News Digest — 9/29/26
Crowds Take To The Streets Of Jerusalem For Annual Sukkot March
Thousands of residents, families, and visitors from across Israel filled the streets and scenic areas of Jerusalem on Monday (28th), taking part in the traditional Jerusalem March held annually during the Sukkot holiday.
Participants followed a variety of routes passing through the city’s urban nature sites, scenic overlooks, and historic landscapes. The march culminated at Sacher Park, which hosted a large festive celebration for families. The main event featured live musical performances, entertainment for children and adults, creative workshops, and various holiday attractions.
Over the years, the march has become one of the city’s most prominent Sukkot traditions to experience Jerusalem’s unique holiday atmosphere.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion welcomed the crowds, saying: “It was inspiring to see thousands of marchers, families and visitors fill Jerusalem today, turning the Jerusalem March into a grand celebration of our capital and the Sukkot holiday. The millions who have visited Jerusalem since the start of Elul know that Jerusalem is the place to be, especially during this season. I am thrilled to see the streets full, families enjoying themselves, and Jerusalem celebrating. Chag Sameach.”
The Jewish holiday of Sukkot began at sundown Friday, Sept. 25th and runs through Friday, Oct. 2nd at sundown.
Thousands Visit Samaria Sites For Sukkot
Chol Hamoed Sukkot opened Sunday (27th) with a surge of visitors across Samaria.
From the morning hours of the first day of the holiday, thousands of families from across Israel began filling the region’s nature sites, parks, heritage centers, and springs, celebrating the festival in the heartland of biblical Israel.
Among the main sites drawing heavy traffic from early morning was the Alon Moreh Heritage Center, where visitors experienced the challenging leadership park and the new promenade, and agricultural farms that opened their gates to the public.
Large numbers of visitors also came to springs throughout Samaria, including Yedidya Park in Revava, the Heroism Trail at Tel Menashe and Einot Amit and Ein Kfir.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council said: “The land of Samaria is embracing today the many visitors who came to celebrate Sukkot with us. Our ultimate answer to all the challenges from within and without is exactly this: to continue hiking, to continue building, and to connect all segments of the nation to the biblical land. I invite all of Israel to keep coming here in the coming days as well, to experience and be moved with us.”
The highlight of the holiday events will take place Wednesday (30th), when the “Samaria March” sets out, a mass hike and celebration for the whole family in the moving expanses of the northern Samaria communities of Kedim, Ganim, and Noa.
The march will include an experiential nature route, performances by leading artists, activity stations, inflatables, and a host of family attractions.
The Jewish holiday of Sukkot began at sundown Friday, Sept. 25th and runs through Friday Oct. 2nd at sundown.
Israel Summons Spanish Diplomat Over Minister’s ‘River To The Sea Remarks’
Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Spain’s charge d’affaires, Francisca Pedros on Monday (28th) to protest remarks by Spanish Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Abed Rego.
The Foreign Ministry said Rego had claimed that the Spanish public supports a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.” a statement used by pro-Palestinian Arabs and long viewed as a statement calling for the destruction of Israel.
The ministry accused the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of pursuing a “systematic anti-Israel policy” and pointed to Rego’s previous refusal to condemn the oOctober 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. It also noted that Israel barred her from entering the country in September 2025.
“The Spanish government has lost its moral compass,” the Foreign Ministry said, accusing Madrid of turning Israel into “a punching bag for its foreign policy.”
The ministry further accused Spain of backing a position that “entails the destruction of the State of Israel” while criticizing Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and Hamas.
The diplomatic dispute is the latest in a series of clashes between Jerusalem and Madrid. In November 2023, Israel summoned Spain’s ambassador after Sanchez claimed that “Israel is violating international law and is carrying out indiscriminate killings in Gaza.
Sanchez again criticized Israel in April 2024, describing its response in the Gaza war as “disproportionate” and warning that it could “destabilize the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world.”
The following month, Spanish Foreign MinisterJose Manuel Albares called for international sanctions against Israel over the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Record Number Of States Boycott UN Event For 25th Anniversary Of Anti-Israel Durban Conference
More than 40 countries boycotted a UN event on Monday (28th) marking 25 years since the 2001 anti-Israel Durban Conference. That set a new record, surpassing the previous high of 38 countries that skipped the event in 2021, according to the Israeli delegation to the United Nations.
The boycott followed a diplomatic campaign led by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which encouraged countries around the world to avoid the event.
The anniversary should serve as a reminder of what happens when the fight against racism is politicized, according to Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the global body.
“The lesson of Durban is that a noble cause can lose all credibility when it is hijacked by hatred and political agendas,” Danon told JNS. “The fight against racism must never become a vehicle for antisemitism or for singling out the Jewish state.”
“Twenty five years later, the growing number of countries boycotting the event shows that many members of the international community understand where Durban went wrong,” he said.
“The United Nations must now demonstrate that it understands as well,” he told JNS. “That means confronting antisemitism with the same seriousness as every other form of racism, rather than providing it with a platform and calling it human rights.”
The 2001 World Conference Against Racism took place in Durban, South Africa, under the UN auspices. It was intended to address racism, radical discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance but drew criticism from Israel, the United States and Jewish organizations over antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric at a parallel nongovernmental-organization forum.
A US State Department report to Congress said anti-Israel rhetoric at the conference was “pervasive” and cited South Africa’s then-deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, as acknowledging that the forum had been “hijacked” by participants with an anti-Israel agenda and turned into an antisemitic event.
The US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the United States was withdrawing from the conference on Sept. 3, 2001, since its declaration contained “hateful language,” revived the discredited “Zionism equals racism” formulation, suggested that apartheid existed in Israel and singled out Israel for condemnation.
Evan R. Bernstein, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, which sent a large delegation to the 2001 conference, told JNS on Monday (28th) that B’nai B’rith representatives witnessed firsthand “how a United Nations conference meant to fight racism became a platform for the very hatred it was supposed to confront.”
“Durban’s legacy is 25 years of legitimizing the demonization of Israel and the Jewish people, and the record boycott shows much of the world is finally refusing to celebrate it,” Bernstein said.
The conference‘s legacy continues to affect perceptions of Israel and Jews internationally, according to the B’nai B’rith leader.
“That is the real legacy of Durban,” he told JNS. “It did not advance the fight against racism. Instead, it gave international cover to the modern demonization of Israel and the Jewish people.”
A spokesman for the American Jewish Committee also criticized the UN commemoration.
“At a time when antisemitic incidents have reached record levels and anti-Zionist invective is leading to horrific violence against Jews, the world cannot afford to see the toxicity of the Durban conference repeated yet again,” the group told JNS.
“AJC will continue to stress to governments that they must not tolerate an approach to mobilizing global support for combating racism that has repeatedly provided a pretext for bad actors to demonize and delegitimize Israel and invite and legitimize hatred of and violence against Jews,” the spokesman said.
(jns.org)
‘We Cannot Be Defeated:’ Hezbollah Chief Rallies Supporters 2 years After Nasrallah Killing
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem told supporters gathered in Lebanon on Sunday (27th) to mark two years since the killing of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, that Israel had been unable to break his Iran-backed terror group.
The terrorist organization was weakened after an all-out war with Israel in 2024, but regrouped and drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict in March this year by attacking Israel, which responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon has said have killed more than 4,300 people. Lebanon’s figures do not differentiate between civilian and Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah has demonstrated that Israel and its soldiers “were unable to achieve their goals to break the resistance, end its existence, consolidate the Israeli occupation and establish settlements in Lebanon,” Qassem said in a televised speech broadcast at the gathering.
Tens of thousands of people, some carrying Hezbollah, Lebanese and Iranian flags or pictures of Nasrallah, rallied at the Commemorative event near the slain leader’s tomb in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel bombed during conflicts this year and in 2024.
Some of the crowd chanted, “Death to America, death to Israel.”
Nasrallah was revered by his supporters, but headed a terrorist group whose armed wing is blacklisted by many Western capitals. He was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, 2024.
The assassination came during more than two months of all-out war that pummeled Hezbollah and decimated its top leadership.
Nasrallah’s chosen successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was also being commemorated on Sunday (27th), was killed in another strike days after his predecessor.
The latest hostilities have further weakened the group.
Ali Nasser, 30, from Haddatha in south Lebanon, said, “This is a historic day. Every year we commemorate it to renew our pledge“ to Nasrallah “that we are walking along his path.” The former chief “illuminated the path for us and God willing, we’ll carry on… these crowds are proof of our continuation and our loyalty to the pledge,” he added.
After a November 2024 ceasefire, Lebanese authorities committed to disarming Hezbollah, and banned the group’s military activities after it drew Lebanon into this year’s Middle East war.
Violence in Lebanon has decreased since a fragile ceasefire was announced in June after the signing of a US-Iran understanding on the broader conflict.
Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement later that month under which Hezbollah was supposed to disarm and the Lebanese military to deploy in pilot zones in southern Lebanon as Israel withdraws.
But progress has largely stalled. Israel has said it will not fully withdraw as long as Hezbollah remains a threat.
“We are ready for dialogue and discussion, but first, liberate the south, and let the people return,” Qassem said.
He said that with the framework agreement, “the authorities are helping the Israel-US project instead of confronting it.”
“All the pressure on Lebanon today aims to accomplish what Israel was unable to achieve over two years,” he said, adding that the Lebanese national army should not be used as “a tool” against the group.
Israel has continued carrying out strikes and maintains troops in what it describes as a security zone extending six miles inside southern Lebanon.
Israel says the zone is intended to prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing positions from which it could fire on or infiltrate northern Israeli communities.
Qassem said holding on to positions “is not the main objective” for his group, after Israel carried out detonations this month to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure on the strategic ali al-Yaher ridge.
The IDF said that the tunnel network served as the “nerve center” of Hezbollah’s Badr regional division and was intended to support surveillance and fire on northern Israel, as well as a potential ground assault into the Galilee.
“With the great sacrifices that we have made up until now, we can only keep going, and we cannot be defeated,” Qassem vowed.
At the event, Ibrahim Hijazi, 56, from Blida in southern Lebanon, a border town currently occupied by Israel, said that “this is a sacred occasion for us.”
“We lost someone dear to us, but we are thankful that Sheikh Naim Qassem and others are here,” he said.
“We are continuing this path… we will carry on even if we all become martyrs.”
