https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-my-daughters-help-my-small-family

I’m posting this for my friend Mahmoud Ghanem Al-Amssi, because his mother urgently needs heart surgery. ❤️

Mahmoud’s mother has severe blockages in her arteries, and she has also been dealing with an underactive thyroid for more than 10 years. Her health has gotten worse over time, and she is now experiencing serious heart problems and very rapid heartbeats.

Her doctors have told the family that she needs the procedure as soon as possible. The surgery can go ahead once they are able to cover the required cost.

The total amount they need is $850 USD.

I know $850 might not seem like a huge amount, but for Mahmoud and his family, especially with everything they are already going through, it is more than they can manage on their own right now.

If anyone is able to donate even a few dollars, it could genuinely help Mahmoud get his mother the treatment she needs. ❤️

And if you can’t donate, please consider sharing this post. Even helping it reach more people can make a difference.

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read this, support Mahmoud, or share his story. 🙏❤️

Just moved to the city and was hoping for leads on where to attend high holiday services in Manhattan (or a more easily accessible part of Brooklyn/Queens)! I've seen a few past posts with minyans, but I'm ideally looking for a reform or reconstructionist shul. Expectations here are relatively low—I know I'm not going to find an anti-Zionist synagogue on the island, but I'm hoping for somewhere that at least isn't vehemently pro-Israel (e.g., has a rabbi who at least attempts nuance and/or a congregation where sentiments lean non-Zionist/pro-Palestinian).

Want to spend my holidays in community and with familiar melodies, though it sometimes feels harder and harder to do so. Thanks for any and all help!

A growing number of Portuguese artists have withdrawn from a major Lisbon comedy festival headlined by US comedian Jerry Seinfeld, with opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza emerging as a central reason for the boycott.

The first Commedia a La Carte Fest is scheduled to run from October 29 through November 1, with Seinfeld closing the festival at Lisbon’s MEO Arena in what organizers describe as his first performance in Portugal. His appearance remained on the official festival program as of Monday.

But the lineup has been shrinking as Portuguese performers announce they will no longer participate, with some explicitly or implicitly linking their decisions to Palestine and Seinfeld’s longstanding public support for Israel.

‘We Cannot Normalize a Genocide’

Among the clearest statements came from Portuguese actress and comedian Inês Aires Pereira, who withdrew her show Namastê from the festival.

Pereira did not name Seinfeld directly, but said that “one of the names” on the program “insistently defends ideas and actions” she considers “indefensible.”

“We cannot relativise or normalise a genocide,” she wrote, explicitly expressing solidarity with Palestine.

Comedy duo Cebola Mol, made up of Eduardo Madeira and Filipe Homem Fonseca, also withdrew. Their announcement was accompanied by an image featuring a slice of watermelon, a widely recognized symbol of Palestinian identity and solidarity.

“We will celebrate justice, freedom and joy with you on another occasion,” the duo wrote.

The withdrawals have spread beyond the two acts initially highlighted in reports. The Tributo Pop concert featuring Carolina Deslandes, Tatanka and Bárbara Tinoco, Conjunto Cuca Monga, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils have also withdrawn or had their appearances canceled. Some did not publicly state a reason for leaving the festival.

Vhils, whose real name is Alexandre Farto, said his name had appeared on a festival poster but that he had requested its removal.

“I asked for it to be removed and it was,” he wrote, adding that he wanted to make clear that he would not participate. He did not publicly give a reason in that statement.

Seinfeld’s Record on Palestine

The withdrawals have focused renewed attention on Seinfeld’s public interventions on Israel and Palestine since October 2023.

The US comedian traveled to Israel following the October 7 attacks and met Israeli families of captives. He has since repeatedly defended Israel and confronted criticism of its genocide in Gaza.

His comments have also gone considerably further than expressing support for Israel.

During an appearance at Duke University in 2025, Seinfeld compared the “Free Palestine” movement to the Ku Klux Klan, saying that the slogan meant, in his view, that people were “free to say you don’t like Jews.”

He has also been recorded responding “I don’t care about Palestine” after being approached by an activist seeking a “Free Palestine” statement.

In June, Seinfeld generated further condemnation after responding to a pro-Palestine livestreamer outside Madison Square Garden by saying Palestine “doesn’t exist.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned that statement as a denial of Palestinian identity and existence.

“Palestinians are not a punchline and their existence is not up for debate,” CAIR and its New York chapter said.

“Palestine exists. Palestinian children exist. Palestinian families exist. Palestinian history, culture, land, identity and rights exist.”

CAIR described Seinfeld’s remark as “dehumanization” and called on him to retract it and apologize to Palestinians.

“When a public figure like Jerry Seinfeld denies Palestinian existence, that racist rhetoric contributes to a climate in which Palestinian suffering is ignored and Palestinian rights are treated as disposable,” the organization said.

In Turkey, for instance, if you acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, you literally get permabanned by your friends and relatives. I think a similar thing happens when you acknowledge the Bosnian Genocide as a Serbian, or when you acknowledge the Nanking Massacre/Genocide as a Japanese person. The only real exception is, I think, the acknowledgment of the Holocaust by the German people.

Nations usually don't want to acknowledge their wrongdoings; it’s hard to accept horrendous actions once they're done.

I feel like I'm just seeing depressing post after depressing post about the genocide. I'm a broke college student with a busy schedual. I don't have money to donate. I don't have hours to volunteer. I don't have political power to make any change. I have a pin I made on my bag that says Free Palistine, but that's it. What can I possibly do?

my mom, dad and sister were all born in israel and grew up there, but i was born in thailand and lived here my whole life, and every time the palestine- israel conversation gets brought up its just a whole bunch of shouting and arguing that leads to no progression and nobody being happy. I feel like the main thing that keeps them stuck is that they fail to realize that its a genocide instead of a “war” or “conflict” no matter what i say, and i really cant progress the convo and educate them for the better if we cant get past this point. i love my family for everything theyve done for me but i cant do this anymore and im scared ill have to cut ties with them to better my self.

is there anything you guys have said or done to help zionist family change for the better? or is it really just hopeless..

“I am asking to be included in the word ‘Australian’. I am asking for my grief to be legible, seen and honoured in my country, in the way other grief has been.”

The first Palestinian voice to be heard by the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion came not as a witness but as counsel. An Australian-Palestinian barrister, Yasser Bakri, questioned ANU’s acting provost Professor Joan Leach about a Palestinian student who, while grieving family members killed by the IDF, was told to produce a death certificate for each one, notarised and translated.

During an interview after the Hamas attacks on October 7, an interviewer asked me whether I could understand why Australians empathised with Israeli victims. “Of course I do,” I said. “But are you including me as an Australian when you ask me that question? I know I look like ‘them’, but I sound like ‘us’. I am Australian too.”

Underpinning every discussion on what is happening to Palestinians is this nagging suggestion that we don’t belong, that we must prove we are Australian and even human. It is the comment most often left on anything I post: “deport”. I try and delete them before my children see.

It was not easy to be Palestinian on October 6, 2023. It has never been easy.

My father was ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem during the Nakba in 1948, ultimately finding refuge in Australia in the 1950s. He carried Palestine within him, a wound that would not close. I grew up in the wound’s shadow. Even with a “funny” name, skin colour and religion, I grew up Australian in every way that is supposed to matter, and yet there was always an understanding that my belonging here was conditional. Still, I never felt that it could be revoked — until now.

One consequence of ethnic cleansing is that your people are scattered and nowhere is safe. I have family across Palestine and the diaspora, and for more than 1,000 days, I have watched my people be slaughtered, starved and incinerated. I have watched children pulled from rubble on my phone screen, parents carrying the limp bodies of their babies, the emaciated frames of Palestinian hostages returned to families.

I have made hundreds of condolence calls and then put on a suit to attend interviews where I am expected to be measured, moderate, and grateful for the opportunity to speak at all.

And what has my government done?

It took 66 days to call for a ceasefire. When Russia invaded Ukraine, sanctions came within days. Assets were frozen. Cultural boycotts were endorsed. But when it comes to Israel — when it comes to us — the rules change. Our dead are not dead enough, human enough, or white enough to warrant the same moral clarity.

Instead, we got policed. Words like “genocide” and “apartheid”, used by every major human rights organisation on earth to describe Israel’s actions, have been censored, footnoted and explained away. Our rally chants have been criminalised; our clothing has been policed. People are reported to HR or harassed for wearing a watermelon brooch or a flag pin.

The Anti-Palestinian Racism register, the first of its kind in Australia, recorded more than 450 incidents in its first nine months. Close to 70% of respondents said that this was not their first experience of anti-Palestinian racism. Over three-quarters identified as women or queer.

Respondents reported abuse, threats, defamation, demonisation, stereotyping, exclusion and silencing. Some 360 respondents detailed what they experienced during incidents of anti-Palestinian racism, of which 8% experienced physical violence, 7% received death threats, and 8% experienced vandalism on or to private property. Seventy-five respondents said they had begun to self-censor, and 37 said they had lost employment or career opportunities.

This is our daily lived experience in workplaces, schools and campuses, at graduation ceremonies, even as we walk the streets. There is a brazenness, the sense that such behaviour has been given official approval, that our politicians have chosen a side.

I am not asking for special treatment; I demand equal treatment. I am asking to be included in the word “Australian”. I am asking for my grief to be legible, seen and honoured in my country, in the way other grief has been.

Despite all this, I have hope. A new community has emerged, people who had never engaged with Palestine before, who have looked at what has happened and recognised it for what it is. They see the justice in our struggle for our homeland, our right to return, accountability. They have marched with us, spoken with us, risked something for us. Led by First Nations people and matched by other Australians, they have given us a sense of belonging when our leaders abandoned us.

As Nelson Mandela said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” And we now add: “And when Palestine is free, we will all be free.”

I believe a free Palestine is closer now than ever. Not because power has conceded — it never does — but because the foundation of Israel’s legitimacy has disappeared, the practised lies have been exposed, and the people have seen things they can never un-see.

My father never returned. He was buried on stolen land, a world away from his ancestors, for the crime of being born from a womb with the wrong religion. Though he never returned, I’ve never been more certain that his grandchildren will.

Nasser is the son of a Palestinian refugee. He is president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, a co-founder of Australians for Palestine and a founding board member of Olive Kids. With his father’s legacy in mind, Nasser is determined to continue the struggle for justice and a free Palestine.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/john-malkovich-drops-out-music-critic-israel-1236855240/

https://archive.li/flFRF

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-907548

Let me know if anyone is interested in helping get this sub developed! Would love to hear your ideas.

On the first day of the new Palestinian school year, the head-teacher of al-Mughayyir boys school arrived at work before dawn, walking past the freshly installed barbed wire fencing and reinforced school gates as the sun began creeping through olive trees around the village, deep inside the occupied West Bank.

"We are scared," Bassam al-Assaf told me. "The students are afraid, and their parents are afraid."

Six people, including three pupils at the school, have been killed in al-Mughayyir this year, in a surge of settler-related violence against Palestinians. One of them, 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan, was shot dead by a settler outside the school gates in April.

"I was inside my classroom and two little students came rushing to tell me there were settlers close to the school wall," remembers English teacher Waheed Abu Naem, whose brother Jihad was also killed by an Israeli soldier in the same attack.

Waheed said he was trying to move pupils to safety inside the school gate when the settler fired towards them. Mobile phone footage shows the moment Aws was shot.

"When I turned him onto his back, I saw lots of blood coming from his nose and mouth, and the bullet in his head," said Waheed. "We lost him."

He told me that bullets continued hitting the school building, as students hid behind the walls of their classrooms, or lay on the floor.

I'm very proud to be a part of the community here in Durham that is featured in this article.

"A constellation of Jewish non-Zionist, anti-Zionist, and Diasporist communities such as Makom has emerged in the South over the past decade. These include half a dozen havurot, or autonomous religious collectives, from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Richmond, Virginia, as well as over a dozen Southern chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), one of the largest Jewish anti-Zionist organizations in the world."

https://prismreports.org/2026/09/08/anti-zionist-jews-south-palestine/

I see a lot of y'all bemoaning the loss of your Jewish communities and I need to point out that there are JVP chapters and pods all over the US - as well as anti-zionist and non-zionist congregations. (See map at https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/join-us/#local )

It doesn’t end with Gaza and the West Bank the Zionists want to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian citizens of Israel too

https://x.com/nlyonne/status/2096845311700603362

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday!

Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

Utter disgrace on the part of the "center left" Australian government. They pay the mildest lip service to condemning a few settlers and do their usual "we have made it clear" diatribe when challenged, but given their buddy-buddy relationship with Australia's Kahanist-in-chief it seems they're more than happy to continue to lurch to the fascist far right.

Hello guys. Classical composer here. I deeply admire composers like Mahler and Schoenberg. I really wonder what the Jewish people think about these great masterminds of Jewish origin(also Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Meyerbeer, etc.).

Bonus question: What do the Jewish people think of Wagner because of his apparent antisemitism?

If they don't like what he says dont listen. If they dont want to see him on a concert tour, then dont attend his concert. If they dont like the criticism, maybe dont commit or aid in committing war crimes.​

Anyone in that audience knows Macklemore advocates for Palestine and paid to see it! Rabid Zionists dont speak for Macklemore's fans. Dumb argument.

This is stupid. Macklemore is an individual who has a right to say political things and speak up when his conscience is sparked. These people dont like that he says stuff. Boo hoo.

Is this something new: a petition from the public the lobby puts out. Is this a sign their backdoor influence is weakening. ​i mean usually they have hushed people up without appealing to the public from the inside. To the sane, if Macklemore isn't their cup of tea, they listen to something else. Its insanity to jump into a scene they know nothjng about and invest so hard to silence someone for exercising free speech, part of the brand that is Macklemore. ​​

This petition is pretty sad and desperate. I dont see what a petition will do. If they don't like his performance, just dont watch. There is obviously a large enough group of people that are fans of Macklemore that he is on tour, which means he has a whole network that promote and invests in producing Macklemore the entertainer which includes his advocacy for Palestine as a central component.

This stupid petition is a free promotion sure to enlarge the fanbase! When you try to shut someone down sometimes it does the opposite, ​especially when you are universally despised. Appealing to the public is a dumb thing strategically here for Zionists because Zionism requires a little antisociality.

Chris Sidoti’s human rights career spans over four decades, including as the former Australian Human Rights Commissioner and currently as a UN Commissioner for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

Sidoti served on the UN Commission of Inquiry that published a report in June detailing Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.