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‘I don’t think he’s against us’: Israeli protesters dialogue with UN chief during encounters outside his home
(New York Jewish Week) — One Friday morning last month, as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took the short walk from his townhouse to his car in freezing weather, he was confronted by a group of Israeli protesters who peppered him with questions about the war in Gaza and his efforts to free the hostages held by Hamas.
Guterres — flanked by security — stopped for a few seconds to chat, his breath visible in the chill. He complained about his portrayal in the Israeli press. A protester handed him a holiday card advocating for the hostages.
Shany Granot-Lubaton, one of the protest leaders, asked him about his reaction to a 47-minute film of Hamas’ atrocities, produced by the Israeli government.
“How was watching the horror movie?” she asked.
“It is human nature at its worst,” Guterres said.
The protesters thanked him, and he moved on.
Friday morning demonstrations outside Guterres’ Sutton Place home has become something of a ritual for several dozen Israeli-Americans advocating for the 136 hostages still held in Gaza. Shortly before 9 a.m., they gather on the sidewalk outside Guterres’ stately brick home, its front door framed by two white Greek pillars. Their hope is to catch him while he is exiting with a handful of security guards, and to talk with him before he gets into a black Mercedes sedan parked at the curb.
Israel has a famously adversarial relationship to the U.N., and at first, that was the activists’ posture as well. But as they approach 100 days since Oct. 7, and prepare for a large rally outside the U.N. on Friday, a change is afoot: Guterres and the protesters have started a dialogue.
“At the beginning we were very, very angry and shocked by how they reacted, and we felt like the U.N. was totally not standing for the hostages and for Israel,” Granot-Lubaton told the New York Jewish Week.
But now, she said, “He’s listening to them, he’s meeting with them. Does he do enough? Of course not. He’s not doing enough, but it’s not as it was at the beginning. Every week, when he sees us, he stops, he speaks with us respectfully, he’s listening, so I respect him for that. He could have done it differently.”
A spokesperson for Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, said the feeling was mutual.
“Whenever he’s in New York, they’re outside and he talks to them and he always welcomes the dialogue,” Dujarric said. “His door is always open.”
Protesters outside the home of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, January 5, 2024. (Luke Tress)
The protests began as a way to castigate the U.N. chief. On Oct. 25 last year, Guterres incensed Israelis by saying that the Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum,” linking the terrorist atrocities to occupation, settlements and economic woes. That statement led Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, to call for Guterres’ resignation.
The demonstrations outside Guterres’ home started that week. The activists cut their teeth on protests in New York against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul before pivoting to hostage advocacy after Oct. 7. They borrowed a tactic from their counterparts in Israel, who have been protesting outside officials’ houses for the past several years.
At first, they were angry with the U.N. and Guterres’ response to the Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 240 hostages, alongside other atrocities. But the activists’ views softened after Guterres viewed the Israeli government’s graphic video of the Hamas attack, and met with hostages’ families.
“At the beginning we were very angry, there was a lot of anger, like, ‘We’re going to come in front of his house and yell at him,’” said Yaala Ballin, an Israeli jazz singer who has lived in the city for 19 years and is part of the core of the Friday morning protesters.
“We kind of changed our position,” she said. “We realized that we need his help and we need to keep him on our side and we want to have him join our purpose, bring our side out there.”
Gradually, she said, Guterres began to engage. First he began pausing before getting in the car, moments that later turned into brief, cordial exchanges. “The last time was really a conversation,” she said.
In one of the encounters with the protesters, in early December, as Guterres was walking out the door, a demonstrator pursued him while holding a hostage flier, saying, “We just wanted to remind you that our hostages are still in Gaza.”
“I’m totally committed,” Guterres responded.
Granot-Lubaton said Guterres was more approachable than some of the Israeli government’s own ministers.
“He is not the demon in this story, although there are people who are trying to make him that way, but at the same time he could do a lot more,” she said. “It’s not a black and white thing.”
The demonstrators feel like they’re having an impact. Hours after the exchange with Granot-Lubaton about the film, Guterres demanded on X, formerly Twitter, that all hostages be released “immediately and unconditionally.”
“Nothing can possibly justify the horrific terror attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October,” Guterres said. But the Israeli activists don’t quite feel that he’s on their side: He followed that statement with three posts either criticizing Israel or expressing alarm about the violence in Gaza.
Protesters outside the home of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, December 8, 2024. (Luke Tress)
Guterres has also shown the protesters that he carried dog tags reading “Bring them home” in his pocket. The dog tags are part of a campaign by the families of hostages, some of whom gave the item to Guterres during a meeting.
He carried them, Granot-Lubaton pointed out, but did not wear them.
“I think in a way it symbolizes his entire reaction to this crisis. Maybe he does care about the hostages, but for different political reasons and the way the U.N. works right now, he’s not wearing it,” Granot-Lubaton said. “He’s not public enough with his commitment.”
Dujarric, the Guterres spokesperson, said, “From the start, the secretary-general has been heartbroken and devastated about what happened and what is happening to the hostages” and continues to push for their release.
“What he’s been saying on the hostages from the get-go is they need to be released unconditionally, that nothing can justify it,” Dujarric said.
Guterres isn’t always there on Friday mornings, and whether or not he shows up, the demonstrators stay for about 30 minutes, holding fliers with the faces of the hostages and reading out the captives’ names. They hang colorful origami cranes symbolizing the hostages on a tree outside Guterres’ front door. Lampposts in the quiet, upscale neighborhood are plastered with the fliers, which are ubiquitous on the city’s streets and have become a battleground between pro- and anti-Israel activists.
Hostage families and Israeli officials, including left-wing politicians such as Yair Golan and Gilad Kariv, have spoken at the events outside Guterres’ home. Balllin usually sings the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikva,” at the end of the rallies. She said the demonstrators have also become friendly with police outside Guterres’ home.
Guterres’ powers as secretary-general are limited, but the activists believe he sets the tone for much of the international community. They say international agencies can do more to help liberate the hostages, including pressuring Qatar and Egypt, which hold sway with Hamas’ leaders, to push for their release.
Protest leader Shany Granot-Lubaton leads a crowd outside the home of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, January 5, 2024. (Luke Tress)
The demonstrators are also seeking more straightforward and specific condemnation of Hamas’ war crimes, including statements that are not accompanied by criticism of Israel. In late November, Guterres condemned “accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas” for the first time. Granot-Lubaton is hoping for stronger language.
“I would appreciate him saying that rape and kidnapping people and murdering innocent people is not a legitimate way of resistance,” Granot-Lubaton said. “You don’t need high moral standards to say such a thing.”
Guterres has also voiced a grievance to the protesters about his portrayal in the Israeli media after a tense encounter with hostage families. “What I read in the Israeli press was not what I said,” Guterres said.
“We know,” one of the protesters said.
And the protesters have tried to address his concerns. Ballin said some of them contacted an Israeli reporter asking for a change to an article to better reflect what had actually happened.
“I’m not angry with him anymore. I don’t think he’s against us,” Ballin said. “I think he ran into a very, very complicated situation and he’s not doing enough. I’m not angry, I just feel like he needs to be directed and reminded of the good he can do.”
She added, “We need him, and we feel he can really help just make statements loud and clear for the world to follow.”
—
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Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say
Illustrative: People pass a cluster of signs outside a pro-Hamas encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect
A Drexel University professor allegedly participated in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia, a local NBC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
Mariana Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, has been accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.
“We are just taking them because we feel like it is a representative of genocide,” Chilton told law enforcement after being caught in the act, the report stated. She then, after offering to “just put them back,” refused to identify herself and comply with other lawful orders.
Video evidence provided by a local resident placed Chilton and her accomplices at the scene of the crime, and a Main Line Reform Temple official identified the signs recovered from her car as the temple’s property. That was enough for law enforcement to charge her with several offenses, including conspiracy and theft. She is also charged with driving without a license and not registering her vehicle.
Drexel University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Experts have told The Algemeiner in the past academic year that while the conduct of anti-Zionist students should be reported on, the role of faculty in fostering and engaging in antisemitic acts should be closely scrutinized. Last semester, anti-Zionist faculty attached themselves to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations, sometimes breaking the law by preventing officers from dispersing unauthorized demonstrations and detaining lawbreakers.
At Northeastern University in Boston, professors formed a human barrier around a student encampment to stop its dismantling by officers, and at Columbia University, anti-Zionist faculty at the school, as well its affiliate Barnard College, staged a walkout in support of the demonstrations and demanded the abeyance of disciplinary sanctions against anti-Zionist students — dozens of whom cheered Hamas and threatened more massacres of Jews similar to Oct. 7 — who violated school rules.
Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year, however. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.
Mass participation of faculty in pro-Hamas demonstrations marks an inflection point in American history, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in April.
Since the 1960s, he explained, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he concluded, must be challenged.
“The cost of trading scholarship for political propagandizing has been a zeal and pride among faculty who esteem and cheer terrorism, a historical development which is quite telling and indicative of the evolution of the Marxist ideology which has been seeping into the academy since the 1960s,” Romirowsky said. “The message is very clear to all of us who are looking on from the outside at this, and institutions have to begin drawing a red line. The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness
US President Joe Biden hosts the 2023 Teacher of the Year event at the White House in Washington, US, April 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Amid growing concerns over US President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, key White House officials are suggesting his foreign policy discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including a clash over how to respond to Iran’s unprecedented military attack on the Israeli homeland earlier this year, serve as evidence that he is still capable of leading from the Oval Office.
Biden and Netanyahu engaged in a heated back-and-forth in the immediate aftermath of Iran launching a massive missile and drone salvo at Israel in April, according to a new report by the New York Times. The US and other allies helped Israel shoot down nearly every drone and missile. The attack caused only one injury.
However, the Times revealed that while Netanyahu initially wanted to respond to Iran in a forceful way, Biden threatened to withhold US support in the event of a major Israeli retaliatory strike, arguing it would risk sparking a regional conflict in the Middle East.
“Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East,” the Times reported. “‘Let me be crystal clear,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.’”
“Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks,” the report continued. “‘You do this,’ Mr. Biden said forcefully, ‘and I’m out.’ Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.”
Israel’s military response was small and appeared aimed at minimizing the risk of escalation.
The Times report, headlined “Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome,” came on the heels of Biden delivering a widely-panned presidential debate performance last Thursday against former US President Donald Trump. Biden’s performance, which oftentimes appeared incoherent and muddled, set off alarm bells in Democratic circles, sending the president’s allies scrambling to extinguish concerns over his age and mental acuity.
While highlighting rising concerns, the news story also noted instances in which, according to aides, Biden appeared coherent and capable, citing the exchange with Netanyahu and his handling of the Iranian missile attack more broadly as one such example.
However, an anonymous Biden administration official told the Times that they are unsure whether Biden could hold his own against adversarial foreign leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia.
On Wednesday, the White House directly attributed quotes to Netanyahu in which the Israeli premier reportedly said he found Biden “very clear and very focused” during his visit to Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. According to a White House spokesperson, Netanyahu also reportedly cited the “more than a dozen phone conversations, extended conversations with President Biden” as evidence of the commander-in-chief’s vitality.
“Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April,” the New York Times reported. “Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.”
During its first direct attack on Israeli territory, Iran in April launched roughly 300 missiles and drones at the Jewish state.
Leading up to the attack, Iranian officials had promised revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria that they attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a widely designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.
“After it was over, and almost all of the missiles and drones had been shot down, Mr. Biden called Mr. Netanyahu to persuade him not to escalate. ‘Take the win,’” Mr. Biden told the prime minister, without reading from a script or extensive notes, according to two people in the room. In the end, Mr. Netanyahu opted for a much smaller and proportionate response that effectively ended the hostilities,” the article added.
Days later, Israel responded to the Iranian aggression by launching a modest missile attack on an airbase near Isfahan. The Jewish state sought to show that it could effectively target key strategic locations in Iran while not escalating the conflict any further. Netanyahu insisted on launching a retaliatory attack against Iran, arguing that ignoring the Iranian strikes would incentivize more attacks against the Jewish state.
IRGC Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran is waiting for “the opportunity” to launch a new round of strikes against Israel, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, potentially boosting Netanyahu’s argument that a smaller response would invite further attacks.
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Journalist at US-Based Nonprofit Promoted Stabbing Israelis, Depicted Rescued Hostage as Pig Drinking Blood: Report
Palestinian terrorists ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
A journalist at a US-based nonprofit posted tutorials on how to commit stabbing attacks and depicted a rescued Israeli hostage as a pig drinking blood, according to newly surfaced social media posts.
Eitan Fischberger, a communications analyst and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) staff sergeant who first broke the story on X/Twitter, alleged that Mahmoud Ajjour, a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle, posted disturbing images and videos to his Instagram page.
Fischberger posted screenshots and screen recordings of the posts.
According to The Chronicle‘s website, Ajjour is a photojournalist and correspondent for the outlet, which is a US-based 501c3, or nonprofit organization.
One of the posted images depicted Noa Argamani — an Israeli who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, and then rescued in an IDF special operation last month — as a pig drinking blood from a Coca-Cola bottle.
Here, for example, Ajjour posted a picture of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, portrayed as a pig drinking the blood of Palestinians.
Noa, as you recall, was freed by Israeli forces in the same rescue operation in which Ajjour’s terrorist colleague was killed pic.twitter.com/oiLCqekxbl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
In Oct. 2015, Ajjour posted a picture of a masked Palestinian holding up a knife, with the caption, “I declare it a revolution.”
That time — from approximately Sept. 2015 to June 2016 — was referred to as the “knife intifada,” as there was an uptick in Palestinian terrorist attacks, particularly using knives, against Israelis in Jerusalem, along with other parts of Israel and the West Bank.
Ajjour also seems mighty fine endorsing stabbing attacks pic.twitter.com/xi2MnZVddl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
During that same month, Ajjour also reportedly posted a two-part tutorial on how to carry out stabbings with the caption, “May Allah protect them,” likely referring to those who were engaging in such attacks.
So much, in fact, that he uploaded a two-part instruction video showing off some best practices for stabbing Israelis pic.twitter.com/Z12rVo4Enx
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
Then, in 2023, after the son of a Hamas preacher was killed when a device he was trying to launch at Israel exploded, Ajjour mourned his death on Instagram. “Your father’s legacy is proud of you,” he wrote alongside a picture that included what appeared to be a Hamas flag.
And here, Ajjour mourns the death of Bara’a al-Zard, son of Hamas preacher Wael al-Zard.
Silly Bara’a died in an explosion caused by a device he was trying to launch at Israeli forces near the Gaza security fencehttps://t.co/vZR6IW0shF pic.twitter.com/ipQw55BYd7
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
This is not the first time a journalist from The Palestine Chronicle was alleged to have either supported or partaken in terrorism.
Abdallah Aljamal, who was a correspondent for The Chronicle, allegedly held three Israeli hostages in his home, according to the Israeli government. He was killed during a raid that rescued four hostages, including Argamani. After the allegations came to light, The Chronicle changed Aljamal’s status on its website from a correspondent to a contributor.
The Palestine Chronicle did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Fichberger wrote that he wants the US House Ways and Means Committee to investigate The Chronicle for what seems to have become a pattern.
“If The Chronicle is let off the hook for employing an actual terrorist hostage-taker, it would prove that the American counter-terror legal apparatus really is irreparably broken,” he wrote.
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