Hannie Ricardo’s daughter, Oriya, was murdered on October 7, 2023, at the massacre at the Nova Music Festival. Below is an edited version of a speech that Hannie delivered to mark Yom Hazikaron and Mother’s Day — her first without Oriya.

Since I was a young girl, I have been invited to participate in memorial ceremonies — to read a poem or to sing a song. For many years, I have stood with parents who lost their dear ones, holding their hands and supporting them.

I am taking part in this memorial ceremony today for the first time in my life as אמא שכולה, a mother who lost the most precious thing in life — my daughter.

I dedicate my words today in memory of my beloved Oriya, who gave me 26 years of light, love and happiness, and to her close friends, the couple Sharon Refai and Shahar Manzur, and the brave Eli Refael, Sharon’s brother who came to rescue them and he, too, was murdered with them; and in memory of Roya and Norrelle Manzuri, Ron Zarfati, Ron Yehudai, the best friends Mapal Adam and Hilly Solomon, Omri Aharak, Yarden Buskila, and all the beautiful people who were brutally murdered on October 7, at the Nova Music Festival.

Never again — the couplet of words I heard since my childhood — have become, since the October 7 massacre, a concept empty of content. Now more than ever, we must fill it up with stronger content.

Never again means that we, as Jews, must be united in the understanding that we are here by right and not by grace, not by the grace of people, nor other religions, or the shameless UN, which gives the impression that its entire role is to lend a hand to the haters of the Jewish people, whomever they are.

Never again means to stop apologizing for our existence or making excuses for anything we do to keep our nation striving and flourishing — and above all, protecting ourselves.

Never again means that no rabbi tells his students to hide their Judaism because he is afraid of violent mobs, as many did in Nazi Germany and its affiliates.

Never again is to make your voice heard individually and in a group.

Never again means that it is time to take responsibility, face the voices calling for our destruction, and fight this in any way possible.

Never again. It means you do not ignore the signs before you, or dismiss them as “it will pass” — because they will not, unless you do something.

Never again means you recognize and understand that Islamic terrorism is the Nazi oppressor of the 21st century, and all those students, professors, and their ardent supporters are just like Hitler’s “Brown Shirts,” who controlled the streets with terror and extreme violence, using the Jews as an excuse.

Never again. I used to say that every time I thought of my ancestors that were victims of Jew-hatred under the Nazi occupation, and were gassed and burnt in Auschwitz. Never again, I tell myself, every time I break to pieces, knowing I have lost my daughter to Jew-hatred and Islamic terrorists who murdered her only because she was a Jew.

Jew hatred is a whitewashed word for antisemitism — and we need to stand as one against it.

Anti-Israel, anti-Zionism, and anti-whatever are all the same, and they all call for the annihilation of the Jewish people. They are calling for genocide — our genocide.

I’m standing here today, with pain and agony, with my heart bleeding — but I’m standing, and I’m calling all of you to stand up, stand tall, and call, loudly and clearly, so the whole world will hear and understand: Never again.

Every day at the Nova exhibition, I hear people say: we will never forget. I correct them: you have to be active. Not to forget is passive. You need to remember, and you have to remind. I know I will do that for as long as I live.

And I will end with the words I chose to end the Oratorio Kaddish Oriya and Terezin, which I wrote and dedicated to Oriya, and which will be premiered on October 7, 2024, at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv:

אוריה, האם את שומעת? זאת אני, אלייך קוראת. אמא מתגעגעת, ותפילה אלייך נושאת.

עשי שלום עלינו, אוריה, שלום עלינו ועל כל ישראל, ונאמר אמן

And I will repeat in English so everyone can understand:

Oriya, can you hear me? It is me, calling you. Mom misses you and carry a prayer to you:

Make peace upon us, Oriya, upon us and all of Israel, and we shall say Amen.

Hannie Ricardo is an Israeli musician, historian, and educator. She has a Master’s degree in Jewish History, focusing on Holocaust studies, and has studied singing privately in Israel, Italy, and Germany. She has performed as a singer in festivals and private events in Israel, Europe, the Far East, and the US.

The post My Daughter Was Killed on October 7; Here Is My Message to the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Asia’s governing body for soccer on Thursday announced its support for a proposal by the Palestine Football Association (PFA) to suspend Israel from FIFA due to its military campaign targeting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa made the announcement at the 34th AFC Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.

“The AFC is only as strong as its members and when one suffers, all its other members are affected,” Salman told delegates. “The AFC stands together with the Palestine FA, and we join them in seeking effective football-related solutions to the grievances raised by the Palestine FA in their proposal.”

AFC’s 47-member Congress includes Australia, Jordan, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. FIFA President Gianni Infantino also attended the gathering on Thursday.

“We, as a football community and as a governing body of the most popular sport in the world, have a statutory commitment to uphold the FIFA and AFC objectives and take appropriate steps to prevent infringements of FIFA and AFC statutes and regulations,” Salman added. “It is our duty to support the Palestine FA for a swift and effective resolution in line with the  rules, regulations, and statutes of the AFC and FIFA.”

AFC’s president additionally said the governing body is committed to standing in “solidarity and unity” with the PFA. “There is potential for us to play a dynamic role in standing up for human rights, including within our own sphere of operations,” he said.

During AFC’s Congress on Thursday, delegates stood for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Israel-Hamas war and were shown a video that drew attention to the destruction in the Gaza Strip caused by the conflict, which Hamas started with its deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Israeli military has responded with a campaign aimed at freeing the hostages abducted by Hamas and destroying the Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza.

The AFC Congress took place one day before the 74th FIFA Congress, where the governing body will address the PFA’s motion to ban Israel’s teams from international competitions. PFA’s President Jibril Rajoub thanked the AFC Congress for its stance and said he hopes to garner more support from the FIFA Congress on Friday.

“I hope that FIFA President Gianni Infantino realizes the meaning and content of what Sheikh Salman said, supporting the implementation of international laws to protect Palestinian sports,” Rajoub said. “Tomorrow, at the FIFA General Assembly meeting, our battle will be launched by the Asian Confederation in solidarity with us, and we hope to continue to align and support it in the International Congress in accordance with FIFA’s regulations and laws.” He also accused Israel of “racist practices” and “genocide” targeting Palestinians.

In March, PFA formally submitted a proposal to FIFA that called for Israel’s removal from the governing body in response to “grave human rights and humanitarian law violations committed by Israel.” The motion also accuses the Israel Football Association (IFA) of “providing moral, economic, and practical support to the occupation” of Palestinian territories, saying “the IFA is complicit in the Israeli government’s violations against Palestinian football.”

The motion has already garnered support from federations representing Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. FIFA is expected to discuss and potentially vote on the proposal on Friday. Football Australia — the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia — has reportedly decided to abtain from any possible vote on the matter.

PFA similarly tried to push FIFA to boycott Israel in 2015 when it claimed that the Jewish state did not allow free movement of Palestinian or foreign players. The proposal was dropped by the Palestinians just before the vote.

In February, the 12-member West Asian Football Federations wrote a letter to FIFA, its national member associations, and its regional confederations, including European governing body UEFA, calling for Israel to be banned “from all football-related activities” and for soccer leaders to take “a decisive stand against the atrocities committed in Palestine and the war crimes in Gaza.”

Meanwhile, ticket sales have been suspended for a Belgium-Israel match in the UEFA Nations League that is set to take place on Sept. 6 in Brussels because of security concerns, likely attributed to anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have repeatedly protested in Brussels since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) announced on Thursday that no tickets are currently on sale for the match at King Baudouin Stadium. The RBFA said it “is in permanent contact with the security services, the city of Brussels, and the federal government” and security concerns are “being analyzed.”

“We know that a sold-out King Baudouin stadium gives a huge boost to our Red Devils … For the match against Israel, we are in contact with the authorities,”said RBFA CEO Piet Vandendriessche. “But safety comes first, always.”

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Sonoma State University in California placed its president, Mike Lee, on leave on Wednesday following his decision to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel — a concession to anti-Zionist protesters he was reportedly not authorized to make.

Lee agreed to adopt key aspects of BDS on Tuesday as part of a deal negotiated with the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, according to an email shared and cheered by the group.

The email shows that Lee agreed to subject “all” the university’s financial endeavors to SJP’s scrutiny, implement a full academic boycott of Israel — including shutting down study abroad programs in the Jewish state — create a “Palestinian” curriculum within the department of ethnic studies, and issue a statement calling for a “permanent cease-fire in Gaza.”

In a letter which described Lee’s actions as “insubordinate,” the California State University (CSU) system, of which Sonoma State University is a part, announced the next day that Lee would be stepping away from his duties temporarily.

“That message was sent without the appropriate approvals,” CSU chancellor Mildred García said of Lee’s campuswide email concerning the agreement with campus protesters. “The board’s leadership and I are actively reviewing the matter and will provide additional details in the near future. For now, because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave.”

García added, “I want to acknowledge how deeply concerned I am about the impact the statement has had on the Sonoma State community and how challenging and painful it will be for many of our students and community members to see and read.”

Lee’s capitulation to the school’s anti-Israel protesters would, if it stands, amount to a major victory for BDS, a movement that aims to expel Jews and Zionists from higher education, experts have said.

The Algemeiner has asked the university to confirm whether Lee’s agreement was nullified due to the reasons Garcia described.

Nonprofits organizations that raise awareness of campus antisemitism condemned Lee’s action on Tuesday, drawing parallels between the modern anti-Zionist movement and the student Nazi movement in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

“This academic boycott of Israel campaign, whose explicit goal is to purge campuses of Zionism and Zionists, is reminiscent of Nazi Germany and its successful purge of Jewish students and faculty from its universities,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, executive director of campus antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative. “Academic BDS directly subverts the educational opportunities and academic freedom of students and faculty at Sonoma State University, and its implementation creates an intolerably hostile and unsafe campus for Jewish students and faculty who — like the vast majority of Jews worldwide — identify with the Jewish state and the Jewish people.”

Following García’s announcement, StandWithUs (SWU), an education nonprofit currently litigating several civil rights complaints alleging maltreatment of and discrimination against Jewish students, commended CSU’s virtually immediate decision to remove Lee from power.

“We hope this case sets an example for all universities that face pressure from anti-Israel extremists,” said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and chief executive officer of SWU. “Instead of caving to the demands of hate groups and their supporters, campus leaders must enforce their policies and stand up to antisemitism.”

The US House of Representatives has launched an investigation into 20 nonprofit organizations that are currently funding anti-Zionist student groups, including SJP, that mounted hundreds of pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses, an effort aimed at uncovering long suspected links to terrorist organizations and other hostile foreign entities.

As part of the inquiry, US Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and James Comer (R-KY) wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday, asking her to share any “suspicious activity reports” generated by the activities of SJP, as well as Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, Tides Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other groups.

The inquiry comes amid widespread suspicion that an eruption of anti-Zionist protests on college campuses, in which students illegally occupied sections of section and refused to leave unless their schools agreed to condemn and boycott Israel, was fueled by immense financial and logistical support from outside groups. Foxx and Comer said in their letter that the investigation’s findings will inform recommendations for new federal laws requiring increased transparency and reporting of foreign contributions to American colleges and universities.

Foreign links to the anti-Zionist student movement have been the subject of numerous comprehensive studies.

Last week, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) published a report showing a connection between the anti-Zionist group Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P) — a group formed immediately after Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7 — and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). NCRI explained that SID4P, which organized numerous traffic-obstructing demonstrations after Oct. 7, is an umbrella group for several other organizations which compose the “Singham Network,” a consortium of far-left groups funded by Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans. The report describes Singham and Evans as a “power couple within the global far-left movement” whose affiliation with the CCP has been copiously documented.

In 2022, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) revealed that one of the founders of Students for Justice in Palestine, Hatem Bazian, is also a co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine, an advocacy group which, NAS said, “retains ties to terrorist groups operating in the Palestinian Territories.”

NAS added that the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic Cultural Boycott of Israel — which has been influential is steering BDS against Israel in academia — is “structurally linked” to Palestinian terrorist organizations through the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine — a member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee which comprises Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular Front-General Command, Palestinian Liberation Front, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“BDS, along with the formation of multiple NGOs and nonprofit organizations, offers the Palestinians new avenues by which to access funding in a post-9/11 international financial system designed to curtail funding for terrorism,” NAS senior fellow Ian Oxnevad explained.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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