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Former Jewish leader clashes with demonstrators at Munich anti-vax protest on Kristallnacht
(JTA) — A prominent member of Munich’s Jewish community filed antisemitic harassment charges against two right-wing demonstrators attending a protest of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Marian Offman, former deputy chair of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, clashed verbally with the demonstrators at the anti-government rally in the Bavarian state capital. Offman challenged the protesters for comparing pandemic restrictions to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, and police eventually intervened.
He filed the charges Nov. 9, while the unnamed demonstrators, including a representative of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, of AfD, also filed charges against Offman. Offman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had cursed them out after challenging them on antisemitic posters and statements.
Police at the scene led Mr. Offman away “like a criminal,” he said in a telephone interview from Munich.
The incident occurred on the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews and their property that foreshadowed genocide. Some 350 adherents of the German Querdenker (“contrarian”) movement had chosen the anniversary to protest against government pandemic restrictions and against the imprisonment of pandemic deniers and proponents of conspiracy theories.
The use of Holocaust imagery to protest coronavirus protocols and other public health measures became frequent in Germany during the pandemic, testing the country’s strict laws against trivializing or minimizing the Holocaust. In June 2020, Munich made it illegal to trivialize the Holocaust at such demonstrations, after several cases in which people wore yellow stars printed with the word “unvaccinated,” or held posters comparing themselves with Anne Frank.
Offman, 74, who served as a member of the Munich city council until 2020, had been attending a counter demonstration of about 300 people on Max-Joseph-Platz, a large square in the city center, when he saw an anti-vax demonstrator “holding a poster with a Jewish star on it, which is forbidden,” he told JTA.
“I said to the police, ‘That is forbidden,’ and they took the poster,” said Offman, who then saw a woman holding a similar sign. “I asked her if she thought it is ok to have a demonstration like this of all days on the ninth of November,” the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
She countered, inaccurately, that it was also the anniversary of a failed attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler by George Elser, which took place on Nov. 8, 1939. “I said I was sorry that they had not killed Hitler, and if I had had the chance, I would have done it, given the fact that part of my family was wiped out by the Nazis. Then she asked me: ‘Where is your humanity?’ I was so surprised, but I said nothing. Then she said, ‘People like you can get away with anything, you are above the law.’ It was blatant antisemitism.”
A man — later identified as a politician from the AfD — then asked Offman if he would separate people according to whether they wore masks and had been vaccinated. Offman said that, as a property manager, he attended meetings in which vaccine protocols were enforced by mutual consent.
“The man said, ‘Oh, so you are also selecting people,’” referring to the Nazis’ selections of people for extermination at death camps.
Marian Offman is seen at a dedication ceremony for plaques commemorating Holocaust victims in Munich, July 26, 2018. (David Speier/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Offman said this infuriated him: “On one hand they say they are being treated like Jews, and on the other side they trivialize the Holocaust,” he said. “I got very angry, called him an asshole, and said ‘I’ll take you to court because of this.’”
Offman also objected when police escorted him from the scene, taking him by both arms. “I said, ‘Please stop it, I will go with you.’ But they treated me like a criminal.”
Police spokesperson Sven Müller told JTA that all three individuals “were brought to a processing station of the criminal police at the edge of the demonstration, where the charges were registered; after 20-30 minutes all were then released.”
Offman was also dissatisfied after a follow-up meeting held Monday with Munich’s police chief and deputy police chief, the antisemitism officer of the Bavarian judiciary and Offman’s attorney.
“They agreed that what the police had done was not good. But when I asked them if they would like to tell this to the press, they said ‘No we will not,’” Offman said.
In a statement after the incident, police spokesperson Andreas Franken blamed “a group of young police officers” from various units who did not know who Offman was. “I can understand that a citizen of the Jewish faith feels emotionally burdened in such a situation with the context of the meeting and the special date,” Franken said.
Offman said he did not plan to file charges against the police officers, who were “just following orders” when they hustled him off. He described the incident as painful, both physically and psychologically, heightening his feeling that he did not want to live in Germany anymore. But he told JTA it was too late for him to start a new life elsewhere. Instead, he will continue to attend counter demonstrations against the far-right, he said.
Meanwhile, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the organizer of the right-wing demonstration, attorney Markus Haintz, ended the event early after speaking with an unnamed “gentleman of Jewish origin” who apparently convinced him that the rally should not have been held on the Kristallnacht anniversary.
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The post Former Jewish leader clashes with demonstrators at Munich anti-vax protest on Kristallnacht appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Dutch Appeals Court Rejects Bid to Stop Arms Exports to Israel
An Israeli tank stands on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, in Israel, Oct. 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
A Dutch appeals court on Thursday confirmed a decision to throw out a case brought by pro-Palestinian groups to stop the Netherlands exporting weapons to Israel and trading with Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.
The court said it was up to the state to decide what actions to take and not judges.
In a written ruling, the court said it could not order a blanket ban because the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian groups had not shown that the government was routinely failing to consider whether exported arms or dual-use goods would be used to violate rights.
The court in The Hague added that the Dutch government already did enough to discourage companies from working in the territories.
The plaintiffs, citing high civilian casualties in Israel‘s war in the Gaza Strip, had argued that the Dutch state, as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, has a duty to take all reasonable measures at its disposal to prevent genocide.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed accusations of genocide and said its Gaza campaign was focused solely on fighting Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel communities.
The court said the Netherlands did have that obligation under the Genocide Convention and that there was “a grave risk” that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
But it backed a decision by a lower court in December last year. In that case, the judges sided with the Dutch state which had said it continually assesses the risk around exported arms, and that it has refused some exports.
The pro-Palestinian NGOs had said the Netherlands had exported radar systems, parts for F-16 fighter jets and warships, police dogs and cameras, and software for surveillance systems.
The Dutch government says that it has halted most arms exports to Israel and only allows parts for defense systems such as the Iron Dome.
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Pelosi won’t seek reelection, ending the pioneering congresswoman’s decades of Jewish outreach
(JTA) — Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the long-serving former Speaker of the House, will step down from Congress at the conclusion of her current term in 2027, her 40th year in office.
Pelosi’s retirement caps an historic career in politics that included extensive outreach toward the Jewish community, from the 85-year-old’s home district of San Francisco to the halls of Israel’s Knesset and beyond.
“Because of your trust I was able to represent our city, our country, around the world, with patriotism and pride,” the representative told her home district Thursday in a social media video announcing her decision. “I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.” The Roman Catholic also invoked “the spirit of St. Francis.”
Her replacement could very well be Jewish, as well: California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a co-chair of the state’s Jewish caucus, launched his own bid for Congress weeks before Pelosi’s announcement, saying he would challenge Pelosi if she ran again.
First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi was elected speaker in 2007 — the first woman to hold the title. She remained the top House Democrat until stepping down from the leadership role in 2023.
Her father, congressman Thomas D’Alesandro, was active in advocating for a Jewish state in the 1940s. He later became close with Baltimore’s Jewish community in his second political life as that city’s mayor, which meant Nancy often attended bar and bat mitzvahs as a child.
Pelosi carried that spirit into her own time in Congress, visiting Israel and hosting Israeli politicians multiple times. She became especially close with Dalia Itzik, the first woman speaker of the Knesset. Along with most establishment Democrats of the era, she forged close relationships with pro-Israel lobbying giant AIPAC and major pro-Israel donors like Haim Saban, and she would advocate on behalf of Israeli hostages and their families from past regional conflicts.
She also formed bonds with American Jewish leaders including Rabbi David Saperstein, a Reform movement leader who advised her when she first became speaker, and played a key role in elevating the profiles of many Jews in Congress including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jamie Raskin and Adam Schiff. Pelosi has several Jewish grandchildren.
She would have faced a formidable challenger in Wiener had she remained in the race — and not just because of growing voter antipathy to long-tenured Democratic leaders. Wiener, who is gay, has sought to inherit the mantle of beloved local Jewish legend Harvey Milk in his progressive politics. The state senator also has notched several victories for California Jews specifically, as his legislative caucus has lobbied the state to create a new office to combat antisemitism in public schools, among other accomplishments.
The post Pelosi won’t seek reelection, ending the pioneering congresswoman’s decades of Jewish outreach appeared first on The Forward.
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Afghanistan and Pakistan Exchange Fire as Peace Talks Begin
People inspect houses and vehicles destroyed during an airstrike, following a temporary ceasefire, amid the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Afghan and Pakistani troops briefly exchanged fire along their shared border on Thursday, both nations said, on the same day talks to find a lasting peace restarted in Istanbul.
Each nation blamed the other for starting the exchange of gunfire near Spin Boldak, an Afghan border town towards the south of their 2,600-km (1,600-mile) frontier.
There were no reports of casualties, and spokespeople for both sides said they remained committed to a ceasefire and continued dialogue in Istanbul.
Militaries from the South Asian neighbors previously clashed last month, with dozens killed in the worst such violence since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
Both sides signed a ceasefire in Doha on Oct. 19, but a second round of negotiations in Istanbul last week ended without a long-term deal, due to a disagreement over militant groups hostile to Pakistan operating inside Afghanistan.
“We hope that wisdom prevails and peace is restored in the region,” Pakistan‘s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told reporters on Wednesday.
He said Islamabad was pursuing a “one-point agenda” of convincing Afghanistan to rein in militants attacking Pakistani forces across their shared border, allegedly with the Taliban’s knowledge.
Two government sources said the head of Pakistan‘s military intelligence wing, Asim Malik, was leading the Pakistani delegation.
The Afghan delegation is led by intelligence chief Abdul Haq Wasiq, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told state broadcaster RTA.
TALKS AIMED AT PREVENTING REPEAT OF VIOLENCE
Pakistan and the Taliban had for decades enjoyed warm ties, but relations have deteriorated sharply in recent years.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, a separate militant group that has clashed repeatedly with the Pakistani military. Kabul denies this, saying it has no control over the group.
The October clashes began after Pakistani airstrikes earlier in the month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, among other locations, targeting the head of the Pakistani Taliban.
The Afghan Taliban administration responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the border, which remains closed to trade.
While the ceasefire between the two nations’ militaries had held until Thursday’s exchanges, clashes have continued between the Pakistani military and the Pakistani Taliban throughout the period, with multiple deaths reported on both sides.