Uncategorized
Nelson Cruz and other Hispanic MLB players visit Israel to promote Christian-Jewish relations
TEL AVIV (JTA) — On a recent Monday, the owner of a restaurant here captivated a group of 14 lunch patrons with stories of her life before and after moving to Israel from Ethiopia as a youngster. A family visiting from New York approached from another table, and the adult son asked if he could pose for pictures with some of the members of the big group.
After the group had left to walk to the shore nearby, the restaurant’s owner learned that she had just hosted a group of professional athletes and their entourage. She briefly considered running after them for a photo herself.
“I wish I’d known who they were,” she said.
The athletes — Nelson Cruz, Cesar Hernandez and Jeimer Candelario, all Major League Baseball players in the United States — were surprised by what they learned at lunch, too. For instance, they had not known of the existence of Black Jews, including the thousands of Ethiopians living in Israel.
The players and their significant others were brought to Israel for a week by the Philos Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes Christian relations with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. It was the organization’s first delegation to Israel involving Hispanic athletes, said Jesse Rojo, the Philos Project’s director of Hispanic affairs. The group toured Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Galilee and ran a baseball clinic for Jewish and non-Jewish youth in Raanana.
The visit also aimed to “proactively” combat antisemitism, Rojo said, “to show our baseball players that they can make a difference, not wait for someone to come out with an antisemitic tweet to do something.” The trip was organized well in advance of the recent antisemitism controversies involving American celebrities such as rapper Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving.
But the players also expressed eagerness to learn about Israel and to impart their experiences upon returning to their homelands of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela — and to MLB clubhouses.
Cruz, from the Dominican Republic, is 39th on the MLB’s all-time home run list with 459. He hit only 10 homers this year and is 42 years old, but he said he’s hopeful a team will sign him to a contract for 2023. Hernandez, a second baseman who is also now a free agent, hails from Venezuela and is a former Gold Glove winner, earned for being named the best defender at his position in the American League. Candelario, born in New York but raised in the Dominican Republic, is also looking for a new team after playing six seasons at third base for the Detroit Tigers. Cruz and Hernandez played together on the Washington Nationals this past season.
On a minibus, before it set out for a day of touring, Cruz led a prayer of gratitude as everyone along for the ride bowed their heads. Members of the group uttered “amen” responses throughout. In Jaffa, Candelario expressed excitement at learning that the Bible’s Jonah had departed by ship from the ancient city’s port before being swallowed by a huge fish. At lunch, Candelario led the table in grace.
In separate interviews, each of the three visiting players said he had never heard anti-Jewish or anti-Israel views expressed by relatives, friends or acquaintances. Most of their compatriots, they said, think that Israel is constantly under enemy attack, a view they added was dispelled by their experience traveling around the country and feeling safe.
All attributed pro-Israel inclinations to their strong Christian beliefs, including regularly attending church services. They cited their mothers as devout women who raised them with Bible stories.
“We love God and the word of God. This is the land of our fathers,” said Candelario. “Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed,” he said, paraphrasing God’s promise to Abraham.
Rojo is organizing a charity softball game in the Dominican Republic between Dominican and Jewish-American MLB players in the coastal town of Susua — which was founded by refugees of Nazism who established still-operating dairy and sliced-meat factories. Funds raised through the event will pay to renovate both a baseball field and the town’s synagogue and to commemorate the Jewish immigrants’ roles in Susua’s history, Rojo said.
Cruz is trying to recruit fellow Dominican players to come on subsequent Israel trips and to play in next year’s Susua event. Superstar outfielder Juan Soto, Cruz’s former teammate on the Washington Nationals, considered participating in the recent delegation, but he reversed course after being traded mid-season to San Diego, Cruz said. Cruz also hopes to persuade the retired legends Albert Pujols and Manny Ramirez to come to Israel, too.
Back home, “we’ll share this experience, and definitely more players will be motivated to come,” Cruz said.
“Anyone who’s an opinion-maker from such countries helps us,” said Jonathan Peled, the Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy director general for Latin America. “They become ambassadors of good [will]. Whether a pastor, an athlete, a performer, a YouTuber – on every visit to Israel, there’s nothing like firsthand observation to see Israel in a more balanced, positive manner and less distorted.”
Jeimer Candelario, a third baseman for the Detroit Tigers, interacts with children at the Raanana field. (Nico Andre’ Duran)
Israel enjoys good relations throughout Latin America, with Venezuela an exception after it broke off diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 2009, Peled said. “But we hope that [ties] will be renewed soon,” he said.
Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Israel, coincidentally, will be competing (along with Puerto Rico and Nicaragua) in the same group at the upcoming World Baseball Classic, to be held in Miami in March. The teams will feature large contingents of major leaguers, with Israel’s roster consisting mainly of American Jews.
Baseball is not a top sport in Israel, but Team Israel’s periodic success on the world stage has helped promote the game. The Raanana site — dedicated in memory of Massachusetts native Ezra Schwartz, who was killed in a 2019 terrorist attack in Israel — is one of only a handful of baseball fields in the country. Other notable ones are at Kibbutz Gezer, in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, and at the Baptist Village complex in Petach Tikvah.
At the group lunch, Hernandez said that he “would live here” in Israel in the off-season if he could obtain a visa. He was asked whether he meant it.
“Yeah, because it’s the Jesus country,” Hernandez said. “I asked my wife, and she said yes.”
Sitting beside him at the restaurant, Gabriela Hernandez nodded.
“Yes,” she said, “because of the significance it has for us.”
—
The post Nelson Cruz and other Hispanic MLB players visit Israel to promote Christian-Jewish relations appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
UK Court to Hear Challenge to Pro-Hamas Group Ban After Government Loses Appeal
Police officers block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in protest against Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
The British government on Friday lost its bid to block the co-founder of the anti-Israel group Palestine Action bringing a legal challenge over the banning of the group under anti-terrorism laws.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, was given permission to challenge the group‘s proscription on the grounds that the ban is a disproportionate interference with free speech rights, with her case due to be heard next month.
Britain’s Home Office (interior ministry) then asked the Court of Appeal to overturn that decision and rule that any challenge to the ban should be heard by a specialist tribunal.
Judge Sue Carr rejected the Home Office’s appeal, saying challenging the proscription in the High Court was quicker, particularly where people have been charged and are facing trial for expressing support for Palestine Action.
The court also ruled that Ammori could challenge the ban in the High Court on additional grounds, which Ammori said was a significant victory.
“It’s time for the government to listen to the overwhelming and mounting backlash … and lift this widely condemned, utterly Orwellian ban,” she said in a statement.
The Home Office did not immediately comment.
DIRECT ACTION GROUP BANNED IN JULY
Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the government in July, making it a crime to be a member, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, with over 100 charged.
Before the ban, Palestine Action had increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances, or damaging equipment.
It accused Britain’s government of complicity in what it said were Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly denied committing war crimes in its two-year military campaign, which began after Palestinian Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire last week.
Palestine Action particularly focused on Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, and Britain’s government cited a raid by activists at an Elbit site last year when it decided to outlaw the group.
The group was banned a month after some of its members broke into the RAF Brize Norton air base and damaged two planes, for which four members have been charged.
Critics of the ban – including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and civil liberties groups – argue that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.
However, Britain’s former interior minister Yvette Cooper, who is now foreign minister, previously said violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest.
Uncategorized
UK Regulator Says BBC’s Gaza Documentary Broke Broadcasting Rules
Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said a BBC documentary about children’s lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run government broke broadcasting rules.
It said the failure to disclose the position of the boy’s father was “materially misleading.” The UK and several other countries have formally designated Hamas, which took control of Gaza nearly two decades ago, as a terrorist organization
The BBC removed “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” from its online platform in February, five days after it was broadcast.
Its own investigation found in July that the program had breached its editorial guidelines on accuracy.
However, it said there was no evidence that outside interests had “inappropriately impacted on the program.”
Ofcom, which received 20 complaints about the documentary, said it had directed the BBC to broadcast a statement on its findings on a date to be confirmed.
Uncategorized
Pakistan, Afghanistan Extend Ceasefire as Doha Talks Set to Begin, Sources Say
Smoke rises, in this still image from handout video, said to show Pakistani forces conducting a drone strike on an Afghan Taliban border post, in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, Oct. 15, 2025. Photo: ISPR/Handout via REUTERS
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Friday to extend their 48-hour ceasefire until the conclusion of talks in Doha, according to three Pakistani security officials and one Afghan Taliban source.
A Pakistani delegation had already arrived in Doha while an Afghan delegation was expected to reach the Qatari capital on Saturday, said the sources, who did not want to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Kabul has instructed its forces to maintain a ceasefire as long as Pakistan refrained from any attack, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Ariana News, a Pashto language local television news channel.
DOZENS KILLED IN DAYS OF FIERCE FIGHTING
A temporary truce between the South Asian neighbors on Wednesday paused days of fierce fighting that killed dozens and wounded hundreds.
Pakistan‘s military and foreign ministry and the Afghan defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the ceasefire and the talks in Doha.
Once allies, Islamabad and Kabul engaged in fierce ground fighting, and Pakistan also launched airstrikes across their contested frontier before they reached a 48-hour ceasefire that ended at 1300 GMT on Friday.
Militant violence in Pakistan has been a major irritant in its relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul after the departure of US-led forces in 2021.
The latest conflict between the two countries was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in militants who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.
SEVEN PAKISTANI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SUICIDE ATTACK
Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide attack near the Afghanistan border on Friday, Pakistani security officials said.
The soldiers came under attack in a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and 13 were also wounded, five security officials said.
While one militant rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the boundary wall of a fort that served as a military camp, two others tried to get into the facility and were shot dead, they said.
Six militants were killed in the suicide attack, the office of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement, without providing details on the number of soldiers killed.
Pakistan‘s army did not respond to a request for comment.
The identity of the attackers was not known and no group has claimed responsibility.
PAKISTAN ACTED AFTER LOSING PATIENCE WITH KABUL, SHARIF SAYS
Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan “retaliated” after losing patience with Afghanistan following a series of militant attacks, but was ready to hold talks to resolve the conflict.
The Taliban denies giving haven to militants to attack Pakistan and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions and sheltering ISIS-linked militants to undermine its stability and sovereignty.
Islamabad denies the accusations.
On Friday, the Pakistan Red Crescent said Afghanistan had handed over to it the bodies of seven Pakistanis – two security personnel and five civilians – who were killed during clashes earlier in the week.
Although the Islamic nations have clashed in the past, the fighting this month is their worst in decades. It has drawn the attention of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have mediated and sought to stop the fighting.
US President Donald Trump has said he can help resolve the conflict.