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Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel

Then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist party Raam at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 13, 2021. Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP

Israeli soldier Uri Moyal’s visit to a café in southern Israel last Thursday ended up being his last.

While Moyal waited in line, Fadi Abu Altayef, from the nearby Bedouin city of Rahat, fatally stabbed the soldier from behind. With help from a bystander, Moyal shot Altayef dead before succumbing to his wounds. Moyal’s murder is an example of the worst in Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, but there have been many hopeful signs.

Altayef, 22, grew up in Gaza, where his parents currently reside. His father is from Gaza, but his mother is from Rahat in Israel. Under family reunification protocols, Israel granted Fadi citizenship in 2019 after he married a woman from Rahat. Fadi repaid that kindness by stabbing Israelis, but this extreme act represents a small minority of this minority community.

By contrast, fellow Rahat resident Ahmad Abu Latif, a reserve fighter in the Israel Defense Forces’ 8208 Battalion, was among the 21 soldiers killed in a building explosion in January in central Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to Ahmad’s family, and said, “Ahmad fell for the home of us all.” Countering initial reports that Fadi was his cousin, Ahmad’s family denied they were related and condemned the attack.

Since October 7, nine Israeli Arabs have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend Israel. During Hamas’ killing spree, the terrorist group killed more than 20 Israeli Bedouins and abducted another six. Ali Ziadna, whose family members are being held hostage in Gaza, confronted the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations on March 11, demanding their release.

Arab bravery was a bright spot on the Black Saturday, and — along with Hamas’ indiscriminate murder of Arabs and Jews — showed the shared fate of Israel’s citizens. Rahat bus driver Youssef Ziadna dodged bullets to rescue 30 Israelis from the killing fields. Ismail Alkrenawi and three relatives set out from Rahat to save his cousin Hisham, a worker at Kibbutz Be’eri. The Alkrenawis saved their relative and 30 to 40 Israelis fleeing the Supernova music festival. And Hamid from Arara, whose wife was murdered by Hamas that day, risked his life and that of his infant son to warn Israeli soldiers of a Hamas ambush.

Just after the October attacks, an Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll found that a record 70 percent of Israeli Arabs identified with Israel, up from 48 percent in June. And an IDI poll released on March 14 found significant increases in Israeli Arab faith in Israel’s institutions, including the army, between June and December 2023.

The high levels of connection to Israel are even more dramatic considering it was Israeli Arabs’ bloodiest year ever. According to a non-governmental organization focused on Israel’s Arab communities, 244 Israeli Arabs were killed in 2023. The deaths decreased sharply after the shock of October 7, but they did not disappear. While most of the killings were crime-related — they were not related to any acts of bias or hate — the violence has impacted innocent civilians. In separate incidents in 2022, stray bullets claimed the lives of two children on playgrounds.

A June 2023 survey found that 62 percent of Israeli Arab respondents were concerned for their personal security, but only 41 percent trusted the government’s ability to deal with the violence. Several factors contributed to the intolerable violence, including the preponderance of illegal weapons in Israel; the rise of Arab mafias following the decline of Jewish ones; financial challenges that have driven Israeli Arabs to rely on loan sharks; family honor murders; and Iran funneling weapons to Israeli Arabs to sow civil strife.

But while Israeli Arabs were reeling, they were also enjoying some incredible highs. Soccer-crazy Israel qualified for its first-ever Under-20 World Cup, eventually securing third place, a huge win for Israeli soccer. Israeli Arab Anan Khalaili scored the game-winning goal to send Israel to the quarterfinals, and he and Israeli Bedouin Hamza Shibli combined for two of Israel’s three goals to defeat powerhouse Brazil en route to the semis. The team served as a model for what can be achieved when Israel’s Arabs and Jews fight together instead of against each other.

The soccer success came not long after Israeli Arabs enjoyed unprecedented political success. From mid-2021 until the end of 2022, Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am party was part of the ruling coalition. Abbas’ pragmatic approach broke taboos among Israeli politicians that once blocked cooperating with Arab parties. He is committed to working within the Israeli political system to help his constituents, has rejected the canard of Israel practicing apartheid, and said that Hamas’ “massacre is against everything we believe in.”

But progress with Mansour Abbas has been mixed. Amid elevated Palestinian violence, Abbas’ inclusion in the Lapid-Bennett government became a vulnerability that helped lead to Netanyahu’s return. And a recent expose revealed that Ra’am promoted fundraising for a Hamas-tied charity, though Ra’am claimed it was unaware of the connection.

Jewish-Arab unity in Israel is a long and winding road. Much progress has been made, but much work remains.

David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.

The post Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Al Jazeera Hit With Defamation Lawsuit by Syrian Jewish Ex-Refugee

The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon

A defamation lawsuit was filed against the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network on Wednesday by Abraham Hamra, a Syrian pro-Israel advocate and lawyer.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hamra “is a Jewish refugee from Syria, born in Damascus. He fled Syria with his parents and siblings in 1994 at the age of eight, following the partial lifting of restrictions on Jewish emigration by the Syrian regime under President Hafez al-Assad in 1992.”

The Algemeiner obtained a copy of the complaint, which explains that, on Aug. 25, Al Jazeera posted a video claiming that Hamra was paid by the Israeli government to visit an aid site of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, operating independently from UN-backed mechanisms.

“This accusation is false in its entirety. Plaintiff has never received any payment, compensation, or financial incentive from the Israeli government or any affiliated entity for visiting aid sites in Gaza,” the lawsuit claims.

“The visit by Plaintiff related to Israel and Gaza was undertaken independently, in his personal capacity, on his own dime, as an advocate for his community and to bear witness against misinformation,” the suit continues.

The UN and critics of Israel have expressed concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach one of its four food distribution points, at times creating chaotic scenes where Israeli forces have used gunfire to control the crowd.

However, supporters of the GHF argue that it bypasses the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which often steals humanitarian supplies for its own purposes and sells the rest at inflated prices. The GHF has called on the UN to publicly condemn the killing of aid workers in Gaza and to collaborate in order to provide relief to the enclave’s population, accusing the UN of perpetuating a “vast disinformation campaign” aimed at tarnishing the foundation’s image.

The lawsuit notes that the social media post from Al Jazeera, which included the image of Hamra, “cites no sources for the ‘reportedly paid’ claim, and publicly available information about Plaintiff, including his professional bio, social media posts, and known activities, demonstrates he is an independent US attorney with no financial ties to foreign governments.”

Al Jazeera also “failed to conduct even basic fact-checking, such as contacting Plaintiff for comment or verifying the allegation, despite their status as a major media network with resources to do so,” according to the lawsuit.

Al Jazeera did not respond to a request for comment from The Algemeiner.

The lawsuit argues why the allegedly false claim rises to the level of libel, saying it “constitutes libel per se under New York law because it accuses Plaintiff of committing a serious crime, namely, violating FARA [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] by acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Israel, and tends to injure him in his profession as a lawyer.”

“FARA requires individuals acting as agents of foreign principals to register with the US Department of Justice, and failure to do so is a federal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment,” the suit says. “By falsely alleging Plaintiff was paid by a foreign government to promote its interests, the statement implies criminal conduct and undermines his professional integrity.”

Consequently, Hamra is seeking payment for damages of at least $1,00,000 and requesting a trial by jury.

Read the lawsuit here: Hamra v Al Jazeera ECF No. 1 Complaint

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US Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into Wikipedia Over Claims of Systemic Anti-Israel Bias

Nancy Mace (R-SC) (Source: Reuters)

US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has opened an investigation into the nonprofit that operates the Wikipedia website, demanding answers over concerns that hostile foreign actors are exploiting the popular online encyclopedia to spread anti-Israel propaganda and antisemitic narratives.

Republican Reps James Comer (KY), who chairs the committee, and Nancy Mace (SC), who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation, on Wednesday sent a letter to Maryana Iskander, chief executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, asking the nonprofit to turn over records showing how the platform polices disinformation campaigns that target articles related to Israel and the Middle East.

The lawmakers cited studies showing that pro-Russia networks and other state-backed operations have sought to manipulate Wikipedia entries on conflicts involving Israel, often by inserting anti-Israel or antisemitic framing designed to sway Western audiences. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, published a report earlier this year arguing that “malicious” Wikipedia editors have inserted anti-Israel bias onto the site, oftentimes violating the organization’s neutrality policies in the process.

Meanwhile, a report from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found evidence of Russian-linked attempts to shape narratives used to train AI chatbots by twisting information about Israel.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the efforts of foreign operations and individuals at academic institutions subsidized by US taxpayer dollars to influence US public opinion,” Comer and Mace wrote. They emphasized the importance of stopping organized attempts to “inject bias into important and sensitive topics.”

Specifically, the committee is demanding records on possible coordination by nation-states or academic institutions to influence Wikipedia pages, internal arbitration files documenting how the site has handled editor misconduct, identifying data for accounts flagged for suspicious activity, and any analysis showing patterns of manipulation tied to antisemitism or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter also requests details of Wikipedia’s editorial policies to ensure neutrality and prevent the spread of bias.

Although the committee acknowledged that most online platforms face disinformation threats, the letter stressed that Wikipedia’s outsized influence as one of the most visited websites in the world and a key training source for artificial intelligence systems makes it especially important to prevent anti-Israel narratives from taking root unchecked.

The Wikimedia Foundation has previously stated that it takes action against volunteer editors who violate neutrality rules, but lawmakers say further transparency is needed to guarantee accountability.

However, a detailed investigation by Pirate Wires in October 2024 revealed that a powerful group of roughly 40 Wikipedia editors coordinated to “delegitimize Israel, present radical Islamist groups in a favorable light, and reshape the narrative around Israel with alarming influence,” particularly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Notably, one editor removed mention of Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel, from the Hamas article just six weeks after the attack. The group also reportedly sought to suppress documented human-rights abuses by Iran, and a related effort by a Discord-based collective known as “Tech For Palestine” coordinated mass editing of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to a report by the Jewish Journal, Wikipedia’s arbitration committee (ArbCom)  permanently banned two editors outright for engaging in off-platform coordination tied to the “Tech for Palestine” Discord campaign, citing violations of policies. Additionally, the committee imposed indefinite topic bans on eight editors in the Israeli-Palestinian area for disruptive behavior such as non-neutral editing, personal insults, and misrepresentation of sources. In December 2024, ArbCom permanently banned two anti-Israel editors and placed restrictions on three others for violation of site policies in the Israeli-Palestinian topic area.

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Tunisian Brothers to Face Trial for Cutting Down Olive Tree Honoring Murdered Jew Ilan Halimi in France

A crowd gathers at the Jardin Ilan Halimi in Paris on Feb. 14, 2021, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Halimi’s kidnapping and murder. Photo: Reuters/Xose Bouzas/Hans Lucas

Two Tunisian twin brothers have been arrested in France after allegedly cutting down an olive tree that had been planted to honor Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man tortured to death nearly a decade ago.

According to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office, two 19-year-old undocumented men with prior convictions for theft and violence were arrested for vandalizing Halimi’s memorial in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine.

Both brothers appeared in criminal court on Wednesday and were remanded in custody pending their trial, scheduled for Oct. 22.

They will face trial on charges of “aggravated destruction of property” and “desecration of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” offenses that, according to prosecutors, carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.

Both suspects were taken into custody around noon on Monday while returning to the crime scene, French media reported.

Investigators tracked them down after discovering two slices of watermelon left by the perpetrators at the base of the olive tree, which contained their DNA.

Halimi was abducted, held captive, and tortured in January 2006 by a gang of about 20 people in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.

Three weeks later, Halimi was found in Essonne, south of Paris, naked, gagged, and handcuffed, with clear signs of torture and burns. The 23-year-old died on the way to the hospital.

In 2011, an olive tree was planted in Halimi’s memory. Earlier this month, the memorial was found felled — probably with a chainsaw — in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine.

Halimi’s memory has faced attacks before, with two other trees planted in his honor vandalized in 2019 in Essonne, where he was found dying near a railway track.

Hervé Chevreau, the mayor of Épinay, announced that a new memorial tree will be planted in the second half of September.

After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident, vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

“Felling the tree in honor of Ilan Halimi is a second attempt on his life,” the French leader said in a post on X.

Halimi’s sister, Anne-Laure Abitbol, also condemned the incident, warning that public denunciations are no longer enough and calling for concrete action.

“In France, we are no longer safe, neither alive nor dead,” Abitbol told RTL in an interview.

“I feel less safe in France,” she said. “By recognizing a Palestinian state, Macron is encouraging antisemitism and failing to take action against antisemitic attacks in the country.”

Last month, Macron announced that France will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September as part of its “commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Israeli officials have criticized the move, which was followed by several other Western countries, calling it a “reward for terrorism.”

France’s Jewish community has faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes they continue to face.

According to the French Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic incidents were recorded from January to June this year — a drop from the previous year’s first-half record high but a 112.5 percent increase compared with the same period in 2023, when 304 incidents were reported.

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