Providence Puts a Disguised Israel Divestment Measure on the Ballot

Providence voters will decide a binding November referendum directing the city to avoid investments tied to countries deemed responsible for genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing or illegal occupation. The text does not name Israel, but the campaign is led by Providence for Palestine and participants on both sides describe it as an Israel divestment and BDS measure.

• Providence is the largest U.S. municipality to place an Israel-focused divestment proposal before voters.
• The binding measure would rely on findings by bodies including the UN Security Council, International Court of Justice, U.S. courts and any UN body.
• Organizers identified approximately $2.5 million in city funds they say could be affected.
• The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island said it will campaign against the measure and may explore legal options if it passes.

The Providence model moves BDS from resolutions into binding municipal fiscal policy while omitting Israel from the operative text. That drafting strategy can reduce the political and legal cost of singling out Israel and provide a template for replication in other cities.

Israel’s National Security Council says Iran and its proxies remain the leading global terrorist threat to Israelis and Jews ahead of the High Holy Days and the third anniversary of October 7. The assessment warns about established Iranian networks, Hamas infrastructure abroad, lone attackers and the possibility that large protests could turn violent, while stressing that it issued no new travel-warning levels.

• The NSC identified October 2026 as a particularly sensitive period for protests and attempted attacks.
• Jordan, Qatar, Somaliland and Egypt, including Sinai, remain under Level 4 warnings.
• Travelers were advised to limit visible Jewish or Israeli identifiers and avoid publishing real-time locations.

The assessment links state-directed Iranian activity, proxy infrastructure and online incitement into one transnational threat environment. The convergence raises the security burden on Jewish institutions beyond countries formally adjacent to the conflict.

Pro-Palestinian activists are calling for a boycott of Adidas after its Israeli campaign featured Shalev Biton, an amputee athlete and former IDF soldier, promoting the company’s single-shoe service. Adidas said the accessibility service is global and rejected claims that it was designed specifically for Israeli soldiers; reports also documented false claims that Biton fought in the recent Gaza war.

• Biton lost his left leg after a May 12, 2021 anti-tank missile attack from Gaza hit his vehicle on the Israeli side of the border.
• The Hebrew-language promotion did not mention his military service or how he was injured.
• Adidas said the service allows amputee athletes to purchase one shoe rather than a pair.

The campaign shows BDS pressure shifting from institutional policy to the personal exclusion of Israelis from ordinary accessibility and commercial programs. False claims about Biton’s service supplied the mechanism for converting his nationality and disability into a corporate liability.

The Alternative for Germany entered Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt election polling near 40%, with an outside path to the first far-right-led German state government since World War II. Coalition rules may still keep it from power, but Jewish and civic leaders warn that state control would reach policing, intelligence, education and Holocaust-memory policy.

• Saxony-Anhalt’s AfD branch is classified by state authorities as definitely right-wing extremist.
• The party has proposed restricting school visits to memorial sites and cutting funds to pro-democracy organizations.
• Mainstream parties maintain a coalition firewall, making an AfD-led government unlikely without an absolute majority.

The central risk is not only vote share but access to state machinery that administers education, policing and intelligence. Even exclusion from government can normalize revisionist positions and move competing parties toward the AfD’s agenda.