Terrorists: UNRWA, Hamas, Palestinian Authority! BDS


Askar-UNRWA Cradle of Killers – Summer 2023


Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel (BDS). The UN started BDS

What New Yorkers look forward to when Zohran Mamdani is Mayor

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs logo

Suicide and Other Bombing Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles (Sept 1993)

Type: Information – Topic: TerrorismSecondary topic: Palestinian Terror and IncitementPublish Date: 06April1994 – https://www.gov.il/en/pages/suicide-and-other-bombing-attacks-since-the-declaration-of-principles

 

Suicide-bombings

Suicide-bombings

 

Suicide terror attacks 2000-2007

Suicide terror attacks 2000-2007

 

Apr 6, 1994 – Eight people were killed in a car-bomb attack on a bus in the center of Afula. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 13, 1994 – Five people were killed in a suicide bombing attack on a bus in the central bus station of Hadera. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 19, 1994 – In a suicide bombing attack on the No. 5 bus on Dizengoff Street in Tel-Aviv, 21 Israelis and one Dutch national were killed.

 

Nov 11, 1994 – Three soldiers were killed at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip when a Palestinian riding a bicycle detonated explosives strapped to his body. Islamic Jihad said it carried out the attack to avenge the car bomb killing of Islamic Jihad leader Hani Abed on Nov 2.

 

Jan 22, 1995 – Two consecutive bombs exploded at the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, killing 20 soldiers and one civilian. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 9, 1995 – Seven Israelis and one American were killed when a bus was hit by an explosives-laden van near Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jul 24, 1995 – Six civilians were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Ramat Gan.

 

Aug 21, 1995 – Three Israelis and one American were killed in a suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus.

 

Feb 25, 1996 – In a suicide bombing of bus No. 18 near the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, 26 were killed (17 civilians and 9 soldiers). Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 25, 1996 – One Israeli was killed in an explosion set off by a suicide bomber at a hitchhiking post oustide Ashkelon. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 3, 1996 – In a suicide bombing of bus No. 18 on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, 19 were killed (16 civilians and 3 soldiers).

 

Mar 4, 1996 – Outside Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv, a suicide bomber detonated a 20-kilogram nail bomb, killing 13 (12 civilians and one soldier).

 

Mar 21, 1997 – Three people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb on the terrace of a Tel Aviv cafe. 48 people were wounded.

 

Jul 30, 1997 – 16 people were killed and 178 wounded in two consecutive suicide bombings in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.

 

Sep 4, 1997 – Five people were killed and 181 wounded in three suicide bombings on the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem.

 

Oct 29, 1998 – One Israeli soldier was killed when a terrorist drove an explosives-laden car into an Israeli army jeep escorting a bus with 40 elementary school students from the settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip.

 

Nov 2, 2000 – Ayelet Shahar Levy, 28, and Hanan Levy, 33, were killed in a car bomb explosion near the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. 10 people were injured. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Nov 20, 2000 – A roadside bomb exploded at 7:30 in the morning alongside a bus carrying children from Kfar Darom to school in Gush Katif. Miriam Amitai, 35, and Gavriel Biton, 34, were killed and 9 others, including 5 children, were injured, 5 of them seriously.

 

Nov 22, 2000 – Shoshanna Reis, 21, of Hadera, and Meir Bahrame, 35, of Givat Olga, were killed, and 60 wounded when a powerful car bomb was denotated alongside a passing bus on Hadera’s main street, when the area was packed with shoppers and people driving home from work.

 

Dec 22, 2000 – Three soldiers were injured in a suicide bomb attack at the Mehola Junction roadside cafe in the northern Jordan Valley. The terrorist, who detonated a belt of explosives strapped to him, was killed in the blast.

 

Jan 1, 2001 – A car bomb exploded near a bus stop in the shopping district in the center of Netanya. About 60 people were injured, most lightly. One unidentified person, apparently one of the terrorists involved in the bombing, died of severe burns. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 8, 2001 – A powerful car bomb exploded at 4:40 PM in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Beit Yisrael in Jerusalem, causing mild injuries to four people.

 

Feb 14, 2001 – Eight people were killed and 25 injured when a bus driven by a Palestinian terrorist plowed into a group of soldiers and civilians waiting at a bus stop near Holon, south of Tel-Aviv.

 

Mar 1, 2001 – One person was killed and 9 injured when a terrorist detonated a bomb in a Tel Aviv to Tiberias service taxi at the Mei Ami junction in Wadi Ara.

 

Mar 4, 2001 – Three people were killed and at least 60 injured in a suicide bombing in downtown Netanya.

Mar 27, 2001 – A car bomb exploded at 7:40 in the morning in the Talpiot industrial/commercial zone in Jerusalem. Seven people were injured, one moderately. The Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 27, 2001 – 28 people were injured, two seriously, in a suicide bombing directed against a northbound No. 6 bus at the French Hill junction in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 28, 2001 – Two teenagers were killed and four injured, one critically, in a suicide bombing at the Mifgash Hashalom (“peace stop”) gas station several hundred meters from an IDF roadblock near the entrance to Kalkilya, east of Kfar Saba. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 22, 2001 – A terrorist detonated a powerful bomb he was carrying near a group of people waiting at a bus stop on the corner of Weizman and Tchernichovsky streets in Kfar Sava. One person was killed and about 60 injured in the blast, two severely. The terrorist was also killed in the explosion, for which Hamas claimed responsibility.

 

Apr 23, 2001 – Eight people were lightly hurt in a car bombing in Or Yehuda, a few kilometers north of Ben-Gurion Airport, which senior police officers said could only be described as a “miracle” in an area packed with pre-Independence Day shoppers.

 

Apr 29, 2001 – A car bomb blew up close to a school bus travelling near the West Bank city of Nablus. There were no injuries in the attack. The body of the suicide bomber was found in the car. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 18, 2001 – A Palestinian suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated himself outside the Hasharon Shopping Mall in the seaside city of Netanya. Five civilians were killed and over 100 wounded in the attack. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 25, 2001 – 65 people were injured in a car bombing in the Hadera central bus station. The two terrorists were apparently killed in the explosion. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

 

May 27, 2001 – A car bomb exploded in the center of Jerusalem shortly after midnight. There were no injuries. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility.
A bomb exploded at 9:00 in the morning near the intersection of the capital’s main Jaffa Road and Heshin Street. The bomb included several mortar shells, some of which were propelled hundreds of meters from the site of the explosion. 30 people were injured, most suffering from shock. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

 

May 30, 2001 – A car bomb exploded shortly before 16:00 outside a school in Netanya while a number of students were still in the building studying for matriculation exams. Eight people were injured, suffering from shock and hearing impairment. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

 

June 1, 2001 – 21 people were killed and 120 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a disco near Tel Aviv’s Dolphinarium along the seafront promenade just before midnight on Friday, June 1, while standing in a large group of teenagers waiting to enter the disco.

 

June 22, 2001 – Sgt. Aviv Iszak, 19, of Kfar Saba, and Sgt. Ofir Kit, 19, of Jerusalem, were killed near Dugit in the Gaza Strip as a jeep with yellow Israeli license plates, supposedly stuck in the sand, blew up as they approached. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 2, 2001 – Two separate bombs exploded at about 8:20 Monday morning in cars in the Tel-Aviv suburb of Yehud. Six pedestrians were lightly injured. Police sources say the bombs were probably set by terrorists. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, claimed responsibility.

 

July 9, 2001 – A Palestinian suicide bomber was killed in a car-bombing attack near the Kissufim crossing point in the southern Gaza Strip, causing no other casualties. Disaster was averted as the bomb exploded without hitting any other vehicles. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 16, 2001 – Cpl. Hanit Arami, 19, and St.Sgt. Avi Ben Harush, 20, both of Zichron Yaakov, were killed and 11 wounded – 3 seriously – when a bomb exploded in a suicide terrorist attack at a bus stop near the train station in Binyamina, halfway between Netanya and Haifa, at about 19:30 Monday evening. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 8, 2001 – A suicide bomber was killed when he detonated his car bomb, lightly wounding one soldier, at a roadblock near the B’kaot moshav in the northern Jordan Valley shortly after 9:00. One soldier was lightly wounded.

 

Aug 9, 2001 – 16 people were killed, including 7 children, and about 130 injured in a suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria on the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 12, 2001 – 21 people were injured in a suicide bombing in the Wall Street Cafe in the center of Kiryat Motzkin at 17:30. The terrorist was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 21, 2001 – A bomb placed under a car exploded at 14:15 near the Russian Compound in downtown Jerusalem; one woman was treated for shock. A second, very large unexploded bomb was discovered inside the car and dismantled.

 

Sept 4, 2001 – 20 people were injured when a suicide terrorist exploded a powerful charge on Hanevi’im Street near Bikur Holim hospital in central Jerusalem shortly before 8:00 AM. The terrorist, disguised as a Jew in ultra-orthodox clothing, aroused the suspicion of passersby due to the large backpack he was wearing. As two Border Police officers approached the man, he detonated his shrapnel-packed bomb. Both officers were wounded – one critically. The terrorist was killed in the blast. Hamas claimed responsibility.

 

Sept 9, 2001 – Three people were killed and some 90 injured, most lightly, in a suicide bombing near the Nahariya train station in northern Israel. The terrorist, killed in the blast, waited nearby until the train arrived from Tel-Aviv and people were exiting the station, and then exploded the bomb he was carrying. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 9, 2001 – A car bomb exploded at the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, injuring 17 people. One person killed in the explosion is believed to be the terrorist bomber.

 

Oct 1, 2001 – A large car bomb exploded in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. Several people were lightly injured.

 

Oct 7, 2001 – Yair Mordechai, 43, of Kibbutz Sheluhot was killed when a Palestinian suicide terrorist affiliated with the Islamic Jihad detonated a large bomb strapped to his body near the entrance of the kibbutz in the Beit She’an Valley.

 

Nov 26, 2001 – A Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and lightly wounded two Border Policemen at the Erez crossing point in the Gaza Strip. The bomber joined workers waiting to be cleared for entry into Israel. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Nov 29, 2001 – Three people were killed and nine others were wounded in a suicide bombing on an Egged 823 bus en route from Nazereth to Tel Aviv near the city of Hadera. The Islamic Jihad and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Dec 1, 2001 – 11 people were killed and about 180 injured when explosive devices were detonated by two suicide bombers close to 11:30 P.M. Saturday night on Ben Yehuda Street, the pedestrian mall in the center of Jerusalem. A car bomb exploded nearby 20 minutes later. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Dec 2, 2001 – 15 people were killed and 40 injured, several critically, in a suicide bombing on an Egged bus No. 16 in Haifa shortly after 12:00. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Dec 5, 2001 – A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb shortly after 7:30 AM on King David Street in Jerusalem. A number of people waiting at a nearby bus stop were lightly injured. The terrorist was killed in the blast. Police are investigating whether the bomb, packed with nails and shrapnel, went off prematurely. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

 

Dec 9, 2001 – A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb near a bus stop at the Checkpost Junction in Haifa shortly after 7:30 AM. About 30 people were injured, most lightly and suffering from shock. A second explosive device was found and detonated nearby. The terrorist was killed.

 

Dec 12, 2001 – Four people traveling in two cars were lightly wounded in an attack at 18:00 PM by two suicide bombers near the Gaza Strip community of Neve Dekalim.

 

Jan 25, 2002 – 25 people were wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a cafe on a pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv’s old central bus station at 11:15 AM on Friday.

 

Jan 27, 2002 – Pinhas Tokatli, 81, of Jerusalem was killed and over 150 people were wounded, four seriously, in a suicide bombing on Jaffa Road, in the center of Jerusalem, shortly before 12:30. The female terrorist, identified as a Fatah member, was armed with more than 10 kilos of explosives.

 

Feb 16, 2002 – Two teenagers were killed and about 30 people were wounded, six seriously, when a suicide bomber blew himself up on Saturday night at a pizzeria in the shopping mall in Karnei Shomron in Samaria. A third person subsequently died of his injuries. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 18, 2002 – Policeman Ahmed Mazarib, 32, of the Bedouin village Beit Zarzir in the Galilee, was killed by a suicide bomber whom he had stopped for questioning on the Ma’ale Adumim-Jerusalem road. The terrorist succeeded in detonating the bomb in his car. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 27, 2002 – A Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at the Maccabim roadblock on the Jerusalem-Modi’in highway Wednesday night, injuring three policemen.

 

Mar 2, 2002 – Eleven people were killed and over 50 were injured, 4 critically, in a suicide bombing at 19:15 on Saturday evening near a yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem where people had gathered for a bar-mitzva celebration. The terrorist detonated the bomb next to a group of women waiting with their baby carriages for their husbands to leave the nearby synagogue. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade took responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 5, 2002 – Maharatu Tagana, 85, of Upper Nazareth was killed and a large number of people injured, most lightly, when a suicide bomber exploded in an Egged No. 823 bus as it entered the Afula central bus station. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 7, 2002 – A suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby of a hotel in the commericial center on the outskirts of Ariel in Samaria. 15 people were injured, one seriously. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 9, 2002 – 11 people were killed and 54 injured, 10 of them seriously, when a suicide bomber exploded at 22:30 PM Saturday night in the crowded Moment cafe at the corner of Aza and Ben-Maimon streets in the Rehavia neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 17, 2002 – A suicide bomber exploded himself near an Egged bus no. 22 at the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem. 25 people were lightly injured.

 

Mar 20, 2002 – Seven people, four of them soldiers, were killed and about 30 wounded, several seriously, in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus No. 823 traveling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth at the Musmus junction on Highway 65 (Wadi Ara) near Afula. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 21, 2002 – Three people were killed and 86 injured, 3 of them seriously, in a suicide bombing on King George Street in the center of Jerusalem. The terrorist detonated the bomb, packed with metal spikes and nails, in the center of a crowd of shoppers. The Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 27, 2002 – 30 people were killed and 140 injured – 20 seriously – in a suicide bombing in the Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya, in the midst of the Passover holiday seder with 250 guests. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist was a member of Hamas from Tulkarem, on the list of wanted terrorists Israel had requested be arrested.

 

Mar 29, 2002 – Two people were killed and 28 injured, two seriously when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the Kiryat Yovel supermarket in Jerusalem. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 30, 2002 – One person was killed and about 30 people were injured in a suicide bombing in a cafe on the corner of Allenby and Bialik streets in Tel-Aviv. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 31, 2002 – 15 people were killed and over 40 injured in a suicide bombing in Haifa, in the Matza restaurant of the gas station near the Grand Canyon shopping mall. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 31, 2002 – An MDA paramedic was very seriously injured along with three other people at 17:00 Sunday afternoon in a suicide bombing at the emergency medical center in Efrat, in the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem.

 

Apr 1, 2002 – A police officer was killed in Jerusalem when a Palestinian suicide bomber heading toward the city center blew himself up in his car after being stopped at a roadblock. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 10, 2002 – Eight people were killed and 22 injured in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #960, en route from Haifa to Jerusalem, which exploded near Kibbutz Yagur, east of Haifa. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 12, 2002 – Six people were killed and 104 wounded when a woman suicide bomber detonated a powerful charge at a bus stop on Jaffa road at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda open-air market. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 7, 2002 – 16 people were killed and 55 wounded in a crowded game club in Rishon Lezion, southeast of Tel-Aviv, when a suicide bomber detonated a powerful charge in the 3rd floor club, causing part of the building to collapse. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 19, 2002 – Three people were killed and 59 injured – 10 seriously – when a suicide bomber, disguised as a soldier, blew himself up in the market in Netanya. Both Hamas and the PFLP took responsibility for the attack.

 

May 20, 2002 – A suicide bomber, apparently bound for Afula, killed himself after Border Policemen approached him for questioning at a bus stop. There were no other injuries.

 

May 22, 2002 – Two people were killed and about 40 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself in the Rothschild Street downtown pedestrian mall of Rishon Lezion.

 

May 23, 2002 – A bomb planted by terrorists exploded underneath a fuel truck at the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv. The truck burst into flames, but the blaze was quickly contained.

 

May 24, 2002 – A security guard opened fire on a terrorist attempting to ram a car bomb into the Studio 49 Disco in Tel Aviv. The terrorist was killed and five Israelis slightly injured when the bomb exploded prematurely.

 

May 27, 2002 – A grandmother and her infant granddaughter were killed and 37 people were injured, some seriously, when a suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikva. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

June 5, 2002 – 17 people were killed and 38 injured when a car packed with a large quantity of explosives struck Egged bus No. 830 traveling from Tel-Aviv to Tiberias at the Megiddo junction near Afula. The bus, which burst into flames, was completely destroyed. The terrorist was killed in the blast. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

June 11, 2002 – A 14-year-old girl was killed and 15 others were wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber set off a relatively small pipe bomb at a shwarma restaurant in Herzliya.

 

June 18, 2002 – 19 people were killed and 74 injured – six seriously – in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The bus, which was completely destroyed, was carrying many students on their way to school. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

June 19, 2002 – Seven people were killed and 50 injured – three of them in critical condition – when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem shortly after 7:00 P.M., as people were returning home from work. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 16, 2002 – Nine people were killed and 20 injured in a terrorist attack on Dan bus no. 189 traveling from Bnei Brak to Emmanuel in Samaria. An explosive charge was detonated next to the bullet-resistant bus. The terrorists waited in ambush, reportedly wearing IDF uniforms, and opened fire on the bus. While four terror organizations claimed responsibility for the attack, it was apparently carried out by the same Hamas cell which carried out the attack in Emmanuel on Dec 12, 2001.

 

July 17, 2002 – Five people were killed – two Israeli and three foreign workers – and about 40 were injured, four seriously, in a double suicide bombing on Neve Shaanan Street near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 30, 2002 – Five people suffered light to moderate injuries in a suicide bombing at a felafel stand on Hanevi’im Street in the center of Jerusalem. The bomber, who was killed, apparently exploded prematurely.

 

July 31, 2002 – Nine people were killed and 85 wounded, 14 of them seriously, when a bomb exploded in the Frank Sinatra student center cafeteria on the Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus. The explosive device was planted inside the cafeteria, which was gutted by the explosion. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 4, 2002 – Nine people were killed and some 50 wounded in a suicide bombing of Egged bus No. 361 traveling from Haifa to Safed at the Meron junction in northern Israel. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 5, 2002 – A bomb exploded in a car at the Umm al-Fahm junction in northern Israel, killing the terrorist and wounding the driver, an Arab Israeli resident of Nazareth.

 

Sept 18, 2002 – Police Sgt. Moshe Hezkiyah, 21, of Elyachin was killed and three people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a bus stop at the Umm al Fahm junction. The terrorist, who was apparently planning to detonate the bomb after boarding a bus, set the charge off early when approached by the police for questioning. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 19, 2002 – Six people were killed and about 70 wounded when a terrorist detonated a bomb in Dan bus No. 4 on Allenby Street, opposite the Great Synagogue in Tel-Aviv. Hamas claimed responsbility for the attack.

 

Oct 10, 2002 – Sa’ada Aharon, 71, of Ramat Gan was killed and about 30 people were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up while trying to board Dan bus No. 87 across from Bar-Ilan University on the Geha highway (Route 4). Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 21, 2002 – 14 people were killed and some 50 wounded when a car bomb containing about 100 kilograms of explosives was detonated next to a No. 841 Egged bus from Kiryat Shmona to Tel-Aviv, while traveling along Wadi Ara on Route No. 65 toward Hadera. The bus had pulled over at a bus stop when the suicide bomber, from Jenin, driving a jeep, approached from behind and exploded. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 27, 2002 – Two IDF officers and a non-commissioned officer were killed and about 20 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at the Sonol gas station at the entrance to Ariel in Samaria. The victims were killed while trying to prevent the terrorist from detonating the bomb. The terrorist was identified as a member of Hamas.

 

Nov 4, 2002 – Two people – a security guard and a teenage boy, both recent immigrants from Argentina – were killed and about 70 were wounded in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Kfar Sava. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Nov 21, 2002 – Eleven people were killed and some 50 wounded by a suicide bomber on a No. 20 Egged bus on Mexico Street in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bus was filled with passengers, including schoolchildren, traveling toward the center of the city during rush hour. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 5, 2003 – Twenty-two people were killed and about 120 wounded in a double suicide bombing near the old Central Bus Station in Tel-Aviv. The attack was apparently carried out by two members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, with the help of the Islamic Jihad.

 

Mar 5, 2003 – Seventeen people were killed and 53 wounded in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus #37 on Moriah Blvd. in the Carmel section of Haifa, en route to Haifa University. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 30, 2003 – Over 40 people were wounded in a suicide bombing on the pedestrian mall at the entrance to the London Cafe in the center of Netanya. The bomber was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 24, 2003 – Alexander Kostyuk, a 23-year-old security guard from Bat Yam, was killed and 13 were wounded, two seriously, in a suicide bombing outside the train station in Kfar Sava. Groups related to the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP clamied joint responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 30, 2003 – Three people were killed and about 60 peoople were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a beachfront pub “Mike’s Place” in Tel Aviv. The Fatah Tanzim and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, carried out as a joint operation. Investigation revealed that the two British Muslims involved in the suicide bombing were dispatched to perpetrate the attack by the Hamas military command in the Gaza Strip.

 

May 17, 2003 – Gadi Levy and his wife Dina, aged 31 and 37, of Kiryat Arba were killed by a suicide bomber in Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 18, 2003 – Seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus no. 6 near French Hill in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Steve Averbach died on June 3, 2010, succumbing to wounds suffered in the suicide bombing, bringing the death toll to eight.
A second suicide bomber detonated his bomb when intercepted by police in northern Jerusalem. The terrorist was killed; no one else was injured.

 

May 19, 2003 – Three IDF soldiers were lightly injured when a Palestinian on a bicycle detonated explosives next to a military jeep near Kfar Darom in the southern Gaza Strip. The bomber was killed. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 19, 2003 – Three people were killed and about 70 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Amakim Mall in Afula. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

May 22, 2003 – Nine Israelis were injured when a roadside bomb was detonated next to a bus near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.

 

June 11, 2003 – Seventeen people were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #14A outside the Clal building on Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

June 19, 2003 – Avner Mordechai, 58, of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean. The suicide bomber was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 7, 2003 – Mazal Afari, 65, of Moshav Kfar Yavetz was killed in her home on Monday evening and three of her grandchildren lightly wounded in a terrorist suicide bombing. The remains of the bomber were also found in the wreckage of the house. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 12, 2003 – Erez Hershkovitz, 18, of Eilon Moreh, was killed and three people wounded when a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself at a bus stop outside Ariel. Amatzia Nisanevitch, 22, of Nofim, died of his wounds on August 28.

 

Aug 19, 2003 – Twenty-three people were killed and over 130 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself on a No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem’s Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 9, 2003 – Nine IDF soldiers were killed and 30 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a hitchhiking post for soldier outside a main entrance to the Tzrifin army base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 9, 2003 – Seven people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim St., the main thoroughfare of the German Colony neighborhood in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 4, 2003 – Twenty-one people were killed, including four children, and 60 wounded in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist from Jenin in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Oct 9, 2003 – A Palestinian suicide bomber exploded himself at the DCO located at the entrance to Tulkarm. The bomber approached the reception window and exploded himself, injuring two IDF soldiers and a Palestinian.

 

Oct 15, 2003 – Three Americans were killed and one wounded at the Beit Hanoun junction in the Gaza Strip when a massive bomb demolished an armor-plated jeep in a convoy carrying U.S. diplomats.

 

Nov 3, 2003 – A suicide bomber blew himself up in the West Bank village of Azun, near Kafr Qasem, when he saw Israeli security officials searching for him. One IDF soldier was lightly wounded. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility for the failed attack.

 

Dec 25, 2003 – Four Israelis were killed and over 20 wounded in a suicide bombing at a bus stop at the Geha Junction, east of Tel Aviv, near Petah Tikva. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 14, 2004 – Four Israelis – three soldiers and one civilian – were killed and 10 wounded when a female suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 29, 2004 – Eleven people were killed and over 50 wounded, 13 of them seriously, in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus no. 19 at the corner of Gaza and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem. The Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, naming the bomber as Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem.

 

Feb 22, 2004 – Eight people were killed and over 60 wounded, 11 of them school pupils, in a suicide bombing on Jerusalem bus no. 14A near the Liberty Bell Park. The Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out by Mohammed Za’ul, from the Bethlehem area.

 

Mar 6, 2004 – Two Palestinian policemen were killed in a terror attack on the Erez crossing in northern Gaza involving rifle fire and suicide car bombs, including jeeps camouflaged as IDF vehicles. Two of the vehicles exploded on the Palestinian side of the crossing, and four terrorists were killed. There were no IDF casualties. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the military wing of Fatah all claimed responsibility.

 

Mar 14, 2004 – Ten people were killed and 16 wounded in a double suicide bombing at Ashdod Port. Hamas and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Apr 17, 2004 – Border Policeman Sgt. Kfir Ohayon, 20, of Eilat was killed, three others wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the Erez Crossing. Hamas and Fatah claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

 

May 22, 2004 – A suicide bomber was killed when he detonated an explosive device at the Bekaot checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley. The commander of the IDF checkpoint was lightly injured, as well as several Palestinians. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 11, 2004 – Sgt. Ma’ayan Na’im, 19, of Bat Yam, was killed and 33 wounded when a bomb exploded at a bus stop in downtown Tel Aviv at about 7 a.m. One person was critically wounded, four were moderately wounded, and the rest were lightly hurt.

 

Aug 11, 2004 – Two Palestinian bystanders were killed and 18 people were wounded, including six Border Policemen, when a bomb was detonated south of the Qalandiyah checkpoint at the northern entrance to Jerusalem.

 

Aug 31, 2004 – Sixteen people were killed and 100 wounded in two suicide bombings within minutes of each other on two Beersheba city buses, on route nos. 6 and 12. The buses were traveling along Beersheba’s main street, Rager Blvd, near the city hall. Hamas in Hebron claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 8, 2004 – A booby-trapped car exploded next to Israeli security personnel at the Baka al-Sharkiyeh checkpoint, near the Green Line border with the West Bank. The Palestinian driver of the car was killed in the blast. The Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sept 14, 2004 – A suicide bomber riding on a bicycle blew himself up near an armored IDF jeep at an agricultural gate, south of Qalqilyah, injuring two IDF soldiers.

 

Sept 22, 2004 – Two Border Policemen were killed and 17 Israelis wounded in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist at the French Hill junction hitchhiking post in northern Jerusalem. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 7, 2004 – A total of 32 people were killed in terror bombings at two Sinai holiday resorts frequented by Israelis: 29 at the Taba Hilton and three at Ras a-Satan. Among the dead were 12 Israelis; over 120 were wounded.

 

Nov 1, 2004 – Three people were killed and over 30 wounded in a suicide bombing at the Carmel Market in central Tel Aviv. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Nablus claimed responsibility for the attack, carried out by Amar Alfar, 18, from Askar refugee camp in Nablus.

 

Dec 7, 2004 – St.-Sgt. Nadav Kudinsky, 20, of Kiryat Gat of the Oketz canine unit was killed by a bomb, along with his dog, when a booby-trapped chicken coup exploded northwest of the Karni Corssing in the Gaza Strip. Four soldiers were wounded in the exchange of fire while evacuating him. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 5, 2005 – A terrorist infiltrated the Erez crossing terminal in the Gaza Strip, activated an explosive device, hurled grenades and opened fire. An IDF force shot and killed the terrorist. The Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 12, 2005 – One Israeli civilian was killed and three IDF soldiers wounded when a bomb was detonated as a military vehicle patroled the route near Morag in the southern Gaza Strip. Two terrorists were killed by IDF forces. The area was booby-trapped with explosive devices, in addition to the bomb that exploded. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 13, 2005 – On Thursday night, shortly before the closing of the Karni Crossing, terrorists activated an explosive device on the Palestinian side of the crossing, blowing a hole in the door through which Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Israeli side of the crossing and opened fire at Israeli civilians. As a result of the explosion and during exchanges of fire, six Israeli civilians and three Palestinian terrorists were killed, and five Israeli civilians were wounded. Hamas and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed joint responsiblity for the attack.

 

Jan 18, 2005 – An ISA officer was killed, an IDF officer seriously wounded, and 4 IDF soldiers and 3 members of the ISA were lightly wounded in a suicide bombing attack at the Gush Katif junction in the central Gaza Strip. While search procedures were being carried out, the suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body detonated himself. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 25, 2005 – Five people were killed and 50  wounded Friday night, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stage club on the Tel Aviv promenade at around 11:20 P.M., on the corner of Herbert Samuel and Yonah Hanavi streets. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

July 12, 2005 – Five people were killed and about 90 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside Hasharon Mall in Netanya. The bomber was identified as Ahmed Abu Khalil, 18, from the West Bank village of Atil. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Aug 28, 2005 – A suicide bomber detonated himself outside the Beersheba Central Bus Station. Two security guards who stopped the bomber were  severely wounded and about 50 people were lightly wounded or  treated for shock. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Oct 26, 2005 – Seven people were killed and 54 wounded, six seriously, in a suicide bombing at the Hadera open-air market. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Dec 5, 2005 – Five people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Sharon shopping mall in Netanya. The terrorist detonated the bomb when he was stopped by security guards, one of whom was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Dec 29, 2005 – Lt. Ori Binamo, 21, of Nesher was killed when a terrorist en route to carry out an attack in Israel detonated himself at roadblock set up near Tulkarm following an intelligence tip. A second intended suicide terrorist was also killed in the blast as well as the taxi driver and a third passenger. Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded.

 

Jan 19, 2006 – Thirty-one people were wounded in a suicide bombing in a shawarma restaurant near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Battalions of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Mar 30, 2006 – Four people were killed  when a suicide bomber hitchhiker disguised as an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student detonated his explosive device in a private vehicle near the entrance to Kedumim.

 

Apr 17, 2006 – Eleven people were killed and over 60 wounded in a suicide bombing during the Passover holiday near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, at the Rosh Ha’ir shawarma restaurant, site of the Jan 19 bombing. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Jan 29, 2007 – Three employees of a bakery in the southern city of Eilat were killed in a suicide bombing. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Feb 4, 2008 – Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, of Dimona was killed and 38 wounded – Razdolskaya’s husband critically – in a terror attack carried out by a suicide bomber at a shopping center in Dimona. A police officer shot and killed a second terrorist before he detonated his explosive belt. A Hamas statement from Gaza praised the attack, calling it an “heroic act”.

 

Mar 6, 2008 – Eight students of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem were killed when a terrorist armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle infiltrated the yeshiva and opened fire in the library where about 80 people were gathered, mostly teenagers. Eleven others were wounded, three critically. The terrorist, a resident of East Jerusalem, was killed by an IDF officer.

 

May 14, 2008 – At about 6 pm an Iranian-made Grad rocket launched from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip hit a busy shopping mall in central Ashkelon. 90 people were wounded, four of them seriously, among them a 24-year-old mother and her infant daughter.

 

July 2, 2008 – Three people were killed and over 50 wounded in a terror attack in Jerusalem. Driving a bulldozer on Jaffa Road between the Central Bus Station and the Mahane Yehuda market, the terrorist plowed into cars and pedestrians as well as two public buses carrying some 50 passengers. Police shot and killed the terrorist.

 

Mar 23, 2011 – One woman, a 59-year-old British national, was killed and about 50 wounded when a bomb exploded across from the Jerusalem Convention Center, near the Central Bus Station. The bomb had been placed near a telephone booth at a crowded bus stop next to Egged city bus #74.

 

Aug 18, 2011 – In a series of terrorist attacks was perpetrated against civilians and IDF soldiers in Israel’s southern region, six civilians were killed as well as one soldier and a police officer, and at least 31 were wounded. The terrorists responsible for the attacks originated in the Gaza Strip and crossed into Israel via Egypt. IDF forces pursued and killed a number of the terrorists responsible for the attacks.

 

July 18, 2012 – Six people, five Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver, were killed and over 30 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a bus carrying Israelis at Sarafovo Airport in Burgas, Bulgaria. The seventh body was identified as the suicide bomber.

 

Nov 21, 2012 – Shortly before noon a bomb exploded in a Dan city bus no. 142 on Shaul Hamelech Street in the center of Tel Aviv. 21 people were wounded, three in moderate to serious condition. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing.

 

Oct 11, 2015 – A female terrorist detonated an explosive device, lightly wounding a police officer near the checkpoint on the road between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem. A traffic police officer stopped the driver, who was in the lane reserved for public transportation, and approached the car. The driver exited the vehicle, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and detonated an explosive device. The terrorist was seriously injured in the attack and was evacuated to hospital in Jerusalem with burns to her entire body.

 

April 19, 2016 – Jerusalem: In the early evening, an explosion on a  bus and a subsequent fire led to the injury of 21 people, including passengers on a passing bus and in a nearby car. Two of the injured are in serious condition, 7 were moderately injured and 12 were lightly injured.

 

TOP

the Jewish Virtual Library. logo https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

the Jewish Virtual Library. logo https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Israel’s Wars & Operations: First Intifada

(1987 – 1993)
By Mitchell Bard

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/first-intifada

 

False charges of Israeli atrocities and instigation from the mosques played an important role in starting the intifada. On December 6, 1987, an Israeli was stabbed to death while shopping in Gaza. One day later, four residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza were killed in a traffic accident. Rumors that the four had been killed by Israelis as a deliberate act of revenge began to spread among the Palestinians. Mass rioting broke out in Jabalya on the morning of December 9, in which a 17-year-old youth was killed by an Israeli soldier after throwing a Molotov cocktail at an army patrol. This soon sparked a wave of unrest that engulfed the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

 

Over the next week, rock-throwing, blocked roads and tire burnings were reported throughout the territories. By December 12, six Palestinians had died and 30 had been injured in the violence. The following day, rioters threw a gasoline bomb at the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem. No one was hurt in the bombing.

 

In Gaza, rumors circulated that Palestinian youths wounded by Israeli soldiers were being taken to an army hospital near Tel Aviv and “finished off.” Another rumor, claimed Israeli troops poisoned a water reservoir in Khan Yunis. A UN official said these stories were untrue. Only the most seriously injured Palestinians were taken out of the Gaza Strip for treatment, and, in some cases, this probably saved their lives. The water was also tested and found to be uncontaminated.

 

This uprising or intifada was violent from the start. During the first four years of the uprising, more than 3,600 Molotov cocktail attacks, 100 hand grenade attacks and 600 assaults with guns or explosives were reported by the Israel Defense Forces. The violence was directed at soldiers and civilians alike. During this period, 16 Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers were killed by Palestinians in the territories; more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and 1,700 Israeli soldiers were injured. Approximately 1,100 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

 

Throughout the intifada, the PLO played a lead role in orchestrating the insurrection. The PLO-dominated Unified Leadership of the Intifada (UNLI), for example, frequently issued leaflets dictating which days violence was to be escalated, and who was to be its target. The PLO’s leadership of the uprising was challenged by the fundamentalist Islamic organization Hamas, a violently anti-Semitic group that rejects any peace negotiations with Israel.

 

Jews were not the only victims of the violence. In fact, as the intifada waned around the time of the Gulf War in 1991, the number of Arabs killed for political and other reasons by Palestinian death squads in what amount to an “intrafada” exceeded the number killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

 

PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat defended the killing of Arabs deemed to be “collaborating with Israel.” He delegated the authority to carry out executions to the intifada leadership. After the murders, the local PLO death squad sent the file on the case to the PLO. “We have studied the files of those who were executed, and found that only two of the 118 who were executed were innocent,” Arafat said. The innocent victims were declared “martyrs of the Palestinian revolution” by the PLO (Al-Mussawar, January 19, 1990).

 

Palestinians were stabbed, hacked with axes, shot, clubbed and burned with acid. The justifications offered for the killings varied. In some instances, being employed by Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank and Gaza was reason enough; in others, contact with Jews warranted a death sentence. Accusations of “collaboration” with Israel were sometimes used as a pretext for acts of personal vengeance. Women deemed to have behaved “immorally” were also among the victims.

 

Eventually, the reign of terror became so serious that some Palestinians expressed public concern about the disorder. The PLO began to call for an end to the violence, but murders by its members and rivals continued. From 1989-1992, this intrafada claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 Palestinians.

 

TOP


https://www.jpost.com/

The Second Intifada: A defining event that reshaped the nation

20 years on, the memory of the Second Intifada still lingers

A gaping hole is left in the shop front of the Sbarro pizzeria after a suicide bombing, August 9, 2001(photo credit: REUTERS)

A gaping hole is left in the shop front of the Sbarro pizzeria after a suicide bombing, August 9, 2001
(photo credit: REUTERS)

 

By HERB KEINON
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 14:34 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/the-second-intifada-a-defining-event-that-reshaped-the-nation-642644

 

The place names still send shivers up and down the spine.

 

The police station in Ramallah; Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood; the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv; the Sbarro Pizzeria and Cafe Moment in the capital; the Park Hotel in Netanya; Maxim Restaurant in Haifa. The names bring to mind some of the bloodiest atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists during the Second Intifada that began 20 years ago this month, on September 28, 2000.

 

Each of Israel’s wars have had their memorable battles. There was Operation Nachshon in the War of Independence; the Battle for Sharm e-Sheikh in the Sinai Campaign; Ammunition Hill in the Six Day War; the Chinese Farm during the Yom Kippur War; the Battle of Jezzine in the First Lebanon War; Bint Jbeil during the Second Lebanon War.

 

But those were battles: tanks vs. tanks, artillery vs. artillery, even hand-to-hand combat. And while during the Second Intifada the Battle of Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield, the intifada’s turning point, has been seared into the country’s memory, for the most part it is the names of eateries, road junctions or markets – Mike’s Place, Megiddo Junction, the Carmel Market – that are associated with this period. Because it was the restaurants, bars, buses and road junctions in the heart of the country that constituted the main front in that war

 

More Israelis were killed during the Second Intifada – 1,053, according to Foreign Ministry figures – than were killed in the 1956 Sinai Campaign (231), the 1967 Six day War (776) or the 2006 Second Lebanon War (164). More civilians, about 70% of the total fatalities, were killed in the Second Intifada than in any campaign with the exception of the War of Independence, when 2,400 civilians were among the 6,400 Israeli dead.

 

The Second Intifada, which for the average citizen felt very much like a war in everything but name, was a defining event in Israel’s history, akin to the War of Independence and the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars. Israel after September 2000 is not the same as Israel before September 2000.

 

This harrowing period fundamentally altered Israeli society because it impacted everyone. No one, regardless of their political opinions, level of religious observance or ethnicity, was left unaffected.

 

Mind-numbing terrorism made it scary to ride a bus, nerve-wracking to send kids to school, a psychological effort to take the family downtown for a falafel. Everyone eyed fellow passengers warily on the bus at one time or another during these years – especially fellow passengers wearing coats on a sunny day – wondering if they may be hiding explosives.

 

And the trauma of that period remains. Time may have dulled the intensity of the trauma, but it has not erased it.

 

To understand Israel today – to understand its political turn to the Right, why it has voted time and time again for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, its complete lack of confidence in the Palestinians, its indifference to the lack of a diplomatic process with the Palestinians – is to understand the strain and pressure that everyone in the country labored under during the four years and five months of that intifada.

 

Israelis were well acquainted with security challenges before September 2000. But for the most part there was a strong sense of personal security in the cities up until then. Sure, you didn’t want to walk along the borders or traipse around in the West Bank cities or even part of east Jerusalem, but there was a sense of being safe at home, in the streets, in the cinema, at restaurants.

 

The Second Intifada changed all that. Then no place seemed safe: riding the bus felt like a dice roll, coffee shops a potential deathtrap. The whole security equation changed.

 

A reservist wearing a flak jacket and carrying an M16 serving in a small outpost just across the Syrian border fence on the Golan Heights in March 2002 – the deadliest month of the intifada – felt more secure in his well-guarded base ringed by tanks than his elementary school children felt riding public buses to school in Jerusalem.

 

And everyone, literally everyone, knew someone either killed or injured during the violence – a relative, friend, coworker, schoolmate, client, business partner. The intifada was not something out there happening far away to other people, it was real and happening next door.

 

This reality of intense insecurity seeped into everyone’s lives and left an indelible impact.

 

ONE OF the ways to gauge that impact is to look at the country’s political map. Israel goes to elections quite a bit. Since 1999, the year before the Second Intifada, it has held 10 elections, including an election just for the prime minister – not the Knesset – in 2001.

 

The results: The Left won one election, Ehud Barak in 1999. The Center won one, 2006 with Kadima headed by Ehud Olmert, and tied another, Blue and White’s showing in September 2019. The Right won six times, and battled to a draw in one (March 2020).

 

Why? Did the country all of a sudden grow callous? Did it give up on a dream of peace? No, coming out of the Oslo euphoria of the 1990s, Israel was simply mugged by the reality of the Second Intifada.

 

“The voting patterns shows that the right wing not only now has a majority, but has even gotten stronger, and this is a result of the scope and intensity of the intifada,” said Meir Elran, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv who has written extensively on Israeli national resilience during and after the intifada. “This was mainly terror against civilians. And unlike the First Intifada, which took place mainly in the territories, this took place for the most part inside the Green Line – it was extremely traumatic.”

 

One of the reasons it was so traumatic, said Elran, who was deputy director of Military Intelligence during the beginning of the First Intifada that began in 1987, was its intensity and duration.

 

Elran dates the Second Intifada from September 28, 2000, when opposition leader Ariel Sharon went to the Temple Mount and the Palestinians responded with riots that swiftly spread, to September 2004, when the number of terrorist attacks began to decline. Others, however, extend the intifada’s duration another five months until February 2005, after Yasser Arafat’s death three months earlier, when Sharon – then prime minister – met new Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit at Sharm e-Sheikh.

 

Regardless, this was a long war, of at least four years, even four years and five months. Not only was it long, it was harsh – with more than 130 suicide bombings.

 

“It is an event that left emotional and cognitive scars,” Elran said. “There was also the sense of a great insult involved. What did they do to us? They hit us at home. They undermined our sense of security. The trauma was physical as well as psychological.”

 

The intifada, Elran said, disabused many Israelis of a belief in being able to reach any agreement with the Palestinians and created a sense in the mind of millions that there was simply no one on the other side to talk to.

 

TAMAR HERMANN, director of the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute and a political science professor at the Open University, agrees with Elran and said the now deeply held belief among many Israelis that there is simply no partner on the other side is one of the most significant lasting impacts. She characterized this as a “major change.”

 

“It is quite obvious that the Second Intifada made even those Jewish Israelis most supportive of the peace process rethink not their perspective on the desirability of peace, but rather on its feasibility,” she said.

 

Paradoxically, Hermann added, it was Ehud Barak who pumped up the notion of there being no Palestinian partner when he came back from the failed Camp David summit in July 2000 and said the refusal of the Palestinians to accept his generous offer was proof there was no one to talk to on the other side.

 

“Israelis still support the idea of peace – we all allegedly support peace – but they don’t see it as a feasible political goal anymore, and put most of the blame on the other side,” she said.

 

Elran takes this even further and said that not only do Israelis not believe there is a partner on the other side, but because of the intifada “the Israeli public doesn’t want to hear about the Palestinians, they don’t want to see them.”

 

The pain caused to Israel during the intifada led Israelis into wanting an “emotional separation from the Palestinians. It created this feeling, we don’t want to see them, they don’t concern me, I don’t care,” he said.

 

“The violence led Israelis to place an ‘X’ on the Palestinians,” he said. “And there are two factors now reinforcing that ‘X’ – one is the behavior of Hamas in Gaza, which always reminds Israelis of what they are dealing with, and the second is the leadership in Ramallah, whose behavior only reinforces the feeling that there is no one to talk to.”

 

Hermann said that another significant element of the intifada is that the Israeli public credits Israel’s security apparatus for ending it.

 

“It appears that the Israeli Jews, when they think about the Second Intifada, think that the Israeli security agencies are responsible – in a positive way – for the sharp decline in the terrorism, and that they acted very effectively against it. They do not attribute the decline of the intifada to any decision by the other side to stop using terror, or to minimize the use of terror.”

 

“It appears that the Israeli Jews, when they think about the Second Intifada, think that the Israeli security agencies are responsible – in a positive way – for the sharp decline in the terrorism, and that they acted very effectively against it. They do not attribute the decline of the intifada to any decision by the other side to stop using terror, or to minimize the use of terror.”

 

“It appears that the Israeli Jews, when they think about the Second Intifada, think that the Israeli security agencies are responsible – in a positive way – for the sharp decline in the terrorism, and that they acted very effectively against it. They do not attribute the decline of the intifada to any decision by the other side to stop using terror, or to minimize the use of terror.”

 

“The First Intifada did one thing clearly: it made clear to the Israelis that there are no free lunches, and that there is a price to holding on to the territories,” he said.

 

And the main lesson for Israelis from the Second Intifada, he said, “is that if you do not control the territory, you can’t fight terrorism.” The intensity and lethal nature of the Second Intifada could only happen, he argued, “because we did not control the territory.”

 

Another key lesson the public took away from the rampaging violence, said Amidror, today a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, is that it “is impossible to trust the Palestinians.”

 

Amidror noted that the intifada broke out “after we had an agreement with Arafat. This wasn’t the First Intifada, where there was nothing between us and the Palestinians beforehand. We were after the Oslo Accords when we let them back into the territory. This led to a dramatic loss of confidence in them.”

 

Amidror said that a key operational lesson learned from the violence is that force is not the only way to deal with local uprisings, and that force – the “stick” – must be combined with “carrots” in the form of economic benefits and enhanced personal security.

 

Amidror, who stressed that he is not a psychologist, said that what remains in the minds of Israelis two decades after the eruption of the Second Intifada is “the sense that in the final analysis our security has to be in our own hands,” and that this “cannot be compromised in any way.”

 

Asked if this was not something obvious to most Israelis even beforehand, he replied: “We had illusions. Oslo was built on the premise that we could work with the Palestinians.”

 

Amidror argued that this premise was embraced by the politicians who negotiated the Oslo Accords, but was never accepted by the security establishment or “professional echelon,” of which he was a part at the time in his role as head of Military Intelligence’s research division.

 

“We said this won’t work, and the reality turned out to be even more difficult than we imagined.”

 

As to the intifada’s long-term impact on the Palestinians, Amidror said they realize now that if they initiate violence against civilians, they will “pay a much heavier price than we will.”

 

“I think they now understand that if they use violence we will respond in a much stronger way because our capabilities are so much greater, and that if they pass a certain line we will respond with great strength, so they need to keep things below that line,” he said.

 

Amidror said the Palestinian Authority now also understands that the only guarantor keeping Hamas from taking over all the territories is Israel.

 

THOSE TWO lessons, in addition to an Israeli policy aimed at improving the economic and security situation for the Palestinians in the West Bank, is preventing another intifada-type explosion, he maintained.

 

“If you take an average Palestinian in Nablus, and ask him where it is better to live today – in Cairo, Amman, Damascus or Baghdad, without occupation, or in Nablus with all the limitations of Israeli occupation, what do you think his answer will be? He has to be stupid not to think that life is better in Nablus.”

 

Reminded, however, that people are motivated not only by material good but also ideology, Amidror replied, “I’m not saying that the occupation doesn’t bother him, and that if you give him independence tomorrow he will not grab it. But when he wakes up and asks where life is better for him and his children, the answer is clear.

 

“People are not driven only by ideology,” he continued. “It is part of the drive, but not the only thing. If you don’t think I give enough importance to ideology in what motivates people, perhaps you give it too much importance and do not give enough weight to people wanting to live well and give their kids a better future.”

 

And finally, Amidror said, the Second Intifada also left its mark on Israel’s neighbors. He drew a direct line from the way Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000 – he used the expression “ran away” – to the outbreak of the intifada, saying this created a perception that Israel was not as strong as it appeared.

 

This intifada was the result of a decision taken by Arafat, not a spontaneous combustion, he stressed, adding that Arafat’s decision was made within the context of the Lebanon withdrawal.

 

“There is not doubt that the intifada came against the background of a perception in the Arab world of Israeli weakness following the retreat from Lebanon,” he said.

 

But, Amidror continued, the manner in which Israel dealt and eventually put down the intifada “made clear to the neighborhood, that if Israel is cornered, it will respond with great might. I think the Arab states saw that there is a line which, when passed, Israel will respond forcefully. You can push a long time – it took a long time before Sharon gave the order to move back into Judea Samaria [March 2002] – but when you cross a certain point, and nobody knows exactly where that point is, Israel will respond with great power and might.”

 

It is that power and might that eventually did put an end to the nightmare of the Second Intifada, but its memory more than just lingers 20 years after its start and continues to impact strongly on how the country acts, votes and views solutions to the Palestinian issue.

 

TOP

Remember all those killed by “Just throwing rocks”


Rabbi Shalom Arush – Breslev English-tweet-21October2025-Remember all those killed by Just throwing rocks
Remember all those killed by “Just throwing rocks”:

Esther Ohana, H”YD, a 20-year-old girl who was driving to her wedding rehearsal when she was murdered by rock throwing.

Vardi Bamberger, 25, was severely injured when rocks were thrown at the vehicle in which she was riding at the same spot where Ester Ohana was killed. Bamberger suffered a fractured skull, but B’H survived.

Yehuda Haim Shoham, H”YD, just five months old, was hit by a rock to the head while he was strapped into his car seat killing him.

Eleven year-old Chava Wechsberg, H”YD, was killed when the car in which she was riding was attacked by rocks in the Gush Etzion region on February 24, 1993, causing it to crash.

Amnon Pomerantz, H”YD, drove by mistake into the Arab town of El-Bureij on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 1990. Arabs stoned the car until he crashed. Then, as he lay slumped unconscious over the driving wheel, they burned him alive.

Yeshohua Weisbrod, H”YD, made a wrong turn into Rafah on March 4, 1993. Arab rock-throwers attacked, causing the car to crash. A terrorist with a machine-gun then walked up to the vehicle and finished him off.

Asher Palmer, H”YD, and his baby son Yonatan, H”YD. On September 23, 2011, they were driving on Highway 60, on their way to Jerusalem to meet Palmer’s wife, who was then expecting their second child. Near the village of Halhoul, rocks were thrown at their car from passengers in an Arab car traveling towards them from the opposite direction. The tremendous impact of the rocks smashed the front windshield of Palmer’s car and fractured Palmer’s skull, causing him to lose control of the vehicle. Both he and his son were killed in the crash.
Caт Bee-tweet-21October2025-Tell that to Adele Biton, age 4, killed by one.
“He only threw a rock.”
Tell that to Adele Biton, age 4, killed by one.

Rabbi Shalom Arush - Breslev English-tweet-21October2025-Remember all those killed by 'Just throwing rocks'

Rabbi Shalom Arush – Breslev English-tweet-21October2025-Remember all those killed by ‘Just throwing rocks’

 

TOP

BACKGROUND: FOLLOW THE LINK: UNRWA, Hamas & Palestinian Authority train Terrorists:

Children Soldiers

You're average Palestinian family

You’re average Palestinian family

Hamas & Palestinian Authority train Terrorists:

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs logo

Participation of Children and Teenagers in Terrorist Activity during the Al-Aqsa Intifada

Type:Information – Topic: Terrorism – Publish Date: 30January2003 – Updated date: 30November2021
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/participation-of-children-and-teenagers-in-terrori

 

Participation of Children and Teenagers in Terrorist Activity during the “Al-Aqsa” Intifada

 

(Communicated by Israeli security sources)
January 2003

 

During the Al-Aqsa intifada we have witnessed an evolving phenomenon of the exploitation of teenagers and children by various terrorist organizations in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks, among them suicide attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets. Children and teenagers between the ages of 11 and 18 have over the past few months carried out suicide and other terrorist attacks in which innocent Israeli civilians have been killed and injured. In addition, Israeli security forces apprehended a considerable number of these teenagers and children prior to the perpetration of the terrorist attacks. Terrorist organizations exploit the innocent look of children and teenagers, which does not arouse suspicion and enables them to blend into populated areas. In addition, these children and teenagers, who have not yet reached adulthood, are more susceptible to the terrorist organizations’ influence and the recruitment of suicide bombers.

 

Children and teenagers who are supposed to dream of a better future and enjoy innocence and happiness are thus sucked into the reality of killing and hate. The terrorist organizations which convince the children and teenagers that they will enjoy a life of happiness after death, are actually uprooting these children from their homes and families, and by religious or nationalist incitment are encouraging them to perpetrate terrorist attacks.

 

Salah Shehade, one of the heads of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, recently deceased, discussed the use of children in terrorist attacks in an interview on the Islam On Line internet site (May 26, 2002). He said that the children must be trained well prior to perpetrating terrorist attacks and be recruited into a special branch within the organization’s military apparatus in order to instill the Jihad culture and teach them right from wrong. Expressions such as these represent one of the primary elements in convincing parents to send their children to perpetrate terrorist attacks.

 

Ala Saftawi, the chief editor of the Islamic Jihad’s “Alastaklal”, said on Tehran radio that Gaza Strip residents, especially children, have a high level of willingness to die a martyr’s death, because they have nothing to lose.

 

On June 27, 2002 Palestinian television screened a movie entitled “Children who love the homeland and the martyr’s death,” in which Dr. Fadel Abu Hin, a psychologist, speaks of the evolving phenomenon of children’s involvement in the intifada. Abu Hin mentioned that the word “shouhada” – martyrdom – has a multitude of meanings for Palestinian children in particular and for the entire Islamic community, and it is not simply a matter of putting an end to one’s life. Through this action, the children are able to take an active part in the intifada.

 

Abu Hin produced a poll carried out in the Islamic University in April 2001, on 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 916 in the Gaza Strip: 49% claimed to have taken an active part in the intifada and 73% expressed the desire to be a “shahid” (martyr). These statistics clearly show the growing radicalism among children and teenagers in the territories, who are easily recruited by the terrorist organizations to perpetrate terrorist attacks. During the interview the anchorwoman stated, “The hearts of the Palestinian children are filled not only with anxiety and fear, but also with a strong will to achieve ‘Shouhad’a (martyrdom)… Shouhada has become the greatest aspiration for many children who believe that this is the way to win prestige, and to be immortalized among their people.”

 

Not only does the Palestinian media incite and influence the children and teenagers, but the education system and summer camps “brainwash” the adolescents. The adolescents are inculcated with Islamic precepts that call for and encourage Jihad against Israel. At the beginning of July the Islamic Foundation in Gaza organized summer camps called the “Al-Aqsa Martyrs summer camp”. These camps continued until the end of July. On July 2, the “Al-Quds” newspaper quoted Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Baher, the chairman of the Islamic Foundation, as saying that the foundation attempted to keep the summer camps going despite the ongoing conflict, because they deeply believe in the values the summer camps are instilling in the children.

 

In addition, Dr. Baher stated that there is a constant stream of children who want to participate in the Hamas summer camps, where the children receive uniforms, shoes, exercise books and attention from the camp organizers. According to him, non-religious children join the summer camps due to the vast number of attractions that the organization offers. In addition, they teach the children the history of Islam, with pictures of the “martyrs” displayed everywhere, and in this way “instill the seeds of hate against Israel.”

 

Similar summer camps are being conducted by the Palestinian Authority Ministry for Youth and Sport, designed to incite the children, recruit them against Israel and train them in the use of weapons for future terrorist attacks against Israel.

 

An additional phenomenon worth mentioning is the fact that parents are allowing their children to dress up as “martyrs”. More and more, we are witnessing the phenomenon of children participating in marches and parades while dressed as “martyrs” and wearing props similar to explosive charges and slogans proclaiming their “martyr” status. A picture was recently found of a baby wearing an explosive charge and a headband with a slogan dedicating his life to Allah. There is no doubt that this phenomenon has a destructive effect on the education of these children, who imbibe the Jihad culture, making them easy targets for recruitment by terrorist organizations for perpetrating attacks.

 

The Involvement of Children and Teenagers Between the ages of 11-18 in Terror

  • On July 6, 2002 two minors, both 11 years old and carrying knives, were apprehended by Israeli security forces near the Dugit outpost. During their questioning by the IDF, they stated that had planned to plant a bomb in the area. One of the youths stated that he wished to commit suicide and had hoped to be killed by IDF fire.
  • On the night of April 23, 2002 three Palestinian children, students at a Gaza school, attempted to infiltrate the community of Netzarim in order to perpetrate a suicide attack in the town. The three were Ismail Soubh Ibrahim Abu Nada, age 12, Wael Ghazi Moustafa Hamarna, age 13, and Yousef Bassam Yousef Zakout, age 14. IDF forces killed the three adolescents as they attempted to infiltrate the town. The following day, the Hamas Internet site announced that the three, who were sent by the Hamas, belonged to a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza. As part of their special activities, they set up their own terrorist group and decided to wage a Jihad against the Jews. The youths each left behind a last will and testament stressing their desire to die a martyr’s death. An ax and a hedge cutter were found on one of the bodies, presumably used to cut the fence that surrounds the town.
  • A 13 year old youth, a resident of Tulkarem, is suspected of having been recruited during March 2002 by PIJ operatives from the Tulkarem area in order to perpetrate a suicide attack within Israel. The attack was thwarted by Israeli security forces.
  • Aytham Asad Abu Shoka, 14 years old, a resident of Sheikh Radwan/Gaza, was killed by IDF forces near the Dugit outpost, after being spotted with another individual near the town’s fence. Two pipe bombs, a knife and a map of the Gaza Strip, on which Israeli towns were marked, were found on his body.
  • Fahed Taisir Ali Azazi, 16 years old, a resident of Rafah, was killed at the beginning of February 2002 by IDF fire after he threw a grenade at the Tarmit outpost.
  • A 15 year old girl, a resident of Bethlehem, was questioned at the beginning of April 2002 following information that indicated she was preparing to perpetrate a suicide attack. She confessed that she planned to carry out a suicide attack with the help of her uncle, a senior Tanzim operative in Bethlehem. She asked her uncle to recruit her to the Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades, and her uncle agreed. Her uncle asked her to recruit additional girls from her school into the organization.
  • Jamil Khalaf Moustafa Hamid, 16 years old, a resident of Bethlehem, was recruited by the Tanzim. On March 31, 2002 he perpetrated the suicide attack at the Magen David Adom station in Efrat. Six Israeli civilians were injured in the attack.
  • Noura Jamal Mouhamad Ghanem, 16 years old, a resident of Tulkarem, attempted to stab an IDF soldier at the Taibe check-point near Tulkarem on February 24, 2002. Noura approached the checkpoint during the late evening hours, while her family was asleep in their home. The IDF forces opened fire during an “arrest of a suspect” procedure, which ended in the subject’s death. The adolescent’s last will and testament was found in her home, in which she had written that she dedicated her terrorist action to her Palestinian brethren who had been killed during the intifada. The Fatah claimed responsibility for the attempted attack.
  • A 16 year old youth, a resident of the Askar refugee camp, was arrested in May 2002 while traveling in a taxi and carrying an explosive charge. During questioning by the ISA, he confessed that when he was 14 he was recruited into a small Hamas terrorist group, of which two members were 16 years old. The youth stated the two had proposed that he carry out a suicide attack, and he agreed. They introduced him to a Tanzim operative, also a resident of the Askar refugee camp, who manufactured an explosive charge and videotaped him while he read his last will and testament. On the day of his arrest he had a haircut, put on the explosive charge, and met two individuals who transported him to Jenin in a taxi, where he and his escorts were arrested by the IDF.
  • A 16.5 year old youth was caught while attempting to carry out a suicide attack in the Beit Shean area on August 2, 2001. He confessed during questioning by the ISA that he had been a member of an Islamic Jihad terrorist group, all of whose members were prepared to commit suicide attacks. He mentioned that another youth, also 16.5 years of age, had recruited him to carry out a suicide attack. The latter, who turned himself in to the Israeli security forces in January 2002, confessed that he had recruited a number of additional suicide bombers to perpetrate suicide attacks. In addition he was involved in planning terrorist attacks.
  • Anwar Ahmed Abd El Khalek Hamed, currently 18 years old, an illiterate resident of Rafah, was previously involved in drug trafficking and use. He is affiliated with the Abu Rish faction of the Fatah and was apprehended on his way to perpetrate a suicide attack when he was 16.5 years old. He confessed during questioning that he was on his way to carry out a suicide attack against a convoy of IDF soldiers along the Gaza coastal road. The attack was planned and directed by Mohammed Sinwar, a senior military operative in the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip. In addition, Anwar confessed that PFLP activists had proposed that he perpetrate a terrorist attack in the community of Morag during the month of Ramadan.
  • Ahmed Salmi: A 16.5 year old teenager, resident of the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was killed on April 16, 2002 by IDF forces near the town of Dugit. Two pipe bombs and a bottle of gunpowder were found in his possession. The Hamas claimed responsibility for the attempted attack.
  • A 16.5 year old high school student, resident of Tulkarem, was arrested on his way to carry out a suicide attack. During questioning by the ISA, he confessed that a Hamas operative from Tulkarem had recruited him, and proposed that he perpetrate a suicide attack on behalf of the Hamas and Fatah. In addition, he mentioned that he had spoken before his entire school class, and announced that he was planning to carry out a terrorist attack and that he might not return. He requested that his classmates leave his seat empty and place flowers on his chair every day. Subsequently, the youth met with Mohammed Shreim, a Tanzim activist from Tulkarem, who told him he had obtained an explosive charge for him to carry out a suicide attack within Israel. The youth agreed. Mohammed supplied him with the explosive charge and directed him to carru pit the attack at a bus stop within Israel, between two buses, or to board a crowded bus and blow himself up. Mohammed videotaped the youth holding the Koran and taking responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Hamas’ “Iz-A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades” and the Fatah’s “Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades”. Mohammed had written a last will and testament for the youth. Israeli security forces near Tira arrested the youth in February 2002, while he was on his way to perpetrate the terrorist attack. During the course of the arrest the youth attempted unsuccessfully to detonate the explosive charge.
  • Issa Abd Raba Ibrahim Badir, 17 years old, a resident of Doha/Bethlehem, perpetrated the suicide attack in Rishon Lezion on May 22, 2002, in which two Israelis were killed and over 30 injured. Issa was directed by the Fatah military infrastructure in Bethlehem, headed by Ahmed Moughrabi, who was arrested by Israeli security forces on May 27. Ahmed’s 16-year-old brother was with him at the time of the arrest, and was arrested along with his brother. Ahmed confessed during questioning that he had directed his brother to pay a suicide bomber and to obtain a stolen car in order to perpetrate the suicide attack. The teenager confessed that he knew the suicide bomber and that he had videotaped the terrorists prior to the attack.
  • Saed Wadah Awawda, 17 years old, carried out the terrorist attack at the hitchhiking stop in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem on June 19, 2002. As a result of the attack 7 citizens were killed and 37 injured. The “Mourabitun Brigades” took responsibility on the “Al-Manar” television.
  • The hitchhiking stop in French Hill
  • Jihad Gawdat Mohammad Jarrar – A resident of Hashmiya/Jenin, a student, he was 17 years old when he was caught on his way to perpetrate a suicide attack in Afula on behalf of the Islamic Jihad. He is currently 18 years old. Jihad was arrested on July 11, 2001, while he was carrying a bag that contained an explosive charge. During questioning by the ISA, he confessed that since he started to think of carrying out terrorist attacks at the age of 12, he dreamed of shooting Israeli soldiers. About three years ago he manufactured an improvised rifle and purchased ammunition. Jihad then told his uncle, a member of the Islamic Jihad, that he wished to join the organization and his uncle introduced him to Thabet Mirdawi, a senior Islamic Jihad operative who was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield. Jihad added that approximately a month and a half prior to his arrest he met with Mahmoud Nursi, a senior Islamic Jihad operative in Jenin, who was killed during Operation Defensive Shield. Jihad told Mahmoud that he was interested in carrying out a suicide attack and the latter manufactured an explosive charge that he placed in a bag for Jihad. Mahmoud instructed him to travel to Afula and detonate that explosive charge in a crowded area. Mahmoud videotaped Jihad reciting his last will and testament. On the day of his arrest, Mahmoud gave Jihad the explosive charge and instructed him on how to detonate it. Jihad took a taxi to Afula and upon his arrival attempted unsuccessfully to detonate the charge. He was subsequently arrested.
  • Imad Farhan Hamran – A resident of Hashmiya/Jenin, he was 17 years old when he attempted to perpetrate a stabbing attack in Afula, along with Jihad Jarar and another terrorist a year ago. Imad was arrested during operation Operation Defensive Shield and confessed during questioning that he had been a member of a terrorist group from his village. The members of this group were adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18, and their goal was to become “martyrs”. The terrorist group members underwent physical training. Imad stated that approximately six months ago Jihad Jarar had proposed to him that he carry out a suicide attack. Imad then added that prior to the IDF operation in the Jenin refugee camp, he manufactured explosive charges which he placed in the ground and in long pipes along the walls.
  • Hazem Atta Yousef, 17 years old, a resident of Beit Jala. On July 30, 2002 he carried out the suicide attack at the falafel stand on Nevi’im Street in Jerusalem, as a result of which 5 people were lightly injured. The Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack. Hazem was a student at the “Talita Kumi” high school, which is a private Christian-Lutheran school. According to his teachers and principal he was a good student. Hazem arrived at Nevi’im Street, in the center of town. He noticed two police officers and panicked. He ran to the entrance of the falafel stand and detonated the explosive charge he carried on his body. The police officers described the youth as a cleanshaven boy with gel in his hair, wearing jeans and a black shirt. He carried a bag in his hand.
    The scene at the falafel stand
  • A 17.5 year old youth, a resident of Yamoun/Jenin, was arrested at the beginning of July 2002. The adolescent confessed during questioning that approximately a year ago he offered himself to his friend, an Islamic Jihad operative, as a possible suicide bomber on behalf of the Islamic Jihad. The youth’s friend told him that could join the organization, but that he would get back to him regarding his readiness to commit a suicide attack. Approximately a week prior to the suicide attack at the Megiddo junction on June 5, 2002, in which 17 Israeli citizens were killed and 42 injured, the Islamic Jihad operative proposed that he participate in a car bomb attack. The youth refused and stated that he was afraid of his parents and that he was worried that Israel would demolish his home if he carried out the attack.
  • A 17.5 year old youth, a resident of Yamoun/Jenin, was arrested in June 2002. The youth confessed that during the summer of 2001 a Tanzim operative proposed that he carry out a suicide attack within Israel, and he agreed. Half a year later, the Tanzim operative instructed the youth to meet with Ali Safouri, a senior Islamic Jihad operative in Jenin who was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield, so that Safouri could train him to carry out the attack. Safouri then gave the youth two options for perpetrating the attack: first, a suicide attack in a crowded area using an explosive charge, or second, to enter Israel with a weapon and open fire at a crowd of civilians. The youth said that he would prefer to carry out a shooting attack, because he preferred that his body remain whole for his arrival in heaven. The youth then videotaped himself reciting his last will and testament, holding a Koran and a rifle. A few days later, he met with Safouri, who told him that now was not the time for a terrorist attack and that he should stay in the Jenin refugee camp and die fighting IDF soldiers. Another Tanzim operative then proposed that he perpetrate a shooting attack using a Kalashnikov rifle with which he would supply him. The youth attempted twice, unsuccessfully, to enter Israel.
  • Tawfiq Hashem Mahamid and Jalal Khalil Mahamid, residents of the Jenin area, were both 17.5 years old when they were killed as a result of an explosion in a vehicle near Mei Ami on February 8, 2002. The two were on their way to carry out a terrorist attack in a Tel-Aviv nightclub, under the direction of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin.
  • Ahmed Abd-El Mounem Ahmed Daraghma, a resident of Toubas, was 17.5 years old when he carried out the suicide attack at the entrance to Kibbutz Sheluhot on October 7, 2001. An Israeli citizen was killed in the attack.
  • Safout Abd-El Rahman Mohammed Khali, a resident of Beit Wazan/Nablus, was 17.5 years old when he carried out a suicide attack on Neve Sha’anan street near the old central bus station in Tel-Aviv on January 25, 2002. As a result of the blast 23 people were injured. The Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Islamic Jihad’s Jerusalem company claimed responsibility for the attack.
    The old central bus station in Tel Aviv
  • Bilal Wagia Kamel Walid-Ali, a resident of Yamoun/Jenin, was arrested on March 8, 2002 after attempting to perpetrate a suicide attack using a booby-trapped bird cage in the town of Karkur. Bilal was arrested three months before he turned 18. During questioning by the ISA, Bilal confessed that he was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that his cousin, Riad, proposed that he carry out a suicide attack within Israel, after he discovered that Bilal and his fathers were at odds. Bilal agreed to the proposal. On the day of the attack Bilal was given a Kalashnikov rifle from Zeid Younes, a member of the Fatah Force 17 Presidential Guard. He was videotaped taking responsibility for the terrorist attack. Rabia Abu Roub, a senior Islamic Jihad operative from Qabatiya/Nablus, then dressed Bilal in the explosive charge and placed another charge in the birdcage. Zeid Younes taught him how to detonate the explosive charges. Bilal was then instructed to detonate both charges simultaneously once he arrived at his target area or in the event he was caught. Upon Bilal’s arrival in Karkur, a civilian noticed him and called him to stop. Bilal attempted to flee, and during the course of his escape left the birdcage behind. Bilal was arrested the next day.
    The boobytrapped bird cage
  • Ghassan Mahmoud Naif Steiti, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, was arrested on March 31, 2002 during the IDF operations in Ramallah, two months before he turned 18. During questioning by the ISA, he confessed that he had been recruited to the Islamic Jihad in Jenin, and that he had agreed to carry out a suicide attack on their behalf. In December 2001 terrorists from Jenin, with connections in Ramallah, proposed that he perpetrate a suicide attack. Subsequently, he left Jenin for Ramallah in January 2002. During his stay in Ramallah he met Abd El Karim Aweis, a senior and wanted Fatah operative who turned himself in to IDF forces during Operation Defensive Shield. Aweis then proposed that he carry out the attack and Ghassan agreed. Ghassan was then videotaped reciting his last will and testament and taking responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
    Ghassan left in order to perpetrate the suicide attack in Tel-Aviv. On his way he noticed combat helicopters, was afraid that they were following him and postponed the attack. A few days later he attempted to travel to Tel-Aviv in order to carry out the attack, however the road was blocked and he returned to Ramallah. The third time he attempted to perpetrate the attack, he was stopped by the Palestinian General Intelligence. He was arrested by Israeli security forces during Operation Defensive Shield.The Use of Children’s Props in order to Perpetrate Terrorist AttacksDuring the course of questioning by the ISA, and from findings discovered during operations by Israeli security forces, it was revealed that various terrorist organizations are using children’s toys and props, such as backpacks and toys, in order to camouflage explosive charges. Although these props appear innocent and are not usually considered suspicious, they contain explosive materials designed to injure Israeli civilians and soldiers. For example, during IDF operations in Qalqilya on April 26, 2002 three explosives laboratories were exposed, containing explosive charges, explosive materials, grenades and weapons. A child’s backpack was found in one of the laboratories, containing explosive devices ready for use.A school backpack containing explosive devices ready for useCamouflaging Terrorist Activity near Schools and KindergartensDuring questioning by the ISA, senior operatives from various terrorist organizations stated that they often established explosives laboratories near schools and kindergartens in order to camouflage their activity, thus placing the Palestinian children at risk. Slaim Haga, a senior Hamas operative in Samaria who was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield, confessed during questioning that he had established an explosives laboratory near a school and that terrorists had disguised themselves as students by carrying backpacks and school books. The lab equipment included test tubes, glass vessels, gas masks and raw material used to manufacture explosive devices. The location of the laboratory near the school exposed the children to many dangers such as explosions, work-related accidents while manufacturing explosive materials, and exposure to dangerous toxins and materials. In addition, the terrorists exploited the innocent appearance of children entering and leaving school in order to camouflage their activities.In addition, Ahmed Moughrabi, a Tanzim operative from Bethlehem who was arrested on May 27, 2002, confessed during questioning by the ISA that he had situated an explosives laboratory within the Deheisha refugee camp, near a kindergarten. Ahmed and other activists would conduct experiments and manufacture explosive materials in the laboratory.Palestinian Summer CampsPalestinian youths participating in a summer camp in
    Kfar Salem, near Nablus, using fake rifles in order to attack
    a model of a settlement at the camp’s graduation ceremony.

 

TOP


jns-org-logo

Regrets on the global stage as countries rethink bans on Israel

There was a price to be paid for withdrawing from one of the most forward-thinking, productive and defense-oriented countries in the world.

Anti-Israel protests march through Madrid calling for a boycott of Israel after the cancellation of the Vuelta a España cycling race. 14September2025. Credit: Barcex via Wikimedia Commons.

Anti-Israel protests march through Madrid calling for a boycott of Israel after the cancellation of the Vuelta a España cycling race. 14September2025. Credit: Barcex via Wikimedia Commons.

Shoshana Bryen

Shoshana Bryen is senior director of the Jewish Policy Center and editor of inFOCUS Quarterly

https://www.jns.org/regrets-on-the-global-stage-as-countries-rethink-bans-on-israel/

 

(10November2025 / JNS) The timing was extraordinary. As I was moderating a conference entitled “U.S.-Central Asian Relations in the Era of the Abraham Accords,” Kazakhstan announced that it was, in fact, joining the pact. The reasons are many, and more Central Asian countries are likely to join, but it is the timing that leads to a larger understanding of Israel and the often hypocritical world. To be clear, it is neither the Abraham Accords countries nor those of Central Asia that are hypocritical.

 

Before the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and the gruesome massacre of more than 1,200 people, Israel and the countries of Europe had deep and long relations: political, economic, defense, cultural and sporting. But, in the eyes of many European governments, it was Israel that had to be penalized in all of those areas.

 

In 2023, the pan-European UniCredit put Israel on a “forbidden list.” Norway’s Storebrand group and French insurer sold shares of some Israeli firms, including banks. In 2024, several of Europe’s biggest financial firms cut back their links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country.

 

Spain maintained what it called a “total embargo” on Israeli weapons. Madrid canceled a $207 million deal to buy targeting systems, following Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s description of Israel’s operations as “the genocide in Gaza.”

 

The British government canceled partnerships between the United Kingdom and Israel worth 6 billion pounds and supporting 38,000 jobs, as well as the provision of “significant information” to U.K. intelligence by Israel, including information that thwarted an Iranian-linked terrorist plot.

 

Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and others announced varying degrees of suspension of military and economic cooperation with Israel. The United Kingdom banned Israeli soccer fans, and the Netherlands had an actual pogrom.

But it was always a convoluted set of decisions.

 

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund had loudly announced its divestiture from Israel. Yet, at the end of 2024, the fund had more than $2 billion invested in 65 Israeli companies. The Norwegian Parliament rejected calls for a blanket ban, but the fund blacklisted 11 Israeli companies for assisting Israel’s “occupation,” primarily by providing gas and electricity to Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.

 

French and British pandering for a “Palestinian state” garnered headlines and victory cheers from Hamas, which credited Oct. 7.

 

Countries wanted to look strong, often in the face of violently anti-Israel and antisemitic mobs at home. But now, things are getting real and, as one analyst noted, “When things get real, countries put politics aside and go for Israel.”

 

The reality is that there was no famine in Gaza. There was no genocide. Hamas committed various heinous crimes against Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians. And there was a price to be paid for withdrawing from one of the most forward-thinking, productive and defense-oriented countries in the world.

 

According to World Israel News, Israel’s Ministry of Defense reported that Israeli arms exports hit a record $14.8 billion in 2024, with 54% of those exports going to European countries; a dramatic rise from just over 33% in 2023.

World Israel News also reported: “Despite public statements about severing ties with Israeli defense firms, Spain has authorized a €350 million ($420 million) deal with Elbit Systems for tactical radio communication systems.”

 

Norway declined to enforce its rules requiring divestiture from companies that have investments/facilities in Israel, including Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Finance minister Jens Stoltenberg said withdrawing “would undermine the purpose of the fund to be a broad, diversified global investment fund.”

 

After a September announcement that German arms exports to Israel had fallen to zero, Ha’aretz reported in October that Germany had, in fact, approved arms exports worth at least $2.9 million.

 

The Israeli and Greek Air Forces held a joint aerial refueling drill, and Israel, Greece, Cyprus and the United States met to discuss restoration of the East Med Gas Pipeline, which had been nixed by the Biden administration.

 

The “State of Palestine” offered little in the way of progress to real Palestinians.

And, on the side, after months of nasty rhetoric emanating from Cairo, and weapons smuggling in Sinai near the Israeli border, Egypt acknowledged its dependence on Israel and signed a new natural gas deal. Israel still has to address the weapons in Sinai.

 

Even in Hollywood, reality may be intruding on fantasy. In October, as the ceasefire was drawing closer, a new boycott of the Israeli film industry and Israeli actors took shape. But Warner Bros. Discovery told Variety, “Our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or ancestry. We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies.” After a boycott letter circulated at Paramount, the studio released a statement condemning it for “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality.”

 

To close the loop, the countries of Central Asia were always smarter about their interests. They have longstanding ties with the State of Israel. They are increasingly interested in increased relations with the Gulf states and the United States, particularly in light of their concerns about China and Russia, the historic powers in the region. Neither they nor the Abraham Accords countries were taken in by the propaganda shared by Hamas, Russia, Iran and Qatar about Gaza (although Gulf state concerns were sincere and expected).

 

Central Asia and the Abraham Accord countries are moving ahead, and Europe and Hollywood are catching up.

 

TOP


jns-org-logo

UN made ‘Rosetta Stone’ for Jew-hatred in 1975, expert says at Geneva event

Antisemitism at the global body “hides behind a veneer of commissions, rapporteurs, expert reports and biased agenda items and resolutions that disproportionately single out Israel year after year,” a U.S. diplomat said.

Mike Wagenheim

https://www.jns.org/un-made-rosetta-stone-for-jew-hatred-in-1975-expert-says-at-geneva-event/

 

A banner by the collectif Palestine 69 with the words “Fascism, Racism, Zionism: Same Enemy, Same Fight,” using 50-year-old terminology begun by the United Nations. The cross-party call to bring together political parties, associations and trade unions against racism and push for equal rights for all took place at a demonstration in Lyon, France, on March 22, 2025. Photo by Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/ Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images.

A banner by the collectif Palestine 69 with the words “Fascism, Racism, Zionism: Same Enemy, Same Fight,” using 50-year-old terminology begun by the United Nations. The cross-party call to bring together political parties, associations and trade unions against racism and push for equal rights for all took place at a demonstration in Lyon, France, on March 22, 2025. Photo by Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/ Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images.

 

(14November2025 / JNS) Nearly 35 years have passed since the United Nations voted, in 1991, to revoke its 1975 resolution declaring Zionism to be racism. But that statement 50 years ago set the stage for the attacks on the Jewish state today, several speakers said during an event hosted this week by the U.S. and Israeli missions to the global body in Geneva.

 

“U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379, which wrongly declared that Zionism is a form of racism, was a symbolic assault on the Jewish people and the legitimacy of the State of Israel,” Mireille Zieseniss, acting U.S. deputy chief of mission, said at the event.

 

“The adoption of this antisemitic resolution marked an unfortunate chapter in the U.N.’s history, undermining the organization’s founding principles,” she said. “Then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned in his remarks opposing the resolution that ‘a great evil has been loosed upon the world.’”

 

Though revoked, the “resolution’s impact, including the establishment of anti-Israel bodies within the U.N. system, reverberates to this day, emboldening those who seek to delegitimize Israel and marginalize Jewish communities worldwide,” Zieseniss said.

 

She added that “in the U.N. context, antisemitism, which is among the world’s oldest hatreds, hides behind the veneer of commissions, rapporteurs, ‘expert’ reports, and biased agenda items and resolutions that disproportionately single out Israel year after year.”

 

“Ancient prejudices are perpetuated, masquerading as criticism of Israel,” she said.

 

She spoke as part of a discussion that ran for about an hour and 45 minutes on “1975-2025: Confronting antisemitism and racism at the U.N.,” which the two missions hosted.

 

‘It planted seeds of hostility’

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, delivered recorded remarks at the event, a half-century after his father, Chaim Herzog, then the Israeli envoy to the United Nations, tore a copy of the resolution and delivered a stinging rebuke in the General Assembly’s hall after it passed.

 

Chaim Herzog’s granddaughter, Ariel, attended the event on Nov. 12, as did representatives of 37 countries, according to the Israeli mission.

 

Daniel Meron, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told JNS that the 50th anniversary of the resolution offered a chance to highlight its current impact on the global body.

 

“There are forces which are continuing to try to use the United Nations as a platform to portray Israel as the mother of all evils, and where the anti-Zionism and antisemitic notion is very prevalent,” he said. “We thought it was very good to have this event.”

 

Meron told JNS that the U.S. mission is to be applauded for seeking and obtaining a waiver so that its members could participate during the government shutdown.

 

The resolution fueled racism rather than fought it, Meron told the audience.

 

“It emboldened extremists, legitimized hatred and provided ideological cover for the oldest hatred known to humanity,” he said in his remarks. “It planted seeds of hostility that continue to bear poisonous fruit today, in the streets, on university campuses and across the digital world.”

 

‘It created the playbook’

Gil Troy, an author, historian and senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, told attendees that “one of the key words that’s often missing from definitions of antisemitism is the word ‘obsession.’”

 

He stated that “anti-Zionism has become a modern obsession. What do we know from obsession? We put the Jew, as we did in the Middle Ages, and now the Jewish state, at the center of all the world’s troubles.”

 

Troy denounced the United Nations for “betraying its founding ideals” by adopting the resolution.

 

“The United Nations created the Rosetta Stone for antisemitism and anti-Zionism, because the two merged. It created the playbook,” he said. “It created the precedent for institutions to single out Israel. It created the playbook for uniting on campus, uniting in the media, uniting in the art world against Israel and the Jewish people.”

 

David Harris, former CEO of the American Jewish Committee, told attendees that many Israelis thought of the 1975 resolution as “a mosquito bite.”

 

“‘We’ve had them before.’ ‘We’ll have them again.’ ‘It’ll go away.’ ‘It doesn’t matter,’” he said. “But it mattered.”

 

Meron told JNS that the U.N. plan to combat Jew-hatred, which it debuted in April, has had little if any practical impact.

 

“I’ve seen a lot of talk,” he said. “I put together a report, which I delivered here in Geneva and in Washington, of how the United Nations needs to reform and get rid of all this singling out of one country, and nobody’s taking it seriously except the American administration.”

 

“The United Nations is not taking it seriously,” he said. “If they were really serious about antisemitism, they would stop singling out one country: the Jewish state.”

 

TOP

UK and Australia

From UK and Australia: Make Aliyah! Call Jewish Agency (UK) 0800-085-2105 / 0800-051-8227 or email gci-en@jafi.org @JewishAgencyUK https://www.jewishagency.org/

 

The Truth about the Labour Party is shocking! For Example:

Expose-big-pharma-tweet-1September2025-UK grooming gangs-it is all True

Expose-big-pharma-tweet-1September2025-UK grooming gangs-it is all True

It is time for Jews to leave this HELLHOLE!

Christian Parents it is time to take action!

I don’t know a single Jewish family that isn’t discussing leaving Britain due to antisemitism.


Rael Braverman-tweet-19October2025-Jewish family that isn’t discussing leaving Britain
I don’t know a single Jewish family that isn’t discussing leaving Britain due to antisemitism.

One has to pinch oneself to grasp that this is happening in the United Kingdom.
Rabbi Shalom Arush – Breslev English-tweet-19October2025-It’s time for everyone to come to Israel
t’s time for everyone to come to Israel! NOW!!!
Don’t wait. No one knows how much time there is. Come while you can come “upright”
If you come for emuna & our good land, wonderful
or come because you’re running away
BUT COME! As fast as possible!
God is telling you to COME!
JerusalemCats-tweet-20October2025-Call Jewish Agency
Time to come Home to Israel. From UK and Australia: Make Aliyah! Call Jewish Agency (UK) 0800-085-2105 / 0800-051-8227 or email gci-en@jafi.org @JewishAgencyUK

Rael Braverman-tweet-19October2025-Jewish family that isn’t discussing leaving Britain

Rael Braverman-tweet-19October2025-Jewish family that isn’t discussing leaving Britain

 

TOP

Australian antisemitism like Europe before World War II


Hen Mazzig-tweet-23August2025-Australian antisemitism like Europe before World War II
NEW: Australian Jews report that antisemitism has reached the point where it’s “reminiscent of the family stories we heard from Europe before World War II.”

Many Jews are scared to openly identify as Jewish, speak Hebrew in public, and live in certain areas.

What pains me almost as much as the unchecked bigotry is how complacent society and the government are with it.

Why does the world seem to think Jews should accept antisemitism as our reality?

We can’t fight this hatred alone. We shouldn’t have to.

Hen Mazzig-tweet-23August2025-Australian antisemitism like Europe before World War II

Hen Mazzig-tweet-23August2025-Australian antisemitism like Europe before World War II

 

TOP

The Jewish community in Australia is not safe.


Australian Jewish Association-tweet-12December2024-Simon Wiesenthal Center issued negative travel advisory on Australia
LABOR HAS BROUGHT SHAME ON AUSTRALIA

The Australian Labor government has brought shame on Australia.

For the first time ever the prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center has issued a negative travel advisory on Australia for Jews the world over.

Instead of learning the principles of Never Again, the govt actions and inactions which have facilitated a violent antisemitism crisis has brought us to Never Before.

This is Labor’s legacy.

Australian Jewish Association-tweet-12December2024-Simon Wiesenthal Center issued negative travel advisory on Australia

Australian Jewish Association-tweet-12December2024-Simon Wiesenthal Center issued negative travel advisory on Australia

 

Simon Wiesenthal Center issued negative travel advisory on Australia

Simon Wiesenthal Center issued negative travel advisory on Australia

 


 


Australian Jewish Association-tweet-5December2024-ANITSEMITIC TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA
THIS IS ANITSEMITIC TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA

Confirmed torching of the large orthodox Jewish Adass synagogue in Melbourne.

This is the flow on from the most hostile Federal government in Australia’s history to the Jewish community and the most anti-Israel. Since 9 October 2023, our political leaders and law enforcement have betrayed us – in terror supporting policies, on university campuses, on the streets and in the media.

This attack is on an orthodox community, some might say ultra-orthodox. They are NOT known as being particularly Zionist.

Just like the Opera House riot on 9 October (before Israel made any response), these campaign have always been about a hatred of Jews.

And our governments response? Condemn Israel, give $millions to Hamas supporters locally and overseas, and import 1000s from terrorist controlled Gaza with minimal security checks.

There used to be a wonderful country called Australia. Perhaps you remember it.

Australian Jewish Association-tweet-5December2024-ANITSEMITIC TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA

Australian Jewish Association-tweet-5December2024-ANITSEMITIC TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA

 

 


 


Aviva Klompas-tweet-16December2024-car torched in Jewish neighborhood
Days after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed, a Sydney suburb was graffitied and a car torched in a neighborhood with a lot of Jewish families.

Wake up Australia. Your country is turning into a cesspool of Jew-hatred

Aviva Klompas-tweet-16December2024-car torched in Jewish neighborhood

Aviva Klompas-tweet-16December2024-car torched in Jewish neighborhood

 


 


Peter Horovitz-tweet-6January2025-Jewish community in Australia is not safe
Genuine question. What has the jewish community in Australia done to deserve this type of hatred?

Peter Horovitz-tweet-6January2025-Jewish community in Australia is not safe

Peter Horovitz-tweet-6January2025-Jewish community in Australia is not safe

 

TOP

Campaign Against Antisemitism Victory for Niyak Ghorbani


Campaign Against Antisemitism-tweet-21August2025-Victory for Niyak Ghorbani
Last September, @GhorbaniiNiyak held his now-famous sign which read, “Hamas Is Terrorist”.

He was arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace. However, while in the back of the police van, he was de-arrested and then arrested again for allegedly assaulting two police officers who were on top of him during his arrest.

He was held in a cell until 4:00 the following morning, when he was then interviewed under caution for five minutes. He was not shown any evidence.

Yesterday, he finally faced trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court where he stood accused of “assaulting emergency workers”.

The Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence in relation to one of the alleged assaults. It maintained that it would still prosecute Niyak over the other officer, who told the court that Niyak had assaulted him. This claim was then comprehensively debunked and contradicted by police footage, which led to the Crown’s case falling apart completely.

We are pleased that the charges — which should never have been brought — against Mr Ghorbani were eventually abandoned.

We are proud to have supported Mr Ghorbani’s stand for justice and we will continue to support those who defend British Jews and defiantly stand up to the mob by calling Hamas and Hizballah exactly what they are: proscribed terrorist organisations.

Should you require free legal assistance over an incident relating to antisemitism or a wrongful arrest while standing up to extremists, you can contact us at investigations@antisemitism.org.
Niyak Ghorbani-tweet-21August2025-Thank you for standing with me
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Campaign Against Antisemitism for their unwavering support throughout this ordeal.

The dedication, professionalism, and commitment shown by the Campaign Against Antisemitism ensured that the truth prevailed. I am proud to have stood firm, and even prouder to know that there are organisations like @antisemitism who stand by people defending British Jews and opposing terrorism in all its forms.

Thank you for standing with me🫡❤️🤝

Campaign Against Antisemitism-tweet-21August2025-Victory for Niyak Ghorbani

Campaign Against Antisemitism-tweet-21August2025-Victory for Niyak Ghorbani

 

TOP

Muslim attacks Scottish Teen, Dundee’s Axe and Knife Girl


Basil the Great-tweet-24August2025-Muslim attacks Scottish Teen
⚠️This is absolutely HORRIFIC ⚠️

“DON’T F**KING TOUCH US”

Little girls scream at a migrant recording them before brandishing an AXE and a KNIFE to warn him off

What is happening to our country?

Basil the Great-tweet-24August2025-Muslim attacks Scottish Teen

Basil the Great-tweet-24August2025-Muslim attacks Scottish Teen

 

legal-insurrection-logo

Scottish Teen Reminds Great Britain of the Meaning of “Never Surrender”

As the Dundee Girl becomes the genuine face of a real crisis, the peoples of Great Britain engage in “Raise the Colours” protests.

Posted by Leslie Eastman 27August2025 at 01:00pm https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/08/scottish-teen-reminds-great-britain-of-the-meaning-of-never-surrender/

 

Dundee-Girl

 

For many years, globalists and mainstream media have pushed the image of a teenage Greta Thunberg as an icon of innocence lost because of the “climate crisis”.

 

The green grift began to collapse, so Thunberg ditched the manufactured catastrophe for the Hama-caused disaster in Gaza.

 

More recently, another teen has made herself iconic overnight.  Not because she is a favorite of the press or politically connected, but because she boldly defended her sister from the advances of an immigrant predator in Dundee, Scotland.

 

In other words, the Dundee girl is the genuine face of a real crisis.

In a viral video with nearly 40 million views on X reportedly connected to the arrest, two girls can be seen shouting back and forth with at least two alleged migrant men who allegedly attempted to assault one of the girls, with the two pleading for the men to leave them alone while one brandished an axe and a large knife. Police arrived on the scene after the incident to make the arrest, but did not charge any of the men in the video, the police told the DCNF.

 

“Around 7:40pm on Saturday, 23 August, 2025 we received a report of a female youth with a weapon in St Ann Lane, Dundee. Officers attended and a 14-year-old girl was charged in connection,” a Police Scotland spokesperson told the DCNF in a statement. “She will be reported to the relevant authorities.”

 

The other girl can be heard on the video repeatedly telling them men not to touch her sister while the men continued filming the pair. The exact details regarding the incident are currently not fully known.


Remix News & Views-tweet-26August2025-Scottish 14-year-old girl defends against Islamic Man
A 14-year-old girl in Scotland has been charged with possession of a knife after viral footage showed her and another minor being approached and filmed by at least one foreign man.

The girl brandishes a knife and an axe before walking away from the scene.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening in the Lochee area of Dundee.

“She will be reported to the relevant authorities,” said a Police Scotland spokesperson.

Remix News & Views-tweet-26August2025-Scottish 14-year-old girl defends against Islamic Man

Remix News & Views-tweet-26August2025-Scottish 14-year-old girl defends against Islamic Man

 

 

She was subsequently placed under arrest for possession of a knife.

The girl, aged 14, has been charged with possession of a bladed weapon after police were called to the scene in the Lochee district of the city at the weekend.

 

…It is not entirely clear what happened during the incident, but Police Scotland is understood to be aware of the claims surrounding the motive for her behaviour. As she has been charged, she cannot be identified under Scots Law.

The differences between the fabricated climate victim and a true warrior raging against a cruelly incompetent government could not be more stark. The Dundee girl is a real star of social media, and represents many in Great Britain who feel they are less than second-class citizens compared to the immigrants swamping their countries.

 

As she is Scottish, the connections to William Wallace and “Braveheart” have been many.

 


Tommy Robinson-tweet-26August2025-Weak politicians-authorities and a full two tier system
Weak politicians, “authorities” and a full two tier system rigged against them.

A legacy media demonizing the native at every given turn, in favour of the invader, all under the guise of “tolerance”.

Young girls have been forced to fend for themselves on their own streets.

Tommy Robinson-tweet-26August2025-Weak politicians-authorities and a full two tier system

Tommy Robinson-tweet-26August2025-Weak politicians-authorities and a full two tier system

The Dundee Girl is now the face of “Never Surrender”.

 


Knights Templar International-tweet-26August2025-girl the poster for British Resistance
This 14 year old girl is now the poster for British Resistance.

Knights Templar International-tweet-26August2025-girl the poster for British Resistance

Knights Templar International-tweet-26August2025-girl the poster for British Resistance

It has even inspired a ballad, likening the Dundee girl to Great Britain’s warrior queens.

 


Leslie Eastman-tweet-26August2025-The Ballad of Dundee’s Axe and Knife Girl
The Ballad of Dundee’s Axe and Knife Girl

In mist-veiled Dundee, where shadowed alleys curl,
A flame was kindled: one defiant Scottish girl.
Grasping steel in trembling hands, she stood the test—
Defender of her sister, undaunted, and possessed.

Not since Boudicca’s chariot stormed wild Roman lands,
Has such fierce courage blazed in youthful hands.
“Win the battle, or perish,” the warrior queen once cried;
Her spirit, now in Dundee, is undenied.

Children of Albion, remember Aethelflaed’s will—
Mercia’s Lady, who broke Viking ranks with skill.
As daughter, wife, and ruler, she forged England’s fate;
So too the Dundee girl, young, resolute, innate.

What beat in Elizabeth’s heart before the Armada’s night?
England’s red-haired sovereign, clad in shining light,
Spoke: “Though I have the body of a weak and feeble woman,
I have the heart and stomach of a king,”—her word a summons.

Now stands our axe and knife girl, in neon-shadowed dawn,
Her kin in peril, her innocence nearly withdrawn.
But in every strike and every cautious glance,
Britain’s daughters march anew; steel echoes their stance.

Brave Dundee maiden—like Matilda, wild and clever—
Daring escapes and battles, refusing to sever
The bond of sisterhood and Britain’s indomitable soul:
You, child of modern struggle, have claimed your warrior role.

So let the world remember, as legend starts to swirl,
The fierce defender standing tall—the Dundee girl.
As long as history’s heroines live in myth and word,
Your story, too, shall rise and never be unheard.
Lord Doomer Protector of the Omniverse-tweet-26August2025-There you go
There you go, it’s a song now…

Leslie Eastman-tweet-26August2025-The Ballad of Dundee’s Axe and Knife Girl

Leslie Eastman-tweet-26August2025-The Ballad of Dundee’s Axe and Knife Girl

 

Hot Air’s Beege Welborne notes that the anger in the United Kingdom will grow as its native populations are dealing with the new invasion.

Nigel Farage spoke of his deep concern that ‘Without action…I fear deeply the anger will grow.’ Even as he rattled off the statistics for the boats and bodies arriving, 600-some odd ‘migrants’ from France on British beaches just today, and 54,000 since Keir Starmer took office and swore to stop the flood.

 


GB News-tweet-26August2025-The mood in this country
‘The mood in this country is a mix between total dispair and rising anger. I fear that anger will grow…’

@Nigel_Farage lays out the issues facing Britain as a result of illegal immigration, as he launches ‘Operation Restoring Justice’.

GB News-tweet-26August2025-The mood in this country

GB News-tweet-26August2025-The mood in this country

 

Meanwhile, with limited speech and protest rights, the people of the United Kingdom have resorted to flying their own flags in protest.

The flag of St. George is being posted in England.

 


PeterSweden-tweet-21August2025-British people are out raising the England flag
British people are out raising the England flag in protest of the Socialist government.

Looks like people had enough.

PeterSweden-tweet-21August2025-British people are out raising the England flag

PeterSweden-tweet-21August2025-British people are out raising the England flag

 

 

“Raise the Colours” protests are also in Scotland.


The British Patriot-tweet-22August2025-Scottish patriots join Raise the Colours movement
🚨BREAKING: Scottish patriots join “Raise the Colours” movement, proudly raising Scottish flags across Glasgow.

This isn’t just flag waving — it’s a powerful display of unity.

Britain is awake.

The British Patriot-tweet-22August2025-Scottish patriots join Raise the Colours movement

The British Patriot-tweet-22August2025-Scottish patriots join Raise the Colours movement

 

The Welsh flag is being raised.

 


The British Patriot-tweet-18August2025-the Welsh flag can be seen almost everywhere
🚨NEW: In Wales, the Welsh flag can be seen almost everywhere, visible for miles as locals flood the streets, draping it everywhere.

This isn’t mere flag-waving—it’s a bold act of resistance, a striking display of unity.

Britain is uniting.

[@VoWalesOfficial]

The British Patriot-tweet-18August2025-the Welsh flag can be seen almost everywhere

The British Patriot-tweet-18August2025-the Welsh flag can be seen almost everywhere

 

Flying flags may feel good, but it’s time for the people of Great Britain to realize they must organize to defend themselves and to defend each other. Never give up your freedom, your dignity, or your safety to those who try to take it from you, either in the form of a government or an invader. Communities that organize, train, and support one another are far harder to exploit or silence.

Let Dundee Girl be an example for Great Britain.

Never surrender.

 


LXXIII-tweet-26August2025-We shall defend our Island
“We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender.”

~ Winston Churchill ~

LXXIII-tweet-26August2025-We shall defend our Island

LXXIII-tweet-26August2025-We shall defend our Island

 


 

TOP

Scottish Teen Reminds Great Britain of the Meaning: MORE REACTIONS

 

Scottish Dundee Axe Girl Strikes Back – AI Braveheart Parody/Tribute Song

From Dundee’s “axe/ hatchet girl” headlines to a Braveheart anthem

 

Expose-big-pharma-tweet-1September2025-UK grooming gangs-it is all True

Expose-big-pharma-tweet-1September2025-UK grooming gangs-it is all True

Expose-big-pharma-tweet-1September2025–UK grooming gangs-it is all True
The Most Offensive Thing about this cartoon is that it is all True.

We have to support our Patriot Princess!


Knights Templar International-tweet-27August2025-We have to support our Patriot Princess
We have to support our Patriot Princess!

Knights Templar International-tweet-27August2025-We have to support our Patriot Princess

Knights Templar International-tweet-27August2025-We have to support our Patriot Princess

 

 

When I was her age, I carried a knife


Sinéad Watson-tweet-26August2025-When I was her age I carried a knife
I wasn’t going to comment on this, but after seeing some reactions, I’m going to.

When I was her age, I carried a knife. Never had to use it. Working-class Scottish girls are never protected. They’re judged as neds, bams, scum.

Some of you have no idea what it’s like. At all.

Sinéad Watson-tweet-26August2025-When I was her age I carried a knife

Sinéad Watson-tweet-26August2025-When I was her age I carried a knife

 

Britain Has NO MEN!


DeepThinker-tweet-26August2025-Britain Has NO MEN!
Why aren’t there any Men Helping Us?
Britain Has NO MEN!
We’re on our own

DeepThinker-tweet-26August2025-Britain Has NO MEN!

DeepThinker-tweet-26August2025-Britain Has NO MEN!

 

POV: you’re a 12 year old girl in Scotland that defended yourself from a foreign rapist


Giga Based Dad-tweet-27August2025-you’re a 12 year old girl in Scotland that defended yourself from a foreign rapist
POV: you’re a 12 year old girl in Scotland that defended yourself from a foreign rapist

Giga Based Dad-tweet-27August2025-you're a 12 year old girl in Scotland that defended yourself from a foreign rapist

Giga Based Dad-tweet-27August2025-you’re a 12 year old girl in Scotland that defended yourself from a foreign rapist

 

Together we will make this country yours. Thank you for being so weak


Expose big pharma-tweet-26August2025-Together we will make this country yours.
Together we will make this country yours.
Thank you for being so weak

Expose big pharma-tweet-26August2025-Together we will make this country yours.

Expose big pharma-tweet-26August2025-Together we will make this country yours.

 

TOP

Support the Labour Party, Support Stalin!

LORD MONCKTON, The REAL Labour Party under Kier Starmer


Mickey-tweet-2September2025-The REAL Labour Party under Kier Starmer

Mickey-tweet-2September2025-The REAL Labour Party under Kier Starmer

Mickey-tweet-2September2025-The REAL Labour Party under Kier Starmer

 

 

TOP


jns-org-logo

UK, Canada, Australia recognize ‘State of Palestine’

The three nations’ prime ministers stress commitment to two-state solution.

JNS Staff

https://www.jns.org/uk-canada-australia-recognize-state-of-palestine/

 

(21September2025 / JNS) The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia on Sunday all recognized a putative Palestinian state, acting amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

 

The synchronized announcements, coming within minutes of each other, defied opposition from the American and Israeli governments, which said such a move would be a reward for terrorism.

 

“Since 1947, it has been the policy of every Canadian government to support a two-state solution for lasting peace in the Middle East,” read a written statement by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “This envisioned the creation of a sovereign, democratic and viable State of Palestine, building its future in peace and security alongside the State of Israel.

 

“Hamas has terrorized the people of Israel and oppressed the people of Gaza, wreaking horrific suffering,” the statement continued. “It is imperative that Hamas release all hostages, fully disarm and play no role in the future governance of Palestine. Hamas has stolen from the Palestinian people, cheated them of their life and liberty, and can in no way dictate their future.

 

“The current Israeli government is working methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established. … It is in this context that Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Carney said.

 

Moments later, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a similar statement.

 

He said that his country’s recognition of the “independent and sovereign State of Palestine” reflects Australia’s “longstanding commitment to a two-state solution, which has always been the only path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.”

 

Albanese stressed that “the terrorist organization Hamas must have no role in Palestine.”

 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in a video statement, said, “Today, to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clearly—as prime minister of this great country—that the United Kingdom formally recognizes the state of Palestine.

 

“In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East, we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and of a two-state solution. That means a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state—at the moment we have neither,” he said.

 

Several other countries led by France plan to make similar announcements on Sunday and Monday.

 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry categorically rejected the recognition of a Palestinian state by Commonwealth countries and called it a “reward” for Hamas.

 

“This declaration does not promote peace, but on the contrary—further destabilizes the region and undermines the chances of achieving a peaceful solution in the future,” the foreign ministry said.

 

“Hamas leaders themselves openly admit: This recognition is a direct outcome, the ‘fruit’ of the October 7 massacre,” the statement continued. “Don’t let jihadist ideology dictate your policy.”

 

The statement stressed that the European-backed Palestinian Authority is “part of the problem and not part of the solution,” citing its continued incitement to terrorism and ongoing, years-old policy of payment for terrorists and their families known as ‘pay for slay.’

 

These payments led the American administration to sanction the P.A. and bar its officials from entering the U.S. to attend this month’s annual U.N. General Assembly general debate in New York.

 

“In any case, Israel will not accept any detached and imaginary text that attempts to force it to accept indefensible borders,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

 

“Political gestures aimed at a domestic voting audience only harm the Middle East and are not helpful. Instead, if the countries that signed this declaration truly wish to stabilize the region, they should focus on pressuring Hamas to release the hostages and to disarm immediately,” the ministry said.

 

The leader of the British Conservative Party called the declarative move “absolutely disastrous.”

 

“We will all rue the day this decision was made,” Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch wrote on X. “Rewarding terrorism with no conditions put in place for Hamas. It leaves hostages languishing in Gaza and does nothing to stop the suffering of innocent people caught in this war.”

 

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he would propose the immediate annexation of the biblical heartland in response to the countries’ recognition of a Palestinian state.

 

“The recognition by the U.K., Canada and Australia of a ‘Palestinian’ state, as a prize for the murderous Nukhba terrorists, requires immediate countermeasures: the immediate application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the complete dismantling of the ‘Palestinian’ terror Authority,” Ben-Gvir posted on X.

 

The Nukhba Force is the elite Hamas unit that spearheaded the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

 

TOP

2October2025-Yom Kippur Manchester-UK-synagogue terrorist attack


jns-org-logo

Manchester terrorist identified as Jihad al-Shamie

The 35-year-old, a British citizen of Syrian descent, killed Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation during Yom Kippur.

Charles Bybelezer

https://www.jns.org/manchester-terrorist-identified-as-jihad-al-shamie/

 

(3October2025 / JNS) Police on Thursday identified the suspect in the deadly Yom Kippur attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England, as Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent.

 

Two people were killed when Al-Shamie rammed his car into worshippers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on Middleton Road before exiting the vehicle and stabbing others on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.

 

British authorities early on Friday identified the fatalities as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.

 

“My deepest sympathies are with Mr. Daulby and Mr. Cravitz’s loved ones at this extremely hard time,” said Greater Manchester Police Detective Chief Superintendent Lewis Hughes, who is coordinating the casualty response.

 

“Specially trained Family Liaison Officers are in contact with them. They will continue to update them on the investigation and support them throughout the coronial process,” he continued.

 

“Whilst there are processes which must be followed, we commit to being mindful of cultural preferences and sensitivities and to ensuring that these men and their loved ones’ wishes are respected,” he added.

 

Police on Thursday confirmed that Al-Shamie had been shot dead during the attack.

 

“A suspicious device worn by the attacker during the incident has been assessed and was deemed not to be viable,” police said, after images circulating online appeared to show the terrorist wearing a belt containing unknown canisters around his waist.

 


Visegrád 24-tweet-2October2025-Yom Kippur Manchester synagogue terrorist
BREAKING:

The alleged photo of the Manchester synagogue terrorist.

The Manchester mayor says the suspect is believed to be dead, but his condition hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

Visegrád 24-tweet-2October2025-Yom Kippur Manchester synagogue terrorist

Visegrád 24-tweet-2October2025-Yom Kippur Manchester synagogue terrorist

 

According to police, three other victims were hospitalized with serious injuries. One suffered a stab wound, another was hit by the car involved in the attack and a third later went to the hospital with an injury that may have occurred as forces confronted the attacker.

 

Authorities added that three suspects—two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s—have been “arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.”

 

Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson announced on Thursday that the attack “has been officially declared as a terrorist incident, and the investigation is now being led by Counter Terrorism Police.”

 

He noted that there were a large number of worshippers attending the synagogue, “but thanks to the immediate bravery of security staff and worshippers inside, and the fast response of the police, the attacker was prevented from gaining access.”

 

The Community Security Trust, a non-profit that protects British Jews, urged the local Jewish community to remain vigilant, report any suspicious activity, avoid large gatherings and disperse quickly when leaving communal buildings or events.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night slammed the “barbaric” attack, and intimated that his British counterpart Keir Starmer’s “weakness” breeds terrorism.

 

“Israel grieves with the Jewish community in the U.K. after the barbaric terror attack in Manchester. Our hearts are with the families of the murdered, and we pray for the swift recovery of the wounded,” said Netanyahu.

 

“As I warned at the U.N.: Weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism. Only strength and unity can defeat it,” he added.

 

Starmer last month recognized a Palestinian state, a move that Jerusalem condemned as rewarding terrorism in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday described the scenes in Manchester as “utterly devastating.”

 

“This vile act of terror against the Jewish community, against worshippers at prayer, on the holiest day of the year for Jews, is a crime which must be condemned by all,” said Herzog.

 

The president said he spoke to the head of the local Jewish community and expressed that “first and foremost our thoughts and heartfelt prayers are with the families of the murdered, and we pray for the swift recovery of the wounded.

 

Herzog also revealed that just a few days ago he wrote a letter to King Charles, stressing his “deep worry and concern over the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred in the U.K., and in other Commonwealth countries including Australia and Canada.”

 

“Today’s tragic events have sadly demonstrated how real and tangible this threat is, and how imperative it is to act against it with full force and without compromise,” he added.

 


 


Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Manchester terror attack: Two victims hit by friendly fire

Greater Manchester Police say preliminary assessment indicates one deceased victim and one hospitalized worshipper were struck by police gunfire as officers stopped the attacker at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Crumpsall.

Israel National News / 3October2025, 1:35 PM (GMT+3) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/415751

 

The Greater Manchester Police on Friday afternoon reported that a terrorist who carried out a Yom Kippur attack at a Manchester synagogue does not appear to have been in possession of a firearm.

 

“Following the terrorist incident yesterday at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, Middleton Road, Crumpsall; further and urgent enquiries continue,” Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said in a statement. “Overnight, we have taken advice from the Home Office Pathologist ahead of full post mortem examinations scheduled for later today.”

 

“The Home Office Pathologist has advised that he has provisionally determined, that one of the deceased victims would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury.”

 

The statement also rejected an earlier belief that terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie had shot his victims: “It is currently believed that the suspect, Jihad Al Shamie, was not in possession of a firearm and the only shots fired were from GMP’s Authorised Firearms Officers as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm to our Jewish community.”

 

“It follows therefore, that subject to further forensic examination, this injury may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end.

 

“We have also been advised by medical professionals that one of the three victims currently receiving treatment in hospital, has also suffered a gunshot wound, which is mercifully not life threatening. It is believed that both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers acted bravely to prevent the attacker from gaining entry.

 

“Our thoughts and prayers remain with all of the families, and the wider community, impacted by this incident across Greater Manchester and beyond. Specialist officers are providing support and care for all of those directly affected, including our brave first responders.”

 


 


Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Hero of Manchester: Rabbi Daniel Walker barricaded synagogue during terror attack

Rabbi Daniel Walker was the one who blocked the synagogue door during the Manchester attack and saved the congregation inside.

Israel National News / 2october2025, 11:05 PM (GMT+3) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/415716

 

Rabbi Daniel Walker, leader of the Heaton Park community in Manchester, saved dozens of worshippers when he blocked the synagogue doors as the terrorist tried to enter after ramming and stabbing worshippers outside the building.

 

“Rabbi Walker was incredibly calm, he shut the doors to the synagogue to stop him getting inside. He barricaded everyone inside. He is a hero; this could have been even worse,” said eyewitnesses.

 

Sir Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said that “Thanks to the immediate bravery of security staff and worshippers inside, and the fast response of the police, the attacker was prevented from gaining access. All those inside were safely contained until police were able to confirm that it was safe to leave the premises.”

 

He said that hundreds of worshippers inside the building were held safely until the police confirmed the premises were clear of danger. Two people were killed in the attack and four were injured, some seriously.

 

Dramatic footage of the moment the attacker was neutralized was shared on social networks in Britain. Two officers shot the attacker dead; he was holding a knife and wearing what was initially suspected to be an explosive vest.

 

Watson further commented: “We believe that the identity of the offender has been established but until we are certain of this fact, it is premature to set out this detail. In addition, I can confirm that two other individuals have been arrested in connection with this incident and enquiries are ongoing.”

 

“We can confirm that two members of our Jewish community have sadly died as a result of this attack. Following a rapid response, armed officers from Greater Manchester Police intercepted the offender and he was fatally shot by officers, within seven minutes of the initial call.”

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the deadly attack and criticized the British government’s handling of terrorism: “Israel grieves with the Jewish community in the UK after the barbaric terror attack in Manchester. Our hearts are with the families of the murdered, and we pray for the swift recovery of the wounded. As I warned at the UN: weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism. Only strength and unity can defeat it.”

 

The Israeli Embassy in London condemned the event: “The Embassy of Israel in the United Kingdom condemns the attack carried out today on Yom Kippur at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester.”

 

“That such an act of violence should be perpetrated on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, in a place of prayer and community, is abhorrent and deeply distressing.”

 

“The Embassy is in close contact with Manchester Jewish community, British authorities and the Community Security Trust (CST) to monitor developments and ensure that the necessary support is provided.”

 

“We thank the Greater Manchester Police for their swift response. The safety and security of Jewish communities in the United Kingdom must be guaranteed.”

 

“The thoughts and prayers of the people of Israel are with the victims, their families, and the entire Jewish community at this difficult time.”

 

TOP


Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Fear in Manchester ‘like during the Holocaust’

A community Rabbi in Manchester described a harsh reality of antisemitism faced by British Jews and how families are sending children to Israel as a ‘Kindertransport.’

Shimon Cohen / 5October2025, 4:44 PM (GMT+3)  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/415842

 

Rabbi Benjamin Rickman, a Mizrachi movement emissary and community Rabbi in Manchester, described the painful feelings in the Jewish community in Manchester after and even before the attack in which two worshippers were murdered on Yom Kippur, in an interview with Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.

 

He says, “We are experiencing antisemitism in an abnormal way. There is fear of walking the streets, people are scared, they endure shouts and curses. It is terribly sad that people live like this. We continue in any case, but some people go out less, people take off their kippah and Stars of David so that they will not be identified as Jews. On the other hand there are those who walk around with an Israeli flag and come to synagogues on Shabbat even though they would not usually come, to show that the Jewish people are still here. It is complicated.”

 

He noted the difficulty of accepting the norm of synagogues being secured, “It bothers me that we need guards outside the synagogues. I entered my synagogue on Shabbat and there was a patrol vehicle outside the synagogue for 12 hours. The police were kind. They came to hear from us what is happening in the synagogue and the community. Everyone left the prayers and said thank you very much. They said that the Jews are the politest in England, but it is still not right. There are extremist movements in England and the government and politicians do not know how to deal with them because they are also afraid of them, because they are becoming a majority in England.”

 

Rabbi Rickman relates to the helplessness of British politicians from his personal experience, “A nice politician in my area needs the votes of those who oppose the Jews and the State of Israel to keep his seat in Parliament. They play the game. I received many emails of sorrow and pain, but beyond that they did not say that this is wrong and that the extreme voices must be silenced and antisemitism stopped. I asked them why no one is saying that what we experience is not right. I receive no answer on that. They focus on the murder but not the problem.”

 

“They do not talk about the fact that there is a religion here that sanctifies death and not life, which must be silenced. They honor and encourage murder, like the Nazis. More people need to speak up and say that they do not accept people living with a worldview that honors murder and death.”

 

Asked what is happening to make Britain deteriorate like this, he says, “It is hard to explain. It characterizes England that the silent majority does not speak out here, they are the polite ones and they are our friends. The minority is loud and has a big mouth. For them, this is not just politics but a religious value to take to the extreme, and because this is higher on their value scale the noise they make is stronger than the silence of others.”

 

Rabbi Rickman believes it is still only a minority. “I went shopping on Friday and the woman at the supermarket wanted to hug me. I told her not to, please… but she wanted to hug me and said she was sorry and they are with us, etc. The minority makes a lot of noise. It is a minority that is both loud and violent and it stresses the British who do not want to be shouted at and cursed.”

 

In this reality, Rabbi Rickman says, talk about immigrating to Israel is increasing. At his own home, his eldest daughter immigrated to Israel, his younger son will come in a year to study in Israel and the same will be true for his younger brother, “It is like during the Holocaust with the Kindertransport. That is how I see sending the children to Israel, and later we will also come.”

 

He also tells of his daughter moving to Israel, who told him about two hundred families planning to immigrate to Israel. “If the government does not understand the other side’s perspective and does not want to confront it, then there is no choice but to move.”

 

Rabbi Rickman notes that the harsh reality in Britain began even before the October 7th massacre. “There have always been problems in Europe. This is not new. Not something of the last two years,” he says and notes that as a teacher for twenty years at a school he is angered by the reality in which the only schools that are secured and surrounded by fences are Jewish schools. “This is how people live here every day. Since the massacre the pro-Palestinian demonstrations have also been violent and loud.”

 

Rabbi Rickman hopes Jews are not acclimating to antisemitism. “My body is stuck here but my heart is in Israel. There are British Jews whose whole lives and roots are here and they see their future here, but young families think and plan to move to Israel because they do not see a future here.”

 

TOP


legal-insurrection-logo

British Police Allegedly Arrest Jewish Man Because His Star of David ‘Antagonized’ Protesters

“How do we get back to the point where police are protecting us [Jews] properly rather than targeting us?”

Posted by Elizabeth Stauffer 19October2025 at 04:00pm  https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/10/british-police-allegedly-arrest-jewish-man-because-his-star-of-david-antagonized-protesters/

 

If there were any doubt that the United Kingdom has chosen a side in the Israel–Palestinian conflict, the arrest of a Jewish attorney wearing a Star of David necklace while observing a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London has erased it.

 

The unfathomable arrest occurred nearly two months ago, but is only coming to light now. The Telegraph, a London media outlet, recently obtained police interview footage that “shows a detective accusing the Jewish man of openly wearing a Star of David that could cause ‘offense.’” According to the report, police alleged the symbol had “antagonized” pro-Palestine protesters.

 


The Telegraph-tweet-18October2025-UK Police arrest Jewish man for wearing a Star of David
🚨 WATCH: Police interview footage obtained by The Telegraph shows a detective accusing the Jewish man of openly wearing a Star of David that could cause “offence”.

Click here ⬇️
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/18/jewish-man-arrested-star-of-david-antagonised-protesters/

The Telegraph-tweet-18October2025-UK Police arrest Jewish man for wearing a Star of David

The Telegraph-tweet-18October2025-UK Police arrest Jewish man for wearing a Star of David

 

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, was released after posting bail and is currently awaiting the results of a police investigation. He shared his story with The Telegraph.

 

The man, who is in his 40s, was arrested at 7 p.m. on Aug 29 at a pro-Palestine protest outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington in central London. The lawyer insists he was acting as an independent legal observer, monitoring the event for unlawful behaviour by the protesters and to scrutinize the actions of police.

 

But officers instead accused him of antagonizing the crowd and being part of a counter-protest.

 

He was handcuffed behind his back, bundled into the back of a “meat wagon” and then held for questioning at Hammersmith police station, before finally being released at 4.30am the next morning.

He finds the police’s claim that displaying the Star of David antagonizes people “outrageous.” He said, “When it was first raised in the police interview, it rang alarm bells for me immediately. Police crossed the line.”

They [the police] are trying to criminalise the wearing of a Star of David. They said I was antagonising and agitating pro-Palestine protesters with my Star of David. In an environment of anti-Semitism, I will not be cowed by this. I will carry on wearing it.

 

This is one of the clearest examples of two-tier policing you will ever see. Police are arguing that wearing a Star of David is antagonising to protesters while we have seen all manner of anti-Semitic slogans on placards and shouted at Jews that have gone unpunished.

Predictably, the Metropolitan Police denied the arrest was motivated by the man’s display of the Star of David. They claimed he was arrested for “allegedly ‘repeatedly breaching’ an order to keep opposing protest groups apart.”

 

Following The Telegraph’s request for a comment, the police claimed:

 

[H]e got “very close” to the pro-Palestine protesters on multiple occasions, and alleged his actions went “beyond observing to provoking,” leading them to designate him as “actively participating as a protester,” therefore binding him to conditions of the Public Order Act.

The Telegraph notes the man was detained “for a suspected breach of Section 14 of the Public Order Act. The Act allows police to impose certain conditions on protests to prevent violence or serious disruption. The man was arrested for straying outside of an area cordoned off for a counter-protest to the rally.”

 

This man, along with two other Jewish men, founded the group Society of Independent Legal Observers (SILO) this year, “to monitor the growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.”

 

Gill Levy, a member of SILO and a former Metropolitan Police sergeant who spent two decades on the force, attended the August demonstration as a legal observer. He told The Telegraph he was “appalled” by what he saw. He said:

It is really shocking. I cannot see how this was proportionate or justified. It makes me distraught.

 

How do we get back to the point where police are protecting us [Jews] properly rather than targeting us? When I was an officer I was always thinking about the reputation of the police, and how I could ensure what I was doing did not expose the organisation to risk. This arrest beggars belief. I am part of this Jewish tribe, but I am also part of the police tribe, and for them to have let me down like this is heart-breaking.

 

It’s just like our existence as Jews is now heretical. It’s as if Jews should not be able to take part in civil society.

 

I cannot think of another identity that would cause a police officer to make an arrest. How can the symbol of Judaism have caused such antagonism that police got involved? And surely the problem is with the person who is antagonised, not with the person wearing the Star of David?

Below is The Telegraph’s detailed description of the man’s interview in police custody on the night of his arrest:

In footage of the interview, the man is first questioned by police at 1am in an interview room one at Hammersmith Police station. A detective constable explains he is normally attached to the robbery unit, but has been called in to “deal with any excess prisoners that come in as a result of the protests.” In the interview, the officer was unclear under which sub-section of the Act the lawyer was being arrested.

 

The arrested man then gave a lengthy, pre-prepared statement explaining his actions on the evening he was detained.

 

The detective then paused the interview for half an hour to allow him time to digest the “very detailed account” before asking questions of his own. The interview resumed at 1.50am with the detective constable asking the Jewish suspect about his “political beliefs,” adding: “If people go to the police with a feeling you are antagonising them, shouldn’t police act on that information?”

 

He questioned why the suspect was not wearing “anything that overtly identifies you as a legal observer” and accused him of “approaching the pro-Palestine protesters” with his camera “quite close to them.”

 

Then, having asked the arrested man if he was “stoking the fire with these pro-Palestine protesters,” the detective asked the accused: “What necklace are you wearing?”

 

The suspect showed him his Star of David – which was bought for him by his girlfriend while on holiday in Ibiza – before his lawyer interrupted, telling the detective: “I am concerned about this question about the Star of David.”

 

The officer asked: “Why are you concerned?” before the interview was halted so the lawyer and his client could discuss the line of questioning.

 

At 2.13am the questioning resumed. The defence lawyer told the detective he was “concerned about you raising my client’s religion and wearing a sign in relation to that which I don’t think is appropriate”.

 

Then the lawyer asked the detective if he knew “what IJAN stands for” in reference to the anti-Israel group that had organised the protest. The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) describes itself as part of the worldwide movement “against Zionist militarism and repression.”

 

The group had begun its protests in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attack with regular Friday night protests outside the Israeli ambassador’s home in Swiss Cottage, which is also home to a large number of Jews. These were later moved to outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington.

 

The detective explained to the accused that he had “had to familiarise myself with it [IJAN] because I wasn’t at the start of the interview but correct me if I’m wrong. It’s the International Jewish Solidarity Network.”

 

They then corrected him, before adding: “In any event the pro-Palestinian protest was organised by a Jewish organisation…. And the Magen David [Hebrew for Star of David] is a sign of being Jewish. So I’m not sure what your point is – bearing in mind the protest was organised by a Jewish organisation.”

 

The detective constable insisted “my line of questioning first and foremost is not to offend”, adding: “It’s not to discriminate. I want to have that on record. I am not asking that question to cause you any offence. However, if we had proceeded with my line of questioning, the officers have noted in their statements that they believed because the Star of David was out and present to people… they felt that was antagonising the situation further.”

 

The lawyer replied: “With respect, that is appalling and shows a complete… ignorance on behalf of those officers because if they were familiar with the fact IJAN were organising the protest then they would recognise that how could a Magen David cause offence?”

 

He went on: “Notwithstanding the fact we shouldn’t be in a situation where people can’t walk around wearing a sign of their religion.”

 

At that point, the detective reiterated that he did not believe “any officer had acted with a view to causing offence”, adding: “I don’t know what you are referring to, a mogga dovid.”

 

The lawyer explained that also meant Star of David to which the officer replied: “Sorry I haven’t heard that,” adding: “We are not talking about [the accused] walking about with a Star of David chain on his neck in an open forum in public generally.”

 

“We are talking about a very niche environment where tensions are high, where two sides are coming together, have adverse opinions, have adverse views.”

 

“We are not talking about [the accused’s] human rights in terms of what he is wearing in a public forum.”

 

“We are talking about a hostile environment where pro-Palestinian protesters are obviously objecting to what is happening in Israel and Gaza. That’s what I want to say on that… I don’t want this to become a political debate in an interview.”

 

The lawyer for the arrested man replied: “I don’t for one minute concede the argument that he shouldn’t be entitled to wear his Star of David wherever he wants as a sign of his religion. And as I said to you before there isn’t a point here because IJAN is a Jewish organisation and the Star of David relates to Judaism as opposed to any political views.”

 

By this point it was 2.20am and the defence solicitor raised concerns that the line of questioning risked becoming “oppressive.”

 

The detective followed up: “As to my last point I have made to you… the officers have written in their statements about the presence of your necklace. Do you see how that could be an antagonistic emblem or sign, however you want to phrase it, to people in that environment?”

 

The interview eventually ended at 2.25am and he was set free from the police station at Hammersmith at 4.30am. The Jewish lawyer is still on police bail and the case against him remains under investigation.”

 

A Met Police spokesman said: “The claim that this man was arrested for wearing a star of David necklace is not true. He was arrested for allegedly repeatedly breaching Public Order Act conditions that were in place to keep opposing protest groups apart.”

 

“The conditions required protesters from the pro-Israel group, Stop the Hate, to remain in one area while protesters from the pro-Palestinian group, IJAN, were required to remain in a separate area.”

 

“Over the course of an hour, the man is alleged to have continuously approached the area allocated to IJAN, getting very close to protesters to film them and in doing so provoking a reaction. Officers had to intervene on at least four occasions to ask the man to return to the Stop the Hate area.”

 

“When he failed to do so after multiple warnings, he was arrested.”

While we’ll have to wait to see where this goes, I seriously doubt a London policeman would ask a Muslim if wearing a burka or a kufi could be an antagonistic emblem or sign in the wrong environment.

 

This incident underscores the unmistakable and troubling shift taking place in the U.K. today. Government leaders and clearly the police are willing to marginalize Jews and patriots due to their fear of offending the country’s growing Muslim population.

 

If they don’t wake up soon, the U.K. may one day be governed by Sharia law.

 

TOP

UK Jews ask “When do we leave?”


Amit Segal-tweet-6November2025-UK Jews ask When do we leave
Israel is offering new immigrants and returning residents 0% tax on their income for their first two years after moving to the Jewish state. Set to be included in the country’s 2026 budget, it’s part of a major reform announced today, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling it “a Zionist and economic revolution.”

While making life easier for Olim Hadashim (new immigrants) is far from a new topic, the timing of this announcement is anything but a coincidence. Take, for example, a recent post by Jewish journalist @AshleyRindsberg
, who is based in London.

“At Shabbat lunch today, all the families were talking about when and where to go. Every family I know speaks about this now as an inevitability. They look at the flight of French Jews and see that as a map for how this will unfold — and already is. One question people kept returning to is what will be the specific event that makes them say enough. Where is the line? The answers they gave were ominous ones.”

Unfortunately, the disturbing sentiment expressed by Rindsberg is not limited to British Jewry (looking at you, @ZohranKMamdani
) — and Israel’s government, it seems, has taken note.

The message to diaspora Jews is clear: we’re here, waiting for you. And when you decide to make Israel your official home, we’ll do what we can to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Amit Segal-tweet-6November2025-UK Jews ask When do we leave

Amit Segal-tweet-6November2025-UK Jews ask When do we leave

 

TOP

France

Depuis la France : faites votre Aliyah ! Demandez-leur d’appeler l’Agence juive pour lancer la candidature formelle 0-800-916-647 ou par courrier électronique à gci-fr@jafi.org https://www.jewishagency.org/fr/

Chacun de nous, ensemble Notre mission première est de connecter les juifs entre eux depuis 1929


YNet Logo https://www.ynetnews.com/

France quietly ends visas for El Al flight security guards in Paris amid Gaza war tensions

Amid tensions over Gaza war, France stops renewing work visas for El Al flight security guards, forcing them to stay without visas or return to Israel; guard says no renewals issued in 6 months; Israeli embassy in contact with French authorities over matter

 

Itamar Eichner | 11August2025 | 22:11 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjw8x3wdxl

 

Over the past six months, French authorities have quietly stopped renewing work visas for El Al flight security personnel employed in Paris as ITAN workers (Israeli citizens supporting diplomatic missions) through the Israeli embassy, sources familiar with the situation told Ynet on Monday, explaining that the decision stems from rising tensions between Israel and France over the Gaza war and attributing it to anti-Israel motives within Parisian authorities.

 

The work visas previously granted to the Israeli security staff allowed them to live and work legally in France. Now, with the visa renewals halted, some of these workers find themselves residing in the country illegally. While some remain in France without valid permits, others have been forced to obtain diplomatic visas through the Israeli embassy, granting them temporary status to continue their stay.

 

“In the past six months, none of the employees whose work visas expired have received renewals,” according to an El Al flight security guard stationed in Paris. “This has never happened before, and no one has been granted new approvals. It seems they are trying to end the employment of El Al security personnel in France.”
The security guard further noted that El Al management is “distancing themselves from the employees” and referring them to the Foreign Ministry, with some unable to secure new visas and forced to return to Israel.

 

In response to a Ynet inquiry, the Foreign Ministry said that “the matter is being handled by the embassy in coordination with the French Foreign Ministry.” The French embassy in Israel declined to comment, referring inquiries to the Israeli embassy. El Al also directed questions to the Foreign Ministry and the Shin Bet internal security agency, which did not provide a response.

 

Tensions between Paris and Jerusalem have deepened following a series of incidents involving the French authorities and pro-Palestinian activists. Last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators vandalized El Al’s offices in Paris, splattering them with red paint and labeling the airline a “genocide airline.” In June, the Israeli pavilion at the Paris Air Show arms fair was unexpectedly blocked by organizers and covered with black cloth

El Al offices in Paris were vandalized

El Al offices in Paris were vandalized

 

 In June, the Israeli pavilion at the Paris Air Show arms fair was unexpectedly blocked by organizers and covered with black cloth

In June, the Israeli pavilion at the Paris Air Show arms fair was unexpectedly blocked by organizers and covered with black cloth

 

Speaking at a press conference Sunday night, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned plans presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take over the Gaza Strip, calling it a “disaster waiting to happen, and a step toward an endless war.” Speaking to reporters during a briefing from his office, he warned, “The Israeli hostages and the people of Gaza will be the first victims of this strategy. The government in Israel needs to stop the war now with a permanent ceasefire.”

 

Macron also proposed the formation of an international coalition under the United Nations aimed at combating terrorism in Gaza and stabilizing the region.

 

Last month, Macron announced on his X account that France would officially recognize a Palestinian state. He said he plans to make a “ceremonial declaration” to this effect at the UN General Assembly in September. His announcement sparked a wave of similar moves, with several countries expressing readiness to recognize Palestinian statehood. Australia announced Sunday night it would move in a similar direction, while New Zealand stated it was “considering the move.”

 

In his declaration, Macron emphasized the urgency of ending the war in Gaza and delivering aid to civilians. “Peace is possible. There must be an immediate ceasefire that includes the release of all hostages and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” he wrote.

 

He also stressed the necessity of disarming Hamas, ensuring Gaza’s security and rebuilding the territory. “Finally, it is essential to establish the Palestinian state, guarantee its existence, and allow it, through receiving disarmament and full recognition by Israel, to contribute to security in the Middle East.”

 

TOP


jns-org-logo

The E1 battle: Why Israel can’t bow to Macron’s Palestinian fantasy

The E1 corridor, connecting Jerusalem to Ma’ale Adumim, is a vital buffer against the encirclement of Israel’s capital by a hostile Palestinian entity.

https://www.jns.org/the-e1-battle-why-israel-cant-bow-to-macrons-palestinian-fantasy/

 

Fiamma Nirenstein

Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein is an Italian-Israeli journalist, author and senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. An adviser on antisemitism to Israel’s Foreign Minister, she served in the Italian Parliament (2008–2013) as Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Committee. A founding member of the Friends of Israel Initiative, she has written 13 books, including Israel Is Us (2009), and is a leading voice on Israel, the Middle East, Europe and the fight against antisemitism.

 

(20August2025 / JNS) Israel’s recent approval of 3,401 housing units in the strategic E1 corridor has unleashed the usual chorus of outrage from world leaders and Palestinian statehood advocates. Chief among them is French President Emmanuel Macron, who is pushing to force a United Nations General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood in September.

 

For Macron, it’s a grand gesture—a pacifist fantasy that pretends a Palestinian state is the antidote to war. But for Israel, it’s an existential threat.

 

The E1 corridor, connecting Jerusalem to the city of Ma’ale Adumim, is a vital buffer against the encirclement of Israel’s capital by a hostile Palestinian entity stretching from Ramallah to Bethlehem. Without it, Jerusalem risks becoming isolated and vulnerable, as it was between 1948 and 1967, when Jews were barred from the Western Wall.

 

This is why Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pushed the plan forward. Detractors dismiss him as a hardline minority voice. Yet the truth is that his stance reflects a sober reality: Israel cannot trade its survival for international applause.

 

The Palestinian leadership has never renounced its jihadist vision. It never condemned the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. It continues its “pay-for-slay” policy that rewards terrorism. And now it proudly declares that thanks to Oct. 7, it is winning the war of opinion.

 

Macron and his allies—Australia, Canada and others—are effectively rewarding Hamas by pressing for Palestinian statehood at the U.N.

 

Israel has been here before. The Arab League’s “three no’s” after the Six-Day War left no room for compromise. Every Israeli offer of peace has been met with terrorism, from Arafat’s rejectionism to Abbas’s intransigence. The so-called “Green Line” was never a border, merely an armistice line, and today it is being used as a weapon against Israel’s legitimacy.

 

E1 is more than a housing plan. It is a shield for Jerusalem and a message to Israel’s enemies: this nation will not be divided or surrounded again.

 

Whatever the U.N. decides, Israel will chart its own course. Macron may dream of playing Europe’s anti-American visionary, but Israel has a far more urgent role—to eliminate Hamas, protect its citizens and partner with moderate Arab states to build a safer, more stable Middle East.

 

The alternative—handing jihadists the victory they seek—is unthinkable.

 

TOP

Commentary Magazine-logo https://www.commentarymagazine.com/

Commentary Magazine-logo https://www.commentarymagazine.com/

Israel Shows Some Diplomatic Spine

by 28August2025  https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/israel-shows-some-diplomatic-spine/

 

Israel is responding aggressively and appropriately to two recent public relations challenges, suggesting Jerusalem understands the gravity of its situation as well as the fact that it is in the right on both.

 

The first is the “famine” libel. Israel is asking the IPC, the multinational monitor, to retract its debunked report on Gaza City. According to Reuters, the Israeli Foreign Ministry is warning that “if a new report were not presented within two weeks, Israel would continue to challenge the assessment and would ask the IPC’s donors to halt their financial support.”

 

Good. Israel can no longer afford to simply be correct on the merits. If corrupt global agencies are going to insert themselves as partisans into this war then they’ll learn to take a (metaphorical) punch.

 

As a reminder, Israel first meticulously proved the report false based on the IPC’s own data, which suggests the agency is not merely incompetent but corrupt and compromised.

 

Indeed, it’s clear the report was released as a preemptive attack on Israel’s new operation in Gaza City. The IPC simply declared famine in the one place in Gaza that the IDF was looking to enter, which was also the one place in Gaza relatively untouched by the war. Still, it’s important to have the numbers on your side, and Israel did (all emphasis in the original):

 

“The report relied on only half of the data actually collected in July — five sub-samples covering 7,519 children, described on pages 49–50 of the FRC report, with a combined average of roughly 16% — just above the threshold.

 

“By contrast, a Nutrition Cluster presentation released on August 8 — a week before the August 15 cut-off date — reported the full July sample of 15,749 children. Those results showed unweighted and weighted GAM rates of 13.5% and 12.2%, respectively — both well below the famine threshold.”

 

So the data were clear: no famine. That the IPC chose to manipulate the data for political purposes suggests the agency has forfeited its legitimacy. Additionally:

 

“The IPC itself acknowledged that available data on non-trauma mortality were nowhere near the famine threshold of 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day. Based on its own population estimate for Gaza Governorate — about 937,600 people — this threshold would correspond to roughly 188 non-trauma deaths per day. By contrast, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health reported that as of 15 August the five-day moving average across all of Gaza was just six ‘malnutrition-related deaths’ per day.

 

“Even if every one of these had occurred in Gaza City and were actual malnutrition-related excess deaths, the non-trauma death rate would still be an order of magnitude lower than the famine threshold.”

 

It didn’t have the numbers on its side, so the IPC made them up, claiming that the difference was made up of unreported (imaginary) cases.

 

Again, Israel seems to understand the gravity of the IPC’s corrupt interference on behalf of a terrorist organization. There is no reason for Israel to let up on the agency, and so far, it isn’t.

 

Then there is the lingering question of how to respond to the impending recognition of a Palestinian state by France and others joining the bandwagon. As I argued previously, this is a unilateral move by the Palestinians and their supporters, and so it must be parried with a unilateral move by Israel.

 

As France continues to up the ante, so must Israel. France suggested—then claimed it was an error when Yigal Carmon caught it—that it would support a Palestinian “right of return,” a euphemism for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. So Israeli leaders know France is at least considering such a move. Paris is also contemplating opening an embassy in Ramallah.

 

What to do? Amit Segal points to an interesting piece by Yoram Ettinger (in Hebrew) on a meeting of Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle about whether, how, and where to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. Certainly this is under consideration apart from the French declaration of Palestinian statehood, but apparently the Israeli government is considering making such action a direct response to unilateral measures by European states, France included.

 

This makes sense: Unilateral moves that chip away at Israeli sovereignty will be met with unilateral moves that reclaim Israeli sovereignty. At the same time, it’s a highly controversial step that will no doubt earn passionate denunciations and maybe more. Israel has to decide whether the reward is worth the risk, and will likely at least wait to see what happens at the UN General Assembly next month.

 

But here’s a key quote Ettinger supplies from an unnamed participant in the meeting with Netanyahu: “It is not enough to close a French consulate in the face of recognition of a Palestinian state.” The logic is clear: recognition of a Palestinian state on disputed land would contravene the Oslo Accords and all that followed directly from that track. If France—or anybody else—is going to take a lighter to three decades of diplomacy and compromise, they’re going to get burned.

 

TOP

Come home NOW – ESPECIALLY THE JEWS OF FRANCE


Rabbi Shalom Arush – Breslev English-tweet-9October2025-come home now especially the jews of France
Rabbi Arush has been saying for years that the time has come to move to Israel
Especially over the last 2 yrs
He doesn’t like to dwell on the negative, rather focus on the positive
But he has said many times – come home NOW – ESPECIALLY THE JEWS OF FRANCE!
Mark Dubowitz-tweet-7October2025-
France entering ‘new phase’ in antisemitism. 400% increase in applications to move to Israel from France last year. 52% of French Jews considering leaving the country.

Number #1 threat: radical Islam.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/3839904/jewish-advocates-france-new-phase-antisemitism/
SEE BELOW:Jewish advocates warn France entering ‘new phase’ of antisemitism

Rabbi Shalom Arush - Breslev English-tweet-9October2025-come home now especially the jews of France

Rabbi Shalom Arush – Breslev English-tweet-9October2025-come home now especially the jews of France

 

TOP


washington-examiner-logo

Jewish advocates warn France entering ‘new phase’ of antisemitism

By Emily Hallas October 7, 2025 6:00 am https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/3839904/jewish-advocates-france-new-phase-antisemitism/

 

French Jews are increasingly weighing leaving their country as advocacy groups warn antisemitism in France is morphing into widespread discrimination.

 

A combination of factors has led to antisemitism being normalized in new ways, particularly in work and educational arenas, according to data and numerous interviews conducted by the Washington Examiner. Escalating political instability, which is weakening institutions, and the rise of a radicalized antisemitic Islamist faction in French society are contributing factors that are leading Jews to alter their behavior as a self-protection mechanism, hide their ethnic and religious identities, limit activities in the public arena, and even consider leaving their homes altogether, human rights organizations and Jewish advocacy organizations reported.

 

The Jewish Agency for Israel, which handles “Aliyah” applications, or requests from Jews to immigrate to Israel, has seen a surge of inquiries from France. There was a 400% increase in Aliyah applications from France last year, according to the agency’s analysis. That number compares to a 70% increase from the United States and Canada.

 

The total proportion of French Jews considering leaving their country stands at 52%, according to Fondapol and AJC Paris’s 2024 survey of antisemitism in France. An analysis conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, or FRA, also concluded last year that more than half of respondents had either emigrated or considered emigration in the five years prior to the survey. Of those, 41% said they considered doing so because they don’t feel safe living in their country as a Jew, and 32% stated concerns about not being able to live an openly Jewish life.

 

“People are not just curious but genuinely considering aliyah,” Shay Felber, deputy director-general of the Jewish Agency, told the Jerusalem Post, adding that rising interest is matched by increasing rates of actual immigration.

 

“In France, we’ve doubled the number of immigrants compared to last year, reaching over 2,000 this year compared to 1,000 last year,” he said.

 

Over the summer, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington CEO Gil Preuss accompanied a group of over 100 such emigres from Paris to Israel. Preuss said during an interview that he heard from French Jews, such as a university student union leader, that they are becoming increasingly isolated. It’s a “guilty by association” ideology that has led to a broader trickle-down effect of wider discrimination, he said, explaining that residents who might not necessarily harbor antisemitic views are feeling increasingly pressured by anti-Zionist factions not to befriend Jews or frequent Jewish events due to accusations they are “pro-Zionist.”

 

His worries come as France is home to the third-largest Jewish population in the world, making human rights trends in the country a leading indicator of attitudes toward Jews in Europe.

 

Preuss said many of those he escorted from France to Israel were families who say their children are being subjected to antisemitism, particularly in the education system.

 

“A lot of kids were between the ages of 6 and 12, 6 and 14, and they probably experienced a variety of antisemitism, and just decided that it was time to move,” he said. “We had some families who said that in public schools, increasingly, Jewish kids may not be invited to birthday parties or other types of people not wanting to associate with members of the Jewish community.”

 

“It’s not so much the statements that people make or the acts that they do. It’s the increasing exclusion of Jews from society,” Preuss added.

 

FRA communications chief Nicole Romain referenced research from the EU’s only human rights institution that “confirms the concern about rising antisemitism.”

 

“We had examples in our surveys where Jews said, ‘Well, when we call in to a restaurant to book a table, we generally don’t give our family name. We just give our first name,” she said during an interview. “So this is one of the indicators as well of how they protect themselves or protect their identity of being Jew.”

 

Mounting fears over Jewish exclusion from society come amid data from the FRA indicating 43% of French Jews avoid certain neighborhoods and local areas because they “do not feel safe there as a Jew.” The Fondapol-AJC Paris survey found 44% of Jews in France who wear distinctive religious symbols have stopped wearing them in public spaces since Oct. 7 amid attacks. One in 5 has removed their mezuzah from homes, and 16% have changed their name on delivery apps for fear it might betray their identity or religion and lead to an attack. Since 2023, another 33% of French Jews have reduced or stopped using Uber services.

 

Twenty percent of European Jews in FRA’s survey said they felt discriminated against for being Jewish, mostly in educational and work settings. Roughly 4 out of 10 reported they are “rarely” or “never” open about being Jewish at work or school, with 33% and 41% stating they frequently conceal their identity at work and school, respectively. Seventy-six percent reported hiding their identity at least occasionally, up from 30% in 2013. Another 34% avoid visiting Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe there as Jews, up from 23% just over a decade ago. As a reaction to online antisemitism, 24% avoid posting content that would identify them as Jewish, 23% say that they limited their participation in online discussions, and 16% reduced their use of certain platforms, websites, or services.

 

AJC Vice President of Europe Anne-Sophie Sebban-Becache, who most recently led AJC Paris, highlighted recent multiple incidents that have triggered concerns that France is moving from relatively “standard” antisemitism to a widening acceptance of broader discrimination.

 

“What we’ve seen during the summer in France … is this new web of antisemitic incidents, where it’s not only pure hatred like it used to be. It’s not only like attacks on goods or persons, violent attacks, or, you know, the accusation of genocide. It’s now like discrimination,” she told the Washington Examiner. “And this is something really new for France because Jews were facing antisemitism — so, hate — but they were not facing discrimination or exclusion.”

 

The incidents named by Sebban-Becache included a group of French Jewish teenagers who were expelled from a Paris-bound flight over the summer, an incident in which French left-wing party La France Insoumise in April called for a ban on Israeli pop star Eyal Golan’s concert in Paris, and accusations that a leisure park in southern France refused to admit a group of 150 Israeli children in August. She also referenced allegations surrounding incidents at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in which students created a group chat on Instagram that excluded students based on Jewish-sounding names and a controversy that sparked when a student created a poll in a WhatsApp group chat titled “For or Against Jews?”

 

“This is showing you the trends. It shows that there is some openness to being antisemitic, like when you go to the point that they feel perfectly OK to say that they don’t accept Jews in certain spaces,” the AJC director said. “For me, it’s showing that we have entered a new phase.”

 

The FRA’s Romain noted 2025 data from the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France showing that recorded antisemitic acts stabilized in 2024, at 1,570 compared to a record high of 1,676 the previous year. Still, the 2024 numbers mark a surge compared to incidents recorded the year before, when the SPJC reported under 450 antisemitic acts. And critics warn that data on anti-Jewish discrimination remain incomplete, noting that many incidents go unreported due to fears of retaliation or the belief that doing so will change nothing.

 

Additionally, only acts reported through police reports are counted in data collection examining discrimination against Jews, meaning the methodology may underestimate the true extent of antisemitism, according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.

 

For instance, only 49% of incidents of antisemitic violence and 11% of antisemitic discrimination were reported by European Jews between 2023 and 2024, according to the FRA. In the Fondapol-AJC Paris survey sample, just 14% of the 83% of French Jews who reported having been the victim of antisemitic attacks had filed a police complaint.

 

Jewish advocacy groups still sounded notes of optimism about France during interviews. The community is resilient, they say, and has become more tight-knit in the wake of anti-Israel sentiment sparked by the country’s sweeping military response to Hamas after the 2023 attack.

FRENCH PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS IN OFFICE

But Sebban-Becache warned red lights are blinking, suggesting there are certain similarities between the antisemitism rising in Europe and the hostile environment Jews faced in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Narratives that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians living in Hamas-occupied Gaza have justified increasingly normative discrimination against Jews, she added, as critics use tactics observed “back in the ’30s with propaganda … when it has become a legitimate and even so-called moral battle to fight against the Jews.”

 

“The form is different, but the mechanism is the same,” she said. “The accusation of Israel being a genocidal state and Zionists being a genocidal people — it’s the modern way to dehumanize Jews, to make it legitimate to target them.”

 

TOP

Emmanuel Macron President Second French Vichy government


Dr. Eli David-tweet-5October2024-Emmanuel Macron President Second French Vichy government
.@EmmanuelMacron will be known as the president of the second Vichy government in France 🇫🇷
MadJo_fr-tweet-5October2024-
.@EmmanuelMacron
– affirme que @Tsahal_IDF
tue des enfants intentionnellement
– n’a pas marché contre l’antisémitisme
– n’a rien fait contre l’antisémitisme
– n’a pas condamné le Hezbollah au Liban
– se réunit avec les mollahs
– Souhaite l’arrêt des livraisons d’armes
#trahison
Translated from French by Grok
.@EmmanuelMacron
– claims that @Tsahal_IDF kills children intentionally
– did not march against antisemitism
– has done nothing against antisemitism
– has not condemned Hezbollah in Lebanon
– meets with the mullahs
– wishes for a halt to arms deliveries
#trahison

Dr. Eli David-tweet-5October2024-Emmanuel Macron President Second French Vichy government

Dr. Eli David-tweet-5October2024-Emmanuel Macron President Second French Vichy government

 

TOP


Yad Vashem

The Holocaust in France

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france.html

Paris, 12 June 1928. David and Renee-Rivka Ehrlich and their children.

Paris, 12 June 1928. David and Renee-Rivka Ehrlich and their children.

Jewish Immigration from Eastern Europe to France

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/jewish-immigration-from-eastern-europe-to-france.html

 

On the eve of the Second World War there were between 300,000 and 330,000 Jews in France. About two thirds of them were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Half of the immigrants arrived in France during the decade before the war. Many of them had first emigrated from Poland to Germany, which they left for France after the Nazi’s rise to power.

 

The Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe wanted to become integrated into French society, which they considered their adoptive country. Approximately one third of them received French citizenship. Most of their children attended the state-sponsored, secular, French school system. The Ort network of vocational schools initiated professional training for Jews, primarily in industry and agriculture. Most of the students in these schools were Jews who had immigrated to France from Eastern Europe. Many of the immigrants were employed in manual labor, but some of them obtained a higher education, studied French, pursued liberal professions and even acquired financial, social, political and intellectual status within French society, some volunteered to serve in the Foreign Legion of the French army. Prominent examples of the “upward mobility” of Eastern European immigrants to France include Helena Rubinstein and the Marxist thinker Charles Rappoport.

 

Former Polish Jews who had emigrated to France set up Jewish newspapers, which worked alongside the established French Jewish press. Organizations of Jewish immigrants cooperated with French Jewish organizations to produce significant cultural events, such as ceremonies held in 1939 in honor of the 150th anniversary of the French Revolution. Despite such cultural co-operations, many of the immigrants from Poland preferred to pray in synagogues of Jews from Eastern Europe. Some of the French Jews had reservations about the Eastern European Jewish immigrants and so created additional, exclusive, organizations.

 

During the 1930s many French Jews had reservations about the immigrants, claiming that they constituted an additional increase to the workforce in an economy that was already suffering from unemployment. Another argument was that the new immigrants would seek retribution against Nazi Germany for its actions against Jews, thereby entangling France in another war. In 1936 the Jewish Socialist Léon Blum was elected as Prime Minister. The result was a sharp increase in French antisemitism.

 

Most Jewish immigrants who successfully obtained French citizenship had immigrated to France from Eastern Europe before the First World War. The majority of the immigrants did not receive French citizenship, even after years of living in France. The importance of this status became very clear during the years of deportation (1942-1944), as the “stateless” Jews were the first to be deported.

 


 

A German military unit, marching down the Champs-Élysées; Paris, 4 July 1940

A German military unit, marching down the Champs-Élysées; Paris, 4 July 1940

The German Occupation of France

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/german-occupation.html

 

In May 1940 France was invaded by German forces. Within a month France was defeated. An armistice was signed ​on June 22, 1940 and following it France was divided into a German occupied zone in the North, a French governed zone in the South, also known as Vichy, which collaborated with the Germans and had certain authority also in the German-occupied zone, and a small demilitarized Italian occupied zone in the Southeast.

 

In July 1940, a special commission (commission de revision des naturialsation) was set up to review naturalizations issued after 1927. Trials to denaturalize French citizens went on throughout the war. About circa 15,000 persons were de-naturalized. Of the 15,000 persons denaturalized during the war about 6,500 were Jews.

 

Anti-Jewish measures were placed in both zones ​the cornerstone being the Statut des Juifs (anti-Jewish law), promulgated by the Vichy Government, on October 3, 1940​; this Statute was later amended with additional anti-Jewish measures. The First Jewish Statute called for the drastic decrease of Jewish involvement within French society. It announced who in France was considered a Jew, a definition stricter than determined in Nazi Germany. It removed Jews from the army, civil service and closed off top public offices while putting a quota on Jews working in various professions. A law passed on October 4, 1940 allowed for the detainment of Jews of foreign nationality. By February of 1941, 40,000 foreign Jews were detained in camps of the Unoccupied Zone alone. Three arrest operations in the occupied zone throughout 1941 led to the detainment of close to 9,000 Jews in camps of the occupied zone, most of foreign nationality. Over time, these camps would claim the lives of some 3,000 Jews, the first victims of the Holocaust in France.

 

A Second Statut des Juifs was issued on June 2, 1941, ​in which the definition of who was a Jew became more rigid. It used the term religion, which was poignant on account of France’s liberal tradition. The new Statute called for the removal of Jews from industry, business, and liberal professions. The Statutes were enacted in both zones and​ in France’s overseas territories.

 

From June 1942, Jews in the Northern Occupied Zone had to wear the yellow star on their clothing. It was not required in the Southern Zone. ​A first deportation to Auschwitz – the first one from Western Europe – left France on March 27 1942. The July 16-17, 1942 “Vel d’Hiv” roundup of Jews in Paris instigated the ​systematic mass deportations from France which included three transports per week, through the summer and fall of 1942. In November 1942, the Germans occupied the Southern Zone and continued the ongoing actions to arrest Jews and deport them to their extermination. Thousands of Jews fled to the now expanded Italian Zone to escape persecution. On September 8, 1943, the Germans entered and occupied the now former-Italian Zone.

 

On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded the coast of Normandy in Northern France. In August 1944 Paris was liberated, and by the later part of the year France was free. Franco-German collaboration facilitated the arrests and deportations of approximately 78,000 ​Jews, about a quarter of French Jewry, to extermination camps.

 


 

May 1941, the flea market in the Jewish quarter in Paris.

May 1941, the flea market in the Jewish quarter in Paris.

The First Wave of Arrests in France: May 1941

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/first-arrest-wave-may-1941.html

 

On the 14th of May, 1941, Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 40 were called to present themselves to the Paris police. They were summoned using a green postcard, for which this wave of arrests became known as the “billet vert”. More than 5,000 Paris Jews were taken into custody in this wave of arrests, almost all of them of Polish extraction. A few Jews of Czech and Austrian origin were also arrested. After their arrest, the prisoners were sent to the detention camps of Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande.

 

“They wake them from their sleep at six o’clock in the morning, and at seven o’clock they get a kind of unsweetened coffee and no bread,” wrote the Jewish journalist Jacques Bielinky in his diary, “These people, who have committed no crime and will not stand trial, suffer from a well-organized hunger.”

 

The Jews of Paris were gripped with crippling anxiety. Many were afraid to sleep in their own homes, while others avoided going out. Entire synagogues, particularly those catering to émigrés from Poland, now stood vacant. A Jewish aid organization, formed after the wave of arrests, collected large sums of money for the families of the detainees.

 

In the beginning of June, 1941, a new and more severe Jewish statute was passed, and the propaganda against the Jews became even more acerbic. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, many Jews with Soviet citizenship were arrested in France. On the 20th of August some 3,000 Jews were arrested in a sudden operation, undertaken with joint French-German collaboration. These arrests were assisted by detailed lists prepared by French police officers. “In Drancy a Jew is walking in the street, carrying a doll. He went out to buy a doll for his little girl, but on the way home he was arrested and interned in Drancy,” wrote Bielinky in his diary.

 

In Autumn 1941, during the High Holidays, the turnout in French synagogues was even more meager than usual, primarily due to fear of further arrests during the holidays. However, by November 1941 many of the detainees had been released. There was widespread relief in light of this event, and many Jews considered the worst to be behind them. But in December 1941 the arrests resumed. This time they were conducted by the Germans. While the arrests were being carried out, the Germans sought to assuage Jewish fears by encouraging them to volunteer to help the war effort; pamphlets were circulated, advertising the need for thousands of Jewish volunteers in the Ardennes region in Northeastern France. Hundreds of Jewish men were arrested and sent to the Compiègne internment camp, north-east of Paris, yet in the months that followed they were released. Thus, before the arrests resumed in March 1942 – deportation to the East began in July of that year – there were less than 10,000 Jews interned in the concentration camps in France.

 


 

Deportation of Jews to the Gurs concentration camp in France

Deportation of Jews to the Gurs concentration camp in France

Concentration Camps in France

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/camps-in-france.html

 

When, in May 1940, the Germans invaded France, thousands of immigrants who held German citizenship or were of German descent were concentrated in the “Winter Stadium” (Vel’ d’Hiv) in Paris. These immigrants were considered enemy aliens. Among those detained were thousands of Jewish men, as well as Jewish women who had no children. The detainees were deported to the Gurs concentration camp near the French-Spanish border.

 

After the anti-Jewish legislation of October 1940, the Vichy regime broadened its actions to arrest and detain Jews in its territory. They were incarcerated in 15 concentration camps which included the camps of Gurs, Le Milles, Rivesaltes and St. Cyprien. By the beginning of 1941 some 40,000 Jews had already been arrested. In addition to those arrested, some 35,000 Jewish men were conscripted by force into the “Labor Corps”, or Compagnies de Travail. Almost all the foreign Jewish men, more than a third of the population of foreign Jews in France, were either conscripted into the Labor Corps or incarcerated in concentration camps.

 

The concentration camps provided only meager nutrition and faulty sanitary facilities. The prisoners had no possibility of appealing their internment or of trying to alleviate their conditions. The food provided was not enough to sustain even a bare minimum of existence. Hundreds of prisoners died due to disease, cold and starvation; thousands of prisoners reached a state of malnourishment.

 

Dozens of Jewish and Christian aid organizations, both French and international, tried to infiltrate the camps in order to aid the prisoners, primarily by supplying them with food and care for the children. These organizations succeeded in smuggling children out of the concentration camps and transferring them to orphanages which were under their control, to Christian foster homes and abroad.

 

During the period of German occupation 26 concentration camps operated in the Occupied Zone. The central concentration camp in France was Drancy, not far from Paris. Following the German occupation in 1940, Drancy was initially used as a camp for French and British prisoners of war. Beginning in the summer of 1941, when the roundup of Paris Jews began, Drancy was used to imprison Jewish detainees. From March 1942 Drancy became a transit camp for Jews who were being deported to the East.

 

In the vicinity of Paris and in Northeastern France there were additional concentration camps run by the Vichy regime. Among these were Pithiviers, Beaune-la-Rolande, Besançon, Compiègne and others. Of the 54,000 Jews who passed through the camp of Compiègne, 50,000 were deported to their extermination. The Jews who had been arrested in the big waves of arrests, in May 1941 and July 1942, were interned in Pithiviers. Just as in the case of Drancy and Compiègne, beginning in July 1942, thousands of Jews were deported from Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande to Auschwitz.

 

The concentration camps in France continued operating during the summer of 1944, which marked the height of the battle for Paris and the Allied campaign to liberate France.

 


 

Entrance to the Vel’ d’Hiv (the Winter Stadium, or Velodrome d'Hiver), where Jews were detained en-masse in preparation for their deportation to concentration camps in France.

Entrance to the Vel’ d’Hiv (the Winter Stadium, or Velodrome d’Hiver), where Jews were detained en-masse in preparation for their deportation to concentration camps in France.

The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/vel-dhiv-roundup.html

 

In May and June, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich (head of the SS Sicherheitsdienst, or SD), Fritz Sauckel (who organized the employment of forced labor for the German armament factories) and Adolf Eichmann (the SS official in charge of Jewish Policy), visited Paris. In June and July 1942 the French administration in charge of the Jewish question in France was replaced by a German one. As a result, French anti-Jewish policies were exacerbated. At dawn on the 16th of July, 1942, some 4,500 French policemen began a mass arrest of foreign Jews living in Paris, at the behest of the German authorities.

 

Over 11,000 Jews were arrested on the same day, and confined to the Winter Stadium, or Velodrome d’Hiver, known as the Vel’ d’Hiv, in Paris. The detainees were kept in extremely crowded conditions, almost without water, food and sanitary facilities. Within a week the number of Jews held in the Vel’ d’Hiv had reached 13,000, among them more than 4,000 children. Children between the ages of two and 16 were arrested together with their parents. Among those detained were Jews from Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Though many Jews had been forewarned of the danger, they had assumed the deportation would only target men, as they had in the past; consequently, women and children did not go into hiding. In the week following the arrests, the Jews were taken from the Winter Stadium to the concentration camps of Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande in the Loiret region south of Paris, and to Drancy, near Paris. At the end of July and the beginning of August, the Jews who were being detained in these camps were separated from their children and deported. Before deportation, each prisoner’s head was shaved, and his or her body was subjected to a violent search. Most of the deportees were sent to Auschwitz and murdered. More than 3,000 babies and children were left alone in Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande. At the end of August and during the month of September these children were deported alone, among adult strangers, in sealed railway wagons, to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

 

In the two months that followed the Vel’ d’Hiv arrests some 1,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz every two or three days. By the end of September 1942 almost 38,000 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz from France. In 1945 only some 780 of them remained alive.

 

The French reactions to the arrest and deportation of Jews varied between active collaboration with the Germans, indifference, and empathy toward the persecuted Jews. Most of the civil administration and the French policemen who had been allocated to conduct the arrest collaborated with the authorities. A minority, however, tried to aid Jews in escaping, either by turning a blind eye toward escapees, or by actively aiding such escapes and providing Jews with hiding places. Many elements within French society – leading figures in the Church, the press and the underground – expressed revulsion at the events and protested against them. Public condemnation of the arrest and deportation of Jews was primarily sparked by the difficult sight of women arrested along with their babies. This negative public sentiment found its way into the official reports of governmental authorities and even the police.

 

The Vel’ d’Hiv round ups, organized by the French authorities and carried out by French policemen, became engraved in French national memory as a symbol of the responsibility of the regime and the French nation for the Holocaust of the Jews of France.

 


 

Paris, 20 August 1941: Jews on the street before deportation.

Paris, 20 August 1941: Jews on the street before deportation.

The Deportation of the Jews from France

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/deportation-from-france.html

 

The Jews in France were deported to the East at the height of a two year process of persecution and aggressive legislation. The laws passed included statutes defining who was to be considered a Jew, isolating Jews from French society, divesting them of their livelihood, incarcerating many of them, and registering their names with the police.

 

From winter 1940-1941 French Jews began to be imprisoned in concentration camps. Thousands of Jews were imprisoned in camps in the vicinity of Paris and Southwestern France. In May 1941 many more thousands of Jews were arrested.

 

In March 1942 some 1,000 Jews were arrested and sent to the Compiègne detention camp, from where they were deported to Auschwitz. The transports took two days to arrive at their destination. Most of those who were still alive at the end of the jouney were murdered.

 

In July 1942 some 23,000 Jews were arrested in Paris and in the remainder of the Occupied Zone. At the initiative of Pierre Laval, the Prime Minister of the Vichy regime, most of the Jewish children were deported to the East together with their parents. The arrests and deportations were conducted in a very violent manner, often enforcing the separation of couples, parents and children, and brothers and sisters. “A cruel destruction of Jewish families,” wrote the Parisian Jewish reporter, Jacques Bielinky. In August 1942 the arrest of thousands of additional Jews began in the territories of the Vichy regime. The arrested Jews were imprisoned in concentration camps and deported to their destruction in the East. “The deportations are creating tremendous pressures in the concentration camps and wreaking havoc within the Jewish families,” wrote Bielinky on the 18th of August 1942. “To date,” he continues, “nothing is known about the fate of those who have been deported.”

 

In September, Paris policemen arrested some 1,000 Jewish immigrants from Romania, and sent them to the concentration camp of Drancy. Almost all of them were murdered in the extermination camps in the East within three days of their arrest. In November another wave of mass-arrests was carried out in Paris. More than a thousand Jews of Greek origin were arrested and deported to the East.

 

The Jews reacted to the deportations by ceasing to cooperate with the German and French authorities, and the Jewish aid organizations which they had founded. Many Jews went into hiding in some 6,000 villages and small towns across France. The German and French authorities responded by organizing raids in rural areas, including the territories of the Vichy regime.

 

Activists in the Jewish aid organization “Amelot” sent packages to the arrested Jews, helped maintain contact with the deportees, and procured permits which helped Jews escape deportation. Furthermore, they saved Jews from deportation by hiding children and distributing forged documents.  The UGIF (l’Union Generale des Israelites de France), a forced representative organization for French Jews set up by the French and German authorities, succeeded in saving more than 1,400 Jewish children with French citizenship from deportation. Their parents, however, were deported.

 

Jewish organizations helped the children by providing social welfare, opening shelters and sending the children to the villages. Jews joined the Jewish Resistance in France, as well as the French Resistance. A few Jews tried to escape the deportations by converting to Catholicism. Thousands of Frenchmen tried to help the Jews hiden from the deportations. Many of them paid for this with their lives. “Let  us thank those who threaten us,” reads an editorial in a French Socialist newspaper, “for it is thanks to them that we must think dangerously, and thereby restore our own dignity.” Since 1962 a total of 3,925 French men and women have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among The Nations (as of January 2016).

 

A total of some 76,000 Jews from France, most of them from Paris, among them 11,000 children, were deported by train to the East. Most of the deportees were murdered in Auschwitz. Most of the deportations left France from the concentration camp of Drancy. The deportations continued even as the Allies had begun to liberate France. The last transport left France in August 1944, while the battle for Paris was being fought. Of all the Jews deported from France to the extermination camps in the East, a total of some 2,500 survived.

 

TOP