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A protest outside Wilshire Boulevard Temple — one of Los Angeles’ oldest synagogues — ended with two arrests Wednesday after demonstrators confronted attendees at an event featuring a speaker from Elbit Systems, the Israeli defense firm whose technology is widely used by Israel’s military and, in some cases, by U.S. law enforcement and border security agencies.

Videos posted online showed protesters gathering outside the synagogue’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion, unfurling banners that read “Elbit out of Los Angeles” and “Genociders not welcome.” They handed out flyers accusing the company of supplying “weapons and technology that Israel uses against Palestinian civilians” and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses in the U.S.

The confrontation underscored the growing attention on Elbit Systems — and the tensions that surround it.

What is Elbit Systems?
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest privately run defense contractor. Founded in 1966, it has evolved into a multinational firm that manufactures drones, surveillance systems, border security towers, targeting equipment, and other military electronics used by Israel and a number of foreign governments.

The company has roughly 20,000 employees — most based in Israel — with offices around the globe. Its U.S. subsidiary operates facilities across the country and has long supplied equipment to American defense and homeland security agencies.

Why does Elbit draw protests?
Two main issues animate opposition: Elbit’s role in Israeli military operations and its work for U.S. law enforcement.

Flyers at Wednesday’s demonstration accused the company of producing technology “used against Palestinian civilians.” Protest organizers argue that Elbit’s equipment enables Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the groups involved in the synagogue protest in Koreatown, wrote on Instagram: “We KNOW that these technologies are created on the targeting and killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and will do the same to vulnerable communities in Ktown.”

Protest literature also claimed Elbit provides surveillance tools used by ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The company has received contracts to build border surveillance towers and related systems along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is also on a list of potential contractors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense program, a project inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome.

US Elbit facilities are protest sites
Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Elbit Systems of America employs around 3,200 people across 10 states. Several of their U.S. facilities have been the sites of protests.

Merrimack, New Hampshire: An Elbit plant was targeted by pro-Palestinian activists, some of whom climbed onto the roof, deployed smoke devices, spray-painted equipment, smashed windows, and locked building entrances. Among those arrested in the November 2023 incident was a former Disney Channel actress.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: There were repeated protests at this facility beginning in October 2023, five days after the Hamas attack that started the war in Gaza. The office eventually closed down in August 2024.

Ladson, South Carolina: There have been weekly protests at Elbit’s Charleston-area facility since October 2024, with criticism over tax incentives granted to the company. Demonstrators have questioned whether public funds should support a defense industry site.

Protests are not just in the US
Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, several Elbit facilities in the United Kingdom have been targeted by pro-Palestinian activists — including six who are currently on trial over a 2024 break-in at an Elbit site in Bristol. One is accused of striking a police officer with a sledgehammer. The Bristol facility unexpectedly closed down in September.

In Britain, the government is defending its decision to ban Palestine Action — a group that has repeatedly targeted Elbit facilities — under anti-terror laws. The ban makes membership or public support for the group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Last month, activists in six countries — Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Taiwan and the U.K. — simultaneously defaced the offices of Allianz, a global insurer that allegedly underwrites Elbit Systems.

Why did the LA protest take place at a synagogue?
Wednesday’s talk — titled “Innovating Safety, Empowering Communities” — outside Wilshire Boulevard Temple was co-hosted by the Israeli Consulate General of Los Angeles and included speakers from Elbit, the Israeli police, and the local Jewish federation.

Activist groups, including Koreatown for Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and People’s City Council Los Angeles, urged supporters to contact the synagogue and arrive early to picket the event.

Jewish leaders argued that demonstrating outside a house of worship crossed a line. Protest organizers framed the action around the event itself and Elbit’s participation in it.

On September 22, 2025, a general protest and strike against Israel’s war in Gaza was organized by a group of smaller and far-left unions. It caught many in Italy by surprise: In Rome, police forces expected a few thousand to join the rally, but by the end of the day, authorities estimated that some 50,000 had taken to the streets. The organizers boasted that 300,000 participants had marched in the capital, in addition to hundreds of thousands more in some 80 cities across the country.

The same day, dockworkers in Genoa blocked access to the city’s major port, demanding that Italy not allow shipments to Israel, and several Italian celebrities either joined the protest or expressed solidarity with it. On live TV, celebrity host Antonella Clerici asked viewers not to remain indifferent to “the massacre” in Gaza during a beloved morning cooking show on Rai1, the most-watched Italian channel.

The following week, Italy’s largest union, the (self-reported) 5-million-strong Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL), which had not supported the September 22 initiative, announced its own general strike and protest for Gaza. This took place on October 3, with support from Italy’s two main opposition parties, the center-left Partito Democratico (PD) and the populist Five Star Movement, as well as a smaller coalition of far-left parties, AVS-Verdi.

The organizers claimed that over 2 million people attended its rallies across the country, making it the most successful protest in years.

At the same time, according to a survey published in September by prominent pollster SWG, around 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable.”

As in many other countries in the world, the war touched off by the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the widespread devastation documented in the Gaza Strip have spurred outrage among vast sectors of the Italian public. In the past several months, Italian opposition forces have also begun to use Gaza as a rallying cry against the government, sensing the mood in the street while taking heed of surveys suggesting that the issue’s appeal goes beyond the center and left voters.

With the Middle East rapidly becoming a dominant topic across Italian talk shows, social media, and news outlets, many public figures — including political leaders, journalists, and intellectuals — have taken to describing Israel’s actions as genocide.

A poll released on September 26 by the Ixè research institute asked 1,000 respondents (with a 3.1 percent margin of error) whether they agreed with “those who accuse Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians.” Almost 74% responded that they agreed, while 22.6% disagreed and 3.8% did not know.

In addition, 59% of the respondents said they were in favor of Italy cutting ties with Israel.

Illustrating the intensity of conviction among the protesters, Chiara, 17, told the local news outlet Vicenza Today at a protest in Vicenza, a mid-size town in northern Italy, on October 3, that the original sin was born in the United Nations.

“The UN’s 1947 decision to create two states for two peoples was a mistake or bad faith because in this historical process the winning faction was that of revisionist Zionism: authoritarian and fascist,” she said. Chiara explained that she supports the Lega party, “but in this case I chose to be here with my classmates. We have different views on many things, but not on defenseless people inhumanely exterminated.”

When anti-Israel stances backfire
The hope to unite a fragmented opposition, create a political headache for a government that has tried to maintain a more balanced, low-profile stance on Israel — and possibly also poach some of its voters — has represented a powerful temptation, especially for the more moderate PD.

Yet, it has also sometimes backfired.

This is a vote for Marche and for Palestine,” Matteo Ricci, the center-left coalition candidate for governor of the Marche region in central Italy, said in September on the eve of the elections. Ricci was roundly defeated by the center-right candidate Francesco Acquaroli, and several pundits questioned his fixation on Gaza as opposed to more local issues.

Such criticism has also been directed at the unions and the opposition parties at the national level, especially considering that Italy is suffering from decades of economic stagnation, unemployment, and unbearable fiscal pressure.

In addition, pro-Palestinian rallies have often been marred by violence. Vandalism and the illegal disruption of public transportation leave many Italians confounded — including those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Last Friday, during another general strike promoted by the far-left unions against both the government’s budget law and the war in Gaza, dozens of activists broke into the newsroom of the Italian daily La Stampa in Turin, sprayed graffiti reading “Free Palestine” and “Newspapers are complicit with Israel,” and caused significant damage.

The incident drew considerable censure. It also shocked some Italians who themselves had internalized the fiercest critiques against Israel.

Journalist Annalisa Cuzzocrea, who until a few months ago served as La Stampa deputy editor-in-chief, commented on X that in the past, “[La Stampa editor-in-chief] Andrea Malaguti and I put the word ‘genocide’ in the headline on the front page without worrying about how some segments of the public would react.”

“This is what hurts me the most, because [the activists] don’t know what they’ve attacked,” she added.

The vandalism against La Stampa has also ignited a political storm against another figure who, in Italy, has increasingly been seen as one of the country’s main champions of the Palestinian cause, UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese.

Accused of bias against Israel that bordered on antisemitism even before October 7, Albanese has since become a highly influential voice in Italy — as testified by her nearly daily presence on Italian TV, the ubiquity of her book in windows of Italian bookstores, and the numerous prizes and honorary citizenships she received across the country, including in Bologna, Bari and Reggio Emilia (where she scolded the mayor on stage after he expressed hope that the Israeli hostages held by Gazan terror groups would soon come home).

Asked about the attack on the newsroom, Albanese said that she “condemned the violence” but also “condemned the journalists,” who she accused of not providing fair coverage to the Palestinian plight, and called the episode “a warning for the press.” The statements drew condemnation from Meloni and had city leaders second-guessing their decisions to award honorary citizenship to Albanese — including the mayor of Florence, who retracted her city’s offer following the controversy.

Hostile atmosphere for Jews
But those who are paying the highest price of an increasingly hostile atmosphere against Israel are Italy’s Jews.

With some 23,000 official members across the country, over half of whom are in Rome, Italian Jewish communities are small but deeply-rooted, with a presence on the peninsula dating back over 2,000 years.

The most recent report by the Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC), a Milan-based think tank that monitors antisemitism in Italy, revealed that in 2024, its antisemitism watchdog received 877 complaints about antisemitic incidents in the country, compared to 454 in 2023 and 241 in 2022.

On Monday, the Jewish community of Rome woke up to the distressing news that overnight, the external walls of the Bet Michael synagogue in the hilly Monteverde neighborhood of the city had been defaced by graffiti.

Alongside writings such as “Free Palestine” and “Monteverde is anti-Zionist and anti-fascist,” the vandals covered in black paint the plaque dedicating the synagogue to the memory of Michael Stefano Gay Tache, a 2-year-old boy who was killed in a Palestinian terror attack against the city’s main synagogue in 1982.

The vandalism sparked widespread condemnation, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella called Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome, to express his solidarity.

Still, many Jews cannot help but feel that the attack represents yet another instance where anti-Israel sentiment has spilled into open antisemitism, rubbing salt into one of the deepest wounds the community still carries.

The 1982 attack also happened amid a climate of public anti-Jewish sentiment fueled by tensions in the Middle East — at the time, the First Lebanon War. In the months before the attack, during a CGIL rally, some protesters had left a white coffin on the synagogue’s doorsteps, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who at the time had not yet renounced terrorism, had gone to Rome on an official visit.

Fadlun warned in La Stampa against using the rallies for Gaza to attack the government.

“In Gaza, the ceasefire is holding despite the ongoing difficulties, but in Italy, almost exclusively in Italy, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have multiplied, becoming increasingly aggressive,” he said.

Fadlun also expressed concern about the intersection of union struggles and Middle East politics.

“We Jews of Rome remember well that a union march in 1982 brought a coffin in front of the synagogue,” he said. “Then there was the attack that killed Stefano.”

Police were forced to disperse crowds in the Italian port city of Brindisi on Friday after pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against the arrival of the [i]Crown Iris[i/], which was transporting Israeli passengers, according to Italian media and social media footage.

In one video recorded by Riccardo Celli, shared by La Repubblica, a group of alleged Israeli tourists can be seen performing the Roman salute, swearing, and mimicking a throat-slitting gesture.

[/b]Clashes on the streets of Italy between Israelis and local pro-Palestinian groups[/b]
Videos posted later in the day show further confrontations on the street, with one woman, alleged to be Israeli, responding “piece of s***, I’m going to f***ing kill you” in response to being told “Free Palestine.” The lead up to the confrontation is not included in the recording.

The video jumps to the woman telling the pro-Palestinian supporters that homosexuality is not accepted in Gaza and later spitting at the group while threatening them.

A woman can be heard telling the alleged Israeli “you f***ing kill children.”

The website that previously published a list of all Canadian citizens who served as IDF soldiers has now published a new list of Jewish institutions (such as synagogues) associated with them. The aim of 'GTA to IDF' is to highlight what role Canadian institutions may play in promoting Israel and the Israeli military.

GTA to IDF is a new project by Davide Mastracci, who previously released the 'Find IDF Soldiers' site in February 2025.

The existing database contains the names and profiles of 206 Canadians who have served in the Israeli military. The new one doxes the institutions they attended and their involvement with them.

The Find IDF Soldiers project found previously that the average lone soldier is “most likely to have grown up in a Greater Toronto Area neighbourhood with a larger-than-average proportion of Jewish residents in what they’d describe as a Zionist household.” The Greater Toronto Area was therefore selected as the geographical area for this new project.

Mastracci considered an institution eligible if it and/or its head office is based in the GTA and is associated with at least four military members contained in the Find IDF Soldiers database.

Seven institutions in the GTA - including summer camps, schools and synagogues - met the criteria for the project.
Mastracci claimed that all of the information on this website was taken from public sources, including the websites and social media accounts, and that he did not create the database with the intent to encourage any harassment of the institutions named.

Austin Parcels, Manager of Research and Advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday: “Jewish institutions and communities in Canada have been shot at, fire-bombed, their windows smashed, marked with Nazi imagery, and subjected to sustained vandalism and intimidation."

"Publishing a directory of Jewish schools, community centres, and communal organizations framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous. It becomes a catalogue for hostile actors who are looking for targets.”

In one video recorded by Riccardo Celli, shared by La Repubblica, a group of alleged Israeli tourists can be seen performing the Roman salute, swearing, and mimicking a throat-slitting gesture/.../one woman, alleged to be Israeli, responding “piece of s***, I’m going to f***ing kill you” in response to being told “Free Palestine.”

Taylor Swift will definitely be humming “Shake It Off,” as she faces a sudden, irrational wave of hate from social media users over her recently released documentary series, Taylor Swift: The End of an Era, because fans shown in the first episode waiting to go through security for a concert at Wembley Stadium in England mention they chatted with concertgoers from Israel.

Social media users are breaking the internet in a rush to condemn the 36-year-old Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, accusing her of being a "Zionist."

Swift has refrained from any mention of Israel and the war in Gaza for the past two years and has limited her political views to speaking out for LGBTQ+ rights and stating that she would not be voting for Donald Trump. She did not respond to a #SwiftiesforPalestine campaign, although she did once attend a fundraiser for humanitarian aid to Gaza alongside Selena Gomez in 2023, but many in the pro-Palestinian crowd did not deem this as sufficient.

The European Jewish Association (EJA) initiated legal proceedings on Thursday against Bob Vylan’s singer, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, after he chanted on repeated occasions “death to the IDF” during their performances across Europe.

The demand cites the show Robinson-Foster performed on December 2 at the Ancienne Belgique, a concert hall in Brussels, where he repeated the chant alongside other phrases, such as “everyone hates the police.”

Belgian attorney Christophe Boeraeve and EJA legal counsel Adv. Shlomo Dahan filled the demand in the Brussels Court of First Instance, where an investigation was opened over the charges of incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence; dissemination of ideas based on racial hatred; assistance to a group promoting discrimination; public provocation to commit a terrorist offence; glorification of terrorism; participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation; and provocation to commit offences against public authorities.

Along with the chants, Robinson-Foster was using a Samidoun-branded t-shirt, an organization officially classified as terror-linked in several countries and undergoing formal designation procedures as a terrorist organization in several additional countries.

In addition to the legal process, the EJA submitted an official complaint to Belgium’s federal anti-discrimination authority (UNIA), requesting an investigation into the incident and consideration of public and legal measures in response

The Scottish rock band Primal Scream is rejecting criticism that it received after displaying Stars of David entwined with swastikas at a concert in London on Monday, as part of an anti-Israel demonstration.

The images were projected behind the stage during the performance of Primal Scream’s 2000 song “Swastika Eyes.” It featured images from the war in Gaza as well as a wide-ranging host of political figures with the flashing swastika/Star of David hybrid over their eyes.

Among the leaders targeted in the film were President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

At the end of the performance Monday, which was at the Roundhouse music venue in Camden, Primal Scream also displayed the words “Our government is complicit in genocide.”

British bands use music to spread anti-Israel rhetoric
The display adds to a growing list of anti-Israel stunts involving British bands in recent months. In April, the Irish rap group Kneecap set off a wave of anti-Israel protests by music groups after they displayed the words “F–k Israel. Free Palestine” during their set at the Coachella music festival.

After one of the band members, Liam O’Hanna, was hit with a terrorism charge for displaying a Hezbollah flag at another concert the previous year, Primal Scream was one of dozens of UK artists that rushed to Kneecap’s defense. (The terrorism charges against O’Hanna were dropped in September.)

Primal Scream is also one of the most prominent acts to demand in recent months that its music not be available on the music platform Spotify to listeners in Israel, out of protest against Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza.

The Community Security Trust, a Jewish security organization, reported the incident to police. London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed it had received a report that was being assessed.

Despite the backlash to the incendiary display, Primal Scream, which was founded in Glasgow in 1982 by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie, brushed off criticism in a post on Instagram Friday, writing that it was a “piece of art.”

“It clearly draws from history to question where the actions of world governments sit in that context. It is meant to provoke debate, not hate,” the post said. “In a free, pluralistic and liberal society freedom of expression is a right which we choose to exercise.”

Red and green smoke bombs were set off during protests at Amsterdam’s Museumplein, near the Concertgebouw, as Israeli cantor Shai Abramson performed in private Hanukkah concerts at the nearby venue, De Telegraaf reported on Sunday evening.

Police were deployed in large numbers as demonstrations continued under court-approved restrictions.

Several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at Museumplein, where a larger protest had been permitted, according to De Telegraaf.

Protesters carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans including “Concertgebouw disgrace, blood on your hands” and “child murderers.” Police warned demonstrators to remain behind the fencing and formed a line in front of the protest area. After some protesters attempted to climb the barriers, authorities reinforced the fencing.

Police confirmed that several arrests were made but did not release further details. “It's about people who didn't follow the rules who were arrested,” a police spokesperson told De Telegraaf.

Earlier in the evening, a separate demonstration took place directly outside the Concertgebouw. A court ruling allowed up to 30 demonstrators to hold a silent protest near the building between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., NL Times reported. Thirty pro-Palestinian activists stood near the main entrance holding signs opposing Abramson’s appearance, according to De Telegraaf.

According to the report, once concertgoers had entered the building, the protest outside the Concertgebouw was disbanded.

Earlier in the day, fewer than 20 demonstrators gathered outside the Concertgebouw shortly after midday for a silent protest permitted between 12:45 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., according to NL Times. Protesters held signs reading “no stage for genocide” and “the Concertgebouw is occupied,” while police monitored the scene.

Inside the Concertgebouw, a public family Hanukkah concert took place in the afternoon without Abramson. Two private, invitation-only performances featuring the cantor were scheduled for the evening.

During the afternoon performance of Maestro Jules and the Miracle of Chanukah, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters briefly blocked the JW Brouwers entrance on the side of the Concertgebouw, according to De Telegraaf.

When asked why the demonstration took place during a family performance in which Abramson was not appearing, one protester told De Telegraaf, “He'll be there soon. We're against genocide.”

Abramson's performances at IDF ceremonies drew debates
NL Times reported that Abramson’s participation in the Hanukkah concerts prompted debate ahead of the event because he also performs at ceremonies for the IDF.

The Concertgebouw initially canceled the concert but later reached a compromise following legal action and discussions with organizers, allowing Abramson to perform only during private evening concerts.

Earlier in the evening, a small group of pro-Israel demonstrators carrying Israeli flags gathered near the Concertgebouw, where Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs led a Hanukkah service before the group dispersed, De Telegraaf reported.

Wikipedia’s page on Israel now unequivocally states that Israel is committing genocide, despite the fact that there is no formal legal consensus among nations or international courts that this is the case.

This was first reported by JNS, but was independently assessed by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

The edit was made on December 11, and has not been reversed despite extensive discussion between editors. The section appears at the end of the third paragraph in the top section of the page.

Before the change, the section read, “Israel’s practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international [criticism], along with accusations from human rights organizations and UN officials that it has committed crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Palestinians during the Gaza war.” The wording acknowledged that accusations of genocide have been leveled, but did not present it as fact.

As of December 11, the section now reads, “Whether to state that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians has drawn sustained international criticism. Experts, human rights organizations, and UN officials have described Israel’s actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, Israel began committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” This links to the page on “Gaza genocide.”

Wikipedia founder: Neutrality needs to be improved
This “Gaza genocide” page has also raised concerns. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said it fails to meet the website’s standards and is an example of how neutrality needs to be improved. “This article fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention,” Wales said in a November interview.

In August, the US Congress’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began investigating Wikipedia for the possible influence of nation-state actors and bad actors in editing articles related to Israel.

The decision to investigate was at least partially influenced by a March 2025 report by the Anti-Defamation League, which found that at least 30 editors were altering Wikipedia to introduce antisemitic and anti-Israel biases, and that the 30 editors edited twice as much over the last 10 years compared to their colleagues and were 18 times more active in communications than other editors.

British police ended an investigation into the British punk band Bob Vylan, months after the rap duo led thousands of Glastonbury music festival attendees in chants of “Death, death to the IDF.”

“We have concluded, after reviewing all the evidence, that it does not meet the criminal threshold outlined by the CPS for any person to be prosecuted,” wrote Avon and Somerset Police in a statement Tuesday. “No further action will be taken on the basis there is insufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction.”

Following the rap duo’s incendiary chant at Glastonbury, the pair were condemned Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom, and had their U.S. visas revoked by the State Department. In October, one of the band’s members, Bobby Vylan, doubled down on the anti-Israel chant in an interview with documentarian Louis Theroux.

“Simply because there is a high threshold for criminal conviction should in no way minimise the concerns raised by many sectors of society around the nature of the comments made,” the police statement continued.

In a post on X following the ruling, Bob Vylan argued that the criminal investigation into the chant “was never warranted in the first place.”

“We hope this news inspires others in the UK and around the world to speak up, in support of the Palestinian people, without fear,” the band wrote. “We have had our shows cancelled, visas revoked, our names tarnished and our lives upended, but what we have lost in peace and security we have gained tenfold in spirit and camaraderie.”

Bob Vylan’s chant at Glastonbury in June came months after the Irish rap group Kneecap kicked off a string of anti-Israel stunts by British musicians at the Coachella music festival in April. In September, terrorism charges against one of the band members, Liam O’Hanna, were also dropped.

The decision to drop the investigation into Bob Vylan was lambasted by Jewish groups in the United Kingdom, including the Community Security Trust, which cited the recent antisemitic terror attacks in Manchester, England and Sydney, Australia.

Last week, police in London and Manchester announced that they would begin to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters who chant the slogan “globalize the intifada,” citing the Sydney attack on a Hanukkah event that killed 15.

Controversy arose after the British government announced on Friday that a long-imprisoned Egyptian political activist was being brought to the United Kingdom, as his social media history revealed statements supporting the killing of Zionists and whites, as well as denigrating the British people.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other cabinet ministers announced on social media that they were “delighted” that Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah had been brought to the UK and reunited with his family after having been imprisoned for almost all of the last 12 years. Starmer paid tribute to El-Fattah’s family for the extended campaign for his release since 2013 and thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for pardoning the activist.

“Alaa’s case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office,” said Starmer.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy shared that he had first met with El-Fattah’s family while in the opposition and “committed to them then that I would do everything I could to advocate for his return. It’s an immense relief that this has now happened.”

Yet soon after Starmer and other Labour ministers, such as Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, expressed their delight about bringing him to the UK, his social media history came to light.
On X/Twitter, El-Fattah had in the past expressed animosity for several groups, declaring “all Zionists are my enemies, all MB [Muslim Brotherhood] too, and definitely all police” in 2013, and, in 2011, “advocating killing police, hating white people.”

In 2012, he said that he rejoiced “when Zionists are killed,” and in 2010, he considered “killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic” and that “we need to kill more of them.”

The activist aspired to killing Israelis, joking in 2011 that he wanted a drone so that he could “shoot Zionist weddings,” and a year before, he told another social media user that it would be acceptable to commit a suicide bombing if it took “a few Zionists’ lives.”

El-Fattah’s calls for the killing of Israelis were previously raised in a 2014 scandal, when the revelation of his comments led to the withdrawal of his nomination for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

El-Fattah didn’t recognize the legitimacy of Israel within any borders, in a 2011 post, and in 2010 said that it was possible to “kick them all out.”
“What’s wrong with saying Israelis should get the hell out of Palestine?” he said in another 2010 post. “The British got the hell out of India, [and the] French out of Algeria?”

While El-Fattah was granted UK citizenship of his own in December 2021, and both Conservative and Labour governments have advocated for his release, the activist expressed disdain for British and white people.

“I’m telling [you] that I hate white people,” he said in 2011.

The activist in 2013 called for “more fear” to convince white males that “racism costs lives,” suggesting that more “random shooting of white males” would fit that purpose. El-Fattah in 2009 considered Jews to fall under white people since “whiteness can expand” and “Jews used to be outside the system of privilege, and now western ones are totally inside it.”

The activist’s mother had British citizenship, but in 2010, he called the British “dogs and monkeys” and called British history “pure BS [bulls**t].”

Jewish orgs. slam UK's decision to grant El-Fattah citizenship
Jewish organizations, civil groups, and opposition politicians criticized the policy of granting citizenship and then repatriating a person who held views that were in conflict with the fabric of British society.

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage said on social media on Saturday that the affair was evidence of how the current government keeps getting “worse.”

Conservative Party MP Robert Jenrick sent a letter to Starmer on Saturday questioning the prime minister’s commitment to combating antisemitism and public order with his endorsement of El-Fattah. Jenrick noted that El-Fattah had urged protests in 2011 to “go burn the city or Downing Street or hunt police.”

He asked if Starmer condemned such statements and if they were known by the government before welcoming the activist to the UK.

Other Conservative MPs leveled criticism, but the Board of Deputies noted in its statement that the campaign on behalf of El-Fattah was “cross-party” and the welcome he received demonstrated “a broken system with an astonishing lack of due diligence by the authorities.”

In 2022, then-foreign secretary James Cleverly promised to “work tirelessly for his release.”

Then-secretary of state for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Rutley said in 2022 in response to a question from Labour MP Naz Shah that then-prime minister Rishi Sunak had been raising El-Fattah’s case and requesting consular access for him. The Egyptian authorities had not recognized the British nationality conferred upon him.

Over 100 members of the Labour Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and independents such as MP Jeremy Corbyn and MP Ayoub Khan signed a 2024 letter to then-foreign secretary Lammy urging him to push for El-Fattah’s release.

According to the El-Fattah freedom campaign website, the activist has long been persecuted in Egypt. He was detained in 2006 for a month for online activities, according to CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. In 2011, he was jailed for 45 days under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s regime and then again by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for involvement in demonstrations.

In 2013, he was arrested by Sisi’s government, and in 2014, he was sentenced to five years for organizing protests. He was briefly released in 2019, then rearrested. His mother is a British citizen, according to El-Fattah in a 2012 post on X, and he was given British citizenship in 2021.

Anti-Israel activists disrupted Boxing Day shopping in London and Toronto malls on Friday, demanding that the UK government free jailed activist vandals and that the Canadian government impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel.

Activists associated with Prayers for Gaza hung Palestinian flags and banners from the banisters in the Westfield Stratford City shopping center. As activists chanted for the release of Palestine Action vandals, fliers calling for the boycotting of all Israeli goods and services on Boxing Day were dropped from upper floors to the bottom of the shopping center.

Instagram posts by activists showed them struggling with security, who tried to pull their banners and flags from the banisters.

Prayers for Gaza said that the “takeover” of the mall was done to raise awareness about their demands to the UK government to cut defense industry ties, ban goods from Israeli settlements, and end the operations of Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems in the country.

The group also demanded the release of 24 Palestine Action activists jailed in connection with an August 2024 attack on Elbit Systems UK’s South Gloucestershire Horizon facility and the June raid on the Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire.

Seven of the Palestine Action activists had begun a hunger strike on November 2 in a bid to secure their release, expel Elbit subsidiaries from the country, and deprescribe their organization, but by Wednesday, three had ended their protest.

Protests in Toronto
Toronto activists held a similar Boxing Day protest at the Eaton Centre, according to the Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto, also hanging banners from upper floors and dropping pamphlets to disrupt shopping.
A PYM representative said that protesters acted “on the busiest day for shopping day for so-called Canada” because while “people are spending money,” the Canadian government was supposedly sending weapon components to Israel.

“Demonstrators are demanding that the Canadian government impose a full, two-way arms embargo, close the US export loophole, and end Canada’s political and military support for Israel’s actions,” PYM Toronto said on social media.

Pro-Palestinian protesters confronted Itzik and Talik Gvili, the parents of St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili, whose remains are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Miami on Sunday, according to footage circulating on social media.

Itzik and Talik traveled to Florida to meet with US President Donald Trump as part of the efforts to return their son's remains to Israel.

In the video, the protesters are seen waving signs, wearing keffiyehs, and shouting at Gvili’s family. Talik is seen taking one of the cardboard signs held by the protesters and tearing it in half.

"The main fear was that something would happen," Gvili's aunt, Tami Tzioni, was quoted as telling N12. "We are happy that they managed to get out of there unharmed."

According to N12, Itzik and Talik did not have time to speak with her about the incident, though they managed to pass along a recording of the altercation.

You can see how hard it is for Talik," N12 quoted Tzioni as saying. "It hurts her to be there, and people don't even pay attention to it. You can see the pain on her face in everything that happens there."

N12 added that, according to Tzioni, Itzik and Talik left their meeting with Trump, Jared Kushner, and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff "strengthened, and we are following their lead."

Searches for Gvili's remains in Gaza reportedly halted
According to Tzioni, searches for Gvili's remains are not currently underway in the Gaza Strip. However, Israel is attempting to uncover more information on where they may be through different channels, referring to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist reportedly captured by Israel earlier this week.

"They didn't say they wouldn't move on to the next stage as we hoped they might," Tzioni was quoted by N12 as saying, "But on the other hand, we know that when Trump said he would do things, he succeeded. We hope that's what will happen.

As one of his first acts as mayor, Mamdani declined to renew two executive orders signed by former Mayor Eric Adams: One that adopted a broad definition of antisemitism and another that prohibited city employees from engaging in the boycott, divest and sanctions movement against Israel.

The defunct orders were part of a suite of mayoral decrees signed by Adams that Mamdani revoked. During an unrelated press briefing Friday, Mamdani pledged to protect Jewish New Yorkers, but did not go into much detail about why he tossed the orders.

“My administration will also be marked by a city government that will be relentless in its efforts to combat hate and division, and we will showcase that by fighting hate across the city,” he said. “That includes fighting the scourge of antisemitism by actually funding hate crime prevention, by celebrating our neighbors and by practicing a politics of universality.”

[...]

Upon taking office Thursday, Mamdani was required to sift through years of Adams-era executive orders, choosing to renew, revise or revoke them. The new mayor opted to nix every executive order signed after Adams was indicted on federal bribery charges and the motivation for his actions in office came under suspicion. However, there were several exceptions, including a decree to establish the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism and another that prohibits protests within a certain distance of houses of worship.

[...]

On Friday, a collection of Jewish groups, including the UJA-Federation of New York, the New York chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the New York Board of Rabbis, released a statement arguing Mamdani’s actions took away two significant protections against antisemitism, though they praised him for retaining the other two elements of Adams’ policy.

- Mamdani revokes Israel-related executive orders signed by Adams, directs team to focus on housing in first acts as mayor, CNN, 01/02/2026.
- Mamdani defends eliminating executive orders on antisemitism, boycotting Israel, Politico, 01/02/2026: "The mayor incurred criticism from local Jewish organizations and the Israeli government over the move."

Brief summary: One of Mamdani first acts in office was to go through a pile of executive orders that had been issued by his predecessor, Adams, and decide which ones to renew and which ones to revoke or amend.

According to the Politico article: