Connect with us

RSS

Rapper Macklemore Donates Proceeds From New Anti-Israel Song to UN Agency Allegedly Linked to Oct. 7 Attack

Macklemore performs at Alcatraz Milan on May 3, 2023 in Milan, Italy. Photo: Roberto Finizio via Reuters Connect

Seattle-based rapper Macklemore said on Tuesday that he will donate all proceeds from his new song to a controversial UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees that has come under fire for 19 of its employees allegedly participating in the Hamas terrorist attacks across southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The American rapper, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, released on YouTube this week the music video for his new track Hind’s Hall.  In the song, Macklemore, 40, raps about his avid support for students participating in anti-Israel protests at a number of university campuses across the US in recent weeks. He claims that the often violent protesters who chant for the destruction of Israel want “peace” and implies that the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks were an act of “resistance.”

“What is threatenin’ about divesting and wantin’ peace?” he raps at the start of the song. “The problem isn’t the protests, it’s what they’re protesting/It goes against what our country is funding/Block the barricade until Palestine is free … Screamin’ ‘Free Palestine’ ’til they’re home at last.” He also claims that antisemitism is not synonymous with anti-Zionism.

In January, Israel alleged that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were involved in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, assisted in kidnapping Israelis that day, and had other close ties to Hamas. Israel said one UNRWA employee, a math teacher, was a Hamas operative who helped kidnap an Israeli soldier from Be’eri in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and assisted in the transfer of Hamas weapons and trucks. Israel said the math teacher had a “logistical position” in Hamas’ Deir el-Balah battalion, was involved in “receiving and holding hostages,” and was “seen photographing a female hostage.”

The UN has been probing the allegations in an ongoing investigation. Last month, a UN spokesperson said that one case had been closed and four others suspended, citing a lack of evidence.

As a result of the accusations, roughly 15 countries suspended funding to UNRWA, but some have since resumed their financial support for the agency. In recent months, the UN received information about seven more UNRWA employees allegedly involved in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also alleged that 1,468 UNRWA workers “are known to be active” members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group based in Gaza, and that 185 of them are “active in the military branches of Hamas.”

UNRWA has also been accused of inciting antisemitism, terrorism, and hatred of Israel in the textbooks it issues to Palestinians schools.

In Hind’s Hall, Macklemore raps about Israel: “A state that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system to uphold an occupyin’ violent/History been repeating for the last seventy-five/The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied … Where does genocide land in your definition, huh?” The Grammy Award-winning rapper also called out politicians who support the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

The song’s title is a reference to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, the building that anti-Israel student protesters broke into and occupied in April. The student activists nicknamed the building “Hind’s Hall” to commemorate Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists controlling the region.

What if you were in Gaza? What if those were your kids?” Macklemore raps in Hind’s Hall. “If the West was pretendin’ that you didn’t exist/you’d want the world to stand up and the students finally did/let’s get it.”

Clips of several Israel-supporting politicians are also used in the music video, including videos of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky,) Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Macklemore additionally raps about not wanting to vote for US President Joe Biden in the 2024 general election because of his support for Israel’s war against Hamas. “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all,” he raps.

While Hind’s Hall has been widely praised by anti-Israel activisits, it has also received backlash from many on social media, some of whom noted Macklemore’s past allegedly antisemitic behavior.

In 2014, the rapper performed on stage in Seattle while wearing a fake wig and beard, and an oversized prosthetic nose — an outfit choice that B’nai B’rith International said was “deeply offensive and propagates Jewish stereotypes.”

The post Rapper Macklemore Donates Proceeds From New Anti-Israel Song to UN Agency Allegedly Linked to Oct. 7 Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza

Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has warned residents not to cooperate with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as the terror group seeks to reassert its grip on the enclave amid mounting international pressure to accept a US-brokered ceasefire.

“It is strictly forbidden to deal with, work for, or provide any form of assistance or cover to the American organization (GHF) or its local or foreign agents,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

“Legal action will be taken against anyone proven to be involved in cooperation with this organization, including the imposition of the maximum penalties stipulated in the applicable national laws,” the statement warns.

The GHF released a statement in response to Hamas’ warnings, saying the organization has delivered millions of meals “safely and without interference.”

“This statement from the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry confirms what we’ve known all along: Hamas is losing control,” the GHF said.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.

The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.

Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.

Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.

According to their reports, the organization has delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.

Hamas’s latest threat comes amid growing international pressure to accept a US-backed ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which sets a 60-day timeline to finalize the details leading to a full resolution of the conflict.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, though Israel has not confirmed this claim.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump next week in Washington, DC — his third visit in less than six months — as they work to finalize the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Even though Trump hasn’t provided details on the proposed truce, he said Washington would “work with all parties to end the war” during the 60-day period.

“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote in a social media post.

Since the start of the war, ceasefire talks between Jerusalem and Hamas have repeatedly failed to yield enduring results.

Israeli officials have previously said they will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and goes into exile — a demand the terror group has firmly rejected.

“I am telling you — there will be no Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a speech Wednesday.

For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 50 hostages — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.

While the terrorist group said it is “ready and serious” to reach a deal that would end the war, it has yet to accept this latest proposal.

In a statement, the group said it aims to reach an agreement that “guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal [of Israeli forces], and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip.”

According to media reports, the proposed 60-day ceasefire would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, with US and mediator assurances on advancing talks to end the war — though it remains unclear how many hostages would be freed.

For Israel, the key to any deal is the release of most, if not all, hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas, while the terror group is seeking assurances to end the war as it tries to reassert control over the war-torn enclave.

The post Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest

Police block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather to protest British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

British lawmakers voted Wednesday to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, following the group’s recent vandalizing of two military aircraft at a Royal Air Force base in protest of the government’s support for Israel.

Last month, members of the UK-based anti-Israel group Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, a county west of London, and vandalized two Voyager aircraft used for military transport and refueling — the latest in a series of destructive acts carried out by the organization.

Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems as well as other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza in 2023.

Under British law, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has the authority to ban an organization if it is believed to commit, promote, or otherwise be involved in acts of terrorism.

Passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 385 to 26 in the lower chamber — the House of Commons — the measure is now set to be reviewed by the upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday.

If approved, the ban would take effect within days, making it a crime to belong to or support Palestine Action and placing the group on the same legal footing as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Islamic State under UK law.

Palestine Action, which claims that Britain is an “active participant” in the Gaza conflict due to its military support for Israel, condemned the ban as “an unhinged reaction” and announced plans to challenge it in court — similar to the legal challenges currently being mounted by Hamas.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, belonging to a proscribed group is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison or a fine, while wearing clothing or displaying items supporting such a group can lead to up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £5,000.

Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the recent attack, in which two of its activists sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft and used crowbars to inflict additional damage.

According to the group, the red paint — also sprayed across the runway — was meant to symbolize “Palestinian bloodshed.” A Palestine Liberation Organization flag was also left at the scene.

On Thursday, local authorities arrested four members of the group, aged between 22 and 35, who were charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, as well as conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

Palestine Action said this latest attack was carried out as a protest against the planes’ role in supporting what the group called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.

At the time of the attack, Cooper condemned the group’s actions, stating that their behavior had grown increasingly aggressive and resulted in millions of pounds in damages.

“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton … is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” Cooper said in a written statement.

“The UK’s defense enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she continued.

The post UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians

Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed nonprofit operating aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, is pushing back forcefully against an Associated Press report alleging that its contractors opened fire on Palestinian civilians.

The GHF is accusing the AP of withholding key evidence and relying on a “disgruntled former contractor” as a central source.

“In response, we are pursuing legal action,” the organization said in a statement released Wednesday.

GHF said it conducted an “immediate investigation” after being contacted by the AP, reviewing time-stamped video footage and sworn witness testimony. The group concluded that the allegations were “categorically false,” stating that no civilians were fired upon at any of their distribution sites and that the gunfire heard in the AP’s video came from Israeli forces operating outside the vicinity.

“What is most troubling is that the AP refused to share the full video with us prior to publication, despite the seriousness of the allegations,” the statement read. “If they believed their own reporting, they should have provided us with the footage so we could take immediate and appropriate action.”

The nonprofit’s public rebuttal raises sharp questions about the AP’s reporting process, suggesting the outlet declined to engage with the organization in good faith and instead leaned on a source GHF describes as having been terminated “for misconduct” weeks prior. The group also claimed the AP’s recent coverage of its activities had begun to “echo narratives advanced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.”

The AP has not yet responded publicly to the GHF’s accusations or provided clarification about its decision not to share the video footage before publication. The original report alleged that American contractors employed by GHF had fired weapons near or toward civilians.

The GHF statement confirmed that a contractor seen shouting in the AP’s video had been removed from operations, though the group insisted this was unrelated to any violence and did not constitute evidence of wrongdoing.

GHF, which describes its mission as delivering food to Gaza “safely, directly, and without interference,” said it remains committed to transparency but would not allow its operations to be “derailed by misinformation.”

The dispute highlights the fraught information environment in Gaza, where limited access and competing narratives frequently complicate the verification of on-the-ground events.

The post US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News