Holland: Restaurant owner evicts Dutch Jewish community from synagogue

Via JTA:

The Jewish community of this Dutch city was evicted Monday from its former synagogue in what members said was the first such occurrence in years in the kingdom.  

Members of Beth Shoshanna, a Masorti/Conservative Jewish congregation of approximately 30 people, packed up and loaded into a van their Torah scroll and other scripture, as well as other items used for worship and furniture.  The move followed a legal fight against the building’s new owners, who are seeking to turn it into a restaurant.  

“It’s a very heavy feeling that this thing can happen here in 2018,” said Tom Furstenberg, the community’s chairman.  

His community had been told to move out by the office of Ayhan Sahin, a Dutch-Turkish developer and owner of several eateries, who in January bought the building housing the Great Synagogue of Deventer with a partner. Last week, the city blocked his plan to open an eatery in the 125-year-old synagogue. But as the owners, Sahin and his associate can still determine who has access to the building and have asked the congregation to move out, according to Sanne Terlouw, a member of the congregation.  

The community has found a new home in the nearby municipality of Raalte. “We will continue. But this means the end of centuries of Jewish life in Deventer itself,” Terlouw said.

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Spain: Lawfare Project threatens suit against Yahoo, Google and Twitter for proliferation of antisemitism

Via JNS:

The Lawfare Project threatened legal action against Google, Yahoo and Twitter in Spain for failing to address the proliferation of Holocaust-denial websites and anti-Semitic materials on their platforms, announced Brooke Goldstein, director of the legal think tank and litigation fund. “Unless Google, Yahoo and Twitter take down the anti-Semitic content on their platforms, they will be taken to court in Spain and elsewhere,” she said.

Goldstein spent the past week visiting the Spanish Parliament to learn more about legislative initiatives against discrimination based on national origin. She also met with members of the Jewish community in Spain who have been subject to boycotts that restrict relations with companies that import Israeli products or have connections to Israeli citizens.

In the last week, the Lawfare Project has sent cease and desist letters to a number of search engines, including Google and Yahoo, with possible action planned against Twitter.

“Google, Yahoo and Twitter are all hosting anti-Semitic websites and content on their platforms, which is a clear violation of Spanish law,” said the Lawfare Project’s Spanish counsel, Ignacio Wenley Palacios. “This cannot be allowed to continue. If they do not respond positively to the cease and desist letters sent last week, we will file lawsuits against them.”

The Lawfare Project NGO, based in New York, funds legal action around the world to protect civil rights and free speech while challenging discrimination and anti-Semitism.

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Germany: City cuts ties to banks that enable Israel boycotts

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The deputy mayor of the city of Frankfurt announced on Monday that the municipal government will end all commerce with banks that conduct business with organizations that support a boycott of the Jewish state.

In a statement sent to The Jerusalem Post, Deputy Mayor Uwe Becker wrote that “we will shortly only work together with banks, peoples’ banks, and Sparkassen (public saving banks), who do not maintain business relations with organizations of the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement or affiliated groups.”

Frankfurt is the first German city to sanction banks and financial institutions for providing services to the BDS campaign targeting Israel. The Frankfurt decision to penalize financial entities could have far-reaching implications for the scores of BDS organizations that operate in Germany.

Frankfurt, with a population of nearly 720,000, is located in the state of Hesse and is considered the banking capital of Germany.

Becker said that he planned to forward letters to banks about the new anti-BDS policy.

Frankfurt’s anti-BDS policy also applies to credit institutions and companies that conduct business with the city of Frankfurt.

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Greece: Antisemitic banner displayed in Larissa

Via Against Antisemitism blog:

Supporters of Artemis Sorras, a convicted embezzler, notorious antisemite and conspiracy theorist, rallied last week in the streets of Larissa, capital and largest city of the Thessaly region, displaying a huge antisemitic banner. The banner reads: "The Convention of Greeks [the organization founded by Sorras] opposes fascism, Zionist ideology and anything being against Greek values".

Here is footage from the rally including the antisemitic banner.

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Belgium: 'Welcome in the Palestinian Territory' mobile telecommunications message

Via European Jewish Press:

A client of Proximus, the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies, received the following message on her cellphone as she landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport: "Welcome in the Palestinian territory."

The message came days after US President Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capitale of the State of Israel.

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Germans protest sale of Nazi toy soldiers on Internet

Via The Jerusalem Post:

A German father started an online petition to stop the sale of Nazi toy soldiers to Amazon, the BBC reported Tuesday. Manuel Hegel's petition says the toys "represent officers, soldiers etc of the Waffen-SS and thereby trivialize National Socialism."

The toys, sold by German firm CustomBricks, are reminiscent of Lego's toys in their style of design, the BBC reported. But according to Lego, CustomBricks does not act according to the values ​​the Danish company represents. Lego's statement states that the company "does not support the product in any way or way — on the contrary." 

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Poland: 'Entry forbidden to Jews, Commies, and all thieves and traitors of Poland,' reads sign at the entrance of guesthouse

Via European Jewish Press:

The World Jewish Congress says it was ‘’deeply disturbed and disappointed’’ by the Polish government’s apparent failure to intervene to remove a flagrantly anti-Semitic banner at the entrance to a guest house near the western city of Wroclaw, and to prosecute those responsible for posting it.

Against a red and white backdrop that are the colors of the Polish flag, the sign at the Dom Polski guest house in Cesarzowice declares "Entry forbidden to Jews, Commies, and all thieves and traitors of Poland."

WJC CEO Robert Singer said that the sign “conjures up memories of ghetto benches and other chilling manifestations of anti-Semitism in Poland in the late 1930s. Given Poland’s history, we would have expected the authorities to act forcefully and swiftly to put a stop to such activity, which is illegal and utterly contravenes the democratic norms Warsaw is committed to upholding.”

According to press reports, the guest house belongs to Piotr Rybak, who is known for a number of anti-Semitic actions including the burning of a Jew in effigy on the main market square in Wroclaw (for which he was sentenced to a jail term) and for publicly insulting first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda for her Jewish origins.

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Danish anti-Israel moralizers in huge corruption scandal

Via Arutz Sheva 7 (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

Danske Bank, which boycotted Bank Hapoalim, Elbit and other Israeli concerns for "ethical reasons," caught laundering billions of dollars. 

Sometimes important news items which seemingly have no relevance for Israel reveal significant Israel-related insights upon closer investigation. Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, has recently admitted to having been a conduit for a giant corruption scheme by the leadership of Azerbaijan. Some of the documents covering this scandal became available to the Danish daily, Berlingske Tidende.  

According to the British Guardian, based on leaked data, Azerbaijan’s leadership used the bank to fund a secret $2.9 billion scheme to pay prominent Europeans through a network of British companies. The Guardian claims that between 2012 and 2014 more than 16,000 covert payments were transacted through the Danske Bank’s branch in Estonia. Part of this money appears to have been passed on to politicians and journalists in the framework of lobbying operations. 

At that time, Azerbaijan was under attack for arresting human rights activists, journalists and conducting rigged elections. The leaders of this oil-rich country wanted to promote a positive image. 

The scheme is nicknamed ‘the Azerbaijan Laundromat.’ Among those receiving payments were former members of the human rights body, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, as well as a Board Member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It has not been proven that all recipients knew the source of the money as it was disguised via intermediaries. (...) 

While being involved for several years in these hugely unethical activities Danske Bank decided in 2014 to add Bank Hapoalim to a list of companies in which it could not invest due to its corporate accountability rules. 

It published that the exclusion was based on “legal and ethical reasons.” Danske Bank also stated that Bank Hapoalim was funding settlement activities and was “acting against the rules of international humanitarian law.” Earlier, Danske Bank withdrew its investments from Africa Israel Investments Ltd and from two other Israeli companies, Elbit Systems and Danya Cebus. 

In 2016, Danske Bank withdrew its boycott of Bank Hapoalim. No clear reasons were given.  

Nowadays one could assume that as the Danish bank was itself so unethical and had broken laws in such a major way, accusing others of something incomparably smaller made it even more vulnerable. This withdrawal of the boycott got little attention. The damage had already been done however. The BDS movement knows that its activities are almost irrelevant to Israel’s economy. Its main aim is to blacken Israel’s image. 

Earlier in 2017, Danske Bank had already been found to be involved in other major corruption scandals.  (...)

There has in the past years been frequent exposure of extreme and widespread Scandinavian hypocrisy toward Israel. This mainly focused on Norway and Sweden and in particular when the social democratic parties and their allies controlled the government. However, the huge Danske Bank corruption scandals show once again that in the exposure of extreme anti-Israeli hypocrites Denmark should not be forgotten.

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Belgium: Holocaust yellow badges and Nazi artifacts for sale at Ghent Festival

Via Brussels Jewish Community:

Two yellow badges marked 'Juif' and 'Jood' alongside Nazi memorabilia were available for sale at a stall at the Gentse Feesten (Ghent festival).  The police has been advised.

Via Holocaust Memorial Center:

The Jews of Europe were legally compelled to wear badges or distinguishing garmets (e.g., pointed hats) at least as far back as the 13th century. (...)

The Nazis resurrected this practice as part of their persecutions during the Holocaust. Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Main Security Office, first recommended that Jews should wear identifying badges following the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938. Shortly after the invasion of Poland in September 1939, local German authorities began introducing mandatory wearing of badges. By the end of 1939, all Jews in the newly-acquired Polish territories were required to wear badges. Upon invading the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Germans again applied this requirement to newly-conquered lands. Throughout the rest of 1941 and 1942, Germany, its satellite states and western occupied territories adopted regulations stipulating that Jews wear identifying badges. Only in Denmark, where King Christian X is said to have threatened to wear the badge himself if it were imposed on his country’s Jewish population, were the Germans unable to impose such a regulation. 

The German government’s policy of forcing Jews to wear identifying badges was but one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different (i.e., inferior) to everyone else. It allowed for the easier facilitation of their separation from society and subsequent ghettoization, which ultimately led to the deportation and murder of 6 million Jews. Those who failed or refused to wear the badge risked severe punishment, including death. For example, the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the ghetto in Bialystok, Poland announced that “… the authorities have warned that severe punishment – up to and including death by shooting – is in store for Jews who do not wear the yellow badge on back and front.”

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Greece: Game firm closes Auschwitz ‘escape room’ following complaints

Via JTA:

They didn't escape

An entertainment company in Greece canceled a game in which players use clues to escape from a room themed around the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The Rubicon agency, which is located in the northern Athens suburb of Galatsi, in recent weeks advertised the Auschwitz “escape room” on social media. Jews and non-Jews complained it was disrespectful to Holocaust victims, the left-leaning news site Protagon reported Tuesday.

“In frozen Poland, the walls of the crematorium of the infamous Nazi concentration camp for prisoners, primarily of Jewish origin, still reek of burnt human flesh, they say,” a promotional text for the game read. “Take on the role of a prisoner still looking for signs of life from loved ones, dare to stay  in the shadow of the historic crematorium, discover the big secret and escape before you, too, turn into ashes.”

Reached by Protagon, a spokesman of the firm responsible for the game said it had been scrapped and that the decision to create it did not take into account “that this could cause offense.”

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France: Supermarket chain Auchan labels "Israeli colonies" products from settlements

Photos via Alain Legaret:




French supermarket chain Auchan has started  labeling goods produced in Israeli settlements - referred to in France as "colonies" to make it sound like Israel is a colonial (and often) an apartheid country.

Germany: Bank pulls plug on anti-Israel BDS bank account

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Shutdown reasons may include terrorism and antisemitism.

The Bank für Sozialwirtschaft (Bank for Social Economy) has closed the account of a German group that promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Jewish state.

The Cologne-based bank notified the anti-Israel NGO Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East that its account will be shut down by the end of the year, according to an article that appeared on the anti-Zionist website Der Semit on Thursday. 

The Jerusalem Post, as part of its reporting earlier this year on European banks that maintain BDS and terrorism-related accounts, found that the Bank for Social Economy account was listed on the NGO’s website, in an effort to attract donations. 

After receiving a Post query in September alleging Hamas links to the Jewish Voice group, as well as that it was spreading contemporary antisemitism and engaging in BDS activities, the bank opened an investigation, spokeswoman Stephanie Rüth said.

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Germany: Guesthouse turns away Israelis: 'Our apartments are not for them'

From The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

A group of Israeli tourists looking for board while planning a trip to Germany next summer were shocked after a guesthouse in the southwestern region of Baden-Württemberg last week urged them to cancel their reservation due to their nationality. 

While planning a vacation for next August, the four Israeli families reserved lodging at the Mattenhof guesthouse in the Black Forest town of Zell am Harmersbach, explained one of the party's members, Igor Tsehansky.

However, shortly after confirming the reservation, the administrators of the guesthouse contacted the Israelis with a slew of messages and notified them that they should cancel the booking. 

Tsehansky said that he and his friends received the German-language notice less than week after making the arrangements.

"We don't Want have Guests from Israel, because our apartments are Not for them [sic]. Please cancel the Booking," read a Google translated message that Tsehansky posted to Facebook. 

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Belgium: Portuguese man threatens to kill Jews

This story has not been picked up by the Portuguese media!

The Belgian daily DH reported that the Belgian League against Antisemitism received two emails from Marco da Torre, a Portuguese national, threatening to kill Jews.

Both emails were ill-written in French and read:  "I demand that you stop bothering me, if you persist I'll start killing Jews and will write your name with their blood, you son of a bitch".  The other stated: "From now on every time a Jew is killed it's because of animals like you [...] A world without Jews will be a clean and happy world".

Joël Rubinfeld, head of the LBCA indicated that the judicial authorities have been informed of the threats.

E-mails from the same address were sent to several members of the Jewish community.

Joël Rubinfeld first thought that the menaces were issue by someone with a mental disorder.  But Marco da Torre was contacted by phone and he stands by what he wrote.  He also said that the LBCA represents the Jewish community of Belgium. The threats are deliberate and carefully thought out.

Marco da Torre claims to have been swindled out of one million euros by a Belgian-Israeli. He added that he wants to cut him and those of his race in small pieces.  

Da Torre also accused the alleged swindler of having fled to Israel to avoid prosecution where he lives under a false identity and that he keeps taunting him by email.

What are we to make of this?   Marco da Torre says that he has a problem with a Jew and as result he blames the entire Jewish community. 

Joël Rubinfeld considers that he is the archetypal anti-Semite and that he could act on his threats.  The same situation has happened a few times in the past two years in several European countries, with individuals having stabbed Jews because they felt they had a grudge against "all Jews".

Da Torre's Facebook account also contains anti-Semitic material:

Ireland: Bank of Ireland shuts down anti-Israel BDS accounts

From the Jerusalem Post:

The Bank of Ireland—the country’s oldest financial institution—shut down the accounts of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The termination of the pro-BDS group’s accounts took place in Ireland and Northern Ireland in late September, according to a Sunday account in the Irish news outlet RTÉ.

A spokesman for the Bank of Ireland wrote The Jerusalem Post on Monday saying that they "cannot comment in relation to customer accounts.”

According to the RTÉ, the PSC said the bank closed its accounts because it defined transfers to Palestinian Territories as high-risk. The PSC said its transfers funds to a factory in the West Bank. The plant produces Palestinian scarves that the PSC buys to promote solidarity, wrote the RTÉ. PSC had held accounts at the Bank of Ireland for 15 years.

The Irish pro-Palestinian group opened a new account with the Allied Irish Banks (AIB). A Post press query to the AIB was not immediately returned on Monday. According to RTÉ, the PSC believes it is vulnerable to a new closure.

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Greece: 5-Star Hotel in Rhodes distinguishes Israelis from other tourists with blue wrist bands

From the Algemeiner:

Israeli visitors are tagged differently from other guests at a five-star resort in Rhodes, Greece Israel’s Channel 10 reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the plastic wrist bands given to guests at the Imperial Hotel – to enable them unlimited entrance to the spa and other facilities – are color-coded (in blue) only for customers from the Jewish state.

When asked about this procedure, a representative of the hotel told the network’s Orly Vilnai and Guy Meroz that the colors simply identify the country of the guest’s origin. However, an investigation into the matter by the TV duo revealed that this was not the case – and that only Israelis were given a specific color to wear, while tourists from various European countries were given bracelets of all colors.

An Israeli airline adviser said he was unaware of this practice.

“When it happens and everyone keeps quiet, nothing changes,” said Yehuda Zafrani. “This story has to be told.”

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Germany: Claude Lanzmann accuses top Berlin hotel of removing Israel from phone list

The JTA reports:

Did a premier Berlin hotel cross Israel off its phone list? That’s what French Jewish filmmaker Claude Lanzmann claims.

His assertion has provoked a storm of controversy and drawn a firm denial from Hotel Bristol Kempinski.

Writing for the newspapers Le Figaro in Paris and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Frankfurt, Lanzmann, the famed director of “Shoah” and other Holocaust-related documentaries, said he learned during a visit this month to the German capital that the five-star hotel had removed Israel’s 972 country code from the list provided to guests in their hotel rooms.

Lanzmann said a hotel employee who identified himself as Jewish told him that “most of our clients are Arabs” and that they had asked that Israel be taken off the list.

A Kempinski spokesperson told the German tabloid Bild on Thursday that the employee’s understanding was incorrect.

“There was and is no instruction from the hotel management, and not from the Kempinski AG parent company, to exclude Israel from the country code list,” the spokesperson said, adding that the phone list included only 35 countries. “Israel has now been added.

“If we hurt Mr. Lanzmann’s feelings with the omission of the Israeli country code, we sincerely ask for his forgiveness.”

In his Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article, Lanzmann said he decided to describe his experience “to let readers know, and to challenge them to act now.”

“Because you can’t fight against Arab terrorism and at the same time accept the elimination of Israel from one of Berlin’s most prestigious, most important hotels,” he wrote. “To erase Israel is the same as demanding the erasure of Israelis. That they be killed.”

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France: Paris bar serving 'Gas Chamber" drinks for 4 euros

Europe Israel reports that the Sunset Boulevard, a cocktail bar in Paris, is serving drinks called "Gas Chamber" for 4 euros (4.50 USD).

The owner of the bar is being asked to pull the drink from the menu.

Poking fun at the Holocaust is not uncommon in France. Dieudonné does just that with great success.  It started just after the war as told by journalist and author Jean Lacouture: Laughing after the Holocaust: "It weren't crematoria it were incubators"

Belgium’s Proximus welcomes visitors to Israel to ‘Palestine’

Israelly Cool reports:

I think most of us are already accustomed to reports of certain companies omitting ‘Israel’ on their websites, and instead having references to ‘Palestine.’ In such cases, there is of course huge insult, but that insult arrives only after one searches the website.

An even worse level of insult is when it is pushed to you, as happened to someone from Belgium – with the mobile service provider Proximus – who arrived in Israel and had this appear on her phone:

You needn’t speak Dutch to see that Proximus’ message is welcoming her to ‘Palestine.’

Someone else with Proximus who had previously arrived in Israel received the following French version of the message, which does refer to Israel.

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This may also interest readers:
Belgium: Crisis center tells Israeli terror victims that Israel does not exist (Update: employee fired)

France: Michelin criticized for not publishing Israel guide

The JTA reports:

The president of the World Jewish Congress is taking the Michelin travel company to task for not including Israel in its repertoire of prestigious travel and dining guides.

In a letter to the French company, whose restaurant-ranking system influences foodies worldwide, Ronald Lauder said it is a “concerning omission” that Michelin has no guide to Israel, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

“Israel today is a venerable amalgam of cultures and traditions, which come together to produce a distinctive and exceptional culinary scene,” he wrote. “Why, therefore, has your company refused to produce a guide to Israel’s restaurants?

“Though I am sure that it is not your intention, some have speculated that reasons other than merit color Michelin’s decision not to visit Israel,” added Lauder, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist.

Michelin has print guides for 27 countries and many city-specific guides, including a new guide to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil. The company’s website also excludes Israel from its list of 79 countries, among them Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates — even Syria, which has been engulfed in a bloody civil war for the past five years.

In recent years, Israeli food and wine has garnered international prestige. Last week, “Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking” won best book of the year at the James Beard Awards for food writing. The book’s authors run several popular restaurants in Philadelphia. In 2014, Saveur Magazine recognized Tel Aviv as an outstanding travel destination for food lovers, and in November Conde Nast Traveler reported that Tel Aviv has the “world’s best vegetarian food.”

According to AP, at least one Israeli chief, Moshik Roth, has received a Michelin star, for his work in the Netherlands.

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