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‘I Feel at Home Here’: In the Shadow of War, Moroccan Muslims Visit Israel to Promote Peace
Sharaka delegation visiting Israel. Photo: Courtesy of Sharaka
Ayoub Koulli knew about Morocco’s ancient and dwindling Jewish community through his father, who would speak about his many Jewish friends in Casablanca. But Koulli’s father passed away, taking his stories with him. Eager to learn more about the history of the Jews, Koulli began a pilgrimage which would take him to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz and eventually to Jerusalem, where he arrived this month with a group of 23 other young Moroccans.
“I feel really emotional being here,” Koulli told The Algemeiner.
The group, called Sharaka, was established in the wake of the Abraham Accords — which Morocco signed — to promote “person-to-person” diplomacy between Israel and Arab countries. During the week-long visit, delegates visited Yad Vashem, the Jewish state’s national memorial to the Holocaust, and other key sites around Israel, including Al Aqsa Mosque. The group also held several meetings with high-tech leaders and Israeli officials, including Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, and former National Security Council adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat who addressed the group in Moroccan Arabic.
Sharaka delegation meeting with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. Photo: Courtesy of Sharaka
The group visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the site of the Nova festival massacre, and the villages and kibbutzim in the Gaza periphery which were attacked by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7.
Sharaka delegation visiting Israeli communities devastated by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Photo: Courtesy of Sharaka
Achraf Ibra, 29, said he was in his twenties when he was introduced for the first time to the notion of the Holocaust. “The subject was never mentioned,” he said.
He went on to say that visiting Yad Vashem was a “deeply moving experience” that was also “extremely necessary, especially in this particular context where antisemitism is resurfacing everywhere in the world, even in Western societies that were previously less affected by this phenomenon.”
Sharaka’s executive director Dan Feferman said one of the group’s aims was to educate Arabs and Muslims on “taboo” subjects like the Holocaust. “By learning from history’s darkest chapters, we can become inspired to spread light and tolerance throughout our communities,” he said.
As an artist booker and event producer for music festivals, Koulli was already acquainted with prominent Israeli DJs and as such did not share the same biases against Israelis as some of his peers back home. “Before the trip I believed Israel has the right to defend itself and I still believe that,” he said.
But learning the meaning of Zionism marked a change for him. “Beforehand, I thought Zionism was very radical — it was a bad word for me,” Koulli said.
In May, Koulli joined Sharaka on the annual March of the Living, a Holocaust education program that brings people from around the world to Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland. It marked the first time a pan-Arab delegation participated in a march of solidarity for Jews. While there, Youssef Elazhari, Shakara’s director in Morocco, slammed a small group of anti-Israel protesters who were hurling invectives related to the Gaza war at marchers.
“To counter a peaceful march like that is so f—ked up. I will never tolerate that. And sometimes these people talk in the name of Islam,” he said.
“As a Muslim, I will march with the Jews because I feel that if we don’t acknowledge [the Holocaust], it’s a huge denial of our own humanity,” he said.
The anti-Israel protesters, Elazhari averred, “just missed the logic about humanity.”
For Salah Ghrissi, a photographer and food influencer from Fez, the most significant turning point was learning that Arabs and Jews are equal under the law in Israel, where Arabs comprise 21 percent of the population.
“The biggest myth that was debunked for me was that Arabs do not have the same rights [as Jews],” he said.
Until a month ago, Ghrissi had no involvement with Sharaka and only heard about the trip through his friend, Moroccan singer Hodayah. Ghrissi said he came largely out of curiosity and an urge to see what was happening in Israel on the ground after seeing so much on the news.
Ayoub Koulli and Salah Ghrissi. Photo: Provided by author
“I thought, it’s impossible that a whole country is a ‘baby killer’; it doesn’t make sense. I need to go and see,” he said.
Witnessing the devastation of the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7 was especially impactful. “Standing there and seeing the bullet and grenade holes in the houses was very hard,” he said.
Ghrissi admitted that he paid a social price for his decision and that some of his friends could not understand his motivation for visiting Israel. He acknowledged that they were exposed to only very anti-Israel Arabic-language media. Elazhari, who led the delegation in Israel, admitted that he too used to be a “victim” of Al Jazeera propaganda. For another participant who asked to remain anonymous, the stakes were even higher. “I received death threats,” he said.
A poll published earlier this year by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies showed that 75 percent of Moroccans consider the Oct. 7 attack a “legitimate act of resistance” and 95 percent categorized US policy on the war as “bad.”
Ghrissi said he lost several dozen social media followers. “I got asked how much Israel was paying me.”
Sharaka delegation visiting Israel. Photo: Courtesy of Sharaka
For Koulli, the way to peace is through cultural exchanges and socializing through music.
“Every night since I’ve been here, we’re getting invited out by different people. Israelis have been so open — even been giving us the keys to their house.”
“I feel totally at home,” he added.
The post ‘I Feel at Home Here’: In the Shadow of War, Moroccan Muslims Visit Israel to Promote Peace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Indigo wants the law to block an online boycott promotion that appropriates bookstore branding
Canadian bookstore chain Indigo is seeking a court injunction ordering internet service providers to block a website that the company says causes the brand “irreparable harm,” while also infringing on its copyright and trademark. Indigo’s lawyers appeared in a virtual Federal Court hearing Sept. 17 to ask a judge for an injunction that would order […]
The post Indigo wants the law to block an online boycott promotion that appropriates bookstore branding appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism
US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking at a press conference about the United States restricting weapons for Israel, at the US Capitol, Washington, DC. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
An anti-Israel agitator on Tuesday unleashed an antisemitic tirade during a congressional hearing in Washington, DC on rising hate crimes across the United States.
The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to address growing numbers of attacks against minority religious and ethnic groups in the United States. While Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivered a presentation condemning anti-Israel protests on college campuses, an angry demonstrator stood up and hurled expletives targeted at the Jewish community.
“F—king Jews and the Israelis themselves!” the man shouted, apparently frustrated and angry at Cruz for focusing on the deluge of reported antisemitic attacks following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“Talk about the 40,000 [casualties in Gaza]. Talk about all these people. Why is [this presentation] about antisemitism? F—k the law,” the agitator said before being escorted out by Capitol Police.
“We now have a demonstration of antisemitism. We have a demonstration of the hate,” Cruz responded.
Cruz then slammed Democrats for exhibiting what he described as weakness on antisemitism and vowed to punish antisemites if Republicans secure a Senate majority and the presidency in November. He accused the Biden administration and the US Justice Department of turning a “blind eye” to antisemitism.
“I’ll tell you this. Next year, if there’s a Republican majority on this committee, you will see real leadership. Next year, if there’s a Republican administration, you will see people prosecuted for this sort of violence,” Cruz said.
Senate Republicans criticized Democrats for insisting on broadening the scope of the hearing from antisemitism to a “generic” discussion about all forms of bigotry. Some critics pointed out that Democrats previously condemned use of the phrase “All Lives Matter” in lieu of “Black Lives Matter,” accusing conservatives of attempting to minimize anti-black racism.
Earlier in the hearing, US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chair of the Judiciary Committee, defended shifting the focus of the meeting off antisemitism specifically, stating that “prioritizing which group is being discriminated against the worst” is not a “valid exercise of [the committee’s] authority.” He went on to argue that hatred is a problem “that extends beyond the Jewish population” and also affects “the Arab population” and “the Palestinian population.”
Progressive lawmakers have been under fire from pro-Israel voices in the months following the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 for allegedly being too soft on Hamas and placing unrealistic restrictions on Israel’s war effort in Gaza. Recent polling suggests that large swaths of Democratic voters have soured on Israel, with many supporting the implementation of an arms embargo on the Jewish state. Younger Democrats, in particular, are reporting significantly greater sympathy for Palestinians than the citizens of Israel. Many Democratic staffers have also reportedly revolted against party officials, demanding that they adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel.
In response, Democratic elected officials have sharpened their rhetoric against the Jewish state, with some suggesting that Israel has committed a “genocide” in Gaza. Democratic politicians have also sought to pressure US President Joe Biden to withhold certain weapons from Israel.
Tuesday’s hearing came amid a record surge in antisemitism across the US since Oct. 7.
The post ‘F—king Jews’: Protester Interrupts Hate Crimes Hearing at US Capitol Over Focus on Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Cyber Expert: Explosives Planted in Hezbollah Pagers in Op Planned Months Before War
An ambulance arrives at a hospital as thousands of people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, were wounded on Sept. 17, 2024 when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
An Israeli cyber and national security expert has claimed that the exploding pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, which left thousands wounded and killed at least nine people on Tuesday, were part of a sophisticated attack that was planned at least half a year before the war in Gaza erupted.
Dr. Eyal Pinko, a former navy commander and senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, dismissed theories that the blasts were caused by lithium batteries that were hacked to become overheated, and said that the nature of the wounds seen in footage emerging from Lebanon was consistent with those caused by explosives such as TNT and HTB.
“To get this kind of wound you need to have between one to two grams of type of explosives, which is not a big technological issue — you just need to open the beeper,” Pinko said during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday evening. He added that a stable explosive that wouldn’t detonate accidentally would have been inserted into the device, along with a small control mechanism capable of receiving remote commands via a call or page.
Such an operation would have required significant infiltration of Hezbollah’s communication systems, according to Pinko, and planting explosives in pagers would necessitate a serious breach of the supply chain. “This is an intelligence operation that was very well planned, prepared for more than one and a half years,” Pinko said
Pinko alluded to the possibility of a coordinated effort, suggesting that Israel may not have acted alone if it was behind the attack in Lebanon, where Hezbollah wields significant political and military clout. He noted efforts by Germany, France, the US, and the UK to prevent escalation in the region.
Israel has so far been quiet about the explosions, but senior Lebanese officials have blame the Jewish state. So too has Hezbollah, which said Israel would receive “its fair punishment.”
The operation clearly appeared to serve as a message to Hezbollah, showcasing vulnerabilities in its security apparatus and serving as a form of deterrence, Pinko said. “It’s saying that, ‘you’re already being penetrated. We know where you are and what you do. Now look what we can do: In one single shot, in less than a second, we can eliminate almost 3,000 terror operatives.’”
Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia quoted an Israeli military source as saying that Hezbollah’s supply chain was infiltrated with the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, placing PETN, a highly explosive stable material, on the batteries of the devices.
A source close to Hezbollah, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the pagers were “sabotaged at the source” before being imported by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist organization based in Lebanon.
Al Jazeera said that the pagers had been in use by Hezbollah operatives for five months.
Brigadier General (res) Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), told The Algemeiner that the attack “had the Mossad’s fingerprints all over it.”
“Hezbollah certainly got the message,” Avivi said, adding that war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group was “imminent.”
However, Pinko said that Tuesday’s coordinated attacks were not a prelude to a full ground invasion into Lebanon and that Israel was likely to adopt a “wait and see” approach. “Israel doesn’t want to go towards further escalation; not in the north, and not with the Houthis in Yemen. They just want to finish the business in Gaza.”
The explosions came hours after a revelation by the Israeli Shin Bet security agency that a Hezbollah cell had infiltrated Israel with the intent to assassinate a former senior defense official in Tel Aviv using a mobile phone, camera, and remote detonation.
Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets, missiles, and drones at northern Israel almost daily following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on the Jewish state’s southern region. Since then, both sides have been exchanging fire constantly while avoiding a major escalation as war rages in Gaza to the south.
About 80,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country amid the unrelenting attacks from Hezbollah.
Israeli leaders have said they seek a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon but are prepared to use large-scale military force if needed to ensure all citizens can safely return to their homes.
On Monday night, Israel’s security cabinet expanded its war goals to include returning the displaced Israelis from the north.
The post Israeli Cyber Expert: Explosives Planted in Hezbollah Pagers in Op Planned Months Before War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.