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Israel’s Eden Golan Advances to Eurovision Finals Despite Thousands of Anti-Israel Protesters in Sweden
Israeli singer Eden Golan on Thursday secured a spot in the finals of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Malmö, Sweden, after more than 5,000 people protested earlier in the day about Israel’s participation in the competition.
Golan, 20, competed in Thursday’s second semi-final with a modified song, titled Hurricane. The original version was titled October Rain and referenced the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel. However, it was disqualified by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision Song Contest, for breaking rules on political neutrality. Israel was forced to change the song’s title and lyrics if it wanted to participate in the contest.
Twenty-six contestants will compete in Saturday’s Eurovision finals. After Swedish singer Loreen won the competition last year with the song Tattoo, Sweden was given hosting duties for this year’s competition and automatically guaranteed a place in the Eurovision finals along with France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, which make the largest financial contributions to the song contest. The remaining 20 countries qualified for the finals after competing in the semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday.
On Thursday, before Golan performed, roughly 5,000-6,000 anti-Israel demonstrators took to the streets in Malmö, and outside the singer’s hotel room, to protest Israel’s inclusion in the competition and the Jewish state’s ongoing military campaign targeting Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip. They changed “free, free Palestine” and some demonstrators held banners that read, “Welcome to Genocide song contest” and “stop using Eurovision to whitewash Israeli crimes.”
Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg was among the protesters and wore a keffiyeh draped across her shoulders. “It is outrageous that Israel is allowed to participate,” she said. “We cannot remain silent during a genocide.”
Golan, who reportedly received death threats for competing in the Eurovision, was ordered by Israel’s national security agency Shin Bet to stay in her hotel room during the anti-Israel demonstrations, except to attend her performances.
At a press conference after the semi-finals for those who were advancing to the next round, Polish journalist Szymon Stellmaszyk insinuated that Golan put others in danger by participating in the competition. Golan was visibly taken aback by the comment and told by the host of the press conference that she did not need to respond, but Dutch singer Joost Klein, who was sitting next to Golan on stage, interrupted and said, “Why not?” Golan ultimately chose to answer Stellmaszyk and said, “I think we’re all here for one reason and one reason only. And the EBU is taking all safety precautions to make this a safe and united place for everyone.” Greece’s representative in the Eurovision, Marina Satti, was later criticized on social media for her “immature” behavior on stage while Golan was speaking at the press conference.
The EBU more than once defended its decision to allow Israel to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest this year, explaining last week that the Eurovision is “a non-political music event” and “not a contest between governments.” The EBU also condemned the social media abuse and harassment that Eurovision contestants have faced for not pulling out of the competition as a way to boycott Israel’s participation. Anti-Israel activists unsuccessfully attempted for several months to convince artists to withdraw from the song contest.
At Tuesday’s semi-final, Eric Saade, whose father is Palestinian and from Lebanon, wore a keffiyeh around his wrist while performing his 2011 Eurovision entry Popular. The keffiyeh, a headscarf traditionally worn by Palestinians, has become known as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinian opposition to Israel. The EBU later said Saade compromised “the non-political nature of the event.”
Ireland’s entry, Bambie Thug, was also told to remove makeup from their face and legs that spelled out “ceasefire” and “freedom for Palestine” in a medieval Celtic script, according to The Irish Times.
An audience member who waved a Palestinian flag while Golan performed in the semi-finals on Thursday was removed from Malmö Arena by security.
Another Eurovision contestant, Finish singer Käärijä, received thousands of hateful comments after a video was posted online of him dancing with Golan to the point where he then took to his Instagram Story on Wednesday to explain his appearance with the Israeli singer.
Golan was booed by audience members during her dress rehearsal on Wednesday and shortly afterward, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message in support of the singer.
“You’re competing not just in the Eurovision in a proud and very impressive manner, but you are competing successfully in the face of an ugly wave of antisemitism — and you are standing up to it and representing the State of Israel with huge honor,” he said.
In the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, Israel’s representative, Noa Kirel, came in third place.
Watch Golan’s performance of Hurricane in the Eurovision semi-finals below.
עדן בביצוע בלתי נשכח pic.twitter.com/KabXoC1oHo
— כאן (@kann) May 9, 2024
The post Israel’s Eden Golan Advances to Eurovision Finals Despite Thousands of Anti-Israel Protesters in Sweden first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Vancouver police raid a home linked to the director of Samidoun—which is now a terrorist entity in Canada
Vancouver police arrested and released one person at the home of Charlotte Kates, director of the terror group Samidoun, in a dramatic raid on Nov. 14. The raid was conducted […]
The post Vancouver police raid a home linked to the director of Samidoun—which is now a terrorist entity in Canada appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Trump Won A Majority of Votes In Heavily-Jewish New York City Precincts, Election Data Claims
President-elect Donald Trump won an overwhelming majority of the votes in New York City (NYC) precincts that were at least a quarter Jewish, according to a data analysis by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), a prominent Washington DC-based political group.
RJC presented data on Friday affirming the notion that Trump won a higher proportion of the NYC Jewish vote than in previous elections, potentially signaling an ideological shift in the traditionally-liberal voting bloc. According to RJC data, Trump received the “overwhelming” majority of votes in precincts with a Jewish population of at least 25%.
Trump’s 2024 performance among Jews in NYC seems to mark a substantial improvement over the 2020 and 2016 elections, contests in which the president-elect struggled to make inroads among Jewish voters.
Voting data from the 2024 election also indicate that there was a significant shift among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. President-elect Trump also enjoyed greater success in heavily-Jewish enclaves of deep-blue cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, according to data compiled by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Los Angeles Times, respectively.
Trump’s increased success among Jewish voters in the Big Apple comes amid simmering anger over surging antisemitism across the country.
In the year following the Hamas slaughter of roughly 1200 people throughout southern Israel, college campuses have become embroiled in an unrelenting onslaught of protests opposing the Jewish state. Moreover, many Jews have expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, suggesting that the president has not been a firm ally of the Jewish state.
Over the past year, NYC has been ravaged with raucous, often-violent anti-Israel demonstrations and an unrelenting spate of antisemitic hate crimes.
Columbia University, one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the world, became a poster-child for the anti-Israel campus movement, erecting encampments and holding protests calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Many NYC public schools came embroiled in scandal after teachers presented students with lesson plans that accused Israel of committing “apartheid” and “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Though most national Democrats continue to express support for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas terrorists, some figures in the party have, over the past year, adopted a more adversarial posture toward the Jewish state, often citing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a key reason.
High-profile Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) have suggested that Israel has perpetrated a “genocide” against Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign targeting terrorists since the Oct. 7 atrocities. Earlier this year, a group of dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, urging him to “reconsider” approving offensive arms shipments to Israel.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. While courting Jewish voters, Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them once he retains office in January.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
The post Trump Won A Majority of Votes In Heavily-Jewish New York City Precincts, Election Data Claims first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Attempted Robbery of Jewish Man in Brooklyn Puts Orthodox Community on Edge
The Jewish community in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York was the target of another attack on Thursday evening, as three men attempted to rob a Hasidic man after stalking him through the neighborhood.
Footage of the incident was shared on X/Twitter by Yaacov Behrman, liaison of Chabad Headquarters and founder of the Jewish Future Alliance (JFA) nonprofit. It shows the men, whose faces were concealed by hoods and ski masks, chasing the man into the street and through the neighborhood after attempting to accost him.
No arrests have been made.
“He doesn’t give in easily, and I don’t think they got anything,” Behrman tweeted. “The Jewish Future Alliance is deeply concerned not only about the increase in crime but also the fact that, once again, the perpetrators were wearing masks. We need to reinstate mask laws.”
The explosion of an antisemitic hate crime spree in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn has set the Orthodox Jewish community on edge in recent weeks.
Last Tuesday, two men beat a middle-aged Hasidic man after he refused to surrender his cell phone in compliance with what appears to have been an attempted robbery. According to multiple accounts, the assailants were two Black teenagers.
That incident was the third time in eight days that an Orthodox resident of Crown Heights was targeted for violence and humiliation. Before then, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the heavily neighborhood, which is heavily Jewish, and less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face.
Most recently, a masked man was caught on video approaching a visibly Jewish father walking with his two sons and grabbing one of the children in broad daylight. He was unable to secure possession of the child, whose father fought back immediately and did not let go of his son. Police later identified the man as Stephan Stowe, 28 — a suspect gang member with an extensive criminal history which includes 33 prior arrests — and charged arrested him attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.
In each case, the suspect was allegedly a Black male, a pattern of conduct which continues to strain Black-Jewish relations across the Five Boroughs.
Black-on-Jewish crime is a social issue which has been studied before. In 2022, a report published by Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) showed that Orthodox Jews were the minority group most victimized by hate crimes in New York City and that 69 percent of their assailants were African American. Seventy-seven percent of the incidents took place taking in predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Of all assaults that prompted criminal proceedings, just two resulted in convictions.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” AAA founder and former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D) told The Algemeiner. “Shouldn’t there be a plan for how we’re going to deal with it? What’s the answer? Education? We’ve been educating everybody forever for God’s sake, and things are just getting worse.”
The problem has become acute in recent years. In July 2023, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face. Earlier that year, 10- and 12-year-olds were attacked on Albany Avenue by four African American teens.
According to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City last year. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Attempted Robbery of Jewish Man in Brooklyn Puts Orthodox Community on Edge first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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