The New Antisemite

Friday, January 8, 2016

France: French Jews drawn to security of London

When armed guards appeared in front of her children’s school in Paris, Sabine decided it was time to leave her native France.

A resident of Boulogne, a Jewish district in the French capital, she had become increasingly concerned about anti-semitism and was fearful of showing any sign in public that she was Jewish. The last straw came a year ago when a gunman killed four people at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket on the other side of the city.

“The Jews don’t have a future in France,” she said from her new home in London, where she moved in July with her husband and three children.

In London, she said, “there are a lot of people from a lot of countries. The English people have accepted [this]. London seems a lot safer than Paris. It is not the same in France.” [...]

Daniel Turner, chairman of Brondesbury Park synagogue in north-west London, said he had noticed that more French Jews were moving into the area. “Anti-semitism is only moving in one direction in France,” he said. “They’re all very happy to not be there.”

London was an easy choice because it was accessible from France, had an established Jewish community and a booming economy, he said. Of the Jews in his community, “when you get on to security matters, the ones most vocal about security measures we should put in place are the French”.

One member of Mr Turner’s synagogue said he had noticed a big rise in the number of French-speaking pupils at the large Jewish primary school his children attended. “In year one, it is about 10 per cent of kids who speak French. In reception, it goes up to 30 per cent and in nursery I would say it’s about half.”

Sweden: H&M Selling Scarf Reminiscent of Jewish Prayer Shawl

Via Algemeiner:

Swedish international apparel chain H&M received mixed reviews on social media for offering a scarf for purchase that looks like a Jewish prayer shawl, also known as a tallit.

The scarf, which sells on H&M’s website for $17.99 and was first highlighted by fashion blog Racked.com, has the same color scheme and pattern as a tallit. It even has “fringe at the short ends,” as do the traditional prayer shawls.

"We don't dance with apartheid"

Via i24News (h/t Daphne Anson):

A few dozen pro-Palestinian activists tried to disrupt a performance by the Batsheva Israeli dance company in Paris on Tuesday night.

Several dozen protesters held a demonstration outside the Opéra de Paris, but a number of pro-Palestinian activists managed to get inside where they draped Palestinian flags and shouted anti-Israel slogans.

(...)

Despite security checks, several protesters wearing keffiyehs (an Arabic headdress) and waving Palestinian flags called for a boycott of Israel, shouting "a racist gang in the Opéra Garnier", "We do not dance with apartheid" and "murderer Israel, Palestine will conquer."

The demonstrators also accused the Paris Opera of "complicity with the Zionist colonizers."

UK: Britain needs watch-list of Israeli 'war criminals', says Labour MP

Obviously executions by the Saudis and the Iranians of minors doesn't elicit such a condemnation from Ms. Champion. The fact is that a sizable number of Europeans are frantically passionate about the Palestinians, both from the left and from the right.

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

The government must set up a “watchlist” of Israelis who have committed war crimes by detaining and interrogating Palestinian children, a Labour MP has claimed. Sarah Champion said the Israeli Defence Forces were guilty of "mass intimidation and collective punishment" of Palestinians in order to protect Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Leading a debate on the issue in Westminster Hall on Wednesday, the Rotherham MP called for a list of “all known war crime suspects” who attempt to enter Britain.

Ms Champion said: "The issue of transferring detainees en masse from occupied territory is a standalone issue because it is a war crime. It requires decisive action in accordance with our international legal obligations.”

She described instances of Palestinian minors being detained with plastic hand ties, blindfolds, and hoods while being arrested at night and forced to sign documents in Hebrew. Ms Champion said there had been “atrocities on both sides” and called for the investigation of what she said were war crimes that could destabilise the international order.

Conservative MPs Andrew Percy and John Howell led the response to Ms Champion’s claims. Mr Howell said investigations by Israeli officers were often conducted in Arabic, with an appeals process, and that minors brought before courts were represented by lawyers of their choosing.

The allegations against Israel were “an unfair selection”, Mr Howell said. “We should be drawing our attention to the Saudi execution of minors.”

UK: Gratuitous antisemitism in BBC dramas

Via Campaign Against Antisemitism:

The BBC is caught including gratuitous antisemitism in two of its latest broadcasts. We have no objection to the use of “artistic licence” to portray a character as evil or racist by giving them an antisemitic line. That is not what the BBC is doing however. They are using “antisemitic licence” that has no bearing on the storyline and is not justified in any way. What possible justification can there be for this?

Thursday, January 7, 2016

France: "We want to live in a Jewish country of our own, where we are not outsiders who need to be tolerated"

This article claims that antisemitism is not the reason French Jews are fleeing France. After all, most Jews who leave France come from areas with little antisemitism.

But Jews don't need to be attacked every day in order to realize they're not wanted. The Jew interviewed in the article, Rudy Abecassis, decided to leave France because Jews were being killed. It did not matter that he personally was not attacked.

Via JTA:

Last year may have been traumatic for France and its Jews, but it was a pretty good one for Rudy Abecassis.

(...)

Yet on Dec. 27, Abecassis and his family left behind their comfortable lives and moved to Israel, joining nearly 8,000 French Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2015.

“We’re not fleeing,” Abecassis said last month, as he and his family prepared to spend their last night as Parisians on an inflatable mattress in an otherwise empty home. “Our lives here have been good and we love France for it. We’re leaving with sorrow, but we want to live in a Jewish country of our own, where we are not outsiders who need to be tolerated.”

(...)

Benhaim cites as evidence the fact that a majority of French Jewish emigres come from middle- and upper-class areas with little anti-Semitism. Only 15 percent are from poor areas with large Muslim populations and a high incidence of anti-Jewish attacks – a result, Benhaim said, of a reluctance to forego France’s generous social welfare benefits.

“Those who leave can afford to let go of the French welfare system,” Benhaim said. “Mostly they live where anti-Semitic attacks are relatively rare, and in many cases, anti-Semitism is not a primary catalyst for moving but a sort of a background presence.”

(...)

Abecassis says he and his wife never even contemplated leaving before 2012, the year their eldest son, Noah, was born. It was also the year an Islamist killed four Jews at a Jewish school in Toulouse, prompting the government to post armed guards at Jewish schools.

Abecassis realized he had to choose between sending his son to a Jewish school guarded by a soldier with a machine gun or a secular public school.

“We’re not really afraid he’ll be shot,” Abecassis said. “Statistically, Israel is more dangerous. We just wanted him to grow up like a normal Jewish French kid, as we had.”

Sweden: Labour movement awards anti-Israeli journalist

I'm hesitant to call Gideon Levi an anti-Zionist, but he supports boycotting Israel and constantly justifies terrorism against Jews.

Not surprisingly, this is the type of person that the Swedish labour movement supports.

Via The Local:

Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran pastor, and controversial Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who campaigns for his country's withdrawal from Palestinian territories, have been awarded the Olof Palme Prize of 2015.

They both receive the award for offering “a glimmer of hope to a conflict that too long has plagued and continues to plague millions of people and affects world peace”, read organizers' statement.

(...)

The Olof Palme Prize is an annual award worth $75,000 granted by the Swedish labour movement. It commemorates the memory of the Social Democratic prime minister, an outspoken international human rights advocate, who was assassinated in the Swedish capital in 1986

UK: Nazis pelt Jews with gas canisters

Via Everyday Antisemitism:

The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating an incident that took place this evening at around 19:45 in which three separate Jewish shoppers were subjected to antisemitic abuse in Tottenham Hale by three white men in a white pickup truck.

The three men shouted “Hitler is on the way to you, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler” and threw small gas refill canisters towards the victims, two men and a woman

Germany: Renowned German-Jewish filmmaker says media deserves ‘serious criticism’ for Israel coverage

The Algemeiner reports:

The German press should be called to task for its bad coverage of Israel, prolific Jewish film producer Artur Brauner [portrayed] said on Sunday in an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

“German media reporting on Israel must be criticized, sometimes seriously criticized — with the exception of some reputable, pro-Israel newspapers,” the Germany-based movie-maker and entrepreneur explained. “Negative reports contain some discontent that has built up with regard to the success of the Israeli state.”

Brauner, 97, was born in Lodz, Poland. He said the defining moment of what would become his career in the film industry occurred during World War II, when he saw a Jewish boy killed by SS officers.

“At that time, I decided to make my childhood dreams come true,” he told Deutsche Welle. “My intention was to produce a film about the innocent victims, about the extermination of an entire people.”

France: Israeli mobile carrier Partner severs Orange ties re damaging comments by Orange CEO Stephane Richard

Globes reports:

Partner is receiving €90 million compensation for the damaging comments by Orange CEO Stephane Richard.

Israeli mobile carrier Partner Communications Ltd. officially announced today that it is severing ties with France's Orange and ending their brand licensing agreement. The end of the relationship comes after 17 years of cooperation and a crisis last year when Orange International CEO Stephane Richard distanced himself from Israel when speaking in Egypt. He said that he would end Orange's cooperation with Israel and leave the country immediately for political reasons, if he could. Richard subsequently apologized.

In its announcement today Partner said it had, "Notified Orange of its decision to terminate the Orange brand license agreement according to the framework agreement between the parties. Partner will continue providing goods and services under the Orange brand name until further announcement." However, it is safe to assume that Partner will soon be launching its own brand.

Orange is paying Partner €40 million compensation in several quarterly payments as damages for its CEO's statement and a further €50 million will be paid in another year after cooperation between the two companies is ended.

Spain: Government paid Ariel University $100,000 in compensation for having discriminated against its students

From Honest Reporting:

Here’s a fascinating BDS fail: The Spanish government paid Ariel University $100,000 in compensation for refusing to allow Ariel’s students to participate in an international competition six years ago and released a statement admitting it had discriminated against the students. YNet reports:

In March 2014, it said in an official statement that “Ariel University was treated unequally in comparison with other contest participants, allegedly because of the European Union’s position regarding the ‘occupied territories’ and without clarifying how the ‘occupied territories’ might affect the competition. Therefore, the decision to disqualify Ariel University has no legal basis and is unjustified. It is a violation of the fundamental right to equality included in Article 14 of the constitution, as the decision to disqualify the university contradicts Ariel University’s right to equality in the competition. The faulty decision-making regarding disqualifying Ariel University from the competition makes the decision null and void.”

Ariel University decided to accept the Spanish Housing Ministry’s proposal for compensation, bringing an end to the affair. University Chancellor Yigal Cohen-Orgad said resolution of the case proved that efforts by BDS can be overcome.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Belgium: FM Didier Reynders is driving force behind letter asking for labelling of "illegal" Israel products

Politico reports:

In April this year, 16 foreign ministers wrote to Mogherini, urging her to publish the guidelines because “continued expansion of Israeli illegal settlements … threatens the prospect of a just and final peace agreement,” and because “European consumers must indeed have confidence in knowing the origin of goods they are purchasing.”

The driving force behind the letter was Didier Reynders, the foreign minister of Belgium. Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania — who diplomats say are often reluctant to criticize Israel — did not sign the letter.

Finally, in September the European Parliament voted on a resolution that took note of the ministers’ letter “encouraging” Mogherini to publish the guidelines.

In all fairness it has to be said that Belgian Jews (CCLJ) are strongly in favour of the labeling and never miss an opportunity to criticise Israel and its government ...

It is also worth pointing out that no such letters are sent to Morocco (W. Sahara) or to Turkey (Cyrprus) and that it was sent three months after the massacres perpetrated by Muslims in Paris (Hyper-Cacher and Charlie Hebdo) and seven months before the monstrous massacres in Paris which left 130 people dead and 368 wounded. In some way or another the perpetrators were linked to Belgium aid in particular to Brussels. No wonder that lack of trust in politicians and institutions is such a big issue in Europe.

Ambassador Ron Dermer railed against the double standards applied by the European establishment:

“The Jewish state is singled out and held to a different standard than other countries,” Dermer wrote. “Of the over 200 unresolved territorial disputes around the world, Europe decided that only these Jewish-made products deserved to be labeled.”

“In response to this effort to cast a beacon of freedom, tolerance and decency as a pariah state, I have decided this holiday season to send you products that were made in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights,” he added.

A Politico reader makes two valid points in the Comments box:

There are good arguments that can be made in favour of the labeling of goods from disputed areas, including the settlements. But it seems difficult to refute the Israelis’ arguments that the EU is singling them out. 200 disputed areas around the world, but the EU does not call for the labeling of goods from the vast majority of those areas. I have not seen any good argument why that might be the case.

I am also unsure as to how this will support the EU’s goal to become more relevant in the Middle East peace process. No player that is completely rejected by either the Palestinians or the Israelis will play much of a role. The labeling of the goods ensures that Israel will not accept a significant EU role. In practice, that may not be much of an issue as there is not much of a peace process at the moment. But the EU itself has made clear that it wants to become more relevant in the process, and this is surely not how to go about it.

Others are not fooled either:

The EU is hypocritical because it actually cooperates with the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus and collaborates with the Moroccan occupation of western Sahara.

Europe: Anti-Semitism likely to grow in 2016 (analysis)

Analysis by Sam Sokol @ The Jerusalem Post:

There are very few sure bets in life and even fewer guarantees. But we can always count on the ever reliable triumvirate of death, taxes and anti-Semitism. While the hatred of Jews has taken many forms (religious, racial, ideological) and been espoused by a great many disparate groups (the Church, Islamic fundamentalists, Nazis and communists), this age-old prejudice has proven itself to be remarkably resilient.

And while it is generally ill advised to engage in prognostication, it is a safe bet to predict a further increase in anti-Semitic violence in Europe over the year ahead.

“People understand there is no future for Jews in Europe,” Belgian Chief Rabbi Avraham Gigi recently stated, citing a growing sense of fear among his coreligionists. [Note: The comment by Rabbi Guigui went largely unreported, notably among the Jewish leaders and organisations in Belgium such as the CCOJB and the CCLJ, whereas the French CRIF reported the comment...]

This is a continuation of a trend that has been intensifying for several years, with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) already reporting in 2013 that a third of Jews polled had said that they refrained from wearing religious garb or Jewish symbols out of fear and 23 percent avoided attending Jewish events or going to Jewish venues.

Anti-Semitic violence tracks events in the Middle East rather closely. It spiked in 2014 during Israel’s conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Synagogues were attacked by mobs, protesters called for Jews to be sent “to the gas” and in Brussels, a gunman opened fire at a Jewish museum, killing four. [...]

After lobbying by Jewish groups, the European Commission recently appointed Katharina von Schnurbein as the continent’s first coordinator on combating anti-Semitism. However, doubts remain about the efficacy of European efforts to combat anti-Semitic violence, which is largely associated with immigrant Muslim populations. While the far right has definitely made gains in several European nations, the largest threat, Jewish leaders have said, is not from neo-Nazis or fascists.

Commenting on Paris’ announcement of a €100 million plan to combat rising levels of anti-Semitism, critics, such as Prof. Robert Wistrich, the late head of Hebrew University’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, have said that while they believe that the country has made good-faith efforts in the past, unless Europeans face up to the treatment of Israel in the media and the link between Muslim immigrant populations and anti-Semitism, all the efforts being made are “no more than tinkering with the surface of things.”

Read more.

Spain/France: Doctors Without Borders’ anti-Israel crusade

Analysis by Yona Schiffmiller @ The Tower:

The organization’s flirtation with Palestinian violence was also on display in September 2015, when MSF-Spain published a short video glorifying 14-year old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi. The video claims disingenuously that “every Friday the village [of Nabi Saleh] demonstrates peacefully” against Israeli policy. This represents a blatant omission of the numerous planned, directed and premeditated violent incidents instigated by the villagers, which include the use of slings and the throwing of rocks at Israeli security forces. Tamimi herself has posted pictures on Facebook of her stone throwing, and she was repeatedly documented while provoking IDF soldiers.

During the video interview, Tamimi is pictured under posters of family members whom she refers to as “martyrs.” One of them, Muataz Washaha, was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and was wanted for planning and carrying out terror attacks across the West Bank. The PFLP is recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union, and its logo is clearly identifiable in the poster that appears in the video.

These examples highlight MSF’s complete political bias regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a willingness to excuse Palestinian violence against Israeli Jews. More outrageous, however, is the complete inappropriateness not just of the views themselves, but the fact that they are being espoused by a medical group. These statements are indicative of a worrying trend whereby NGOs use their humanitarian status as a bully pulpit to push a completely political agenda.

Is wasting money on such propaganda the proper use of funds for a humanitarian organization?

Questions of relevance should be directed not only at MSF, but at its funders as well. In 2014, the organization took in €115 million from institutional donors, mostly European governments, EU bodies, and UN institutions. This includes €40 million from European governments like the UK, France, Germany and others. It is doubtful that these governments sought to create a platform for pro-Palestinian incitement when they donated funds to a medical NGO. What do donors think when they see their money—given for vaccinations and hospital beds—used instead to excuse violence and demonize Israel?

This bastardization of humanitarian aid to spew hate is detrimental to all involved. The demonization of Israel exacerbates tensions and deepens mistrust between Israelis and foreign NGOs, as well as between them and their Palestinians neighbors. As such, these actions do not contribute to the advancing of a peaceful solution to the conflict.

By politicizing medical relief, MSF endangers the life-saving mission it was created to carry out. Universal treatment of patients and helping affected populations are MSF’s raison d’être, and there is much to be done in this field of work. This is also the reason it is generously funded by various countries and institutions. For the good of the organization, the people that it serves and the cause of peace, it should stick to medicine and leave the politics to others.

Charlie Hebdo editor: No one questions when Jews are killed

Via Times of Israel:

The editor of Charlie Hebdo said in an article set to come out Wednesday on the anniversary of the deadly terror attack on the French satirical magazine that while the killings launched a global debate on the role of religion and free speech, no one bothered to explain to the world why Islamist attackers also went after a kosher supermarket.

Jihadist gunmen murdered 17 people at Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015 and at a Paris kosher supermarket two days later. They were among the first victims of a string of attacks by Islamic fundamentalists in France last year that ultimately left at least 147 people dead and hundreds of others injured.

“We are so used to Jews being killed because they are Jewish,” Gėrard Biard wrote. “This is an error, and not just on a human level. Because it’s the executioner who decides who is Jewish. Nov. 13 was the proof of that. On that day, the executioner showed us that he had decided we were all Jewish.”

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