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Jewish Community Will Remain in Ukraine For ‘Long Haul,’ Humanitarian Official Says, As Russian Invasion Anniversary Approaches
JDC aid workers wrap a blanket around Ella Varshavaskaya, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photo: Arik Shraga
Jews in war-torn Ukraine will remain there for the “long haul,” according to a leading official with a Jewish humanitarian organization providing aid to the Jewish and broader community in the country.
“I have been traveling extensively around the country the last week and one truth becomes abundantly clear: the majority of the Jews are here for the long haul,” Oksana Galkevich — Ukraine country director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) — told The Algemeiner in an email on Friday.
“They are not abandoning their homes and their communities, and even though they may be in distress, they want to live life to the fullest,” Galkevich observed. “This means that every life we save, every family we sustain, and every aspect of Jewish life we preserve and magnify becomes a gift whose returns are tenfold.”
Galkevich sounded a rare note of hope in a war that shows little sign of resolution as it approaches its second anniversary on Feb. 24. According to UN figures, at least 30,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the Russian invasion, although independent assessments suggest that the true number is much higher. Up to 70,000 Ukrainian troops are believed to have lost their lives in their efforts to repel the Russian onslaught.
Galkevich noted that while “spirits in the Jewish community are not high as they once were, especially as this conflict grinds on for a second year, people are resolute that life must continue. Yes, it’s getting harder for people – the economy is crippled, people are traumatized, and uncertainty grows – but they are not giving up.” Prior to the invasion — according to research by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a London-based think tank — Ukraine had a “core” Jewish population of 40,000, while approximately 190,000 Ukrainian nationals are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return on the grounds of having at least one Jewish grandparent.
The JDC is meanwhile boosting its aid effort in Ukraine, as well as to the more than 13,000 Ukrainian Jewish refugees scattered around Europe.
“Even as we address multiple global crises, including the ongoing war in Israel, we remain laser focused on the dire humanitarian situation in Ukraine. These needs are all the more painful with widespread trauma, spiking unemployment, and serious gaps in children’s education,” JDC CEO Ariel Zwang said in a statement to mark the forthcoming second anniversary of the invasion. “I am proud of all the people we have helped in the past two years, but our work is nowhere near complete.”
The post Jewish Community Will Remain in Ukraine For ‘Long Haul,’ Humanitarian Official Says, As Russian Invasion Anniversary Approaches first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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