UK: Hatred of Jews is taking root in British society, Tony Blair warns

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

Former Labour leader Tony Blair has attacked the party’s failure to tackle antisemitism — days after the local elections saw voters desert the party in wards with above average Jewish populations.

Writing exclusively in the JC, Mr Blair makes a thinly-veiled reference to Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to take serious action against antisemitism in the Labour Party.

He writes that, “too often, we have seen how anti-Zionism trends easily into antisemitism. The scourge we fought to eradicate in the 20th century has been allowed to make a comeback.

“We must once again stamp it out, by progressive political forces ensuring that antisemitism is not allowed to take root in any space in our national life.”

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UK: Corbyn’s campaign chief is member of anti-semitic Facebook groups which say 7/7 attacks were an ‘inside job’

Via Sun:

LABOUR’S campaign boss was signed up to a string of vile Facebook pages including anti-semitic memes and conspiracy theories, it emerged today.

Andrew Gwynne - who has boasted about his campaign’s tech skills - joined groups which accused the royals of paedophilia and claimed the 7/7 attack was an inside job.

He appears to have hastily unsubscribed from the groups after being exposed by the Guido Fawkes website - and claims he was added to them without knowing.

One of the groups which Mr Gwynne, the MP for Denton and Reddish, belonged to was called “STOP ZIONIST USA!”

Other members of the group posted messages claiming that Jewish people were responsible for all global terrorism and blaming wealthy Jews for “everything awful going on in this world”.

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Netherlands: Jews say former prime minister peddles anti-Semitism

Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

The umbrella group representing Dutch Jewry accused a pro-Palestinian former prime minister of anti-Semitism. 

The Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, or CJO, in a statement Wednesday made the explicit allegation for the first time against Dries van Agt and the Palestinian advocacy group he founded called The Rights Forum. 

Van Agt, who served as prime minister from 1977 to 1982, has fought accusations of anti-Semitism since the 1970s. 

CJO’s claim was over statements it said van Agt made last week at a Utrecht event organized by the Young Socialists in Dutch Labour that the party “is good for the Palestinians despite the strong Jewish lobby” in its ranks. 

The assertion was part of a CJO statement calling out van Agt for his advocacy group’s rejection of a letter sent last month to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte by the leaders of the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in the Netherlands in which they complained of anti-Semitism within the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. 

In the letter warning of the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, the seven communal leaders from the Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism wrote that “BDS activists with clear anti-Jewish messaging in the Netherlands are allowed to operate freely in churches and universities.” 

In response, The Rights Forum said there was no evidence of such messaging — a claim CJO said was “almost laughable.” 

CJO cited van Agt’s statement on the Jewish lobby and others, including shouts about killing Jews documented at a demonstration organized by BDS activists in Rotterdam earlier this year.

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UK: School cancels Balfour poetry contest that fails to mention Israel

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

A Kent grammar school has abruptly withdrawn from hosting a poetry competition marking the Balfour Declaration centenary which only asked for submissions on the theme of Palestine.

St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington announced in its June newsletter that it would hold an international poetry competition on November 2.

The competition, sponsored by The Balfour Project, Shortlands Poetry Circle and Bromley International Cluster, is open to students aged between 10- and 18-years-old from “all faiths and none”, and will award £500 to the winner.

The school was contacted by Board of Deputies vice president Sheila Gewolb over why Israel was not mentioned.

Headmaster Aydin Önaç told Mrs Gewolb that the school was “simply hosting the competition”. (...)

But when contacted by the JC on Wednesday, the headmaster said the school was no longer hosting the event. He declined to comment further.

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UK: Woman with notorious history of anti-Semitic statements hired by trade union

Via Guido Fawkes:

A former Labour parliamentary candidate who was twice suspended from the party for anti-Semitic comments is now working for Unite as a regional officer. Guido can reveal that Vicki Kirby has been hired by Len McCluskey’s trade union despite her notorious history of anti-Semitic statements. In 2014 Kirby was ditched as a Labour PPC after a string of disturbing tweets where she suggested Hitler is the “Zionist God”:

Kirby was Vice Chair of Woking Labour Party, and refused to step down even as she was reported to the police by a fellow party official. She was suspended for a second time following another Guido story… 

Now Kirby is understood to be working for Unite, based in the union’s South East regional office.

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UK: Israel hate author Thomas Suarez meeting halted

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

A Palestinian Solidarity Campaign backed event featuring an author accused of peddling antisemitic theories on Israel and Judaism, has been cancelled. 

Thomas Suarez was due to speak at the meeting, promoting his latest book State of Terror – How Terrorism Created Modern Israel. 

But on Monday, it emerged that the meeting due to take place at the local Quaker owned Friends Meeting House in Cambridge this Thursday, had been called off. 

Mr Suarez, a professional violinist, rose to notoriety after an hour-long rant on Jews and Zionism to the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies last November. 

He branded Zionism “fascist” and claimed its leaders encouraged antisemitism in Germany to force Jews to move to Palestine. 

Speaking about “the Jewish state”, he said: “Crammed into those three words are all of Jewry, Judaism, Jewish history, culture, persecution, and most cynical and exploitative of all, the Holocaust.” 

The Board of Deputies are among the Jewish organisations  known to have raised objections to Thursday’s event. 

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board, told the JC: “Thomas Suarez has repeatedly and unapologetically made statements comparing Zionists to Nazis. We approached the Quakers to make them aware of the nature of this booking. 

"We are glad that, having considered the matter in line with Quaker values, the decision was taken to cancel the booking. 

"We applaud this step, taken in solidarity with our community in the struggle against racism. It underlines that Quakers are more interested in peace and reconciliation than the hate promoted by Cambridge PSC.”

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Germany: Anti-Semitism on the rise, but no anti-Semites to be found

Remember when it was so fashionable, a few years ago, to say So long, Israel; Hello, Berlin?

Anti-semitism tolerated in Germany (2010): Long-standing anti-Semitic,
anti-Israel exhibit in Cologne city centre 

Via i24NEWS:

A memorial plaque at a Synagogue defaced with right-wing slogans. 

An Israeli tourist denied service by a Burger King employee saying "I don't serve Jews." 

A student being refused a seat on the tram for wearing a Star of David necklace. 

A politician forced to resign after anti-Semitic threats against his family. 

Those are just some of the anti-Semitic incidents recorded in Germany this year by the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, an NGO campaigning against right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. In an attempt to raise awareness for the rise of such incidents, the NGO projected descriptions of the events on buildings in five major German cities over the past few weeks.

“Many people were actually surprised to hear that Jews in Germany are still being attacked on a daily basis,” said Miki Hermer, who initiated the project. 

“They think anti-Semitism is a problem that ended in 1945, that they don't need to worry about that anymore, but we are here to show them that's not true.”  (...)

Nevertheless, experts involved in the fight against anti-Semitism agree that this is a growing problem in Germany. 

“Members of the Jewish community feel constantly under threat – from the right wing, from migrants, from Muslims,” MP Volker Beck, who heads the Germany-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Committee in the German Bundestag, told i24NEWS. (...)

“Public opinion polls show that a third of the population sees Jews as being 'different,' which may not be an aggressive form of anti-Semitism, but it does excludes Jewish citizens from our society. It creates a certain atmosphere, like Jews don't deserve the same rights and respect,” he adds. (...)

Then came the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, also known as Operation Protective Edge, which sparked pro-Palestinian rallies across Germany in which calls of "Jews to the gas" were repeatedly heard.

Since then, argues Hermer, anti-Semitism has been on an upwards trend. (...)

 “Modern anti-Semitism is manifested nowadays mostly through criticism against Israel and Zionism, and through conspiracy theories blaming Jews for manipulating the media and the banking systems,” she explained. “You can find these views anywhere, it's really a symptom of the whole society.”

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German rector of Brazilian university apologises for course on "Zionism, Nazism and Apartheid- as Racist Ideologies"

In the light of what has been going on for ten years in a German university (German University's course claims Israel harvests Palestinian organs and that it commits genocide), it is worth pointing out that the rector of the ABC Federal University Klaus Capelle is German.

JTA reports:

The rector of a Brazilian federal university apologized to the Jewish community over a want ad seeking a “racial-ethnic relations” educator required to teach Zionism as a racist concept alongside Nazism and apartheid.

ABC Federal University rector Klaus Capelle delivered the apology to Brazilian Israelite Confederation President Fernando Lottenberg and Executive President Ricardo Berkiensztat at a meeting Friday and amended the July 14 notice.

“The modification corrects part of the notice, which, in an inappropriate way, treated in the same context political regimes and historical facts that are very different,” according to a statement issued by the university.

“The amending of the text does not eliminate the need to debate the complex and controversial political and historical subjects involved,” it continued. “ABC Federal University backs freedom of press, thought and expression, which must underpin this discussion.”

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UK: When Corbyn’s Labour Party shames the evangelical church

David Watkins @ Harry's Place:

[...] Such measures and statements are seen by many as half-hearted and flawed. But here’s the thing: these Labour figures have at least said and done something, rather than nothing. They have at least given the impression that they care about the issue.

Now let us compare this with the reaction to Stephen Sizer by the conservative evangelical Christian leaders with whom he identifies most closely. It is of course true that Sizer was eventually disciplined by the Anglican hierarchy. However, Sizer identifies himself as a conservative evangelical, and so it is instructive to examine the response to his statement (and other actions) by other conservative evangelical leaders, and compare this with the response to anti-Semitism from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.

Sizer’s linking of Zionism with Nazism, and his citation of Lenni Brenner, did not prevent his book being published by Inter-Varsity Press (IVP), probably the leading conservative evangelical publishing house in Britain. (Nor, for that matter, did his citation on pp. 21-22 (and on Press TV) of Holocaust Denier Dale Crowley; nor his subtle insinuation of Israeli complicity in 9/11 in a footnote on p.251.) They did not prevent the book being warmly endorsed by a number of high-profile conservative evangelical leaders, including the late John Stott, the well-known preacher Dick Lucas, the former Principal of Oak Hill Theological College David Peterson, and the trainer, pastor and writer Graham Beynon. IVP later invited Sizer to write a second book on the subject for a more popular audience, Zion’s Christian Soldiers? (IVP, 2008). Whereas Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party for relying on Lenni Brenner to link Zionism with Nazism, conservative evangelicals did not bad an eyelid when Stephen Sizer did the same.

In fairness, we would not necessarily expect the average evangelical theologian, reviewing a book, to be familiar with Trotskyist anti-Semitism, still less to know about Lenni Brenner. Why wouldn’t they take Sizer’s claim at face value? (A respectable Christian publisher has less excuse, however, for not checking the source of an inflammatory statement.) Twelve years on, however, the evidence of Stephen Sizer’s anti-Semitism is inescapable. He has

• forwarded material written by 9/11 conspiracy theorists and Holocaust Deniers
• linked to numerous racist websites and given an interview to another
• labelled photographs of Israeli soldiers “Herod’s soldiers operating in Bethlehem today“, mirroring the classic anti-Semitic accusation that all Jews are Christ-killers
• promoted, via an interview on his Vimeo site, a boycott of four multinational public companies on the false basis that they “channel their profits to the Zionist agenda” – echoing the anti-Semitic myth that Jewish individuals and companies operate a shadowy influence on world affairs
• equated Israeli treatment of the Palestinians with the genocide of 2/3 of European Jewry in the Holocaust - and that on Press TV, the propaganda channel of the Holocaust-denying Iranian regime
• spoken at events organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, many of whose branches appear to tolerate anti-Semitism
• travelled to Iran as the guest of Zahra Mostafavi, the daughter of the Ayatollah Khomeini – a prominent supporter of the anti-Israel terrorist organisation Hezbollah, who has publicly paid tribute to child suicide bombers for their attacks on Israeli civilians.
• worked in Malaysia with known Hamas fundraisers Viva Palestina, there making the outrageous claim that the “Israel Lobby” in the USA “buys every single politician” and again falsely linking Zionists with the Far Right
• hosted an article (now removed) on his church website by Holocaust Denier “Israel Shamir”
• commented “Bring it on” in response to a call by the disgraced US journalist Helen Thomas for Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine”
• made the tasteless insinuation that Monica Lewinsky’s Jewishness motivated Hilary Clinton’s criticism of Israel – undermining any claim Rev Sizer might make that his opposition to Israel is unrelated to the Jewishness of its people
• made the deluded suggestion that the world initially held back from imposing a no-fly zone over Libya because Colonel Gaddafi and his son were linked to Israel and the USA by Jewish blood
• championed the cause of Islamist hate preacher Raed Salah
• suggested (again) that Israel was somehow behind 9/11

Nick Cohen’s words are apt: “Polite [Christian] commentators say that I must add at this point that ‘[Stephen Sizer] is not an anti-Semite’. Sorry to be a fact-checking bore, but if he isn’t a racist, then he is a remarkably stupid old man who in George Orwell’s phrase is ‘playing with fire without knowing fire is hot’.” Yet there is nothing in Stephen Sizer’s background to suggest that he is stupid.

It was the last of the above incidents, in January 2015, which finally prompted the Diocese of Guildford to ban Sizer from using social media for six months and to seek an undertaking from Sizer that he would no longer write or speak about the Middle East. The Archbishop of Canterbury approved. Whilst Sizer apologized – as he has done before – there is good cause to be sceptical.

The controversy surrounding Stephen Sizer has been widely reported: in the Jewish press; the Christian press (including the newspaper Evangelicals Now and the widely-read blog Archbishop Cranmer); and in the secular media. It has recently come to light again in connection with Jeremy Corbyn, who once wrote to the Church of England to defend Sizer; and in connection with Ken Livingstone, whose incendiary claim about Nazism and Zionism is similar to the one published by Sizer in 2004. And so this begs the question: how have Sizer’s conservative evangelical peers reacted to his multi-faceted anti-Semitic statements and actions? And how does this compare with the Labour Party’s reaction to Ken Livingstone? The answer, sadly, is disheartening.

• IVP continue to market Sizer’s books. Contrast this with Roy Clements, a previously influential conservative evangelical leader who left his ministry in 1999 as a result of a sex scandal. IVP rapidly pulled his books from the shelves, and no longer market them, even though they were widely considered to be theologically sound. It is hard not to see a double standard here: is racism a less serious moral failing than sexual impropriety?
• Christ Church Virginia Water (CCVW) retain Sizer as their vicar, notwithstanding his track record. This is perhaps unsurprising, since the church previously supported his international travel – even to conferences also attended by Hitler-lovers and Holocaust Deniers.
• Richard Bewes OBE, previously Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, London, had no problem either joining orremaining on the preaching team at CCVW – despite recognising anti-Jewish racism elsewhere.
• It is believed that Christianity Explored Ministries no longer retain Sizer as an Advocate (trainer). However, they have made no public statement to this effect, and Sizer’s own website indicates that the association remains.
• Sizer’s website also states that he is Vice-Chair of Biblica Europe Ministries Trust. Biblica is the translation sponsor and ministry publisher of the New International Version, the most widely read contemporary English translation of the Bible.
• Whilst a handful have expressed private concerns, not a single senior British conservative evangelical leader or ministryhas publicly censured Stephen Sizer or distanced themselves from him.
• The South East Gospel Partnership is a group of conservative evangelical churches that work together on things like church planting and training. CCVW remains a partner church. When sent abundant evidence regarding Rev Sizer’s anti-Semitic activities, the SEGP Committee did not engage with that evidence. Their response – unbelievably – was that they saw ‘no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.’

In short, conservative evangelicals have said and done virtually nothing in response to Stephen Sizer’s anti-Semitism. They have done even less than Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party has done in response to Ken Livingstone’s anti-Semitism – which is saying quite something. If John Rentoul of The Independent can recognise that there is a serious problem with Stephen Sizer, why can’t conservative evangelicals?

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UK: Church of England says Labour’s anti-Semitism is a right-wing plot

Archbishop Cranmer reports:

“Best wait for the vitriolic onslaught,” tweeted Fr Simon Rundell, when he was asked politely and courteously if he would like to add anything or clarify his assertion that Labour’s anti-Semitism is a fiction of the right-wing press, and that Conservatives are racist. “I never read your blog anymore, but you have the followers & the indignation,” he explained, seemingly preferring terse vitriol with a hint of indignation to the sort of measured civility one might expect from a Christian minister and curer of souls. So, one treads carefully with this post. Fr Simon’s preference is to block those who question him (no matter how courteously), and then to whip up his Twitter followers in… well, vitriol and indignation. But perhaps it is vitriol and indignation merely to point this out? Perhaps one ought simply to convey the facts, if it is possible to do so without indignation.

Fr Simon Rundell is a “Progressive, radical Anglocatholic Parish iPriest” (that is how he describes himself: presumably it isn’t vitriolic to point this out). Yesterday, he tweeted this:

Please note that he didn’t merely RT a comment: he explicitly endorsed this extract as “perceptive comment”, and expressed admiration for the author’s “insight”. The author says the Conservative Party is racist, and adduces as evidence for this a quotation from campaign literature used in the constituency of Smethwick in the 1964 General Election. The author also believes that Labour’s current problem with anti-Semitism isn’t a problem at all: those who believe it is are being “taken for a ride by our right-wing press”: it is, in short, a right-wing plot to smear the Labour Party. The evidence adduced for this is a reference to Palestinian children as “cockroaches” after “Israel bombed their school”, and a reluctance to comment on “the atrocities carried out in the name of Zionism”.

Setting aside the rather abundant evidence that Jeremy Corbyn appears to grasp the oppression of every minority except Jews; and the burgeoning dossier of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, could someone please source which right-wing British newspaper referred to Palestinian schoolchildren as “cockroaches” after Israel bombed their school? Do, please, feel free to tell us in the comment thread: it would be an appalling dehumanisation if one did, but it isn’t immediately searchable on Google. Didn’t the right-wing British press report Israel’s bombardment of Gaza?

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UK: Responding to British Marxists’ “Papal Edict” against Israel

Via Mosaic Magazine:

In December, the British journal the New Left Review published a piece by its long-time editor Perry Anderson entitled “House of Zion,” calling for the destruction of Israel. Given the publication’s influence on the Western left, the article amounted to “the Marxist equivalent of a papal edict,” in the words of the editors of Fathom. Michael Walzer notes its author’s sympathy for violence and contempt for those who desire peace:

Whether [Anderson] favors a purely political or also a military fight, violence or non-violence, is unclear. He doesn’t talk about terrorism at all, though he hints at the usual apologetic account of it (“an explosion of frustration and despair”). His last paragraph seems to call for Arab states to threaten war against Israel (once they are in full control of their “strategic emplacements”). But his militancy is non-specific.

What is certain is that he has nothing but contempt for any Palestinian politician who isn’t actively engaged in “resistance.” All those who hope for mutual accommodation between Jews and Palestinians, who are ready to accept a state alongside Israel and to call for the end of the conflict, who are engaged in a common struggle against terrorists and religious fanatics, who are trying to turn the Palestinian Authority into a nascent state—these are the chief villains in Anderson’s story. The sentences about them are one long angry sneer: they are “compliant notables,” “placemen,” “cost-effective surrogates for the IDF,” bloated with “the proceeds of collaboration.” . . . Anderson is superior to all this. He says it’s war, and he wants them to fight.

Read more at Fathom

UK: Jew-hate claims at London School of Economics

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

Mr Uddin with Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn and shadow cabinet
member Diane Abbott

Labour’s investigation into allegations of antisemitism at a leading university has been made aware of similar Jew-hate claims at a second campus, the JC can reveal.

A complaint has been sent to Baroness Royall, who is leading the enquiry, about the actions of a candidate running to lead the London School of Economics’ students’ union.

Rayhan Uddin lobbied another candidate to drop out of the race, claiming that “leading Zionists” were trying to swing the election.  He has since apologised for his remarks, saying he was "deeply sorry to all those who I have angered or offended".

Mr Uddin, who is a vice-chair of the school’s Labour Society, and a Labour Party member, encouraged Samiha Begum to leave the contest to be general secretary of the LSE union.

In a message Mr Uddin [...]  wrote that fellow candidate Harry Maxwell, who is endorsed by LSE’s Jewish and Israel societies, was “running a very slick campaign”.

Mr Uddin wrote: “We discussed the other day how he is backed by Jay Stoll [a former Jewish LSE SU general secretary] and other leading Zionists around the country because they want to win back LSE and make it right wing and Zio again.

“The Zionists at LSE have two priorities this year; getting last year’s LSE Israel society president Josh Seitler to become the new UJS President, and the second is for Harry Maxwell to become Gen Sec.

“The first has already happened. If the second happens too, not only will it be awful for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists at LSE, but for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists across the whole country.

“A combination of Josh and Harry will be really damaging to all the work NUS and others are doing with BDS, Prevent and other things.”  [...]

LSE Jewish Society said it found Mr Uddin’s reported remarks “alarming”. Members had seen comments on Facebook on Tuesday, the group said.

The claims of a Zionist conspiracy were “reminiscent of some of the most dangerous, ugly, yet unfortunately, frequently repeated antisemitic tropes of the past 100 years. It has no place on our campus”.

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France: Jews advised not to use word Zionism in conversation with non-Jews

JTA reports:

Pro-Palestinian “protesters” in Paris hover around a swastika.
Photo: Etienne Laurent/European, Pressphoto Agency

Stanley Greenberg, a prominent American political strategist from the United States, advised representatives of French Jewry to avoid mentioning Zionism when speaking to non-Jews.

Zionism “is seen as extremist and a force mainly in Israel, rather than Europe. Use of the term links your spokespeople to what is seen as an external conflict,” Greenberg, who has advised the campaigns of Bill Clinton and John Kerry, wrote in July to Robert Ejnes, the executive director of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.

Zionism is seen as an “extremist movement that is uncompromising and aggressively pursues its goals.”

In the 17-page recommendation, obtained by JTA, Greenberg also advised CRIF to frame safety issues as pertaining to “French citizens,” rather than French Jews.  Greenberg’s advice was based on findings from a 70-person focus group that tested the impact of messaging on subjects relevant to CRIF’s work. The results were released last year.  The testing was suggested and paid for by American Jewish philanthropists who wanted to help CRIF combat the rise of violent anti-Semitism in France. The donors wished to remain anonymous, Ejnes said.

One far-left voter said during polling: “For me [Zionism is] the Israeli version of Nazism.”

Ejnes told JTA he found the findings on Zionism the most unexpected.

“All the sectors — Muslims, highly-educated, far-right and far-left voters – they all said the same: Zionism is to Jews what jihadism is to Muslims,” he said. “It indicates it is very difficult to use the word ‘Zionist,’ in the definition we have of it, in popular discourse.”  Read more.

Norway: Holocaust survivors suffer because Jews prefer their name on new hospitals, or something

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, journalist Sidsel Wold wrote an article on the problems of Holocaust survivors in Israel (h/t Norway, Israel and the Jews).  The article is based in part on a similar article which appeared in the Guardian, written by Harriet Sherwood.

There is no doubt Israel should do more for its Holocaust survivors, though I personally feel uncomfortable when foreign journalists use Holocaust Day as a platform to talk about how bad Israel is.

Wold's article is titled: "Here [Poland] The Knesset Members Honor the Dead, at Home The Survivors Live in Poverty".

So we start off by accusing the Knesset of daring to go to Poland and pretending to care about the Holocaust, when they really should do more for the survivors.  But Wold doesn't stop there.  She thinks all Jews are responsible for the sad state of Holocaust survivors.  

She cites Avi Dichter, who heads an Israeli state-funded organization to help Holocaust survivors.  Dichter spoke to the Jerusalem Post (which Wold wrongly identifies as Ynet) and said as follows:

Dichter said that he makes sure to fit in meetings with potential international donors when he takes personal trips each month. 

“Donating to a museum, a university or a hospital is much more widely accepted because they put a sign with your name on things, but you can’t put a sign on a Holocaust survivor,” Dichter said. “It demands a different approach.” 

“We need to tell them the individual stories of these struggling survivors,” he said. 

“Donors want to connect to the cause not just rationally but also emotionally.”

In Wold's world, this was translated to the following (my translation to English):

The Foundation for the Benefit of the Holocaust Victims in Israel is dependent on both state and private donations. But for many Jewish donors, it's more accepted, or even more attractive, to give money to a new museum or a hospital wing, where the donor's name is put on the wall in large letters. 

"You can't put your name on a Holocaust survivor," said Dichter.

Dichter did not mention Jews specifically, and he was talking about the different approach needed to get money for an emotional issue.   But for Wold, this becomes an accusation against all Jewish donors: Jews prefer to give money to places where they'll be noticed.  In large letters, no less.

Notice that in the one line which is an actual quote, Wold manages to misquote Dichter.

Wold also accuses PM Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians of using the Holocaust to claim special privileges (again, my translation):

PM Benjamin Netanyahu is one of Israel's many politicians who constantly refer to the fate of the Jews under the Nazi regime, and to the six million Holocaust victims, in order to explain to the wold why the State of Israel must be so strong and why Israel has special needs.

Of course, this is in an article where she actually talks about those special needs (!).

Germany: Berlin Film Festival Award for Anti-Zionist British Director Ken Loach Angers Jewish Group

Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office, said, “It is a disgrace that a prominent German film festival glorifies a director who has distinguished himself through bigotry and the denial of Israel’s right to exist.”

She also said that awarding Loach the “The Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement Award” was especially deserving of “shame,” as it was taking place in Berlin.

“Shame on the Berlinale for honoring an artist who calls for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel, and to do so in a city that once boycotted Jewish shops and property due to anti-Semitic policies of the German government,” Berger said.

More: Algemeiner

Norway: Labour Party youth support Palestinian terrorist

Members of AUF, the Labour Party's youth group, pose with a picture of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti is in jail for murdering Jews.  The AUF were targeted by Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.  But the AUF don't think there's a connection.  Killing Norwegians is bad, killing Jews is... freedom fighting.

Now, imagine the international outrage if youth from an Israeli political party would take a similar photo with Breivik.

More: MIFF

Bulgaria: How successive governments and the media are feeding conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism

It’s alarming that the reactions by authorities and the media to xenophobic outbursts on TV and radio stations are spineless at best, and that this kind of behaviour is not limited to Ataka and its supporters[vii]. When Misho Shamara (Misho-the-Smack), a rap singer who became the face of pro-government demonstrations, made a blatantly anti-Semitic comment on the nationwide TV7 calling former finance minister Simeon Dyankov “a worthless Jewish vermin”, the ruling Socialists not only did not react, but few days later they readily accepted a petition in support of their government brought to them by the same person.[viii]

More: BICSA

Netherlands: 40% of Dutch believe Israel committing genocide

The specific issue the letter addresses is a statistic from the University of Bielefeld showing that 39% of Dutch citizens believe Israel is conducting a "war of extermination" against the Palestinian Arabs.  

Asscher reportedly addressed the issue in the Dutch Parliament, saying the statistic was "worrisome" and "unacceptable." However, the Simon Wiesenthal Center calls out the Dutch official on not acting to prevent the phenomenon from spreading further. 

More: INN

France: "Mohamed Merah? He's a Zionist, because he committed violent acts"

Guess who said the following:  "Mohamed Merah?  He's a Zionist, because he committed violent acts"

Answer: Dieudonné.  The man the BBC thinks is not an anti-semite.

Remember, he's a comedian, and a very popular one at that.  I'm sure it's only in good fun.

Interviewed in Causeur, Dieudonné denies that he's an antisemite.  "I don't feel I'm an antisemite.  I don't hate the Jewish nation, but I don't love them, either."

Then he turns to the real problem in this world.  Zionism.

"The only problem in France is the lie, and Zionism is it's most flamboyant expressions.  Zionism is based on the logic and spirit of Apartheid, which is the misfortune of this world."

"Mohamed Merah?  He's a Zionist, because he committed violent acts."

More: CFCA, Le Monde Juif

EU: Parliament President repeats Palestinian libel in Knesset

Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, spoke in the Knesset yesterday.  In his speech he repeated Palestinians claims, without verifying them.  Because they moved him.  The only other incident that Schulz mentioned in his speech 'moved him', was his visit to Yad Vashem.  No comparison, of course.

Sadly, he didn't bother meeting with Jewish terror victims, the still-living Jews who suffer from antisemitism today.  So we don't know how much that would have moved him.

Schulz's prepared remarks as appear on the EU Parliament site:

One of the questions these young people asked me which I found most moving – although I could not check the exact figures – was this: how can it be that an Israeli is allowed to use 70 litres of water per day, but a Palestinian only 17? 

According to Deutsche Welle, in his actual speech he turned to the Knesset members and asked them: "I haven't checked the data. I'm asking you if this is correct."

Because, really, your speech to a foreign parliament is the best time to start fact-checking.   And doesn't it sound reasonable to you that Jews would prevent Arabs from drinking water?  It did to Schulz.

But Schulz wasn't finished:

(...) 

The blockade of the Gaza Strip is your response to attacks on Israeli civilians and I can understand that. But it is stifling all economic development and driving people to despair - despair which in turn is being exploited by extremists. The blockade may in fact undermine, rather than strengthen, Israel's security.

Now, can you imagine a speech where Schulz would have said: "The Palestinian wish for a state, I can understand that.  But it poses a direct threat to Israel's existence."

Neither can I.

For those who care about facts, Elder of Ziyon explains the water issue.