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Wednesday, September 23, 2026

09/22 Links Pt2: Argentina charges 7 Iranians, 1 Lebanese over 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing; Gal Gadot's $3m. Genesis Prize funds 24 Israeli mental health and trauma care NGOs

From Ian:

David Collier: The Church of England is a runaway train – and its driver is out of her depth
Within the space of a few days, two Church of England institutions were forced into humiliating retreats.

At Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury withdrew an award she had personally presented to Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, a leading Pakistani cleric who was honoured for “reconciliation and interfaith cooperation”.

Ashrafi was no genuine interfaith operator. He helps uphold Pakistan’s brutal blasphemy laws, has supported the persecution of Ahmadis, declared the October 7 massacre an act of religious pride, and in 2007 he honoured Osama bin Laden with the title Saifullah – “Sword of God.”

“Come to Light”
When Ashrafi’s record was exposed, Lambeth Palace claimed that his previous remarks had “come to light” and withdrew the award.

They would have been better off saying nothing.

The Lambeth Palace statement makes it sound as if the information about Ashrafi was hidden away in some intelligence file. The truth is that just a few minutes of searching was all that was needed to uncover Ashrafi’s extremism. Lambeth Palace simply never bothered to look before selecting him as a worthy recipient.

There was no explanation of the vetting failure and no apology to 9/11 survivors, persecuted Pakistani minority groups, or Jews appalled by Ashrafi’s rhetoric.

Nothing but an “oops.”

“Stitch their Names”
While this farce was unfolding at Lambeth Palace, another was occurring two hundred miles further north, where Leeds Minster was forced to close an exhibition that had portrayed numerous Hamas fighters as innocent victims of Israeli aggression. During the controversy, the Minster’s rector, Canon Paul Maybury, was asked about the murder of the Bibas children – two Israeli children taken captive and brutally murdered by Hamas. He replied that “the history is complex.” Asked what he thought of Hamas, he answered: “No comment.”

The names in the tapestry have simply been taken from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and the advert Leeds Minster published notably described those names as “Gaza’s martyrs.”

Institutional Decay
The Lambeth Palace Award and the Leeds Minster exhibition are not identical incidents but they expose the same signs of institutional decay. The Church is so eager to align itself with a particular message that symbolism replaces scrutiny, producing morally indefensible acts that are exposed when outsiders do the work the Church neglected to do itself.

Take the tapestry. The concept itself is not unique, but intentionally serious memorial projects invariably involve dedicated bodies researching and confirming the identities of those being commemorated. Stitch Their Names Together simply draws its names from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry without verification. The result is empty Palestinian advocacy that promotes the libel of genocide against Israel and helps to spread antisemitism. It should have been nowhere near the inside of Leeds Minster.

With the award it was the symbolism of interfaith, with Leeds Minster it was alignment with the anti-Israel bandwagon. Different causes, but the same failure. As Church of England vicar Rev Giles Fraser recently wrote, “the Church leadership has become ideologically captured by the progressive lanyard class.”

Which leaves the Church of England increasingly resembling a runaway train – while its driver, the Archbishop of Canterbury, looks totally out of her depth. From a Church that Protects to One that Threatens

I want to add a little personal context here. I never had a problem with Christian England. When I was just three years old, I went to a kindergarten inside a Methodist church, before attending a state school that held Christian prayer services. My Jewish identity was always accommodated and I never felt threatened by the Christian majority.

In fact, my family home sat directly opposite a large church, and during heavy storms we would talk about the protection it gave us: its lightning conductor helped keep our house safe. I still see that today as symbolic of the protection the Church provided as I grew up Jewish in Britain.

So there is no inbuilt hostility here. Quite the opposite. What has emerged over the years is a growing sense of betrayal at the direction parts of the Church of England have taken.

Anyone researching the resurgence of antisemitism in Britain will eventually encounter Anglican figures such as the now disgraced Reverend Stephen Sizer, along with a strand of supersessionist theology that continues to have influence in some Anglican circles. That part is relatively easy to identify.

But during the years I spent undercover inside the anti-Israel movement, I encountered something else. I found myself all too often sitting inside Anglican buildings listening to anti-Jewish hostility being spread within their walls. A two-day conference at Lichfield Cathedral provides just one example: an event where Jewish history was rewritten, frustrated Jewish audience members were silenced, and material from the Islamist group Friends of Al-Aqsa was freely distributed.

The symbolism is difficult to ignore. The church building that stood opposite my childhood home represented shelter. Decades later, I found myself sitting inside Anglican buildings listening to hostility towards Jews being given a platform.

Yet when Jewish concerns are raised today, too often the response seems to consist of little more than words and carefully staged gestures.

The New Archbishop Meets the PFLP Activists
Let me start with the current Archbishop’s performative gestures towards British Jewry. Just days before her recent pilgrimage to Israel, she paid a visit to the NOVA exhibition in London, a travelling memorial providing an in-depth remembrance of the brutal massacre at the Nova Music Festival on October 7.

Yet the Archbishop was not one of the many Londoners with no access to the actual site of the atrocity. She was literally about to travel to Israel. If she wanted to make a meaningful gesture of solidarity, why not visit the real thing – the site where hundreds were murdered, just a couple of hours’ drive from Jerusalem?

She didn’t.

Instead, during her five-day pilgrimage, the Archbishop was presented with carefully selected Palestinian voices. Among them were two women I subsequently identified as having documented links to PFLP activism.

I covered the full story and the evidence in an investigation published at the time. There is no need to repeat it all here. The point is what it tells us about the Archbishop’s judgement, and the judgement of the team around her.

Within days of standing at a London memorial to the victims of October 7, she travelled to the region and gave a platform to activists associated with a terrorist organisation that participated in the October 7 attacks.

Once again, the scrutiny came afterwards – and from outside the Church.
Maureen Lipman: Read on for the best-laid plans of mice, men and Maureen
Many of you will have been aware that I am politically “hot” these days. Due to my writings in this very tome, my reflections in The Spectator and a rather charged interview on Sky TV, nominally about my play Allegra, but actually about their agenda. My belief that Israel should exist as a Jewish state has thrust me, in my near dotage, into a sort of “Mo of Ark” situation.

I was due a break after my stint in Allegra, so, as a delayed honeymoon, David and I travelled first to Puglia for a friend’s wedding, to be followed by a week on a sailing boat to three Greek islands to meet with other chums. Afterwards, I had signed up to do a one-day play reading, called Right Before I Go; a moving compilation by Stan Zimmerman (of Roseanne and The Golden Girls fame), of letters written by actual suicides. It was to be followed by a discussion with the audience to raise awareness and funds for a charity. But… read on for the best-laid plans of mice, men and Maureen.

My phone bleated out the news that an actor has withdrawn from the reading on the grounds that he could not countenance my political views. His name was McCarthy and being me, I couldn’t resist wondering – in the Telegraph whether this might be the “New McCarthyism”. The phrase was taken up, although not credited, by none other than The Wall Street Journal, then the Times, and then, wonder of wonders, The Hollywood Reporter. Goodness, it was going viral – or at least, mildly infectious all through the holiday.

I offered to meet with Mr McCarthy and discuss our differences. Or, better still, celebrate our similarities. I mean he might have been marching behind me on the anti-Putin, pro-Ukraine demos or standing in front of me with a placard outside the Chinese Embassy protesting the treatment of the Uyghurs. I suggested hummus and mint tea in a restaurant of his choice and that he might rejoin the show as colleagues who agree to differ, but both support an anti-suicide charity.

McCarthy would not look at my olive branch let alone pick up my gauntlet.

He was interviewed in the Belfast Times and protested loudly that he never asked for me to leave the cast, he never bullied me, he just made his point. He omitted to add that his appearance at Soho would have been on a different night to mine.

The fascinating part of the actor’s moral incapacity to share a lectern with a British Jew was heightened by his being a member of the audience at the opening night of my play Allegra at Richmond. He is on camera at the vox pop, singing the show’s praises, and mine as he made his way to the after-show party. Apparently, he came to see the show again in London. Only my husband visited Allegra more than once and we share a bed.

I have never made it secret that I am a proud, outspoken Jew, but something must have radicalised the actor in the six weeks that followed the party, to the point of issuing a statement on social media. He didn’t have to withdraw quite so publicly. He could have quietly told the producer that he’d forgotten on that particular Wednesday, he’d promised to take an elderly aunt to have a boil lanced.

Two days later another actor chose to exit the reading for the same reason. Now I was slightly getting the wind up enough to toss around in my bed on the ferry to Corfu. My dreams were uniformly about being thrown off buses in Hull and everyone I’ve ever met crossing the street to avoid me.
Sayeeda Warsi is minimising the Islamist threat
Among the front-runners to be appointed the UK’s first ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ tsar is Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi. Earlier this month, we had a grim taste of what she might bring to the table in this position.

Warsi delivered the inaugural lecture at University College London for Equi titled ‘Patriotism: Pride not Prejudice’. Warsi’s carefully curated talk, as well as the nod to Jane Austen, was peppered with quotes from Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson, along with paeans to cricket and village fetes. But these whimsical references concealed a darker message.

During the Q&A, I challenged Warsi on the framing of her lecture. We hear much from Labour and progressives about ‘Islamophobia’, but less about Islamic attitudes towards the West. What, I asked, about the profound hostility of the Deobandi and Salafi movements – which control the majority of British mosques – to the Enlightenment philosophy of personal autonomy, pluralism and universal human rights, including gender equality?

Her answer displayed a flippant disregard for the kind of threat Western nations face from Islam. In particular, the profound challenges that supremacist, exclusionary Islamic theology presents to public security, social cohesion and democracy in the UK. She said:

‘Does the Muslim community have nutcases? Absolutely. Does the Christian community have these nutcases? Absolutely. Does the Jewish community have these nutcases? Absolutely. And they’re always on display for all of us to see.’

This was a strange response. ‘Nutcases from the Muslim community’ – her phrase, not mine – have killed dozens and inflicted life-changing injuries on hundreds of Britons, including children, in the past several decades. They have stabbed two sitting MPs, one fatally. The vast majority of the suspects currently on MI5’s 43,000-person terror watchlist – as many as 39,000 – are jihadists. So why is Warsi telling me not to ‘waste my time’ interrogating the motives and goals of these ‘nutcases’?

I then asked her about support for Hamas among parts of the Muslim community and the willingness of many to deny the atrocities of 7 October. Yet rather than address these concerns, Warsi deflected and denied there was a problem. ‘I honestly don’t know who the six freaks are that you speak to that give you all this data’, she said. ‘But the people I speak with and I spend time with… hundreds and thousands of them, I have yet to meet somebody who’s told me Hamas is a great thing and I want to go out and, you know, kind of support them.’

Does Warsi really expect us to believe that only ‘six freaks’ support Hamas in the UK? It would be hard to explain, then, how a hardline Islamic platform like the UK-based 5Pillars boasts one million readers. Or the celebrations in cities across the UK after Hamas’s 7 October pogrom and the rampant anti-Semitism that accompanied them. In June 2025, 40 organisations – including students’ networks, religious groups and advocacy organisations – called for Hamas to be removed from the UK terror list.


Argentine judge charges 7 Iranians, 1 Lebanese over 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing
An Argentine judge on Monday formally charged seven Iranians and a Lebanese citizen over their alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

The decision marks the latest step toward a possible trial in absentia over the attack at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, which killed 85 people and injured more than 300. It caused devastation in Latin America’s biggest Jewish community and was the deadliest antisemitic attack outside Israel since the Holocaust, but no one has ever been arrested for it.

Argentina, the United States and Israel have long suspected the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah of carrying out the attack at the request of its patron, Iran. An Argentine court ruled in 2024 that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible, and, in a move backed by President Javier Milei’s right-wing administration, Argentine courts authorized the possibility of a trial in absentia last year.

In June, ahead of Monday’s charges, Argentine Judge Daniel Rafecas ruled that the Iranian and Lebanese suspects could be tried in absentia. The seven Iranian defendants held high-ranking positions in Iran when the attack occurred. The Lebanese national was a member of Hezbollah. Two other defendants were removed from the case due to lack of evidence.

According to Argentine media reports, the individuals who have been charged are: Ali Fallahijan, a former intelligence minister; Ali Akbar Velayati, then foreign minister; Mohsen Rezaei, the former commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Ahmad Vahidi, then head of the Quds Force; Hadi Soleimanpour, then Iran’s ambassador to Argentina; Mohsen Rabbani, then cultural adviser at the Iranian embassy; and Ahmad Reza Asghari, an intelligence agent. The Lebanese citizen charged is Salman Raouf Salman.

Rezaei was named last month as the head of Iran’s highest national security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

Most of these names were also published on a list of the INTERPOL General Assembly in 2007. Argentina requested they be added to the international wanted-person alert system.

“The decision to carry out the attack was made in August 1993 by the highest echelons of the Iranian regime and entrusted to Hezbollah,” Rafecas wrote in a statement.

Argentine President Javier Milei, a staunch ally of Israel, celebrated the decision on social media.

“Morality as state policy,” he wrote on X. The aftermath of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. (Newspaper La Nación (Argentina/Wikipedia Commons)

While a trial is now a real possibility, the charged individuals may appeal the indictment.

“There’s still a whole process to go through,” Rafecas told AFP, noting other necessary procedural steps before a trial could happen.

Two years before the attack on the AMIA center, a bomb at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires claimed 29 lives.
Group Led by Alleged Muslim Brotherhood ‘Intel Chief’ Plans Global Oct. 7 Mobilization
The Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP) is preparing a major international mobilization for October 9 to 11, culminating in a coordinated Global Day of Action on Saturday, October 10, days after the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

GAFP’s campaign calls on grassroots movements, student groups, trade unions and civil society organizations worldwide to participate in rallies, workplace walkouts, banner drops and what it calls “direct public interventions.” The campaign operates under the banner “End the Genocide, Defend the Land”, promoting the fabricated narrative that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.

The group’s Interim Executive Committee is headed by Anas Altikriti, former president of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) who met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2012 and has been described in several Arabic-language media reports as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s alleged “intelligence service” or European “intelligence arm.”

Members of the Global Alliance for Palestine’s Interim Executive Committee. Credit: Global Alliance for Palestine
GAFP also has a separate Steering Committee chaired by British MP Jeremy Corbyn and including Palestinian National Initiative co-founder Mustafa Barghouti, former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, and Italian MP Angelo Bonelli, alongside Yanis Varoufakis, Ronnie Kasrils and Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla.

The alliance says it is providing participating groups with common “narrative framing,” campaign assets, written material and multilingual designs. Its information kit is available in seven languages, including Arabic and Turkish material explaining “Why We Are Mobilising.”

In an Instagram post promoting the campaign, GAFP said it would provide organizations worldwide with “campaign materials, coordination and strategic support,” while allowing participating groups to adapt actions to their local political contexts.

Interim Executive Committee Headed by Alleged Muslim Brotherhood ‘Intelligence Chief’
Altikriti, who heads GAFP’s Interim Executive Commitee, was turned back by Canadian border authorities in May while traveling to speak at the Muslim Association of Canada’s annual convention. He was questioned for approximately 11 hours before returning to Britain. The incident followed a Jewish Onliner investigation into the conference lineup and Altikriti’s background.

An Arabic-language profile published by Islamist Movements states that some Arab and foreign media outlets have described Altikriti as the “head of Muslim Brotherhood intelligence” and leader of the Brotherhood’s alleged “intelligence arm” in Europe. The article separately cites Iraqi political figure Saad al-Mutalabi describing Altikriti as the Brotherhood’s “intelligence arm” in Europe.

Altikriti also has documented contact with Hamas leadership. In June 2012, he posted a photograph with then-Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, writing: “Having lunch with the Palestine Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya.” Haniyeh later became chairman of Hamas’s political bureau and held that position during the October 7, 2023 attack. Anas Altikriti (right) photographed alongside former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (left). Credit: @anasaltikriti on X

Altikriti’s connections to the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) are considerably more direct. UK Companies House currently lists him as an active MAB director, appointed March 4, 2026. Companies House also lists Altikriti as a person with significant control over MAB, stating that he has “significant influence or control.” Records show that status dates to 2018.

The British government’s 2015 Muslim Brotherhood review found that during the 1990s the Brotherhood “dominated the Muslim Association of Britain” as Brotherhood-associated organizations established public-facing institutions in Britain.
What Is the History of CAIR-Michigan, the Group Whose Director Is Billed Alongside an Alleged al-Qaeda Member?
Following Jewish Onliner’s report that CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid is scheduled to speak in London alongside figures with documented Hamas and al-Qaeda-related histories, a deeper examination of the chapter has uncovered a series of connections stretching back more than 25 years.

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They include an early CAIR-Michigan executive director who was later imprisoned for violating U.S. sanctions involving a two-million-barrel Iraqi oil allocation, a former chapter president who is now the father-in-law of Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and an early board member who co-founded a campaign supporting the head of a charity later designated by the U.S. Treasury over support to al-Qaeda.

The review also found that current CAIR-Michigan board member Jukaku Tayeb serves on the Founders Committee of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, an organization listed first in a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum among “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”

Jewish Onliner’s original report was subsequently shared on X by Mark Levin.

One of the earliest documented leaders of CAIR-Michigan was Muthanna Al-Hanooti.

A June 2000 CAIR release announcing the opening of its Michigan regional office identified Al-Hanooti as executive director, according to records later preserved by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Michigan corporate records from the same period also listed Al-Hanooti as CAIR-Michigan’s registered agent, according to the report.

He was sentenced in March 2011 to one year and one day in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors had also charged Al-Hanooti with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government and making false statements concerning his alleged work on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

Walid’s Record Before the London Conference
Walid became CAIR-Michigan executive director in July 2005 and has remained in the position for more than two decades. CAIR itself identified Walid as executive director since July 2005 in a 2007 account of the chapter. His tenure has included several controversial statements concerning Jews, Israel and Hamas.

During a May 2012 sermon at the Islamic Organization of North America mosque in Warren, Michigan, Walid asked who had “incurred the wrath of Allah” before answering in Arabic, “They are the Jews, they are the Jews.” The remarks were later documented by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

The same report documented a separate exchange involving the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. After another user asserted that Muhammad had ordered Jews killed, Walid responded that Muhammad had not personally ordered the punishment, saying Sa’ad ibn Mu’adh had ordered it and adding that “it was a correct one.” Walid’s wider explanation characterized the historical episode as punishment for wartime treason rather than violence against Jews generally.

Two years earlier, Walid drew criticism over remarks at a Jerusalem Day rally concerning the exclusion of Gaza’s governing authority from Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Critics interpreted the remarks as calling for Hamas to be included in the negotiations. Walid subsequently said, “I didn’t even mention the word Hamas.”

Walid is now scheduled to appear at The Thinking Muslim Conference in London on November 8 alongside Azzam Tamimi and Moazzam Begg.


The Brink: “I’m Afraid Of Britain’s Islamists” Moderate Muslim Calls Out Extremism
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by Loay Alshareef to discuss radical Islam, antisemitism, and why he believes the West has failed to understand the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Drawing on his own journey from radicalism to becoming an outspoken Muslim supporter of Israel, Loay explains why he believes Islam and Zionism are compatible, and why more Muslims must speak out against extremism.

The conversation also explores the war with Iran, the future of the Abraham Accords, and why Loay remains optimistic about peace between Israel and the Arab world, while warning against the growing hostility towards Muslims within parts of the pro-Israel movement.

Chapters
00:00 A Muslim’s Warning To Britain
02:17 The “Zionist Brotherhood” & British Extremism
05:20 The Muslim Brotherhood’s Caliphate Ambitions
09:00 What Britain Tolerates That The Gulf Won’t
11:08 Why Loay Calls Himself A Zionist
14:30 What The Quran Really Says About Jews
19:08 Why More Muslims Aren’t Speaking Out
23:47 Sunni Extremism, Iran & The IRGC
27:00 Why Loay Feels Less Safe In Britain
29:54 Iran, Israel & The Future Of The Middle East
38:11 Why Arab Leaders Struggle To Make Peace




Spain advances US extradition of millionaire accused of funneling $7.5M to Hamas
James “Fergie” Chambers’ hopes that Spain’s government would stop his extradition to the United States before the case reached court suffered a major setback Tuesday, after Madrid allowed the American request to proceed to Spain’s National Court.

The Council of Ministers authorized the next stage of the proceedings against the 41-year-old multimillionaire and pro-Palestinian activist, leaving the Audiencia Nacional to determine whether he can legally be extradited to the United States. The Spanish government stressed that the move was procedural and did not amount to a final decision to surrender him.

The government could have halted the process at this stage, including if it concluded that the U.S. prosecution amounted to political persecution, as Chambers’ lawyers argue. Instead, it allowed the judicial phase to begin. If the court ultimately approves extradition, the case is expected to return to the government before any surrender takes place.

The decision came despite opposition from within Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s governing bloc. Sumar and other parties on the Spanish left had urged the government to reject Washington’s request, arguing that Chambers is being targeted because of his support for the Palestinian cause.

Enrique Santiago, a lawmaker associated with Sumar and spokesman for the United Left, has described the case as “political persecution” and argued that Spain should not cooperate with it.

Spain’s government, however, did not accept that argument at this stage. Its spokeswoman emphasized after the Cabinet meeting that the decision merely opens the judicial phase and does not determine Chambers’ guilt or guarantee that he will ultimately be handed over to U.S. authorities.

Chambers is an heir to the Cox family fortune, built through Cox Enterprises, the U.S. communications, automotive and media conglomerate whose holdings include Axios. He separated from his interests in the family business in 2023 in a deal he has said was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since then, he has become an unusual figure among America’s wealthy heirs. Chambers identifies as a Marxist-Leninist, has publicly expressed anti-capitalist and anti-American views and has donated substantial sums to left-wing causes and Palestinian projects.
Meet the 'Jews for Abdul': El-Sayed Ads Feature 'Social Justice' Activists Tied to Group That Excused Oct 7
Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed has attempted to address mounting concerns from Jewish voters by rolling out ads and social media videos touting "Jews for Abdul." Featured in the spots are three left-wing "social justice" activists with ties to an anti-Israel group that excused Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, arguing it was a result of "Israeli apartheid and occupation."

A September 8 El-Sayed ad features former Detroit Jews for Justice "Culture and Technology Fellow" Daniel Klein, who sports a yarmulke and poses with his family as El-Sayed says he'll "be thinking about the people here" in Michigan, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

Klein is a former New York-based reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency who covered the role of "left-wing Jewish activists" in the Occupy Wall Street protests. He left journalism in 2012 to become a "community organizer," and after a stint at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he joined Detroit Jews for Justice—a self-described "social justice organization" that advocates "for housing justice, water rights, [and] reproductive justice"—in November 2018. Months earlier, Klein was arrested at the Michigan Poor People's Campaign, a series of rallies against "violence, racism, environmental devastation and poverty" that "leverag[ed] the age-old tactic of creative performative arrest" to "shed light on these injustices."

"Dan Klein is a former national reporter, and has worked as a field organizer for congressional and city of Chicago elections—yet, he's proudest of the work he’s done in support of Detroit Jews for Justice," Klein's online bio stated at the time. "He currently awaits trial for misdemeanor charges incurred during the Poor People's Campaign. He has a kitten named Kovner."

Less than two weeks later, on September 19, El-Sayed released a Rosh Hashanah video filmed at the home of mother-daughter duo Missy and Elaine Shifman, who read prayers from a card and praised El-Sayed's single-payer Medicare for All health care platform. The Shifmans are a "family of liberal Jewish activists," according to a 2021 Jewish Telegraphic Agency profile of Missy's sister Pamela Shifman, who serves as president of the shadowy liberal megadonor group Democracy Alliance. "Melding Jewish expression with social justice was embedded in her upbringing in suburban Detroit," the piece notes.

That activism includes opposition to the state of Israel. Missy and Elaine Shifman appear to be members of the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace, having filmed a July 29 video for JVP expressing their support for El-Sayed. "For me, being Jewish has always been closely tied to fighting for human rights and social justice for all people," Elaine says in the video. "Abdul … is someone who believes in the rights and freedoms of every person, no exceptions, including Palestinians," adds Missy.

JVP, the self-described "largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world," has long demonized the Jewish state, most notably in the wake of October 7, when it released a statement hours after the attack that referred to Hamas terrorists as "Palestinian fighters from Gaza," accused Israel of "threatening to commit war crimes against besieged Palestinians," and said the "source of all this violence" was "Israeli apartheid and occupation—and United States complicity in that oppression." JVP also hosted an event featuring Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted for bombing a Jerusalem supermarket. The terrorist who assassinated two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in 2025, Elias Rodriguez, shared social media posts boosting a JVP-led anti-Israel protest in Chicago.


At Yom Kippur service, NYC’s Lander, Mahmoud Khalil accuse Israel of ‘genocide’
Jewish New York Congressional candidate Brad Lander and the anti-Zionist activist Mahmoud Khalil accused Israel of genocide during a Yom Kippur ceremony in New York City on Monday.

“As someone who feels the connection to Israel, who care about it, I feel today so deeply that my vidui, my confession, must center on my, on our, complicity in what I view as genocide in Gaza,” Lander told a crowd at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.

Lander is the former New York City comptroller and an ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He won a Democratic primary for a US House seat earlier this year and is expected to win the general election.

He acknowledged hesitancy about labeling the war in Gaza as a “genocide” and rising antisemitism.

“For those Jews who share that connection to Israel, when we confess our collective transgressions today before God, how can you not join me in seeing the wanton destruction of Gaza, the famine exacerbated by lack of aid, the land theft and murders in the West Bank, at the center of our shared transgressions?” he said. “We have been culpable.”

The event podium had a sign that read, “For the sin of genocide we atone.”

Khalil, a former Columbia University protest organizer, said, “It’s tough to repent at a time where our tuition fees, our tax dollars, our votes are being used to kill, to maim, to displace Palestinians.”

“The Zionist project is trying to make us forget that we’re all one, that we’re all humans,” he said.

“May God remember that Israel is committing genocide,” he said. “May God, through all of us, hold Israel accountable.”

The Yom Kippur event was led by the far-left groups Jews for Economic and Racial Justice and Rabbis for Ceasefire. Organizers said the anti-Zionist groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace were collaborators.

Several hundred, including several far-left New York City councilmembers, were expected to attend, organizers said ahead of the event.

Lander is a longtime fixture in leftist Jewish circles in the city who has leaned into anti-Israel politics since the start of the war in Gaza, while identifying as a “liberal Zionist.”


Police ban on anti-Zionist protests in Jewish area was not unlawful, judge says
A police ban on anti-Zionist protests in a highly Jewish area of north London was not unlawful, a High Court judge has said.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK (IJAN-UK) held regular protests in the Swiss Cottage area between October 2023 and May 2025.

The demonstrations, sometimes held weekly on a Friday evening, were joined by counter-protests by Stop The Hate UK, causing “confrontation, police intervention, complaints and arrests”, Mr Justice Sweeting said.

The protests, which started after the Israeli response to the October 7 attacks, began outside the residence of the Israeli ambassador before moving to other areas in Swiss Cottage when legal restrictions were imposed by police.

On May 7, 2025, the Metropolitan Police imposed conditions under the Public Order Act preventing the group from holding its protests in the Swiss Cottage area and the order was repeated on subsequent occasions.

Protester Janet Simon, a Jewish resident of Camden, attempted to challenge the Metropolitan Police decision at the High Court.

On Tuesday Mr Justice Sweeting said her claim should not proceed to a full hearing as police had made a lawful decision.

The judge said: “The claimant contends that the restrictions effectively prevent IJAN-UK from protesting in the location which gives the protest its particular significance, namely an area containing a substantial Jewish community with whom the protesters seek to engage.

“The defendant’s position is that the restrictions were imposed in response to prolonged disruption affecting the local community and following a careful assessment of public order risks.”

He said the police’s decision was “plainly open to them” given the “significant effects” of the protests and counter-protests on the Swiss Cottage community.

Police had used the Public Order Act to move the protests on occasions before May 7, 2025 and these decisions were not legally challenged.


University of Sydney allows political group to run for student council under 'Globalise the Intifada' banner
The University of Sydney is allowing a student political group to run for council elections under the banner, “Globalise the Intifada”, widely interpreted to mean a violent uprising against Jews.

The group is campaigning for Student Representative Council elections which are taking place this week.

Premier Chris Minns and Opposition leader Kellie Sloane are aghast that the University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott is allowing this, and both of their offices are understood to have contacted the university separately.

Distressed Jewish community groups and representatives have also raised the issue with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Federal Education Minister Jason Clare.

Yet in correspondence sent by the University of Sydney on Tuesday, it appears no decisive action has been taken.

In the letter, the University admits the phrase ‘Globalise the Intifada’ "has appeared on election posters and corflute boards to promote a ticket that has adopted this phrase as its name."

But the letter states that the University has raised the issue with the SRC Electoral Officer and said it would write to the NSW Electoral Commissioner "to seek further advice".

The Queensland Government has already banned the phrase "globalise the intifada", with its legislation facing a challenge in the High Court.

Mr Minns is waiting for this outcome before he moves ahead with legislation.




Fate of 3 Israelis held in Egypt remains unknown 6 months after they were arrested
There has been almost no information on the fate of three Arab Israeli men arrested in Egypt six months ago, with their families, attorneys and even the Foreign Ministry unable to contact them, Hebew media revealed Tuesday.

The men, who were named in reports as Bilal Masoudin, Bilal al-Afshaq and Ahmed al-Doji, are from a Bedouin committee in the southern Negev region.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that it has been unable to clarify the situation.

“The ministry, like other authorities, approached the Egyptian authorities with a request to receive official information about them. At this stage, a satisfactory official response has not been received,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that it was continuing to work with Egyptian authorities and was in contact with the three Israelis’ families, who Hebrew media outlets said have been led to believe their loved ones were not arrested for suspected criminal offenses but rather for unknown matters relating to Egyptian national security.

Their families say that the trio visited Egypt in March and were arrested while staying at a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

Ynet reported that one of the Israelis managed to alert his family that he was being arrested and also called a friend to say he was detained, but that he expected to return home the following day.

That was the last anyone heard from any of the three men.

“We have no idea where they are or what has happened to them,” Fadi Masoudin, the brother of Bilal, told the news site.

He explained that the families decided to keep quiet about the incident for months in the hope that it would be resolved.
PA president’s son unsuccessfully sought to skirt US ban on Palestinian officials
Yasser Abbas, the son and top aide of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, sought to skirt a ban on Palestinian officials entering the US by using his Canadian passport, a US official and two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The younger Abbas was barred at the last minute from boarding a flight from Dubai to New York on Thursday, the three sources said.

“On September 17, Mr. [Yasser] Abbas was denied boarding onto a plane headed to the United States due to a lack of proper entry documents,” a US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Yasser Abbas was planning to hold meetings with several countries’ UN delegations in New York. He then planned to travel to Chicago to meet with Palestinian Americans, as part of preparations for the upcoming election of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s top legislative body, the sources said.

Banned from the US, he sufficed with later flying to Canada to hold meetings with members of the Palestinian diaspora, one of the sources said.

A day before Yasser Abbas tried to travel to New York, the State Department announced its decision to extend an entry ban on officials from the PA and PLO, alleging the two bodies violated US federal legislation requiring them to renounce terrorism and accept the principle of a negotiated settlement to their conflict with Israel.

Last year, US President Donald Trump’s administration similarly interpreted the two laws to bar a PA delegation headed by Mahmoud Abbas from attending the UN General Assembly.


Russia spreads AI fakes claiming Jews are being paid to settle in Ukraine
Russia carried out a large-scale disinformation campaign surrounding the Jewish pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation has claimed.

CCD is a Ukrainian government body that monitors and responds to disinformation and propaganda operations directed at Ukraine. It is part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).

A record number of Jewish pilgrims traveled to the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah this year, according to local statistics. The local Cherkasy Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 49,000 pilgrims had arrived in the city by the morning of September 11, while Israeli figures place it higher, at 52,000.

Regardless, the number surpassed even pre-war years, which typically saw between 30,000 and 35,000 pilgrims. There was also a significantly increased proportion of non-Ashkenazi Jews – Sephardim and Mizrahim – which Ukrainian Jewish media said accounted for up to half of all visitors.

Numbers aside, the pilgrimage has been the subject of media attention for another reason: Russian fake news.
Crypto casino used Nazi imagery before Orlando fight with swastika flags and Hitler salutes
Nazi salutes. A swastika flag. Fights in the stands. They were all part of the scene at a recent combat sports event in Orlando that pitted an Israeli Jew against an avowed racist with SS bolts tattooed on his chest — and ended with the latter mocking his defeated foe as “a short little f–king Jew prick.”

The condemnation that followed the August 29 event was aimed in a number of directions: at Paul Miller, the fighter who performed the Hitler salute after his win; at the attendees who returned the salute and displayed the Nazi flag; and at the Kia Center, the city-owned arena best known as the home of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, which hosted the fight night.

Politicians were shocked by the display and wrote statements condemning the event — but the Nazi symbols were nothing new for Duel, the online cryptocurrency casino behind the promotion.

Founded last year and billing itself as “the first casino that gives a f–k,” Duel has used Nazi symbols and racist language in its gambling programming. And its owner, Ossi Ketola, a Finnish high-stakes poker player, is himself a self-described First Amendment absolutist with his own history of racially charged comments. He celebrated his free speech devotion just one week after the Orlando event, in a social media post featuring a photo of himself with Donald Trump Jr.

One of Duel’s blackjack dealers, Nelli Levonyan, has worn a Nazi outfit with a swastika armband on multiple occasions while dealing cards on the blackjack stream. In a skit from the blackjack table that circulated online, a man, dressed up as an Orthodox Jew and holding an Israeli flag, attacked Levonyan by throwing coins at her. Levonyan’s character then sprayed something at the Jewish man — “Gassing!” he yelled — and said, “Go away from me, you dirty kike.”

In another blackjack stream, the dealer imitated one of the two San Diego mosque shooters, who killed five people in May. Levonyan has sung the lyrics to “Heil Hitler,” the Ye (formerly Kanye West) song, during a stream. She has also appeared alongside Miller while hosting the card game.

Earlier this month, Ketola joined a neo-fascist rally in Helsinki staged by the far-right party Sinimusta Liike, or the Blue-and-Black Movement. Ketola, who was dressed in a SpongeBob costume, livestreamed the rally and posted the footage with the title “Saving white Finland.” Speaking about immigrants, he said that people “need to be educated about how the genes work, and how these people realistically cannot be integrated here.”
In first Israel acquisition, Cognex buys Intel robotics spinoff for over $600 million
RealSense, the Israel-based maker of AI vision technology for robots spun out of US tech giant Intel, has inked an agreement to sell to US machine vision maker Cognex in a deal worth more than $600 million.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cognex, which makes machine vision products that help automate manufacturing, will acquire RealSense for $500 million in cash. In addition, Cognex will grant a $50 million stock option and incentive plan and provide a $56.5 million cash program to retain RealSense employees. At least 80 RealSense employees in Israel are set to receive more than NIS 1 million ($332,000) each as part of the $106.5 million stock, cash, and options compensation plan.

RealSense, a developer of advanced sensing cameras and vision technology for robotic systems, employs 180 people, of whom about 135 are stationed at its Haifa-based development center in Israel’s north.

The deal marks Cognex’s first acquisition in Israel. Following the completion of the transaction, RealSense’s Israeli operations and employees will serve as Cognex’s development center.

The deal comes 14 months after Intel spun off RealSense as an independent standalone company and retained a minority stake. RealSense started as an Intel research venture in 2014 to develop smart cameras that enable machines and devices to perceive the world in three dimensions. The technology was designed to allow robots and other automated systems to “see” and interpret their surroundings and interact with their human environment.

RealSense CEO Nadav Orbach said that the technology was built on the idea that “robots and autonomous systems can’t act intelligently in the physical world if they can’t first perceive it accurately.”

“For robots to work alongside humans, they need to understand the world around them,” Orbach said. “RealSense provides the eyes and the brain that make this possible.”

RealSense cameras are embedded in 70 percent of the world’s autonomous mobile robots and humanoids, to help them quickly understand their surroundings, the firm said. Its computer-vision technology is deployed by more than 4,500 customers worldwide, including China’s Unitree Robotics and Switzerland’s ANYbotics.

Intel spun off RealSense as part of a restructuring process by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. The streamlining measures also led to the closure of the operations of Israeli cloud computing tech startup Granulate, which the US chipmaker bought in 2022 for $650 million.
Wayne and Coleen Rooney filmed visiting Auschwitz with sons in new TV show
Wayne and Coleen Rooney have revealed that a visit to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp featured in their new documentary series was prompted by their son interest in the Second World War, which he was studying at school.

The celebrity couple appear in a new reality television series aired by DisneyX, offering an insight into their lives that often contrasts with lurid newspaper headlines.

One of the more unexpected moments of The Real Rooneys is the family’s visit to Auschwitz, accompanied by two of their children.

When asked if the scenes in Poland were staged for the documentary, Coleen clarified: “No, that was us. Kit really wanted to go.”

In a Guardian interview Wayne added: “It was part of his education. He was doing World War II at school.” In the show, the family is seen passing Auschwitz and stopping to look at the cattle cars the Nazis used to transport people to their deaths.

Wayne, now a pundit on BBC’s Match of the Day, had previously visited Auschwitz in 2012 with fellow England squad members, after hearing the testimony of the late Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper.

Supporting his 10-year-old son Kit’s decision to visit the camp, Wayne reflects: “It’s really important to learn about history, good and bad. Sometimes with your kids, you only want to tell them good stuff, and I don’t think that’s good for them.”

During the documentary, the family is shown passing Auschwitz and pausing to look at the cattle cars used by the Nazis to transport victims to their deaths.

Coleen explained, “We knew we’d be passing Auschwitz, and we wanted to stop.”

She looks at her husband and asks, “You’ve been before, haven’t you?”
Boy George: ‘I’m coming to Israel’ despite song backlash
Boy George has vowed to perform in Israel despite the backlash he has faced since releasing his outspoken pro-Israel song We Will Dance Again.

The Culture Club star confirmed he is heading to Tel Aviv’s Menora Arena on 4 November, saying he will continue to take his music “wherever in the world people want to hear it”.

In a statement shared with Jewish News, Boy George said: ‘I have always believed that music belongs everywhere, and I will continue to share mine wherever in the world people want to hear it.

“I believe in peace, compassion and humanity for everyone. But I also want to say this clearly: I stand with the Jewish people. At a time when so many Jewish people around the world have felt frightened, isolated or abandoned, I will not be silent, and I will not turn my back on my Jewish friends.

“Music should bring people together, especially when the world is trying to pull us apart.

“So I’m coming to Israel.

“Tel Aviv – I’ll see you at Menora Arena. We will sing, and WE WILL DANCE AGAIN.”

Boy George will perform at Tel Aviv’s Menora Arena on 4 November 2026.

The announcement comes nearly two months after Boy George released We Will Dance Again, which voiced support for Israel following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.

Its title draws on a slogan of resilience associated with survivors of the Nova music festival massacre, while its lyrics include: “You say genocide, I say war” and “If you’re ever confused / I stand with the Jews.”

The song sparked a fierce backlash, with critics taking particular aim at its rejection of accusations of genocide against Israel.


Gal Gadot's $3m. Genesis Prize initiative funds 24 Israeli mental health and trauma care NGOs
A $3 million initiative built around Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s Genesis Prize will fund 24 Israeli nonprofit organizations providing mental health treatment and trauma care, the Genesis Prize Foundation announced on Wednesday.

The 2026 Genesis Prize laureate directed her $1 million award toward organizations helping Israelis recover from the psychological consequences of the October 7, 2023, attacks and the wars that followed. A matching campaign led by Jewish Funders Network generated another $2m. in private and corporate donations, according to the foundation.

Recipients include Make-A-Wish Israel, United Hatzalah, and CareGivers Israel. The grants will support treatment, trauma counseling, caregiver training, and social work services, including assistance for professionals who have spent the past three years caring for others.

“After three years of war, loss, and extraordinary hardship, I believe recovery starts from within,” Gadot said in a statement.

“I want to dedicate these funds to the people who care for others every day: the doctors, nurses, medics, mental health professionals, and caregivers doing the difficult work of helping people recover and rebuild.”

Initiative focuses on those delivering care, i.e., health professionals, social workers
The initiative’s focus includes the pressures facing those delivering care. Mental health professionals, social workers, educators, and caregivers have faced heavy demand while many have experienced trauma themselves, the foundation said.

The selected organizations operate in northern, southern, and central Israel. Their programs serve mental health professionals, frontline workers, educators, social workers, family caregivers, children and young people, survivors of war and combat trauma, and underrepresented communities.





 


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