Point of No Return

Israeli land registration reform corrects anomaly

bataween | Posted on 24 February 2026 | No Comments |

A recent move by Israel to reform land registration in Area C of the West Bank has been slammed by the media as ‘annexation’. It was to correct a discriminatory legal anomaly, argues Honest Reporting, and does not mean that Israel is extending sovereignty over the area:

*New building in Beitar Illit in Area C*

As detailed in a recent legal analysis, between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan controlled the area, it halted land registration and imposed restrictions that prevented non-Arabs from registering land ownership in the territory. The freeze left vast areas in legal limbo, without clear, updated ownership records.

When Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, it did not complete a comprehensive land settlement process. For decades, registration remained partial or frozen, creating uncertainty for both Palestinian and Israeli residents. That uncertainty has fueled disputes, litigation, and political accusations from all sides.

The Jordanian regulations barring Jews from legally registering land ownership in the territory were based on nationality and identity. In other words, Jews were categorically excluded because they were Jews.

By contrast, inside Israel proper, Arab citizens can and do register land in their names. Property registration is not restricted based on ethnicity or religion. And that’s how it should be.

Critics who describe Israel’s move as inherently racist rarely acknowledge that the pre-existing framework effectively codified discrimination against Jews.

So the cabinet decision that seeks to resume and systematize land registration under Israeli administration is correcting a historic discriminatory flaw. Resuming land registration does not, in itself, transfer sovereignty. It creates formal records of ownership in an area whose final status remains subject to negotiation.

Read article in full

West Bank law repeals death penalty for land sales to Jews

Turkish blood libel display gets no condemnation

bataween | Posted on 23 February 2026 | No Comments |

There has been no public condemnation from local authorities to an antisemitic public installation in Antalya, Turkey. The absence of a clear response seems to indicate that antisemitic rhetoric is moving into the public space. Report in the Jerusalem Post:

*International figures including Jeffrey Epstein, Benjamin Netanyahu and Michael Jackson are shown consuming the organs of Palestinian children*

A graphic public installation erected on Tuesday outside a school and educational center in Antalya, Turkey, has drawn sharp condemnation for reviving one of history’s oldest and most dangerous antisemitic myths.

Images circulating on social media show a staged scene. Prominent Israeli and international figures appeared seated around a table, consuming the organs of Palestinian children. The display included representations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and late pop icon Michael Jackson.

The installation reportedly featured bloodied childlike figures placed on the table. Dollar bills were scattered across the scene. An Israeli flag hung above the display.

The imagery unmistakably echoed the medieval blood libel — the false accusation that Jews murdered children for ritual purposes or consumed their blood. That myth has historically fueled violence against Jewish communities.

Read article in full

Morocco is blocking ‘secret love child’s’ access to king’s medical records

bataween | Posted on 22 February 2026 | No Comments |

Morocco is trying to block access to its former king’s medical records in a legal battle over claims he fathered a secret love child, according to The Telegraph.The child in question, a former Israeli now suffering from cancer in Belgium, has limited time left to prove her claim. This is the latest instalment in a saga first publicised by Point of No Return in 2011.

Jane Benzaquen, who says she is the biological daughter of the late King Hassan II, has applied to three American medical institutions in a bid to prove her royal ancestry.

The 72-year-old’s lawyers believe Hassan’s DNA is held at two hospitals in New York and a medical research foundation in Minnesota. In 1995, He was treated at all three before his death from cancer in 1999.

Ms Benzaquen, a retired hotel receptionist, claims the data may assist her in the paternity suit she filed in Belgium, where she now lives.

*Jane Benzaquen: uncanny resemblance with king of Morocco*

The case could result in embarrassing royal family secrets being aired in court for the first time.

“I’m doing it for my children and grandchildren,” Ms Benzaquen told The Telegraph. “They have a right to know where they’re from. Being unwanted as a child pursues you your whole life.”

*Freha (Anita) Benzaquen, Jane’s mother, was thought to have had an affair with Hassan II in the 1950s*

“These applications in the USA seek to obtain materials or information Ms Benzaquen has been unable to establish or substantiate before the Belgian courts,” Stanislas Eskenazi, the kingdom’s lawyer, told The Telegraph.

“The US proceedings do not follow the Belgian [legal] process. They attempt to bypass it,” he added.

Ms Benzaquen’s lawyer disputed this, saying: “If the royal family were confident no biological relationship exists, such evidence would only support their position.”

The legal fight is the latest in a years-long battle for Ms Benzaquen to prove her royal ancestry.

She was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been unable to answer doctors’ questions about her family’s medical history.

“This information is important both for an accurate diagnosis and to determine the correct course of medical treatment”, her son Eldad said.

If proven, Ms Benzaquen, who is half-Jewish, would become a half-sister to Mohammed VI, the current king of Morocco.

Read article in full

Proof that Jews in Iraq wore the keffiyeh

bataween | Posted on 20 February 2026 | No Comments |

One could hardly call the swarthy Tal Oran, an Israeli whose family was expelled from Iraq, a ‘white supremacist’. Oran has an Instagram and Youtube channel, The Traveling Clatt, devoted to exploding myths and lies. One myth is the origin of the keffiyeh, the head covering closely associated with Palestinian nationalism. Now Oran has found proof, at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center near Tel Aviv, that Jews departing Iraq wore the traditional keffiyeh. (With thanks: Edna)

*Tal Oren found photographic evidence that Jews wore the* keffiyeh

Here on CBS News Oran explains the origins of the keffiyeh, which was worn by all sects and religions in Iraq. It recalls the fishing nets of the marsh Arabs and the two rivers of Mesopotamia, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Yasser Arafat made the keffiyeh the symbol of the Palestinian cause. In fact the Palestinians and their supporters are guilty of cultural appropriation.

The Middle East was a rich tapestry of sects and religions until ‘Arab supremacists’ expelled minorities. The ‘Mizrahi story’ of ethnic cleansing was central to understanding the conflict, says Oran, but the most important message he wishes to impart is aimed at US Christians: ‘They are coming for you next.’

Instagram clip

More about the ‘keffiyeh’

Palestinian constitution would discriminate against women and Christians

bataween | Posted on 20 February 2026 | 1 Comment |

The Palestinians have published their 1926 draft Constitution: in contradiction to international treaties it has signed but never published, it imposes Sharia (Islamic) law on women and minorities. It only mentions Christians and omits Jews altogether. Elder of Ziyon has this analysis:

*Mahmoud al Habbash, religious affairs adviser, helped draft the new Constitution*

Under the personal status laws that govern Muslim Palestinians, inheritance follows Sharia rules: women receive half the share of male relatives. Polygamy is permitted for Muslim men. Marital rape is not a crime — the 1960 Penal Code that applies in the West Bank defines rape as applying only to a woman who is not the perpetrator’s wife. The Family Protection Bill, which would have addressed domestic violence, was blocked on the grounds that it conflicted with Sharia. None of this has been amended.

Non-Muslim citizens exist within a legal framework whose primary source is explicitly not their faith. Article 37 guarantees freedom of religious practice for “followers of monotheistic religions” — but the legislation their rights depend on is shaped by Sharia. The constitution provides no mechanism by which this changes.

And for anyone who might leave Islam: the ICCPR — the treaty the PA signed and never published — guarantees the right to change one’s religion. Under classical Sharia jurisprudence, apostasy is a capital offense. The PA has not published the ICCPR. It has not abolished the death penalty. The Second Optional Protocol committing it to do so was also never published.

Read post in full

JNS article

Marrakesh: where did all the Jews go?

bataween | Posted on 19 February 2026 | No Comments |

Marrakesh has a museum showcasing Jewish artefacts and history, but nowhere is it mentioned that Jews left Morocco for their safety. Jack Mendel reports on his visit in Jewish News:

Setting off into the 34 degree heat, past stalls with Palestinian flags near the main square; all of a sudden I saw a Star of David on the wall. But it was crossed out. Indeed, I saw a few like this. Now, I’m no detective but I suspect these were linked to the war in Gaza, yet it’s no less unsettling for an actual Jewish person to walk past.

I visited the House of Photography of Marrakech museum, where there was a whole section showcasing hundred-year-old photographs of Marrakechi Jews, and Berber Jews, from the nearby mountains. Unfortunately, the poster explaining it was mistranslated: ‘The Jew [singular] of Marrakech’.

While this was a typo, it left me wondering how many were actually left? The museum certainly didn’t explain where all the Jews went, and why, and how many remained. Intrigued at how this once-thriving community lived, I headed to the Mellah.

I stopped at a cafe ironically called Mazel. There’s no discernible acknowledgement of what that word means, or a nod to its Jewish links, or even where it is.

But those who know, know. In the Mellah, down narrow residential roads, the Laazama synagogue is marked out on the Talmoud Thora street. It’s 50 dirham (about four pounds) to get in, and the shul doubles up as a museum. As you go in, the bimah is by the entrance, with a large ornate ark at the front, built into the wall. All around the shul hall are wooden chairs with blue cushions, marriage certificates, Judaica, tzedakah boxes and photos from the past. It felt like a synagogue, alright. And it is still functioning.

As you step outside, there is a peaceful courtyard with a fountain and citrus trees. There’s a second floor closed to the public, with blue and white curtains, and a shop whose manager started blowing shofars, on sale for about £20. It felt pristine and delicate, but somewhat preserved.

The museum element has an exhibition about its Jewish past – the Bnei Menasche – and it even mentions Israel a few times. There are historic scrolls and jewellery, books and portraits, in addition to short films and other historical explanations. One remarkable thing was how much I recognised. The hundred-year-old books had the same prayers. The children in the pictures are messing around in shul just like I used to. But even so there is not a great deal of information about the present.

Nowhere does it mention that many Jews left fearing for their safety, or because they felt locals would become hostile due to the creation of Israel, or subsequent wars. There were riots across the Middle East and north Africa. Historic, once-thriving communities were uprooted. While many left, lots of this community are also buried down the road in the cemetery, and many of the graves are from the last 50-60 years.

Read article in full

Nearly half polled Syrians want normalisation

bataween | Posted on 19 February 2026 | No Comments |

Syrians are taking friendlier attitudes toward Israel under the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, a new YouGov survey suggests. JNS reports:

The survey, which the Council for a Secure America commissioned, found that 59% of Syrians think that peace with Israel is likely, compared to 14% that believes it’s unlikely.

Almost two-thirds of respondents support a security arrangement with Israel, and less than 10% disapproved. Nearly half want normalization with Israel after a resolution with the Palestinians, and 40% are undecided on that issue, per the poll.

Respondents expressed disdain for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group that long controlled Southern Lebanon and was aligned with longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was deposed in December 2024.

Read article in full

Macron gives ringing condemnation of Islamist antisemitism

bataween | Posted on 18 February 2026 | 1 Comment |

It is 20 years since Ilan Halimi was kidnapped and tortured to death by a mainly Muslim gang called the Barbarians. Planting a tree in Ilan’s memory, French President Emanuel Macron delivered a refreshingly frank condemnation of the Islamist antisemitism which has claimed the lives of several Jews in the last decade – most of them of North African origin. His speech, reproduced in full by Tablet, does not obfuscate the Jewish identity of the victims or blame the murders on mental health issues or the actions of ‘lone wolves.’ We hope that that the French authorities will follow up Macron’s words with deeds.

“Ilan Halimi had his whole life ahead of him. A loving family—his mother, Ruth, and his sisters. Friends, dreams. Dreams like those you have at 23, and the smile of someone who looks at others as a promise.

Ilan Halimi was Jewish. And it is because he was Jewish that, for 20 years now, he has been missing from us all.

It is because he was Jewish that he was subjected to an unspeakable ordeal, a 24-day calvary straight out of the darkest ages.

Everything about the barbaric horror that unfolded 20 years ago inspires dread: Ilan’s abduction—conceived, premeditated, organized. His confinement in a cellar in Bagneux. The belief that, because he was Jewish, he must have had the means to pay unimaginable ransoms. The absurdity of antisemitic prejudice, the machinery of torture, the denial of his humanity.

Everything is dreadful. The barbarity of the murderers, the cruelty of their accomplices, the cowardly pact of those who pretended not to see.

Everything is dreadful. And this dread cannot fade, because over the past 20 years, antisemitic barbarism has not retreated. On the contrary, it has continued to regenerate.

The barbarism of those who, by desecrating a memorial, vandalizing places erected in his memory, uprooting his tree, sought to kill Ilan Halimi a second time.

The barbarism of the terrorists of Ozar Hatorah, who, in 2012, took the lives of Myriam Monsonego and Jonathan, Arié, and Gabriel Sandler.

The barbarism of the jihadists of the Hyper Cacher, who, in 2015, murdered Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, and François-Michel Saada.

The barbarism of the murderers of Sarah Halimi, of Mireille Knoll, of René Hadjadj—and I do not forget Sébastien Selam.

The barbarism beyond our borders of those who attacked the synagogue of El Ghriba, that of Heaton Park.

The barbarism of the murderers of Bondi Beach.

Yes, in 20 years—and despite the determined action of our police officers, gendarmes, magistrates, teachers, and elected officials—the antisemitic hydra has continued to grow. Constantly taking on new faces, it has infiltrated the intimacy of our societies, every crack and crevice, once again too often accompanied by the same cowardly pact: not to speak, to refuse to see.

Islamist antisemitism—the one at the origin of the pogrom of Oct. 7—which preachers of hatred attempt to spread on our soil, in physical spaces as well as online, sometimes with the complicity of foreign media, seeking to reign through terror.

The antisemitism of the far left, which seeks to replace class struggle with a supposed racial struggle, through chilling amalgams, competing with that of the far right and its clichés about power and wealth.

Antisemitism that wears the mask of anti-Zionism to advance quietly. The kind that exploits criticism of Israeli government policy to delegitimize, assign, and deny the right to exist of the Hebrew state—and ultimately denies Jews themselves the right to live. The same antisemitism that, in a vertiginous historical inversion, seeks to portray Jews as genocidal perpetrators, in an unacceptable and odious manner.

Digital antisemitism, fueled by algorithms and the culpable inaction of platforms, reaching ordinary people, corrupting our youth, multiplying itself, harassing thousands of our fellow citizens deep into their private lives—haunting days and nights, dreams and imaginations.

All these contemporary expressions of antisemitism, recombining with its older forms, make possible the intolerable banality of evil.”

Read article in full

More about Ilan Halimi and other victims

Bostom: ‘Jew-hatred is baked into Islamic religious thought’

bataween | Posted on 17 February 2026 | No Comments |

In this episode of “Think Twice” JNS editor Jonathan Tobin talks to Dr Andrew Bostom, author of a number of important works about Islamic radicalism, including the new A Modern Qur’anic Kampf Against the Jews. His book is a translation with commentary of a highly influential text written by Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the late head of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, widely considered the “Muslim Vatican,” which argues that Jew-hatred is baked deep into both Islamic culture and traditional religious thought.

*Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi was Grand Imam of the Islamic world’s most influential institution, Al-Azhar university, Cairo*

According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, reporting and commentary on the shocking levels of Jew-hatred among Muslims has been silenced out of fear of accusations of racism and prejudice. But most of what is labeled Islamophobia is just truth-telling about how conspiracy theories and hate speech about Jews have become normative in the Islamic community.

Bostom points out that the polling done by the Anti-Defamation League, including some results that were apparently considered so shocking that the group didn’t publish them, has demonstrated just how pervasive antisemitic attitudes are among Muslims around the world and in the United States.

The notion that Muslim Jew-hatred is merely the product of resentment of the state of Israel or concern for the Palestinians is utterly false, says Bostom. And far from cherry-picking outrageous quotes from an otherwise unexceptional text, Boston’s translation of Tantawi’s screed illustrates that the vilest forms of hate directed at Jews is part of mainstream Muslim thought. What is most shocking about Tantawi’s antisemitic book is not just the way he shows how antisemitism is mainstream in Muslim thought or the way he mixes traditional anti-Jewish tropes with modern conspiracy theories about Jews (such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). It’s the fact that Tantawi was considered a moderate Muslim and not as extreme as many other Islamic religious figures.

A big part of the problem, however, is the failure of the West, including Jewish groups and leaders who prioritize the idea of interfaith dialogue above defending their communities against hate, to directly call out Muslim antisemitism. Too many people are, Bostom says, simply afraid of being accused of Islamophobia. Christians and Jews must find the courage to tell Muslims, “We won’t accept you at interfaith dialogue meetings if you’re going to preach this way. Just stop it. We’re aware of it. Stop it. It’s ugly. Don’t do it.”

See video

Read article in full

Syrian Jew: my co-workers wanted to kill me

bataween | Posted on 16 February 2026 | No Comments |

After the Aleppo anti-Jewish riots in 1947, all but 5,000 Jews of Syria’s 30,000-member community left. Haroun Abadi’s family remained. Seven-minute video clip on Themizrahistory (with thanks: Edna):

Haroun (Harry) Abadi was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria to a Jewish family and escaped the country through Lebanon on the back of a sheep wagon in the 80s. Harry recounts just some examples of antisemitism he and his community experienced, both systemically and by ordinary people in society, prompting him and many others to plan an exit route.

Common courtesies were not reciprocated, and Abadi felt embarrassed to be a Jew. His Jewish maths teach advised him not to resist if he was beaten up. Children threw stones but his synagogue was not permitted a protective wall. The government advised windows at high level. Abadi, who escorted a Christian girl to school, found that she never spoke to him after he told her he was Jewish.

Jewish families would disappear, having escaped the country. But any relative who stayed behind would be jailed.

Abadi qualified as an electrical engineer but most jobs were barred to him as a Jew. When his co-workers found out he was Jewish they wanted to kill him. He lasted just 17 days in his job.

Haroun Abadi escaped in the mid-1980s and now lives in the US.

See clip in full

About