Critics of Israel's war on Gaza are increasingly facing interrogations, visa revocations and denials of entry. This past weekend, international scholars and speakers invited to the Muslim Association of Canada's (MAC) annual convention in Toronto reportedly faced extraordinary immigration scrutiny. MAC said many had their electronic travel authorisations delayed for months or cancelled shortly before departure, while others had visas revoked without notice. Several were reportedly interrogated for hours at Toronto Pearson Airport, denied water and refused a space to pray. MAC described the treatment as deliberate and coordinated.
“We have no trust in Netanyahu anymore,” Degel HaTorah, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish faction in Netanyahu's coalition, said in a public statement. “We must move to dissolve the parliament imminently.”
The European Union unanimously agreed on Monday to impose new sanctions on the leaders of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and the Israeli settler movement, diplomats said, a decision sparked by growing outrage over the devastation in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. However, the foreign ministers of the 27-nation bloc meeting in Brussels stopped short of endorsing stronger economic measures against the Israeli government, sought by some in Europe. Though Monday's meeting resulted in political agreement, the EU still has to settle on which organizations and individuals will be hit with sanctions, and a committee will finalize the draft list.
The Anti-Defamation League, the advocacy group he led for 28 years, confirmed his death on Sunday, calling him an outspoken, passionate, and tireless advocate for the Jewish people and Israel. A Holocaust survivor, Foxman helped shape the conversation around Israel and anti-Semitism in the US for decades. ADL Board Chair Nicole Munchnik said Foxman helped build the modern liberal era of America, describing him as a longtime adviser to US presidents and world leaders.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
One of the main takeaways from President Donald Trump's election victory last year was the inroads he made with Hispanics and African-Americans, two large minority demographics traditionally associated with the Democrats. But the increase in support for Trump among Muslim voters, though less decisive electorally, was arguably more dramatic and should prompt reflection on the changing character of American politics.
October 7, 2023, caught Israel off guard. That day, Hamas fighters and other terrorist militias overcame Gaza's fortified border and launched an attack in Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the small Palestinian territory. The experience of such vulnerability led to a trauma still being felt in Israel today. On October 8, 2023, Israel's government launched an attack on Gaza, and the two years since have been horrific for Palestinians in the enclave.
On Monday afternoon, a few hours before the first ferocious attacks of Israel's ground offensive in Gaza City made buildings tremble as far away as Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Jerusalem for an economics conference. With his far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sitting in the front row, Netanyahu took the stage, looking a little peeved, and berated the event's organizers for muddling his slide show.
Norway is voting on Monday to elect its next parliament in what is expected to be a close race between a centre-left bloc led by the incumbent Labour Party and a centre-right bloc dominated by the populist Progress Party and Conservatives. Among the issues that could decide the vote are inequality and taxation, as well as growing controversy surrounding Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which is facing scrutiny domestically and internationally over its investment in companies tied to Israel, amid the war on Gaza.
For Nick Maynard, a British doctor who has volunteered in Gaza several times, the United Kingdom's silence in action is a form of the government's complicity in Israel's genocide against Palestinians. As a wave of early autumn rain poured over London on Thursday, he painted a harrowing picture of the injuries he witnessed Israel inflict on children, through aerial bombardment or gunfire, or by the deliberate restriction of life-saving infant formula and medicine.
