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Pro Wrestler Competing in WrestleMania 40 Promotes False Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionist Narratives Online
Sami Zayn. Photo: BANG Showbiz via Reuters Connect
Canadian professional wrestler Rami Sebei, one of the biggest stars in the WWE who performs under the ring name Sami Zayn, has regularly been “liking” antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionist posts on social media while following accounts that promote false narratives about the Jewish state, The Algemeiner has learned.
The pro-Palestinian athlete, who is of Syrian descent, will challenge fellow wrestler Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XL on Saturday. Ahead of his appearance in the professional wrestling event, The Algemeiner discovered that Zayn follows an account on X/Twitter that shares daily antisemitic and anti-Zionist content, including comparisons between Zionists and Nazis and false accusations about Israel. The account is run by an “Anti Zionist Hebrew,” according to its bio.
Throughout several posts this week, Israel has been described as a terrorist country and liberal Zionism equated with the murdering of Palestinians. On Monday, the account shared a video of soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) kicking around a ball and wrote in the caption, “Israeli soldiers have some genocide fun time in Gaza playing with a football, most likely looted from displaced/murdered Palestinians.” On Tuesday, the account re-posted a message that said Israel is “like a mafia, launching hits on Palestinians like organized criminals.”
On March 15, another post on the X account said: “Am Yisrael Chai [a Jewish slogan that means ‘the people of Israel live’] will never again be a legitimate phrase, it has become merely an expression of genocidal ideology. Zionists have turned it into their own ‘Seig Hei,’” which is a reference to the Nazi salute.
Photo: Screenshot
On March 11, the account shared messages about Zionists having “a lust for blood and destruction.” The account was recently flagged by X as harmful but has not been shut down.
Zayn also liked a video on X that showed comedian and actor Rami Youssef saying on March 30 during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live: “God, please stop the suffering. Stop the violence. Please free the people of Palestine, please.”
On Instagram, Zayn has “liked” several posts from an account that regularly accuses “Israeli occupation forces” of genocide, and of executing, murdering, and deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Zayn “liked” a post on the Instagram account that referred to the six months that have passed since the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, during which hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds more were taken by Hamas as hostages back to Gaza. However, rather than reference the Hamas attacks in Israel that sparked the current war, the post instead focused on Gaza and said, “6 months; 180 Day of GENOCIDE #SaveGaza.”
On Monday, Zayn “liked” a post on the same Instagram account that claimed Israel has “destroyed most of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” without mentioning that Hamas uses Gaza’s hospitals for its terrorist operations.
On Sunday, the wrestler “liked” a post that stated a false accusation about how “Israeli occupation forces murdered” civilians “in cold blood” and also “destroyed a [sic] residential blocks in the vicinity of Shifa hospital and executed hundreds of Palestinians civilians.” The Israeli military said on Monday that over the last two weeks it had killed more than 200 gunmen at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital — which according to the US and Israel was used by terrorists to run military operations and even hold hostages seized by Hamas — and captured about 900 suspects, of whom more than 500 were confirmed to be terrorist operatives.
Photo: Instagram screenshot
Photo: Screenshot
Zayn has an extensive history of expressing anti-Israel sentiments on social media. Last year, he shared on X an article titled “Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians.” The article compared Israel to Nazis for launching a military campaign in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas terrorists. The article also claimed that Israel killed some of its own citizens during the terrorist strike on Oct. 7 and concluded by saying that “Israelis who cheer on the Palestinian nightmare will soon endure a nightmare of their own.”
Zayn joined many celebrities in signing an open letter addressed to US President Joe Biden that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
After many supporters of Israel contacted the WWE and its parent company, TKO, about Zayn’s social media activity, he deleted his antisemitic posts without releasing a public statement or apology. He was also not sanctioned by the WWE.
In one now-deleted post from 2021, the wrestler talked about “Israeli military aggression” being wrapped “in a cloak of victimhood” by politicians and commentators who he claimed were “omitting [Israel’s] crimes towards the Palestinians.”
Also in 2021, in response to a post on X by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang expressing his solidarity with Israel and condemning Hamas terrorists, Zayn said, in a now-deleted tweet: “There is no viable moral defense for stealing people’s homes based on their ethnicity. Maybe not the most tasteful statement to make within hours of Israel bombing Gaza and killing 20 Palestinians, 9 of whom were children. But then again I’m not a soulless piece of s**t politician so what do I know?” Pro-Israel groups reportedly contacted the WWE following Zayn’s offensive tweets in 2021.
TKO has a Jewish majority on its board of directors — including Jonathan Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — and the WWE has a global partnership with Mattel, which is led by Israeli Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz.
Neither TKO nor the WWE responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment about Zayn’s recent social media activity. The WWE also ignored a request to speak with Zayn directly.
WrestleMania 40 will take place on April 6-7 at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
The post Pro Wrestler Competing in WrestleMania 40 Promotes False Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionist Narratives Online first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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