A pro-Israel advocacy organization comprised of influential Hollywood figures has challenged members of the entertainment and media industry to stop wearing red pins from Artists4Ceasefire that show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday.

A collective known as The Brigade published an open letter on Monday night that addressed Artists4Ceasefire and supporters of its enamel pins, which depict a red palm of a hand with a heart in its center.

The red palm symbolizes Palestinian solidarity, but it also became the symbol of the notorious lynching of two Israeli military reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in October 2000. One of their killers, Aziz Salha, appeared at the window of the police station delightedly displaying his blood-stained palms to the appreciative mob gathered outside following the murder of the two Israelis.

The red palm symbol has since been used by anti-Israel protesters to criticize Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas terrorists who orchestrated a massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Celebrities who have sported the Artists4Ceasefire pins at previous press events and award ceremonies, including last year’s Oscars, include Mark Ruffalo, Nicola Coughlan, Ramy Youssef, Ava DuVernay, Billie Eilish, and her brother Finneas O’Connell.

In their open letter on Monday night, The Brigade — comprised of talent, publicists, producers, writers, marketers, agents, analysts, lawyers, and artists — noted the similarly between the red palm symbol used by Artists4Ceasefire and the 2000 lynching.

“In 2000, Palestinian terrorists in Ramallah lynched two innocent Israelis, ripped them apart limb by limb, and held up their blood-soaked hands to a cheering mob. That infamous image is now your ‘ceasefire’ badge. Is this ignorance? Or is this deliberate, calculated malice?” wrote The Brigade. The group described the red hand pin as “no symbol of peace” but instead “the emblem of Jewish bloodshed.”

The group blasted Artists4Ceasefire for asking celebrities to wear the pin but more specifically the timing of its campaign. The anti-Israel group urged celebrities to showcase their pin on Feb. 20, the same day Hamas returned the murdered bodies of Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 10 months, to Israel. The young brothers were brutally murdered by Hamas in November 2023 during their captivity and their bodies were held captive for more than 500 days.

“On Feb. 20, the same day the world learned 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were strangled to death by their terrorist captors in Gaza, you doubled down-urging celebrities to proudly wear your bloodstained red hand pin. Have you no shame?” the statement asked.

The Brigade then directly addressed members of the Hollywood industry who plan on wearing the pin in the future, including at the Oscars on Sunday. “Would you proudly wear the emblem of a lynching?” The Brigade asked them. “Would you parade the symbol of people who strangled babies with their bare hands? Because that is what the red hand represents. To those who wore it without knowing – now you know. To those who knew it and wore it anyway — we see you and we will not be silent.”

The open letter also condemned Hamas’s “grotesque, sadistic ceasefire tactics,” and how the US-designated terrorist organization “executed Israeli captives AFTER a ceasefire was reached.” The letter also talked about hostages returning to Israel “on the brink of death, frail, bruised, and starved,” and how Hamas “traded mutilated corpses while laughing in the faces of grieving families.”

Artists4Ceasefire explained the symbolize of its pin in a statement on its website: “The red background [is] to symbolize the urgency of the call to save lives. The orange hand conveys the beautiful community of people from all backgrounds that have come together in support of centering our shared humanity. The heart being cradled in the center of the hand is an invitation for us to lead with our hearts, always, to lead with love.”

Read the full letter from The Brigade below:

To the Red Hand Supporters,

We turned the other cheek when you pinned a symbol of Jewish murder to your awards lapels.

We took the high road when you cried for a ceasefire that already existed before Hamas shattered it on October 7th.

But today, we will not be silent.

That pin is no symbol of peace. It is the emblem of Jewish bloodshed.

In 2000, Palestinian terrorists in Ramallah lynched two innocent Israelis, ripped them apart limb by limb, and held up their blood-soaked hands to a cheering mob. That infamous image is now your “ceasefire” badge.

And on the very day it was discovered that the Bibas babies—innocent Jewish children—were strangled to death by the terrorist’s bare hands, you asked Hollywood to wear it with pride.

Is this ignorance?

Or is this deliberate, calculated malice?

It’s not peace.

You Claim to See Humanity on Both Sides. Yet You…

 Ignore the facts surrounding the historic barbaric October 7 terror attack on Israel
 Push your anti-Israel narrative even after Israel agreed to ceasefires with Hamas AND Hezbollah.
 Refuse to condemn Hamas’ grotesque, sadistic ceasefire tactics.

Did you speak up when Hamas:

– Returned hostages on the brink of death, frail, bruised, and starved?
– Executed Israeli captives AFTER a ceasefire was reached?
– Traded mutilated corpses while laughing in the faces of grieving families?

*Actors, Actresses, Filmmakers and people of our Hollywood Community, Read This Before You Wear That Pin Again* Would you proudly wear the emblem of a lynching?

Would you parade the symbol of people who strangled babies with their bare hands?

Because that is what the red hand represents.

To those who wore it without knowing—now you know.

To those who knew and wore it anyway—we see you and we will not be silent.

Members of the Brigade

The post ‘Have You No Shame?’: Pro-Israel Hollywood Advocacy Group Urges Celebs to Stop Wearing Ceasefire Pins Ahead of Oscars first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned in a recent interview that “radical Islamist terrorism” poses the greatest threat to the safety of the American people, potentially shedding light on her priorities as she starts the job of leading the vast American intelligence community.

While speaking with Fox News host Lara Trump, a daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump, Gabbard dismissed the declaration made in 2021 by then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that white supremacists pose the greatest national security threat to the United States. Instead, Gabbard asserted that Americans face a greater safety threat from “radical Islamist terrorism.” 

“We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism ​​here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of [former US President Joe] Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes,” Gabbard said when asked what the chief threat is to the American people’s safety

Following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, US officials have raised alarm bells about rising Islamist extremism across the globe.

Gabbard’s predecessor, former US intelligence chief Avril Haines, warned last March that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza may have a “generational impact on terrorism,” asserting that Islamist terrorist groups al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS) have been inspired by Hamas to attack Americans and Israelis.

Haines also cautioned months later that Iran, which backs Hamas and US intelligence agencies have long called the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, has ramped up “influence efforts” on American soil, aiming to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” She claimed that “actors tied to Iran’s government” had sought to leverage rising anti-Israel animus by using social media to encourage and finance protests.

Last June, meanwhile, former FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the “threat from foreign terrorists rose to a whole ‘nother level after Oct. 7.” Wray revealed that following Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage, his agency saw the emergence of a “rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies.” He cautioned that “individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.”

On New Year’s Day this year, a US Army veteran who pledged allegiance to ISIS drove a truck into a crowd in New Orleans and killed at least 14 people. The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan who once served in Afghanistan, said the attack was intended to draw attention to “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”

Over the course of her political career, Gabbard has repeatedly called attention to the threat of Islamic extremism.

In 2015, the former US congresswoman repudiated the Obama administration for refusing to state that “Islamic extremists” are embroiled in an armed conflict with the United States. In 2016, Gabbard cautioned about a “radical political ideology of violent jihad aimed at establishing a totalitarian society governed by laws based on a particular interpretation of Islam.” In 2017, she introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act while in Congress to bar the Department of Defense from “knowingly providing weapons or any other form of support to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the Islamic State.”

The post US Intel Chief Tulsi Gabbard Declares ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’ Most Urgent National Security Threat first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Boston University (BU)’s Board of Trustees showed moral courage on February 11, when it rejected two petitions calling for BU to divest from the State of Israel. In doing so, the Board refused to bow down to the demands of those who seek to end the existence of the world’s only Jewish state.

“The endowment is no longer the vehicle for political debate,” BU President Melissa L. Gilliam declared. BU must now remain firm against the demagogic pressure of the pro-Hamas groups that continue to push the genocidal goal of destroying Israel.

Earlier this month, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which openly praises Hamas and championed the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, ran a sham referendum at BU calling for the divestment of university funds from Israel.

BU’s SJP chapter created the referendum internally and had the Young Democratic Socialists of America administer the vote. The referendum made a mockery of the student government process by not requiring voters to use their BU emails, effectively permitting off-campus participation, and it also did not prevent voters from voting multiple times. Ultimately, the BU Student Government, known as “StuGov,” announced the “nullification” of the referendum’s results.

However, the campaign to demonize Israel at BU does not end with this vote. StuGov has already announced that it plans to hold an additional vote. Instead of explicitly mentioning Israel, the referendum says “companies actively complicit in human rights violations in the Middle East.” This edit is a smokescreen to hide their true intentions and the antisemitism that is raging at BU.

On February 19, StuGov posted a link to a referendum on divesting from Israel. Voting commenced immediately and will run through February 26. This time, instead of being hosted under the auspices of radical outside organizations, it has the apparent imprimatur of the students’ elected representatives themselves — even though the Board of Trustees has already rejected the politicization of the endowment.

Divestment campaigns against Israel on campus have the consistent effect of exacerbating antisemitism at universities, according to the Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University. According to one report, antisemitism has surged on college campuses, increasing by  700% from 2022 to 2023.

As a February 3 open letter from BU Hillel rightly pointed out, the school’s student government ignored the internationally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism by considering the anti-Israel resolution. The IHRA definition includes nine examples of contemporary antisemitism, like “Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” Demanding that Israel fail to defend itself after an armed invasion by a terrorist group that massacred 1,200 people, and raped and mutilated civilian women easily meets that standard.

In the run-up to the new referendum, BU SJP touted its anti-Israel posture with the infamous symbol of the inverted red triangle. Nazi Germany originated the symbol to designate political prisoners held in concentration camps. Using that symbol to call for the murder of Jews in 2025 is an offense that cannot go unpunished.

BU’s Board of Trustees has taken the correct stand in removing its endowment from the crossfire of Middle East politics. Now, BU can do even more by ensuring that no further flawed referenda jeopardize the safety and inclusion of the Jewish minority on campus.

BU must continue to champion open dialogue, protect every member of its community, and ensure that its investments reflect principle, not politicization.

Guy Starr is a sophomore studying Accounting and Finance at Boston University. He is the current co-President of Boston University Students for Israel.

The post Boston University Has Stood Up to Antisemitism, But It Must Do More first appeared on Algemeiner.com.