Anti-Israel protester hits Milwaukee police officer of Palestinian descent
Intro
“Striking a police officer is never acceptable,” said a spokesman for Sen. Tammy Baldwin, whose event the activists targeted.
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One of about 20 anti-Israel activists who protested a fundraiser held on Sunday by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) punched a Milwaukee police officer.
The protester, a woman, asked the officer about his ethnicity. When he revealed that he had a Palestinian background, she struck him and told him that he was on the wrong side, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelreported.
It wasn’t known if the assailant was arrested at the Sunday event. The paper reported that the officer was hurt but not seriously.
“Striking a police officer is never acceptable,” stated Andrew Mamo, a spokesman for the senator.
Carol Folt, president of the University of Southern California, has revealed plans to resign from her administrative role at the end of the school year for a return to teaching.
“Serving as the 12th president of the University of Southern California is one of the greatest privileges of my life,” she said in an announcement on Nov. 8. “Over the last five years, we have created a forward-looking vision that will serve our students, faculty and staff well as they look to better the country and the world.”
In June, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into USC for potential violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In August, Folt received a plan for how to address campus antisemitism.
Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the school’s Board of Trustees, said “I offer our deep appreciation of Carol Folt, as well as our admiration for her exceptional tenure as the 12th president of USC.”
Folt stated that “looking forward, I am enthusiastic about exploring opportunities ahead as a tenured faculty member.”
Johnson wrote that “Carol’s leadership skills, and her innate ability to connect with community members on a personal level, have been on display throughout her tenure.”
One thing should be clear by now to our allies in the fight against antisemitism: They failed.
Europe cannot keep its post-Holocaust promise of “never again.” That promise crashed and burned onto the world stage in Amsterdam last week as hundreds of Israeli tourists were filmed fleeing from a large crowd of antisemites who, divided into groups organized for the pogrom, shouted “Jew, Jew!”
These mobs forced Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to flee, to cover their children with their bodies while being beaten by the mobs and even to say while being forced to the ground with violence “I am not Jewish.”
The pogrom and its aftermath laid bare how only Israel—with its courageous and solitary fight against totalitarian, extremist Islam and its allies—remains deployed as the shield to the values that were promised to the whole world in 1945 after the defeat of evil. Back then, the people in Amsterdam, in Paris, in Britain, in the United States and around the world said “never again” would they support authoritarian regimes who discriminate against the sick, those who are different, dissidents, women, gays, Jews and members of all other religions.
But in Amsterdam just days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we saw a different reality. Islamic extremists who support the terrorist axis have taken over violent possession of the city, relying on the silence and connivance of the police and the indifference of ordinary citizens.
Then, just a few days later, we once again saw people in the street marching not in defense of the Jews and Israel but in favor of Hamas and Iran. These marchers were no longer second- or third-generation Muslims but blonde-haired boys wearing keffiyehs who spread lies about the Jews in praise of “Palestine.”
Europe has been devoured by a sense of guilt mixed with fear and cultural and moral confusion, which makes it prey to mistakes. The media, for instance, has tried to deny the antisemitism of the crowds who organized and prepared for their “Jew hunt,” instead framing the events as a clash between soccer fans or a response to aggressive actions by Israeli fans who boasted about their actions in Gaza.
There is no justification for the systematic hunting of Jews in the city of museums and bicycles and tulips. Although warned of what was being prepared, the city did nothing to stop it. Instead, officials said afterwards that they were ashamed of what had happened.
The warning is loud and clear, and Israel is alone to face its magnitude as early as Oct. 7.
The crowd of Muslim and Arabic speakers who attacked the Israelis, including kids, drew on their support for Hamas’s genocidal project of destroying Israel and all Jews.
I won’t go back to explaining how, during the many years between the end of the Second World War and today, antisemitism has slipped into all the crevices of anti-capitalist ideology, anti-imperialist and then woke agenda (all the oppressed against all the oppressors) to make its new anti-Zionist guise lethal.
Now, the new chapter is definitively open. Never again is now, and it is Israel who must take charge of the situation and act strategically to defend the Jews of the whole world.
At least two Israelis were lightly injured in a terrorist car-ramming attack at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem in Judea on Monday evening, according to initial reports.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on X that "during IDF operations in the Al-Khader area of the Etzion Brigade, a Palestinian vehicle broke through a roadblock and carried out a car-ramming attack. The vehicle fled, many forces are conducting a chase and searches in the area."
On Wednesday, two Israels were lightly wounded in a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack at a bus stop near the town of Shiloh in Samaria. The terrorist was killed on the scene by an armed civilian.
On Nov. 3, Hamas terrorists opened fire toward the Shahak Industrial Park near the community of Shaked in northern Samaria. No casualties were reported in the attack on the industrial zone, which is located some five miles west of Jenin, a hotbed of Palestinian terrorism.
In the first six months of 2024, Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to data made public by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders).
During that period, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.
Terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in Judea and Samaria between January and July, the rescue group said.
Individuals wearing masks attacked two Jewish students on Nov. 6 as they supported Israel outside the student center at DePaul University in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.
The assailants punched Max Long in the face and body while pushing Michael Kaminsky to the ground, resulting in a concussion and a fractured wrist. Long, who has served in the Israel Defense Forces, was there with his friend encouraging dialogue about the Jewish state.
In a statement provided to JNS, the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) described that before the incident “two students, one of whom is a proud IDF soldier, engaged in a thoughtful dialogue on campus, displaying a sign that read, ‘I’m an IDF soldier, ask me anything.’”
CJA said “what began as an earnest exchange of ideas took a violent turn when two masked assailants ambushed these students, subjecting them to a brutal attack before fleeing the scene.” A cell-phone video clip released by the group and broadcast on Fox News shows the violence.
Kaminsky called the attack “a horrendous crime, a horrendous assault” and that “it was clear it was because we were Jewish.” Long added that “we need to come together as a community and allies of our community and work together to make sure Jews feel safe.”
They intend to return to their activism, saying they are "resilient."
The college released a statement from its president, Robert Manuel, addressing the violence. “I’m appalled to share that the attack targeted two Jewish students at DePaul who were visibly showing their support for Israel,” he said. “Masked attackers punched our students, who sustained physical injuries but declined medical treatment.”
Manuel called the assaults “completely unacceptable and a violation of DePaul’s values to uphold and care for the dignity of every individual.” He said the school “is actively working with the Chicago Police Department to investigate this incident so that they can determine whether to classify it as a hate crime that targeted our students because of their Jewish identity.”
Chicago police are investigating the incident as a hate crime and requesting help from the community to identify two suspects.
A group of Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives called for action against those who had participated in a coordinated attack last week against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.
“What should have been a normal evening of fans enjoying a soccer game quickly turned into a night of horror as Israeli and Jewish fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team were ambushed by a violent, antisemitic mob,” the legislators stated on Nov. 8 about the assault that took place in the capital of Holland the evening before.
They described how “dozens of Jews and Israelis were severely injured after antisemitic mobs hunted them down, beat them, attacked them with knives, ran them over with cars, and even threw them into the river. Let’s be clear, these people were targeted because they are Jewish.”
Signatories of the statement included Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
“We urge Dutch authorities to arrest all those who participated in these heinous acts of antisemitic violence and act swiftly to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” the representatives wrote. “As Jewish members of Congress, we will never abandon the fight to end antisemitism. We will continue to monitor the situation until the investigation is complete, each Israeli safely returns home, and those responsible are fully brought to justice.”
Everyone is talking about the terrifying "Jew hunt" that took place in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam over the weekend.
Hear the full story in the latest episode of "The Quad" with Jerusalem's special envoy for innovation, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, as well as Israeli activist and writer Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, and special guest host Lahav Harkov, senior political correspondent at Jewish Insider.
After the conversation, stick around for an interview with Yahly Bar-Lev, the executive director of StandWithUs Netherlands, who reveals the inspiring mobilization of the Dutch Jewish community during the attacks. Bar-Lev also weighs in on the current state of the community and their efforts to combat antisemitism.
And, of course, learn the Scumbags and Heroes of the Week!
The International Criminal Court will launch an external investigation into sexual-misconduct accusations against its top prosecutor, Karim Khan, the court in The Hague confirmed on Monday.
"After having consulted the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), I am seeking on behalf of the ASP Presidency an external investigation into the matters related to alleged misconduct by the ICC prosecutor," Päivi Kaukoranta, the president of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, which oversees the top court, said in a statement on Monday. "The involved parties have been informed."
"The Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM), which exercises full operational independence from the International Criminal Court and reports directly to the ASP, is competent to investigate such allegations," stated Kaukoranta.
The external probe is "being pursued in order to ensure a fully independent, impartial and fair process, in conformity with the legal framework of the ICC and the IOM and following a victim-centred approach," he added.
The outsourced probe was green-lit last week at a meeting of the internal ICC watchdog, three sources acquainted with the matter told the Associated Press on Saturday.
The sources said at the time that it was unclear who would lead the investigation. Options included European law-enforcement officials and a law firm.
The oversight body of the ICC was also mentioned as a possibility, but it might be ruled out for conflict-of-interest concerns over Karim’s spouse, who has previously worked for the agency in Kenya probing cases of sexual harassment.
The allegations against Khan emerged in May, around the time he asked the court to file arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The top prosecutor denied that he tried to force a female assistant into a sexual relationship, with ICC officials close to Khan claiming that the accusations were part of a smear campaign carried out by Israeli intelligence agencies.
Khan said that there was “no truth to suggestions of misconduct” and that he has always supported victims of sexual harassment and abuse in his 30 years of work. He added that, if asked, he would cooperate with any inquiry.
However, reports in the media depicted recurring incidents in which Khan tried to force himself on his aide.
One source told AP, “This wasn’t a one-time advance or an arm around the shoulder that could be subject to misinterpretation. It was a full-on, repeated pattern of conduct that was carried out over a long period of time.”
AP obtained documents shared with the ICC’s watchdog and held talks with eight individuals familiar with the subject, including sources close to the woman concerned.
According to the documents, Khan allegedly asked the woman to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her.” Later, he knocked on her hotel door for 10 minutes at 3 a.m.
In October, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) requested “full transparency” from the ICC with regard to the allegations of misconduct by its chief prosecutor.
“Public reports indicate that allegations of harassment surfaced in early May—just a few days before Prosecutor Khan applied for arrest warrants against the prime minister and minister of defense of Israel,” Graham said in a letter to the ICC last week. “The timing of the allegations is troubling, and only compounds the other strong legal, jurisdictional, and prudential objections I have expressed regarding the prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants."
In May, Khan demanded the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes. He lumped the two Israelis together with then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif and Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh. (All three were eliminated by Israel over the past year.)
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the court. But the court claimed jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state exists under international law.
Police in Antwerp, Belgium, arrested six people on Sunday, including a 17-year-old, on suspicion of conspiring to attack Jews from the city’s heavily haredi community.
The suspects were apprehended after exchanging messages on social media following the assault of dozens of Israelis in Holland's capital of Amsterdam, Belgian police officials told De Morgen daily on Monday.
The incident in Antwerp coincided with concern that the assaults in the Netherlands—the country's biggest series of antisemitic assaults in decades—mark the beginning of a new wave of coordinated attacks by Muslims in Europe against their Jewish neighbors.
“Some young individuals agreed to perpetrate a similar action in Antwerp in the Jewish Quarter, which is why we heightened security,” the city's police commissioner Wouter Bruyns told De Morgen.
Following the arrests, footage of the beating of a haredi Jew in Antwerp in October surfaced on social media on Sunday. It shows three males following a Haredi male, shouting “Free Palestine” and beating him.
The victim is 14 years old, according to Michael Freilich, a Jewish federal lawmaker from Antwerp. The family did not file a police complaint “as this is a regular occurrence in town,” he told JNS on Monday.
The teenager received bruises from the beating. His family has decided to file a police complaint following the video’s surfacing, Freilich said.
Separately, the Dutch parliament is set to hold an emergency debate on Tuesday on last week's assaults in Amsterdam. At least 100 young Muslim men participated in the preplanned attacks on Israeli soccer fans leaving a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the event a “pogrom,” as did many local Jews including Herman Loonstein, a prominent lawyer.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the largest party in the Netherlands and part of the ruling coalition, demanded that the perpetrators be deported. He also demanded an emergency debate to discuss how the assaults were made possible and again after hearing that all 62 detainees in police custody were arrested before or after the assaults, but none during them. He also called the incident a "pogrom."
Israel’s National Security Council on Sunday advised Israelis not to travel to international soccer matches in Europe this week. Kan News reported Friday that the Mossad intelligence service had warned Dutch authorities of a threat to Israelis and Jews in the Netherlands ahead of the soccer game.
But Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel denied this on Monday, the AD news site reported.
The Israeli national team will compete against France in Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, on Thursday, in a UEFA Nations League match.
'They were waiting for us'
As many as 2,000 Israelis returned to Israel on eight emergency flights out of Amsterdam over the weekend, El Al, Israel’s flag carrier airline, reported.
The assaults, which Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Dick Schoof reportedly both said were a source of "shame," featured scenes that many found reminiscent of the wholesale persecution of Jews before and during the Holocaust. Many critics of the incidents noted they happened on the eve of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht Nazi pogroms of 1938 in the Third Reich.
Some victims were made to beg for mercy on their knees and say “Free Palestine.” Others, including at least one woman, were set upon by men without any verbal exchange. At least one man jumped into a canal to escape his attackers; another was hit by a vehicle in a suspected car-ramming. According to reports, attackers asked to check the passports of people they confronted on the street to see if they were Israeli.
About 25 people were injured in the assaults, with their injuries ranging from moderate to minor.
One victim, an IDF reservist who recently fought Hamas in Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday that he and his friend Ben tried to flee their attackers by entering a bar but were “kicked out.”
They ordered a taxi via Uber, he said, “but from an alleyway, another group of 10 men ran to us with clubs. They punched Ben and clubbed him in his back. I went berserk and jumped at them, but they busted me up. Broke my teeth. I feared for my life. I saw they were waiting for us at every corner. It was all planned.”
The perpetrators belonged primarily to six groups in the Netherlands, according to a Nov. 8 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute, or NCRI, a nonprofit that deals with identifying and forecasting the threat and spread of misinformation and disinformation across social-media platforms.
The dominant group identified as PGNL, a Dutch-language acronym for “The Palestinian Community in the Netherlands.”
It is headed by Ayman Nejmeh, whom NCRI said was managing PGNL social media. According to his social media profiles, he is a Syrian-born former teacher for UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, which has been thoroughly infiltrated by Hamas and, according to Israel, was complicit in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres in the northwestern Negev. Nejmeh removed the UNRWA affiliation from his social media accounts following the assaults in Amsterdam.
ELNET, the European Leadership Network—a pro-Israel nonprofit—identified PGNL in a report published last month as one of 15 entities it described as composed of “Hamas-affiliated individuals and organizations in Europe” connected to Hamas representative Amin Abu Rashed, head of the Conference of Palestinians in Europe.
Contacted by JNS for a reaction, Nejmeh did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the allegations regarding the Hamas affiliation, and about his ties to UNRWA.
'Sharing photos of their Jew hunt'
On Sunday, Dutch police arrested dozens of people for attending an unauthorized anti-Israel protest at Dam Square, the site where many of the assaults on Israeli soccer fans happened. Among the detainees was Jazie Veldhuyzen, a member of the Amsterdam City Council.
Protesters splintered off from the protest into the Nieuwndijk shopping street. Shopkeepers held up cell phone screens displaying the PLO flag in solidarity with the marchers, Bart Schut, the deputy editor-in-chief of the NIW Dutch-Jewish weekly, documented, including at the Ici Paris XL outlet store.
In the Dutch media, prominent opinion shapers downplayed the incident and noted disruptive behavior by Maccabi fans in the days before the match. Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla at a press conference said Maccabi fans damaged a taxi cab and stole a Palestinian flag from a building facade. Fans were filmed chanting, "Let the IDF win" and "F**k the Arabs."
Marcel van Roosmalen, a columnist for the high-brow NRC daily, penned an op-ed titled "Shameless" in which he argued that if the assaults were a "pogrom, then what's happening in Gaza is a genocide." But he also urged left-wing politicians to condemn the violence against Israelis, in which we "clearly know who the perpetrators are: They are sharing photos of their Jew hunt."
Veldhuyzen, the councilman for the BIJ1 party, which says it promotes anti-racist policies but has often been accused of espousing antisemitism, blamed the Maccabi fans for the assault against them.
"Video footage of armed Maccabi-hooligans, attacking people from Amsterdam that look like Arabs or Muslims with metal pipes, stones and fireworks. All under the protection of the Dutch police. Here you have your 'victims,'" he wrote on X. He was referencing footage showing men running, some holding elongated objects, in the center of Amsterdam, near where Arab men had attacked the Israelis.
It is not clear whether the footage was taken before or after the assaults by the Muslims began and who is seen carrying elongated objects in it.
Following the Hamas-led onslaught on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, the IDF went to war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's critics in Europe have accused it of perpetrating genocide, including at weekly rallies in European capitals that have featured numerous calls for violence against Israelis and Jews. Several countries reported an explosion in recorded antisemitic incidents. In the Netherlands, the Center for Information and Documentation recorded an increase of 245% in antisemitic incidents in 2023 over 2022.
An experience like a Birthright Israel trip is hard to articulate. It was transformative, to say the least, especially during our visit to a country grappling with the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have chosen a different time to go.
Witnessing the beauty of Israel in the wake of such horror allowed us to experience firsthand the incredible resilience of its people. I hadn’t visited Israel since my bar mitzvah in 2013, and for many of my fellow travelers, it was their first time. Yet the moment my flight from Toronto landed in Tel Aviv, the unfamiliar city felt like home, and strangers quickly became family.
There was something unexplainable in the air during our trip—an energy so profound that it enveloped us, leaving us unable to fully articulate its essence. Looking back, I believe this feeling stemmed from standing on historic land filled with our ancestors’ stories, witnessing the miraculous existence of modern-day Israel, and immersing ourselves in an environment that encouraged purposeful self-reflection and genuine human connection.
Hands down, the most transformative aspect of the trip was the opportunity to engage with Israelis. If you want to gain valuable life lessons, speak to them. If you want to understand the true meaning of bravery, they are your best teachers. Shockingly, despite having endured the unimaginable just months before our arrival, Israelis imparted powerful lessons about optimism. You learn that as much as we think about what Israelis have to go through, they are thinking of us across the world who have been facing our own unique set of challenges this year. This realization reinforced the deep connections that transcend borders between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.
It may sound contradictory to say that the trip turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life while simultaneously being an emotional rollercoaster. One moment I found myself floating in the Dead Sea, enjoying the tranquility, and the next I was at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, confronting the stark horrors of the Holocaust. One minute we were dancing in celebration, and the next we were hearing heart-wrenching stories from a Nova music festival survivor, reflecting on those who lost their lives in pursuit of happiness. The contrast was striking: laughing with young Israelis in the IDF one moment and mourning the young soldiers who had perished just this year at Mount Herzl the next.
This whirlwind of experiences was intensified by the bonds we formed within our cohort, which made the trip even more meaningful. We grew together through this concentrated week of emotional intensity, sharing not only joy but also sorrow and reflection. The hardest part, without a doubt, was saying goodbye. However, it is reassuring to know that we have a second home to return to and that future generations of young Jewish individuals will soon breathe in that same unexplainable air, experiencing the magic that I did on my Birthright trip.
Birthright Israel is more than just a journey to a physical location; it is a pilgrimage to our roots, an opportunity to engage with our heritage and a chance to understand the complexities of the Israeli experience. It forces you to confront difficult realities while simultaneously embracing the beauty and resilience of the people. This duality—the joy and the pain, the past and the present—serves as a powerful reminder of the strength found in community and connection.
As I reflect on this experience, I realize that Birthright is not just a trip; it’s a catalyst for personal and communal growth. It invites us to grapple with our identity as Jews, both in Israel and around the world, and to acknowledge the shared history that binds us. Each individual’s journey may be unique, but the overarching themes of resilience, hope and unity resonate deeply within us all.
In a world filled with uncertainty and division, experiences like this are vital. They remind us of our collective strength, the importance of connection and the enduring spirit of the Israeli people. I left the country with a renewed sense of purpose—eager to share my experience and encourage others to embark on this transformative journey. Birthright is not merely a rite of passage; it is an invitation to embrace our heritage, reflect on our challenges and celebrate the extraordinary resilience that defines us.