Latest news with #JNF
Vancouver Sun
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Former Hamas hostage condemns anti-Israel protest blocking Canadian speaking event
A Hamas captivity survivor on a speaking tour in Canada this month said she won't 'let terror sympathizers control the narrative' after anti-Israel demonstrators allegedly blocked the exit of her venue last week. Noa Argamani, 27, was in Windsor, Ont., as part of a Jewish National Fund (JNF) fundraising event at the University of Windsor, which reportedly attracted members of the school's Palestinian Solidarity Group. On Saturday, Argamani shared an X post from FactsMatter describing the activists surrounding the building, 'blocking the only entrance and shouting at the Jewish attendees. In a brief video clip attached, a voice is heard shouting, 'Hamas is coming.' Hamas came. Hamas kidnapped me. Hamas murdered my friends. But I won; I survived. Now, I speak for those who can't. I'll keep exposing Hamas' crimes and fighting for the hostages' release—including my partner, Avinatan. I refuse to let terror sympathizers control the narrative. The logo and username in the clip indicate it was a live broadcast from an account operated by the PSG. National Post is attempting to independently verify the source. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'Hamas came. Hamas kidnapped me. Hamas murdered my friends. But I won; I survived,' wrote Argamani, who spent 245 days in captivity after being abducted from the Nova music festival during the terrorist organization's Oct. 7, 2023, insurgency. The university student's abduction and that of her partner, Or Avinatan, were captured on video and released by Hamas on social media. Argamani was also seen in subsequent propaganda videos. She was rescued in June 2024 , but Avinatan remains in captivity. He is listed in a medical report detailing the condition of living hostages released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in June, per The Times of Israel, and described as suffering from weight loss and mental struggles. 'I'll keep exposing Hamas' crimes and fighting for the hostages' release—including my partner, Avinatan,' wrote Argamani, who's been a prominent advocate for her fellow captives since finding freedom. Argamani was speaking at a Negev Event, named for the large desert region in southern Israel, where the goal was to raise money for the Ashdod Rehabilitation & Therapy Centre, 'a vital project that will serve trauma victims, children with disabilities, and pediatric cancer patients in southern Israel,' according to JNF . Idit Shamir, Consul General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada, also shared the clip on X , calling it 'psychological warfare against trauma survivors.' 'When Canadian campuses become no-go zones for Jews, when terror victims can't share their stories without facing mob intimidation, you're witnessing the normalisation of antisemitism,' she wrote. Speaking to The J, event chair Miriam Kaplan condemned the attempted intimidation and said the University should, too. 'These students crossed the line from free speech into aggression,' she said. The outlet also confirmed via the Windsor Police Service, who 'monitored the situation and ensured public safety,' that it was treated as a protest and no arrests were made. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Edmonton Journal
Former Hamas hostage condemns anti-Israel protest blocking Canadian speaking event
Article content A Hamas captivity survivor on a speaking tour in Canada this month said she won't 'let terror sympathizers control the narrative' after anti-Israel demonstrators allegedly blocked the exit of her venue last week. Noa Argamani, 27, was in Windsor, Ont., as part of a Jewish National Fund (JNF) fundraising event at the University of Windsor, which reportedly attracted members of the school's Palestinian Solidarity Group.
Calgary Herald
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Former Hamas hostage condemns anti-Israel protest blocking Canadian speaking event
Article content A Hamas captivity survivor on a speaking tour in Canada this month said she won't 'let terror sympathizers control the narrative' after anti-Israel demonstrators allegedly blocked the exit of her venue last week. Article content Noa Argamani, 27, was in Windsor, Ont., as part of a Jewish National Fund (JNF) fundraising event at the University of Windsor, which reportedly attracted members of the school's Palestinian Solidarity Group. Article content On Saturday, Argamani shared an X post from FactsMatter describing the activists surrounding the building, 'blocking the only entrance and shouting at the Jewish attendees. In a brief video clip attached, a voice is heard shouting, 'Hamas is coming.' Article content Hamas came. Hamas kidnapped me. Hamas murdered my friends. But I won; I survived. Now, I speak for those who can't. I'll keep exposing Hamas' crimes and fighting for the hostages' release—including my partner, Avinatan. I refuse to let terror sympathizers control the narrative. — Noa Argamani (@ArgamaniNoa) June 28, 2025 Article content The logo and username in the clip indicate it was a live broadcast from an account operated by the PSG. National Post is attempting to independently verify the source. Article content 'Hamas came. Hamas kidnapped me. Hamas murdered my friends. But I won; I survived,' wrote Argamani, who spent 245 days in captivity after being abducted from the Nova music festival during the terrorist organization's Oct. 7, 2023, insurgency. Article content The university student's abduction and that of her partner, Or Avinatan, were captured on video and released by Hamas on social media. Argamani was also seen in subsequent propaganda videos. Article content Article content She was rescued in June 2024, but Avinatan remains in captivity. He is listed in a medical report detailing the condition of living hostages released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in June, per The Times of Israel, and described as suffering from weight loss and mental struggles. Article content Article content 'I'll keep exposing Hamas' crimes and fighting for the hostages' release—including my partner, Avinatan,' wrote Argamani, who's been a prominent advocate for her fellow captives since finding freedom. Article content Article content Argamani was speaking at a Negev Event, named for the large desert region in southern Israel, where the goal was to raise money for the Ashdod Rehabilitation & Therapy Centre, 'a vital project that will serve trauma victims, children with disabilities, and pediatric cancer patients in southern Israel,' according to JNF. Article content 'When Canadian campuses become no-go zones for Jews, when terror victims can't share their stories without facing mob intimidation, you're witnessing the normalisation of antisemitism,' she wrote.
Mail & Guardian
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Fires ablaze in a stolen land: Israel's trees planted over Palestinian villages are in flames
Wildfires in Israel. (X) The forests that cover the demolished Palestinian villages of the 1948 Nakba are ablaze at a time when Israel prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary of colonial settler independence. This is an apt symbol for the smoldering toxins in a failing Zionist system turning to ash. The genocidal apartheid state requests the West for help to fight the fires, while, without any scruples whatsoever, its military burns children and adults alive in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, courtesy of United States, British, French and German bombs, to the cheers of most Israelis and the Zionist international. Those like me, who were seduced as innocent children by the thieving Jewish National Fund (JNF) into providing pocket money to plant trees ostensibly to make the desert bloom, can feel redeemed by whatever cause is now wiping the stolen terrain of its camouflage. I am proud that when I was minister of water and forests in the democratic South African government, I prevented a so-called South Africa Forest in the Galilee area of Occupied Palestine from being re-named the Nelson Mandela Forest. The implanted vegetation conceals the depopulated and destroyed Palestinian village of Lubya, visited by South African filmmaker Heidi Grunebaum, who made a moving documentary, The Village Under the Forest. South African activist and renowned Middle East analyst Naeem Jeenah, who accompanied her on the trip searching for the site, recounts the experience. 'Heidi and I were the two non-Christians who were part of a South African delegation at a Christian conference in Bethlehem. After the conference, all eight of us were determined to visit Lubya — even though it was far out of our way. As we drove out to it, we all had mixed feelings, including a great deal of anger. Lubya had been depopulated in 1948, and alien trees had been planted over the village, and this new 'forest' was named after us! 'We found remains of homes, a water well, even a small mosque — partly buried under sand. One reverend in our group was determined to rip out every JNF tree that covered Lubya, a hopeless task, but his spirit reflected how we all felt: anger, defeat, betrayal. Perhaps we should have destroyed the board that said 'South Africa Forest', with a picture of our flag on it. Heidi's very personal film about Lubya, in different ways, mirrored how all eight of us felt on that day.' The JNF planted alien trees from Europe and Australia, such as the pine and eucalyptus, full of inflammable sap that explodes like napalm, in hot, dry climates. Those are thirsty trees that, like the alien Zionist settlers, guzzle up precious water from the aquifers at the expense of the Palestinian populace, and despoil the environment. The indigenous cedar and olive trees of the region were obviously shunned as being too Arabic. The settlers planted trees to create their little Europe in the Levant, pretending they were making the desert bloom, and then, when the ethnic cleansing came, planted trees at a pace to cover up the scenes of butchery and demolition of hundreds of villages, hoping to obliterate any sign of a Palestinian presence. The JNF boasts of having planted more than 260 million trees since it was founded by Theodor Herzl in 1901. Amid the Gaza genocide and onslaught on the West Bank, demented settlers carry out pogroms and set fire to the precious olive groves, source of Palestinian livelihood, sustenance, family heritage, bonds of love and culture, destroying nearly one million since 1967. Alon Mizrahi, an exiled anti-Zionist Israeli, comments: 'From personal experience, those groves and 'forests' don't feel real. Like those who planted them, they emit a sense of shallowness and fragility. I grew up next to one, and, without knowing anything about the history of Zionism, they always felt strange to me, and never magical, the way a true forest feels. 'And so the fires raging today in those 'nature parks' of fake, sinister European pines can be seen (if you have a soul and an imagination) as an act of resistance and rejection by Palestinian communities who have been gone for decades but never abandoned, or forgotten, their homeland.' The burning settler forests of Israel, a colonial blot on the stolen landscape, take me back to the opening of the armed struggle in South Africa in 1961, when we set alight the sugar cane and wattle plantations of colonial settlers who, like the Israelis, had dispossessed the indigenous people and stolen the land. As a sign of the paranoia gripping Israel, Hebrew Channel 14 correspondent Hillel Biton Rosen has reflected the fear gripping settler minds: 'A mystery: dozens of fires have broken out across the country — and not a single one is in an Arab area.' He is correct. The reason, of course, is that 'the Arab areas' have indigenous trees, and these are not flammable like the non-native trees are. Maybe there are other areas? In the dark days of apartheid rule in South Africa, there was a recurring fear among the white supremacist community that black servants would serve them poisoned coffee at wake-up time or slit their throats. Those are the fears of settlers who like to enjoy life undisturbed by any sign of rebellion, and can never enjoy the sleep of the kind-hearted. Just as we South Africans overcame settler colonialism and apartheid, the Palestinian people's resistance, reinforced by international solidarity, will see victory as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Ronnie Kasrils is a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, and South Africa's former minister for intelligence services, activist and author. This article first appeared in The Palestine Chronicle.
Al Bawaba
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Netanyahu's son blames Arabs for Jerusalem wildfires
ALBAWABA - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair, recently sparked controversy on social media after blaming Israel's left and Arabs for the raging wildfires in Jerusalem. Despite sounding confident, his claims were proven baseless. He accused the left of trying to cancel Israel's Independence Day in cooperation with the Arabs in occupied Palestine. Netanyahu's son blames Arabs for Jerusalem Hills wildfires אני רואה שיש כאלה שצריכים לחזור למילון לחיפוש המילה הסתה. כולל כמה עיתונאים ״ימנים״ אכולי רגשי נחיתות מול השמאל. הסתה זה - לקרוא לאנשים לרצוח או לפגוע באדם מסוים או קבוצה מסוימת. מה שהשמאל וקפלן עושה לראש הממשלה , משפחתו , לימין, לחרדים, מתנחלים וכו כבר שנים ללא הפסקה. — Yair Netanyahu🇮🇱 (@YairNetanyahu) April 30, 2025 Yair Netanyahu took to Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) and wrote in Hebrew, "Something here is suspicious. The Kaplanist left has been frantically trying in recent weeks to cancel Independence Day celebrations and the torch-lighting ceremony." He added, "I really hope the arson was only carried out by Arabs, without any collaboration from our own people." Yair later deleted the post and shared a new onetelling people to search the meaning of the word "incitement" in the dictionary. According to Quds News Network, while the cause of the fire remains unclear, Ehab Jabareen, who is an expert in Israeli affairs, accused Israel of casting the blame for failing to extinguish the ongoing fires. Moreover, he blamed the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for planting trees in an unsuitable climate. He further stated that it was Israelis who committed arson in hopes of concealing traces of the Palestinian Nakba. According to the Times of Israel, an individual was recently arrested in East Jerusalem after they were accused of arson. Ehab Jabareen, an expert in Israeli affairs, states that the Israeli occupation casts blame for its failure to extinguish the fire that broke out in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem on the Palestinians. He adds that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) decided to plant trees… — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 1, 2025
