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During Holocaust Remembrance Week, Palestinians Say Israel Is Same — or Worse — Than Nazis
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
While Israel recently commemorated the six million victims of the Nazi Holocaust, it is often confronted by Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders and officials who claim that Israel is “acting like the Nazis” and worse. These lies have been intensified since Hamas launched the current war against Israel with its attack and massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The official PA daily stated that Israel’s defense war against Hamas “has exceeded all the German Nazi and Italian Fascist crimes of annihilation”:
The Zionist-American war is targeting the annihilation of the Palestinian people or exiling it from the land of Ribat [i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic] … and eliminating its national cause in order to spread darkness, wars, terror, and religious conflicts … Will the [Arab] brothers, the free world, and the supporters of peace stop the barbaric and insane war of annihilation that has exceeded all the German Nazi and Italian Fascist crimes of annihilation known to history? [emphasis added]
[Column by regular columnist Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 12, 2024]
Two months into the war, top PA official Jibril Rajoub stated that Jews are not “victims” but “criminal[s], terrorist[s], and a distorted form of the fascism and Nazism of the last century,” and that the West has been “deceived” about this. He added that the war in Gaza is part of “the defense that the Palestinian people has waged and is waging for 75 years” — in other words, since Israel’s establishment:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Americans, Europeans, and others were deceived to think that the Jew is a victim. The truth is that he is a criminal, a terrorist, and a distorted form of the fascism and Nazism of the last century.”
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Dec. 4, 2023]
Talking about the PA’s proposed terrorists-for-hostages exchange, which the Palestinians envision as part of the negotiations with Israel to free the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, Jibril Rajoub has also claimed that living conditions in Israeli prisons “are unprecedented anywhere but [in] the Nazi camps of the 1940s”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “This [prisoner exchange] will be an opportunity, and the international community must adopt this position — closing the issue of imprisonment; closing the issue of abductions [i.e., arrest of terrorists], closing the issue of the massacre being committed in Israeli prisons through living conditions that are unprecedented anywhere but the Nazi camps of the 1940s and its barbaric and fascist treatment, etc.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, April 26, 2024]
Another example of Israel being called “Nazi” is this statement by an Egyptian academic accusing Israel of “wildly doing today to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them” during its current defense war against Hamas. Obviously, the PA has no objections to the view expressed, as official PA TV chose to broadcast this interview twice:
International relations expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt Bashir Abd Al-Fattah: “The Israelis are killing the Palestinians and annihilating the Palestinians. They are committing Nazi acts. They are wildly doing today to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them previously — the same crimes and the same method.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, From Cairo, March 4 and 9, 2024]
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Tayseer Nasrallah echoed this, claiming Israel’s defense efforts in Gaza are “consistent with the mentality of crime, fascism, and Nazism”:
In World War I and World War II, no European city or state absorbed the scope [of damage] that the Gaza Strip has absorbed in six months. Therefore, this occupation [i.e., Israel] has actually used all its criminal tools and everything that is consistent with the mentality of crime, fascism, and Nazism against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. [emphasis added]
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, April 9, 2024]
Earlier this year, a PA official compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister:
Palestinian National Council member and Fatah Austria Branch Secretary Mundhir Mar’i: “I compare Netanyahu to Goebbels, who was the Nazi propaganda minister who told Hitler: ‘Lie, lie, and lie, and the lie will become truth and people will say that it’s true.’ Now we are going in the same direction and on the same path. Goebbels was the propaganda minister, and now he has parallels in the form of Benjamin Netanyahu, [Israeli Minister of Finance] Smotrich, and [Israeli Minister of National Security] Ben Gvir.” [emphasis added]
[Falestinona (Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon), YouTube channel, Feb. 10, 2024]
Jibril Rajoub has likewise accused the Israeli government of being “fascist” and led by “neo-Nazis”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Israeli war is against the Palestinian people, not against Hamas. For us, ‘Hamas’ is a political rival, and our struggle with it is a democratic, moral, and value-based struggle … Currently the Israelis or this fascist [Israeli] government led by these neo-Nazis, as I said, want to eliminate the idea of the [Palestinian] state.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Majalla, Saudi state-affiliated London-based news website, March 23, 2024
The Nazi libel against Israel was not born out of the current war in the Gaza Strip, which was launched by terror organization Hamas with its attack and massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. For decades, Palestinian Media Watch has documented similar accusations by the PA.
In July 2023, a Fatah official labeled an Israeli counter-terror operation “Nazi,” saying Israel “insists on teaching Hitler what Nazism is”:
Other examples include:
PA: Israel is “reenacting the Nazi Holocaust,” Zionism is “Nazism,” Israelis are the “new Nazis” (2022)
PA regularly equates Israel and Israeli leaders to Nazism and Nazi leaders (2021)
Israeli PM Netanyahu is a Nazi with a swastika tattoo — in Fatah cartoon (2016)
Netanyahu has Nazi genes and imitates Hitler’s racism (2014)
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post During Holocaust Remembrance Week, Palestinians Say Israel Is Same — or Worse — Than Nazis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Eurovision Denies Claims of Vote Rigging as Spanish PM Calls for Israel’s Exclusion From Cultural Events
Yuval Raphael from Israel with the title “New Day Will Rise” on stage at the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in the Arena St. Jakobshalle. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
The director of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Monday defended the results of this year’s competition in response to accusations about voting being rigged in favor of Israel, which finished second place in the grand final on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland.
At the same time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for Israel to be excluded from all international cultural events, including the Eurovision Song Contest, because of its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
National broadcasters from Spain and Belgium have expressed doubts about Israeli singer Yuval Raphael finishing first place in the public vote (televoting) and second place in the grand final with her song “New Day Will Rise.” Austrian singer JJ won first place with his song “Wasted Love” and a total of 436 points, while Raphael finished with 357 points.
Raphael received the most votes from the public at 297 — more than any of the 26 finalists — but ranked 14th in the jury vote, which resulted in her second-place finish in the Eurovision grand final.
Eurovision Director Martin Green defended the reliability of the results, saying there has been no indication of “bias or irregularities” in the voting for this year’s contest.
“The televoting system currently used in Eurovision is considered the most advanced in the world today, combining advanced verification processes, data security mechanisms, and analytical review of voting patterns,” Green said in a statement. “[T]here is no suspicion of bias or irregularities in the awarding of points — not even in relation to the full score given to Israel by Spanish viewers.”
“It is important to emphasize that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns,” Green added. “An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result. Our voting partner Once has confirmed that a valid vote was recorded in all countries participating in this year’s Grand Final and in the Rest of the World.”
Martin Österdahl, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, echoed similar sentiments about voting results being reliable in a statement to the EFE news agency. Like Green, he also mentioned that voting results are verified by the independent auditing firm and Dutch company Once.net and reviewed by compliance supervisors.
Spain’s national broadcaster Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) has urged the EBU, which coordinates the Eurovision, for an audit of the results from Saturday night after Raphael received 12 points — the maximum amount given — from televoters in Spain, despite public protests in the country against Israel’s participation in the competition. RTVE previously called for Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests to be up for debate because of the Israel-Hamas war.
Immediately before broadcasting the grand final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, RTVE broadcast a message in Spanish and English that called for “Peace and Justice for Palestine.” RTVE could be fined for the messaging since the EBU has said Eurovision must remain an apolitical competition. The EBU already threatened the Spanish national broadcaster that it could be fined for broadcasting messages about Gaza.
“We take every broadcaster’s concerns seriously,” Österdahl told EFE, before adding that Eurovision organizers have been in contact with RTVE about their concerns since the grand final.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a longtime critic of Israel, on Monday compared the Jewish state to Russia, which was banned from international events like the Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He accused the global community of displaying a “double standard” when it comes to the treatment of Israel, and said the Jewish state should not be allowed to participate in cultural events around the world amid the war in Gaza.
“I think that nobody was shocked three years ago, when Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, they were excluded from international competitions. For example, we recently saw it this past weekend at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either,” Sanchez said at a conference in Madrid. “We cannot allow these double standards, not even in culture events.”
The Spanish premiere also expressed solidarity with “the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine, who are experiencing the senselessness of war and bombing.”
On Monday, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT also called for more transparency from the EBU regarding the voting for this year’s Eurovision.
“We have no indication that the counting of the televotes wasn’t carried out correctly, but we are asking for complete transparency on the part of the EBU,” said VRT’s spokesperson Yasmine Van der Borght. “The question is above all whether the current system guarantees a fair reflection of the opinion of viewers and listeners.”
The VRT also said it supports RTVE’s concerns about Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests and again issued an “explicit call to engage in debate with all nations, out of a genuine commitment and concern for the survival of the contest.” VRT said it will reconsider its own participation in future Eurovision competitions if the EBU does not address its concerns about the contest.
“We at the VRT note that the Eurovision Song Contest as it is currently organized has become less and less a unifying and apolitical event. It is increasingly at odds with its original standards and values and with the standards and values of public broadcasting,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “At many levels the VRT collaborates well with the EBU. However, without serious answers with regard to our concerns about the Eurovision Song Contest we will question our future participation.”
During the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, VRT broadcast a message about alleged human rights violations by Israel in Gaza, freedom of the press, and called for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The message said: “This is industrial action. We condemn the violations of human rights by the State of Israel. Furthermore, the State of Israel is destroying freedom of the press. That’s why we interrupt the picture for a moment. #CeasefireNow #StopGenocide.” VRT did the same during the second semi-final of the Eurovision contest last year.
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Iran’s Top Leader Khamenei Slams ‘Outrageous’ US Demands in Nuclear Talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said US demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium are “excessive and outrageous,” state media reported, voicing doubts whether talks on a new nuclear deal will succeed.
“I don’t think nuclear talks with the US will bring results. I don’t know what will happen,” Khamenei said, adding that Washington should avoid making “nonsense” demands in the negotiations, four rounds of which have been held.
“A date has been suggested but we have not yet accepted it,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state media on Tuesday when asked about a fifth round of talks, which an Iranian official said on Monday might be held this weekend in Rome.
“We are witnessing positions on the US side that do not go along with any logic and are creating problems for the negotiations. That’s why we have not determined the next round of talks, we are reviewing the matter and hope logic will prevail,” Araqchi added.
The talks on a new nuclear deal appear on shaky ground as both Iran and the US have clashed over the issue of uranium enrichment.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Monday the talks would fail if Washington insists Tehran refrain from domestic enrichment of uranium, which the US says is a possible pathway to developing nuclear bombs. Tehran says its nuclear energy program has entirely peaceful purposes, a claim disputed by several Western countries.
Last week US President Donald Trump said Tehran needed to “move quickly or something bad is going to happen” after being given a proposal for a deal. The Islamic Republic maintains it has not received any written proposal from Washington.
Trump has repeatedly warned Iran it would be bombed and face severe sanctions if it did not reach a compromise to resolve its long disputed nuclear energy program.
During his first, 2017-21 term as president, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed temporary limits on Tehran’s enrichment activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
Trump, who branded the now moribund 2015 accord one-sided in Iran’s favor, also reimposed sweeping US sanctions on Iran. The Islamic Republic responded by escalating enrichment.
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Elections, Gaza, Polarization Drive Political Crime to Record High in Germany
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt holds a chart showing the development of antisemitic crime, during a press conference on Figures for Politically Motivated Crime in the Country, in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
A series of closely fought elections, the war in Gaza, and deepening political polarization helped drive the number of politically motivated crimes in Germany to a record high last year, with an especially sharp growth in far-right violence.
The number of such offences recorded by police surged 40.2 percent to 84,172 in 2024, a report published on Tuesday by the Interior Ministry showed, a record since such data began to be collected in 2001. The number of violent political crimes rose 15 percent to 4,107, the highest level since 2016.
“Last year we saw a massive expansion of politically motivated crime coming from the right,” conservative Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told a news conference at which the figures were announced.
“Forty-five percent of the victims of politically motivated violence were injured by right-wing perpetrators,” he said.
He gave the example of assaults on gay pride parades by organized groups of far-right young people last summer.
Elsewhere, police recorded increased numbers of attacks on migrants, especially after several high-profile car-ramming and stabbing attacks on public events by immigrants, some of them asylum seekers.
There have also been increases in politically motivated crimes by the far left though such offences were far less likely to be violent, the data indicated.
Like other Western countries, Germany has been afflicted by tensions resulting from the rise of the populist far right, economic uncertainty, and growing anger, especially among immigrant communities, at the government’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The far-right Alternative for Germany scored its best-ever results in five elections – three regional, one national, and one European – in 2024, calling for tighter immigration controls and even a departure from the European Union.
The nativist party was earlier this month officially classified as “right-extremist” by Germany‘s security services, which listed cases of its politicians dismissing naturalised immigrants as “passport Germans” and implying that immigrants from Muslim countries were more likely to be criminals.
But Dobrindt said he saw no reason to ban the AfD, a move some politicians have advocated. The AfD, now the second largest party in parliament, has denied posing a threat to democracy, says it opposes violence and has brought a legal challenge against authorities’ characterization of it as extremist.
“To ban a party, we have to have evidence of an attack on the rule of law and democracy,” Dobrindt said, “and the security services’ recent assessment doesn’t sufficiently demonstrate that.”
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