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Israel’s UN envoy says he’ll wear Nazi yellow star until other countries condemn Hamas
(JTA) — Israel’s envoy to the United Nations,took an unusual step on Monday while exhorting the international body to condemn Hamas, the terrorist group that his country is trying to defeat.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan pinned to his suit jacket a yellow Star of David, telling those in attendance that he would wear the symbol — which the Nazis required Jews to wear during the Holocaust — until the United Nations votes to condemn Hamas. His version bore the words “Never Again,” a longtime rallying cry for those who want to prevent another genocide of Jews.
“Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established,” Erdan said. “So I will remind you. From this day on, each time you look at me, you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means.”
He added, “Just like my grandparents and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on, my team and I will wear yellow stars. We will wear this star until you wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas.”
Earlier this week, the United Nations General Assembly rejected a motion to condemn Hamas, whose attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians. Instead, the body passed a call for a ceasefire. Israel rejects the call for a ceasefire, which would allow Hamas to remain in place in Gaza.
Some within Israel have taken to comparing Hamas to the Nazis, citing the gruesome atrocities carried out against Jews in the course of murdering them. But the Israeli government and military have more often cited ISIS, the Islamic terror group, as an apt comparison, even releasing a video showing captured Hamas terrorists agreeing with the comparison. The United Nations and world leaders around the globe have condemned ISIS and sought to eliminate the group.
Not everyone within Israel is on board with Erdan’s display. Several representatives of the Foreign Ministry told Haaretz that Erdan’s “media gimmick” was not coordinated with the country’s strategy on discussing Hamas and seemed like more of a political gambit than a strategic one.
And Yad Vashem chair Dani Dayan criticized his display, saying it “disgraces both Holocaust victims and the state of Israel” because Israel, unlike the Jews of the Holocaust, has the capacity to defend itself.
“The yellow star symbolizes the Jewish people’s helplessness and their being at the mercy of others,” he tweeted. “Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our fate. Today we shall wear a blue-white flag, not a yellow star, on our lapel.”
The appropriation of the yellow star in other settings has drawn criticism before, including when people opposed to vaccination requirements and other public health measures during the pandemic donned them to suggest that they were being persecuted the way the Nazis persecuted the Jews.
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The post Israel’s UN envoy says he’ll wear Nazi yellow star until other countries condemn Hamas appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s parliament members in Tehran, Iran, July 21, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
The so-called “supreme leader” of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.
“They issued an arrest warrant, that’s not enough … Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders“, Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.
Khamenei made the comment on Monday while speaking before a gathering in Tehran of Basij forces, the paramilitary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist organization.
“Iran’s Basij will definitely succeed in destroying the Zionist regime one day,” he added, according to Iranian media. What the Zionist regime did in Gaza and Lebanon is not victory; it is a war crime. They are fools and should not believe that by bombing houses, hospitals, and congregations they are achieving victory. Nobody considers that victory.”
In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
The warrant for Masri lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.
Israel has said it killed Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.
The post Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Anti-Israel Group Lambasted for ‘Desecrating the Name of Raphael Lemkin’ in ‘Infuriating Abuse’
Raphael Lemkin being interviewed on Feb. 13, 1949. Photo: Screenshot
Pressure is mounting on a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that has usurped the name of a Jewish lawyer and anti-genocide activist to pursue a campaign of strident anti-Israel activism.
Earlier this month, The Algemeiner exposed the extreme anti-Israel activities of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, reporting that family members of Raphael Lemkin are outraged that the name of Lemkin, who died in 1959, is being used without their permission to groundlessly vilify the world’s lone Jewish state.
Jewish organizations and Israeli government representatives voiced alarm at the situation disclosed in the article. Lemkin was an ardent Zionist who coined the term genocide and spearheaded the effort to win passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, while the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, founded in 2021, has repeatedly and — despite all evidence to the contrary — accused Israel of planning and perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
“The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (@LemkinInstitute) is desecrating the name of Raphael Lemkin and the word ‘genocide’ by falsely labeling the Gaza war as ‘genocide,’” the Simon Weisenthal Center said in a social media post linking to The Algemeiner story. “Lemkin was a Jewish lawyer who coined the term ‘genocide’ and dedicated his life to exposing the horrors of the Holocaust. While the Lemkin Institute is entitled to its political agenda, it has no right to besmirch Lemkin’s legacy.”
An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahaminoff-Honig, posted about the article from her official government account: “An important story by @IraStoll in the @Algemeiner reveals infuriating abuse by @LemkinInstitute of Raphael Lemkin’s name and legacy, as well as the terms Holocaust and Genocide, for political bashing of Israel.”
The Azerbaijani Jewish Assembly of America wrote in response to the article, “Finally, @LemkinInstitute has been exposed. It has been a platform for not only antisemitic rhetoric but also blatant Azerbaijanophobia. Backed by funding from the Armenian lobby, it has relentlessly targeted Azerbaijan, promoting the dehumanization of the Azerbaijani people.”
The Lemkin Institute, which didn’t answer The Algemeiner‘s inquiries before the article was published, issued “a note on recent criticism of the Lemkin Institute.”
“We are proud of our record and of our unfailingly frank assessments,” the statement said. “It is almost never popular to call out genocide as it is happening or to point to red flags as the process is getting started.”
In a social media post, Michel Elgort characterized the Lemkin Institute’s note as “a very long, vague, and empty statement that didn’t answer the most basic question that was asked by The Algemeiner: Did you or did you not co-opted the name of Raphael Lemkin to appropriate the good will associated with his name and works, without his family and successors approval?”
The post Anti-Israel Group Lambasted for ‘Desecrating the Name of Raphael Lemkin’ in ‘Infuriating Abuse’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Mayor Olivia Chow’s city hall has yet to adequately address antisemitism in Toronto, based on Jewish community complaints
It’s been a rocky year for relations between Toronto’s Jewish community and city hall following the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel—which led to an ongoing regional war in the […]
The post Mayor Olivia Chow’s city hall has yet to adequately address antisemitism in Toronto, based on Jewish community complaints appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.