The origins of the goods will be verified using an existing European Union postcode list that determines eligibility for preferential tariffs.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

The Belgian government is advancing a royal decree to ban the import of goods produced in Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and Gaza.

The move makes Belgium the fourth European nation to impose such a boycott, joining Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

The decision, approved by the Council of Ministers just before summer recess, amends a 1993 decree governing the transit and trade of goods and operates within the country’s existing import authorization system.

Laurens Soenen, spokesperson for Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, told JNS in written comments on Monday that import authorizations will be “systematically refused” for goods originating from Israeli communities in these areas.

The origins of the goods will be verified using an existing European Union postcode list that determines eligibility for preferential tariffs.

A 120-day transitional period will allow business and administrators to adapt to the new rules.

Soenen noted exemptions are in place for local Palestinian Arab producers and humanitarian supplies, emphasizing that the measure strictly targets the Israeli economy in the territories.

According to Soenen, Brussels considers the Israeli communities illegal under international law, a position he said is shared across the European Union, referring to the July 19, 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion.

He claimed that the decree is a response to specific Israeli government policies and “takes nothing away from Belgium’s relationship with Israel or from our attachment to Israel’s security.”

Israeli officials sharply criticized the Belgian move.

“Belgium has reached a point of no return,” Israeli lawmaker Sharren Haskel wrote on X. The former deputy minister of foreign affairs, who resigned from her position earlier this month, accused Brussels of signaling it is “not interested in having a Jewish minority within its borders,” adding:

“It can continue importing radical Islam. We will continue exporting products from Judea and Samaria to countries that choose to import innovation, quality and technology.”

The post Belgium advances boycott of Judea and Samaria goods appeared first on World Israel News.

So far, Ireland and Spain are the only European countries to have advanced comprehensive legislative efforts aimed at banning trade with Israeli settlements.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

The British government has been weighing a full ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, marking one of its strongest measures yet against Israel as international pressure over settlement policy continues to intensify.

Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer confirmed on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is in discussions with international partners regarding potential coordinated restrictions on goods produced in the settlements, while examining how such measures could be implemented in practice.

According to Falconer, coordinating such a policy with allies remains complex.

He acknowledged “technical difficulties,” particularly among European Union member states, where differing legal and political positions have complicated efforts to pursue a unified approach.

“I do not think that the policy of settlements is supported across the whole of Israel,” the British minister told lawmakers during a parliamentary session.

“There are many voices in Israel who recognize the terrible harm being done to the state of Israel by the expansion of settlements.”

Falconer went on to urge caution in how the debate is framed publicly.

“We must be really careful in our language. There are many, many Israelis, and indeed many, many British Jews, who can see the terrible damage done by violent settlements, and we must not tar communities in this country or the whole nation of Israel with the same brush,” he continued.

Britain currently maintains separate customs, labeling, and tariff rules for goods from Israel and Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, alongside official guidance for businesses.

By imposing a full ban on imports from Judea and Samaria, the British government would mark a sharp break from existing policy, significantly tightening restrictions and reshaping how trade with the region is governed.

Unlike the current framework, a sweeping prohibition would go further by legally blocking goods produced in the settlements from entering the British market, rather than merely applying differentiated trade rules or labeling requirements.

So far, Ireland and Spain are the only European countries to have advanced comprehensive legislative efforts aimed at banning trade with Israeli settlements, while Slovenia has encountered legal and political obstacles that have delayed similar measures.

Last month, more than one-third of lawmakers from Britain’s governing Labour Party urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to halt all trade with Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, arguing that stronger economic measures were needed.

Under the current Israeli government, settlement construction in Judea and Samaria has accelerated, with new housing approvals and the legalization of previously unauthorized communities expanding Israel’s presence in the territory—land Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state and which most of the international community considers a violation of international law.

Israel disputes claims that the settlements are illegal, pointing to historical and legal ties to Judea and Samaria as well as arguing they provide strategic depth and security considerations.

Israeli officials have also noted that Arab citizens of Israel make up roughly one-fifth of the population and hold equal rights, while highlighting that Palestinian law prohibits the sale of land to Israelis.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government announced plans to advance the E1 project, a settlement initiative east of Jerusalem that would effectively bisect Judea and Samaria and sever its connection to Jerusalem—a move that drew widespread international condemnation and renewed calls from some governments for sanctions against Israel.

As part of its broader posture toward Israel, the British government has paused free trade talks with the Jewish state, suspended some arms export licenses, and imposed sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Britain also recognized a Palestinian state last year, marking one of the most significant shifts in its Middle East policy in decades and further straining relations with Israel.

The post UK weighs sweeping ban on goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria appeared first on World Israel News.

Boycotting the culture of the Middle East’s only democracy—its liberal, pluralistic, hypercritical, and pacifist culture—is easy.

By Giulio Meotti, Middle East Forum

“Israel has become the most boycotted country in the world,” headlines an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Along with its right-wing ministers (Itamar Ben-Gvir), antisemites are boycotting its leftist directors (Nadav Lapid), its pacifist writers (Eshkol Nevo) and its universities.

The New York Times has run an article on writers who can’t find publishers and book fairs that can’t find authors to invite.

Yet while Israeli culture is treated like contaminated goods, its weapons are courted without shame.

Meanwhile, at Eurosatory, the major arms fair in Paris, barriers have been erected around the stands of Israeli defense companies.

“The French say it’s because of Gaza,” an Israeli executive told The Economist, “but their real problem is that we’re competing for contracts—and we’re winning.”

He added that even Macron’s presidential jet uses an Israeli system to protect itself from anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel is expecting new orders for air and missile defense systems from European countries in the near future, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official revealed to Reuters.

Demand continues to grow as European nations perceive a greater threat from Russia and seek to strengthen their air defenses.

“There is enormous interest from Western Europe,” said Moshe Patel, director general of the Israel Missile Defense Organization.

Israel has sold its Arrow air defense system—designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles such as the Russian Oreshnik—to Germany.

Finland has purchased the shorter-range David’s Sling system, designed to shoot down ballistic missiles launched from 100 to 200 kilometers away, as European countries prepare for a possible Russian aggression.

“It’s mainly due to what’s happening between Russia and Ukraine,” Patel said.

“Naturally they are watching very closely what is happening in Iran, and anything that works against Russia could also work against Iran. Whatever they do will be useful against all these types of threats.”

Patel said there is also interest in the Iron Dome, designed to neutralize short-range threats.

“It represents an enormous advantage for those nations that have enemies on their borders: this is its main capability, along with the ability to protect a city or a strategic area,” he added.

When Macron accused the Germans of promoting a “third-party industry at the expense of European sovereignty” for buying an Israeli missile defense system instead of the one France is developing with Italy, German officials simply shrugged.

“Russian ballistic missiles represent an immediate threat,” the Germans say, and Israel was able to offer a battle-tested system, while the French one is still on paper.

Israel is now the world’s seventh-largest arms exporter. It supplies more weapons to Germany and Britain than France does, accounting for 55% of German imports and 8.2% of British ones.

Israel is such a military power that it sells more arms to European NATO states than France itself—which is in Europe and in NATO.

Israel is the third-largest supplier to European NATO armies.

Say it again: Israel is the third-largest supplier to European NATO armies.

Boycotting the culture of the Middle East’s only democracy—its liberal, pluralistic, hypercritical, and pacifist culture—is easy.

Doing without its weapons is harder. Boycotting culture costs nothing: it only requires the virtue of a public gesture and puts no one’s security at risk.

Giving up the most effective weapons, on the other hand, has a price that European defense ministries, faced with the Russian shadow and Middle Eastern instability, do not seem willing to pay.

The distinction between what can be condemned in words and what must be purchased in silence reveals, more than any statement, where ideologies end and where the calculus of survival begins—and the sentinel and laboratory role that Israel plays for Western democracies.

How do you defend a culture? For Israel, also with weapons. For a certain West, with trigger warnings and safe spaces.

And while the Pentagon is reportedly ready to reduce the number of fighter jets deployed in Europe, according to the New York Times, European air defense is a mosaic of American Patriots and the Israeli Iron Dome.

And what about active protection systems for European tanks? Israel’s Trophy system, mounted on American Abrams, German Leopards, and British Challengers.

And the targeting pod, the target acquisition system? From Rafael, used by air forces across Europe.

And counter-drone systems? A market dominated by Israeli and American companies.

Israel has faced drones from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis, and other Iran-backed actors.

It has seen the skies over Tel Aviv become crowded and dangerous.

When European governments ask how to defend airports, bases, cities, and troops, it is hardly surprising that Israeli solutions are so appealing.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been fighting on seven fronts simultaneously against a network equipped with Russian S-300 air defense systems, Chinese ballistic missiles, and Iranian drone technology.

Israel cannot afford the luxury of weakness. Can Europe?

The post Without Israel, a Europe of fools would be disarmed – analysis appeared first on World Israel News.

Earlier this year, three Belgian universities sparked outrage within the local Jewish community after awarding honorary doctorates to the antisemitic UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

More than 4,500 students and university professors have signed an open letter urging Belgian universities and colleges to cut academic ties with Israeli institutions, in one of the latest efforts in a growing international push to boycott and politically isolate the Jewish state on the international stage.

On Wednesday, thousands of academics, students, and public figures issued a joint appeal urging Belgian higher education institutions to end formal cooperation with Israeli universities and move beyond symbolic statements toward concrete action, amid mounting pressure within academic circles across Europe.

With this appeal, the signatories are not only demanding an immediate suspension of existing academic collaborations with Israeli institutions but also seeking to block new partnerships and terminate contracts with major companies such as Dell, Teva, and Microsoft.

“The demands are not new,” the letter reads. “The urgency has only increased.”

The appeal also asks universities to use their influence to encourage Belgium to meet its international legal responsibilities and to help advance a Europe-wide framework for governing future research and innovation.

Earlier this year, three Belgian universities sparked outrage within the local Jewish community after awarding honorary doctorates to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has an extensive history of using her role to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas attacks against the Jewish state.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Ghent University, and the University of Antwerp — three of Belgium’s top-ranked institutions — awarded Albanese honorary doctorates in recognition of her “exceptional commitment to the protection of human rights and the strengthening of international law.”

Now, leading academics and students are calling for the implications of such honors to be reflected in university policies, arguing that they should translate into clearer institutional positions and commitments.

“With this, the universities signal their commitment to international law, human rights, and institutional responsibility,” the letter reads.

Across Europe, advocates of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement have intensified efforts to sever academic and institutional ties with Israeli universities, seeking to deepen Israel’s isolation on the international stage as pressure and momentum for such campaigns continue to escalate.

According to a recent report by Israel’s Association of University Heads (VERA) Task Force to Combat Academic Boycotts, there has been a documented surge in “academic BDS” activity across Europe and other Western countries, including the United States, since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In May 2024, Ghent University in Belgium went on to ban partnerships with Israeli universities altogether.

The VERA report argued that the growing wave of academic boycott initiatives reflects a broader rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionist activism across Europe following the Oct. 7 atrocities.

The post Thousands of Belgian academics urge universities to cut ties with Israeli institutions in expanding boycott drive appeared first on World Israel News.

Tuesday’s vote was so contentious that coop coordinators increased security measures around the coop itself and decided to hold the vote remotely.

By Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA

Two-thirds of the famed worker-owned grocery store in Brooklyn’s Park Slope voted Tuesday night in favor of a boycott of Israeli products.

The vote came after a years-long battle that divided coop members and the Park Slope community.

Of the 6,772 votes cast at a meeting that lasted for hours, 67% voted in favor of the boycott, 31% voted against, and 2% abstained, according to immediate results of the vote viewed by JTA.

Nearly 7,000 out of the 16,000 members of the Park Slope Food Coop signed on to participate in the vote, where two ballot questions decided the fate of under a dozen Israeli products sold at the neighborhood spot.

Now, those Israeli products will be removed from the shelves.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions effort has been a hot issue at the Park Slope Food Coop for more than a decade.

But since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and the ensuing Gaza war, the coop’s stance on the sale of Israeli goods has become a flashpoint among its 16,000 members.

Tuesday’s vote was so contentious that coop coordinators increased security measures around the coop itself and decided to hold the vote remotely.

Coop members first voted on a resolution lowering the required threshold to pass a boycott from a 75% supermajority of members to a simple majority of 51%.

This vote passed 68% to 31%, with 1% abstaining.

Only after that passed did the group consider a resolution to boycott the sale of Israeli products.

That resolution declared that, “Until Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices in its treatment of Palestinians, the Coop will not sell goods produced in Israel (pre-1967 borders) or in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The boycott will affect nine Israeli products, including a variety of bell pepper sold only in the winter, persimmons, olive oil, sesame products, Dorot frozen herb cubes and Osem Bamba, the popular Israeli peanut-flavored snack, according to Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine.

The advocacy group PSFC Members for Palestine first proposed a boycott in 2024; Coop4Unity, the anti-BDS group, was founded in 2024 to prevent that.

Tuesday’s meeting was moved entirely online to accommodate the size of the “unprecedentedly large” guest list and also for security reasons, coop staff announced in an email days before the vote.

“Staff, presenters, Chair committee and other members have all raised explicit concerns about their safety, attending the meeting in-person,” PSFC coordinators wrote in their email

. “We cannot guarantee their security even if supplemental security measures are introduced. Therefore, the safest way forward is to limit attendance to all virtual.”

The market’s fight over BDS has even entered the Democratic primary election discourse in the coop’s congressional district of NY-10, in which two Jewish candidates are facing off.

Incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman condemned the vote in a statement to the Forward last week.

“Everyone is free to criticize the Israeli government — which I do not hesitate to do — but joining a movement that was founded on the principle of the elimination of Israel will have no impact on the Israeli government or the Israeli economy,” Goldman said.

“Instead, it only succeeds at shifting the responsibility for the Israeli government’s actions to American Jews — which is quintessential antisemitism.”

Goldman’s opponent, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, said he is not a member of the coop but would vote against the resolution if he were.

The rhetoric at the coop over the BDS effort has escalated in recent weeks. During an April meeting, a member stated that, “Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country.”

Jewish Community Relations Council CEO Mark Treyger had called for an investigation into the incident. Coop4Unity has also filed a state human rights complaint, alleging antisemitic and anti-Israel harassment at the market.

The post Park Slope Food Coop votes for Israel boycott appeared first on World Israel News.

Hate crimes targeting Jews were up 182% in the city in Mamdani’s first month in office.

By JNS

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception at Gracie Mansion, which leading Jewish leaders boycotted, that he planned to add $26 million in funding to prevent hate crimes to his proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year.

Few Jewish government officials or nonprofit leaders attended the reception on Monday, which came on the heels of a video that the mayor posted shortly before Shabbat began marking “Nakba” day, which Palestinians say marks the “catastrophe” of the founding of the modern Israeli state.

JNS was told that there was no room for it to attend to report on the event in person.

The mayor’s annual event is usually full of crowds of elected and organizational representatives shmoozing and networking.

This year, every major Jewish organization in the city, from the Anti-Defamation League to the Jewish Community Relations Council-N.Y. to the UJA-Federation of New York, declined to attend the reception, which doubled as a dairy-filled gathering ahead of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

The mayor, who has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in New York City and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law if they host pro-Israel events, said at the reception that Jews, who comprise about 12% of city residents, are victims of more than 50% of the hate crimes in the Big Apple.

Hate crimes targeting Jews were up 182% in the city in Mamdani’s first month in office.

Since then, the New York City Police Department has twice changed the way that it reports hate crimes and has said that such crimes are dropping.

The NYPD and the mayor’s office have denied that Mamdani directed the police to change the way it reports such statistics.

Prior to the event, the UJA-Federation of New York said its leaders would not “be attending the Jewish Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage—the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”

Among those noshing on blintzes and mini-cheesecakes with the mayor this year were representatives of the anti-Zionist groups Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, as well as the liberal group New York New Jewish Agenda, which says that it supports “a democratic vision of Israel.”

Rabbi Moishe Indig, a leader of the Satmar Chassidic community of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, was also among the 150 attendees.

Satmar is anti-Zionist as a matter, it says, of religious principle.

The few Jewish elected officials in attendance were former city comptroller Brad Lander, who is now running for Congress and who features Mamdani in his campaign, and two New York City Council members: Lincoln Restler, who represents downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, and Harvey Epstein, who represents Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side.

Rabbi Irwin Kula, president emeritus of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, gave the evening’s invocation.

“When the Torah was given at Sinai, the rabbis insist not just the generation of the desert, but every generation across all of time stood at that mountain,” Kula said.

“Every age. Every class. Every persuasion. In other words, the tradition insists—even those who would one day deeply disagree with one another, who would one day be almost impossible to reach across the divide to, who would wound each other—all stood together at Sinai.”

“So we are all, even now, standing at Sinai. Together. Receiving the same revelation,” he said at the invocation. “Hearing it differently.”

Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council-N.Y., which hosts the Israel parade in Manhattan, in which Mamdani, breaking with decades of mayoral tradition, has said he will not march, did not attend the Gracie Mansion reception.

He told the New York Post prior to the event that “it’s a really telling and concerning sign of where things stand in New York City right now.”

Kula told JNS after the reception that he found it to be “filled with hope.”

“One of the striking things was the very different cross-section of Jews who were in the room—liberal-progressive folks rather than mainstream, legacy institutional leadership,” he said.

Kula also told JNS that he found it “ironic, sad and illuminating” that most of New York City’s Jewish leaders boycotted the event.

That, he said, “highlights the ongoing collapse of the mainstream, liberal Zionist consensus around which legacy leadership and institutions organized for the past 50 years.”

He closed his invocation with a blessing for the mayor.

“May you be given the continued strength, the emotional depth and the wisdom to hold the complexity of this city, to parse and nuance, with care and precision, the meanings of Zionism, of antisemitism and the inextricable connection of Jewish identity and Palestinian dignity, in ways that open new possibilities of solidarity among all New Yorkers who believe in the infinite value of every human being,” he said.

The post At controversial Jewish heritage month reception, Mamdani pledges $26 million to fight hate crimes appeared first on World Israel News.

After most Vienna venues refused to host Israel’s Eurovision delegation, a non-Jewish Austrian couple opened their café as an unofficial Israeli embassy, declaring it a public stand against rising antisemitism in Europe.

The post WATCH: The Vienna café that refused to boycott Israel at Eurovision appeared first on World Israel News.

After advancing to the final, Bettan rose to fifth place in bookmakers’ odds to win the contest.

By JNS

Israel’s Noam Bettan qualified on Tuesday night for the grand final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest after earning enough points in the semifinal to advance.

Alongside the Jewish state, Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania, and Poland also advanced to the final, which will take place on Saturday night.

Bettan’s first performance of “Michelle” at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle drew applause, as well as boos and whistles from anti-Israel protesters in the audience, Ynet reported.

Palestinian flags could also be seen in the arena during Bettan’s performance, and several people were reportedly removed by security after disrupting the contest.

Another person was filmed lying on the floor and shouting “genocide” before police escorted him from the venue.

The protests were “really, really loud, but I focused on the performance,” Bettan said after leaving the stage.

“I searched with my eyes for the Israeli flags in the crowd. That strengthened me.”

“Thank you to all the people of Israel. Thank you to all the Jews around the world,” he added after qualifying.

“Thank you for voting for me. I love you. Wow, I had an amazing performance. I enjoyed every moment. See you in the final.”

After advancing to the final, Bettan rose to fifth place in bookmakers’ odds to win the contest, overtaking Australia, a leading favorite set to compete in the second semifinal on Thursday.

Yoav Tzafir, the director of Israel’s Eurovision delegation, told Ynet on Tuesday night that “Noam deserves the highest place possible.”

“The reactions were excellent. It was a perfect performance,” Tzafir stated.

“We are proud of Noam, the country’s diamond. Noam did not let the boos get to him. He is a true professional.”

Bettan’s ballad, with lyrics in Hebrew, English, and French, was written and composed by Nadav Aharoni, Tslil Klifi, and Yuval Raphael, the country’s 2025 Eurovision representative and a survivor of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The son of French immigrant parents, Bettan, 28, from the central city of Ra’anana, was nominated as Israel’s contestant after winning the finale of the “HaKokhav HaBa” (“The Next Star”) TV competition in January.

He began his musical career during his compulsory military service and first gained national attention in 2018 after coming in third in the musical reality TV competition “Aviv or Eyal.”

In 2024, Bettan released “Pokeach Einayim,” based on lyrics by Israel Defense Forces Staff Sgt. Yaron Oree Shay, a soldier from the Nahal Brigade who was killed fighting Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel was cleared to compete in Eurovision after other broadcasters abandoned a proposal to bar its participation, following reforms intended to enhance the event’s “transparency and neutrality.”

Broadcasters in Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain subsequently announced that their countries would skip the musical event in protest of the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to allow Israel to participate.

The post Noam Bettan advances to Eurovision final amid anti-Israel protests at Vienna arena appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan is among 15 acts competing for votes from viewers and national juries in Tuesday’s semifinal at the Wiener Stadthalle arena.

By The Associated Press

Competition starts Tuesday at the Eurovision Song Contest, with divisions over Israel’s participation hanging over the 70th birthday of the over-the-top pop music extravaganza.

Host city Vienna has been bedecked in hearts and the contest’s “United by Music” motto for a week in which singers and bands from 35 countries will compete onstage for the continent’s musical crown.

But five countries—Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland—are boycotting to protest Israel’s inclusion.

Several anti-Israel demonstrations are planned in Vienna during Eurovision week, and security is tight, with police officers from across Austria deployed in the capital and support from forces in neighboring Germany.

Last month a 21-year-old Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024, and the head of Austria’s DSN intelligence service, Sylvia Mayer, said “the terror threat posed by Islamist terror groups, as well as Iran-affiliated groups, is still at a high level.”

Israeli singer Noam Bettan is among 15 acts competing for votes from viewers and national juries in Tuesday’s semifinal at the Wiener Stadthalle arena.

The top 10 will go through to Saturday’s grand final, along with 10 from Thursday’s second semifinal.

The U.K., France, Germany, and Italy automatically qualify because they are among the contest’s biggest funders. Austria, last year’s winner, goes through to the final as host country.

Bettan is seeking to get Israel, which came second in 2025, into Saturday’s final with the ballad “Michelle.”

Like last year’s Israeli competitor, Yuval Raphael, he has practiced singing while being booed.

Long a forum for good-natured — and sometimes more pointed — national rivalries, Eurovision has found it hard to separate pop and politics in recent years.

Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, saw anti-Israel protests that called for Israel to be expelled over its conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations it ran a rule-breaking marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant.

When organizers declined to kick Israel out, five countries announced in December that they would not participate this year.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has toughened voting rules in response to the vote-rigging allegations, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against “suspicious or coordinated voting activity.”

Dean Vuletic, author of “Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest,” is confident Eurovision can weather the latest storms.

“We’ll see demonstrations, but we’ll also see a lot of colorful events going on, which will really represent what Eurovision is about, which is bringing Europeans together,” he said.

“If you look at the history of Eurovision, it’s gone through so many crises, so many political challenges, so many geopolitical changes in Europe, and it’s always managed to survive.”

The post Eurovision song competition starts with the first semifinal after boycott over Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

Sparking outrage among local Jewish communities and political leaders, the group reportedly tracks residents’ responses, noting whether they are “no answer, not interested, or supportive.”

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Across Britain, local Jewish communities are raising alarms bells over anti-Israel boycott activists going door-to-door to track residents who refuse to shun Israeli products, fueling an increasingly hostile and intimidating environment for Jews and Israelis.

Earlier this week, South Yorkshire Police, which serves Sheffield and surrounding areas in no highrthern England, opened an investigation following a violent clash in the Woodseats neighborhood, in the southern part of the city, between the anti-Israel activists demanding residents boycott Israeli goods and opponents who called them “Jew hunters.”

Known as Sheffield Apartheid Free Zone (SAFZ), this anti-Israel group has been active for months across neighborhoods in Sheffield and other parts of the United Kingdom.

As part of a broader effort to undermine the Jewish state internationally, the group distributes materials urging boycotts of Israeli products, claiming that “Israel thrives on international support.”

“When we choose not to buy Israeli goods, it hurts them in the most central place – their economy. Boycotts have worked before. They were a powerful factor in ending apartheid in South Africa and together we can replicate that success,” says one of the group’s propaganda materials.

Sparking outrage among local Jewish communities and political leaders, the group reportedly tracks residents’ responses, noting whether they are “no answer, not interested, or supportive.”

Earlier this week, a violent confrontation erupted in the Woodseats neighborhood in northern England after pro-Israel activists who had learned of the group’s activities on social media arrived on the scene.

Jean Hatchet, a local activist, confronted the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrators, following them through the streets while shouting “Jew hunters are coming” and waving a sign reading “No tolerance for Jew hatred.”

According to Hatchet’s testimony, one group member snatched the sign from her hands and struck her on the head, prompting her to file a police complaint alleging assault motivated by religion.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Hatchet claimed the group actively maintains a “blacklist” of anyone who supports Israel.

“They’re taking addresses of people who don’t agree with their point of view,” the pro-Israel activist said. “We have data protection regulations in this country and they’re committing acts that cross the boundaries of what’s permitted.”

Similar door-to-door boycott campaigns have been reported in Bristol and Hackney in England, Cardiff in Wales, and Belfast and Glasgow in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Last Saturday, anti-Israel activists were filmed going door-to-door in Brighton, a coastal city in southern England, asking residents to sign pledges to boycott Israeli products.

Vicky Bogel, founder of the pro-Israel group “Jewish and Proud” in Brighton, denounced the incident after witnessing eight teams of volunteers moving systematically from house to house with clipboards and lists of addresses.

“They found out who has ‘Zionist tendencies’ and who doesn’t and where they live,” Bogel told the Jewish Chronicle. “This is cunning and dangerous activity; we’re talking about an intimidation campaign at another level.”

Peter Kyle, the British trade secretary and a member of Parliament representing Brighton, strongly condemned these latest incidents, calling for police investigations into the groups for potential hate crimes and incitement.

However, Sussex Police, which covers the Brighton area, said that “there is currently no evidence of criminal activity,” while acknowledging that the reports are under review.

The Israeli embassy in London also condemned the incidents, calling them a “disgrace” and warning that such campaigns fuel intimidation and hostility toward Jewish communities across the country.

“Compiling lists of homes and businesses to enforce a boycott of Israeli products is not principled protest, it is intimidation,” the statement read.

“Targeting people and shops because of their Israeli identity echoes some of the darkest chapters of European history,” it continued. “Decent people should call this out, clearly and without hesitation.”

Earlier this month, the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, revealed in an annual report that it recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2025, the second-highest total ever in a single calendar year and an increase of 4 percent from the 3,556 in 2024.

Last year averaged 308 antisemitic incidents each month — an exact doubling of the 154 monthly average in the year before the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.

Antisemitic incidents had fallen from the record high of 4,298 in 2023, which analysts say was fueled by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack — the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

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Abdel-Fattah made a post in the wake of the Bondi massacre decrying those who she said were “quickly surrendering to the agenda of those who are using a horrific act of antisemitism to entrench anti-Palestinian racism.”

By Grace Gilson, JTA

An Australian writers’ festival is facing backlash after it announced it had removed an Australian-Palestinian author from its lineup over concerns her inclusion would “not be culturally sensitive” in the wake of the Bondi massacre.

The decision by the organizers of Adelaide Writers’ Week to disinvite Palestinian Australian author, lawyer and activist Randa Abdel-Fattah comes weeks after two gunmen motivated by ISIS opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, killing 15 and injuring dozens more.

“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” the festival’s board’s statement read.

While it was unclear what the festival’s organizers were referring to, in the wake of the Bondi massacre, Abdel-Fattah made a post in the wake of the Bondi massacre decrying those who she said were “quickly surrendering to the agenda of those who are using a horrific act of antisemitism to entrench anti-Palestinian racism.”

“Now is the time to insist on principles, not abandon them,” she said in a Dec. 17 post on Instagram, three days after the attack.

“To see through the shameful and dangerous political exploitation of the murder of 16 people by Zionists, white supremacists, the far right to advance their racist, violent, and oppressive agendas.”

The festival’s organizers wrote that the decision will “likely be disappointing to many in our community,” adding that they expected it would be “labelled and will cause discomfort and pressure to other participants.”

Indeed, since the organizer’s decision was announced on Thursday, nearly 50 writers have announced that they would boycott the festival, which is scheduled to take place from Feb. 28 to March 5, according to The Guardian.

Among the authors who have announced their resignation from the event are British author Zadie Smith, Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Russian-Jewish writer M. Gessen, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jewish Community Council of South Australia public and government liaison Norman Schueler told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he had written a letter to the organizers calling for Abdel-Fattah’s removal. (The progressive Jewish Council of Australia condemned Abdel-Fattah’s removal.)

“The board [has] completely, appropriately disinvited her and personally, I’m very, very surprised it appears a large cohort of people have decided to support her,” Schueler told the outlet.

On Thursday, Abdel-Fattah posted a statement on X where she decried the festival’s decision.

“This is a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre,” she said.

“After two years of Isrel’s live-streamed genocide of Palestinians, Australian arts and cultural institutions continue to reveal their utter contempt and inhumanity towards Palestinians. The only Palestinians they will tolerate are silent and invisible ones.”

Abdel-Fattah told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she hoped that the festival would reconsider its decision.

“I would like an apology, I would like a redemption in terms of the retraction of that statement, the reinstatement of my invitation and steps by the board to actually hold itself accountable to community for what it has done here,” she said.

The post After Australian literary festival drops Palestinian activist, citing Bondi massacre, dozens boycott in solidarity appeared first on World Israel News.

At a fiercely tense meeting in Geneva, Israel secured its place in Eurovision 2026—sparking fresh rule changes, international backlash, and an unprecedented four-nation walkout that turned the contest into a full-blown European drama.

The post WATCH: Israel secures Eurovision spot as other countries drop out appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli scholars are facing a rising tide of cancellations, silent boycotts, and professional isolation, transforming global academia from a space of open inquiry into a field of political division.

https://youtu.be/2q_NSLn7XSs

The post WATCH: Boycott against Israeli professors thrives appeared first on World Israel News.

The Indigo chain was targeted nationwide because the owners are a prominent pro-Israel family.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Anti-Israel protesters locked patrons inside a Montreal bookstore during nationwide protests against the Jewish-owned chain Sunday, leading to calls for police action.

As seen on HonestReporting Canada’s X channel, activists filled the Indigo Books & Music franchise within the Place Montreal Trust shopping mall, banging drums and waving Palestinian flags and signs vilifying Indigo’s founder for her support of the IDF.

Owner Heather Reisman is the founder of the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers together with her husband, Gerald Schwartz. The charity group was formed in 2005 to provide scholarships for college education and concurrent living expenses to former lone soldiers who have completed their service in the IDF.

Palestinian supporters have painted all IDF soldiers as war criminals since Israel began fighting Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, following the terrorists’ massacre of 1,200 and kidnapping of 251 people in a surprise invasion from the Gaza Strip.

Canadian Jewish media outlet TheJ.ca reported that after disrupting the store’s functioning by chanting slogans through loudspeakers and demanding that shoppers boycott the chain, the doors were closed and a U-lock was slipped through the handles, preventing anyone from leaving for “a short period.”

In a picture making the rounds on social media, two large Palestinian flags can be seen on either side of the locked doors.

The Canadian group AllFactsNoHate called for the authorities to act quickly, as what the protesters did broke several laws.

“Beyond being reckless, this constitutes forcible confinement under Canada’s Criminal Code and is considered mischief and violates fire safety laws,” the activists against antisemitism said on their Instagram page.

“Protest is legal, imprisoning people against their will is not. We expect a response from Montreal Police – and so should you.”

The video itself showed half a dozen black-uniformed policemen just standing and watching the crowd in the store.

“Would love to know the rationale @spvm [Montreal police] used to not clear out disruptive pro-Palestinian thugs at the Indigo book store at Montreal Place Trust,” HonestReporting commented above the clip. “Because let’s be honest—if it had been any other group, the place would’ve been cleared out in minutes.”

Over 50 Indigo stores in Canada were targeted by the anti-Israel activists in what they called a “Day of Action.”

It was the latest in a string of protests and acts of vandalism against the chain since the war began, with organizers accusing Reisman and Schwartz of complicity in genocide by supposedly directing almost $200 million in Indigo profits into their foundation.

HESEG awards about 70 scholarships each year to lone soldiers and runs activities and workshops for current recipients and graduates throughout the year.

The post Montreal: Anti-Israel protesters trap patrons inside Jewish-owned bookstore appeared first on World Israel News.

This is the first time that a Western state is considering imposing a legal boycott against Jewish products only, without any reference to Arab factories operating in the same area.

By Hanan Greenwood, JNS via Israel Hayom

Ireland‘s parliament is expected to bring to a final vote on Tuesday a law that would ban the import of products made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, defining their sale as a criminal offense.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan sent a letter to a series of senior officials in the Trump administration and Congress, in which he expressed outrage over the Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025, which would be the first against Jews because of their religion and place of residence since the Holocaust.

He demanded that the officials impose high tariffs on Ireland in response if the law is approved.

This is the first time that a Western state is considering imposing a legal boycott against Jewish products only, without any reference to Arab factories operating in the same area.

This is an “antisemitic law that discriminates only against Jews living in Judea and Samaria,” Dagan wrote.

He said the bill “constitutes a direct violation of human rights, morally and security-wise—and contradicts the official policy of the U.S. under the Trump administration, which recognized in an official declaration that the Judea and Samaria area is not occupied territory and that settlement there is legal and does not contradict international law.”

According to Dagan, the bill “grants a prize to the terror of the Palestinian Authority and harms peace-loving residents, and it constitutes an integral part of the international boycott policy BDS—a movement that the United States itself has condemned again and again.

“If Ireland passes an official law that boycotts Jews only, it will crown itself as an antisemitic country. This will be the first time since the Holocaust that a specific law against Jews will pass in a European country. A country that becomes antisemitic, contrary to U.S. policy, free world countries cannot overlook this. I call on the United States to impose economic tariffs on any country that supports such antisemitic boycott laws,” Dagan wrote.

U.S. federal anti-boycott laws make it illegal for American companies to comply with foreign government boycott requests targeting Israel.

The post Ireland set to boycott Jewish goods from Judea and Samaria appeared first on World Israel News.

That’s arguably treasonous behavior.

By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

California got the ball rolling on boycotting conservative states. Now the governor of Illinois has decided he’s going to boycott a country.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has ordered agencies in his state to boycott work with El Salvador amid the detention fight over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Pritzker said he was requesting that the Illinois State Board of Investment, the State Universities Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement System review their investments to “identify any fund investments” that are wholly or partially managed, owned or controlled by the Salvadoran government or has ties to business in El Salvador.

The governor’s office also directed the state Department of Central Management Services to launch a review to identify contracts awarded to companies affiliated with El Salvador’s government or Salvadoran businesses.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has also been directed to conduct an analysis of trade between the state and El Salvador, including the “scale and nature of imports” and the extent to which Salvadoran goods are in the supply chain of products manufactured in the state.

El Salvador exports coffee (remember how the media was freaking out last week about the effects of tariffs on coffee) and knit t-shirts.

I’m not sure what the plan for boycotting those are, but pension plans are supposed to be used to maximize returns for public employees, not to pick political fights. Ditto frankly for the rest of it.

If J.B. Pritzker wants to criticize a country, he can do so. He’s rich enough that a personal boycott will have an impact.

But state boycotts of a country using public funds and without a legislative vote strike me as abusive and in this case a calculated effort to undermine the president’s foreign policy by abusing state authority.

In this case, Pritzker is using state assets to try and force a country away from cooperating with the White House. That’s arguably treasonous behavior.

And a country can’t function if state governments try to directly sabotage foreign relations. A nation divided against itself cannot stand. Much like Pritzker.

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