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Jewish Simpsons Mural Defaced by Antisemitic, Pro-Palestinian Vandals at Shoah Memorial in Milan
The mural “The Jewish Simpsons Deported to Auschwitz” before and after it was vandalized. Photo: Provided
A mural on the external wall of the Shoah Memorial in Milan, Italy, that depicts the Simpsons family as Jews being deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp was recently defaced by pro-Palestinian vandals.
The pop art mural “The Jewish Simpsons Deported to Auschwitz” was created by contemporary Italian pop artist and activist AleXsandro Palombo and debuted on Jan. 27, 2023, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. It features Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson as Jews wearing outfits that feature a yellow Star of David badge with the word “Jude” in the center. Nazis forced Jews to wear a similar badge on their clothing during the Holocaust. Palombo’s team said the artist used contemporary figures such as the Simpsons to educate the public, especially younger generations, about the importance of remembrance and the duty to never forget the horrors of the Holocaust.
Pro-Palestinian vandals almost completely ripped off the images of Marge, Lisa and Maggie Simpson from the mural and replaced them with a message written in red paint that said “Free Pal,” which is short for “Free Palestine.” The Star of David badge on Homer’s overcoat was also torn off and the Star of David badge worn by Bart was covered in red paint.
“Little remains of the iconic work: only a grave antisemitic defacement, which has transformed a tribute to memory into an expression of hatred,” Palombo’s media relations team said on Sunday in response to the vandalism. “Today, [the] work has been brutally erased and turned into a disturbing political manifesto, steeped in antisemitism. This act is yet another stark reminder that antisemitic hatred is on the rise, even in places devoted to memory and reflection … At a time when antisemitism is surging globally, acts like this take on even greater gravity. This is not merely vandalism, but a deliberate attack on memory, culture, and the core values of human rights.”
Palombo has dedicated several murals over the years to Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism. They include depictions of Holocaust teenage diarist and victim Anne Frank wearing a concentration camp uniform and holding an Israeli flag while standing beside a Palestinian girl who burns the Hamas flag. Palombo also created a mural that depicted a boy from the Warsaw Ghetto reimagined as a hostage of Hamas terrorists.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel, Palombo unveiled a mural in Milan dedicated to Vlada Patapov, a young survivor of the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival. Shortly after its unveiling, the artwork was vandalized and Patapov’s head was erased.
A number of Palombo’s murals that feature Italian Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano and Edith Bruck have been repeatedly vandalized. In January, the Museum of the Shoah in Rome acquired several of Palombo’s murals that were vandalized and then restored. The artworks are part of the museum’s permanent collection and displayed in Rome’s ancient Jewish Ghetto, facing the Portico of Octavia.
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Trump: ‘Really Great Countries’ Want to Join Abraham Accords After Iran war
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-US President Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, September 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner/
i24 News – US President Donald Trump said “some really great countries” wish to join the Abraham Accords, speaking on Sunday to Fox News.
Trump said Iran was “weeks” away from its nuclear threshhold before Israel launched a surprise operation that lasted 12 days.
The US joined the operation last month, bombing the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility with never-before-used GBU-57 series MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators), as well as other nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz with Tomahawk missiles.
Shortly after, Trump pushed for a ceasefire. Dozens of Israeli civilians were killed in the flare-up, while hundreds of Revolutionary Guards members and senior officials in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs were killed.
The US and Iran have restarted negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program, with Trump reiterating that uranium enrichment is a red line. “Enrichment doesn’t mean like air conditioning and it doesn’t mean to jack up your car. Enrichment is a bad word,” he said.
“I won’t let that happen,” he concluded.
Regarding the success of the strikes against Iranian facilities, he stressed that the enriched uranium stores were buried underground and that the nuclear sites were “destroyed.” Trump also lambasted early reports that suggested only superficial damage had been inflicted, saying that the source that leaked the preliminary assessment should be “prosecuted.”
The B-2 bombers who conducted the mission, Trump said, would be invited to meet him at the White House.
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IAEA Chief Says Iran Could Be Enriching Uranium Within Months
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi arrives on the opening day of the agency’s quarterly Board of Governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Lisa Leutner
Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi was quoted as saying on Sunday, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
US officials have stated that their strikes obliterated key nuclear sites in Iran, although US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
“The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi told CBS News in an interview.
“Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” he added, according to the transcript of an interview on “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan due to air on Sunday.
Saying it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons, Israel launched attacks on Iran earlier this month, igniting a 12-day air war that the US eventually joined.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Grossi, who heads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the strikes on sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had significantly set back Iran’s ability to convert and enrich uranium.
However, Western powers stress that Iran’s nuclear advances provide it with an irreversible knowledge gain, suggesting that while losing experts or facilities may slow progress, the advances are permanent.
“Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology,” Grossi said. “So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have.”
Grossi was also asked about reports of Iran moving its stock of highly enriched uranium in the run-up to the US strikes and said it was not clear where that material was.
“So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved,” he said.
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Court Cancels Israel PM Netanyahu’s Trial Hearings this Week
FILE PHOTO: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the site of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by an Iranian missile barrage, in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
The Jerusalem District Court canceled this week’s hearings in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, accepting a request the Israeli leader made citing classified diplomatic and security grounds.
It was unclear whether a social media post by US President Donald Trump influenced the court’s decision. Trump suggested the trial could interfere with Netanyahu’s ability to join negotiations with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.
The ruling, seen by Reuters, said that new reasons provided by Netanyahu, the head of Israel’s spy agency Mossad and the military intelligence chief justified canceling the hearings.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. He has cast the trial against him as an orchestrated left-wing witch-hunt meant to topple a democratically elected right-wing leader.
On Friday, the court rejected a request by Netanyahu to delay his testimony for the next two weeks because of diplomatic and security matters following the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, which ended last Tuesday.
He was due to take the stand on Monday for cross-examination.
“It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. He said Washington, having given billions of dollars worth of aid to Israel, was not going to “stand for this.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli prosecution declined to comment on Trump’s post. Netanyahu on X retweeted Trump’s post and added: “Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!”
Trump said Netanyahu was “right now” negotiating a deal with Hamas, though neither leader provided details, and officials from both sides have voiced skepticism over prospects for a ceasefire soon.
On Friday, the Republican president told reporters he believed a ceasefire was close.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened in the wake of the US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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