RSS
New Marketing Agency Connects Pro-Israel Brands With Influencers Who Received Backlash for Supporting Jewish State
A protester wrapped in an Israeli flag at a rally against antisemitism at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
A new marketing agency based in Tel Aviv that launched on Wednesday was established to help forge new relationships between Jewish and Israeli brands and social media influencers who have faced fallout for supporting Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
Many pro-Israel influencers lost international agency and brand sponsorships for voicing their support for the Jewish state and calling for the release of hundreds of hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Barzel Media aims to counteract these boycotts against those who back the Jewish state, connecting Israeli and Jewish-owned brands with pro-Israel content creators and influencers who share the same values and views on Israel.
The agency seeks to bridge the divide between pro-Israel brands and influencers and draws its name from the Hebrew word “barzel,” which means “iron.” All of the brands that Barzel Media works with also donate a portion of their proceeds to charity.
“Creators should never have to choose between their careers and standing up for Israel,” said Barzel Media founder and CEO Brian Spivak. “Volunteering at the Influencer Division of the Hostage Families Forum in Tel Aviv, I met with hundreds of content creators who saw deals canceled because of their outspoken support for the hostages and for Israel. Therefore, I decided to create Barzel Media to ensure that the brands and influencers putting themselves on the front-lines of social media to defend Israel will always have the support they need to prosper.”
Bianca Jade, an influencer who has hundreds of thousands of social media followers and works with Barzel Media, was fired from her television hosting job and lost a brand partnership for supporting Israel.
“As a creator who’s always stood for humanitarian, racial, and social justice causes, I felt the need to lend my influence for the victims of Oct. 7,” said Jade. “And yet, despite breaking sales records for these brands, when I raised my voice for the hostages and hostage families, they immediately dropped me and I lost all my income. I’m so happy Brian founded this agency, and I know that with him I’ll have the freedom to express my values, as well as the ability to promote organizations who share those values, without fear.”
All pro-Israel brands and influencers are invited to reach out to the agency through its website.
The post New Marketing Agency Connects Pro-Israel Brands With Influencers Who Received Backlash for Supporting Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
RSS
Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism
Pope Francis waves after delivering his traditional Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and the world from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” said the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.
Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.
The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.
Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile
Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – The Israeli military said on Saturday that while the investigation into the failure to intercept the missile that hit Tel Aviv early in the morning was still ongoing, some lessons were already being implemented. The ballistic missile, fired by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, landed at a playground in a residential area, leading to 16 people sustaining injuries from glass shards.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said that “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, in regards of both interception and early warning.”
The spokesperson added that “no further details regarding aerial defense activities and the alert system can be disclosed due to operational security considerations.”
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as “acts of solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza.
The post IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login