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‘Degrading Treatment’: Israeli Travelers at London’s Heathrow Airport Harassed Over Israeli Flag: Report
Heathrow Airport Customs. Travelers on an El Al flight faced additional screening by pro-Palestinian customs officials. (Photo: Screenshot)
Travelers on an El Al flight to Tel Aviv faced harassment after checking-in at London’s Heathrow Airport by local customs officials, following an uptick in antisemitic incidents with Jewish travelers in the wake of Hamas’s October 7th massacres.
According to UK Lawyers for Israel, the airport officials – who were seen by passengers sporting lanyards with Palestinian symbols including a watermelon – selected all Israeli passengers for extra screening after seeing an Israeli flag in a passenger’s bag.
The watermelon symbol became a symbol for Palestinian terrorism and resistance. After the Six Day War, Israeli officials banned the display of the Palestinian flag, and as an act of resistance beginning in 1980s Ramallah, the watermelon was adopted as a symbol by the Palestinian movement because it shares similar colors to the Palestinian flag. Recently, the watermelon symbol has become a mainstay in college campuses and pro-Palestinian protests.
Protestors in Melbourne unfurl a watermelon banner in solidarity with Palestinian ‘resistance.’ (Photo: Screenshot)
“The people responsible for making sure terrorists don’t blow up airplanes were wearing badges that identify with terrorists,” said a passenger on the flight.
In response to the antisemitic incident, UK Lawyers for Israel filed a complaint to Heathrow Airport alleging a violation of the Equality Act of 2010 which protects against discrimination and harassment. According to a spokesperson for the group, “It is obvious that if staff wear these badges it would make most Jewish, Israeli, and Israel supporting passengers feel uncomfortable and unsafe, particularly in the area of security checking at Heathrow.”
UK Lawyers for Israel decried Heathrow Airport’s “degrading treatment [of El Al passengers] simply because they are Jewish”
In another recent incident at Heathrow Airport, passengers deplaning an El Al flight were placed in a special screening line at customs and received extra scrutiny for arriving from the Jewish state. According to a passenger, who asked a customs official why Israeli and Jewish travelers were singled out for extra screening, the official responded, “I am a customs officer and I can do whatever I want.”
A spokesperson for Heathrow commented to The Standard, ““Everyone should feel safe and welcome at Heathrow. We have guidance on what colleagues can wear at work, if that guidance is not followed, we will ensure those items are removed immediately, as was the case in this instance.”
Globally, Jewish travelers have faced an uptick in antisemitic incidents with border officials since October 7th. In Australia, border authorities “intervened” to question three Jewish travelers who had departed “for Israel after October 7th” and were suspected of serving in the IDF, according to a press release from Australia’s Department of Home Affairs. There is no Australian law forbidding its citizens from serving in the IDF.
The post ‘Degrading Treatment’: Israeli Travelers at London’s Heathrow Airport Harassed Over Israeli Flag: Report first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.