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Jewish Artist Exposes Plot to Poison, Attack Israelis at Boom Music Festival in Portugal
A look inside the 2023 Boom Festival in Portugal. Photo: YouTube screenshot
A Jewish artist revealed to Israel’s Kan news on Monday plans by far-left activists to attack and poison thousands of Israelis attending this year’s music and intercultural Boom Festival set to take place from July 17-24 in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal.
A woman from Portugal using the pseudonym Sarah said she was added to a WhatsApp group chat titled “Left wing argument” where the plans were discussed. She was included in the chat because of her work as an artist, but the group did not know that she was Jewish, she believes. Sarah shared with Kan screenshots of messages sent in the group chat that included discussions about torching the tents of Israelis attending the Boom Festival and spiking drugs at the biennial event.
“What started off was just silly ideas then started to become plans. And as you can see, it’s truly sinister,” she told Kan. “[There were] plans to defecate on Israelis tents, urinate in their food, set their tents on fire, put bad substances inside other substances that they may take, plans to upend them to make them feel uncomfortable. Plans to attack.”
“Their idea was that they needed to infiltrate the Boom Festival because a lot of Israelis go there after doing their service in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” Sarah added. “And they felt that it was unfair that [Israelis] should be included in the Boom [festival].”
One member of the group chat wrote: “They are all pretty much IOF [Israel Occupation Forces] veterans, boys and girls. I was thinking of giving them a taste of their own medicine. Wake them up and let them know that they are getting a humanitarian warning to leave their tents, make sure they are at a safe(ish) distance away, and then torch their tent. I’d let them know that I am the most moral arsonist in the world and then give them the strychnine drop to cheer them up.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, strychnine is a highly toxic, crystalline alkaloid that if ingested, can lead to muscle spasms, seizures, and respiratory failure possibly leading to death and brain death within 15 to 30 minutes.
The same group chat member who talked about wanting to give Israelis the poisonous alkaloid also wrote: “Oh c’mon strychnine in their acid is not dismemberment of babies … they are all former or current IOF after all … what’s a little strychnine to people who have torn babies to shreds while wearing their mother’s stolen underwear?”
Another message in the group chat talked about support for the cultural boycott of Israelis, calling it “an excellent tactic of psychological warfare” and that “the entire world needs to adopt this tactic wherever Israelis are found … especially in the ‘culture’ sphere.”
Sarah said members of the group chat also had discussions in group phone calls about attacking Israelis at the Boom Festival and she listened in on those calls. She told Kan she was “absolutely appalled” by what she read and heard as part of the WhatsApp group chat.
“First of all, our nature party scene has always been very inclusive. We become one when we are on the dance floor,” she noted. “So, reading these vile, racist, actually criminal plans to hurt Israeli people, especially after what happened on 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel], was really appalling to me. It’s victim-blaming.”
Sarah said she told festival organizers about the plot to target Israelis at the event, but that “nothing has been done about it.”
“Hence, I scrambled to try and warn the 4,000 Israelis that I know are coming to be on that dance floor. They need to be careful. There is a plan to hurt them,” she said. Sarah added that Boom festival organizers told her they would speak to Portuguese authorities about her concerns. She said she also spoke to police in Portugal but claimed they “just did not take me seriously at all.”
“After what we’ve seen in Washington and Boulder and in France, it’s imperative that this is taken seriously,” she stated.
Sarah recently moved out of Portugal because of “institutionalized antisemitism,” she told Kan, which included being spat on when she wore in public a Star of David and tags calling for the return of the hostages abducted by Hamas-led terrorists from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations
Fans of Argentinian soccer club All Boys marched through the streets before their match against Atlanta soccer club, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Photo: Screenshot
Argentinian authorities and soccer officials have launched investigations following antisemitic incidents by Club Atlético All Boys fans during Sunday’s local match against Atlanta.
Atlanta, a soccer team based in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has deep historical ties to Argentina’s Jewish community, which has long been a significant presence in the area.
This latest antisemitic incident took place outside the stadium before the game had even started.
All Boys fans were seen waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag, and handing out flyers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “Israel and Atlanta are the same crap.”
Before a football match today against the Argentine sports club Atlanta, which is closely associated with the Jewish community, fans of the opposing team, All Boys, waved Islamic Republic and Palestinian flags while parading a coffin draped in an Israeli flag through the streets.… pic.twitter.com/IQs4v6eoFz
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 29, 2025
Then, during the match — which ended in a 0-0 draw — a drone carrying a Palestinian flag flew over the stadium, while some fans reportedly chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Local police confirmed they have issued citations to individuals accused of inciting public disorder and related offenses.
On Monday, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) condemned the incidents as “abhorrent” and confirmed the organization has opened a formal inquiry into the events.
“This is not folklore. This is discrimination,” the statement reads.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich also announced that a criminal complaint has been filed, citing “acts of violence, expressions of racial and religious hatred, and public intimidation.”
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, condemned the incidents and called on both local authorities and the soccer officials to “take firm action against these acts of hatred.”
“We urge the authorities to take all necessary actions and apply the full force of the law,” the statement reads. “Violence and discrimination must have no place in our society.”
Repudiamos enérgicamente las expresiones antisemitas ocurridas hoy en las inmediaciones del estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
Exigimos a las autoridades correspondientes, a la AFA y al Club All Boys que actúen con firmeza ante estos hechos de odio.
La violencia y la discriminación no… pic.twitter.com/3AmY7IQscY— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 29, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Argentina has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes.
According to a recent report by DAIA, Argentina experienced a 15 percent increase in antisemitic activity last year, with 687 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded — up from 598 incidents in 2023 — marking a significant rise nationwide.
The study indicates that 66 percent of the antisemitic incidents originated in the digital realm, with a significant rise in Nazi symbols and conspiracy theories, but there was also a 34 percent increase in reported physical assaults, with such hate crimes rising in schools and neighborhoods.
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Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
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Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
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