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False bomb threat hits Buenos Aires Jewish center where 85 people died in 1994 bombing
(JTA) — The AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, the site of a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people, was hit with a bomb threat Wednesday.
Law enforcement searched the premises and determined that the threat was a false alarm. The building’s operations continued normally during the search, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.
Emails sent Wednesday from two different users threatened to bomb the AMIA building, as well as DAIA, an umbrella organization representing Argentina’s Jewish community. One of the emails said, “Death to the Zionist Jews,” local media reported.
The bomb threat at the Buenos Aires Jewish community building comes as Jewish institutions around the world face an escalation of violence and bomb threats. In New York alone, 15 synagogues were hit with false bomb threats on Friday, and a Jewish school in Toronto was evacuated last month for a false bomb threat. Multiple Jewish institutions in the Seattle area were sent suspicious packages filled with white powder, which were determined by law enforcement to be non-hazardous.
A previous wave of bomb threats caused synagogues and Jewish institutions across the United States to be evacuated over the summer and fall, continuing even after the arrest of a man in Peru who is charged with making more than 150 hoax threats.
Wednesday morning’s bomb threat is not the first against AMIA since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. On Oct. 19, the building received another bomb threat by email that local police found to be a false alarm.
Bomb threats at Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires, and at AMIA especially, touch a particular nerve in Argentina. The building was the site of the deadliest terror attack in Argentina’s history, in 1994, when a bombing killed 85 people and injured more than 300. The bombing came two years after another bombing killed 20 people at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
No one has been convicted in the bombings, but Argentina and Israel have long accused Iran and Hezbollah of being behind them. In 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused Iran and Hezbollah of planning and carrying out the AMIA attack. In 2015, Nisman was murdered hours before he was due to testify against former Argentine president Christina Kirchner’s alleged involvement in covering up Iran’s role in the attack.
On Oct. 10, just three days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the United States and Israeli embassies in Argentina received emailed threats with the phrase, “Jews, we are going to kill you all.” A man was arrested more than a week later after police tracked him down using the IP address connected to the emails.
Police in Argentina are investigating the emails to determine their origin and find the individual or individuals responsible for Wednesday’s threats.
On Monday, Israel raised its threat level warning for 80 countries, including Argentina, from level one to level two, meaning that Israelis should take caution while traveling there.
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The post False bomb threat hits Buenos Aires Jewish center where 85 people died in 1994 bombing appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Jewish students in Sydney returned to school on Friday with a heightened security presence, days after police said they foiled a planned antisemitic attack in the city using a trailer filled with explosives.
A spate of attacks in recent months have alarmed the country’s Jews, drawn criticism from Israel, and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.
Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites including the Mount Sinai College in the city’s east early on Thursday, one of almost a dozen incidents in the city in recent months that police say appeared to be coordinated.
Students there returned on Friday after Australia‘s summer break, with police and private security stationed outside the building.
“We’re really grateful that the police are here and protecting us,” said Gina Ferrer, a mother dropping off her child at the school.
“I love this country, I think it’s the best country in the world, but for the first time in my life I actually feel really let down by Australia.”
Matt Thistlethwaite, the federal lawmaker for the area that has a high Jewish population, said he had been working with local police to increase patrols in the area.
SECURITY HEIGHTENED
Australia has been grappling with a series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.
Police in New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, said on Wednesday they had found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 meters (130 feet).
There was some indication the explosives might be used in an antisemitic attack that could have caused mass casualties, police said.
The escalating attacks have prompted Jews to hire security guards for private events and remove visible signs of their Jewish identity, according to security companies and community leaders.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia‘s Jews, said some Jews were removing skull caps worn by men as a symbol of faith while outside, and taking down mezuzah, a parchment scroll containing Hebrew verses traditionally attached from the doors of Jewish homes.
“The more of these attacks that we see, and particularly given their gravity and the scale, people will begin to question how they can live in Australia as Jews, and that will then force them into a very difficult choice,” he said.
Stephen Vogel, founder of Sayeret Security, a private security company catering to the Jewish community in Sydney, said he had seen an increase in business in recent weeks.
“People are a little bit more nervous at the moment and want to have security for them for their functions, just to mitigate any potential risk,” he said.
The post Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA
Security personnel work at the UNRWA headquarters, in Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News — The German commissioner for humanitarian aid, Ina Heusgen, is facing intense criticism for her claim that Israel is waging a “disinformation” campaign against UNRWA and caused the deaths of 100,000 people in Gaza.
Sources familiar with a closed German parliament (Bundestag) meeting on Wednesday exclusively told i24NEWSthat Heusgen lashed out against the Jewish state and its efforts to root out Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Heusgen claimed Israel conducts a “policy of disinformation” against The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to Israel’s government, dozens of UNRWA employees played a role in Hamas’s slaughter of over 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
Heusgen claimed only 9 UNRWA workers had links to Hamas, and they were immediately kicked out. She added the UNRWA employees were fired even though “the Israeli allegations could not be independently verified.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told i24NEWSabout Heusgen’s remarks that “casting UNRWA as a victim is just garbage” and he added that “denial is used as a weapon” by Heusgen.
Cooper said her refusal to recognize UNRWA’s role in the massacre and UNRWA’s “pro-war” school curriculum “is a denial of what happened on Oct. 7.”
He termed Heusgen’s denial “the same psychosis regarding if anyone can get away with denying the Shoah, it is playing out right now.”
Cooper, who participated this past week in a German Justice ministry event on combating antisemitism in Berlin, said, “I would love to ask Heusgen in a meeting, ‘Have you given any thought that Hamas built hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels under UNRWA facilities? Did UNRWA ever go to the Israelis or western journalists to say there is a highway of terrorist tunnels under the Gaza Strip?’”
The German foreign ministry official, Heusgen, added, without evidence, that Israel killed 100,000 people in Gaza. She continued that “you have to ask yourself whether the military response was the right solution.” She noted, “The debate is very difficult here in Germany when it comes to criticism of the Israeli government.”
The Bundestag session became intensely personal for Heusgen, who said, “My husband [Christoph Heusgen] is not an antisemite. Ehud Olmert called him after Wiesenthal’s allegations and told him that he didn’t think he was an antisemite.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the former German ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, in its 2019 list of top 10 outbreaks of antisemitism for his remarks equating Israel with the Hamas terrorist organization during a United Nations Security Council session.
On Jan. 6, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, blasted Christoph Heusgen for urging Germany to enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prosor wrote on X: “It took Heusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’s barbaric massacre — an ‘action’ in his terms — claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum. He cherry picks international law to fit his anti-Israel agenda. For years, he has twisted its principles to put Israel in the dock, constantly demonizing and delegitimizing Israel while justifying war criminals’ repulsive attacks.”
Don’t confuse me with the facts—Heusgen’s version. When there’s an agenda, reality is bent to fit.
It took @MSCheusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’ barbaric massacre—an ‘action’ in his terms—claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum.
He cherry picks international law to fit his… pic.twitter.com/p8Rbs76yDf
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) January 6, 2025
Prosor did not immediately respond to an i24NEWS press query about Ina Heusgen’s attacks on the Netanyahu administration’s UNRWA policy.
Ina Heusgen was embroiled in a nepotism scandal in 2017. The German media reported that her husband secured her a high-earning job at the UN by using his government contacts. The Heusgens did not respond to i24NEWS press queries.
Rabbi Cooper said, “I applaud Israel’s decision to kick out UNRWA. UNRWA is an advocate for the deadly status for Palestinians and keeping them as refugees.” The Biden and Trump administrations have refused to fund UNRWA.
Germany is one of the major funders of UNRWA. In March 2024, Berlin announced that it is providing EUR 45 million to the agency.
Cooper said, “I am hoping that more serious voices will emerge from German officials. What Germany’s says and does on issues of antisemitism and terrorism are extraordinarily important.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, did not immediately respond to i24NEWSpress queries. According to the IDF, since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27, 2023, 405 soldiers have fallen in combat. Hamas officials claim that Israel has killed more than 47,000 people in Gaza. Hamas does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. The Hamas number of 47,000 plus fatalities cannot be independently verified. It is unclear what the source for Heusgen’s 100,000 dead in Gaza is.
The post German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Should Demand the Extradition of Terrorists Who Killed Its Citizens
Malki Roth and her father months before the attack that killed her. Photo: provided.
JNS.org – Malki Roth was a 15-year-old American girl enjoying a day out in Jerusalem. On Aug. 9, 2001, she was one of 16 people, including three other Americans, killed in the bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria. Her murderer was Jordanian national Ahlam Tamimi, who, despite being given 16 life sentences, plus 250 years, was released as part of a 2011 deal Israel made to secure the release of Gilad Shalit.
Tamimi expressed her “delight” that she killed so many children. Malki’s parents have continually tried to have her extradited to the United States and bring her to justice. In 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first administration, the US Department of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Tamimi, who is on America’s most-wanted terrorist list. It has also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest.
I believe that Trump has the power to ask the FBI and the Justice Department to do the same for other terrorist murderers of Americans who are being released from Israeli jails in exchange for the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
My friend and colleague, Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum, and his daughter, Nava, on the eve of her wedding, were brutally murdered on Sept. 9, 2003, during the bombing of Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem. Applebaum was chief of the emergency room and trauma at the Sha’are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. One of his killers, Ahmad Obeid, received seven life sentences for his part in the bombing.
Obeid has been or will be released as part of the present exchange for Israeli hostages. His accomplice, Mari Abu Saida, who received 11 life sentences, is also being released. Both should be extradited to the United States and face justice for the cold-blooded murder of US citizens. It would send a message to the world that Americans are protected and fought for with everything in our arsenal.
Khalil Jabarin, who murdered American Ari Fuld, a resident of Efrat, on Sept. 16, 2018, is also set to be released as part of the hostage deal. He will be returning to his hometown, right next to Efrat.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and future ambassador to Israel, had gotten to know Fuld during his many trips to Israel. On the day of the murder, Huckabee posted on social media: “My friend Ari Fuld, an American-Israeli patriot, was murdered in cold blood today by a young Palestinian terrorist who stabbed Ari in the back. Despite being stabbed, Ari chased and shot the coward who lived. Ari died. I was with Ari in Efrat in July. #Heartbroken.”
Jabarin should not be allowed to return to his home in Israel. He should not be free to attack Jews again. He should be extradited to America and brought to justice.
The recidivist rate for the terrorists who were released in the Shalit deal was 82%. Among those terrorists was senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The United States cannot stand by as the killers of its citizens walk away freely. Tamimi, Obeid, Abu Saida, Jabarin and all of the other terrorists with blood on their hands should be extradited as soon as possible to face the full extent of American law.
The post US Should Demand the Extradition of Terrorists Who Killed Its Citizens first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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