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Bnei Menashe community disputes Israeli reports of 7 killed in India violence
(JTA) — Members of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community are rejecting an Israeli parliamentary report that a missile strike in Northeast India killed seven community members this week.
The news spread rapidly on Tuesday after Israel’s Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Aliyah put out a press release announcing the deaths, following a meeting about potentially jumpstarting efforts by the Bnei Menashe to move to Israel amid ethnic tensions in the Manipur region of India.
It cited Tzvi Khaute, director of the Bnei Menashe in Israel for the nonprofit Shavei Israel, as saying that the community urgently needed permission to immigrate, or make aliyah, and that it had “buried seven people who were killed as a result of a bomb falling next to the synagogue.”
But Khaute did not make that comment in a video of the hearing reviewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. A Bnei Menashe member in India offered a different account about violence near a local synagogue. And the information about the deaths was false, the Bnei Menashe Council in India said in a press release Wednesday.
Responding to the Knesset press release, the group speculated that Shavei Israel, one of two feuding nonprofits seeking to help the Bnei Menashe move to Israel, had misrepresented the facts on the ground when testifying during the committee meeting.
“The situation of Manipur’s B’nei Menashe after months of ethnic violence that has left many of them homeless and with no means of livelihood is indeed extremely difficult and their resettlement in Israel is urgent,” the council said in its statement. “Spreading lies as a way of arousing sympathy for their plight is despicable and can only work to their detriment.”
But the video from the hearing, coupled with reports from India, suggests that the Knesset committee’s press release might well have stemmed from more straightforward confusion.
The video shows Khaute saying that a bomb fell at a synagogue and that six people died in India, but he did not say when the incident occurred or whether the victims were Bnei Menashe. When asked by the chairman if it was Bnei Menashe who were killed, Khaute did not offer confirmation, instead segueing to talking about a seven-month-long delay in burying Bnei Menashe community members who were killed last year. It is unclear which deaths Khaute was referring to as only one community member is known to have died in the conflict.
At multiple points later in the hearing, lawmakers asserted that seven people were killed, though Khaute himself never said so.
A spokesperson for Shavei Israel said the organization was not involved with the Knesset press release and added that no Bnei Menashe member was known to have been killed in Manipur recently.
“He wanted to express how Bnei Menashe are in danger and how they should be brought to Israel as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told JTA said about Khaute. “There was a misunderstanding and no one from the committee verified with him that seven Bnei Menashe were killed yesterday. Nobody checked back with us or with him.”
Reports from Manipur suggest another possible source of confusion. In their regular updates on social media, the Manipur Police have not mentioned an attack on or near a synagogue. But they wrote on Tuesday that “armed groups” launched an attack on security forces in Moreh, a town on Manipur’s border with Myanmar, “employing gunfire and explosives.” Six security personnel were injured in the crossfire.
Kaikholal Haokip, a member of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community in Moreh who is also a spokesperson for the Kuki Inpee organization, representing one of the warring ethnic groups, told JTA that no one was killed in the incident. But he said neighbors and the caretaker of the local synagogue told him that a bomb was detonated by police on a highway close to the synagogue.
The bomb caused no damage to the synagogue or anyone inside, Haokip told JTA, adding that some Jewish community members, including the synagogue’s caretaker, have fled to other areas amid the violence and all remain safe.
JTA reached out to Oded Forer, the Knesset member who heads the committee, as well as to spokespeople for the Knesset and to the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for clarification about the inaccurate press release but did not receive a response before publication.
The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descendants of the “lost tribe” of Manasseh, a claim that researchers dispute. Shavei Israel, a nonprofit organization that aims to bring “lost tribe” Jewish communities to Israel, has been responsible for the Bnei Menashe aliyah for more than two decades and has helped about 5,000 Jews immigrate so far. Another 5,000 still live in India.
Some Bnei Menashe Jews have protested the organization and say it abuses its power over their aliyah. Another Israeli nonprofit that formed in 2017, Degel Menashe, has been advocating for this group and says it wants the Jewish Agency to have more control over the immigration process.
“We recommend their immigration to Israel, but in a low-profile manner to avoid criticism of interfering in India’s internal affairs,” Michal Vilertal, head of the Asia division at the foreign affairs ministry, said, according to the press release. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assist in every way with the community’s immigration to Israel.”
Bnei Menashe Jews in India belong to the Kuki-Zo ethnic minority in Manipur, which clashed with the majority Meiteis in May when the Meiteis demanded “scheduled tribe” status, which offers benefits traditionally reserved for minority tribes. Tensions between the Meiteis and the smaller tribes in Manipur had been building for decades, and now Kukis say they are being targeted by Meitei groups and military and police collaborators.
The conflict has so far claimed 200 lives and 70,000 people have fled, according to Indian news reports. There has only been one known Bnei Menashe casualty; some are fighting on the frontlines, sources on the ground say. Hundreds of Bnei Menashe Jews have been forced to flee their homes with no hopes of returning as new informal borders form between the Meitei and Kuki areas.
The latest incident took place with tensions rising across Manipur this week as the conflict approaches its ninth month. In Thoubal, near the capital of Imphal, four Meitei Muslims were shot dead on Tuesday by “armed Meitei miscreants,” local media reported, leading to the imposition of a curfew. Meanwhile, minority tribes called a 24-hour total shutdown until Wednesday in protest of alleged mistreatment by state police.
While Shavei Israel emphasizes that the Israeli government press release misunderstood Khaute on the specifics of recent incidents, the group said the release had gotten right the urgency he expressed about the safety of the Bnei Menashe in Manipur.
“I am begging that this community be allowed to immigrate to Israel,” the release quoted Khaute as saying. “Every day that they stay in India and do not immigrate to Israel, they risk their lives.”
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The post Bnei Menashe community disputes Israeli reports of 7 killed in India violence appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Pro-Hamas Protesters Clash With New York Police at Brooklyn College, Encampment Thwarted
Handcuffed man screams at law enforcement during a student-led protest against the ongoing war in Gaza at Brooklyn College on May 8, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York City. Photo: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.
Pro-Hamas students clashed with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on Thursday during an unauthorized demonstration at City University of New York, Brooklyn College, continuing a series of days in which law enforcement has been deployed to quell extremist disturbances.
As seen in footage captured by “FreedomNews.TV,” students rocked officers with blow after blow to obstruct their being arrested for trespassing, prompting as many as six others to rush in to help with detaining one person at a time. The melees are unlike any seen on a US college campus this semester.
BREAKING: Complete chaos is unfolding at Brooklyn College in NYC after terror supporters began attacking police.
The police are now fully engaged and making arrests. Pro-Palestinians only know violence. pic.twitter.com/Fp0WJGs0St
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) May 8, 2025
The aim of the group was to establish a pro-Hamas encampment on the East Quad section of campus, which they called a “Liberated Zone,” and several reports said that it attempted to block the entrance to the Tanger Hillel House after being prevented from doing so. FreedomNews captured several more fights between protesters and officers which were filmed in front of the Hillel building, where Jewish students socialize and seek support from their community.
“Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College is appalled by the anti-Israel protest and encampment that took place on May 8, 2025 and violated campus policies and feared deeply troubling antisemitic rhetoric, including chants of ‘Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here,’ and banners with inverted red triangles, a symbol widely recognized as a call for violence,” Tanger Hillel told The Algemeiner in a statement. “Targeting Hillel, the Jewish student center, is not a peaceful protest. It is harassment, intimidation, and an antisemitic act of aggression.”
The inverted red triangle has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
Brooklyn College told the New York Times on Thursday that it could not tolerate the group’s attempting to occupy the East Quad for an extended period of time, for which it appeared to be preparing by pitching tents. The students, a spokesman said, had been given “repeated warnings” to decamp and relocate their activities away from campus.
“The safety of our campus community will always be paramount, and Brooklyn College respects the right to protest while also adhering to strict rules meant to ensure the safe operation of our university,” he told the paper.
Law enforcement arrested a total of seven students, according to a local outlet, PIX11. The campus was later closed after successfully repelling the encampment.
Brooklyn College is one of several schools to foreclose the possibility of pro-Hamas students commandeering sections of campus for an extended period of time in recent weeks. Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Washington (UW) all did so between Saturday and Wednesday, securing arrests of over 100 students combined.
At Columbia University a pro-Hamas student group, Apartheid Divest (CUAD), occupied the school’s Butler Library and vowed not to leave unless school officials acceded to a list of five demands calling for, among other things, a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.
According to The Columbia Spectator, the demonstration soon faltered after CUAD was out maneuvered by Columbia’s private security forces, who effectively detained the students inside the Butler Reading Room by locking it from the outsider to prevent others, including faculty who wished to offer themselves as “mediators,” from coming in. Meanwhile, the Spectator said, the university dispatched a team of “special patrol officers” and others who initiated negotiations to end the occupation but were unsuccessful.
Having reached an impasse, interim Columbia University president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — requested the help of the NYPD, a decision she justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. By the time the remarks were published, two Columbia officers had been assaulted by a crush of agitators who resolved to enter Butler by storming it.
The NYPD’s operation to clear Butler was quickly completed after officers arrived there at 7:25 pm, the time cited by the Spectator. Bundling them “20 at a time,” the officers relocated the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests. According to the last numbers, 80 people — students, non-students, and alumni — were arrested and issued court notices.
On Friday, the New York Post reported that Columbia has begun meting out disciplinary sanctions to those who participated in seizing Butler Library. Some 65 students have been suspended, the paper said, while 33 alumni and other persons have been banned from campus. According to Fox News, the US Department of Homeland Security has enquired about the immigration status of those involved, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he intends to revoke the visas of any who are visiting students.
“We are reviewing the via status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio said, writing on the X social media platform. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Hamas Protesters Clash With New York Police at Brooklyn College, Encampment Thwarted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Officials, Jewish Groups Congratulate New Pope Leo XIV
American cardinal Robert Prevost, now known as Leo XIV, has been elected a new pope by the cardinal electors on the second day of the conclave. On May 8, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
Israeli officials and Jewish groups offered congratulations on Thursday following the naming of the new leader of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has taken the name Leo XIV.
The announcement from the Vatican was met with joyous celebration and surprise, with spectators noting Leo’s trailblazing status as the first ever pope from the United States. Individuals and organizations tied to both Israel and the Jewish community expressed hope that Leo would help foster positive relations between Jews and Christians.
Isaac Herzog, the [resident of Israel, posted a statement on X/Twitter, saying that he hopes to work alongside the pope to strengthen the friendship between Jews and Christians.
“We look forward to enhancing the relationship between Israel and the Holy See, and strengthening the friendship between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land and around the world,” Herzog wrote.
“May your papacy be one of building bridges and understanding between all faiths and peoples. May we see the immediate and safe return of the hostages still held in Gaza, and a new era of peace in our region and around the world,” Herzog continued.
The Israel Foreign Ministry also issued a congratulatory post on X/Twitter, saying that the organization hopes to forge a strong relationship with the new Catholic leader.
“We congratulate Cardinal Robert Prevost, Pope Leo XIV — the first American Pope — and Catholics around the world,” the ministry said. “We look forward to working together to further strengthen the relationship between the Jewish state and the Holy See. We hope to welcome you soon to the Holy Land.”
Jewish groups around the world expressed similarly optimistic sentiments about the new pope.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC), an organization that advocates on behalf of the Jewish community in the US, also acknowledged the naming of the new pope.
“We look forward to a close relationship with Pope Leo XIV as we continue to advance positive Catholic-Jewish relations for the benefit of Catholics, Jews, and all of humanity,” the AJC said.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC), an organization that advocates on behalf of the Jewish community within Europe, also expressed hope that the new pope would lead with “strength, wisdom, and compassion.”
“We extend our heartfelt wishes for strength, wisdom and compassion as he begins his mission as Supreme Pontiff,” the EJC added. “In an era that calls for moral leadership and unity across communities, we look forward to continuing and deepening the Catholic-Jewish dialogue, based on the Nostra Aetate declaration of 1965, rooted in mutual respect and shared values.”
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) similarly congratulated Leo.
“The WJC’s relationship with the Holy See spans decades and is grounded in a deep, ongoing commitment to interfaith dialogue. This partnership has centered on shared concerns such as the welfare of Jewish and Catholic communities, the fight against antisemitism and hatred, and the defense of religious freedom around the world,” WJC President Ronald Lauder said in a statement. “The WJC looks forward to continuing and deepening this essential dialogue under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV. At a time of global crisis, the importance of this relationship is only heightened.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also extended congratulations to the pope, expressing optimism that the new Catholic leader could foster “reconciliation among all faiths.”
“Congratulations to Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic community worldwide. I wish the first Pope from the United States success in fostering hope and reconciliation among all faiths,” Netanyahu said.
Leo XIV has not publicly expressed his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the ongoing war in Gaza. Relations between Israel and Leo XIV’s predecessor, Pope Francis, became increasingly tense in the months following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, an attack that started the war in Gaza.
In December, Francis unveiled a nativity scene which featured a depiction of an infant Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh — a traditional Arab headdress that has been repurposed after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel to signal support for the anti-Israel activist movement. Some observers suggested that the scene in St. Peter’s Square — which was titled “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024” and designed by two artists from Bethlehem, Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi — effectively erased Jesus’s Jewish roots. Francis also accused Israel, without evidence, of inflicting a “famine” in Gaza and suggested that the Jewish state’s military tactics could be tantamount to a “genocide.”
The post Israeli Officials, Jewish Groups Congratulate New Pope Leo XIV first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US to Resume Nuclear Talks on Sunday After Postponement
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS
Iran has agreed to hold a fourth round of nuclear talks with the United States on Sunday in Oman, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday, adding that the negotiations were advancing.
US President Donald Trump, who withdrew Washington from a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers meant to curb its nuclear activity, has threatened to bomb Iran if no new deal is reached to resolve the long unresolved dispute.
Western countries say Iran‘s nuclear program, which Tehran accelerated after the US walkout from the now moribund 2015 accord, is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.
“The negotiations are moving forward, and naturally, the further we go, the more consultations and reviews are needed,” Araqchi said in remarks carried by Iranian state media.
“The delegations require more time to examine the issues that are raised. But what is important is that we are on a forward-moving path and gradually entering into the details.”
The fourth round of indirect negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons.”
Araqchi said his planned visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Saturday was in line with “continuous consultations” with neighboring countries to “address their concerns and mutual interests” about the nuclear issue.
The post Iran, US to Resume Nuclear Talks on Sunday After Postponement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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