April 22: Anti-Israel tent encampments spread to campuses across US following Columbia unrest

Jewish alumni to Columbia president: ‘If you can’t stop the masked mobs, have the NYPD do it’

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists protest outside Columbia University in New York City, on April 20, 2024. (Leonardo Munoz / AFP)

The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association expresses “urgency and profound concern regarding the safety of Jewish students,” amid days of unrest and anti-Israel action at the New York City university.

“Jewish students are openly threatened and harassed and the administration’s response thus far has been grossly inadequate,” the alumni association writes in a letter to Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik.

The group calls on the president to address threats to Jewish students on campus, which has seen large anti-Israel protests since war erupted in Gaza on October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253.

“Now, more than ever, is the time to demonstrate true leadership: enforce the university rules with regard to protests and harassment and restore order and safety on campus. If you cannot stop the masked mobs, please have the NYPD do it,” the letter continues.

The group also mentions a letter Columbia’s Rabbi Elie Beuchler sent to Jewish students urging them to stay away from campus until it is deemed safe again.

Biden blasts ‘alarming surge of antisemitism’ amid anti-Israel protests at Columbia

US President Joe Biden blasts recent anti-Israel protests that have been taking place at Columbia University in a statement marking the upcoming Passover holiday.

“Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country,” the president says. “The ancient story of persecution against Jews in the Haggadah also reminds us that we must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism – in our schools, communities, and online. Silence is complicity.”

Biden also acknowledges the hardship families of the Israeli hostages are enduring, as they prepare to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover, which is meant to celebrate freedom, and asserts his administration is working “around the clock” to bring their loved ones home.

“As Jews mark Passover with storytelling, songs and rituals, they will also read from the Haggadah how, in every generation, they have been targeted by those who would seek to destroy them. This year, those words carry deeper resonance and pain in the wake of Hamas’ unspeakable evil on October 7th – the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Biden says in a statement wishing Jews a happy Passover, which begins Monday night.

“Jews around the world are still coping with the trauma of that day and its aftermath,” he acknowledges.

“My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad,” he says, adding that he’s working to secure an “immediate and prolonged ceasefire” as part of a hostage deal that would see a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“We will continue to work toward a two-state solution that provides equal security, prosperity and enduring peace for Israelis and Palestinians. And we are leading international efforts to ensure Israel can defend itself against Iran and its proxies, including by directing the US military to help defend Israel against Iran’s unprecedented attacks last weekend,” Biden says.

🚨President Biden weighs in on the situation at Columbia:

"Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant Antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country." pic.twitter.com/6OixoR1e6Z

— Herbie Ziskend Archived (@HerbieZiskend46) April 21, 2024

EU ministers to mull widening Iran sanctions, declaring IRGC as a terror group

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg tomorrow to discuss expanding sanctions on Iran and bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses.

The EU already has multiple sanctions programs against Iran – for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, human rights abuses and supplying drones to Russia.

The ministers will seek agreement on how much further to go in sanctioning Iran, following Tehran’s missile and drone attack on Israel the weekend before last.

EU leaders agreed last week they would impose further sanctions against Iran, with many calling to widen the drone-related sanctions regime to cover missiles and transfers to Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

EU countries are also debating whether to impose fresh sanctions related to missile production, according to diplomats, while some are also pushing for the EU to find a way to designate Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards force as a terrorist organization.

While the ministers will also discuss the war in Sudan, most of their focus will be on the conflicts raging on the 27-member bloc’s eastern and southern doorsteps – in Ukraine and the Middle East crisis sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Columbia Hillel rejects a call from Orthodox rabbi to stay away from campus due anti-Israel activity

The Hillel center for Jewish life at Columbia University rejects a call from the rabbi serving Orthodox students for Jewish students to stay away from campus due to a recent surge in anti-Israel activity.

Columbia Hillel says in a statement that it does not believe Jewish students should leave the campus and that it would remain open to serve the community.

At the same time, the Hillel makes clear that it expects the university and New York City to do more to protect Jewish students.

“We call on the university administration to act immediately in restoring calm to campus. The city must ensure that students can walk up and down Broadway and Amsterdam without fear of harassment,” Columbia Hillel says.

Palestinian reports: 6 wounded, car set on fire in settler attack on West Bank village of Burqa

Six people have been hurt in clashes in an alleged settler attack on the Palestinian village of Burqa, near Ramallah, according to Palestinian reports.

Video posted on X, formerly Twitter, shows a car on fire that was allegedly ignited by settlers during the raid.

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reports that medics at the Palestine Medical Complex are treating six people with bullet wounds who were shot during the alleged attack by settlers.

Wafa quotes local official Sayel Kanaan as saying that settlers attacked the village from both the north and the west, setting fire to a sheep barn and attempting to ignite a house in the Palestinian village.

The official charges that Israeli troops stormed the village to provide cover for the settlers, and prevented Palestinian security forces from accessing the area.

תושבים פלסטינים מתמודדים והודפים תקיפת מתנחלים בכפר בורקה, מזרחית לרמאללה. במהלך העימות הפלסטינים שרפו את אחד הרכבים של המתנחלים. pic.twitter.com/59YA7e1gXj

— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) April 21, 2024

The reports come amid a spike in settler violence in the West Bank over the past week after the body of 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir was found last weekend after he had gone missing. Security forces said the Israeli teen had been murdered in a terror attack.

Following the discovery of Achimeir’s body, Jewish settlers entered the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, and set houses and cars ablaze. Palestinian medics said one man was killed and 25 others were injured in the rampage.

Violent incidents continued throughout the week with another two Palestinians killed in a confrontation with settlers on Monday evening. Palestinian authorities and the IDF said the two victims had been shot by settlers.

Israeli drone shot down by missile in Lebanon; incident under investigation — IDF

An Israel Defense Forces drone operating in the skies of Lebanon was hit by a surface-to-air missile a short while ago, the military says in a statement.

The IDF is investigating the incident.

Israel Air Force fighter jets attacked the missile launch site after the drone was shot down, the IDF adds.

US readouts mum on true reason for Blinken’s calls with Gallant, Gantz

US President Joe Biden, center left, pauses during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center right, in Tel Aviv, October 18, 2023. At left: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken; at right: Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, second right and lawmaker Benny Gantz, right. (Miriam Alster/Pool Photo via AP)

The US State Department confirms that Secretary of State Antony Blinken held calls with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz earlier today, but makes no mention of the actual reason for the calls — the Israeli cabinet members’ efforts to convince the Biden administration to walk back plans to sanction the Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Instead, the readouts regurgitate old talking points about the war in Gaza — the US commitment to Israel’s security, boosting efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and ensuring that the conflict does not spread.

While the Israeli readouts made clear that Gantz and Gallant had reached out to Blinken in order to talk him down from sanctioning any IDF units, the State Department readouts avoid the topic entirely.

London’s top cop to meet Jewish leaders after officer implied kippa might provoke pro-Palestinian violence

Pro-Israel supporters hold placards and wave Israeli flags as they gather opposite to a pro-Palestinian rally outside Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament, in central London, on April 17, 2024 calling to stop the export of arms from Britain to Israel. (Justin Tallis/AFP)

LONDON (AP) — London’s police commissioner is set to meet with senior members of the Jewish community today after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an “openly Jewish” man’s presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators.

Amid calls for his resignation, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley is also expected to meet with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary James Cleverly, who together are responsible for law and order in the city.

“We remain focused on doing everything possible to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe in this city,” the Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement yesterday. “We know recent events and some of our recent actions have contributed to concerns felt by many.”

The meeting comes as London police struggle to manage tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, with Jewish residents saying they feel threatened by repeated pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel marches through the streets of the UK capital.

Though the marches have been largely peaceful, many demonstrators accuse Israel of genocide and a small number have shown support for Hamas, the Islamist group that led the October 7 attack on Israel and which has been banned by the US government as a terrorist organization.

Poll: Union of moderate right-wing leaders Bennett, Sa’ar, Cohen would win 32 seats, be well-placed to form coalition

File - L-R: Former prime minister Naftali Bennett at a court hearing in Tel Aviv, September 11, 2023 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90); New Hope party chief Gideon Sa'ar at the Knesset, Jerusalem, April 1, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen at HaKirya base in Tel Aviv, January 16, 2023 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90).

If former prime minister Naftali Bennett, ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and MK Gideon Sa’ar were to join forces to form a new moderate right-wing party ahead of the next elections, they would win 32 seats, sailing ahead of war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity faction, according to a new poll, and would thus be well-placed to form a governing coalition.

The Channel 13 survey finds that if the three right-wing leaders were to team up, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s National Unity would each get only 15 seats and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would get 8 seats, while a union of left-wing parties Labor and Meretz under the leadership of former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan would get 9 seats. (Channel 13 does not present the number of seats for other parties in such a scenario.)

In such a case, the survey found, a right-wing bloc — comprising the new Bennett-Cohen-Sa’ar party, Likud, the far-right parties of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, and the two ultra-Orthdox parties — would gain a whopping 79 seats, as compared to 32 seats for the center-left bloc, with nine seats for the predominantly Arab political parties.

However, if elections were held today without any changes to the current party list, the poll finds that Gantz’s National Unity would be the largest party in the Knesset with 30 seats, up from its current 12.

The poll gives the Likud party 20 seats, half its current 32 but up from recent wartime polls, while the third biggest party in the Knesset would be Yesh Atid, with 15 seats, down from its current 24.

According to the poll, Yisrael Beytenu would get 11 seats (up from the 6 it won in 2022), Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit would get 9 seats (it won 14 in an alliance with Religious Zionism in 2022),  Shas would get 8 (down from 11), and United Torah Judaism would stay stable at 7.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party would get 7 seats, Hadash-Taal would stay stable at 5 seats, Ra’am would drop to 4 seats (from 5) and Labor would stay stable on 4, just passing the electoral threshold, the poll finds.

Meretz, the Arab Balad party and Sa’ar’s New Hope party, recently split from National Unity, would all fall below the threshold to enter the Knesset, according to the Channel 13 poll.

In terms of blocs, the poll finds that Gantz would be well-placed to form a coalition if elections were held today — assuming no changes to the political map. The parties in Netanyahu’s prewar coalition would get 51 Knesset seats compared to the 64 they won in the November 2022 elections, while parties in the previous ruling coalition would win 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

After a week of heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, Channel 13 reports that these poll results represent the strongest support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition since war erupted in Gaza with Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

When asked when the elections should be held, 37 percent of respondents say they should take place as scheduled in October 2026, 33% would like to see a vote by the end of 2024, and 30% want to go to the polls immediately.

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says Syria rocket attacks mark resumption of attacks on US forces

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says Iraqi armed groups had decided to resume attacks on US forces in the country after seeing little progress on talks to achieve the exit of American troops during a visit by the Iraqi prime minister to Washington.

“What happened a short while ago is the beginning,” the group says in an apparent reference to an attack late last night with multiple rockets from northern Iraq on a base housing US forces in Syria.

Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Kataeb Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

AP reporter abducted and held captive by Hezbollah in Lebanon for years, dies at 76

File - Former Hezbollah hostage Terry Anderson waves to the crowd as he rides in a parade in Lorain, Ohio, June 22, 1992. Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, died on April 21, 2024. He was 76. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)

Terry Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died at 76.

Anderson, who chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by Hezbollah in his best-selling 1993 memoir “Den of Lions,” died yesterday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, according to his daughter, Sulome Anderson.

Anderson died of complications from recent heart surgery, his daughter says.

In 1985, Anderson became one of several Westerners abducted by members of the Islamist terror group during a time of war that had plunged Lebanon into chaos.

As the AP’s chief Middle East correspondent, Anderson had been reporting for several years on the rising violence gripping Lebanon as the country fought a war with Israel, while Iran funded terror groups trying to topple its government.

New York mayor ‘horrified and disgusted’ by antisemitism at Columbia

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters march outside Columbia University in New York City on April 18, 2024. (Kena Betancur / AFP)

New York Mayor Eric Adams says he is “horrified and disgusted” by reports of antisemitism at Columbia University, and that police “will not hesitate to arrest anyone who is found to be breaking the law.”

“Supporting a terrorist organization that aims to kill Jews is sickening and despicable. As I have repeatedly said, hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law that is reported,” the New York Mayor says in a statement.

New York Mayor Eric Adams issues a statement on the ongoing Columbia University protests, saying he is ‘horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism.’

He also declared “We will not be a city of lawlessness.

In the statement however, he specified that Columbia is a ‘private… pic.twitter.com/LFpMYblNkk

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 21, 2024

However, he says, “Columbia University is a private institution on private property, which means the NYPD cannot have a presence on campus unless specifically requested by senior university officials.”

The comments come amid a week of heightened pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests at the New York City university amid the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

“In this moment of heightened tension around the world, we stand united against hate,” Adams adds.

Poll: Majority of Israelis think those responsible for Oct. 7 failures must resign

Thousands attend an anti-government protest outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on April 2, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Sixty-two percent of Israelis — both Jewish and Arab — believe it is time for those responsible for the failures of October 7 to resign from their positions, a new poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.

The survey was conducted between April 14-17 and gathered responses from 514 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 98 interviewed in Arabic.

In response to the question of whether or not they believe that the officials responsible for the failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught should resign more than six months after the single deadliest day in Israel’s history, 58% of Jewish respondents answered that they should, as did 81% of Arab respondents.

Among left-wing and centrist Jewish respondents, a clear majority (84% and 80% respectively) believe those responsible should resign, while only 44% of right-wing Jewish respondents believe the same.

Asked about the issue of general elections — which many have been calling for in the aftermath of October 7 — a slim majority of 51% believe that elections should be held before the end of 2024 while 25% would only want elections to be held at the end of the government’s term in 2026.

When broken down by demographic, the results show that 68% of Arab Israelis would prefer elections to be held in 2024, in contrast to 47% of Jewish Israelis.

The opinions held by Jewish respondents vary greatly when divided by political ideology. While 91.5 percent of left-wing Jews believe that general elections should be held in 2024, only 29% of right-wing respondents and 68% of centrists feel the same.

Two people lightly wounded in suspected car-ramming attack in Jerusalem

Police special forces looking for the terrorists who carried out a car-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem, hours before the start of the Passover holiday, April 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Two people are wounded in a suspected car-ramming attack in Jerusalem, medics say.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it is treating two people who were struck by the same car on Tchelet Mordechai Street and the nearby Yirmiyahu Street in the Romema neighborhood.

Both are listed in good condition.

Police confirm Jerusalem car-ramming was terror attack as forces search for suspects

Police say the ramming in Jerusalem was a terror attack.

Two terrorists involved in the attack fled the scene on foot after ramming a vehicle into two people, lightly wounding them.

On their escape route, officers found a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, police say.

A large number of officers were dispatched to the scene to locate the attackers.

נשק מאולתר נתפס במקום @yoeli_brim https://t.co/M5WOXc94Yk pic.twitter.com/RCx2e10cxT

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) April 22, 2024

Terrorist who murdered Benjamin Achimeir, 14, in West Bank attack earlier this month arrested overnight

14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir, who went missing in the West Bank on April 12, 2024 and was found murdered a day later. (Courtesy)

The terrorist who murdered 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir in the West Bank earlier this month has been arrested, the Shin Bet security agency, police and IDF say in a joint statement.

Ahmed Dawabsha, 21, a resident of the West Bank town of Duma, was arrested overnight.

The joint statement says Dawabsha “implicated himself” in the April 12 attack near the outpost of Malachei Shalom during an initial interrogation.

The Shin Bet says there had been significant developments in the investigation over the past day, which led to the arrest of the suspect in his hometown.

Achimeir went missing while shepherding in the West Bank on April 12. His body was found a day later.

There is no known connection between the terrorist and the victims of the 2015 Duma arson attack who shared the same last name.

Police: 3 lightly hurt in Jerusalem ramming attack, terrorists tried to use makeshift submachine gun but failed

Three people are lightly hurt in the car-ramming attack in Jerusalem, police say.

According to police, the terrorists attempted to open fire with a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun after the ramming, although it had apparently jammed.

The terrorists then tossed the weapon during their escape on foot, police said.

Surveillance camera footage captures Jerusalem car-ramming and attempted shooting attack

Surveillance camera footage shows the car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem this morning.

Three people were lightly hurt in the terror attack, police and medics said.

The video shows a car accelerating into a group of men on a sidewalk in the Romema neighborhood, knocking them over.

The car then comes to a halt, before one of the terrorists gets out with a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, and tries to open fire.

According to police, the gun apparently jammed, and the terrorists tossed it while fleeing.

Warning: Graphic

https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1782292186635083868

Two victims of car-ramming taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center suffering minor injuries

Two of the victims of the car ramming in the Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem are being treated at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

The victims are males ages 21 and 15. Both are suffering minor injuries and are undergoing evaluation for further medical treatment.

Family of slain IDF reservist Dor Zimel honor his wish to donate organs

Maj. (res.) Dor Zimel, who was critically wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on April 17, 2024, and succumbed to his wounds on April 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The organs of Maj. (res.) Dor Zimel, 27, who died yesterday of wounds sustained in a Hezbollah drone and missile attack on the northern border community of Arab al-Aramshe last week, are being transplanted into five people this morning.

Zimel had signed an ADI organ donation card and his family decided to honor his wishes to save other people’s lives.

Zimel’s heart goes to a 57-year-old man at Beilinson Hospital, his lungs to a 24-year-old man at Sheba Medical Center, and his liver and one kidney to a 68-year-old man at Hadassah Medical Center. A lobe of his liver is being transplanted into an eight-month-old girl at Schneider Children’s Medical Center, and his second kidney goes to a 58-year-old man at Beilinson.

IDF intel chief Haliva, who took responsibility for Oct. 7 failures, set to announce resignation – report

Military Intelligence Directorate chief Maj. Gen Aharon Haliva speaks at an intelligence officers' graduation ceremony, January 3, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The chief of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, is set to announce that he is stepping down, the Ynet news site reports.

Ten days after the October 7 onslaught, Haliva said he bore full responsibility for the failures that led to the Hamas attack.

“The Military Intelligence Directorate, under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas,” Haliva said on October 17. “We failed in our most important mission, and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure.”

It is unclear when Haliva will resign, as the IDF will need to find a replacement.

Haliva is also currently involved in the army’s internal investigations of its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas October 7 massacre.

The probes are due to be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi by the beginning of June.

Haliva was on vacation in Eilat on October 7. He was reportedly updated at around 3 a.m. that morning regarding “certain signs coming from Gaza” about an imminent attack, but reportedly took no part in consultations in the highest echelons of the IDF regarding those indications and was not available by phone for them.

Haliva was quoted as later telling those around him that, even if he had participated in the consultations, he would have concluded that Hamas was apparently carrying out a drill and that dealing with the matter could wait until the morning. “It wouldn’t have changed the final result in any way,” he reportedly said.

According to a Channel 12 report in December, the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate held a discussion three months before October 7, at which an officer — identified only by their rank and first initial, Brig. Gen. Peh — concluded: “We have tried but have not succeeded; we cannot say how [Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya] Sinwar will act, and therefore commanders in the field should take the necessary precautions.”

It said the conclusions of that discussion were given to Haliva, who ordered that intelligence gathering be stepped up, adding that this indeed happened.

Police capture terrorists behind Jerusalem car-ramming and attempted shooting attack

Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman, along with police and rescue forces, arrives at the scene of a ramming attack in Jerusalem, April 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The two terrorists who carried out the car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem this morning were captured, police say.

Police say the pair were found hiding in a closed store in the area.

Belgian foreign minister says new EU sanctions against Iran should include IRGC

New European Union sanctions against Iran in response to the country’s recent attack on Israel should include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib says.

Speaking to journalists ahead of an EU ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg, Lahbib says so far there was no consensus on what legal basis the Guards could be added to a bloc-wide list of entities seen as terrorist organizations.

“We will discuss it together”, she says.

EU leaders agreed last week they would impose further sanctions against Iran, with many calling to widen the drone-related sanctions regime to cover missiles and transfers to Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Jerusalem car-ramming victims expected to be discharged from hospital later today

All three victims from this morning’s car ramming in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood are now being treated at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

The three male victims are lightly wounded and are expected to be discharged from the hospital later today.

The victims are Menachem Mendel Fisch, 20, Yosef Yitzhak Hershenboim, 18, and a 15-year-old minor male.

Fisch and Hershenboim issued a message saying, “Thank God, we are healthy and whole. A Passover holiday miracle happened for us. We ask for unity among the people of Israel and wish a happy, kosher, and safe holiday to all of Israel.”

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah denies saying it was resuming attacks on US forces

Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah denies issuing a statement saying it had resumed attacks on US forces, the terror group says on the Telegram messaging app.

The denial comes hours after another statement was circulated on groups thought to be affiliated with the Iran-backed armed faction that declared a resumption of attacks some three months after they were suspended.

Kataib Hezbollah described that as “fabricated news.”

NYT: Israel’s original plan provided for major strike on military targets including near Tehran

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on April 14, 2024, shows an Israeli Air Force fighter aircraft at an undisclosed airfield reportedly after a mission to intercept incoming airborne threats. (Israel Defense Forces/AFP)

The New York Times publishes an account of Israel’s decision to hit back at Iran overnight Thursday-Friday, citing three unnamed Israeli officials, that says the original retaliatory plan included a much wider counterstrike on military targets including near Tehran.

As has been widely reported, Israel shelved plans for an immediate response to Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on April 13-14 when it became clear that it had thwarted most of the Iranian missiles and drones with the help of a US-led coalition, and after a phone call that night between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and ultimately opted for a less powerful response amid intensive diplomatic pressure to avoid an escalation of the direct hostilities.

Citing Israeli and Western officials, the Times account also says Israeli fighter jets fired “a small number of missiles” from several hundred miles west of Iran, and also used small attack drones, known as quadcopters, “to confuse Iranian air defenses.”

A single missile hit an antiaircraft battery in a strategically important part of central Iran, the report says — previous accounts have indicated this was part of the S-300 air defenses for the Natanz nuclear facility — while another exploded in midair.

It quotes an Israeli official saying this second missile was destroyed by the Air Force “once it became clear that the first had reached its target, to avoid causing too much damage.” It also quotes a Western official saying the second missile may have “simply malfunctioned.”

The Times account also claims Israel initially scheduled the attack for Monday night, April 15, but pulled out at the last minute for fear that Hezbollah might “significantly increase the intensity of its strikes on northern Israel.” It does not indicate whether or why that assessment changed before the strike went ahead overnight Thursday-Friday.

Israel has not officially acknowledged responsibility for the counterstrike, though several of its leaders have intimated responsibility, and Iran has played down the significance of the response and not directly blamed Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister claims nuclear weapons have ‘no place’ in its nuclear doctrine

In this photo released on Aug. 11, 2022, by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani speaks in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP, File)

Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s nuclear doctrine, the country’s foreign ministry claims on Monday, days after an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander warned that Tehran might change its nuclear policy if pressured by Israeli threats.

“Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine,” ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani says during a press conference in Tehran.

Tehran has always insisted its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful purposes, a claim Israel and much of the Western world dismiss.

Following its unprecedented attack on Israel last week, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security Ahmad Haghtalab said last week that threats of a counterattack by Israel could lead Tehran to “review its nuclear doctrine and deviate from its previous considerations.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has the last say on Tehran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects has military purposes.

In 2021, Iran’s then-intelligence minister said Western pressure could push Tehran to seek nuclear weapons, the development of which Khamenei ostensibly banned in a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s.

“Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram [religiously forbidden]… Although we have nuclear technology, Iran has firmly avoided it,” Khamenei reiterated in 2019.

However, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in February that Iran continued to enrich uranium at rates up to 60 percent purity, which is far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use and is a short technical step away from weapons-grade 90%.

Hamas health ministry raises Gaza death toll to 34,151

Palestinians mourn their relatives at Al-Najjar Hospital after 13 people were reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, April 21, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

At least 34,151 Palestinians have been killed and 77,084 others have been injured since the start of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

The figures cannot be independently verified and include some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Two hundred and sixty IDF soldiers have been killed during the ground operation.

Lapid calls on Netanyahu to follow IDF intel chief’s lead and resign over Oct. 7 failures

Opposition and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow the example set by IDF Military Intelligence Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, suggesting he should resign over the failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught.

Commending Haliva for his “justified and respected” decision to resign from his position once a replacement is appointed, Lapid writes on X that “Prime Minister Netanyahu should have done the same.”

Earlier in the day, Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak issued a similar call, saying that Netanyahu “must resign immediately” regardless of whether or not a state commission of inquiry is established to examine the events surrounding October 7.

IDF says it remains on high alert on all fronts amid Passover holiday

IDF soldiers operate in northern Israel as military says it remains on high alert ahead of Passover holiday, April 22, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military says it remains on high alert on all fronts amid the Passover holiday.

“Even during Passover, the IDF continues operational activity and full readiness in all arenas,” it says in a statement.

In the Gaza Strip, the military says the Nahal Infantry Brigade continues to operate in the Netzarim corridor, calling in airstrikes against Hamas operatives in the area over the past day.

In northern Israel, the IDF says it is deployed along the Lebanon and Syrian borders, with “strong defense and with readiness for attack.” The military says troops are carrying out ambushes, as well as locating and directing strikes on Hezbollah operatives and sites.

In the West Bank, IDF troops are deployed to protect settlements and highways. Overnight, troops detained 13 wanted Palestinians, the military says.

The IDF is currently operating in Hebron, at the homes of the two teenage terrorists who carried out the car-ramming and attempted shooting attack in Jerusalem this morning.

Suspected drone infiltration sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona and surrounding area

Suspected drone infiltration alarms are sounding in northern Israel.

The sirens can be heard in multiple locations close to the Lebanon border, including in Kiryat Shmona, Metulla and Tel Hai.

Independent review finds Israel failed to produce evidence to back up claims against UNRWA employees – report

Activists protest against United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) outside their offices in Jerusalem, March 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Israel has failed to provide evidence of claims that UNRWA workers in Gaza have ties to terrorist organizations, the Guardian newspaper alleges, citing the findings of an independent panel that has been conducting a review into the allegations presented by Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

The independent review process dubbed the Colonna review was set up in February by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna after at least 15 countries froze their funding for the humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees.

This came following allegations by Israel that at least 12 employees of the UN body for Palestinian refugees were directly involved in the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas; another 30 assisted or facilitated those crimes; and as much as 12 percent of the organization’s staff were affiliated with terror organizations.

According to the Guardian — which obtained a copy of the panel’s findings ahead of publication later today — Israel receives a regularly updated list of UNRWA’s staff members in order to vet them yet has not raised concerns about any names that have appeared on the list since 2011.

“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations,” the report quotes the Colonna review as stating. “However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.”

The review reportedly finds UNRWA to be “irreplaceable and indispensable” to Palestinians in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, and says that while stronger safeguarding mechanisms could be implemented to ensure neutrality, the UN body already has a significant screening process in place in order to “ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles.”

Furthermore, the review is reported to add that UNRWA “possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities.”

IDF says it shot down ‘suspicious aerial target’ that entered from Lebanon

A “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses, the IDF says.

The suspected drone set off sirens in Kiryat Shmona and surrounding communities.

Rocket sirens were also activated amid the incident, over fears of falling shrapnel following the interception, the IDF adds.

13 suspects arrested for trying to sacrifice goats on Temple Mount in biblical Passover ritual

A goat confiscated by police from suspects who were looking to sacrifice the animal on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, April 22, 2024. (Israel Police)

Thirteen people have been detained near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount with lambs and goats that they intended to sacrifice in a biblical Passover ritual, the police say in a statement.

In one instance, a goat was found hidden inside a baby carriage, while another suspect attempted to smuggle a goat onto the flashpoint site in a reusable grocery bag, police say.

The suspects, aged between 13-21, have all been transferred for further questioning, the statement adds, and the animals were confiscated and transferred for necessary veterinary treatment.

“The Israel Police operates in Jerusalem and across all sectors, along with other security agencies, both overtly and covertly, against any person who tries to shatter the order and act in contradiction to the law and the existing practices of Jerusalem holy sites,” the police say.

In recent years, fringe religious groups have increasingly sought to carry out the Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount, but to no avail, as most Israeli security officials believe that it would be seen as a major change to the religious site’s status quo and spark fierce backlash from across the region.

“We call on the public not to give a platform to extreme fingers who try to or call to violate the law and order,” the police say. “The existing practice on the Temple Mount and in other holy sites in Jerusalem has been preserved and will continue to be preserved at all times, and we will not allow extremists and criminals of any kind to violate it.”

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Yale University for setting up tent encampment

Close to 30 protesters have been arrested on the third day of an ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstration on the grounds of Yale University, the Yale Daily reports.

According to the report, the protesters set up a tent encampment overnight as they demanded that the university divest from weapons manufacturers amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Some of the arrested protesters are students at the university, the report adds, but does not specify how many.

In a statement to the college newspaper, Yale Police Lieutenant Roosevelt Martinez says the protesters were arrested for trespassing, but does not provide further details.

BREAKING: Cops have gathered at Beinecke Plaza, where pro-Palestine protesters urging Yale to divest from military weapons manufacturers set up tents overnight — the third night of their ongoing encampment. More than 12 police officers have blocked off entrances to the Plaza. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/9GFPQam3kJ

— Yale Daily News (@yaledailynews) April 22, 2024

UN chief Guterres accepts independent UNRWA review, due to be released later today

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres listens during a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York City on April 18, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted the recommendations from an independent review of UNRWA’s ability to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of breaches.

“He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the Secretary-General’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says in a statement. “Moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.”

The review, led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna and due to be released later today, reportedly found that Israel has failed to provide evidence of claims that UNRWA workers in Gaza have ties to terrorist organizations.

According to The Guardian — which obtained a copy of the panel’s findings ahead of publication — the review finds UNRWA to be “irreplaceable and indispensable” to Palestinians in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, and says that while stronger safeguarding mechanisms could be implemented to ensure neutrality, the UN body already has a significant screening process in place in order to “ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles.”

The report follows allegations by Israel that at least 12 employees of the UN body for Palestinian refugees were directly involved in the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas; another 30 assisted or facilitated those crimes; and as much as 12 percent of the organization’s staff were affiliated with terror organizations.

Columbia cancels in-person classes for today, president denounces ‘antisemitic language’

Columbia University students will attend classes virtually today as school officials hope to deescalate tensions on the New York City campus after anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrations led to mass arrests last week.

In a statement, Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik says the university is canceling in-person classes today while denouncing antisemitic language and intimidating and harassing behavior that she says had occurred on campus recently.

“These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” Shafik says. “We need a reset.”

More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on Thursday on the campus after Shafik authorized New York police to clear an encampment set up by students demonstrating against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

BREAKING: NYU students with @nyupscoalition have launched a Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

Per media release, the encampment is *also* calling on their school to divest from Israel & to end its Tel Aviv satellite campus.

Security scrambled to stop the students, but failed. pic.twitter.com/UcjVC1N1b9

— Talia Jane (@taliaotg) April 22, 2024

The protests at Columbia, reminiscent of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War at Columbia more than 50 years ago, are the latest in a series of protests disrupting university campuses, bridges and airports since war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Alongside the protests, human rights advocates have also pointed to a rise in bias and hate against Jews, Arabs and Muslims in the months following October 7.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Police in riot gear arrest ‘scores’ of demonstrators at Yale anti-Israel protest encampment

Illustrative: Protesters at an anti-Israel demonstration at Yale University in Connecticut, April 22, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Police are arresting “scores” of students staging an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstration at Yale University who had set up a protest encampment several days ago, The New York Post reports.

In photos and videos shared to social media, officers can be seen asking protesters to leave the Connecticut campus or face arrest.

Police move in to Yale University’s ‘Gaza Plaza Liberated Zone’ to warn all student protesters they will be arrested if they do not disperse.

“If you do not leave you will be arrested.”

pic.twitter.com/qwkwzWr2Bx

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 22, 2024

“Scores of protesters were cuffed for trespassing and hauled away on Yale University shuttle buses,” the report says, without giving an exact number of arrests.

Some of the officers are wearing riot gear, according to the Post’s report.

Protesters could reportedly be heard chanting “YPD (Yale Police Department) or KKK, IDF they’re all the same” and chanting, “Arab blood is not cheap, for the martyrs we will speak.”

Posts on social media say the pro-Palestinian protesters have moved to a different location on campus, despite the arrests and the police presence.

BREAKING: Police have flooded the encampment and given the warning, banging tents as they entered.

Students have locked arms around the flagpole, signaling their willingness to be arrested.

The crowd, several of whom are in tears, have begun singing “We shall not be moved.” pic.twitter.com/gyHXCXnbDZ

— Thomas Birmingham (@thomasbirm) April 22, 2024

The arrests follow several violent episodes during the days-long protest, with a Jewish student journalist who was reporting on the anti-Israel protest at Yale saying she was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag.

According to The New York Post, the student, Yale Free Press editor-in-chief Sahar Tartak, was surrounded by taunting protesters after she was “singled out for wearing Hasidic Jewish attire.”

“There’s hundreds of people taunting me and waving the middle finger at me, and then this person waves a Palestinian flag in my face and jabs it in my eye,” Tartak is quoted as saying.

Antisemitic demonstrators at Yale this morning got arrested and released only to return to the demonstration in a slightly different location… pic.twitter.com/wstPGQ6VnW

— Sahar Tartak (@sahar_tartak) April 22, 2024

Universities in the US have seen a flood of protests over the war since October 7, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, massacred 1,200 people and abducted 253 — half of whom are still held captive in Gaza — sparking the war.

Hamas claims 33,000 Gazans have been killed, an unverifiable figure; Israel says it has killed over 13,000 gunmen in Gaza, as well as 1,000 terrorists in Israel on October 7.

Some 260 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza during the war.

Report: Rafah operation will take 6 weeks, including Gaza civilian evacuation

Rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit in overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 21, 2024 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces is gearing up to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Gaza’s southernmost city in Rafah ahead of its planned offensive there, according to Israeli and Egyptian officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Egyptian officials briefed on Israeli plans are quoted as saying that the first two to three weeks of the operation will consist of evacuating civilians, in coordination with the US, Egypt and other Arab countries.

The evacuation will reportedly involve moving civilians to the nearby city of Khan Younis, among other areas, and setting up shelters with tents, food and medical facilities.

After that, the IDF will gradually move troops into Rafah and target “areas where Israel believes Hamas leaders and fighters are hiding,” the officials say.

Israel has said Rafah, where four of Hamas’s 24 battalions are deployed, remains Hamas’s last major stronghold in the Strip after the IDF operated in the north and center of the Palestinian enclave.

The Egyptian officials say fighting in Rafah is expected to last at least six weeks, according to the report, though timing “remains uncertain.”

An Israeli security official quoted in the report says that the IDF will “have a very tight operational plan because it’s very complex there.”

As well as destroying the remaining four Hamas battalions believed to be hiding in Rafah, Israel believes that many of the remaining 129 hostages kidnapped in the terror group’s October 7 massacre are being held in the southern Gaza city.

In call with Netanyahu, Macron reaffirms France’s desire to avoid escalation in Middle East

PARIS – In a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed France’s desire to avoid an escalation in the Middle East and to stand up to Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region, according to Macron’s office.

The French presidency adds that Macron also reiterated to Netanyahu that France wants an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and that France is working on trying to ease tensions from clashes on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Gallant to IDF unit slated for US sanctions: ‘No one will teach us what morality is’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to troops of the IDF's the Netzah Yehuda Battalion on the Gaza border, April 22, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Amid plans by the United States to impose sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with the unit’s troops on the Gaza border earlier today.

“The entire defense establishment, the IDF and the State of Israel support you, appreciate you and strengthen you in your operations to protect the State of Israel,” Gallant told the Netzah Yehuda troops, according to his office.

The unit, made up of ultra-Orthodox troops and part of the Kfir Brigade, has been operating in the Beit Hanoun area amid the war, after months on the Syrian border. It had previously been stationed in the West Bank, where it was at the center of several controversies connected to right-wing extremism and violence against Palestinians.

“Errors and mistakes happen wherever there is military activity and they must not happen… but the fact that one, or two, or [multiple] soldiers did something wrong, this should not vilify the [entire] battalion,” Gallant says. He says that in such cases, the soldiers are “taken care of.”

“No one in the world will teach us what morality is and what norms are,” Gallant adds.

IDF Central Command chief due to end service in August after 36-year military career

Head of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox speaks to reporters from the Judea Regional Brigade base near the West Bank city of Hebron, August 21, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox is due to end his military service this summer.

Fox, 55, will be wrapping up his three-year tenure as the general in charge of the West Bank region in August, ending a 36-year military career.

The move is unrelated to the resignation of the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate, who announced earlier today that he would quit over his failures that led to Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

Fox has not been accused of any involvement in the army’s failures in the lead-up to October 7, and his decision to end his service after completing his current role was not made recently.

Israel begins the Passover festival of freedom, dimmed by absence of hostages held in Gaza

Members of Kibbutz Be'eri set the table for a Passover Seder at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. April 22, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Jewish holiday of Passover begins in Israel this evening, with families around the country gathering for the “Seder” festive meal.

Jews traditionally read through the Haggadah on Passover eve, which recounts the story of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery and exodus from Egypt.

But this year festivities are overshadowed by the absence of 129 hostages held in Gaza since October 7, when they were kidnapped by terrorists during Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel.

Some 500 members of the Kibbutz Be’eri community are holding a Passover Seder in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, in a cry to free their loved ones.

On October 7, 100 Kibbutz Be’eri members were among some 1,200 killed by Hamas terrorists and 30 were taken hostage to Gaza. Eleven of those hostages remain in Gaza, six were murdered in captivity and 13 others were released at the end of November. The kibbutz numbered some 1,000 on October 6.

The event, for Kibbutz Be’eri members only, is expected to include a clear call to the government to do everything possible to bring the hostages home and to return the deceased for burial.

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.

Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

EU announces new sanctions on Iran’s drone, missile program; Israel praises decision

European Union foreign ministers agree in Luxembourg to expand sanctions against Iran’s UAV and missile program.

“We have reached a political agreement,” announces EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the end of meeting.

The new sanctions aim to block the export from the EU of parts used in the productions of drones and ballistic missiles.

“This is a dramatic decision that sends a clear message to Khamenei, to Iran and its proxies: you cannot continue to undermine regional stability and peace,” says Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a message praising the EU decision.

Katz also tweets in Farsi that “this is what a diplomatic defeat looks like — and it’s only the beginning.”

US clarifies what’s being considered for Netzah Yehuda isn’t sanctions, but barring unit from receiving US aid

Amid reports over the past few days of an imminent US announcement regarding a decision to sanction the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses, a US official tells The Times of Israel that the framing of the move as “sanctions” is incorrect.

“We are not and have not been considering sanctioning units in the IDF. Without confirming what may be under consideration, Under the Leahy Act, certain units would be ineligible for American security assistance until the violations are remedied,” the US official says.

Pro-Israel professor denied entry to Columbia University campus: ‘This is 1938’

Columbia University assistant professor Shai Davidai is denied access to the main campus after his security card was deactivated to prevent him from accessing the lawn currently occupied by pro-Palestine student demonstrators in New York, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An Israeli assistant professor at Columbia University’s business school has been denied entry to the main campus, according to posts on social media, amid a week of tense anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests.

In a post on X, formerly, Twitter, Shai Davidai says the reason he was refused entry to campus was because the university “cannot protect my safety as a Jewish professor.”

“This is 1938,” he adds, referring to the dismissal of Jewish staff from universities in Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the Holocaust.

In video footage of a confrontation between Davidai and Columbia University COO Cas Holloway, the assistant professor claims he is being denied entry because of his Jewish identity.

“I have not just a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus, I have a right as a professor employed by the university to be on campus,” he says.

“You cannot let people that support Hamas on campus and me, a professor, not go on campus,” he can be heard saying in the video.

"MY card has been deactivated? Why?" – Shai Davidai, Pro-Israel professor at Columbia attempted to swipe his card to go inside the 'Liberated Zone' encampment with his supporters.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/Poyt1JekGP

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 22, 2024

Davidai broke into public view in the weeks after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, which triggered widespread anti-Israel protests on college campuses, when a video of an impassioned speech he gave went viral.

Since then, he has emerged as a leading voice criticizing universities for permitting anti-Israel sentiment to flourish and bleed into antisemitism.

The incident follows antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents at the New York City university which sparked a rabbi linked to the Columbia to urge Jewish students yesterday to remain at home.

US President Joe Biden has blasted the “blatant antisemitism” during the protests on campus.

‘Impossible to say where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins’: Foreign Ministry reacts to review

With the independent review of UNRWA’s links to terror set to be released in New York, the Foreign Ministry says that Hamas’s penetration of the UN agency is so deep that “it is impossible to say where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins.”

“If more than 2,135 UNRWA employees are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and 1/5 of the principals of UNRWA schools are Hamas activists, the problem with UNRWA-Gaza is not a problem of a few bad apples,” writes the Foreign Ministry spokesman in a statement, “it is a poisoned and rotten tree whose roots are Hamas.”

The report, headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, “ignores the severity of the problem and offers cosmetic fixes,” charges the Foreign Ministry.

“This is not what a true and comprehensive investigation looks like,” says the statement.

“This is what a desire to avoid the problem and not call it by its name looks like.”

Israel says that UNRWA is not part of the solution for Gaza and never will be, and that donor nations should direct their funds to other humanitarian organizations.

The report found that Israel has failed to provide evidence of claims that UNRWA workers in Gaza have ties to terrorist organizations, according to the Guardian newspaper.

The independent review process dubbed the Colonna review was set up in February by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna after at least 15 countries froze their funding for the humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees.

This came following allegations by Israel that at least 12 employees of the UN body for Palestinian refugees were directly involved in the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas; another 30 assisted or facilitated those crimes; and as much as 12 percent of the organization’s staff were affiliated with terror organizations.

Missile, drone alert sirens sound in northern border communities

Sirens sounded a short while ago in a number of northern communities, warning of incoming drones and missile fire.

Drone alert sirens sounded in largely evacuated communities including Shlomi, Rosh HaNikra, Arab al-Aramshe, Metzuba, Lehman, Ya’ara, Hanita, Gornot HaGalil, Goren, Betzet, Eilon and Adamit.

Missile sirens sounded a few minutes earlier in the northern city of Safed and Kadita.

🚨 Large Red Alert [19:00:09] – 13 Alerts:

• Confrontation Line — Goren, Lehman, Shlomi, Gornot HaGalil, Rosh HaNikra, Metzuba, Ya'ara, Eilon, Idmit, Achziv Miluot Industrial Zone, Betzet, Arab al-Aramshe, Hanita#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/g0sIaSr4Gt

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 22, 2024

IDF: Barrage of 35 rockets fired from Lebanon; none hurt; troops shell launch sites

A barrage of some 35 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the northern community of Ein Zeitim near Safed a short while ago, the military says.

The attack set off sirens in Safed and nearby towns.

The IDF says there are no injuries in the attack, and that troops shelled the launch sites.

Also a short while ago, Israeli fighter jets also struck a Hezbollah position in southern Lebanon, and earlier, two more buildings where Hezbollah operatives were gathered were hit, the IDF adds.

לפני זמן קצר מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו תשתית טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון.

כמו כן, מוקדם יותר היום הותקפו שני מבנים צבאיים במרחבים ארזון ואל עדייסא, בהם פעלו מחבלי הארגון>> pic.twitter.com/QSLNA6Jzi8

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 22, 2024

UNRWA review says Israel yet to provide evidence staffers are terror group members

File - A protester holds an Israeli flag and a sign while standing with others gathering outside the West Bank field office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

A review of UNRWA says Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence for its claim – based on a staff list it was given in March – that a significant number of UNRWA staff are members of terrorist organizations, in a report which could prompt some donors to review funding freezes.

The report, released this evening, also says that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has robust frameworks to ensure compliance with humanitarian neutrality principles though issues persist.

The United Nations appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to lead the UNRWA neutrality review in February after Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

Israel stepped up its accusations in March, saying over 450 UNRWA staff were military operatives in Gaza terrorist groups.

In a separate investigation, a UN oversight body is looking into the Israeli allegations against the 12 UNRWA staff.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted the recommendations, according to his spokesperson, and calls on all countries to actively support UNRWA as it is “a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.”

Israel’s allegations against the dozen UNRWA staff led 16 states to pause or suspend funding of $450 million to UNRWA, a blow to an agency grappling with the humanitarian crisis that has swept Gaza since October 7.

Israel has long complained about the agency, founded in 1949 to care for Palestinian refugees. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for UNRWA to be shut down, saying it seeks to preserve the issue of Palestinian refugees.

War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

In Passover message, Netanyahu vows to return Gaza hostages: ‘We won’t rest until each one is freed’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in a video message to the Israeli public on April 21, 2024. (Roi Avraham/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalls hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7, in a message ahead of the Passover holiday.

“As we gather around the Seder table to commemorate and celebrate our journey from slavery to freedom, our hearts are heavy with the plight of the 133 Israelis who remain in captivity in Hamas’ terror tunnels,” he writes in a post on X, formerly Twitter, echoing a pre-Passover video he shared online yesterday.

Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, he continues, “Tonight, we think of those who cannot join their families at the Seder table. Their absence strengthens our resolve and reminds us of the urgency of our mission. We will not rest until each one is freed.”

He adds that “the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas” has rejected proposals for a hostage release deal, and promises “increased military and diplomatic efforts to secure the freedom of our hostages.”

“Israel’s strength, both defensive and offensive, has been recently displayed. There is more to come. We will prevail,” he adds.

Literary group calls off ceremony after finalists withdraw in protest of alleged pro-Israel stance

NEW YORK (AP) — Facing widespread unhappiness over its response to the Israel-Hamas war, the writers’ group PEN America has called off its annual awards ceremony. Dozens of nominees had dropped out of the event, which was to have taken place next week.

PEN, a literary and free expression organization, hands out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes each year, including $75,000 for the PEN/Jean Stein Award for best book. But with nine of the 10 Jean Stein finalists withdrawing, along with nominees in categories ranging from translation to best first book, continuing with the ceremony at The Town Hall in Manhattan proved unworkable.

“This is a beloved event and an enormous amount of work goes into it, so we all regret this outcome but ultimately concluded it was not possible to carry out a celebration in the way we had hoped and planned,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel says in a statement.

Since the war began last October, authors affiliated with PEN have repeatedly denounced the organization for allegedly favoring Israel and downplaying atrocities against Palestinian writers and journalists.

In an open letter published last month, and endorsed by Naomi Klein and Lorrie Moore among others, the signers criticized PEN for not mobilizing “any substantial coordinated support” for Palestinians and for not upholding its mission to “dispel all hatreds and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace and equality in one world.”

Freed hostage Emily Hand sings ‘Mah Nishtana’ at Kibbutz Be’eri Seder in Tel Aviv

Some 500 members of the Kibbutz Be’eri community are holding a Passover Seder in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, remembering 100 residents who were killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and 30 who were kidnapped to Gaza.

During the event, girls from the kibbutz, including 9-year-old Emily Hand who was kidnapped on October 7 and released in a weeklong truce in November, take the stage to sing “Mah Nishtana,” or the Four Questions, a song traditionally sung by the youngest member of the household that asks: “Why is this night different from every other night?”

עם אמילי הנד, שהייתה בשבי בעזה: ילדות קיבוץ בארי שרו את "מה נשתנה" בכיכר החטופים בתל אביב@NOFARMOS @Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/FUEDOlDJyL

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 22, 2024

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot visit the square in Tel Aviv to pay respects to families of hostages held in Gaza and bereaved families.

Eleven of the hostages from Kibbutz Be’eri remain in captivity, believed to be alive; six were murdered in captivity and 13 were released during the November temporary ceasefire.

שר הביטחון גלנט הגיע לסדר של קהילת בארי בכיכר החטופים https://t.co/e50EUzSgnB pic.twitter.com/RZMlGNzzOn

— ישראל היום (@IsraelHayomHeb) April 22, 2024

Photos and videos published on Hebrew news and social media sites shows other freed hostages present at the event, including Ofir Engel, 18, who was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists while was visiting his girlfriend on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.

אופיר אנגל הצטרף לליל הסדר של קהילת בארי – הקיבוץ שממנו נחטף לשבי חמאס ב-7 באוקטובר@hilikeren pic.twitter.com/EPq2RGgtLb

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 22, 2024

Protesters ignite ‘non-Seder’ table outside Netanyahu’s Caesarea home, demanding hostage deal

Protesters outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Caesarea call for a hostage release deal, April 24, 2024. (Barak Dor/Pro-Democracy Movement)

Anti-government protesters hold a “non-Seder” outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea as Israelis bring in the Passover holiday, calling for an immediate hostage release deal and the government’s resignation.

“It’s quite significant to see so many people skipping their traditional celebratory family holiday and instead showing up and standing beside the families of the hostages, demanding an immediate release deal,” the Pro-Democracy Movement says in a statement ahead of the event.

משפחות חטופים, יחד עם אלפי ישראלים, עורכים ליל אי-סדר מול הוילה של נתניהו מחריב ישראל בקיסריה, בדרישה (משותפיו של נתניהו) לחירות עכשיו 🎗️🇮🇱
תצטרפו אליהם! – הדר (צפוני) קיסריה

צילום: גיל לוין@DanNoam26949 @Kulanu_Hatufim @elgarat_dani pic.twitter.com/lFMWaygPge

— Nava Rozolyo נאווה רוזוליו (@rozolyo) April 22, 2024

Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law Yoram Metzger, 80, has been held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7, counts with the crowd to 199, marking the days since thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel, murdering some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 253 to Gaza, mostly civilians.

With chants of “Bring them home now!” the protesters splash red paint on their “non-Seder” table instead of the traditional red wine spilled when recalling the Ten Plagues during the reading of the Haggadah.

At the end of the ceremony, protesters set fire to a symbolic Seder table amid chants of “Deal now!”

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

New satellite images seem to confirm apparent Israeli strike on Isfahan hit radar, negating repeated Iranian denials

A missile defense site near an international airport and air base is seen in Isfahan, Iran, April 22, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Satellite photos taken today appear to confirm that an apparent Israeli retaliatory strike targeting Iran’s central city of Isfahan hit a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery, contradicting repeated denials by officials in Tehran of any damage in the assault.

The strike on an S-300 radar in what appears to have been a very limited strike by Israel would represent far more damage done than in the massive drone-and-missile attack Iran unleashed against Israel on April 13. That may be why Iranian officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been trying to dismiss discussing what the attack actually did on Iranian soil.

Analysts believe both Iran and Israel now are trying to dial back tensions following a series of escalatory attacks between them as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip still rages and inflames the wider region.

The satellite images by Planet Labs PBC taken this morning near Isfahan’s dual-use airport and air base, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Tehran, showed an area nearby that served as a deployment point for the air defense system. Burn marks sit around what analysts including Chris Biggers, a consultant former government imagery analyst, previously had identified as a “flap-lid” radar system used for the S-300.

Less-detailed satellite images taken after Friday’s strike showed similar burn marks around the area, though it wasn’t clear what was at the site. Biggers says other components of the missile system appeared to have been removed from the site before the attack — even though they provide defensive cover for Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
“That’s a powerful statement, given the system, the location, and how they use it,” Biggers writes.

Iranian officials in the aftermath sought to downplay the attack, trying to describe it as just a series of small drones flying through the sky.

“What happened … was not a strike,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed in an interview with NBC News. “They were more like toys that our children play with – not drones.”

Blinken denies US has ‘double standard’ when adjudicating alleged human rights abuses in Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a session during the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting on Capri Island, Italy, on April 19, 2024. (Gregorio Borgia/Pool/AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denies that the Biden administration uses a double standard when adjudicating alleged human rights abuses in Israel amid questions from reporters that Washington is seeking to sweep such accusations under the rug only when it comes to the Jewish state.

“Do we have a double standard with Israel? The answer is no,” Blinken says during a press conference rolling out the State Department’s 2023 human rights report.

“As this report makes clear, we apply the same standard to everyone, and that doesn’t change whether the country in question is an adversary, competitor, a friend or an ally,” the secretary says.

Blinken reiterates that the US efforts looking into allegations of human rights abuses by Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza are “ongoing.”

While acknowledging that such probes take time to conclude, Blinken notes that the US doesn’t wait to reach out to Israeli authorities for immediate clarification regarding alleged abuses when they occur.

Blinken rejects the comparison made by reporters to the speed with which the US responded to alleged rights abuses by Russia in Ukraine and the more dragged out process employed to adjudicate alleged crimes by Israel in Gaza.

“The case of Ukraine is totally different than in Gaza. The Ukrainians are not in any way a legitimate target the way Hamas is in Gaza. [Hamas is also] embedding themselves among civilians, hiding in and underneath apartment buildings, mosques, hospitals — you name it.”

“In the case of Ukraine, when Russian forces withdrew from Bucha we were able to see very plainly what had happened. Each of these situations is different.”

Blinken also stresses that “Israel has demonstrated the capacity to look at itself. This is what separates democracies from from other countries — the ability, the willingness, the determination to look at themselves.”

“It’s my understanding that they have many open investigations based on reports that have come forward with allegations about abuses of human rights,” he says.

No announcement today on US blacklisting of Netzah Yehuda, but ‘stay tuned,’ Blinken says

Israeli soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion patrol near the Israel-Gaza border, October 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Asked whether he’ll be announcing the US decision to blacklist the Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says an announcement will be made on the matter in the coming days, “so please stay tuned on that.”

The Biden administration had originally planned to announce today the decision to bar US military aid from being used to supply weapons to the IDF’s Nezah Yehuda battalion over alleged rights abuses against Palestinians, a US official told The Times of Israel.

The announcement was supposed to be made in parallel to the release of the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, which Blinken unveiled at a press conference early this afternoon.

But the US decided to hold off on making the announcement as it seeks to clarify its messaging over the decision amid significant Israeli pushback, the US official says.

Oct. 7 onslaught, ensuing war have raised ‘deeply troubling human rights concerns’ — Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about the recently released 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlights both Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the war Israel launched to defeat the terror group among the issues covered in the State Department’s 2023 human rights report that was unveiled today.

“Hamas’s horrific attacks on Israel on October 7 last year and the devastating loss of civilian life in Gaza as Israel exercises its right to ensure that those attacks never happen again, have raised deeply troubling human rights concerns,” Blinken says at a press conference called to discuss the report.

“We continue to work every day to bring the fighting to an end, to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and other groups, to uphold international humanitarian law, to prevent further suffering, to create a path toward a more peaceful and secure future for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Blinken says.

The Israel chapter of the human rights report itself begins by highlighting the large-scale attack launched by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups on October 7, “killing an estimated 1,200 individuals, injuring more than 5,400, and abducting 253 hostages.”

“Israel responded with a sustained, wide-scale military operation in Gaza, which had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians and injured more than 56,000 by the end of the year, displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza, and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis,” the report says. “The continuing conflict had a significant negative impact on the human rights situation in the country.”

The State Department declined to say what its source was for the 2023 Palestinian death count from the Gaza war.

US State Department: ‘We don’t want to see Palestinians evacuated from Rafah unless they’re going home’

A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 4, 2024. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says, “We don’t want to see Palestinians evacuated from Rafah unless it is to return to their homes.”

The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed its opposition to a mass IDF invasion of Rafah, though this language from the State Department appears new.

“We don’t think there’s any effective way to evacuate 1.4 million Palestinians. There’s no way to conduct an operation in Rafah that would not lead to inordinate civilian harm and severely hamper the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Miller says.

At other times, US officials have indicated that they’d be prepared to accept an IDF offensive in Rafah if Israel did manage to safely evacuate the civilians there and care for their humanitarian needs. In his latest comments, Miller rejects the notion of any possibility that the US could support a major Rafah invasion.

“We do want to see people able to leave Rafah to return to their homes — if they exist — and to their neighborhoods and to begin rebuilding their homes. We want to see the Palestinian people in Gaza start to restart their lives and rebuild their lives and ultimately bring this conflict to a close,” he says.

Pro-Palestinian encampments erected with anti-Israel slogans at several US campuses

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators face off in front of the entrance of Columbia University, which is occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters in New York on April 22, 2024. One of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators is holding up a poster of Zakaria Zubeidi, a notorious Fatah commander convicted of masterminding terror attacks during the Second Intifada. (Photo by Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest encampments are springing up at several US universities following unrest around mass student demonstrations at Columbia University in recent weeks amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Tent encampments could be seen on campuses including New York University, MIT, Tufts University and Emerson College, according to social media posts and local news reports.

An encampment at Emerson College is reportedly positioned next to the campus Hillel branch, where many Jewish students are expected to visit for the Passover holiday tonight.

Anti-Israel signs including “From the river to the sea” were displayed on tents erected along a downtown Boston alley near the university.

At MIT, students take part in Muslim prayers next to a tent encampment, protesting what they say it the university’s failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

They are also calling on MIT to cut ties with Israel’s military, amid the war ongoing in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

On the other side of the country, social media posts show tent encampments at the University of California, Berkley and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

https://twitter.com/JerseyNoahx/status/1782501063347847526

Universities have become the focus of intense cultural debate in the US since war erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Protests ramped up at Columbia University last week, when pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up tents in a call for the university to divest from companies that have ties to Israel.

After several incidents of antisemitic language and a series of arrests at Columbia, US President Joe Biden yesterday condemned antisemitism on college campuses, while New York Mayor Eric Adams said he was “horrified and disgusted” by the reports, vowing that police would arrest anyone breaking the law.

Agencies contributed to this report. 

Irish artists urge Eurovision entrant boycott over Israel

DUBLIN, Ireland – Hundreds of Irish artists are urging Ireland’s Eurovision entrant to be on the “right side of history” by boycotting the song contest over Israel’s participation in the event in Sweden next month.

“We are asking you to withdraw from Eurovision 2024, to heed the call from Palestinians to boycott the competition due to the participation of Israel,” says a letter signed by more than 400 Irish artists.

The letter points to Irish artists and musicians like Irish-language rap group Kneecap, who pulled out of the SXSW Music Festival in the United States last month in protest over the US military’s sponsorship of the event.

“You have the chance to be on the right side of history and to be remembered as an artist of conscience, who, in a time of genocide, chose to do no harm, to truly stand with the oppressed,” the letter adds.

Irish Eurovision entry Bambie Thug has described their decision not to boycott this year's competition over Israel’s controversial participation as ‘bittersweet’ and ‘incredibly heavy’ | Read more: https://t.co/JVOB1ET3ZB pic.twitter.com/x1ZdeLEe3z

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 20, 2024

Normally associated with rhinestones and kitsch, this year’s Eurovision has become a more controversial affair as the war in Gaza enters its seventh month, with critics calling for Israel to be banned from competing by the organizers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) together with Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT.

“I stand with anyone doing the boycott. I think if I wasn’t in the competition, I would also be boycotting,” Ireland’s entrant Bambie Thug told an chatshow on Friday.

“At the end of the day, without the group of us who is pro-Palestine, it is less competition for the other side (Israel) to win and it’s less of solidarity there,” said the 31-year-old who hails from Cork.