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It’s not just Israeli Jews who were displaced by the Hamas attack
(JTA) — When Solomon and his family were forced to flee their home in Sderot after the Hamas attack on Oct.7, they were directed by the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, known as ASSAF, to a shelter in Tel Aviv for people whose lives had been upended by the violence. But when they arrived, they were abruptly denied entry. Unbeknownst to ASSAF, the shelter owners wished to serve only Jewish Israelis, not asylum-seekers like Solomon who hailed from Sudan or Eritrea and have been living in Israel sometimes for decades.
Solomon (not his real name) is among the estimated 30,000 or so asylum-seekers in Israel from Africa, who fled genocide, slavery or political unrest in their countries of origin. According to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 1,200-1,500 of these African asylum seekers have been forced to leave their homes in southern Israel as a result of the Hamas attack.
Because asylum seekers cannot obtain Israeli ID cards, many of those displaced following Oct. 7 had previously lived in apartments without having signed formal contracts recognized by the state. They were, therefore, not officially evacuated by Israeli municipalities nor were they guaranteed shelter. When they have found temporary homes on their own, the apartments often lack a “safe room” and are 10 minutes or more away from the closest bomb shelter, not nearly enough time to reach safety before the rockets begin to rain down.
The discrimination Solomon and countless others experience as they seek new homes in the aftermath of Oct. 7 reinforces a dismal reality: Those who are already on the margins of Israeli society experience additional hardships during a time of war. This is not only the case for refugees and asylum-seekers, but also for tens of thousands of migrant workers, primarily in agriculture, construction and home healthcare. While the legal status of these workers is different from that of asylum-seekers, they too experience discrimination and injustice.
Shelter is just one of many challenges these populations are currently facing. Many are struggling with food insecurity, job losses, language barriers that prevent them from receiving essential services, and a near-total absence of economic and social safety nets. There has also been an extreme deterioration in mental health within these communities, especially among refugees, who report that they are reliving past traumas triggered by the current violence.
Indeed, between Oct. 7 and Nov. 15, the NGOs ASSAF and HIAS saw a significant rise in requests for assistance from refugees, compared to the previous year, with ASSAF reporting a 153% increase in calls.
Although no Israeli politician has publicly stated that these populations should be excluded from government aid, official evacuation plans and the wartime economic plan do not explicitly reference them, despite calls from NGOs for clear recognition.
While so many refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers are often made to feel like outsiders, a vast number of them proudly see themselves as a core part of Israeli society. And while they are neither Jewish nor Israeli citizens, their lives are deeply intertwined with ours. They work in our fields, hotels and restaurants; they are caregivers for our elderly and people with disabilities; and, tragically, some 100 of them were among those injured, killed and kidnapped during Hamas’ deadly attack. Since then, like so many Israelis, they have demonstrated solidarity and resilience that represent the best of our society.
We, Israeli leaders of organizations working with vulnerable populations in Israel and around the world, have witnessed a remarkable spirit of volunteerism and collective responsibility in these communities over the past few weeks. In the wake of the Hamas attack, dozens of people have contacted many of our organizations to ask how they could support emergency efforts.
When a Nepalese man who was severely injured on Oct. 7 was transferred to a Jerusalem hospital, a micro-community of local Nepalese caregivers and Israelis rallied by his bedside to ensure he received the emotional and cultural support he needed. He had arrived in Israel only 21 days prior to the so-called “black Sabbath,” and was completely alone in a strange land. It is largely due to the kindness of this micro-community that he can now see a future for himself, despite his new reality.
But the kindness of migrant workers and refugees is not limited to caring for their own. Hundreds of African refugees have volunteered regularly at the Civilian Command Center at the Expo Complex in Tel Aviv, organizing and packaging meals and donations for evacuees from southern Israel and Israeli soldiers. Another group of Eritrean refugees, who were themselves evacuated from Ashkelon as a result of the war, have joined the tens of thousands of Israelis who are volunteering to harvest food and support Israeli farmers suffering a shortage of workers.
As Israel continues to recover and chart a new path forward, we urge Jewish leaders abroad to join Israelis who are calling for asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers to receive the care and support they deserve. This means both advocating that the Israeli government distribute aid equitably, so that they too receive the assistance they need, as well as keeping these communities in mind when collecting and allocating philanthropic dollars for those impacted by the massacre. This includes not only those who were killed, kidnapped, or injured, but also those who lost homes, jobs, and are suffering from trauma.
As Hillel famously wrote, we must be for ourselves, but not only for ourselves. Now, more than ever, we must show empathy for the strangers among us — refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers — as we, in Israel and the global Jewish community, recover from a shared trauma. When we honor our shared humanity, our entire society will be stronger.
This essay is co-signed by Sivan Carmel, Country Director, HIAS Israel; Tali Ehrenthal, Executive Director, ASSAF-Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel; Anat Herrmann-Aharoni, Executive Director, Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, and Or Mor-Yosef, CEO, African Refugee Development Center.
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The post It’s not just Israeli Jews who were displaced by the Hamas attack appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.