Hen Mazzig
@HenMazzig · Middle East
Hen Mazzig is followed by Storyz World for journalism and current affairs coverage connected to Israel in the Middle East chapter.
Israel's Oscar submission is in! 🇮🇱🏆📽️ "Tell Me Everything" has won Israel's Ophir Award for Best Picture, officially making it the country's submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars. The film takes place in the 1980s during the HIV epidemic. Directed by Moshe Rosenthal, "Tell Me Everything" premiered at Sundance in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Israeli 🇮🇱 drama 'Fauda' is a top show in Lebanon 🇱🇧 The newly released fifth season of 'Fauda' has instantly become one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. The latest season directly addresses the events of the October 7 massacre. The series is currently a top-ten Netflix show in at least 43 countries.
UK authorities just arrested 2 people, a man and a woman, on suspicion of working with Iran's intelligence service. The regime in Iran is known to plan terrorist attacks against Jews and former Iranian citizens who speak out against the regime in other countries like the UK. Anyone still saying the regime in Iran poses no threat to the West isn’t paying attention.
Jerry Seinfeld, P!nk, Sacha Baron Cohen, John Malkovich and Maureen Lipman, are all under attack. Meanwhile James Charles, who admitted to "flirty conversation" with minors, typed “Free Palestine" and got applause. The boycott wants tamer art. What gets you canceled faster in 2026, a music video from 2006 or messaging minors? My latest: https://t.co/3pOkIDaYUd
You know, if people were accusing me of excusing 9/11 or defending 9/11, I probably wouldn't go around writing articles where the title explicitly claims that 9/11 wasn't the worst thing. Quantifying tragedy just leads people to believe you think some deaths are more tragic than others. I would also never start said article with a joke about 9/11 and "silver linings." Does Hasan have a PR person? Because I can't imagine they are having a good time.
“This was years before his other antisemitic controversies, but after the show finished taping, Harvey came up and told me he’d had all that stuff cut out. It was crazy. I mean, ‘Kanye West goes to bat for Hitler’ does not hit the cutting-room floor at any serious newsroom.” A former staffer at TMZ has come forward to say that they were ordered to edit out Kanye West's praise of Hitler and the Nazis from a 2018 interview. So, not only has Kanye been spewing antisemitic bigotry for longer than originally thought, but we know of at least one instance where it was covered up so those aware could stay in the rapper's good graces. How many times has this happened? How many people willingly protected Kanye from his own antisemitic bile? Because that is a question we now have to ask.
Amberly Thay, a student at Exeter University, is the target of antisemitic abuse, despite not being Jewish. She became a regional ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust charity after a high school trip to Auschwitz. Following a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the Israeli ambassador’s residence in London, she began receiving online messages of abuse, calling her a “mossad agent” and a “mouthpiece for Israel”. Amberly chose to be an ally despite her background. The hate she receives just proves why remembering the Holocaust is so crucial.
For anyone who needs context, here is the video where James Charles admitted to "accidentally" sending explicitly sexual texts to minors, along with a screenshot of the news stories about it. It's on a different channel because he took it down. https://t.co/xmcEwLf88K https://t.co/7gBAboiQsG
Another day, another target for the Free Palestine movement. Today, Ralph Lauren is under fire for featuring Israeli 🇮🇱 actress Gal Gadot in their Modern Luxury cover shoot. Their comments section on Instagram are flooded with threats to block and boycott now. They can stay mad.
A promoter fabricated a quote, so Malkovich had a real reason to pull out. But the quote was that he felt solidarity with human beings under attack, and the online abuse he got over those words was real. His team saw it and made a call. I don't know what it's like to be John Malkovich. I do know what it's like to be the audience in Tel Aviv that just lost another show to the mob.
“While safety and security of our community are of the utmost importance, they are also not our only considerations.” Columbia University's new president, Jennifer Mnookin, has moved to reopen the Manhattan campus after the 2024 Free Palestine protests. The campus brought turmoil and hate towards Jewish students and staff, yet the Free Palestine movement celebrates it to this day. If Columbia wants to reopen it, that's fine, but there must be more responsible steps for any future issues.
The French owner of a Thai zoo who banned Israeli visitors is being deported from Thailand 🇹🇭. Kevin Dimino is accused of aggressive behavior, threats, harassment, public-order violations, and causing serious religious and racial division and strife, including among foreign visitors to the resort island. An Israeli was also deported around the same time as Dimino, for sending threatening messages to the zoo owner following the viral video of Dimino turning and Israeli family away because they were Israeli. Both deportations stem from new laws in Thailand that streamline the process of expelling foreign nationals who "undermine[s] public order, good morals, or public welfare."
Stella Lefty, a Jewish musician from Chicago, is currently the target of antisemitic hate. With recent discourse over her music, many are taking it a step further, using her real last name instead of her stage name or calling her Stella Tel Aviv. Her Wikipedia page was also falsely edited to say that she served in the IDF, a tactic many people use to justify their harassment. I don't have an opinion on her music, that doesn't matter. What matters is that people are bullying a person and using her Jewish identity against her.
Several Portuguese comedians are withdrawing from MEO Commedia a La Carte, a comedy festival. Their issue with the event is that Jerry Seinfeld, a Jew who has shown support for Israel, will be headlining. I suppose with them gone, Seinfeld will have even more time on stage. Mission accomplished?
It is not the "conflation" of Jewish people and Israel that is driving antisemitism. Jews come from Israel. Our traditions, our beliefs, our celebrations; literally everything about Jewish identity is built around our connection to Israel. It's why anti-Israel seders are so awkward. What drives antisemitism is the belief that antisemitism can be excused or is deserved. A person who goes "I have problems with Israel therefore I am justified in calling my neighbor a slur" is the problem. The person who draws swastikas on a synagogue is the problem. Jews are not the driving force behind antisemitism. Stop blaming us for the hate against us.
P!nk, who is Jewish, reposted a Jewish org’s complaint about Macklemore ambushing an Ed Sheeran crowd with a Gaza rally. No caption. For that: boycott. Macklemore is still on the tour. Even after his racist Jew-face outfit. His career is fine. The only career anyone’s trying to end is hers. That’s the deal on offer to Jewish artists. Stay quiet, keep your seat. Luckily, P!nk has always been brave enough to speak up, even when it's not popular.
So why do you take out what happened next? Kfir Bibas was 10 months old. Ariel was 4. Hamas men killed them with their bare hands. No "missing audio" will let you whitewash the utter horror of their fate. https://t.co/KEmNw7v7AC
So ironic how the actual Hollywood blacklist was a way of driving Jews out of the industry they built through communist witch hunts. Today's self-declared Hollywood blacklisters Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, & Susan Sarandon are getting more famous than ever by targeting Jews. https://t.co/NJFNRMvQHT
Meet the man Adidas felt the need to apologize for partnering with. Shalev Biton was stationed in Israel near the Gaza border in 2021 when anti-tank fire, likely launched by Hamas men, killed his friend and wounded him. His leg had to be amputated due to his injuries. Since then, he's rebuilt his life and learned to walk and run again with the help of prosthetic legs. He's traveled the world and proposed to his girlfriend. But he's also gone beyond recovery to advocacy. Along with his friend, Shalev brought Israel's first youth participant to the European Amputee Football Federation Junior Camp in Romania in 2025. Adidas's historical legacy includes being founded by Nazi Party members and being among the last brands to drop Kanye West amid his antisemitism scandal. Their program offering the chance to buy one shoe, instead of the pair, was a long-overdue correction, especially given the company's past. The Adidas apology says everything. They never deserved to work with someone like Shalev.
Heated Rivalry, the wildly popular show that brought gay romance to millions of fans in and outside the LGBTQ+ community, is the Free Palestine movement's latest target. Why? Because they cast Kevin Zegers, a Jewish man who hasn't publicly disavowed Israel. It really couldn't be clearer that Free Palestine has nothing to do with helping Palestinians. It has everything to do with attacking Jews and other minorities across the world.
Anti-Israel Professor Ilan Pappé’s “idea for peace” at the Oxford Union: send me and my family “back” to Iraq. And the students cheered. A professor who built an entire career on the words “ethnic cleansing” stood up and proposed one. For me and my family. Here is what he doesn’t want you to think about: Millions of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi, roughly half of Israel’s Jewish population, the children and grandchildren of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Iran. We didn’t come from Europe. Over 850,000 of us were expelled or driven out of the Arab world, stripped of citizenship, homes and everything we owned. So “cleansing” Israel of Mizrahi Jews isn’t a peace plan. It’s a selection process. Who goes? The grandson of Iraqi Jews, or the grandson of Polish ones? And what about the millions of us who are both? And the other half? Send them “back” to Warsaw, Vilnius, Berlin? To communities that were wiped out down to the last child? My family is from Iraq and Tunisia. Which half of me goes where? Most of us cannot divide ourselves in half. And “back” to what? Iraq stripped its Jews of citizenship and seized their property. It hanged Jews in a public square in Baghdad in 1969. In 2022 its parliament made contact with Israelis a crime punishable by death. There are no Jews left in Iraq. That is the “welcome” Pappé is so sure of. There is no “back” for any of us. That’s why Israel exists. The Farhud, the pogrom that ended my grandmother’s childhood in Baghdad, was in 1941. Seven years before Israel existed. Iraq did not expel its Jews because of anything Israel did. Pappé knows all of this. He just leaves it out. Where is your family from? Tell me in the comments: Baghdad, Tunis, Sana’a, Casablanca, Aleppo, Tehran, Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Vilnius, Kyiv, Bucharest. I want them to see how many of us there are. Share this with anyone who still thinks Israelis are “colonizers.” #JewishRefugees #OxfordUnion #IlanPappe #Israel #palestine
IMDb has reportedly changed “Israel” to “Palestinian Territories” on some of its paywalled listings of where movies are distributed. Israel is a sovereign country of 10 million people, who are Jewish, Arab, Druze and more. Why are we being erased off the map? https://t.co/5eijJM3qOD
Adidas—the brand that stuck by Kanye long after his antisemitism was clear and whose founders Adi and Rudi Dassler were members of the Nazi party—has apologized for partnering with a disabled Jewish man. How completely on brand. https://t.co/RBOEcc1BIY
Musician Jane Remover quit the M3F Festival rather than share the state with the Israeli group Temper City. Now Jane Remover will get way more attention, without even having to honor their commitment to fans. An easy win. Helping Palestinians was never Free Palestine’s goal. It was using their pain to get famous.
Kevin Dimino, a French citizen whose zoo in Thailand 🇹🇭 has allegedly been excluding and attacking Israeli tourists, is being deported. In the video, you can see a zoo employee, who reportedly headbutted a mother in the neck in front of her children as he turned the family away from the zoo. Today, Thai authorities signed a deportation order against Dimino. The order alleged that he was involved in threats, intimidation, physical assault, and behavior that caused a nuisance to others. Authorities also accused him of creating divisions between people based on race and religion and of causing conflicts between tourists. I'm glad the Thai authorities have stepped up to ensure this blatant discrimination comes to an end.