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‘Bridgerton’ Star Touts Raising Millions for ‘Suffering’ Palestinians in Gaza, Ignores Hamas Attacks on Israel
Nicola Coughlan attending Netflix “Bridgerton” season 3 premiere at Alice Tully Hall in New York on May 13, 2024. Photo: Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Irish actress Nicola Coughlan touted her support for Palestinians “in need” amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war at the Dublin premiere on Thursday for part two of the third season of the hit show “Bridgerton,” and also called on US President Joe Biden to intervene and take action to end the conflict in Gaza.
The 37-year-old has consistently worn a pin supporting the Artists4Ceasefire campaign during the entire press tour for the latest season of “Bridgerton,” in which she plays the lead character, Penelope Featherington. Coughlan has also helped raise $1.2 million for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) through a social media campaign.
At Thursday’s event at the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield, Dublin, Coughlan wore the Artists4ceasefire pin on her Erdem gown and expressed solidarity with Palestinians “suffering” in Gaza. However, the actress did not mention the fact that the raging war in the Middle East began in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, where thousands of Israeli civilians were slaughtered or wounded and hundreds more were taken by the terrorist organization back to Gaza as hostages.
“I’m so proud of this show and it’s so joyful and fun, but I’m hyper-aware of what’s going on in Gaza right now,” Coughlan said. “I have a fundraiser on Instagram right now for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, and it’s raised one and a half million … I wanted to raise 10K. That has blown me away — the generosity of people. That’s what I want to focus on. If I get a few mean Instagram comments, I’ll live. I’m not the important one here.”
The former “Derry Girls” star, who also played Diplomat Barbie in the “Barbie” movie, additionally spoke of using her Instagram account, which has 4.8 million followers, to bring attention to the war in the Middle East. Coughlan was asked if she received backlash for speaking out about the war, according to the Irish Examiner. She replied, “Even if I have, I don’t think it matters. I am not the one suffering in the situation. Some people go ‘who cares what an actress thinks’ and I know, you’re right. But what I can do is help raise money for people in need.”
The “Big Mood” actress additionally talked about Biden and her desire for him to take action to establish a ceasefire to end the war. “I think a lot of Irish people look to Joe Biden and go: ‘You’re very proud of your Irish roots, it would be great if you could use that and apply it to the situation here and use it to help people who are in need,’” she said.
Coughlan has regularly expressed solidarity with Palestinians living in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and has shared posts on social media about their alleged “extermination,” mentioning the Oct. 7 attacks but solely focusing on how it has affected Palestinians in the region.
The actress told Teen Vogue in April that her family lived in Jerusalem before she was born when her father served in the Irish army as part of a peacekeeping force. “He would go into a lot of war-torn regions after the conflict and try and help rebuild. He used to work with the UN on a lot of peacekeeping missions,” she explained. “My family lived in Jerusalem back in the late ’70s, early ’80s, before I was born, so I heard firsthand stories about them living there.”
Commenting on her efforts to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, she told the magazine: “To me it always becomes about supporting all innocent people, which sounds oversimplified, but I think you’ve got to look at situations and just think, ‘Are we supporting innocent people no matter where they’re from, who they are’ That’s my drive … if you know that you’re coming from a place of ‘I don’t want any innocent people to suffer,’ then I’m not worried about people’s reactions.”
The post ‘Bridgerton’ Star Touts Raising Millions for ‘Suffering’ Palestinians in Gaza, Ignores Hamas Attacks on Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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