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Jewish Dancer, Activist Montana Tucker Releases Tribute Video for the Remaining Gaza Hostages
Montana Tucker and dancers from the Sol Dance Academy in a still from their dance video released on Dec. 17, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Jewish American social media influencer, dancer, actress, and singer Montana Tucker published a dance video Monday on social media in tribute to the 100 hostages who remain held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip more than 14 months after being abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.
The video begins with Tucker resembling a hostage who is held captive alone in a room in Gaza. She is then joined by 35 members of the Sol Dance Academy in Israel and together they dance in the same room, as well as in a tunnel, to a rendition of the Destiny’s Child song “Survivor.” Three released hostages — Moran Stella Yanai, Raz Ben Ami, and Hila Rotem Shoshani — make an appearance in the video, as well as family members of current hostages Ohad Ben Ami, Shlomo Manzur, and Yossi and Eli Sharabi. The video also show images of all the remaining hostages.
“It is simply unfathomable to me that more than 400 days after October 7th, 100 Israeli men, women, and children who were taken that day are still not home,” Tucker said in a released statement. “We cannot let the world forget them and their suffering, and this is why I’m dedicated to using my influence to tell their stories and make sure their freedom remains an international priority.”
Tucker shared the dance video on social media on Monday and wrote in the caption: “A SURVIVORS story isn’t complete until EVERYONE is FREE … This tribute is a celebration of SURVIVAL and a plea for FREEDOM. Every hostage deserves to become a SURVIVOR. We will NOT stop until they are ALL home.”
“Imagine peacefully going to bed one evening to then being woken up early the next morning with sirens going off and terrorists brutally attacking your home/communitties,” she additionally wrote in the caption. “Then, no matter how hard you try to resist, you are kidnapped. Next, imagine that 437 days have passed and you are still not home. Three of the women featured in this video survived the horrors of Hamas captivity but 100 other innocent souls — women, babies, young men, and elderly — also deserve to come home and reclaim their lives.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), which initiated and produced the video, said Tucker and dancers from the Sol Dance Academy delivered “a resonating message of survival and resilience” in Monday’s video.
In June, Tucker and CAM released the dance video “We Can Dance Again,” which was dedicated to the 364 people murdered at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 last year during the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel. The video garnered more than 10 million views across various social media platforms.
After the release of the new dance video on Monday, CAM CEO Sacha Roytman applauded on Tucker’s efforts to speak out publicly about the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack last year and publicize the need for the return of the remaining hostages.
“Since October 7th, at great personal sacrifice, Montana Tucker has emerged as one of the leading young voices for the Jewish people globally,” Roytman said. “We are proud to have brought her to Israel twice already in the past year to witness firsthand the aftermath of that horrible day, show solidarity with the victims of the attack, and facilitate her advocacy for the hostages, and we believe this video is an important initiative in the effort to return them to their families.”
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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.
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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.
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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.