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Canadian relatives of Israeli hostages share emotional reactions at the start of the ceasefire deal with Hamas
Iris Weinstein Haggai watched the release of three Israeli women hostages from Gaza on Jan. 19 while in Washington, D.C.
In one word, she found the experience “bittersweet.”
Her parents were killed in the Oct.7, 2023 Hamas attacks on their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The bodies of Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein Haggai were taken to Gaza, where they have been kept as bargaining chips for over 15 months.
Gadi had American and Israeli citizenship, while Judih was born in the U.S. but grew up in Canada.
Under a negotiated ceasefire and hostage deal, the first three hostages—Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher—were returned to Israel. The IDF also recovered the body of soldier Oron Shaul, who was killed in Gaza in 2014.
The agreement states that 33 hostages—women, children and the elderly—are to be released over the next few weeks. Not all of them have been confirmed to be alive.
The timing of the release of the remaining 65 hostages, including the bodies of Iris’s parents, are to be negotiated in a second round, which has yet to begin.
“I have to be cautious. My heart is breaking every single day,” she said in a phone interview with The CJN on Jan. 19. “Even today, I was expecting to see my friends on the list and I’m very happy for the ones who are coming out, for their families. Of course, I’m happy for everyone who is free from that hell, but it’s bittersweet because you want your own people to come out.
“There are still 29 people from my community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, who are still held hostage, so this is far from over.”
Iris’s parents were killed Oct. 7, during their regular early morning walk near the kibbutz. While the family knew that Gadi had been killed that morning, it was not until December, 2023, several months after the attacks, that they learned that Judih had also died that day.
“If I’m completely honest, of course I’m happy that whoever gets out of that nightmare, the underground torture dungeons in Gaza. I’ve come to know the families, it’s been 471 days. But it also brings me back to the last (hostage release) deal in November 2023 when I waited every single night for my mom’s name to be on the list and every night I would get a ‘no’. Not only my parents are held hostage, but my friends are currently there.
“So while I’m so, so happy to see Romi and Emily and Doron come out, I’m also heartbroken that my friend Shiri Bibas and her two children are not coming out.”
Bibas and her two sons, Kfir, who celebrated his second birthday this week, and Ariel, now 5, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with Shiri’s husband Yarden. Her parents were killed in the attack.
Weinstein Haggai, who now lives in Singapore with her young family, was in D.C. this weekend for the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. She has travelled numerous times to Washington, as well as Ottawa, to press for the release of her parents and other hostages since Oct. 7, 2023.
She found American politicians have been willing to listen to the hostage families—and that it was “inspiring” that the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump one worked together to get Hamas to the negotiating table.
Trump had said “all hell will break out” if the hostages were not released before his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“There’s a reason this deal is happening, and hopefully we’ll see its completion, because of what President Trump said. This is not me taking a political stance,” Iris said. “Once he finally said something about these terrorists releasing these hostages, things started happening. It’s very sad to me that this is the first world leader to hold these terrorists accountable.”
Iris has met with Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly, pleading with the top Ottawa offices to pressure the International Red Cross to visit the hostages, and confirm who was even alive. However, the Liberal politicians have been less transparent and helpful than their American counterparts—even in the case of her mother, who is the only remaining Canadian hostage.
“Even a few days ago when Trudeau put out a statement about how he accepts the ceasefire, he didn’t even mention my mom. It’s been very, very disappointing.”
The fate of the young Bibas family and Judith Weinstein was also on the mind of Maureen Leshem, the Canadian cousin of hostage Romi Gonen, kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
In a news conference in Toronto on Sunday, she reflected on the family’s gratitude for Romi’s return—after over a year of tireless advocacy—as well as the plight of the remaining hostages.
“We are grateful to at last be liberated from 15 months of agonizing torment and uncertainty—a gruelling path that has pushed us beyond our limits, both physically and emotionally. Hope became our greatest source of power, as well as our heaviest burden. It has been an exhausting and punishing experience that I would not wish on anyone,” Leshem said, reading a prepared statement.
“I am deeply grateful to every single person who embraced Romi and stood by us in our fight for her freedom—everyone who followed her plight closely, shared her story widely, sent heartfelt messages of hope, and prayed tirelessly for her safe return. I am thankful for every person who recognized and validated the undeniabletruth of what she has endured.”
Leshem also recalled some of the other hostages. “And we must remember that there are still 94 hostages trapped in Hamas captivity—among them, Canadian citizen Judih Weinstein, a 2-year-old toddler and a 5-year-old child—in urgent need of rescue. We must speak up and demand their freedom, too. What kind of world do we create if we fail to fight for the innocent?”
The Bibas children were also on the minds of roughly 80 people who came to the Run For their Lives rally in Thornhill, Ont., a weekly walk to keep the hostages’ plight in the public eye. Many in the group carried pictures of the boys, or orange balloons reminiscent of the children’s bright-red hair.
“There are no prerequisites required for supporting this cause, no prerequisite required for being outraged that a baby who was stolen at 9 months old will soon turn two in captivity,” organizer Michelle Factor told the group gathered in the lobby of the Promenade Shopping Centre, preparing to walk a kilometre in the frigid temperatures.
One of the walkers, Avishag Campbell, said she was buoyed by the news the three women had been freed. “It’s exciting news, but I think the price is very high. I’m happy for the family, I’m not really sure of the damage it’s caused. It’s going to be a very, very long rehabilitation, if it can be rehabilitated.”
As part of the hostage release agreement, Israel is set to free up to 1,900 prisoners and detainees, some of who have been convicted of serious crimes against Israelis.
“But we’re a people of life,” Campbell said. “We have to sacrifice a lot for one life.”
The hostage release agreement has been controversial in Israel, as some fear it will let Hamas regain control of the Gaza Strip.
“The deal is horrible,” Iris Weinstein Haggai agrees. “But you cannot have a good deal with terrorists,” she says about the agreement that she hopes will eventually see her parents’ bodies returned to Israel for burial.
“Israel is releasing prisoners who murdered not only Israelis, but also Palestinians. They are horrible terrorists but that’s the price Israel is willing to pay. It’s just crazy to me that we are demanding two babies and my friend Shiri Bibas and the other side is demanding murderers and rapists to come back to them.”
Negotiations for the second and third phase of hostage releases, which would include Israeli men and the bodies of those who were killed, have yet to even begin. Iris says she’s hopeful, but is aware that Israel is negotiating with a terrorist group and the situation can change rapidly.
“We don’t even know if the whole first phase will even happen. Every second you’re waiting for something to go wrong,” she said. “It’s the beginning of the end. I’m very optimistic that the process has begun. It’s more than anything that happened for the last 471 days.”
Weinstein Haggai has returned to Kibbutz Nir Oz several times since the attacks, that saw 117 members killed or taken hostage. Nearly every home on the kibbutz was damaged.
A few weeks ago, she took her family to Israel, the first time they have visited since Oct. 7. Her eldest daughter, who is 8, was heartbroken when she fully grasped that she was not going to be able to visit her grandparents on their kibbutz again.
“Being there really emphasized that she’s not going to see them again, yet she kept asking me, ‘Mommy, if we don’t have a grave how do you know they’re dead?’” said iris.
“I should not have to answer that question and I’m going to have to answer that question until they come back.”
The post Canadian relatives of Israeli hostages share emotional reactions at the start of the ceasefire deal with Hamas appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Boulder Firebomber Charged With Murder Following Death of Victim
Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, June 2, 2025. Photo: Boulder Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
A victim of the antisemitic Boulder, Colorado firebombing died on Monday, prompting local law enforcement to charge suspect Mohamed Soliman with murder in the first degree.
“Severe injuries” caused the death of Karen Diamond, 82, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office (BCDA) said on Monday in a statement. She was one of 13 people injured when Soliman hurled Molotov cocktails into a crowd of Jewish people who were participating in a demonstration to raise awareness of the hostages who remain imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. Her death adds five new charges to the over 200 federal and state criminal charges which could lock Soliman away for over 600 years.
“These additional charges, including the counts of First Degree Murder, are being filed after consultation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Boulder Police Department,” said the DA’s office, adding that it “continues to work closely with federal, state, and local partners in the strong response to this attack. We stand united against acts of antisemitism and hate.”
“This horrific attack has now claimed the life of an innocent person who was beloved by her family and friends,” said Michal Dougherty, district attorney of Boulder County. “Our hearts are with the Diamond family during this incredibly difficult time. Our office will fight for justice for the victims, their loved ones, and the community. Part of what makes Colorado special is that people come together in response to a tragedy; I know that the community will continue to unite in supporting the Diamond family and all the victims of this attack.”
Prosecutors said in May that Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack, and, according to court documents, told investigators that he wanted to “kill all Zionist people.”
That incident came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, also yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
In Garret Park, Maryland, a middle-aged man, Clift A. Seferlis, was recently arrested by federal authorities for sending a series of threatening messages to Jewish organizations in Philadelphia. Seferlis referenced the war in Gaza in his communications.
“The Victim Jewish Institution 1 received numerous additional messages since April 1, 2024, which contained a threat to physically destroy the institution,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a statement. “Prior to the receipt of the May 7, 2025, mailing, Victim Jewish Institution 1 and its employees had received very similar-looking letters, believed to have been sent by Seferlis, which referenced Victim Jewish Institution 1’s ‘many big open windows,’ ‘Kristallnacht,’ ‘anger and rage,’ and a future need to ‘rebuild’ the institution following its destruction.”
Another antisemitic incident motivated by anti-Zionism occurred in San Francisco, where Juan Diaz-Rivas, Alejandro Flores-Lamas, and others law enforcement is working to identify, allegedly beat up a Jewish victim in the middle of the night. Diaz-Rivas and Flores-Lamas, along with their associates, approached the victim while shouting “F—ck the Jews, Free Palestine,” according to the office of the San Francis district attorney.
“[O]ne of them punched the victim, who fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down. A worker at a nearby business heard the altercation and antisemitic language and attempted to intervene. While trying to help the victim, he was kicked and punched.”
According to data released by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) latest Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in April, antisemitism in the US is surging to break “all previous annual records.”
In 2024 alone, the ADL recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents — an average of 25.6 a day — across the US, an eruption of hatred not recorded in the nearly thirty years since the organization began tracking such data in 1979. Incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault all increased by double digits, and for the first time ever a majority of outrages — 58 percent — were related to the existence of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state.
The Algemeiner parsed the ADL data, finding dramatic rises in incidents on college campuses, which saw the largest growth in 2024. The 1,694 incidents tallied by the ADL amounted to an 84 percent increase over the previous year. Additionally, antisemites were emboldened to commit more offenses in public in 2024 than they did in 2023, perpetrating 19 percent more attacks on Jewish people, pro-Israel demonstrators, and businesses perceived as being Jewish-owned or affiliated with Jews.
“In 2024, hatred toward Israel was a driving force behind antisemitism across the US, with more than half of all antisemitic incidents referencing Israel or Zionism,” Oren Segal, ADL senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence, said when the report was released. “These incidents, along with all those documented in the audit, serve as a clear reminder that silence is not an option. Good people must stand up, push back, and confront antisemitism wherever it appears. And that starts with understanding what fuels it and learning to recognize it in all its forms.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Boulder Firebomber Charged With Murder Following Death of Victim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US State Department Revokes Visas of UK Punk Rap Act Bob Vylan Amid Outrage Over Duo’s Chants of ‘Death to the IDF’
Bob Vylan music duo performance at Glastonbury Festival (Source: FLIKR)
The US State Department has revoked the visas for the English punk rap duo Bob Vylan amid ongoing outrage over their weekend performance at the Glastonbury Festival, in which the pair chanted “Death to the IDF.”
The State Department’s decision to cancel their visas would preclude a planned fall concert tour of the US by the British rappers.
“The [US State Department] has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X/Twitter on Monday.
During a June 28 set at Glastonbury Festival, Bob Vylan’s Pascal Robinson-Foster ignited a firestorm by leading the crowd in chants of “Death, death, to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. He also complained about working for a “f—ing Zionist” during the set.
The video of the performance went viral, sparking outrage across the globe.
The BBC, which streamed the performance live, issued an on‑screen warning but continued its broadcast, prompting criticism by government officials for failing to cut the feed.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and festival organizers condemned the IDF chant as hate speech and incitement to violence. The Israeli Embassy in London denounced the language as “inflammatory and hateful.”
“Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC’s output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive,” the BBC said in a statement following the event.
“These abhorrent chants, which included calls for the death of members of the Israeli Defense Forces … have no place in any civil society,” Leo Terrell, Chair of the US Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, declared Sunday in a statement posted on X.
Citing the act’s US tour plans, Terrell said his task force would be “reaching out to the U.S. Department of State on Monday to determine what measures are available to address the situation and to prevent the promotion of violent antisemitic rhetoric in the United States.”
British authorities, meanwhile, have launched a formal investigation into Bob Vylan’s controversial appearance at Glastonbury. Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they are reviewing footage and working with the Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether the performance constitutes a hate crime or incitement to violence.
United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the premier entertainment talent agencies, dropped the duo, claming “antisemitic sentiments expressed by the group were utterly unacceptable.”
The band defended their performance on social media as necessary protest, stating that “teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.”
The post US State Department Revokes Visas of UK Punk Rap Act Bob Vylan Amid Outrage Over Duo’s Chants of ‘Death to the IDF’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Dem House Leader Hakeem Jeffries Urges Mamdani to ‘Aggressively Address’ Antisemitism in NYC if Elected Mayor
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
US House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY) urged Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani to “aggressively address the rise in antisemitism” if he wins the general election in November.
“‘Globalizing the intifada’ by way of example is not an acceptable phrasing,” Jeffries said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.”
“With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the city of New York, which has been an unacceptable development,” he added.
Jeffries’s comments come as Mamdani has been receiving an onslaught of criticism for defending the controversial phrase “globalize the intifada.”
Mamdani first defended the phrase during an appearance on the popular Bulwark Podcast. The progressive firebrand stated that he feels “less comfortable with the banning of certain words.” He invoked the US Holocaust Museum in his defense, saying that the museum used the word intifada “when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle.’”
The Holocaust Museum repudiated Mamdani in a statement, calling his comments “offensive.”
Mamdani has continued to defend the slogan despite ongoing criticism, arguing that pro-Palestine advocates perceive it as a call for “universal human rights.”
Mamdani, the 33‑year‑old state assembly member and proud democratic socialist, defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates in a lopsided first‑round win in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor, notching approximately 43.5 percent of first‑choice votes compared to Cuomo’s 36.4 percent.
The election results have alarmed members of the local Jewish community, who expressed deep concern over his past criticism of Israel and defense of antisemitic rhetoric.
“Mamdani’s election is the greatest existential threat to a metropolitan Jewish population since the election of the notorious antisemite Karl Lueger in Vienna,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in New York City, said in a statement. “Jewish leaders must come together as a united force to prevent a mass Jewish Exodus from New York City.”
Some key Democratic leaders in New York, such as US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul, have congratulated and complimented Mamdani, but have not yet issued an explicit endorsement. Each official has signaled interest in meeting with Mamdani prior to making a decision on a formal endorsement.
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