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Israeli expats who organized to protest Netanyahu’s government are now mobilizing to ‘save Israel’
(New York Jewish Week) – In mid-September, a group of Israeli activists projected a message in all capital letters onto the headquarters of the United Nations reading, “Don’t believe crime minister Netanyahu.”
About a month later, the same activist group projected another all-caps message onto the same building. But instead of targeting Israel’s leader, it displayed the photos of some of the country’s youngest and oldest citizens.
“3 year-old Avigail,” read one message, above the photo of a smiling girl. Similar messages followed, depicting the photos, names and ages of Ariel, age 4; Carmela, age 80; and Yaffa, 85. Beneath every photo was the caption “Kidnapped by Hamas.”
Both projections were the work of expatriate Israeli protesters who have organized and gained national attention over the past year. But as of two weeks ago, their cause has changed.
Originally, the activists gathered to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his effort to weaken Israel’s judiciary, organizing protests and heckling Israeli officials when they visited the city. But after Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which terrorists killed and injured thousands, and took more than 200 captive, the activists quickly pivoted — repurposing their tools and connections to support Israel’s war effort, aid its vulnerable populations and advocate for the release of the hostages.
“We’re all just thinking about our families and we have sleepless nights and we’re doing whatever we can,” said Shany Granot-Lubaton, a prominent Israeli activist in New York who previously worked in progressive political organizing in Israel. The protest group she helps organize, UnXeptable, has changed its motto from “Saving Israeli Democracy” to “Saving Israel.”
“We know many people who were slaughtered and kidnapped and raped and it’s in our closest circles. We have kids, we used to be their guides at scouts, who were kidnapped and killed,” she said. “As Israelis, being far away from home right now is devastating and we all just want to do something to help.”
For Granot-Lubaton’s family, as for many Israelis, the devastation is personal. Her husband, Omer Lubaton-Granot, found out last Wednesday that four of his relatives are among the captives; two more were murdered in the massacre. He is running an advocacy campaign for the hostages in New York — part of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a larger coordinated effort with activity in Israel and around the world. Israelis have taken an active role in the grassroots “Kidnapped in Israel” project that pastes flyers of hostages on city streets.
“It’s a whole family, and we thought that all six of them are gone, then the family realized that four of them are hostages and held by Hamas, and two of them, the bodies were identified a couple days ago,” he said regarding his captive relatives, adding that despite the initial shock and horror of captivity, it was a small relief to find out some had survived. “It’s not good, but it’s better.”
So far, the activists say they have raised around $1.2 million, in addition to sending supplies to soldiers and civilians, staging rallies, providing services and community to Israelis in the U.S. and organizing efforts aimed at freeing hostages held by Hamas.
The protesters’ mobilization in New York and other international cities parallels the approach of the protest movement in Israel, which brought hundreds of thousands to the streets earlier this year to protest the judicial overhaul. Since Oct. 7, the movement has set aside that fight to focus on relief work — delivering services and supplies to those in need. Granot-Lubaton said her NYC-based group and others in the United States, which coordinate with the Israeli groups, is a “sidekick” to their efforts. American Jewish organizations have also been crucial partners, she said.
Israeli expatriates established branches of the protest movement in dozens of cities in North America and have learned to navigate the intricate landscape of American Jewish organizations and formed ties with many of those groups — connections that proved crucial in rapidly launching a major relief effort in the United States.
“It was very easy to transform because we know how to mobilize people, we know how to reach people,” Lubaton-Granot said. “We know how to organize events, we know how to raise funds.”
Left: A message against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is projected onto UN Headquarters ahead of his appearance at the UN General Assembly in September 2023. Right: An image of a kidnapped Israeli boy is projected onto UN Headquarters after Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. Israeli expatriate activists projected both messages. (Courtesy)
In one aid operation that began at the war’s outset, the U.S.-based protesters sent four tons of supplies to Israeli soldiers who found that they lacked essential equipment as the military called up 300,000 reservists.
Tali Reiner Brodetzki, an Israeli activist in Philadelphia, was inspired by seeing supporters of Ukraine’s war effort organize Amazon “wish lists” after Russia invaded last year. She asked colleagues from an Israeli combat veterans’ protest group, Brothers and Sisters in Arms, to tell her what the soldiers needed, and began spreading the word about a wish list of her own.
Volunteers responded by buying 80,000 flashlights, 100,000 olive green T-shirts, socks, ceramic body armor, tourniquets and dressing for trauma wounds. The equipment was sent to a volunteer’s house on Long Island near John F. Kennedy Airport, packed into duffel bags and sent as overweight baggage on El Al flights. Activists from Brothers and Sisters in Arms collected the supplies at Ben Gurion Airport and distributed them to troops.
“We got a call from a mother crying her heart out” after her son was shot, said Granot-Lubaton, who assisted with that initiative. “He’s in the hospital and he got a bullet, but the vest we sent saved his life.”
Many Israelis who live in New York and across the United States have flown to Israel to fight in the reserves, and some of those reservists — in addition to medics — arrived on flights organized by an UnXeptable chapter in the Bay Area, led by activist Offir Gutelzon. And some Israeli families who were in the United States on vacation have opted to stay for the meantime. The activists are helping to organize programs for children of the reservists and those here temporarily, assisting new arrivals in gaining admission to Jewish day schools and enlisting kosher restaurants to help out with food deliveries for families.
One of the main ways the protest groups have communicated with and mobilized followers is via Whatsapp groups, and those groups have proven crucial for crowdsourcing support during the past two weeks. One woman was eight months pregnant when her husband went to the reserves, leaving her alone in the city. She was able to access health insurance and find other support through the activist network. A recent request for Hebrew-speaking psychologists in New York who could treat trauma also elicited a long list of recommendations. Some Israelis who were stranded in the city have been able to find temporary free lodging.
Some of the activist programs aim to bring Israelis, including children and their parents, together on the weekends. An event on Oct. 14 at the Manhattan JCC drew more than 300 people, and a David Broza concert on Sunday drew hundreds to B’nai Jeshurun, an Upper West Side synagogue. Many Israelis feel out of place in New York, where life continues as usual, despite the trauma and hardship back home. The Israeli and American Jewish communities have also responded differently to the war, Granot-Lubaton said.
“American Jews, they speak about the war in this very frightening way,” she said. “They’re doing ceremonies, lighting candles, but the Israeli kids in the schools are getting freaked out about it because their fathers are out there and it makes them afraid, so the way we talk about it is very different.”
Now that the immediate needs of troops have been mostly met, the activists hope to aid the communities in Israel’s south that were hardest-hit by Hamas’ atrocities, including by helping fund mental health services. Organizers also hope to support Israel’s economy, which is also battered by the war, by buying aid supplies from local stores rather than U.S. suppliers. That aid effort comes alongside an American Jewish fundraising drive that has directed hundreds of millions to Israel since Oct. 7.
The war has also led to new ties between the Israeli activists and American Jews who opposed their previous anti-government demonstrations. Reiner Brodetzki, the Philadelphia activist, said a group of religious Jews opposed to the protest movement had dropped by her house to borrow her Israeli flags and megaphones to use in their own pro-Israel demonstration.
“It’s amazing to see how people who would not talk to us previously, and had a lot of criticism about us protesting outside of Israel against the Israeli government, how they want to work with us now,” Reiner Brodetzki said. “They understand that we love Israel and we’re supporting Israel and now we’re in this fight together.”
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Zohran Mamdani Warned ‘Third Intifada Looms’ During 2015 Wave of Palestinian Violence
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
New York City Democratic mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani predicted a “looming third intifada” in a recently resurfaced X/Twitter post from 2015.
Mamdani’s social media post was a response to a 2015 opinion article in the New York Times which characterized the US approach to Israel as “hypocritical” and described the Jewish state as “discriminatory.”
In October 2015, Israel faced a surge of violent attacks from Palestinian youths, mostly consisting of stabbings, shootings, and car-rammings which left dozens of innocent Israelis dead and many more injured. The period of violence, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was largely driven by controversies surrounding Jerusalem’s holy sites. Israeli security forces promptly subdued the violent attacks amid escalating regional tensions.
“Interesting piece from Anat Biletzki in @nytopinion, especially as the third #Intifada looms. #israel #palestine,” Mamdani wrote on X/Twitter in 2015.
Interesting piece from Anat Biletzki in @nytopinion, especially as the third #Intifada looms. #israel #palestinehttp://t.co/LKBLWpGLkH
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 9, 2015
The First and Second Intifadas were violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza, marked by rampant terrorist attacks against Israelis. The First Intifada, which took place from 1987 to 1990, often portrayed as a grassroots movement, quickly escalated beyond civil disobedience into widespread riots, Molotov cocktail attacks, and coordinated assaults on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Second Intifada, which took place from 2000 to 2005, was deadlier, with over 1,000 Israelis killed in suicide bombings targeting buses, restaurants, and public areas. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces launched major counterterrorism operations to dismantle terrorist networks.
Critics argue the intifadas were legitimate expressions of resistance to what they describe as Israeli occupation.
The resurfaced tweet comes as Mamdani faces backlash over his recent defense of the controversial phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been regularly chanted at anti-Israel demonstrations around the world during the ongoing Gaza war.
On Tuesday’s episode of “The Bulwark Podcast,” host Tim Miller asked Mamdani whether he would be willing to condemn the chant “globalize the intifada,” arguing that the phrase — which references the two previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels — calls for violence against Jewish people. Mamdani refused to condemn the chant, claiming that it has been misinterpreted and represents a “desperate desire for equality and equal rights.”
“I am someone who, I would say am, is less comfortable with the banning of certain words, and that I think is more evocative of a Trump-style approach of how to lead a country,” Mamdani said in comments first reported by Jewish Insider.
“I think what’s difficult also, is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle,’” he continued. “And, as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way in which that Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted.”
Jewish organizations and watchdog groups have condemned the slogan as a form of hate speech that blurs the line between criticism of Israeli policy and incitement against Jewish communities, especially amid a rise in antisemitic incidents globally.
Following the release of the podcast, Mamdani was excoriated by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which wrote, “Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize ‘globalize the intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors.”
Fellow New York City Democratic mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo and Whitney Tilson also issued statements condemning Mamdani for attempting to use the history of the Holocaust to justify use of the controversial slogan.
Mamdani has also come under criticism for repeatedly refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, instead suggesting that Israel does not offer “equal rights” to all of its citizens. He has also promised to support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as mayor and has vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with New York Police Department (NYPD) forces.
The post Zohran Mamdani Warned ‘Third Intifada Looms’ During 2015 Wave of Palestinian Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Fellowship Connects Jewish Students Across the World
George Washington University students assembled at the campus’ Kogan Plaza on Oct. 9, 2023, to mourn those who died during Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner
With antisemitism surging on college campuses across the Western world, Hillel International and the Matanel Foundation have selected 15 Jewish students for a spot in the inaugural year of the Matanel Fellowship for Global Jewish Leadership, a 12-month program which aims to foster their “sense of responsibility” for the worldwide Jewish community.
The program is at its half-life, having started in January. For the past six months, the students have participated in online lectures, solidarity building exercises, and a “Shabbat Retreat” to Budapest for the purpose of experiencing the Hungarian city’s rich Jewish life and culture, which has been sustained there for over a millennium.
They have already created memories that will last a lifetime, Matanel Fellow and Barnard College student Yakira Galler told The Algemeiner during an interview.
“So far, it’s been amazing. We’ve had three or four Zoom sessions and then we had our midway trip to Budapest,” Galler said. “In our first day in Budapest, we explored both the history of the community, before the war and also under communism, and that was really interesting both because there is a specific type of Jewish sect in Hungary — the Neolog sect — which I had never heard of before. It was also really interesting because Theodor Herzl was born and raised in Budapest, which prompted me to reflect on what that means for this community and the immensity of the intellectual life within it.”
The Matanel Fellows are convening amid a moment of rampant antisemitism not seen in the world since World War II. Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, colleges across the US and the world erupted with effusions of antisemitic activity, which included calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering Hamas’s sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and several incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jews on campus.
In 2025, the American Jewish community continues to be battered by antisemitic hate incidents, forcing law enforcement to stay hot on the trails of those who perpetrate them amid a wave of recent outrages. Earlier this month, for example in the Highland Park suburb of Chicago, an antisemitic letter threatening violence was mailed to a resident’s home. So severe were its contents that the FBI and the Illinois Terrorism and Intelligence Center were called to the scene to establish that there was no imminent danger, according to local news outlets. Later, the local government shuttered all religious institutions as a precautionary measure.
Another recent antisemitic incident occurred in San Francisco, where an assailant identified by law enforcement as Juan Diaz-Rivas and others allegedly beat up a Jewish victim in the middle of the night. Diaz-Rivas and his friends approached the victim while shouting “F—ck the Jews, Free Palestine,” according to local prosecutors.
“The group then came after them, and one of them punched the victim, who fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down. A worker at a nearby business heard the altercation and antisemitic language and attempted to intervene. While trying to help the victim, he was kicked and punched.”
Now, the world’s only Jewish state is fighting an existential conflict against Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, that will determine its viability as a refuge for the Jewish people, as well as the regional order of the Middle East.
Last week, the Israel Defense Forces carried out preemptive strikes on Iran’s military installations and nuclear facilities to neutralize top military leaders and quell the country’s efforts to enrich weapons-grade uranium, the key ingredient of their nuclear program. The move prompted retaliatory ballistic missile assaults, placing all of the country on high alert.
Forging ties between Jews around the globe has never been more important, said another Matanel Fellow, Avihu Sela of Tel-Hai College, located in northern Israel.
“For me, connecting Jewish people around the world is something we need right now. I’m so happy that they did it, and now I have connections with Jewish people from an array of countries and cultures,” Sela said. “When we all flew out Budapest, it allowed us to have the really deep talk, and to be honest I went in with some deep concerns because I did not know how it would be there. When I arrived, and we did all the tours, exploring everything and seeing Jewish culture and learning about historic events, I felt deep inside that I am part of something so much bigger than myself.”
He added, “I’m so proud that I’m Jewish because of this trip. It really opened my heart.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post New Fellowship Connects Jewish Students Across the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Gov’t Slams EU Critics as Belgium, Spain, Ireland Push Anti-Israel Measures Amid Iran War
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (not pictured), in Rome, Italy, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
As Israel wages a high-stakes campaign to stop Iran — long identified by the US as the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism — from obtaining nuclear weapons, some of its harshest critics in Europe are intensifying their condemnation of the Jewish state.
On Thursday, Belgium and eight other EU member states — Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden — urged the European Commission to examine how trade “linked to illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” can be aligned with international law, the latest effort by the countries to block trading with Israeli communities in the West Bank.
In a post on X, Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the decision came after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that third countries must avoid trade or investment that supports “the illegal situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
“Upholding international law is a shared responsibility. In a rules-based international order, legal clarity must guide political choices,” Prevot said in a statement. “A united European approach can help ensure that our policies reflect our values.”
Foreign ministers of the nine European countries also sent a letter to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calling for the bloc to come up with proposals on how to discontinue trade with Israeli communities in the West Bank.
The letter came ahead of a meeting in Brussels on Monday when EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the bloc’s relationship with Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the latest move by European countries, calling it “shameful” and a misguided attempt to undermine Israel while it faces “existential” threats from Iran.
“It is regrettable that even when Israel is fighting an existential threat which is in Europe’s vital interest — there are those who can’t resist their anti-Israeli obsession,” the top Israeli diplomat said in a post on X.
It is regrettable that even when Israel fighting an existential threat which is in Europe vital interest – there are those who can’t resist their anti-Israeli obsession.
Shameful! https://t.co/lxm9qm8sM1— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) June 19, 2025
On Wednesday, meanwhile, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called on the EU to impose an arms embargo on Israel in a bid to end the ongoing war in Gaza — another attempt by one of Jerusalem’s fiercest critics to undermine its defensive campaign against Hamas following the Palestinian terrorist group’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In the wake of Hamas’s onslaught, Albares has intensified his push for anti-Israel measures on the international stage, while positioning himself as a staunch advocate for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The top Spanish diplomat also called for de-escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, urging both sides to refrain from further provocations and to pursue diplomatic channels to address Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Right now, we need to de-escalate this exchange of missiles and bombs between Israel and Iran, and ensure that everything related to Iran’s nuclear program is properly resolved and that Iran moves away from having nuclear weapons through diplomatic negotiations,” Albares said in a statement.
Separately, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said he was “deeply concerned” by Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets, warning of a “very real risk of regional spillover.”
The Irish leader said he believed a “negotiated solution” was needed to address Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
My statement on reports of extensive military airstrikes by Israel on Iran overnight.
pic.twitter.com/vSYQmfzY8o
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) June 13, 2025
Responding to the government’s comments, Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich said in an interview on “The Pat Kenny Show” that those who equate Iran’s actions with those of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza don’t “understand international law, the rules of war and what is going on.”
“They [the Islamic regime] are deliberately, indiscriminately targeting civilians, while we target their nuclear program, their ballistic program,” the Israeli diplomat said.
“I didn’t hear any Irish condemnation when Iran violated the UN Charter and called repeatedly for the destruction of another UN member state — Israel,” Erlich continued. “So, it’s not that a threat that has come up just now … It has been going on for decades.”
She also cautioned that Iran’s ballistic missile program could eventually be used against European nations, emphasizing that the threat posed by Tehran extends far beyond Israel and endangers global security.
“Europe is concerned about it [and] so should Ireland,” Erlich said.
Spain and Ireland have been among the world’s leading critics of Israel during the Gaza war.
Other European leaders have expressed more support, however, especially following Israel’s preemptive strikes last week targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday endorsed Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, saying the Jewish state was doing the “dirty work” for other countries.
“This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” Merz told the ZDF broadcaster during an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada. “We are also affected by this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.”
After conflict erupted between Iran and Israel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed support in a statement for “Israel’s right to defend itself and protect its people.”
According to Euronews, however, some EU officials opposed that choice of language.
“There was no consensus on saying Israel has a right to defend itself but Von der Leyen said it anyway,” one diplomatic source told the outlet.
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