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All Jewish Groups, Synagogues Withdraw From San Diego Pride Festival Due to Kehlani Performance

Kehlani walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
All of the Jewish organizations and synagogues that were set to participate in this year’s Pride Festival in San Diego announced on Friday their decision to withdraw from the event due to “serious safety concerns” surrounding the headlining performance by anti-Israel R&B singer Kehlani.
Eight San Diego-based Jewish groups and synagogues, including the Jewish Federation of San Diego and Anti-Defamation League of San Diego, said they made the decision after organizers of the festival refused to cancel Kehlani’s performance and ignored concerns about what they described as the singer’s antisemitic behavior.
“In light of San Diego Pride’s decision to allow musical artist Kehlani to remain a headliner at this year’s Pride Festival despite Kehlani’s repeated amplification of violent antisemitic rhetoric, all participating Jewish organizations and synagogues — many of which have marched with, volunteered for, or supported Pride for years — will be withdrawing from the 2025 event due to serious safety concerns,” the Jewish groups and synagogues announced in a joint statement.
San Diego Pride is set to take place July 19-20 at Marston Point in Balboa Park. Last month, nearly three dozen Jewish organizations released a statement urging festival organizers to reconsider having Kehlani perform at the event. The Jewish groups that released a statement on Friday said last month’s appeal “has thus far gone unanswered, and as a result, there will be no organized Jewish presence at San Diego Pride this year.”
Kehlani has been highly critical of Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. She has accused Israel of genocide and shared a number of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist posts on social media. In one Instagram post, she wrote: “Dismantle Israel. Eradicate Zionism.” She also posted an image that called for Israel to be removed off the map and replaced with “Palestine.” Last year, she shared the message “Long Live the Intifada,” a phrase that invokes violence against Israel and the Jewish community, in the opening of a music video for “Next 2 U.”
Kehlani has also criticized other artists for staying silent about Israel’s military actions in the war. In a video on X, she said, “It’s f—k Israel, it’s f—k Zionism, and it’s also f—k a lot of y;all too.”
The eight Jewish groups and synagogues that released the joint statement on Friday said Kehlani’s antisemitic and anti-Israel messages are not only “dehumanizing,” but “history has shown that when they are normalized and platformed, they can lead to real-world violence against Jews.”
They referenced the two recent terrorist attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, DC, and noted that the assailants behind both incidents shared “hateful rhetoric” similar to what Kehlani has been promoting. They added that the two attacks “have intensified fears among Jewish San Diegans, underscoring the dangerous consequences of unchecked antisemitism in public spaces.”
“As a queer, a Jew, a Zionist and as someone who is horrified at the suffering in Gaza, I will not be participating in Pride this year — and neither should any organization that claims to be inclusive and strives to be a safe place for all,” said Laura Stratton, a member of Temple Emanu-El of San Diego and the LGBTQ+ community who has been attending and volunteering for Pride festivals in San Diego and other cities for more than 35 years.
The festival’s volunteer director of medical operations and assistant director of medical operations, Dr. Jennifer Anger and Eliyahu Cohen-Mizrahi, respectively, have also withdrawn their involvement in the festival due to Kehlani’s scheduled performance.
“My role at Pride has always been to ensure the health and safety of everyone attending, but as a Jewish San Diegan, I can no longer ignore the very real risks that come with normalizing hate speech like the kind Kehlani has promoted,” said Anger, who has volunteered as a medical director for the festival for the last two years.
“It’s heartbreaking to step away from an event I’ve supported for years, but when the Jewish community’s safety is treated as negotiable, we’re left with no choice. Pride should be a place of healing and inclusion — not one that turns its back on a community in pain.”
Kehlani was set to perform at a concert in New York City later this month, but it was canceled in May after organizers faced pressure from New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other pro-Israel supporters because of the singer’s actions targeting the Jewish community. The cancellation was announced shortly after Cornell University’s decision to also cancel a performance by Kehlani.
In their joint statement on Friday, the San Diego-based Jewish groups and synagogues said San Diego Pride organizers “still has the chance to course correct and restore Pride as a space where all communities feel genuinely included and safe” by disinviting Kehlani from the event.
“Jewish groups continue to urge San Diego Pride organizers to reflect on the message being sent by continuing to feature Kehlani — and whether safety and equal rights can truly be hallmarks of this event under the present circumstances,” they said.
The statement came out as a new report by the nonprofit A Wider Bridge detailed how anti-Israel activists in the LGBTQ+ community are subjecting Zionist Jews to extreme levels of discrimination, including expulsions from major progressive groups and even physical assault.
“Now more than ever, Pride should be a celebration of inclusion and solidarity, not a platform for divisive voices that incite hatred and violence,” said Heidi Gantwerk, president and CEO of Jewish Federation of San Diego County. “As we’ve seen in DC and Boulder, when antisemitism is ignored or tolerated, it fuels a culture that leads to violence. We cannot wait for tragedy to strike our own community — again — before we act.”
On the red carpet at the American Music Awards in late May, Kehlani talked to Variety about why she feels the need to be outspoken about Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and concluded her remarks by saying, “Free Palestine.”
“It shouldn’t be a hard thing … It should be second nature if people are being blown up and being murdered at mass rates. It should be as easy as breathing to just say, ‘Hey, I don’t really think this should be happening. Maybe we should stop.’ And we’re funding it,” she said. “All I can say is, Free Palestine.”
Kehlani claimed that she is not antisemitic in an Instagram video uploaded in late April. “I am not antisemitic, nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide. I am anti-the actions of the Israeli government,” she stated in the video. “I am anti-the extermination of an entire people, I am anti-the bombing of innocent children, men [and] women. That’s what I’m anti.”
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New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals

Illustrative: People waving Nazi swastika flags argue with conservatives during a protest outside the Tampa Convention Center, where Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) Student Action Summit (SAS) was being held, in Tampa, Florida, US July 23, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Marco Bello
A federal judge in New York has sentenced a man from Oregon to five years in person, following a conviction for conspiring to make threats and conveying false information about explosives in relation to a series of threatening calls to Jewish hospitals and care centers.
The US Justice Department announced last week that US District Judge Ramon Reyes, Jr. issued the sentence for Domagoj Patkovic, 31, who terrorized patients and medical workers with hoax bomb threat phone calls to historically Jewish health-care centers in New York City and on Long Island.
“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith,” said Joseph Nocella, Jr., US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America.”
Patkovic’s spree of antisemitic, anonymous phone calls began as early as May 2021 and included accomplices. They made violent threats against Jewish hospitals, including threatening attacks with bombs and warning that he had placed C-4 in the building. Patkovic made at least six calls to hospitals and also one against law enforcement, livestreaming his actions to friends on the Discord messaging platform. One of the threats resulted in a partial evacuation and lockdown of a Long Island hospital.
During the threatening calls, Patkovic said Jews are “gonna go skyrocket up into the sky for Allah.” He also told a 911 operator, “I just called the hospital requesting my f–king million dollars or I’m going to blow this [slur]NEO f—ling b—ch to the sky.”
Patkovic, who lives in Portland, Oregon, confessed to his actions, including performing a “Sieg Heil” salute in a video from an unrelated incident. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 19, having faced as much as 155 years’ imprisonment.
John Durham, then the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at the time that “as he admitted today, the defendant intentionally targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in our district with bomb threats. In doing so, he needlessly endangered patients and staff and diverted critical law enforcement resources from their core mission of keeping our community safe.”
Nocella added last week that “our office will continue to prosecute dangerous bomb threats and swatting schemes to the fullest extent of the law, especially those motivated by hate, and those targeting vulnerable communities in hospitals and care centers.”
Christopher Raia, Assistant Director in Charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York Field Office, said that Patkovic “will spend significant time in prison for his targeting of Jewish hospitals across the New York metro area with hoax bomb threats.”
He added, “These hoax threats, motivated by Patkovic’s insidious antisemitic views, wasted law enforcement resources and put innocent lives at risk. The FBI will continue to bring to justice individuals who utilize swatting and false bomb threats to cause panic and unrest in our communities.”
Antisemites have used similar “swatting” style attacks claiming the planting of bombs at Jewish buildings.
Over the weekend of December 16-18, 2023, for example, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) documented more than 400 hoax bomb threat attacks — a record — against Jewish organizations, including 93 in California, 62 in Arizona, 15 in Connecticut, five in Colorado, and four in Washington state. Investigators believed that overseas actors coordinated the crime.
“At this time, based on similar language and specific email tradecraft used, it appears the perpetrators of these threats are connected. Additionally, these threats appear to be originating from outside of the United States,” Assistant FBI Director Cathy Milhoan said. “To date, none of these email threats have involved any actual explosive devices or credible risk of harm to congregants.”
David Procopio, Massachusetts’ state police communications director, described approximately 30 threats against synagogues in his state. “We did not respond to all of them, but our Bomb Squad did respond to several and conducted sweeps of the facilities,” he said at the time. “Many were handled on the local level by local police and firefighters. All are believed to have been hoaxes; no explosives or hazards were located at any site.”
The ADL noted earlier incidents of fake bomb threats driven by online antisemites in August 2023.
“For the fourth weekend in a row, ADL has worked with law enforcement and community partners to mitigate the disruption to Jewish prayer services posed by a group of online trolls who swat and call in fake bomb threats targeting synagogues,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said at the time. “The trolls use highly antisemitic language in these calls and appear to have targeted at least 26 synagogues and two ADL offices in 12 states over this time period. They appear to be targeting synagogues that livestream their services.”
The post New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue

US Ambassador to Turkey and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in Beirut, Lebanon July 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Washington is ramping up pressure on Beirut to swiftly issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Without a public commitment from Lebanese ministers, the US will no longer dispatch US envoy Thomas Barrack to Beirut for negotiations with Lebanese officials, or pressure Israel either to stop airstrikes or pull its troops from south Lebanon, according to the sources, who include two Lebanese officials, two diplomats, and a Lebanese source familiar with the matter.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington and Beirut have been in talks for nearly six weeks on a US roadmap to fully disarm the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, which also operates as a Lebanese political party, in exchange for Israel to end its strikes and withdraw its troops from five points in southern Lebanon.
The original proposal included a condition that Lebanon‘s government pass a cabinet decision pledging to disarm Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has publicly refused to hand over its arsenal in full, but the group has privately weighed scaling it back.
The Islamist group, designated a terrorist organization by the US and much of the West, has also told Lebanese officials that Israel must take the first step by withdrawing its troops and stopping drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters and arms depots.
Hezbollah‘s main ally, Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, asked the US to ensure that Israel halt its strikes as a first step, in order to fully implement the ceasefire agreed last year that ended months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to four of the sources.
Israel rejected Berri’s proposal late last week, the four sources said. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister’s office to questions from Reuters on the issue.
The US then began insisting that a cabinet vote take place imminently, all the sources said.
“The US is saying there’s no more Barrack, no more papers back and forth – the council of ministers should take a decision and then we can keep discussing. They cannot wait any longer,” the Lebanese source said.
The source and the Lebanese officials said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam would seek to hold a session in the coming days. Barrack met Salam in Beirut last week and said Washington cannot “compel” Israel to do anything.
In a post on X after his visit, Barrack said that “as long as Hezbollah retains arms, words will not suffice. The government and Hizballah need to fully commit and act now in order to not consign the Lebanese people to the stumbling status quo.”
All the sources said that Lebanon‘s rulers fear that a failure to issue a clear commitment to disarm Hezbollah could trigger escalated Israeli strikes, including on Beirut.
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UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump (not pictured) hold a bilateral meeting at Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Britain will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the “appalling situation” in Gaza and meets other conditions, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told his cabinet on Tuesday according to a government statement.
“He said that the UK will recognize the state of Palestine in September, before UNGA [United Nations General Assembly], unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a Two State Solution,” the statement said.
“He reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas and that our demands on Hamas remain, that they must release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza, and disarm.”
Starmer took the decision after recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays on Tuesday to discuss a new proposed peace plan being worked on with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognize a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.
A growing number of lawmakers in Starmer‘s Labour Party have asked him to recognize a Palestinian state to put pressure on Israel.
The post UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.