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Tuesday, October 06, 2026

10/05 Links Pt2: ‘An entire nation bows its head and mourns’: Israel marks memorial day for Oct. 7; Israel marks 1,318 slain security personnel since Oct. 7

From Ian:

‘An entire nation bows its head and mourns’: Israel marks memorial day for Oct. 7
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday opened the national day of remembrance for Oct. 7, 2023, by lowering the Israeli flag at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to half-mast at 6:29 a.m.—the exact minute the attack began.

He said that the flag-lowering was “a sign of remembrance and honor for the murdered and the fallen in the terror attack of Oct. 7 and the ‘Swords of Iron’ War,” adding in an X post that Israel remembers “the women, the men, the children, the infants, the elderly, the civilians and the soldiers who were murdered and fell in the terror attack and war.

“On this day, we also salute everyone who was wounded in body and soul and bear the wounds of Oct. 7 and the war—even in these days,” his statement concluded.

Flags at the Knesset were also lowered to half-staff at 6:29 a.m. in a ceremony attended by senior parliamentary leadership, who laid wreaths at the plaza’s monuments commemorating fallen soldiers and victims of hostile acts.

The National Remembrance Day for the October 7 Disaster and Swords of Iron War is observed annually on the Hebrew date of Tishrei 24 (shifting to the 25th if it falls on Shabbat), which corresponds this year to Monday, Oct. 5, marking three years since the 2023 attacks.

The day is dedicated to mourning those murdered in the massacres and slain during the Swords of Iron war, alongside honoring those injured in body and soul.

Later on Monday, Herzog addressed state memorial ceremonies on Mount Herzl honoring fallen soldiers and terror victims, and was set to host “Salon Otef” at the President’s Residence, focusing on the story of Omri and Lishay Miran. Miran was freed and reunited with his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, and their two daughters in October 2025 after enduring more than two years in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Israel marks 1,318 slain security personnel since Oct. 7
Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that 1,318 members of Israel’s security forces have been added to the nation’s official roll of slain personnel since Oct. 7, 2023.

The total includes Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Israel Police officers, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) personnel, Israel Prison Service and Fire and Rescue Authority members, civilian security coordinators and members of civilian rapid-response squads.

More than 7,150 people have joined Israel’s bereaved-family community during that period, including 2,143 parents, 355 widows, 880 orphans and 3,772 siblings, according to the ministry.

Separately, the National Insurance Institute said 1,029 civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, excluding security personnel and members of local rapid-response squads. The civilian toll includes 668 men, 361 women, 88 foreign nationals, and 63 children under age 18.

The institute said it has been treating 87,286 additional victims of hostile acts since Oct. 7, including 24 amputees. Of 43,004 civilians who filed hostile-act disability claims, 40,542 have had a disability determined: 34,955 for psychological injury, 3,208 for physical injury and 2,379 for combined physical and psychological injuries. The remaining claims are still before medical committees.

Of the civilians killed, 778 were murdered on Oct. 7 itself, including 70 foreign nationals. Another 251 were killed during the subsequent war period, including 18 foreign nationals.




New documentaries mourn all that was lost on October 7
As Israelis mark the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack with ceremonies and events, local TV channels will show documentaries about the people and places hardest hit on that day.

“Where Do We Belong,” about a group of young women from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, will premiere on HOT Channel 8 on October 5, telling the personal stories of kibbutz friends after the onslaught.

Director Dotan Nave and producer Igal Hecht spend an hour and 40 minutes describing the 10 women who met as they fell in love with men who grew up on the kibbutz, and ended up moving there.

There’s plenty of black humor and honesty as the women gather over the course of the film, while living as evacuees on Kibbutz Shefayim in the country’s center and as the kibbutz community moves to Kibbutz Ruhama, in the south.

The women discuss painful losses, indecision regarding whether or not to return to Kfar Aza, and the eternal question of whether they’ll ever return to who they were before October 7.

“Where Do We Belong,” Hot 8, October 5, 7:30 p.m.

In Israel, “Where Do We Belong” will screen at Cinematheques Haifa and Holon on October 5; Cinematheque Tel Aviv on October 8; Cinematheque Rosh Pina and HaUlam in Pardes Hanna on October 9.

The film will also be screened on October 7 in Toronto at the Toronto Zionist Council and October 8 at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hilla Medalia produced the 80-minute documentary “Find Me, Okay?” being shown on Reshet 13 on October 5 about hostage Eden Yerushalmi, who was killed in captivity in August 2024.

This portrait of a family’s love and grief was directed by Yula Gidron and follows Yerushalmi and her best friend Arbel at the Nova desert rave, Yerushalmi’s subsequent abduction, and the struggle of her mother, two sisters, and Arbel as they fought for her return.

The final parts of the film view the family’s grief after Yerushalmi, alongside Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino and Alex Lubanov, were killed by their Hamas captors, and how they manage their deep bereavement.

The film won the GWFF award for Best Israeli Debut Feature at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July, awarded by the German society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights.

“Find Me, Okay?” will be screened on Reshet 13, October 5, 9:15 p.m.


Former hostage Emily Damari calls out denial, distortion of October 7, thanks British supporters
Former hostage Emily Damari called out British citizens who denied, distort, or ignore the atrocities of the October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas, as the tragedy's third anniversary approached.

"It was not an accident," Damari said in a video released on Monday. "It was a planned terrorist attack, in which innocent people were murdered, raped, injured, and kidnapped from their homes and from a music festival."

Damari also decried the escalating antisemitism faced by Jewish communities around the world, including the United Kingdom, in the wake of October 7.

In the video, the ex-hostage wore a piece of tape on which was written "Choocha," the name of her dog which was killed by Hamas terrorists on the day of her abduction.

Damari also thanked those who had stood alongside Israel after October 7, including members of the British parliament who had raised their voices in support.

"To everyone who fought for my freedom and for the freedom of all the hostages: Thank you. Your voices matter, your support matters, to me, to my family, and to many families in Israel. It meant more than you will ever know."

She ended the video with a plea to the public to continue standing against terrorism and antisemitism, concluding by saying "Am Yisrael chai."

Damari shares unreleased photos of captivity
Damari shared previously unreleased photos from her time as a hostage on Instagram on Saturday, marking three years since her abduction on the Hebrew calendar.

“Three years ago at this time on Simchat Torah I was deep, deep in the Gaza Strip,” Damari wrote in her post

She described her experience at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, seen in the pictures she posted shortly after her abduction, where she was treated for a gunshot wound in her hand and a shrapnel injury in her leg. Ultimately, Damari had two fingers amputated. She also had additional surgery on her hand after her release in early 2025.


Amit Segal: UK Foreign Secretary's Silence on the Crimes of Palestinians Speaks Volumes
"We will never be silent about injustice," Ed Miliband declared when he outlined new measures against Israel at the Labour Party conference last week. But Britain's Foreign Secretary is rather partial about the injustices he chooses to be noisy about.

When the victims are citizens of the Jewish state, Miliband suddenly becomes cautious.

Faced with an attempted mass killing of passengers on a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, he offered this bland statement: "Deeply concerned about the incident that occurred on the Flydubai flight to Israel."

After all, it was only an attempt to murder 174 people - not construction of new homes near the Dead Sea.

In his speech at the conference, he clarified that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing and war crimes. He equated Hamas, the barbaric terrorist organization, with the State of Israel that was defending itself against it.

There is an attempt at ethnic cleansing between the Jordan River and the sea, and it is by the Palestinians against the Jews.

While Labour is doing its best to establish a terror state five minutes away from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, no government formed in Israel after October's elections will allow the establishment of such a state.

If someone got their news on world events exclusively from the Foreign Secretary's X account, they might think that the greatest evil empire in the world is Israel.
UK to expel 27 Israeli diplomats if east Jerusalem consulate closed, British diplomats expelled
Senior British officials have made it clear to Israel that if the British Consulate in East Jerusalem is closed and British diplomats are expelled, the UK will respond by expelling 27 Israeli diplomats, along with their families, two sources familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The consulate is expected to close on October 8, following an order issued by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

The move reportedly follows Britain's economic sanctions on the West Bank.

There is no reason for us to address speculation regarding decisions other countries might make in the future, diplomatic sources told the Post.

"We have already demonstrated that any move against Israel will be met with an appropriate response, and this will continue to be the case in the future," the sources added.

In addition, Britain's top national security official quietly visited Israel last week in a bid to prevent the closure of the consulate, three sources told Reuters.

UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, whose visit Britain's government has not disclosed, held talks with Israeli officials but failed to reach an agreement to keep the consulate open, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


For Mondoweiss, Israel Is the Problem – and So Is Jewish Support for It
American Jewish support for Israel has been an aspect of U.S. Diaspora identity since the founding of the state in 1948. Despite having differing perspectives on what a Jewish state should look like, the vast majority of American Jews still believe that Israel should exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

The support for Israel extends from centuries of Jewish yearning to return to the land of Israel and re-establish a state in their historic homeland. For American Jews, this inherent connection to the land is a label that they wear with pride.

But as the campaign to delegitimize the entirety of the state of Israel continues on, there are those who seek not only to suggest that Jewish support for Israel is immoral, but that the state that exists today should not exist at all.

This is exactly what founder and senior editor of Mondoweiss, Philip Weiss, claims in “American Jews’ continued support for Israel is very bad for Jews. We must wake up.”

Weiss, a self-described anti-Zionist Jew, has consistently made his position on Israel known. But as Israeli elections approach, Weiss writes that the political news is “tragic,” no matter “whether [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stays or goes.” Describing Israel as a “militarist ethno-state, not a democracy,” Weiss makes it clear that his objection is fundamentally tied to the existence of the Jewish state itself.

Effectively, Weiss has written what many others have been hinting at: it does not matter to them who wins the election, if it means that the Jewish state will continue to exist as is.

Yet he even extends this argument about Israel itself to the American Jews who continue to support it. Weiss warned that Jewish support for Israel will “make pariahs of Jews,” and portrayed American Jews who support Israel as potential “backers of bigotry against non-Jews.” In Weiss’ framing, the problem is not only that Israel exists, but also that American Jews continue identifying with and supporting the Jewish state.

Certain journalists and activists have been making similar claims online. Peter Beinart has claimed that synagogues should not declare that they “stand with Israel,” for it conflates the two, while Mehdi Hasan has referred to the Jewish community supporting Israel as a “problem.”

Such litmus tests for the Jewish people’s support for Israel will likely not change their connection, but it will make attacks against Jewish institutions more commonplace by providing a framework in which a synagogue’s connection to Israel is itself treated as grounds for targeting – a trend that is already evident.


Ask Haviv Anything: 150 The case for Netanyahu, with Gadi Taub
Gadi Taub, historian, Hebrew University lecturer and one of the most serious defenders of the Israeli right, says October 7 was a wake-up call that half the country slept through. With elections on October 27, he and Haviv argue it out. Was Netanyahu the war's master strategist or the man who presided over the complacency before it? Was the information war lost or never winnable? They also clash over hostage deals, Gaza aid, Ben Gvir and Arab-sector crime, the attorney general, and whether Israel suffers from tyranny of the majority or of the minority.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:27 Understanding Israel's current moment
04:20 The false sense of security before October 7
07:13 The danger of complacency and leadership failures
09:33 Hostage negotiations and political implications
11:26 Netanyahu's approach to hostage deals and war strategy
13:25 Expanding the regional conflict and regional strategy
16:46 Criticism of opposition and political timidity
18:38 The importance of public messaging and international diplomacy
22:55 The Israeli information war and Gaza strategy
28:36 Military efforts to minimize civilian casualties
33:37 Palestinian refugees and Gaza's future
37:52 Arab Israeli citizens and internal security threats
44:31 The role of the attorney general and law enforcement
48:49 Social divides: mobile vs rooted classes
52:57 The impact of emigration and societal shifts
58:16 Religiosity, secularism, and political divides
01:02:46 Checks and balances in Israeli democracy
01:07:54 The future of Israeli democracy and judicial reform




Mamdani’s $30M plan to fight antisemitism includes increased funds for anti-Israel group
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s $30 million plan to fight antisemitism in the Big Apple boosts funding for non-profit organizations that have zero ties to the Jewish community — including a rabid anti-Israel group.

Hizzoner’s Strategy to Combat Antisemitism released last week comes with a $6.4 million cash infusion for Partners Against the Hate (P.A.T.H.), doubling last year’s funding for the taxpayer-backed community grant program.

The initiative, which was launched in 2021 under the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, partners with a core six grassroots organizations that include the Jewish Community Relations Council, as well as various other religious and ethnic groups.

One of the top advocacy groups involved in P.A.T.H. — which works to prevent hate crimes across the city through community programs and grants — is the anti-Israel Arab American Association of New York.

The Brooklyn-based group, which was run for over a decade by Mamdani’s mentor and pro-Palestinian firebrand Linda Sarsour, repeatedly cheered on the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and other protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The organization pocketed $3.3 million in city funding between 2017 and 2024, the Washington Examiner first reported, citing data analyzed by the transparency watchdog group OpenTheBooks.

P.A.T.H. partners also include the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, aka “the Godsquad,” the LGBT NYC Anti-Violence Project, the Asian American Federation and the Hispanic Federation.

Mamdani has been under pressure since taking office to address the rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes throughout the five boroughs.


Obama to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit, nominee says
Former US President Barack Obama will join Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on the campaign trail in Detroit on October 24, El-Sayed announced in a post on X/Twitter on Monday.

“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” El-Sayed wrote, adding, “Get. Ready.”

The accompanying campaign graphic features Obama, El-Sayed, and Jocelyn Benson. The post does not specify a venue or an event time.

El-Sayed is facing Republican Mike Rogers in the November election. He is seeking to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.


‘UK Democracy Has an Upper Hand’: Abdul El-Sayed Praised British Government as Superior to United States
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed praised the British democratic system as superior to America's in a 2010 op-ed, arguing that the British system is better because it allows ethnic minority groups to concentrate more electoral power.

El-Sayed wrote the opinion piece for the Guardian headlined, "UK democracy has upper hand on US," about his experience attending a parliamentary candidate debate in East London.

"As an American, born, bred, and taught in school that American democracy was the greatest in the world, I was initially sceptical of this foreign brand," he wrote. "But what I experienced that evening [at the debate] was a ceremony in communal self-determination that I have yet to see in any federal American electoral institution."

El-Sayed said his experience made him "a tad envious" of British democracy and he wished he could vote in their elections. "What are the odds they'll allow an American [to] cast his vote on 6 May?" he wrote. El-Sayed added that one of the things that made the East London debate "so impressive" was that "all of the candidates at the [debate] were themselves Bengali."

"As an Arab-American, the likelihood of ever having the opportunity to vote for an Arab-American candidate for national office during my lifetime is minimal," he wrote.

El-Sayed argued that "ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are more concentrated in British constituencies," as opposed to in the United States, where "the will of the majority drowns out the political voice of the disadvantaged."

Because of this, he claimed, the British national election "becomes a community exercise in cohesiveness and solidarity, antithetical to the American electoral climate."

Despite El-Sayed's claims about American politics, at the time of his op-ed at least 16 Arab Americans had already been elected to the U.S. House or Senate, including from El-Sayed's home state of Michigan, where U.S. senator Spencer Abraham (R.), a Lebanese-American, was elected in 1994 and served until 2000.
EXCLUSIVE: Video Shows Abdul El-Sayed Stating He Has ‘Dual Citizenship’ in Egypt and US
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit audience in 2016 that he has "dual citizenship" in the United States and Egypt, according to previously unreported video. It's the second time he's been documented making the claim, even though his campaign now claims he was never a dual citizen.

El-Sayed made the remark about his dual citizenship onstage at a GlobeMed conference in Detroit, where the far-left Democrat served as the city's health director at the time.

"I carry dual citizenship, and I grew up spending most of my summers in another country where I understood what it meant not to have the right to self-govern," said El-Sayed, whose parents emigrated from Egypt to the Detroit area in 1978.

El-Sayed went on to tell a story, one he still tells on the campaign trail a decade later, that he was questioned by Egyptian police during one of those summer visits for publicly cursing Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president at the time.

The newly revealed 2016 video marks at least the second time El-Sayed has publicly claimed to have Egyptian status. His academic résumé stated in 2014 that he was a citizen of the United States and Egypt, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

El-Sayed's campaign told the Free Beacon, which reported in January on the dual citizenship claim made on his résumé, that El-Sayed was mistaken about his citizenship status.

"Abdul is not a dual citizen by any verifiable metric and never has been," campaign spokeswoman Roxie Richner told the Free Beacon. Richner said that El-Sayed was "told as a child that his grandfather had pursued Egyptian citizenship on his behalf, for which he was eligible due to his parents being born in Egypt." But that person, whom the campaign has not identified, was wrong, according to Richner.

"This was an error based on what he was told by family members secondhand," said Richner. "When he tried to verify this later on in life, he and his family were unable to find any documentation to verify this claim."

In 2014, El-Sayed was working as a public health scholar, and false statements on a résumé, including ones about ethnic identity, are considered a grave offense in academia.


Jewish Currents Event Features Hasan Piker & Former Official of Hamas Front Group
Four days after the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack, Jewish Currents will convene an all-day political and cultural gathering at the Brooklyn Academy of Music featuring Fadi Quran, a former official of Israeli-designated Al-Haq, and Muhammad Shehada, who previously held a senior position at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, an organization Israeli authorities have identified as a Hamas front group.

The BAM program also features political streamer Hasan Piker on a panel titled “Can the Left Wield Power?” Piker said during a 2019 livestream that “America deserved 9/11,” a remark he later walked back. In September 2026, he told Axios that he considered the United States worse than al-Qaeda “pound for pound” when comparing deaths caused by conduct he characterizes as terrorism.

The October 11 program includes sessions titled “Confronting Israel From Within,” “Judaism and Genocide,” “The Palestinian National Movement After The Destruction of Gaza,” and “Know Your Enemy Live: Neocons, the Far Center, and the Politics of Jewish Reaction.” A day earlier, Jewish Currents will hold a separate text study at 651 Arts titled “Complicity, Inclusion, and Purity in Jewish Left Politics.” The BAM gathering also includes a concert and is followed by an off-site afterparty featuring music.

The description for “Judaism and Genocide” says Jews must confront the destruction of Gaza “this time not as victims but as perpetrators.” Another session, “Confronting Israel From Within,” asks whether Israelis can be challenged to confront what Jewish Currents calls the “genocidal consequences” of their positions.

BAM is a private nonprofit, but its public ties are substantial. New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs lists BAM as a member of the Cultural Institutions Group. The city says the group’s institutions are located on city-owned property and receive significant capital and operating support, describing them as publicly owned facilities operated through public-private partnerships.

Jewish Currents says the gathering is supported by the Ideas Workshop of the Open Society Foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Krupp Family Foundation.

Speaker Worked for Israeli-Designated Al-Haq and Was Detained Alongside PIJ Leader
Among the speakers is Fadi Quran, whom Jewish Currents identifies as the founder of Thiqa. Quran is also a senior director at Avaaz and previously served as UN Advocacy Officer with Al-Haq’s legal research and advocacy unit.

Quran worked at Al-Haq while Shawan Jabarin was its general director. Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, citing AFP, reported that Jabarin was sentenced to nine months in prison in 1985 following a conviction involving recruitment for the PLFP.

Human Rights Watch describes the conviction more specifically as providing a service to the PFLP by facilitating the overseas travel of two members for training. HRW also records that the Israeli military later told courts, based on classified evidence, that Jabarin remained active in the PFLP.

Israel subsequently designated Al-Haq and five other Palestinian organizations as terrorist organizations in 2021 over alleged PFLP ties.

Quran and senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure Khader Adnan were also detained during the same August 2021 Palestinian Authority crackdown on activists demanding accountability for the killing of Nizar Banat. Contemporary reporting listed Quran and Adnan among four detainees released together after being arrested in connection with the Ramallah protests. The report identified Adnan as a leader in Palestinian Islamic Jihad.


Hundreds of anti-Israel protests planned worldwide around October 7 anniversary
As Israeli and Jewish communities around the world mark the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel, 262 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests and events have been identified in 37 countries, the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry said.

The events are planned through October 14, with 121 scheduled for October 10-11, the ministry said, citing data from its J-SOC (National Center for Combating Antisemitism). On October 7 itself, 75 demonstrations are planned worldwide.

The events come after three years of frequent anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in many cities and a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents worldwide. Authorities have repeatedly warned that such protests can create heightened security risks for Israelis and Jews.

The United States has the largest number of planned events, with 45, followed by Spain with 40, the ministry said. Australia expects to see 21 protests, the UK 19, and Italy 16. Germany and Canada each will have 14, while France will have 10, and the Netherlands eight.

Of the 262 events, 21 have been classified as high-risk and 66 as medium-risk.

Around 45 protests are expected to take place near Israeli embassies, consulates, or other known Israeli assets, including 10 classified as high-risk. Protesters demonstrate outside of NRG Station prior to the Ed Sheeran Concert at Lincoln Financial Field on September 19, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Heather Barry/Getty Images/AFP)

High-risk demonstrations are scheduled to take place directly outside Israeli diplomatic missions in Seoul, Bogotá, Mexico City, and Bangkok. Other high-risk locations include Amsterdam’s Dam Square, 220 meters (720 feet) from an aircrew hotel; a rally at Helsinki’s Rautatieasema, 300 meters (985 feet) from the Israeli embassy; and a demonstration on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, 350 meters (1,150 feet) from the embassy.

High-risk urban rallies in Milan, Rome, Paris, London, and Berlin are also expected to draw heightened police monitoring.

Canada has the highest concentration of high-risk protests, with four planned in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. The United States, Italy, Australia, and Greece each have two high-risk demonstrations. High-risk gatherings have also been identified in major international hubs, including London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Istanbul, Santiago, Bogotá, and Bangkok.
London police urge students to reschedule October 7 pro-Palestinian march
London’s Metropolitan Police on Friday publicly urged organizers of a large pro-Palestinian demonstration planned for Wednesday, October 7, to move the march to another date, citing serious concerns over its impact on Jewish students and staff on the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel.

The march is expected to set out at noon from King’s College London and end at University College London (UCL), with organizers calling on participants to protest Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Against the backdrop of the sensitive date, the Metropolitan Police issued an unusual public appeal to the organizers on Friday asking them to reschedule the demonstration.

Senior police officer James Harman, who is responsible for operations at the Metropolitan Police, said during a briefing at Scotland Yard that “serious concerns” had been raised about the demonstration’s impact on students and faculty members, particularly Jews, both because of the date chosen and because of the planned route between major academic institutions in the British capital.

Harman said police had tried to contact the organizers but had struggled to identify anyone willing to take formal responsibility for the event.

He publicly called on them to change their plans, saying organizers and participants should consider the distress such a demonstration could cause on a day when many members of the Jewish community will mark three years since the October 7 attack.

Pro-Palestine groups in universities across London
The march is being organized under the name University of London Coalition, an umbrella organization of pro-Palestinian student groups at universities across London. In publicity ahead of the demonstration, organizers called for a “Palestine free from the river to the sea” and described the war in Gaza as part of what they called “78 years of genocide.”

One of the event advertisements also featured the red triangle symbol, which in recent years has been associated with Hamas videos.

London police said that if the organizers refuse to move the march, officers will consider measures intended to reduce disruption and harm. Police have already contacted four universities attended by students associated with the coalition and asked their administrations to take steps to ensure that Jewish students and staff can study and work without feeling threatened, excluded, or targeted.

In its letters, the police emphasized that it recognizes the importance of freedom of expression, peaceful protest, and academic debate. At the same time, it cited figures from the Community Security Trust showing that the number of antisemitic incidents at British universities remains significantly higher than levels recorded before October 2023.
‘Obscene’: October 7 pro-Palestinian vigils spark backlash
Jewish Australians will mark three years since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Wednesday, with commemorations planned across the country as pro-Palestinian groups prepare to hold vigils on the same day.

Jewish community groups have organised events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra to remember the victims of the October 7 attacks.

Some locations are being kept private over safety concerns.

At the same time, pro-Palestinian groups are planning vigils in Sydney, Melbourne and Wollongong to mark the anniversary of the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The decision to hold the events on the same day has drawn condemnation from Labor premiers, with NSW Premier Chris Minns describing the planned vigils as “obscene”.

“To choose that day, I think it’s designed to antagonise large sections of our community,” Mr Minns told reporters.

“I’m obviously distressed on their behalf.”

Mr Minns said Supreme Court and High Court decisions on political communication prevented him from shutting down the gatherings.

NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane accused organisers of deliberately choosing the anniversary.

“The premier agrees this vigil is wrong. But saying ‘it’s difficult’ isn’t a plan. He should be asking the organisers directly to move the date,” she told the Daily Telegraph.

“He should tell the community what police advice he’s received and what options he’s considered.”


American Studies Association Features Speaker Who Praised Jerusalem Bus Attacker
The American Studies Association has scheduled Palestinian scientist Mazin Qumsiyeh, who wrote an article praising a perpetrator of a deadly Jerusalem bus attack, for its October 22–25, 2026 annual meeting in Chicago.



The program includes sessions titled “Dezionizing the U.S. University,” “Techno-Counterinsurgency from Turtle Island to Palestine” and “Love Snow, But Fuck ICE: Improvising Resistance to Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.” Other participants include former Weather Underground figures Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and San Francisco State University professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, who publicly idolized PFLP airline hijacker Leila Khaled.

“Dezionizing” Universities and “Fuck ICE”
The conference program opens Thursday morning with “Dezionizing the U.S. University,” featuring academics from the University of California system, Wake Forest University and Lara Sheehi. Other sessions include “Against Zionist and White Nationalist Attacks on the Academy,” “Zionism Is Racism: Introducing the Critical Zionism Studies Syllabus” and “Resisting Zionism: Anticolonial Feminist Pedagogy and Practice.” The latter includes a paper titled “Against Civility: Anti-Zionist Feminist Disobedience in the Academy.”

Anti-police and anti-immigration-enforcement themes also recur throughout the meeting. Sessions include “Improvising Just Futures: Prefigurative Politics Beyond Policing,” “Making Research Work for Abolitionist Movements” and a paper on the “Legacy of Radical Queer Anti-Police Organizing.”

The program also repeatedly casts American power through the language of empire and counterinsurgency. One panel is titled “Improvising against the U.S. Empire: Race, Global Violence, and Radical Imaginations,” while another examines “American Empire and Its Spatial Logic: Militarism, Infrastructure, and Cognitive Control.” Another panel titled “Techno-Counterinsurgency from Turtle Island to Palestine” is chaired by CUNY Graduate Center professor Orisanmi Burton and includes NYU professor Helga Tawil-Souri. Qumsiyeh Photographed with Terror Cell Leader

Jewish Onliner previously identified a captioned photograph on Qumsiyeh’s own blog showing him alongside Basel al-Araj. Qumsiyeh wrote that he met al-Araj in 2009 and described years of shared activism and demonstrations. Israeli police spokesmen said al-Araj “was the head of a terrorist cell that planned to carry out [attacks] against Israeli targets” and that he had purchased weapons. Al-Araj was killed in a March 2017 gunfight with Israeli forces.

Qumsiyeh is scheduled for “Cultivating Otherwise: Seed Sovereignty, Abolitionist World-Building, and Liberation from Chicago to Palestine.” An organizer statement for the 2012 Global March to Jerusalem lists him and “M K Sawalha (UK)” on its International Advisory Committee. Later reporting identified the entry as Mohammed Kassem Sawalha, whom the Justice Department had named in 2004 among alleged high-ranking Hamas leaders identified as co-conspirators. Hamas later identified Mohammed Sawalha as a member of its political bureau during a 2017 delegation to Moscow, according to The Independent.

Qumsiyeh has also appeared on Iranian Press TV with figures later sanctioned by the United States. He appeared with Khaled Barakat in a September 2024 broadcast and separately with Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates. Treasury sanctioned Samidoun and Barakat in October 2024, describing Samidoun as a PFLP fundraising front and Barakat as a member of the PFLP’s leadership. Press TV itself was sanctioned in 2023.
Posters target University of Oregon Hillel executive director as ‘enemy of the people’
Lenny Steinberg, the executive director of Oregon Hillel, said he was left feeling “sad, angry and scared” after posters found plastered around the University of Oregon campus targeted him directly, featuring a photo of his face under the banner “enemy of the people” and claiming he “supports the continuation of Zionism and genocide in Palestine.”

In a conversation with Marc Blattner, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, Steinberg said that “targeting an individual by name and face is meant to intimidate, and it crosses the line from political speech to harassment,” according to a statement released by Blattner.

Steinberg also said that the poster’s call for “Hillel off campus” is “a message to Jewish students that their community does not belong.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland condemned the posters and called for University of Oregon President Karl Scholz and university administrators “to take swift, meaningful action to protect Jewish students, faculty, and Jewish organizational professionals.”

Scholz later addressed the incident in a university-wide email, stating, “While we do not know if the flyers were posted by someone affiliated with our university, this type of language on our campus — language that targets based on religious and ethnic identity — is reprehensible. People have the right to speak freely, and we uphold that right. The posted flyers did not invite dialogue; instead, they promoted isolation and fear, and fear erodes the foundation of our community. We can be better.”

Scholz did not specify if any investigation into the incident or disciplinary actions would be taking place. Blattner said in a follow-up statement that the federation was “grateful” to Scholz for his message.

In his original message, Blattner said, “All Oregonians should be deeply disturbed” by the targeting of Steinberg and Hillel.

“We also recognize what this moment represents,” he continued. “Across our state and our nation, we are seeing a pattern of efforts to isolate Jewish people and remove Jewish institutions from the shared spaces of public life, campuses, coalitions, cultural events, and community conversations. Whether through harassment, exclusion, or the deliberate vilification of Jews, the goal is the same — to make Jewish participation in civic life feel unwelcome or unsafe. We reject this completely! Jewish Oregonians helped build this state, and we will remain active, visible, and engaged in its future.”


Class dismissed Jewish kids flee NY public schools over Oct. 7 antisemitism as parents blame teachers for pumping up ‘the venom’
Jewish parents say they’ve been forced to yank their kids out of Big Apple public schools since Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel three years ago, blaming educators — like the Brooklyn teacher who praised the Oct. 7 mastermind — for fostering hate.

Thousands of families in New York have opted for the friendlier confines of yeshivas and day schools since the 2023 terror attack on the Jewish state, a review by The Post found.

“They’re shown videos that Israel was starving Palestinian girls,” said Josh Horowitz, who left Williamsburg and moved upstate to have his daughter in a safer setting. “There was no context. There was no screening.

“They were calling Zionists violent. It’s not about me. It’s about what was being taught in the classroom.”

Upper East Side mom Natalya Murakhver, who pulled her two children from PS 87 in 2024, said the change in the public school culture since the terror attack has been stark.

“Things have progressed very quickly. The language changes, the caliber of the venom. I think we’re entering a new phase,” she said.

“Back then, I think they were at least trying to pretend it was just about Israel. And now it’s pretty clear to those for whom it wasn’t clear before that anti-Zionism is Jew hate and antisemitism as we know it.”
NYC teacher praised Oct. 7 mastermind in Park Slope Food Coop group chat, lawsuit says: ‘Long live Yahya Al-Sinwar’
A Brooklyn teacher brazenly posted, “Long live Yahya al-Sinwar’’ in a group chat, according to a new legal filing.

Now he’s under investigation by city education officials.

Damien Neva, 48, a washed-up fashion photographer-turned-public-school teacher in, praised the heinous Hamas leader, who was the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, in November 2024, according to a lawsuit related to the Park Slope Food Coop.

“Long live Yahya Al-Sinwar,” Neva said in a Signal group of other anti-Israel members of the co-op, according to the lawsuit.

Neva, who was described in the legal filing as a leader of the boycott movement, also said, “That lot does not have the votes to block our campaign” — referring to the pro-Israel and Jewish members.

Jewish members of the grocery coop sued last week after the board voted to ban Israeli goods — following a rancorous years-long fight.

Neva became a teacher at PS 77 in well-heeled Park Slope this year because of an “enforced career change,” according to a now-deleted post on his social media.

Before becoming an educator, he was a photographer, videographer and social-media director at Next Management, which has repped major names including Karlie Kloss and Kate Upton.

During an interview with the Business of Fashion outlet, he said he advised incoming models about best practices in using social media. He also worked at Ford Modeling and Calvin Klein.

Neva’s social media included a post of a sticker with Israel on it being shredded, another showing the Star of David painted over the Statue of Liberty and a post comparing Warsaw in 1944 to Palestine in 2024.


Scottish teacher reported to police after appearing in video urging children to play ‘Zio’ game
A Scottish primary school teacher has been reported to police after appearing in a video in which children are urged to play a game protecting Muslim sites from “the Zios” .

The Instagram clip featuring Sara El-Awaisi, a teacher who has worked at Liberton Primary School in Edinburgh and co-founded the education campaign group Educators for Peace, was reportedly recorded at a conference for Muslim women in Indonesia in July.

In the video, El-Awaisi and another woman demonstrate a game involving “Zios” and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

In the game, each participant uses their thumb to represent the mosque and the grasping fingers of their other hand to represent “Zionists”. Each must simultaneously protect their own “Al-Aqsa” while attacking the other person’s “mosque” with their “Zio” hand.

Many Jews understand the word “Zio” as an antisemitic slur.

In the clip, El-Awaisi responds to a mention of the term saying, “We don’t like them”.

At the end of the video, she says she likes the game and asks whether “the boys and girls” could play it too. The accompanying caption encourages viewers to get their children to play.


Billionaire daughter of LA Times owner is ridiculed for slamming her own father's newspaper over for Israeli tourism ad
The daughter of LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong scolded her father for allowing an Israeli tourism advert to run in the newspaper.

Nika Soon-Shiong, a vocal pro-Palestine activist and publisher, hit out at the news outlet after learning that it's sharing a map of Israel on its website.

The map is part of a sponsored tourism ad, and, according to Nika, it 'completely erases the occupied Palestinian territories.'

Drop Site News, the independent publication that the 33-year-old runs, shared a lengthy post on X shaming the LA Times for running the map.

'The sponsored content, labeled "Paid Program" and produced by the paper's branded content arm, LA Times Studios, is titled "Israel: Land of Creation," and paid for by the official tourism campaign of Israel's Ministry of Tourism.

'Its map shows a single, borderless Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, with no West Bank or Gaza, and appears to fold in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,' the self-described 'non-aligned, investigative news organization' wrote.

The publication went on to claim that although the promotion does not violate US law, it 'contradicts international law.'


Amb. Kaploun: More Latin American countries plan to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism
Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, revealed on Monday that the U.S. expects several Latin American countries to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in the coming months.

Kaploun made the comments at a press conference about the Trump administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism ahead of the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, after being asked to analyze how regional leaders have responded to the rise in anti-Jewish hate.

“There’s a conference in November where we expect to have more Latin American countries to join the IHRA Accords,” Kaploun said. “The Dominican Republic just announced that they’re joining the IHRA Accords. Colombia is revisiting that. Guatemala, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Chile are all in discussions. This is a chance to have a transformative region where people are united against hate.”

“As we say in our office, and we say this often, a country is judged by how it makes citizens feel welcome, how it protects its citizens,” he added. “That’s the first and foremost duty of every single country: Protect your own citizens. That includes the Jewish community, and some countries are failing miserably in that.”

Critics of the IHRA definition say it stifles political speech by designating it as antisemitism.

Kaploun pointed to Argentina’s embrace of Israel under President Javier Milei, noting that the Argentine leader spearheaded the Isaac Accords initiative with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year aimed at boosting ties between Israel and Latin American countries. He also mentioned the pro-Israel shift taking place in Colombia after President Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative, was sworn in last month.
Kuwaiti jailed for life in UK over attempted attack at Israeli embassy in 2025
A Kuwaiti man who tried to enter Israel’s embassy in London armed with two knives and carrying a martyrdom note was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years, after being convicted of preparing an act of terrorism.

Abdullah Albadri, 34, attempted to breach the embassy’s perimeter in west London in April 2025 before being stopped by armed police officers guarding the site. Prosecutors said Albadri wanted to attack the embassy in revenge for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Evidence presented at trial showed he had researched the embassy’s location, carried two knives, and was in possession of a note indicating his intention to die as a martyr “for the glory of God,” police said.

Police video played for jurors showed Albadri telling officers upon his arrest, “I wanna make a crime inside there. Why are you stopping me?”

Officers added that in the days leading up to his arrest, he searched “several Arabic terms related to suicide and martyrdom.” He had earlier sought asylum in the UK. The trial jury was told Albadri was refused asylum after he twice entered the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats in August 2021 and April 2025, about two weeks before the attack.

A jury at London’s Old Bailey found him guilty in May of preparing an act of terrorism and possessing two bladed articles. His minimum 20-year sentence was adjusted to 18 years and 207 days to reflect the time he has served in prison on remand.

Albadri attempted the attack on April 28, 2025. He was stopped when officers from the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command became aware of a man attempting to gain unauthorized access to the embassy’s grounds in Kensington in west London, police said at the time.

He wore a Palestinian keffiyeh, and “managed to get very close to where staff members were,” an unnamed source told the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper after the incident.


Samoan PM apologizes for Nazi salute and saying ‘Heil Hitler’ in resurfaced video
Samoa’s Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt apologized Monday for a video from 19 years earlier in which he said “Heil Hitler” and made a Nazi gesture during what he described as a family gathering.

His statement, published on the government’s Facebook page, came a day after the Samoa Observer newspaper made public for the first time the existence and content of a seven-second clip that the outlet said was filmed at a Schmidt family reunion in Samoa in July 2007.

In a screenshot from the video, Schmidt holds a microphone in one hand with the other arm lifted, surrounded by others making the same gesture.

The newspaper reported Schmidt was heard saying into the microphone, “Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler!”

Prime minister admitted the Nazi gesture and slogan
Schmidt, who was the deputy speaker of Samoa’s Parliament in 2007, didn’t dispute the report. He has led the South Pacific island nation of 220,000 people since winning an August 2025 election.

“I recognize that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologize for using them,” he said Monday. He added that the video was filmed “at a private family gathering — not intended for the public.”

He rejected “Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,” the statement said.

What happened immediately before and after the moment depicted was unknown, the newspaper said, and Schmidt’s statement didn’t explain further.


Brad Pitt on screen, retired IDF combat dogs in the seats
Veterans of the IDF’s Oketz canine unit brought their retired military dogs to a special screening of Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beast at HOT Cinema in Kfar Saba on Thursday evening, with the dogs sitting on cinema seats beside their former handlers.

The audience included dozens of combat veterans and reservists, among them wounded veterans, according to event organizers. The cinema chain made special arrangements to accommodate the dogs at the screening in the central Israeli city.

Participants were members of HaHolchim BaRosh, the alumni association of Oketz, the IDF unit whose soldiers serve alongside specially trained military dogs. The retired dogs attending the event now live with their former handlers in their civilian homes, organizers said.

Directed by David Ayer, Heart of the Beast follows Special Forces officer James Belmont, played by Pitt, and his combat dog, Odin, after a plane crash leaves them stranded in the Alaskan wilderness. The pair must survive the terrain and the elements together.





 


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