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American Singer Matthew Koma Raises Roughly $18K for Holocaust Survivors With Anti-Kanye West Shirt
One style of the “F—k Ye” shirt that Matthew Koma is selling. Photo: Screenshot
American musician Matthew Koma has helped raise roughly $18,000 to aid Holocaust survivors with the sale of shirts that directly respond to the decision of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, to sell shirts featuring a Nazi swastika.
Koma, who is Jewish and the husband of American singer and actress Hilary Duff, began selling the “F—k Ye” white t-shirts on Tuesday, and all proceeds are being donated to Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that provides direct financial assistance to needy Holocaust survivors living in America. The shirts feature the anti-Ye message on the front and sell for $20. They are sold two ways — with the profanity spelled out in full or with asterisks.
Masha Pearl, executive director of Blue Card, told TMZ that although final sale numbers have not been tallied yet, the charity’s website has already received around $18,000 in donations because of Koma’s help drawing awareness to the organization. Koma is also matching the donations being given to Blue Card, Pearl told TMZ. He added that because of all the publicity, more Holocaust survivors have also reached out to the charity for help, including with trauma assistance and emotional support.
“We are so grateful to Matthew Koma and Hilary Duff for quickly springing into action and realizing that this is not OK and that they have to do something, and utilizing fashion to get the word out there,” she said. “They learned about Blue Card on their own, reached out and had quickly created the t-shirts and had spread this on social media — both Matthew and Hillary … It’s a way for people to feel that they’re doing something positive and not just innocently standing by.”
There are about 40,000 Holocaust survivors living in the US, Pearl said. Among the survivors that Blue Card assists, three-quarters are over the age of 78, according to its website. Nearly 70 percent of the Holocaust survivors that the charity aids live alone, and many of them struggle to afford necessities such food and health care. More than half of them also live 200 percent below the federal poverty line, with an income of less than $24,980 annually.
Koma began selling the “F–K Ye” shirts after the rapper went on a rabid antisemitic rant on X – during which he called himself a Nazi and racist – and then proceeded to sell on Yeezy.com a white t-shirt emblazoned with a black swastika, a symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party that is also used by far-right extremists. The “Flashing Lights” singer also aired a commercial during Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night that drew attention to Yeezy.com and the shirt, which was being sold online until Tuesday morning, when Ye’s website was shut down.
Commenting on Ye’s recent antisemitic behavior, Pearl said: “I don’t want to attack him personally. When I denounced his actions, I don’t denounce him as a person. I can’t speak to his mental health. But I do see is someone who is exhibiting very hateful and very dangerous behavior that has serious ramifications.”
“I don’t even want to say this rap artist’s name because I think so much of what he does is for shock value and attention,” she added. “And this is such a dangerous rhetoric that is being spread, which has enormous ramifications. This is promoting Nazism and atrocities of millions of people being murdered, including children, and this is something that is completely unacceptable and should be denounced in every which shape and form.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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