Germany: Nazis march in Duisburg

Via JFDA:

About 200 extreme right-wingers marched in Duisburg, shouting racist, antisemitic and anti-Zionist slogans.  Some carried signs "Stop Zionism: Israel is our misfortune"

France: Rise in antisemitic attacks, Yellow Vests leader voices support for anti-Zionism

Via Jerusalem Post:

Only a few days after the Macron said he would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, also stating that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism, the country saw a rise in antisemitic incidents lately.

It seems that Macron's words created the opposite effect in France, and the Bureau for the War on Antisemitism called the rise in incidents as "frightening." Among other incidents, graffiti were found condemning Jews in various parts of the country.

(...)

A 17-year-old riding a bicycle in a suburb north of Paris, was attacked by three unknown assailants who called him "dirty Jew", broke his wrist and robbed his cell phone, all for wearing a kippah.

A 51-year-old woman was attacked near her home in Garez-les-Gons by two men with knives. The two called out to her, "Jewish whore, we'll burn all of you."

In another incident, people inscribed "dirty Jew" on the nameplate of a Jewish doctor on the facade of a dental clinic in Paris whereas they did not touch the label of his colleague a non-Jewish doctor.

There were also reports of Jews in the country receiving death threats by phone and mail, sometimes accompanied by swastikas.

Jerome Rodriguez, one of the prominent leaders of the yellow vests movement in France, who lost his eye from a rubber bullet fired by the police, told Maariv that his movement was not antisemitic. (...)  According to Rodriguez, he did not take part in a demonstration against antisemitism because he was "busy visiting his movement's checkpoints in various parts of the country." However, he added that if he had time, he would prefer to participate in a demonstration organized by an anti-Zionist organization that supports boycotting Israel".

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Bulgaria: 2,000 torch-wielding nationalists march through Sofia to honor pro-Nazi general

Via Times of Israel:

Thousands of far-right activists held a torch-lit march through Bulgarian capital Sofia Saturday to honor a World War II general known for his anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi activities.

The annual Lukov March, staged by the far-right Bulgarian National Union, attracted some 2,000 dark-clad supporters who walked through downtown Sofia holding torches and Bulgarian flags and chanting nationalist slogans. A number of far-right activists from other countries also took part in the march.

It came despite strong condemnation by human rights groups, political parties and foreign embassies. The city mayor had banned the rally but organizers won a court order overturning the ban.

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France: Jewish Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut Attacked by Yellow Vest Protesters in Paris

Via Haaretz:

French Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was the target of an anti-Semitic attack Saturday night, French media outlets reported.

The philosopher, whose writing focuses on the ideas of tradition and identitary violence (including Jewish identity and anti-Semitism), was assaulted by Yellow Vest protesters who have taken to France's streets in recent months to demonstrate the country's rising fuel prices.

In videos that documented the incident, protesters can be heard yelling: "Dirty Jew" and "you're a hater, you're going to die, you're going to hell," while others called on the thinker to "go home" and "return to Tel Aviv."

In a different clip demonstrators can be heard screaming anti-Semitic profanities such as "dirty Zionist shit." 

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Other insults hurled at Finkielkraut:
"Palestine!"
"France is ours!"
"Dirty race!"
"The people will punish you!"

Poland: Far-right group leads anti-Semitic protest at Auschwitz during commemoration ceremony

Via Independent:

Far-right Polish nationalists organised an anti-Semitic protest during a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Auschwitz.

The small group of hardline activists held their demonstration inside the former concentration camp at the same time as the official Holocaust commemorations on Sunday.

The 50 protestors from the Polish Independence Movement were led by Piotr Rybak, who was once jailed for burning an effigy of a Jew.

Mr Rybak told reporters they were there to oppose the official – and historically accurate – narrative that millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis with the active collaboration of some Poles.

"It's time to fight against Jewry and free Poland from them,” Mr Rybak said, a Polish newspaper reported.

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Poland: Will they „hang a Jew” under the Israeli embasy? Police prepares for Saturday

Translated from Gazeta Wyborcza (many thanks!):

"You know me, it’s going down. I promise I’ll put up a scaffold under the Israeli embassy and I’ll hang a Jew from it” -- this is how Slawomir Dul announces his Saturday demonstration. Our reader calls for action to the ABW [Agency of Internal Security] and the police.

„I’ve been trying to get several forces to notice these men, but they don’t seem to be interested in any kind of intervention. It’s even more puzzling to me since what I have found out about the man who started in the past local election as a candidate for a member of the [city district] council is  shocking. He also invited a man who called for people to join him in „hanging an effigy of a Jew” under the embassy of Israel to appear on his Youtube channel - says Piotr [the name has been changed], our informer.

Candidate for [Warsaw] city district council: „Ukraine needs to be partitioned”

The man who has been accused by our reader is Damian Bieńko, ran in [the last month’s] election for the council of the Praga-Południe district of Warsaw as the No. 1 candidate on the ballot from the Wolność [Freedom] party of Janusz Korwin-Mikke [note: it is a far-right, eurosceptical party, openly anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, anti-women’s rights, racist and often also antisemitic party, the leader is currently an MEP]. He was the head of the Narodowa Wolna Polska organization [National/Nationalist Free Poland] - one of the smallest nationalist organisations, which is notable for its sympathy towards Russia and the Donbas separatists. „Ukraine needs to be partitioned. so that its territories will return to the rightful owners - Donbas to Russia, Lviv to Poland, Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary”, says Bieńko in his online recordings. Currently, he runs a Youtube channel called TWN Telewizja Wolności Narodu [Television of Freedom of the Nation].

On 22nd of November, his guest was Sławomir Dul, a member of Confederacy of Parents. The man has announced a demonstration under the embassy, which is to include a „hanging of an effigy of a Jew”.

Dul has been previously noted for a long court struggle during which he attempted to regain the custody of his children [he held a hunger strike in Piotrkow Trybunalski after having the visitation rights revoked], as well as burning an effigy of Jaroslaw Kaczynski [the leader of the ruling right-wing party] in 2016. It was a way of manifesting his support for Piotr Rybak, who has been sentenced to 10 months of inprisonment after burning an effigy of a Jew in Wroclaw. Dul has said of the judge who sentenced Rybak: „he should be put against a wall and executed by a firing squad.”

In the TWN show, Dul has announced his plans to organise a march from the Ukrainian embassy to the Israeli embassy on December 1st at 12 PM. He invites all the Polish people to join, „from the left and the right alike” - "You know me, it’s going down. I promise I’ll put up a scaffold under the Israeli embassy and I’ll hang a Jew from it,” he says.

Bieńko joins him - „I also invite you. Even if you don’t agree, come, watch the show, maybe you’ll join the troupe.”

KSP: We aren’t downplaying the issue

Our informer has contacted the KSP [Police Headquarter in Warsaw], including the protection of diplomatic posts division, the anti-terrorist division and the homicide division. „The video remains on YouTube though. They aren’t doing anything. I demand blocking it and looking into those people. I’m ashamed that this is going on in Poland,” Piotr says angrily.

Warrant officer Mariusz Mrozek from the Warsaw Police Headquarter assures that the case is known to the police, and that the emails have been noted. „Maybe your informer hasn’t received a response, but we are treating the matter seriously. We are in touch with the city hall. The Office of Security and Crisis Management has informed its Ochota district cell, as this is where the embassy of Israel is located.”

As officer Mrozek says, Dul has attempted to register his demonstration [at the city hall], but the city didn’t approve it, partly because of his YouTube annoucement. Dul has appealed.

„According to the informations I received, the city sent a set of documents to the Ochota district's court, as well as the prosecutor’s office. Still, no matter what the decision will be, we are aware of the fact that some people break the bans. Therefore we are preparing ourselves for everything that might happen on Saturday. We are not downplaying the issue,” adds officer Mrozek.

Germany: SPD expresses outrage over neo-Nazi marches in Dortmund

Via DW:

Opposition politicians heavily criticized the conditions in Dortmund that led to neo-Nazi groups spontaneously marching uninhibited through the streets of the city.

The Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday slammed both the Dortmund police and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, which is controlled by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

"What has the state government done to distance itself from the ugly scenes of that evening, to stop them, and to protect our constitution?" the SPD wrote in its letter to state Interior Minister Herbert Reul, according to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

The lawmakers were especially flabbergasted because the far-right scene in Dortmund is so well known to police and has been surveilled by authorities for years.

However, on Friday, two different neo-Nazi rallies took place. Footage showed about 100 extremists who paraded through the streets holding flags of the pre-World War I German empire. They used pyrotechnics and shouted slogans like "Whoever loves Germany is an anti-Semite," and "National Socialism now!"

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Latvia: Man holding poster of soldiers killing Jews arrested at Nazi SS march

Via Jerusalem Post:

Police arrested a man for displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews at the annual march by local veterans of two SS divisions that made up the Latvian Legion during World War II.

The man was arrested Friday morning on the margins of the annual march of the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires — soldiers from the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the 1st and 2nd Latvian, respectively). A handful of veterans, flanked by hundreds of supporters waving Latvian flags, gathered around Freedom Monument for the march under heavy police guard.

The march in Latvia, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union, is currently the only public event in Europe and beyond honoring those who fought under the banner of SS, Nazi Germany’s elite security force. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for those, including Holocaust perpetrators, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union.

Several protesters from the Latvia Without Fascism group demonstrated against the event by carrying signs reading “They fought for Hitler” and “If they looked like Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters was arrested.

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Poles who saved Jews in the Holocaust appeal to leaders for Polish-Israeli reconciliation

Please read the English version of the Appeal @ the Jan Karski Educational Foundation

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

Fifty surviving Poles who helped to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust have commissioned a full-page advert in a national newspaper calling for a thawing of relations with Israel. Poland came under international scrutiny last month when it approved a law that would see jail sentences for those found guilty of suggesting the “Polish nation” was complicit in the Holocaust.

The move attracted criticism, particularly from the Israeli government.

“One cannot change history and the Holocaust cannot be denied,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time. The advert, on page 27 of Thursday’s Guardian, called on Israeli and Polish leaders to “continue to build an alliance and a future in Poland, Israel, Europe, and America, based on friendship, solidarity and truth”.

It was taken out by the surviving Polish Righteous Among the Nations, a title given by Yad Vashem on those who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

More Poles – 6,850 in total, of whom 50 are living today – have been granted the honour, more than any other nationality. The letter read:

“We, the remaining living Righteous, representing the 6,850 Polish Righteous Among the Nations appeal to the governments and parliaments of Israel and Poland to return to the path of dialogue and reconciliation. “We ask you not to re-write history. The worst tragedy in the history of our nations was written once and for all during the darkest hour of the Nazi German occupation, of which we are all still victims to this day.

“We do not consent to the escalation of the conflict between Jews and Poles that we are witnessing today.  

“We, the Polish Righteous, who carry the burden of eye-witnessing the truth about the Holocaust along with the Jews, its victims, ask everybody for empathy, judiciousness, and thoughtfulness when creating laws; for responsible media coverage; and for honest and independent historical research.

“Only then can the issues that need to be explained, be explained. We ask for dialogue and kindness.”

It was addressed to Mr Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as the speakers of the Israeli Knesset and Polish parliament.

Austria: Vienna police charge 3 men for waving Israeli flag at rally

Via Jerusalem Post:

The Vienna police are pursuing criminal charges against three pro-Israel activists for waving an Israeli flag in protest of antisemitic slogans at a demonstration against Jerusalem having been recognized by the US as the capital of the Jewish state.

The police are seeking a €100 fine or two days in jail for the display of Israel-support at the December 8 anti-Israel rally near the US Embassy in Austria’s capital.

The criminal notice, dated January 3, states that the activists “showed an Israeli flag at a rally in an extremely provocative way and manner that was visible for participants at the rally and thereby produced considerable offense and provocation among the Palestinian protesters.”

The German-language edition of the news site Vice first reported on Tuesday on the penalties against the three men and conducted an interview with one of the pro-Israel protesters.

“My mother is Israeli, her family [members] are refugees from Iraq and Libya,” the pro-Israel protester said. “An Arab-speaking friend from Israel was able to translate some of the slogans yelled [at the rally], for example, the Arab battle cry to massacre Jews: ‘Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning,’ and... ‘Death to Israel.’”

The Arabic cry references an ancient Muslim attack on Jews in the town of Khaybar in what is now Saudi Arabia, killing many and looting their homes. The provocative chant is frequently used when attacking Jews and Israelis, and was chanted on the Mavi Marmara Gaza flotilla ship in May 2010.

The activist, who was given the name Matthias  F. by Vice to ostensibly protect his privacy, said he heard other chants of “Intifada” and “Child-murder Israel” at the rally that was attended by hundreds of anti-Israel protesters.

He added that, “We were shocked by these slogans and did not want to leave the slogans unchallenged. Antisemitism and hate of Israel should not be tolerated.”

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Poland: 60,000 participate in nationalist march amid shouts of ‘Jews out’

Via JTA:

Far-right marchers shouted “Jews out” and other racist slogans at Independence Day events in Poland, drawing condemnation from Jewish groups.

At the March of Independence in Warsaw on Saturday, participants held signs with racist slogans, including “White Europe, Europe must be white.” Some shouted “Sieg Heil” and “Remove Jewry from power.” Among the marchers were individuals who wore masks, waved red-and-white Polish flags and burned flares.

Police estimated that 60,000 people participated in the annual march, which is organized by nationalist groups and marked 99 years of Polish independence. A small minority of the marchers came from outside of Poland.

Poland’s interior minister expressed pride in the event.

“It was a beautiful sight,” Mariusz Błaszczak said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”

Culture Minister Piotr Gliński condemned the slogans and banners that mentioned race without referring to anti-Semitism.

“We do not support such slogans,” he said, referencing what he termed “use of ethnic and racist terminology to describe the concept of the Polish nation.”

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Sweden: Nazis to march outside Gothenburg synagogue on Yom Kippur, police fail to see the problem

The Nazis wanted to march through one of the city's main avenues, but did not receive a permit to do so.  Instead, they'll march through side streets, right by the city's main synagogue.

Via Ilya Meyer:

On Yom Kippur this year, NMR – a neo-Nazi party – will be holding a racist demonstration in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their route takes them close to the doors of Gothenburg’s main synagogue.

On Yom Kippur.

The Gothenburg Jewish Community has always enjoyed an excellent, warm and professional relationship with the police, both the uniform branch and the security police. We have never hesitated to turn to the police with our security-related concerns over the years, and the police have always responded with the utmost attentiveness, flexibility and consideration.

Not this year, however. When the Jewish Community leadership pointed out that the date of the march and its route posed a particular security concern owing to their overt anti-Semitic symbolism, the police responded that they had taken into consideration the “security aspects” of the Nazi march and demonstration, explaining they are not concerned with the religious niceties of the Jewish religion on this or any other particular day. From the point of view of a security operation, the police say, this route allows them to keep everything under control.

Despite our decades of close and smooth cooperation, this response seems to suggest that the Gothenburg police have learned little over the years. The Gothenburg Jewish Community is not asking the police to reroute the march because we are upset that Nazis are insulting our religion or upsetting our emotions.

We are requesting that the march be rerouted because Jews both young and elderly will be coming to and from the synagogue all day long. As such, having a Nazi demonstration route that takes a few hundred uniformed racists close to our main doors is very much a security issue. Not an emotive one. It is not our sensibilities that are under threat, but our physical well-being.

(...)

It is the route, the venue, that is a serious security risk. A security risk to Jewish worshippers who will be entering and leaving the synagogue all day long.

It is a risk that the Gothenburg police are refusing to acknowledge.

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Norway: Caricature equates circumcision with pedophilia

Via Ynet News:

Norway's fourth-largest newspaper has recently published a caricature depicting supporters of circumcision for Jews and Muslims as pedophiles. 

The offensive caricature appeared in The Dagbladet, the second largest tabloid in the country that has a circulation of approximately 75,000 copies a day.  The caricature depicts a man wearing a kippah (skullcap) and a bearded man standing next to him, both holding signs reading 'Yes to circumcision' and 'Religious freedom.' A third man, wearing a ratty coat, tells them: "I know what you mean. I, too, am told by an invisible man to fiddle with children's penises."

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It's not the first time.  In 2013, Dagbladet carried this caricature: 

Norway paper’s cartoon ‘so anti-Semitic it would have made Hitler weep with joy’

Sweden: Neo-Nazis disrupt lectures by Holocaust survivors

Via Ynet News (h/t Honestly Concerned):

A neo-Nazi organization active in Sweden has been disrupting lectures from Holocaust survivors throughout the country, but the police are refusing to provide security at the locations of such talks, according to Israel’s top envoy to the Nordic country.

Ambassador Isaac Bachman, who has 29 years’ experience with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote of this situation in a diplomatic cable to the MFA in Jerusalem.

It has a clearly racist and anti-Semitic ideology, and its members make sure to plan their activities to cause the most friction and receive the highest amount of media coverage.

As one would expect from such an organization, the Nordic Resistance Movement denies the Holocaust and deems the eyewitness accounts of its few remaining survivors to be preposterous.

As part of their campaign to interrupt lectures by survivors, they went to a talk given three weeks ago by a Holocaust survivor who has lived in Sweden for decades and who frequently shares his personal experiences with the public.

Members of the organization protested outside the hall where he was speaking and distributed flyers to attendees that spread their Holocaust-denying ideology. The “informational materials” claimed that lecture being given was entirely bogus. The ensuing verbal confrontations deteriorated into a physical brawl.

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Netherlands: Muslims shout anti-Semitic slogans at protest over Turkish minister

Via Times of Israel:

Dutch Muslims shouted anti-Semitic slogans amid violent clashes with police in Rotterdam over authorities’ refusal to allow a Turkish Cabinet minister to campaign in Holland for a Turkey referendum vote.

Dozens of protesters gathered Saturday night in front of the Turkish consulate in the Dutch city to listen to Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya. Upon receiving a false rumor that she had been arrested, the crowd began roaring “cancer Jews” and “cancer Wilders” shortly before the outbreak of violence that led to the injury of five people, including one policeman, the Algemeen Dagblan reported.

Geert Wilders is an anti-Islam politician who, according to polls, is in a tight race with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, ahead of Wednesday’s general elections in the country. Wilders has campaigned against allowing Turkish ministers to campaign in the Netherlands. Rutte instructed police to prevent the ministers from addressing crowds in the Netherlands, in a move that some criticized as illegal, but others praised as a justified bid to prevent external intervention by Turkey in Dutch affairs.

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Sweden: Neo-Nazi crowd chants they want to hang Jewish media moguls

Via The Local:

Sweden’s neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) mounted the biggest march in its history on Saturday, with its leadership saying the election of Donald Trump in the US marked the start of a world revolution.

Five people were arrested and two were injured in Stockholm on Saturday as an estimated 600 far-right demonstrators marched from the central Kungsträdgården park to Mynttorget, the square where Sweden’s parliament is based in historic Gamla Stan.

(...)

According to a reporter from the anti-Nazi Expo magazine, Per Öberg, the Nazi group’s press chief, told the gathered crowd that Donald Trump’s election was a sign that a world revolution was beginning.

Also speaking was Vera Oredsson, a lifelong Nazi who was a member of the Hitler youth as a child growing up in Nazi Germany, and Fredrik Vejdeland, the group’s head of strategy.

According to Expo, Vejdeland expressed his support for a proposal to break up Bonnier, the media empire which owns the Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Sydsvenskan and Dagens Industri newspapers, and the the TV4 television network.

Bonnier is controlled by the Bonniers, a family with Jewish origins and the occasional target of far-right conspiracy theorists.

According to Expo, when Vejdeland began talking the crowd began to chant “Hang them, hang them”.

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Greece: Nationalists specify that 'Zionist ideology' is opposed to 'Greek values'

Via CFCA:

Athens – Supporters of The Greek Popular Association led by Artemis Sorras (Αρτέμη Σώρρα) gathered at Syntagma Square on Sunday and urged people “to sign for freedom”

One of the signs had clear antisemitic content referring to “any Zionist ideology”, as opposed to “Greek values”.

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The Against Antisemitism blog posted translation of the signs.

UK: Pro-Palestinians protest existence of Israel outside of pro-Israel event

Protestor: "Israel, in general the people, everyone there, needs to get over themselves, and realize that we're in the 21st century, we do not need no Jewish majority state."

Those Jews and their insistence on self-determination.  Denying Israel's right to exist is not 'criticism of Israel'.  It's antisemitism.

Via Times of Israel:

Police officers were called on Thursday to an on-campus Israel event at University College London after pro-Palestinian demonstrators were seen trapping attendees in the room where the talk was being held and preventing others from going in.

Israel advocate Hen Mazzig was to speak at the event hosted by the Friends of Israel at UCL in London and CAMERA on Campus, but the protests led by the Friends of Palestine Society began just as he began talking.

In a series of videos from the event, the protesters can be seen banging on the windows and the door to the hall, shouting “Free, free Palestine,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

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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: Pro-Palestinians protest JNF conference

Via JNS:

At its annual “Natürlich for Israel” (Naturally for Israel) conference, the historic German branch of the Jewish National Fund, Keren Kayemet Le'Israel (JNF-KKL), hoped to showcase a side of Israel often overlooked by pundits as a changing Germany discusses coexistence.

The group hosted a panel discussion during the conference, which symbolically took place on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. The participants, numbering about 1,000, stood for a minute of silence to commemorate the victims. It also celebrated the 115th anniversary of the JNF-KKL, founded in 1901 to purchase land in what was then Palestine for Jewish settlement and development.

(...)

Outside of Cologne’s Flora event center where the conference took place, a few dozen protestors waved Palestinian flags and handed out flyers accusing JNF-KKL of Palestinian land theft. Singer declined to respond, but, in the spirit of the Congress, she struck a conciliatory tone.

“I don’t respond to them because this is the never-ending story,” she said. “I stay positive. If we have some positivity, we could work together.”

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