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Teaneck, New Jersey, looked a little like the West Bank on Sunday. Whose fault that is depends on who you ask. But one thing is clear: It began with a real estate fair.

A few weeks ago, a group called My Home in Israel Real Estate announced plans to hold a series of real estate fairs encouraging Americans to buy property in Israel and the West Bank, where the Israeli government has confiscated land from Palestinians. Rich Siegel, a Jewish activist for Palestinian rights, vowed at a Teaneck Township Council meeting to organize a protest against My Home in Israel when it came to town.

My Home in Israel had rented out the local Keter Torah synagogue for its Teaneck exhibition. Fearing the worst, Teaneck’s government called in police from around Bergen County and closed the roads around the synagogue. On the day of the event, a heavy police presence separated protesters with Palestinian flags from counterprotesters with Israeli flags.

Although the protest organizers were focused on the real estate fair, the protest became a much broader airing of Israeli and Palestinian grievances, accompanied by plenty of boorish behavior on both sides. At one point, a pro-Israeli demonstrator yelled “Fuck your mother” in Arabic, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators shouted “Son of a bitch” back at him in Hebrew.

Two people were arrested for spraying an unknown liquid at people passing by the real estate fair, according a statement posted on Facebook by the Teaneck Police Department. A group of pro-Israeli counterprotesters confronts a pro-Palestinian protest in Teaneck, New Jersey on March 10, 2024. (Matthew Petti)

Teaneck, a suburb of New York City, is a famously diverse town. (It was the first in New Jersey to desegregate its schools .) And owing to its many immigrant communities, Teaneck has often dipped into foreign policy issues. In 2022, the town had a heated debate after its local Democratic Party chapter voted to condemn Hindu nationalism.

But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the most contentious issue in Teaneck politics, and every round of controversy seems to be an escalation over the previous one. In 2021, an Israeli flag-raising ceremony provoked a low-key counterprotest that barely made the local news. It was a far cry from Sunday’s loud clashes.

Earlier this year, the federal government got involved in Teaneck’s Israeli-Palestinian debate. After local high schoolers held a pro-Palestinian rally, township council members pushed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D N.J.) to condemn the “antisemitic, anti-Israel protest during school hours.” (I covered the controversy for The Intercept .) At Gottheimer’s urging, the Department of Education opened a Title VI investigation into the teens.

These disputes have allegedly descended into shit flinging, both metaphorical and literal. Unknown vandals have “repeatedly” thrown bags of feces onto the lawns of pro-Palestinian activists, claimed protest organizer Adam Weissman, who is Jewish and supports the Palestinian cause. Last year, after a school board member was accused of censoring pro-Israeli voices, she called one of her critics ” pencil dick ” on camera.

Siegel brought the real estate fair to protesters’ attention at a February 27 town council meeting . He pointed out that My Home in Israel was advertising properties in the West Bank. Siegel argued that, because Israel took the land through military conquest, selling such property would violate international law.

The website for My Home in Israel says the tour is “focusing on” several Israeli cities and three West Bank settlements: Neve Daniel, Efrat, and Ma’ale Adumim. Event organizer Gidon Katz told NorthJersey.com that to call any of the locations “stolen land is to deny the existence of the State of Israel.”

All three of those West Bank settlements were built at least partially on land that the Israeli government seized from Palestinian farmers or shepherds after conquering the West Bank in 1967. Last month, the U.S. State Department reiterated its position that the settlements are an illegal land grab . Last week, the Israeli army declared an additional four square kilometers outside of Ma’ale Adumim to be “state land.”

Siegel argued that the war in Gaza, which has left Teaneck residents “in deep mourning,” has made it an especially bad time to hold the exhibition.

“What this real estate event is going to do is it’s going to fan the flames,” he said. “If it goes forward, there will be a demonstration. I know there’s going to be a demonstration because I’m going to organize it. It will be very well attended.”

A video of Siegel’s speech, reposted by the Instagram page Teaneck for Palestine, quickly went viral . Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls shared a video of Siegel, and the news channel AJ+ ran its own interview with Siegel. It would be a well-attended protest indeed.

On the day of the real estate fair, security politely turned me away at the door, stating that news media would not be allowed inside. So instead, I spoke to pro-Israeli counterprotesters who had gathered along the protesters’ planned route.

Though they were eager to share their general feelings on the conflictthat Israel wanted peace and the Palestinian cause was violentthey were far more shy about defending the real estate sale on the merits. When I pressed them on the question, several pro-Israeli demonstrators argued that governments had the right to take land by force.

“There was a war, and they [Palestinians] lost,” said a man named Jacob, who did not provide his last name. “I’m sorry, but that’s the entire world.”

A woman named Julie, who also did not give her last name, said she supported a two-state solution, which meant that Palestinians could have an independent nation-state alongside Israel. But she insisted that Palestinian land in the West Bank was “disputed property. It’s not property that belongs to them.”

When I asked her about specific land confiscations, Julie called over her friend Dave, who told me that the West Bank is “ours. It’s biblical land. Go and read the Bible.” A third woman who was with him added that “wars happen everywhere. Borders have changed all the time.” Then she insisted that she has many “Arab friends.”

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were gathering at the Teaneck Armory, a public park 1.4 miles away from the synagogue. Alice Golim, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace who helped organize the protest, held a banner that said “Palestine is not for sale” in Hebrew. She told me that “selling land in the occupied territories is morally a shame.” Two members of Jewish Voice for Peace walk ahead of a protest in Teaneck, New Jersey on March 10, 2024. (Matthew Petti)

 

Bergen County Jewish Action Committee President Emma Horowitz had earlier told NorthJersey.com that “the idea of protesting a synagogue should be something that shocks all of us.” When I asked Golim about that, she called it “awkward” that the real estate fair was being held in a house of worship.

In addition to opposing the sale of Palestinian land, Golim wanted the Israeli government to hear that there will be “no business as usual until they cease what they’re doing in Gaza, work to have the hostages released, and allow humanitarian aid.”

Some supporters had a more hardline anti-Israel message. Protesters chanted “We don’t want no two states, we want 48,” referring to the lands that became Israel after its 1948 independence war. A woman wearing a Palestinian scarf held up a banner that said “From the river to the sea, there will be no Israeli.” She declined to answer my questions.

Weissman told me the sign was not an officially approved part of the protest. But, unprompted, he began to defend its message. “No Palestinian will say that they believe Palestine should be cleansed of Jews,” he said. “If you talk to Jews in Palestine who are critical of Israel, they don’t call themselves Israelis, they call themselves Palestinian Jews.”

He cited the example of Neturei Karta, a Jewish group that rejects the State of Israel on fundamentalist religious grounds. Many mebers live in Jerusalem and fly Palestinian flags . Their beliefs are considered fringe in both Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

As the protest moved from the armory towards the real estate fair, a long line of police cars kept the protesters and counterprotesters separated. The pro-Palestinian protest organizers, who wore reflective vests, intervened several times to prevent angry protesters from going over the pro-Israeli side.

The two sides spent the half-hour march flinging taunts at each other across the police line. A pro-Palestinian protester held up a sign that said “There’s plenty of land in hell.” A group of pro-Israeli counterprotesters chanted “human shields” while a group of protesters held up photos of fallen Palestinian children.

At a few points, the protest looked like it was going to cause clashes with locals in their own homes.

When a local started to film the protest from his house, a man draped in a Palestinian flag walked up to his driveway and started to yell, “Come outside, bitch!” Organizers talked the protester down. “Let them film,” Weissman said. “What do we have to hide?”

Later, the same scene repeated on the other side. A local shouted “Free Palestine” from her window, and a group of counterprotesters wearing Israeli flags stepped onto her lawn. “Free what? Why don’t you come outside!” one of them shouted. After a few seconds, they apparently got bored and walked away.

At the end of the day, that was the difference between Teaneck and the West Bank. For all the strong feelings and even personal connections that Teaneck residents had towards the region, everyone involved could choose to walk away.

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Bitcoin’s physical infrastructure is the industry’s most overlooked asset

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Bitcoin’s physical infrastructure is the industry’s most overlooked asset

Bitcoin’s physical infrastructure is the industry’s most overlooked asset

Opinion by: Scott Buchanan, chief operating officer of Bitcoin Depot

A new proposal to install Bitcoin ATMs in federal buildings highlights an important question: Can crypto truly go mainstream without a stronger physical presence? For years, the industry has focused on software and decentralization, but its reluctance to invest in real-world infrastructure is starting to show. Without physical access points, crypto risks becoming an exclusive, insiders-only system, rather than the open alternative it sets out to be.

Everyone loves to talk about decentralization. There’s a good reason behind this. It defines the movement, shapes the technology, and supports the vision of a better financial system. While the industry focuses on code and algorithms, it lacks something basic. A decentralized system that exists only online is not genuinely decentralized.

Physical infrastructure is the missing link

Bitcoin’s physical infrastructure is the missing link. Without tools like ATMs, kiosks and access points at traditional retail locations, crypto remains out of reach for millions. Decentralization is not just about removing intermediaries. True decentralization requires expanding access. Without real-world touchpoints, even the most advanced network becomes limited to a closed circle of insiders.

Recent: Arizona governor kills two crypto bills, cracks down on Bitcoin ATMs

For crypto to become mainstream, it must be easy to reach digitally and physically. That means showing up in places people already go and seamlessly integrating into people’s lives. Many groups in the American population still rely on cash or don’t have access to traditional banks. According to the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation report, around 5.6 million American households don’t have a bank or savings account. Bitcoin ATMs give these users access without needing an app, a bank account or a crash course in blockchain. Most crypto tools today assume a level of financial fluency and infrastructure that millions simply do not have. The result is a digital-only ecosystem that locks out newcomers and widens the divide between early adopters and everyone else.

User-friendly screen in the right place

Physical infrastructure helps address this issue. A Bitcoin ATM in a grocery store or gas station is not just a convenience but a bridge to financial inclusion. It is an invitation to someone who has never bought crypto, telling them they can participate. No bank, no broker, just a user-friendly screen in a familiar place.

These machines also generate new economic activity. Local businesses benefit from increased foot traffic as the kiosks create passive revenue. For many communities, they provide access to a parallel financial system that was previously out of reach. This is a tangible example of crypto’s real-world utility. It is already happening, and it is measurable.

The crypto industry’s blind spot

The industry often treats physical infrastructure like an afterthought. The obsession with building new digital solutions has created a blind spot. Innovation without usability builds systems that serve the few but exclude the many. If someone can buy Bitcoin (BTC) at the same place they buy their morning coffee, that is when crypto stops feeling like an obscure digital asset and starts becoming part of everyday life.

As governments increase regulation, trusted and transparent interfaces will become more important. When operated within regulatory frameworks, Bitcoin ATMs offer a way to provide access between traditional finance and digital assets. They are familiar, easy to monitor and offer a more approachable entry point for the general public.

Like any financial tool, Bitcoin ATMs have drawn scrutiny, particularly in cases where bad actors use them. Rather than dismissing the machines themselves, we should focus on investing in better oversight, stronger consumer education and smarter regulation. The overwhelming majority of people who use Bitcoin ATMs do so for legitimate reasons: to send remittances, to move money securely or to access digital assets without traditional banking barriers. Building trust does not mean avoiding or dismantling physical access, but improving it.

The first time someone uses Bitcoin should not involve reading a white paper or navigating a tutorial. It should be as familiar as using an ATM or tapping a payment terminal. This is not an argument against innovation. Software and protocols will continue to evolve and play an important role. Physical infrastructure provides something those tools cannot: trust through presence. When people can see and use crypto in their neighborhood, at a store they already visit or in a format they already understand, it changes how they think about crypto and who it is for. 

According to Coin ATM Radar, there are over 30,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the US. It’s a meaningful start, but still only a small step toward widespread access. 

Crypto’s long-term success will depend not just on innovation but also on inclusion. That means building more than networks; it means building presence. When people can interact with crypto in the physical world, it stops being abstract and becomes usable. That is how digital finance becomes everyday finance.

Opinion by: Scott Buchanan, chief operating officer of Bitcoin Depot.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption

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Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption

Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption

The Katana Foundation, a nonprofit focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) development, is launching its private mainnet, aiming to unlock greater crypto asset productivity via deeper liquidity and higher yields for users.

The Katana Foundation launched a DeFi-optimized, private blockchain, Katana, on May 28, incubated by GSR Markets and Polygon Labs, with the public mainnet launch set for June.

The new blockchain will enable users to earn higher yields and explore DeFi in a “unique, optimized yield environment” that unlocks latent value through an ecosystem that makes every digital asset “work harder,” according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

“DeFi users deserve ecosystems that prioritize sustainable liquidity and consistent ‘real’ yields,” wrote Marc Boiron, the CEO of Polygon Labs and core contributor at Katana, adding: 

“Katana’s user-centric model turns inefficiencies into advantages, establishing a truly positive-sum environment for builders and participants alike.”

Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption
Source: Katana

Katana aims to solve the crypto industry’s liquidity fragmentation issue, which can cause significant price slippage, as one of the main barriers limiting institutional DeFi participation

Related: Here’s how abstraction minimizes fragmentation in DeFi, making it more fluid

To reduce the value slippage in DeFi, Katana’s blockchain concentrates the liquidity from numerous protocols and collects yields on all potential sources to create an ecosystem with deeper liquidity and more predictable lending and borrowing rates.

Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption
2025 Institutional Investor
Digital Assets Survey. Source: EY-Parthenon

Institutional participation in DeFi is set to triple over the next two years to 75% from 24% of 350 surveyed institutional investors, according to management consulting firm EY-Parthenon.

To tackle the growing institutional liquidity needs, Katana’s liquidity pool is composed of multiple protocols, including lending protocol Morpho, decentralized exchange (DEX) Sushi and perpetual DEX Vertex, enabling users to trade “blue-chip assets” without needing crosschain transfers.

Katana has also incorporated Conduit’s sequences and Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network.

Related: Polygon CEO: DeFi must ditch hype for sustainable liquidity

Katana to compound DeFi yield from “Ethereum-based opportunities”

Katana aims to boost sustainable yield by building a cohesive DeFi ecosystem. For instance, VaultBridge deploys bridged assets into overcollateralized, curated lending strategies on Ethereum via Mopho to earn yield, which is routed back and compounded on Katana.

The protocol will reinvest network fees and a portion of application revenue back into its ecosystem.

“This reduces reliance on short-term incentives, generates consistent yield, and as it grows, acts as an increasingly stable backstop during periods of volatility and liquidity shocks,” Polygon Labs’ Boiron told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Yield is distributed pro-rata to each chain using VaultBridge protocol based on their share of total deposits into VaultBridge.”

“So if Katana supplies 20% of the total vault deposits, it receives 20% of the yield back,” he added.

Katana will subsequently allocate its share of yield to users through boosted DeFi incentives across “core apps” such as Sushi, Morpho or Vertex. The yield is generated from “Ethereum-based opportunities and then enhanced through Katana’s core applications,” said Boiron.

Polygon Labs’ CEO previously criticized DeFi protocols for fueling a cycle of “mercenary capital” by offering sky-high annual percentage yields (APYs) through token emissions. 

Beyond infrastructure-related limitations, regulatory uncertainty remains another significant barrier to institutional DeFi adoption.

Polygon-backed, high-yield blockchain launches for institutional adoption
2025 Institutional Investor
Digital Assets Survey. Source: EY-Parthenon

Regulatory concerns were the main barrier to entry, flagged by 57% of institutional investors as the main reason for not planning to participate in DeFi activities.

Magazine: DeFi will rise again after memecoins die down: Sasha Ivanov, X Hall of Flame

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Hamas’s Gaza chief ‘eliminated’, says Netanyahu – but military sources say they cannot confirm death

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Hamas's Gaza chief 'eliminated', says Netanyahu - but military sources say they cannot confirm death

Hamas’s Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been “eliminated”, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Israeli military sources have said they are not yet able to confirm the death.

Hamas has also not yet confirmed the apparent killing of its leader.

Meanwhile, with Gaza on the brink of famine, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations broke down in tears as he spoke of the suffering of its people.

Riyad Mansour
Image:
Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour broke down in tears as he spoke of the suffering of people in Gaza

Riyah Mansour told the Security Council: “Children are dying of starvation. The images of mothers embracing their motionless bodies. Caressing their hair, talking to them, apologising to them, is unbearable.”

He added: “I have grandchildren. I know what they mean to their families. And to see this situation over the Palestinians without us having hearts to do something is beyond the ability of any normal human being to tolerate. Flames and hunger are devouring Palestinian children. This is why we are so outraged as Palestinians everywhere.”

Sinwar was one of Israel‘s most wanted and the younger brother of the Palestinian militant group’s former leader Yahya Sinwar.

The older sibling was the mastermind of the October 7 2023 attack, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, with around 250 others taken hostage into Gaza.

The attack triggered Israel’s assault on Gaza which decimated the territory, with more than 53,000 people killed, mostly women and children, and over two million displaced, according to health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally of fatalities.

Yahya Sinwar.
File pic: AP
Image:
Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel in October 2024. File pic: AP

Yahya Sinwar was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops in Gaza last October. His younger sibling was believed to have then become the head of Hamas’s armed wing.

Speaking to the Knesset on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu included Mohammed Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli strikes. Later, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sources said they were not yet able to confirm the death.

The prime minister said: “We have killed tens of thousands of terrorists. We killed (Mohammed) Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar.” He did not elaborate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a news conference on 21 May. Pic: AP
Image:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s claimed could not be confirmed. Pic: AP

Mohammed Sinwar had reportedly been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza on 13 May and Mr Netanyahu said on 21 May that it was likely he had been killed.

The Israeli military had said it struck a Hamas command centre under the European Hospital in the Sinwars’ hometown of Khan Younis, and it declined to comment on whether Sinwar was targeted or killed.

At least six people were killed in the strike and 40 wounded, Gaza’s health ministry said at the time.

Sinwar rose through ranks

Like his older brother, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas after it was founded in the late 1980s as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He became a member of the group’s military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades.

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Sinwar rose through the ranks to become a member of its so-called joint chiefs of staff, bringing him close to its longtime commander, Deif, who was killed in a strike last year.

Read more from Sky News:
Humanitarian chief talks of Gaza ‘catastrophe’
UN boss condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza

“In the last two days, we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” the Israeli leader told the Knesset.

Mr Netanyahu also spoke about how Israel was “taking control of food distribution”, a reference to a new aid distribution system that has been criticised and boycotted by humanitarian groups and the UN.

One killed at site of aid hub

The development comes after one person was killed and 48 others injured when forces opened fire on a crowd that overwhelmed an aid hub in Gaza, according to local health officials.

Palestinians have become increasingly desperate for food after almost three months of Israeli border closures. A blockade has recently been eased.

People broke through fences around the distribution site on Wednesday, and a journalist with the Associated Press said they heard Israeli tank and gunfire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.

It was not yet known whether the death and injuries were caused by Israeli forces, private contractors or others.

The Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which set up the hub outside Rafah, said its military contractors had not fired on the crowd but “fell back” before resuming aid operations. Israel said its troops nearby had fired warning shots.

The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system, saying it will not meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food to control the population.

Israel has vowed to seize control of Gaza and fight until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and exiled, and until the militant group returns the last 58 hostages, including around a third thought to be still alive.

‘This is a man-made catastrophe’

Meanwhile, a US trauma surgeon who has been working in Gaza urged the UN Security Council to not “claim ignorance” about the humanitarian devastation.

Dr Feroze Sidhwa said: “Let’s not forget, this is a man-made catastrophe. It is entirely preventable. Participating in it or not allowing it to happen is a choice.

“This is a deliberate denial of conditions necessary for life: food, shelter, water and medicine. Preventing genocide means refusing to normalise these atrocities.”

The UN World Health Organization has documented around 700 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centres and to hide fighters.

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