Malta: "The Jews are the real terrorists. Wherever they go, there is bloodshed and war"

Such comments appear quite often on social media and comments online, and do not often get to the top news.  I guess it's a slow news-day for Malta.

Note that the perpetrator here is a Labour Party candidate.  He does not think it's racist at all to say that Jews are responsible for war wherever they go.


Via Times of Malta:

Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia replied that “everyone has the right to their personal opinion” after a consultant posted potentially anti-Semitic remarks on Facebook.

Family therapist Charlie Azzopardi wrote on his personal Facebook page on October 8: “The Jews are the real terrorists. Wherever they go, there is bloodshed and war” (translated from Maltese).
The comment accompanied a news video of undercover Israeli security forces infiltrating and attacking a group of Palestinian stone throwers during the recent escalated violence in the region.

Speaking to the Times of Malta yesterday, Dr Farrugia said the comments did not reflect his own personal point of view, adding he did not feel he should involve himself in anyone’s personal opinion.

“Dr Azzopardi has to defend that opinion himself,” the minister said. “I can only speak about my opinion about the Middle East, which is that I want to see peace, including a Palestinian State.”

(...)

When contacted, Dr Azzopardi refused to comment on the incident, saying only he would leave it up to the public to decide “what is racist and what isn’t”.

Dr Azzopardi, who unsuccessfully contested the last general election on the Labour Party ticket, is employed by the ministry as a consultant on “family issues” on a €17,000 annual contract.   more

Belgium: Maltese EU official attacks woman, says "all Jews should have been killed"

Via Artuz 7:

Belgian police have concluded an investigation into a vicious anti-Semitic assault at a cafe in Brussels, in which a European Union official physically attacked a female co-worker, while verbally abusing her as a "dirty Jewess."

The assault, in full view of other restaurant patrons, occurred on the patio of the "Italiano" cafe near European Union headquarters in the city, Haaretz reports.

A 50-year old Italian woman - a department head at the European Council - saw a man at the cafe holding a metal plaque engraved with "Mussolini" and praising the World War II-era Italian fascist leader.

She apparently infuriated the man by informing him that "he [Mussolini] was still a dictator," to which the man replied: "Dirty Jewess … Hitler should have exterminated all Jews, just like Jews today are exterminating Palestinians."

According to the woman's complaint, the encounter quickly turned violent with the man then hitting her on the head with the metal plaque, slapping her and grabbing her throat in an effort to choke her.

When other people at the cafe got up to stop him, he resisted, shouting, "All you Jews should have been killed."  more

European officials refer to migrant shipwreck as second Holocaust

Genocide is the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group.

The Holocaust was the systematic destruction of almost all European Jews.

On Saturday, hundreds of migrants headed for Europe died when their boat capsized.  For some reason, for some European officials, the first thing that popped to mind was genocide, massacres and 'never again'.


Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat:

“Gangs of criminals are putting people on a boat, sometimes even at gunpoint.  They’re putting them on the road to death, really, and nothing else. It’s genocide — nothing less than genocide, really.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini:

"We have said too many times 'never again.  Now is time for the European Union as such to tackle these tragedies without delay."

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi:

The EU cannot "remain insensitive when every day there is a massacre in the Mediterranean."

Malta: ‘No anti-Semitism case ever reported’

The Malta Independent reports:

Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia today had a courtesy visit from John Mann MP, Chair of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism and of the Steering Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism. 

The two sides discussed how anti-Semitism should be combated. 

Dr Farrugia highlighted that no case was ever reported to have occurred in Malta related to anti-Semitism.

I was intrigued by the idea of a country with no antisemitism.  So I Googled around.  Malta does not have a lot of antisemitism, but it's not antisemitism-free.   A few years ago a teenager set up an antisemitic Facebook page.  Additionally, Malta is a Catholic country, and Catholic antisemitism, blaming Jews for the death of Christ, is alive and well on the island.