Echoes

Since taking office, he's upset: Jews, Black ppl, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Catholics, and now Italians.

He also ignored Irish enclaves on that map, and unsurprisingly, Jewish ones.

Sadiq Khan visits the Nova Exhibition in London

The London Mayor drew parallels between the music festival massacre and 2017’s Manchester Arena Bombing.

He said: "This is not about what religion you belong to, which God you worship, what your politics are, what your views are on any particular issues, it's about coming to see for yourself what happened on that day,” said Khan.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan visited the Nova Exhibition on Thursday, meeting with bereaved families of October 7 victims visiting the capital.

Khan toured the exhibition alongside relatives of those killed at the Nova Music Festival, one of the key epicentres of Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023.

The delegation was also accompanied by Andrea Simon, the victims’ commissioner for London, part of the UK’s independent agency dedicated to the welfare of victims of atrocities and public scandals and their families.

During the visit, the mayor urged others to visit the exhibition, which tells the story of the infamous massacre.

As well as featuring personal items salvaged from the festival grounds, the exhibition also includes first-hand witness phone footage from the day and in-person testimonies from survivors, returned hostages, and bereaved families – who will be present at the exhibition every day.

"This is not about what religion you belong to, which God you worship, what your politics are, what your views are on any particular issues, it's about coming to see for yourself what happened on that day,” said Khan.

"But if you're lucky, you’ll get the chance to meet a survivor and that experience will touch you, I promise.

“What's quite clear is that these are people who went to that concert with nothing but love and joy, wanted a good time, and lost their lives. Others have survived. Their lives are never going to be the same again. And there are bereaved families whose lives will never be the same again."

"A number of things won't leave me,” he added, specifically mentioning “the trainers of the kids, one of them 18 years old, the clothes, mobile phones”.

“It just reminds you these are people, and it's always worth remembering that you may see a video film, you may read an article, but these are just human beings,” he went on. “But also what people are capable of doing is just horrific. And so what will stay with me is the hope and the optimism, but also the horror of what happened.”

The mayor also drew parallels with the Manchester Arena Bombing, saying: “One of the things I noticed, when you look at the photographs of those who lost their lives, you'll see the diversity of ages - from kids as young as 18, in their 20s and their 30s and their 40s, even in their 50s, whose common theme was their love of trance music, their love of rave.

"And they left home, leaving their loved ones behind expecting to see them the next day, never to return and the same happened with traumatic incidents all across the world whether it's the tragedy of the Ariana Grande concert where those mums and dads never saw their kids again, or the survivors who will be changed forever, it's just a reminder of the things we've got in common.

"There are too many people around the world trying to divide people, divide communities and music, fun, congregation are the things we all share.”

The Nova will be available to visit until Wednesday, July 15, at 30 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3NZ. Tickets can be purchased at www.novaexhibition.com.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/27/received-death-threats-abandoning-pro-palestine-movement/

It wasn’t long after Hamas carried out its attack on Israel in Oct 7, 2023, that Taryn Thomas found herself swept up in the chorus of pro-Palestine activists mobilising against the Jewish state.

Even before Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza following the Oct 7 massacre,“I was scrolling through social media, and I only saw support for Palestine,” she recalls. “People I know, whether it was activists or people I look up to, were already posting their thoughts.”

Then aged 19 and studying biomedical science at the elite Stanford University in northern California, Thomas, an African American, was first introduced to the anti-Israel movement at Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, where Palestinian flags were flown by some activists. “I never really understood why, but we were told that in order for us to be free, Palestine has to be free,” she says.

She subsequently helped lead large protests against Israel and, within two weeks of Oct 7 2023, had joined an encampment of activists on campus protesting against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Like many others, she donned a keffiyeh, the headscarf worn to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians. “I really loved it because of the sense of belonging and the sense of purpose,” she says of the encampment. “It was like an instant community.”

Besides fellow students, Thomas was encouraged by “faculty members like history professors” who “validated the movement”. “It seemed like everyone was a lot more educated than me and very certain and sure of themselves that this is a genocide,” says Thomas, who is now 21. “The only safe position was the more radical one in the encampment.”

‘I was confused by what our mission was’

Thomas grew up in Riverside County, one of the few Republican counties in the otherwise “very liberal California”. That, together with racist abuse at school, influenced her political outlook. “I thought going further to the Left would be the solution to the extremism I was seeing from the Right,” she says.

Huge demonstrations took place at universities across the US in the months that followed Oct 7, with protesters confronting the educational institutions with their demands – including to divest from Israel and cut ties with counterpart Israeli institutions.

While the movement was largely peaceful, some demonstrations turned violent and led to clashes with police. “One of our protests got out of hand, and that kind of made me take a step back,” says Thomas.

This was in June 2024, when several militant students broke into the office of Stanford’s president, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage. “They spray-painted disgusting things, such as ‘Pigs taste best when dead’, ‘Death to America’, ‘Death to Israel’, and ‘Kill cops’,” Thomas recalls.

“I was confused by what our mission was. At what point did the pro-Palestine movement turn into this anti-Israel, anti-America movement? We completely lost sight of the victims we were claiming to be supporting and fighting for.”

Yet those behind the vandalism “doubled down”, she says, and justified their actions, “even though Jewish students said they felt unsafe”. She explains: “They felt like they couldn’t go to their classes, they were getting harassed and doxxed [having personal information published online] and things like that. Essentially, we completely lost our minds.”

A drastic change of heart

Then, in October 2024, Thomas was one of many students who received an open invitation to the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Los Angeles. Recently opened in London, the exhibition aims to recreate the festival site where 413 people were murdered by Hamas, and many more were injured or taken hostage.

Nova exhibition

The recently opened Nova exhibition in London commemorates the 413 young people murdered by Hamas at the festival Credit: Jeff Gilbert

“Initially, I laughed, thinking, ‘What’s this propaganda?’” Something piqued her interest, however, so she decided to go. “I’d heard about the festival and was curious, but I’d only really heard the reasoning, ‘Well, why would you have a festival next to a contested border? Essentially, they were asking for it.’

“I was hoping it was going to reaffirm my position, that I would find Zionist lies and whatever. I went with a very closed mind.” Three hours later, Thomas emerged feeling “so lost”.

“I experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance – what I was seeing versus what I’d been told. It was like I arrived a year too late to a funeral. I had so many questions, but I really had no one I could talk to about this. All of my friends were from the encampment. I’d never met an Israeli or talked to them about their experiences – I was fluent in the state’s sins, but I was illiterate in its people.”

Seeing pictures and footage of the young festival-goers hit home for Thomas. “They were kids my age, just dancing, and then fleeing for their lives the next moment. I could see myself in them. I could have been sending a last ‘I love you’ message to my mum. I felt so much empathy and sadness.”

One element in particular changed everything – an audio clip of a jubilant Hamas fighter phoning his father to let him know he’d killed 10 Jews. “My heart sank because these [were meant to be] our martyrs. [This was] the resistance we were claiming we wanted. When we called for any means necessary, I didn’t realise that’s what it meant.”

Months later, Thomas was invited on a trip to Israel organised by a group combatting anti-Semitism on campus. “I knew if I was going to continue to speak on this, I needed to see it for myself,” she says.

During the 10-day trip last March, she met with Israelis, Ethiopian Jews, Palestinians, Druze and Bedouin. “I was shocked at how much diversity I saw – I didn’t even know Israel had black people,” she said.

On the fourth day, the group had to take cover during a missile attack. “Our guide told us to get on the ground, and I put my hands over my neck and prayed. “I thought about the irony of how I’d called for the divestment of the very system I was praying for,” she says. “It [the missile] didn’t care about my politics or what I posted or any of that. I was a target, a body on the ground, and I felt utterly useless.”

Fortunately the missile was intercepted and the trip continued, but the experience left Thomas shaken. She says it made her realise “how cushy and comfortable a life” she had in America, and that she’d not realised the “real consequences” of what she’d been calling for.

‘It felt like being stoned publicly’

Back home, she posted a picture of her trip online – a decision that cost her dearly. “My best friend of three years asked, ‘Is this in Israel?’ I said, ‘Yeah, do you want to talk about it?’ She immediately blocked me. I hadn’t even expressed anything. I literally said I went. Period.”

Her post opened the floodgates. “I lost every single friend”, while her classmates “posted really disgusting things”, including labelling her a “genocidal apologist”. Thomas says she was doxxed, and received death threats and racist abuse – and that her family was also targeted. “It was like a crusade and felt like being stoned publicly.”

She now takes a dim view of the encampment atmosphere. “It completely insulates you in this echo chamber and indoctrinates you. If you had any questions, you’d lose your social belonging – the last thing you wanted to be called was a Zionist.”

She adds that the protesters’ “attention turned into this hatred” and there were constant calls for the “normalisation of violence”. Some activists, for example, celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, the Right-wing political activist, and Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, she says.

The mental toll had become so heavy on Thomas that she stepped away from her studies late last year. What helped get her through this tough period is the new friendships she has formed, including some with Jewish students.

“They knew I came from the encampments and they engaged with me, intellectually argued with me, disagreed with me, but we still broke bread on Shabbat,” she says. “I learned from my [now] best friend that she was doxxed because of people within our movement. I know I have to repair some of those damages.”

‘Open your heart and put down those megaphones’

Thomas says her family are not politically engaged in the issue of Israel and Gaza and she has faced questions from her mother about her involvement. “She was just like, ‘Why are you doing this? It isn’t your burden to shoulder.’ She just wants her family to be safe and protected.”

But Thomas hopes that by sharing her story it will encourage others to experience the Nova exhibition. “I hope the people who are protesting will come – I just want them to go inside,” she says. “None of this is political. Just look and learn the stories – you don’t have to agree. Come in with an open heart and an open mind and put down those megaphones.”

As for Thomas, she hopes to return to university in September, but in the meantime, she is determined to do what she can to increase cross-community understanding. “A lot of us on the pro-Palestine side were recruited through empathy, so I think we can be reached through it too. Because of this unique perspective I have of what changed my heart, I think I can hopefully change other people’s.

Y'all want so badly for there to be a logical way to change their minds, but there isn't. White capital is worth more to them than literally anything on the planet. The psychological high they get from being racist is worth more to them than even the welfare of their own children.

And other non-Black races/ethnicities love it, too. Latinos, Asians, Arabs, etc., they get the exact same high from being able to be racist to Black people. Given the chance to have white capital, the majority of Arabs and Latino men took it, against all logic. Asian men look to be heading in the same direction.

That is why class consciousness and POC-solidarity failed.

The recent example of the Russian couple holding up an no war sign during a marriage proposal on top of a tower is probably the clearest example of this. It's the kind of thing that easily fits booktok aesthetics and inspires edits where people imagine themselves in that moment, while completely ignoring the fact that it didn't actually help anyone or change anything. In terms of real impact, it's on the same level as posting a black square on Instagram.

There was no attempt to raise money for actual aid or direct people toward organizations that are genuinely helping.

It's simply a nice gesture — an activist version of "let them eat cake", where having a beautiful, symbolic moment matters more than creating real change.

It's a form of privileged activism where actually changing the situation isn't the important part.

The actions of Ukrainians during a genocidal war are the complete opposite. They're focused on actually saving lives, which makes the contrast even more obvious by showing what genuinely helps and what doesn't. For people who are invested in this kind of activism, acknowledging that difference would require rethinking their own beliefs, so it's often easier to simply ignore those actions instead.

Another reason for this is that these Russians are living peacefully in other countries, in circumstances much closer to the everyday lives of Western audiences. They're simply easier for them to relate to than Ukrainians living through war.

I've also often heard Ukrainian activists say that they have to think very carefully about how to communicate with this part of the Western audience. For many of them, almost everything is considered "outside of politics" and the war is reduced to "two presidents having a conflict". Because of that, even lectures about Russia's cultural genocide against Ukraine have to be framed in ways that won't upset people who insist on separating Russian culture from politics, even when that framing directly contradicts the reality of Russia's actions against other nations.

Honestly, it reminds me of how many of these same activists reacted to the protests in Iran.

The Democratic Party simply isn’t equipped to handle this betrayal of basic liberal values. In a historically coherent sense, the dismissals and unique politics that this new wave brings to the table are clearly Right-Wing, and clearly represent the frustrations of the petite bourgeoisie that had formerly been restrained by good economics. Now that the USA is economically flagging, both parties suffer from tumors of petite bourgeois frustration—of elites trying to take over society, and accusing specific groups of minorities of being “The Real Problem” while insisting that that’s not what they’re doing.

The problem facing the Democrats is that this Right-Wing revolt by Democrats’ upper-classes is coming from people that simultaneously claim to be Left-Wing and may even mistakenly believe they are Left. Democrats don’t know how to excise rich “Left” people that support Far Right causes all over the world while claiming credit for all the Democratic Party’s liberal successes. The conflation of Left with liberal has tied the Party to these upper-class rebels. Until the Party can figure out how to untie themselves, this problem will only get worse.

“weaponizing antisemitism”

“weaponizing the holocaust”

“essentializing antisemitism”

“eternal victims”

“victim card declined”

Please. Just... fucking please. It happens all. The. Fucking. Time. I swear half the people on this site can't hear the word "Holocaust" without burping up some screed on how really queer people were the REAL victims, and just mentioning that antisemitism was the wellspring of it all, the excuse the Nazis used to go after everyone else they hated, is "erasure".

“weaponizing antisemitism”

“weaponizing the holocaust”

“essentializing antisemitism”

“eternal victims”

“victim card declined”

I don’t care if he’s sorry. I don’t care if he’s different. I don’t care if he helps little old ladies cross the street and kisses babies.

I can not trust someone like that to be in a position of authority over me. And the lengths people- including people that consider themselves social justice minded go to bend over backwards for this guy disgusts and disturbs me.

I absolutely do NOT believe a man who was in the MARINES couldn’t recognize a nazi symbol and just went along with getting it permanently put onto his body for shits and giggles.

I’m not saying racism is okay by any means but I wanna emphasize that there’s an intention behind that type of discourse “randomly” gaining attention…

Because when you write that “Argentina is spiritually Israeli” you’re contributing to the narrative the U.S is trying to build.

They’re prepping the world so you guys feel comfortable with Israel taking over Argentina (which they’re already doing!!!), burning down the Patagonia, stealing our resources (like water which is now under Mekorot, an Israeli company), messing with our laws!! (Peter Thiel’s team are already behind the SUPERRIGI), dragging us to wars we don’t support!!

The same way the U.S is using Messi and the World Cup to distract Argentinians!! This is not a conspiracy, this is putting two and two together!! Also this HAS HAPPENED ALREADY DURING THE ARGENTINIAN DICTATORSHIP IN 1978!!!

The U.S intervened with Plan Cóndor (which led to the DARKEST chapter of Argentinian history), installed a violent military regime, while simultaneously we hosted and won the World Cup!! And of course Videla (dictator) used that as a way to tell the world we were fiiiine 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽.

It is public information that the U.S. government began operations to take down Cristina Kirchner (who is now arrested under a made-up crime), and that Milei’s campaign was funded by right wingers in the U.S!!! There’s a reason why our own president (Milei) and his employees/ influencers keep reinforcing racist language in order to promote colonialism, imperialism, cipayismo and U.S/ Israeli interventions.

LMAO wait I just looked it up. Your entire ecosystem, including the water, is in trouble because of the climate crisis.

Your government went, "Wait, Israel has decades of experience inventing technology to manage water for millions of people in a fucking desert. Israelis invented drip irrigation, water desalination plants, and now have technology that reclaims water from the air. Maybe we could get some of those people to be contractors for us and develop plans for US to manage OUR water!"

And you chucklefucks are genuinely so racist that you immediately assumed anyone from Israel must be stealing your water. Thieving Jews stereotype much?

Not only did a ton of you immediately buy the deliberate lie that the French referee was Jewish, even though you guys WON that match, but you guys also decided that Israel came over to Argentina, used grenades to start wildfires, and then went home, which there's literally no evidence or reason for.

And apparently this is an ONGOING, decades-long conspiracy theory saying that Israel wants to create, what - a second country, thousands of miles away, on land it has zero connection to, where two countries already exist?

To be fair, Random GOP Congressman is not the same level as McConnell, who in turn is not the same level as Trump. Every time Trump disappears for more than a few days, people have been ALL OVER it (not least since we are all, of course, so hungry for him to finally eat shit and die). You really can't keep the president of the US totally out of sight for more than a week before somebody somewhere is going to notice, and while they will doubtless try to stall as long as possible, they can't get away with it indefinitely. It would, however, be grimly hilarious to watch Vance try to act like a Great Statesman (TM).