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Why Did the Head of the Olympic Committee Meet with an October 7 Supporter?
Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub, and chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, speaks during a press conference regarding the cancellation of the soccer match between Argentina and Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, June 6, 2018. Photo: Flash90.
Jibril Rajoub, the chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, is a very vocal supporter of Hamas’ October 7 massacre and atrocities.
Just six weeks after those events — in which Gazans tortured, raped, and brutally murdered over 1,100 Israelis while wounding over 5,000 and abducting approximately 251 people into the Gaza Strip — Rajoub said: “What happened on October 7 was an earthquake … full of epics and acts of heroism” [Al-Anba, Kuwaiti news website, Nov. 26, 2023].
That statement alone should have been enough to disqualify him from meetings with any Western leader.
Nevertheless, earlier this month, Rajoub was greeted warmly at a meeting in Geneva with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, and Rajoub thanked Bach for his cooperation:
Rajoub thanked Mr. Bach for the cooperation of the International Olympic Committee with the Palestine Olympic Committee by implementing joint plans to promote Palestinian athletes … Rajoub also met with several senior employees at the International Olympic Committee. He briefed them on the Israeli violations against Palestinian sport and their consequences on sport in Palestine.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 6, 2025]
During the same trip to Switzerland, at an international press conference, Rajoub compared Israeli policy to Nazi atrocities, saying in English that Israel was doing to Palestinians what the Nazis had done to the Jews:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “We are recognized by 149 [states] all over the world from the international community as a state, except Israel, America, and those who are suffering from the inferiority complex of what happened somewhere last century. We should not be a scapegoat for the Holocaust. I don’t think that it’s fair for the grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust to practice, to exercise, the same against the Palestinians.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, March 7, 2025]
This is overt antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Yet, the International Olympic Committee did not issue a condemnation of Rajoub’s libel, nor did it condemn his support of October 7.
This is also not the first time this year that Rajoub made such antisemitic statements. In January, he said similarly in Arabic:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Israelis built their lie based on the Holocaust. What is happening in the Gaza Strip? That’s a holocaust … Same formula and same means …The grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust are the ones who are perpetrating a holocaust in Gaza.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Jan. 31, 2025]
In February, Rajoub also insulted President Donald Trump as being “biased in favor of the fascist neo-Nazis who rule Israel” and he equated Netanyahu to Joseph Goebbels:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “Today it’s clear that Trump and his policy has been exposed, and he is 100% biased in favor of the fascist neo-Nazis who rule Israel … [Trump] announced what he announced alongside Netanyahu, who is a [Nazi propaganda minister] Goebbels and the last shout in the world of fascism of the 21st century.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 5, 2025]
The libel of Israel as being like the Nazis or worse is not exclusive to Rajoub. Rather, it has become a leading component of Palestinian antisemitism. It is echoed by many senior PA officials, such as this one on official PA TV this month, who said that Israel was “committing things uglier and more violent than what was committed in the Holocaust”:
Palestinian MP and National Library President Issa Karake: “This occupation [i.e., Israel] has been claiming for a long time that it is the victim of the Holocaust. It is committing things uglier and more violent than what was committed in the Holocaust.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 12, 2025]
All of this odious Palestinian hate speech should be categorically condemned rather than meriting indifference at best and acceptance at worst by major international figures, such as the president of the IOC.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is the Founder and Director of PMW, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Why Did the Head of the Olympic Committee Meet with an October 7 Supporter? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.