Tuesday, September 15, 2026

09/14 Links Pt2: Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour; Court Holds North Korea Liable for Terror Support Behind October 7 Attack; The ‘anti-Semitic rot’ at the heart of the NHS

From Ian: Federal Court Holds North Korea Liable for Terror Support Behind October 7 Attack
On September 8, a federal court held Iran and North Korea jointly and severally liable to American plaintiffs over seven terrorist attacks, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel, in a ruling that details a largely overlooked North Korean role involving training, weapons and underground-warfare assistance.

In a memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema granted default judgment on liability in a case brought by 47 U.S. nationals, including people killed or injured in seven terrorist attacks between 2019 and 2023 and immediate family members of the victims. The court concluded that the plaintiffs had established Iran and North Korea’s liability under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

The October 7 portion of the ruling is particularly striking. Brinkema wrote that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad jointly carried out the attack that severely wounded American plaintiffs Bernadette and Nir Brauner. According to the court, Iran provided funds, weapons, recruitment assistance and incentive payments to operatives involved in the attack. North Korea, the opinion states, provided training to Hezbollah, Hamas and PIJ operatives involved in the attack, as well as weapons or weapon components and “tunnel-building assistance.”

The underlying complaint is even more explicit. It alleges that North Korea aided the October 7 attack by providing training to operatives from Hezbollah, Hamas and PIJ, supplying weapons including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and providing assistance related to tunnel construction. Because Iran and North Korea did not answer the lawsuit, those allegations were uncontested. The court nevertheless found that the plaintiffs had presented an adequate legal and factual basis to establish liability and held the two governments jointly and severally liable for the plaintiffs’ injuries and deaths.

A Decades-Old North Korean Pipeline
North Korea’s ties to Middle Eastern militant movements predate Hamas itself, while its military relationship with Iran stretches back to the early 1980s.

The complaint, summarized by Brinkema, describes Pyongyang as Iran’s “most powerful nation-state partner” and traces decades of cooperation involving missile development, weapons, military training and assistance to Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.

The opinion recounts allegations that North Korean military personnel were dispatched to southern Lebanon in the early 2000s, where they used Pyongyang’s expertise to help develop underground military installations and an extensive network of tunnels. It also describes North Korean training provided to the IRGC and Hezbollah that allegedly flowed through Iran’s broader network of proxies.

That history has previously reached American courts. In a 2014 federal decision involving Hezbollah’s 2006 war against Israel, a U.S. district court found by “clear and convincing evidence” that North Korea had materially supported Hezbollah. The court identified weapons, military training and assistance constructing underground military infrastructure among the support supplied by Pyongyang.

A Congressional Research Service report similarly documented reports that North Korean trainers were sent to southern Lebanon to instruct Hezbollah personnel in constructing underground military facilities. The report also detailed longstanding North Korean weapons relationships with Iran and Syria and reported on the movement of North Korean arms believed to be destined for Hezbollah and Hamas.
Eugene Kontorovich: Houses of Worship Deserve Protection from Disruption
Many conservatives have a bad taste in their mouths from any mention of “buffer zone” laws because of their widespread use in restricting protests and counseling activities outside of abortion clinics. But buffer zone laws are uncontroversially in force to protect the sanctity of places like cemeteries and funerals.

Congress has, in fact, protected houses of worship since 1994, but only as a secondary provision of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a statute to address a different problem and built around that problem’s assumptions. FACE reaches only force, threats of force, and physical obstruction — but not other kinds of conduct that can in practice disrupt or seriously interfere with religious services.

The free exercise of religion is a core First Amendment right. Thus, it is important to protect churches and synagogues with a free-standing statute. Because the Right to Worship Act protects against interference in religious exercise by private parties, it does not protect the constitutional right per se, which addresses governmental interference. But constitutional protection for worship does demonstrate its safeguarding to be a compelling government interest.

At the same time, it does not sweep nearly as far as abortion clinic access laws, some of which the Supreme Court has struck down on First Amendment grounds. For example, McCullen v. Coakley (2014) struck down a law that in effect barred any kind of speech, including one-on-one conversations within the buffer zone around a clinic. The Court found that while the state had a valid interest in “preventing harassment and intimidation,” a de facto no–speech zone swept too far. But that is exactly what the Right to Worship Act doesn’t do.

The federal bill only restricts particularly disruptive activities, which falls well within the constitutional allowance for time, place, and manner restrictions and is in line with McCullen. One person’s exercise of their rights cannot come at the expense of another — and thus the statute only “buffers” “conduct that meaningfully interferes with the ability of people to participate” in a scheduled religious service, or that “unreasonably hinders or deters” entrance.

It is also quite clear that many local authorities — like New York City’s mayor, who has cheered on synagogue demonstrations — will never enforce available local nuisance laws that could be used against such disturbances.

We recognize that disturbances around houses of worship are, in a sense, matters of local law and order which under a well-functioning system of federalism should not be within the purview of the federal government.

Yet 100 years of expansive Commerce Clause jurisprudence means that as a matter of current constitutional doctrine, it clearly is within federal power. The FACE Act, for example, lacks any statutory requirement connecting the conduct to interstate commerce, a gap the Supreme Court has yet to address.

The Right to Worship bill, by contrast, makes a “substantial effect on interstate commerce” an element of the offense — which means it can only be used in cases that truly do cross state lines. This language was borrowed from the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, not widely thought of as massive government overreach.

Thus, the Right to Worship Act doesn’t change the federalism landscape. Moreover, there is no need for conservatives to deny themselves, and themselves alone, the protections of existing constitutional law, while working to change it based on conservative principles.

At a time when religious values are under attack, it is more important than ever to safeguard the sanctuary itself. The Right to Worship Act is modest, bipartisan, and well within what the Constitution allows, at least as currently interpreted by the Supreme Court.
Man arrested for allegedly making Jew-hatred threats against Ben Shapiro
Korby Aaren Strube, 29, of Horton, Kan., was arrested in Florida for allegedly posting threats to kill political commentator Ben Shapiro, referencing the Daily Wire co-founder’s Jewish faith.

Strube was arrested on Sept. 12 and faces 23 counts related to written or electronic threats to kill or cause bodily harm, as well as two counts related to using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony, according to court records and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

According to an affidavit obtained by JNS from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller of Palm Beach County, Strube allegedly made threats against Shapiro in social media posts on July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. The posts said he would be “giving the world a boost by killing Ben Shapiro for being Jewish” and that he was “killing this stupid Jew,” according to the affidavit.

“He invoked antisemitic conspiratorial themes as justification for the intended killing, attributing violence to ‘semites,’ to ‘Tel Aviv’ and to ‘a foreign government,’” the affidavit stated.

The Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 posts also included countdowns of 52 and 51 days, respectively, to the intended killing. The countdown pointed to Sept. 21-22, the dates of Yom Kippur this year, according to the affidavit.

The investigation began Aug. 4 after a private security firm providing protection for Shapiro alerted authorities to the posts, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators subsequently determined that Strube was behind the social media account from which the threats were posted. Shapiro told investigators that he believed the threats were motivated by his Jewish faith and wanted to pursue charges.




NYC Muslim Tech Summit Draws Mamdani Allies & Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Networks
A Muslim technology summit set to take place in New York City this month is bringing together figures from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political network, Islamic religious institutions with alleged Muslim Brotherhood connections, and organizations tied to foreign governments or facing congressional scrutiny.

The HabibiTech Summit, scheduled for September 26 at Civic Hall in Manhattan, currently advertises 60 speakers working at what organizers describe as the intersection of AI, Islam and global impact. Its agenda extends beyond startups and technology, with sessions on Islamic jurisprudence governing artificial intelligence, the use of AI to issue religious rulings, political governance and Muslim investment.

A Jewish Onliner review found that participants include Yasir Qadhi, chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America and a member of the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars; Mamdani-linked figures Ali Najmi and Yasser Salem; an Egyptian parliamentarian; and a former CAIR-New York official who attended the 2014 New Horizon Conference in Tehran. Five years later, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Iran-based New Horizon Organization for supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

According to HabibiTech’s website, the summit is an initiative of the AI Sustainable Development Group, a New York-based nonprofit registered as a 501(c)(3). AISDG separately lists Islamic Relief USA, Wahed Invest, Ethar Relief and Qahwah House among its “Partners & Collaborators.” The group says the list covers relationships across HabibiTech and its other programming, meaning the designation does not necessarily establish that each organization is financing or formally sponsoring the September summit.

HabibiTech’s own promotional material also frames the technology race in explicitly transnational Muslim terms. In one post, the summit says that “the models are American and Chinese” while the technology used by “two billion Muslims” was “built for someone else,” before advertising a discussion about “where the ummah’s capital sits, where it should go.” Another declares that the summit will establish “seven stands that define Muslim leadership on AI,” telling followers, “We are not subjects of this technology. We are its authors.”

The rhetoric presents the global Muslim ummah as a distinct constituency seeking its own technological influence, investment strategy and representation, even as the summit itself is being held in New York City during UN Week.
Foreign-Linked Visualizing Palestine Brings Reproducible Exhibit to U.S. Campuses
Meet Visualizing Palestine
A previous Jewish Onliner investigation examined VP’s organizational structure, including its U.S. nonprofit status through fiscal sponsorship and its connections to Lebanon-based personnel and networks. The full report is available here.

The investigation examined how Visualizing Palestine operates while holding tax-deductible nonprofit status through the fiscal sponsorship of Empowerment Works and analyzed the organization’s international relationships and operations.

The organization has previously drawn scrutiny over its collaborations with organizations including Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, both of which have been sanctioned by the U.S. and have alleged ties to Hamas and the PFLP. Visualizing Palestine has also partnered with groups such as the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and other regional organizations as part of its broader international network.

VP has also publicly outlined efforts to expand the reach of its materials among Western audiences. Its 2023–2026 strategic plan describes efforts to increase the impact of its narratives among Western publics.

Visualizing Palestine’s Growing Reach Into U.S. Educational Institutions
The expansion of “Why We Record: Defying Fragmentation and Erasure in Palestine” into Winona State University and the Arab American National Museum demonstrates how pro-Palestine advocacy organizations are increasingly bringing their materials into public universities, museums, and other educational institutions.

The exhibit’s presence at a public university, together with its intentionally reproducible format, host toolkit, interactive location map, and connection to external classroom resources, raises questions about how advocacy-driven narratives are introduced into educational environments and how far these materials are designed to travel through formal and informal educational channels.

Visualizing Palestine presents itself as a visual storytelling organization, but its partnerships, strategic framing, and exhibit infrastructure point to a broader effort to disseminate a highly politicized narrative through cultural and educational spaces. As public institutions continue hosting such material, transparency about the organizations behind it, the frameworks embedded in it, and the networks facilitating its spread becomes increasingly important.
What Does the Human Development Fund Do with Its Money?
Financial disclosures also show that millions of dollars have been given to a network of U.S.-based nonprofits linked to the organization’s leadership. These main grant recipient organizations share overlapping management and governance with HDF itself, creating a system in which funds were transferred among closely related entities within the U.S. rather than being traceable to humanitarian projects.

The Miftaah Institute in Warren, Michigan, received $722,000 from HDF. While the grant recipient is named as “International Islamic Faith” in the IRS filing, the provided tax ID corresponds directly to Miftaah’s official EIN: 85-0828075. Miftaah is also listed alongside HDF as a partner organization of Dar Al-Farooq, and its scholars participate in HDF fundraisers. The Miftaah Institute serves as an ideological incubator for radical Islamism in the West by providing platforms to hardline figures like Shaykh Yasir Qadhi and Omar Suleiman. Through strategic alliances with organizations like the Qalam Institute, Miftaah mainstreamizes transnational Islamist agendas for American audiences.

HDF also granted $250,510 to the Al Jazari Institute, another organization connected to the Dar Al-Farooq. The Al Jazari Institute is not merely an independent recipient; it is the parent non-profit organization and core seminary program under which the Dar Al-Farooq Center directly operates. By funneling a quarter-million dollars into the Al Jazari Institute, HDF became the institution’s largest donor.

Another grant of $52,000 was given to the Qalam Foundation, whose leadership overlaps with HDF’s ShariahnullGuidance Board through the Texas-based Qalam Institute, in particular through Shaykh AbdulNasir Jangda, the Founder and President of Qalam.

Qalam is the most important and influential Deobandi organization in the United States, serving as a primary training seminary embedding hardline imams, educators, and community leaders into mosques nationwide. This includes core leaders like Abdul Nasir Jangda and Hussain Kamani, who have justified violent traditionalist punishments, sex slavery, and sanctioned the killing of adulterers. Kamani branded Western secular society as “filth.” Declaring, “We are surrounded by filth … our environment is full of this filth, everywhere we turn.”

In total, more than $1 million was directed to a connected network of organizations linked to HDF’s executives.

While the domestic cash trail, the international cash trail offers total anonymity. HDF left the foreign recipients’ names completely blank, instead clumping the funds into generalized geographic blocks. HDF reports that it gave just over $2 million to undisclosed recipients in the Middle East and North Africa, $558,000 to unnamed recipients in other parts of Africa, and just under $50,000 to unnamed recipients in South Asia.

HDF filings state zero offices, employees, and agents outside the U.S., indicating that HDF operates entirely as an invisible pass-through funder organization. The reported absence of international personnel on federal filings stands in contradiction with its marketing material. On its Gaza Relief portal, HDF states that it maintains an on-the-ground workforce of “over 90 team members” inside Gaza managing mobile medical caravans, hot-meal kitchens, and schools approved by Hamas’ Ministry of Education. HDF also claims that transporting physical aid through border crossings into Gaza can be “severely constrained by security restrictions.” As a result, HDF states that it relies on “purchasing available supplies from local wholesalers” already inside Gaza.

HDF’s leadership is clearly alert to the scrutiny that follows Muslim charities through the financial system. In a 2024 post on its Facebook page, HDF announced that CEO Abdirahman Kariye had hosted Irshad Rasheed, president of the Islamic Banking Division at Stearns Bank N.A., at the organization’s Minneapolis office to “explore collaboration opportunities.” The stated rationale was the value of “strong relationships with banks, especially for Muslim-based charities and organizations often facing debanking challenges.”

The upshot is this: HDF, a charity which raised $33 million in its second year of operation, spent more on advertising than it granted overseas, routed more than $1 million to organizations run by its own leadership, and reported millions more to foreign recipients it declined to name — while telling donors it employs ninety people in a territory where its federal filings show it has none. An organization that grew this fast on the strength of its donors’ trust owes them, and the regulators who granted its tax exemption, a fuller accounting than its tax filings have provided.
Vermont man on trial for shooting 3 Palestinian students claims CIA, Mossad told him to
Jason Eaton insisted he was acting on orders from the CIA and Mossad when he shot three Palestinian college students who were walking past his home a few days after Thanksgiving. He said the US and Israeli intelligence agencies transmitted the messages to him via FM radio and that God was commanding him to protect his Jewish neighbors.

Eaton’s claims were at the heart of his insanity defense as he went on trial Monday on attempted murder charges in a case that shook Burlington, Vermont, and reverberated in the West Bank, where the three wounded men grew up and became friends as schoolmates in Ramallah before moving to the US for college.

The November 2023 shooting, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, spawned calls for a hate crime investigation. But no hate crime charges were filed as questions persisted about whether anti-Palestinian animus, an altered mental state or something else had compelled Eaton to open fire on Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid, who were all 20 at the time.

The men testified one after another as Eaton, now 51, watched stoically from the defense table in a Burlington courtroom. He has pleaded not guilty but doesn’t dispute that he was the shooter. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, he could be ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

Defense lawyer Joshua O’Hara, previewing testimony from a defense psychiatrist, told jurors in an opening statement that Eaton was suffering from a delusional, psychotic disorder after losing his job at a credit union two weeks before the shooting.

While listening to a local NPR affiliate, Eaton believed he was hearing messages that he attributed to the CIA, O’Hara said. At first, the messages were encouraging and validating, the lawyer said, but subsequent messages turned dark, insisting that Eaton “has to go out and shoot somebody.”

Prosecutor Sally Adams told jurors that a state psychiatrist who is slated to testify concluded that Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect. Evidence will show he intended to kill the men, was not legally justified in shooting them, and does not meet the test of legal insanity, Adams said.

Authorities found three shotguns in Eaton’s apartment and a Ruger .380-caliber handgun that crime lab testing concluded was the gun used in the shooting, Adams said. Eaton had purchased the gun seven months earlier from a Vermont gun store.

“If the defense tries to focus on the story that Mr. Eaton tells about why he intended to kill these three young men, that story is only part of the whole picture,” said Adams, the chief administrative deputy at the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Human Rights Commissioner apologises to Jewish Australians over her “greatest regret”
Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay has apologised to the Jewish community for failing to speak out earlier and more clearly against rising antisemitism.

She described her response after the Sydney Opera House protests as the “greatest regret” of her term.

In a personal statement written exclusively for the National Council of Jewish Women Australia (NCJWA), Finlay acknowledged that her delayed response may have damaged confidence in her, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the broader human rights community.

The statement, released today by NCJWA, follows her recent appearance at its national conference, Unbreakable: Jewish Women, Then, Now, Always, in Sydney.

NCJWA said Finlay apologised to about 200 attendees during her conversation with national vice-president Shirley Leader on 24 August.

NCJWA said Finlay also expressed regret about how the Australian Human Rights Commission had handled growing antisemitism since 7 October 2023.

“As I come to the end of my term as Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on what I could have done differently,” Finlay wrote.

“My greatest regret is that I did not speak out earlier and more clearly about the rise in antisemitism, particularly following the Sydney Opera House protests.”

She acknowledged that some people at the conference may have lost faith in her, the commission and the broader human rights community because of that delay.

“For that, I am genuinely sorry.”

Finlay said the experience had reinforced the need for leaders to respond decisively when communities came under attack.

“I cannot change the past, but I can learn from it. One lesson I will carry with me is that hatred must be confronted early, clearly and without hesitation,” she wrote.

“When institutions and leaders fail to do so, even with the best of intentions, the consequences can be profound.”

She said Jewish Australians should not be left to shoulder the responsibility of confronting antisemitism themselves.
John Anderson Media: "I Refuse To Be The Canary In The Coal Mine" | David Harris
Join John in conversation with David Harris as they explore the roots and modern resurgence of antisemitism. They discuss the defining characteristics of antisemitism, its historical evolution, and how contemporary political dynamics shape global attitudes toward the Jewish community and Israel.

The conversation examines the blurring lines between antizionism and antisemitism, alongside the changing social climate in Western democracies following the December 2025 terrorist attack at Bondi Beach. Harris calls for principled, bipartisan leadership and a unified societal stance that rejects prejudice and protects fellow citizens.

David Harris is an international Jewish advocate and the current Executive Vice Chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). He served as CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from 1990 to 2022. He is the author of Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs To Know.

01:42 Defining Antisemitism
03:24 Why the Jewish Community Attracts Hostility
09:20 Antizionism vs. Antisemitism
16:20 The Impact of the Bondi Incident and Australian Identity
24:44 Global Outbreaks and Political Will in Western Democracies
31:40 Vanishing Holocaust Memory and Social Media Escalation
42:06 Theological Evolution: Christianity, Islam, and Historical Relationships
52:04 Immigration, Integration, and Shared Societal Obligations
57:32 The "Pfizer Vaccine" for Antisemitism: Countering Hatred with Unity


Bondi Beach massacre shows us where ‘hatred without consequences’ leads
​News24 host Sharri Markson says the Bondi Beach massacre shows us where “hatred without consequences leads”.

​“It shows us that Australians are basically good and decent and fair-minded but are susceptible to distraction, to missing the signs, to acting too late, to taking things for granted,” Ms Markson said.

​“It shows us that the cost of failing is so great that it is measured in body bags and lost worlds, and each of us has a duty to ensure that this never happens again.”


‘Stunning and powerful': Sharri Markson's book on Bondi terror attack paves a path forward
News24 host Sharri Markson and Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin discuss their new book ‘Bondi Terror’ on the Kenny Report with News24 host Chris Kenny.


Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour over ‘Free Palestine’ performances
Macklemore, the controversial rapper who called for a “Free Palestine” before more than 80,000 people at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey while opening for Ed Sheeran, was dropped from the remaining U.S. dates of Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” after multiple venues refused to host concerts with him on the lineup.

“We have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans,” Messina Touring Group, which is promoting the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour, told Rolling Stone magazine.

“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” it added.

Macklemore had been scheduled to perform at eight of the 10 remaining shows on the U.S. leg of the tour.

Venues that reportedly objected included Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., according to Rolling Stone.

The decision followed two performances by Macklemore at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sept. 4 and 5. During the first show, the rapper led concertgoers in chants of “Free Palestine” during the opening performance and referenced Gaza and the “occupied West Bank.”

He also performed his protest song “Hind’s Hall,” which takes its name from the moniker anti-Israel protesters gave Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall after breaking into and occupying the building in April 2024.

“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine,’” Macklemore told the crowd.

The Israeli-American Council launched a petition following the concert calling on Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour.

“This was an Ed Sheeran concert—not a political rally, not a protest and not an activist event,” the IAC wrote in the petition, which also targeted tour venues and concert promoter Live Nation.

The organization, which represents more than 150,000 Israeli Americans across the United States, told JNS on Monday that it “applauds the decision to remove rapper Macklemore from the Ed Sheeran tour, thereby sparing future audiences the rapper’s antisemitic rants against Israel.”

“The IAC’s call-to-action petition demanding Macklemore’s removal demonstrates the power of a united community,” it said. “The rapper may have a First Amendment right to traffic in Jew-hatred, but he does not have the right to peddle his poison on stage in front of tens of thousands of concertgoers.”

“In the face of such an affront, IAC’s coast-to-coast community will not remain silent,” the organization told JNS. “We thank Mr. Sheeran and the tour’s producers for creating a welcoming environment for his fans.”

During his second MetLife performance, Macklemore addressed Jewish audience members directly, stating that “criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.”

The rapper wrote on social media on Monday that Robert Kraft, a prominent Jewish philanthropist whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium, had called Sheeran following the MetLife performances. Sheeran had been scheduled to perform there with Macklemore later in the tour.

“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote, adding that “Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively” gave Sheeran an ultimatum.


Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia University for alleged failure to protect pro-Palestinian students
Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestinian student activists sued Columbia University on Monday, accusing the Ivy League school of being deliberately indifferent to years of pervasive harassment because of their advocacy.

Khalil became a face of the Trump administration crackdown on students' pro-Palestinian protests after US immigration agents arrested him in March 2025 in the lobby of his university residence, though he was a lawful permanent resident - or green card holder - and not accused of a crime.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court by Khalil, the SIPA Palestine Working Group, and its president, Mohammad Zubairi, said Columbia violated federal civil rights law through its failure to protect students from threats, doxxing, and other harassment based on their perceived Arab or Muslim ancestry, or their advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The war in Gaza still sparks fierce debate at schools including Columbia, where the central pedestrian walkway across campus has been closed for nearly three years as the university tries to balance safety concerns against the desire for greater normalcy and openness.

At a press conference at Columbia announcing the lawsuit, Khalil said the university exhibited a "rotten, institutionalized anti-Palestinian bigotry" entrenched in every department and backed by its board of trustees.

“We are suing because no student, regardless of their background, should go through the hell that Columbia put us through over all these years,” Khalil said. Khalil claims to have reported harassment to Columbia prior to October 7

Columbia declined to comment on the lawsuit, but a spokeswoman said: “Creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe is fundamental to who we are as a university. It is also a responsibility we take seriously."

Khalil said he began reporting harassment during the spring semester in 2023, several months before Israel went to war in Gaza.

The complaint said that instead of investigating reported harassment, Columbia treated pro-Palestinian protests as "security risks" and revised its policies to treat any on-campus criticism of Israel’s military or government conduct as subject to discipline.


AOC, Rashida Tlaib Spent Thousands at Israel-Bashing Palestinian Restaurant That Serves Wines from Hezbollah Stronghold: Many Far-Left Dems Splurged at Michelin-Starred Spots
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) have collectively spent thousands of donor dollars at a controversial gourmet Palestinian restaurant whose owner accuses Israel of using food "to starve people and deprive them of their human rights" and posed in a Keffiyeh for a New York Times review.

The socialist "Squad" members' taste for spending other people's money on high-end Palestinian cuisine is just one example of how Democratic Socialists and other far-left members of Congress are spending large at exclusive, Michelin-starred restaurants, according to data buried in campaign filings that was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The luxurious restaurants in question are the haunts of the ultra-rich people these representatives frequently denounce.

Ocasio-Cortez has dropped nearly $10,000 at a number of Michelin restaurants, Federal Election Commission records show. A third of her spending was a $3,326.57 tab at Albi, a Washington, D.C., Palestinian restaurant which openly leans into support for terrorism.

Albi's menu features a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, who resigned from the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee in protest in 1993 in opposition to the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel. The restaurant is particularly proud of its collection of Levantine wine (none from Israel) that includes bottles sourced from Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. One wine, called "Grapes of Wrath," is identified by the restaurant as being from "the West Bank, Palestine."

Albi was also the recipient this summer of the Times's first-ever four-star review for a restaurant outside New York City. The award, by new chief restaurant critic Ligaya Mishan, focused more on Palestinian ethnic identity than food, and was highly irregular. There are only five four-star restaurants out of the 20,000 restaurants in New York City, and all five are in Manhattan.

Tlaib, who was censured by the House for hateful rhetoric against Israel, has dropped more than $2,700 at Albi for meals and catering, records show.

Like AOC, Tlaib—also a proud Democratic Socialist—has made a point of fighting for the 99 percent—even as she dines like the 1 percent.
Abdul El-Sayed Promoted Infamous Hijab Hate Crime Hoax, Despite Warnings from Police
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed falsely claimed in a 2012 essay that an Iraqi refugee in California was brutally murdered in an anti-Muslim attack because she had the "courage to wear a Hijab." In truth, Shaima Alawadi's husband killed her in an act of domestic violence that he staged to look like a hate crime.

El-Sayed, in an article on March 28, 2012, equated Alawadi's killing with the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a black Florida teenager, as examples of the "racism, xenophobia, and hate" in American society against minorities.

"Trayvon and Shaima were both murdered in cold blood," asserted El-Sayed, because they fit "archetypes indicted by American society as foreign, dangerous, and evil."

Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, died on March 21, 2012, after she was bludgeoned with a tire iron at her home in El Cajon, Calif. Police found a note at the scene of the crime that stated: "Go back to your country, you terrorist."

Though police cautioned early on against jumping to conclusions about the motive—specifically saying they were not at the point of calling the death a hate crime—El-Sayed and other left-wing pundits latched onto the theory that Alawadi was the victim of a hate crime.

According to El-Sayed's article in Mic, a liberal digital publication targeted at younger readers, Alawadi's killer targeted her because she had "the courage to wear a Hijab in a society where Muslims are openly vilified for the crimes of others."

But it's El-Sayed who vilified the wrong party for the crimes of another.

Alawadi's husband, Kassim Alhimidi, was arrested for his wife's murder after police uncovered incriminating text messages and evidence that Alawadi planned to divorce her husband and flee to Texas. Alhimidi, an Iraqi refugee who trained U.S. soldiers to fight in the Middle East, was convicted of murdering his wife in April 2014 and sentenced to 26 years in prison.

There is no record that El-Sayed has ever corrected his false claims about the murder.


Tunisia extends 'Sumud 4' flotilla activists' detention to 10 months, little international outcry
While Israel’s detention of Global Sumud Flotilla activists drew widespread international attention earlier this year, the months-long imprisonment of four members of the movement by Tunisian authorities has received comparatively little notice.

On Friday, the investigating judge of the Judicial, Economic and Financial Division of the Tunisian court system extended the detention of four activists who participated in the 2025 Flotilla to Gaza by a further four months.

Wael Naouar, Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri, and Nabil Chennoufi, the “Sumud 4,” have been imprisoned since March 2026 and are accused of money laundering and misappropriating funds received through donations.

One of them, Naouar, has been on hunger strike since August 16. The other three went on hunger strike on September 17.

The lawyers representing the four activists said that the accusations against them are bogus and that such charges are frequently imposed to silence political opponents in Tunisia. Defenders of the activists say this reflects a dichotomy in the country, which outwardly supports the Palestinian cause but simultaneously represses activists who support it.
Lloyds rejects mortgage application from mother of jailed Palestine Action activist
Lloyds Bank rejected a mortgage application from the mother of a jailed Palestine Action activist after citing “adverse media” surrounding the family, according to a report.

The application was made by the mother of Leona Kamio, who was sentenced to six years in prison for her role in the 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems site near Bristol.

The case involved activists breaking into the Israeli defence company’s premises and causing extensive damage.

According to a report by the far-left Novara Media site, Lloyds informed Kamio’s mother in June that it would not proceed with her mortgage application after consulting its credit team.

In a message reported by the outlet, the bank said: “We’ve now assessed the deal and consulted with our credit sanction team. Unfortunately, due to the adverse media, it’s not something they’re comfortable supporting at this time.”

An attempt to put the account’s assets into the name of Kamio’s sister and pursue the mortgage through that account was also rejected, Novara reported.

Kamio herself had previously been told that Lloyds would no longer provide her with banking services.

According to the report, she received a letter from the bank while in custody in February 2025 saying Lloyds was “unable to maintain a banking relationship” with her.

Kamio was among four Palestine Action activists convicted over the August 2024 raid on Elbit Systems facility at Filton, near Bristol.


Revealed: The ‘anti-Semitic rot’ at the heart of the NHS
The NHS is not just a healthcare provider. It has become part of Britain’s national identity. It binds us together – a promise made by each of us that we will sustain this organisation, which will catch us if we fall.

The NHS touches each of us, from the moment of our birth to the days before we die. It touches us throughout our lives at our most vulnerable.

That is why the revelations in the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s groundbreaking documentary on anti-Semitism in the healthcare sector are shocking on a visceral level. This is not a tale of occasional lapses, but of a malignant hatred in the very NHS that should be a bastion of compassion.

We heard from Jewish patients terrified of their surgeons, and Jewish nurses and doctors pushed out of the hospitals they had devoted their lives to. What we found were not isolated outbreaks of anti-Semitism, but a malignant institutional failure encompassing everyone from trainee doctors through to the regulators that are supposed to be a last line of defence.

A Jewish patient experiencing anti-Semitic abuse at the hands of his surgeon whilst under the knife. A Jewish nurse subjected to a Nazi salute by a colleague. A Jewish patient being treated by a leader of a now-proscribed Islamist terrorist organisation. A senior Jewish medical professor receiving anti-Semitic death threats. A Jewish emergency worker being physically attacked by a colleague.

At every turn, when they sought help from their employer, the studiously DEI-compliant NHS, they were failed – and then they were failed by their regulators too.

The Jewish nurse still works with her Nazi-saluting colleague. The Jewish patient had to keep quiet until the surgery was over, but was then informed that he would never be told whether the NHS was taking action.

This was a hard documentary to make. Stephen Silverman, our director of investigations and enforcement, told me that we were receiving hundreds of calls for help from Jews who had been abused or abandoned by the NHS and its regulators.

He and his team toiled through case after case, finding that many of those who came to us were unwilling to go on camera because they were afraid. Practitioners were afraid of their colleagues and, perhaps worse, patients were still receiving treatment from a doctor they were petrified of – but they had nowhere else to go for treatment.

It was hard to fathom the depth of hatred that we were hearing about. Could it really be that our NHS has become a hotbed of extremism? We undertook polling of the Jewish community and found a picture that was even worse than our anecdotal evidence suggested.

A clear majority of British Jews would be concerned about not receiving equal care because they are Jewish.

One third of British Jews who have used the NHS since October 7 2023 say that they were uncomfortable using the service due to their Jewish identity. More than four in 10 British Jews who have used the NHS since the Hamas atrocity took steps to hide their Jewish identity at their appointment.

I know how it feels in my own small way. I went to an appointment and was greeted by a nurse wearing a fist-shaped pin bearing the colours of the Palestinian flag.

In the aftermath of October 7, violent symbols from pro-Palestinian activists have taken on an even more extreme meaning. I have to have security all of the time because of my work. Nobody should be in a situation knowing that someone with potentially violent and extreme political views has access to their most personal information.

I know how this made me feel as a patient. People receiving medical care have enough to worry about without having to wonder about the prejudice or extremism of those providing that care.

So I complained. The NHS trust would not refer the nurse to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The regulators were worse than useless. It took multiple rounds of correspondence to even get an investigation opened. I doubt that anything was formally pursued. They apparently had a word with her, but that was that. Were I to return, I might be treated by the same nurse, wearing the same badge, for all I know.

Our documentary exposes the anti-Semitic rot at the heart of our NHS. This crisis requires a wide-ranging response that addresses the growing extremist culture within healthcare, the abysmal failure of regulation, the shocking lack of transparency and the total absence of accountability.

We cannot accept politicians pointing to past reviews and recommendations – we need real and robust action now. That is why we are also presenting a detailed plan to address this national scandal. Practitioners, trusts, regulators and others must all act.

At the very moment when they need the NHS the most, instead of being able to trust our national healthcare provider Jewish people are having to hide their identity for fear of unequal treatment or abuse. As long as that is the case, the NHS cannot be said to be for everyone.
Campaign Against Antisemitism: Malignant: Antisemitism in the NHS
Watch our full documentary on hate in healthcare now – and see just how widely this cancer has spread in the UK’s national health provider.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led, UK-based charity dedicated to countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law.


Mezuzahs smashed at Wilfrid Laurier University campus during Rosh Hashanah
Jewish students returning to campus at Wilfrid Laurier University (Laurier) after the holidays discovered that mezuzahs hung on their residence doors had been smashed and torn down over the High Holy Days.

The incident drew swift condemnation from community organizations, with Hillel Ontario and StandWithUs Canada issuing a joint statement on social media on Monday declaring that they "are horrified that, over the holiday weekend, Jewish students at Wilfred Laurier University were targeted with antisemitic hatred in the place they call home on campus."

The joint statement emphasized that "this cannot be the welcome Jewish students receive when they come to university," adding that "students have a right to feel safe and secure in their residences and to express their Jewish identity openly and proudly without fear of being targeted."

The organizations noted that the timing amplified the gravity of the incident, stating that "this occurred over Rosh Hashanah, making it all the more disturbing," and that "at a time when Jewish students should have been marking the beginning of a new year with pride, renewal, and hope, they were targeted by despicable hate."

Addressing the institutional response, the groups stressed that "there can be no tolerance for antisemitism on campus," and noted that "Hillel has been in touch with university leadership to ensure this matter is dealt with decisively."

Jewish students 'will not be intimidated into hiding who they are'
The organizations asserted that "Jewish students are not going anywhere," and that "they will not be intimidated into hiding who they are or removing the symbols of their Jewish identity" because "they are proud, they belong at Laurier, and they deserve to be safe being openly Jewish on campus."

In a statement to the Jerusalem Post, Jay Solomon, CEO of Hillel Ontario, said, “We condemn this act of antisemitism in the strongest possible terms. It is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of escalating hostility toward Jewish students that we have seen across campuses in Ontario and Canada. We have been in touch with university leadership and expressed our alarm at this incident, which follows similar violations on other campuses since October 7. The administration has assured us the matter is under investigation.”

“This cannot continue. All institutions of higher learning have an obligation to keep Jews safe, and we urge all schools to enforce their policies and hold perpetrators to account swiftly and transparently,” Solomon said.
CUNY says it will not divest from Israel after disclosing investment portfolio sought by anti-Israel activists
The City University of New York said it will not divest from Israel after releasing investment records sought by anti-Israel student activists.

“CUNY has consistently denounced BDS activity,” a spokesperson for the school told JNS. “The university has made clear it will not participate in divestment and is prohibited from doing so by law.”

New York’s Executive Order 157, signed in 2016, directs state agencies and certain state entities under the governor’s authority to divest public funds from companies and institutions engaged in boycott, divestment and sanctions activity targeting Israel.

The records show CUNY held investments in defense companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Palantir, Elbit Systems and General Dynamics, according to anti-Israel groups that reviewed the disclosures. The 2025 holdings report also lists investments in other companies, including Caterpillar, GEO Group and CoreCivic.

The university released the records following a legal battle with Sarah Southey, a CUNY School of Law student and member of CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine. Southey filed a Freedom of Information Law request in March 2024 seeking records on CUNY’s investment holdings and contracts as part of efforts to pressure the university to divest from companies connected to Israel.


‘Long overdue’: Newly restored Henry Ford home will confront his antisemitism
The bust of Henry Ford looked on sternly as hundreds of Jewish professionals flooded his pool room.

The visiting Jews admired the views of the Rouge River from Ford’s windows and strolled through his immaculately maintained garden. They studied a mock-up for a Navajo rug in his basement woven with a particular pattern — one that appeared to resemble a Nazi swastika.

The staff at Fair Lane, the historic Dearborn home of Henry and his wife Clara, welcomed the Jewish educators, historians and museum staff. Why they did soon became clear during a panel discussion in that pool room. When the home reopens to the public in June 2027, after a 17-year closure for restoration, staff will teach visitors about Ford’s antisemitism.

This facet of the pioneering industrialist’s life was hardly incidental. The onetime richest man in America published venomous conspiracy theories in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, for years. Hitler was a professed admirer, and Nazi Germany awarded him a medal.

Leaders of Jewish groups greeted the news that the home would address Ford’s antisemitism with optimism.

“We applaud Fair Lane’s commitment to addressing Henry Ford’s antisemitism publicly,” Catherine Cangany, CEO of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement. “This history happened, it caused harm, and it continues to have consequences we all must confront.”

Cangany, who has research expertise on the Dearborn Independent, sat on the June panel with Fair Lane’s curators but is not involved in the antisemitism initiative itself. Local Jewish groups including hers have been pushing for Ford’s enterprises to acknowledge his antisemitism for years.

“The reckoning is long overdue, and we all will be better for it,” she said.

The curators did not broach specifics of their plan with their Jewish audience in June. For the rest of the summer, as Fair Lane proceeded with its renovations, most of the Detroit area’s Jewish leaders were kept in the dark.

More than two months after the conference, top staffers Austin Eighmey and Hannah McCready sat down with JTA in Ford’s library to outline their educational plans in more detail.

Surrounded by replicas of books on German race science that helped inform Ford’s attitude toward Jews, they explained that they viewed discussions of antisemitism as core to the revitalized Fair Lane’s statement of purpose. Such information would sit, they said, alongside other unflattering aspects of Ford’s character, such as his union-busting activities.

“Our mission is to illuminate the lives and legacy of Henry and Clara Ford,” Eighmey, senior director of historic resources, said. Part of that legacy, he said, was noting that “he was an ignorant man, fed a lot of poor information that he himself sought out.”

“It’s our job to tell a more full picture and give people a lens with which to view history,” added McCready, the site’s director of interpretation and education.
London police seeks British man accused of assaulting three Jewish teens on bus
A man allegedly assaulted three Jewish teens on a north London bus last week in an incident that the Metropolitan Police is investigating as an antisemitic hate crime, the police department told JNS.

The three 14-year-old boys were traveling on a bus near Sanders Lane in Mill Hill at about 8:15 a.m. on Sept. 10, the day before Rosh Hashanah.

Officers from the Met’s new Community Protection Team spoke with the boys and took their accounts. Two of the boys said that they had been physically assaulted, and all three said they were targets of hate speech, the Met told JNS. It added that the investigation is ongoing, and officers are reviewing security footage. Police officers have not released details about the language allegedly used or what preceded the reported physical assaults.

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in the area, told JNS that the suspect is believed to be a white British man.

“The Met will not tolerate antisemitism in any form, and we will respond robustly to any and all offenses that occur,” Williams stated. “Urgent enquiries are ongoing to trace and identify the suspect linked to this incident.”

The incident came as the police department increased patrols ahead of the Jewish High Holidays.

“Our Jewish communities have the right to celebrate and observe the upcoming High Holidays without fear of antisemitic hate,” Williams told JNS. “During this important period of peace, we have increased our patrols in order to provide reassurance, deter those who seek to cause harm and help ensure people can come together with confidence.”
Ohio Republican fires campaign political director for using Nazi soldiers in social-media profile photo
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), a member of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, has “parted ways” with his campaign’s political director after learning that the aide had used an image of Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture.

Stephen B. Woytek, 25, posted the image in 2018, according to The Washington Post. He also reportedly participated in a World War II re-enactment, dressed as an SS soldier.

Woytek told the Post that he participates in reenactments for educational purposes and should have “exercised better judgment when posting about my activities online.” He said that he rejects “the racist and antisemitic ideology the SS and Nazi Germany represented.”

Husted’s campaign hired Woytek as political director in August. Husted’s spokeswoman stated that while Woytek denied negative intent, his social-media activity “displays a complete lack of judgment and disregard for its impact on others.”
London festival marks 90 years since Cable Street
Marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, the Board of Deputies is staging Cable Street 90, an 11-day festival of art, music, film, performance, talks and heritage events across London, with Jewish News as media partner.

Running from 1 to 11 October, the programme spans venues across the capital, including Toynbee Hall, Wilton’s Music Hall, EartH Theatre [sic], Sandys Row Synagogue and JW3.

Among the highlights is the premiere of artist Inam Zimbalista’s Murmur Mural, a moving-image installation projected onto Toynbee Hall that transforms archive footage through the movement of vast bird murmurations to explore collective action, resistance and community.

Acclaimed band Oi Va Voi brings its distinctive fusion of Jewish and Eastern European music, contemporary songwriting and electronic influences to a special East London performance.

On Sunday 11 October, Steven Berkoff joins the programme for a special Soho screening of his film They Shall Not Pass: The Battle of Cable Street. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the acclaimed actor, writer and director, hosted by Life magazine editor Brigit Grant.

Hosted by Trevor Phillips, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Howard Jacobson and Brigid Larmour come together for The Merchant of Cable Street. Inspired by Tracy-Ann’s acclaimed East End adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, the evening explores memory, adaptation and the continuing cultural resonance of Cable Street.

The wider programme includes Cable Street Matters, exploring the battle’s significance for British Jewish identity; a screening of the documentary Jews Defending Jews; family workshops inspired by Tanya Landman’s The Battle of Cable Street; walking tours of Shadwell, Wapping and the East End; an open house at historic Sandys Row Synagogue; and guided Jewish heritage taxi tours.
‘I couldn’t speak’: Fauda season 5 climbs Netflix charts as Oct. 7 episodes leave global viewers in tears
Nearly three years after the October 7 massacre, and despite the deeply charged political climate surrounding Israel, Fauda is once again demonstrating an ability to cross borders. The fifth season of the Israeli hit series, released globally on Netflix on September 8 after first airing on Israeli broadcaster yes, climbed into the streaming platform’s top ranks within days and entered the top 10 in dozens of countries.

According to FlixPatrol, the season ranked fourth among Netflix television series worldwide on September 10 and, at the time of publication, remained sixth globally.

The most striking numbers came from the Middle East. On September 10, Fauda ranked No. 1 in Lebanon, No. 2 in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, No. 3 in Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, No. 4 in Egypt, No. 5 in Morocco and No. 9 in Saudi Arabia.

The performance is particularly notable because two episodes, seven and eight, deal directly with the events of the October 7 massacre.

The Lebanese ranking is especially unusual given the country’s anti-Israel boycott law. A Lebanese campaign advocating a boycott of Israel and its supporters has previously accused Netflix of violating Lebanese law by making Israeli productions available locally, including Fauda, which it said promotes “a security narrative inspired by figures who served in the Israeli military.”

The new season also drew criticism elsewhere in the Arab world. Qatar-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed published social media posts on September 8 marking the season’s Netflix release, alleging that “actors from the series participated in the war of genocide against Gaza” and noting that “the Israeli series Fauda returns to Netflix.”

The newspaper referred to actor Idan Amedi, who was seriously wounded while serving in Gaza during the war, and cited remarks it attributed to actor Doron Ben-David in 2023 supporting the fighting there. The season’s Netflix release was covered as far away as Yemen.

At the same time, episodes seven and eight triggered intensely emotional reactions from viewers around the world. One viewer, who stressed that he was neither Israeli nor Jewish, wrote: “I cried my soul out. I usually don’t cry at shows or movies.”





Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates