RSS
The Artistic Director of a Theatre Posted Hateful Comments About Israel — And I Lost My Position
November 2023: An Israeli soldier helps to provide incubators to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot
We tend to think of today’s antisemites and Israel-haters as the masked protesters trying to intimidate Jewish students on university campuses, or perhaps the professors who sympathize with Hamas and refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
But there’s another kind of person who lurks beneath the surface, who cleverly knows how to spew hatred about Israel but remains outside the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. They might even be soft-spoken and are usually supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet, in a moment of weakness — perhaps after they’ve been watching the horrible images coming from Gaza — they can’t help themselves and take to social media.
This was the case with the artistic director of a small independent theatre company in Montreal, who in January 2023 posted an open letter to members of Parliament on his Facebook page.
It started on an empathetic note: “My stomach churns as I write to you on what should be a peaceful Saturday morning … I cherish all members of my community. I value mutual understanding, empathy, dialogue, creative solutions and facing conflicts from a starting point of love and an attempt to listen to and understand each other.”
Adding a measure of protection, he continued: “I wish to be clear. I have many dear friends that are Jewish, and many that are Israeli … The people of Israel are NOT their government.” (But in a democracy, yes, many of them are. And even amongst those critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost all Israelis support the war against Hamas in Gaza — which is a war for Israel’s survival.)
And then the artistic director let it rip: “Israel is actively annihilating the people of Gaza … The government of Israel needs to be BETTER than HAMAS.”
“They have shockingly pulled the wool over our eyes as they unapologetically destroy families and blindly and recklessly murder and maim innocent civilians.”
“Under Netanyahu, Israel is quickly becoming a … pariah state, and they are undeniably enacting genocidal atrocities upon the entire population of Gaza.”
Yes — he not only falsely accused Israel of genocide, but charged the country with “pulling the wool” over the eyes of the global population — an antisemitic trope that literally goes back hundreds of years.
I’m sure we’ve all seen such posts from people who we might know — or thought we knew — but what happens when these comments come from the person who is your employer or supervisor? What if you yourself happen to be Jewish or Israeli?
And what happens if, suddenly, after working for this institution, you suddenly find yourself demoted, sidelined, or not having your contract renewed?
Unfortunately, that is exactly my situation.
I’ve served this theatre company as the director of new play development and an associate artist for the past four years. My responsibilities as an independent contractor included chairing a five-person jury for a competition to select the best new plays by Quebec playwrights, as well as running a youth playwriting contest, which I initiated, and trust they will let me continue.
The news of my removal from jury duty came via email on October 23.
“There is a long list of folks around town that have very little work and creative outlets at the moment, and I feel it’s the right thing to bring in a fresh new jury for this year’s competition,” it read. (In the past, the other four jury positions were rotated.)
By that logic, shouldn’t the artistic director step aside in order to give other unemployed artistic directors an opportunity?
This isn’t about money. Theatre will never make anyone rich. In fact, I was instrumental in securing a grant from a pro-Israel foundation to fund my position. (Apparently, Israeli money is still acceptable.)
Is it possible that all this is a coincidence? Absolutely. But my issue is hardly an isolated case.
Recently, in Maryland, an Israeli tech worker at Intel was fired after complaining about his boss’ hateful Israel bashing, and is now suing the company. On the other side of the coin, numerous teachers and professors — even some with tenure — have been fired for their anti-Israel hate speech because they can no longer be trusted to remain objective in assessing their Jewish and Israeli students. It’s even happened at the highest levels of power: The Wall Street Journal reported last week that a longtime special advisor on genocide at the United Nations had her contract terminated because she refuted the position that Israel’s campaign in Gaza did not meet the definition of genocide.
It took me less than five minutes to uncover the artistic director’s diatribe. I searched back on his timeline, looking for any other mention of “barbaric” countries, but couldn’t find any. No mention of Russia’s completely unjustified or provoked invasion of Ukraine, or dozens of other wars raging around the globe. Nothing about Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, Syria, or the present war in Sudan that has seen up to 150,000 civilians killed.
He didn’t even mention the atrocities against Israeli civilians that took place on October 7. In fact, on Oct. 8, he posted an ad for his upcoming play.
I’m not an advocate for censorship, but there’s a larger question here: how can the leader of a company or organization publicly make damning, hateful, inaccurate and out-of-context statements about some of the most complicated matters of the day and remain objective about hiring or firing employees — especially when they’re members of groups that the leader publicly maligns, like myself.
Interestingly, when I brought forward my concerns about the artistic director’s statement to the company’s board of directors, suggesting that he should at least acknowledge that his criticisms of Israel may have gone too far, my request was unanimously rejected.
Montreal was recently rocked by violent protests laden with antisemitic overtones that made headlines around the world.
That hate didn’t arise from nowhere.
Oren Safdie is a playwright and screenwriter.
The post The Artistic Director of a Theatre Posted Hateful Comments About Israel — And I Lost My Position first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.