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Widespread Palestinian Support, Criticism of Israel Displayed at Glastonbury Festival in Britain
Revellers dance as they attend the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton near Glastonbury, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
The legendary Glastonbury Festival that took place over the weekend in Britain included dozens of displays of Palestinian support, from paraphernalia to comments made by performers, and a number of instances that featured condemnation of Israel and false claims about the Jewish state’s military actions during the ongoing Gaza war.
This year’s Glastonbury Festival, which celebrates music and the arts, featured a “Palestine” stall that sold badges, stickers, bracelets, keychains, and magnets that said “Free Palestine,” “Free Gaza,” and “Boycott Israeli Apartheid.” Some of the items depicted the state of Israel being covered entirely by the Palestinian flag, which was widely displayed across the festival grounds besides dozens of Palestinian banners.
GLASTONBURY @glastonbury have allowed a “palestine” stall to sells badges depicting Israel being wiped out entirely and replaced with just the Palestine flag.@emilyeavis you wiped off Star of David’s from the M.Levine sign.
Care to explain this too?
@__jacker__ pic.twitter.com/LswpUK9rRP
— Kosher (@KosherCockney) June 28, 2024
During their set on Friday, the British rock band Idles called for a ceasefire in the ongoing Gaza war and the Irish folk band Lankum Dublin sang to the crowd, “You’ll never take possession of the rocks of Palestine.” Norwegian singer Aurora also dedicated her performance in part to the “children in Palestine.”
British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa, who has a history of expressing pro-Palestinian views and criticizing Israel, headlined the main stage on Friday and walked into the audience during her performance, which many claim was an effort to get a nearby “Glasto for Palestine” flag in the camera shot. A video from Lipa’s performance also showed that some attendees carried LGBTQ rainbow flags with Stars of David and flags in honor of the victims of the Supernova music festival massacre near the singer.
Kudos to the one who waved 3 Nova flags and 1 Jewish Pride Flag right in front of Dua Lipa’s performance at Glastonbury music festival pic.twitter.com/XbxIyXPy8t
— Assaf Chriqui (@AssafChriqui) June 29, 2024
The Irish rap trio Kneecap — who pulled out of this year’s South by Southwest because one of its sponsors, the US Army, had ties to Israel — took to the stage at Glastonbury on Saturday. As part of their set, they displayed on large screens a “Free Palestine” message that falsely claimed “over 20,000 children have been murdered by Israel in 9 months” and that “it is being enabled by the British government.” They got encouraged fans to chant with them “Free, free Palestine.”
Some of the artists that performed at Glastonbury this year also wore Palestinian keffiyehs including Welsh singer Charlotte Church, who sang “free Palestine” multiple times during a performance on Friday when she joined Billy Bragg’s set. Also on Friday, Blur frontman Damon Albarn made a surprise appearance on stage during a performance by the indie band Bombay Bicycle Club and asked the crowd, “Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that it’s an unfair war?”
Throughout the five-day festival, which concluded on Sunday, there was no mention or reference on stage to the deadly massacre at the Supernova music festival that took place on Oct. 7 in southern Israel, where more than 300 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists and 40 others were taken as hostages.
Coldplay headlined the main stage at Glastonbury on Saturday and welcomed several surprise guests on stage, including Michael J Fox and Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna. During their set, the band’s lead singer Chris Martin stopped the music at one point and asked the 100,000-strong audience to send love to both Israel and “Palestine.”
“Just raise your hands like this and turn towards the main stage like this. Now, we’re gonna send a big Glastonbury love thing,” he said. “You can send it to anyone: you can send it to your grandmother, you can send it to Israel, you can send it to Palestine, you can send it to Myanmar. You can send it to Ukraine, you can send it to beautiful Russia. You can send it anywhere – you can send it all over the world from Glastonbury.”
He later thanked the crowd “for giving us and me restored faith that most humans can gather together very peacefully with all different flags, all different colors, all different genders, sexualities, ages, everything, and just sing and have a good time and ice cream, there’s no fighting, nothing like that.”
“So thank you for being inspiring to us,” he added. “And hopefully we’re sending all this out into the world all together as a beacon of togetherness in a time when it might seem like that’s impossible. You just proved that it is, so that’s amazing. Thank you.”
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’

Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events

A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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