In 2024, after the Glastonbury Festival, Sarah, a Jewish artist who works in the events industry, was added to a Signal messaging group. That was not in itself unusual, she told me – “people looking for work, people looking to join spaces.” But the group, which was originally named ‘Cobra’, soon developed into something else. “They basically were creating a plan in August last year. The original text was, ‘we need to go to the Boom [festival in Portugal] and disrupt these Zionist IOF people who are going to come after killing babies’. And it just got worse.”
By the time she was kicked out of the group ten days or so ago, there were around 25 people in it – including a couple of sympathetic individuals who have still fed her information. And Sarah [her name has been changed for confidentiality], tells me something else. “They were all British”.
The story first broke on Monday evening, when the Israeli broadcaster, Kan, aired an interview with Sarah, her face blurred. I managed to speak to her on Tuesday, and was sent screenshots of some of the comments and statements that had been made in the signal group.
At first, they look like the general detritus one finds on social media. One includes a link to the Boom festival website and says: “Would be good if we can target this festival with e-mails to find out what they are doing to support the cultural boycott against the Zionist entity.” Another says “A vile people. The day that the Zionist entity is erased...
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unveiled charges against 11 Eastern Europeans they accused of running a sophisticated, $10.6 billion Medicare fraud scheme in what appears to be one of the largest ...