News Archives - Page 53 of 370

Mamdani: First Muslim New York Mayor

CrossFireArabia
November 5, 2025

Muslim New Yorkers celebrated Tuesday night after Zohran Mamdani won the city’s mayoral race, becoming the first Muslim and South Asian to lead the Big Apple.

❮❯

Muslim New Yorkers celebrate Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory

Mamdani, 34, a Democratic Socialist and state lawmaker from Queens, defeated independent former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in what observers describe as one of the city’s biggest political upsets in years.

With more than 50% of the vote and a record-breaking turnout exceeding 2 million ballots, Mamdani’s victory sparked celebrations across neighborhoods like Astoria in Queens, where his grassroots campaign first began.

For many Muslim residents, the win carries deep emotional significance.

“I am very excited about this election,” Zamzam Ali, who lives in Brooklyn, told Anadolu during a celebration in front of a Yemeni cafe in Astoria. “Zohran Mamdani embodies the universal struggles that the general population of a city strive for — better living conditions, fair pay, affordable price and rent and equality for all.”

Ali said Mamdani’s victory also resonates on a personal level.

“Muslims have really struggled and been victims of discrimination in America since 9/11,” he said. “So, to see a Muslim become the mayor of the very city in which Muslims were blamed for all kinds of crimes and accused of terrorism — it’s phenomenal.”

Mamdani’s campaign centered on affordability and social justice, pledging rent freezes, free buses, universal childcare, and city-run grocery stores. He has also proposed raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030 and increasing taxes on corporations and millionaires to fund these programs.

Faizah, 31, who wanted to be identified only by her first name, said Mamdani’s proposals give her hope.

“As a teacher, I think that he has a lot of good policies with moving the funding so that teachers and parents can actually put more of their emphasis on to education,” she told Anadolu. “Rent is pretty insane in New York City, so freezing the rent is a big deal. I think he’s for the people.”

For others, the moment feels transformative.

“We’re very proud of him,” said Badger Shahbain, a Muslim New Yorker who has known Mamdani for years. “This is going to change history — the way he was able to win changes everything. I truly believe he’ll do a great job.”

During the victory party at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater, Mamdani thanked supporters and called for unity. “We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers … where the more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong,” he said to thunderous applause. “No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hailed Mamdani’s win as a “historic turning point” for American Muslim political engagement. “Mamdani’s ability to win while openly advocating for Palestinian human rights and experiencing a barrage of anti-Muslim hate also marks a historic rebuke of both Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in politics,” the group said.

News

Vandalizing The Olive Tree

CrossFireArabia
November 1, 2025

The current olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank has seen the highest level of illegal settler attacks in five years, a UN agency said Saturday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that 126 attacks were recorded in 70 Palestinian towns and villages, while over 4,000 olive trees and saplings were vandalized.

“The 2025 olive harvest season has so far witnessed the highest level of damage and number of affected communities due to settler attacks since 2020,” it added.

OCHA noted that 60 of the documented attacks involved direct assaults on Palestinian civilians, with at least 17 people injured and 19 vehicles vandalized in the past week alone according to Anadolu.

The UN agency said illegal Israeli settlers from newly established outposts have also imposed access restrictions on Palestinian farmers in multiple locations, preventing them from reaching their groves during the harvest.

On Saturday, illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive pickers in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and assaulted several of them, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Illegal settlers stormed farmland between Burin and the nearby town of Huwara, beat multiple harvesters and forced them to leave the fields, the broadcaster said.

Wafa added that the attackers also scattered the olives the farmers had already collected, leaving them on the ground.

The attack came amid a sharp rise in settler violence against Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest, which typically begins in mid-October each year.

According to the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, 259 attacks on Palestinians carried out by the Israeli army and illegal settlers during the olive harvest season.

Israeli attacks have escalated across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,062 Palestinians and injuring 10,300 others, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

News

Smotrich Retracts Saudi Offensive Comments

CrossFireArabia
October 24, 2025

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich retracted insulting comments he made on Thursday against Saudi Arabia.

“My statement about Saudi Arabia was definitely unsuccessful, and I regret the offense it caused,” the extremist minister said on his account on US social media company X.

“Nevertheless, and simultaneously, I expect the Saudis not to harm us and not to deny the heritage, tradition and rights of the Jewish people to the historical regions of their homeland in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and to establish true peace with us.”

Smotrich issued insulting comments against the kingdom early Thursday, rejecting any normalization with ties with Riyadh in return for a Palestinian state.

“If Saudi Arabia tells us ‘normalization in exchange for a Palestinian state,’ friends — no thank you,” Smotrich said at a conference organized by the Zomet Institute and the Makor Rishon newspaper.

“Keep riding camels in the desert in Saudi Arabia, and we will continue to develop with the economy, society and state and the great things that we know how to do,” added the extremist minister.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on Smotrich’s comments.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly conditioned reaching a deal to normalize ties with Israel on Tel Aviv’s acceptance of a Palestinian state and the launch of a serious political process leading to that state.

Ignorance

Smotrich’s comments against Saudi Arabia drew fire from Israeli opposition leaders.

“To our friends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, Smotrich does not represent the State of Israel,” Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid Party, wrote on US social media company X, calling on the finance minister to apologize.

Benny Gantz, leader of the opposition Blue and White Party, said on X that Smotrich’s comments against Saudi Arabia “reflect ignorance and a lack of awareness of his responsibility as a senior minister in the government and the cabinet.”

Smotrich, known for his extremist views, has long advocated expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the annexation of the occupied territory according to Anadolu.

News

If You Screw Up The Gaza Deal, Trump Will ‘Screw’ You, US Official Warns Bibi

CrossFireArabia
October 24, 2025

A senior American official has issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if he allows the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas to collapse, he will face severe consequences from US President Donald Trump, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Speaking in Hebrew on Channel 12, Axios correspondent said the US official warned him that Netanyahu is “walking a very thin tightrope with President Trump. If he keeps this up, he’ll end up screwing up the deal, and if he screws up the deal, Donald Trump will screw him.”

The comments come amid rising tensions between Washington and Tel Aviv over moves by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to advance legislation tied to the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.

According to the report, US Vice President JD Vance, who concluded a diplomatic visit to Israel earlier on Thursday, was taken aback after learning that the Knesset had given preliminary approval to two non-binding annexation-related bills the previous day.

Speaking to reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport before his departure, Vance criticised the vote, saying: “If this was a political stunt, it’s a very foolish one. I personally take offence to it.”

Israeli move angered Trump

An Israeli official told Channel 12 that Netanyahu had been warned several days earlier about the strong backlash such a move would provoke but did nothing to stop the vote from going ahead.

The Israeli Knesset approved both annexation-related bills in a preliminary reading, with three more votes required before they can become law.

The legislation advanced despite open opposition from President Trump, who said last month that he “would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.”

The vote also coincided with Vance’s visit to Israel, part of a wider US diplomatic effort to preserve the Gaza ceasefire that took effect on October 10 according to TRTWorld.

News

Palestine NGO to Prosecute Britons in Israeli Army

CrossFireArabia
October 24, 2025

A Palestinian human rights organization has filed an application for a court summons to prosecute a dual British-Israeli citizen who served in the Israeli military, first in the Lebanese border unit and later in the West Bank.

The prosecution is being brought by the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). The human rights group intends to argue in court that named Britons joined a foreign army at war with a state, Palestine, which the UK was not fighting.

The application to a magistrates court for a summons against the named individual was lodged on Monday.

It adds that waging war with a foreign force is a breach of section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870. The act makes it an offence for any person to accept or agree a commission or engagement in the military service of any foreign state at war with another foreign state that is at peace with the UK government.

The ICJP has named one individual in the attempted prosecution but has gathered evidence against more than 10 British citizens.

To enhance the prospects of a successful prosecution and prevent the case being prejudiced, the ICJP is not naming the individuals they want to be arrested.

The ICJP says the Israeli military conducted a war that is not confined to Hamas but is against all Palestinians and Palestine itself, a state now recognised by the UK.

The group says it needs to prove the defendant is a British subject, accepted a commission or engagement in the Israeli armed forces, that Israel was at war with Palestine, that Palestine is a foreign state and finally that Palestine was at peace with the UK.

Israeli domestic law does not require any person outside its territory, including Israeli citizens who are British subjects, to accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement in the military. This means that British nationals who fought for the Israeli military did so voluntarily.

The ICJP says multiple and repeated military activities directed at civilians and civilian infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza show Israel has been at war with all Palestine.

It adds Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, as determined by the international court of justice in advisory opinions issued in July last year and again this week.