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Amazon will not pull antisemitic movie promoted by Kyrie Irving, says Jewish CEO
(JTA) – Bucking weeks of public pressure from Jewish groups, celebrities and the Brooklyn Nets, Amazon will not stop selling an antisemitic documentary on its service that was promoted by NBA star Kyrie Irving.
The company’s CEO Andy Jassy, who is Jewish, said Wednesday that Amazon had no plans to remove or add a disclaimer to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” whose Amazon link Irving ignited a firestorm by tweeting about it earlier this month. Amazon had previously considered whether to add a disclaimer.
“As a retailer of content to hundreds of millions of customers with a lot of different viewpoints, we have to allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable — objectionable and they differ from our particular viewpoints,” Jassy told the audience at the New York Times DealBook Summit.
Jassy drew a distinction between the film, which promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories about the relationship between Jews and Black people, and content that he said “actively incites or promotes violence or teaches people how to do things like pedophilia.” With the latter, he said, decisions to remove content are “more straightforward.”
The e-commerce giant had been internally debating whether to remove the film for weeks, according to reports in Variety. It had been uploaded to the site independently via a program called Prime Direct, which allows user-generated content to be sold on the site’s streaming services.
Irving’s tweet — which shared an Amazon link to the documentary without further comment — came on the heels of more explicitly antisemitic behavior from rapper Kanye West and sparked the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and the Nets, who eventually solicited an apology from the athlete. Nike ended a sponsorship deal with Irving following the tweet. Black Hebrew Israelites, a group whose ideology is promoted in the film, rallied to Irving’s defense.
But critics ranging from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan questioned why Amazon was escaping scrutiny for providing the film on its platform.
The ADL has since called on Amazon to do so, and was joined by the American Jewish Committee and a chorus of entertainment figures including Jewish celebrities like Mila Kunis and Mayim Bialik and Jewish studio managers like Haim Saban and Ben Silverman.
According to the Variety report, the ADL’s activism may have been one reason why Amazon declined to take action, as it would be “difficult from an optics perspective,” the outlet wrote, to bow to the demands of a Jewish group amid so many public figures declaring that Jews control the media.
Amazon has in the past removed books promoting pedophilia from its site after news reports, and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol it removed the white-supremacist novel “The Turner Diaries,” which contains violent antisemitic fantasies and is often used as a hate-group recruiting tool.
After briefly banning Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in 2020, the site then reinstated it while adding a disclaimer to the version sold on its site reading, “As a bookseller, we think it is important to offer this infamous work because of its historical significance and educational role in the understanding and prevention of anti-Semitism.” This version of the manifesto also includes an introduction written in the 1990s by the ADL.
Jassy’s position on the film is the latest example of major tech leaders debating their hands-off stances when it comes to moderating antisemitic content on their sites. In 2020, Meta’s Jewish CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to remove Holocaust denial from Facebook, reversing an earlier stance that said it wasn’t the company’s place to do so. More recently, newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk has taken steps to loosen previous restrictions of antisemitic content on the social media site, including by reinstating Kanye West’s account.
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The post Amazon will not pull antisemitic movie promoted by Kyrie Irving, says Jewish CEO appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief”
מזל־טובֿ! דעם 20סטן יאַנואַר 2026 איז געוואָרן 120 יאָר זינט דער גרינדונג פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“ — דער עצות־רובריק פֿונעם פֿאָרווערטס. די רובריק איז פֿאַרלייגט געוואָרן פֿונעם גרינדער און לאַנגיאָריקן שעף־רעדאַקטאָר אַב קאַהאַן אין 1906.
כּדי אָפּצומערקן דעם יום־טובֿ ברענגען מיר אײַך צוויי זאַכן:
• ערשטנס, אַן אַרטיקל וועגן אַ טשיקאַווען בריוו וואָס איז אָנגעקומען אין דער פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקציע אין יאַנואַר 1949, פֿון אַ לייענער וועמעס זון האָט חתונה געהאַט מיט אַ קריסטלעכער פֿרוי
• צווייטנס, אַ פֿאָרווערטס־ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש וועגן דער געשיכטע פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“, מיטן געוועזענעם פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלער און דער פֿאָרווערטס־אַרכיוויסטקע חנה פּאָלאַק.
The post 120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief” appeared first on The Forward.
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Report: Khamenei Moved to Underground Bunker in Tehran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Amid tense expectation of US strike on key assets of the Islamic regime, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved into a special underground bunker in Tehran, the Iran International website reported on Saturday.
The report further added that the supreme leader’s third son Masoud Khamenei has taken over day-to-day management of the leader’s office, functioning as the de facto main channel for coordination vis-à-vis the executive branches of the government and the security forces.
The report describes Khamenei’s hideout as a “fortified site with interconnected tunnels.”
On Thursday US President Donald Trump said that a “massive” naval force was heading toward Iran.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
“We have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see,” Trump added.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, along with three destroyers, was spotted making its way to the Middle East from Asia, according to ship-tracking data.
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Israel, Syria to Finalize US-Brokered Security Deal ‘Soon,’ as ‘Developments Accelerate Noticeably’
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, March 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – Syrian and Israeli officials are expected to meet soon under US mediation, perhaps in Paris, to finalize a security agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, a source close to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told i24NEWS on Saturday.
According to the Syrian source, the talks will also focus on various potential joint strategic and economic projects in the buffer zones between the two countries.
“There is very optimistic talk suggesting the possibility of even opening an Israeli embassy in Damascus before the end of this year, given the significant progress in the prospect of Syria joining the Abraham Accords,” the source said.
The original Syrian plan was limited to a security agreement and the opening of an Israeli liaison office in Damascus without diplomatic status, the source tells me. “But developments are accelerating noticeably under pressure from the United States, and specifically by President Trump, and amid growing Syrian openness.”
If Damascus manages to reach an integration agreement with the Druze in southern Syria, similar to its agreement with the Kurds in the northeast, and Israel commits to respecting Syria’s unity and territorial integrity, then al-Sharaa would be open to elevate the status of the agreement with Israel to more than just a security agreement, to also include diplomatic relations and an Israeli embassy in Damascus.
“The al-Sharaa government believes that a viable compromise to advance a peace process with Israel would include a 25-year lease for the Golan Heights, similar to the one Jordan previously signed with Israel over the border enclaves, turning it into a ‘Garden of Peace” of joint economic ventures,” the source said.
The source close to al-Sharaa also tells me that US President Trump is seeking to bring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Al-Sharaa together for a peace agreement signing ceremony.
It should be noted that Israel has repeatedly rejected returning any part of the Golan Heights, let alone the entire territory.
On another front, the source stated that Damascus intends to adopt a new local administration system based on expanded administrative decentralization to enhance participation in local communities across all Syrian governorates.
According to the source, this solution would resolve persisting disputes with the Druze, Kurds, Alawites, and other minorities. A new Syrian government is expected to be formed within the next three months, the source added.