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Russia Calls for Swift Release of Its Nationals Held by Hamas

Clockwise: Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov and Almog Meir Jan. Photo: Courtesy

i24 NewsRussia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova on Tuesday announced that she appealed to senior United Nations (UN) and other officials to take action to secure the release of Russian nationals held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after eight months after their kidnapping.

According to her post on Telegram messaging app, Moskalkova launched the appeal after meeting in Moscow with relatives of those still being held. “In one conversation, one of the mothers told me details of the hostages’ situation,” she wrote.

Moskalkova said she had appealed to the UN High Commissioner For Human Rights, Volker Turk, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, and other officials “for the rapid return home of our compatriots.”

There are 116 hostages left in Gaza, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead in absentia. News reports have put at eight the number of hostages holding Russian passports, including three who were released.

An Israeli-Russian dual national Andrey Kozlov was among the four hostages the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescued in an operation on Saturday.

WATCH: Freed Israeli hostage Andrei Kozlov falls to his knees and weeps as he is reunited with his mother after being held by Hamas in Gaza for 8 months.
May all the other hostages be freed soon! pic.twitter.com/CiDndo7Ezb

— Michael Freund (@msfreund) June 9, 2024

Earlier in May, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Gazan terrorist group, released a psychological warfare video of Alexander Troufanov, another Russian-Israeli dual national held hostage in the Strip.

The post Russia Calls for Swift Release of Its Nationals Held by Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University

Graffiti on the walls of Humboldt University in Berlin, where students defaced property with antisemitic slogans during an anti-Israel protest. Photo: Screenshot

German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.

The unruly demonstration came as authorities in Germany continued to work to address the growing surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.

On Wednesday, a group of students took over several buildings at Humboldt University, a public research university in central Berlin, and staged a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They also called on the state government to halt the deportation of four Hamas sympathizers who participated in raucous anti-Israel protests and, according to German authorities, “pose a threat to public order.”

In the buildings, the students put up banners bearing slogans such as “You are complicit in genocide,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” and “Intifada until victory.”

They also defaced university property with banned slogans, including “Zionism is fascism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which the German government prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

There were also around 40 to 60 people outside the buildings staging a demonstration and chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine,” “Boycott Israel,” “No borders, no deportations,” “Germany is a fascist country,” and “Resistance is an international right.”

After the university administration requested the removal of the protesters, local police intervened and arrested at least five people.

The European Jewish Congress, the representative umbrella organization of European Jewry, condemned the incident, stating that “hate must never be normalized.”

“Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe, unwelcome, and targeted,” the group wrote in a post on X. “These aren’t just words on a wall, they contribute to a climate of fear and exclusion.”

“Hate must never be normalized. Not in our societies, and not in our universities.”

Earlier this month, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in several anti-Israel protests.

The four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, have until April 21 to leave the country or risk being forcibly removed.

The German State Office for Immigration issued “residence termination notices” against the four individuals – two Irish citizens, a Polish citizen, and an American citizen – for their participation in pro-Hamas demonstrations, including a sit-in at Berlin’s central train station, a road blockade, and the occupation of a building at the Free University of Berlin (FU).

According to the deportation notice, they “pose a threat to public order” and “indirectly supported” terrorist groups like Hamas.

A spokesperson for the German Senate Department for the Interior announced that an appeal against the decision has been filed with the Supreme Court.

While legal representatives and experts have expressed concerns that the deportation orders violate civil liberties for EU citizens in Germany, as neither individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, German law does not require a conviction for deportation.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total recorded for the entire previous year, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).

The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.

The post Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Speeding Brooklyn Woman Indicted on Manslaughter for Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters

An overturned auto in a car crash flipped on its roof landing on a mother and her three children, killing two children on March 29, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. The family was crossing the street when the crash happened. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

A Brooklyn woman was indicted on reckless manslaughter and other charges on Wednesday for a car crash late last month that killed a Jewish mother and her two children who were crossing the street on Shabbat.

Miriam Yarimi, 32, was arraigned on Wednesday by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment that charged her with multiple counts of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, and other related counts. The resident of Midwood, Brooklyn, was ordered held without bail and her next court date is set for June 11. She is facing a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison if convicted for the fatal car accident that took place around 1 pm on March 29.

Yarimi pleaded not guilty during her first in-person court appearance on Wednesday. Earlier this month, she appeared in court virtually from her room in NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was undergoing a psychological evaluation.

“This horrific fatal crash was one of the worst I’ve seen in over 25 years as a prosecutor,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “It wasn’t an accident. This defendant’s unconscionably dangerous driving wiped out a family. The consequences of her flouting traffic laws and commonsense were disastrous, and we will now seek to hold her fully accountable for this criminally reckless behavior.”

Gonzalez said video surveillance shows Yarimi drove her car through a steady red light a block before the crash, “narrowly avoiding other cars,” before she approached the site of the car accident at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road. Yarimi was also going almost triple the speed limit before she crashed her car into an Uber that was waiting for four Jewish pedestrians to finish crossing the street. When the Jewish family was just “a step or two from the sidewalk,” Yarimi’s car sped through the intersection against the light, smashed into the back of the Uber and plowed through the victims as her car rolled over, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said. According to evidence obtained from the black box, Yarimi’s car was traveling at about 68 mph – in a 25-mph speed zone – “was at full throttle (suggesting the gas pedal was floored) and zero brake was applied.”

Natasha Saada, 34, and her daughters – eight-year-old Diana and five-year-old Deborah – were killed at the scene. Her four-year-old son Philip suffered serious injuries, including skull fractures and brain bleeding, and also had a kidney removed. He is in a medically induced coma and “is still fighting for his life,” Gonzalez told reporters outside of the courtroom on Wednesday after Yarimi’s indictment was announced. The Uber had five occupants – the Uber driver, a mother, and her three kids – all of whom sustained minor injuries. Yarimi’s car was upside down and had to be cut to get her out. The single mother, who is also Jewish, suffered minor physical injuries.

At the time of the crash, Yarimi was driving with a suspended license. Her car also reportedly had 99 parking and camera violations between August 2023 and March 2025, including 21 speed camera tickets and five red light tickets.

The post Speeding Brooklyn Woman Indicted on Manslaughter for Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Mural Honoring Holocaust Survivors in Milan Gets Vandalized Again With Swastikas, ‘Nazi’ Messages

A mural by AleXsandro Palombo that was vandalized in Milan. Photo: AleXsandro Palombo

Another mural in Milan celebrating Holocaust survivors by Italian contemporary pop artist AleXsandro Palombo has been targeted in an antisemitic attack, this time being vandalized with a swastika and Nazi-related messages.

The mural features real-life Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck as characters from “The Simpsons.” Above their heads, vandals spray painted in black the message “Israeliani Nazis,” which is Italian for “Israeli Nazis.” Vandals also defaced the mural by spray painting a Star of David and equating it with a Nazi swastika. The mural additionally depicts Pope Francis holding a sign that says, “Antisemitism is everywhere.” His face was spray painted over and the words on his sign were defaced as well.

The vandalism took place shortly after a national pro-Palestinian demonstration in Milan.

“In Milan, people protest the war in Gaza with vandalism throughout the city, shouting every possible antisemitic insult and even defacing a pop artwork that honors three of the last great Holocaust witnesses and symbols of peace,” commented Palombo after the latest vandalism of his artwork. Several of his murals depicting Holocaust survivors have been repeatedly vandalized in antisemitic attacks, some even completely painted over.

The latest vandalism took place days after the April 7 inauguration of another of Palombo’s murals, “The Star of David,” which features Bruck. The original mural was vandalized in January in another act of antisemitism but was recently restored and has now been acquired for the permanent collection of the Shoah Museum in Rome. It is displayed alongside “Anti-Semitism, History Repeating” — another mural by Palombo featuring Segre and Modiano, that was also vandalized last year and acquired by the museum in January. Both artworks are now exhibited in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto, in front of a synagogue and the archaeological site of the ancient Portico of Octavia, built under Emperor Augustus.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC), Ambassador of Israel to Italy Jonathan Peled, European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno, and other Italian leaders have condemned the latest vandalism of Palombo’s mural in Mulan.

“We are appalled by the antisemitic vandalism in Milan,” the EJC said in a post on X. “This mural paid tribute to Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck, three survivors who have dedicated their lives to Holocaust remembrance and education. We stand with them. We will not stay silent.”

In an Italian post on X, Peled called the “deplorable act of vandalism of antisemitic origin” an “unacceptable” attack that “offends the memory of the Shoah [Holocaust] and the fundamental values ​​of our civil coexistence.” He also expressed his “deepest solidarity” with the Holocaust survivors depicted in the artwork.

“Those who deface art think they are offending us. Instead, they only strengthen our resolve and unity around the project of memory,” said Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). “This is a commitment we undertake as citizens for the future of our country.”

Picierno expressed solidarity with the Italian Jewish community after the lastest antisemitic vandalism of Palombo’s artwork. “Sadly, we are witnessing ongoing acts of intolerance and the trivialization of the Shoah,” he noted. “It is our duty to continue fighting antisemitism and all forms of hatred in society.”

“Antisemitism is spreading in Milan,” stated Minister for Regional Affairs of Italy Roberto Calderoli. “Just four months ago, I was appalled by the repeated defacement and removal of a mural dedicated to Segre and Modiano. Today I am further horrified by this latest act of defacement with the words ‘Israeli Nazis’ — targeting yet another mural by aleXsandro Palombo. This antisemitic trend in Milan is increasingly alarming and troubling. I’m also appalled by the consistent and complicit silence from the city’s leadership. I stand in full solidarity with Senator Liliana Segre, Edith Bruck, Sami Modiano, the Jewish community under attack for months, and the State of Israel.”

Senate Vice President Anna Rossomando called the vandalism “yet another deplorable act of antisemitism.” He added, “The escalation is concerning, and targeting Holocaust survivors makes the act even more vile.”

Over the span of 30 years, Palombo has created numerous artworks that condemn antisemitism and Hamas and honor Holocaust survivors – all of which have been vandalized in antisemitic attacks. They include the artworks “Simpsons Go to Auschwitz” at Milan’s Holocaust Memorial; “Anne Frank crying,” which depicts the teenage Holocaust victim and diarist wearing a concentration camp uniform and holding the Israeli flag; a mural of a Palestinian girl burning the Hamas flag; and the “Warsaw Ghetto boy,” which is a recreation of a hostage of Hamas terrorists. Palombo also created a mural featuring Vlada Patapov, nicknamed the “girl in red,” who survived the Nova music festival attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It was displayed at the University of Milan but was also defaced when Patapov’s head in the image was decapitated.

The post Mural Honoring Holocaust Survivors in Milan Gets Vandalized Again With Swastikas, ‘Nazi’ Messages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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