sites

Melissa Nathan, the crisis management public relations pro hired by actor-director Justin Baldoni amid his lengthy legal feud with actor Blake Lively, is in the hot seat after Baldoni’s former publicist claimed that Nathan played a key role in operating a network of anonymous “smear” websites.

The publicist, Stephanie Jones, filed an initial complaint in New York Supreme Court in December 2024, accusing Baldoni’s crisis PR team of waging a coordinated effort to undermine her and deflect blame for what she called a retaliatory smear campaign targeting Lively.

But new documents filed last week brought front and center a “key question from the outset of this case”: Who was behind the creation of anonymous websites that popped up in May 2024 and accused Jones of “holding clients hostage” and leaking their secrets?

Nathan did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Friday. But in a deposition, she said she was absolutely not the mastermind behind the now-defunct stephaniejonesleaks.com.

In the recent filing, Jones claims she repeatedly sought communications that could support her suspicions about the website’s origin, and last week received documents from Katherine Case, a former employee of Jones’ PR firm, Jonesworks, who subsequently worked for Nathan’s crisis management firm, the Agency Group.

Those documents, the filing alleges, show Nathan repeatedly testified falsely about the websites, and confirm that “Melissa Nathan was directly involved in a scheme to utilize untraceable websites to destroy the reputation of her competitors and those adverse to her clients. Stephanie Jones and Jonesworks were among her victims.”

In alleged text messages between Nathan and Case included in court documents, Nathan appears to have offered Case “three or four grand” to make the website copy tarnishing Jones’ reputation “a lot more meaty” — “good enough for us to be able to point a journalist towards.”

Nathan also appears to direct Case to discuss “holding clients hostage” and detail how people are “scared of” Jones, the documents allege.

Nathan is alleged to have instructed Case to write copy that would “follow along the lines of a purported ‘whistleblower’ narrative.” In Case’s notes from a subsequent phone call, she allegedly wrote, “Copy for the website along the lines of — I can’t sit and watch this woman continue to do this, this is what she does … it’s now a time where I can speak my truth about what I saw there.”

The filing claims that a record from Zelle, a money-transferring service, shows a subsequent payment to Case in the amount of $4,000 from “Melissa E. Nathan.”

The websites weren’t a one-off, according to the filing. They were allegedly one of Nathan’s specialties, and a hot commodity among embattled celebrities.

Three months after the Jones website went live, Nathan allegedly texted “Pitch Perfect” star Rebel Wilson, who was involved in a dispute with producer Amanda Ghost over Wilson’s directorial debut, the 2024 musical “The Deb.”

“Nathan quoted Wilson $110,000 for an untraceable site with a satellite, ghost server, ghost hosting, full build, maintaining, and full algorithmic push across all platforms … for 3 months,” the filing alleges. “The next day Nathan texted Case, ‘Rebel wants a one of those sites.’ ”

Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem again and performed Jewish prayers in the courtyard.

The weekend witnessed a series of provocative acts by Israeli politicians and settlers in the build-up to Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and next month’s Israeli election.

On Thursday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and others again stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for Yom Kippur. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited a labyrinth of tunnels below occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday.

Early on Sunday morning, Netanyahu released videos and photographs on his official Instagram account documenting his participation in Jewish “Selichot” prayers at the Western Wall, known as the al-Buraq Wall to Muslims.

The tunnels lie underneath occupied East Jerusalem’s bustling Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, making the incursions particularly sensitive for the occupied territory’s Palestinian population.

Translation: Happy New Year and a good final signature to all Israelis from the Western Wall.

Under the protection of security forces, Netanyahu, accompanied by several government ministers and thousands of Israeli settlers, made his way onto the plaza of the wall in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday evening, ahead of Yom Kippur.

Footage shared by the prime minister showed him performing the rituals from behind bulletproof glass. In another video, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, passed through one of the excavation tunnels running beneath the Western Wall while Jewish prayers took place.

“Well, we are in the tunnels at the al-Buraq Wall. It is moving to touch the rock of our existence. We are here very close to the Holy of Holies. We are here, and we will always remain here,” Netanyahu stated in the video.

Translation: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife in prayer for the safety of Israeli soldiers tonight at the Western Wall.

Yom Kippur incursions

The prime minister’s subterranean visit unfolded alongside a wave of settler incursions into the holy site above ground.

On its official Facebook page, the Palestinian Jerusalem governorate reported that about 570 settlers had stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by 10am local time on Sunday. According to the governorate, the settlers performed Talmudic rituals and “epic prostrations” to mark Yom Kippur.

The Palestinian group Hamas strongly condemned the incursions in a press statement published on its official Telegram channel.

“The storming by Benjamin Netanyahu, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court, of the tunnels and excavations beneath the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the al-Buraq Wall, and the provocative statements and false claims accompanying it about the so-called Holy of Holies, represents a blatant attack on the identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its status, and a provocation to the feelings of our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations,” the statement in Arabic said.

The group emphasised Al-Aqsa’s exclusively Islamic heritage and rejected Israel’s ongoing excavations under the holy site.

Religious or political?

Israel has been digging beneath occupied East Jerusalem for years, a move that has been condemned by archaeologists and the United Nations. The works are believed to be intended to find proof of the rampart wall of the Second Temple, but experts say there is no proof of this claim. Others view these measures as an attempt by Israel to cement its rule over occupied Palestinian land.

In 2022, Netanyahu led a cabinet meeting in the labyrinth, describing Israel as the “landlords of Jerusalem”. East Jerusalem has been earmarked as the capital of a future Palestinian state by Palestinians.

The timing of Saturday’s visit not only comes on the eve of Yom Kippur but also at a time of huge political significance for the Israeli leader, who trails in the polls against his rival Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party.

Ahmed al-Hila, a political analyst specialising in Middle East affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu is using religious symbolism to try to secure his political survival ahead of October’s general election.

“Benjamin Netanyahu wanted, through this visit … creating this symbolism for himself as a leader spearheading the right wing to consolidate the Israeli political and religious narrative in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to attempt to gather the largest possible number of votes to serve as an electoral lever for him,” said al-Hila.

“As for the intense security mobilisation and Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance behind a bulletproof glass shield [during a speech above ground], this is a direct indication that this city has not, up to this moment, submitted to Israeli security control, despite the repeated and frequent talk that Jerusalem is ‘the capital of the State of Israel’.”

The visit could also be a message to the wider world, amid global criticism of the controversial illegal settlement project E1, which the Israeli government has issued tenders for, and which appears designed to sever East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank.

“What further confirms this conclusion is that initiating the settlement project called E1 does not only isolate the northern West Bank from its south … but this settlement project completes the isolation of the city of Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings,” Al-Hila said. “Therefore, this visit with its political symbolism confirms the idea of Israeli sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem.”