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Cannes Film Festival Takes Extra Security Precautions to Prevent Disruptions by Anti-Israel Protesters
Greta Gerwig, Jury President of the 77th Cannes Film Festival interacts with fans while arriving at the Hotel Martinez on the eve of the opening of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Ahead of the opening night of the 77th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, organizers opened up about security measures being taken to protect jurors and festival-goers from anti-Israel activists and protesters who might try to cause havoc at the event.
“This year, we’ve had 15 security briefings compared with only four or five last year, so I can tell you it’s a very serious matter,” Cannes Film Festival General Secretary Francois Desrousseaux said at a pre-festival press conference, as reported by Variety. “We also have AI-powered cameras around the Palais for the first time, and we’ve also starting using new AI safety gates.”
The festival is taking extra steps this year to prevent activists from causing unrest that could disrupt the event, which is what happened at the recent Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden. Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators took to the streets of Malmo to protest Israel’s participation in the international competition and even protested outside the hotel of Israeli contestant Eden Golan. Her performances in the Eurovision semifinals and grand finals were also booed by pro-Palestinian supporters in the audience, one of whom waved a Palestinian flag and as a result was escorted out of the venue. Golan ultimately finished the Eurovision Song Contest in fifth place.
The short film “It’s Not Time For Pop” by Amit Vaknin is the only film from Israel taking part in the Cannes Film Festival this year. It will compete in the La Cinéf section, which highlights projects from film schools.
At the press conference before the festival’s opening night, Cannes Film Festival Director Thierry Frémaux was asked about a possible threat of anti-Israel protests disrupting the festival and why no Israeli films are in the main competition this year. He replied, “The selection is based on the films we see. It’s an artistic choice, made independently of anything that doesn’t have to do with cinema.”
Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have also hired private security personnel to follow jurors of the competition — which include Greta Gerwig, Eva Green, and Lily Gladstone — to keep activists from getting near them, Variety noted. The festival additionally announced that it will not participate in the distribution of pins that show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and also pins that pay tribute to the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 that remain in captivity.
“There is no polemic this year,” said Frémaux. “There are polemics outside the festival, but they do not come from the festival.”
The city of Cannes banned protests along the Croisette and its surrounding areas during the 11-day film festival, which will take place from May 14-25. The Israeli Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival is expected to remain open and the annual Shabbat dinner in Cannes for members of the film industry will also take place as planned, its organizer Gadi Wildstron told Variety.
“In 2014, when there was another war in in Gaza, and we had a Shabbat dinner at the kosher restaurant called Tovo,” Wildstrom told the publication. “And the French army blocked off the road and were standing at both sides of the street with machine guns. The French are unlike the American authorities and European authorities. They don’t accept anything.”
The post Cannes Film Festival Takes Extra Security Precautions to Prevent Disruptions by Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East
A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
The post US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled
The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
The post Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
The post Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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