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Wexner-funded museum says it will keep up exhibit by Palestinian artist who appeared to celebrate Hamas on social media
(JTA) – A prestigious university art museum funded by the pro-Israel philanthropist Les Wexner says it will keep up an ongoing exhibit by a Palestinian artist who published posts celebrating Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel on social media.
The decision has come even as Wexner’s foundation is penalizing Harvard University for not being more assertively pro-Israel.
The Wexner Center for the Arts, affiliated with the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, says its current exhibit featuring the works of visual artist and filmmaker Jumana Manna will run through Dec. 30 as planned.
But the center canceled a planned November panel discussion due to feature Manna, saying in a statement, “Due to current world events, we do not feel this is the right time to have conversations about a region at war.” Les Wexner is the museum’s board chair.
Some Jewish artists are pressing the museum to do more, citing posts from Manna’s social media accounts. One post shows the comment “Long live the creativity of resistance” above an image of Hamas terrorists paragliding into Israel on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped hundreds more. Another shows a laughing-face emoji above a still from a video of teenagers riding bikes into Israel shortly before the Hamas attack.
Jumana Manna confirmed that she had posted laudatory reactions about images shared when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but said she had not understood at the time that civilians had been harmed. (Instagram via source)
Manna, whose Instagram account is currently private, confirmed the posts as hers in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency but said they were not intended to celebrate the murder of Jews.
She said they had been taken out of context and used in “a vindictive social media trolling campaign” against her. The watchdog group StopAntisemitism, which has been calling attention to people who have expressed support for Hamas’ attack, has been calling attention to Manna and exhorting its followers to ask the museum to cancel her exhibition.
Manna claimed she had made her “creativity of resistance” post “before having any knowledge of what became a shocking massacre on October 7th” and merely intended to celebrate “the stubborn and creative will to break free from captivity.” The laughing-face emoji post, she said, was not referring to the murders that would soon unfold, but to the “sense of astonishment” of Palestinian teenagers riding their bikes “into the lands their grandparents were expelled from.”
“I neither sanction nor celebrate the murder of civilians, be they Jewish, Palestinian or any other,” Manna said. “It was never my intention to trivialize pain and grief.”
Manna also signed an open letter published in the magazine Artforum earlier this month that called for a ceasefire in Gaza without initially condemning Hamas. Artforum’s editor-in-chief was fired last week over the letter, reportedly following pressure from Jewish and pro-Israel art curators and collectors.
The Wexner Center’s public relations manager, Melissa Starker, told JTA in a statement that the museum “serves as a vital forum where artists share ideas and where diverse audiences engage with the art and issues of our time.”
Starker continued, “While the center is committed to this mission, it is important to understand that the views expressed by the artists through their work are their own and do not represent the views of the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Wexner Center Foundation, its trustees, or The Ohio State University. An exhibition, performance, film, talk or any artist’s work shown within the center is not to be construed as approval or endorsement of the artist’s publications, activities, actions, or positions.”
Starker added that OSU “condemns all terrorist groups and terrorist attacks, including those perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli civilians, Americans, and others the weekend of October 7, 2023.”
The museum is part of a growing body of cultural institutions that have grappled with how to proceed with planned exhibitions and events in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s resulting war against Hamas in Gaza. Some have sought to tamp down expressions of pro-Palestinian support or solidarity, drawing criticism from members of the cultural community.
In New York City, the Jewish cultural center 92NY saw several authors and staff members disassociate themselves after it canceled a talk by a bestselling author who had signed an open letter harshly critical of Israel. El Museo del Barrio, also in New York City, decided not to display a work it had commissioned after the artists included a Palestinian flag in the display. And the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada altered artists’ statements accompanying their work to eliminate the word “Palestine” — then backtracked after the artists protested.
In the case of the Wexner Center, the decision to continue exhibiting Manna’s work is particularly notable because the nonprofit created by its board chair recently cut ties with Harvard University over what it said was an insufficiently pro-Israel posture from that school’s administrators.
Jumana Manna’s exhibit at the Wexner Center for the Arts is her first major exhibition in the United States. (Screenshot)
The Wexner Foundation, which funded leadership programs for Jewish professionals and visiting Israelis at Harvard’s Kennedy School of government for decades, announced in an Oct. 16 open letter that it was ending its partnership over “the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists.”
That move came after Harvard President Claudine Gay was slow to initially respond to the Hamas attack while several student groups blamed Israel entirely for the massacre, although Gay ultimately issued several statements condemning the group.
Les Wexner is the chair emeritus of the Wexner Foundation’s board of trustees and, along with his wife Abigail, signed the Harvard letter as chairs.
A spokesperson for the Wexner Foundation did not return requests for comment. Starker told JTA that the foundation “has no connection” to the arts center. The foundation’s website lists the museum alongside a medical center and local nonprofits as among the “Wexner family philanthropic interests” beyond the foundation. Les Wexner is from the Columbus area.
The Jewish artist Barbara Rabkin, who has been advocating against Manna’s exhibit on social media, told JTA she believed the Wexners should “encourage” their namesake museum “to remove the works of antisemites and to reconsider [their] funding/naming strategies in light of this information — much as they’ve done with Harvard.”
Rabkin also said she thought the museum should cancel Manna’s exhibition.
“She has participated in promoting and celebrating Hamas’ inhumane brutal slaughtering and kidnapping of innocent civilians in Israel,” Rabkin said of Manna. “Her social media posts are a desecration of everything art is supposed to stand for — the elevation of humanity.”
Manna’s exhibit at the Wexner Center, “Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally,” is the first major exhibition in the United States of the Berlin-based artist, who was born in Princeton, New Jersey; grew up in Jerusalem; and holds Israeli citizenship. It includes screenings of her 2022 film “Foragers,” which centers on Palestinian foragers of wild plants who, in the museum’s description, are “criminalized by the Israeli government in the name of nature conservation.”
“Working with the team at Wexner Center has been a pleasure throughout,” Manna told JTA, adding that she hoped to restage the panel discussion at another time. “It saddens me to know that they are subject to this smear campaign.”
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The post Wexner-funded museum says it will keep up exhibit by Palestinian artist who appeared to celebrate Hamas on social media appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Al Jazeera Hit With Defamation Lawsuit by Syrian Jewish Ex-Refugee
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
A defamation lawsuit was filed against the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network on Wednesday by Abraham Hamra, a Syrian pro-Israel advocate and lawyer.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hamra “is a Jewish refugee from Syria, born in Damascus. He fled Syria with his parents and siblings in 1994 at the age of eight, following the partial lifting of restrictions on Jewish emigration by the Syrian regime under President Hafez al-Assad in 1992.”
The Algemeiner obtained a copy of the complaint, which explains that, on Aug. 25, Al Jazeera posted a video claiming that Hamra was paid by the Israeli government to visit an aid site of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, operating independently from UN-backed mechanisms.
“This accusation is false in its entirety. Plaintiff has never received any payment, compensation, or financial incentive from the Israeli government or any affiliated entity for visiting aid sites in Gaza,” the lawsuit claims.
“The visit by Plaintiff related to Israel and Gaza was undertaken independently, in his personal capacity, on his own dime, as an advocate for his community and to bear witness against misinformation,” the suit continues.
The UN and critics of Israel have expressed concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach one of its four food distribution points, at times creating chaotic scenes where Israeli forces have used gunfire to control the crowd.
However, supporters of the GHF argue that it bypasses the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which often steals humanitarian supplies for its own purposes and sells the rest at inflated prices. The GHF has called on the UN to publicly condemn the killing of aid workers in Gaza and to collaborate in order to provide relief to the enclave’s population, accusing the UN of perpetuating a “vast disinformation campaign” aimed at tarnishing the foundation’s image.
The lawsuit notes that the social media post from Al Jazeera, which included the image of Hamra, “cites no sources for the ‘reportedly paid’ claim, and publicly available information about Plaintiff, including his professional bio, social media posts, and known activities, demonstrates he is an independent US attorney with no financial ties to foreign governments.”
Al Jazeera also “failed to conduct even basic fact-checking, such as contacting Plaintiff for comment or verifying the allegation, despite their status as a major media network with resources to do so,” according to the lawsuit.
Al Jazeera did not respond to a request for comment from The Algemeiner.
The lawsuit argues why the allegedly false claim rises to the level of libel, saying it “constitutes libel per se under New York law because it accuses Plaintiff of committing a serious crime, namely, violating FARA [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] by acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Israel, and tends to injure him in his profession as a lawyer.”
“FARA requires individuals acting as agents of foreign principals to register with the US Department of Justice, and failure to do so is a federal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment,” the suit says. “By falsely alleging Plaintiff was paid by a foreign government to promote its interests, the statement implies criminal conduct and undermines his professional integrity.”
Consequently, Hamra is seeking payment for damages of at least $1,00,000 and requesting a trial by jury.
Read the lawsuit here: Hamra v Al Jazeera ECF No. 1 Complaint
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US Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into Wikipedia Over Claims of Systemic Anti-Israel Bias
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters
The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has opened an investigation into the nonprofit that operates the Wikipedia website, demanding answers over concerns that hostile foreign actors are exploiting the popular online encyclopedia to spread anti-Israel propaganda and antisemitic narratives.
Republican Reps James Comer (KY), who chairs the committee, and Nancy Mace (SC), who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation, on Wednesday sent a letter to Maryana Iskander, chief executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, asking the nonprofit to turn over records showing how the platform polices disinformation campaigns that target articles related to Israel and the Middle East.
The lawmakers cited studies showing that pro-Russia networks and other state-backed operations have sought to manipulate Wikipedia entries on conflicts involving Israel, often by inserting anti-Israel or antisemitic framing designed to sway Western audiences. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, published a report earlier this year arguing that “malicious” Wikipedia editors have inserted anti-Israel bias onto the site, oftentimes violating the organization’s neutrality policies in the process.
Meanwhile, a report from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found evidence of Russian-linked attempts to shape narratives used to train AI chatbots by twisting information about Israel.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the efforts of foreign operations and individuals at academic institutions subsidized by US taxpayer dollars to influence US public opinion,” Comer and Mace wrote. They emphasized the importance of stopping organized attempts to “inject bias into important and sensitive topics.”
Specifically, the committee is demanding records on possible coordination by nation-states or academic institutions to influence Wikipedia pages, internal arbitration files documenting how the site has handled editor misconduct, identifying data for accounts flagged for suspicious activity, and any analysis showing patterns of manipulation tied to antisemitism or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter also requests details of Wikipedia’s editorial policies to ensure neutrality and prevent the spread of bias.
Although the committee acknowledged that most online platforms face disinformation threats, the letter stressed that Wikipedia’s outsized influence as one of the most visited websites in the world and a key training source for artificial intelligence systems makes it especially important to prevent anti-Israel narratives from taking root unchecked.
The Wikimedia Foundation has previously stated that it takes action against volunteer editors who violate neutrality rules, but lawmakers say further transparency is needed to guarantee accountability.
However, a detailed investigation by Pirate Wires in October 2024 revealed that a powerful group of roughly 40 Wikipedia editors coordinated to “delegitimize Israel, present radical Islamist groups in a favorable light, and reshape the narrative around Israel with alarming influence,” particularly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Notably, one editor removed mention of Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel, from the Hamas article just six weeks after the attack. The group also reportedly sought to suppress documented human-rights abuses by Iran, and a related effort by a Discord-based collective known as “Tech For Palestine” coordinated mass editing of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to a report by the Jewish Journal, Wikipedia’s arbitration committee (ArbCom) permanently banned two editors outright for engaging in off-platform coordination tied to the “Tech for Palestine” Discord campaign, citing violations of policies. Additionally, the committee imposed indefinite topic bans on eight editors in the Israeli-Palestinian area for disruptive behavior such as non-neutral editing, personal insults, and misrepresentation of sources. In December 2024, ArbCom permanently banned two anti-Israel editors and placed restrictions on three others for violation of site policies in the Israeli-Palestinian topic area.
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Tunisian Brothers to Face Trial for Cutting Down Olive Tree Honoring Murdered Jew Ilan Halimi in France
A crowd gathers at the Jardin Ilan Halimi in Paris on Feb. 14, 2021, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Halimi’s kidnapping and murder. Photo: Reuters/Xose Bouzas/Hans Lucas
Two Tunisian twin brothers have been arrested in France after allegedly cutting down an olive tree that had been planted to honor Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man tortured to death nearly a decade ago.
According to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office, two 19-year-old undocumented men with prior convictions for theft and violence were arrested for vandalizing Halimi’s memorial in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine.
Both brothers appeared in criminal court on Wednesday and were remanded in custody pending their trial, scheduled for Oct. 22.
They will face trial on charges of “aggravated destruction of property” and “desecration of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” offenses that, according to prosecutors, carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.
Both suspects were taken into custody around noon on Monday while returning to the crime scene, French media reported.
Investigators tracked them down after discovering two slices of watermelon left by the perpetrators at the base of the olive tree, which contained their DNA.
Halimi was abducted, held captive, and tortured in January 2006 by a gang of about 20 people in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Three weeks later, Halimi was found in Essonne, south of Paris, naked, gagged, and handcuffed, with clear signs of torture and burns. The 23-year-old died on the way to the hospital.
In 2011, an olive tree was planted in Halimi’s memory. Earlier this month, the memorial was found felled — probably with a chainsaw — in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine.
Halimi’s memory has faced attacks before, with two other trees planted in his honor vandalized in 2019 in Essonne, where he was found dying near a railway track.
Hervé Chevreau, the mayor of Épinay, announced that a new memorial tree will be planted in the second half of September.
After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident, vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
“Felling the tree in honor of Ilan Halimi is a second attempt on his life,” the French leader said in a post on X.
Halimi’s sister, Anne-Laure Abitbol, also condemned the incident, warning that public denunciations are no longer enough and calling for concrete action.
“In France, we are no longer safe, neither alive nor dead,” Abitbol told RTL in an interview.
“I feel less safe in France,” she said. “By recognizing a Palestinian state, Macron is encouraging antisemitism and failing to take action against antisemitic attacks in the country.”
Last month, Macron announced that France will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September as part of its “commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Israeli officials have criticized the move, which was followed by several other Western countries, calling it a “reward for terrorism.”
France’s Jewish community has faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes they continue to face.
According to the French Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic incidents were recorded from January to June this year — a drop from the previous year’s first-half record high but a 112.5 percent increase compared with the same period in 2023, when 304 incidents were reported.