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The Justice System’s Disgusting Indifference to Murder and Attacks on Jews
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
Two weeks after the October 7 Hamas terrorist massacre in Israel, Samantha Woll, a 40-year-old Jewish woman, was found murdered outside her Detroit home with multiple stab wounds.
The man charged with the brutal slaying, Michael Jackson-Bolanos, was acquitted of first-degree murder in July. Weeks later, a deadlocked jury failed to convict Jackson-Bolanos on a similar count of felony murder. Instead, the suspect, whose attorney claimed he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” will spend 18 months in prison after the jury only convicted him on one count of lying to law enforcement.
Detroit police continue to claim there is no evidence that Woll’s murder was motivated by antisemitism.
At the time of her killing, Woll was serving as President of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, and was active in Democratic politics. Incidentally, her murder occurred in Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)’s district, where, just days prior to Woll’s body being discovered, the antisemitic lawmaker launched into another anti-Israel diatribe and falsely accused Israel of a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital that she said killed over 500 people (this was proven to be a complete lie on every account).
In November, Tlaib spoke about her “dear friend” on the House floor, calling Woll a deeply loved member of the “social justice community.”
Tlaib’s performative sorrow does little to deflect from acknowledging the Congresswoman’s outsize role in fomenting antisemitism. Moreover, the dearth of media noise and the judicial dismissiveness attached to Woll’s murder case comes against a backdrop of rising violence targeting Jews nationwide. In New York, hundreds of miles from Michigan, Orthodox Jews are routinely subjected to assault, harassment, and intimidation by criminals engaging in antisemitic thuggery.
Last Spring, a group of religious Jewish children were playing in front of a Brooklyn building when they were knocked down and punched by a Citi bike rider. To date, police have yet to find the attacker.
Just last week, 22-year-old Vincent Sumpter was charged with stabbing Yeshiva student Yechiel Michael Dabrowskin near Chabad’s headquarters, while shouting antisemitic screeds at the cohort of Jews gathered before fleeing the scene.
These are just a fraction of the violent attacks that have occurred against Jews in New York and nationwide. And while this latest incident resulted in an arrest, anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York often occur without the perpetrators facing any criminal consequences.
On its surface, the murder case involving interfaith advocate Samantha Woll shares little in common with the repeated attacks on New York’s Hasidic community. Yet, public apathy and judicial indifference over whether Woll’s killer will face any consequences for his brutality is tied to a similar disengagement in prosecuting crimes concerning the targeting of observant Jews.
For all her work with the Muslim community, it’s hard to believe that Woll’s murder would have been treated the same if she had been a part of any other racial or ethnic group besides Jews.
For Jewish Americans to retain faith in our Nation’s criminal justice system, those tasked with preserving the integrity of our judicial order must illustrate their willingness to treat felonies committed against Jews with the same degree of seriousness that is exercised for other minority communities.
The intimidating and hate-fueled pro-Hamas rallies unfolding across American campuses and in cities have inevitably contributed to the alarming spike in antisemitic incidents, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, reached an all-time high last year.
While liberal lawmakers in places such as New York are quick to condemn these anti-Jewish episodes, their lofty language is seldom met with robust repercussions for the antisemitic agitators. And sometimes, their incitement against the Jewish State is actually what helps contribute to the sense that violence against Jews (and especially pro-Israel Jews) will be tolerated.
Indeed, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dropped charges for most of the pro-Palestinian Columbia University students who participated in seizing a campus building earlier this year and destroying university property.
Unsurprisingly, as Jews are cast as an oppressor class within the intersectional paradigm that guides the agenda of many officials and residents in liberal-run cities, US Jews of varying ideological persuasions must confront the reality that prosecutors, the policy, and government officials will often fail to take the necessary action to punish perpetrators if the victims are Jewish.
A grievance-based approach in many areas of the country to policy helps explain the distinction attributed to the swift but appropriate punishment given to criminals guilty of attacking people of other faiths, including members of the Black and Muslim communities, but not to Jews.
Back in 2021, not far from where Woll’s body was found, a white Michigan resident was sentenced to five years in prison for beating a Black teenager with a bicycle lock. Yet Woll has received absolutely no justice — and we must also question if her faith played a role in the jury being deadlocked.
In June, Manhattan DA Bragg announced that 40-year-old Gino Sozio would be serving nine years in prison for his role in a 2022 anti-Muslim hate crime. At that time, Sozio pulled out a knife and slashed the torso of a 22-year-old Muslim-American man, who required stitches and surgery following the despicable assault.
The growth of progressive protest movements over the last decade suggests that some of the same people participating in such leftist endeavors may serve as the next juror or judge to decide the fate of a suspect charged with committing a crime against a Jew.
It’s a troubling trend that has already touched Europe. The societal shifts consuming France likely contributed to Sarah Halimi’s killer, Kobili Traore, being excused from a criminal trial after he tortured the Jewish woman for hours in her own home before killing her in 2017.
To political ideologues, it matters little if one adheres to the Samantha Woll or Yechiel Michael Dabrowskin branch of Judaism. To them, crimes encompassing members of the Jewish community are telegraphed through an intersectional prism where Jews will always remain unremarkable figures outside of the ideological sanctum.
Irit Tratt is an American and pro-Israel advocate residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt
The post The Justice System’s Disgusting Indifference to Murder and Attacks on Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.