Dutch Holocaust scholar fears dismissal after defending Jewish students
(JNS) — A Dutch Holocaust researcher, Amanda Kluveld, is facing serious threats and intimidation after standing up for Jewish students at Maastricht University, where she is now at risk of losing her job, she told JNS.
Kluveld, a longtime critic of on-campus anti-Israel groups, told JNS in an interview that her attempt to film an antisemitic protest outside a classroom has apparently led to a concerted effort to push her out.
“It happened when I arrived at work — I teach in a designated classroom and am also forced to park in a specific parking spot for my safety,” she said of the May 13 incident. Upon leaving her vehicle, Kluveld said she ran into a group of activists chanting anti-Jewish slogans, calling for Zionists to be removed from campus and comparing them to Nazis.
Determined to document the event — which the researcher said involved sirens, drums and a megaphone, violating university rules prohibiting the disruption of educational activities — Kluveld began filming the rally.
However, when Kluveld recorded the scene, the institute’s integral safety coordinator approached her alongside a demonstrator who demanded she immediately stop filming and delete the footage from her phone.
‘Day of Rage’ protests to target Israeli tourists in Greece
(JNS) — Greek left-wing groups and the BDS movement are planning a “Day of Rage” this Sunday, calling for nationwide protests against Israel over its actions in Gaza.
The demonstration, set for major tourist locations during peak travel season, aims to confront Israeli tourists directly and protest what organizers call “war crimes and genocide.”
Recent weeks have seen a surge in anti-Israel protests across Greece, including incidents where Israeli tourists and ships were targeted. The Israeli ambassador’s complaints about antisemitic graffiti in Athens were rebuffed by the city’s mayor, who accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and defended the right to free expression.
The war of words comes amid a series of antisemitic incidents targeting Israelis in Greece since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
German reports cast doubt on Gaza images
(JNS) — A report by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung published earlier this week is calling into question the trustworthiness of the images coming out of the Gaza Strip, finding that at least some appear to be staged Hamas propaganda.
The investigation, which also covered by Bild on Tuesday, focuses on photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, a freelancer commissioned by Turkish news agency Anadolu, who apparently stages shots to maximize the narrative of Israeli-caused suffering.
For example, photos taken by him at a Gaza aid distribution site show mainly pleading women and children. But photographs by others at the same site show mostly adult men calmly waiting for and receiving food, according to the report.
Fteiha is on a mission to “Free Palestine,” according to the paper. His Instagram account shows him in combat gear with the inscription “Presse,” an image which according to Bild was created by “an avowed Jew-hater.”
Hezbollah terror group vows to ignore Lebanese army-led disarmament
(JNS) — Hezbollah has decided to ignore the Lebanese government’s plans to disarm it, the Palestinian Quds News Network reported on Wednesday, quoting a spokesperson for the Shi’ite terrorist group.
“We will treat the government’s decision to disarm us as nonexistent,” QNN quoted the spokesperson as saying.
The statement was in response to reports on Aug. 5 that Lebanon’s cabinet had tasked the national army with drawing up a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
Hezbollah has rejected calls to disarm since last year’s war with Israel, which left it severely weakened.
The Iran-backed group is under pressure from its rivals in Lebanon and from Washington, who want Beirut ministers to publicly commit to disarming Hezbollah and worry that Israel could intensify strikes on Lebanon if they fail to do so, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israel reprimands Polish envoy over claim Jerusalem ‘using hunger as a weapon’ in Gaza
(JNS) — The Polish ambassador to Israel was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem for an official reprimand on Tuesday after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested that Israeli politicians were responsible for hungry Palestinian children in Gaza and brought up the memory of World War Two.
The envoy, Maciej Hunia, was called in to the Foreign Ministry for a “demarche conversation” following “unacceptable” statements by the Polish prime minister and Foreign Ministry, according to the Israeli ministry.
“The statements falsely accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon, and included an outrageous reference to concentration camps,” said the ministry.
“Israel strongly rejects these accusations, and expects Poland to refrain from using language that distorts history and denigrates the memory of the victims of the Holocaust,” the statement continued.
Fourth-century Spanish church thought to have been a synagogue
(JNS) — A building long thought to be a fourth-century church in the Ibero-Roman city of Castulo may be one of the oldest synagogues discovered on the Iberian Peninsula, National Geographic reported on Monday, citing an archaeological study published last month.
Near modern-day Linares, in the province of Jaén, about 160 miles south of Madrid, archaeologists digging in Castulo encountered several ritual objects that they associated with Jewish worship.
Some researchers believe that the Synagoga Mayor in Barcelona is the oldest synagogue in Iberia and Europe, dating sometime between the third and ninth centuries.
The findings at the Castulo dig include oil lamp fragments adorned with what appears to be a seven-branched menorah, a tile bearing a similar relief and a jar lid featuring what researchers believe is a Hebrew inscription, whose meaning scholars continue to debate, according to the study.
