Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the composition of the executive board meant to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, his office said on Saturday.

“The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated. “The Prime Minister has instructed the Foreign Affairs Minister to contact the U.S. Secretary of State on this matter.”

Netanyahu emphasized his objection in a speech to the Knesset on Monday, saying that “there will be no Turkish or Qatari soldiers in Gaza. We are currently in a dispute with the U.S. over the makeup of the advisory council for Gaza.”

Though Netanyahu said the board was not coordinated with Israel, he spoke with President Donald Trump twice in recent days, and Mossad Chief David Barnea met with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday. The calls and meetings were reportedly about Iran.

The White House announced on Friday that several committees to govern Gaza and oversee its reconstruction and administration had been formed, including the Gaza Executive Board.

The Gaza Executive Board is meant to support the office of the high representative for Gaza and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which is made up of Palestinian technocrats. It includes Witkoff, Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister U.K. Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, Israeli-Cypriot businessman Yakir Gabay, head of Egyptian intelligence General Hassan Rashad, UAE Minister for International Cooperation Reem Al-Hashimy, U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Sigrid Kaag, and the previous holder of that position, Nickolay Mladenov, who will serve as the high representative for Gaza.

The board also includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi. Israeli officials have previously spoken out against Turkish involvement in Gaza’s reconstruction. Qatar has funded Gaza reconstruction in the past, with significant funding and dual-use materials reaching Hamas; the terrorist group’s leaders have also resided in Doha.

A Trump administration source characterized Netanyahu’s statement to Jewish Insider as a minor issue that would likely be smoothed out within days. 

The source noted that Turkish and Qatari representatives were key to negotiating the ceasefire in Gaza, which took effect in October, and that they call Witkoff and Kushner daily, and therefore have an influence on the process regardless of the titles they are given. He also added that Netanyahu has a direct line to Trump.

“It’s all based on whether Hamas demilitarizes or not,” he added. “If Hamas demilitarizes, that is what’s most important [above the composition of the board]. If Hamas doesn’t demilitarize, none of this matters. … The prime minister has a commitment from the president that Hamas will demilitarize.”

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that “Netanyahu is allowing Turkey and Qatar into Gaza. That endangers Israel’s security. That is not what our brave soldiers fought for for two years.

“Instead of releasing panicky statements of protest, Israel should offer a clear alternative, for Egypt to administer Gaza for the next 15 years, for Hamas to be disarmed, and work with American partners to strengthen Israel’s border,” Lapid added.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that he supports Netanyahu’s “important message.”

“Gaza does not need an ‘executive board’ that will supervise its ‘rehabilitation,’ it needs to be cleaned of Hamas terrorists who should be destroyed, along with encouraging massive voluntary emigration, in accordance with President Trump’s original plan,” Ben-Gvir said. “I call on the prime minister to instruct the IDF to prepare to go back to war in Gaza using great force in order to achieve the central goal of the war, the destruction of Hamas.”

The White House also announced the members of the founding executive board of the Trump-chaired Board of Peace, whose purview is not limited to Gaza. Netanyahu told the Knesset on Monday that the board is meant to serve as an alternative to the United Nations, 66 of whose organizations the U.S. left earlier this month. The board is composed of Secretary of State Marc Rubio, Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Argentinian President Javier Milei also accepted invitations from Trump to join the board, while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had yet to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron declined to join. Netanyahu was invited to join or send an Israeli representative, according to Ynet. Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited, as was President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received an invitation on Tuesday, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk told JI. China, Germany, Australia, Albania, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain reportedly received invitations, as well. 

Membership on the Board of Peace is for three years; Trump asked countries to pay $1 billion for a permanent seat, Bloomberg reported.

Trump appointed Aryeh Lightstone and Josh Gruenbaum, members of Witkoff’s team, to be special advisors to the Board of Peace, “leading day-to-day strategy and operations, and translating the Board’s mandate and diplomatic priorities into disciplined execution,” the White House stated.

Sam Rasoul, a Palestinian-American Virginia state delegate with a history of inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, announced on Monday that he is considering running for Congress in 2026, pending the outcome of a likely redistricting effort in the state. 

The Virginia state Senate recently adopted a measure kicking off a process to allow mid-decade redistricting, following the lead of other states planning to redraw congressional maps to shore up partisan advantages. Texas initiated the political arms race after facing pressure from President Donald Trump to draw maps more favorable to Republicans, and several other GOP-controlled states have followed — and some Democratic-controlled states, like California and Virginia. 

The new maps are already putting several pro-Israel incumbents at risk in states like Ohio and Florida. 

Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who chairs the Education Committee in the House of Delegates, came under fire from prominent Jewish Democrats in the state earlier this year after posting a series of posts on social media that critics say crossed a line into antisemitism. 

“Zionism has proven how evil our society can be,” Rasoul wrote on Instagram in July. He called Zionism a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way,” which, he wrote, “shows us the worst in humanity.” 

Former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, told Jewish Insider in August that Rasoul’s language is “fueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world, repackaged in the language of activism.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said at the time that he “forcefully reject[s] any claim that Zionism — the desire of Jewish people to have a state of Israel — is inherently racist or evil.” 

Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who was on the campaign trail at the time, did not mention Rasoul by name. But when asked about his comments, she said, referring to the war in Gaza, that “one can and must denounce these tragedies without using antisemitic language, whether intentional or not.”

In a fundraising email announcing his intention to formally explore a congressional run, Rasoul made his opposition to Israel a central part of his pitch.

“Virginians are looking for bold, experienced, progressive leadership that meets this moment and delivers results by guaranteeing healthcare as a human right through Medicare for All, protecting our access to clean air and water through a Green New Deal, and ending all military aid to Israel, which has waged a genocide in Gaza using our taxpayer dollars in violation of American law,” Rasoul wrote. 

Rasoul has served in the House of Delegates for 12 years. 

Virginia’s statehouse will decide in January whether to approve the redistricting effort. If it passes, it will then have to be approved in a statewide ballot referendum. 

After an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas to initiate the first stage of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal in mid-October, the IDF retreated to an “initial withdrawal line,” leaving Israeli forces in control of 58% of the enclave as Israel and mediators push Hamas to release the remaining deceased hostages and comply with the rest of the agreement, including disarmament and relinquishing power. 

The line divides Gaza in two: an “East,” controlled by the IDF and serving as a buffer zone to Israel, and a “West,” run by Hamas and host to the concentrated Palestinian population.

In interviews with Jewish Insider, experts painted a picture of two Gazas, explaining that the area Israel holds can be used strategically to root out Hamas and maintain leverage if hostilities resume. But challenges lie ahead in rebuilding the enclave and moving Palestinians back into the eastern region.

“There are virtually no Palestinians living in the eastern part of Gaza beyond the yellow line. The eastern part does not see the movement and the maneuvers of Hamas. That’s still confined to the western part,” Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza native and resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told JI. “Actual civilians of Gaza are all entirely under Hamas’ control in the west.”

Alkhatib said Israel has kept Palestinians from returning to the east over security and operational concerns, but also as leverage.

“How do you ensure that you don’t have Hamas members embedding themselves into the civilians, as they have done time and again? How do you ensure that Gazans coming into the east aren’t hindering clearance operations of tunnels or unexploded munitions?” Alkhatib asked. “I also think that the return of Palestinians to beyond the ‘yellow zone’ is leverage that Israel is holding onto until phase one is thoroughly and fully complete.”

Vice President JD Vance, in Israel last week, said during his trip that Palestinians should be able to move into a “Hamas-free zone” in southern Gaza “in the next couple months.” But experts warned that the timeline will be difficult given the conditions on the ground.

David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Israel has developed technology to recognize Hamas fighters and could use it to allow non-combatants access to the area under Israeli control. But even if Israel can vet who enters, eastern Gaza has endured destruction comparable to the west, and serious concerns await displaced civilians.

“The ubiquitous tunnel system that Hamas has dug in Gaza, which no doubt traverses the yellow line that serves as the ceasefire line, limits Israel’s ability to provide a safe zone in the eastern portion of Gaza,” May told JI.

Palestinians who move into the Hamas-free zone and those working on rebuilding would also face the issue of land ownership, Alkhatib noted.

“Who owns these lands, and where do people have their homes? Every plot of land in Gaza is accounted for,” he said. “You can’t just rebuild Gaza without taking into consideration that you’re doing so over pieces of land and properties that belonged to people.”

“There could be a process in which that happens, regardless of any claims to the land,” Alkhatib continued. “Basically there could be a fund established that allows for the compensation of rightful owners. But beyond that, eastern Gaza could be developed to create a compelling example that others in Gaza want to be part of.”

Despite these challenges, experts say finding ways to take in Palestinians to east Gaza could isolate Hamas in the west — a strategy Israel could use to undermine the terrorist group’s authority and bring in international support for rebuilding.

“East Gaza under IDF control would become a Hamas-free zone where the world comes together to support the emergence of thriving new political, social and economic institutions where the lives of average Gazans would flourish,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. 

“Hamas-controlled west Gaza, by contrast, would be condemned to repression, stagnation and sustained misery. Over time, the east would become a huge magnet for the vast majority of Gaza’s population who would vote with their feet to live within a ‘free Gaza,’ fatally isolating and undermining Hamas rule and legitimacy,” Hannah continued.

May said this contrast can show Gazans “an alternative to life under Hamas’ corruption and oppression” and make donors more likely to contribute to rebuilding projects knowing aid won’t be intercepted by Hamas.

“If there is running water, sewer, electricity, internet, fixed roads and infrastructure, if there is something that resembles jobs and economic opportunity, and you create vetted methods for accepting incoming civilians into that area, then absolutely there could be a way in such that slowly drains the population out of west Gaza,” said Alkhatib.

However, Hannah argued that keeping half the enclave as a buffer zone could also serve Israel’s interests if fighting resumes.

“Right now, Israel controls an extensive buffer zone containing very few hostile Gazans standing between its border communities and Hamas-controlled west Gaza,” said Hannah. “How eager should [Israel] be to attract over a million or more Gazans to pick up and move much closer to Israel’s borders?”

May said Israel may have plenty of time to decide on how to proceed should Hamas continue to be uncooperative with the implementation of the rest of the first phase of the agreement. 

“There is still a lot up in the air,” said May. “As ceasefire lines in the Middle East have a tendency to become permanent borders, Israel needs to plan for the possibility of the yellow line becoming a long-term territorial marker.” 

Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman and advisor to the prime minister, praised Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers in social media and blog posts prior to taking up his post in 2022.

Al-Ansari is one of the Qatari government’s most public faces, hosting regular press briefings and giving interviews about the Gulf state, including to Israeli media. 

In May 2021, when Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched 130 rockets at Israel, Al-Ansari posted his support on X, saying that “Palestine emerges to remind this nation of its glory and the greatness of its message.” Al-Ansari added the hashtag #Tel_Aviv_is_burning to his post.

During the ensuing 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank, and rioting by Israeli Arabs in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, Al-Ansari posted: “Jerusalem, the interior [of Israel], the West Bank, Gaza … rise with one voice against the occupier. This unity is what terrifies the enemy the most. Oh Allah, unite their word and guide their aim.” 

The posts were resurfaced by analyst Eitan Fischberger.

Al-Ansari also maintained a blog, which he linked to on his verified X account. 

In one blog post, Al-Ansari praised the Second Intifada — the 2000-2005 Palestinian terror campaign — against the “Zionist enemy” and its “martyrdom operations,” a euphemism for terrorist attacks. He credited the intifada with leading Israel to pull out of Gaza in 2005. 

In an overview of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in recent decades, Al-Ansari argued that “the Israeli military losses were great, but the most important loss was Tel Aviv’s loss of a large part of its narrative and story of its victimhood in the West, following the spread of images of the brutal aggression throughout the world.” 

Al-Ansari encouraged “a celebration of the continued march toward victory in the conflict,” praising what he described as the Palestinians’ advancement from “resistance with stones and bare chests [to] the launching of 3,000 rockets in ten days toward the entity’s [Israel’s] cities.” 

In another blog post, in which Al-Ansari wrote about the Israeli Arab riots in May 2021, which included burning down Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue, he falsely claimed that “the occupation forces were forced to withdraw” from Lod — a central Israeli city in which Ben Gurion Airport continued to operate normally and most neighborhoods continued to function peacefully. 

The blog and X posts were written when Al-Ansari was the head of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies. The blog was deleted after Jewish Insider sent a request for comment about the matter to the Qatari Embassy, which the embassy did not respond to.

In earlier posts on an unverified Facebook account under Al-Ansari’s name, the Qatari spokesman repeatedly called President Donald Trump a racist.

In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, Al-Ansari wrote, “We call on the board of directors of Qatar Airways to cut ties with Trump and his racist empire.” Also that year, he lamented that the head of Qatar Airways “brags about his friendship with this racist.” 

The return of the final, living hostages to Israel last week has reopened discussion of putting the Palestinian perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel on trial.

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin threw his support behind legislation to allow for the formation of a special tribunal to prosecute Hamas terrorists who are part of the Nukhba, the terrorist group’s special forces unit, on charges of genocide, which carries the death penalty.

The bill is meant to “ensure that the legal process will be run efficiently and to ensure that justice will be done and seen,” Levin said in a joint statement with the bill’s sponsors, Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party and Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker Yuli Malinovsky. The group plans to bring the legislation to a first vote as soon as possible and usher it through the process “at the greatest speed, with a shared aim to bring the Nukhba terrorists to justice soon.”

Levin, Rothman and Malinovsky said that the office of the Israeli state attorney, the country’s chief prosecutor, has drafted indictments against Nukhba terrorists.

They noted that during the two years since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, the State Attorney’s Office, police and Shin Bet have interrogated the Nukhba terrorists and collected evidence “of an unprecedented scope,” including thousands of hours of video of the atrocities and of testimony. 

During that time, the Law, Constitution and Justice Committee held a series of meetings to examine possible ways to put the Nukhba terrorists on trial and ensure they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“We met with the Justice Ministry once every few months,” Rothman told Jewish Insider. “Levin finally supports [the bill]. Every obstacle was standing in our way, and [Levin] didn’t make an effort to remove them. Now, there’s nothing preventing it from moving forward.”

The move toward putting Oct. 7 perpetrators on trial comes soon after the return of the living hostages, as well as weeks after a heated debate in the Knesset over instituting the death penalty for terrorists. The legislation’s explanatory portion says it is meant to “nip terrorism in the bud and create a heavy deterrent.” 

The death penalty has only been carried out once in Israel’s history — following the conviction of senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann for crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity.

The bill, which applies to terrorists broadly, not only those who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, was proposed by members of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and brought before the Knesset National Security Committee, chaired by Tzvika Foghel, also of Otzma. The Prime Minister’s Office asked Ben-Gvir to postpone the vote. 

Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for the hostages, said in the committee meeting that Ben-Gvir’s effort was potentially harmful to the ongoing discussions to secure the release of the remaining hostages. Representatives from hostage families have also pleaded with the lawmakers to stop the proceedings, concerned that the moves could endanger their loved ones.

On Monday, Ben-Gvir made an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that either the death penalty bill passes a first Knesset vote in the next three weeks, or his party will no longer vote with the coalition. 

“When terrorists remain alive, the terrorists outside are motivated to carry out kidnappings in order to free their Nazi brothers in future deals,” Ben-Gvir said. “If they murder a Jew, they do not stay alive.”

Rothman argued that his bill is significantly different from Ben-Gvir’s, and pointed out that he held a committee meeting the same week as the one that courted controversy, and neither Netanyahu nor Hirsch asked him to hold off.

“It’s a question of whether you want real results. [Otzma lawmakers] don’t understand what they’re dealing with. The law they want to pass [is so broad], I think it would end up giving a Jewish Israeli the death penalty first,” he remarked.

While Rothman said that having all of the living hostages home will help the Oct. 7 trials to move forward, when he asked senior defense figures over the last two years whether there was a risk to the hostages’ lives from his actions, “they said no. They said when there’s a conviction or maybe even an indictment, possibly, but just building the framework is not a risk.”

As such, Rothman said that though it may seem like a long time has passed, “the time hasn’t been a waste. A lot of material was collected and we oversaw the legislative and political decisions that needed to be made.”

Rothman and Malinovsky’s bill would establish a special tribunal for those who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, with the proceedings made public. The legislation sets different rules for presenting evidence to protect the privacy of victims and their families, and to streamline the process of prosecuting large numbers of defendants. It also allows for non-Israeli judges to be appointed. In addition, it would establish a committee of representatives of Israel’s justice minister, defense minister and foreign minister to determine government policy as to whether to prosecute the Nukhba terrorists on genocide charges, which carry the death penalty, taking national security into consideration.

In a Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee meeting on Wednesday, the first since Levin publicly supported the bill, Malinovsky said that she and Rothman “understand that it was difficult to gather evidence … and I know that law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office overturned every stone to find evidence. [Regular] criminal justice proceedings do not have a response for the events of Oct. 7, therefore MK Rothman and I wrote this bill to regulate the jailing and prosecution of the terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.” 

Malinovsky said that there is difficulty tying specific terrorists to specific murders, and genocide is a collective crime, by which they can be charged as a group. In cases in which there is no evidence tying a terrorist to genocide, they can be tried in a military court as illegal fighters who committed acts of terror against Israel, a crime that carries a life sentence. 

Much of the bill is focused on clear criteria for genocide charges.

“At first, the Justice Ministry said that genocide charges won’t work,” Rothman recalled earlier this week, “but today, I think they understand that they need to go there.”

The special tribunal is meant to prevent the Oct. 7 trials from getting caught up in the Israeli justice system’s significant backlog.

“It’s a lot of heavy cases that will block up the whole justice system” if the trials are in regular courts, Rothman explained. 

In addition, he said, “I don’t want a situation where a judge is with the Nukhba in the morning and in the afternoon is dealing with an Israel who stole a car. We could end up lowering the standards of defendants’ rights in all of Israel. When we authorized preventing meetings [of terrorists] with lawyers, [judges] used it for all kinds of other cases, just because they can. We’re not going to allow that.”

Rothman said that the question of appointing foreign judges to the tribunal remains open, because it may be too complex. However, he said, “bringing a major jurist from the U.S. or somewhere else can give the trials an international imprimatur.”

Malinovsky said at the committee meeting that the Oct. 7 attacks “are like nothing else in the world, and I invite anyone who has knowledge to speak. We need creative solutions, outside of the box, and therefore we need a change of attitude, especially in the Justice Ministry.” 

Hamas said in a statement on Friday night that it was ready to enter final negotiations over the Trump-authored peace plan and that it was willing to release all the hostages remaining in Gaza. 

The Palestinian terror group said it would release the living hostages and the bodies it has held hostage since the Oct. 7 attacks nearly two years ago. Twenty of the 48 hostages are believed to still be alive. 

Hamas added it is willing to hand over administration of the Gaza Strip to a “Palestinian body composed of independents.” But the terror group also insisted — contradicting the terms of the Trump proposal — that Hamas will maintain a role in discussions over the future of Gaza through a “comprehensive Palestinian national framework.”

The deal is not yet final, and in its response to the Trump plan, Hamas said that the group is ready to enter negotiations to discuss the remaining details.

In response, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he believes Hamas wants to make a deal, and called on Israel to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.” 

“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump wrote. “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy declined to comment.

This story was updated at 5:32 p.m.

A book that centers on Palestinian identity is drawing controversy from some Jewish parents in the Montgomery County, Md., public school system after it was assigned to first grade students as required classroom reading, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The book,“Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale,” written by Margaret Read MacDonald, aims to convey a message to children that there are consequences for taking things that don’t belong to them. It tells the story of a woman who “prayed to Allah” for a child and received a pot as her child. The pot, too young to know right from wrong, had a tendency to steal honey from the marketplace and jewels from the king — until she got caught. As punishment, she was filled with muck. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the pot’s mother tells her. “You cannot take things that do not belong to you.” 

While the book does not mention Israel, local Jewish leaders and parents voiced concern that the required book’s subtext sends an anti-Israel message to elementary schoolers and that the reference to “Allah” does not belong in a public school setting. 

A syllabus notes that students can receive supplemental reading materials if “any instructional material conflicts with your family’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The book’s lesson that “‘you cannot take things that do not belong to you’ echoes activist rhetoric that falsely casts Israel as an oppressor and the Jewish people as imperialist rather than indigenous,” Dana Stangel-Plowe, chief program officer at the North American Values Institute, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism in K-12 schools, told JI.

“It reinforces a false narrative that erases the historic Jewish connection to Israel. It sends a troubling message to Jewish families during a time of rising antisemitism,” Stangel-Plowe told JI.

Not all Jewish communal leaders agreed that the book was problematic. Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, argued that Jewish families should embrace the book.  

“If the only complaint about this book is that it’s sharing a Palestinian folktale that teaches children not to take things that don’t belong to them, I can’t see what the problem with the book is,” Franklin Siegel told JI. “It will be a shame if Jewish people wind up objecting to books only because they have protagonists who happen to be Palestinian.” 

“There may well be books and materials that do misinform students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we always monitor that work,” said Franklin Siegel. “If we turn this into a back and forth where parents are requesting opt-outs for any material that they don’t see eye-to-eye with, we’ll wind up in a situation where we’re seeing a significant number of students whose parents are requesting opt-outs for things like Holocaust speakers.” 

Meanwhile, Margery Smelkinson, a parent of four MCPS students, told JI that she would have preferred the district find a children’s book that teaches not to steal “without causing controversy.” 

“The real problem is that MCPS chose a book that even requires an opt-out form — why not just pick another book?” 

Smelkinson called on the school district to prioritize helping students get up to speed in reading, math and science instead of “creating more barriers to learning.”

“I’m concerned and curious if my child was introduced to [similar rhetoric] last year,” Diana Tung, the parent of an MCPS second grader and kindergartener, told JI. “I assume in a public school setting there’s going to be pretty diverse spiritual beliefs [but] the context of the tale itself [concerns me]. The themes should be taught using a different folktale, I’m pretty confident there are plenty.”  

“Books and materials approved to be available for use in classrooms, beyond being in alignment with curriculum standards, are selected to be representative of our very diverse community,” Christopher Cram, a spokesperson for the suburban Washington school system, which is the 15th-largest school district in the country and educates a significant number of Jewish students, told JI. “Students and families expect to be able to see themselves in the materials we use.” 

The school system has faced several antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, leading to the school board president, Karla Silvestre, being subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing in May 2024. Weeks after the hearing, at least six MCPS school buildings — including three elementary schools — were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. 

The assignment of the Palestinian folktale as required reading comes two months after the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that MCPS must allow parents to opt their children out of lessons and books that feature LGBTQ+ themes if the material conflicts with their religious beliefs.

When Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) won his first election to the House in 2022, Jewish leaders in his Orlando, Fla., district who had been encouraged by his personal outreach were optimistic he would follow through on a range of commitments he had made vowing to uphold support for Israel.

Despite some initial concerns about his history of involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations as well as relationships with anti-Israel activists, Frost had circulated a lengthy Middle East position paper in consultation, in part, with a top pro-Israel group that largely assuaged lingering reservations among Jewish community leaders over the sincerity of his views. 

In the paper as well as a candidate questionnaire solicited by Jewish Insider during his first primary, the young progressive organizer, describing himself as both “pro-Israel” and “pro-Palestinian,” voiced opposition to conditioning aid to Israel — arguing that the security threats facing the Jewish state are “far too grave” to enact such measures. In backing a two-state solution, he clarified that any agreement should require “the basic recognition that Israel has a right to exist” as well as “an end to the antisemitic rhetoric and positions of Hamas.” And if elected, he pledged to visit Israel — which he called “one of the United States’ most important allies and strategic partners.”

Now, almost midway into his second term, Jewish and pro-Israel leaders are expressing some buyer’s remorse as Frost, 28, has embraced positions that put him at odds with his past commitments, fueling frustration among those who had believed he would be a more dependable ally on key issues concerning Israel. 

Frost, for his part, insists that the humanitarian conditions in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza have deteriorated so drastically during his tenure that he had no choice but to change his views, though that has not quelled discontent among his former allies.

“He has broken a lot of promises,” said one Jewish leader, echoing others who expressed dismay with Frost’s turn in Congress.

The most recent move to draw scrutiny from Jewish and pro-Israel leaders is a letter Frost signed urging the Trump administration to recognize a Palestinian state over growing concerns with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The letter, signed by several prominent House progressives and led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) — who plans to introduce a similar resolution — said such a state “will need to fully recognize Israel” and guarantee “the disarmament of and relinquishing of power by Hamas.” But pro-Israel activists broadly see the renewed effort as a misguided concession to Hamas amid the ongoing war — as the terror group seeks to leverage international outrage over Israel’s military conduct.

Democratic Majority for Israel, whose political arm had provided input on Frost’s position paper during his primary, took issue with his decision to join the letter. While the group felt sufficiently comfortable with Frost’s Middle East policy views when he first ran for Congress, opting not to intervene on behalf of a top primary rival who had won an endorsement from its super PAC, it has become dissatisfied with his approach as he has continued to stake out more adversarial stances toward Israel during his time in the House.

“We strongly support a two-state solution that ensures Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state with recognized borders and upholds the right of Palestinians to live in freedom and security in a viable state of their own,” Brian Romick, DMFI’s president, said in a statement to JI on Tuesday. “But unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at this time — as the terrorist group Hamas still governs parts of Gaza and continues to hold Israeli hostages — would not advance peace. It will instead prolong the war by incentivizing Hamas to reject any ceasefire deal, and reward the terrorism we saw on Oct. 7 while making future acts of terror more likely.”

In addition to the letter — which followed a similar resolution he co-sponsored in 2023 during his first term — Frost in May joined legislation to place unprecedented new conditions on aid to Israel by withholding offensive weapons over its alleged violations of international law.

Last year, he also voted against a widely approved bill to provide supplemental aid to Israel six months after Hamas’ attacks. In a statement explaining his thinking at the time, Frost wrote that he was “only able to justify aid for defense, not offense, and this legislation did not allow me to separate the two,” as the war “has claimed the lives of countless innocent Palestinian civilians and brought us no closer to the return of innocent Israeli hostages held by Hamas.”

“For me, the North Star here is having a two-state solution, and everything, all the decisions we make, have to point to that,” Frost said, arguing that he has remained consistent in upholding his core beliefs on the conflict even as his positions on specific policies have changed since he launched his initial campaign for Congress. “The thing I have in mind is the safety and security of everybody, of Israel, of Palestinians — of everybody.”

Meanwhile, Frost has yet to fulfill his campaign vow to travel to Israel, and has declined invitations to do so while in Congress, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In an interview on Wednesday, Frost acknowledged that his approach has changed since he entered the House, attributing his new positions to his revulsion at Israel’s behavior in Gaza — which he described as “completely unacceptable” and “abhorrent” in light of the civilian death toll. “In terms of specific policy points, things have changed,” Frost told JI. “Things have changed a lot — and unfortunately, not for the better.”

“For me, the North Star here is having a two-state solution, and everything, all the decisions we make, have to point to that,” he added, arguing that he has remained consistent in upholding his core beliefs on the conflict even as his positions on specific policies have changed since he launched his initial campaign for Congress. “The thing I have in mind is the safety and security of everybody, of Israel, of Palestinians — of everybody.”

Even as he condemned Hamas and said the terror group should have no role in rebuilding postwar Gaza, Frost said the conflict has evolved into what he regards as a “war on innocent people,” resulting in “massive loss of innocent life” that has fueled his decision to speak up against the Israeli government and its ongoing military campaign.

In the Middle East position paper he wrote in his first primary, Frost had rejected placing additional conditions on aid to Israel because, he wrote at the time, it would “undermine Israel’s ability to defend itself against the very serious threats it faces.” But he explained on Wednesday he had also felt such measures were “already written into the law” and “we didn’t really need to go further” in enforcing it at the time. 

Now, however, “I do believe that the law is being violated,” he told JI, clarifying his recent support for legislation that seeks to withhold transfers of offensive weapons to Israel. “Because of that, we have to look at the way that we are both complicit but also encouraging the current behavior of the Netanyahu government,” he said.

Unlike a handful of his far-left House colleagues who have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, Frost hesitated to use the term himself, calling it a “difficult” word because of its historical connection to the Holocaust. Still, he said he would not seek to discourage others from such charges. “I’m not going to sit here and defend what is going on right now in any way, shape or form,” he said. “I understand why people use that word. But when we see what’s going on, it’s hard to find the words for it.”

“There’s a lot of things to hold, but the main thing is, yes, there are many things that have changed,” he reiterated. “But for me, what has not changed is the main goal, which is making sure that everyone’s safe and everyone’s secure.”

Frost is hardly alone among Democratic lawmakers who in recent months have become more critical of Israel’s behavior, with even some of the staunchest supporters of the Jewish state struggling to defend the Israeli government as the humanitarian situation in Gaza has continued to worsen nearly two years into the war.

“It’s a radical shift,” one community activist told JI, voicing frustration with Frost’s positions, even as he described their ongoing conversations as “very open and honest.” 

His vacillating stances also illustrate some of the cross-pressures facing progressive Democrats who are not completely aligned with the party’s far left on its hostility toward Israel. Pro-Israel Democrats have recently voiced their concerns that anti-Israel policies could become a litmus test for the left in the midterms, particularly amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s moves to occupy the enclave.

But Jewish community leaders in Frost’s district, who spoke on condition of anonymity to address what they characterize as an increasingly delicate relationship with the congressman, explained they are particularly disappointed with his evolution on Middle East policy, given their initial hopes that he would be among a dwindling number of progressive allies committed to defending Israel in the House.

“It’s a radical shift,” one community activist told JI, voicing frustration with Frost’s positions, even as he described their ongoing conversations as “very open and honest.” 

The activist noted that Frost, who had been a prominent gun control advocate before he was elected to Congress, has “a good heart and doesn’t want to see people dying.” But “as a result,” he said, Frost has “a lot of blind spots” in his assessment of the conflict. The activist argued that Frost’s critique of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has ignored Hamas’ role in perpetuating the crisis as it refuses to surrender.

“At the end of the day, he very much comes from the ‘oppressor-oppressed’ worldview and sees Israel as the oppressor,” the activist said.

Frost, for his part, said his statements have been misconstrued by a wide range of critics across the spectrum, including pro-Palestinian activists who allege that he made separate commitments during his first primary bid that he has failed to uphold in Congress.

He stressed that he does not “do tit-for-tat stuff” while addressing the war. “Whenever I post about the hostages, I’ll have people sending me messages. ‘What about this?’ No,” he said. “Whenever I post about Palestinians, I’ll have people saying, ‘What about this?’ No, I will post about it all. I will talk about it all. I will say how I feel about everything.”

“I’m very firm in that, just coming from a place of, since I was 15 years old, being involved in the fight to end gun violence, and have grown up through a movement of death,” he told JI. “I just don’t think that’s the way to live as a human, quite frankly.”

“We’ve been disappointed that he has not met the commitments he gave to us,” one DMFI source told JI. “At the same time, we’re grateful that he has come to realize he made a mistake in at least one case, but members of Congress should think through their votes fully and discuss them with knowledgeable people before casting them.”

Even as Jewish and pro-Israel leaders say their relationships with Frost have worsened in recent months, frustration over his approach to Israel has been mounting since his first term, when he called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza just days after Hamas’ terror attacks. As a freshman, he also voted against a resolution condemning rising antisemitic activity on college campuses, but he later said that vote had been a mistake after meeting with Jewish students in his district.

While Frost had shown contrition for his vote on the resolution in November 2023, DMFI still expressed dissatisfaction with his initial decision at the time — alleging he had not performed proper due diligence beforehand. “We’ve been disappointed that he has not met the commitments he gave to us,” one DMFI source told JI not long after the vote.

“At the same time, we’re grateful that he has come to realize he made a mistake in at least one case, but members of Congress should think through their votes fully and discuss them with knowledgeable people before casting them,” the source stated.

A spokesperson for Frost told JI at the time that the congressman “is trying to hold multiple truths all at once” as he receives input from constituents pushing opposing interests.

“I’m very comfortable with the decisions I’ve made,” Frost said of his approach to Israel. “As I walk the streets of my district, as I speak with the people in my district, this is where I find most people are at. They’re not really at the extremes that I’ve heard from.”

Speaking with JI on Wednesday, Frost said he has appreciated his ongoing discussions with pro-Israel leaders in his district — even if they have not been aligned on major policy questions in recent months. “Hearing their perspective is really important,” he confirmed. “What I always tell people is I might not always come to the conclusion that you agree with,” he said, “but I hope you’ll always feel I’ve engaged in good faith.”

He suggested that Jewish community activists who have been irked by his approach to the Middle East have not fully reckoned with his belief that Israel’s military actions have damaged its reputation in the United States. “It’s palpable across the country, and I think a lot of this has to do with the decisions that are being made by Netanyahu,” he argued.

“I’m very comfortable with the decisions I’ve made,” Frost said of his approach to Israel. “As I walk the streets of my district, as I speak with the people in my district, this is where I find most people are at. They’re not really at the extremes that I’ve heard from.”

When he assumed office in 2023, Frost had sought guidance from pro-Israel Democrats including Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who enthusiastically backed his campaign, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), one person familiar with the matter told JI. But the congressman has since drifted away from the two lawmakers on Israel while staking out positions that have put him more in line with the far left.

More recently, Frost has built closer relationships with such leading Israel critics as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the source told JI, even if he has resisted identifying as an official member of the so-called Squad of progressive House Democrats. 

Owing in part to his network in Congress, Jewish community leaders are doubtful Frost will change his views on Israel. “It may be the best that we can hope is that he doesn’t become an actual member of the Squad,” said one activist, while noting that Frost is “totally safe” in his deeply blue district as he seeks a third term next year. 

Still, the activist said, “his refusal to actually go and see” Israel “first-hand is a problem,” particularly in light of his primary vow to visit the Jewish state as a congressman.

Frost, who acknowledged the commitment that he had made, said he hopes to see the region “at some point,” but added that it has “been difficult to figure out the timing.”

After the interview, Frost asked his spokesperson to clarify that he would “like to travel to the region at a point where he’d be able to visit both Israel and the Gaza Strip,” indicating a potential visit is unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called on Israel to “aggressively investigate” the death of Saif Musallet, a Palestinian-American man from Florida who was killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last Friday. 

In a statement posted to X, Huckabee called the incident a “criminal and terrorist act” and said “there must be accountability.”

Musallet, 20, was attacked by Israeli settlers while visiting his family in Sinjil, a village north of Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health reported a second man was also shot and killed during the incident. 

Democratic lawmakers in Washington also weighed in on the attack. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a pro-Israel stalwart, said on Tuesday that he was “appalled and heartbroken” by the news, adding he had “repeatedly called on the Israeli government to address the growing number of violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.”

“Israeli authorities must fully investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators to account,” he continued.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called the “brutal killing” of Musallet “shocking and appalling” and said the Israeli government “must thoroughly investigate this killing and hold any and all settlers responsible.” He called the rise in violence of against Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers “completely and totally unacceptable.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) wrote of Musallet’s killing, “This totals 5 Americans killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023 and more than a dozen Palestinians killed by lawless settler violence. It’s hard to understand this lack of accountability by the Netanyahu government as anything other than tacit approval by the state — something that should be treated as abhorrent by all decent people.”

A group of pro-Palestinian, anti-abortion activists disrupted an abortion rights rally outside the Supreme Court on Thursday, at which the leaders of multiple Jewish organizations were present.

The rally, organized by Planned Parenthood in anticipation of a ruling in the case Medina v. Planned Parenthood, included representation from the National Council of Jewish Women, Women of Reform Judaism and the Union for Reform Judaism. Rallygoers were forced to an alternative indoor location after counterprotesters became aggressive and disrupted the rally, attendees told Jewish Insider.

Video of the start of the counterprotest reviewed by JI, as well as accounts from NCJW’s chief of staff, Jake Green, and another witness who spoke to JI, shows two activists chanting “ceasefire in Gaza and the womb” on the side of the Planned Parenthood group.

“It was something I haven’t experienced before, which was really quite surprising to be there and see the like anti-abortion protesters show up, and specifically hear them chanting things like ‘Ceasefire in Gaza, ceasefire in the womb,’” Green said. “It was [strange] to see them in keffiyehs doing that.”

Green and the other witness said that the small group of activists repeatedly attempted to push their way into the Planned Parenthood group. At one point, a larger group of counterprotesters arrived simultaneously, bringing the size of that group up to around 20, and the counterprotesters aggressively pushed their way into the Planned Parenthood group of around 40, knocking at least one person over.

Rabbi Liz Hirsch, the CEO of Women of Reform Judaism, said that the counterprotest group had been getting progressively louder in its drumming and chanting, to the point that the Planned Parenthood group could not even hear its own speakers.

Police attempted to separate the two crowds, Green and the other witness said, and the Planned Parenthood group decamped to an alternative indoor location a few blocks away.

“[Thursday’s] rally at the Supreme Court should have been about standing up for health care access in the face of a devastating decision. Instead, we were surrounded by coordinated anti abortion protesters who were shouting, ‘cease fire in Gaza, cease fire in the womb,’” Sheila Katz, NCJW’s CEO told JI. “It escalated, and it was a moment that left me shaken, and some of us shaken, and I’m grateful for the swift response from law enforcement and Planned Parenthood’s strong security protocols. “

Green, who said he’s attended many such rallies at the Supreme Court, described the counterprotesters as particularly aggressive: “I’ve never seen it so agitational in this way, where they were really just violently trying to push their way into our protest and drown us out and be aggressive in that way. It was quite shocking.”

Hirsch emphasized that the counterprotesters’ aggressive behavior came in spite of the fact that the court had delivered the ruling they had been hoping for, allowing states to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding.

“What happened today at the Supreme Court was unacceptable in terms of our physical safety,” Hirsch said. “No one should have to feel unsafe in order to stand up for their values.”

Green said that at least one of the counterprotestors was holding a megaphone emblazoned with the logo of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, a group active primarily in Washington, D.C. that couches its opposition to abortion in leftist principles. Photos from the group’s social media show activists affiliated with the group crowding around and pushing into the Planned Parenthood group outside the Supreme Court on Thursday.

“Planned Parenthood has got to go!” the group’s caption on social media reads.

When the Planned Parenthood group arrived at its backup location, a church near the Supreme Court, both Katz and Hirsch delivered remarks.

Katz said she discussed the fact that “it’s a scary time to be Jewish in America, and it’s a scary time to be a woman in America,” and discussed the fear that the Jewish community in the U.S. and particularly Washington is feeling following the killings of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

“I knew Sarah and I shared about both of them and what just happened in the Jewish community, how scary and hard it was,” Katz said. “And I also shared with them how scary and hard it was to go back to the Capital Jewish Museum, which I did a week later. … I brought it up because I said, ‘It’s really important that we keep being proud of the identities that we have, even when people want to hurt us.’”

Hirsch said, “when we arrived at the church, as a rabbi and a faith leader, I felt really moved and inspired by the fact that we were able to find this sanctuary, this safe space in a house of worship.”

“While I shared a few of the remarks that I was going to make about our response, as Women of Reform Judaism, to this decision, I also wanted to make sure that we helped people feel safe again and re-center themselves. So I offered a prayer and we sang together,” Hirsch continued.

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity. 

Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.” 

CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian. 

“Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.” 

The descriptor is sure to confuse some readers. If advocates for a two-state solution talk about separate Israeli and Palestinian states, how can there be a Palestinian town within Israel? 

The use of the word is not a statement about the town being under Palestinian sovereignty or the jurisdiction of a Palestinian governing authority. The word is used to describe the national identity of the people who live there, similar to describing Americans of Chinese ancestry as Chinese Americans — only much more complicated, because of the recent politics of the war in Gaza and nearly eight decades of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Anwar Mhajne, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, who grew up in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in Israel, told Jewish Insider that using the term “Palestinian” to describe her identity and the place where she grew up can serve as an educational opportunity for people from outside the region who don’t know the history of her community, which dates back several hundred years.

“If I’m talking to outsiders who don’t understand the history of the region, I would say, ‘It’s a historically Palestinian town inside of Israel,’” Mhajne said. “Then I have to tell them the whole story of how that happened. The reason why I do this is because I have people ask me, ‘Wait, you’re not Jewish, so how are you in Israel?’” 

CNN’s use of the word “Palestinian” to describe the Arab-Israeli residents of Tamra reflects a broader linguistic shift that has been happening over the years among Israel’s Arab citizens, who account for about 20% of Israel’s population. A spokesperson for CNN did not respond to a question about whether the language reflected a change to the network’s style guide, but the recent language appears to be a shift for the news network, which even earlier this year used the term “Arab Israelis” in its reporting. 

“There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 

Abu Fraiha grew up in a Jewish city in Israel and she trained at Israeli institutions. She was working at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba — the hospital that was hit by an Iranian missile on Thursday — during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, when she helped treat hundreds of people injured that day. She likes the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” because it encompasses two parts of her identity that are both important, although she is not a stickler about the language; she previously served as health policy director at the Task Force for Health Promotion and Equity in the Arab Society at the Israeli Ministry of Health, an official government entity.

“First, yes, I’m Israeli. I was born and raised there. Hebrew is my first language. I love the Israeli culture,” Abu Fraiha explained. “I’m fully Israeli. And then at the same time, my history, my narrative, my national connection, is to the Palestinian people.” 

Mhajne, too, identifies with the Israeli part of her identity. It’s the passport she holds. She is the product of an Israeli education, and earned her bachelor’s degree at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. But that is not the full story of who she is. 

“I do hold both close, dearly, and I think they’re very important to hold onto. Historically, culturally, in a lot of ways, we are Palestinian, and we share that story. It’s our ancestors’ stories. These towns and us, we’ve been there for a long time, even before Israel was a state.”

Among Israel’s Jewish population, the language has not caught on widely, although it has growing cachet among Israeli Jews on the political left. Israel’s government formally uses the term “Arab-Israeli” to describe this part of the population, and that is the language generally used in English, too. 

Shayna Weiss, senior associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis, said the rhetorical matter can be “quite confusing” for her undergraduate students, so she usually discusses it at the beginning of each course she teaches about Israeli society.

“I generally use the term ‘Israeli Palestinian’ ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel,’ but there are also instances where some people have said they see themselves as Israeli Arab, like certain pop stars, that sort of thing. And if I know that’s what they think about themselves, that’s the term I try and use,” Weiss told JI. 

The death of the women and girls in Tamra has brought to the surface a rhetorical debate that has been bubbling up for years. Ultimately, Mhajne argued, what matters is not the words used to describe them — but that they were human beings. 

“It bugs me, honestly, sometimes when people fight over ‘Arab’ and ‘Palestinian,’” she said. “They’re someone’s wife and daughters.”

A Richmond, Va., judge has issued a new court order ruling that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas must finally turn over closely guarded financial documents sought in an ongoing investigation brought by Virginia’s attorney general.

The decision, issued on Friday, is a major blow for American Muslims for Palestine, a Virginia-based nonprofit group that has drawn a growing number of legal challenges in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza.

Jason Miyares, the Republican attorney general of Virginia probing AMP’s fundraising operations over alleged links to terror groups, had filed a petition in January to enforce a previous order compelling the organization to produce sensitive records that could shed light on its widely scrutinized but closely held donor network.

His office noted at the time that AMP had “refused to comply” with a court-approved civil investigative demand for documents the group long shielded from public view.

The judge’s decision on Friday upheld the court order issued last summer, rejecting AMP’s request to set the petition aside as it seeks an appeal of the July ruling.

The group is now required to comply with the demand for records, notwithstanding its pending appeal before the court, the new ruling states. “To rule otherwise would render the statute practically inoperable and gut the attorney general’s authority to engage in pre-enforcement civil investigations and promote the public interest,” Judge Devika E. Davis of the Richmond Circuit Court explained in the decision. 

More broadly, the new ruling indicates that AMP has now exhausted all of the available legal delay tactics it has used to resist the attorney general’s efforts to procure documents as part of a winding investigation launched weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks.

“My office has a legal obligation to ensure that charitable organizations operating in Virginia are following the law,” Miyares said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Monday. “I will continue to enforce state law without exception or delay to protect Virginians.”

Christina Jump, an attorney for AMP, vowed that the group “will continue to pursue all legal options available within Virginia law, which include pursuing our existing appeal on the merits and filing an additional appeal, if necessary, in the duplicative matter.”

“AMP is now and has been for some time in full compliance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia that Attorney General Miyares claims prompted this inquiry in the first place,” Jump said in a statement to JI on Monday. “And the vague accusations that AMP has anything to do with Hamas or Oct. 7 just got thrown out completely by a federal court judge,” she added, referring to a lawsuit filed in Nevada, “because no facts support that defamatory smear.”

Despite that recent victory, AMP continues to face an array of civil lawsuits as well as state and federal probes threatening to dismantle one of the nation’s top pro-Palestinian advocacy organizations as it has taken a leading role in anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country.

In March, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee launched an investigation into AMP over its engagement on college campuses and its sponsorship of Students for Justice in Palestine, a loosely organized student advocacy group that has voiced support for Hamas.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, a long-gestating lawsuit nearing a possible trial is working to establish that AMP is an “alter ego” of a now-defunct group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, found liable for aiding Hamas. The suit is seeking to collect a $156 million judgment that IAP never paid to the family members of David Boim, an American murdered by Hamas in a 1996 terrorist attack in the West Bank.

Top officials at AMP, many of whom have ties to Hamas, were affiliated with IAP, which shuttered in 2004. Legal documents recently obtained by JI also suggest that AMP has obscured its links to IAP, and further highlight how some of its leaders have been closely tied to Hamas.

Daniel Schlessinger, the lead attorney in the Illinois case, has said that his team has already successfully obtained some of AMP’s donor records, even as they remain confidential. 

He is planning to challenge that designation in an effort to bring them to the public.

Prominent Palestinian-American DJ and producer Farid Karam Nassar, who goes by the stage name Fredwreck, targeted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) earlier this week with a series of explicit racial slurs, citing Torres’ support for Israel.

Nassar, who has worked with artists including Eminem, Britney Spears, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, won a Grammy in 2020 for an album with R&B artist Anderson .Paak and he assisted with the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show.

In response to a video of a recent public confrontation between Torres and a pro-Palestinian activist, Nassar described Torres as a “s@mbo koon,” using misspellings of two racial slurs for Black people.

Nassar also commented, “He’s lucky I didn’t run into him on the streets.”

The DJ followed up with a direct message to Torres’ Instagram account, shared with Jewish Insider by the congressman’s office, in which he called Torres a “sell out as House Slave” and made a remark referencing AIPAC and gay sex. Torres is openly gay.

“Violence is not a bug but a feature of the Free Palestine movement,” Torres said in a statement. “No amount of harassment and intimidation will deter me from standing up and speaking out against AntiZionism and antisemitism.”

Nassar did not respond to a message requesting comment.
Nassar accused Israel of genocide on Oct. 18, 2023, and posted on Instagram “From the River to the Sea… We will be free… #endapartheidisrael.”

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is meeting on Wednesday with Palestinian-American leaders.

The meeting — announced in a media advisory as part of de Blasio’s daily schedule — is closed to press, and City Hall declined to release a list of attendees. 

Jose Bayona, the mayor’s director of community and ethnic media, told Jewish Insider that the meeting is part of a practice to regularly meet with community leaders from all faith and ethnic backgrounds.  

“We cannot predict what this group will raise in the meeting,” Bayona added, “but we anticipate conversation about an array of local issues, including the upcoming 2020 Census and efforts to get everyone counted, public schools and civic engagement.”