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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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Twitter AI’s Spree of Antisemitic Answers Provokes European Union Meeting as US Military Signs Deal With Company

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
Following an update earlier this month to xAI’s Grok chatbot which resulted in a wave of antisemitic and pro-Hitler responses to users on X/Twitter, the European Commission summoned representatives from billionaire Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company to a Tuesday meeting to explain themselves.
The move comes after Italian parliament member Sandro Gozi urged for the Commission to begin a formal inquiry, as “the case raises serious concerns about compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA) as well as the governance of generative AI in the Union’s digital space.”
Poland’s Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski had also called for the Commission to take action and said that the Polish government would consider banning the app.
Due to the size of the X platform, the site falls under the European Union’s DSA which requires transparency about operations. Musk’s app already faces multiple investigations by the Commission.
On Wednesday, following the initial antisemitic statements from Grok, X’s Linda Yaccarino, the company’s CEO, announced her resignation.
On Monday, xAI announced a $200 million deal to provide Grok to the US military. The company stated that “under the umbrella of Grok For Government, we will be bringing all of our world-class AI tools to federal, local, state, and national security customers.” Customers in the plan could “use the Grok family of products to accelerate America – from making everyday government services faster and more efficient to using AI to address unsolved problems in fundamental science and technology.”
The Pentagon also announced on Monday other AI companies would receive contracts, including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.
Douglas Matty, chief digital and AI officer at the Defense Department, said that “leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems.”
Also on Monday, Musk unveiled a new release to the AI capabilities on X. The Companions feature will allow users to interact with cartoon characters, including a mischievous fox and an anime-style goth girl named Ani.
On Tuesday, xAI put out a statement explaining that it had “spotted a couple of issues with Grok 4 recently that we immediately investigated & mitigated.” The company said it had “tweaked the prompts and have shared the details on GitHub for transparency. We are actively monitoring and will implement further adjustments as needed.”
The post Twitter AI’s Spree of Antisemitic Answers Provokes European Union Meeting as US Military Signs Deal With Company first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Synagogue, Holocaust Memorial Vandalized in Poland After Politician Denies Holocaust

An antisemitic slur spray-painted on the ruins of a former synagogue in Dukla, Poland. Photo: World Jewish Restitution Organization
Two Jewish sites in Dukla, Poland, were vandalized over the weekend mere days after Polish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Grzegorz Braun claimed gas chambers at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were fake and repeated an antisemitic blood libel in a live radio interview.
Vandals spray-painted the word “F–k” followed by a Star of David on the ruins of a former synagogue that was destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and a memorial commemorating Holocaust victims located at the entrance of the Jewish cemetery in Dukla was defaced with a swastika and the word “Palestine,” according to the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). The memorial honors Jews of Dukla and the surrounding areas who were murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust.
The two Jewish sites in Dukla are cared for by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), which was established in 2002 by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the WJRO to protect and commemorate Poland’s Jewish heritage sites.
“These hateful acts are not only antisemitic, but they are also attempts to erase Jewish history and desecrate memory,” said WJRO President Gideon Taylor in a released statement on Tuesday. “Polish authorities must take swift and serious action to identify the perpetrators and ensure the protection of Jewish heritage sites in Dukla and across the country.”
“The vandalism of Jewish sites in Dukla—with swastikas and anti-Israel slurs—is not an isolated act,” insisted Jack Simony, director general of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF), in a statement to The Algemeiner. The nonprofit focuses on preserving the memory of the Jewish community in Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and maintains the Auschwitz Jewish Center, the last remaining synagogue in town.
“While we cannot say definitively that it [the vandalism] was sparked by Grzegorz Braun’s Holocaust denial, his rhetoric contributes to an atmosphere where hatred is emboldened and truth is under assault,” added Simony. “Braun’s lies are not harmless — they are dangerous. Holocaust denial fuels antisemitism and, too often, violence. This is why Holocaust education matters … because when we fail to confront lies, we invite their consequences. Memory must be defended, not only for the sake of the past, but for the safety of our future.”
On July 10, a ceremony was held commemorating the 84th anniversary of the 1941 Jedwabne massacre, when hundreds of Polish Jews were massacred – mostly by their neighbors – in the northeastern town in German-occupied Poland. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries and faith leaders including Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and Israeli Deputy Ambassador Bosmat Baruch. Groups of anti-Israel and far-right activists — including MEP Braun and his supporters – tried to disrupt the event by holding banners with antisemitic slogans and blocking the vehicles of the attendees, according to Polish radio.
Hours later, during a live radio broadcast, Braun falsely claimed the Auschwitz gas chambers were “a lie” and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum was promoting “pseudo-history.” He also claimed that Jewish “ritual murder is a fact.” Polish prosecutors launched an investigation into Braun’s comments, they announced that same day. Under Article 55 of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Poland.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum issued a swift condemnation of Braun’s remarks and said it intents to pursue legal action. The Institute of National Remembrance — which is the largest research, educational and archival institution in Poland – also denounced Braun’s remarks, saying there is “well-documented” evidence supporting the existence of gas chambers. His comments were also condemned by the Embassy of Israel in Poland, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and the US Embassy in Warsaw, which said that his actions “distort history, desecrate memory, or spread antisemitism.” AJCF called on the European Parliament to consider disciplinary measures against Braun, including potential censure or expulsion.
Auschwitz Jewish Center Director Tomek Kuncewicz said Braun’s comments are “an act of violence against truth, against survivors, and against the legacy of our shared humanity.” AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson called the politician’s remarks “blatant and baseless lies,” while Simony described them as “a calculated act of antisemitic incitement” that “must be met with legal consequences and universal moral condemnation.”
The post Jewish Synagogue, Holocaust Memorial Vandalized in Poland After Politician Denies Holocaust first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Coalition of 400 Jewish Orgs and Synagogues Urge Teachers Union to Reverse Decision Cutting Ties with ADL

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Photo Credit: ADL.
Following a vote by the National Education Association (NEA) on July 6 to end its relationship with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 400 Jewish communal groups, education organizations, and religious institutions have come together to call for the influential teachers union to change course.
“We are writing to express our deep concerns about the growing level of antisemitic activity within teachers’ unions, particularly since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023,” the letter to NEA President Becky Pringle stated. “Passage of New Business Item (NBI) 39 at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly this past weekend, which shockingly calls for the boycott of the Anti-Defamation League, is just the latest example of open hostility toward Jewish educators, students and families coming from national and local teachers’ unions and their members.”
In addition to the ADL, signatories of the letter included American Jewish Committee (AJC), Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, #EndJewHatred, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting & Analysis), Combat Antisemitism Movement, Democratic Majority for Israel, StandWithUs, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Zioness Movement, and Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
The group told Pringle that “we have heard directly from NEA members who have shared their experiences ranging from explicit and implicit antisemitism within the union to a broader pattern of insensitivity toward legitimate concerns of Jewish members – including at the recently concluded Representative Assembly. We are also deeply troubled by a broader pattern of union activity over the past 20 months that has targeted or alienated Jewish members and the wider Jewish community.”
The letter to Pringle included an addendum providing examples of objectionable rhetoric. These named such incidents as the Oakland Education Association (OEA) putting out a statement calling for “an end to the occupation of Palestine” and the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) accusing Israel of genocide.
The coalition of 400 organizations urged the NEA to “take immediate action” and suggested such steps as rejecting NBI 39, issuing a “strong condemnation” of antisemitism within the union, drafting a plan to counter ongoing antisemitism in affiliate chapters, and opposing “any effort to use an educator’s support for the existence of Israel as a means to attack their identity.”
ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X that “Excluding @ADL’s educational resources from schools is not just an attack on our org, but on the entire Jewish community. We urge the @NEAToday Executive Committee to reverse this biased, fringe effort and reaffirm its commitment to supporting all Jewish students and educators.”
The post Coalition of 400 Jewish Orgs and Synagogues Urge Teachers Union to Reverse Decision Cutting Ties with ADL first appeared on Algemeiner.com.