The Black Hebrew Israelites, a fringe religion, once again made headlines in the US at the end of 2022. The group is composed of different sects which essentially agree that African Americans are the direct descendants of the Biblical Israelites.
In the latest viral video, the group was marching in support of Kyrie Irving, returning from an eight-game suspension by the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Brooklyn Nets. Irving received his suspension after posting a link to a documentary by a Hebrew Israelite, which is perceived as antisemitic.
Israeli politician and incoming minister, Orit Strook, caused concern with recent anti-LGBT comments. Belonging to Benjamin Netanyahu's new government, Strook has suggested that Israeli doctors should be allowed to refuse treatment to LGBTQ patients, alluding to religious differences.
Twenty-five-year-old Ahmad Hacham Hamdi Abu Marakhia left for work on October 5 and never returned home. Instead, his beheaded and dismembered body was seen in horrific videos circulating in Palestinian territories and Jordan.
On September 5, during a Brit Mila in Israel, a Jewish ritual circumcision went horribly wrong, and the botched procedure resulted in complex surgery. The Mohel that performed the circumcision was later found to be uncertified and without adequate training.
Many smartphone stores in Israel have been attacked. With store property damaged and customers assaulted, riots broke out in the country. The religious leaders of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, the "Haredi," are agitated as non- "Kosher" smartphones are now readily available in the country.
Jewish activists dress up as Muslims to circumvent the prayer ban in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Sunni Islam's third holiest site. Swapping their Jewish clothes for a thobe, also called a dishdasha or jalabiya, these activists defy the delicate agreement between Israel and Jordan.
The same site where the mosque sits is considered the holiest site in Judaism.
On Friday, November 5, hundreds of ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews converged at the Western Wall. The group was protesting a group of women that held monthly prayers within the Western Wall. For decades, the Neshot Hakotel or the Women of the Wall have been campaigning against ultra-orthodox Jews who oppose changes in the holy site and want to maintain separate areas for men and women.
Peggy Parnass's picture displayed across the walls of Jerusalem at the gateway to the city hall has been defaced again. Parnass's pictures were plastered around the city of Jerusalem, along with the photographs of other Holocaust survivors for the Lonka Project. The Lonka Project's exhibition started last April 2021; since then, her image has been vandalized five times since June.
On April 23rd, at least 45 people were killed, and approximately 150 others were treated for injuries after a stampede crushed them at a religious festival in Israel. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered in celebration at one of the most significant events in the country.
