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Stars of David spray-painted on Paris buildings remind Jews of 1930s, mayor says
(JTA) — Police are investigating dozens of Stars of David found spray-painted on the walls of buildings in Paris’ 14th arrondissement this week, the latest in a series of incidents tied to the Israel-Hamas war that have had French Jews on high alert since Oct. 7.
Authorities announced the investigation on Tuesday, days after similar graffiti was found in the suburbs of suburbs of Vanves, Fontenay-aux-Roses and Aubervilliers. In the nearby town of Saint-Ouen, some graffiti was accompanied by slogans such as “Palestine will overcome.”
The mayoralty of the city’s 14th arrondissement said in a statement that the Jewish stars “recall the events of the 1930s… which led to the extermination of millions of Jews.”
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told the National Assembly that “my government is determined to wage a merciless fight against” antisemitism. Her father survived Auschwitz but then committed suicide when she was 11. “It is the duty of the republic to protect all the Jews of France,” she added.
Officials said that the Stars of David have yet to be officially tallied as hate crimes.
France has seen more antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 than in the entire past year — more than 850, according to Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister. “Jewish community sites will be protected day and night,” Darmanin said at the Levallois-Perret synagogue on Tuesday evening.
The antisemitic incidents range from verbal abuse and antisemitic graffiti to death threats and physical assaults in the street. Over 400 investigations have been opened into instances of online abuse, Le Figaro reported, and more than 425 people have been arrested so far in connection with antisemitic acts throughout the country. Of those, 125 are of foreign origin. “More than 30 are already in administrative centers awaiting deportation, and deportations of foreigners for acts of antisemitism have already begun,” Darmanin said.
With one of the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel and the United States, at around 500,000 people, France is also home to the largest Muslim community in Europe.
Jacques Isaac Azeroual, a kosher butcher in the city’s 19th district, which has a sizable Jewish community, told AFP that he doesn’t feel secure anymore. Out of fear, he is closing his store an hour early and has started covering his kippah outside.
“People are demoralized. They are scared of going out to shop,” he said.
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The post Stars of David spray-painted on Paris buildings remind Jews of 1930s, mayor says appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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German Soccer Team Honors Anniversary of Murdered Hamas Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s Death
A flag drawing awareness to Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin displayed outside the home stadium of Werder Bremen on July 4, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
The German professional soccer team SV Werder Bremen paid tribute to murdered American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin in a social media post on the first anniversary of his death while in Hamas captivity.
On Tuesday, the German team shared on Instagram a photo of two tifos displayed by German soccer fans during a match last year that said “Shalom, Salam, Peace” and “May Your Memory Be A Revolution, Achi!” The Hebrew word for “brother” is “achi.” Soccer fans in the stands also raised a giant photo of 23-year-old Goldberg-Polin, who was a big fan of the German club.
In the Instagram post, SV Werder Bremen wrote in German: “SV Werder remembers Hersh Goldberg-Polin. This is the first anniversary of the Jewish death of Hersh, who Hamas murdered along with five other hostages after eleven months of captivity. You remain in our hearts, achi!”
Goldberg-Polin was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, while at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel. He and five additional hostages – Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Carmel Gat, 40, Almog Sarusi, 27, Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Sergeant Ori Danino, 25 – were murdered in a Hamas terror tunnel in the Gaza Strip after 328 days in captivity. Their bodies were found by the Israel Defense Forces in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in August 2024. Autopsies showed that they faced torture and starvation, according to reports. Hamas-led terrorists abducted 251 people during their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Irish Author Sally Rooney Vows to Donate Proceeds of Work to UK Terror Group Palestine Action
Author Sally Rooney in an interview with “PBS NewsHour.” Photo: Screenshot.
Award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney said on Saturday that she will give proceeds from her books, as well as two BBC adaptations of them, to support Palestine Action, an anti-Israel group that was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom last month.
The writer, who is a longtime supporter of boycotts against Israel, made the announcement in an opinion piece for The Irish Times, in which she proclaimed clear support for the designated terror group. “Like the hundreds of protesters arrested last weekend — I too support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it,” she wrote.
“My books, at least for now, are still published in Britain, and are widely available in bookshops and even supermarkets. In recent years the UK’s state broadcaster has also televised two fine adaptations of my novels [‘Normal People’ and ‘Conversations With Friends’] and therefore regularly pays me residual fees,” she added. “I want to be clear that I intend to use these proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can.”
Being a member of Palestine Action or expressing support for the group is a criminal offense in the UK under the Terrorism Act, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The group was proscribed in early July after admitting that its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in southern England, spray-painted two jets with red paint, and damaged the jets with crowbars. The vandalism, done in protest of Britain’s support for Israel, resulted in roughly $9.5 million worth of damage, police said. Many of the group’s supporters were recently arrested at a pro-Palestine Action protest on Aug. 9 in Parliament Square, London.
Palestine Action has also claimed responsibility for other incidents targeting companies in the UK that have ties to Israel. The group accuses the British government of being complicit in alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
In the piece published on Saturday, Rooney – the best-selling author of Beautiful World, Where Are You and most recently Intermezzo – further said about Palestine Action: “We owe their courageous activists our gratitude and solidarity. And by now, almost two years into a live-streamed genocide, we owe the people of Palestine more than mere words.” She said she would gladly publish her support for Palestine Action in a UK newspaper, “but that would now be illegal.”
Rooney also claimed the British government “has willingly stripped its own citizens of basic rights and freedoms, including the right to express and read dissenting opinions, in order to protect its relationship with Israel.” She added, “The ramifications for cultural and intellectual life in the UK … are and will be profound.”
In 2021, Rooney refused to sell the Hebrew translation rights of Beautiful World, Where Are You? to an Israeli publisher because of her support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. In 2024, she was one of more than 1,000 authors who vowed to boycott Israeli publishers and institutions. She was also among the many celebrities who called for a ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war weeks after the latter’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Trump Administration Imposes New Sanctions on Four ICC Judges, Prosecutors
A general view of the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
President Donald Trump‘s administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, as Washington ramped up its pressure on the war tribunal over its targeting of Israeli leaders and a past decision to investigate US officials.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court “a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare” against the United States and Israel.
Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the US Treasury and State Department. All officials have been involved in cases linked to Israel and the United States.
“United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC’s politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach,” Rubio said.
The second round of sanctions comes less than three months after the administration took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on four separate ICC judges. It represents a serious escalation that will likely impede the functioning of the court and the prosecutor’s office as they deal with major cases, including war crime allegations against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The ICC, which had slammed the move in June as an attempt to undermine the independence of the judicial institution, and the office of the prosecutor, did not have immediate comment.
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict. Israeli officials have adamantly denied the allegations, noting they’re targeting terrorists who attacked Israel first and embed their military infrastructure among civilian areas.
In March 2020, prosecutors opened an investigation in Afghanistan that included looking into possible crimes by US troops, but since 2021, it has deprioritized the role of the US and focused on alleged crimes committed by the Afghan government and the Taliban forces.
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the U.N. Security Council.
Although the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in its 125 member countries, some nations, including the US, China, Russia, and Israel, do not recognize its authority.
It has high-profile war crimes investigations under way into the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Venezuela.
The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system.
Guillou is an ICC judge who presided over a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Khan and Niang are the court’s two deputy prosecutors.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement welcoming the US sanctions.
Canadian Judge Kimberly Prost served on an ICC appeals chamber that, in March 2020, unanimously authorized the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since 2003, including examining the role of US service members.
Global Affairs Canada and the office of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ICC sanctions, including against Prost.
The Trump administration‘s dislike of the court goes back to his first term. In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the court’s work on Afghanistan.