[IsraelTimes] Video shows Mark and Anna Bouzyk shouting slurs at David Lubin, father of Border Police cop Rose; pair had posted pro-Palestinian lawn signs, including one featuring ‘kikes’ 24 times
A couple in a suburb of Atlanta are facing consequences after being accused of yelling antisemitic slurs at the father of an Israeli Border Police officer who was killed in 2023.
Mark Bouzyk has been fired after he and his wife were taped lobbing insults at David Lubin, the father of Sgt. Rose Ida Lubin, 20. A so-called "lone soldier" who served in Israel’s Border Police, Lubin was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old Paleostinian boy in Jerusalem on November 6, 2023.
Lubin told Atlanta News First that the incident began earlier this month as he was distributing stickers honoring his daughter’s memory.
"When I heard her say, your daughter deserved to die and called me a kike, that’s when I walked across the street," he said.
In a video of the confrontation posted on X by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism, Anna Bouzyk, can be heard telling Lubin that his daughter went to Israel "to kill."
"You are calling yourself a kike, you know what you are. You know what you are better than me," Bouzyk can be heard saying alongside her husband, Mark, who periodically joined in the altercation.
Remember Dunwoody, GA couple Mark & Anna Bouzyk (possible non US citizens) who plastered their yard with "k*ke" signs?
They’re now targeting the father of fallen IDF soldier Rose Lubin — harassing him outside his home & calling him a "k*ke".
Remember Dunwoody, GA couple Mark & Anna Bouzyk (possible non US citizens) who plastered their yard with "k*ke" signs?
They’re now targeting the father of fallen IDF soldier Rose Lubin - harassing him outside his home & calling him a "k*ke".
“You are a corrupt politician with a daughter in the IDF that went there to kill, and she was killed maybe by friendly fire because the Israeli soldiers they kill each other all the time, and you know very well,” continued Bouzyk.
Bouzyk later confirmed to Atlanta News First that she had called Lubin the derogatory term prior to the filmed confrontation, telling the outlet, “I don’t regret what I said, and I’ll it say a million times again.”
She blamed Lubin — who ran unsuccessfully for Georgia State Senate in 2024, aiming to unseat a politician who did not sign onto an antisemitism bill — for the interaction.
“He started calling me a Jew hater. He started calling me names, so I called him a kike,” Bouzyk told the outlet. “He was provoking me. He was putting his phone in my face. He didn’t have the right to do that, because I went to talk to him about vandalizing.”
Lubin told the outlet that he heard in Bouzyk “that same hate that happened during the Holocaust towards Jews.” He is also considering involving the police, according to the outlet.
Tensions between the neighbors in Dunwoody, Georgia, had been building since last year, when Anna and Mark Bouzyk allegedly posted pro-Palestinian signs in their front yard. On one sign posted this month that read “Stop Funding War Criminals,” the word “kikes” was written 24 times.
Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch condemned the signs in a post on Facebook last week, writing that they were “deeply disturbing and offensive.” She later updated the post thanking a local resident for convincing the homeowners to remove the signs.
Mark Bouzyk has since been fired from his job as the co-founder and chief scientific officer at AllaiHealth, an AI-driven patient medical history platform, the company announced on Thursday.
“We are deeply disturbed and disheartened by the video circulating involving Dr Mark Bouzyk,” CEO Robert Boisjoli said in the statement. “The behavior displayed in that footage is reprehensible, completely inconsistent with our values, and has no place in our organization or society.”
The incident joins another recent attack on the family of an American who moved to Israel to join its army. In St. Louis, a hate crime inquiry was opened by local police after three cars were set ablaze and “Death to the IDF” was written outside of the home of a family whose son recently completed two years serving in the IDF.
The Daily Mail has the usual photos and more here.
[KhaamaPress] Amnesty International UK says asylum approvals for Afghans fell from 98% to 44%. The group warns new immigration laws are unfair, harmful, and undermine refugee protections.
Amnesty International UK has warned that Britannia’s new immigration policies have sharply reduced the rate of asylum approvals for citizens of Afghanistan and several other countries.
According to the report, only 44 percent of Afghan applicants were granted asylum this year, compared to 98 percent in the previous year. Approval rates for Iranian applicants dropped from 84 to 58 percent, while for Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... ns they fell from 99 to 86 percent.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, described the new policies as "flawed and unfair." He cautioned that the approach leaves thousands of asylum seekers without protection and risks creating a growing backlog of unresolved cases alongside higher public costs.
The organization also criticized the enforcement of the Nationality and Borders Act of 2022, arguing that it contravenes the Refugee Convention. Amnesty warned that the law not only harms vulnerable individuals but also wastes public resources and fuels divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... narratives within society.
In recent years, Britannia has tightened its immigration laws to curb arrivals. Human rights groups have repeatedly warned that restricting asylum protections risks harming vulnerable people, destabilizing communities, and straining the administrative system.
Amnesty’s findings point to a troubling reversal in the UK’s humanitarian commitments. Once among the most consistent in upholding refugee protections, the country is now accused of undermining international norms.
The report underscores a broader debate over Britannia’s migration strategy: whether stricter controls truly enhance border security, or instead erode fundamental rights and weaken social cohesion in the long run.
[KhaamaPress] Swiss officials confirmed four Taliban ...Arabic for students... diplomats visited Geneva to identify Afghan convicts, calling the move "sensitive but necessary" to issue valid Kabul-approved travel documents.
Swiss state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
has reported that four Taliban diplomats recently traveled to Geneva on a discreet mission to identify Afghan nationals convicted of crimes in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... . Officials described the visit as "sensitive but necessary."
According to Switzerland’s Federal Office for Migration, the two-day mission focused on confirming the identities of 11 convicted offenders and two Afghans who had volunteered to return home. The delegation arrived "several days ago," though authorities did not disclose the exact dates.
Swiss officials explained that the step was essential because the Taliban only recognize documents issued by their own authorities in Kabul. Other papers issued by Afghanistan’s former embassy in Bern are no longer valid.
Daniel Bach, front man for the migration office, admitted the move was politically delicate. "Everyone knows human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... are not respected in Afghanistan, which makes our work sensitive. But in Switzerland, protecting the public from criminals is the priority," he said.
Authorities emphasized that the Taliban envoys did not leave Geneva airport and were only allowed to carry out identification procedures. Most cases were verified successfully, and preparations for deportations have begun, though additional checks remain necessary in some instances.
The initiative follows a policy introduced last year by Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans, requiring Afghan offenders to be deported after serving their prison sentences. Five such deportations were carried out before Taliban authorities changed their rules, insisting that Kabul-issued documents be used for repatriations.
Germany also allowed two Taliban consular staff to be stationed temporarily in July to facilitate deportation flights, but Swiss authorities stressed they have no plans to permit a permanent Taliban presence in the country.
Switzerland’s decision underscores the growing dilemmas facing European governments in dealing with the Taliban while balancing domestic security needs and international human rights concerns. Analysts say such steps highlight the uneasy compromises Western democracies are making to enforce immigration law while avoiding formal recognition of the Taliban regime.
[IsraelTimes] The Dutch House of Representatives approved a motion saying that the “Islamic terror organization Hamas should be completely destroyed” hours after Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned after a cabinet meeting failed to agree on sanctions against Israel.
The motion, submitted by the far-right Party for Freedom in the lower house of the Netherlands’ parliament, insists Hamas cannot “play a single role” in Gaza’s future.
Unions go on strike for a variety of reasons. The traditional answer is to truck it across country to a port or airport that will do the work, and ship from there. It does add to costs, but it is not a total block. And of course, Israel can on-shore more manufacturing, as it is doing with other weapons-related things.
[IsraelTimes] Joining the Houthis and some governments, dock workers are trying to disrupt Israel’s supply chain to protest the Gaza war, though Jerusalem claims the effort has yet to make waves
Located just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Marseille in southern La Belle France, Marseille-Fos is one of the busiest ports in La Belle France, handling over 70 million tons of goods a year. In June, dock workers there were busy rummaging frantically through thousands of shipments to find small crates of links for rapid-fire bullet belts. The workers had received information that the crates would be loaded onto the Contship Era, bound for Haifa.
Since the French workers were unsure whether they would locate the pallets with the crates in time, the port’s union coordinated their action with their colleagues across the border in Italia’s Genoa port, where the ship was due to dock on its way to Israel. Should the French workers fail to locate the crates in time, their Italian counterparts would seek to prevent the shipment from reaching its destination in a show of cross-border coordination against arming Israel as it fights in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The French port workers were also joined in the effort by the French legal organization JURDI, the Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law, which petitioned a local court on the matter.
After being halted for several days at Marseille-Fos, the Contship Era was eventually forced to set off for Israel without the crates of bullet links. It is not clear what happened to the crates, but it appears that they were returned to the sender, Marseille-based company Eurolinks.
"Port workers refused to load the crates," Alfonso Dorado, a lawyer for JURDI, told Shomrim. "This is our small victory."
As international audiences grow more concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and are pushing their governments to do more to pressure Israel, they are also taking grassroots actions aimed at frustrating the war effort in whatever small ways possible. Beyond La Belle France, union workers in Italia, Greece, Belgium, Morocco, and Sweden have announced that they will act using the same method to halt military shipments bound for Israel.
These worker-led protests, along with arms embargoes from some countries and the risk of Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... attacks disrupting Asian transport routes, are putting heavy pressure on Israel’s already strained supply chain — a complex system vital to Israel’s access to arms. Despite the country’s push toward self-reliance in manufacturing military supplies, any disruption to the delivery of even small parts can lead to prolonged delays, potentially carrying strategic consequences.
"While Israel is keen to downplay the importance of these protests, if the security services cannot get their hands on something very specific — and sometimes a tiny component they need can only be sourced overseas — this means they won’t have it when they need it," said Eran Shamir-Borer, the director of the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute.
"This leads to economic and operational ramifications," he said. "Maybe they will have to start manufacturing the specific component in Israel; maybe that will be too expensive or will not be the same quality."
Israel’s Defense Ministry declined a request for comment. The Foreign Ministry responded to Shomrim with a statement: "The issue is known and is being addressed with the relevant countries."
PIER PRESSURE
Workers at Marseille-Fos began delaying shipments to Israel in April this year, when they examined a container suspected of carrying F-35 fighter jet components bound for Israel. The fate of that shipment is unknown — but following the incident, global maritime shipping giant Maersk, which operated the ship that was due to collect the cargo, announced that it would no longer use Marseille-Fos on some of its shipping lines.
A spokesperson for Maersk confirmed to Shomrim that the port had been removed from some of its lines, but denied that the decision had anything to do with the incident in April.
"We are continuously examining which ports we dock at, in order to ensure the most efficient operational structure. The recent changes to the lines are intended to improve reliability while maintaining adequate coverage in the region," the spokesperson said.
Other international ports have also become veritable no-go zones for Israel-bound weapons parts. In July, ENEDEP, a union representing dockworkers at Greece’s Piraeus port, halted a shipment of military-grade steel bound for Israel. The union said in a statement that hundreds of port workers took part in a demonstration against shipments to Israel.
In Belgium, four NGOs called for a shipment of parts they claimed were intended for a factory that manufactures components for IDF’s Merkava tanks to be halted in July. The components were supposed to transit through the port of Antwerp, Europe’s second largest cargo terminal, before reaching Israel.
In January, 68% of the members of the Swedish dockworkers’ union voted in favor of a boycott against any military shipment to or from Israel.
In addition to the bottom-up mobilization by workers’ unions, several states have also taken matters into their own hands, imposing restrictions on the transportation of arms to Israel via their territory. In mid July, the Hague Group — a newly established coalition of nations from the Global South whose members include Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... and South Africa — announced a full arms embargo against Israel, vowing to block any ship carrying arms to Israel from docking at their ports. Spain and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... adopted similar measures to limit the export and transport of arms to Israel even earlier.
DISRUPTIONS IN THE AIR
Blocking weapons shipments to Israel is not limited to sea routes. Workers at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Gay Paree discovered in June that military-grade steel was due to be delivered via their airport to Israel’s defense firm Elbit. The shipment was first delayed after Israel closed its airspace during the war with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in June, and while it waited in La Belle France, several unions across Europe, including truck drivers and employees at logistical centers, banded together to prevent the steel from reaching its destination.
"We were informed that military equipment was due to be loaded onto a flight to Tel Aviv," the airport workers’ union said in a statement in July. "We refuse to take part, directly or indirectly, in any logistical activity that could contribute to the ongoing crimes in Gaza."
Taïeb Houira, a senior member of one of the unions involved, told Shomrim that sending military equipment via a civilian airport was unprecedented. "Our job is to bring peace, to help passengers travel — but not to participate in a war," he said.
He added that his union mobilized its large network of workers and received precise information about the shipment, its exact nature and location, which allowed the unions to track it from its source in Sweden to its final destination in Israel.
In the end, the unions failed to prevent the shipment from leaving for Israel, which it eventually did in early July — although exactly how that happened is unclear. The unions accused El Al of concealing the shipment among other cargo, something that the airline denied. According to Houira, similar cases in the future will be fought via legal action.
NOT YET MAROONED
Israel has so far tried to downplay the importance of the delays and the disruptions to the shipments.
A source familiar with the matter said the unions’ actions would only have a minimal impact on Israel’s national security needs.
"This is not a new challenge," the source said. "Most of the key actors in the Israeli defense industry have a strong and diverse supply chain, which takes into account the complexity of relying on a single supplier. Israel has been dealing with complex supply procedures for years. It’s just the reality we face."
But not everyone agrees.
Shamir-Borer confirmed that attempts to impose an arms embargo on Israel are not a new phenomenon, but stressed that, "in the context of the current war, everything is on steroids."
Previous issues with the supply chain were a lot smaller in scope, less systematic, and focused more on public pressure than legal proceedings, he noted. They cannot, he added, be compared to the current campaigns against arms shipments to Israel.
Something about cutting off their nose to spite their face…
The report says the measure, coming more than a year after Ankara imposed a $7 billion annual trade embargo on Israel over its war in Gaza against Hamas, would prohibit all direct ship traffic from Turkey to Israel and bar Turkish-flagged vessels from docking in the country. While its headline describes the move as “a new sanction” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the report does not specify the formality of the decision.
Globes adds that merchant ships will be required to provide documents showing whether they make regular calls in Israel. While vessels with “Israeli connections” could still be accepted under certain conditions, their cargo could reportedly not be handled in Turkey.
In practice, no cargo activity linked to Israel would be allowed, including containers — effectively blocking the flow of goods to the Palestinian Authority, which relies on Israeli ports. The move also raises doubts about Turkey’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, most of which enters through Ashdod, the report says.
In a subsequent report, Reuters presents a narrower picture of the reported restrictions.
According to two shipping sources cited by Reuters, Turkish port authorities have begun informally requiring shipping agents to submit guarantee letters stating that vessels are not linked to Israel and are not carrying military or hazardous cargo destined for the country.
The instructions, reportedly given verbally by the harbor master’s office and said to apply across Turkey, have not been issued in any official medium.
One source added that the letters must confirm that vessel owners, managers, and operators have no ties to Israel, and that banned cargo such as explosives, radioactive material, or military equipment is not on board.
The Turkish transportation ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
[IsraelTimes] The Abu Shabab gang claims to have carved out an area where it is providing electricity, medical care and education for thousands of displaced Gazans under IDF protection
For nearly two years, schools across the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip have been largely shut down.
But in eastern Rafah, a rare exception has emerged: a small school operating in an area controlled by the Abu Shabaab clan — an anti-Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... group with possible ties to Israel and a questionable past — that now serves more than 100 kids from kindergarten through seventh grade.
The school eschews Paleostinian Authority textbooks previously prevalent in Gaza, with teachers apparently recruited from among displaced Paleostinians living in a part of Gaza controlled by the Israel Defense Forces and appears to educate pupils along progressive ideas of pluralism and tolerance.
"We want to create a generation of learners, not terrorists," said Mohammed, a senior member of Abu Shabaab’s forces, in a phone interview with The Times of Israel.
(Mohammed and all others who spoke to The Times of Israel for this article requested that they only be referred to by fictitious names to preserve their anonymity.)
In central Gaza, another school has also sprung up, with a similar stated mission of educating children away from hate.
Both initiatives appear to address longstanding Israeli concerns regarding Paleostinian education, which critics say includes content that incites against Israelis and Jews, perpetuating narratives that fuel distrust and conflict rather than coexistence.
CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE UNDER CLAN AUTHORITY
According to footage published online, some of it by the Abu Shabaab group, and members of Abu Shabaab’s forces who talked to the Times of Israel, the clan has established both security structures, but also civilian infrastructure to support several thousand Paleostinians living in an area of Rafah under full security control of the IDF.
Infrastructure in place includes electricity, water, a medical center and the school itself, which serves around 130 children.
The head of the clan, Yasser Abu Shabaab, is a Bedouin Paleostinian from Rafah who was little known in Gaza or Israel before October 7. Arab media reports have linked him to criminal activity, including theft and drug trafficking, and describe him as the leader of a family-based militia.
According to Al Jazeera, Abu Shabaab was tossed in the calaboose Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! at one point by Hamas, but he has denied these claims, telling the Sunday Times in July that before the war, he was merely a construction worker with no military experience.
Hamas has accused the Abu Shabaab militia of stealing humanitarian aid to sell for profit. A leaked UN memo reported on by The Washington Post in November 2024 described him as "the primary and most influential figure behind systematic looting of aid convoys."
There is evidence to suggest that the group, whose members are wanted by Hamas, is now operating under the aegis or tacit consent of Israel in areas of Gaza under IDF security control, though it has not been confirmed.
A video published on the official Abu Shabaab Facebook page on June 3 showed the forces hosting displaced families in tents, guarding aid trucks and distributing food packages, though it is unclear if the group was acting under any authorization or had seized the aid.
Satellite analysis published in Haaretz geolocated the group’s activities to an area between the Morag Corridor and Rafah, which has been under Israeli control since April.
On June 5, Israel admitted to supplying weapons to "Bedouin groups in Rafah to weaken Hamas," without confirming reports that it was supporting Abu Shabaab directly.
According to Mohammed, Abu Shabaab — which describes itself as "The Popular Forces" had built a de facto local administration in the area over the last few months.
"The medical and educational centers are part of the Popular Forces," he said. "They brought in teachers, provided generators for electricity and drilled wells for water."
In an August 10 video posted on the clan’s official Facebook page, Yasser Abu Shabaab and two men, presented as senior members of his forces, are seen showing off the school, medical center and a kitchen serving daily meals to displaced families.
"There are 5,000 displaced people here," Mohammed said. "Some families have 20 members, others just two after losing relatives in the war."
Another armed clan member, Issa, confirmed to The Times of Israel that the group has been operating in the area for about six months. He said more displaced families were expected, but their arrival was delayed due to IDF activity nearby.
In June, Yasser Abu Shabaab told Israel’s Army Radio that he was not collaborating with the IDF. "We do not work with Israel. Our goal is to defend Paleostinians from Hamas terror. Our weapons are simple, collected locally," he said.
Weeks later, however, the Kan broadcaster aired another interview with a man purporting to be Abu Shabaab in which he acknowledged working with the IDF. However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the clan denied that the speaker was Yasser Abu Shabaab.
The fact that entry to the area requires IDF coordination suggests, at a minimum, tacit Israeli approval.
The IDF declined to comment when contacted by The Times of Israel.
SCHOOL OF RIGHTS
One of the key projects in the clan-controlled area is the new school.
"We have six classrooms with 25 to 35 students each, from kindergarten to seventh grade," Mohammed explained.
According to him, teachers were recruited from among the displaced Paleostinians in the area.
Schools across Gaza have been shut since war erupted on October 7, 2023, except for some facilities that opened during a two-month ceasefire in January and February.
Before the war, Gaza’s schools, many of which were run by the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees UNRWA, were criticized for indoctrinating children to hate Israelis and Jews.
Curriculum used by UNRWA and PA textbooks, which had been used in Gaza even after Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007, were accused of promoting violence and terrorism against Israel, fueling hatred for future generations, critics said.
The Rafah school appears to have embraced a different path, though the source of its curriculum is unclear.
"We want a curriculum that replaces terror and violence with learning," Mohammed said. For now, lessons are oral, not based on the flawed Paleostinian Authority textbooks."
In the Facebook video, a teacher can be seen leading a class discussion on human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. . A girl named Jamila recites that: "Human rights belong to everyone and are only restricted when they conflict with the law."
On August 12, the Center for Peace Communications, a US-based nonprofit that supports inter-ethnic dialogue in the Middle East, published a separate video of the School.
"We will begin again and restore education in Gaza."
In eastern Rafah, anti-Hamas teachers are building Gaza's first schools for peace and tolerance.
— Center for Peace Communications (@PeaceComCenter) August 12, 2025
In the video, a teacher explains hospitality, equality and freedom.
“Can I take a girl and lock her away?” she asks the class. “No, she has a right to freedom.” She also warns against discrimination based on religion or ethnicity.
The teacher in the video identifies herself as Samira Abu Mousa, with degrees from the Islamic University and Al-Aqsa University. She says her opposition to Hamas stems from discrimination she faced in seeking teaching jobs without political connections.
“I and people like me long for peace, hope and security,” she tells the class.
In a subsequent post, the center wrote that it filmed the video in July, calling the area under Abu Shabab control a “pilot” for a “future free of Hamas.”
It is not clear if there is any relationship between the center and Abu Shabab. The center declined to comment.
Mohammed admitted that the forces have “partners” with whom they are trying to develop civilian activity in the area, including at the school, but did not provide further details.
According to Issa, new equipment for the school arrived via the Kerem Shalom crossing recently, including computers and notebooks that he said had been donated by foreign groups and Arab-Israeli citizens. He declined to elaborate further.
In central Gaza, a separate initiative has launched a school for 600 displaced children in Deir al-Balah, an area with little Israeli ground presence but hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The school was established by Dr. David Hassan, a Palestinian-American physician, with support from the Israeli aid group SmartAID. It enrolls orphans from kindergarten through ninth grade and provides two daily meals with help from World Central Kitchen. Founder José Andrés visited the school during his August 15 trip to Gaza.
Unlike the Abu Shabab effort, the school in Deir al-Balah still uses PA textbooks, albeit with modifications.
“We took the PA textbooks and only changed words,” Hassan told The Times of Israel over the phone. “We didn’t want to write something new, just fix problematic content. Our teachers are all women, carefully vetted to ensure no Hamas ties. Our vision is to reach 5,000 children. If we fail, there will be no other education without hate.”
According to Mohammed, aside from the school, the area under Abu Shabab administration also includes a medical center staffed by displaced doctors and nurses.
“We monitor chronic diseases, emergencies and provide medication for the elderly,” he said.
The clan member expressed hope that Gaza would in the future be administered by a “third option” that is neither Hamas nor Israel.
“We don’t like Hamas, we fought them, and we know life will be better without them,” Mohammed said. “What matters most is humanitarian action here in Rafah — because it ends terror and gives people the chance to live in peace and security.”
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh claims the Islamic Republic has established an infrastructure to manufacture weapons in “several countries,” in a television interview with the Iranian news agency Young Journalists Club.
He does not reveal the names of those countries. "Ruritania..."
Nasirzadeh says “missile development” has been a priority, “after the war with Israel, priorities may change.”
The factories “will likely be officially opened and announced in the near future.”
[IsraelTimes] A Syrian official says that the selection process planned for a transitional parliament next month will be postponed in Druze-majority Sweida and two Kurdish-held provinces.
After toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria’s new authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, dissolved the Assad-era parliament and adopted a temporary constitution for a five-year transition.
The interim charter has been criticized for concentrating power in Sharaa’s hands after decades of autocracy under Assad and for failing to reflect Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity.
The selection of the transitional parliament is planned for September 15-20. Appointed local bodies will pick two-thirds of the 210 lawmakers and Sharaa will name the rest.
But the process will be postponed in Druze-majority Sweida province in the south, and in Raqqa and Hasakeh in the north and northeast “until the appropriate conditions and a safe environment are available,” the official SANA news agency quotes organizing committee member Nawar Najmeh as saying.
Sweida province saw deadly sectarian clashes last month, with access to the province still difficult and the security situation tense.
A Kurdish administration largely controls Raqqa and Hasakeh provinces.
Implementation of a March 10 deal on integrating Kurdish institutions into those of the central government has been held up by differences between the two sides.
The postponement is due to “the security challenges these provinces are witnessing” and is “to ensure fair representation” in those areas, Najmeh says.
Seats will be “reserved” in the transitional legislative body for the three provinces to fill at a later date, he says, adding that the selection process can only go ahead in “territories controlled by the state.”
The new body will have a renewable mandate of 30 months.
[IsraelTimes] Iran is seeking Belarus’s assistance to restore its defense capabilities damaged during the 12-day war with Israel in June, the Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said in a statement, cited by Ukrainian media yesterday.
Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko met in Minsk with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in the week, and while their talks officially discussed economic ties, Ukrainian intelligence said Tehran sought help with repairing its air defense and electronic warfare systems.
“Unlike Russia, Belarus is less restricted by sanctions in the military-technical sphere and could become a channel for restoring Iran’s defense capabilities,” the statement said.
[IsraelTimes] Initiative comes after UN-backed commission that investigated sectarian violence recommended authorities increase diversity in security forces to gain trust of communities
Young Kurdish men, including members of religious minorities, recently signed up to join the Syrian government’s General Security forces in Afrin, an area in the country’s north from which Kurds were forcibly displaced years ago.
The push to recruit ethnic and religious minorities comes as the government in Damascus faces increased scrutiny after outbreaks of sectarian violence in recent months during which there were widespread reports of government-affiliated fighters killing and humiliating civilians from the Alawite and Druze sects.
A UN-backed commission that investigated violence on Syria’s coast recommended earlier this month that authorities should recruit from minority communities for a more "diverse security force composition" to improve community relations and trust.
Minorities are increasingly wary of the new authorities in Damascus, who are led by Sunni Moslem Islamist former turbans who overthrew President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... in December after a nearly 14-year civil war.
An agreement reached in March between Damascus and Kurdish-led forces that control much of northeast Syria also has been on shaky ground.
SEEKING A ROLE IN THE NEW STATE
Abbas Mohammad Hamouda, a Kurdish Alawite, was among the young men lining up at a recruitment center in Afrin on Wednesday.
"I came with young men from my district to join the new state," he said. "We will stand together, united, and avoid problems and wars from now on."
The Kurds in Afrin "have been subjected to a lot over the past eight years," Hamouda said, adding, "I hope that the youth of Afrin will not think badly of us because of this affiliation" with the new authorities.
Formerly a Kurdish-majority area, Afrin was seized by Ottoman Turkish forces and allied Syrian opposition fighters in 2018, following a The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... -backed military operation that pushed fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and thousands of Kurdish civilians from the area.
Arabs displaced from other parts of Syria have settled in the area since then and the Kurds who stayed have complained of discrimination against them.
Some are hoping the recent drive to recruit them to the security forces signals a shift toward more inclusion.
Malik Moussa, a Kurd from the Yazidi sect who signed up, said he had come hoping to be "part of the Syrian army and for there to be no discrimination."
"We hope that the new government will be for all the people, for there not to be oppression like there was in the past," he said.
Ferhad Khurto, a government official responsible for political affairs in the Afrin district, said about 1,000 young men had signed up in recent days to join General Security in the area from "all of its sects and colors and doctrines." He did not give a breakdown of the demographics of the new recruits.
"This is the first step, and there is a strategy ... for the sons of Afrin to share in all the government institutions, not only on the side of internal security but in civilian institutions," he said, adding that the recruitment drive in Afrin is part of a larger national strategy.
When asked for the numbers and percentage of minorities joining the security forces, Noureddine al-Baba, spokesperson for the Syrian Ministry of Interior, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named "competence and patriotism are the criteria used, not sectarian quotas."
SKEPTICISM ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT’S INTENTIONS
The recruitment effort drew skepticism in some quarters.
The Afrin Social Association, an initiative providing support to people displaced from Afrin in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, said in a statement posted on Facebook that "enrollment of some young people in the General Security Forces, without any guarantees to protect Afrin’s communities and ensure the dignified and voluntary return of the displaced, is an irresponsible act."
The association accused the authorities in Damascus of trying to "circumvent" the March agreement, which called for displaced people to be able to return to their homes, including in Afrin, along with a merger of the new government’s army and the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an Iraq-based Kurdish affairs analyst, said "in theory, the recruitment could improve the situation of Kurds in Afrin."
"It also depends if Kurds will be appointed to leadership positions in the security forces in Afrin and if they will really have any say, and if some Ottoman Turkish-backed groups would return to their original areas ... and if some of the violations stop," he said.
A Kurdish man living in Afrin, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said locals have mixed feelings about the recruitment.
They believe it could be positive if the authorities are "really serious about giving a role in Afrin to the original people of this area," but they fear the Kurdish recruits would be "employed negatively" in case of an armed conflict between the state forces and SDF, he said.
Some Kurdish families are pushing their sons to join, either because the security forces are seen as a career path for those without other options or in hopes of gaining political benefits, the man said.
"I know a young guy who was working as a barber and his grandfather forced him to go to the General Security, saying that we must have influence in the state," he said.
[IsraelTimes] New York Times says prisoners taken back to newly built wards at Evin Prison that an inmate describes as a ‘dark dungeon’.
Iran chose to do put political prisoners there under suboptimal conditions, which somehow is an Israeli war crime, according to the government spokesman and the New York Times
[ShabelleMedia] The US Embassy in Baghdad said Saturday that Washington remains deeply concerned about the continued operations and territorial expansions of the ISIS/ISIS and al-Qaeda terror groups, stressing that it will continue to prioritize partnerships with allies and regional actors to combat terrorism.
The embassy, citing remarks shared by the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs on US social media company X, commended UN member states that have sustained counter-terrorism pressure in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, saying these efforts have constrained ISIS operations.
Responding to the US concerns, Iraqi military front man Sabah al-Numan told the state news agency INA that ISIS no longer poses a threat inside Iraq, describing the terrorist group as "paralyzed" thanks to the vigilance and daily operations of security forces.
He stressed that Iraq’s borders are fully secured and that regional tensions will not directly impact the country’s stability.
Dorothy Shea, the US Ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council this week that Washington has intensified its counterterrorism campaign globally, targeting ISIS and al-Qaeda leadership, infrastructure and financial networks.
"Notable successes have included the elimination of high-ranking ISIS attack planners in Somalia, Iraq and Syria, and the transfer into US custody of the man allegedly responsible for the Abbey Gate terrorist bombing in Afghanistan," she said. "These actions demonstrate our unwavering commitment to dismantling terrorist organizations and protecting international security."
At least 13 US soldiers were killed in a suicide kaboom at Kabul airport in Afghanistan in August 2021. The attack was claimed by ISIS.
Shea added that the US continues to work with allies through intelligence sharing and joint operations in order to strengthen global security and prevent the spread of Death Eater ideologies.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Arabic for 
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
