social media giants will be called to give evidence at the Royal Commission into antisemitism.

Sky News can reveal Commissioner Virginia Bell and her team are setting up a specific hearing block, likely to be held from June 29, to hear evidence about antisemitism within the traditional media and social media.

It is expected that major media companies, including the public broadcasters, will be called to give evidence.

Journalists may also appear as witnesses.

This hearing block was initially proposed by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson and her Coalition colleagues, Michaelia Cash and Angie Bell.

Senator Henderson wrote to the Royal Commission asking it to establish a dedicated block of hearings into the public broadcasters and Creative Australia.

“The ABC has faced sustained criticism and public concern over aspects of its Middle East coverage, complaints handling processes and broader editorial approach, including evidence and submissions now before the Royal Commission alleging that its coverage has contributed to social division and diminished confidence among sections of the Jewish community,” Senator Henderson said in a statement.

“The ABC and SBS have also declined to adopt the Special Envoy’s IHRA antisemitism definition and the approach adopted by the Royal Commission itself, arguing that existing editorial standards are sufficient.

“That decision has intensified public debate about whether publicly funded broadcasters are meeting community expectations in confronting antisemitism.”

It comes as ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks defended its decision to give a podcast to Grace Tame, who has called to “globalise the intifada” in Sydney, Australia, and has described the rape of Israeli women on October 7 as “propaganda”.
Far-Left Foundations, Foreign Governments Pay For New York Times to Demonize Israel
The New York Times is doubling down on its demonize-Israel editorial strategy, offering up its news columns to a project funded by far-left foundations and foreign governments that, in more than 6,000 words, lumps together all the lurid tropes about Israel and Jews—starving Gazans, bombing hospitals, killing children, profiteering, and destroying Arab villages in 1948.

The piece was published online Monday June 8, 2026, after a weekend during which the Times website homepage featured a package of headlines that included, "Pentagon Sees Growing Espionage Threat from Israel," "Israeli Strike Kills 3 Lebanese Soldiers, Days After Truce Was Signed," and "Infant Killed as Israeli Military Fires on Car in West Bank, Palestinian Officials Say." It comes less than a month after an article by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, whose father fought on the Nazi side in World War II, echoed Hamas propaganda in claiming that Israel had trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners as part of a pattern of systematic sexual violence. And it came as the Times also published a "visual investigations" article on Saturday by a former freelance contributor to Qatar-owned Hamas-cover-providing outlet Al Jazeera, Sanjana Varghese, who came to the Times from Airwars, a British nonprofit funded by far-left anti-Israel foundations and foreign governments. That article claims Israel is violating international law by using white phosphorus over civilian areas of Lebanon.

The Times is a large and somewhat decentralized operation. Yet the the net overall impression left for readers is that rather than retreating or pausing after the Kristof dog-rape article, which generated a legal threat from Prime Minister Netanyahu and a formal condemnation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Times is pushing ahead with similar content. I have chronicled how disproportional the paper’s coverage of Israel and Gaza is to the rest of the world, and the slant of those news reports is consistently hostile to Israel. That feeds the appetite of the Times’s paying customer base—far-left Americans and what the Times says are its more than 3 million digital subscribers outside the U.S.—about 26 percent of the total.

The news business has been financially challenging in recent years, so in addition to diversifying into word games and a recipe app, the New York Times has taken to schnorring from charities to support news and editorial content. That leaves more profits available for distribution in dividends to dozens of Ochs-Sulzberger heirs, but it also leaves Times readers slogging through content that might not have cleared the hurdle for publication or justified the editorial resources without the donor subsidy.

The 6,000 word Times project discloses online in faint or small type, "This project was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center" and "This project was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center." Nowhere does the Times say what the Pulitzer Center is or who funds it. Because it has the word "Pulitzer" in it, it appears vaguely reputable, like the similarly named Columbia University-affiliated journalism awards that used to honor journalistic and literary excellence before they were hijacked by anti-Israel activists intent on piling prizes on pieces and pictures that advance the anti-Israel narrative. Yet the Pulitzer Center is a far-left nonprofit whose other activities include "The 1619 Project Curriculum," aimed at bringing into classrooms the New York Times effort "to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation's foundational date." Its funders include left-leaning foundations such as the left-wing tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s wife Pam Omidyar’s "Humanity United," which put in $200,000 in 2024, and George and Alexander Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which gave a three-year, $900,000 grant in 2023. The Pulitzer Center also gets money from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.


BBC radio host sacked after blasting refusal to call Hamas ‘terrorists’ loses tribunal
A BBC presenter sacked after criticising the corporation over its refusal to refer to Hamas as terrorists has lost his claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

Sean McGinty, a journalist on BBC Radio Lancashire, was dismissed for gross misconduct in 2024 after condemning the BBC on X in the wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel.

He also sent an email to former BBC 5Live host Nihal Arthanayake calling him “sociopathic”, and making references to convicted murderers Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.

McGinty, who worked at Radio Lancashire for 22 years, suffers from ADHD, which was diagnosed when he was a child, and severe anxiety, and argued his actions were a result of his conditions and brought a discrimination case.

But the tribunal found his claims were “not well-founded”.

Mr McGinty made a series of comments on X in the wake of October 7, including sharing and “liking” other users’ posts that criticised the BBC and a number of its journalists for their reporting on the attack.

In one post on X in October 2023, Mr McGinty said the BBC had a “fear of the word terrorist”, and that Hamas was a “terrorist organisation” guilty of “sadistic killings”.

“That’s the word any decent person would use who’s bothered to look at the evidence,” he added.

The BBC, which does not refer to Hamas as a terror group despite them being proscribed in Britain, said that he had broken its social media policy, which bars staff from posting anything undermining its impartiality or reputation.


Dave Matthews apologizes to Jewish fans after audience members shout antisemitic expletives at Florida concert
After audience members at a Dave Matthews Band concert in West Palm Beach, Fla., were reportedly heard shouting antisemitic slurs, Matthews used a performance in North Carolina to apologize for any pain his remarks about the war in Gaza may have caused members of the Jewish community.

During the band’s May 30 concert at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Matthews spoke from the stage about Gaza. A Jewish attendee later wrote that some concertgoers responded with antisemitic chants, including, “Yeah, f*** the Jews,” while also using an antisemitic slur.

At the June 5 show at Coastal Credit Union Music Park in Raleigh, N.C., Matthews read a prepared statement addressing the controversy.

“I have a deep respect and love for, all of my life that I can remember, and an admiration for the culture and history of the Jewish people,” Matthews told the crowd. He added that he did not believe “any group of people has contributed more to the advancement and the evolution of understanding of each other and the world around us and the universe.”

Matthews cited Albert Einstein, George Gershwin, Hannah Arendt, Howard Zinn and Anne Frank as examples.

“It breaks my heart that my opinions, borne out of deep commitment to nonviolent resolution and resistance, can be twisted to serve any hateful or racist or bigoted ideas,” he said. “I am so sorry for any misunderstanding or pain I might have caused. My intention is to help bring an end to the seemingly endless violence in the world.”

Matthews said he was attending a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah on Oct. 7, 2023, when news broke of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel.

“It was interrupted by the horror and the violence on the other side of the world, an ongoing horror,” he said.

“But the violence born out of that day against the Palestinian people is no less horrific and multiplies the death and the suffering over and over and over,” he added.
Celebrated Berlin Jewish bakery closes, citing antisemitic harassment since Oct. 7
A Jewish bakery owned by Polish and Israeli immigrants in this city has shut its doors, citing a combination of economic pressure and antisemitic harassment.

Babka & Krantz opened in the Friedenau district in November 2022 and added a second location in December 2024, adjacent to the memorial at the site where the Nazis devised their “final solution” for the Jews during the Holocaust.

The second location at the House of the Wannsee Conference closed on November 30, according to the bakery’s Instagram account, which directed followers to a statement from the memorial that has since been deleted from its website.

“We regret the verbal abuse and the difficult situation to which the managing directors and employees of BABKA & KRANTZ Meisterkonditorei were exposed and express our full understanding for the termination of the cooperation under these circumstances,” said the March 10 statement, which was preserved by the Internet Archive.

Now, the original location has closed, too.

Café owners and married couple Shahar Elkin and Marcin Liera-Elkin said in a statement to friends and supporters that a construction site had blocked access to the bakery for more than a year, curbing foot traffic.

But they also said they had been affected when, after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, “the hatred reached Berlin as well.” The bakery was “subjected to constant verbal abuse” since that time, they said in their statement, which has circulated on social media.
John Lithgow wins Tony Award for portraying Roald Dahl in ‘Giant,’ about author's antisemitism
The actor John Lithgow won his third Tony Award on Sunday for his depiction of the writer Roald Dahl as an antisemite.

Lithgow stars as Dahl in “Giant,” which opened on Broadway in March. The play, which originated in London in 2024, depicts ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get Dahl to rein in antisemitic comments he made about the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war.

Lithgow’s award for best leading actor in a play recognized what he has said was an effort to portray Dahl as emotionally complex, a man who had suffered grave losses and was kind to those close to him yet baldly antisemitic in his criticisms of Israel.

“Who knows where antisemitism or any bigotry comes from. In playing the role, I just looked for the damage,” Lithgow said during a March appearance on a New Yorker podcast. “To me, a person who suffered injury or carries demons, it just manifests itself in hatred of the other.”

Accepting the award, which made him, at 80, the oldest man to win a competitive Tony, Lithgow did not mention antisemitism or Dahl specifically but said, “It’s a play about cruelty in a cruel age.” He also shouted out the play’s Jewish author, Mark Rosenblatt. Roald Dahl


Argentina, US co-host memorial for Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing
Israeli and Lebanese representatives huddled with U.S. officials at the State Department on Wednesday evening, hammering out a joint statement on a plan of action to rid southern Lebanon of Hezbollah’s control. Across the street, victims of the terror group’s 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center were memorialized.

“In the 32 years since the bombing, Argentina has transformed from a beacon where terrorism once reigned supreme to a beacon of Jewish life,” Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told attendees at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The department co-hosted the event with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Argentina’s embassy in Washington and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA, which was bombed on July 18, 1994.

Terrorists rigged a van with explosives and drove it into the building, killing 85 people and hurting more than 300—the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history.

A series of suspected cover-ups preceded a 2006 decision by prosecutors to accuse Hezbollah of carrying out the attack at the direction of its benefactor, the Iranian government. An Argentine court ruled in 2024 that this was the case and characterized Iran as a terror state.

Two years before the AMIA bombing, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed in an attack thought to be linked to Hezbollah and Iran as well. That blast killed 29 people and hurt 242.

“Today, AMIA stands not only as a site where horror once occurred but as a living testament to the strength and vitality of the Jewish community in Argentina,” Kaploun told attendees.

He noted that the country has the sixth largest Jewish population in the world.

Gregory LoGerfo, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, also spoke at the event, as did Reed Rubenstein, the department’s leading legal officer.

Alejandro Oxenford, Argentina’s ambassador to the United States, represented his country. Daniel Pomerantz, executive director of AMIA and a survivor of the 1994 attack, also spoke.

“More than three decades later, their absence is still a wound in the life of my country, not a closed chapter of history but an open question we are still bound to answer,” Oxenford said, of the victims. “We remember them today one by one, because memory is the first form of justice.”


Jewish rapper’s song celebrates Knicks mania in NYC
The Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz released a song on Sunday celebrating the mania for the New York Knicks that is gripping New York City — including the city’s Jews — as the NBA team makes a run for the championship.

The Knicks are leading the San Antonio Spurs 2-0 in the NBA finals and the city is saturated with excitement, with the streets awash in the team’s blue and orange ahead of Monday night’s game — the first NBA finals game in New York in 27 years.

Kosha Dillz, the stage name of Rami Even-Esh, is an Israeli-American who often raps about Jewish and Israeli themes and freestyles at events from the annual Israel parade to a gathering for Holocaust survivors.

His latest music video, “Parade,” was filmed during pre-game gatherings and post-game celebrations for the second round of the series.

The video shows Kosha Dillz celebrating with Knicks fans, wearing an orange blazer and an oversized Knicks chain.

The track has its fair share of Jewish references, mentioning Katz’s Deli and Lower East Side bagels, connecting the bagels to the 1990s hip hop group the Lox.

The video opens with Kosha Dillz and a man in a kippah blessing what appears to be a loaf of rainbow-colored bread while a basketball spins on top of a Knicks flag overhead.

Throughout the video, Kosha Dillz wears a Hebrew shirt for Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.





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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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