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Israel’s Flag Bearer in 2024 Paris Paralympics Is Survivor of Oct. 7 Hamas Terrorist Attacks

Workers work to convert the Eiffel Tower Stadium from the beach volleyball venue to the Paralympic blind football venue for the coming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Aug. 18, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Wheelchair tennis player Adam Berdichevsky, who also survived the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, is one of Israel’s flag bearers for the 2024 Paris Paralympics for athletes with physical disabilities that will begin on Aug. 28.

Berdichevsky, 41, is from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak near the Israel-Gaza border. He and his wife and three children survived the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 by hiding in the safe room in their home for 14 hours before being rescued and evacuated to Eilat with other members of the kibbutz. Hamas terrorists murdered six people at the kibbutz that day, and took eight others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip.

“This year has been, and still is, unbearable,” Berdichevsky said in a released statement cited by Jewish News. Talking about his motivation to compete in the Paralympics this year following the atrocities of Oct. 7, he explained he has a “strong desire to represent the country during these times, and the support from my family.”

“I hope the rest of the hostages will return, which is the most important thing,” he added.

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists kidnapped over 250 people from southern Israel during their surprise invasion of the Jewish state on Oct. 7. They also murdered about 1,200 people in the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Berdichevsky will be competing this year in his third Paralympics.

The athlete, a former professional soccer player, lost his leg in 2007 during a boating accident in Thailand that killed a fellow Israeli and injured many others. When their boat capsized, Berdichevsky and his then-girlfriend jumped into the water, but his leg got sucked into the boat’s engine and was severed. He started playing tennis after rehab and went on to win the Israeli national championship six times. Berdichevsky has represented his home country as a member of the Israeli national wheelchair tennis team, winning 21 titles in international tournaments and 13 in doubles. He is currently ranked 41st in the world by the International Tennis Federation.

Israel’s second flag bearer for the 2024 Paralympics is goalball player Lihi Ben David, who competed at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympics.

More than 4,000 athletes will compete in 22 sports in the 2024 Paralympics from Aug. 28 through Sept. 8. Israel’s delegation is comprised of 28 athletes — 14 men and 14 women.

Israel won a record-breaking seven medals at the Olympics Games in Paris that concluded in early August. The country now has a total of 20 Olympics medals in its history, which include nine in judo and four in gymnastics.

The post Israel’s Flag Bearer in 2024 Paris Paralympics Is Survivor of Oct. 7 Hamas Terrorist Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘Globalize the Intifada’ Becomes Reality as Amsterdam Erupts in Fresh Wave of Antisemitic Riots

Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police while taking part in a non-authorized protest in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Anthony Deutsch

“Globalize the Intifada.”

It’s the chant that has become a staple at anti-Israel protests sweeping across the West after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks ,and throughout Israel’s subsequent war against the terrorist group in Gaza. The phrase is a call for Israel’s destruction, and a thinly veiled invitation to target Jews worldwide.

Unfortunately,“Globalize the Intifada” is fast becoming a reality. On Monday night in Amsterdam, violence erupted again. Rioters, reportedly “youth claiming solidarity with Palestinians,” attacked police with fireworks and projectiles, destroyed property, and set a tram ablaze.

This time, there were no Israeli sports fans in sight and no alleged provocation. Just a city under siege, with attackers chanting “Cancer Jews” into the night.

What’s more, the violence appears to be escalating, with Belgian police announcing on Monday the arrest of five people in Antwerp as calls spread on social media for a “Jew hunt” in the city, which was already grappling with a surge in antisemitic assaults.

The scenes in Amsterdam last week hinted at what was to come: Israeli soccer fans were ambushed in what we now know was a coordinated attack planned in advance and unleashed after the Maccabi Tel Aviv versus Ajax match.

And yet, many media outlets were predictably reluctant to call it what it was: antisemitic violence.

Meanwhile, media pundits like Mehdi Hasan and Owen Jones rushed to rationalize the attacks, implying Israelis “brought it on themselves” by singing offensive songs before the game — as if that justified being hunted down by a baying mob (and ignoring that he attack was planned.)

This, despite the Mayor of Amsterdam condemning the attacks as perpetrated by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads,” and Dutch police confirming evidence of premeditation.

In other words, Israeli fans were targeted not for their chants, but simply for being Israeli.

So, how are the media covering Monday’s fresh wave of violence? Mostly, they’re not.

The Associated Press and BBC are among the few major outlets to report on it in any capacity, and even they avoid linking it to the recent antisemitic surge — ignoring footage of rioters screaming “Cancer Jews.”

The conclusion? “No Jews, no news.”

If there’s no angle to subtly blame Jewish victims, the mainstream media doesn’t seem interested.

The attacks in Amsterdam last Thursday night, reminiscent of Nazi-era pogroms, are the direct result of the “Globalize the Intifada” movement that anti-Israel protesters have been championing for over a year. This slogan isn’t just a catchy chant; it’s a blatant call for violence against Jews, mirroring the atrocities of the First and Second Palestinian Intifadas.

Just days before Israelis were hunted down in the streets of Amsterdam, reports emerged from the Netherlands revealing that some Dutch police officers were refusing to guard Jewish sites, citing “moral dilemmas.” Such inaction and moral equivocation effectively serve as a green light for the violence we’ve witnessed, both last week and this week.

Welcome to the “globalized intifada” — it didn’t begin in Amsterdam, and it certainly won’t end there.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Becomes Reality as Amsterdam Erupts in Fresh Wave of Antisemitic Riots first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor: Terror Is Legal, But Only PLO Can Decide on ‘The Armed ‎Option’

The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying to have its cake and eat it too.

On the one hand, the PA is still angry that Hamas launched its terror war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, without consulting it first, and that Hamas has been able to take all the credit for successfully massacring over 1,100 Israelis. As a result, Hamas has overwhelming support among Palestinians in the West Bank.

Accordingly, despite the animosity, the PA needs Hamas on board with the PLO, due to the vast support among Palestinians for Hamas. Despite the destruction Hamas has brought on the Gaza Strip, the terror movement is still 2.5-3 times more popular than its rival Fatah, the ruling party in the PA/PLO.

To balance those competing interests, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, made the following statement, sending two messages that stand somewhat at odds with each other:

  1. The PA/PLO endorses terror as “legal” and does not oppose “the armed option”
  2. Hamas or other terror organizations are not allowed to single-handedly decide and launch terror attacks. Such decisions must be made “together” and only “in the framework of the PA/PLO” — in other words: Hamas must subordinate to the PA/PLO

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Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “It is unacceptable to say that the resistance [i.e., terror] is legal or illegal — it is legal. No one can cancel this fact or evade this fact. But the resistance needs to be a comprehensive national project. Not a project of one movement that drags all the Palestinians after its decision

. No, if we want to choose the armed option, we must all go together in a national decisionThe national decision needs to be made in the framework of the PLO, the sole legal representative of the Palestinian people. No faction that feels like carrying out armed resistance can take the Palestinian people together with it without taking into account the considerations, results, and consequences.” [emphasis added]

[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 1, 2024]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA, and Al-Habbash specifically, have criticized Hamas for not consulting with the PLO before it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, launching the 2023 Gaza war

. However, they have never criticized Hamas for the massacre itself, but rather applauded and celebrated it.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.

The post Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor: Terror Is Legal, But Only PLO Can Decide on ‘The Armed ‎Option’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Paramount+ Announces New Docuseries About World’s First Israeli-Palestinian Boy Band As1one

A promotional photo for the new Paramount+ docuseries “”AS1One: The Israeli-Palestinian Pop Music Journey.” Photo: Paramount+

Parmount+ announced on Wednesday that it will premiere a four-part docuseries in December focusing on the world’s first mixed Israeli-Palestinian pop music group, As1one.

“As1one: The Israeli-Palestinian Pop Music Journey” will premiere Dec. 3. The coming-of-age docuseries, which will detail how six young men joined forced to form the global hit pop group, was produced by The As1One Production Company in association with Best Production Company for MTV Entertainment Studios. It was co-produced by the band’s founders, American music entrepreneurs Ken Levitan and James Diener, who developed bands such as Kings of Leon and Maroon 5.

The group is comprised of four Jewish Israelis and two Palestinians — Ohad Attia and Neat Rozenblat from Tel Aviv; Sadik Dogosh, a Palestinian Bedouin Muslim from Rahat; Aseel Farah, a Palestinian Christian from Haifa; Niv Lin from the southern Israeli town of Sapir; and Nadav Philips from Holon.

The docuseries will follow the band members over a five-year period and show how they founded the band, navigate the music industry, face challenges among themselves, and even cope with the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attacks that took place in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“The band members share their ups and downs including the challenging audition process in 2020; their language barriers, intense rehearsals, emotional highs and lows as they found their footing; navigating the very unexpected world events that happened on October 7th, 2023 — the morning after they flew to LA to record their first album; and the monumental challenges they have faced each day since,” Paramount+ said in a press release. “With so much more at stake because of the war, the band finds greater purpose in their music now representing something much greater than the six of them.”

The docuseries “spotlights the work of platinum-selling artists and producers, stylists, choreographers, and industry leaders, all collaborating to create a group that embodies unity, with members agreeing to disagree on the war in their homeland as they focus on making music together,” Paramound+ added.

The docuseries will also feature original music from the group, including their debut single “All Eyes On Us” featuring Nile Rodgers, as well as their upcoming single “Stranger,” which the band will debut on Friday.

Watch the trailer for “AS1One: The Israeli-Palestinian Pop Music Journey” below.



The post Paramount+ Announces New Docuseries About World’s First Israeli-Palestinian Boy Band As1one first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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