UK: London’s Jewish Housing Association Defeats Discrimination Challenge

Via Hamodia:

A ruling issued by the Divisional Court of the High Court of Justice in London, made public on Tuesday, has upheld the right of an Orthodox Jewish Housing Association to allocate housing exclusively to Jewish families.

Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA) was founded to serve the U.K.’s Orthodox Jewish community and builds, part-owns and manages properties in London, Salford and Canvey Island.

The claimants against AIHA, who are not Jewish, had wanted to be allocated a home in AIHA’s new Aviv development in Stamford Hill, but were not given the chance to bid. The claim against Hackney London Borough Council and AIHA, challenged AIHA’s policy of allocating its social housing properties on the basis that they precluded any persons who are not members of the Orthodox Jewish community from becoming tenants. The claimants applied for a Judicial Review of the case.

Following a detailed investigation of the social housing market, and the specific characteristics of Hackney’s Orthodox Jewish Community, including anti-Semitism and religious needs, the Divisional Court ruled that AIHA’s policy was lawful and found against the application for Judicial Review, concluding that AIHA served a specific need and tried to do so with access to only 1 percent of Hackney’s social housing stock

In what is potentially a landmark ruling, the court recognized that Orthodox Jewish community members’ way of life requires them to live close by each other as a community – to the extent that many prefer to live in unsuitable properties rather than to move away from their community.

It also sadly acknowledged widespread and increasing overt anti-Semitism in society and prejudice, including in the private rental sector, specifically against Orthodox Jews, due to their higher visibility as Jewish.

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Romania: Firm discriminated against Jewish employee, court rules

Via Jerusalem Post:

A judge in Romania awarded $5,700 in damages to a Jewish man who sued his employer for not giving the claimant time off on Passover and humiliating him because of his ethnicity.

Bernard Ciurariu won his workplace discrimination against NTT Data Romania last week in the city of Iasi, the news site Info Crestin reported.

The claimant was “punished because he did not go to work during the Jewish Passover, although the law affords him days off on that holiday,” the judge said, according to the report.

This and other forms of discrimination began against Ciurariu after the death of his father last year. His employers learned that he is Jewish because his father received a Jewish funeral. From then on, he was excluded from projects relevant to his work and sidelined at the workplace, he complained.

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Italy: 25% of Italians do not want Jews as family members

Via The Times of Israel:

Nearly a quarter of British respondents to a poll on attitudes to minorities in Western Europe said they would be unwilling to accept Jews as family members.

The Pew Research Center’s report titled “Being Christian in Western Europe” was published Wednesday and contains results from interviews with more than 24,000 randomly selected adults in 15 countries. In the United Kingdom, 23 percent of 1,841 respondents interviewed said “no” when asked “Would you be willing to accept Jews as members of your family?” It was the second-highest highest proportion of naysayers, directly after Italy’s 25 percent. The poll has a margin of error of up to 3 percent. (…)

The statement that “Jews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in” received the highest levels of agreement in Portugal and Spain, with 36 and 31 percent of 1,501 and 1,499 respondents in those two countries, respectively. Next were Italy, Belgium and Norway, with 31, 28 and 25 percent, respectively.

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Germany: Jewish family refused service at Berlin restaurant

Via Tagesspiegel:

Last Friday a Jewish couple and their handicapped son came to a restaurant in Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt square.  The family wore a kippah, and the son wore a button saying "I love Israel".

Despite being the only guests, the waiters ignored them.  After ten minutes, when more guests came and were served, the family asked and were told they were at the 'wrong table'.  They weren't directed to a 'right' table, but rather told to leave.

When the father responded by saying that the restaurant doesn't cater to Jews, the waiter simply smiled.

German state exhorts gov't to ban Kuwait Airlines over Israel discrimination

Via i24NEWS:

The parliament of the central German state Hesse unanimously passed a resolution on Friday calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel and the federal government to stop Kuwait Airways from operating in Germany due to the airline's ban on Israeli passengers. 

As Kuwait does not recognize Israel, its law prohibits companies from doing business with Israelis. 

“Such legislation is contrary to the principles of an open society and is not only an ‘anti-Israeli’ policy, but also a clearly anti-Semitic one,” the resolution read. 

The issue has come to light as a German court recently upheld Kuwait Airways' right to refuse to carry Israelis aboard its flights. The case involved an Israeli student living in Frankfurt who sued the airline for canceling his ticket due to his nationality. 

Christian Democratic Union parliamentary leader Michael Boddenberg called the resolution “a clear signal against anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli policy,” according to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

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German court: Kuwait Airways can refuse Israeli passengers

Commenting the ruling on Twitter are:

Clemens Wergin : A German court just decided it is ok for Kuwait Airways to discriminate against Israelis, even when offering flights from Germany.

Adam Milstein : In controversial ruling & dangerous president German court approved discrimination based on nationality by allowing Kuwait Airways to refuse flying Israelis, because the company risked repercussions in Kuwait, ignoring that it operates internationally.

Benjamin Weinthal : Germany's judicial system in 2017: 1) German courts justify argument of Palestinians for torching a synagogue in Germany.  2) Today, a German court said Kuwait Airways can discriminate against Israelis.

Via Ynet News:

A German court ruled Thursday that Kuwait's national airline didn't have to transport an Israeli citizen because the carrier would face legal repercussions at home if it did.

The Frankfurt state court noted in its decision that Kuwait Airways is not allowed to have contracts with Israelis under Kuwaiti law because of the Middle Eastern country's boycott of Israel.

The court said it didn't evaluate whether "this law make sense," but that the airline risked repercussions that were "not reasonable" for violating it, such as fines or prison time for employees.

An Israeli citizen, identified in court papers as Adar M., a student living in Germany, sued Kuwait Airways after it canceled his booking for a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok that included a stop-over in Kuwait City. 

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European study shows 10 per cent of people don’t want Jews in their countries

Via Jewish Chronicle:

More than 10 per cent of central and eastern Europeans do not want Jews as citizens of their countries, according to a new report.

The study, carried out by the Pew Research Centre, found that while 80 per cent of people surveyed would accept Jews as fellow citizens, the rest were not sure or declined to answer.

Less than half from the 18 countries surveyed would accept Jews as family and fewer than three quarters said they were happy to have them as neighbours.

The study, entitled Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe, found that Jews were a lot less popular in some countries than others.

In Armenia a third of respondents said Jews should not be citizens.

Countries which had large Jewish populations before the Holocaust were more likely not to want Jews as citizens.

Lithuanians surveyed were against the idea at 23 per cent, while in Romania 22 per cent said they did not want Jews as citizens.

In the Czech Republic the figure was 19 per cent, and in Poland, 18 per cent.

Respondents from more educated backgrounds were more likely to accept Jews as family, neighbours and citizens, researchers found.

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Europe: US lawmakers pass bill requiring greater oversight on European antisemitism

Via Algemeiner:

The US House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation requiring greater State Department reporting on European antisemitism. 

The bill, known as the Combating European Anti-Semitism Act of 2017, requires enhanced annual reporting to Congress on antisemitic incidents in Europe, the safety and security of European Jews, and efforts by the US to partner with European entities to combat antisemitism. 

“This bill would require the US government — and encourage our global partners — to continue to take a hard look at anti-Semitism in Europe, provide a thorough assessment of trends, and outline what the United States and our partners are doing to meet this challenge,” said a statement by the Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Anti-Semitism, chaired by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). 

The bill will now head to the Senate and eventually President Donald Trump for approval.

Belgium: Is Jewish life still possible in Belgium?

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):

The vote by the Parliament of Wallonia in Namur to ban religious slaughter of animals, thus shechitah, is a clear direct attack against the Jewish community, its way of life and above all against religious freedom which is enshrined in the EU fundamental rights. 

Of course, some will argue that the measure only affects the Orthodox Jewish community.... This is totally untrue. It affects all Jews, orthodox and secular together. It is a political attack against  all the 40,000 Jews living in Belgium. 

By voting such a legislation, Walloon legislators have shown a total insensivity towards the Jewish community which is very sensitive because of the past. Yes remember the Nazis also acted to ban the Jewish way of life… (...) 

Several months ago, Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel declared that "Belgium without Jews is not Belgium." What does he do to protect the rights of this part oft he population  and make that Jews really feel at home in a political environment that is not hostile? A member of his own party co-initiated the hostile legislation... 

"It is truly sad that the Belgian Jewish community, which already lives in a constant state of emergency--with military personnel guarding its schools and synagogues following the rise of anti-Semitic attacks and the terror attack against the Brussels Jewish Museum--is now also facing unjust laws from the legislature," righty notes  Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute. 

So now the real question is: "Are Jews still welcome in Belgium?" Or, "Should Jews still stay in Belgium or leave ?" 

Some have already decided and left the country. Others are thinking to do the same.  But the remaining Belgian Jews should stand up against this attack against our values and ask to be respected as Jews.

 Connected:

Jew asks Jeffrey Goldberg whether he should leave Belgium

600,000 Jews have left Europe in last 25 years

Europe: "Jews are outsiders, not equals", says rabbi David Meyer

Via Haaretz (by rabbi David Meyer - this article was published on March 4, 2013):

Testifying at the U.S. House subcommittee hearing I described how, even after 2000 years, Europe has never really accepted the place either of individual Jews or of Judaism as a religion in its midst, leading to a deeply rooted tolerance for acts of violence against the Jewish community.

Last week I testified at the House Foreign Affairs and Human Rights subcommittee, which was holding a hearing on European anti-Semitism. I arrived in Washington with mixed feelings. If I was certainly honoured to bring my contribution to a congressional hearing, I quickly felt the burden of responsibility on my shoulders. 

Anti-Semitism is certainly not a minor issue in Europe today. But I was also slightly worried, as I knew I did not want to be the voice that would simply run the various cliches about the unspeakable dangers of living as a Jew in Europe, or even about the uncompromising hate of Jews of some of Europe's Muslims citizens. As a rabbi based in Brussels, at the heart of Europe, having served Jewish communities in both the United Kingdom and Belgium, and currently a professor of Rabbinic Literature in Rome as well as in Belgium, I felt I had the necessary background and experience to bring a more nuanced view on this issue. But would my subtle remarks be heard? 

Over the years, my encounters with anti-Semitism have been many and varied. From witnessing first hand, at the age of thirteen, a deadly terrorist attack against my synagogue in Paris, in which four people perished, to subtler and more recent forms of Jewish hatred, often dressed in a cloak of respectability. My dual citizenship and my patriotism for both France and Israel has been questioned and denounced. I have been told to “return to my country” during one particularly heated lecture during a military session in the French Senate. In a similar vein, a high official in England also kindly reminded me several years ago during, ironically, a meeting on interfaith dialogue, that I should not forget that my place was as a “tolerated minority.” In both of these instances, I was clearly the outsider and not an equal. 

Yet, my experiences of anti-Semitism pale in comparison to the renewed forms of violence against the Jewish community in Europe. How not to think of the sheer horror and panic that was inflicted on a small Jewish school in Toulouse in March 2012? There, a radical young French Muslim killed, in cold blood, three children aged 3, 6 and 8 as well as a rabbi, who was both a father and teacher at the school. As a father, how can I not look at my two daughters without a mix of fear and apprehension about what Jewish life in Europe will be for them? 

I am of course well aware that many leaders in Europe are committed to fighting this renewal of anti-Semitic violence. Their words, in this respect, have been right; their speeches moving. But anti-Semitism remains on the rise. So why are the political words and the policies put in place not enough? The uncomfortable answer is that there is a level of tolerance to acts of violence against the Jewish community that is deeply rooted in the European mentality and which is, in my view, more worrisome in the long run than even the radical Islamist brand of “Jew-hatred.” Europe has never really accepted the place of not only Jews as individuals, but also of Judaism as a religion in its midst.

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Slovakia: Lawmaker probed for opposing national honors for Jews

Via JTA:

The speaker of Slovakia’s parliament initiated a criminal probe for alleged hate speech against a lawmaker who criticized the conferring of a national honor on Jewish laureates due to their ethnicity.

Andrej Danko, the speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, on Thursday said he would subject the far-right lawmaker Stanislav Mizik to disciplinary action in addition to the probe over his posting on Jan. 10 on Facebook of a text slamming the initiation into the Ľudovit Stur Order of three Jewish recipients out of 20 this year, the news website Dennik N reported.

The honor bestowed on Jewish recipients by Slovak President Andrej Kiska “turns logic on its head,” Mizik, a member of Slovakia’s Kotleba – People’s Party Our Slovakia, wrote on Facebook, because the founders of the Slovak nation “had a negative relationship to the Jews due to their selling out of the Slovak nation, usury and also because of religious issues,” Mizík wrote.

The honoring of Ivan Kamenec, a respected scholar on the Holocaust in Slovakia, Mizik wrote, was inappropriate because Kamenec is “a Communist Party candidate who has often worked as an undercover agent” for the communist-era secret police and a “Marxist, who himself admitted in an interview that he is a Jew.”

Juraj Herz, a Jewish film director, was also ineligible for the award due to his origins as was Eva Mosnakova, a Holocaust survivor who lectures at schools about her survival, Mizik wrote.

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France: Mugger asks young woman if she is Jewish and then knocks her

Le Parisien reports that a group of eight muggers assaulted passers-by at Créteil (Paris) last Thursday.

The victims were ordered to hand over phones and personal belongings.

Several people reported that one of the thieves asked a young woman if she was Jewish.  She did not reply and he pushed her.  The young woman and another victim were slightly injured.

Norway: "Jew-Free" Kristallnacht ceremony in Bergen

The Kristallnacht memorial ceremony in Bergen once again boycotted Jews.

The organizers, staunch anti-Zionists who support boycotting Israel, did not invite any Jews to the official municipal ceremony.  Dozens of organizations were invited to join in planning the event, representing all the different communities in Bergen - except the Jewish community.

A few days prior to the event, the organizers tried to dismiss criticism by inviting a couple of Jews.  The Jews refused to play along and cover up for the organizers' antisemitism.

Jewish activist On Elpeleg says he came to the memorial ceremony in order to give out leaflets on behalf of the Jewish community asking to include all minorities in the future, but was roughly pushed away.

In 2014, Anti-racism group "Nye SOS Rasisme" demanded a "memorial Without Zionists" and boycotted the event when Jews were invited.

UK: Far-left and far-right much more likely to say no Jews should be allowed to live in Britain

Via Michael Colborne:

The vast majority (94%) of respondents said that either many, some or a few Jews should be allowed to come live in Britain, with only 6% saying no Jews should be allowed at all.

But…regardless of how you slice up the left/right scale, British people who identify as furthest to the left or right seem a lot less keen on Jews than those in the relative middle on the spectrum.

Keep in mind that only 5.2% of respondents in total placed themselves on the far left of the scale – 12.6% of 5.6% of people isn’t exactly a ton of people. Still, after double-checking, there’s definitely a statistically significant difference between those on the far left versus left, middle left/right and right (not the far right, obviously).

Germany: Restaurant employee says he doesn't serve Jews

Via Berliner Morgenpost:

Two antisemitic incidents against Israeli tourists in Berlin.

1. Two security guards for the S-Bahn were checking an Israeli tourist on Tuesday morning. When they saw his ID, they made antisemitic comments to him.  The security guards were described as 'Mediterranean'.

2. An Israeli tourist ordered coffee at a fast-food restaurant in the Mitte borough.  A restaurant employee refused to take his order saying "I don't serve Jews" (In English).  The employee finished his shift before police arrived.

EU court asked to drop Hamas from terror list

From the American Thinker:

Young enrollee at Hamas
summer camp

An adviser to the European Union's top court says Hamas and the Tamil Tigers should be dropped from the EU's list of terrorist organizations.

The reason?  It's not because the adviser thinks Hamas is no longer conducting terror attacks against Israel.  It's because the adviser says the procedure for placing the terror groups on the list in the first place wasn't followed.  

Wall Street Journal: 

 [...]  In 2014, the EU’s second-highest court ordered both Hamas and the Tamil Tigers to be struck off the bloc’s terror list in two separate decisions.

It said at the time that Hamas’s listing wasn’t based on evidence that had been properly examined and confirmed by national authorities, but on “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet.”

The European Council, which represents EU governments in the bloc’s lawmaking process, had appealed that judgment, arguing that it was relying on a 2001 decision by the U.K. that designated both Hamas and the Tamil Tigers as terrorist groups, as well as the terror listing for both groups in the U.S.

Thursday’s opinion rejects that argument, following similar reasoning as the 2014 decision. “The council cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet,” Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston said. [...]

Did the court think to ask EU member intelligence agencies for their opinion?  It wouldn't be evidence from "newspapers" or "the internet."  The evidence would be based on cold, hard facts.
But even that isn't necessary.  It may be a novel approach, but maybe they should ask Hamas about annihilating the Jews.  Or perhaps ask Hamas why they celebrate the spate of knife attacks on Israeli citizens – attacks they encourage.

But to the bureaucrats in Brussels, all the paperwork has to be in order, all the is dotted and ts crossed while the truth be damned.

The danger is, if Hamas is taken off the terror list, a flood of money will flow into its coffers.  It will be earmarked for "economic development" but will somehow – magically – end up funding terrorist attacks.  A child is aware of this probability, but that doesn't appear to matter to the fools who are playing with fire by legitimizing Hamas.

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Italy: Israeli fans blocked from stadium by Palestinian protesters

Via Jerusalem Post:

Israeli fans who traveled to Italy to watch soccer team Hapoel Beersheba play in the UEFA cup against Italian powerhouse Inter Milan were blocked from entering the stadium by a pro-Palestinian protest on Thursday.

One of the Israeli fans, Tal Lavi, a media manager for The Jerusalem Post, said that local police and stadium security for San Siro Stadium told Israeli soccer fans that they would not be allowed to enter the premises due to security concerns.

Video taken by Lavi shows protestors near the stadium waving Palestinian flags and shouting chants in opposition to the soccer match.

Lavi said that an estimated 1,200 fans of Hapoel Beersheba were restricted to an enclosure far from the stadium by stadium security and local authorities.

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Germany: "Jews and Negroes come last in Germany"

Via CFCA, JFDA:

An antisemitic incident at the Fresburg market. 

A woman was wearing a sweater with "Am Israel Chai" in Hebrew lettering and a Magen David.  When the stall operator asked who's turn it is next, an elderly lady spoke up and said "No, no, Jews and Negroes come last in Germany". 

The victim tried to talk to her, but received no response.  She left the market, shocked, without buying anything.

UK: Jewish NUS official says union’s executive is 'not a safe space' for Jews

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

A senior Jewish member of the National Union of Students has said that its National Executive Council “isn't a safe space” for Jews.

Izzy Lenga [pictured], who was attending today’s NEC meeting, repeatedly wrote of her discomfort, tweeting: “I've had to excuse myself out of this room twice. Twice... I genuinely hate this space”.

She also criticised NUS president Malia Bouattia for approving an amendment which gave the Union of Jewish Students no say over who represented Jewish students on the NUS’s Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism (ARAF) committee.

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UK: Nine-year-old tells classmate "My dad told me not to sit next to Jews"

Via Mirror:

A boy of three is among ­hundreds of children being ­investigated by ­police amid a surge in hate crimes .

Figures obtained by the Sunday People under Freedom of Information laws ­reveal 138 youngsters aged 10 or under were ­reported for racial or religious abuse last year.

This compared with 70 in 2011.

(...)

A nine-year-old boy allegedly told a ­classmate “My dad told me not to sit next to Jews” and the boy of three was quizzed by police in Manchester for causing ­harassment, alarm or distress to his victim.

The findings come after a week in which reports of hate crimes rose dramatically in the wake of the EU referendum .

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