Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) took aim this week at Twitch streamer and leftist darling Hasan Piker, labeling him a &#8220;raging antisemite&#8221; and demanding that the Democratic Party distance itself from the controversial influencer.
Fetterman’s comments come as Piker doubled down on a series of inflammatory statements regarding 9/11 and the terrorist organization Hamas. Speaking on the divide within his own party, Fetterman expressed disbelief that mainstream Democrats continue to platform a man who once <a href="https://dotesports.com/streaming/news/streamer-hasan-says-america-deserved-9-11?utm_source=chatgpt.com">claimed</a> &#8220;America deserved 9/11, dude. F*** it, I’m saying it. &#8230; Like we totally brought it upon ourselves dude, holy s***. We did, we f***ing did.”
“I mean it&#8217;s &#8230; it&#8217;s crazy! I mean, my God,” Fetterman said, pointing to the glowing media profiles Piker has received from outlets like The New York Times. “He’s become such a raging antisemite that even the guy that has a Nazi tattoo bailed on doing an event with him. Democrats have to decide: whose side are you on? Are you proud to stand with that kind of individual or stand with Israel?”
The Senator’s remarks follow a viral appearance by Piker on the Pod Save America podcast, where host Jon Favreau confronted the streamer over his previous assertion that &#8220;Hamas is a thousand percent better than Israel.&#8221; Rather than walking back the comment, Piker doubled down, confirming he meant it &#8220;a thousand percent.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Obama&#39;s former speechwriter, Jon Favreau, asks Democrat spokesperson Hasan Piker if he actually supports Hamas terrorists.
FAVREAU: &quot;When you say Hamas is a thousand times better, do you actually mean that?&quot;
PIKER: &quot;I do mean it.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/xtodMQaXDu">pic.twitter.com/xtodMQaXDu</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/2043735622234345519?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I’m a lesser-evil voter, and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time,&#8221; Piker told Favreau. He went on to <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2026/04/hasan-piker-hamas-support-orphan-children/#:~:text=“This%20%5Bquote%5D%20is%20from,state%2C'”%20Favreau%20quoted">dismiss</a> Hamas’ history of massacres, rapes, and kidnappings as &#8220;secondary&#8221; to the conversation, instead framing the terrorist group as a collection of &#8220;orphan children&#8221; fighting an &#8220;apartheid state.&#8221; Piker further escalated his rhetoric by comparing Zionism — the movement for Jewish self-determination — to Nazism, calling it an &#8220;exterminationist&#8221; ideology.
Fetterman, who has emerged as one of the most vocal pro-Israel voices in the Democratic Party since the October 7 massacre, slammed Piker for his callousness toward the victims of terrorism. “He doesn&#8217;t care about the rapes and calls Jews inbred,” Fetterman stated, highlighting the streamer&#8217;s history of &#8220;outlandish&#8221; and bigoted remarks.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Senator Fetterman just SHAMED members of his own party for supporting radical left-wing Islamist apologist Hasan Piker.
“This is the individual that just said recently that America deserved 9/11.”
He exposed how far some Democrats have gone in embracing anti-American voices.… <a href="https://t.co/jNMW28aasH">pic.twitter.com/jNMW28aasH</a>
&mdash; Overton (@overton_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/overton_news/status/2040596601043923428?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Pennsylvania senator’s ultimatum serves as a direct challenge to the DNC and the &#8220;Squad&#8221; wing of the party, which has frequently aligned itself with the online activist class that Piker represents. As the radical left continues to excuse terrorist violence under the guise of &#8220;decolonization,&#8221; Fetterman’s message is clear: the Democratic Party cannot have it both ways. It must choose between the civilized world and the &#8220;raging&#8221; antisemitism of the far-left.

John Fetterman

Fetterman Issues Ultimatum To Dems: Israel, Or ‘Raging Anti-Semites’ Like Hasan Piker

Hamas

Hasan Piker

Israel

A top aide to Zohran Mamdani — and the creative force behind his viral campaign videos — is facing scrutiny after resurfaced social media posts showed praise for a senior Hamas figure tied to the October 7 terrorist attacks.
According to reporting from <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2026/04/zohran-mamdanis-video-chief-lauded-hamas-chief-yahya-sinwar/">Jewish Insider</a>, Donald Borenstein, who was paid more than $90,000 by Mamdani’s campaign and now serves in City Hall as a creative director, posted messages in 2024 appearing to glorify Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas.
In one post, Borenstein described Sinwar as someone who “gave his entire life until the end fighting for his people’s liberation,” while mocking Israeli forces and praising imagery of Sinwar’s final moments. In another, he suggested footage released by Israel Defense Forces had inadvertently created a “heroic” image of the Hamas leader. He also reportedly used the phrase “from the river to the sea,” widely interpreted as a call for the elimination of the state of Israel.
The posts have since been deleted, but archived versions remain accessible.
Borenstein’s role in Mamdani’s rise has been significant. As director of video, he served as the primary cinematographer behind the polished social media content that helped propel the democratic socialist candidate into Gracie Mansion. His presence in the mayor’s inner circle raises familiar questions about the ideological influences shaping the administration.
The controversy adds to a growing pattern of scrutiny surrounding figures in Mamdani’s orbit. Previous reporting has highlighted social media activity from campaign allies and associates who appeared sympathetic to Hamas or dismissive of the October 7 attacks. Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, was also <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/nyc-first-lady-liked-post-oct-7-rape-hoax">reported to have liked posts</a> downplaying the attack, while independent <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/09/we-support-hamas-chants-put-mamdanis-israel-stance-at-center-stage-00720393">activist groups</a> aligned with his campaign have faced similar criticism.
Mamdani himself has publicly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-city-in-heightened-state-of-alert-after-saturdays-attack">condemned terrorism</a>, but repeated incidents involving those close to him suggest, at minimum, a tolerance for rhetoric that crosses into extremism.
The issue has taken on added weight in recent months as New York City has seen heightened tensions tied to the Iran conflict. In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-opens-terror-probe-after-homemade-bombs-in-nyc-linked-to-isis">a March incident</a>, a protest in the city featured two men found to be ISIS-inspired Islamists throwing an explosive, raising alarms about the presence of more radical elements within certain activist spaces.
Against that backdrop, Borenstein’s posts only intensify concerns about how deeply such sentiments may run within political and activist networks connected to City Hall. More broadly, the episode underscores the increasingly blurred lines between digital activism and governance and reminds Americans that online voices and content strategies that help propel candidates to power need to be viewed with a critical eye, especially as fringe ideologies take center stage in American politics.
For Mamdani, the challenge is no longer just about campaign optics, but about the people entrusted with shaping the image and direction of the nation’s largest city.

Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference outside the Federal Plaza in NYC

Top Mamdani Propagandist Hailed Hamas Mastermind As ‘Heroic’

Pro-Hamas

Yahya Sinwar

Zohran Mamdani

The Trump administration arrested the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday, describing the man as a Jordanian terrorist.
Salah Sarsour, who has lived in the United States for over 30 years, was convicted in Israel as a teenager after throwing molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli soldiers. He has also been <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-organizer-recently-met-ex-hamas-operative-has-family-ties-to-terror-group/">accused</a> of helping raise money for Hamas in the 1990s. Sarsour was issued a green card under former President Bill Clinton after lying on his immigration application, Homeland Security said.
Sarsour has been the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee for the past five years. The society is the largest Islamic group in Wisconsin, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/us/ice-milwaukee-muslim-leader-arrest.html">reported</a>. He is also a board member of the American Muslims for Palestine, a group that has faced <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-legal-brief-against-american-muslims-palestine-and-other-radical">scrutiny</a> over alleged links to Hamas and its support for intifada in the wake of Hamas&#8217; October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
&#8220;This terrorist will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,&#8221; DHS said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/ICEgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ICEgov</a> arrested a Jordanian national with a prior conviction for THROWING A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL at the homes of Israeli Forces.
He lied on his immigration application and became a green card holder under President Clinton.
This terrorist will remain in ICE custody pending… <a href="https://t.co/L38liuCxVy">https://t.co/L38liuCxVy</a> <a href="https://t.co/9IXWuo0t0f">pic.twitter.com/9IXWuo0t0f</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2039845268091265330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Trump administration posted the description and photo of Sarsour on social media in response to Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers criticizing the administration over Sarsour&#8217;s arrest.
&#8220;Targeting people because of their beliefs or background is wrong,&#8221; Evers said. &#8220;This is clearly about sowing division and fear and doesn&#8217;t help make Wisconsin safer. I’m thinking of Mr. Sarsour&#8217;s family in this difficult time, and I join [Rep. Gwen Moore] 
in calling for his immediate release.&#8221;
Sarsour&#8217;s attorney said the Milwaukee Muslim leader received deportation papers from the Trump administration, which said that the State Department determined Sarsour &#8220;poses an adverse consequence to foreign policy considerations.&#8221; The man&#8217;s attorneys argued that the Trump administration is only targeting Sarsour because of his anti-Israel views, adding that Sarsour has no criminal record in the United States.
Hundreds of Muslims gathered for a rally at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee&#8217;s Salam School gym following the arrest of Sarsour, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2026/04/02/islamic-society-of-milwaukee-president-salah-sarsour-detained-by-ice/89433525007/">reported</a>. Othman Atta, the executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee mosque told the crowd, &#8220;They want to criminalize advocacy for Palestine. That is the only reason that he is being targeted. There is nothing else.&#8221;
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to strip the legal status of immigrants found to be &#8220;Hamas supporters.&#8221; Last year, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-court-rules-against-mahmoud-khalils-release-from-ice-detention">arrested</a> pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led anti-Israel and anti-America demonstrations at Columbia University after the October 7 attack. The Trump administration won a legal victory in January over its arrest of Khalil when a federal court ruled that he could be taken back into custody after a lower court ordered his release.

Standard Headline

ICE Arrests Islamic Leader Accused Of Aiding Hamas. He’s Lived In The U.S. For Decades.

Department of Homeland Security

Executive

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Islam

Milwaukee

Trump Administration

U.S.

Wisconsin

Last week, my home state of Michigan witnessed something truly terrifying: a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-respond-to-reports-of-active-shooter-as-michigan-synagogue-goes-up-in-smoke">terrorist attack</a> at a house of worship. The attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit, just a few hours outside of my district.
Thankfully, on-site security personnel quickly intervened — stopping the terrorist and preventing any injury to the innocent children or staff inside. I am grateful to these guardians for responding quickly to safeguard those innocent lives, and I pray for the recovery of those injured in stopping this despicable attack.
This attack, however, isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a broader and deeply troubling rise in antisemitism that has spread across our country since the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
Nowhere is that rise more evident than on our college campuses.
Students have been whipped into an activist frenzy targeting Israel and the Jewish people.
Rather than stamping out the antisemitic fervor, faculty are fanning the flames. Many campus leaders seem completely unwilling to do anything about it.
<div id="attachment_1062451" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062451" class="size-large wp-image-1062451" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Pro-Palestinian protesters, some wearing cap and gown, hold signs and chant at a rally in front of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 28, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
On campuses across the nation — regardless of size or location — student groups are organizing to harass and intimidate Jewish students. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are the ringleaders, often with the backing of similar faculty organizations.
At Columbia University, antisemitic demonstrators stormed a library, disrupted students, and chanted slogans like “from the river to the sea.” Eden Yadegar, my guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress last year, described it as “disrupting one of the most basic functions of the university.”
All too often, this chaos leads to violence. The House Committee on Education and Workforce — of which I am the <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/">chairman</a> — heard from Michael Kaminsky, a student at DePaul University and a first-generation American who was assaulted by masked attackers for his efforts to promote dialogue about Israel and the Jewish faith. He was left with a fractured wrist, and his friend was knocked unconscious.
This is not what college should be. Students should be focused on learning and growing — not fearing harassment or assault because of their identities.
These actions are not happening in a vacuum. They are being encouraged — sometimes openly — by faculty.
At Haverford College, Tarik Aougab — a member of Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) — labeled pro-Israel students as “racist genocidaires” while praising the October 7 attacks as “a historic moment.”
At the University of California, Berkeley, a professor posted that he “could have been one of those who broke the siege.”
At MIT, former linguistics professor Michel DeGraff accused a student of having a Zionist “mind infection.”
<div id="attachment_1062465" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062465" class="size-large wp-image-1062465" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg" alt="Michel DeGraff a former professor of linguistics and now faculty at large of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) attends a protest at city hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 9, 2024. The protest calls for the city to intervene and take action against MIT for its role in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and for MIT to loose its non profit status. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
This kind of rhetoric has consequences.
Let’s be clear: for many Jewish Americans, Israel is central to their identity. When students are targeted under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” the line between activism and antisemitism is not just crossed — it’s erased.
And yet, too many university leaders have failed to meet this moment.
Time and again, university presidents have come before this Committee and refused to take responsibility. They hedge, they equivocate, and they fail to enforce even their own rules.
The result is what we see today: antisemitism that is spreading, intensifying, and, in some cases, turning violent.
My Committee has released a report documenting just how serious this problem has become.
The findings are clear: weak leadership, radical faculty, and emboldened student groups have created an environment where antisemitism festers — and Jewish students are paying the price.
This cannot continue.
* * *
Tim Walberg represents Michigan’s 5th Congressional District and is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protesters Gather Outside Pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil’s Court Conference In New York

The Profs Aren’t Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

The Profs Aren't Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

American Universities

antisemitism

College

Columbia University

Education

Jews

October 7

Protestors

Radical Islam

U.S. House of Representatives

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on Thursday against four international nonprofit organizations identified as &#8220;sham charities&#8221; used to bankroll Hamas’s military wing.
The <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0415">action</a> targets three organizations based in Turkey — Ghazi Destek Dernegi (GDD), Hayat Yolu, and Palestinian White Hands — as well as the Indonesia-based Komite Nasional Untuk Rakyat Palestina (KNRP). Treasury officials allege these groups pose as humanitarian entities while covertly siphoning donations to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas&#8217;s military apparatus.
According to Treasury investigators, these organizations leverage global networks to generate revenue for terrorist operations. Internal Hamas documents seized by authorities reportedly show that GDD collaborated with previously sanctioned entities to fund construction projects benefiting the group. Similarly, Palestinian White Hands was found to be integrated into the Hamas military security apparatus.
In Indonesia, KNRP is accused of coordinating directly with Hamas to distribute materials intended exclusively for fighters. Treasury also identified Hayat Yolu as an operational and financial hub for the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Hamas continues to finance its military wing by exploiting sham charities to support terrorist operations,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Treasury Department will not allow Hamas to misuse the charitable sector for its violent aims.”
Today’s designations build on a series of recent actions aimed at dismantling Hamas’s financial infrastructure. Previous rounds of sanctions occurred on <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0368">January 21, 2026</a>, and <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0162">June 10, 2025</a>. Officials noted that Hamas frequently preys on the sympathies of international donors, redirecting funds intended for Palestinian civilians to prolong the regional conflict.
Hamas has been designated by the U.S. as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 2001. Today’s enforcement was conducted under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing them with material support.
As a result of these sanctions, all property and interests belonging to these entities within the U.S. or controlled by U.S. persons are blocked. Americans are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with the designated groups. Foreign financial institutions that facilitate significant transactions for these groups risk losing access to the U.S. financial system.

Scott Bessent

Trump Admin Shuts Down Sham Charities Caught Bankrolling Hamas

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Four Sham Charities Linked to Hamas Financing

Department of the Treasury

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, used her personal Instagram account to &#8220;like&#8221; multiple posts that actively cheered on the barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.
The revelation from <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2026/03/zohran-mamdani-wife-rama-duwaji-social-media-oct-7/">Jewish Insider</a> pulls back the curtain on the &#8220;moderate&#8221; facade Mamdani has carefully constructed. While the Mayor now claims to unequivocally condemn Hamas, his wife was busy clicking &#8220;heart&#8221; buttons on images of the very bulldozers used to breach the Israeli border and terrorists parading in captured IDF vehicles. One post liked by Duwaji, shared by an organization called &#8220;The Slow Factory,&#8221; framed the slaughter of 1,200 people as merely &#8220;breaking the walls of apartheid.&#8221;
The timing is particularly damning. While Mamdani — then a state assemblyman — was publicly criticizing a pro-Hamas rally in Times Square for &#8220;making light&#8221; of the massacre, his then-girlfriend was apparently at home digital-cheering for the organizers. Duwaji reportedly liked posts from the &#8220;People’s Forum&#8221;—part of a network linked to Maoist mogul Neville &#8220;Roy&#8221; Singham — which featured the genocidal chant &#8220;from the river to the sea&#8221; and declared that the Oct. 7 atrocities were a &#8220;human right.&#8221;
When pressed for comment, Duwaji went silent. The Mayor’s office, meanwhile, retreated into a practiced defensive shell, issuing a canned statement reiterating Mamdani’s &#8220;consistent&#8221; condemnation of Hamas. They notably refused to address whether the Mayor shares a dinner table with someone who views the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as a moment of &#8220;collective liberation.&#8221;
Immediately following the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis, Mamdani (then a state assemblyman) issued a <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1711093032907321525">statement</a> that essentially targeted Israel: “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu&#8217;s declaration of war, the Israeli government&#8217;s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”
On the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Mamdani posted a <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1975550702056538512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1975550702056538512%7Ctwgr%5Edbbd33728c1d8ba6d046fbf0f9d856ec85c0efff%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fmamdani-blasted-for-october-7-post-he-stands-with-jews-only-when-they-are-dead">statement</a> to his X account. He condemned Israel for perpetrating “genocide” in Gaza, citing fatality numbers from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, writing, “In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war.” He called Israel’s action “war crimes” and attacked the Trump administration, continuing, “Our government has been complicit through it all. This must end. The occupation and apartheid must end. Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes, and our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account.”

NYC Mayor Mamdani Holds News Conference

Mamdani Claims To Condemn Hamas — His Wife’s Instagram ‘Likes’ Say Otherwise

Mamdani’s Wife ‘Liked’ Posts Cheering Oct. 7 Hamas Massacre

Massacre

WASHINGTON — First Lady Melania Trump will meet with freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel and his wife, Aviva Siegel, on Wednesday at the White House.
The first lady will have a private, sit-down conversation with the Siegels in the White House&#8217;s Blue Room, where they will discuss how Hamas forcibly took the Siegels from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, and held them hostage — Aviva Siegel for 51 days, and Keith Siegel for 484 days.
Aviva Siegel was released during the first hostage deal in November 2023. Hamas released her husband on February 1, 2025, during a ceasefire that was brokered by President Donald Trump before he even took office, following his wife&#8217;s meetings with both the president and first lady.
One of these meetings was included in the first lady&#8217;s new film, &#8220;Melania,&#8221; showing Melania Trump and Aviva Siegel sharing an emotional moment in Manhattan as they discuss the plight of Siegel&#8217;s husband. Melania Trump hugs Siegel as she weeps into her shoulder, and the first lady promises to pray for Keith Siegel, who was still in Hamas captivity at the time.
One of the final title cards in &#8220;Melania&#8221; states that the first lady &#8220;played a key role in securing the release of Keith Siegel after 484 days as a hostage in Gaza, just 12 days after the inauguration.&#8221;
&#8220;I will always use my influence and power to fight for those in need,&#8221; the first lady says in the documentary film.
Keith Siegel, 66, is a dual Israel-U.S. citizen who moved from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Israel in 1980. He is a father of four and a grandfather of five. He is an occupational therapist by trade and reportedly learned Arabic to communicate with the Gazans who worked in his kibbutz prior to Gazan civilians and Hamas massacring his neighbors.
<div id="attachment_1038181" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-trump-to-meet-with-hamas-hostage-she-helped-bring-home/palestinian-israel-conflict-hostage" rel="attachment wp-att-1038181"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1038181" class="wp-image-1038181 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Hamas fighters escort American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange.  (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
He is a vegetarian with a particular love for classic American breakfast pancakes, a rarity in Israel. After his release, a Keith Siegel’s Pancake House <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-847923">pop-up opened</a> in Tel Aviv, selling the same pancakes his family had made him known for while they campaigned for his freedom. During that time, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum compiled a cookbook featuring his pancake recipe, which he made for his family every Saturday morning.
His daughter later said she received hundreds of photos each weekend from people around Israel cooking her father’s pancakes. The proceeds from the pancake house went to helping the family get back on their feet.
Siegel opened up about the horrific conditions of his captivity last year in an interview with Lesley Stahl, claiming he witnessed Hamas terrorists sexually assaulting female hostages in front of him.
“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorists. I mean literal, you know, torture, not just in the figurative sense,” he said. “I saw sexual assault with female hostages.”
He was initially held with his wife, but following her release, Siegel said conditions became worse, and he was often beaten and starved.
In the interview, Siegel quickly put interviewer Lesley Stahl in her place after she asked if Hamas actually starved Siegel, or if the terrorists simply didn’t have food themselves.
“No, I think they starved me and they — they would often eat in front of me and not offer me food,” Siegel said.
Siegel also said that Hamas shaved all the men’s heads and genitals as a way to humiliate them.
“I think they thought it was maybe, it amused them or, you know, humiliating. I felt humiliated,” Siegel said.
<div id="attachment_1038183" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-trump-to-meet-with-hamas-hostage-she-helped-bring-home/palestinian-israel-conflict-gaza-hostage" rel="attachment wp-att-1038183"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1038183" class="wp-image-1038183 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Hamas secures an area before handing over an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025. (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Siegel was kept in a suffocating tunnel 33 feet underground and says he was given very little food and water.
Siegel’s ribs were reportedly broken when he was taken captive, and his condition deteriorated so badly that former hostage Emily Damari said she offered to switch places with him so he could be released sooner, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-839135">The Jerusalem Post reported</a>.
Hamas also used him for propaganda. He appeared in an April 2024 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQ7vpgWHiU">video</a> speaking Hebrew and looking frail before beginning to cry.
Due to being a hostage, he was unable to say goodbye to his mother, Gladys, who passed away in December 2024 in North Carolina. The family chose to shield her from the news of her son’s captivity before she died, according to the American Jewish Committee.
Two weeks after he was released, Siegel recorded a video message praising Trump for helping secure his freedom.
&#8220;President Trump, you are the reason I am home alive,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You are the reason I was reunited with my beloved wife, four children, and five grandchildren. Thank you for your continued fight against terror and for your bold leadership that has brought me and many others back home to our families, to safety and to security.&#8221;
Siegel, his wife, and other hostages met with Trump in the Oval Office in March 2025, where they <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-844850">thanked him</a> for their freedom.

Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere

Melania Trump To Meet With Hamas Hostage She Helped Bring Home

General

Melania Trump

The body of the final hostage held in Gaza was returned to Israel on Monday.
The body of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old special-forces police officer who was killed in action on October 7, 2023, was returned to Israel, ending a long effort to force Hamas terrorists to hand over hostages. Gvili was killed while fighting off Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians who crossed into Israel, massacring, raping, and kidnapping more than a thousand people near the Gaza border. His body was held captive for 842 days.
“We have returned Ran Gvili, of blessed memory, a hero of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the Knesset. “There are no more hostages in Gaza.&#8221;
Netanyahu added that the yellow ribbon pin worn by people around the world to draw attention to the hostages held can now be removed.
“For &#8216;the sons have returned to their borders and the daughters have returned to their borders,’” Netanyahu said, quoting the Bible.
Israeli Defense Forces’s Southern Command completed Operation &#8220;Courageous Heart” to return Gvili after searching since October for his body. His body was found in a cemetery near Gaza City.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Footage of the IDF recovering the body of the final hostage.
The return of Ran Gvili means all of the hostages are home after 842 days. <a href="https://t.co/AvinMQxzPQ">pic.twitter.com/AvinMQxzPQ</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2015849942795841629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gvili’s parents fought tirelessly to keep their son&#8217;s name in the news after the remaining living hostages returned in October. They met with Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, and other members of his administration.
Trump celebrated the news of the final hostage body returning to Israel, congratulating his “great team of Champions.”
“Just recovered the last Hostage body in GAZA. Thus, got back ALL 20 of the living Hostages, and ALL of the Dead!” he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115962223670668620">posted</a>. “AMAZING JOB! Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do.”
Gvili was recovering from a serious shoulder injury on October 7, 2023, but left the hospital, put on his uniform, and headed south to join the fight against Hamas. He reportedly helped survivors of the Nova music festival before going to join the fight at Kibbutz Alumim.
At 10:50 a.m., he sent text messages saying he had been wounded in the leg. That was the final time his loved ones heard from him.
In total, 255 hostages from the Gaza Strip were rescued and brought back home – 168 of them alive and 87 deceased. Twelve Americans were kidnapped, with only eight being freed alive.
Gvili’s return marks the first time since 2014 that no Israelis are being held in Gaza. Before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, four Israelis were already in the Strip, including Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli who crossed into Gaza in April 2015, and Avera Mengistu, who entered in 2014. Both were later released alive in February 2025. Hamas had also held the bodies of the Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were killed in the 2014 war and whose remains were returned in 2025.
Many of the hostages who have returned testified that they were held for long periods in dark tunnels and subjected to torture, severe starvation, and physical and sexual abuse.

The Israeli army found the body of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza

‘Most Thought Of It As Impossible’: Final Hostage Body Returns From Gaza After 842 Days

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Gaza

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. This piece, published in March, details Harvard&#8217;s detachment from a partnership with a Hamas-friendly university.
The Harvard School of Public Health suspended its partnership with a Palestinian university whose faculty and students have endorsed and collaborated with Hamas and other terror groups, according to the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/3/27/harvard-suspends-birzeit-partnership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harvard Crimson</a>.
The suspension follows extensive reporting by The Daily Wire into Birzeit’s terrorist ties that led to 27 members of Congress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawmakers-demand-harvard-cut-ties-with-hamas-collaborator-palestinian-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling for</a> Harvard to “immediately shut down this partnership and condemn Birzeit University.”
Harvard suspended the partnership as part of the Harvard School of Public Health’s investigation into Harvard’s FXB Center, which started last summer, School of Public Health spokeswoman Stephanie Simon told the student paper.
A memorandum of understanding between the FXB Center and Birzeit expired in recent months and Harvard decided not to renew it, according to Simon. While an official partnership will not exist, the FXB Center, which collaborates with Birzeit faculty and scholars, will reportedly continue.
In a Q&amp;A with the <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/03/a-year-into-role-chan-school-dean-focused-on-driving-change-amid-deep-challenges/">Harvard Gazette</a>, Dean Andrea Baccarelli said a &#8220;blue-ribbon panel of experts&#8221; were appointed to conduct the review of the FXB Center to &#8220;rigorously evaluate the FXB Center’s current status and future potential.&#8221; The review is expected to conclude this spring.
The FXB Center <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvard-to-host-summer-program-at-palestinian-university-dominated-by-hamas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-hosted</a> the “Palestine Social Medicine Course” with Birzeit University last summer, where students learned about “settler colonialism.” The program was originally supposed to take place on Birzeit’s campus in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, until it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvard-cancels-program-with-hamas-friendly-university-over-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was relocated</a> to Jordan “due to security concerns.” Under the suspension, Harvard will no longer co-sponsor the program this year and Harvard students will not be eligible to participate because of security concerns. Instead the 2025 Social Medicine Course will be sponsored by Birzeit and the World Health Organization.
At the time, Simon told The Daily Wire she was aware of Birzeit’s student body’s association with Hamas, but said it has not affected its program.
“Student government elections at Birzeit typically involve candidates affiliated with each of the major political parties in the region, including Hamas,” she said. “These student government elections are not germane to and have not affected the FXB Center’s work with the scholars and students at Birzeit’s Institute of Community and Public Health.”
Birzeit University <a href="https://archive.ph/eRaU6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called for</a> “glory for the martyrs” after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and has a long history of promoting terrorists on its campus. The university has hosted funerals and parades for terrorists on its campus, where several buildings are named after terrorists.
Hanan Ashrawi, chairman of Birzeit University’s board of trustees, denied that Hamas sexually assaulted Israelis on October 7, and has defended Hezbollah and the lynching of Israeli soldiers, according to <a href="https://camera-uk.org/2019/05/14/indy-fails-to-challenge-hanan-ashrawis-claim-shes-always-rejected-violence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAMERA UK</a>.
On its website, Birzeit <a href="https://www.birzeit.edu/en/about/history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">boasts</a> that it is a “thorn in the side of the occupation,” and says it is committed to making an impact through “resistance.”
In 2023, the Birzeit student body elected two blocs affiliated with terrorist organizations — Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)— into the student government. In the election, which had a 77 percent voter turnout, the Hamas-affiliated Islamic bloc won 25 of the 51 seats, while the PFLP picked up six, according to the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-744135" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jerusalem Post</a>.
In July, five members of the student council were arrested for attempting to carry out a terror attack on behalf of Hamas. The students were found with an assault rifle and thousands of dollars of cash from Hamas, the Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-university-students-in-west-bank-arrested-for-planning-significant-terror-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Birzeit <a href="https://archive.is/q0BXN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared a letter</a> from its faculty and employee union last April which praised the “global intifada,” called for an Israel boycott, and refrained from calling the United States by name, instead opting to use “Turtle Island,” a term used by so-called “anti-colonialists” to suggest that the United States exists on stolen Native American land.
Birzeit’s faculty includes notable terrorist sympathizers, including assistant professor Basil Farraj who wrote <a href="https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45912" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a eulogy</a> for Walid Daqqa, the leader of a group that kidnapped and killed an IDF soldier.
Philosophy professor Abdaljawad Omar appeared at a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rashida-tlaib-faces-calls-to-be-removed-from-congress-after-speaking-at-terrorist-connected-event" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PFLP-linked conference</a> attended by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, where he praised the October 7 attacks for opening “so many doors of political possibility” and said the “promise of liberation it holds would not have manifested in our conference without the capacity to resist.” Omar also denied accusations of rape and criticized the IDF for refusing to allow Israel to be taken over by the “Palestinian military” in <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/how-and-why-israels-disinformation-campaign-is-enabling-its-massacre-in-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an op-ed</a> shortly after the attack.
“Israel chose not to engage in negotiations with any groups within its borders, leading to substantial collateral damage in numerous hostage situations,” Omar wrote. “The Palestinian military strategy aimed to delay Israel’s retaking of the area around the strip. In contrast, Israel was intent on swiftly reclaiming the territory, seemingly without regard for the safety of its own citizens.”
Several other schools <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-dark-relationship-between-u-s-universities-and-the-anti-american-school-controlled-by-terrorists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have had relationships</a> with Birzeit, including Rutgers University, which affirmed its relationship with Birzeit in May amid student encampment protests. William Paterson University entered into an <a href="https://www.wpunj.edu/provost/international-academic-agreements/Birziet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreement with</a> the Hamas-run university in 2022 for exchange programs, sharing curricula, and joint degree programs. Other schools, such as MIT, have recently co-hosted conferences, invited Birzeit professors for speaking events, or had student groups visit its campus.
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">A spokeswoman for Harvard University declined to comment.</div>
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Harvard

Best Of 2025: Harvard Cuts Ties With Hamas-Friendly Birzeit University 

Harvard University

Palestinian

President Donald Trump will become the first non-Israeli to receive Israel’s top civilian honor, the “Israel Prize,” announced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference with the two leaders at Mar-a-Lago.
“In almost our 80 years, we’ve never awarded it to a non-Israeli, and we’re going to award it this year to President Trump,” Netanyahu said. “It’s going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Benjamin Netanyahu announces that President Donald Trump is being awarded with the &#8220;Israel Prize.&#8221;
It has never been awarded to a non-Israeli, according to Netanyahu. <a href="https://t.co/VK7OfJsRju">pic.twitter.com/VK7OfJsRju</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2005746113735717048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
The award will be for the newly established peace category. 
Netanyahu said that he hopes Trump will visit Israel on its Independence Day in May to accept the prize. 
“I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the spectrum,” Netanyahu said of Israeli citizens who are often split on a variety of issues but are grateful to Trump for securing the release of all living hostages from Hamas captivity. 
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Trump learned that he was being awarded the prize by Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who called into the Trump-Netanyahu meeting.
“That really is a great honor,” Trump responded, adding that it was “really surprising and very much appreciated.”
Following his sixth meeting with Netanyahu this year, Trump said he is focused on the future of Gaza, including the objective of getting Hamas to finally disarm, adding that it would be “horrible for them” if the terror group does not.
&#8220;It&#8217;ll be horrible for them — horrible, really, really bad for them,” Trump said. “I don&#8217;t want that to happen, but they made an agreement that they were going to disarm.&#8221;
The president said that if Hamas continues to resist, the 59 countries that backed the ceasefire will get involved, adding, &#8220;This is a real peace in the Middle East.”
&#8220;Based on the fact that Hamas pledged, they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they&#8217;re not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas,” Trump said. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;Based on the fact that Hamas pledged, they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they&#8217;re not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.&#8221; &#8211; President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/mYIBfZzCV0">pic.twitter.com/mYIBfZzCV0</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2005757621278761205?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
Upon welcoming Netanyahu to his Palm Beach estate, Trump said he would support an Israeli military strike on Iran if its regime continues advancing its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
“The missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast,” Trump said. “One would be yes, absolutely, the other was, we’ll do it immediately.” 
The president also noted that the Iranian people were expressing discontent as their country suffers from inflation, a “bust” economy, and the threat of violence or death when protesting.
“Every time they have a rioter, or someone forms a group, little or big, they start shooting people. You know, they kill people,” Trump said. “They’re vicious, vicious people.”
On Sunday and Monday, protests and strikes erupted across Tehran <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tehran-in-turmoil-irans-currency-collapse-triggers-civil-unrest-anti-regime-protests?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Tehran+In+Turmoil%3A+Iran%E2%80%99s+Currency+Collapse+Triggers+Civil+Unrest%2C+Anti-Regime+Protests">following a historic collapse</a> of Iran’s currency, which reportedly plunged to 1.42 million rials to the dollar on Sunday.

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At His Palm Beach Estate

Netanyahu Crowns Trump As First Non-Israeli To Win His Country’s Most Prestigious Award

Trump To Be First Non-Israeli To Win ‘Israel Prize,’ Netanyahu Announces After Mar-A-Lago Meeting

There is a particular kind of tragedy that unfolds when good intentions are fed the wrong script. Hollywood has seen it before — the irresistible pull of a neatly packaged narrative, a morality play that casts a prisoner as a prophet and a conflict as a parable. But the global chorus of <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-200-celebrities-demand-release-of-convicted-terrorist.html">actors</a>, writers, and <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-879707">musicians</a> who recently called for the release of Marwan Barghouti walked into something far more complicated: a story crafted not to inform, but to activate.
More than <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-200-cultural-figures-call-for-release-of-palestinian-terror-convict-marwan-barghouti/">200 cultural figures</a> were presented with an emotionally charged narrative: Barghouti as the Palestinian Mandela — a heroic symbol of liberation, a political detainee whose freedom could heal a broken land. It was a narrative engineered with precision. It invoked apartheid, redemption, and the irresistible idea of the righteous prisoner held unjustly by a cruel state.
But the story they <a href="https://freemarwan.org/public-figures/">signed their names</a> to didn’t just omit context. It omitted the dead.
Marwan Barghouti is not in prison for his ideology. He is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after being convicted in 2004 for his role in attacks that killed five civilians and attempted to kill others. These are not points of political contention; they are matters of public record.
His victims had names.
Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a Greek Orthodox monk, was shot dead in 2001 while driving near St. George’s Monastery — a man who devoted his life to prayer and his final years to quiet service.
Yoela Chen, 45, was murdered at a gas station near Giv’at Ze’ev.
Eli Dahan, 53, Yosef Habi, 52, and Police Officer Salim Barakat, 33, were gunned down in the March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant — civilians and a Druze Israeli officer, none of whom had any political role in anything at all.
Their lives were not symbols. They were the texture of ordinary days: errands run, meals shared, shifts finished, families waiting at home. They remain absent at every holiday table, every birthday, every unspoken conversation that grief continues on their behalf.
And yet — in the celebrity campaign to free Barghouti, these names vanish. Their faces are unimagined. Their humanity is eclipsed by the seductive narrative of the “freedom fighter.”
This selective empathy is not an oversight. It is the fingerprint of the modern anti-zionist narrative machine, a hate movement that excels at converting geopolitical complexity into emotionally consumable scripts. It packages the conflict into a digestible drama: one side oppressed, the other villainous; one man heroic, the other side faceless. It knows whom it is speaking to — the artists, the idealists, the storytellers who respond instinctively to the visual of a lone prisoner against the world.
This is why the comparison to Mandela was seeded into the campaign from the start.
<div id="attachment_1012859" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1012859" class="size-large wp-image-1012859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-864x576.jpg" alt="ROME, ITALY - MARCH 30: Protesters carry a banner calling for freedom for Marwan Barghouti as they attend a demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, against Israel’s Gaza bombardment and to call for a ceasefire on March 30, 2024 in Rome, Italy. The demonstration dedicated to &quot;Earth Day&quot; is organized by the Palestinian Students Movement, the Palestinian Arab Democratic Union (UDAP), the Association of Palestinians in Italy and the Coordination of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. (Photo by Simona Granati - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Simona Granati &#8211; Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images</div>
But Mandela’s greatness was forged in restraint — his refusal to condone violence against civilians, his devotion to reconciliation, his commitment to building a multiracial democracy. Barghouti’s record is not that. His ascent through Tanzim, and his association in analyses with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, places him in the lineage of armed factions that targeted civilians during the Second Intifada. His conviction for the murders of Father Georgios, Yoela, Eli, Yosef, and Officer Barakat stands unchallenged in the legal record.
To equate him with Mandela is not inspiration. It is historical malpractice.
None of this diminishes Palestinian suffering under Hamas. The Palestinian people deserve dignity, freedom, safety, functioning governance, and leaders who place their communities’ well-being over factional theatrics. They deserve institutions instead of militias, opportunity instead of stagnation, a future shaped by education, reform, and civil society rather than martyrdom posters, hate, and funerals.
But elevating Barghouti as the vessel of that hope does not help Palestinians. It keeps them chained to the very political culture that has failed them for decades — a culture where leaders rise not through governing, but through “resistance” defined as violence; not through building, but through spectacle.
There is nothing progressive about resurrecting an old militant as the future of a nation.
What Palestinians need — what every people need — is leadership rooted in accountability, anti-corruption, institution-building, economic development, and the protection of civilians. They need a government that values life more than symbolism and the living more than the dead.
And yet the world’s cultural elite were persuaded to throw their moral authority behind a man convicted of killing civilians, because the narrative they received was engineered to bypass scrutiny and appeal directly to empathy.
Empathy is not the problem.
The manipulation of empathy is.
The selective framing that presents Barghouti as a moral beacon while erasing his victims is a hallmark of a hate movement masquerading as justice work.
Modern anti-zionism often conflates political advocacy with emotional coercion — telling Western audiences that compassion requires elevating those who commit violence, while portraying any demand for accountability as oppression.
But true solidarity does not require abandoning truth. And true justice does not require erasing the names of the dead.
The celebrity signatories were right about one thing: the region needs renewal. Palestinians desperately need political transformation. But that transformation will not come from releasing a man whose legacy contains the deaths of innocents. It will come from amplifying those working — often quietly, often without fanfare — to build civil society, strengthen institutions, combat corruption, and create genuine pathways to prosperity, liberty, and safety.
If the world’s storytellers want to stand on the right side of history, they must first stand on the right side of facts. And the facts demand this: the path to peace is not paved by celebrating those who shed blood. It is paved by elevating those who choose life.
If the signatories truly seek justice, the path forward is simple: reconsider and retract your support for Barghouti’s release, and commit to vetting future campaigns that appeal to your empathy while obscuring violence. Direct your influence instead toward the real peace-builders — the Palestinian reformers, journalists, educators, and civic leaders fighting corruption and constructing a future rooted in dignity, agency, and safety. Honor all victims of political violence, Israeli and Palestinian alike, whose lives deserve remembrance rather than erasure. And finally, resist the seduction of myth-making — the heroic scripts that feel righteous but flatten truth. Your voices carry weight; let them be used in service of the living, the grieving, and those who are building a future rather than those who helped destroy it.
* * *
Elicia Brand is the founder and president of <a href="https://armyofparents.org/">Army of Parents</a> in Loudoun County, VA.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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The Belfast International Wall

What Celebrities Got Wrong About Marwan Barghouti – He’s No Palestinian Mandela

What Celebrities Got Wrong About Marwan Barghouti – He's No Palestinian Mandela

Anti-Semitism

Middle East

Nelson Mandela

Opinion

Zionism

Dutch activists who signed on to the so-called Global Sumud Flotilla — a Gaza “aid” mission that managed to launch with little more than a symbolic stash of supplies — are now <a href="https://www.jns.org/flotilla-activists-refuse-dutch-repatriation-bill-say-they-shouldnt-have-to-pay-amid-gaza-genocide">fuming</a> that their own government dared to charge them for the trip home after Israel detained and deported them.
The activists, who framed their effort as resistance against “genocide,” insist they “risk[ed] their lives,” were “kidnapped,” and therefore shouldn’t have to pay for the flights arranged by their own embassy.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry says it made a “rare exception” in booking their tickets and made clear from the start that, like every other citizen who receives consular assistance, they’d have to reimburse the costs. One activist, Roos Ykema, was billed €526 (approximately $610) for a flight routed through Madrid, which she says she won’t pay because she was “forcibly deported” by Israel. Invoices show that several activists told Dutch officials they wanted to go home “as soon as possible.”
They weren’t alone. Nineteen Swiss participants have also refused to pay, appealing bills ranging from 300 to 1,047 Swiss francs ($375-$1300) for prison visits, interventions with Israeli authorities, and travel home.
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Meanwhile, the flotilla itself — marketed as a brave civilian push to “break the siege” on Gaza — collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. Israeli naval forces intercepted 50 boats in early October, many owned or financed by what Israeli officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ships-in-greta-thunbergs-flotilla-secretly-owned-by-hamas-israel-says?utm_source=chatgpt.com">say</a> is a Hamas front company. Documents recovered in Gaza tie senior flotilla organizers directly to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, a group Israel designated a terrorist organization in 2021 for acting as Hamas’s de facto foreign operations arm.
Among those organizers: figures overseeing Hamas-linked sectors in Europe, including a UK-based operator responsible for recruiting flotilla crews and a Spain-based executive running Cyber Neptune, the company controlling dozens of boats in Greta Thunberg’s flotilla, Israel’s foreign ministry stated bluntly: “These ships are secretly owned by Hamas.”
Despite the flotilla carrying less aid than a single truck — while more than 1,200 trucks a week have entered Gaza through approved crossings — activists rejected proposals from Italy and Israel to deliver their cargo safely. Israel said the refusal revealed the flotilla’s real purpose: not relief, but provocation.
Thunberg herself was intercepted in June, filmed reacting for cameras, and was later accused of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-a-mythomaniac-greta-thunberg-fakes-being-handcuffed-after-being-deported-from-israel?utm_source=chatgpt.com">mimicking being handcuffed </a>— a pattern critics note mirrors earlier staged detentions. The IDF described the voyage as a “selfie flotilla,” noting that passengers were given water and sandwiches before being returned home.
Israel’s stance remains unchanged: the naval blockade is legal, and attempts to breach it — especially aboard Hamas-owned boats — will be stopped.

Detained Flotilla activists return to Netherlands via Madrid

Pro-Palestinian Activists Outraged Over Paying Travel Costs After Israel Busts Hamas-Tied Operation

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