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Leading French Politicians, Cultural Figures Call on European Parliament Candidates to Reject Antisemitism
A pro-Hamas protester with a sign comparing the Auschwitz extermination camp with the current war in Gaza at a demonstration in Paris. Photo: Reuters/Henrique Campos
More than 600 prominent personalities in French politics and culture have signed an open letter calling on candidates in the forthcoming elections to the European parliament to decisively reject antisemitism.
The letter, published in the leading news outlet Le Monde on Thursday, attracted the signatures of three former prime ministers — Elisabeth Borne, Bernard Cazeneuve, and Manuel Valls.
Organized by “Nous Vivrons” (“We Live”), a collective devoted to combating antisemitism, the letter observed that the June 6-9 elections for the 750 seats in the European parliament amounted to a major test for democracy that went far beyond the “fate of the Jews.”
“We ask for nothing more than others, but nothing less either,” the letter stated. “Just a non-negotiable common minimum. Against antisemitism in all its forms. Against hatred. Against xenophobia.”
The letter went on to declare: “We refuse to pay the heaviest price of a fractured society in search of a common enemy to unite against.”
Other signatories to the letter included the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, the writer Yvan Attal, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, and the Chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia.
Part of the impetus for the letter was provided by a demonstration in Paris on March 8 to mark International Women’s Day. Jewish women who took to the streets demanding the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since the terrorist organization’s pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7 were confronted by around 300 pro-Hamas demonstrators chanting “Palestine will win.” Insults were exchanged along with shoving and jostling before police intervened to restore order.
The Jewish women “wanted to carry the voice of Israeli women, they were asked why they did not talk about Palestinian women,” the letter stated, before asking: “Why should Jews be the carriers of a universalist feminism that the spokespeople of the cause have themselves given up?”
Hatred of Jews has exploded in France in the wake of the Hamas atrocities. Antisemitic outrages rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported.
In an address to the Jewish community earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged his absolute commitment to countering antisemitism.
“Every time the slightest trace of antisemitism reappears, we will be as uncompromising as we have always been,” Macron emphasized.
The post Leading French Politicians, Cultural Figures Call on European Parliament Candidates to Reject Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op
DF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
i24 News – The Israeli military eliminated 250 Hezbollah terrorists including 21 commanders in four days of ground combat, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday.
IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon have uncovered vast caches of weapons and munitions in civilian residences, showing how central embedding within civilian population is to Hezbollah’s mode of warfare.
Meanwhile, heavy strikes targeting the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh in southern Beirut were ongoing, Lebanese media reported.
The post 250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says
Illustrative. Hodeidah, Yemen, July 20, 2024. Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
Airstrikes were launched on Friday at several parts of Yemen including its capital Sanaa and Hodeidah airport, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen, and residents said.
Strikes also targeted the south of Dhamar city and the southeast of al-Bayda province, the channel added.
Residents said that the attack on al-Bayda province targeted several Houthi military outposts.
Al Masirah TV reported that the strikes had been carried out by the United States and British forces, but a British government source said Britain was not involved.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel‘s war with Hamas.
The attacks have drawn US and British retaliatory strikes and disrupted global trade as ship owners reroute vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to sail the longer route around the southern tip of Africa.
Following the airstrikes, a Houthi spokesman called the attack “a desperate attempt,” adding that “Yemen will not be deterred by these attacks and will continue its steadfastness in confronting the enemies.”
The post Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem
Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
JNS.org – An Israeli Air Force fighter jet conducted a rare strike in Tulkarem in the West Bank on Thursday night, targeting top Hamas terrorist Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.
The Palestinian Authority reported at least 18 fatalities in the strike, with a local security source telling Agence France-Presse it was the deadliest in Judea and Samaria since the Second Intifada.
Ayyth Radwan, the head of Islamic Jihad’s Tulkarem branch, was also reportedly killed.
Oufi was planning a terrorist attack “in the immediate time frame,” according to the Israel Defense Forces, and directed the thwarted car bombing last month near Ateret in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
There were no casualties in the incident, which Israel Ganz, the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, called a “great miracle.”
The IDF said Oufi was involved in smuggling weapons to terrorists who perpetrated several recent attacks against Israelis, including some that resulted in injuries to civilians.
He also “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks,” added the military.
The post IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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