(JTA) — An Op-Ed co-written last Friday by two American Jewish professors has stirred Internet controversy, with the focus largely on their use of four words: “We are lifelong Zionists.” Professors Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl began their Washington Post Op-Ed with those words before launching into a nuanced call for an economic boycott of…
J.K. Rowling has defended her decision to oppose a cultural boycott of Israel in a post on her Twitter account. The “Harry Potter” author was criticized by a number of her fans on social media after she was announced as one of the 150 British artists who signed an open letter, published by The Guardian…
More than 300 scholars affiliated with British academic institutions signed a letter pledging not to cooperate with Israeli academic institutions. The letter, which was signed by 343 scholars, was set to appear on Tuesday in a full-page ad in The Guardian, according to organizers of the letter of commitment. “As scholars associated with British universities,…
A haredi Orthodox lawmaker in Israel compared the Women of the Wall organization to the Muslim Murabitat, a banned group of women who harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. “The Murabitat women receive money from the Islamic Movement to create provocation and prevent Jews from ascending the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Yisrael Eichler of the…
A class-action lawsuit against Facebook is accusing the social media platform of ignoring widespread Palestinian posts calling for violence against Jews. In the suit filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, the 20,000 Israeli plaintiffs claim the Facebook posts have inspired many recent terror attacks and that “Facebook’s algorithms and platform connects…
A Muslim family in southern Florida has hung an Israeli flag in the window of their tailor shop. The family, originally from Turkey, told NBC Miami that they hung the flag in the shop window in Surfside, an oceanside community of about 4,100, to show their support for Israel, particularly during the current wave of…
A rocket fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel. Code Red sirens sounded in communities on the border with Gaza before the rocket landed in an open area on Monday evening. There were no injuries and no obvious damage. Area residents reported hearing an explosion. It was the second rocket fired from Gaza at southern…
A Jewish-Israeli teenager who admitted to stabbing four Arab men in the southern city of Dimona was indicted for attempted murder. The indictment was issued on Monday by the Beersheba District Court, the Times of Israel reported. The attacker, 17, also was indicted on counts of aggravated assault and causing aggravated bodily harm with racist…
Two Israel Prisons Service employees who have been charged in the beating of an Eritrean man mistaken for a terrorist will face a disciplinary hearing. The workers, who have been suspended from their jobs, could lose their jobs at the hearing on Thursday. Inspector Ronen Cohen and an unnamed guard were among four men arrested…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized his nation’s media for downplaying a journalist’s “incitement” against him in a post on his Facebook page. Netanyahu’s comments on social media followed his filing of a police complaint against Gilad Halpern, an editor of the English-language edition of Ynet, who uploaded a photoshopped image of Netanyahu in an…
A Polish rightist party that stirred controversy with xenophobic remarks about Muslims and Jews by some of its representatives won the parliamentary election in Poland. The Law and Justice party emerged as Poland’s largest with 39 percent of the vote, according to results published Monday. Jan Gross, a Polish-born American Jewish historian and sociologist, told…
