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German Police Raid Properties as Pro-Hamas Group Banned
Pro-Hamas demonstrators marching in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters/Alexander Pohl
German authorities banned a pro–Hamas group on Thursday for its alleged support of the Palestinian terrorist organization and police raided properties to confiscate devices and documents, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia said.
Herbert Reul said the group, Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, had repeatedly propagated “its anti-Israeli and antisemitic worldview, at meetings and on social media channels.”
Some 50 police officers searched the properties in the northwestern state, confiscating laptops, cash, cell phones, and documents, he said in a statement.
Palestine Solidarity Duisburg was not immediately available for comment.
The group had been known to the authorities since May 2023, the minister said. It organized a rally in front of German arms maker Rheinmetall’s headquarters, protesting the delivery of weapons to Israel, which is fighting Hamas in Gaza.
The German government last year imposed a complete ban on the activities of Hamas, already a designated terrorist organization in the country.
North-Rhine Westphalia’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution recommended the ban on Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, Reul said.
The post German Police Raid Properties as Pro-Hamas Group Banned first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas’ Media Tyranny: A Persistent War on Truth
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Since assuming de facto control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has increasingly restricted information sharing, creating a distorted media image that hides its crimes and portrays Israel as the primary antagonist.
Former Associated Press journalist Matti Friedman was the first to widely publicize Hamas’ media control in 2014, and it remains significant in 2025, overshadowing Israel’s sincere attempts at openness.
The extent of Hamas’ press control was highlighted in a 2022 Washington Times report, which noted that foreign journalists were barred from covering Gazans killed by misfired Palestinian rockets and required the press to attribute all casualties to Israel.
Hamas also ordered that all foreign correspondents employ Palestinian “sponsors,” who must submit full reports on where those correspondents go, what they do, and any “illogical questions” they ask.
Local journalists have been known to face extremely dangerous coercion — quite recently, in fact. The Jerusalem Post reported that in November 2023, Gaza journalist Tawfiq Abu Jarad was detained in Rafah by masked men claiming to be Hamas members, accused of reporting on civil unrest, and released only after promising to stop. In late April 2025, he received a threatening call warning him not to cover a female-led protest in Beit Lahia.
This is one of many stories that have been extensively documented.
Hamas’ grip on journalistic access extends beyond Gaza. Its influence shaped global reports such as the 2009 UN Fact-Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report), commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council after the 2008–2009 Gaza War. Former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren criticized the report for relying heavily on Hamas-selected witnesses. The report ignored Hamas’s strategy of embedding militants in civilian populations and its intentional firing of over 7,000 rockets at Israeli civilian areas.
Another UN-related example occurred in 2022. UN official Sarah Muscroft, based in eastern Jerusalem, faced backlash after tweeting criticism of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s indiscriminate rocket attacks. Pro-Palestinian activists accused her of “blaming the victim” despite the tweet’s factual basis, and she was transferred.
Hamas also manipulates imagery and stages photos. Friedman described cameramen at Al-Shifa Hospital being instructed to stop filming injured Hamas fighters, maintaining the illusion that only civilians were being hurt. Digital distortions have added new layers of misinformation. The New York Times and AP News reported in 2023 that the Gaza conflict produced AI-generated images of mutilated babies and recycled Syrian footage misattributed to Israel.
While some visuals were genuine, many were fabricated — distorted anatomy, mismatched lighting, and deepfake anomalies — designed to provoke outrage rather than report truth.
A telling contrast involves the “doll controversy.” In November 2023, The Jerusalem Post mistakenly claimed a viral image of a deceased Palestinian baby was a staged doll. The article was retracted and an apology issued on X (formerly Twitter) on December 2, after identifying the child as Muhammad Hani Al-Zahar, killed in an Israeli airstrike. This demonstrated commitment to transparency, even at reputational cost.
By contrast, Hamas’ falsehoods are rarely corrected and almost never acknowledged. A striking exception occurred in late 2023 when Hamas claimed — and the worldwide media dutifully reported — that an Israeli missile had struck a Gaza hospital and killed hundreds. It was later revealed to be an errant Palestinian missile, with a much lower death toll — but the damage was done, and the media issued half-hearted corrections, at best.
Hamas also releases distorted casualty numbers — which don’t separate terrorist fighters from the civilian population — and the media dutifully reports them.
Yet the world keeps falling for this, because most of the media plays along — whether out of fear, ideological bias, or pressure from NGOs hostile to Israel. Headlines scream “Israel Pounds Gaza,” omitting that rockets were launched from schools or hospitals. Israeli claims are often treated with suspicion until proven true, long after the narrative damage is done.
For meaningful change, the global media must treat Gaza as a theater of information warfare. Every image and interview should carry a digital asterisk. Verification must be standard — not optional. Truth requires context, not censorship.
The question is not whether Hamas lies — it lies, distorts, and controls information, even that of outsiders. The real question is: will the world keep rewarding the lie? History and ethics demand we stop doing so.
Alexander Mermelstein, a recent USC graduate with a Master’s in Public Policy and Data Science, is an aspiring policy researcher focused on Middle East affairs and combating antisemitism.
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The Dangerous Direction of Ms. Rachel’s Pro-Palestinian Misinformation
Ms. Rachel. Photo: YouTube Screenshot.
Rachel Griffin-Accurso is a familiar face in millions of American households.
The 42-year-old YouTube star has more than 16 million subscribers, and one of her most-watched videos has clocked over 1.5 billion views – more than the entire population of China. She’s a powerhouse in the children’s educational entertainment sector and a multi-million-dollar brand, with a personal net worth estimated above $10 million.
To her legions of tiny viewers—most under the age of three—she’s simply Ms. Rachel: dungaree-clad, with a friendly sing-song voice and catchy tunes designed to help toddlers learn their first words. Parents are assured by her “Toddler Learning Videos” channel, where the content uses “techniques recommended by speech therapists and early childhood experts” to help children meet key milestones. Ms. Rachel promises “interactive, high-quality screen time” that parents can trust.
But in recent months, Griffin-Accurso has become just as vocal about the war in Gaza as she is about nursery rhymes – pushing what she calls her “advocacy for Palestinian children” to her 3.6 million Instagram followers and beyond.
Her posts have accused Israel of “genocide,” amplified the infamous and debunked image of a supposedly “starving” Palestinian child (later revealed to suffer from a congenital condition), and promoted the work of her “friend” Motaz Azaiza – a Palestinian photojournalist who has called for “resistance” following Hamas’ October 2023 massacre, refused to condemn the slaughter of Israeli civilians, and praised eliminated Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Despite this, Ms. Rachel has been showered with glowing media coverage, with headlines framing her stance as brave and selfless: “Ms. Rachel says she’ll risk career to advocate for children in Gaza” and “Ms. Rachel says she won’t work with anyone who hasn’t spoken out about Gaza.”
In reality, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel stance is hardly career suicide in the entertainment industry – it’s the prevailing view.
Advocacy or Misplaced, Selective Outrage?
Amid the praise, there has been pushback from those who have noted her repeated sharing of misinformation and her decision to platform a figure who defends the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
She has brushed off such criticism, telling anti-Israel journalist Mehdi Hasan on his news site Zeteo that it’s “sad” that people “make it controversial when you speak out for children that are facing immeasurable suffering.” Asked why she speaks up for Gaza’s children, she replied: “Silence wasn’t a choice for me.”
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Griffin-Accurso admitted she is “not an expert” on Israel or Gaza, but said her background as an “expert in child development” made her “know that what I was seeing was wrong.”
Only after taking such a strong public stance on Gaza did she begin highlighting children in other conflict zones. In May 2024, she launched a fundraiser through Save the Children for Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, and other war-affected areas, offering personalized video messages in exchange for donations. Even so, the overwhelming majority of her posts about global crises remain focused on Gaza.
She has posted occasionally about Sudan’s famine, the world’s most extreme hunger crisis, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million. She’s also referenced Haiti’s spiraling violence, which has left half the country facing food insecurity.
Yet both crises—Sudan’s civil war (since April 2023) and Haiti’s collapse (since 2020)—predate the Gaza war. And until Hamas’ October 7 massacre and Israel’s subsequent campaign to dismantle the terror group and release the hostages held by the terrorist group, Ms. Rachel had not spoken about them at all. They seem, frankly, an afterthought.
Where Does Ms. Rachel’s “Pro-Palestinian” Advocacy Lead?
It is troubling enough that one of the most influential figures in early childhood education feels compelled to take a public stand on a complex geopolitical conflict she concedes she does not understand in depth.
It is more troubling that she has repeatedly spread falsehoods about it and lent her platform to a man who defended a massacre of civilians—including babies, children, and entire families—in their homes.
When someone with Ms. Rachel’s reach presents herself as a trusted educator while misinforming millions of parents about one of the most volatile conflicts in the world, the damage is not confined to the headlines. It shapes how the next generation will understand history, morality, and truth itself.
That is why it matters. Not because a children’s entertainer has political opinions – but because those opinions are wrapped in a brand that parents trust implicitly, and delivered to an audience too young to know the difference between fact and fiction.
If Ms. Rachel wants to be an advocate for children everywhere, she should start by committing to accuracy and condemning all atrocities, no matter the perpetrator.
The bottom line: Misinformation about Israel spreads fastest when it comes from unexpected sources – especially from figures trusted with children’s education, because their words carry an assumption of authority and moral responsibility. That’s why exposing it matters.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Hamas Continues to Praise Western Countries for Recognizing Palestinian State
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at a Labor party election night event, after local media projected the Labor Party’s victory, on the day of the Australian federal election, in Sydney, Australia, May 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is once again praising Western countries for recognizing a Palestinian state, most recently commending Australia for its decision to do so at the United Nations General Assembly next month.
“We welcome Australia’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine, and consider it an important step towards achieving justice for our people and securing their legitimate rights,” Hamas senior leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This position reflects political courage and a commitment to the values of justice and the right of peoples to self-determination,” he said, urging the Australian government to turn this recognition into concrete action “by exerting diplomatic pressure to end the Israeli occupation.”
“We call on all countries, especially those that believe in freedom and human dignity, to follow Australia’s example and translate their positions into practical steps to support the Palestinian people and end their suffering under occupation,” the statement continued.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his government’s decision earlier this week, joining France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other nations in pledging to recognize a Palestinian state next month.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad previously praised Canadian, British, and French plans to recognize a Palestinian state as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as the reason for increasing Western support.
“The fruits of Oct. 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue,” the terror leader said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Israeli officials and opponents of such recognition argue that Hamad’s remarks demonstrate that these countries are, in effect, rewarding acts of terrorism.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Albanese’s government dismissed such accusations, arguing that Hamas would in fact oppose the recognition of a Palestinian state, since the terrorist group would have no role in its future governance.
The spokesperson even condemned Hamas for attempting to “manipulate facts for their own propaganda” after the group hailed his decision as an “important step towards achieving justice.”
Albanese echoed those sentiments in a media interview with “Today,” saying, “Hamas is opposed to two states. This is the opposite of what Hamas wants. Hamas wants one state.”
US and Israeli officials criticized Australia’s latest decision, arguing that the recognition effectively “rewards” Palestinian terrorists.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel accused Albanese of being “detached from reality.”
In an interview with “Sid & Friends In The Morning,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday dismissed Western plans to recognize a Palestinian state next month, calling the move “”meaningless.”
“It’s symbolic, and they’re doing it primarily for one reason, and that is their internal politics, their domestic politics,” Rubio said.
“In the UK, in France, in many parts of Europe and Ireland, for a long time their domestic politics have turned anti-Israel or whatever it may be, and they’re getting a lot of domestic pressure to do something,” he continued.