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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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Caerphilly by-election: Will Plaid or Reform have last laugh in Tommy Cooper’s birthplace?

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Caerphilly by-election: Will Plaid or Reform have last laugh in Tommy Cooper's birthplace?

Caerphilly is famous for three Cs: coal, cheese and its mighty castle. It’s also the birthplace of the legendary comedian Tommy Cooper.

And after Thursday’s Senedd by-election, in what was once a Labour stronghold as impregnable as the castle, it’s Plaid Cymru or Reform UK that will have the last laugh.

It may not be a Westminster by-election, but this clash will have an impact on UK politics way beyond the Welsh valleys if Nigel Farage’s party triumphs.

iStock file pic
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iStock file pic

A Reform UK victory would strengthen claims that Mr Farage and his insurgents are poised to inflict massive damage on Labour and the Conservatives in elections next year and beyond.

Victory in the valleys would intensify fears among the other parties that Reform UK’s boasts about winning the next general election are not the fantasy that its opponents claim.

On a campaign visit to Caerphilly, Mr Farage – inevitably – posed for photographs in front of a 9ft tall bronze statue of Tommy Cooper, who died in 1984.

But the by-election is no laughing matter for Labour, which has seen its support in this by-election crumble like Caerphilly cheese.

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Mr Farage announcing Llyr Powell as the Reform candidate earlier this year
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Mr Farage announcing Llyr Powell as the Reform candidate earlier this year

Labour has held the Westminster seat of Caerphilly since 1918 and the Senedd seat since devolution in 1999. Ron Davies, said to be the architect of Welsh devolution, was MP from 1983 to 2001.

He was Welsh secretary under Tony Blair from 1997 until he quit over what he called a “moment of madness” in 1998 when he was mugged at knifepoint on London’s Clapham Common.

For the front-runner Reform UK, not even the conviction of its former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, for taking pro-Russian bribes seems to have halted the march of Mr Farage’s party towards the brink of a stunning victory.

Mr Gill, who led Reform UK in Wales in 2021, admitted taking bribes to make statements in favour of Vladimir Putin’s Russia while he was a member of the European Parliament.

Questioned during a visit to Caerphilly, Mr Farage said: “Any political party can find in their midst all sorts of terrible people. Gill is particularly shocking because I knew him as a devout Christian, very clean-living, honest person. So I’m deeply shocked.”

Despite this bribery scandal, the latest opinion poll in the constituency suggested a narrow Reform UK victory, with Mr Farage’s party on 42%, Plaid Cymru on 38% and Labour languishing on a dismal 12%.

But with Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Green Party out of contention in a two-horse race, Reform UK’s candidate Llŷr Powell could be vulnerable to tactical voting for Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle.

Ron Davies, the 'architect of Welsh devolution', was MP for Caerphilly. File pic: Reuters
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Ron Davies, the ‘architect of Welsh devolution’, was MP for Caerphilly. File pic: Reuters

Turnout could be crucial. A low turnout is likely to help Plaid Cymru win. A high turnout could mean Reform’s opinion poll leads, both nationally and locally, are reliable and could hand victory to Mr Farage.

But Plaid has come second in every Senedd election in Caerphilly and Mr Whittle can’t be faulted for perseverance and dogged determination. Until now, he’s had a miserable record as a candidate, both for Westminster and the Senedd.

Aged 72, he has stood in Caerphilly in every general election since 1983, no fewer than 10 times, and in every Welsh Assembly election since it was formed in 1999 – seven times.

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Dubbed “Mr Caerphilly” by his party, he was council leader and assembly member for South Wales East between 2011 and 2016.

Interviewed by Sky News back in 2003, the year of Tony Blair’s Iraq war, he said: “People are obviously very unhappy with the health service. They’re unhappy with the way the Labour Party are drifting to the right.

“They’re unhappy with the treatment of the ex-miners and their compensation claims. They’re unhappy with the treatment of the firemen. They’re unhappy that we’ve just gone to war.”

The by-election could indicate how Labour will fare in future elections. Pic: Reuters
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The by-election could indicate how Labour will fare in future elections. Pic: Reuters

Reform UK’s Mr Powell, on the other hand, is just 30 and is relatively inexperienced as a candidate. He was a Tory candidate in local elections in Cardiff in 2022.

But he was also active in Mr Farage’s UKIP and Brexit Party and worked for the now disgraced Gill as a constituency caseworker while Gill was an MEP. He now says Mr Gill’s actions were “abhorrent” and “a betrayal”.

For Labour, despite its long dominance in Caerphilly, this campaign couldn’t have gone any worse. As well as battling against the unpopularity of both Sir Keir Starmer and the Welsh government, the council’s Labour leader, Sean Morgan, defected to Plaid Cymru during the campaign.

So, like many two-horse races, this political dash to the finishing line could be neck and neck.

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

Of Caerphilly’s three Cs, coal is long gone. The last mine, Penallta collier, closed in 1991, though there’s a proud history of coal mining.

Back in 1913, tragedy struck when the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd was the site of the UK’s worst mining accident, when 439 miners and a rescuer were killed in an explosion.

But Caerphilly could be about to make history once more, with either a massive stride forward on the road to Downing Street for Mr Farage or Labour surrendering power to the Welsh nationalists in Cardiff after more than a quarter of a century.

And, as Caerphilly’s most famous son would have said, the by-election result on Thursday night will be a pointer to politics in Wales and the whole of the UK… just like that!

The full list of candidates standing at the Caerphilly by-election

  • Labour – Richard Tunnicliffe
  • Plaid Cymru – Lindsay Whittle
  • Reform UK – Llŷr Powell
  • Conservative – Gareth Potter
  • Green Party – Gareth Hughes
  • Gwlad – Anthony Cook
  • UKIP – Roger Quilliam
  • Liberal Democrats – Steve Aicheler

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Inflation static at 3.8% as easing food prices help tame peak

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Inflation static at 3.8% as easing food prices help tame peak

The rate of inflation remained static in September, according to official figures, which could raise prospects for interest rate cuts ahead.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) had been expected by economists to reveal a figure of 4.1% – a level not seen since October 2023.

But the main consumer prices index (CPI) measure over the rolling 12-month period was held down by the first decline in food and non-alcoholic drinks prices since May last year, easing from 5.1% to 4.5%, and slowing costs for live events.

At 3.8%, however, the UK’s inflation rate remains the highest in the G7 – which is made up of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US.

Money latest: What inflation hike means for state pension and rail fare increases

September’s inflation figures don’t just lay bare rising cost pressures on households and businesses currently.

They are also used to determine the uplift for the state pension in April.

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Under the triple-lock mechanism, the pension payments are set to rise in line with earnings at 4.8% as the figure is running higher than the 3.8% rate of inflation and 2.5% minimum threshold.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said of the big picture: “A variety of price movements meant inflation was unchanged overall in September.

“The largest upward drivers came from petrol prices and airfares, where the fall in prices eased in comparison to last year.

“These were offset by lower prices for a range of recreational and cultural purchases including live events.”

He added that the outlook for food was uncertain as factory gate price data showed rising costs.

While lower than expected, the CPI rate still remains almost double the Bank of England’s target rate of 2%.

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Reeves: UK is ‘envy of the world’

The most recent language out of the Bank’s interest rate-setters had centred on the potential for elevated inflation to postpone prospects for more interest rate cuts.

Bank rate currently stands at 4%.

But the Bank and most economists expect inflation to have peaked, barring further economic shocks.

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The big issues facing the UK economy

The contribution from energy is likely to fall sharply next month, despite a 2% rise in bills.

As such, LSEG data showed continued caution over the prospects for a November rate cut but a flurry of activity around December. Waiting will allow the Bank to see a further set of both employment and inflation figures.

Much will also depend on core and services inflation measures, also lower than expected today, continuing that trend.

These, along with pay growth rates, are crucial bits of information for the Bank to determine whether inflation is ingrained in the economy.

Private business surveys would suggest that its efforts to get inflation down may also be helped by subdued confidence in the economy ahead of the budget next month.

There are widespread fears of big tax rises ahead to fill a void, estimated at up to £30bn, in the public finances.

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Chancellor looks at cutting energy bills in budget
Why the bull market for beef?

Borrowing figures released on Tuesday showed government borrowing in the financial year to date £7.2bn above the level forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

At the same time, tax receipts were up almost 10% in September compared to the same month in 2024.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is being urged to act in a way that does not risk fanning the flames of inflation after businesses passed on higher employment costs imposed months after her first budget.

She said of the inflation data: “I am not satisfied with these numbers. For too long, our economy has felt stuck, with people feeling like they are putting in more and getting less out.

“That needs to change. All of us in government are responsible for supporting the Bank of England in bringing inflation down. I am determined to ensure we support people struggling with higher bills and the cost of living challenges, deliver economic growth and build an economy that works for, and rewards, working people.”

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Why Keir Starmer has a people problem

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Why Keir Starmer has a people problem

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With growing signs that Britain’s top civil servant will leave Number 10 in the coming weeks – some ask, does Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have a problem with people?

Sam and Anne discuss the potential impact of Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald’s departure from the government machine and whether there could be more exits on the horizon.

Plus, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood warns the national inquiry into grooming gangs will leave “no hiding place” after several survivors quit the panel.

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