To mark Israel's 75th anniversary, Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, introduces its inaugural list of women who are shaping the future of Zionism. Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, is the largest Jewish women's organization in the United States. With nearly 300,000 members, associates, and supporters, Hadassah brings women together to effect change and advocate on critical issues such as ensuring the security of Israel, combating antisemitism, and promoting women's health.

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The list represents the diversity of Zionism today and the many ways in which women are building bridges and making an impact, a statement read. Hadassah National President Rhoda Smolow noted, "Just as they have since before Israel's founding, women are helping to shape and guide Israel's future, both behind the scenes and in the public square. As the leading women's Zionist organization in the US, Hadassah is proud to shine a spotlight on them."

"These 18 determined women are doing essential work, individually and collectively," Hadassah CEO Naomi Adler stressed. "They are educating Jews and non-Jews about what Zionism is and is not and advocating for Zionism in the US and around the world. Everyone who cares about Israel should know their names."

We present to you the list, as presented by Hadassah. Israel Hayom cannot independently verify the details mentioned in the descriptions and links below.

1. Amy Albertson – Advocate, educator, and online activist. The recipient of the Women's International Zionist Organization's Warrior for Israel Award, Amy Albertson empowers young Jews to be unapologetically Jewish. In 2015, she made aliyah and dedicated herself to working for Jewish nonprofits. Exploring her own identity led to her current work as a consultant for the At The Well Project and an associate at the Tel Aviv Institute. It also led her to create "The Asian Israeli," which catalogs her experiences as a Chinese American Jewish woman. Get to know Amy Albertson in the special "Israel at 75" May/June issue of Hadassah Magazine.  

2. Shiva Beck – Advocate. Shiva Beck was born in Iran to a proud Zionist family who fled to Los Angeles after the Islamic Revolution. Having grown up in a close-knit Persian community knowing that the greatest safeguard to her Jewish identity was Israel, she retired after nearly 20 years practicing law to focus on advocating for Zionism in the US and around the world. Beck is a board member of the Jewish Federation in Dallas and The Jewish Agency and provides pro bono legal services to disabled children and adults. For a full bio, click here.

3. Laura Ben-David – Photographer, writer, speaker, and marketing professional. Laura Ben-David uses her talents to share her passions, among them Israel and the Jewish people, and to build bridges between people. Formerly the head of social media at Nefesh B'Nefesh, she is now the director of marketing at Shavei Israel. Ben-David, who made aliyah in 2002, is the author of Moving Up: An Aliyah Journal. For a full bio, click here.

4. Mayim Bialik – Actress, author, and neuroscientist. Mayim Bialik is well-known as a successful performer (Blossom, Call Me Kat, The Big Bang Theory) and the current host of Jeopardy! who took a break from acting to earn a BS and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. She is also a filmmaker who wrote and directed the star-studded feature As They Made Us and a prolific author, with two of her books reaching #1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list. She frequently contributes to Jewish publications. For a full bio, click here.

5. Daniella Greenbaum Davis – Award-winning producer and columnist. Daniella Greenbaum Davis is an Emmy Award-winning producer and columnist whose work has appeared on ABC and PBS and in the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She frequently covers stories about Judaism, antisemitism, and Israel. For a full bio, click here.

6. Rayna Rose Exelbierd – Entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and youth mentor. Rayna Rose Exelbierd is a proud Zionist and Jewish woman who, through workshops and lectures, empowers non-Jews to learn Jewish history and develop relationships with the Jewish community. She is the founder and CEO of The Rose Grows and host of a podcast of the same name during which she shares personal stories of facing and fighting antisemitism. Exelbierd has mentored thousands of students around the world and published two books, The Girl Who Said Hello to Everyone and The Girl Who Wore Two Different Shoes. for a full bio, click here.

7. Rabbi Rachel Marder – Rabbi and writer. Rachel Marder, the associate rabbi at Congregation Beth El in South Orange, NJ, graduated from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow, in 2018. Before rabbinical school, she made aliyah and lived in Israel for several years, working as a writer and editor at The Jerusalem Post. She contributed a chapter to The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate and holds a BA in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies and an MA in conflict research, management, and resolution. For a full bio, click here.

8. Megan Nathan – Philanthropy professional and Israel advocate. As the program and special initiatives director at Kirsh Philanthropies, Megan Nathan oversees the Shine A Light initiative, which raises awareness about antisemitism through education, community partnerships, workplace engagement, and advocacy, and helps steward Jewish and Israel grantmaking in the US. Previously, as COO of the Israel on Campus Coalition, she provided American students with the resources to support Israel on campus and in their communities. For a full bio, click here.

9. Zoya Raynes – Wall Street leader. A 20-year career in finance has taken the Kyiv-born Zoya Raynes to Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and now Bank of America, where she is a managing director advising hedge fund, asset manager, pension, insurance, and sovereign wealth fund clients. Raynes is on the board of several major Jewish philanthropies, was one of The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" and has been honored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the Jewish Heritage Program. Get to know Zoya Raynes in the special "Israel at 75" May/June issue of Hadassah Magazine

10. Tabby Refael – Award-winning editorial columnist. Born in Iran after the Islamic Revolution, Tabby Refael received US refugee asylum in the 1990s after fleeing Iran with her family. Also a survivor of the Iran-Iraq War, she is known for writing about Iran, Israel, Jewish identity, women's rights, and Mizrahi advocacy in her column for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Refael co-founded 30 Years After, America's only civic action organization for Iranian American Jews. Get to know Tabby Rafael in the special "Israel at 75" May/June issue of Hadassah Magazine.

11. Danielle Rugoff – Nonprofit management and policy professional. Danielle Rugoff believes in community-building, civic engagement, and the power of individuals to change the world. Now Senior Director of Movement Programs for Starts With Us, which fights extreme political and cultural divisions, she has more than 20 years of experience focused on the US-Israel relationship, American foreign policy, and Jewish peoplehood. For a full bio, click here.

12. Ana Sazonov – Communal professional and entrepreneur. Born in Ukraine to a non-Jewish mother and a father who repressed his Jewish identity, Ana Sazonov uncovered hers through a program of the IDF and The Jewish Agency and converted to Judaism. Now the executive director of the Columbia Jewish Federation in South Carolina and an advocate for Ukrainian refugees, Sazanov, who holds an MA from the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis, founded JewBer, a startup that delivered kosher meals to medical professionals, low-income seniors, and Holocaust survivors during COVID. For a full bio, click here.

13. Emily Schrader – Israeli human rights activist and journalist. A senior Ynet correspondent known for giving her more than 175,000 social media followers concise answers to tough questions about Israel's political and historical reality, Emily Schrader established herself as the leading voice for the Iranian people in Israel with her coverage of the ongoing Iranian uprisings. In 2022, she was named one of The Algemeiner's Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life and the Sixth Most Influential Israeli Woman on Twitter by Raash Digital. For a full bio, click here.

14. Naava Shafner – Social activist and strategic consultant. Naava Shafner, who made aliyah at 12 years old, has spearheaded changes in Israeli legislation, most significantly, legislation allowing flexible paternity leave. Named one of Israel's top 50 social activists in 2016, she has pioneered social initiatives focused on women's rights. These include ImaKadima, which advocates for family-friendly workplaces. Shafner, a strategic fundraising consultant for nonprofits in the social-change sphere, was part of a successful appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding women's rights in the mikvah. For a full bio, click here.

15. Leah Soibel – Founder and media advocate. Leah Soibel has spent more than 15 years in Israel, the US, and Latin America empowering global Latino journalists and media influencers. In 2012, she founded the Emmy Award-winning Fuente Latina, which ensures accuracy in Spanish-language reporting on Israel, the Jewish world, and the Mideast. She recently launched Activista Media, the first English/Spanish digital news brand to engage the next generation of English-dominant, non-Jewish US Latino journalists, influencers, and online news consumers about Jews, antisemitism, and Israel. Get to know Leah Soibel in the special "Israel at 75" May/June issue of Hadassah Magazine.

16. Margot Stern – Entrepreneur, strategic thinker, and visionary. For more than 15 years, Margot Stern has advised companies on global strategic management, private equity, consulting, growth plans, and business strategy. Since moving to Israel in 2006, she has worked at the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Fund, and the Jewish Diplomatic Corps. She is the chief strategy officer and acting CFO for ReaGenics Ltd., an Israeli biotech company, and the founder of StellarNova Ltd., an award-winning Israeli children's edutainment company focused on science education. For a full bio, click here.

17. Chaya Leah Sufrin – Educator and community builder. Whether spending time at the Shalom Hartman Institute, leading trips to Israel for young Jews and non-Jews, or advocating for Israel on campus, Chaya Leah Sufrin is not afraid to have tough conversations about the issues facing Israel and the Jews. She also has the unusual ability to simultaneously inhabit the Hasidic world of the Chabad community and the secular world of modern Jews. The executive director of the Long Beach Hillel in Long Beach, Calif., Sufrin cohosts the podcast Ask a Jew, which covers culture, politics, humor, and life. For a full bio, click here.

18. Melissa Weiss – News editor and strategic communications expert. Melissa Weiss, who made aliyah in 2022, is the executive editor of Jewish Insider, the daily newsletter at the nexus of politics, philanthropy, business, and the Jewish community. Before joining JI, she spent nearly a decade working in strategic communications in the nonprofit sector, heading strategy at The Israel Project and the Israel on Campus Coalition before restarting the Simon Wiesenthal Center's campus outreach program. For a full bio, click here.

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Last Monday's edition of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper was perhaps one of the most festive ever. It was the first edition following the announcement by the Nobel Prize Committee, which suddenly transformed the newspaper's editor, Dmitry Muratov, into an international star.

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He became the third Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize, joining the scientist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov (1975), and the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhael Gorbachev (1990). Surprisingly, however, the entire front page of the historic edition was devoted to the joint winner of the prize, the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa.

"You see that? You didn't guess!" Muratov joked over the telephone from Moscow, during an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom. "We thought about that front page at the editorial meeting on Saturday morning and decided to go with it. For us, it's a matter of principle: our faces aren't the story, our workers aren't the story, and especially not my face either.

The story is the wonderful face of Maria Ressa, because she is really a courageous woman: a person who on her own set out to destroy the dictatorship in her country. I'll tell you more: we invited her to Moscow to be hosted by us at the newspaper and so she can give a talk to students and the newspaper staff."

This neatly summarizes the Novaya Gazeta ethos: absolute self-awareness of public service rooted in an extreme sense of professional modesty. Even in the era of social media and journalists who are too focused on themselves, as chief editor of Novaya Gazeta and even as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to never forget one basic principle: the journalist isn't the story.

Ironically, however, and even tragically, over the years the Novaya staff became the focus of coverage as six of them paid the price with their lives: Igor Domnikov was murdered in 2000 after he criticized a regional vice governor; in 2003 Yury Shchekochikhin was probably poisoned by radioactive materials after a series of threats; Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov, who investigated the extreme right in Russia, were murdered in the center of Moscow in 2009 by a Neo-Nazi activist and his girlfriend; that same year, Natalya Estemirova, an investigative journalist in Chechnya, was abducted and shot dead near the Kavkaz federal road in the Republic of Ingushetia; and, of course, Anna Politkovskaya, who was already a legendary journalist in her own lifetime, and was almost synonymous with the newspaper.

Despite being editor of Novaya Gazeta for 25 years (apart from a short break), Muratov is careful to clarify that, from his perspective, he is only the emissary. "The prize was not given to us, and definitely not myself, and therefore I relate to its award coolly," he says. "I am extremely grateful to the Nobel Committee. Thanks to them it can be said openly that the fallen and the living won one of the most humanistic prizes in the world."

Without doubt, Politkovskaya is the central figure in the burden of grief that the newspaper carries. Close to the entrance of the office at Potapovsky Alley 3 in Moscow is a large monument embossed with her face. The garden close to the entrance plaza carries her name. So does the annual prize that the newspaper awards to outstanding journalists.

Politkovskaya was a legend in her own lifetime, when she became the first journalist to expose the horrors that took place during the Second Chechen War – including and perhaps mainly those perpetrated by the Russian Army itself. In the incomprehensible hell that was the North Caucasus republic, Politkovskaya became the address for hundreds of Chechens whose authorities – both federal and local – didn't care about the kidnapping, murder, and rape of their loved ones.

In the newspaper's editorial office in Moscow the staff knew she was in her office if the corridor leading to it had 30-40 Chechen adults – injured, exhausted, crying. In 2004 she interviewed Ramzan Kadyrov, who was then deputy prime minister and is today the republic's "Sultan," in which he menaced her.

"I was expecting them to shoot me in the back at any moment," she said. Politkovskaya was also a known human rights activist, and since her name preceded her, she tried to negotiate – in vain – with the terrorist group that had taken control of the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow in October 2002. It is no surprise that, over the years, she accumulated many enemies in the corridors of power, for whom her uncompromising struggle – in the spirit of the newspaper's work – for human rights, was a spoke in their wheels.

In 2004, while she was on a flight to independently negotiate at Beslan, where Islamist terrorists held more than 300 hostages at a school, she was poisoned, but survived.

In October 2006 Politkovskaya's luck ran out. An assassin was waiting for her in the elevator of her building and shot her at point-blank range, killing her. Her murder became a shadow that clouds the Novaya Gazeta in particular, and the relationship between the Russian authorities and the free media in general.

The reason: for 15 years, every effort has been made to cover up the affair, maybe because it became clear – only thanks to an investigation by the newspaper itself – that one of the organizers of the murder was the head of the Moscow police surveillance department, who assisted the assassins in exchange for a bribe.

Following Politkovskaya's assassination, Putin had remarked that "her killing had caused greater damage to Russia than her writings."

Oct. 7 marked 15 years since her murder and the statute of limitations has now expired.

"The unsolved murders of our colleagues made clear that one can deal with journalists as one wishes if for any reason their work is inconsistent with the interests of the authorities," Muratov says in the film This is How They Murdered Anna, which was released last week. "What do the authorities care about public opinion? And also, for society itself it doesn't matter what happens with journalists. This lack of punishment only increases the feeling of subjugation; it transforms [Russian] journalism to a profession that is incompatible with everyday life."

Later, the officer in the Moscow police, who ran the surveillance division, pleaded guilty in the framework of a plea bargain, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The murderer – a Chechen youth – and his uncle, a senior figure in the underworld, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The uncle later died under unclear circumstances in jail. The big question remains open: who ordered the murder, which was a watershed moment in the annals of the newspaper and Russian journalism?

Q: Fifteen years have passed since the murder. Do you believe that the person behind the murder will still be uncovered?

"It's not a question of faith," Muratov responds. "I can tell you that there is the official Kremlin position, according to which there is no expiry date [to the case]. That's good. The investigatory committee told us that the investigation is ongoing. They didn't even bother telling us who the investigator is. But we found the main witness in the case. And we will certainly discover him [whoever ordered the murder]."

Even today Novaya Gazeta is under threat. In March a motorcyclist wearing overalls came to the newspaper's offices and sprayed chemical materials at the entrance. After publishing another investigation about the horrors of the Chechen dictatorship, commanders of the Akhmat Kadyrov Battalion – for all intents and purposes the private army of the Chechen president – recorded a film with explicit threats to the newspaper, which according to them is slandering the battalion. The reason: a series of exposés about how members of the division are involved in torture in Chechnya.

Q: Six of your journalists have been murdered over the years. Have you been threated? Are you yourself not worried?

"We don't answer the question about whether or not we are worried. 'Not frightened,' an idiot would say, while 'Frightened' is how a stupid person would answer."

Muratov, 59, is part of a group of journalists who founded Novaya Gazeta in 1993 with the aim of exposing corruption, illegal detentions, torture, fraudulent elections and human stories, with an emphasis on the suffering of patients with incurable rare diseases who find it nearly impossible to get funding for medicines.

Over the years the newspaper – where 76% of the shares are held by the staff and the remainder are divided between businessman Alexander Lebedev and Gorbachev – exposed outrageous scandals in Russia: from the money laundering of 20 billion dollars to the rape and murder of a young Chechen woman by a colonel in the Russian army, from the failures of the authorities during operations to free hostages to the persecution of homosexuals in Chechnya.

The newspaper and its staff have won more than 40 professional and international prizes, including the US State Department International Women of Courage award, and now the Nobel Prize joins its ranks. An amusing anecdote there is that The prestigious Women of Courage award was given to the newspaper's Head of Investigations, Yelena Milashina, with whom Muratov was having an intense professional argument when the phone rang last Friday morning.

"I saw three calls from Oslo, I thought it was an unwanted call and I continued to talk," said the chief editor, who screened the call without knowing that it was from the Nobel committee.

The committee explained that, despite the oppression and the murder of its journalists, Muratov "has refused to abandon the newspaper's independent policy. He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism." The committee also lauded their efforts "to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

Novaya's independence and freedom of expression became even clearer over the past year, in light of the tightening chokehold on the rest of the independent Russian media. Some of them were blocked on the internet, another was classified as an undesirable organization and was closed, others were classified as "inciting organizations," but most were classified with a stroke of a pen as "foreign agents" – a status that limits the financial possibilities of the media and is designed to sentence them to a slow death.

It's no surprise that, in the eyes of many, the awarding of the prize to a Russian journalist – and on the day after the anniversary of Politkovskaya's murder – is seen as a sign of protest against the Kremlin and a sign of support for the free media in the country.

The Novaya is also seen as a candidate for the blacklist, but it seemingly has two factors in its defense – the fact that six of its journalists were murdered for doing their job, and now its editor-in-chief boasts a Nobel Prize. Still, earlier this week, the Russian president noted that while Muratov was not considered a foreign agent, no achievement will help him escape said definition if he broke the law.

Muratov himself jokes that, if they are required to carry the fictitious "Mark of Cain" of "foreign agent" and attach the disclaimer required by the law to the newspaper's articles, he will be happy to add the words "Nobel Prize Laureate" to the official formulation of "This material is presented by a foreign agent."

"We will use the prize to fight on behalf of the Russian media, who they are trying to suppress. We will try to help people who have become 'foreign agents,' and are being persecuted and expelled from the country."

Q: You said that a portion of the prize money will be used to support persecuted journalists.

"Yes, we discussed this in the editorial meeting," Muratov says. "We've divided up the money that we haven't received yet. In relation to our colleagues who are being illegally censored and illegally persecuted, there will be two things. One of them is still a secret. The other is that the money from the prize will increase the amount that will be given to winners of the Politkovskaya Prize. This prize is awarded to a journalist chosen by the prize committee."

Q: How do you explain the increased pressure on Russian journalists? The number of "foreign agents" has tripled in the last year.

"I have an unpopular theory. The issue is this: In our parliament we don't have legislators who represent people with different positions about the future of the country. And people like that, with a different point of view, number 10-15 million, maybe 20 million. It's the minority. Because there are no legislators to represent this minority, the independent media will represent them.

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"The small and independent media, which increased, expressed different positions. But because the authorities stopped cooperating with this minority, they tried to liquidate their independent media, so that the positions of the representatives of this minority won't be expressed in public."

Q: One of your colleagues recently said: "In Russia, journalism that doesn't defend human rights is not journalism at all."

"I support her, of course. You have to understand, the controversy over whether journalism is just observation or an intervention in life has continued for over 100 years. We are totally convinced that journalism is intervention in life. That before taking a picture of an injured child you dress his wounds. That's our position."

Q: So a journalist in Russia is more than a journalist? He's a public figure?

"I don't know; I don't like the expression 'public figure.' Simply put, the journalist has to change the world for the better. And for the sake of this he needs not only to write but also to change the world. It's true, it contradicts objectivity, it contradicts the perspective of the observant journalist. But I can tell you that this newspaper participates in events and we will help sick children with serious illnesses, and we will demand that people who poisoned the Arctic Ocean will pay a fine."

Q: What's does "for the better" mean? How do you decide what issues will improve the world and what to be involved in?

"Everything that's connected to human rights, the rights of human beings to live, to breathe clean air, for pure water, for the same living conditions that we call human – that's the whole criterion."

The humanistic approach has been a part of the newspaper since its founding and it isn't coincidental that most of its staff also work in the area of defending basic human rights, that are so easily trampled on in Russia. But from Muratov's perspective, this approach has another clear anchor. "It's the humanistic tradition of Russian literature. For example, in his travel diary to the island of Sakhalin, Chekhov writes that he isn't merely conducting a survey of the population but he is also a nobleman who aids those who toil in backbreaking labor. That's us. That's our story."

Q: Do you see yourselves as continuing in the tradition of Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy?

"Yes, that's the line and essentially even more than that: we share a common field. Look, until now we have placed – and maybe we are outdated in this regard…do you remember what the title was of the Nobel Prize speech given by Andrei Sakharov? 'Peace, progress and human rights.' That was the main thesis of the speech. Progress and human rights. There is a point of view that thinks it is possible to have progress without protecting human rights, and that's the totalitarian version, while we think that progress and human rights cannot be disentangled."

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A Saudi court sentenced a Sudanese journalist to four years in prison for social media posts critical of the kingdom, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

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Ahmed Ali Abdelkader, a 31-year-old media personality and journalist, was jailed for "insulting the state's institutions and symbols," "negatively speaking about the kingdom's policy ... and speaking on (media platforms loyal to parties hostile to the kingdom) in a way that is harmful to the kingdom," among other charges.

The charges are linked to tweets and media interviews he shared on Twitter in which he criticized Saudi actions in Sudan and Yemen and expressed support for Sudan's 2018-2019 revolution.

"This and other similar prosecutions demonstrate just how determined Saudi authorities are to stamp out even the most minor criticism or questioning on social media and deter all dissent under threat of long prison sentences," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abdelkader was arrested at Jeddah airport on April 19 and held at a police station for 20 days before his transfer to al-Shumaisi detention center near Mecca, HRW said. He was interrogated twice during his detention and accused of behavior on Twitter that was harmful to Saudi Arabia, HRW said, citing a source.

He was denied access to a lawyer, including legal representation at trial, HRW said, which consisted of two short sessions in which Abdelkader was not allowed to defend himself.

Abdelkader, who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for five years between 2015 and 2020, was convicted by a Jeddah criminal court for tweets and statements to the media during and after February 2018, most of which were posted while he was in Saudi Arabia. Emails to international human rights groups, in which he inquired about membership, were also cited in the conviction.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the content of the social media postings cited in the conviction and "determined that none of them incited violence, hatred or discrimination". Several tweets referred to Saudi relations with Sudan, including one in July 2018 in which Abdelkader accused Saudi media of targeting Sudan and Saudi Arabia of financing ISIS.

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Editor-in-chief of the independent Saudi news site Elaph, Mahmood al-Awadi, announced on his personal Twitter account on Thursday that he has been hired to manage a new online Israeli Arabic-language platform.

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Awadi didn't name the site, but according to associates of the senior Emirati journalist, the site's name is Midar Net, which is a news content platform focusing primarily on business, economic and financial news.

Awadi, who is in his 40s, was born in the United Arab Emirates and is considered one of the more prominent journalists in the Gulf region. Elaph is one of the most popular Arabic-language new sites in the world and has hundreds of millions of readers.

Awadi's close friend and colleague at Elaph these past few years, Israeli journalist Majdi Halabi, told Israel Hayom that Awadi was among the most influential journalists in the Arab media.

"Mahmood is a prominent journalist and veteran media figure, a good friend and a great believer in peace and partnership with Israel," said Halabi.

"That he agreed to serve as editor-in-chief of an Israeli site isn't surprising to those who know him well. I wish him tremendous success in his new position and am certain that the internet platform he is now in charge of will succeed just as he succeeded with Elaph, which he turned into a leading site not just in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but the entire media world," added Halabi.

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According to National Press Club President Michael Freedman and president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute Angela Greiling, the Department of Justice's decision "effectively says that the US government views Al Jazeera to be a propaganda arm of the Qatari government rather than the independent news organization that journalists all over the world know it to be."

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The statement from Freedman and Greiling points out that "FARA was developed during World War II to block Nazi propaganda from influencing Americans," and requires designated foreign entities to reveal their sources of funding and to file regular public disclosures about their activity.

"The classification of Al Jazeera under FARA seems wholly political. The Trump Administration has close ties to UAE and Saudi Arabia even as the United States shares long-term strategic interests with Qatar exemplified by the Air Force's reliance on the large air base at Al Udeid," the statement argues.

Freedman and Greiling's statement also calls the timing of the DOJ order, which was issued a day before the United Arab Emirates signed a peace agreement with Israel, "of note," and points out that the UAE has made it "one of its priorities" to "undercut Al Jazeera's journalism since it worked with Saudi Arabia in 2017 to impose a blockade on Qatar, which provide state funding to the news organization."

"We can only conclude that the Trump Administration is buckling to the demands of the UAE, which wants to suppress independent news gathering in the region – reporting that can expose the systemic inequality, corruption and incompetence of many of the region's rulers.

"While the Qatari government funds Al Jazeera, it does not control the network's editorial decisions," Freedman and Greiling said.

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A group of students from the Reut Elementary School in the Menashe Regional Council in northern Israel won first place in their category for their film, "One meal, a lot of garbage!" The film focuses on the issue of wasteful food packaging and what people can do to help reduce it.

In addition to making the film, the producers showed it in all the classrooms at their school in an attempt to educate the rest of the students. To encourage reduced food packaging waste, the students also announced they would be holding an annual competition to track the amount of food packaging thrown into classroom recycling receptacles. The classes with the least amount of wasteful packaging will earn points toward a prize.

The students learned on Sunday that they had won first prize in their category.

Yonatan Ben Lulu said, "It's an excellent feeling. All through the process, we felt like we had an influence and we were creating change."

Ofer Shai, who also helped create the film, added, "We learned to work together. When they told us we won, I was really happy."

Head of the Menashe Regional Council Ilan Sadeh said in response to the students' achievement that "environmentalism and sustainability are central principles in our council – and for us, teaching that starts in nursery schools and continues through elementary school. … It's no coincidence our council is the greenest, most sustainable, and even leads in recycling, in Israel."

The students campaigning against wasteful food packaging were not the only Israeli entrants to place high in this year's YRE competition.

Students from Darca Ramon High School in Gedera won second place in the reportage video category (age 15-18) for their film "Wise man – wise consumer."

Students from the same school also won second place in the campaign video competition for their film "What do you do with your e-waste?"

An Israeli-Portuguese collaboration titled "Red meat consumption – an international collaborative research" won second place in the international collaboration category for entrants age 15-18, and a film by students at Rimon Middle School titled "Dumped from home" won third place in the competition's Litter Less category for ages 11-14. "Brown is the New Green," by students at Ramon High School in Gedera, won second place in the same category for entrants age 15-18.

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