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Antisemitic Gang Attacks Participants of Pride Parade in Sweden Wearing Stars of David
Attendees of a pride event wearing Stars of David in Malmö, Sweden were attacked by an antisemitic gang. Photo: Screenshot
Attendees of an LGBTQ+ pride event in Malmö, Sweden wearing Stars of David were attacked by an antisemitic and homophobic gang that hurled insults at the victims while assaulting them, according to Swedish police and videos circulated on social media.
The incident came amid an ongoing surge in antisemitic incidents across Europe following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Swedish police confirmed on Tuesday that pro-Israel participants of the Malmö Pride Parade wearing and displaying rainbow garments and flags with the Star of David embossed on them were stopped, harassed, and assaulted while walking through the streets over the weekend. Police have opened an investigation into the case.
“The Swedish police take this type of crime very seriously and we are actively working on the current case,” a police spokesperson said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Video circulated on social media showed men driving up alongside the pride marchers, verbally harassing them. They then exited the vehicle and were joined by others. The assailants, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern extraction, shoved the pro-Israel attendees and attempting to snatch one of their rainbow Israeli flags while calling them “f—king f—gots” and asking if they “support killing children.”
BREAKING:
Swedish police confirms that 3 participants of the Malmö Gay Pride Parade in Sweden were beaten up for wearing Stars of David.
The migrant men who attacked them said:
– “Do you support killing children?”
– “You f*cking f*ggots”
– “You think I won’t hit a f*g?”
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 8, 2024
Some members of the crowd threw punches at the pride event attendees. One woman wearing a keffiyeh appeared to attempt to calm the mob from escalating the violence.
Police confirmed the video is authentic and depicts the incident they are investigating. Malo Pride reportedly became aware of the assault on Monday and condemned the incident.
Malmö Pride is a four-day annual pride festival that culminates with a large parade through downtown Malmö.
The Swedish town of Malmö received international attention for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year, amid backlash against Israel’s participation in the competition. Israel’s representative, Eden Golan, faced large, anti-Israel demonstrations outside of her hotel room. Facing death threats, Golan was ordered by Israeli security to remain in her hotel room when not competing in Eurovision.
Eden Golan performing “Hurricane” for Israel at the second semi-final for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest at Malmo Arena on May 9, 2024. Photo: Corinne Cumming/EBU
Golan, who placed fifth in the competition with her song “Hurricane,” was encouraged online by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “You’re competing not just in the Eurovision in a proud and very impressive manner, but you are competing successfully in the face of an ugly wave of antisemitism — and you are standing up to it and representing the State of Israel with huge honor,” he said in a message to Golan.
Meanwhile, Jewish members of the LGBTQ+ community have continued to distance themselves from pride events as antisemitism in Europe continues to skyrocket. In London last month, KeshetUK – a Jewish LGBTQ+ network and charity organization in the UK – announced that it would not participate in London’s pride parade, called Pride in London, after organizers accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
KeshetUK cited safety concerns as the reason for not marching. “Against the background of what has been a challenging and at times a complex year for many Jews in the UK, including LGBT+ Jews, some of our friends and congregants have said they do not feel safe marching in the Pride in London event as they have felt in previous years,” said KeshetUK in a joint statement with the London Synagogue for British Jews.
Antisemitic incidents in Sweden have skyrocketed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, the number of reported antisemitic hate crimes increased by a factor of five between 2022 and 2023.
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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.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.