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Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel
Matisyahu performs at Pompano Beach Amphitheater Pompano Beach, Florida on August 26, 2023. Photo: Rick Munroe/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu debuted on Friday a new song about antisemitism and the track’s music video was filmed in Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in the Jewish state.
The music video for Ascent features survivors of the Nova Music Festival massacre and was filmed at the site of the festival, which was invaded on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists who killed 370 people before taking 44 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Matisyahu also filmed the music video in the neighborhoods in southern Israel where Hamas infiltrated and killed residents before kidnapping others and taking them to Gaza. In total, over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 abducted.
The music video additionally features archival footage showcasing various moments in Jewish history.
In the song, Matisyahu raps about the “nation that could never be erased” and fighting “waves of deniers … liars [who] start fires that blaze, but truth is the water that stands in its way.” Ascent is included on Matisyahu’s new EP, titled Hold the Fire.
The musician, who began his music career as a Hassidic Jew and has since left that ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, talked about the inspiration behind Ascent in an interview with Billboard News earlier in March. The One Day singer said the track’s title is a nod to the Hebrew prayer “Song of Ascents,” also known in Hebrew as Shir Hamaalot, and was written in response to a historic surge in antisemitic hate crimes around the world since Oct. 7.
In Ascent, Matisyahu is “calling people out on antisemitic thinking,” he said, adding that he believes the track is going to be “empowering.” He explained that his visit to Israel for the song’s music video gave him hope for the future of the Jewish people.
“For the Jewish people right now, there’s this feeling of isolation, separation, anger, and fear,” the Jerusalem singer told Billboard News. “I was feeling really hopeless about what the future was going to look like for all of us and went to Israel, and it renewed my faith in humanity and God. I left with this feeling of light, and I’ve been trying to take that and put that into the music.”
“I think about the people I met there, the survivors of that festival, the soldiers that I met, the families of the hostages and what they’re going through, and that’s what’s given me the strength to not be quiet about what’s going on right now,” he explained.
The post Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel 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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