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Mohamed Hadid Apologizes for Sending Racist, Homophobic Messages to US Rep. Ritchie Torres for Supporting Israel
Mohamed Hadid and one of his daughters, Bella Hadid, arrive at the premiere of Ismael’s Ghosts (Les Fantomes d’Ismael) during the 70th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France. Photo: Hubert Boesl/Cover Media via Reuters
Real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, who is also the father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid, continued to rail against US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Sunday for supporting Israel, calling him a “shill being used by” the Jewish state while attempting to apology for sending offensive messages to the congressman.
A day earlier, the New York Post shared direct messages that Hadid, 75, sent from his verified Instagram account to Torres, 36, over several months.
“You worse than the rats of New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as bouncer at gay bar,” Hadid allegedly wrote. The real estate mogul, who was born in Nazareth, reportedly told Torres that he was a “slave to whites” and another message read, “Make sure you dress as KKK to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours.”
The New York Post shared a screenshot of one message in which Hadid wrote to Torres, “You are just unusual Black and colorful mouth for Israeli and AIPAC and looking for payday of over 500K,” referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group.
In 2021, Torres became the first openly gay Black and Hispanic man to join Congress. He has been vocal in his defense of Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Hadid took to Instagram on Sunday to apology for his remarks — but also accused Israel of committing genocide and further criticized Torres for being supportive of the Jewish state.
“I need to apologize,” Hadid wrote in an Instagram post. “Not for the anger I feel but for the words I used to express that anger.” He then called Israel “a state that not only mistreats Black and Brown people but pinkwashes their atrocities using their projected gay rights as a shield for their human rights violations.”
He added: “My feeling after 76 years of being a refugee from the country where I and my ancestors were born and watching a genocide unfold are at an all time high. I am watching Unites State politicians work as AIPAC messengers of genocide. I used the wrong words to express that anger but the anger was warranted. To send Black and Brown and other marginalized communities to do the dirty work of two countries who have never respected them is wrong. I apologize to my community for directing the conversation to this. And even for a minute from Palestine. All eyes on Palestine. Free Palestine.”
Before Hadid issued his apology, Torres released a statement to the New York Post about the hateful messages he received from the real estate developer.
“Whether it is dehumanizing me as worse than the rats of the NYC sewage system or telling me to dress like the KKK to ‘hide that gray colored face of yours,’ Mr. Hadid has hurled just about every racist insult at me shorting of calling me the N-word,” Torres said. “That Mr. Hadid felt so at ease demonizing and dehumanizing a Black member of Congress reveals a tragic truth about our politics: if you are a person of color and pro-Israel, you are fair game for racist invective.”
Hadid has a history of accusing Israel of occupation, colonialism, genocide, and apartheid. In March, he lambasted US President Joe Biden for his relations with Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks. “He will be in court with the rest of the Zionist criminals. We will hunt them down like they did the Nazis,” he wrote. He also called Biden the “head of the Zionist project.”
Hadid’s daughter, Bella, has participated in anti-Israel rallies where she chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and for it to be replaced with a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. She has also accused Israel of “colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation, and apartheid over the Palestinian people.”
The post Mohamed Hadid Apologizes for Sending Racist, Homophobic Messages to US Rep. Ritchie Torres for Supporting Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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