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Grandson of survivors barred from UN Holocaust memorial event after photographing influencer’s encounter with security
(JTA) — The grandson of Holocaust survivors was blocked from attending the United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day event in New York City after taking a photograph of influencer Lizzy Savetsky’s confrontation with security over an Israeli flag.
Julian Voloj was going through the security line at the U.N. General Assembly Hall when he saw security guards “harassing” Savetsky, a prominent pro-Israel social media influencer.
The security guards told Savetsky that she could not enter the event wearing her blazer, which had a bedazzled Israeli flag displayed prominently on its back. She was eventually allowed into the General Assembly Hall after checking her jacket.
“I do find it interesting that I was asked to check my Judaism at the door of an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event. Kind of ironic, no?” said Savetsky in an Instagram post about the incident.
After instinctively using his phone to take photos of the confrontation between Savetsky and security, Voloj said a security guard “stormed right to me, moved me aside, took my phone, used my face ID to access my photos and made me delete the pictures.”
From there, Voloj, who serves as the executive director of Be’chol Lashon, a nonprofit promoting Jewish diversity, said the security guard took his pass for the event and escorted him off the premises.
Voloj said he was not at the event in a professional capacity, only as the “grandchild of Holocaust survivors.” He said the experience left him “furious.”
International Holocaust Remembrance Day was created by the United Nations in 2005. Voloj said attending the annual event had become a “meaningful” tradition to honor the legacy of his grandmother, who survived a Nazi concentration camp in Transnistria as a teenager.
“Being a grandson of Holocaust survivors and then being so badly treated at the U.N. and kicked out for standing up for someone who, politically, I might not even agree to, I mean, I’m just beyond words,” said Voloj.
Savetsky, a pro-Israel influencer who left the cast of “Real Housewives of New York” in 2022 over antisemitism claims, has long posted provocative pro-Israel and politically conservative content on her Instagram page, which has 480,000 followers. She has shared her support for President Donald Trump and drew criticism last year after she posted a video saying that the late far-right rabbi Meir Kahane “was right” about how Israel should respond to terrorism.
In two separate posts about the jacket incident, Savetsky took aim at the United Nations, saying, “You know, the United Nations knows no bounds when it comes to antisemitism.”
Israel and its allies and supporters, including many Jewish groups, have long accused the United Nations of having a bias against Israel, citing the disproportionate number of resolutions condemning Israel. Most recently, those tensions intensified in September after a U.N. commission concluded that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza and a wave of countries formally recognized Palestinian statehood at its General Assembly.
“In recent years, we have heard many warnings from this podium about the rise in antisemitism, about dangerous lies, about how hatred begins with language,” Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, said at the event on Tuesday. “Those warnings are right, but they ring hollow when the lies that fuel antisemitism are allowed to spread, including here in this building, in the U.N.”
According to the U.N.’s New York visitors services website, guests are prohibited from public displays, including “clothing, banners, placards or other written or visual means” that disrupt the “normal functioning of the organization’s programmatic activities.”
After attending the ceremony nearly every year since 2007, Voloj said he had never seen someone targeted for wearing clothing that featured a national flag.
“The U.N. obviously always had an anti-Israel bias,” said Voloj. “I feel like probably given the whole world climate, he felt empowered to do this because it was an Israeli flag on a jacket.”
Savetsky claimed in an Instagram post that a U.N. staffer had told her a Palestinian flag would not get the same treatment.
Savetsky did not respond to a request for further comment on Tuesday. Calls and emails to the U.N. Headquarters’ visitor services department and the office of the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
Savetsky also posed with an Israeli flag in the U.N. General Assembly hall that she said had been “smuggled in” by another attendee. Stephanie Benshimol, another pro-Israel influencer, later took credit for bringing the flag in comments on Savetsky’s post and on an Instagram post of her own.
“Hi im the someone 😘 who let you take a photo with our flag 🇮🇱 and then a few minutes later I was given a choice by security either go to security office with my flag 🇮🇱 or be escorted out of the building,” wrote Benshimol. “I chose with proud dignity to leave with my flag out of the building.”
Savetsky reported that the actual International Holocaust Remembrance Day event was a “beautiful event.”
Having missed the event, Voloj described an “underlying PTSD inherited from my grandparents that definitely came out and made me feel so shaken up after this,” though he emphasized that he couldn’t compare his experience to what his grandparents had endured under the Nazis.
“I felt like, really, the Gestapo was just kicking me out,” he said. “Standing up for something that is wrong and being then punished for this, I’m just very shaken.”
Looking ahead, Voloj said he was unsure if he would make his annual pilgrimage again to the U.N.’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day event.
“I’m not sure if I’m coming back next year,” he said. “This left such a bitter taste for me.”
The post Grandson of survivors barred from UN Holocaust memorial event after photographing influencer’s encounter with security appeared first on The Forward.
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Portuguese artists pull out of Jerry Seinfeld-headlined festival
(JTA) — Several Portuguese artists have dropped out of a comedy festival in Lisbon headlined by Jerry Seinfeld, citing their support for Palestinians and implying opposition to Seinfeld’s support for Israel.
At least six acts over recent days have canceled their appearances at the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest, a new international comedy festival in the Portuguese capital. The event from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 has advertised that it will host Seinfeld’s first live appearance in Portugal.
Though none of the artists who withdrew mentioned Seinfeld by name, some hinted at a boycott against his pro-Israel views. The Jewish comedian has become one of Hollywood’s most prominent advocates for Israel since October 2023.
Actress and comedian Inês Aires Pereira announced on Instagram on Saturday that “one of the names” featured at the festival “persistently defends ideas and acts that I consider indefensible,” adding, “We cannot relativize or normalize a genocide.”
The comedy duo Cebola Mol posted a graphic of themselves with a watermelon, widely recognized as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians. “We will celebrate justice, freedom and joy with you on another occasion,” they said on Instagram.
The festival announced on Friday that performances by the groups Tributo Pop and Conjunto Cuca Monga were also canceled, but did not provide reasons. Two other acts, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils, shared their cancellations on Instagram without further details.
Seinfeld has aligned himself with Israel during its current conflict in Gaza, following decades of largely avoiding commenting on political issues. He visited Israel in December 2023 to meet with the families of hostages seized by Hamas on Oct. 7 of that year. Since then, he has attracted attention for a series of dismissive remarks toward pro-Palestinian advocates.
During an appearance last year at Duke University, Seinfeld compared pro-Palestinian activists with the Ku Klux Klan, saying, “The Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”
Representatives of Seinfeld and producers of the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The post Portuguese artists pull out of Jerry Seinfeld-headlined festival appeared first on The Forward.
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UK, France, Canada to ban goods from Israeli settlements
(JTA) —
The United Kingdom, France and Canada will ban goods produced in the West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament on Tuesday, explaining that all such communities were deemed by his country to be illegal.
The declaration exacerbated the rising tensions riling the traditionally strong Israel-U.K. alliance. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that these steps stoked antisemitism against British Jews in an on-camera statement to reporters in Jerusalem.
Sa’ar charged that the measures were a politicized hostile action deliberately taken ahead of Friday’s Jewish New Year holiday, with an eye toward influencing the country’s Oct. 27 elections.
Israel, he said, is responding by closing the British Consulate in Jerusalem that services Palestinians. It will also remove British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat and halt the British training of Palestinian Authority security forces. He added that Israel would bar the entry of 12 British politicians and other nationals involved in anti-Israel activity.
France and Canada have also announced a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He noted that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.
In the same address, Miliband affirmed Israel’s right to exist, reflected on his own Jewish roots and rejected the notion that there was a connection between the policy steps against West Bank settlement activity and the safety of British Jews.
What is motivating the U.K., Miliband said, is “a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community” as well as Israel’s “clear intent to bury the Palestinian state.”
In response, he said, the U.K. “will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied [Palestinian] territory” as part of a “new comprehensive sanctions regime” that will be put in place within nine months.
This will include, he said, “action against specific companies and individuals who provide services, such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion.”
To those who “finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this, you will face the full force of U.K. sanctions,” Miliband warned.
Miliband clarified that the ban would not affect the export of religious items or life-saving Israeli medications. He explained that trade with the settlements was minimal and that the greater impact would be the sanctions on services.
As part of declaring the ban, Miliband said that the British government is also adopting the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion that all Israeli settlement activity over the pre-1967 border was illegal.
But others in Parliament pushed back against Miliband’s declaration. MP Richard Tice of Britain’s right-wing Reform party said that the sanctions were a grave mistake that would “embolden the scourge of antisemitism against British Jews on British streets,” endanger ties with the United States and lead to “tit for tat” sanctions from Israel.
Miliband shot back that “no British Jew is responsible for the policies of the Israeli government and it behooves all of us to make sure that there can be no confusion about that,” saying that Tice’s statement “fell foul” of that goal.
The U.K. action is the latest escalation in tensions between Israel and the Labour-led British government headed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took power in July.
The prior government, led by former Labour Premier Keir Starmer, had already angered Israel by recognizing Palestinian statehood in 2025, suspending licenses for the export of arms to Israel and freezing talks toward a free-trade agreement.
France and Canada are also announcing a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He explained that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.
In concert with Miliband’s appearance at Parliament, Britain and 11 other countries issued a joint statement pledging “their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law.”
Those other countries were Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The 12-country bloc said it was taking this step to maintain the viability of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing the situation in the West Bank as “rapidly deteriorating.”
In its statement, the bloc stressed that it was taking this step amid an “unprecedented level of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.” That project is seen as cutting through land that would render a Palestinian state unviable.
The post UK, France, Canada to ban goods from Israeli settlements appeared first on The Forward.
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California Gov. Newsom, a presidential hopeful, slams Netanyahu and AIPAC in PBS interview
(JTA) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a 2028 presidential hopeful, ventured farther than ever in his criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a weekend interview that delved into the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel.
“I think it’s overwhelmingly opposed to the current regime in Israel,” Newsom said of the party, in a PBS News Hour interview with Amna Nawaz.
Pressed by Nawaz on divisions among his colleagues on Israel, Newsom denied that the subject is “even controversial anymore,” stressing that “the condemnation of what Bibi Netnayahu’s doing is almost universal.” The governor slammed the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and condemned the settler violence that has expanded in the West Bank.
“We want a democratic and secure Israel, and we want a secure and democratic Palestinian state as well right next door,” Newsom said, adding that Netanyahu has proved counterproductive to achieving a two-state solution.
Though he repeatedly maintained that Democrats are not divided on Israel, the governor acknowledged that “some of the language” by fellow Democrats “has been weaponized.” Certain “aspects of rhetoric” from individual candidates, he added, are on “the spectrum of concern,” Newsom said.
A number of candidates from the party’s far left place most if not all of the blame on Israel for a war in Gaza that has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths. and downplay the role of Hamas in launching the war with the Oct. 7, 2023 raid inside Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were abducted. Newsom’s rhetoric is of a piece with party moderates who are critical of the Israeli government but who call for a secure Israel, reject Hamas and who resist pressure from the left to call Israel’s actions “genocide.”
Newsom nonetheless insisted that the party is unified on the issue. “But I think universally, everyone agrees, even if you don’t think it’s genocide, that it’s been a moral catastrophe,” he said of the war in Gaza. “The vast majority of us also agree about the atrocities on Oct. 7th and how horrific and unacceptable it was, and the terrorism that was perpetrated by Hamas.”
Newsom was among the many U.S. politicians to visit Israel in October 2023, meeting with survivors and families impacted by the attacks.
During a March book tour, Newsom sparked a backlash when he said that some people were referring to Israel “appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.” He quickly walked back these remarks, telling Politico that he had used the term “in the context of the direction that Bibi is going.”
“I revere the state of Israel,” he declared at the time.
The governor warned, however, that if Netanyahu proceeds in the direction of West Bank annexation, apartheid could become “a word you may hear others use.”
In addition to amplifying his condemnation of Netanyahu this weekend, Newsom also addressed the fact that fewer Democrats are accepting funds from political action committees affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.
As for Newsom himself, Track AIPAC, an organization that compiles Federal Election Commission data to flag pro-Israel campaign contributions, did not log any such donations to the likely presidential candidate. But the group did flag him as “pro-Israel.”
“It’s a minority of Democrats that are accepting AIPAC,” the governor said, noting a “dramatic change” over the last couple years.
“The vast majority of Democrats I talk to, even Democrats in the past that have in the past have taken AIPAC money, are pledging not to now,” Newsom added. “That’s more of a mainstream position, interestingly, within the Democratic Party.”
The post California Gov. Newsom, a presidential hopeful, slams Netanyahu and AIPAC in PBS interview appeared first on The Forward.
