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Tuesday, October 13, 2026

10/12 Links Pt2: Brendan O'Neill: The bourgeois war of annihilation against Israel; Andrew Roberts: Why the West Is Losing the Fight Against Antisemitism; Extra hearings for Royal Commission into Bondi terror attack

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: The bourgeois war of annihilation against Israel
If Zohran Mamdani had a functioning moral compass, Wednesday would have been the wake-up call of this life. There he was in Union Square being heckled by a feral mob. Their faces hardened into snarls of hatred, they barked ‘Shame on you!’ at the New York mayor. And they were radical leftists, the kind of people who normally gush over Mamdani’s reactionary Third Worldist guff. What sin had he committed to irk his erstwhile fawners? He commemorated Jewish suffering.

That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. He attended an Israelis for Peace vigil on the third anniversary of the 7 October pogrom to pay tribute to the men, women and children slaughtered by Hamas. For that he was damned as a stooge of a genocidal regime. ‘Zohran you can’t hide / We charge you with genocide!’, howled the mob. Some chased him, screaming: ‘Traitor!’ To a Jew hater, sympathy for Jews is high treason.

There’s no denying it now: the Hamasniks of the Islamo-left enjoy Jewish suffering. They crave it. Indeed, some of Mamdani’s scolds waved the Hamas flag and hollered, ‘We support Hamas’. They were mad at the mayor because he had the temerity to look sad about the slaughter of Jews. To these keffiyeh Nazis, when Hamas kills Jews it’s ‘resistance’, and when Jews fight back it’s ‘genocide’. They call themselves anti-fascists yet hail from the same violent, vomitous gutter as the mobs of Kristallnacht.

And yet, even the mockery of Jews at a commemoration for dead Jews is unlikely to wake Mamdani to the horrors of the Gaza cult. Indeed, that mob in Union Square was a monster of his own making. He has made anti-Israel hate respectable in New York City. He refuses to call Hamas terrorists. His own statement on the third anniversary of 7 October spent a few poxy lines condemning Hamas’s ‘crimes’ before raging at length against Israel’s ‘devastating, ongoing genocide’. He had no right to look shook when the keffiyeh fash turned a commemoration of the slaughter of Jews into a Two Minutes Hate against the Jewish nation – he did it first.

For the rest of us, though, it’s time to get real. That crowds feel confident to gloat over the mass murder of Jews is the clearest sign you could ask that a spiritual sickness ails the West. And it’s not just NYC. Across the West last Wednesday, there were orgies of ecstasy over the butchery carried out by Hamas three years ago. In Amsterdam a mob marched with a banner saying ‘We support Hamas’. They screamed ‘Long live 7 October’. In Edinburgh, they marched behind a banner saying ‘Glory to our martyrs’. The martyrs they were referring to were the Islamofascists who invaded Israel to rape and annihilate Jews.

In London, keffiyeh-adorned lowlifes gathered on 7 October to fume against the Jewish nation. Some made an inverted triangle with their fingers – a sly expression of support for the murderous violence of Hamas. In Italy, a mob celebrated 7 October as ‘one of the most significant [acts] of Palestinian Resistance’. Across the West there were scores of anti-Israel gatherings on the day Israelis mourned the rape and destruction of more than a thousand of their citizens. There’s an all-out effort to redefine the day that Hamas unleashed genocidal violence on the Jews of the Holy Land as the day ‘Israel’s genocide’ started. The old Nazis stole Jews’ property – the new ones steal their days of commemoration.
El-Sayed in the Harsh Light By Abe Greenwald
Via Commentary Newsletter, sign up here.
Then more testiness. Asked by NewsNation’s Leland Vittert last week whether he believed Israel or Iran was a bigger threat to the U.S., El-Sayed responded that it was a “dumb question.” Suddenly realizing it was a bad moment, he hastily offered to shake Vittert’s hand.

The next night, El-Sayed debated Mike Rogers and won on style (which wasn’t hard). But Rogers managed, finally, to move El-Sayed’s familial ties to terrorism somewhere near the center of the race. So yesterday, on Meet the Press, Kristen Welker asked him whether he or his family had any connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. He said no, twice.

Which means twice he lied. And the Washington Free Beacon has the receipts: El-Sayed’s half-sister has bragged on social media that her family (meaning his family) “has long been” involved in the Muslim Brotherhood, and some relatives have even been jailed for their involvement. In another post, she wrote, “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college.”

If there’s a brilliant way for him to get out in front of this situation, I don’t know what it is.

It would be too dramatic to call any of this a crisis for El-Sayed at the moment, but he’s just not showing anything like clear frontrunner momentum. We shouldn’t make too much of polls in such a tight race, but they’re not beside the point either. In the RealClearPolitics polling average, El-Sayed’s largest lead over Mike Rogers was 3.6 points. That was on October 3, and that gap has steadily been shrinking since. It’s now at 2.7, well within the margin of error.

As Kamala Harris learned, once the mask comes off, you might as well throw it out. Everyone knows who’s underneath. El-Sayed has three more weeks of the spotlight and nowhere to hide.


Once again Google has deleted a post for no reason Archive link: 10/04 Links: Douglas Murray: Israel Is Winning; The Green Party is now an openly anti-Jewish party; ‘Evil incarnate’: Israel’s top forensic pathologist reveals unseen Oct. 7 evidence; IDF Dismantles Claims in "NAZA" Documentary

Centre for Independent Studies: Andrew Roberts: Why the West Is Losing the Fight Against Antisemitism
Andrew Roberts, Lord Roberts of Belgravia, has spent a career studying humanity at its worst, from Auschwitz and Bucha to the kibbutzim of southern Israel. The day before this lecture, he walked Bondi Beach with Arsen Ostrovsky, who survived the December massacre, and saw how close that same old hatred had come to one of Australia's most familiar places.

Drawing on his work leading the UK parliamentary inquiry into the October 7 massacres, Lord Roberts asks why the victims have been vilified while the perpetrators were turned into heroes, and what history tells us about fighting back. He sets out a blunt agenda: rebuilding a culture of moral abhorrence, drawing a clear line between free speech and incitement, reining in social media platforms, and telling the truth about the war in Gaza.

Andrew Roberts is the author of 21 books, translated into 28 languages, including Churchill: Walking with Destiny and Napoleon the Great, and co-author with General David Petraeus of Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a member of the UK House of Lords.

Introduced and hosted by Michael Stutchbury, Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies, with a vote of thanks from CIS Board Member James Phillips.

Transcript


Natasha Hausdorff: ‘Paradoxical alliance’: Pro-Palestine movement has united leftists and Islamic extremists

Bondi terror attack: Royal Commission to examine new evidence in extra hearings amid national security and criminal investigation concerns
The Royal Commission investigating the Bondi terror attack will hold additional hearings this month to examine further evidence about the circumstances surrounding the deadly shooting.

The October hearings will revisit issues explored during Hearing Block 2, including the terrorism threat level before the attack and the actions of security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The proceedings will be closed to the public due to the sensitive nature of the evidence and concerns about prejudicing ongoing criminal proceedings.

The Royal Commission said the additional hearing would examine what authorities knew about the alleged shooters before the attack, what action was taken on that information and how intelligence was shared between relevant agencies.

It will also scrutinise security arrangements for the Chanukah by the Sea event, where the attack took place, as well as how information about people known to authorities is used when making decisions about monitoring and firearms licence applications.

The effectiveness of existing counter-terrorism powers, systems and processes, alongside the resources available to security and law enforcement agencies, will also be examined.

The announcement comes as authorities continue to introduce changes to security and policing following the attack, which was the deadliest shooting in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre.

Last week, NSW Premier Chris Minns announced plans for a permanent Armed Response Command – a specialist police unit designed to respond rapidly to serious threats and provide a visible armed presence at high-risk locations, places of worship and major events.

The command is expected to comprise 250 officers and 28 civilian staff, with officers carrying rifles stored in purpose-built vehicles.

The unit builds on Operation Shelter, a policing operation established in 2023, and is intended to strengthen the state’s response to changing security threats.

The Royal Commission’s additional hearings will focus on the decisions and systems in place before the Bondi attack, including whether intelligence available to authorities was appropriately used and shared.


Abbas election delay exposes lack of accountability in Western recognition of Palestine
Just over a year ago, a cohort of countries across the world declared their unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, laying out various conditions upon which its recognition (allegedly) hinged.

Canada explicitly made its planned recognition conditional on Palestinian Authority (PA) reforms, including general elections in 2026 in which Hamas could play no part. Canada then formally recognized Palestine on 21 September 2025. France recognized Palestine in September 2025 and emphasized the PA’s commitment to hold general elections under international supervision within one year.

Portugal also formally recognized Palestinian statehood on September 21, 2025, after stating that the PA had provided assurances on institutional reform, Hamas’s disarmament, a demilitarization of Palestinian territory, and the resumption of PA control over Gaza.

The governments’ statements did not establish an explicit mechanism for withdrawing recognition if the PA failed to meet its commitments.

This last week, however, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree canceling legislative elections scheduled for November 28, 2026, and setting presidential and legislative elections for September 11, 2027. Palestinians have not held legislative or presidential elections since 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Several days later, the Canadian government has made no public statement about the delay.

Canada’s own official description of its relations with Palestine continues to state that recognition was predicated on the PA’s commitment to hold general elections in 2026, excluding Hamas, alongside PA governance reform and demilitarization.

France criticizes Abbas's election delay but outlines no consequences
France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noรซl Barrot did respond to the news, stating on Sunday that France “regrets” the announcement of the election postponement, adding that it “once again deprives the Palestinian people of the right to democratic expression at the ballot box.”

“There is an urgent need for voice to be restored to the Palestinian people and for them to be able to choose their representatives in free and transparent elections, as President Abbas had committed to do.”

“The democratic principles that are the very foundation of the State of Palestine, which France recognized, depend on it,” the minister added.

The statement then said France calls on the PA to reconsider the decision and hold elections without delay, and that France is ready to assist in the process.

The Ministry’s words nevertheless convey no real sense of consequences for the PA’s failings. There is no mention of repercussions for the PA if the elections don’t take place, or a statement about how this will impact the recognition of the state.

There is also no mention of the PA’s failure to keep other commitments made to France last year.

On 28 July 2025, Barrot gave a speech in New York in which he said Abbas had written a letter to the President of the French Republic and the Saudi Crown Prince, confirming “an end of allowances for the families of prisoners convicted or terrorism offenses, announced a reform of school textbooks to remove all hate speech, committed to holding presidential and general elections in 2026, and accepted that the Palestinian State will be demilitarized.”

A few months later, at the UN in New York on 22 September 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “France will keep a close eye on the full implementation of each of the commitments made to it.” These included, as per his words, “support for the disarmament of Hamas and the exclusion of Hamas from the future governance of Gaza and the entire Palestinian territory,” “commitment to fighting hate speech” and “a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.”


Seinfeld responds to anti-Israel heckler by vowing to send ticket proceeds to Israel
Jewish-American comedian Jerry Seinfeld told an anti-Israel heckler he would donate the amount his ticket cost to Israel after he, along with several activists, interrupted his performance in Chicago on Friday.

Footage posted by the United States Palestine Coalition-Chicago group showed activists interrupting the show, accusing the comedian of being a racist and a “genocide apologist” over his support for Israel.

At one point, a male activist yelled: “Seinfeld! Seinfeld, listen to me! You’re a racist! There are 74,000 dead Palestinians. Seventy-four thousand Palestinians have been killed by the racist State of Israel.”

“I am a racist,” Seinfeld mockingly responded.

“Seinfeld, you will see. Palestine will be free,” the heckler continued.

“But I’m going to find out how much your ticket was and I’m sending it to Israel,” Seinfeld responded, according to the footage. At another point in the show, while in the middle of a joke, in which he complained he “had enough” of his cell service, a female activist yelled, “Well, I’ve had enough of genocide! Seventy-four thousand Palestinians have been killed! Twenty-two thousand Palestinians who are children now are killed with our taxpayer money, and you’re making jokes?” “I’m racist, it’s a genocide, I’m into it,” he mockingly responded, as security began to take the heckler out of the audience. “Two million Palestinians don’t get to dream because of the genocide! You are a genocide apologist,” another activist yelled during the show. The activists were received angrily by the crowd, with an audience member calling for security to “rough that bitch up,” referring to one of the activists, and another overheard saying, “get the fuck out of here,” referring to another heckler.


NYC First Lady Painted Portrait of Her ‘Inspiration’: A Jew-Hating Artist Who Said ‘Anne Frank’ Is a Hoax, Posted Hitler’s Paintings, and Celebrated Oct 7
New York City first lady Rama Duwaji’s self-declared artistic "inspiration," whose portrait she’s painted in tribute, is a radical Hamas propagandist who praised the terror group’s leaders as "great heroes," openly celebrated the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, and has claimed that The Diary of Anne Frank is a Jewish forgery.

Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian artist, was also pleased when a warlike reinterpretation of one of his paintings was used as a backdrop for an angry press conference by future Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, where he thanked Iran for funding Hamas.

Mansour died in August after spending decades propping up violent "resistance" movements against the State of Israel. Before that, Duwaji had animated a portrait of the painter and indicated he "inspired the work that I do."

"Hi, I'm Rama, a Syrian illustrator and animator based in Brooklyn, and today I'm going to be animating a portrait of Sliman Mansour, who is a painter and sculptor that's inspired the work that I do. Sliman is an artist of the Intifada," said Houston-born Duwaji, the wife of Zohran Mamdani, in a video first posted online in April 2024.

The second intifada, in the early 2000s, involved thousands of terror attacks against Israelis, including deadly suicide bombings on buses. It left more than a thousand Israelis dead, mostly civilians.

Mansour’s work "is about the Palestinian experience under occupation, and growing up seeing his paintings, I was always really inspired by the emotion behind his portraits," Duwaji continued.

The video shows her working in a Palestinian-themed studio under a large banner reading "Artists Against Apartheid: Palestine Will Be Free"—a reference widely considered an antisemitic trope. She wears a keffiyeh-patterned headband and even lights a candle using matches from a Brooklyn Palestinian restaurant.

"Sliman has been jailed twice since the start of his career," Duwaji says proudly. "And since then, he's inspired many artists after him, including myself."

A review of Mansour’s work, writings, social media and public associations by the Washington Free Beacon, however, shows a decade-long career of egging on Palestinian violence against Jews, and participating in it.

On Oct 8—in the hours after Hamas slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis—Mansour posted on Facebook an image of his war-themed painting "Rising," which prominently features a Palestinian fighter clasping a gun.

His comments page was full of ebullient celebrations.

"So timely and amazingly beautiful," read one.

On Oct. 17, Mansour posted an image of Ghassan Kanafani, a founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a longtime U.S.-designated terrorist organization, with a message of encouragement for followers—one of whom is Duwaji.

"You might have heard the news through the imperialist propaganda system that the Palestinian people are currently exhausted, that they have given up the struggle, and that they are defeated by the reactionary Israel. Comrades, do not believe them. There is no end to our struggle," the post read.

"The struggle has no end," Sliman added.


Abdul El-Sayed’s Mother Was Active in Muslim Brotherhood in College, Sister Said
Abdul El-Sayed’s mother—whom the left-wing Michigan Senate candidate has described as "smart, warm, charismatic" and whom he called on camera in a May campaign video—was active in the Muslim Brotherhood while in college in Egypt, a revelation that further contradicts El-Sayed’s recent claims that neither he nor his family have ties to the radical Islamist group.

Eman Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago professor and El-Sayed’s half-sister, wrote about her mother and other family members’ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in social media posts in June 2012, just after Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected president of Egypt.

"Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college," wrote Abdelhadi, who is five years younger than El-Sayed and has a different father.

Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, is a nurse in Missouri who attended Alexandria University, one of the largest universities in Egypt. The school was known as a hub of Muslim Brotherhood activity in the 1970s, according to a 2012 report from the Brookings Institution, which noted that "the Muslim Brothers dominated the Islamic Group at Alexandria University" at the time.

El-Sayed himself recounted his mother's campus activism in his book, Healing Politics, writing that she was a "leader on campus" but omitting any mention of the Muslim Brotherhood. A 2012 Columbia Medicine Magazine alumni profile of El-Sayed notes that El-Sayed's mother "studied medicine" in "Alexandria, Egypt" and was an outspoken opponent of military rule in the country, which was briefly interrupted by the election of Morsi. El-Sayed signed a 2012 statement identifying himself as part of a group of "Morsi Supporters in America," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

El-Sayed's parents divorced when he was a toddler, and while he lived with his father, who remarried a white woman from Michigan, he maintains a close relationship with his mother. El-Sayed described his mother as "smart, warm, [and] charismatic" in Healing Politics. He also called her in a 2026 Mother's Day campaign video. "Enjoy the day, and we'll see you soon, ok?" El-Sayed said. "All right. Thank you for calling," Elkomy responded. "Love you, Mama. Talk soon," El-Sayed signed off. Years earlier, in 2020, El-Sayed sent Abdelhadi money on the mobile payment service Venmo for "Mama's bday gift," a Free Beacon review found.

The revelation of Elkomy's role as a Muslim Brotherhood campus activist comes as El-Sayed denies any ties to the Islamist group, which spawned Hamas in Gaza in the 1980s. In a Sunday Meet the Press appearance, El-Sayed said neither he nor his family have connections to the Brotherhood. "You don't have any ties, and your family doesn't?" NBC's Kristen Welker asked. "No," El-Sayed said twice.

But Abdelhadi, who was arrested for assaulting a police officer during an anti-ICE rally in Chicago last year, has repeatedly discussed her family's ties to the Brotherhood, the Free Beacon reported.

"My family has long been MB," she wrote on June 24, 2012. "I have had family jailed for being a part of it," she wrote on July 3, 2013. "Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in Egypt. Lie low, stay safe" she said.


Ex-Michigan Democratic Party Chair Blasts El-Sayed Campaign Over Suspicious Edits to Candidate’s Website That Justified Synagogue Terror Attack
The former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party is calling out Abdul El-Sayed's campaign over a statement—presented as being the candidate's own words and appearing for months on his campaign website—that justified the actions of Ayman Ghazali, the Hezbollah supporter who attacked a Michigan synagogue and Jewish school in March.

Lon Johnson, who served as state party chair through 2015, said Monday that he contacted the El-Sayed campaign last month over a notable line in a transcript of El-Sayed's video message about the attack.

"Ayman Ghazali hurt people. There is no justification for what he did. It was wrong and he never should have done it. Hurt people. Hurt people," El-Sayed said in a video-recorded statement after Ghazali attacked Temple Israel on March 12. One week earlier, an Israeli airstrike killed Ghazali's brothers, members of Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, along with two of one brother's children.

As Johnson noted, a transcript of the statement that appeared on El-Sayed's website removed the words "wrong" and "never," leaving behind a sentence that supported Ghazali's attack.

"It was and he should have done it. Hurt people. Hurt people," the website read until last month, when Johnson says he contacted Team El-Sayed.

Ghazali rammed a pickup truck loaded with commercial-grade fireworks and gasoline into the synagogue when dozens of small children were inside. He ended up dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound when his truck got stuck inside the building and went up in flames. No one else died in the attack. The FBI called the incident "a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism."


Green Party leaders have ‘questions to answer’ Home Secretary tells Commons
Green Party leaders have “questions to answer” regarding the safety and security of their Jewish members, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs.

Speaking in the House of Commons after the passing of the “Zionism is racism” motion, Mahmood warned elected Green Party councillors: “Every council, regardless of who is the political party running that council, has to follow the law, and the law will not allow any prejudicial treatment of any of our citizens based on their protected characteristics, whether their race or their religion.” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announces new refugee routes at the Labour Party conference. (Credit: Politics UK/X)

She emphasised that this legal duty applied to all communities, including Jews, adding: “Nobody has the right to freelance on equality policy. It is set by the government.”

“There is a clear legal framework, and every council has to follow it.”

Mahmood was responding to a question from Jewish Labour MP Peter Prinsley, who said he was “deeply disturbed” that the Green Party conference had passed the motion last Sunday.

Declaring himself a Zionist—”on the basis that this implied the right to Jewish self-determination in their ancestral homeland”—Prinsley said there are now Jews in areas with elected Green councillors who are worried about the impact of the motion and possible prejudice.

Mahmood noted, “the policies of another party are primarily for that political party, I would expect them to have to explain the impact of their motion on the safety and security of Jews in their own party.”

She continued: “I believe there are questions for the Green Party leadership to look at and to answer for.”


NYC teacher among protesters who disrupted vigil for victims of Oct. 7 Hamas massacre
A New York City public school teacher crashed a Manhattan vigil last week honoring victims of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, alongside other protesters who cheered on Hamas and chanted violent messages such as “globalize the intifada,” The Post has learned.

Mia Kurzer, a special education teacher at The Heritage School in East Harlem, was among the protesters videotaped at the event in Union Square, where some carried flags of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Education and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.

A Jewish activist and educator who filed the complaint is demanding Kurzer be investigated for creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty at her school.

“Last night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators overran an October 7 vigil in Union Square organized by Israelis for Peace, drowned out the reading of the names of people killed, and took over chairs reserved for participants, including Comptroller Brad Lander and Mayor Zohran Mamdani,” Moshe Spern wrote in his formal Oct. 8 complaint.

“Video from the event shows Ms. Kurzer among those occupying those seats while mourners were being shouted down. Chants reported at the scene included ‘[globalize] the intifada’ and praise for the attackers.”

Spern said he had video evidence that the teacher was at the event.

“She was comfortable sitting among the Hamas flags and Hamas chants,” he told The Post Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Kurzer came to school wearing a keffiyeh, Spern’s complaint alleged.

“That choice made staff and students uncomfortable and signaled political activism inside a New York City public school,” he said.

Spern also complained that the Department of Education ignored a prior complaint he made about Kurzer attending protests outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

“A year ago I notified you that Ms. Kurzer participated in both protests outside Park East Synagogue on November 19, 2025, and May 2026, at which demonstrators chanted ‘intifada revolution,’ ‘globalize the intifada,’ and ‘death to the IDF,’ and Jewish congregants were obstructed from entering their house of worship,” Spern told the chancellor.

“Those demonstrations were widely condemned, including by Governor Hochul, as intimidation of Jewish New Yorkers at a synagogue led by a Holocaust survivor.”

The Jewish educator argued that the sum of Kurzer’s actions shows a pattern of hostility towards Israel and Jews.


Medical staff antisemitism flagged in UK
The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a prominent watchdog group in the United Kingdom, has identified five healthcare professionals whose public statements it considers antisemitic or anti-Israel, according to a Daily Mail report published on Saturday.

The five individuals, whom the newspaper identified as current or former National Health Service employees, included midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who allegedly endorsed a post supporting Palestinian “resistance” on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Daily Mail reported that physician Dr. Abdelaal Ragheb Elfarra claimed Zionists control the media and the world; psychiatrist Dr. Ahmed Sewehli said regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “you need to be dead”; and emergency physician Dr. Nadeem Crowe described Israel as a “terrorist octopus.” Occupational therapist Zaida Akhtar allegedly shared a video appearing to encourage violence against Netanyahu’s son and a “false flag” claim about the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last year, the newspaper reported.

Separately, The Telegraph reported Saturday that BBC Arabic journalist Layla Bashar al-Kloub described Ahmad Jarrar and Omar Abu Leila as “martyrs” in social media posts in 2018 and 2019. Both had murdered Israeli civilians, according to the newspaper.

The allegations concerning the medical professionals follow a review published in June by John Mann, the British government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, which found “routine ostracism” of Jewish staff and patients within the NHS.

Jewish community representatives have warned that antisemitism in healthcare can affect patients at moments of particular vulnerability.

Karen Newman, a vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, described that concern during parliamentary testimony on May 14. She spoke about Jewish patients hesitating to request kosher meals after seeing a Palestinian badge on a nurse’s uniform.

“That is not a moment when you feel good asking for kosher meals,” she said.

Stephen Silverman, a Campaign Against Antisemitism representative, said in September: “The NHS touches us all at times in our life when we are the most vulnerable.” He warned that Jewish patients were concealing their identity for fear of unequal treatment or abuse when they most needed health care.

According to the Daily Mail, Elfarra said during a protest speech in a video dated April 1, 2025: “Zionists control the media. Zionists control the world.”

The newspaper also quoted him as saying: “We are the Nakba survivor. Is that similar to the Holocaust survivor? Yes,” and, “What Israel is doing in Gaza is not ethnic cleansing. It’s extermination.”

The Daily Mail reported that Elfarra posted a caricature in October 2023 showing Netanyahu wearing a bloodied apron and holding a knife over a sleeping child in a hospital bed.

In July 2024, he allegedly shared text describing the Rothschild family as the “wealthiest and influential family, believed to control all the world’s money.” The following month, he wrote, “Elon Musk is controlled by Zionists,” according to the newspaper.

The Daily Mail reported that Mohamied responded “Hell yeah” to a post asserting that “Palestinians have a right to resist their occupation” on Oct. 7, 2023, as Hamas terrorists were murdering civilians in Israel.


Hamas, intifada praised in Amsterdam and Berlin rallies
For the second time since Oct. 7, 2023, protesters in Amsterdam on Sunday displayed a banner stating “I support Hamas” at the city’s main monument for World War II fatalities.

Separately, at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, hundreds gathered for a rally featuring signs and chants of “yallah intifada” and portraits of Ali Khamenei, the late spiritual leader of Iran, according to rally footage and a report by Bild. Intifada means “uprising” in Arabic, and is used to describe a coordinated series of terrorist attacks against Israelis, and often also Jews.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands’ second-largest party, condemned the displays in Amsterdam.

The display opposite the National Monument on Dam Square featured a green banner reading “We support Hamas,” and another banner headlined “axis of resistance” followed by the terrorist groups Hezbollah, PFLP and Islamic Jihad. An earlier display with the same banners or very similar ones happened at the same location on Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the massacres carries out by Hamas terrorists in Israel.

Hundreds of people attended that rally, until it was dispersed amid a clash with a supporter of Israel and the use of fireworks by the anti-Israel protesters, the Cvandaag news site reported.

“Amsterdam today. Extreme left mayor and anti-Israeli Prime Minister are silent. The Jew haters rule this land. I would hunt them all down, no support for Hamas in my Holland! Hopefully soon new elections!” wrote Wilders on X about the second incident.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the expressions of support for Hamas as “shocking and distasteful” but said they were not, in themselves, criminal offenses.

Wilders has often criticized what he called lenient treatment of hateful and antisemitic anti-Israel protesters by Halsema, a left-wing politician. She has accused Israeli soccer fans for their own assault by dozens of Muslims on Nov. 8-9, 2024, among other acts and policies by Halsema widely deemed as anti-Israeli.


Dutch city bans Israeli fans from soccer match; Foreign Ministry demands reversal
A city in the Netherlands is barring Israeli fans from an upcoming soccer match due to security concerns, prompting the Foreign Ministry to demand that the decision be reversed.

On Thursday, Dutch club AZ Alkmaar is due to host Hapoel Beersheba. European stadiums are generally required to reserve a portion of seats for fans of the opposing team, but ahead of the match, authorities in Alkmaar, north of Amsterdam, announced in a letter that the game carried a “very high risk due to the geopolitical context.”

Therefore, the letter said, fans of the Beersheba squad will not be allowed to attend, according to a report in The Athletic. The letter cited concerns over potential demonstrations and confrontations between Israeli fans and protesters, and said the decision was made based on a desire to maintain “public order and safety, not on political considerations.”

The letter cited a 2024 match in Amsterdam between local club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, after which groups of locals assaulted Israeli fans. Dozens were arrested and five people were hospitalized following the attacks.

Those attacks “demonstrate that the combination of football supporters and demonstrators can create a dynamic leading to mutual provocations, resulting in disturbances,” the letter said, according to the Athletic. It added that while a “large-scale police deployment” can keep the groups separated during the game, preventing violence elsewhere is “virtually impossible due to the unpredictability of the encounters.”

The Foreign Ministry is pressing Dutch authorities to reverse the ban, saying in a statement that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar raised the issue with his Dutch counterpart, Tom Berendsen, and that discussions were held with the Dutch foreign ministry and the Alkmaar municipality, “demanding that Hapoel Beersheba fans be allowed to attend the match and that their safety be guaranteed inside and around the stadium.”

The ministry and Israel’s embassy in The Hague “will continue working with the Dutch government and the mayor of Alkmaar to ensure that Hapoel Beersheba fans are permitted to attend the match and that their safety is guaranteed,” the ministry said.

Israeli clubs, and the national team, have faced adversity elsewhere in Europe as well. In 2025, Israeli fans were similarly banned from a game hosted by English team Aston Villa, in a decision that also cited the 2024 Amsterdam attacks.


Jewish comedian kicked out of writing group for supporting Israel’s right to exist
A Jewish comedian allegedly expelled from a writing group over his support for Israel has condemned the decision as “antisemitic prejudice, pure and simple”.

After attending meetings for six months, Harry Deansway (real name Joshua Rinkoff) claims he was thrown out of the Offbeat Writer’s Group after organiser Ruby Sullivan questioned him about Israel.

According to UK Lawyers for Israel, when Deansway replied that he was “Jewish and a Zionist”, supported Palestinian rights and opposed actions that caused suffering to Palestinian people, Sullivan allegedly replied: “I don’t think there is a place in the Offbeat Writers’ Group for you because of this.”

The legal advocacy group claims Sullivan told Deansway she was “very strongly pro-Palestine” and that differences in their political views would affect their working relationship.

In messages seen by Jewish News, Deansway explained Zionism meant believing in Jewish self-determination in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland, while opposing actions causing suffering to Palestinians.

Sullivan replied: “I really can’t align with your beliefs as they support the massacre of an entire population.”

She also said she was preparing an ideological declaration for prospective members, including an “antiapartheid free zone commitment”.

UK Lawyers for Israel added that the dispute also led to the cancellation of a ticketed literary event the comedian had organised for 13 October at Bar Gemiลกt in Holloway, north London. UKLFI wrote to the bar’s owners, warning that the cancellation could constitute unlawful discrimination. However, in a response dated 10 October, directors Marion Zoelle and Uroลก Dezutelj rejected the allegations, insisting their decision was based on changes to the event and a lack of communication, not Deansway’s identity or beliefs.

They said Deansway remained welcome at the bar but refused to reinstate the event and warned that they would defend themselves against allegations they considered unfounded.

Deansway issued the following statement: “In recent years, there has been an increasingly worrying trend of excluding Jewish voices from UK art spaces under the banner of ‘anti-Zionism’. This is antisemitic prejudice, pure and simple. Having attended Offbeat Writers for six months without incident, I was contacted by the organiser Ruby Sullivan, asking if I was pro-Palestine. When I responded that I was Jewish and a Zionist, I was told I could no longer attend unless I signed an anti-apartheid ideological commitment. Ruby then lobbied Bar Gemiลกt, where I was staging my live night Revisionist Vaudeville to cancel the event because of my political and philosophical beliefs, and they were only too happy to oblige.

“I wrote to Bar Gemiลกt and to the owner of Rua Coffee, where Offbeat Writers meet, setting out what had happened and asking them to address it. Rua replied that the group is private and not associated with Rua. Bar Gemiลกt denies any discrimination. Neither has put it right. UK Lawyers for Israel has now written to Ruby and Bar Gemiลกt.
Former Rutgers law student sues, claims public college arrested him for posting anti-Hamas fliers
Yiorgos Maravelias, a former Rutgers Law School student, filed an amended complaint against the public New Jersey university on Saturday, alleging that it violated his rights when campus police officers arrested him during a pro-Israel counterprotest on the Newark campus on May 2, 2024.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the complaint comes after a district judge struck the former student’s original filing for excessive length. The judge allowed him to rewrite it. The new complaint is 45 pages, about one-third of the original 137-page filing.

Maravelias, a disabled U.S. Army veteran, stated in the amended complaint that Rutgers administrators disagreed with his political views and thought that he was Jewish, which he is not.

The Rutgers staff members “conspired” to violate his free speech and free expression rights, and campus police officers removed his anti-Hamas fliers, which referred to the group, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization since 1997, as “savages,” he alleges.

He also accused the public university of allowing anti-Israel encampment materials to remain untouched.

The veteran says that he challenged Sahar Aziz, a distinguished law professor and chancellor’s social justice scholar at Rutgers, who was ripping his fliers from a bulletin board. He alleges that the professor told him that it was against school policy to hang the fliers there, even though, he said, anti-Israel fliers remained hanging on the site.

The former student says that he and the professor went to the dean’s office together, where, he says, the dean told the professor that no such school policy exists.

Maravelias says that when he was hanging new fliers near the anti-Israel encampment, campus police officers told him that he would be arrested if he continued to hang the materials. Indeed, officers arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct, he says.

The Newark municipal prosecutor dismissed the charges against Maravelias in 2024, but “Rutgers refused to drop the student conduct charges,” according to the complaint.

Maravelias is seeking damages and an injunction rectifying what he says are “discriminatory practices” at the university.
Harvard fired Jewish staffer after he took off for Rosh Hashanah, lawsuit alleges
Harvard University discriminated against a Jewish employee by firing him after he took two days off work to observe Rosh Hashanah, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Daniel Lilienthal was terminated “abruptly” as associate director of finance and grants administration at Harvard’s public health school in October 2024.

He took off Oct. 3 and 4 that year, to observe the Jewish High Holidays, which his supervisor, Jackie Blake, executive director for finance, administration and information technology at the school’s Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research, approved. And he told his team that he would be off those two days, according to the lawsuit.

While Lilienthal was celebrating the High Holidays, Blake expressed concern to Elissa Brennan, then the school’s human resources director, about Lilienthal’s performance despite not having shared any such concerns with Lilienthal, the suit alleges.

When he returned to work on Oct. 7, the next work day, he was told on a Zoom call, which was supposed to be about onboarding, that Blake had “serious concerns” about him. She also criticized his “productivity,” his “management style” and “taking time off,” the suit alleges.

“I don’t want you thinking you can just take off time whenever you want,” she allegedly told him. (JNS sought comment from Harvard.)

According to the suit, Lilienthal began the position on Sept. 23, 2024, and worked remotely from his home in New York. He also worked at Harvard from 2015 to 2023.

On the Zoom call, Blake also said that he hadn’t completed training sessions, even though she first told him about them right before he took off for the holiday, and she had said that they weren’t urgent, the lawsuit alleges.

On Oct. 16, 2024, Blake fired Lilienthal and told him in a video call he was not a “fit” for the job. Lilienthal asked if the firing was related to his performance and if he had done anything wrong, and she said “no,” according to the suit.

Between the Oct. 7 call and his firing on Oct. 16, Lilienthal had not received any negative feedback from Blake about his job performance, the suit alleges.

The next day, Brennan, then the school’s human resources director, told Lilienthal that he was fired for performance reasons, and he received a formal letter stating he was fired because he didn’t have the proper “skills or aptitudes,” the suit alleges.


Wheelchair-bound Berlin shop owner attacked after displaying posters against antisemitism
A 67-year-old wheelchair-bound shop owner in Berlin has been repeatedly attacked after displaying posters condemning antisemitism and the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, according to German media reports on Saturday.

Hans-Georg Lindenau suffered injuries to his head and left hand in the attacks after his shop in the Kreuzberg neighborhood began displaying the posters, including one reading, “Fight against antisemitism. We will dance again,” according to Der Tagesspiegel.

According to a report in Bild, the attacks began this past October 7, the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre, when around six youths entered his store, insulted him and sprayed him with pepper spray.

The following evening, the group allegedly returned and attacked him again. Lindenau said the assailants called him a “son of a bitch” and asked whether he was Jewish. He also said he was struck with what appeared to be a blank-firing pistol.

On Friday, up to eight youths reportedly returned on electric scooters, kicked and punched the shop’s entrance door, broke it open and sprayed pepper spray before fleeing.

Berlin police have opened an investigation into suspected aggravated assault, insult and property damage. The State Criminal Police Office’s State Security Unit is investigating it as a politically motivated crime, according to the report.
Israeli sentenced to 3.5 years in Russia for giving $30 to anti-Putin politician
Sofia Rosenfeld, a Russian-Israeli ornithologist, was sentenced last week to three and a half years in Russian prison because she donated less than $30 to the organization of late opposition politician Alexei Navalny in 2021.

Rosenfeld’s father, Boris, told Hebrew media outlets on Monday that his daughter had set up a small recurring donation to Navalny’s anti-corruption group, and then departed on a research trip. While she was away, the organization, which was legal when she set up the donation, was outlawed by the Kremlin as an “extremist” group.

Boris Rosenfeld says his daughter canceled the recurring donation as soon as she returned to her home in Moscow, but two installments had already been taken out of her account. Four years later, in late 2025, shortly after she returned from a trip to Israel, Russian authorities raided her apartment and filed charges against her.

“She says it’s just fighting corruption,” Boris told the Kan public broadcaster, recalling what she said at her trial. “She has no extremist views and isn’t at all connected to politics.”

Her family was hoping for a lighter sentence, he said.

“We’re very worried,” he told Channel 12. “She thought it would end with a fine or community service. We never expected a sentence of several years because of a donation of less than NIS 80.”

Navalny, who was the most prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison under suspicious circumstances in 2024. Russia has since sentenced employees of his to prison terms.

Boris added that it especially stung that the sentence was handed down on October 7, the third anniversary of the 2023 Hamas-led onslaught. Because the trial is moving to an appeal, he told Channel 12, Sofia’s relatives are not allowed to visit her.
Amazon in talks to buy Israel's Decart at $7b valuation - report
US technology giant Amazon is negotiating the acquisition of Israeli AI company Decart in a deal that could reach a valuation of $7 billion, according to a report in "The Wall Street Journal." According to the report, the deal should be signed shortly, but the negotiations have not yet been finalized, and there remains a possibility that they could fail or that another potential buyer will enter the picture.

Decart was founded in 2023 by brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. The company builds real-time generative AI video models and AI infrastructure to create interactive digital and physical worlds. It has so far raised over $400 million from investors that include Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Radical Ventures. In May this year it was valued at almost $4 billion, such that the reported deal with Amazon represents a 75% increase within just five months.

The talks with Amazon come a month after Anthropic withdrew from a deal to buy Decart for $6 billion, after weeks of negotiations. It was also reported that Decart’s founders previously rejected an offer from Nvidia that was higher than the one from Anthropic, which was a share deal, anticipating an IPO by Anthropic.

If a deal is signed with Amazon at the reported valuation, it will be one of the biggest ever exits in the history of Israel’s technology industry, and one of the biggest acquisitions by Amazon in recent years.
‘I’ve got more flags. Put them back up,’ says Oregon pastor after vandals destroy church’s Oct. 7 memorial with Israeli flags
A week after vandals destroyed his Springfield, Ore., church’s memorial to Oct. 7 victims, Aaron Taylor, senior pastor of Crossfire World Outreach Ministries, is leading a group of pastors on a tour of Nazi concentration camps in Poland.

Taylor, who is also Oregon director of Christians United for Israel, helps lead CUFI’s annual annual tour to Poland, this time with 30 pastors.

“We come and bring them to Poland and we bring them to Israel so they can see for themselves,” he told JNS.

His late friend Irving Roth, a Holocaust survivor who visited his church, was imprisoned at Auschwitz before being forced on a death march, Taylor said. Tour participants are slated to go to Auschwitz on Tuesday.

Taylor compared Jew-hatred today with that of the Holocaust era.

“It begins with words,” he said. “Once it starts getting into actions, that’s when it begins to be scary, because those actions just increase. That’s what we’re seeing.”

Taylor told JNS that he visited the Car Wall, a memorial site in southern Israel with more than 1,500 charred and bullet-riddled vehicles that were damaged on Oct. 7, 2023.

“It’s so real,” he said. “It’s so not then, but now. It seems so current.”

“The Jews have moved their entire lives, and they finally have a homeland,” Taylor told JNS. “Let them be. There’s one Jewish country.”

Taylor was in Israel on the third anniversary of Oct. 7, when his church’s display of Israeli flags was attacked on consecutive nights, and even in broad daylight.

Back at the church, staff restored the memorial. “I’ve got more flags,” Taylor told church staff. “Put them back up.”

The church reported that vandals first struck early on Oct. 7 and returned overnight, tearing flags from the display and breaking them. Fuel lines on church vehicles were also cut, according to the church.

The display was part of Flags for Fellowship, an initiative coordinated with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Taylor told JNS that the church also placed a sign asking people to pray for peace in Jerusalem and Israel.


Torah dedicated to victims of Manchester synagogue attack welcomed by thousands
A new Sefer Torah has been dedicated to the memory of the two men murdered in last year’s Yom Kippur terror attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue.

Crowds lined the streets as the Torah scroll, honouring Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, was carried in a moving procession to the synagogue, with members of the community singing and dancing in a show of solidarity. The procession culminated in a celebration inside the synagogue.

The two men were killed on 2 October 2025 when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, drove into the synagogue gates before launching a knife attack while wearing a fake suicide belt.

Three others were seriously injured before Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police.

Posting on social media, The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region wrote: “In the face of the hatred and terror that took Melvin and Adrian from us, this was a powerful demonstration of the strength, unity and resilience of our community. Their memories will forever be a blessing, and their legacy will live on through the Torah and the generations who will read from it.

Community spokesperson Marc Levy told Jewish News: “There was something incredibly powerful about singing and dancing our on Middleton Road yesterday, in the very same place where, just 12 months ago, we stood in the pouring rain at a vigil the day after the terrorist attack. The contrast between those two moments says so much about our community. We have known unimaginable pain, but we have not lost our pride, identity or joy.

“To see thousands of people come together to celebrate the dedication of a Sefer Torah in memory of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby was deeply moving. Our thoughts were with their families throughout the day. Melvin and Adrian were taken from us in a horrendous act of terror, and yesterday was a beautiful and lasting tribute to their memories.

“This was also a powerful statement of Jewish pride. We were not simply remembering what happened to us but were celebrating our faith, traditions, community and our determination to live openly as proud British Jews.”

Raphi Bloom, speaking behalf of the Fed, the largest Jewish social care charity in Manchester, said: “We have always said that we would not let the actions of the Heaton Park terrorist define us, but that we would decide, as a Jewish community, how we chose to define the events and react to them. In Judaism we have a saying in Hebrew of “Me’Eivel L’Yom Tov” – from mourning to celebration and this was what we did yesterday.”

He added that the Sefer Torah dedication was “the perfect example of our community coming together as proud resilient Mancunian Jews and saying that this is our city, this is our community and out of terrible tragedy we will ensure that we redouble our efforts to become even more connected, engaged, and proud Jewish people in memory of Melvin and Adrian.”





 


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