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Category: News

  • Nahariya: 800 new homes as the Remez block leads the city’s urban renewal

    By Arik Idan

    Three years after it was officially designated, the Remez block in the heart of Nahariya is coming before the Northern District planning committee: eleven ageing buildings are set to make way for 800 new homes. It is a vote of confidence in the capital of the Western Galilee, which is making urban renewal the engine of its growth.

    Nahariya is speeding up its transformation. According to the specialist planning site Magdilim (18 October 2026), the Northern District planning committee has placed on its agenda a first hearing on the Remez block, with the aim of restricting the issue of building permits under Sections 77-78 of the Planning and Building Law. The goal is to prevent piecemeal construction from undermining the economics of a large demolition-and-rebuild (pinui-binui) project of 800 homes [1]. As of 22 October 2026, the planning register lists plan no. 210-1242833 at the “preparation of the Section 77/78 notice” stage, covering 33.98 dunams [2].

    KEY FACTS & FIGURES

    • 800 – homes planned in the Remez block, versus 173 today (Magdilim, 18/10/2026).
    • ≈ 30,000 – additional homes allowed by the comprehensive urban renewal plan (ice, 18/02/2026).
    • NIS 16,714 – median price per sq m, H1 2026, +1% (GoInfo / Israel Tax Authority, updated 18/10/2026).
    • NIS 1.595m – median price of a four-room apartment, Jan–Aug 2026 (Nadlanit / nadlan.gov.il, data as of 16/10/2026).

    A city-centre block completely redesigned

    The site covers 34 dunams around David Remez Street. The plan calls for demolishing 11 buildings with a total of 173 apartments, three commercial units and a kindergarten, and replacing them with eight residential buildings – roughly 4.6 times the current number of homes [1][3]. Most of the new construction will stay in keeping with the city’s scale, up to ten storeys, with a few towers along Weizmann Street, the main thoroughfare, which will get a commercial frontage. A new street will link Weizmann to David Remez, the existing “Remez Park” will be preserved, and public facilities will be built on the ground floors and on Balfour Street [1].

    The project is being promoted by the Government Authority for Urban Renewal and Nahariya Municipality, with plans drawn up by the architecture firm Kika Braz. It was declared a pinui-binui compound three years ago; the local committee recommended freezing permits there about three months ago [1].

    A master plan for 30,000 homes

    Remez is part of a wider strategy. In February 2026, the Northern District planning committee approved, subject to conditions, a comprehensive urban renewal plan covering the entire municipal area: it sets a framework for adding about 30,000 homes, serves as an alternative to TAMA 38 and allows older buildings to be strengthened and protected, with at least 20% small apartments for young couples [4]. Northern District planner Dikla Adi Peretz called it a “groundbreaking” plan, especially important “at this time” because it allows permits to be issued for strengthening buildings [4].

    Other projects are following. In early September 2026, the district committee approved the deposit of the Levi Eshkol project in the east of the city: two buildings with 36 apartments will be replaced by three towers of 10, 18 and 24 storeys with 198 homes, described as a “springboard” for the renewal of the eastern neighbourhoods [5]. Near the railway station, the Central Station compound – 1,100 homes on about 79 dunams – is on the fast track for preferred housing compounds (VATMAL), with “declared” status [6]. In the new Saar neighbourhood, the Israel Land Authority awarded two plots for 272 homes in January 2026, about 218 of them at target price, starting from NIS 701,000 for 85 sq m – a discount of roughly NIS 600,000 on the open-market price [7][8].

    A resilient market that is still affordable

    On prices, the city is holding firm. According to Israel Tax Authority data compiled by GoInfo, the median price reached NIS 16,714 per sq m in the first half of 2026 (+1% over six months), despite a 38% drop in the number of transactions – a smaller fall than the Galilee median (-46%) [9]. The median price of a four-room apartment stood at about NIS 1,595,000 in January–August 2026 [10]. According to Bizportal (27 September 2026), Nahariya remains one of the last cities where a four-room apartment within walking distance of the sea costs less than NIS 2 million [8].

    On the ground, confidence is returning. “People have got used to the security situation and have come back to the market,” a local real-estate agent told Globes in August, also noting the arrival of investors from the centre of the country [11]. The message is clear: the great coastal city of the north is actively building its future.

    Sources

    1. Magdilim, Ziv Goldfisher, “התחדשות עירונית בנהריה: העירייה מקפיאה את הבנייה במתחם רמז לטובת 800 דירות חדשות”, 18/10/2026 – https://magdilim.co.il/181020261101/
    2. Tabainfo, plan 210-1242833 “David Remez compound – Section 77-78 notice”, updated 22/10/2026 – https://www.tabainfo.co.il/%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%A2/%D7%A0%D7%94%D7%A8%D7…
    3. Nadlano, “הקפאת היתרים בלב נהריה: 11 בניינים ייהרסו לטובת 800 דירות במתחם רמז”, 18/10/2026 – https://nadlano.co.il/178052
    4. ice, “אלפי דירות חדשות ייבנו בעיר המבוקשת”, 18/02/2026 – https://www.ice.co.il/realestate/news/article/1103508
    5. Magdilim, “תכנית לוי אשכול בנהריה גברה על התכנית להתחדשות עירונית”, 06/09/2026 – https://magdilim.co.il/060920260910/
    6. ERRA Analytics, “נהריה – התחנה המרכזית – ותמ”ל” (plan TML/2071), updated 25/10/2026 – https://erra-analytics.co.il/program/vatmal-nhryh-hthnh-hmrkhzyt/
    7. Israel Land Authority (gov.il), “תוצאות מכרז דיור במחיר מטרה בנהריה”, 05/01/2026 – https://www.gov.il/he/pages/declaration-pr-0512026
    8. Bizportal, Ben Palmon, “כמה צריך להרוויח כדי לקנות דירה בנהריה?”, 27/09/2026 – https://www.bizportal.co.il/realestates/news/article/20043362
    9. GoInfo, Nahariya summary Jan–Jun 2026 (Israel Tax Authority data), updated 18/10/2026 – https://goinfo.co.il/city-news/nahariya.html
    10. Nadlanit, “נדל”ן בנהריה: מחירים 2026” (nadlan.gov.il data as of 16/10/2026) – https://nadlanit.co.il/city/Nahariyya
    11. Globes, Nir Weiss-Vedereru, “בבניין עם אופק לפינוי־בינוי: בכמה נמכרה דירת 3 חדרים בנהריה?”, 22/08/2026 – https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001552641
  • Lula re-elected: as Brazil’s rift with Israel deepens, Tel Aviv opens its doors to Brazilian Jews

    Lula re-elected: as Brazil’s rift with Israel deepens, Tel Aviv opens its doors to Brazilian Jews

    Illustration of the Planalto Palace, seat of Brazil's presidency in Brasília, on a giant chessboard in front of a world map whose glowing lines link Brazil to the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Russia and China.

    By Patrick Lancier

    Brazil re-elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 25 October, with 51.79% of the vote against 48.21% for Flávio Bolsonaro. For Brazil’s Jews, it means four more years of a president who compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust and was declared persona non grata by Israel in 2024. Israel’s answer is an open door, and Tel Aviv is one of the places where Brazilian Jews settle.

    What happened in Brazil

    Lula won 64,256,232 votes to Flávio Bolsonaro’s 59,826,041, according to the Superior Electoral Court, after trailing in the first round on 4 October (45.16% against 47.03%). It is his fourth term. Flávio Bolsonaro, who had promised to move Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem, according to The Jerusalem Post, has since left for the United States, g1 reported.

    A government at odds with Israel

    In February 2024, Lula compared Israel’s war in Gaza, launched after the Hamas massacre of 7 October 2023, to the Holocaust, and Israel declared him persona non grata. Brazil then withdrew its ambassador, left Israel’s new ambassador without accreditation, which led Israel to downgrade relations, and in July 2026 refused Israel’s choice of consul general in São Paulo, Folha de S.Paulo reported. In September, at the UN, Lula again accused Israel’s government of “genocide”, AFP noted. Neither country now has an ambassador in the other’s capital.

    An open door for Brazilian Jews

    Brazil’s Jewish community numbers more than 120,000 people according to CONIB. It is welcome in Israel, whether its members come to make aliyah, buy a home or settle in Tel Aviv.

    Fortunately, it is a well-organised community, but one that is preparing for four difficult years. Sergio Napchan, director general of CONIB (the Confederação Israelita do Brasil, which represents all of the country’s Jewish communities), oversees the organisation of the communities in Brazil.

    The move is already familiar. About 200 immigrants arrived from Brazil between September 2025 and September 2026, according to Aliyah Ministry and Jewish Agency figures reported by Ynet. Of the 5,362 Brazilians who made aliyah between 2015 and 2025, 547 registered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, the third most common choice after Ra’anana and Jerusalem, according to Aliyah Ministry records compiled by Israel.com.

    What it means for buying in Tel Aviv

    The election also hit Brazilian savings. The day after the vote, the dollar jumped from 4.99 reais to 5.40 reais, and the São Paulo stock exchange fell 13.88%, BBC News Brasil reported. In plain terms, a family paying in reais for a home priced abroad now needs more of its own currency than it did a week earlier. For buyers who plan to settle in Tel Aviv, the timing of currency transfers now deserves close attention.

    The outlook

    Lula’s victory is legitimate and has been recognised by more than a hundred countries, according to the TSE. But Brazil starts this term without an ambassador in Israel, and analyst Evan Ellis of the CSIS expects Lula to harden his line on Israel now that he no longer faces re-election. For Brazilian Jews weighing a move, Israel’s message is simple: you are welcome.

    Sources

  • Liepāja’s lighthouse memorial and the woman behind it: Ilana Ivanova (Zivson) at 80

    Liepāja’s lighthouse memorial and the woman behind it: Ilana Ivanova (Zivson) at 80

    By David Nataf

    LIEPĀJA, Latvia — Families from Israel stood beside the Baltic this summer as a new Holocaust memorial was dedicated at the Liepāja lighthouse, and much of what brought them there traces back to one woman. Ilana Ivanova (Zivson), the daughter of two survivors from this port, is celebrating her 80th birthday. I have long called her “the soul of this community, a living memory”.

    Watch: Liepāja unveils a memorial to the Jews of Central Europe (Uniting Fund on Facebook). Watch on Facebook

    Earlier this month, on 8 October 2026, another memorial was opened in Liepāja after restoration: the mass grave memorial in the Jewish section of the Livas Cemetery, commemorating the Jews from Central Europe who died in the city.

    Opening poster: restored Mass Grave Memorial for Central European Jews who died in Liepāja, Jewish section of Livas Cemetery, 8 October 2026
    Poster announcing the 8 October 2026 opening of the restored Mass Grave Memorial, Jewish section of Liepāja’s Livas Cemetery, honouring Jews from Central Europe.

    Descendants come home to the Baltic shore

    The dedication took place on 24 July 2026 at Roņu iela 8C. In the summer of 1941, that spot saw one of the earliest mass killings of the town’s Jews; the memorial now honours more than 2,000 people murdered there. After Šķēde, it is the second large site in Liepāja devoted to Holocaust remembrance.

    It was unveiled during the 13th World Reunion of the Jews of Liepāja, once known as Libau. Some 180 people from eight countries attended. Many had travelled from Israel; others came from America, Germany, Britain and beyond. With diplomats and municipal leaders at their side, they retraced the streets their grandparents had known.

    Those reunions are among the initiatives Ilana launched and organised, as listed in a document prepared by her daughter, Anna Petrova, who heads the Liepāja Jewish Religious Community and describes herself as belonging to the third generation after the city’s survivors.

    The dunes of Šķēde, and an alley honouring rescuers

    Long before the lighthouse, there was Šķēde. The Liepāja Jewish Heritage Foundation, active since 2004, raised a vast menorah among the sand dunes there to commemorate the murdered Jews of the town. Beyond it runs a path dedicated to the Righteous Among the Nations, inaugurated at the 2014 reunion while Israel’s ambassador looked on.

    Ilana’s list of projects goes further: memorial initiatives, exhibitions and conferences, educational and cultural programmes, and books of local history. One of them is an electronic volume entitled The Jewish Heritage of Liepāja in the Context of the City’s History. Another remembers Otto Fischer, an Austrian Jew who coached Olimpija Libau to a national championship and who was killed in 1941 for being Jewish. Today a plaque at the club’s stadium and a tournament for young players keep his name alive.

    In her daughter’s words, Ilana’s efforts turned what she inherited into books, monuments, gatherings, teaching and institutions meant to outlast her generation.

    A cellar, a Righteous rescuer and photographs smuggled out

    Why this cause? Because Ilana’s own story begins in hiding. Under German rule nearly 6,000 Jews lived in the town; of those present then, only about thirty survived to see it freed. Her parents, David and Henny Zivson, were two of them.

    Roberts and Johanna Seduls concealed eleven Jews in a hidden basement for nineteen months. Discovery could have come at any moment. Shortly before liberation, Roberts died, struck by shrapnel, yet his widow kept feeding and protecting the group until the end. Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem named Johanna Sedule Righteous Among the Nations in 1981.

    Ilana’s father risked even more. Pressed into service as an electrician by the German security police, he spotted pictures of the Šķēde shootings in the office of the SS officer Karl-Emil Strott and duplicated them in secret. The German Resistance Memorial Center states that his copies were produced as evidence at Nuremberg and at the Grauel trial.

    Kungu iela 21: a small congregation that refuses to disappear

    Remembrance is only part of Liepāja’s Jewish life today. In the community building at Kungu iela 21, members gather on Shabbat, read and study Torah, and mark Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Pesach and other holy days. Concerts, talks and classes fill the calendar, and older members receive practical help. A museum on the community and its heritage is taking shape in the same building, intended to show the lives of Liepāja’s Jews and not merely their deaths.

    The congregation partners with the municipality, Jewish bodies in Latvia and overseas, foreign embassies and other partners, and it receives visitors from Israel and elsewhere who arrive in search of family roots.

    Anna Petrova admits the numbers of the prewar era will never return. Still, she writes, the community exists and is alive, and more than eight decades after the attempt to wipe it out, Shabbat candles are lit again in Liepāja.

    That flame owes much to her mother. Happy 80th birthday, Ilana: mazal tov, ad meah ve’esrim.

  • The Pilot Israel Already Knew About: Flydubai Attack Exposes a Gap in Israel’s Air Defenses on the Ground

    The Pilot Israel Already Knew About: Flydubai Attack Exposes a Gap in Israel’s Air Defenses on the Ground

    By David Nataf — October 7, 2026

    The Omani co-pilot’s passport details reached an Israeli database before takeoff. No agency checked them. A closed Knesset hearing now reportedly shows he was one of about 1,240 aircrew from countries without diplomatic ties to Israel who entered the country. Israel, the target of the attack, is now moving to close the gap.

    A week after the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attacked his captain on the way from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel’s main question is why nobody on the ground stopped him from boarding.

    What happened on FZ1073

    According to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry, a preliminary investigation found that “the pilot was assaulted by his co-pilot, resulting in various injuries to both.” The Boeing 737 MAX diverted to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk. It landed safely at 9:45 a.m. local time with 174 passengers and eight crew on board.

    On October 3, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigators had found that the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack.” In a statement carried by the state news agency WAM, he said the co-pilot struck Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with the cockpit crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft. Reuters, the Associated Press and the BBC have named the co-pilot as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national. UAE authorities have not confirmed his identity.

    The plane was saved in the cabin. Although badly wounded, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers, almost all of them Israelis, rushed in and overpowered the attacker, according to the Times of Israel and the BBC. Flydubai says an “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight” then diverted the aircraft and landed it.

    A rule that existed only on paper

    Under its agreement to operate in Israel, flydubai was required to staff Israel-bound flights only with pilots from countries that have relations with Israel, the Jerusalem Post and Ynet report. Oman has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

    But Israel had the information it needed. A 2023 law requires every airline flying to Israel to send passenger and crew data in advance, including names, citizenship and passport details. The data goes to the National Passenger Data Analysis Center, which operates under the Israel Tax Authority. The Tax Authority has confirmed that the center received the full FZ1073 list, including the crew, before the flight, Globes and Ynet report.

    Nobody acted on it. According to several senior officials quoted by Ynet, the Transportation Ministry’s security division had not retrieved crew data on foreign flights for about two years. Citing the Wall Street Journal, Walla reported that the ministry had never requested the lists at all.

    Each agency now says the job belonged to someone else. Transportation Minister Miri Regev told Kan that the Mossad is responsible for foreign carriers and that the list “was not transferred to us.” Her ministry’s security division says it is “not an intelligence agency.” Ynet reports that the Mossad also says it did not receive the list. A security official told Walla that the Mossad does not screen crew lists on every foreign flight. Asked how many pilots from hostile countries had landed in Israel, the Civil Aviation Authority told reporters: “We estimate there were none. But we have no certainty.”

    Help had been offered. Army Radio reported on October 6, citing three sources and as relayed by the Times of Israel, that in 2025 the ministry turned down a proposal by the Shin Bet and the National Security Council to place a Shin Bet official inside it to help assess the risks of foreign flights. According to the same report, the ministry received extra funding and 10 new positions for its security division in the 2026 budget but has not filled them. The ministry says it asked for more funding and has yet to receive it from the Finance Ministry.

    1,240 crew members

    That uncertainty now has a number. On October 6, the Knesset’s Subcommittee for Intelligence and Secret Services met behind closed doors. The subcommittee belongs to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and is chaired by MK Boaz Bismuth. According to i24NEWS, Ynet and Channel 14, as relayed by Strana.co.il, members were told that about 1,240 aircrew from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel had entered the country. The group reportedly includes citizens of Oman, as well as Syria and Lebanon, which Israel classifies as enemy states. Kan and N12 reported a figure of “more than 1,200.”

    The figure comes from a classified session and has not been published officially. Reports differ on the period it covers: “since the beginning of the year” (Channel 14, Kan), “over the past year” (Ynet, Times of Israel) or “in recent years” (i24NEWS). According to i24NEWS, the Transportation Ministry’s representative was “stunned” and did not know the numbers.

    Holding a passport from such a country proves nothing about any individual. Still, an aviation security system is supposed to flag passport details like these before a flight takes off.

    Bismuth wrote on X after the session: “The face of civil aviation in Israel will change from today.”

    The fixes on the table

    According to Ynet, the subcommittee asked the National Security Council to draw up, with the Mossad and the Shin Bet, a list of high-threat countries. Crew lists from those countries would be submitted 48 hours before flights to Israel for approval by the security services. In a letter to NSC head Samuel Benezra, Regev also proposed a 48-hour advance clearance for all passengers and crew on inbound flights. Ynet notes that the Transportation Ministry’s security division had raised some of these measures in an NSC-led forum before, and they were rejected.

    Diplomacy continues alongside the reforms. Flydubai’s Israel flights remain suspended “at the request of the authorities,” the airline says. Channel 13 reported on October 6, as relayed by the Times of Israel, that flydubai has asked for permission to resume its Israel flights, saying its investigation was concluding and many employees had been fired; Regev has so far declined. Regev has met UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, who said on X that they discussed “strengthening preparedness.” According to Ynet, the talks covered resuming flydubai service, and Regev demanded security arrangements for Israeli carriers in the UAE. JDN, as cited by Strana.co.il, reported that a joint Transportation Ministry and security delegation will travel to Dubai next week; Channel 13 reports that Transportation Ministry officials have been invited to tour Dubai next week.

    The UAE has named the attack for what it is and is prosecuting it, a sign of the Abraham Accords’ strength. But Israel cannot hand its first line of defense to a foreign airline’s paperwork. When a law has already put a pilot’s passport in Israel’s database before takeoff, someone in Israel has to read it.

    Frequently asked questions

    What happened on flydubai flight FZ1073?

    On September 30, 2026, the co-pilot of the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight struck Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft, according to UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, who said the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack.” Passengers, almost all of them Israelis, overpowered him, according to the Times of Israel and the BBC, and the plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

    Did Israel have the co-pilot’s details before takeoff?

    Yes. Under a 2023 law, the full FZ1073 passenger and crew list, including passport details, reached the National Passenger Data Analysis Center before the flight, the Israel Tax Authority confirmed, according to Globes and Ynet. No agency acted on it.

    How many aircrew from countries without ties to Israel have entered the country?

    About 1,240, according to i24NEWS, Ynet and Channel 14, which reported on a closed session of a Knesset subcommittee on October 6. The figure has not been published officially, and reports differ on the period it covers.

    What is Israel doing to close the gap?

    According to Ynet, the Knesset subcommittee asked the National Security Council to draw up, with the Mossad and the Shin Bet, a list of high-threat countries whose crew lists would be submitted 48 hours before flights for approval. Transportation Minister Miri Regev has proposed a 48-hour advance clearance for all passengers and crew on inbound flights. Flydubai’s Israel flights remain suspended.

    Sources

  • Hamas Is No Longer Just Fundraising in Europe. It Was Arming.

    Hamas Is No Longer Just Fundraising in Europe. It Was Arming.

    By David Nataf — October 6, 2026

    Prosecutors say an alleged Hamas network dismantled last year had amassed 13 pistols, a fully automatic rifle and 718 rounds of ammunition, and that one suspect had already recorded a video claiming responsibility for an attack. A joint investigation by Der Spiegel and Der Standard now places the Jewish Museum Vienna and the Austrian-Israeli Society among the possible targets. Hamas denies any link. On the eve of October 7, Europe has to stop filing Hamas under activism and start treating it as what it is: a terrorist organization operating on its soil.

    The targets

    According to the investigation, reported by Ynetnews on Monday, the network was preparing attacks in Europe around the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre. It remains unclear precisely what was planned for that date, who would have carried it out or which site would ultimately have been hit. But Der Standard reported that the Jewish Museum Vienna and the Austrian-Israeli Society were among the sites investigators considered possible targets.

    The details are chilling. Five HS-9 pistols were allegedly hidden for weeks in a self-storage facility in Vienna’s seventh district, rented under a false name and located roughly 1.5 to 2 kilometers from several Jewish and Israeli institutions, close to major public transport routes. The pistols sat in a suitcase lined with a thick layer of aluminum foil, alongside gun-cleaning oil and lubricant. Investigators read those items as a sign that this was not an emergency stockpile but a set of firearms being maintained for use.

    The arsenal

    German federal prosecutors last month indicted seven suspected Hamas members. They say the network obtained 13 pistols, a fully automatic rifle and 718 rounds of ammunition through two separate procurement operations, with Israeli representatives, Jews and people seen as supportive of Israel as intended targets.

    In the first, the five HS-9 pistols traveled by train from Copenhagen to Berlin in late July 2025 and were then passed, through an intermediary, to Mohammed Naim, who allegedly carried them to Vienna. In the second, a suspect identified as Borhan El-K. allegedly collected a fully automatic rifle, eight Glock pistols and more than 600 rounds in Germany in August 2025; the weapons were apparently meant to be hidden in Leipzig.

    German police moved first. On October 1, 2025, six days before the anniversary, they arrested three suspects during a weapons transfer. Further arrests followed in Britain, Denmark, Cyprus and elsewhere. Nine people have been arrested in all; the suspects hold German, Danish, Bulgarian and Lebanese citizenship. The seven defendants face charges including membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparing a serious act of violence threatening state security. The Berlin higher regional court must still decide whether to open a trial, and the defendants are presumed innocent until a verdict.

    A video, and a father in the politburo

    Late on August 7, 2025, investigators say, Mohammed Naim filmed himself in a rented room in Vienna’s Favoriten district, his face covered and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, with two pistols on the table in front of him. In the 4-minute, 32-second recording he allegedly vowed revenge on Israel, warned that “blood will be spilled” and said the “armed resistance” would send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “message in blood.”

    His father is Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau and a former Gaza health minister. According to Der Spiegel and Der Standard, the two allegedly discussed plans for attacks in Vienna or Germany on Telegram. The elder Naim has publicly condemned attacks targeting Jews in Europe and the United States. Hamas has denied links to the suspects.

    From fundraising to firepower

    For years, as Ynetnews notes, European security officials viewed the continent primarily as a base for Hamas fundraising, political activity and logistical support rather than a theater for attacks. That assumption is now untenable. Investigators have linked Hamas operatives to a weapons cache established in Bulgaria as early as 2019, and to another network that tried to locate weapons depots in Europe in 2023; four of its members were convicted in Berlin this year. A study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point concluded that Hamas had spent years building weapons caches in Europe.

    In last year’s case, prosecutors allege, the preparations went much further: weapons ready for use, firearms and ammunition moving across several countries, targets under consideration and a claim of responsibility already on video.

    It is also worth recalling who raised the alarm. According to Der Spiegel and Der Standard, Israel’s Mossad gave Germany’s domestic intelligence service information in June 2025 indicating that terrorism suspects were involved in weapons transactions in Germany. Israeli intelligence helped protect Jewish lives in Vienna and Berlin. Europe’s gratitude should take the form of action.

    Israel braces. Europe must act

    In Jerusalem, nobody is waiting. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that he had put the military on high alert ahead of the anniversary, “in light of intelligence regarding Hamas’s intentions to attempt to carry out attacks and terror operations against our forces in Gaza on that day,” according to AFP, as reported by Arab News. On Monday, at a state ceremony marking three years since the attack, Netanyahu said there would be “no Hamas rule in Gaza.”

    The organization that murdered 1,221 people on October 7, by an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, and dragged 251 hostages into Gaza, is the same organization whose operatives prosecutors say were stockpiling pistols near Jewish institutions in Vienna. There is no wall between the two.

    Europe should draw the obvious conclusions. Hamas networks must be investigated and prosecuted as terrorism, not tolerated as a branch of political activism. Their financing and their front structures must be dismantled with the same rigor applied to any other jihadist group. Intelligence sharing with Israel, which has already proved its worth, must deepen. And Jewish museums, schools and synagogues across the continent must be protected as what they now are: potential targets.

    Three years after October 7, the question is no longer whether Hamas intends to strike in Europe. Prosecutors say its operatives had already brought the guns.

    Sources

  • Seven Fronts, One Media War — and Tel Aviv Rents Still Hold Firm: What an Apartment Costs in October 2026

    Seven Fronts, One Media War — and Tel Aviv Rents Still Hold Firm: What an Apartment Costs in October 2026

    By David Nataf — Tel Aviv Apartment

    Tel Aviv, 6 October 2026. Tomorrow Israel marks three years since 7 October 2023. Three years of war on seven fronts, and of a front that never closes: the media war. And yet Tel Aviv’s rental market has not blinked. On Realta’s Tel Aviv–Yafo rent page, dated 6 October 2026, the median asking rent is ₪10,000 a month across 4,989 active listings. A second aggregator, Scoutr, puts a three-room apartment at ₪10,077 in its October 2026 report. Landlords are still asking firm money. The city is not being sold off at a discount.

    Seven fronts, as Israel’s leaders name them

    The figure is not a slogan. In late December 2023, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel was “in a multifront war and coming under attack from seven theaters”, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since listed them repeatedly (JNS), and on the war’s 600th day The Times of Israel’s military correspondent Emanuel Fabian took readers through all seven, one by one:

    • Gaza: Hamas, the organisation behind the 7 October massacre.
    • Lebanon: Hezbollah.
    • Judea and Samaria: terrorist cells targeting Israeli civilians.
    • Syria.
    • Iraq: Iran-backed militias that launched drones at Israel.
    • Yemen: the Houthis, with their missiles and drones.
    • Iran, the regime behind the whole axis.

    The eighth front: the media war

    Every Israeli knows there is one more. It is fought in headlines, viral clips and resolutions, and its favourite target is Tel Aviv itself, shown abroad as a city emptied by fear and about to be abandoned. We have covered pieces of that campaign, from “Teloshima” fantasies to the UK Greens’ “Zionism is racism” vote. The best answer is not outrage. It is data. If the image were true, Tel Aviv’s rent market would show it. It does not.

    What an apartment costs in Tel Aviv in October 2026

    A word on vocabulary first. Israeli listings count the living room as a room, so a 3-room apartment is roughly a two-bedroom, a 2-room is a one-bedroom and a 4-room is a three-bedroom.

    Realta draws its rolling 30-day sample from Yad2, Madlan, OnMap, Homeless, Komo and Facebook. Its citywide figures by size on the evening of 6 October were ₪7,207 for 2 rooms, ₪10,639 for 3 rooms and ₪15,224 for 4 rooms. Compared with the previous day, the overall median was unchanged at ₪10,000, and the figures by size have barely moved since the morning. Nothing to see here, which is exactly the point.

    Scoutr, which aggregates Yad2, Madlan and Facebook listings, counts 13,378 active Tel Aviv listings and gives ₪10,077 for 3 rooms and ₪13,852 for 4 rooms. On the 3-room benchmark the two aggregators sit within about 5% of each other. On 4 rooms the gap is wider, which reflects their different samples. These are asking rents on live adverts, not signed leases, and they exclude arnona (municipal tax), vaad bayit (building fees) and utilities.

    Neighborhood by neighborhood

    Below are the latest sourced figures by neighborhood and size. Where two independent sources exist, we average them. Where only one exists, we say so: those figures are indicative, not definitive.

    Neighborhood 2 rooms (≈1 bedroom) 3 rooms (≈2 bedrooms) 4 rooms (≈3 bedrooms) Basis
    Old North (HaTzafon HaYashan) ≈₪9,000 ≈₪12,400 — 2 sources per cell (Realta + BuzzPost; Scoutr + BuzzPost)
    Neve Tzedek ≈₪10,300 ≈₪13,100 — 2 sources per cell (Realta/Scoutr + BuzzPost)
    Kerem HaTeimanim ≈₪9,500* ≈₪10,500* — 1 source (Scoutr), indicative
    Lev Ha’ir (City Center) — ≈₪9,900 — 2 sources (Scoutr 10,000–13,000; Realta 7,000–9,500), wide spread
    Bavli — ≈₪9,800* — 1 source (Scoutr), indicative
    Florentin ≈₪7,500 ≈₪9,000 — 2 sources (Scoutr + Realta)
    Jaffa (Yaffo Dalet) ≈₪7,200* — — 1 source (BuzzPost), indicative
    Yad Eliyahu — ≈₪7,300* — 1 source (Scoutr), indicative; −7.5% year on year (Globes/Yad2)
    Ganei Sharona — — ₪13,371* (Jul 2026) 1 source (Globes, citing Yad2)
    Citywide: Realta ₪7,207 ₪10,639 ₪15,224 Realta, 6 Oct 2026, 4,989 listings
    Citywide: Scoutr — ₪10,077 ₪13,852 Scoutr report, Oct 2026
    Asking rents, ₪ per month. Where two sources exist, the figure is the average of their midpoints, rounded to the nearest ₪100. * = single source, indicative only. — = no dated room-specific figure published. Sources: Realta (6 Oct 2026 and neighborhood pages), Scoutr 2026 guide and rent report, BuzzPost (Q1–Q2 2026), Globes/Yad2 (13 Aug 2026).

    Two cautions. Jaffa is not one market: Scoutr puts 3 rooms in South Jaffa at ₪6,000–8,000, while BuzzPost puts Yaffo Dalet at ₪9,500–10,800, so we publish no single “Jaffa” 3-room figure. And the Lev Ha’ir average hides a wide range between renovated Bauhaus stock and older walk-ups. For the full grid, including cells we cannot yet fill, see our Tel Aviv rent prices by neighborhood 2026 page.

    Firm, not frozen

    Holding firm does not mean rising everywhere. According to Globes, citing Yad2, asking rents in Yad Eliyahu fell about 7.5% in the year to July 2026, while 4-room apartments in Ganei Sharona averaged ₪13,371 that month. That is a healthy market. Prime areas hold their price, and there is still value in the east and the south for tenants who look. The sales side has its own rhythm, which we tracked in our September rent report and in our look at Israel’s financial system.

    What the data does not show is the city the media war describes. Thousands of homes are listed, landlords are asking ₪10,000 in the middle of the market, and a two-bedroom in the Old North or Neve Tzedek still costs what a sought-after city costs. That is not a population heading for the exit. It is a city that intends to stay.

    What it means for tenants, landlords and buyers

    • Tenants: budget from the asking rent, then add arnona, vaad bayit and utilities. Moving from the Old North (≈₪12,400 for 3 rooms) to Florentin (≈₪9,000) changes the monthly bill more than any headline.
    • Landlords: the citywide 3-room benchmark is about ₪10,000–10,600, depending on the source. Price against your neighborhood, not against the news.
    • Buyers and investors: compare rents with our Tel Aviv sale prices by neighborhood, check your budget with the mortgage calculator, and browse properties for sale. Questions? Contact us.

    Tomorrow, Israel remembers. Tonight, on the Bauhaus balconies of Tel Aviv, the lights are on.

    Frequently asked questions

    How much does it cost to rent an apartment in Tel Aviv in October 2026?

    On Realta’s Tel Aviv–Yafo page dated 6 October 2026, the median asking rent is ₪10,000 a month across 4,989 active listings. By size, Realta’s figures that evening were ₪7,207 for 2 rooms, ₪10,639 for 3 rooms and ₪15,224 for 4 rooms. Scoutr’s October 2026 report gives ₪10,077 for 3 rooms and ₪13,852 for 4 rooms. These are asking rents, before arnona, building fees and utilities.

    What does “3 rooms” mean in an Israeli apartment listing?

    Israeli listings count the living room as a room. A 2-room apartment is roughly a one-bedroom, a 3-room apartment roughly a two-bedroom, and a 4-room apartment roughly a three-bedroom. Kitchens and bathrooms are not counted.

    Have Tel Aviv rents collapsed because of the war?

    The October 2026 data show no collapse. The citywide median stands at ₪10,000 (Realta), and two separate aggregators put a 3-room apartment within about 5% of each other. Some areas have eased: Globes, citing Yad2, reported asking rents in Yad Eliyahu down about 7.5% in the year to July 2026. We do not publish a pre-war comparison here because we have not found a like-for-like sourced series.

    What are Israel’s “seven fronts”?

    Israeli leaders have named them as Gaza (Hamas), Lebanon (Hezbollah), Judea and Samaria, Syria, Iran-backed militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran itself. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke of seven theaters in December 2023, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has listed them repeatedly.

    Sources

  • Greens Vote “Zionism Is Racism”: What It Means for Israel’s Image — and for Tel Aviv Residents and Buyers

    Greens Vote “Zionism Is Racism”: What It Means for Israel’s Image — and for Tel Aviv Residents and Buyers

    The greenwashing of memory

    By Stéphane Renard — Tel Aviv Apartment / The UNITY

    Tel Aviv, 4–5 October 2026. In Brighton on Sunday, the UK Green Party voted 1,022 to 813 to declare itself “an anti-Zionist party” and to treat Zionism “as any other form of racism”. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the result “a stain on the history of the United Kingdom”. For anyone living in, renting in or buying in Tel Aviv, the practical question is simple: what changes? Legally, nothing. Reputationally, it is a signal worth reading — starting with what the text really says. B’nai B’rith Portugal was among the first Jewish organisations to react, in a statement dated 4 October 2026 in Porto, signed by its president Gabriela Cantergi and its vice-president David Nataf, which calls on British political parties to reject the resolution.

    The next day, Antwerp’s JID (Michel Kotek, Ralph Pais) strongly condemned the vote and called on the Green Party to reverse it, warning that party-backed antizionism risks isolating Jews (stopantisemitisme.be).

    What the Greens adopted — and what they did not write

    The party says the motion defines Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and reasserts “the right of return, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and a full arms embargo against Israel”. The published motion text says the struggle for liberation “by all available means under international law is legitimate”.

    Precision matters. The motion itself does not contain the words “armed struggle” or “from the river to the sea”. The booklet that accompanies it does go further: it cites UN resolutions recognising “struggling by all available means, including armed struggle”, and its lead author, Lubna Speitan, signs off her foreword with “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea!” after calling for an end to “this racism and the monstrous State that has been built upon it”.

    A text search of that 46-page booklet finds no mention of Hamas, 7 October, hostages or massacre. On 7 October 2023, Israeli authorities reported 1,195 deaths and 251 people were taken hostage to Gaza, according to Human Rights Watch.

    The Israel the motion leaves out

    The motion calls Zionism “racist” and “settler-colonial”. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics counts 10.244 million residents, about 21% of them Arab; about 81% of Israeli Jews were born in Israel and about 45% of the world’s Jews live there (JNS, reporting CBS data). More than 850,000 Jews were forced out of Arab countries in the two decades after 1948 (World Jewish Congress) — not a purely European story. In 2021 an Arab party, Ra’am, agreed to join Israel’s governing coalition for the first time (Reuters). Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence promised “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex”.

    None of this makes Israel flawless: Reuters noted that Arab citizens complain of discrimination. But “racism” is a poor one-word summary of a country or a national movement.

    A verdict history already delivered

    The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379 on 10 November 1975, “determin[ing] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination” (vote record). It revoked that text on 16 December 1991 (Resolution 46/86). In 2004 Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the 1975 resolution “an especially unfortunate decision” and said he was “glad that it has since been rescinded” (UN press release).

    Who said what

    • B’nai B’rith Portugal: B’nai B’rith Portugal was among the first Jewish organisations to react, in a statement dated 4 October 2026 in Porto, signed by its president Gabriela Cantergi and its vice-president David Nataf, which calls on British political parties to reject the resolution.
    • Board of Deputies of British Jews: “Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it” (The Independent).
    • Labour chair Bridget Phillipson: the vote “crosses a line” (BBC).
    • Israel’s Foreign Ministry: the text is “a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA definition”; Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar barred Green leader Zack Polanski from entering Israel (The Independent).
    • Inside the Greens: Polanski did not vote; four of the party’s five MPs had publicly opposed the motion (BBC).

    “The motion passed by the Green Party today is an attack on the Jewish community. It is an antisemitic platform, based on a grossly offensive distortion and erasure of Jewish experience and identity.”

    — Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies), 4 October 2026 (post on X)

    What it means for Tel Aviv residents and buyers

    • Your lease, your deed, your mortgage: unaffected. A conference motion adopted by 1,022 members is not law in Israel or in the UK.
    • The boycott language: the motion urges “full embargoes and sanctions” and, for Green elected members, “ending any investments in Israel”. It is party policy, not necessarily manifesto policy (BBC): rhetoric to watch, not a restriction in force.
    • Israel’s image: expect the “Zionism” debate to reach UK news feeds. The facts above are the answer.

    Brighton is not alone: the nurses’ college drops Teva

    The same weekend, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ended its commercial partnership with Teva UK, the British subsidiary of the Israeli pharmaceutical group, after a campaign by Nurses for Palestine and UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges, according to The Guardian as reported by IsraJ. Teva will no longer sponsor the RCN’s nursing leadership summit on migraine and headache services, set for 30 October 2026 at the college’s London headquarters; the event will go ahead without it. The activists claimed their open letter showed Teva UK was linked to the Israeli army, and hailed the decision as a breakthrough for the BDS movement. Teva UK said it was disappointed, wanted to keep talking to the college, and warned that healthcare works best when it focuses on patients and is not politicised. Teva UK is one of the largest suppliers of medicines to the NHS; nothing so far suggests that NHS supplies are affected. This is not an anecdotal boycott of olive oil from the E1 area: Teva, founded in Jerusalem in 1901, is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical groups and generic-medicine makers, the author of hundreds of patents, and its everyday medicines are part of daily healthcare around the world. Targeting Teva means targeting patients.

    A party conference one day, a royal nursing college the next: perfidious Albion has once again chosen the about-face and betrayal, and has stepped squarely into the camp of the enemies of Israel and of the Jewish people.

    Another face of the same duplicity: Britain granted asylum and then citizenship to a former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, before the man — identified only as “Mr X” for legal reasons — was accused of co-ordinating, from England, a plot for antisemitic attacks on Jewish community centres, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel demonstrations in Europe, according to a Sunday Times investigation (also reported by Jewish News). Arrested in London in November 2025, he faces extradition to Germany. Shelter the guard of a Hamas chief while, in the same Albion, a “Zionism is racism” motion and the boycott of an Israeli drugmaker flourish: duplicity no longer improvises — it stacks.

    Frequently asked questions

    Did the UK Green Party really vote that Zionism is racism?

    Yes. On 4 October 2026 in Brighton, members adopted the motion by 1,022 votes to 813, per the Green Party’s own announcement. The motion says Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism”.

    Does the motion call for armed struggle?

    The motion says the struggle for liberation “by all available means under international law is legitimate”; it does not contain the words “armed struggle”. The accompanying booklet does: it cites UN resolutions recognising “struggling by all available means, including armed struggle”. Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the resolution “legitimises armed struggle”.

    Does the vote change anything for Tel Aviv property owners or buyers?

    No legal change follows. It is the policy of a party with five MPs, not UK law or Israeli law. The motion does urge boycotts, “full embargoes and sanctions” and, for Green elected members, “ending any investments in Israel” — a reputational and political signal to monitor, not a legal restriction.

    Has “Zionism is racism” been tried at the UN before?

    Yes. UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 (10 November 1975, 72–35–32) said so; Resolution 46/86 revoked it on 16 December 1991 (111–25–13).

    Sources

  • French-Language Thriller “Cassandre: Le Prix du Sang” Opens in Tel Aviv Two Days Before October 7

    French-Language Thriller “Cassandre: Le Prix du Sang” Opens in Tel Aviv Two Days Before October 7

    By David Nataf
    4 October 2026 — Tel Aviv

    Tel Aviv — Israeli author Yosef ISRAËL has published his first novel, Cassandre : Le Prix du Sang (“Cassandre: The Price of Blood”), a thriller written in French that opens in a Tel Aviv tower on 5 October 2023, two days before the October 7 attack. Its premise is an artificial intelligence that detects, in financial markets, the signs of a coming disaster. The book is on sale on Amazon.fr as a paperback at €24.90 and on Kindle at €9.80.

    Cassandre : Le Prix du Sang, roman de Yosef ISRAËL / novel in French by Yosef ISRAËL - Amazon.fr

    An AI that sees what the markets miss

    The novel’s central character, Joseph Abraham Moreno, has built a predictive system called CASSANDRE in his Tel Aviv tower. In the opening chapter, dated 5 October 2023 at 6:47 pm, it flags an oil move minutes before the news breaks, and the trading desk makes four million dollars in three minutes. According to the book’s own footnote, CASSANDRE is a fictional system that relies on open, commercial or legally accessible sources and is not omniscient. The question the story then asks, as described in a review by Pierre Rehov on the Emet news site, is what a person who knows should do, and what knowledge is worth if it is not shared.

    A family story from Alexandria to Tel Aviv

    Rehov describes the book as more than a thriller: a novel of transmission across three generations of a Jewish family. It starts in Alexandria, where the character Albert Moreno is born in 1927, follows his expulsion from Egypt in 1956 and his arrival in Nanterre, France, in January 1957, and later his career as a jeweller on the Place Vendôme in Paris. The October 7 attack appears as the latest link in a chain the family knows from the inside, Rehov writes.

    About the author and the book

    Emet describes Yosef ISRAËL as an Israeli of French language and culture, born in Egypt. The copyright page states that the work is fiction and that real events, places and institutions may be evoked or transposed in a fictional setting. The first edition is dated 2026. The author’s website is yosefisrael-ecrivain.com.

    Where to buy

    Sources

  • Jerusalem, Israel: Excluded from AI Marketing

    Jerusalem, Israel: Excluded from AI Marketing

    By David Nataf, Stéphane Renard and Arik Idan

    Findings recorded on 29 September 2026 · Tel Aviv Apartment

    ChatGPT’s advertising tool: “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”

    Type the name of Israel’s capital into OpenAI’s new advertising tool, and the first place it offers is “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”. Next come Ohio, in the United States, and then Arkansas. Jerusalem, Israel never appears, unless the advertiser already knows how to spell its Hebrew name in Latin letters: “Yerushalayim”.

    That is the outcome of a test carried out on 29 September 2026, in OpenAI’s Ads Manager, which is still in beta. The testers have no connection with OpenAI. What follows describes only what the screen displayed that day: no AI marketing for the people of Jerusalem.

    What the tool returns

    Entering “Jerusalem” in the location field of a new campaign produces “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”, listed as a region. Two American postcodes follow, for towns named Jerusalem in Ohio and Arkansas. No suggestion points to Jerusalem in Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusalem" lists "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Regions), then postal codes 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio, United States) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas, United States). No suggestion for Jerusalem, Israel.
    Computer, 29 September 2026: “jerusalem” returns “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of”, then Ohio and Arkansas.

    The result is the same on a phone and on a computer.

    iPhone screenshot at 09:49 of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta) with the interface in French. "Israël" and "Tel-Aviv, Israel" are already selected. Typing "jerusalem" suggests "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Régions), then postal codes 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas).
    Phone, 29 September 2026, 09:49 (interface in French): the same result.

    Typing just “jerusa” already puts the Palestinian entry first. Adding the French accent, “jérusalem”, changes nothing on the computer.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusa" lists "Jerusalem, Palestine, State of" (Regions), then postal codes 6551 (Jerusalimovo, Bulgaria), 43747 (Jerusalem, Ohio, United States) and 72080 (Jerusalem, Arkansas, United States).
    “jerusa” already puts “Jerusalem, Palestine, State of” first.

    Adding “israel” does not help: “jerusalem israel” returns “No locations found”. The Hebrew name of the city fares no better.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "jerusalem israel" displays "No locations found".
    “jerusalem israel” returns “No locations found”.

    The only route the testers found is the transliteration “Yerushalayim”, which returns “Yerushalayim, Israel”, a region that can be selected. The same entry also appears among the regions listed under Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "yerushalayim" displays "Yerushalayim, Israel" (Regions).
    The transliteration “yerushalayim” returns “Yerushalayim, Israel”.

    This is not a general failure affecting Israeli cities

    Haifa and Tel Aviv appear in Israel under their usual names. “haif” offers “Haifa, Israel”; “tel aviv” offers “Tel-Aviv, Israel”. Of the Israeli cities tested, the capital is the one that cannot be found under its own name in Israel.

    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "haif" lists "Haifa, Israel" (Regions), then a postal code in Japan (859-5531, Haifukucho).
    “haif” returns “Haifa, Israel”.
    Screenshot of OpenAI Ads Manager (beta), New campaign, locations field: typing "tel aviv" displays "Tel-Aviv, Israel" (Regions).
    “tel aviv” returns “Tel-Aviv, Israel”.

    Arabic names do not close the gap. “Al Quds”, “Al-Quds”, “Quds”, the Arabic spelling, “east jerusalem” and “jerusalem palestine” all return “No locations found”. The common name leads to Palestine; the other names lead nowhere.

    Postcodes do not fix it

    The testers also checked whether Jerusalem’s postcodes worked. The Israeli postcodes for Jerusalem that they tried, for example 9100000, return no location: “No locations found”.

    What this means for Israeli business in Jerusalem

    This is not an abstract quarrel over a name. Local advertising exists so that a business can reach the people who live near it. Israeli economic life in Jerusalem includes not only the Knesset, the President’s residence and the Supreme Court, but also neighbourhood shops, traders, start-ups and independent professionals.

    Under the common name “Jerusalem”, that activity cannot be targeted in this tool, because the name resolves to Palestine. The advertiser is left with two options. Either they know the Hebrew name in Latin letters, which many will not, or they select the whole of Israel. The tool states that a campaign is shown only in the chosen locations, so the advertisement then runs far beyond the advertiser’s own city. A clinic in Jerusalem faces a choice that a clinic in Haifa or Tel Aviv does not.

    In practice, these businesses are denied localised advertising under the name of their own city. No figure is offered here for the extent of that effect. The finding is precise: what the tool displayed on one day, in a beta version.

    The effect is visible on the screen. The tool does not treat Israeli city names in the same way: two of them appear under their usual names, while the capital appears under Palestine.

    What we ask

    Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel and the seat of the Knesset, the Supreme Court and the presidency. It is the city the Jewish people have never ceased to remember. A marketing tool that advertisers use to turn clicks into sales, visits and contracts should not make that name lead to Palestine.

    OpenAI should fix this: associate “Jerusalem” with Israel in Ads Manager, and respond publicly. The tool is in beta, and betas exist to be corrected.

    Mark Bambury, Head of EMEA Ads at OpenAI, was notified of this omission on 30 September 2026.

    Until then, an Israeli shopkeeper, a start-up founder or a doctor in Jerusalem who opens the tool and types the name of their own city will be sent to Palestine, then to Ohio and Arkansas, to promote their business. That is what the screen showed on 29 September 2026.

    Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and the city that the Jewish people have never ceased to remember and where they have lived continuously since the First Temple.

  • Rehavia and Talbiyeh Church Lands: Supreme Court Ends KKL Case as Sub-Lessees Report Stalled Talks

    Rehavia and Talbiyeh Church Lands: Supreme Court Ends KKL Case as Sub-Lessees Report Stalled Talks

    By David Nataf
    26 September 2026 — Jerusalem

    Jerusalem — The legal and commercial uncertainty over the former Greek Orthodox Patriarchate lands in Rehavia, Talbiyeh and Nayot deepened this summer: on 16 July 2026 Israel’s Supreme Court refused to rehear a Patriarchate lease case brought by a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), while sub-lessees say talks over their apartments’ future have stalled. A district-court ruling reported on 20 August could, according to TheMarker, give some of them a new legal argument.

    Key facts

    • The land: about 500 dunams in Talbiyeh, Rehavia, Nayot and around Liberty Bell Park, with about 1,000 housing units, hotels and public institutions (Nadlan Center).
    • The leases: KKL-JNF leased the land from the Greek Orthodox Church in the early years of the state for up to about 99 years, ending around 2051–52; residents are sub-lessees of KKL-JNF.
    • Ownership: the Church sold the land in 2017 to a private group; in January 2023 the group sold it to Extel, controlled by US businessman Gary Barnett, for ₪750 million (Nadlan Center).
    • 16 July 2026: the Supreme Court rejected a KKL-JNF subsidiary’s request for a further hearing in a Patriarchate lease dispute; KKL-JNF will not receive the $13 million it sought (Globes).
    • Disputed claim: a sub-lessees’ forum says apartment values have fallen by 50% — a figure not independently verified.
    • 20 August 2026: TheMarker reported a Central District Court ruling on a Rehovot plot that could be invoked by Jerusalem sub-lessees.

    The Supreme Court ends one dispute

    On 16 July 2026, the Supreme Court rejected a request by a KKL-JNF subsidiary for a further hearing in a case over the extension of its lease on Patriarchate land, Globes reported. The decision leaves in place an earlier Supreme Court majority ruling that a detailed interim document, read out at a ceremony between the parties, was a stage in negotiations rather than a binding contract, because the requirements of writing, intent and specificity had not been met. As a result, KKL-JNF will not receive the $13 million it had sought, according to Globes.

    In the earlier ruling, Justice Ofer Grosskopf criticised the tendency of Israeli courts to treat interim documents as binding agreements. “We would do well to shift the direction of its movement and restore to Israeli contract law a certain measure of formalism,” he wrote, as quoted by Globes (translated from Hebrew). In rejecting the further hearing, the court said this was not a new legal rule that would justify one.

    Sub-lessees: “our values have fallen by 50%”

    More than 100 sub-lessees say that talks to settle their rights with Extel have made no progress since a change of management at KKL-JNF at the start of 2026, when Eyal Ostrinsky became chairman, Nadlan Center reported on 24 July. According to the residents, the uncertainty makes apartments hard to sell or mortgage and holds up urban-renewal projects, while the leases expire around 2050.

    “The value of our apartments has plummeted by 50%,” said Doron Shmueli, a lawyer who chairs the forum of Jerusalem KKL-JNF land lessees, quoted by Nadlan Center. The figure is his; it has not been independently verified, no transaction data supporting it was published, and neither KKL-JNF nor Extel has endorsed it. Shmueli said a direct negotiation between residents and the landowner had produced “a balanced offer” and called on KKL-JNF and the Jerusalem Municipality to join the talks.

    Residents are divided. About 200 sub-lessees have petitioned the High Court of Justice to have the leases extended, Nadlan Center reported; in September 2025 the Supreme Court declined to freeze talks between KKL-JNF and Extel but ordered KKL-JNF to hold a public hearing and share the details of any agreement with sub-lessees before signing. Others are pursuing agreements with Extel: more than 150 families have signed documents to advance arrangements, according to Nadlan Center, under outlines that would offer full ownership of new apartments after pinui-binui redevelopment, or a long-term lease extension.

    People close to Extel told Nadlan Center that “more and more residents are joining the move to secure their rights” and that “the ball is now mainly in the court of KKL-JNF and the Jerusalem Municipality.” KKL-JNF said it has held and is holding meetings with the company that acquired the land and with others “in an attempt to reach a comprehensive arrangement, while caring for the rights of the residents,” noted that proceedings are pending before the Supreme Court, and said that “significant decisions will be made in the near future.”

    A Rehovot ruling with possible Jerusalem implications

    In a separate case, the Central District Court in Lod ruled that a family holding a 1.8-dunam former orchard in Rehovot has “a leasehold right with exceptional and special aspects,” because of a transaction made with KKL-JNF in the 1950s, TheMarker reported on 20 August 2026. According to TheMarker, the ruling could be used by owners of about 1,000 apartments, public institutions and hotels in Jerusalem who are sub-lessees of KKL-JNF on the land it leases from Extel. The ruling concerns a different property; whether it would apply to the Jerusalem leases has not been tested in court.

    Why it matters for the market

    The affected streets are among Jerusalem’s most expensive. Closed-deal medians compiled by TAA from Tax Authority records put Rehavia at about ₪48,300 per square metre and Talbiyeh at about ₪42,100, with wide gaps between sources for both neighborhoods — see our Jerusalem sale prices by neighborhood. Those figures do not separate apartments on former Patriarchate land from others, so they cannot confirm or refute the sub-lessees’ claim.

    Related: Jerusalem sale prices by neighborhood · Jerusalem hub

    Sources

    1. Globes — The Greek Patriarchate and the Jerusalem lands: there will be no further hearing (Jennifer Sylon, 16 July 2026, Hebrew)
    2. Nadlan Center — “Apartment values plummeted 50%”: church-land lessees in Jerusalem accuse KKL (Dror Nir Kastel, 24 July 2026, Hebrew)
    3. TheMarker — Precedent-setting ruling on a Rehovot orchard could shake land ownership in the heart of Jerusalem (Simi Spolter, 20 Aug. 2026, Hebrew)

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