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At UN, Israeli officials and hostage families demand international action to bring back Hamas captives
(New York Jewish Week) — A photo of 3-year-old Israeli twins, Emma and Yuli Cunio, lay on a brick walkway across from the United Nations, alongside a red rose and two pairs of children’s shoes.
The image was arrayed among dozens of flyers with photos of other captives held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, each sheet headlined with the word “kidnapped.” In the center of the display, an Israeli flag was wrapped around a tree.
The installation was part of an effort by Israelis and their supporters to demand action from the international community to release the hostages, and show support for some of their families as they visited the United Nations headquarters — with many flying in from overseas. The visit was part of two days of programs and events surrounding the families’ visit, part of a broad effort in New York City to keep the world’s attention on the hostages’ plight.
The outdoor display was set up shortly after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres incensed Israeli officials by linking the Hamas atrocities to Israel’s control of the West Bank and Gaza.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said in a speech. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Israelis and supporters rally in support of Hamas hostages outside the United Nations, October 24, 2023. (Luke Tress)
That statement led Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, to call for Guterres’ resignation — an unusually harsh break between the Israeli mission and U.N. leadership.
“We have not yet finished identifying bodies burned beyond recognition and the U.N. is already blaming Israel for the massacre of our people,” Erdan said. “The secretary-general is responsible for spreading a blood libel. There is no clearer proof that the U.N. has become a stain on humanity.”
In light of the controversy surrounding Guterres’ statement, the families of the hostages hoped to keep the focus on their captive loved ones.
“We are here not only talking about ourselves, we’re here representing 220 families of kids, Holocaust survivors, women, being held hostage,” said Ruby Chen, a New Yorker whose 19-year-old son Itay is being held hostage, after relatives of the hostages met with Guterres at the U.N. “We urge the international community not to talk, which we just experienced now, but to do.”
Alana Zeitchik, whose relatives are held hostage, said, “I still cry as soon as my eyes open,” 18 days after terrorists took the captives on Oct. 7 in a massacre that killed and wounded thousands.
Photos display images of Hamas captives during a rally outside the United Nations, October 24, 2023. (Luke Tress)
“I just want to get them home. That’s all I think about. All we want is for them to come back and we want the world to come with us to help us,” she said.
Erdan, and Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, castigated the U.N. for its perceived inaction in rescuing the hostages. Erdan and Cohen also demanded that Qatar, which funds Hamas and hosts some of its leaders, act against the group. Cohen canceled a meeting with Guterres after his speech linking Israeli policy to the Hamas attack.
But Israelis’ anger at their own government was also visible on Tuesday. When Cohen spoke at an event on Tuesday afternoon in front of the U.N. alongside the hostages’ families, Israeli audience members berated him with cries of “shame” and “resign.” The backlash caused officials behind the podium to be visibly uncomfortable and prompted demands for quiet from Roz Rothstein, the head of StandWithUS, the pro-Israel activist group that led the event.
Efforts in the United States to assist war victims and return the hostages are driven in large part by the organizers and volunteers who, just weeks ago, were leading the protest movement against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Members of Netanyahu’s coalition have been repeatedly shouted down at their appearances since Oct. 7 by members of the Israeli public who blame them for not preventing the Hamas attack. Polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu to take responsibility for the tragedy and resign following Israel’s war against Hamas.
Cohen stuck to the topic of the hostages.
“There are babies that are captives, twins, Holocaust survivors, and we have one mission – to bring them home,” Cohen said above the heckling. “I want to assure you all that we will not rest until everyone will be back alive and secure to his family.”
Earlier, as the families of the hostages arrived at the U.N., hundreds of Israelis and other supporters lined five blocks of First Avenue, facing the U.N. and bearing red roses and photos of the captives. The crowd chanted “Bring them home” as U.N. staffers and dignitaries strode by and tourists lined up on the sidewalk for U.N. guest passes.
Hundreds of people rally outside UN to demand release of Hamas hostages, as Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen arrives at the UN with some of the families pic.twitter.com/7D0y3v5MqY
— Luke Tress (@luketress) October 24, 2023
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, declined to condemn Hamas at the U.N. on Tuesday, hustled past the demonstration, surrounded by his security detail. Some of the demonstrators, many of whom wore black, wept and embraced each other on the sidewalk.
“They took every person that they saw, they killed every human being that they saw, so it should be in the interest of the entire world to end Hamas,” said Michal Zussman, who organized the demonstration, noting that Hamas had taken citizens of dozens of different countries hostage.
“We need our son back,” said Ronen Neutra, whose American son Omer, from Long Island, was taken while stationed on the border with his tank unit. “We demand that the U.N. and all the countries that are involved, and there are 33 different countries with hostages, will get involved and work together hand in hand condemning what happened there and bring our kids back.”
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The post At UN, Israeli officials and hostage families demand international action to bring back Hamas captives appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.