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In Tel Aviv and beyond, 200-seat empty Shabbat tables are set for Israeli hostages
(JTA) — The installation stretches across the entire plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art — a table for 200, pristinely set for Shabbat yet searingly empty.
The high chairs at a handful of seats, the children’s cups in other settings and the white roses alongside some of the plates make the symbolism painfully clear: This table is for the 200 hostages that Israel says Hamas is holding in Gaza.
Hamas took the hostages on Oct. 7, when it attacked Israel, killing and wounding thousands of people. Since then, their families and supporters have quickly snapped into an organized protest movement, applying tactic after tactic to keep the world’s attention on their loved ones despite Israel’s war in Gaza and a global fight over how it should respond to the massacre.
Among the most prominent and widespread tactic has been the distribution of “Kidnapped” posters all around the world, in dozens of languages, showcasing the faces and stories of each of the known captives. Now, the empty Shabbat table is poised to join those posters as a symbol of the captives’ plight.
Setting an empty seat for prisoners has been part of the global Jewish protest lexicon since the 1960s, when the movement to free Soviet Jews made it a hallmark of its symbolism. Earlier this year, some Jews committed to leaving an empty seat at their Passover seders for Evan Gershkovich, a Jewish-American journalist imprisoned in Russia.
The tables for the hostages are vastly larger in scope. In addition to the Tel Aviv table, tables for hostages were set up in advance of Shabbat in the Jewish Quarter of Rome and on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach.
Jewish families usually gather at the Shabbat table.
A table was symbolically set for Shabbat by @romaebraica at the Jewish Quarter of Rome, with over 200 empty seats, representing the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.#BringThemHomeNow pic.twitter.com/9jY4pIDFFa
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) October 20, 2023
An empty shabbat table at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. A seat for each hostage held in a barbaric captivity. We will not rest and we will not forget. #setthemfree pic.twitter.com/t4uLT7EQ9A
— Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) October 20, 2023
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The post In Tel Aviv and beyond, 200-seat empty Shabbat tables are set for Israeli hostages appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza
Illustrative. A drone that Israeli troops recovered in southern Israel that the military said entered Israeli airspace from the Gaza Strip two days earlier, on August 13, 2021. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.
i24 News – An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed on Saturday a strike targeting a Gazan terror squad in Beit Lahiya; Palestinian sources claimed that at least nine people were killed.
The IDF’s statement says the incident started with the identification of “two terrorists operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area.”
Following the elimination of the two jihadists in a targeted strike, “several other terrorists gathered up the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle,” according to the IDF.
The remainder of the terror squad was then targeted by an additional strike.
The post Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear
Illustrative. A man inspects a damaged car in Latakia, after hundreds were reportedly killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers, Syria, March 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Haidar Mustafa
i24 News – A blast occurred in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia on Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving 12 others wounded, local media reported. The cause was unclear.
“The blast in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured,” state news agency SANA cited provincial authorities as saying, adding that “civil defense teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing.”
While Latakia has been the target of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian terrorists, there were no early indications that Saturday’s incident represented an IDF attack.
The post Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear first appeared on Algemeiner.com.