Hen Mazzig Profile picture
Author: The Wrong Kind of Jew. Senior Fellow at @TLVinstitute. Son of Tunisian+Iraqi Jewish refugees. Seen: @nytimes @CNN @latimes @NBC @BBC & more
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May 26 6 tweets 2 min read
This weekend, the BBC apologized for mislabeling a Free Palestine protest as a vigil, when it was actually an attempt to shut down a screening of a film about the Nova music festival massacre.

Since October 7th, the BBC has issued FIVE apologies for spreading disinformation about Israel. Despite the apologies, each claim was rooted in antisemitic tropes and libels that caused irreversible damage after being released.

Here’s a recap of them. 🧵Image On October 17, 2023, the BBC speculated on air that “an Israeli airstrike” was behind an explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

The reality was that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group misfired a rocket that was meant to hit civilians in Israel, but it landed short in the parking lot of the Gaza hospital.
May 25 4 tweets 2 min read
Judge Sebutinde, the first female African judge to ever sit at the ICJ and who opposed all its resolutions, was the sole voice of reason in her dissenting opinion.

She argued that the ICC’s resolution “implicitly orders Israel to disregard the safety and security of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas.”

The hostages' abduction is the entire reason Israel is in Rafah in the first place, Judge Sebutinde astutely recognized unfathomable double standards and the lack of empathy displayed by the ICC in ordering Israel to halt their rescue mission. 🧵Image Additionally, she stated:

"War inevitably, and tragically, affects the lives of civilians. But this does not make Israel’s war against Hamas inherently illegitimate or unlawful and nor does it transform it into an act of genocide.”

War has always and unfortunately impacted civilians, but unlike in most wars, Israel has taken unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties while fighting a terrorist organization that is actively trying to do the opposite.
May 21 7 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: Reactions to the ICC's decision to request arrest warrants for Israel and Hamas from world leaders 🧵 President Biden: “Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.  We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” 🧵
Mar 13 11 tweets 2 min read
1) Genuine question - Can anyone find a major Holocaust movie made in the past ten years that focuses on Jewish experience during the Holocaust and is played by Jewish actors? 🧵 2) The Zone of Interest is culmination of a disturbing trend - the gradual sidelining and now disappearance of Jews from mainstream depictions of the Holocaust 🧵
Jan 17 10 tweets 3 min read
Thread: The Girls I Met in the Tunnels
Seventeen-year-old Agam Goldstein-Almog saw Hamas murder her father and sister. Then she was taken to Gaza.

These are excerpts of her words on her experiences as a hostage of Hamas.

1. Together with my two young brothers, aged nine and eleven, the four of us had been taken from our home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the morning of October 7, but not before terrorists shot my father, Nadav, point blank, and afterward went after my older sister, Yam, the bullet tearing through her face. Their blood spattered everywhere. We stepped over my father’s dying body as the terrorists screamed at us, took us out of our home, and drove us into Gaza. 2. We were moved a lot during our time in confinement, transferred through a series of homes, apartments, tunnels, and even a mosque in Gaza. Our captors were cruel. During our captivity, they told us they “would be back” to our kibbutz. The fear was paralyzing. It overtook me. I remember saying to my mom when we entered the city, “They’re going to torture me. They’re going to rape me.”
Jan 4 7 tweets 1 min read
Gali Idan’s 18-year-old daughter Maayan was murdered in front of her, and she was forced to watch as her husband, Tsachi was abducted by Hamas.

These are her words on her horrific experience. “Tsachi cried, begging to figure out where his 18-year-old was bleeding from, exclaiming, ‘She's dying.’ I left Yael to see Maayan in a pool of blood. I felt her body, looking for the bullet wound, and understood then that it was too late. Maayan was shot in the head and was already dead. I looked at Tsachi and began crying.”
Jan 2 7 tweets 2 min read
Thread: Ruti Munder, 78, a retired resident of Nir Oz, spent 50 days as a hostage in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
These are some of her words on her experience:

1. "On Oct. 7, masked Hamas gunmen burst into the bomb shelter inside my home and kidnapped me; my daughter, Keren; and my grandson, Ohad. My husband, Abraham, was knocked out trying to stop the screaming men from entering the safe room and was taken away separately from us. He is still in captivity, his condition unknown. Hamas also killed my son, Roy, as he tried to defend Nir Oz."Image 2. "Over the next 49 days, I spent most of my time locked in a small room on the second floor of a hospital. My jailer, who went by Mohammad, called himself a soldier of Hamas, but he didn’t look like a soldier. I was being guarded by a man in civilian clothes and held against my will in a civilian building."
Nov 30, 2023 8 tweets 4 min read
1: Thread. The most incredible stories of heroic Israeli women during this war.

Rimon Kirsht, 36

Rimon was put in a fully pink pajamas by Hamas trying to make her look more ‘‘feminine,’ walked alongside her kidnappers, ignoring the hateful, barbaric chants, with courage I wish some of our world leaders had even a fraction of.
Image Yarden Roman-Gat, 35

Yarden delayed Hamas terrorists and sacrifice herself to be taken captive to buy time for her husband to save their little girl and escape.
Her love for her daughter is far stronger than the hate Hamas holds for all of us. This is a true Jewish hero. Image
May 5, 2022 7 tweets 3 min read
I want to take a moment to talk about Dr. Gisella Perl - a heroic doctor who was a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz.

She saved hundreds of women’s lives in a death camp - but was attacked for doing so when she came to the USA.

She's known today as the “Angel of Auschwitz.” Dr. Gisela Perl was a Jewish gynecologist when she was deported to Auschwitz.

Dr. Mengele (known for his torturous human experiments on Jews) forced her to work for him.

Mengele loved to experiment on pregnant women, then murder them and their babies. It was horrific.
Jun 22, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
Every year I write an article about how using Israel as a litmus test for if LGBTQ Jews can participate in pride and every year it somehow gets worse... 2017:
m.jpost.com/opinion/the-da…
Nov 11, 2020 13 tweets 4 min read
Let’s talk about “#pinkwashing,” a term frequently deployed by supporters of #BDS which accuses Israel of exploiting LGBTQ rights to “project a progressive image while denying the rights of all Palestinians, queer and non-queer alike.” calling to boycott @TLVFest

Thread 👇 Those making this accusation claim to be acting in the interest of oppressed minorities. Yet, the logic of pinkwashing effectively delegitimizes any advancements made in Israeli LGBTQ rights, weaponizing victories for our community against us. And there are many victories to cite
Jun 16, 2020 18 tweets 4 min read
Thread of beautiful Jewish brides>>>

Yemenite Jewish bride in traditional bridal wear Another traditional Yemenite Jewish bridal wear
Feb 21, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
I find the Forward piece (not sharing so you won’t click, not worth it) really alarming because it promotes the Antisemitic trope of “dual loyalty” and enables neo-Nazis/woke antisemites to share it (from a Jewish newspaper!)

After all, there are way more antisemites than Jews. (Also, Hatikvah is a Jewish fight song from 1877, long before it was the Israeli national anthem).
Oct 11, 2019 7 tweets 3 min read
CALL TO ACTION 📢 Despite protest by Mizrahi & Sephardi Jewish community led by @JIMENA_Voice, @StateDept is considering another cultural property MOU agreement that would transfer ownership of confiscated Jewish property, including Torah scrolls, to Yemen. 1/7 Last week, the Cultural Property Advisory Committee of the @StateDept announced that it is giving the public only two weeks to comment, *during the Jewish High Holidays*. The window for public comment is short, but it is essential for all concerned citizens to respond. 2/7
Jul 31, 2019 5 tweets 3 min read
Hey @AOC, I’m always hopeful about you, but you keep on disappointing. In a recent radio interview you said (not for the first time) that there’s a high chance that you’re a Sephardic Jew and “that’s important because in Israel they are also targeting Jews of color” Hi, I’m Hen, an Israeli Jew of Color, not probably Sephardi, but actually. For @AOC to use ‘as a *probably* Sephardi Jew’ to defame Jews & Israel, proved that you have spent too much time with racist Jews like @IfNotNowOrg (which you referred to in the interview)& Neturi Karta.
Jul 14, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
Throughout Jewish history, the Jewish people have yearned for a return to Israel or Zion, our ancient Jewish homeland. Majority of the commandments in the Tanach relate to the Land of Israel. Even in exile, Jews continued to face Jerusalem when we pray. Each year at the Passover Seder and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Jews proclaim “Next Year in Jerusalem.” At Jewish wedding ceremonies it is customary for the groom to break a glass and recite “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning.”
Jul 6, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
81 years ago today, the Évian Conference was convened (6–15 July 1938) at Évian-les-Bains, France, to discuss the Jewish refugee problem & the plight of the increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis.
In other words: the world giving a green light to Hitler. New Zealand 🇳🇿 has expressed willingness to consider only individual requests of Jewish refugees. Colombia 🇨🇴 has announced that it can absorb only wealthy Jewish agricultural workers, as did Uruguay 🇺🇾
Jun 21, 2019 15 tweets 3 min read
I see that the debate about Mizrahi Jewish identity is sparked again with claims that we are “Arabs”. Let’s make some things clear (again):
1. Vast majority of Jews of the Middle East and North Africa live in Israel today & they reject the term “Arab Jews” & identify as Mizrahim 2. The “Arab world” today is the creation of modern pan-Arabism, which arose with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and which has roots in the Arab empires of the Middle Ages. The term “Arab Jew,” was never historically used by Mizrahim (Jews of the Middle East).
Jun 1, 2019 12 tweets 3 min read
Thread: Meet Hela, my grandmother, loving, generous, caring Jewish mother of 12. She think that she is 93 y/o, but when she was forced out of Iraq her official documents were taken and over the years she didn’t celebrate her birthday and forget the exact date she was born... She doesn’t speak a lot about her past. It is challenging to get any negative stories from Iraq out of her. She prefers to tell me stories about how great it was, how beautiful Baghdad is, and how they always felt safe – until the 2 days of horror: June 1-2, 1941, the #Farhud.
May 25, 2019 7 tweets 2 min read
Thread: Esther Moyal (1873-1948) was Mizrahi Jewish journalist & feminist, in 1912, Moyal said: "We women & men of the East are deifying Westernizing, giving them the power to patronize us." Moyal, a member of the Lazari family of Beirut, began her public activism in 1893 ...She took over the correspondence of the Lebanese Women's League and was sent to Chicago to represent Lebanon at the International Women's Conference. She was active in various women's organizations such as Bākūrat Sūriya and Nahdat al-Nisā' ("The Awakening Women")...
Apr 27, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
December 1943, the Germans demand that Tunisia Chief Rabbi Haim Bellaiche dissolve Jewish institutions and ordered the Rabbi to provide Jewish workers for the Axis forces. By this time, Germans had notified the Vichy & Tunisian authorities that Tunisia Jews are now Nazi subjects. Two days later, the Jewish leaders supplied a list of 2,500 Jews, including my grandparents; only 128 Jews showed up for work. The Germans conducted a sweep of the Jewish neighborhood of Tunis and sent the Jews they captured to a camp at Cheylus.