UK: Labour MP steps down as private secretary after Facebook posts about Israel and Jews

According to Labour MP Naz Shah, Jews the cause for all problems in the Middle East and have more rights to the lands colonized by Europeans in the Americas than they do to their own homeland in the Land of Israel.

Photo: Ynet

Via Jewish Chronicle:

Labour MP Naz Shah has stepped down as private secretary to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell after a series of social media posts she made about Jews and Israel were revealed.

The Bradford West MP, who defeated George Galloway in last year’s general election, backed the spending of “transportation costs” to move Israelis out of the Middle East.

In a statement Ms Shah said: "I deeply regret the hurt I have caused by comments made on social media before I was elected as an MP.

"I made these posts at the height of the Gaza conflict in 2014, when emotions were running high around the Middle East conflict. But that is no excuse for the offence I have given, for which I unreservedly apologise.

"In recognition of that offence, I have stepped down from my role as PPS to the shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

"I will be seeking to expand my existing engagement and dialogue with Jewish community organisations and will be stepping up my efforts to combat all forms of racism, including antisemitism."

The Guido Fawkes website revealed Ms Shah had shared a highly offensive graphic arguing in favour of the inflammatory “transportation” policy two years ago, during the summer before her election.

The JC also revealed that in August 2014, Ms Shah also posted a tweet with a link to a blog which claimed Zionism had been used to "groom" Jews to "exert political influence at the highest levels of public office".

In July 2014, at the height of the Gaza conflict, Ms Shah posted a link on Facebook to a newspaper poll asking whether Israel had committed war crimes.

She wrote: "The Jews are rallying to the poll." She then called on people to vote "yes".

In a post in September that year she appeared to liken Israel’s policies to those of Hitler.

Ms Shah claimed her views on Israel have moderated over the last two years.

In a statement issued by Labour, she said: "This post from two years ago was made before I was an MP, does not reflect my views and I apologise for any offence it has caused."

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UK: Teacher sacked for supporting Nazi genocide of Jews

Or what the Daily Star calls an "offensive picture of Hitler with an anti-Semitic message".

It took the British educational system a whole year to decide whether a teacher calling for the genocide of Jews should be banned from teaching.    

Via Daily Star:   

A RACIST teacher who posted a picture of Adolf Hitler on Facebook with an anti-Semitic message has been booted out the profession.

Mahmudul Choudhury, 36, uploaded the sick post last year with the caption: "I could have killed all the Jews but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them."

(...)   
   
Following his arrest last year Choudhury told police that he had shared the image accidentally and did not mean to offend anyone.   

Apparently he also "accidently" shared his thoughts that "you could now see why".  It's not his fault that Jews got "offended" by his call to genocide.  Jews.  Go figure.
  

Belgium: Police agent in court for antisemitic Facebook post

Note his defense:
1. The media made him think Israel is committing genocide
2.  Belgium honors President Erdogan, who says Israel is worse than Hitler.  So why is it a problem when he says the same thing?

It is easy to blame Muslims for antisemitism, but European media is complicit in incitement against Jews, and European countries are complicit in Muslim antisemitism when they do not condemn it.  If you explain away Iranian or Turkish antisemitism, don't be surprised when your own citizens think Jews are evil.

Via brusselnieuws:

An agent of the Belgian Federal police appeared in court for posting antisemitic content on Facebook during the last Gaza war.

The agent wrote that Israel's atrocities surpassed Hitler's and that he understood why Hamas won the elections.  He compared former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon to Khaddaffi and Hitler and compared Jews to dogs.

The prosecutor requests a symbolic punishment to make clear that such statements are unacceptable.

The agent, who is well-respected by his colleagues, was a kid during the Somali civil war.  He says he has seen people die in bombings and that he thinks anybody who bombs children in schools and hosptials is bad, whether they're Israeli or Soamli.

However, he says he reacted emotionally to the pictures of Gaza he saw on the news and that he didn't fully realize that his Facebook account was so public.  He shouldn't have generalized so, but Turkish president Erdogan also made the Hitler comparison and was received by the Belgian king.

Germany: Anti-Israel demonstrators attack and insult a Jewish survivor of the Shoah and his son

This was an even to commemorate the 'victims of the Gaza War'.  In the format of Holocaust commemorations, all the names of those killed were read out.  

A Holocaust victim complained, and was thereby attacked.

Via Antisemitismus Watch:

Berlin, August 29, 2015
The video is partly in German and English

21:06 min
Insults begin, incuding the following: “Occupier! Zionist! Killer! Terrorist! Nazi! Fascist”

22:00 min
Physical attack

23:30 min
Interview with the victims
One of the victims tells his story: He was born in Germany and had to leave the country due to the antisemitism he experienced. His family was killed during the Shoah. He’s living in Great Britian and is currently visiting Germany.

29:38 min
Discussion with anti-Israel demonstrators

36:11 min
One of the anti-Israel demonstrators says (in German): “I noticed you are exploiting Germany’s history to this day. You are exploiting the Holocaust.“

UK: Scottish MP apologises over antisemitic tweet

Monaghan tweeted this tweet in 2012.  It was 'discovered' now, so now he removed it and apologized.  That doesn't mean he has changed his mind.  In fact, he tweeted just a few months ago that Israel is engaging in genocide.

Via Jewish Chronicle:

A Scottish National Party MP has apologised for posting an antisemitic tweet relating to Israel’s military action in Gaza.

Paul Monaghan used the social media site to accuse the “proud Jewish race” of “persecuting the people of Gaza”.

After the JC questioned his remarks on Wednesday he deleted them from his account and apologised.

Dr Monaghan entered Parliament in May as the SNP took 56 of the 59 constituencies in Scotland.

The JC understands his past comments were already a cause for concern among campaigners working to tackle antisemitism in politics.

(...)

In a statement to the JC on Wednesday Dr Monaghan said: “I share the commitment set out earlier this week by the First Minister to the Jewish community.

“I am sorry for my comments, they were certainly not intended to cause offence and I have removed them to ensure no further upset is caused.”  more

Austria: Prison for "Death to the Jews" post during Gaza War

"(N)either is thought to have connections to right wing scenes." - Austrian media showing they have no clue what they're talking about.


Via The Local:

A 28-year-old Austrian man who called for Jews to be gassed in a Facebook post was sentenced to eight months in prison on Tuesday by Wels Provincial Court.

The defendant, who was found guilty of incitement, posted a message on Facebook last September referring to the conflict in Gaza that read: “Show no photos of our dead brothers, children, women. Show only photos of their women and children...”. He is also said to have written: “Death to the Jews, I would gas them”, “Hitler showed the world that he was right, Sieg Heil!”.

A second defendant, a 26-year-old man who commented on the post with the words “Sieg Heil! Adolf Hitler”, was acquitted by the court.

Both men were born in Turkey but have Austrian citizenship and live in the city of Wels. They both held previous convictions for unrelated offences and neither is thought to have connections to right wing scenes.

Although the 28-year-old initially told police he had posted the “fun” statement, in court he claimed it had been written by his roommate, whom he said was a schizophrenic patient whose family followed Nazi ideology.

In his closing remarks, however, the defendant said: “I would like to apologise. It doesn't matter who wrote it, I am simply sorry.”  more

Czech Republic: Anti-Semitism spiked in 2014

Via Times of Israel:

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Czech Republic rose by more than 200 percent last year, according to an annual report on anti-Semitism.

Prague’s Jewish community released the report on Monday.

In 2014, 46 such incidents were registered across the country, compared to 13 incidents the previous year. An escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, notably Israel’s military operation in Gaza last July and August, was seen as the main factor fueling the surge.

“It is clear that the Czech Republic’s Jewish community becomes a target of anti-Semitism in relation to the situation in the Middle East,” the chair of the Jewish community of Prague, Jan Munk, said in a statement.

“Czech Jews are perceived by some groups as envoys of the state of Israel and are blamed for its political decisions.”

Austria: 'Many people posted Hitler picture in support of Palestine'

Via ORF:

A Bosnian-Austrian was accused of neo-Nazi activity for posting Nazi-themed posts on Facebook.  On July 15, 2014 he posted a picture of Hitler saying "I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some alive to show you why I killed them".  A week later he commented on a photo showing the Israeli and American flags being burned with the comment "sons of bitches, Heil Hitler, 88".

In his defense, the man said that after the Israeli army started attacking Gaza, many people posted that picture of Hitler in support of Palestine.  He was affected by the war, which killed a few thousand civilians (according to wiki, by 16 July, the death toll within Gaza was around 200), and that the dead reminded him of the Bosnian War.  However, he did not intend to glorify Nazism.

According to the prosecution, his mobile phone contained images of the Muslim volunteers of the Wehrmacht.

The man was sentenced to a one-year probationary sentence, and must visit a concentration camp.

Similar stories from Austria: Antisemitic incitement is now a valid political expression and Man says anger at Israel was reason for "Jews should disappear" post

France: Handicapped woman attacked by mob for displaying Israeli flag

Via LeMedia05 (h/t LDJ)

Five people were arrested recently in Gap (south-eastern France) for an antisemitic attack this past July.

Céciliane, a handicapped woman, is not Jewish, but she supports the Jewish people and therefore hung an Israeli flag in her apartment.  The flag was visible from the street.

On July 21st, after a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the town, a dozen people gathered outside her building and started throwing stones and firecrackers and yelling antisemitic slurs.  The next day the scene repeated, with 20-30 people attacking the apartment.  The crowd also attacked the police officers who showed up.

One of the assailants was identified by his DNA, which was found on a stone inside the victim's apartment.

France: FN expels candidate for calling to kill Jews

Via 20Minutes:

Alexandre Larionov, a National Front candidate in Aveyron, was expelled for the party for antisemitic remarks.  The party said they had only discovered this issue through the press and that he had been a member for half a year.
 
Back in August, Larinov had written on his Facebook page many insults against Jews and called to kill them once and for all.

 

Denmark: Jews were attacked because 'Some people don’t have any nuances'

Ronjan Gron is obviously an intelligent man who can differentiate between Israelis and Jews.  Does he think an attack against the Israeli embassy is okay?  How about an attack against an Israeli tour-group in Denmark? Or against Israeli civilians in Israel?

The victim in the terror attacks against the Copenhagen synagogue is half-Israeli.  Should such people be concerned that some Danes don't see the nuances in that?


Via Haaretz (h/t Seth Frantzman):

Some local residents tried in vain to make sense of what had happened. Two anthropology students from Copenhagen University, Isabella Christensen and Ronjan Gron, laid a pot with purple flowers and Christensen said, “I don’t want to condone it any way but I think that it’s not just security that can deal with this, but also something has to be done by society about the feeling of Muslim exclusion here in Denmark.

“It is connected also with the frustration that a lot of the Muslims are feeling about what happened in Gaza,” Gron continued, “not that it justifies this in any way. Some people don’t have any nuances and that’s why they mix between Israelis and Jews. I was in the demonstration against what was happening in Gaza during the summer and no one who was there would have done this.”

Austria: Antisemitic incitement is now a valid political expression

Via MittelHessen

Via Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (here and here) h/t dokmz:

The prosecutor in Linz decided not to charge a Turkish-Austrian for posting on his Facebook a fictitious quote by Hitler: "I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some alive to show you why I killed them."  The man had also written that he wishes Israel would be destroyed, and that the Jews are playing with fire when they kill so many people.

The man said he had posted the photo in response to the Gaza War. He claimed he was not a racist - as a hairdresser he does not care whether his customers are Jewish.  He also said that he did not know such comments were not-legal (and besides, he's Turkish, not Austrian).

The law in Austria bans the publication of Nazi-related material.

The prosecutor decided not to press charges, as the man did not intend to glorify Hitler, but rather state his annoyance with Israel.

In other words, we don't care about the Jews, long as Austria won't turn 'officially' Nazi again.

UK: Anti-Semitic incidents reach record level

"Due to events in the Middle East involving Israel".  Right.

Via Reuters:

 The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose to a record level in 2014, more than double the previous year, due to events in the Middle East involving Israel, a Jewish advisory body said on Thursday.

The figures, which Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May called "deeply concerning", come amid rising safety fears among Britain's estimated 260,000 Jews following the deadly attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris by an Islamist gunman last month.

The Community Security Trust, which provides security advice to Britain's Jews, said there had been 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents last year, a 25 percent increase on the previous record high recorded in 2009.

UK: Sky News says blaming 'Israeli policies' for antisemitism is 'logical'

Follow-up to this story: Sky News reporter blames "Israeli policies" for antisemitism (special Holocaust edition)

'an indelicate clash'

Via JTA:

The British broadcaster Sky News apologized for showing images of the Gaza conflict during an interview about the Holocaust with British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

The apology over the Jan. 27 broadcast came in a letter sent by Peter Lowe, Sky News’ managing editor, to a viewer who sent Sky News a letter of complaint about the interview conducted by presenter Adam Boulton, The Jewish Chronicle of London reported Thursday.

Lowe said showing images of Gaza while the chief rabbi talked about the Israel-Palestinian conflict was logical, but that with hindsight he would not have combined the two, calling it “an indelicate clash”.

He added: “I’m sorry if you or anyone was upset by the interview Adam did with the chief rabbi. I agree that the particular circumstances of the use of the pictures from Gaza was unfortunate.”

Turkey: Holocaust remembrance cannot let us forget Israel’s Gaza massacres

Via Hurriyet Daily News:

Commemorating the tragedies of the past, particularly the Holocaust, does not mean the killings of more than 2,000 children and women by Israeli security forces should be ignored, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek has said, calling on "all countries to fight against all sorts of extremism and discrimination."

“I hope the pain suffered during this war will never be repeated and will constitute a lesson for future generations. Humanity, unfortunately, was not able to prevent such an atrocity at that time. I believe everyone and every country will draw conscientious lessons from this and will exert efforts in order to not experience such inhumane tragedies again,” Çiçek said on Jan. 27.

He was speaking at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the capital Ankara, participated in by high-level governmental officials for the first time, including Culture Minister Ömer Çelik.

UK: Sky News reporter blames "Israeli policies" for antisemitism (special Holocaust edition)

Via CiF Watch:

Sky News reporter Adam Boulton asked Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, three times if Israel’s policies cause antisemitism, during an interview conducted on International Holocaust Memorial Day.  As Boulton was grilling Mirvis, images of Palestinians in the rubble of Gaza during the summer war were shown under the headline: “Auschwitz remembered”.

Clip and more at CiF Watch

UK: Four teens plead guilty to attacking Jew in revenge for Gaza War

Via Jewish News:

Four teenagers have pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault against a Jewish man in the north-east after they decided to go “Jew-bashing” during last summer’s Gaza conflict.

Balawal Sultan, Kesa Malik, Hassnain Aliamin and a 16-year old drove to Gateshead in Tyneside, where there is a large yeshiva, or Jewish seminary.

The gang of four lay in wait behind a van before jumping out on a 41-year old man as he walked home. They chased the victim down the street, throwing a piece of wood at him. When he fell, a witness told how one of the gang went to kick the victim in the head when a friend heard the commotion and came to his aid.

The attackers were later arrested and claimed they were only in the area looking for a new mosque, but one of them admitted the planned attack was motivated by the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.

Germany: Jewish family target of harassment, car vandalized, kids pelted with stones

Family car vandalized in September
Photo: Jüdische Allgemeine

In Berlin (Charlottenburg), a car belonging to a Jewish woman was vandalized on New Year's Eve - a swastika was scratched onto it.  The owner is an active member of the Jewish community.

In a similar case in September, the car of a Jewish family from Charlottenburg had a large swastika scratched onto it.

The family had repeatedly been the target of anti-Semitic attacks.  Muslim youth had previously chased their children and pelted them with stones.

Other news reports reported the father had been verbally abused by youth, and that neo-Nazi slogans had been shouted at them.  The family was thinking of moving due to the abuse they experienced.

More: Berliner Zeitung

Italy: Anti-Semitic Incidents Tripled During Summer Gaza War

In a development similar to what occurred in the rest of Europe, anti-Semitic incidents in Italy nearly tripled this summer during Israel’s defensive military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as compared to the summer of 2013. The unsettling information was revealed by Italy’s Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation.

More: JP Updates

UK: Jewish woman attacked by man screaming "we have to kill all the Jews as they kill Palestinians"

Shortly after 8:00 a.m., a vehicle stopped at the entrance of the Belz school and the driver asked one of the students for directions.  

He asked the boy to accompany him, but the boy refused and ran away. In the afternoon, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman was attacked. 

The suspect choked her while screaming: “We have to kill all the Jews as they kill Palestinians.” Police increased the number of patrols in the neighborhood.

More: YJNews, h/t CFCA