Dehumanization, as a psychological and socio-political process, represents one of the most destructive phenomena in human history. It involves the denial of attributes that define individuals or social groups as human, thereby devaluing their moral status and legitimizing violence and cruelty against them.
The 'buffer zone' bill, introduced by Council Speaker Julie Menin after a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Park East Synagogue in November, passed with a vote of 44-5 - a super-majority that will make it immune from a potential veto by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Once upon a time, adding official to an announcement served a purpose. It distinguished fact from rumour, press release from pub chat. Sensible. Helpful. Civilised. But in recent years, the word has gone rogue. Nothing can simply happen anymore. It must be officially announced.
Every year on Remembrance Day, the bishop of London leads a public Christian act of lamentation in the open air, accompanied by hymns, Bible readings, and prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.
Since the October 7, 2023, attack on Jewish residents of Israel, there has been both a rise in concern about antisemitism, its sometimes violent outcomes, and an increase in antisemitic sentiment being expressed publicly. Those who hold strong anti-Jewish views have been emboldened to share those views in public spaces, especially on college campuses, on social media, and in podcast interviews.
The data, painstakingly gathered and verified by ELSC, reveals the operation of a system, not something which is centrally directed, of course but something which is organic, multipolar, self-reinforcing and mutually exacerbating. A system which seeks to raise intolerably the personal cost to any individual who speaks or acts in light of their conscience seeks to reduce civil society's capacity to call out genocide and to demand at the same time robust action by our governments.
Today Americans are getting a taste of what Palestinians have experienced for decades: state terror. The escalation of state violence in the United States has been unprecedented. In the span of three weeks, two people were shot dead in Minneapolis during anti-immigration raids. Both were branded domestic terrorists. Meanwhile last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used five-year-old Liam Ramos as bait to get his asylum-seeking father to come out of their home;
The number of Jewish Holocaust survivors alive worldwide has fallen to around 196,600, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). That's down 220,000 survivors from a year ago - an 11% drop, the Claims Conference said. The median age of survivors is now 87, with many now in their 90s and older, numbers show. Nearly all Jewish Holocaust survivors (97%) are "child survivors" who were born in 1928 or later.