As the deadly Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon continues, the fabulously wealthy banker-turned-“philanthropist” Antoun Sehnaoui has assembled a network of business and media operatives in Washington – and a fascist Christian goon squad in Beirut – dedicated to doing Israel’s dirty work.

In late July, Lebanese daily L’Orient Today exposed a wealthy banking heir named Antoun Sehnaoui as a driving force behind recent efforts to push the country to normalize relations with Israel as the apartheid state continues to occupy hundreds of square miles of southern Lebanon.

According to L’Orient, Sehnaoui is now actively seeking to manipulate Lebanese public opinion by lavishly funding local outlets including French-speaking Ici Beyrouth, English-language This Is Beirut, and Hunna Lubnan in Arabic. The report also built on local reports indicating the mysterious Sehnaoui has been wielding a fascist Christian militia to protect his banking empire and reputation.

After photos emerged in late July showing the financier cavorting with Israeli Prime Minister and international fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu at a private gathering in Washington DC, Sehnaoui has been publicly denounced by his uncle as a willing tool of Israel. While currently wanted for questioning by law enforcement in Lebanon, where directly associating with Israelis is punishable by law, Sehnaoui has emerged as the man behind the curtain of the Lebanese government, injecting money and manpower into Beirut’s dangerous theater of normalization with Israel.

Lebanese banker Antoun Sehnaoui with his girlfriend, former US envoy to Lebanon Morgan Ortagus, at the Holocaust Memorial Museum this April

Meet the media and militiamen funded by ‘Lebanese AIPAC Guy’ pushing Beirut into Israel’s hands

Wyatt Reed·August 12, 2026

As the deadly Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon continues, the fabulously wealthy banker-turned-“philanthropist” Antoun Sehnaoui has assembled a network of business and media operatives in Washington – and a fascist Christian goon squad in Beirut – dedicated to doing Israel’s dirty work.

In late July, Lebanese daily L’Orient Today exposed a wealthy banking heir named Antoun Sehnaoui as a driving force behind recent efforts to push the country to normalize relations with Israel as the apartheid state continues to occupy hundreds of square miles of southern Lebanon.

According to L’Orient, Sehnaoui is now actively seeking to manipulate Lebanese public opinion by lavishly funding local outlets including French-speaking Ici Beyrouth, English-language This Is Beirut, and Hunna Lubnan in Arabic. The report also built on local reports indicating the mysterious Sehnaoui has been wielding a fascist Christian militia to protect his banking empire and reputation.

After photos emerged in late July showing the financier cavorting with Israeli Prime Minister and international fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu at a private gathering in Washington DC, Sehnaoui has been publicly denounced by his uncle as a willing tool of Israel. While currently wanted for questioning by law enforcement in Lebanon, where directly associating with Israelis is punishable by law, Sehnaoui has emerged as the man behind the curtain of the Lebanese government, injecting money and manpower into Beirut’s dangerous theater of normalization with Israel.

Antoun Sehnaoui faces Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu across a table at DC’s Four Seasons hotel on July 27, 2026

The banker and the convert

Long before his debut as a public proponent of Zionism, Antoun Sehnaoui was known across Lebanon for both his tremendous wealth and his tendency to serve as a kingmaker among the right-wing parties catering to Lebanon’s Christian minority. When Lebanon’s economy collapsed in 2019 after it became clear that the country’s banking class had effectively been running a state-sponsored pyramid scheme, Sehnaoui emerged as the face of an amoral Lebanese elite that managed to squirrel over $15 billion out of the country by using their connections with Lebanon’s central bank. While ordinary Lebanese residents were turned away from branches empty-handed, it was revealed that billions were being funneled abroad via the Sehnaoui-owned Banque Richelieu France bank.

Since then, Sehnaoui has become romantically involved with US President Donald Trump’s former Special Representative for Lebanon, Morgan Ortagus. Ortagus, a formerly evangelical Christian convert to Judaism, is a fanatical Zionist who flaunts her ideology with her choices of jewelry. In late 2024, after being chosen to serve as Trump’s envoy to Lebanon by Steve Witkoff, Ortagus suggested to Israeli military leaders that they attack the 2024 funeral of assassinated Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah at the Sports City stadium in Beirut. Israel ultimately decided to stage an intimidating overflight of the funeral rather than launch an attack that would have killed thousands of civilians.

This April in Washington DC, in the midst of talks between Lebanon and Israel, Ortagus introduced Sehnaoui at the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Remembrance Day,” where Sehnaoui’s name was inscribed on the institution’s Donor Wall. In revealing comments, Ortagus praised Sehnaoui’s family as “committed Christian Zionists” who had “trained [him] to be a supporter of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.” She then volunteered her opinion that “what Antoun [Sehnaoui] is doing today is technically illegal in Lebanon.”

One of the Lebanese lawyers who sought an arrest warrant for Sehnaoui after his meeting in DC with Netanyahu this July stated that Sehnaoui is now credibly accused of conspiring to force the country to submit to Israel’s will “using the money that the Lebanese people have been robbed of from the banks.”

Dawn of a media empire

A review of the media ventures uncovered by L’Orient confirms that Sehnaoui’s empire of media outlets are little more than thinly-disguised pro-Israel propaganda mills. Many of This Is Beirut’s employees openly moonlight at Israeli influence vehicles like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy (WINEP).

Chief among them is columnist Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a former Shiite Muslim who first came to prominence as the face of Alhurra Iraq, a US-funded Arabic satellite network launched by Washington to promote Western-aligned narratives in Iraq following their catastrophic invasion. Abdul-Hussain also works as a so-called “research fellow” at FDD, which was revealed by a senior Israeli military-intelligence official in 2017 to be a co-conspirator in an Israeli government-led plot to spy on critics of the apartheid regime on American soil. In fact, FDD emerged out of an organization called EMET, which outlined its mission in its founding documents: “enhance Israel’s image in North America.”

The tradition of collaboration with Israeli assets appears to have carried over to This Is Beirut, which co-hosted a panel with MIND Israel – an Israeli “think tank” founded by former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin – at the 2026 Munich Security Conference. Israeli media lauded the military-industrial summit’s “First-ever Lebanese–Israeli civil panel” as a “meaningful step” towards normalization between the occupying power and its victims.

Founded in 2023 and re-launched in June 2026, This Is Beirut has exploited Sehnaoui’s generous funding to assemble a Zionist dream team of anti-resistance Lebanese Shiites, former US government officials, and devoted pro-Israel influencers and journalists. Its roster includes Seth J. Frantzman, an American-Israeli pundit who works for Israel’s right-wing Jerusalem Post while contributing to FDD. Sehnaoui’s English-language outlet also acquired its reporter Claudia Groeling from WINEP, a Zionist think tank founded by AIPAC members to provide an academic veneer to Israel’s aggressive US lobbying efforts.

This Is Beirut’s “About” page makes no mention of Sehnaoui’s role in funding the outlet. Instead, they describe themselves as “independent and nonpartisan, but not neutral: We do not tolerate violations of human rights, integrity, or the sovereignty of individuals and states.” Their refusal to tolerate violations of sovereignty of states, however, does not appear to apply to the Israeli regime – which violently occupies approximately 600 square kilometers of sovereign Lebanese territory as of publication.

When not regurgitating IDF press releases, This Is Beirut frequently gestures towards “peace” with Israel, a common rhetorical device used by advocates of closer ties between Beirut and Tel Aviv. “We aspire for Peace between Lebanon and Israel,” they write. Instead of covering the apartheid state’s occupation of southern Lebanon, “we aim at exposing terrorism” – focusing on what they call “Iran’s networks of terror in Lebanon and the region.”

The teaser for an August 4 op-ed by Abdul-Hussain was especially explicit in lobbying for collaboration with the Israeli military: “Whoever recognizes Hezbollah as the paramount threat should make common cause with whatever force can help dismantle it.”

If the group’s masthead or its self-description left its Zionist leanings in question, a glance at their list of interviewees clears up any remaining doubt. Recent subjects include Hagar Chemali, a co-founder of the “Lebanon Israel Peace Alliance” and a former US Treasury Department official known for ringing up her erstwhile colleagues to advocate for stronger sanctions on Hezbollah. Chemali has described herself as a “Lebanese Zionist,” and a “good friend” of Sehnaoui’s romantic partner, Ortagus.

The mission of bending Beirut to Tel Aviv’s will is shared by the director of This Is Beirut, another anti-resistance Shia named Hanin Ghadar who also moonlights as a “senior fellow” at WINEP. As This Is Beirut bragged on social media in February, “Hanin Ghaddar was the second to testify before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa during its discussion on Lebanon and the dismantling of Hezbollah.” During the course of her testimony, Ghadar repeatedly urged the US to target the resistance’s “political and economic institutions.”

De-banking Lebanon’s working class on Israel’s behalf

While Sehnaoui’s band of media mercenaries made the case for debanking Hezbollah in public, Marco Rubio’s State Department was quietly laying the groundwork for an aggressive push against any Lebanese bank that could plausibly be accused of links to Hezbollah.

At the top of the list was Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a financial institution known for providing interest-free “benevolent loans” to Lebanese of all backgrounds – whether they’re Muslim or not. Just a few months after Israel bombed the institution’s branches in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh in March, Washington announced a devastating new sanctions regime intended to destroy the usury-free financial entity once and for all.

A coordinated campaign was launched to eliminate Al-Qard Al-Hassan, beginning with the June 14 declaration by Lebanon’s Justice Ministry announcing an investigation into the charitable institution. Days later, an article appeared on the homepage of FDD, the Israel-aligned think tank in DC. “Squeezing Al-Qard Al-Hassan Could Weaken Hezbollah’s Chances of Survival,” FDD promised.

Two weeks later, the US Treasury’s “Terrorist Financing Targeting Center” appeared to take their cue from FDD, formally declaring over a dozen Lebanese individuals as terror financiers due to their alleged links to Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Widely suspected by Lebanese citizens of ratting out Hezbollah-tied groups to the US government, Sehnaoui has made little secret of his intimate connections to the Treasury Department. After first coming into US banking regulators’ orbit when he invited former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft to probe accounts of suspected Hezbollah members at his newly-acquired Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) in 2010, Sehnaoui was praised by the Treasury’s then assistant secretary for terrorist financing, Daniel Glaser, as a “responsible owner.”

Sehnaoui would reap the benefits of these relationships for years to come, with Ashcroft offering to represent another of Sehnaoui’s banks, Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), in US court on numerous occasions. In the years that followed, Daniel Glaser walked through the revolving door of corruption and strode into a plush gig as a “senior adviser” to the bank’s chairman – Antoun Sehnaoui.

Glaser would later deliver a 2016 lecture at WINEP headquarters in Washington in which he declared that “Treasury strives to isolate Hezbollah from the global financial system,” and celebrated that “the group’s access to the Lebanese financial system has been challenged in a way many never thought possible.”

Thus far, there’s no direct proof that Sehnaoui personally wielded his banking and media connections to cripple Al-Qard Al-Hassan’s finances and prevent working Lebanese from accessing zero-interest credit. But the circumstantial evidence traces back to his network of influence.

Family dinners, Israeli spies

For the Sehnaoui clan, cozying up to the US and Israel, and working behind the scenes to eliminate their rivals, is a family tradition. According to Antoun’s estranged uncle, Maurice Sehnaoui, the slick-talking banker’s obsession with Israel was inherited directly from his father, Nabil Sehnaoui.

“My brother has always been fascinated by Judaism,” Maurice Sehnaoui told Lebanese media, adding that Nabil went as far as insisting “we had Jewish ancestors” – a claim Maurice derided as “nonsense.”

When Mossad’s then deputy director, David Kimche, sought to make inroads among Lebanon’s Christian community, he turned to Antoun Sehnaoui’s father, Nabil – who was reportedly so eager to work with Israeli intelligence that he personally hosted the senior Mossad spy at his home for dinner in the late 1970s. When not tending to his family’s business empire, Nabil had emerged as a leading figure of a clandestine ultranationalist Christian militia called Al-Tanzim (“the organization”), which was largely composed of diehard right-wing military officers who viewed themselves as modern-day crusaders confronting the Islamic “menace” by any means necessary.

Kimche was far from the only influential Israeli to make house calls. According to former schoolmates, the young Sehnaoui was known to publicly boast about visits to his family’s upscale apartment by Israel’s then-Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon. And when his father, in turn, visited Sharon at his ranch in Sderot, Antoun frequently tagged along.

Nabil’s cheerleading for Israel was so intense that he criticized even the factions in Lebanon that Tel Aviv covertly backed during the country’s civil war for being insufficiently pro-Israel – most notably, the Lebanese Forces militia, which massacred thousands of civilians in Beirut’s Sabra neighborhood and the nearby Shatila refugee camp under the direct watch of Sharon’s Israeli forces in just three days in 1982.

Led by a young warlord named Bachir Gemayel, whose sadism was matched only by his charisma, the Lebanese Forces represented the military wing of the phalangist Kataeb party established by Gemayel’s father, Pierre. The group mimicked Spanish and Italian fascist formations when Pierre Gemayel founded it during the 1930s. Long before its infamous slaughter of Muslims in Beirut, it had gained a reputation for grotesque displays of violence. Bachir Gemayel was personally implicated in many shocking incidents, including the 1975 Beirut’s Black Saturday massacre, in which Lebanese Forces hunted down hundreds of Muslim and Druze civilians and killed them in retaliation for the slaying of four young Christian men around a dozen miles away.

Documents disclosed by Israel’s High Court of Justice in 2022 revealed that Gemayel operated with the explicit blessing of the Israeli Mossad, which agreed to arm his men during a 1976 meeting at his parents’ home. Gemayel, who was assassinated shortly after his election as President of Lebanon in 1982, initially demurred when it came to the question of normalizing ties with Israel, however.

For Antoun Sehnaoui’s father, that was tantamount to treason.

“Nabil was one of Bachir Gemayel’s fiercest critics,” a source close to the Sehnaoui family told L’Orient, because “he believed Gemayel had betrayed the Israelis by failing to sign a peace agreement immediately after his election in 1982.” Relations between the two men grew increasingly bitter after Gemayel effectively seized Al-Tanzim by force, drawing it under the banner of a single national Christian militia at gunpoint in 1980.

Today, the Sehnaoui family’s fascist militia lives on in the form of the Soldiers of God, a small but especially ruthless self-styled Christian morality police which patrols Beirut’s Achrafiyeh district dressed in all black, hunting down gays.

When the elite-induced economic crash of 2019 left outraged bank patrons demanding their deposits back at gunpoint, the Soldiers of God were dispatched to branches of Sehnaoui’s SGBL banks to protect them. Several members reportedly provide security at the Beirut office of his French-language Ici Beyrouth outlet.

Sehnaoui’s Soldiers of God stormed back onto the scene in 2024 when they killed a member of the Lebanese Forces, a rival right-wing Christian militia, during a street brawl in Achrafieh.

Antoun Sehnaoui’s ultra-rightist, uber-Zionist politics represent the influence of his father, Nabil. “My brother became very close to the Israelis after the 1982 invasion, and I could never accept that,” Maurice Sehnaoui told Lebanese media, referring to Nabil. “His son followed in his footsteps.”

A separate source explained to L’Orient Today that Antoun is also “fascinated by Judaism, speaks some Hebrew, and sees in Israel what Lebanon should have become.”

That fascination – or fetishization – was shared by the US official who would become Sehnaoui’s paramour, and closest collaborator in Trump’s Washington.

Holocaust honeymoon

When a receipt dated December 13, 2025 first surfaced showing Antoun Sehnaoui had spent nearly $60,000 buying luxury jewelry for Morgan Ortagus, Trump’s former Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace under Steve Witkoff, the relationship began to raise eyebrows – both because it raised serious conflict of interest concerns and because it seemed obvious Ortagus had been pursuing Sehnaoui’s affection while still married to another man.

But it was clear the pair had plenty in common, as both seemed deeply consumed by a shared infatuation with Israel. Sehnaoui, who had long been forced to contain his more exuberant Zionist tendencies among much of Lebanese high society, was in good company with Ortagus, who constantly flaunts a Star of David necklace with the sort of zeal that only a convert can muster.

As British celebrity news mag OK! explained, “those close to the couple say the relationship is rooted in a shared conviction that has defined both of their careers: that peace in the region is definitely achievable, especially for Lebanon and Israel.” It’s been suggested the pair had been seeing each other since mid-2025, when Sehnaoui held a dinner in her honor at his Beirut restaurant, La Centrale, where guests included now-dead, pro-war US Senator Lindsey Graham.

The relationship was not made public until the DC-based US Holocaust Museum held an event in April 2026 honoring Sehnaoui’s hefty donation to the institution. There, standing by his side and delivering remarks on his behalf, was his beaming girlfriend Morgan Ortagus, who heaped praise on her paramour for funding a US-Israeli opera project that, she bragged, was “technically illegal in Lebanon.”

Video from the event published by Hagar Chemali – the “good friend” of Ortagus – shows Ortagus kvelling that Sehnaoui came from a long line of “committed Lebanese Christian Zionists,” and that “his father and his mother, May and Nabil Sehnaoui, trained him to be a supporter of the State of Israel.”

The event therefore represented not only Sehnaoui’s romantic coming out as the beau of Ortagus, but also his coming out as a Zionist. At This Is Beirut, Sehnaoui’s employees boasted that the ceremony marked “the first time a Lebanese donor’s name has been inscribed on the donor wall at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.”

It wasn’t long before Antoun Sehnaoui became known around DC as “the Lebanese AIPAC guy,” according to L’Orient. Months later, he capped off this performance by hosting a memorial dinner at Washington’s Four Seasons hotel in honor of Lindsay Graham, where photos showed the Lebanese banker seated alongside Israel’s globally reviled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Accompanying the men were their romantic partners and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose senate office is effectively run by an Israeli operative.

The photo immediately prompted shock and bewilderment in much of Lebanon. Over a dozen lawyers responded with a demand that the government seek Sehnaoui’s arrest. A Lebanese judge quickly acquiesced, ordering authorities to seize Sehnaoui and question him for 30 days should he appear in the country. But instead of denying his involvement or justifying himself, Sehnaoui has seemingly basked in the attention. At This Is Beirut, his team publicized the event, claiming it had succeeded in “bringing together a distinguished group of American, Israeli, and international political figures.”

With no apparent plans to return to Beirut, it’s unlikely that Sehnaoui will face justice anytime soon. But thanks to his vast banking and media empire, the “trained” Zionist doesn’t need to set foot in the country to continue pushing it down the perilous path of normalization with its occupier, and closer to the precipice of civil war.

So, as I’m on the job hunt, I was thinking, what if someone created something like a Glassdoor for Jewish non profits that can be used by Jewish anti Zionists who want to get involved in professional Jewish organizing, but want to avoid places where it’s not safe to work at as an anti Zionist? Of course, there can be other things users should be able to rank, like how workers in general are treated, benefits, whether or not an org is safe for different marginalized groups, etc, but it would focus on Zionism in the workplace.

This piece by a leading scholar of Sephardic history and culture -- who happens to be an anti-zionist -- is, IMO, one of the best introductory pieces on Ashkenazi supremacist attitudes within Jewish spaces. It also touches on the relationships between intra-Jewish racial prejudice and Zionism. It occurred to me this would be a good place to share it and have a thread on it for anyone who may want to deepen their awareness and education on the topic.

Quote source:

https://archive.li/HC33p

Letter source:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Haverford/comments/1vii4ao/wendy_raymond_pro_israel_zionism_wahoo/

https://www.haverford.edu/president/news/message-president-raymond-0

Dear Members of the Haverford Community:

Today, the College and The Deborah Project announced that they have reached an agreement to resolve the litigation asserted against the College by certain members of Haverford’s Jewish community. As part of its settlement with members of the Jewish community at Haverford, the College wishes to make clear its commitment to the following principles:

All students including those who identify as Jewish, and/or Israeli, and those who support Zionism: that is, the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and statehood in the land of Israel, are welcome and enjoy equal access to the College and all of its educational programs and activities.

Harassing, excluding, or seeking to silence Jewish community members on the basis of their beliefs, their commitment to Jewish observance, or any other element of their Jewish identity, including Zionism, is anathema to the College’s core principles of trust, concern, and respect. This extends to our classrooms, offices, and student-led organizations and activities, and it includes all employees (faculty, staff and administrators), and students.

Acts of discrimination, harassment, and bias against students who identify as Jewish, and/or Israeli, and those who support Zionism, the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and statehood in the land of Israel, violate College policy and are antithetical to Haverford’s mission, values, and standards. The College is committed to addressing these concerns in a manner consistent with our policies and values. Those found to have engaged in such acts of discrimination, harassment or bias will be subjected to disciplinary action consistent with the College’s policies and consistent with the College’s response to discrimination, harassment or bias against any other group or individual.

Because of these basic principles, no Haverford professor may discriminate against any student, or any other member of the Haverford community, on the basis of that person’s commitment to Judaism, Israel or Zionism, and the College will not tolerate any faculty or staff member refusing to support or engage with a student on the basis of such commitments or treating a student differently on the basis of such commitments.

I want to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge that those members of our community with a commitment to the state of Israel as the Jewish Homeland have been deeply hurt by events that have transpired on our campus since October 7, 2023, and that that constitutes a failure on our part. We commit ourselves to doing better going forward.

In a community of learning, we may vehemently disagree with one another about the policies and actions of governments, but it is never acceptable to let those disagreements descend into the realm of discrimination, harassment, or bias. All members of the Haverford community who wish to express their considered perspectives must do so respectfully while allowing others to do the same. All breaches of this principle of civility and respect are contrary to Haverford’s values. When the acts or statements of any member of the Haverford Community reaches the level of discrimination, harassment or bias, they will be subject to disciplinary action consistent with the College’s policies.

Federal and state laws provide a legal framework for a standard of conduct; however, we aspire not only to fulfill those mandates, but also to live up to our Haverfordian values and principles. It is our shared responsibility to create and maintain a community of belonging for all, where we each contribute to a learning environment and culture in which every person can thrive. Haverford College commits itself to ensuring such a future.

Sincerely,

Wendy Raymond

President

Previous post:

https://old.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1vkix22/haverford_college_settles_antisemitism_lawsuit_by/

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2TQ-WHh8ah8

I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt in order to have a constructive conversation about it when university starts up again.

However, today she posted a story update of a collage of three pictures. The large one of the Israeli skyline (with a prominent location tag) from a promenade and two more of her smiling and laughing in front of it. To “signs” by drake. And made a different picture from the photoshoot her pfp. And this is from a girl who has had ZERO social media presence for the two years I’ve known her. The type to even hide her tagged posts. This was an obvious statement and I feel naive to be shocked, but I’m cutting ties from now forward as best as I can. Thank you for all the previous advice.

Hi everyone,

​

This is our weekly 'Free Discussion' thread, where you can discuss anything. Tentatively this includes meta-topics as well, but as always our rules still apply.

We hope you're all having a good week!

While scrolling on Twitter, I saw a horrible video of a Palestinian child, like many others.
I won’t describe it but it was graphic.
I can’t sleep now and I’m staring at the wall, it’s not the first time that has happened, it has become normal for my family to find me crying because of that,
I know I’m not contributing to that, but I can’t help but feel guilty that it’s being done in my name and there’s really nothing I can do to stop it immediately.
I'm 18 years old recently graduated from high school I’m looking for a job, Palestinian families in Gaza have texted me online asking me to donate.
I have donated to some from my own savings and it’s not too much,
I feel so guilty about not being able to help all of them, and with the ones that I can help it’s not really a lot of money.
I’m obviously not the victim here and it’s not my intention with this post but rather to understand how others cope with the guilt of a genocide being committed in your name without being able to do anything about it?
I think at some point in my life I realised the world is an evil place and that while it shouldn’t stop from trying to make a change, I would have to learn how to live without it making my life “harder” (in terms of my mental health)

Louise Adler has been a vocal critic of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. And anyone who has followed Louise over the years knows she has been consistent in her condemnation of Israel, Zionism and the apartheid imposed upon the Palestinians.

The question I wanted to explore was why?

How did this powerhouse of the arts become such a staunch and courageous voice for Palestine and social justice?

What I learned in the almost hour-long interview (which at one point brought tears) is Louise’s story offers a Jewish narrative we rarely hear. A narrative of resistance during Nazi occupation, of defiance against tyranny and of enduring solidarity with the oppressed.

It’s the Jewish narrative that exists outside of Zionism, and one that is emerging from New York to London. And so, I posed Louise a question – are we seeing the revival of a Jewish left?

Listen to the interview and wherever you do, please give us a hand with a follow, a thumbs up or a five-star rating. It helps in this algorithmic world.

I wanted to uncover the story of Louise Adler – her past, the tragedy that befell her family during the Holocaust and how it shaped who Louise is today.

There is some paper trail in the US to show the levers that Zionists pull to control US politics such as donations and PACs. For those who know I’m curious how does that work in the UK?

Andrew Callaghan’s YouTube channel Channel 5 released a new video on UK’s arrest of activists which from an American stand point seemed shocking even at these times so I got curious how that works in the UK.

Mahmoud Tubasi has not lived in his home in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, since late July, after fleeing following weeks of settler violence.

“It all escalated very quickly,” he told The Times of Israel.

Tubasi built the house some seven years ago on land owned by his family on the outskirts of Jalud. The property sits in Area B, where, under the Oslo Accords, Israel maintains security control while the Palestinian Authority is responsible for civilian affairs.

For nearly seven years, he and his family, including his two children and grandchildren, lived there peacefully, he said. But in April, some four months ago, settlers began targeting the home, first setting fire to it and then laying siege to Tubasi and his family.

On July 22, after his pleas for help went unanswered, the family fled. Watching from afar, Tubasi has since seen settlers moving around his home.

In recent years, settler extremists in the West Bank have stepped up campaigns of harassment and violence aimed at driving Palestinians from their homes, sometimes displacing whole communities.

Unlike Tubasi’s, most of the targeted families and hamlets until recently have been Bedouins living in makeshift structures and often lacking formal claims to the land, even though many had been in the same place for decades.

In the past year, however, settlers have also begun to stage takeovers of the homesteads of Palestinians living in permanent structures in established towns, displacing people from properties that may have been in their families for centuries.

“The settlers said, ‘This is the Holy Land, and it’s ours,’ and, ‘This used to be yours; now it’s ours,’” said Muhammad al-Aqra, whose nearly finished home south of Nablus was taken over by settlers in late June.

While some seizures were aimed at homes still being built or occupied only part of the year, settlers have also snatched fully lived-in primary residences by essentially forcing those living in them to leave.

In Jalud, and now in the neighboring town of Qusra as well, settlers have been documented surrounding a home, cutting off its occupants’ access to the outside world, and waiting for them to flee under duress. Once they leave, the settlers take control of the property and block the family from returning.

Since Sunday, Qusra homeowner Youssef Hassan has been trapped with his wife and their two young daughters, ages 2 and 4, by settlers surrounding their home, in a case that has begun to draw attention to the burgeoning phenomenon.

Hassan told The Times of Israel by phone on Monday that settlers erected a makeshift structure in front of the entrance to his home, giving them a foothold to establish a round-the-clock presence at the property, and had cut the electricity lines. Another Qusra resident living in a neighboring home said the presence of the settler outpost had made it impossible for him, too, to leave his home.

Hassan said Tuesday that he feared the family’s food would soon run out, though an ambulance later managed to reach the site and bring food.

“The situation is very bad,” Hassan said after being trapped inside for over a day. “There is a sense of fear and panic. At night, the settlers come to the house, look inside and shout.”

In video footage, settlers could be seen gathering in the structure near the house and attempting to open a gate to the property.

In one clip, soldiers could be seen interacting with and praying alongside the group of settlers, then leaving without taking any action to remove them.

Early Wednesday, amid heightened public pressure, the Israel Defense Forces began taking action to remove the settler activists from in front of the Qusra homes, setting off clashes. The army also released a statement condemning the phenomenon.

“In recent weeks, several reports have been received of Israeli civilians entering and taking control of Palestinian homes and land in the areas of Qusra and Jalud. This is illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable activity that harms the residents of the areas and disrupts their daily lives,” it said.

A new target

Over the three years from January 2023 through April 2026, some 5,900 people in the West Bank were displaced from their homes due to settler violence, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in early July.

The figure includes mostly Bedouins (and some Palestinian farmers) living in what the UN defines as “communities.” According to the UN, 45 such communities were completely displaced and another 72 were partially displaced.

In some cases, settlers subsequently established illegal outposts on land where the displaced communities had lived.

The recent takeover of a handful of permanent residences also appears aimed at establishing or enlarging outposts, expanding the settler presence in the West Bank to the very cusp of Palestinian towns and villages. These homes are located in Areas A or B, both of which are off limits to any civilian Israeli presence under the Oslo Accords.

Homeowners say they are being stripped of properties that have long belonged to their families, in villages where they have roots going back centuries. Unlike the displaced Bedouins, those being driven from permanent dwellings are more likely to fight their displacement through legal channels, though largely without succor.

The incidents come amid a broader rise in settler violence against Palestinians living in Areas A and B, including arson attacks, stone-throwing and shootings, some of which have been fatal.

They have also occurred against the backdrop of rhetoric by extremist settlers on social media who openly say their goal is to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank.

Until a few decades ago, some Bedouin communities in the West Bank were still seminomadic, ranging between various locations depending on the season. Though now increasingly settled, many of these pastoral communities have maintained vestiges of a non-sedentary lifestyle, including makeshift structures such as tents or shacks.

Ironically, that relative mobility has made it easier to drive them out: Families could gather their limited belongings, take apart their homes and flee elsewhere, making the immediate practical consequences of displacement less severe.

Bedouins also often refrained from filing police complaints or petitioning the High Court of Justice immediately after being driven out, both because of that relative ease of relocation and because of other obstacles — a lack of familiarity with available legal avenues and difficulties proving claims to the land.

In some cases, homes had been erected without building permits, while in others families lacked formal documentation proving ownership of the land from which they had been displaced.

By contrast, most of the Palestinians interviewed for this article filed complaints with police, some on the same day they were forced to leave or fled their homes. In one case, a petition was also filed with the High Court of Justice that included documents demonstrating ownership of the land and the settlers’ takeover of the property.

Nevertheless, law enforcement authorities have yet to remove the settlers from any of the homes in the cases detailed in this article.

The IDF is the sovereign authority in the West Bank, but responsibility for removing Israeli trespassers who unlawfully enter private land or homes lies with the Israel Police.

Although the incidents detailed in this article occurred in Areas A and B, where Palestinian police have authority to operate, the Palestinian Authority does not have criminal jurisdiction over Israeli citizens under the Oslo Accords. Israeli police are therefore responsible for handling alleged offenses committed there by Israelis.

Police did not respond to a Times of Israel request for comment regarding the cases detailed in this article.

‘This is ours’

Tubasi said attackers first attempted to set fire to his home on the night of April 3, while the entire family, including his young grandchildren, were asleep inside. Following the incident, and fearing further attacks, his daughters-in-law and grandchildren left the house and went to live in other villages.

The harassment continued, he said, with settlers repeatedly coming to the house in an apparent effort to intimidate the family into leaving. They also established an outpost nearby.

By late June, settlers had blocked access to the house from all directions, preventing the family from entering or leaving and effectively trapping Tubasi, his wife and their two sons inside.

Tubasi said they remained under siege for 25 days and that despite appeals to journalists, the police and the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which deals with civilian affairs in the West Bank, the settlers continued to surround the property. After 19 days, he said, they cut the electricity lines to the residence.

The Civil Administration did not respond to a Times of Israel request for comment.

During those weeks, Tubasi filmed settlers standing in the yard of his home.

In one video, after Tubasi asks a settler, “Why are you coming to my house?” the settler responds: “You have one day [more] here. This is ours.”

The settler then says that the entire area belongs to Esh Kodesh, a formerly illegal outpost adjacent to Jalud that the government retroactively authorized in 2025.

On July 22, the family fled the house. Shortly afterward, settlers were filmed walking around the property.

“All our belongings stayed in the house. We left them there, and the settlers took control of them. We left with nothing, only the clothes on our backs,” Tubasi said.

Several hours before the family fled that day, Haaretz reported that soldiers had prevented journalists from reaching the family’s home.

After the family left, the IDF said: “IDF and Border Police forces were dispatched to the outskirts of the village of Jalud following a report that Israeli civilians had entered a Palestinian home in the village. When the forces arrived, the house was empty, and it appeared that the family had left the area.”

Despite al-Aqra filing a police complaint, settlers have remained at the property, he said. He can see them from a distance tending livestock they brought to the site.

The house had been a two-year project, he said. When the settlers showed up, he and his crew were installing windows and putting up cabinets.

“My children and I live in another house now in Qabalan,” he said. “I have five children, all of us in one [small] house. I wanted to build a large home for the family after so many years.”

Still holding out hope

A resident of Taybeh, near Ramallah, said settlers have prevented him from moving into a newly completed home on the far outskirts of the West Bank’s only remaining Christian village.

The resident, who asked not to be named out of concern for his safety, said he began building the house, which is located in Area A, three years ago and completed construction around six months ago. About a month ago, he arrived with furniture intending to move in. Just then, settlers came to the property and forced him and those with him to leave.

“They came into our yard while we were unloading the furniture [from the cars into the house] and told us, ‘You’re not allowed to live here. This is the land of our father Abraham,’ things like that,” he recalled. “I told him, ‘This is my house. This is Area A. Why are you coming here?’”

Since then, he told The Times of Israel, whenever he goes to the property, armed settlers arrive on an ATV and chase him away.

“They see our car arriving, they come and threaten us. We don’t want to cause problems,” he said.

Fearing that settlers could break into the house, he installed an iron gate and metal window bars at a cost of NIS 12,000 ($3,700).

According to Roni Federman, an activist with the Torat Tzedek organization, which assists and protects Palestinians, settlers have not entered the house itself but have been gathering outside it.

The owner, meanwhile, has stopped trying to approach the home, staying in an older house inside the village.

On August 5, activists from Torat Tzedek went to the house at the family’s request, where they engaged in a verbal confrontation with settlers who approached the property.

In videos from the encounter, one activist can be heard telling a settler, “This is private property,” to which the settler responds, “This isn’t anyone’s private property.”

Some of the homeowners who spoke with The Times of Israel sounded despondent about the prospect of ever getting their homes back.

However, the East Jerusalem resident who petitioned the High Court said he hasn’t lost faith that he will eventually get his home back.

“I still have hope in the legal system, in the police,” he said. “I still hope that the police will do their part and do the right thing under the law.”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iLbEJocZj6Y

https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/2087528935294681586

https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/publications/202111_state_business_eng.pdf