--snip--

Tegin, who has more than 25,000 TikTok followers, is part of a group of Black Israelis in their 20s and early 30s who have been vigorously defending Israel online — and in English — since its war with Hamas began on Oct. 7. They are an informal but increasingly visible part of Israel’s public diplomacy, known as hasbara, which seeks to defend Israel from criticism and burnish the country’s image overseas, and kicks into high gear during wartime. (TikTok, especially, has become a major online battleground, with a recent analysis showing that pro-Palestinian hashtags are massively outperforming pro-Israel hashtags on the platform.)
While they each have their own politics and communication styles, these creators said in interviews that they are motivated by a desire to raise awareness about Israel’s diverse population. All of them except Aynaw, who did not respond to requests for comment, said they are creating Israel-related content on their own initiative, and that the government is not paying them to do hasbara on its behalf. (Like all soldiers, Tegin and Logan receive wages from the IDF to perform their regular military duties.)

“I was looking to show the world that as strange as it may sound, there are also quite a few Black people in Israel, and we live good lives, so there is no need to use my skin color as an excuse” to criticize the country, Tegin, who lives in Haifa, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

--snip--

There are more than 200,000 people of African descent who call Israel home, including about 170,000 Ethiopian Jews, 30,000 asylum seekers (primarily from Eritrea and Sudan), 3,000 Hebrew Israelites (Black people who identify as descendants of the ancient Israelites but are not recognized as Jews according to Jewish law), and an unknown number of Black Jewish immigrants from the United States and African countries. There are also people who identify as Afro-Palestinian who live inside Israel’s borders.

Besides the asylum seekers, all of these people trace their genealogical or spiritual roots to the Holy Land. “Most of us see our return to the land of Israel as prophetic,” Moore, who was raised in the African Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona, said in an interview. (The community, which considers Israel to be located in northeastern Africa, is not connected to the radical “Black Hebrew Israelite” groups in the United States whose members denigrate Jews and Israel.)

Israeli security forces eliminated a number of terrorist squads in Gaza, and seized significant weapons, including a bomb that was found in a Shejaia medical clinic near a school, the IDF said on Tuesday.

The statement came with a video showing the device, found in a garbage can near the door to the clinic.

In a raid on terrorist infrastructure in Khan Yunis, IDF soldiers shot down a terrorist who had launched an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces. The IDF located a munitions storehouse containing explosive charges, weapons, and grenades, the statement said.

The IDF released photos of the seized weapons, as well as a vest with "UN" on the front.

Kamal Adwan Hospital director Ahmad Kahlot of Jabalya in northern Gaza has confessed to the Shin Bet that Hamas took over his hospital as a military operations center, it was revealed on Tuesday.

Kahlot told his interrogators that he joined Hamas in 2010 at the equivalent rank of a brigadier general.

Next, he said that many of the hospital staff double as members of Hamas’s al-Qassam brigades. These include doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other staff.

More specifically, he said that the hospital had 16 staff members who doubled as terror operatives for Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday revealed the largest-ever Hamas attack tunnel discovered by the military, in the northern Gaza Strip, close to the Erez border crossing with Israel.

The tunnel, of which around four kilometers (2.5 miles) were uncovered by the IDF, goes down some 50 meters (165 feet) underground in some areas and appears to be wide enough for vehicles to pass through. It did not enter Israeli territory.

One of the shafts was found just 400 meters (a quarter mile) from the Erez Crossing, which until Hamas’s October 7 onslaught facilitated the movement of Palestinian civilians into Israel for work and medical care.

The IDF said that over the last few weeks, the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit and the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade used “advanced intelligence and technological means” to uncover the “strategic” tunnel network, scan it and clear it of any potential threats.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the boycott of Israel and eradication of Zionism.
JVP does not represent the mainstream Jewish community, which it views as bigoted for its association with Israel. JVP’s staunch anti-Zionist positions place it squarely in opposition to mainstream American Jews and Jews worldwide, most of whom view a connection with Israel as an integral part of their social, cultural or religious Jewish identities. JVP promulgates the view that Jews who identify even tangentially with Israel are motivated by white supremacy, Jewish racial chauvinism and religious supremacism.
The spread of JVP’s most inflammatory ideas can help give rise to antisemitism. Many left-wing groups have uncritically accepted JVP’s anti-Zionist claims, elevating their harsh rhetoric related to Israel and Zionism and furthering the widespread antisemitic vilification and ostracization of many American Jews who identify as Zionists. This has helped to create a hostile environment for Jews on many campuses and in many progressive spaces.

--snip--

In addition to JVP’s promotion of messaging that descends into the antisemitic vilification of “Zionists,” the group has expressed support for violence and, occasionally, classic antisemitic tropes. Some JVP members, leaders and chapters propagate rhetoric or sponsor events where participants express support for violence or terror against Israelis and vilify Zionist Jews. In a few instances, they have espoused blatant antisemitic tropes, including modern manifestations of the blood libel and allegations of Jewish dual loyalty to the countries in which they live.

In the weeks following the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, political activists have targeted elected officials – and their offices – with harassment and vandalism. Many of these incidents featured anti-Israel rhetoric, allegations of support for genocide and demands for a ceasefire.

Fewer than half of the elected officials who have reported being targeted by protestors are Jewish. All targeted individuals have expressed support for Israel, and most have spoken about the need to eliminate Hamas to secure lasting peace in the region. Several have also expressed concern about the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza. A week after protestors disrupted U.S. Representative’s Becca Balint’s (D-VT) fundraising event, she became the first Jewish representative to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

These incidents highlight the very real threats facing legislators who engage publicly on the Israel-Hamas war and underscore the fraught environment in which public officials are operating -- and the mounting pressure to perfectly calibrate every public statement.

Below, reported incidents targeting elected officials.

Some fringe-left groups are aligning with anti-Zionist organizations in the wake of Hamas's attack on Israel, by expressing support for Hamas’s atrocities in the name of “resistance” and “liberation.” The Party for Socialism and Liberation, the World Workers Party, chapters of the Democratic Socialists for America, independent chapters of Black Lives Matter and more have shared these views in official statements and on social media. These groups are also helping to organize in-person, anti-Israel events, where participants are sharing further support for terrorism and violence, as well as expressing antisemitic rhetoric.

The Israeli military announced Friday that it has recovered the bodies of three hostages held by Hamas, including two soldiers.

The two soldiers, Cpl. Nik Beizer and Sgt. Ron Sherman, both 19 years old, were taken hostage by the militant group at the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war Oct. 7. The body of 28-year-old Elia Toledano was also recovered, the military said in a brief statement.

It is estimated that approximately 1,200 people were killed and 200 were kidnapped on Oct. 7 and taken hostage by Hamas, including soldiers and civilians. More than 100 women and children hostages were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in the war early this month.

“Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all the hostages home,” the Israeli military said in Friday’s statement. “We are working together with security agencies, and with all intelligence and operational means in order to return all of the hostages home.”

The U.S. Education Department announced investigations Tuesday into Stanford University, UCLA and four other colleges over alleged ethnic discrimination, including antisemitic or Islamophobic activities, on the campuses.

The remaining schools under new scrutiny of alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act are Rutgers University; the University of California, San Diego; the University of Washington; and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, the department said.

Details about what led to the investigations were not clear. A spokesperson for the Education Department said Tuesday the agency cannot comment on specific investigations.

Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the United Nations General Assembly that Israel had protected the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a holy site for Muslims in Jerusalem, from Hamas.

Sharing his speech on X on Saturday evening, Erdan wrote, “Israel is defending Al-Aqsa Mosque from Hamas missiles‼️

"Just as ISIS destroyed mosques, Hamas-ISIS is willing to blow up Al-Aqsa. For Hamas, murdering Israelis is more important than Islamic holy sites. This is what I said today in the UN General Assembly as I showed the Iron Dome interception of a Hamas missile fired towards the Temple Mount. These are the terrorists that the UN has chosen to protect. Unbelievable‼️”

Israel is defending Al-Aqsa Mosque from Hamas missiles‼️Just as ISIS destroyed mosques, Hamas-ISIS is willing to blow up Al-Aqsa. For Hamas, murdering Israelis is more important than Islamic holy sites. This is what I said today in the UN General Assembly as I showed the Iron… pic.twitter.com/QNuZ44i7UN
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) December 15, 2023

The comments were made after Hamas had indiscriminately launched rockets towards civilian populations in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. The impassioned speech began with Erdan stating “Today, Hamas proved that murdering Israelis is even more important than preserving the Islamic holy sites they claim to protect.”