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Antisemitism Watchdog Blasts ‘Disgusting’ Pro-Hamas Ad at London Transportation Service Stop
Illustrative: Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in London, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah Ireland
A British volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism has decried the posting of an allegedly unauthorized pro-Hamas advertisement on the Transport for London (TfL) subway, which is used by over 5 million commuters every day.
“Israel murdered over 25,000+ innocent, men, women, and children,” reads the advertisement, which contains a QR code linking to the website of the UK branch of Amnesty International, a human rights group that critics accuse of holding an anti-Israel bias.
“Wouldn’t you resist?” the ad continued. “Palestine has the #RightToResist. This genocide is aided by Conservatives, Labour, [His Majesty’s] Government. Paid by the UK Taxpayer.”
The Algemeiner has asked TfL if the advertisement was posted lawfully — Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the British charity that tracks antisemitic hate crimes, maintains that it was not. The nonprofit also blasted the message for rationalizing Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terror group murdered over, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, across southern Israel and abducted 240 others as hostages to Gaza.
“A disgusting ad illegally posted at a Brick Lane bus stop attempts to justify the murder and rape of innocent Israelis by Hamas terrorists,” CAA tweeted. “And isn’t it time that TfL started to insist that advertising companies put locks on their bus [to] stop advertising hoardings? This happens all too frequently and the fact that there are still no locks makes TfL’s long-term inaction look like complicity.”
A disgusting ad illegally posted at a Brick Lane bus stop attempts to justify the murder and rape of innocent Israelis by Hamas terrorists. The QR code redirects to @AmnestyUK’s website.
The page it redirects to should immediately be updated by Amnesty to disavow the message… pic.twitter.com/aH9Z8QEluK
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) December 28, 2023
CAA also called on Amnesty International, which has been widely criticized for falsely accusing Israel of apartheid and mass war crimes against Palestinians, to “disavow” the advertisement.
Open support for Hamas in London public transportation is emblematic of rising antisemitism in the city, where a torrent of antisemitic hate crimes is continuing unabated, as the city has experienced a record number of such incidents this year.
According to an Algemeiner review of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) data, antisemitic offenses in London increased 162 percent in 2023 through November, with 1,442 incidents eclipsing the full-year totals of 550 in 2022 and 845 in 2021. The MPS began issuing public data on the city’s anti-Jewish offenses in 2018.
Antisemitic hate crimes in London were already on pace to exceed last year’s figures before the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, which led to a global surge in antisemitic outrages. Between January and September, the MPS recorded 487 incidents. In October and November, city police record a staggering 955 hate crimes targeting Jews — twice as many as occurred in the first three-fourths of the year.
Orthodox Jews in the Stamford Hill section of the city have been targeted disproportionately for being visibly Jewish, as shown in a spate of incidents reported by Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group.
This month alone, an Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, two attackers brutally mauled a Jewish woman, and a group of Jewish children was berated by a woman who screamed “I’ll kill all of you Jews. You are murderers!” A similar incident occurred when a man confronted a Jewish shopper and shouted, “You f—king Jew, I will kill you!“
The antisemitic attacks targeting both people and property have been unrelenting in recent weeks. Days after the Oct. 7 massacre, two Jewish primary schools in Stamford Hill were vandalized and doused with red paint.
Jewish Londoners and allies have responded to the surge in antisemitic hate by showing solidarity. Last month, tens of thousands of people marched through London to protest the rise in anti-Jewish crimes, displaying signs with messages such as “Shoulder to shoulder with British Jews” and “Zero tolerance for antisemites.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Antisemitism Watchdog Blasts ‘Disgusting’ Pro-Hamas Ad at London Transportation Service Stop first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.