An Israeli court has ordered Jewish New Zealander Justine Sachs and Palestinian New Zealander Nadia Abu Shanab to pay thousands after Lorde cancelled a Tel Aviv concert.
The pair had written an open letter to Lorde on New Zealand website The Spinoff last December, asking the singer to cancel her upcoming concert, and eloquently explaining their reasons, as both a Jew who opposes Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people, and a Palestinian, with many family and friends still living under occupation.
In a separate article on the site today the pair reveal that Israel's court has ordered them to pay $12,000 in damages to three Israeli teenagers who allegedly suffered "emotional damage" as a result of Lorde's eventual cancellation of her gig, following protests from pressure groups, ordinary citizens and fellow musicians such as Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel.
The pair say that they will not be paying the fine, having taken legal advice to the effect that “Israel has no right to police the political opinions of people across the world.” They also add that they consider the court ruling to be a PR stunt designed to intimidate Israel’s opponents around the world.
If the ruling was intended to attract attention, it has certainly succeeded, but perhaps not in the way Israel intended. Sachs and Abu-Shanab say that, since the verdict was made public earlier today, they have been swamped with offers of financial support from all over the world.
Consequently, although they have no intention of paying the fine, they’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $12,000, or more, for The Gaza Mental Health Foundation, which financially supports the work of grassroots organisations such as The Gaza Community Mental Health Program.
The Foundation will send donations in their entirety to organisations which are providing vital mental health support to the traumatised families of the Gaza Strip, where over half of children suffer from PTSD as a result of Israeli attacks.
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Does the cultural boycott of Israel work?
Natalie Portman forces cancellation of award ceremony in Israel
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
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Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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