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Jewish doctor denied $500 payment after refusing to promise Arkansas he won’t boycott Israel
(JTA) – The state of Arkansas is refusing to pay a Jewish doctor for a talk he delivered at a public university because he declined to promise not to boycott Israel.
Dr. Steve Feldman, a dermatologist, delivered a Zoom lecture to University of Arkansas at Little Rock medical students in February, for which he was entitled to a $500 honorarium from the state. But Feldman said that the state is withholding payment because he refused to sign a pledge, required for public contractors under Arkansas law since 2017, to commit to not boycotting Israel.
“They have a law in place that makes contracts with Arkansas dependent on your agreement not to boycott Israel, which I think is wrong,” Feldman, who is a professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “To me, growing up Jewish, the very strong lesson of the Holocaust that I learned is it’s wrong to mistreat other people.”
Arkansas is one of dozens of states that have passed laws aiming to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. The laws either bar the state from investing in companies that boycott Israel or, as in Arkansas’ case, mandate that state contractors promise not to boycott the country. Most of those laws have been struck down by courts, but Feldman’s lecture took place the same month the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Arkansas’ law. His case is the latest example of how such laws are affecting what would otherwise be ordinary state business transactions.
Feldman has close relatives who live in Israel. But he said the pledge conflicted with his religious and moral views. In addition to his medical work, he is a pro-Palestinian activist who created the online-only Jewish Museum of the Palestinian Experience. The website says that the Jewish commitment to fighting injustice should lead Jews to stand up for Palestinian rights. Feldman said he does support boycotting Israel.
“I think the only thing that will lead to Israel allowing Palestinian families to return to their homes, so that everybody can live together peacefully, will be some kind of boycott,” he said.
While the Arkansas law, passed in 2017, applies only to contractors earning more than $1,000 from the state, Feldman said he was still refused his $500 payment. The justification, he said, was that being added to the state’s vendor system would make him eligible for future assignments that could add up to more than $1,000.
Feldman told JTA he is exploring his legal options and wouldn’t rule out a lawsuit against the state as a means of advocating for Palestinian rights and challenging last year’s federal Eighth Circuit Court ruling that the law was constitutionally protected. “I would love to sue and have the Circuit Court either retract what they said, or go to the Supreme Court in order for people to see things that they didn’t know,” he said.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, has said the law combats discrimination on the basis of nationality. Following the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he works to “ensure that taxpayers aren’t required to pay for anti-Israel and anti-Israeli discrimination.”
Feldman’s story was first reported by the Arkansas Times, a publication that has itself become entangled in the state’s anti-boycott law. The paper’s publisher, Alan Leveritt, challenged the law in court after he was asked to sign the anti-boycott pledge so that the paper could run advertising from a state university. The suit, which is the one that reached the Supreme Court, argued that the law was a violation of the publication’s First Amendment rights and attracted support from progressive Jewish groups, as well as opposition from some pro-Israel groups. Leveritt argued that he doesn’t have strong feelings about Israel boycotts but that his paper does not take political positions in exchange for advertising.
Since the inception of state-level laws prohibiting Israel boycotts, some state lawmakers have used them as a template for legislation barring other types of divestment campaigns, such as those targeting fossil fuels or the firearms industry.
Feldman mused that he could have signed the pledge, taken the money and then engaged in an Israel boycott to see how the state would react, but concluded, “I can’t lie on a form. That also goes against my Jewish moral character.”
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The post Jewish doctor denied $500 payment after refusing to promise Arkansas he won’t boycott Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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2 men found guilty in UK of plotting Islamic State-inspired antisemitic terror attack
Two men inspired by Islamic state ideology were convicted on Tuesday in Manchester, England, of plotting what prosecutors said could have been one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks in British history.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were both found guilty of preparing terrorist acts between December 2023 and May 2024. Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism.
Prosecutors told jurors that Saadaoui and Hussein had “embraced the views” of the Islamic State and had a “visceral dislike” of Jewish people.
By the time of his arrest in May 2024, following an undercover operation, Saadaoui had arranged the purchase and delivery of two assault rifles, an automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition for the attack. The pair had planned to infiltrate a march against antisemitism in the Manchester city center before unleashing their attack.
“Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein intended to target members of the Jewish community in an evil act born out of hate and intolerance,” said Assistant Chief Constable Robert Potts, who is in charge of Counter-Terrorism Policing in northwest England, in a statement. “If they had been successful then what followed would have been devastating and potentially one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to ever take place on UK soil.”
The convictions come as threats associated with the Islamic State appear to be on the rise. Earlier this month, two men who authorities said were motivated by “Islamic State ideology” killed 15 people after opening fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney.
In October on Yom Kippur, another man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State carried out an attack on a Manchester synagogue during which two people were killed.
Last week, three Toronto men, including one with alleged links to ISIS, were arrested for allegedly attempting kidnappings targeting Jews and women.
Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, said in October that MI5 and British police had “disrupted 19 late-stage attack plots” since 2020.
“Al Qaeda and Islamic State are once again becoming more ambitious, taking advantage of instability overseas to gain firmer footholds,” said McCallum. “They are both personally encouraging and indirectly inciting would-be attackers in the West.”
Following the convictions Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League called for “vigilance” from governments and local law enforcement.
“While some plots are thankfully thwarted, others are not, including the recent terror attack in Bondi Beach,” the ADL wrote in a post on X. “The threat of antisemitic terrorism is real and ongoing and vigilance by governments and law enforcement agencies is crucial to keep Jewish individuals and institutions safe globally.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post 2 men found guilty in UK of plotting Islamic State-inspired antisemitic terror attack appeared first on The Forward.
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Self-appointed chief rabbi of Saudi Arabia says he was denied entry at border
The self-appointed chief rabbi of Saudi Arabia, Rabbi Jacob Herzog, said he had been denied entry to the Gulf nation.
“With profound regret, I announce that I was barred from entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upon arrival, despite holding a valid entry visa, and despite having spent a significant portion of the past years living and serving in this blessed Kingdom,” Herzog wrote Monday in a post on X.
While the country has no official Jewish community, Herzog has in recent years marketed himself as an emissary for the country’s small population of Jewish visitors and residents, a role that has put him at odds with a community accustomed to flying under the radar of the conservative state.
“This incident has left me — against my will — distant from the Jewish community that I serve with love within the Kingdom, a community that has lived under the spirit of peace and goodwill embodied by the Saudi royal system and the great Saudi people,” continued Herzog.
While Saudi Arabia typically does not allow Israeli passport holders entry to the country, the New York-born Herzog’s dual citizenship in the United States and Israel appears to have earned him leniency in his travels between his home base in Jerusalem and the kingdom.
Herzog’s rejection comes as relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have been strained in recent months amid the fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
While President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for the country to enter a normalization agreement with Israel, Saudi leaders have remained steadfast that a path for Palestinian statehood is a key condition for entering any agreement.
“Saudi Arabia is not considering a normalization deal with Israel. Should Israel become a normal country with normal acceptance of international law, then Saudi Arabia will consider normalization,” Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, told the The Times of Israel on Sunday.
Herzog said that he did not receive any explanation for the decision from authorities at the airport or the country’s Ministry of Interior, but claimed he was “convinced that this measure did not emanate from the Royal Court or from the Saudi government itself.”
“Despite my complete trust in the integrity of Saudi institutions and the sound intentions of its leadership, I cannot ignore the possibility of the existence of dark forces seeking to obstruct the path of reform, openness, and tolerance that the Kingdom is pursuing with determination,” said Herzog.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior did not respond to requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Herzog’s rejection.
While Herzog markets kosher foods at Saudi grocery stores and offers his services as a mohel on his website, Saudi Arabia legally forbids practicing religions other than Islam in public.
In March 2024, a U.S. government delegation on international religious freedom ended a visit in Saudi Arabia early after a rabbi on the trip was asked to remove his kippah while in public.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Self-appointed chief rabbi of Saudi Arabia says he was denied entry at border appeared first on The Forward.
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Coast Guard again retracts policy that would downgrade swastika as hate symbol, clearing path for new leader’s confirmation
After renewed objections from Jewish groups, the U.S. Coast Guard again removed language referencing a proposed policy that would have stopped classifying swastikas as hate symbols.
The retraction late Thursday, the second such reversal of the Coast Guard’s swastika policy, was enough to prompt Jewish Sen. Jacky Rosen to drop the hold she had placed on Admiral Kevin Lunday’s nomination to permanently lead the organization.
“While I continue to have reservations about the process by which this happened and the confusion created by leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, I am pleased to see that the policy now directly refers to stronger language against swastikas and nooses,” Rosen wrote on the social network X. A Democrat from Nevada, Rosen had placed the hold together with non-Jewish Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran.
Lunday was swiftly confirmed by voice vote late that evening, prior to the Senate’s adjournment for the holiday season.
Rosen wrote of Lunday, “I appreciate his lifetime of service to our country and look forward to working with him to continue to strengthen anti-harassment policy at the Coast Guard.”
The Coast Guard upset and confused many Jewish groups by issuing and then reversing statements about whether swastikas and nooses would still be considered hate symbols or downgraded to “potentially divisive.”
After The Washington Post reported in November that the downgrade was happening, the Coast Guard denied the reports and Lunday — then the acting head — reassured Jewish leaders the policy would not go through. He issued an explicit directive on the subject.
Yet last week the Post reported that the Coast Guard had gone ahead and made the change in its updated harassment manuals, triggering fierce backlash at a moment when other actions by President Donald Trump’s second administration have raised concerns about antisemitic sentiment.
Jewish leaders, including the heads of the Union for Reform Judaism’s advocacy center and Jewish War Veterans, questioned how such a policy could have gone through despite Lunday’s directive. Some told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Lunday should not lead the Coast Guard if he was truly unaware of the policy change.
Yet Rosen appeared to feel differently after Lunday took additional steps Thursday. According to The Washington Post, Lunday issued a new directive to say the revisions involving swastikas and nooses had been “completely removed” from the policy manual. A copy of the manual itself now obscures the language with a large black bar.
In her statement lifting the hold on Lunday, Rosen added that, because she was still not satisfied with how the swastika issue was handled, she would be placing a hold on a different nomination: Sean Plankey, who had sought to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a component of the Department of Homeland Security.
“I will keep that hold in place until we see that this new policy works to protect our men and women in uniform from racist and antisemitic harassment,” Rosen wrote. Homeland Security also oversees the Coast Guard.
Plankey was not confirmed before the Senate adjourned, and his nomination would have to be renewed by Trump in the new year.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Coast Guard again retracts policy that would downgrade swastika as hate symbol, clearing path for new leader’s confirmation appeared first on The Forward.