Megathread: Many are now migrating to Signal as a result of WhatsApp updating their terms and privacy policy
Hello everyone! We've recently started to receive lots of similar posts as a result of recent news regarding WhatsApp updating their terms and privacy policy, which will take effect on February 8thMay 15th, 2021. Any WhatsApp users who do not accept these changes will be blocked from using the service. As a result, many are now migrating to Signal. We’ve decided to make this the designated thread for all things related to this topic. Here is a direct link to Signal's terms and privacy policy (last updated May 25, 2018). Don't worry, it's not very long. For those wondering where Signal's revenue comes from: "We are a 501c3 nonprofit. We're not tied to any major tech companies, and we can never be acquired by one either. Development is supported by grants and donations from Signal users. https://signal.org/donate/" Some related media coverage:
What is the best way to migrate from WhatsApp to Signal?
How to convince WhatsApp contacts to install Signal?
What are some pros/cons of Signal compared to WhatsApp?
What are your most missed features from WhatsApp?
How do some features work differently in Signal compared to WhatsApp?
We will be updating this post as events unfold. Be safe, and always remember the human. Edits 1–38: A brief summary of events, by day: Wednesday, January 6:
WhatsApp informs its users that they are updating their terms and privacy policy.
Thursday, January 7:
Elon Musk tweeted "Use Signal". Five hours later, the Signal team tweeted that verification codes were being delayed due to the surge in new people wanting to join Signal.
Some people mistakenly invested in some random stock called 'SIGL', to which Signal tweeted: "Is this what stock analysts mean when they say that the market is giving mixed Signals? It's understandable that people want to invest in Signal's record growth, but this isn't us. We're an independent 501c3 and our only investment is in your privacy."
Someone asked Signal whether usernames would be coming this year, to which they replied: "According to the office Magic 8-Ball, 'SIGNS POINT TO YES.'" They also shared a tip for how to easily migrate group chats from other apps to Signal: "Drop a group link into your former chat app of choice like you're dropping the mic on the way out."
The team is currently taking a break from answering questions in the AMA, but will be back in that thread on Monday (Jan. 18?), so there is still time if you have any questions for them!
There were still some registration delays. Signal said that carriers were "making adjustments on their side to keep delivering verification codes as quickly as possible."
Facebook bought ads in order to promote Facebook Messenger when people searched for 'Signal' in the App Store. Signal's developers tweeted: "Facebook is probably more comfortable selling ads than buying them, but they'll do what they have to do in order to be the top result when some people search for 'Signal' in the App Store. P.S. There will never be ads in Signal, because your data belongs in your hands not ours."
Sunday, January 10:
The Signal team tweeted: "Even though we're still breaking records, verification codes are back in the groove. Delivery delays have been eliminated across multiple cellular providers, so things should be more ASAP when you join the app."
They then tweeted: "We continue to shatter traffic records and add capacity as more and more people come to terms with how much they dislike Facebook's new terms. If you weren't able to create a new group recently, please try again. New servers are ready to serve you."
Elon Musk tweeted that he donated to Signal a year ago and "will donate more."
Monday, January 11:
Signal raised the group call limit from 5 to 8! Reuters also reported: "The number of new users installing messaging app Signal every day is on track to cross 1 million, putting it closer to levels seen by larger rival WhatsApp [...] About 810,000 users globally installed Signal on Sunday, nearly 18-fold compared with the download numbers on Jan. 6, the day WhatsApp updated its privacy terms, according to data from research firm Apptopia." 🚀
Some people were still mistakenly investing in some random stock. Signal's developers tweeted: "Update: Although the growth rates may look similar, this stock symbol still has absolutely nothing to do with us. We're an independent 501c3 nonprofit, but you can donate here to invest in your privacy: https://signal.org/donate/" 📈
Signal announced that they are going to be rolling out chat wallpapers, an about field for your Signal profile, and animated stickers in a few days, as well as media auto-download settings and full-screen profile photos for iOS users (to match Android).
Moses Tsali released a music video titled "Hit Me on Signal", filmed at the SpaceX Headquarters! 🎵
Tuesday, January 12:
Our tiny unofficial community (signal) is now rocketing up Reddit's Top Growing Communities leaderboard. Last week, we were somewhere around #21.1k. Earlier today, we were at #135, right below AnimalsBeingBros. As of this writing, we're at #90 and have already passed ThatsInsane, which is insane! 🤯
Signal's Brian Acton is now doing interview after interview with Indian mass media companies. Here is one with NDTV, where he talked about "Signal's India plans, its donation-only business model, and what makes it different from WhatsApp." 🇮🇳
By now, many of our community members had submitted their own badges and profile pictures that they had placed in WhatsApp to show that they were moving to Signal. Inspired by this, Signal decided to tweet some of their own in multiple different languages. 🌍 Here is a blank template!
Our community has now climbed all the way up to #61 on Reddit's Top Growing Communities leaderboard!
Signal's Android app started with 10M+ installs on the Play Store on January 5, and it has now passed 50M+!
u/Crazy-Lizard submitted an amazing collection of images (both in English and German) that you can set as your WhatsApp Status to convince your family & friends to switch to Signal, using an educational approach! This quickly became our top voted post of all time!
Thursday, January 14:
Our community is now placed at #48 on Reddit's leaderboard! We've now made it into the top 50, with big names like sports, Jokes and reactiongifs. We have zoomed right past all other software-related communities in terms of popularity. Only apple and leagueoflegends remain above us!
Acton has now said that they are aiming to add 100-200 million more Signal users in India alone over the next two years.
Signal's founder, Moxie Marlinspike, has now tweeted: "If you've ever considered applying to work with us at Signal, now is a great time to get involved! We're just over here working on a plan to power the western hemisphere with the heat from our servers: https://signal.org/workworkwork/"
Our wonderful community has now helped translate u/Crazy-Lizard's educational WhatsApp Status images into Slovak, Czech, Portuguese (PT), Finnish, Turkish, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese (BR), Italian, French, and Dutch! Get them here!
Friday, January 15:
Our Reddit leaderboard saga continues! We've now reached spot #40, right between HolUp and PersonalFinanceCanada. 🇨🇦 We also made a list of posts in which our members can discuss Signal reaching the #1 spot on the App Store/Play Store in their own country. 🏆
Signal tweeted: "We are so grateful for the outpouring of support from everyone who is contributing to Signal's ongoing operation and development. We're a 501c3 nonprofit and we couldn't do this without you. If you are on the fence about donating, you can give in here: https://signal.org/donate/"
WhatsApp announced that they are going to delay the updating of their terms and privacy policy by three months due to the backlash. They were originally going to take effect on February 8th, but will now take effect on May 15th.
Someone asked Edward Snowden (u/SuddenlySnowden) if he knew whether "Telegram is more secure and less influenced by corporate money than Signal". In reply, Snowden tweeted: "1) The consensus of the infosec community is that Telegram is significantly less secure than @SignalApp. 2) Signal is an independent non-profit with a $50m endowment—they can't be meaningfully influenced by money for a very long time. Telegram is a standard private company."
The Signal service went down for about a day as the Signal team needed to add more capacity. They tweeted: "We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections. Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters. We appreciate your patience."
Signal's Moxie Marlinspike tweeted that they are now working on a group chat feature that will allow only admins to send messages in the group!
Saturday, January 16:
signal is now at #26 on the Top Growing Communities leaderboard! If we had been included the curated "Top Growing Communities in Tech" leaderboard, we would be placed at #4, right between technews and TechNewsToday. We are flaming hot right now! 🔥
At last: "Signal is back! Like an underdog going through a training montage, we’ve learned a lot since yesterday — and we did it together. Thanks to the millions of new Signal users around the world for your patience. Your capacity for understanding inspired us while we expanded capacity." 🙌
In response, Snowden tweeted: "Everybody can get back to uninstalling #Whatsapp now." 😄
Sunday, January 17:
Our community's climb on Reddit's leaderboard appears to be leveling off. We're now at #22 overall and "#3" in Tech, right after apple and technology, which isn't half bad actually! 🤔 Let's see if things begin to pick up again after Signal starts rolling out those new features they promised on Monday.
Wednesday, January 20:
The initial hype is now clearly dying down, but our community's daily growth rate is still much larger than it was before WhatsApp made their announcement. Today we crossed 40k members! 🎉
Friday, January 22:
Signal has now started rolling out chat wallpapers, an optional "about" field for Signal profiles, and the first official animated sticker pack to all beta testers! As always, the developers are now gathering feedback on the Signal Community forum. If you're a beta tester, check out our right-hand sidebar to get your own flair!
Saturday, January 23:
Chamath Palihapitiya promised Signal a $10M donation if they could keep all of their own messaging infrastructure and copy WhatsApp's entire UI in order to get the whole world on board as easily as possible. Signal replied: "Hopefully there are a lot of people out there who don't need us to look exactly like their ex in order to fall in love, but you could help us make it possible for Signal to support 10M themes — one of which might look familiar enough for anyone who has a "type"..."
Signal also launched their first ever "global marketing campaign," using the cheapest billboard they could find somewhere in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It says: "No personal data was bought or sold in the creation of this video." #WeKnowNothing 🤣
This campaign is starting to get serious! Signal just tweeted a more polished video ad, featuring Taraji Henson and ending with a shot of the same billboard. 👏 They are now here on signal as well, requesting photos of the billboard! 📸
Welcome to all newcomers, but also THANK YOU to all of our regular contributors who have shown up to sort by new, answer questions, and provide help! ⭐ As a reminder, this is an unofficial Reddit community (or "subreddit") that is run by the user community. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Signal Technology Foundation or Signal Messenger LLC.
Tejinder Singh Sodhi’s Letter on Why He Quit Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV
From: Tejinder Singh Sodhi <…………….@………com> Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 2020, 9:19 pm Subject: Re: Resignation To: Honey Kaur <……….@………..com> Dear Honey, Congratulations on your promotion, trust me getting promoted from HR head to Vice President of the company would have been a major achievement if it was not Republic, but in Republic there is only one supreme leader and his wife who micromanage everything, everybody else is a filler irrespective of the designation they hold. I am telling you this out of my personal experience that everything here starts with Arnab and ends with Goswami, you don’t trust me ask this to the previous HR Head. Have you ever seen a company where the entire HR team left in a period of just less than three years? Time is a great teacher and I honestly pray that you don’t have to go through what everyone else who left this company had to go through, but nonetheless my good wishes for your promotion. I was asleep when I got a call from Arnab’s wife who before the launch of this company was just a bureau reporter at a pro congress newspaper, she told me that she and Arnab were happy with my work and have decided to promote me, I was surprised what does being happy mean, if any promotion has to be given it has to be merit based. I just wanted to disconnect the phone as the husband and wife kept bragging how kind and generous they were to the staff because at a time when other news outlets were firing people reducing their salaries, they were promoting their staff. I was told that with the promotion my responsibilities would increase and I can guide the desk how to go on with stories, this was another surprise to me given the fact that this was exactly what I had been doing for the past two years after every sensible person at the desk had said goodbye. This promotion had a rider and it was that the salary has not been revised for now and it would be done at a later stage, but the supreme leader of republic wanted that we should spread the word as how generous Arnab was to promote the staff. (how should we tell the people as the company had earlier threatened the staff to remove republic from their social media bio), but as you know for him it is image that matters so he wanted me to specially post this on social media. I did that for a day or two and then after I realized my mistake, I deleted that post. We all know that Arnab has been making huge money, the people in his cotree also make huge money, but the people who do the actual work are given peanuts. The entire staff of Republic TV had been anxiously waiting for the past two years to get a salary hike. Two years ago, the process of appraisal was started, forms were submitted but then nobody heard back from them. While he did not give the staff any hike, he used that money to launch a Hindi Channel and hired new staff for that, the Republic TV Staff was left high and dry. Back to August this year, when I got the email from you that I have been promoted, I wanted to respond to that email right away but decided to wait for a few days and If you remember it was a few hours prior to my putting up my papers I sent you that email turning down the promotion offer. If you remember I had mentioned in my resignation that I will send you a detailed mail outlining the reasons for my resignation, so here is that email. I had never applied for any Job at Republic TV, I was very much happy and satisfied with the company I was previously working with. It was the day of my wedding in 2017 when someone from Arnab’s office called me to say that Arnab wants to talk to me, I was in Gurudwara waiting for my Pheras to start. I thought someone was playing a prank on me so I snubbed him and asked him to call back after a few days. To my surprise I got the call back in a few days as I was made to speak to Arnab on WhatsApp video call, he was very soft and polite and I too was excited because till date we had seen him on Television and this was for the first time we were speaking to each other. He shared with me the reason he left Times Now, he said how he was humiliated by the management on various issues and why he was not allowed to enter the studio for a month, he said that he is going to come up with a channel that would dismantle the Times Now empire, a David that would take on the mighty Goliath. He told me that someone had recommended my name and he was keen to have me in his team. He promised that the Republic would revolutionize the TV news industry in the country and would question the people in power and be a channel that be the voice of the downtrodden, basically it would be a complete news channel. I told him that I come from Print background and have no experience in Television, he told me that he wants new faces and that Republic would be an organization which would be run by young professionals and his team would be young journalists only. I can tell you with certainty that he is one of the greatest motivational speakers a man like me who had never thought of joining television decided to join his team. When it came to salary negotiation, he told me that for now as he does not have any money, he will hire me on the same package which I was getting at my previous employer with the assurance that as the company starts making money, he would double my salary. After I resigned my previous editor in chief offered me a hike of 20000 if I don’t leave, but being a man of my principles, I requested him to let me go as I had given the commitment to Arnab. Today looking back I regret my decision to join the Republic, he did not revolutionize Journalism, but he killed serious Journalism, reduced it to a joke and somewhere I too feel to be accomplice in that crime. The Channel was launched and in its first week it went number 1 in TRP, we all were happy and excited because it was our hard work, the success did not come cheap our sweat and blood was mixed in it. I was happy that Arnab would acknowledge the contribution of the team, but it was Arnab everywhere, big hoardings came across the country, only acknowledging Arnab. Don’t trust me see the hoardings that came up in Delhi after the Hindi channel came No 1 in the TRP. After an initial few weeks, I realized that the Channel was all about Arnab only and he does not believe in team work or team efforts. It took me a few months to realize that for Republic everybody else was just a filler, who fills the vacuum of Arnab’s absence from the screen throughout the day and in the evening the stage is taken over by Arnab. The realization did come that Arnab is a tree, under which no other tree can grow, because he can never tolerate anybody else becoming the face of the channel. He ensured by various means that everybody in the organization feels that everybody else is his rival. An incident happened where the Republic team was not allowed to cover the Congress Press Conference in Delhi, we were asked to protest outside the congress office in our respective states by wearing black bands. I was like wait what this is not the job of a journalist to protest against a political party, but we had no option, so everybody did that. One fine day I get a call from someone on the desk (I won’t name that someone, but he was tortured to such an extent by Arnab that he suffered a major heart attack while sitting in the office) to go and hide near the house of the father of Sunanda Pushkar and then at appropriate time, he would tell me what has to be done. Why hide? They never trusted their staff, so till last moment we weren’t told anything. I went to the house and suddenly I was told to enter the house and shove the mic in the mouth of Ms Pushkar’s elderly father and force him to blame Shahshi Throor for “killing his daughter”, I tried to do so but when I saw her elderly father, I was in tears, he was weak, was not mentally stable, I told the desk, but they told me that Arnab is furious on me and he wants to get the father on camera to say that Tharoor killed his daughter. I refused and left the place, not before speaking to their man servant who spoke good about Mr Tharoor and Ms Pushkar’s relationship, but that never went on air. Next day Arnab called me and shouted like anything, he told me that I had let him down, by not getting the father of Ms Pushkar on camera to blame Mr Tharoor. This was not the Journalism that I had joined Republic for, reporters were being used to do the hit job on behalf of Arnab. A reporter in UP was told to get a chase sequence with the then Chief Minister, when he couldn’t he was told to jump the wall of his house to enter the premises and get that done. He said I would be shot by his security; he was pressurized by Arnab’s wife that he resigned the next day. As the money and power started coming in easy, Arnab became more arrogant and as he did not listen to anybody on TV, he did not even listen to his staff. He started humiliating them, shouting at them, abusing them, even physically assaulting them. People who had joined him after leaving their well established and well-paying job at the time when Republic had no present and no future, started leaving him, some left because of the humiliation they were being meted out and some left because they realized that it was not the kind of Journalism that they were doing with him. Slowly everybody started leaving, first it was the Reporter from Uttar Pradesh he was followed by the one from MP, then West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Bangalore and every other bureau resigned because of the editorial policies. When I speak to them, they say that we joined the Republic to do real Journalism and not to be stooges of a particular political party and do “hit job” on those who don’t agree with that political party. They all realized that Arnab was using his two channels to settle his personal scores with his previous employers, his former colleagues and everybody else who disagreed with his shouting bouts Almost all leading anchors of Republic left, we still remember how one of the best anchors was dragged out of the studio humiliated, he never returned. The people who were in his core team, who were known to be the right hand and mind of Arnab left him, they all are doing great in their professional life. They all decided not to disclose why they left the Republic, in the words of a former anchor, “he has the platform to build a fake narrative against you”. That someone who had recommended my name was Mr Aditya Raj Kaul, who had met me a couple of times in Jammu and had seen me work. Aditya Raj Kaul was the man behind several exclusive stories on Times Now and then in Republic, when Aditya and I covered the Sunjwa terror attack, I saw how well connected this man was. Arnab was lucky to have him in his team, for the full day it was Aditya who was on the television, from breaking news inputs to exclusive stories to interviews it was Mr Kaul on Republic. We used to joke about that Arnab should rename the Republic TVT as Aditya TV, Arnab was not doing any favor to him, but it was that every single story was being broken by Aditya. He was the backbone of the network, but one fine day we came to know that Aditya has resigned, till date I exactly don’t know what happened between Aditya and Arnab but given now we know Arnab well, it could be anybody’s guess, why he left. Arnab being what he is could have never tolerated Aditya over growing him, hence Aditya’s exit from the network. After Aditya’s exit, the backbone of the channel was broken, we all tried to take the burden but it was really hard for the entire team to fit in his shoes. We tried our best but Arnab never acknowledged that. Let me take the liberty of taking a few more names, of all who left before you even joined. Snehesh Alex Philip, is one of the well-known defense journalists of the country, before joining Republic he was the Pakistan correspondent of the premier Indian News Agency, he left Republic because of Arnab Goswami’s biased editorial policies and Arnab’s behavior towards the staff, even today reporters at Republic lift points from the copies of Snehesh. Hari Haran used to be the Star Anchor of South India before joining Republic, he left in a span of a few months and the reason for him leaving is anybody’s guess. So far in my life I haven’t come across a man who is as soft spoken and so dedicated to his work as Parikshit Luthra, we all know why he left. Today he is doing amazing work. Sakal Bhat, who was the prime-time anchor at Doordarshan for 17 long years joined republic, but as Arnab cannot tolerate anybody to overgrown him, he can never tolerate that anybody else had the fan follower more than him, so she was cut to size. She left and once again joined DoorDarshan, today again she is a Prime-Time anchor there. Pooja Prasana who left Times Now to Join Republic with Arnab, helped this company grow, she left her family for several weeks to help Arnab set up the studio in Mumbai, she worked day and night but today she is no longer with Republic, I again leave it for you to guess the reason. Prema Sridevi who was once considered as the backbone of the network had to leave this organization, I still remember that during one conference call before the launch of the channel, Arnab told the team that he was nothing without Prema. The list is endless, and everybody will find mention in my book soon. Will send you the first copy promise. As I write this I have come to know that several people have put up their papers in the past one week, as they were humiliated for not getting Rhea Chakraborty’s interview. While Arnab tried to maintain a moral high ground on TV against the rival channel for airing Rhea’s interview, he humiliated and harassed his own reporters for not getting her for the interview. While today Arnab claims that Republic is the biggest network in the country, the reality is that they don’t have a single reporter in most of the states and in those states where people have resigned, no professional journalist is willing to join. In Delhi you don’t have beat reporters as nobody is willing to join, a crime reporter who cannot differentiate between the Airforce and Navy uniform is covering defense for them. He became webkoof when he aired a two years old footage of the story that I had reported at that time and then he blamed the army for giving that fake video. He even shared a fake screenshot to show that a senior army officer had given the video to him. For past few days Arnab has been shouting about Nepotism, but I maintain that he should be the last person to do so, his wife (whose only qualification is that she is Arnab’s wife) is heading the operations of both the channels, one of his close stooges who has been recently promoted as Executed Editor News, his wife who was research assistant has been made the Head of Digital Desk (because she is native of the place from where Arnab’s wife is), another man who is now promoted as Senior Associate editor and covers defense his wife is made input head of Hindi channel and her job is to keep an eye on the staff in Noida office and inform Arnab and his wife as who is sitting on his desk and who is not, so Arnab should stop lecturing people about nepotism. Things were a bit different for me, as my only job was to target and speak against Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti which I did, my job to ensure to project them as anti-national and find fault in whatever they say, I did handle it very well. As I wasn’t comfortable speaking lies I changed my focus to defense as defense had always been my forte and I did many exclusive stories as well, but many senior officers used to tell me Tejinder you are a right person in a wrong company. I am a married man, with a daughter and a family to feed, every month I had many EMIs staring at me, so I had to kill my principles to work with Arnab, knowing very well that it is not the Journalism that we are practicing in Republic. The final nail in the coffin happened on August 5, when the interview for which I had been trying for months together was handed over to another reporter because he belongs to the region where from Arnab’s wife is and that this Reporter helped Arnab to hush up the case of abetment to suicide for which he is facing an FIR in Mumbai. Arnab called me soon after his show and started shouting and abusing, but now my tolerance had reached its precipice and I had to give it back to him in the same language with the same vocabulary, maybe with some extra words in Pure Punjabi which he will remember throughout his life. He gave the platform to a motormouth to abuse their fellow panelists, Arnab calls his staff a “piece of Sh\t” uses cuss words like MF and SF for them, so I thought it was opportune time to give him the taste of his own medicine.* Trust me from the day I resigned, everybody with whom I once worked or those who still work with Arnab have congratulated me and thanked me for being their voice. You know that some have resigned and some will leave soon. Arnab in the name of hiring young talent is exploiting them, giving them peanuts in the name of job, he is hiring young college graduates or people with zero editorial understanding at the desk, so that there is nobody to speak or challenge his editorial policies, which are dictated by the WhatsApp messages from a particular political party. Arnab has broken several Labor laws because he hired us for Republic TV (English Channel) then we were forced to work for Hindi channel also and then the dictate came that if you won’t contribute x number of stories a week for the digital desk your salary would be deducted, this threat was against the labour laws as this clause finds no mention in the contract that we signed while joining Republic, even HR team which sent this note can be taken to court of law over this harassment. Arnab has no empathy for his staff, as he forced them to come out in the field even if their areas were declared as containment zones, I know how difficult and dangerous it was, but we did follow his dictate. I have the company Laptop with me and having been witness to how this company does. not settle the dues of the former employees, I will hand over the laptop only once you settled my dues, give me NOC and a relieving letter and if it’s not done in next 20 days I will have no other option but to move to the labour court. Though I know that Arnab is a vindictive man and would try his level best to sabotage my career and my future prospects to find a job, but someone had to speak against him, I decided why not that someone should be me. At least by speaking against this man’s exploitation of more youth would stop, those who dream to join Journalism in the hope of doing quality stuff end up with being bonded labourers. I also want to put this on record that if anything bad happens to me or my family, any accident, anything untoward happens to me or my family, Arnab and his wife is to be held responsible for the same. I will be giving this undertaking to my local police station soon. BTW Honey Kour, I wish you best of luck and pray that you don’t have to face what the previous HR head had to go through. Regards Tejinder Singh Sodhi Former Bureau Head Republic TV Now a Free man
Tejinder Singh Sodhi's letter on why he quit Arnab Goswami's Republic TV
Source - https://twitter.com/TejinderSsodhi/status/1301266227105472512?s=20 From: Tejinder Singh Sodhi <…………….@………com> Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 2020, 9:19 pm Subject: Re: Resignation To: Honey Kaur <……….@………..com> Dear Honey, Congratulations on your promotion, trust me getting promoted from HR head to Vice President of the company would have been a major achievement if it was not Republic, but in Republic there is only one supreme leader and his wife who micromanage everything, everybody else is a filler irrespective of the designation they hold. I am telling you this out of my personal experience that everything here starts with Arnab and ends with Goswami, you don’t trust me ask this to the previous HR Head. Have you ever seen a company where the entire HR team left in a period of just less than three years? Time is a great teacher and I honestly pray that you don’t have to go through what everyone else who left this company had to go through, but nonetheless my good wishes for your promotion. I was asleep when I got a call from Arnab’s wife who before the launch of this company was just a bureau reporter at a pro congress newspaper, she told me that she and Arnab were happy with my work and have decided to promote me, I was surprised what does being happy mean, if any promotion has to be given it has to be merit based. I just wanted to disconnect the phone as the husband and wife kept bragging how kind and generous they were to the staff because at a time when other news outlets were firing people reducing their salaries, they were promoting their staff. I was told that with the promotion my responsibilities would increase and I can guide the desk how to go on with stories, this was another surprise to me given the fact that this was exactly what I had been doing for the past two years after every sensible person at the desk had said goodbye. This promotion had a rider and it was that the salary has not been revised for now and it would be done at a later stage, but the supreme leader of republic wanted that we should spread the word as how generous Arnab was to promote the staff. (how should we tell the people as the company had earlier threatened the staff to remove republic from their social media bio), but as you know for him it is image that matters so he wanted me to specially post this on social media. I did that for a day or two and then after I realized my mistake, I deleted that post. We all know that Arnab has been making huge money, the people in his cotree also make huge money, but the people who do the actual work are given peanuts. The entire staff of Republic TV had been anxiously waiting for the past two years to get a salary hike. Two years ago, the process of appraisal was started, forms were submitted but then nobody heard back from them. While he did not give the staff any hike, he used that money to launch a Hindi Channel and hired new staff for that, the Republic TV Staff was left high and dry. Back to August this year, when I got the email from you that I have been promoted, I wanted to respond to that email right away but decided to wait for a few days and If you remember it was a few hours prior to my putting up my papers I sent you that email turning down the promotion offer. If you remember I had mentioned in my resignation that I will send you a detailed mail outlining the reasons for my resignation, so here is that email. I had never applied for any Job at Republic TV, I was very much happy and satisfied with the company I was previously working with. It was the day of my wedding in 2017 when someone from Arnab’s office called me to say that Arnab wants to talk to me, I was in Gurudwara waiting for my Pheras to start. I thought someone was playing a prank on me so I snubbed him and asked him to call back after a few days. To my surprise I got the call back in a few days as I was made to speak to Arnab on WhatsApp video call, he was very soft and polite and I too was excited because till date we had seen him on Television and this was for the first time we were speaking to each other. He shared with me the reason he left Times Now, he said how he was humiliated by the management on various issues and why he was not allowed to enter the studio for a month, he said that he is going to come up with a channel that would dismantle the Times Now empire, a David that would take on the mighty Goliath. He told me that someone had recommended my name and he was keen to have me in his team. He promised that the Republic would revolutionize the TV news industry in the country and would question the people in power and be a channel that be the voice of the downtrodden, basically it would be a complete news channel. I told him that I come from Print background and have no experience in Television, he told me that he wants new faces and that Republic would be an organization which would be run by young professionals and his team would be young journalists only. I can tell you with certainty that he is one of the greatest motivational speakers a man like me who had never thought of joining television decided to join his team. When it came to salary negotiation, he told me that for now as he does not have any money, he will hire me on the same package which I was getting at my previous employer with the assurance that as the company starts making money, he would double my salary. After I resigned my previous editor in chief offered me a hike of 20000 if I don’t leave, but being a man of my principles, I requested him to let me go as I had given the commitment to Arnab. Today looking back I regret my decision to join the Republic, he did not revolutionize Journalism, but he killed serious Journalism, reduced it to a joke and somewhere I too feel to be accomplice in that crime. The Channel was launched and in its first week it went number 1 in TRP, we all were happy and excited because it was our hard work, the success did not come cheap our sweat and blood was mixed in it. I was happy that Arnab would acknowledge the contribution of the team, but it was Arnab everywhere, big hoardings came across the country, only acknowledging Arnab. Don’t trust me see the hoardings that came up in Delhi after the Hindi channel came No 1 in the TRP. After an initial few weeks, I realized that the Channel was all about Arnab only and he does not believe in team work or team efforts. It took me a few months to realize that for Republic everybody else was just a filler, who fills the vacuum of Arnab’s absence from the screen throughout the day and in the evening the stage is taken over by Arnab. The realization did come that Arnab is a tree, under which no other tree can grow, because he can never tolerate anybody else becoming the face of the channel. He ensured by various means that everybody in the organization feels that everybody else is his rival. An incident happened where the Republic team was not allowed to cover the Congress Press Conference in Delhi, we were asked to protest outside the congress office in our respective states by wearing black bands. I was like wait what this is not the job of a journalist to protest against a political party, but we had no option, so everybody did that. One fine day I get a call from someone on the desk (I won’t name that someone, but he was tortured to such an extent by Arnab that he suffered a major heart attack while sitting in the office) to go and hide near the house of the father of Sunanda Pushkar and then at appropriate time, he would tell me what has to be done. Why hide? They never trusted their staff, so till last moment we weren’t told anything. I went to the house and suddenly I was told to enter the house and shove the mic in the mouth of Ms Pushkar’s elderly father and force him to blame Shahshi Throor for “killing his daughter”, I tried to do so but when I saw her elderly father, I was in tears, he was weak, was not mentally stable, I told the desk, but they told me that Arnab is furious on me and he wants to get the father on camera to say that Tharoor killed his daughter. I refused and left the place, not before speaking to their man servant who spoke good about Mr Tharoor and Ms Pushkar’s relationship, but that never went on air. Next day Arnab called me and shouted like anything, he told me that I had let him down, by not getting the father of Ms Pushkar on camera to blame Mr Tharoor. This was not the Journalism that I had joined Republic for, reporters were being used to do the hit job on behalf of Arnab. A reporter in UP was told to get a chase sequence with the then Chief Minister, when he couldn’t he was told to jump the wall of his house to enter the premises and get that done. He said I would be shot by his security; he was pressurized by Arnab’s wife that he resigned the next day. As the money and power started coming in easy, Arnab became more arrogant and as he did not listen to anybody on TV, he did not even listen to his staff. He started humiliating them, shouting at them, abusing them, even physically assaulting them. People who had joined him after leaving their well established and well-paying job at the time when Republic had no present and no future, started leaving him, some left because of the humiliation they were being meted out and some left because they realized that it was not the kind of Journalism that they were doing with him. Slowly everybody started leaving, first it was the Reporter from Uttar Pradesh he was followed by the one from MP, then West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Bangalore and every other bureau resigned because of the editorial policies. When I speak to them, they say that we joined the Republic to do real Journalism and not to be stooges of a particular political party and do “hit job” on those who don’t agree with that political party. They all realized that Arnab was using his two channels to settle his personal scores with his previous employers, his former colleagues and everybody else who disagreed with his shouting bouts Almost all leading anchors of Republic left, we still remember how one of the best anchors was dragged out of the studio humiliated, he never returned. The people who were in his core team, who were known to be the right hand and mind of Arnab left him, they all are doing great in their professional life. They all decided not to disclose why they left the Republic, in the words of a former anchor, “he has the platform to build a fake narrative against you”. That someone who had recommended my name was Mr Aditya Raj Kaul, who had met me a couple of times in Jammu and had seen me work. Aditya Raj Kaul was the man behind several exclusive stories on Times Now and then in Republic, when Aditya and I covered the Sunjwa terror attack, I saw how well connected this man was. Arnab was lucky to have him in his team, for the full day it was Aditya who was on the television, from breaking news inputs to exclusive stories to interviews it was Mr Kaul on Republic. We used to joke about that Arnab should rename the Republic TVT as Aditya TV, Arnab was not doing any favor to him, but it was that every single story was being broken by Aditya. He was the backbone of the network, but one fine day we came to know that Aditya has resigned, till date I exactly don’t know what happened between Aditya and Arnab but given now we know Arnab well, it could be anybody’s guess, why he left. Arnab being what he is could have never tolerated Aditya over growing him, hence Aditya’s exit from the network. After Aditya’s exit, the backbone of the channel was broken, we all tried to take the burden but it was really hard for the entire team to fit in his shoes. We tried our best but Arnab never acknowledged that. Let me take the liberty of taking a few more names, of all who left before you even joined. Snehesh Alex Philip, is one of the well-known defense journalists of the country, before joining Republic he was the Pakistan correspondent of the premier Indian News Agency, he left Republic because of Arnab Goswami’s biased editorial policies and Arnab’s behavior towards the staff, even today reporters at Republic lift points from the copies of Snehesh. Hari Haran used to be the Star Anchor of South India before joining Republic, he left in a span of a few months and the reason for him leaving is anybody’s guess. So far in my life I haven’t come across a man who is as soft spoken and so dedicated to his work as Parikshit Luthra, we all know why he left. Today he is doing amazing work. Sakal Bhat, who was the prime-time anchor at Doordarshan for 17 long years joined republic, but as Arnab cannot tolerate anybody to overgrown him, he can never tolerate that anybody else had the fan follower more than him, so she was cut to size. She left and once again joined DoorDarshan, today again she is a Prime-Time anchor there. Pooja Prasana who left Times Now to Join Republic with Arnab, helped this company grow, she left her family for several weeks to help Arnab set up the studio in Mumbai, she worked day and night but today she is no longer with Republic, I again leave it for you to guess the reason. Prema Sridevi who was once considered as the backbone of the network had to leave this organization, I still remember that during one conference call before the launch of the channel, Arnab told the team that he was nothing without Prema. The list is endless, and everybody will find mention in my book soon. Will send you the first copy promise. As I write this I have come to know that several people have put up their papers in the past one week, as they were humiliated for not getting Rhea Chakraborty’s interview. While Arnab tried to maintain a moral high ground on TV against the rival channel for airing Rhea’s interview, he humiliated and harassed his own reporters for not getting her for the interview. While today Arnab claims that Republic is the biggest network in the country, the reality is that they don’t have a single reporter in most of the states and in those states where people have resigned, no professional journalist is willing to join. In Delhi you don’t have beat reporters as nobody is willing to join, a crime reporter who cannot differentiate between the Airforce and Navy uniform is covering defense for them. He became webkoof when he aired a two years old footage of the story that I had reported at that time and then he blamed the army for giving that fake video. He even shared a fake screenshot to show that a senior army officer had given the video to him. For past few days Arnab has been shouting about Nepotism, but I maintain that he should be the last person to do so, his wife (whose only qualification is that she is Arnab’s wife) is heading the operations of both the channels, one of his close stooges who has been recently promoted as Executed Editor News, his wife who was research assistant has been made the Head of Digital Desk (because she is native of the place from where Arnab’s wife is), another man who is now promoted as Senior Associate editor and covers defense his wife is made input head of Hindi channel and her job is to keep an eye on the staff in Noida office and inform Arnab and his wife as who is sitting on his desk and who is not, so Arnab should stop lecturing people about nepotism. Things were a bit different for me, as my only job was to target and speak against Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti which I did, my job to ensure to project them as anti-national and find fault in whatever they say, I did handle it very well. As I wasn’t comfortable speaking lies I changed my focus to defense as defense had always been my forte and I did many exclusive stories as well, but many senior officers used to tell me Tejinder you are a right person in a wrong company. I am a married man, with a daughter and a family to feed, every month I had many EMIs staring at me, so I had to kill my principles to work with Arnab, knowing very well that it is not the Journalism that we are practicing in Republic. The final nail in the coffin happened on August 5, when the interview for which I had been trying for months together was handed over to another reporter because he belongs to the region where from Arnab’s wife is and that this Reporter helped Arnab to hush up the case of abetment to suicide for which he is facing an FIR in Mumbai. Arnab called me soon after his show and started shouting and abusing, but now my tolerance had reached its precipice and I had to give it back to him in the same language with the same vocabulary, maybe with some extra words in Pure Punjabi which he will remember throughout his life. He gave the platform to a motormouth to abuse their fellow panelists, Arnab calls his staff a “piece of Sh\t” uses cuss words like MF and SF for them, so I thought it was opportune time to give him the taste of his own medicine.* Trust me from the day I resigned, everybody with whom I once worked or those who still work with Arnab have congratulated me and thanked me for being their voice. You know that some have resigned and some will leave soon. Arnab in the name of hiring young talent is exploiting them, giving them peanuts in the name of job, he is hiring young college graduates or people with zero editorial understanding at the desk, so that there is nobody to speak or challenge his editorial policies, which are dictated by the WhatsApp messages from a particular political party. Arnab has broken several Labor laws because he hired us for Republic TV (English Channel) then we were forced to work for Hindi channel also and then the dictate came that if you won’t contribute x number of stories a week for the digital desk your salary would be deducted, this threat was against the labour laws as this clause finds no mention in the contract that we signed while joining Republic, even HR team which sent this note can be taken to court of law over this harassment. Arnab has no empathy for his staff, as he forced them to come out in the field even if their areas were declared as containment zones, I know how difficult and dangerous it was, but we did follow his dictate. I have the company Laptop with me and having been witness to how this company does. not settle the dues of the former employees, I will hand over the laptop only once you settled my dues, give me NOC and a relieving letter and if it’s not done in next 20 days I will have no other option but to move to the labour court. Though I know that Arnab is a vindictive man and would try his level best to sabotage my career and my future prospects to find a job, but someone had to speak against him, I decided why not that someone should be me. At least by speaking against this man’s exploitation of more youth would stop, those who dream to join Journalism in the hope of doing quality stuff end up with being bonded labourers. I also want to put this on record that if anything bad happens to me or my family, any accident, anything untoward happens to me or my family, Arnab and his wife is to be held responsible for the same. I will be giving this undertaking to my local police station soon. BTW Honey Kour, I wish you best of luck and pray that you don’t have to face what the previous HR head had to go through. Regards Tejinder Singh Sodhi Former Bureau Head Republic TV Now a Free man
Me (33M) and my GF(31F) are currently living a nightmare after an 8 months relationship full of lies about her past. I'm hurting so bad and really need help from the community. Thanks
This is a very long story, I want to give you guys every possible particular I remember, so to get better advices. Sorry for my english, I'll try my best and thank you all in advance for taking the time to read and give some help. We first met online on october 23 2019, she was an old friend of mine (5 years ago we had a few conversations because she was the gf of one of my closest friends and when they broke up she wanted some advices from me and nothing happened between us). All of this was on phone and fb, because we were living in different cities, more than 1k kms apart from each other and I had a gf at that time and absolutely no interest in her. Then I answered to one of her instagram stories in october 2019 and we started chatting. She and her ex had broke up a few weeks earlier and we talked about the motivations and what could be done to get back with him. She told me that she had a coffee twice with a male friend they had in common, who also had a girlfriend, and she didn't tell about those meetings to her ex because he was possessive and didn't want to hear him be mad about what she thought was nothing wrong. But she knew that it was a bad decision and was sorry about it, tried everything to prove to him that nothing happened and that she loved him, but he still left her. I also told her about my two potential partners and I never lied about my relationships. We were just friends and we texted or called each other daily. Conversations between us were very long and we started to like each other, to the point where I told her to stop mentioning her ex because I was starting to hurt, I closed everything with other potential or real partners and told her about it. She understood and never talked to me about her ex (this happened after 2 weeks since our first convo, 11-12th november 2019. Our calls became videocalls, until late night (4-5am). We were talking about finally meeting each other, how lucky we were to have finally met after 30 yrs and all the good things in an early "falling in love" phase. 26 november I finally arrange to get to her city, I spent money I couldnt afford to spend and went there to meet my queen, that was in my head. She ran to the bus clapping her hands like a 4 yo at christmas gifts, so incredibly happy. I stayed 5 days at her place and everything was like being in paradise. We laughed, we had the greatest sex ever, everything together was fun and exciting, never an awkward silence... just perfect and so natural like we had been together for years. Only one issue: she was a social networks addicted. She text so many people I can't even give a number and was constantly scrolling stories and fb. She also posted two or three times a day on both these socials. There was nothing really wrong with it in my head, after all we are living in 2020 and so many people are overly attached to their phones and curious about other people live or seeking some attention, especially girls. Only with two of those guys there were some weird messages, hinting that it wasn't a simple friendship, and she texted them even when I was present so it really didn't bug me all that much. She desperately cried the night before I had to leave and I told her i would be back in a week or two, because I didn't want to stay away from her anymore and we should start talking about moving to live together eventually, but I wanted to get to know her better for a few weeks before this important decision to change our lives. On my bus for the trip back to my city, I confronted her about these two guys (her current boss and a tattoo artist) telling her that I was feeling unsure about it and not feeling too well. She told me her story about both, telling me she's sorry about me not feeling comfortable with those conversations, but they are just friends. With the boss, she said, they met during summer and were just director and kitchen operator at a fast food company she worked at. Then they got closer in october because she had broke up with her ex and he was having quite a few problems with his wife so they talked a lot during that time. Then they started working together again in november and he was her boss, and they still talked about their lifes from time to time. She also said that hes so different from her and didn't like him at all, and also he had a 4yo kid and never ever would she put herself in such a situation. So now I knew she considered that option and evaluated pros and cons. Big red flag for not believing the story. But I kept cool and decided to give her some time and see where she brings this story with the guy. The tattoo artist was just some guy with whom she used to chat, he also had a gf and there was actually nothing to worry about, apart from her asking questions like "do you have a gf? How old are you? How tall are you? Want to meet for a cigarette and a quick talk? and so on, typical questions you ask when interested in something more, most of the times. In this 10 days we had to stay apart again, videocalls until 5 am again, talking about everything, watching movies together and so on. She said "I love you" for the first time on 10th dec 2019 and I went back to her place two days later. I stayed another 5 fantastic days and we were happy like never before. BUT, those weird texts with the boss and with the tattoo guy were still there so I did what should never be done. Fear got the best of me and I checked her phone behind her back. I know it's wrong and feel ashamed but I was betting my future on this girl and I thought I couldnt bar the risk of gettin hurt so badly again like in my previous relationships, so I did it. I really found nothing decisive, but we had to talk about it again and she gave the same version. This thing started to get between us, but we were still happy and I deeply trusted her, despite my fears. When I got back to my city on dec 18, we had to wait until jan 9 2020 before we could meet again, but this time I would move there for good, keeping my job as a developer, which I could continue there with a laptop. We were on phone day and night during that period of time, we both couldnt wait to meet again, this time forever. But this time I had her passwords for insta and fb (yes, my bad). She kept texting those guys and her best friend (who was acting a bit weird too, like a jealous boyfriend with her) so, also this guy got into my jar of red flagged guys to keep an eye on. That's where jealousy really got stronger and stronger and we started to argue the issue. She just couldnt handle to quit this addiction and particularly with those three subjects, but I was almost ok with her best friend because she told me he was just a friend and they never liked each other. She finally blocked the tattoo guy the day of christmas, thank God for the much appreciated present. In january, when we met again, we had a very bitter argument about her boss and her not acting normal to my eyes. The same night she answered at 2 am to a poll in one of his stories on insta. I totally snapped and wanted to leave her for good, I cried and showed all the pain I had to eat up in the month we were apart and she was keeping me in this awful state of mind. She finally understood what she was doing to me and deleted the guy from every social, leaving only whatsapp for possible work communications. She also voluntarly gave me access to her whatsapp web and also told her best friend that their friendship was over because he wasn't being respectful to me and her relationship with those weird texts. She then decided it was best for us to move to sicily where I used to live, she didn't feel happy with her job and we were paying the rent overthere, while I had my own home in sicily. So in march we moved here and we're still living together, she left her job and blocked his boss on whatsapp and his number. Everything was still perfect, but we still had problems with her social network addiction, every 3 or 4 days she did something stupid and I had to tell her, so the thing really got bigger and bigger to the point where she finally decided to quit instagram and facebook because she couldnt use them properly like a mature 30yo. Always actively looking for attention and the likes. One quick example of her behaviour: I told her there was this guy on facebook who looked like he was ready with his finger to instalike every single post she made. I said it jokingly, but with the clear intent to test the reaction. She hadn't liked anyone's post for about a week... the day after she went to his page and liked his last post. After she left every social, we finally had the chance to work on the two of us, gettin to know each other for real during the quaratine and we played games together, we watched many tv series, cooked a lot of recipes and it was paradise again. Then one day I was in the bathroom with her phone, mine was out of battery and I was browsing the internet on hers. I don't know why but I was still feeling insecure about what really happened in those months where I was in pain for my jealousy and her weird connections with the boss and her male best friend so I searched her boss name on whatsapp and the horror started. In a chat with her female best friend, she confessed that in october 22, the day before me and her talked again for the first time, she had sex with him. I couldn't breath, hands shaking and I had to put the phone down not to drop it. After a couple minutes, when I recollected myself a little bit, I told her we need to sit and talk. I told her and she tried to deny the obvious but then confirmed it happened that night but never before or later. That day I was feeling sick and I wasn't reasoning at all. The day after, I called her female best friend, the same that knew everything and asked her to tell me the truth about this affair with the boss. She lied (now I know) and only confirmed that night. That day I couldn't look at her in the eyes and I didn't sleep the whole night. I knew there was a lot more I still didn't know and I couldn't live with it anymore. So the day after I decided we should call this boss and ask him to confirm my gf's version. She then confessed before I could hear it from him, that they also had sex the first time during summer when they worked together (only once) and then it happened again, but only that night, in october. I talked to this guy, told him my gf would never know about the call, I also told him me and her got closer in january (yes, I lied with the intention to let him talk freely about the truth without worries) and I wanted to know what happened between them in oct-nov-dec. He said it was a one night experience like it happened in the summer, then they texted during november and talked from time to time after work about his family and her ex, but never happened again anything physical because she never loved him and it was just a little crush she had on him but nothing more, then I came into the picture and they never texted about anything different from work related stuff because he knew she was happy with me, she talked about me with colleagues and was happy, and he was happy for her. I was ok with the story, but I had lost my blind trust in her. It brought to more detective actions and I discovered SO much more about why she and her ex broke up. I confronted her again about all of her past. Now I just wanted to know everything, because it started to look like she was completely different from the image she gave me. After a month of arguing, she told me "all" (I hope so) the truth: she had an affair with her male best friend for 2 and a half years during the relationship with her ex. She also had a one time occasional sex with a personal trainer and she broke up with her ex because she was having sex and wanted a more serious relationship with a common friend. I am now destroyed by all of this. Feels like I've been with a person totally different from what i thought. Capable of the worst things, with no remorse or sense of guilt, 5 guys in 4 years in her bed while she never left his ex. I know there are a lot of people like this, but I would have never imagined her capable of doing these kind of things. The images of these guys walking to her room are haunting me and I wake up (when I manage to sleep) with nausea and I can't breath normal... it's a living nightmare. I called every one of those involved in this and they confirmed this is the final truth about her past. But I still have doubts about november and december, when things got serious between us. When I ask her, there are still a lot of "I can't remember" "I don't know" and the only thing she is telling me is that she used to delete some messages because she didn't want me to know about any of these things because she wanted a new life with me and she was ashamed of what she had done. She also told me they met again another night, but it was at the pub for a drink because they had to talk in early november, before we were serious about our relationship and she had no intentions to have sex with him again because he had a kid and a woman waiting for him at home and didn't want to break a family. That night, after an hour at the pub, his wife called and he had to go. It was the last time they met aside from work. I also talked to her roommate and she told me she was present that night in october when they had sex, but she could swear to me that after we met in person, no other guys have never entered that house anymore. She had a doubt if they met again in early november but couldnt be sure about it so didn't really want to tell me something she wasnt sure about in this situation. I've been in therapy before and called my therapist again to meet her asap, because I can't get past all those pictures in my head and the distrust about what really happened in november and december. I really want to get past this because I feel I'm still in love with the true version of her (if that's not only in my head). It's unimaginable to me her behaviour, so far from my ideals. Also, I can't imagine anyone talking on the phone to me until 5am, falling in love and saying so many sweet words, waking up the next morning and having a conversation with the boss who they slept with... it's just so inhuman and cold hearted that I can't believe it came from her. At least until we met and she quitted all those texts. My opinion is that she's very insecure, with very low self esteem and constantly seeks gratification from males attentions and possibly sexual desire. She exists because of their attention. Now it's all great between us (or it was) but I feel like when we will go through some hard times like every couple does sooner or later, I could lose her or worse, she would cheat on me. She's regretful, cried a lot and says she doesn't even deserve my forgiveness, that she has never done anything wrong with me apart from hiding things from the past, a couple texts to her boss to try and keep some sort of sick friendship to have things "normal" at work and was trying to cut any contact with her sex partner best friend of 4 years, which she finally did in january, and they never met in nov-dec (also this was confirmed by her roommates and I directly talked to the guy). Should I trust her? Can a person change so much after 5 years of cheating and daily lies? You know the questions... I really want to be with her but I don't know how to get past this. Thank you all so much for reading and your kind help. TL;DR: She had a sex based affair with her best friend for 2 and a half years during her last relationship with her ex of 4 years, she always lied to me about her past when asked directly, wanted to keep friends with guys she had slept with, worked under the same boss she had an affair with, then she truly changed, decided to move 1000kms away from that place, change her life with me, start a new job and be transparent. She had all the worst friendships of yesmen and yeswomen without any criticism, she's very fragile and no self esteem. She's regretfull and I know she loves me with all herself. I can't trust her after all the lies, and I cant put away all the horrible images in my head and the fear of it happening to me. But I love her and I want to do everything to be with her, even contacted my therapist to try and get past it. What are you thoughts?
[Q&A] Everything you need to know before coming to The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.
Hello everyone. Almost every day I open saudiarabia, I see a post regarding an individual asking questions whether is it safe to come to KSA or not? How much salary is enough for an individual/family? can I bring my girlfriend to KSA with me? and last but not least Is it haram to use spoons?. I'm going to be answering all of those questions and explaining the questions which I can. Q1: Is it safe to come to The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia? A1: Yes, Saudi Arabia is a very safe country. Although crimes do happen but very rare. I'm talking this based on my experience not from a new source as I did before updating the answer. Of course, crimes do occur but it's very rare. Murder, harassment, rape (very rare), theft, and scams. Like any country, you have good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods, stay in the good neighborhood and you'll be fine. Q2: How much salary is enough for an Individual? A2: If you're an individual and your company will be giving you a package of, let's say, 5K, then that is enough for you (more detailed monthly expenses will be explained below). Q3: How much salary is enough for a family? A3: This totally depends on how many members of a family you have and what kind of expenses you have. The biggest expense currently for non-citizens is the Iqama fee. Now, a lot of companies pay the employee's Iqama fee and some don't, given that, I think a Husband and Wife, both could survive with 4-5K monthly (Depending on the lifestyle and monthly expenses obviously) (Monthly family expenses will be explained below). Q4: I'm from the LGBTQ+ community, am I safe? A4: Don't talk about it and you will be fine. Q5: Can I bring Alcohol to The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia? A5: NO! Q6: I'm less than 18, can I work part-time/full time? A6: No, if you're less than 18 years old you cannot work at all. If you're 18+, you can find some permanent jobs but it's very highly unlikely that you'll get hired. Part-time jobs aren't for non-citizens. However, there are some companies that want employees for a couple of months and they will hire you through Ajeer Contract. Q7: Can I bring my Vape eJuice? A7: Read this post where people who've traveled with vape. Q8: Best apps/websites to shop online in KSA? A8: Noon, JollyChic, and SouqKSA. Q9: Does Saudi Arabia have an income tax? A9: No. Q10: I'm not a Muslim, will that be an issue? A10: "No. There are already 2 million Christians, 400,000 Buddhists, and 390,000 Hindus living in here. As long as you're not promoting your religion to Muslims you will be fine." u/ajwadsabano Q11: I'm practicing (Religion), Is there a place of worship for me? A11: Muslim? yes. Non-Muslim? nope. Q12: Is there an Uber? A12: Yes, in Saudi we have Uber and Careem. Q13: Is Transportation cheap in Saudi? A13: It's not cheap nor expensive, we don't use meter here so it's easy to bargain. Q14: How's the weather really in Saudi? A14: I will tell the weather for the following cities:
Jeddah: 40-50c from March till mid-October with dust and humidity. From almost the end of October till February, Rain and decent cold weather (you can sleep without AC sometimes).
Riyadh: 40-50c from March till mid-October with dust and dry weather. From almost the end of October till February, heavy rain and cold weather colder than Jeddah.
Dammam: 40-50c from March till mid-October with dust and humidity. From almost the end of October till February, rain and cold weather.
Q15: I will be coming to Saudi next week/month, how do I find apartments? A15: The following:
Come here and search by going to buildings and asking the watchman.
The last option is going to the Real Estate office.
Q16: How much does a car costs in Saudi? A16: Depends but a Sedan (Yaris 2019) would cost you around 50K. Q17: I want to rent a car, what's the rate? A17: Example: A sedan, Toyota Yaris 2017, 140 SAday. Q18: I want to buy used stuff and sell some stuff, where do I do that? A18: On the following sites
Q19: I want to purchase Electronics, from where do I do that? A19: From the following shops.
Jarir
Extra
Panda
Axiom
Carrefour
Q20: Is there Clothes shop name>in <Mall Name> **? A20: Malls App This app lets you find if your desired shop is in a specific mall. Q21: Where can I find Computer parts? A21: Click Here for Riyadh and Dammam. if in Jeddah, go to Khalid Bin Walid Street. Q22: I am a non-Muslim and want to enter Makkah/Madina, can I enter the cities? If I can't enter them and then I did, what would happen to me? A22: No, you can't enter those cities. XX km before the border of Makkah/Madina, there's a sign saying "MUSLIMS ONLY" OR "Non-Muslims from here". If you did enter, I honestly don't know what would happen because I have never heard/read a non-muslim getting caught entering the holy cities. Q23: I'm coming for Hajj, any tips? A23: Tips for Hajj Q24: I (Male) coming with my (male) friend, can we live in the same apartment? would it be suspicious? A24: No, it wouldn't be suspicious. It's completely normal. Q25: Regarding the Internet, should I get 4G or 5G? or Fiber? which provider should I purchase from? A25: So, here we go:
The first scenario is you come to Saudi and your company signs you up for monthly data internet, let's say, 5GB monthly. Is that enough for you when you're out for work or when with friends? Will it serve you for 30 days? if yes, you should think about getting an Internet at home, DSL/Fiber Optics. Now, not every neighborhood has Fiber Optics but DSL does. If you're really into fast internet browsing, gaming, and streaming, and the apartment location doesn't matter to you that much, look for the neighborhoods that have Fiber Optics and then rent an apartment. Mobily, Zain, and STC, all of them provide Fiber Optics.
The second scenario is you come to Saudi and your company signs you up for monthly data internet, let's say, 5GB monthly and that is isn't enough for you because you're a social media addict. What you should do is look for a network that has good coverage in your office and your house. Mobily, Zain, and STC all of them have 4G (5G is available for Zain and STC as of 16-OCT-2019) STC has the best coverage but still doesn't cover some areas, so do your homework before buying.
You should purchase depending on the coverage. If you want 4G from STC for your house but it doesn't have 4G coverage, it doesn't make sense to purchase an STC 4G sim right?. Check the prices, coverage, and anything that you want to check and then buy.
The internet isn't cheap here but it's reasonable. There's a provider called Jawwy, STC's company which lets you create your own packages. You can get 1GB internet and 100 mins for 30 SAR. As for 4G packages, in general, it will cost you 200+ SAR. Fiber Optics costs 200+ SAR also.
Q26: What expenses can I expect when I come to Saudi? A26: The answer is going to be well explained, so, here we go:
These are the following expenses for you, Individual/Family.
Rent: For rent, you have four options:
Renting an apartment and furnishing yourself. The rent obviously depends on the area and the age of the building but, you should be able to find a decent flat on a monthly basis for 1000 SAR (RENT ONLY). You have 200 SAR at least for electricity, I have no idea about water. Some building does charge 50-100 SAR monthly for sewerage pickup and stuff like that. So, given the example about Rent + Electricity + Sewerage Pickup= 1300 SAR.
Renting a furnished apartment for around 1500 SAR a month including the rent, electricity, and water. this a better option if your job requires constant relocating.
Living with other people aka sharing. I personally don't prefer sharing since this mostly create problems "he didn't cook" " he didn't clean", but if your budget doesn't support you for you to live in an apartment of your own or a furnished apartment, this is an option for you to consider. What happens is that you have a 2BHK flat. each bedroom has at least 4 persons in it, depending on the size of the flat/room. You share the rent, electricity, and the internet equally. This could cost you around 250-300 SAR monthly including the rent, electricity, and the internet.
The last and a better option than option 3 is sharing a separate room in a family flat. Let's say there's a family, a husband, and a wife. They rent an apartment of 2BHK, which has let's say 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and 2 bathrooms. They furnish the whole house, they keep a bedroom, kitchen, and a bathroom for themselves, and the other bedroom, and bathroom, they rent it out since they don't need it. These have separate entrances, especially if the owner has his family with him. There are some bachelors who do this too and they might not have a separate entrance. The rent is around 600-700 for this option, some are included electricity, water, and the internet and some aren't. This is personally my second favorite option to live, first being the second option above.
Food:
The first option is to cook at home. which would cost you maybe around 500-600 SAR monthly for groceries.
Eat 3 meals a day in a restaurant daily:
Breakfast: The best, easiest, and cheapest breakfast here is a Sandwich. Everyone likes eggs, right? so, If you have 2 egg sandwiches ( 1 egg sandwich for 1.50 SAR), a cup of tea 1.50 SAR and a water bottle 1 SAR would cost you a daily total of 5.50 SAR.
Lunch and Dinner: The reason I'm combining lunch and dinner is that most of the people eat the same type of food at lunch and dinner. Now, assuming that you're Indian/Pakistani, you want to eat salan (Curry) there are restaurants that will serve you salan with rice and roti for 10-12 SAR but do remember those restaurants are not that the most hygienic and use really bad oil which could make you sick. If you're looking for good food, a salan would cost you 16 SAR (Rice, Roti, lentil soup and salan). So, given that, 35 SAR for lunch and dinner (+3 SAR for water).
I'm not sure if this option is available in all of the Indian/Pakistani restaurants, but I have seen this in Jeddah. What this option basically is, the restaurant gives you food on a monthly basis. They give you a card, the same size as a business card, every time you eat, the ownecashier signs on it. Not sure how much this costs though.
This option is very rare but I'm trying to let you guys know every option you have. So, there are some ladies on Facebook groups that supply meals on a daily basis. I saw an add earlier, and I asked her how much it would cost for dinner, daily, for a month and she said it would cost 600 SAR.
Internet: See Q25.
Electricity: Q26:
Fuel: Here are the prices of fuel in Saudi as of 17-Oct-2020. Just to give you an Idea, a Ford Explorer would drink Gasoline 91 around 100 SAR from 0 to full. Also,the fuel prices will be reviewed every month, either the price will increase, decrease, or stay the same. I really don't have any knowledge of cars, so hope this helps:
Are there any good tech recruiting firms which can help foreigners ?
Sorry, I can't help with that. Try google.
Things to do right after you arrive ? Docs to get, license, bank?
As soon as you step into KSA, get your Iqama, if you have money Iqama, you have everything.
How to look for accommodation? Redflags to avoid.
See Q15. Just look for the basic red flags ie: "Give me the money and I'll give you the key tomorrow".
What kinda car to buy/not buy, finance/lease, buy new or used?
This is totally a personal choice only you can answer this question. You can buy whatever type of car you want, however you want it and in which condition you want it :).
Work cultural shocks you should be ready to face and accept?
Haven't faced anything like that, so no Idea.
Kids education? When does school year starts? Is education free? If not, how much for a decent school per child?
If you're looking for an international school, then the new year starts in April. Yes, education is free if your child is going to a government school (Saudi School). See Q26. Q28: Can I use Facetime/Skype/Whatsapp Call to call my home country? A28: Those apps are constantly being blocked and unblocked. A lot of people use IMO to call their home country. Q29: How to get a Driving License? A29: Procedure to get a Driving License , and [This](https://www.reddit.com/saudiarabia/comments/hqbhyq/the_definitive_guide_on_how_to_get_a_driving/) Q30: Which is the best bank to open an account in? A30: Here is the list of all the banks in Saudi. You should go to their website and see what bank is the most suitable for you. Q31: Which is the best medical provider? A31: You don't really have a say in that since the company will be providing you one. Q32: I want to send money to my country, which bank provides the best rate? A32: You would have to check that at the time of the transfer because the rates keep changing. Q33: I know you said that Saudi Arabia is one of the safest countries in the world, still, I'm pretty sure there are some common scams that happen, any tips and advice? A33: First click here I said that. Yes, small crimes, scams do happen here, the most common are the following:
This is one is the most popular scam for a year or two and yet people still fall for it. What happens is basically people set up a WhatsApp/IMO account called NCB Bank with NCB logo and then they start messaging other people using WhatsApp/SMS/IMO or call you to tell you that your bank account has been blocked and that they need you to send your account numbeconfidential information so they can unblock it. Here's how not get scammed:
These messages come from a local number, starting 05XXXXXXXX. If THE BANK really blocked your account, logically they would send an SMS with BANK NAME as a sender, they wouldn't send a message on Whatsapp/IMO/SMS lol.
Their messages are poorly written and translated. They just write in English and copy that message on Google Translate and translate to Arabic, which is the worst.
This one is similar to the first one. A guy calls you with a local number 05XXXXXXXX and tells you that they're from STC/Zain/Mobily and you have won 100K SAR.
A guy approaches you and tells you that he has a mobile phone which he wants to sell it because he has money issues. Not exactly a scam right? the problem with this is that the phone might not be original. he will tell you it's A branded phone company but it could be a Chinese replica.
This one is pretty common here which is basically you get involved in a phone relationship and they end up scamming/blackmailing you in the end. The scamming part happens to guys, where the blackmailing part happens to girls. Here's how to avoid this scam:
Don't get involved in phone relationships
If you're a guy, and you started talking to this "HoT gIrL" don't be too excited, there's a chance it's a HE and he's just scamming you to get his phone recharged.
If you're a girl advice #1, if you did start to talk to this guy, chances of him being a HE is 100% but the chances of him being a nice person are, I...... honestly don't know, but it's definitely not a 100%. He will ask you to send PICS and then blackmail you with it.
If God forbids you're the victim of this scam/blackmail, check this.
This one is very common: You could get into similar situations like this, helping them or not is totally up to you. Because of the fake ones, the real and genuine people don't get the help they need.
Taxi Drivers: Taxi drivers, in general, are very good but you might encounter some A**H****, It doesn't matter if you're a male or female there are some of them like this (hope you guys understand what I mean). I would suggest you to:
Use UbeCareem. When your driver arrives, send the info of the driver and the vehicle to someone just in case.
If you did use the normal taxi, take a picture of the number plate and send it to someone, a friend perhaps.
This one is the scariest one: There are two parts to this:
This one is similar to the scam above, but, this takes place at your house. They will knock on your door and ask for money, clothes, food or whatever they want. not scary right? wait for #2.
Time for the scariest one: A group of people disguised as police will knock on your door and ask you to open the door and let them in because they want to search your house or for whatever reason. They could be disguised as police or as government officials. How to avoid this:
DON'T open the door if it's someone you don't know.
DON'T open the door if you're alone
Use Eyehole to see when someone knocks on your door
Install some extra locks on your door, preferably the one that is a lock but still opens the door an inch The top one in case you want to open and see their ID.
As far as I know, the police don't have any rights to enter your house unless they have a search warrant.
If you did open the door, ask for an ID and make sure that it's the same person.
Q34: I want to apply for Saudi Tourist Visa, how to do that? A34: Welcome to KSA. Q35: Can I visit the holy cities and perform umrah on my tourist visa? A35: Yes you can. Q36: What is public decency? A36: Here you go Q37: Any Dos and Dont's? A37: Here we go
See Q36
Don't say/write anything negative about Saudi Arabia, its government, their problem with other countries, and their decisions. Keep those stuff to yourself.
Don't say/write anything bad to an individual. Saying something like H*e, M*****F****\* or similar words could land you in trouble if the person reported you.
Do keep your Iqama with you all the time even if you went down only to throw your garbage/bring something from the car. These days the police are very strict and if you forgot your iqama, you could get into trouble which is jail only or penalty or jail+penalty.
Don't work at a company that is not your sponsor. For example, Amazon hired you and you came here and started working for them. Later you started to work at another company (Google) while being an employee of Amazon. This will land you in trouble if you get caught. Last I heard, if you get caught you will be deported with a ban of 10 years and a penalty. (correct me if wrong)
Q38: Do maids/drivers still get mistreated in Saudi by their Sponsor (Kafeel)?. A38: Yes, this still happens but not like before. Q39: I'm coming to Saudi with my GIRLFRIEND, can we live together? A39: Yes, you can. Source. Q40: What people usually do on weekends/eid? A40: Life before 2019 used to be boring here with no events and no activity at all. Now, there are a lot of events that are taking place and a lot of activities to do. What you do on holidays is totally on you:
Going to an event.
Going to Beach
Going to resort with friends/family.
Coffee shops with friends for Sheesha
Parks
Netflix and Chill
Football field to play
Q41: Are spoons Haram? A41: Yes, they're, unfortunately. Q42: I'm a foreign woman, do I have to wear an abaya/hijab? A42: No, you don't have to wear an abaya as long as you dress modestly. Read this.
Foreign women, however, will be required to wear “modest clothing,” he added, without elaborating.
Q43: I'm a woman coming to Saudi, how safe is it for me? A43: Saudi Arabia is a safe country. Yes, there are crimes that happen but it's very rare. The most common crimes are theft and scams, rare, but happens. It is a safe country for women. Yes, there is some harassment cases and some creeps who will try to touch inappropriately, but it's very, very rare. Q44: Can I, a woman, be alone in a taxi driven by a man? A44: Yes, you can. Q45: I'm a woman, can I travel/go to places alone without a male? Q46: Yes, you can. Q47: What are the applications that a person must have if they're living in/visiting Saudi? A47: Here we go:
Absher: This app is for government services checking your Iqama expiry date and much much more.
Al-Kahraba: This app is for your Electricity bill.
STC: Network Provider's app. Pay bills, renew subscriptions check coverage and more.
Zain: Network Provider's app. Pay bills, renew subscriptions and more.
Mobily: Network Provider's app. Pay bills, renew subscriptions and more.
A bank app to pay bills and transfer money.
Q48: How much jewelry/money can I bring to Saudi? A48: Read this Q49: I'm a non-muslim visiting Saudi during Ramadan, any dos and dont's? A49: From Fajar's call for the prayer till Maghrib's call for the prayer, don't eat in public. Eat at your house. You can eat in public freely after everyone breaks their fast. Q50: I heard that men (alone) aren't allowed to enter malls, is that true? A50: Yes, it's true. Firstly, read A36. Second, this question has never been answered completely. The whole reason for the restriction is because of men going to malls to get girls numbers and some go to harass them. From what I've read and seen, men wearing shorts cannot enter malls (alone or with your wife, you cannot enter a mall wearing shorts. read A36). Yesterday (23-10-2019) I saw on Snapchat a YouTuber was not allowed to enter a restaurant or something because he was wearing Half T-Shirt/Muscle T-Shirt. Q51: Can I bring Bible? A51: Yes, you can bring a Bible for personal use only. Source . The source is a luggage wrapping company that is approved by the General Authority Of Civil Aviation. That's pretty much it. I have answered the most asked questions and the ones I think that needed to be answered. I hope this answers all of your questions. If you guys have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below. I'll keep updating this post as soon as I see a question that is frequently being asked or if any new rules come. I request my fellow saudiarabia redditers to let me know if there are any mistakes in my post or if there's something that needs to be added. Mods, please, please, please, pin this post so people can see it. Also, some of these questions were taken from other posts in this sub. P.S Q41 is an Inside joke. Spoons aren't haram lmao 😂 😂 😂 😂 Updated as of 17 - OCT - 2020
Updated on 19 Feb 2020, Arranged in Chronological Order All articles cited are from reliable and trustworthy sources (some may be NSFL): Use this website to read any paywalled site you might encounter in this list. Major Incidents: ONE. Assasination of Jacob Israël de Haan (1924), a Dutch-Jewish diplomat, for attempting to make a peace deal with the Emir of Mecca - his plan was a Palestinian state in a Jordanian federation, the Zionists would drop the Balfour declaration and any claim to a state in exchange for unrestricted immigration. He was assassinated when leaving a synagogue by Avraham Tehomi (who admitted to it much later), on the orders of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who later became the 2nd President of Israel: Wiki, Haaretz, 972mag TWO. King David Hotel Bombing (1946) where right-wing Zionist terrorists attacked a British HQ located within the hotel killing 91 and injuring 46. The leader of the perpetrators, Manachem Begin became the Prime Minister of Israel in 1977: Wiki, Haaretz THREE. Deir Yassin Massacre (1948) where 110 villagers were slaughtered, some members of the perpetrators were at a later time, absorbed into the IDF, one even became PM of Israel: Wiki, Haaretz, Britannica FOUR.Document from IDF archives (1948) which after translation states: "In the villages lying between Nahraiya and Tarshiha there are no foreign troops for the time being.The villages are armed and ready for action1. Your orders are to occupy, kill the men2, destroy and burn down the villages of Kabri, Umm al-Faraj and al-Nahr." [1] Ilan Pappe notes that the villagers had no proper arms, only for hunting purposes and people who served in the police; without Arab troops that were absent they stood no chance [2] In April 1948, the Intelligence of the Hagana defined men as anyone above the age of 10 Sources: -Photo taken from IDF Archives 1676\51\12 -Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947-1949, ISBN 0-521-33028-9. P. 133 -Hagana archives, 100\35, dated May 19, 1948 FIVE. Palestinian Exodus "Nakba" (1948) was an expulsion of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their Homeland during the war and establishment of Israel in May 1948, these includes testimonies of massacres, rape and looting: Haaretz, Haaretz, Atlantic, Vox SIX. Assassination of Folke Bernadotte, (1948) UN Mediator for Palestinian Refugees by Israel's Zionist Paramilitary Group, Lehi. The killing was approved by the three-man 'center' of Lehi, one of which, after the assassination, became 7th Prime Minister of Israel (Yitzhak Shamir). No one was convicted for the assassination: Wiki, Independent, Haaretz, WRMEA SEVEN. Lavon Affair (1954) a failed false flag operation where Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli Military Intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American, and British-owned civilian targets, their foiled plan was to blame the attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood: Haaretz, TimesofIsrael, Wiki EIGHT. Kafr Qasim Massacre (1956) where Israeli Border Police killed 49 Arabs (19 men, 6 women, 23 children, 1 unborn child) returning home from work during a curfew they were unaware of. Those involved in the massacre were found guilty but were pardoned and released from prison in a single year. The highest ranking official prosecuted for the massacre confessed before his death, that the massacre were planned to ethnically cleanse Israeli Arabs from the region, and that his trial was staged to protect Israeli political and military elites, including Prime Minister Ben Gurion, from taking responsibility for the massacre: Wiki, Haaretz, 972mag, Medium NINE. Apollo Affair (1965) an incident where 200-600 pounds of highly enriched uranium disappeared from a Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Highly suspected to have gone to Israel's Nuclear Program particularly given the visit of Rafi Eitan who was under the guise of a chemist but later revealed as an Israeli spy and who was later involved in the Jonathan Pollard incident: Wiki, LATimes, Mondoweiss, Archive of the findings of Roger Mattson, a Physicist who investigated the Incident for the Nuclear Regulatory Commision, YouTube, 1968 FBI Report, FBI's Declassified Memo PDF TEN. USS Liberty (1967) where Israel deliberately attacked an American Cargo Vessel killing 34 without any repurcussions: YouTube, Haaretz, Wiki EVEVEN. Operation Trojan (1986) according to ex-Mossad agent in his book, Mossad instigated the US bombing of Libya by planting a transmission device and impersonating as the Libyan Govt sending terrorist orders to its embassies around the world. (Story in Page 113-117) (Downloadable PDF File): Other Side of Deception PDF TWELVE. Cave of Patriarchs Massacre (1994) Israeli Settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire in Ibrahimi Mosque, killing 29 worshippers and wounding more than 125: Wiki, JPost THIRTEEN. Qana Massacre (1996) IDF fired artillery shells at a UN Compound where 800 Lebanese civillians were taking refuge. 106 civillians were killed, 116 injured, 4 Fiji UN forces were also seriously injured: Wiki, AlAraby, Independent, DailyMotion FOURTEEN. 2nd Qana Massacre (2006) air-strike carried out by IDF on a building Lebanon during the war. 28 civillians were killed out of which 16 were children. Upon investigation, IDF concluded that there was in fact no rocket launched from Qana on the day of the deadly strike by IDF: Wiki, BBC, Norman Finkelstein Sidenote What is Zionism? YouTube Palestine before Zionism (Pre-1948): Youtube (1896) Youtube (1900s) Youtube (1930s) Youtube (1946 - Arrival of Illegal Zionist Immigrants) Divide & Conquer: An interactive map explaining the Israel divide and control of Palestinian Land (2019): Interactive Map JIDF: Israeli Government is paying and giving away scholarships to students who fight internet battles and spread propaganda (2013): BBC, USAToday, Huffington Post Israel's JIDF Hasbara App (2017): YouTube App on GooglePlay where people defend Israel on Social Platforms to gain points (2019): GooglePlay Intl Law: Apartheid Against Palestinians: Protected Wiki International Law (Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, UN Resolution 37/43) dictates that Palestinians have a legal right to an armed struggle to resist occupation: Add. Protocol I, Geneva Conventions (PDF), UN Resolution 37/43 (PDF) Israel's building of settlements in occupied territories such as the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, violating Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 as well as the Statute of Rome, Art. 8 (2)(b)(viii) which states: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.": Wiki, UN, International Law on Occupation, Al Jazeera, Amnesty, Amnesty, B'Tselem, YouTube Israel's destruction of homes in occupied territories such as the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, violating Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which states: "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons ... is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.": Fourth Geneva Convention (PDF) Others: Israeli former nuclear technician turned whistleblower was lured to Italy where Mossad drugged and abducted him back to Israel for the trial that was held secretly behind closed doors. He spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement. Says he suffered "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of Israeli authorities while imprisoned because he was Christian. After his release in 2004, he was subjected to a broad array of very strict restrictions on his speech and movement (1986): Wiki, Youtube, NYT, Guardian, CNN, Wired, Telegraph 2nd Intifada, 12 yr old boy shot dead, father severely injured (2000): CNN, Twitter Breaking the silence - targeting civilians with grenade machine guns during the 2nd Intifada (2000): YouTube 5 Israelis working for an Israeli Company "Urban Moving Systems" were arrested on 9/11 after being seen photographing and celebrating the attack on the WTC. Owner of the company fled to Israel after the incident. FBI still lists him as a 9/11 suspect but Israel refuses to extradiate him (2001): 9/11 War by Deception, YouTube, Forward, NYT, Haaretz Netanyahu caught on tape: "America is something that you can easily maneuver and move in the right direction" (2001): YouTube Netanyahu lying during his speech at the US House of Representatives on Saddam Hussiens WMDs which doesn't exist (2002): YouTube Tom Hurndall, a British Peace Activist, was shot in the head by an IDF sniper while he was helping Palestinian children flee from cross-fire in Rafah, Gaza strip. His killer was released from prison 2 years early of his 8-year sentence (2003): Wiki, BBC, Guardian, Evening Standard Rachel Corrie, American Activist who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer destroying Palestinian homes in Gaza (2003): Imgur, BBC Breaking the Silence, testimonies from IDF Whistleblowers (2004): BreakingTheSilence Not guilty, IDF Captain who empties his magazine on a 13yr old girl, says he would have done the same if she was 3 yrs old (2005): Guardian Phosphorus and cluster bombs which is illegal under international law heavily used by Israel during the Lebanon war (2006) Haaretz Israel celebrates Irgun Hotel Bombing (2006): Telegraph Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami: “If I were a Palestinian, I Would Have Rejected Camp David” implying that the Camp David Summit Offer by Ehud Barak in 2000 was unreasonable and designed to be rejected (2006): DemocracyNow Jewish National Fund (a charity) owns 13% of the land in Israel and stipulates that only Jews can buy, mortgage or lease their land. (2007): Economist, Wiki Operation 'Cast Lead', estimated 1391 Palestinians killed, 759 to be civillians, 344 children, 110 women 13 Israeli killed, out of which 10 are soldiers (2008-2009): BBC, Haaretz, Haaretz, Amnesty Israel admits using White Phosphorus during their military offensive on Gaza (2009): France24 Israeli Organization, Kav La Oved: "Israel owes billions of shekels to Palestinian workers" (2010) (Downloadable PDF File): KavLaOved PDF Using Palestinian captives as human shields (2010): Imgur, Guardian, Haaretz, Haaretz Gaza Flotilla, Israeli Commandos raid 6 civillians ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, 9 activists were killed, 10 Israeli commandos wounded (2010): Guardian, CNN Hashomer, Haganah, Irgun and Lehi which operated against the British Government and Arabs in Palestine used to hide weapons in synagogues, women's rooms and kindergartens. Something Israel criticises Hamas of doing today. (2011): Haaretz IDF soldier caught kicking a Palestinian child (2012): RT Hierarchy of the Human species according to Eli Ben-Dahan, Israel's former deputy minister of defense: Goyims (Non-Jews) placed below Homosexual Jews (2013): Haaretz Israeli Trade Minister: "I've killed alot of Arabs in my life, there's no problem with that" (2013) JPost IDF soldier posting an Instagram pic of a Palestinian clild in his rifle crosshairs (2013): Guardian Ethiopian Jews injected with contraceptive birth control without their consent (2013): Haaretz, Independent, Guardian In 2013, Israel awarded 'Genie Energy', an American Oil and Gas company, rights to drill in Golan Heights (Syrian territory occupied by Israel) despite international opposition. In 2015, Israel claimed a massive discovery of oil in the area, which Israeli officials reportedly believe could supply the country’s oil needs for many years to come. (2013): Here are the prominent figures in Genie Energy's Board of Advisors: Jacob Rothschild (British banker of the prominent Rothschild family), Dick Cheney (Ex-Vice president of USA), Rupert Murdoch (Billionaire American Media Mogul), James Woolsey (Ex-CIA Director), Lawrence Summers (Ex-Head of US Treasury), Bill Richardson (Ex-Energy Secretary of USA), Michael Steinhardt (Wall Street Trader, Investor and Hedge Fund Manager) BusinessInsider, TRTworld, Yahoo Finance 4 boys playing soccer in an open beach bombed by an Israeli warship, a later report in 2018 then revealed that it was two missiles fired from an Israeli armed drone that actually killed the boys (2014): NYT, Intercept, Haaretz, Independent Israeli police officers beating up a 15 year old boy a week after the boy's cousin was killed (2014): BBC Palestinian boy beaten and burned alive by Israeli settlers (2014): Guardian, Wiki Israelis cheering on the Gaza bombing (2014): Guardian Statistics of Palestinian children killed in Operation 'Protective Edge' (2014): Telegraph Avraham Shalom (Former Head of Shin Bet) compares Israel's Occupation to Nazi Germany's actions in WW2 towards the Czechs, Poles and Dutch (2014): YouTube Killing Gaza: Documentary on war crimes committed by the Israeli Military, with direct testimonies and evidence from survivors (2014): KillingGaza IDF beating up a Palestinian man who told them to stop firing tear gas (2015): YouTube Eli Ben-Dahan, Israel's former deputy defense minister: "Homosexual Jews are superior to Gentiles (Non-Jews), a jew always has a higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual" He also says "To me, they (Palestinians) are like animals, they aren't human" (2015): TimesofIsrael Israeli Foreign Minister says disloyal Arabs should be beheaded with an axe (2015): WashingtonPost Israeli Radicals celebrate by stabbing picture of Palestinian baby that was killed in a firebomb attack (2015): Haaretz Beitar Jerusalem, the most racist football fanbase in the world (2015): YouTube IDF Soldier assaults and beats up Palestinian Shopkeeper as he was loading boxes (2015): YouTube Former IDF Soldier Ido Gal Razon testifies to murdering people in Gaza (2015): YouTube Israeli racist police officer assaults their own african soldier (2015): YouTube Shir Hever, Israeli Economist: "78% of Palestinian aid money ends up going to Israel" (2015) (Downloadable PDF File): ShirHever PDF Many Palestinians including children are detained in Israeli prisons without trial or charges (2016): Time, Haaretz, 972mag, B'Tselem Jewish Community Watch: "Israel becoming a safe haven for paedophiles worldwide" (2016): Independent IDF Soldier throws disabled man out of his wheelchair after he attempts to help a 14yr old who was shot (2016): Independent IDF throws stun grenade at unarmed Palestinians talking outside their home (2016) YouTube IDF soldier laughs as Palestinian man is crushed at the gate (2016): YouTube IDF killing a 15yr old Palestinian travelling home from a family outing (2016): Guardian Report: Israel's repetitive destruction of EU-funded projects in Palestine (2016): EuroMed Reports of Torture during custody from Palestinians held imprisoned without charges or trial (2017): Haaretz IDF Veteran: "I was the terrorist" (2017): YouTube Israel seizes solar panels donated to Palestinians by the Dutch govt (2017): Independent Israelis speak candidly about Palestinians to Abby Martin, includes lots of racism (2017): YouTube Gaza: World's Largest Open-Air Prison (2018): NRC Sentence to 9 Months after killing 2 unarmed Palestinian teens (2018): 972mag, WashingtonPost Unarmed protestor holding flag shot by live bullets (2018): YouTube Unarmed protester shot in the head during the protest (2018): Gyfcat IDF assaulting medics and injured protesters (2018): Gyfcat Abdullah Shamali, was shot while standing and talking with his friends 700 metres away from the fence (2018): Twitter Muhammad Ayoub, 15yr old was shot in the head while running away from the fence (2018): YouTube Mentally disabled man shot in the back of his head as he was walking away (2018): Haaretz Elderly man waving a flag and a medic got shot at by a live round (2018): Gyfcat Shot dead for waving flag (2018): EgyptToday Medic shot dead by an IDF sniper (2018): WashingtonPost IDF edits video of Palestinian Medic who was shot dead by them to misleadingly show that she was a human shield for Hamas and justify her death (2019): Independent, BuzzFeed Canadian Doctor shot by IDF sniper (2018): CBC Israeli Border police throws stun grenade at a Palestian couple and their infant baby as they were fleeing (2018): YnetNews IDF Snipers cheering as they shoot an unarmed Palestinian (2018): Guardian Similar incident, cheering after shooting a Palestinian (2018): Guardian "Nation State" Law gives Jews exclusive rights over Arabs living in Israel (2018): Guardian List of active discriminatory laws in Israel: Adalah Did you know that 97% of drinking water in Gaza (under Israeli control) is contaminated? (2018): Haaretz IDF Soldiers shooting tear gas into a Palestinian school (2018): Haaretz Israeli settlers beating up Palestinian farmer in front of his children (2018): Haaretz Former Chairman of Israel Labour Party says relationships between Jews and Non-Jews are "an actual plague" (2018): Twitter 4 year old child dies 4 days after being shot by the IDF while protesting (2018): Reuters, PressTV An alternative view, Palestinian Christians on Israel (2018): Youtube Chief Rabbi calls black people "monkeys" in his weekly sermon (2018): TimesofIsrael Israel's Supreme Court rejects legal challenge on the military's rule where soldiers can fire on UNARMED protesters (2018): APNews Mohammed Tamimi, 16, who was shot in the head by Israeli forces held in prison for 2 days without explanation (2018): Haaretz, Haaretz Most demonstrators shot by the IDF with live rounds are unarmed and not in immediate vicinity of the perimeter fence (2018): B'Tselem IDF edited out key footage of Gaza missile strike which killed 2 Palestinian teenagers (2018): Youtube, 972mag, B'Tselem Multi Award-winning short documentary on the occupation of Gaza (2018): YouTube What if your whole family was being forcefully evicted from a home you lived in since 1948 to make way for new settlers? (2019) Haaretz Palestinian Boy on the way to school shot in the head by Israeli Police (2019): Haaretz Video of war crimes screened at UN Human Rights Council (2019): Youtube Top Rabbis in Israel defending and calling for donations to an Israeli charged with killing a Palestinian woman (2019): Haaretz, Haaretz Israeli politician tweeted a video of him shooting an Arab MP as a joke (2019): Twitter Israeli Settlers attack Palestinian Mother and her son (2019): Gyfcat IDF Harrasses ambulance crew and demands for their key (with sound) (2019): Gyfcat "Israel is the nation state of Jews alone" Netanyahu responds to TV star saying Arabs are equal citizens (2019): Haaretz Director of Human Rights Watch in Israel to be deported (2019): Time Arresting children in school, IDF threatened breaking the teacher's arm if he doesn't let go of his student (2019): CNN Is Israel Democratic? This is the voting rights of citizens living under Israeli control (2019): Image Netanyahu vows to annex West Bank (disputed territory filled w illegal settlements) if re-elected (2019): BBC IDF Soldiers laughing as they assault a Palestinian Father and Son handcuffed while in custody (2019): i24News, Haaretz Palestinian lawmaker held in Israeli jail for 2 years without any charge (2019): Haaretz Netanyahu's party secretly hires 1200 to ilegally film Arabs voting (2019): NBCNews IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter backing his friends for beating up Palestinian suspects in custody (2019): TimesofIsrael IDF beating a blind and diabetic man on his bed in his own home (2019): Haaretz Illegal settlers filmed attacking Palestinian family, no arrests made (2019): Haaretz IDF soldier shoots blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian trying to flee, second soldier then points his gun to a group of bystanders, warning them to stay away or they'll too be shot (2019): Independent, Haaretz Israeli soldiers take down Palestinian flags during playground opening in Shufat refugee camp (2019): Gyfcat Malicious code, developed by Israeli company, NSO Group uses whatsapp calls to inject surveillance spyware on phones (2019): FinancialTimes Facebook busts Israel-based effort to distrupt and influence elections in Africa, Asia and Latin America (2019): APNews, Huffington Post IDF soldiers watches on as dozens of Israeli settlers throw rocks at Palestinians (2019): Haaretz Director-General of Reporters Without Borders: "When Israel shot those journalists, it was intentional, the journalists were clearly identified as journalists, with cameras and jackets" (2019): JPost IDF Soldiers assaults Palestinian man after raiding his village (2019): Gyfcat IDF blamed Palestinians for arson. Then a video emerged showing that it was Israeli settlers that was responsible (2019): Haaretz PART 2 & 3 CONTINUED IN COMMENT SECTION BELOW
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