On Wednesday, a staffer of the Interior Department quit their job because they are Jewish and don’t agree with the US helping Israel in the war in Gaza.
Lily Greenberg Call, who works for the Interior Department, said that President Joe Biden is using Jews as a reason for the US policy in the conflict.
Call had worked for the presidential campaigns of Biden and Vice President Harris. He was also an activist for Israel before joining the government.
She is one of at least five high-ranking staff members who have publicly resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas. She is the second person appointed by the government to leave their job, after another person with Palestinian heritage quit in January.
Her letter said she was happy to join a government that she thought had the same ideas as her for the country. “But, I can’t continue to work for this administration with a clear conscience,” she wrote.
In a talk with The Associated Press, Call mentioned things that Biden said at a White House event and a Holocaust Memorial event in Washington. Biden said that if there was no Israel, no Jew would be safe and that the Hamas-led attacks were fueled by a long-standing goal to destroy the Jewish people.
“He is showing that Jews are the main people in charge of the American military. ” “That is very wrong,” she said, mentioning that her family members were killed by the government.
The attacks led by Hamas on October 7th killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel’s army fought against Hamas in Gaza and more than 35,000 people from Palestine died.
The Biden administration has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to aim more carefully at Hamas to protect civilians. It stopped sending bombs to Israel because it didn’t want them to be used in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“I believe the president needs to understand that there are people in his administration who think this war is very bad,” Call said about the war and US support for it. “For everyone, including Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, and Americans, and also for his chances of winning the election. “
Tag: Jewish
-
Employee of US Interior Department becomes Biden’s first Jewish appointee to resign over Gaza war
-
Swiss police detain teenager on suspicion of stabbing an Orthodox Jewish man
A young person has been taken into custody for allegedly stabbing and seriously hurting a Jewish man in Zurich, Switzerland, according to the police.
The police in Zurich believe that the stabbing attack on Saturday night may have been because of hatred towards Jewish people.
The police got a call about a fight with many people at 9:35 at night. Based on what they first found, the attacker hurt a 50-year-old man very badly by stabbing him.
The police said the person who did it was a 15-year-old from Switzerland, and they caught him right there.
The police said they would make sure certain places important to Jewish people were extra safe. They said they made the decision after talking to Jewish groups.
The Swiss Jewish group said they were very upset that someone from their community was attacked.
“Attacks on Jewish people in Switzerland hardly ever happen,” it said. “The Jewish community has not experienced any life-threatening attacks in the past twenty years. ” But, there have been a lot more physical attacks since October. 7″Please rewrite this text in simpler words. ”
Antisemitic acts have increased in Europe since the Israel-Hamas war started. Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel in October, which led to this rise. 7 attacks caused the death of 1,200 people and around 250 people were taken as hostages. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
In France, a man wearing a Jewish hat was hurt when he was leaving a Paris synagogue on Friday night, police said. -
Man accused of stabbing Jewish leader in Detroit
The police say a man stabbed and killed a Jewish leader in Detroit. They also say he stole things from the leader’s home. Now the man is being accused of these crimes.
Samantha Woll’s death in October surprised and upset many people in the Jewish and interfaith communities in the state. Some people were wondering if her death was because of hate against Jewish people.
However, the prosecutors say that the person accused, Michael Jackson-Bolanos, did not know Ms Woll and does not seem to have done a hate crime.
The 28-year-old is accused of committing a serious crime called murder during a break-in at someone’s home.
“There is no proof that shows this was a hate crime,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Wednesday. “There is simply no proof. ”
Detroit police said they were keeping an eye on Mr. Jackson-Bolanos a few weeks ago.
The police chief, James White, said they found a man in the area who was being investigated for stealing things. They let him go because they didn’t have enough proof to charge him for the murder.
We knew where he was and we knew what he was doing. “Nobody in our community was ever in danger,” Mr.
He said the police arrested him within an hour. They had enough evidence to arrest him.
Ms Woll was found dead in front of her house early in the morning on October 21, with a line of blood leading to her front door.
Officials said that she went to a wedding the night before she died and came back home a little after midnight.
She was the leader of a synagogue and the founder of a group that brings Muslims and Jews together in Detroit. A lot of people in the state knew who she was.
In a message to US media, Ms. Woll’s family said thank you to the police and everyone who helped and prayed for them.
Samantha’s death is a very sad thing that has made a lot of people feel really bad. It has affected not just her family and friends, but also the people who knew her as someone who worked really hard to help her community and bring people together. She was very loved and everyone could feel her warmth and happiness.
The person accused of doing something alone is also accused of breaking into someone’s home and lying to the police.
However, his lawyer told the Detroit Free Press that he is still saying he didn’t do it, and pointed out that the police had arrested and then let go another person they thought was the culprit.
“To be honest, I think this case got a lot of attention and put a lot of pressure on the Detroit Police Department to find someone,” Brian Brown said.
He said he thinks the person was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and did not actually commit the crime.
Mr Jackson-Bolanos went to court on Wednesday and was sent to jail, according to the police. He will go to a court hearing this month to decide if there is a good reason to think he committed a crime.
If he is found guilty, he could be in jail for the rest of his life with no chance of getting out. -
President of South Africa meets with Jewish leaders
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa met with a Jewish lobby group and said the country strongly supports Palestinians in the ongoing war with Israel.
During the meeting, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies asked President Ramaphosa to keep the community safe from antisemitism.
They asked Mr Ramaphosa to fully recognize Israel and open the South African embassy in Tel Aviv. They also wanted to stop the closure of Israel’s embassy in Pretoria.
They also asked Mr. Ramaphosa to speak out or take action against the boycott of Israeli and Jewish businesses in South Africa.
In answer, President Ramaphosa spoke out against hatred of Jewish and Muslim people, but confirmed that South Africa still supports Palestinians.
“President Ramaphosa restated the South African government’s stance on the current fight between Israel and Palestine,” said the president’s office in a statement.
The President said the government does not agree with treating Jewish people badly in South Africa, like boycotting their businesses, and being afraid of people who practice Islam. -
Children removed from Jewish sect’s jungle compound in Mexico
Children and older teenagers have been removed from the jungle compound of a Jewish sect in Mexico following a raid by police, the BBC has learned.
It took place against the Lev Tahor group, which was investigated on suspicion of trafficking minors.
The children and teenagers are being flown to Israel where they have extended families.
Lev Tahor (Hebrew for Pure Heart) is known for extremist practices and imposing a strict regime on members.
It advocates child marriage, inflicts harsh punishments for even minor transgressions and requires women and girls as young as three years old to completely cover up with robes. The stricture has earned the group the nickname the Jewish Taliban because of seeming similarities with the dress code enforced by the Sunni Muslim extremist group which controls Afghanistan.
On Friday morning, police made their way into the compound 11 miles (17.5km) north of Tapachula in Chiapas state.
A source connected to the operation said the boys and girls were quickly separated from the rest of the group due to fears their lives could be at risk from members trying to prevent them from being removed.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, A number of children from the sect were photographed protesting inside a migration facility in Chiapas on Sunday The Mexican police worked alongside a four-man volunteer team from Israel, including former Mossad agents, in planning and carrying out the operation. It was set in motion about two years ago when a relative in Israel of some of those in the group asked one of the former agents for help.
The team travelled between Israel and Guatemala, where the branch had lived since 2014, carrying out surveillance operations and working with local authorities, law enforcement and a Guatemalan private investigator. In January about 40-50 members illegally crossed into Mexico, where they continued to be tracked, settling in the jungle north of Tapachula.
The leadership in Guatemala has been at the centre of a kidnapping case since 2018, when two children who had been taken to New York by their mother who had fled the community were snatched back. They were recovered three weeks later in Mexico.
Nine of the sect’s members were charged in connection with the case. Four – including the founder’s son and current leader Nachman Helbrans – have been jailed, while one was convicted but freed due to time already served and another is due to be sentenced in November. Two are awaiting trial and one is in custody in Guatemala.
Lev Tahor was formed in Israel in 1988 by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, who later moved to the US. He served two years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping in 1994 and drowned in Mexico in 2017.
Numbering up to about 350 members, Lev Tahor has been forced to move from country to country in recent years after coming under scrutiny from local authorities. It is currently spread between Israel, the US, Macedonia, Morocco, Mexico and Guatemala. Between 70-80 members are still in Guatemala.
While the group is often described as ultra-Orthodox, it follows its own sets of rules and has been declared a “dangerous cult” by an Israeli court.
Its leaders have denied breaking local laws and say the group is being targeted because of its beliefs.
Source: BBC