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Sydney government apologizes for pro-Palestinian protest that included ‘gas the Jews’ chants

(JTA) — The premier of New South Wales, the Australian state that is home to Sydney, apologized to the Jewish community on Wednesday as they reeled from a pro-Palestinian protest that included “gas the Jews” and “f— the Jews” chants.

Chris Minns said in a statement that his local government had tried to “create a place and a space” for Jews to mourn victims of the attacks in Israel outside of Sydney’s famed opera house, which was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag on Monday night.

But he admitted that the exterior of the opera house was “overrun with people that were spewing racial epithets and hatred.” The pro-Palestinian rally on Monday, which gathered over 1,000 people, also included the burning of an Israeli flag and the firing of several flares

“I want to apologize to [the Jewish community] specifically on behalf of the government and myself, as the premier of New South Wales,” said Minns, a leader in the Labour Party who assumed his position earlier this year. “I really want to ensure that the Jewish community in New South Wales feel that they can have full access to this city, that they can enjoy its life, that they can be part of its culture, that they can commemorate together during solemn occasions.”

He added that a number of Australians “had family and friends that were caught up in this conflict.” One dual Australian-Israeli citizen, Galit Carbone, has been confirmed dead from the violence, while other Australians have been confirmed captured by Hamas.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also expressed concern over the way the rally was allowed to escalate and called Hamas’ actions in Israel “completely indefensible.”

A similar rally held in Melbourne on Tuesday night drew hundreds of participants but notably lacked the inflammatory chants and behavior witnessed in Sydney.

NSW police have since rejected a request by pro-Palestinian groups to hold another rally on Sunday and are investigating Monday’s incident.

“The idea that they’re going to commandeer Sydney streets is not going to happen,” Minns said. 

Many Australian Jews, who in total number close to 100,000, are reeling from Monday’s rally and calling for details on how police handled the event. In a statement posted to his Instagram page, Australia’s former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma was critical of the NSW government.

“How on earth did the New South Wales Government allow this to happen? How did they allow an important show of solidarity with the hundreds of victims of terrorism in Israel to be hijacked by extremists to applaud these very acts of terror?” he wrote.

Parliament member Allegra Spender, who represents the electrical district of Wentworth — which is near Sydney and has a high Jewish population — also demanded answers. “The scenes and chanting outside the Opera House last night are abhorrent. At a time when there should be solidarity with our Jewish community, they have been subject to appalling abuse. I am seeking an urgent explanation of how this was allowed to happen,” she wrote on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chair of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry umbrella group, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Australian Jewish community was shaken but determined to move on.

“The community wants to come together at a time of immense anguish and pain,” he said. “These atrocities have shaken us all, but we are determined to emerge united and more committed to our community and our people.” 


The post Sydney government apologizes for pro-Palestinian protest that included ‘gas the Jews’ chants appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Israel Intercepts Missile Launched From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility

A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Israel‘s military said on Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory, an attack for which Yemen‘s Houthi forces claimed responsibility.

The incident came days after Oman said it mediated a ceasefire deal between the US and the Houthis, with the Yemeni rebel group saying the accord did not include close US ally Israel.

The Iran-backed militia, an internationally designated terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, saying it fired a ballistic missile towards Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the military reported the missile launch that Israel would respond forcefully in Yemen and “wherever necessary,” describing the Houthi missiles as “Iranian.”

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen as the group had agreed to stop attacking US ships.

But the Houthis have continued to fire missiles and drones towards Israel, most of which the Israeli military says it has intercepted, without casualties or serious damage occurring.

The Houthis have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza since a deadly raid by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023.

The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, a group also including Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Israel has weakened those groups by assassinating top leaders and destroying military infrastructure since the Gaza war began, though Houthi capabilities appear largely intact.

The post Israel Intercepts Missile Launched From Yemen, Houthis Claim Responsibility first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Won’t Be Involved in New Gaza Aid Plan, Only in Security, US Envoy Says

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

A US-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington’s envoy to Israel said on Friday ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, without detailing how this would work with no ceasefire in place.

Israel has been enforcing a months-long blockade on aid to Gaza while vowing to expand its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007. Experts and Israeli officials have long said that Hamas steals much of the aid to fuel its terrorist operations and sells some of the remainder to Gaza’s civilian population at an increased price. Jerusalem has also said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations, which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said several partners had already committed to taking part in the new aid arrangement, which would be handled by private companies, but declined to name them, saying details would be released in the coming days.

“There has been a good initial response,” the former Republican governor told reporters at the embassy in Jerusalem.

“There are nonprofit organizations that will be a part of the leadership,” he said, adding that other organizations and governments would also need to be involved, though not Israel.

Tikva Forum, a hawkish Israeli group representing some relatives of hostages held in Gaza, criticized the announcement, saying aid deliveries should be conditional on Hamas releasing the 59 captives in Gaza.

Hamas senior official Basem Naim said the plan was close to “the Israeli vision of militarizing aid” and said it would fail, at the same time warning local parties against “becoming tools in the Zionist occupation’s schemes.”

Trump, who seeks a landmark deal that would see Israel and Saudi Arabia establish diplomatic relations, will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates next week.

Trump had teased a major announcement ahead of the trip. It was unclear if that was what Huckabee announced on Friday.

Anticipation has been building about a new aid plan for Gaza, which has been devastated amid the Israel-Hamas war, a conflict that has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million population.

“It will not be perfect, especially in the early days,” Huckabee said. “It is a logistical challenge to make this work.”

European leaders and aid groups have criticized a plan by Israel, which has prevented aid from entering Gaza since resuming military operations in March and ending a two-month ceasefire, for private companies to take over humanitarian distributions in the enclave.

Israel has accused agencies including the United Nations of allowing aid to fall into the hands of Hamas, which it has said is seizing supplies intended for civilians and given them to its own forces or selling them to raise funds. Hamas denies this.

CRITICISM OF AID PLANS

“The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food or even bringing the food into Gaza,” Huckabee told a press conference.

Asked whether the supply of aid hinged on a ceasefire being restored, Huckabee said: “The humanitarian aid will not depend on anything other than our ability to get the food into Gaza.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over distribution of aid in Gaza floated by both Israel and the United States, saying this would increase suffering for children and families.

A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four “Secure Distribution Sites,” resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, but drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.

Huckabee said there would be an “initial number” of distribution centers that could feed “perhaps over a million people” before being scaled up to ultimately reach two million.

“Private security” would be responsible for the safety of workers getting into the distribution centers and in the distribution of the food itself, Huckabee said, declining to comment on rules of engagement for security personnel.

“Everything would be done in accordance with international law,” he said.

Mediation efforts by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt have not been successful in implementing a second phase of the ceasefire. Israel demands the total disarmament of Hamas, which the Islamist group rejects.

Hamas has said it is willing to free all remaining hostages seized by its terrorists in attacks on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and agree to a permanent ceasefire if Israel pulls out completely from Gaza.

Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and 251 were taken hostage back to Gaza. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas.

The post Israel Won’t Be Involved in New Gaza Aid Plan, Only in Security, US Envoy Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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What’s Next for Canadian Jews After the Recent Election

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Donald Trump in the White House on May 6, 2025. Photo: Wiki Commons.

The final votes were still being tallied when the questions started coming from friends and family in Israel and the United States: when are you leaving?

For many Jewish Canadians, last week’s federal election presented an opportunity to end the mealy-mouthed equivocation of the governing Liberals on antisemitism at home and Israel’s right to re-establish its security in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Instead, they got another Liberal minority government, with Mark Carney as prime minister, but the same cast of characters around him.

Justin Trudeau’s government managed to commit numerous gaffes where the Jewish community was concerned, including feting a Waffen SS veteran in parliament. When a firestorm of antisemitic vandalism, arson and intimidation erupted after October 7, Trudeau usually made sure his outrage came with a side of caution against Islamophobia and all forms of hate.

On Israel, the Liberals displayed a moral equivalence that was a mix of outright credulity and cynical opportunism, most notoriously when multiple members of Trudeau’s cabinet, including the minister of innovation, science and industry, Francois-Phillipe Champagne and foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly parroted a Hamas Ministry of Health claim that the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was bombed by the Israelis.

When the allegation turned out to be false, the government offered a late night Page Z15 style press release that was notable for how perfunctory it was. Trudeau’s government was also perceived as hostile to Jewish charities, or at least those with ties to Israel. It stripped both the Jewish National Fund and the Ne’eman Foundation of their charitable status.

Carney is not Trudeau. But he sent mixed signals to the Jewish community during the campaign.

On the one hand, he appointed Marco Mendicino, a former member of parliament and strong ally of both Israel and the Toronto Jewish community, as his chief of staff. However, he also retained many of Trudeau’s key lieutenants, including foreign minister Joly.

When Thomas Mulcair, the former leader of the socialist New Democratic Party, accused Joly of taking an anti-Israel position for electoral gain, Joly remarked: “Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?”

On a state visit last year, Joly and fellow Liberal MP Ya’ara Sacks, who is a dual Israeli Canadian citizen, posed for a cringe-worthy photo op in which they held hands with Palestinian dictator Mahmoud Abbas.

Sacks fought a bruising campaign against Roman Baber in a riding in which close to 15% of the population is Jewish. At one point, she distributed a leaflet with a swastika on it, implying that Baber, who is a descendant of Jewish Holocaust victims, had some connection to Nazism due to his opposition to COVID restrictions and support for the Freedom Convoy protests in 2022.

Baber defeated Sacks in the election.

Liberal incumbent Adam van Koeverden was videotaped stumping for votes with the men of a local mosque, while a female Liberal colleague was speaking to the “sisters” downstairs. Van Koeverden pledged his support in ending the “genocide” in Gaza and for “Palestinian sovereignty.”

Somehow the Israeli hostages languishing under horrifying conditions and the recent arson and vandalism attacks on synagogues, Jewish day schools, and Jewish-owned business in Toronto and Montreal must have slipped his mind.

Van Koeverden retained his seat by a handy margin.

Last year, longtime Liberal MP Rob Oliphant was recorded by a constituent complaining about his government’s decision to pause funding to UNRWA over the UN agency’s ties to terrorism. Oliphant was so upset that he considered quitting over the decision. In the end, the Trudeau Liberals reinstated the UNRWA funding and never did miss a payment.

Oliphant retained his seat with more than 60% of the vote.

Although the overwhelming majority of Canada’s arms sales go to the United States and Saudi Arabia, under Trudeau’s leadership, the Liberals imposed an arms embargo on Israel and took the unusual step of cancelling a contract with an American defense contractor because Quebec-made ammunition was going to find its way to Israel.

At a campaign event, a heckler asked Carney about the “genocide” in Gaza, to which he responded: “I’m aware. That’s why we have an arms embargo.”

When called out on the statement, Carney implausibly claimed that he somehow didn’t hear the word “genocide” in the question.

Of the 28 Liberal candidates who signed the “Palestine Pledge” — which called for an arms embargo on Israel and unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine — 18 won re-election. They will now make their case for a more aggressive anti-Israel foreign policy to the other 151 Liberal caucus members.

There was, however, some cause for optimism.

Former Green Party MP Jenica Atwin, who the Liberals welcomed to their party in 2021 after her attacks on her former party’s leader Annamie Paul, a Black Jewish woman who refused to demonize Israel, didn’t run for re-election.

And Majid Jowhari, who was alleged to be an agent of the Iranian regime (claims he denied), lost his seat.

Party discipline is strictly imposed in Canada’s parliamentary system. But even assuming Carney does intend to be more supportive of Canadian Jews and respectful of the security needs of a democratic Israeli ally than his predecessor ever was, like Trudeau, he has a parliamentary minority.

The Conservatives are his only serious competition, and their leader, Pierre Poilievre, has been an unapologetic supporter of Israel and Canada’s Jewish community. Poilievre lost his seat and will be out of parliament in the near term, but he will run in a by-election in a friendlier riding.

It’s possible Carney will make common cause with the Conservatives on Israel and the Jews, but given the views of many members of his caucus and the need to distinguish himself from his main rival, it’s more likely that he’ll continue to rely on the support of the NDP, with whom Trudeau held power for two years via a supply and confidence agreement. The other alternative is to look to the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

Neither of the two is a reliable friend of Canadian Jews, but the NDP, who were reduced to seven seats (out of a total of 343 in parliament), is particularly awful.  Their relationship with the Jewish community has deteriorated to the point that, when B’nai Brith sent out questions to each party in advance of the election, the NDP didn’t bother to respond.

The October 7 attacks made emigration a frequent topic of conversation among Canadian Jews. It remains to be seen whether last week’s election result will stop that conversation or accelerate it.

The post What’s Next for Canadian Jews After the Recent Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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