German State removes antisemitic school book in circulation since 2012

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

"BANK ROTHCHILD on three lines in yellow on the left of the image

The German state of Thuringia announced on Friday it will remove a school book with an antisemitic illustration depicting a video game character – alongside the words “Rothschild Bank” – consuming Europe. 

A Thuringian Education Ministry representative told the MDR Thüringen news outlet that “like in many other federal states,” Thuringia will remove the book, and called criticism of the book “justified.” 

The cartoon shows a video Pacman figure devouring Europe, with the Jewish banking family named next to the cartoon. 

Nazi-era propaganda promoted the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that the Rothschilds were attempting to conquer the world and destroy the German nation. The Nazis produced an antisemitic film The Rothschilds in 1940. 

In 2014, Sabine Wölfle, a Social Democratic politician from the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, was accused of endorsing an antisemitic video that she posted on her website titled: “The Power of the Rothschilds.”
The schoolbook has been in circulation since 2012. The Thuringian Education Ministry representative declined to comment on the number of books in use in Thuringia’s educational system published by Klett-Verlag. 

The Berlin-based publisher said it was halting all further deliveries of the book, calling the error “serious.” 

It told Vice online magazine blogger Philipp Frohn that the “regrettable mistake” would be corrected in a future edition, which will not come out for several years. 

“The message to pupils... is clear: The driving force behind the whole nasty affair is a bank. A Jewish bank,” he added 

The publishing house said no one noticed over the years “the antisemitic caricature and there was no feedback from teachers as well as students and parents.”

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Europe: lllinois Governor warns EU against applying settlements boycotts

Via JTA:

Gov. Bruce Rauner

In the wake of the U.N. anti-settlements resolution, the governor of Illinois warned the European Union that companies complying with boycotts of Israel or of its West Bank settlements face divestment by the governments of Illinois and other states. 

Gov. Bruce Rauner, in his Jan. 31 letter to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, outlines Illinois law banning state pension plans from investing in companies that boycott Israel. 

“Under our law, the term ‘boycott Israel’ means ‘engaging in actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or otherwise limit commercial relations with the state of Israel or companies based in Israel or in territories controlled by the State of Israel,’” Rauner wrote in the letter, which his office released to JTA on Feb. 3. 

“Therefore, any attempt by the European Union to direct or encourage companies (including financial institutions) within its jurisdiction, to participate in such activity, including the adoption of sanctions pursuant to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, may put EU firms at risk of violating Illinois law,” said the letter. (...) 

Rauner in the letter noted that Illinois had identified some companies that participate in Israel boycotts according to how it is defined in Illinois law. At least two of those companies appear to have been listed purely for boycotting settlement goods.He also notes that since Illinois was the first to pass a law banning its pensions systems from dealing with companies that boycott Israel, in July 2015, a number of other of states have done so as well. 

“I urge the council to think carefully before pursuing any further action regarding UNSC 2334 as such action may force states like Illinois to divest from EU-based firms,” Rauner said.

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Dutch station apologizes for accusing soccer fans of anti-Semitism

Via Times of Israel:

The Dutch main public broadcaster apologized to supporters of a local soccer team for omitting context from reports on the singing of anti-Semitic chants by some fans of the team.

The unusual apology earlier this month by NOS was over its coverage of the January 14 match game in Utrecht between the FC Utrecht team and the Ajax club from Amsterdam. The report highlighted chants by fans of “The Jews are going to the slaughter” and “whoever doesn’t jump is a Jew.”

In reporting about the chants by Utrecht fans, the broadcaster failed to mention that fans from other teams often chant similar phrases, and some claim the chants are not anti-Semitic, NOS spokeswoman Anja van Ginhoven told the Algemeen Dagblad daily following complaints.

“It was selective outrage on our part, a blunder,” she said.

Anti-Jewish chants are common in the Netherlands in matches involving Ajax, which is associated with Jews because of the Dutch capital’s rich Jewish heritage.

Some Ajax fans self-identify as Jews and wave Israeli flags, though the team’s bosses discourage such behavior. Fans of rival teams, in turn, adopt anti-Jewish slogans and chants – including about gas chambers and SS murdering Jews – to taunt them.

“We didn’t handle it well,” van Ginhoven said about the NOS coverage of the January 14 match. “We exaggerated and we failed to set it in context. We should not have cut that text and presented it verbatim. If you cover this topic, you have to say that Utrecht supporters used the same chants that Ajax fans proudly use.”

However, Ajax fans, including ones who self-identify as “Jews,” do not chant about killing Jews.

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UK: Man jailed for hurling anti-Semitic abuse, throwing things at Jews

Via ITV:

A 31-year-old Jewish man reported verbal abuse after a suspect in a van shouted anti-Semitic comments at him - including references to Adolf Hitler. A number of objects were also thrown at him. Three other people reported suffering similar abuse.

Patrick Joseph Delaney, from Braintree, Essex, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at Wood Green Crown Court after pleading guilty to a religiously aggravated public order offence.

The case against two co-defendants charged in relation to this incident was subsequently dismissed.

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Belarus: President says that "80% of people around Trump" are Jews

Via Sputnik, Rotter:

President Alexander Lukashenko spoke with Trump on Friday.  Afterwards he said: Donald Trump is not as stupid as some people think. Also, 80% of the people around him are Jews, and that nation is really not stupid.  When needed, they'll advise and help.

Poland: Public television official insinuates Jews rare behind demonstrations against proposed curbs on the media

Via JTA:

The Jewish Community of Warsaw sent matzah to a public television official accused of anti-Semitism after he mentioned the Jewish food on air while denouncing anti-government protesters.

Marcin Wolski, the director of the TVP2 state-funded channel, read a poem that he wrote saying protesters outside the Polish parliament were “handing out matzah” during anti-government protests, suggesting Jews were behind the demonstrations against proposed curbs on the media by Poland’s ruling right-wing Law and Justice party .

The Jewish Community of Warsaw also filed a complaint for racist rhetoric with the National Council on Radio and Television, which has guidelines against airing such content.

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Europe: 71 years after liberation from Hitler, Jews face a rising anti-Semitism across European societies

Via Deseret News (by Clifford D. May and Tenzin Dorjee, commissioners at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom):

As the world commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 71 years ago, European Jews no longer face a single, continent-wide regime seeking their destruction. Nonetheless, today, 71 years after liberation from Hitler, they face a rising anti-Semitism across European societies. From denying the Holocaust to threatening another Shoah, from painting Nazi swastikas and scrawling death threats on synagogues and graves, to taunting, accosting and assaulting Jews in religious garb, Jew haters are revealing themselves through word and deed. (...)  

(...) when haters attack Jews, criminal justice systems in Europe often fail to deem the perpetrators anti-Semitic.  

Earlier this month, a court in Wuppertal, Germany, upheld a lower court’s ruling in the 2015 sentencing of three Germans of Palestinian descent to probation for setting fire to a synagogue in July 2014, the same synagogue the Nazis had burned in 1938 during the Kristallnacht pogroms. The court concurred that since they were incensed about Israel’s actions in the Middle East, their act of arson did not constitute anti-Semitism.  

Similarly, in a speech titled, “Combating Global Anti-Semitism in 2016,” Ira Forman, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, noted that, according to Jewish leaders in Sweden, police in Stockholm classified recent graffiti with swastikas as “actions against Israel,” not anti-Semitism. He quoted a leader as saying, “If you are hurt wearing a kippa [yarmulke], it is classified as anti-Zionism. …”  

In these instances, criminal justice systems were confronting two phenomena — anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. While rightly affirming one can oppose Israeli policies without automatically being anti-Semitic, they wrongly denied the obvious:
- Deliberately targeting Jewish property, or demonizing or attacking people simply for being Jewish inescapably is anti-Semitic. These actions should neither be excused nor minimized, rationalized nor redefined, but called out and condemned. 

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Related:
German courts expose the mechanism by which opposition to Israel is indistinguishable from opposition to Jews

British Jews record highest-ever annual number of anti-Semitic incidents

Via JTA:

The United Kingdom’s main watchdog group on anti-Semitism reported a record 1,309 incidents in 2016, constituting a 36 percent increase over the 2015 tally.

Of the anti-Semitic incidents recorded last year by the Community Security Trust, or CST, 107 were cases of physical assault, compared to 87 in 2015, the report published Thursday said.

While the 2016 figure in the assault category was the highest since 2010, the bulk of incidents – 1,006 of them – belonged to the “verbal and written anti-Semitic abuse” category, which covers emails, letters, text messages and tweets.

The increase is not attributable to any specific trigger, as has been the case in years when fighting broke out between Israel and its enemies, the report said. Instead, CST cited a “combination of events and factors,” including an unprecedented public debate about anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, terrorist attacks in Western countries and the June referendum in which a majority of voters supported a British exit from the European Union.

“CST did record a small number of anti-Semitic incidents during 2016 that made direct reference to the European Union or to Brexit, but not enough to explain, on their own, the overall high total for the year,” the report said in reference to the referendum, which British police said triggered a slew of hate crimes, though not many against Jews.

“These events, and their subsequent discussion in mainstream and social media, provided material and motivation for anti-Semitic hate incident offenders,” CST wrote.

Another factor driving the increase is the growing awareness to the importance of reporting anti-Semitic incidents, CST noted, though it is still likely “that there is significant underreporting of anti-Semitic incidents,” CST wrote.

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German school expels Jewish teen over Nazi salute

Via Times of Israel:

A Jewish teenager has been kicked out of a vocational school in Germany for allegedly raising his arm in the Hitler salute in the classroom.

But Maksym M., 18, insists he was just raising his hand when attendance was taken at the Blindow-Schule in Leipzig, according to the Bild newspaper, which also reported that he has been doing well in the program. The state prosecutor declined to bring charges against him.

His parents told Bild that they were waiting for an apology from the school.

“Our son was punished for something that he did not do,” they said.

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UK: London Mayor hosts party with 11 nations who ban Israel

Via Guido Fawkes:

Just hours after demanding the government rescinds its invite to President Trump over his travel ban, Sadiq Khan will tonight (Jan. 31) host a City Hall reception with 11 dignitaries whose countries bar Israeli citizens from entering. Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen will all be represented at the gathering of ambassadors this evening. All 11 of these countries block travel to Israeli passport holders. Khan will use tonight’s party to criticise Trump’s ban as “cruel, prejudiced and counterproductive.” While dining with 11 diplomats whose countries have done the same for years… 

UPDATE: Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff says:

“I fully support the Mayor’s condemnation of President Trump’s divisive travel ban but he should also be willing to condemn those countries that discriminate against citizens from Israel – particularly when he is hosting their representatives at a drinks reception at City Hall.”

UKIP’s Peter Whittle adds:

“Will the Mayor use this occasion to speak out against the 11 countries that permanently ban Israelis? Of course he won’t. Will he rescind their invites to this party, just as he’s calling for the state visit to be stopped? Of course he won’t. Like the protesters yesterday, his outrage is highly selective.”

And Nigel Farage tells Sadiq:

“You want Trump banned from UK but are happy with anti-Israeli discrimination. You are a hypocrite.”

Belgium: Brigitte Herremans, the catholic anti-Israel pasionaria (Pax Christi, Broederlijk Delen)

Featuring: Brigitte Herremans, the Belgian catholic anti-Israel pasionaria, "major supporter of lawfare and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel"who "demanded that Israeli citizens who come to Belgium (actual tourists, not activists) be subject to “interrogation”" and downplays the level of antisemitism.

Via Times of Israel (Gerald Steinberg):

On September 9 (2016), Brigitte Herremans arrived at Ben Gurion airport, planning to lead an “alternative tour” of political activists, as she had done many times before. But this time, the polite-sounding Belgian activist was not given the usually automatic tourist visa. Instead, by her own account, she was unceremoniously denied entry and turned back.

Brigitte Herremans is in many ways typical of Western European leaders of BDS and demonization campaigns. Her official title is Policy Officer for the Middle East at Broederlijk Delen (BD) meaning “fraternal sharing”– an influential and semi-official Belgian Flemish Catholic aid organization. (She plays a similar role in another Catholic NGO — Pax Christi.) They claim to combat poverty and inequality by working with local organizations, but are tainted with a radical political agenda that includes intense demonization of Israel. Out of the €6 million annual budget provided by Belgian taxpayers, €264,000 goes to political projects in “Israel/Palestine” that have nothing to do with aid. This is Herremanns’ radical mini-empire. (...)

Upon her return to Belgium, Herremans immediately provided further evidence of her deeply ingrained hostility. In an interview on Flemish Radio 1 on 12 September, Herremans repeated her support for “sanctions against Israel” and demanded that Israeli citizens who come to Belgium (actual tourists, not activists) be subject to “interrogation.” In the same interview, when asked about reports that showed a rise in antisemitism in Belgium, Herremans accused “Israel’s allies” of “inflating” the level of antisemitism in order to “distract from its treatment of Palestinians.”  

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Via NGO Monitor:

CIDSE/NGO Political Campaign Exacerbates Friction between Israel and the EU

In January 2017, the church umbrella organization CIDSE’s Palestine-Israel Working Group (made up of 18 organizations from Europe and North America) released a document titled “No Place Like Home: A Reader On The Forced Internal Displacement Of Palestinians In The Occupied Palestinian Territory And Israel.” The working group includes: Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Catholic Agency for Overseas Development [CAFOD] – (UK), CCFD-Terre Solidaire (France), MISEREOR (Germany) and Trócaire (Ireland). The document cited a number of political NGOs, including Adalah and Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center(JLAC).

CIDSE’s press release quotes Brigitte Herremans, Broederlijk Delen’s “Policy Officer for Israel and Palestine.” Herremans is a major supporter of lawfare and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, and in September 2016, was denied entry to Israel. Herremans has also called on the EU “to confront Israel” over alleged “systematic violations of international law.” Similarly, Broederlijk Delen, along with CCFD, Trócaire, and others produced the 2012 report “Trading Away Peace,” which lobbied the EU to impose economic sanctions on Israel. Broederlijk Delen, along with the other CIDSE group members, also fund politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including some of the organizations cited in the document.

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Germany: Holocaust memorial vandalized

Via Watch: Antisemitism in Europe:

A swastika was smeared on the memorial for the synagogue in Eisenach in the night following the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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Sweden: Nazis hang Holocaust-denial signs

Via CFCA:

Stockholm - At several suburbs of Stockholm, a sign set up over the highway-saying "the Holocaust is a bluff-read the truth" by Nordfront, Swedish Resistance Movement, Nazi Party.

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Switzerland: Soldiers investigated over ‘Nazi salute’ photo

Via the Local:

Six Swiss soldiers are facing a criminal investigation after being photographed making a Nazi salute in front of a swastika drawn in the snow.
Army spokesman Walter Frick confirmed to news agency ATS that the army was taking disciplinary action against the soldiers, who have been detained for an unspecified number of days.

An investigation has been opened to determine if the soldiers have broken laws on racism.

If it is found that they have, they could face up to three years in jail.

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Europeans now seeing link between terror in Jerusalem and Berlin

Via The Jewish Chronicle (by Anshel Pfeffer):

The point Netanyahu has been making for years may finally be hitting home. 

From a security point of view, there was very little out of the ordinary in the ramming attack on Sunday in which four IDF officers were killed and 13 wounded.  

The assailant, East Jerusalem resident Fadi al-Qanbar, drove his lorry into a group of soldiers who had just arrived at the Armon Hanetziv Promenade for an educational tour of the city. He had time to put the vehicle into reverse, in an attempt to hit more people, before a number of soldiers and one civilian shot him dead in the cabin.  

This was the worst terror attack in Jerusalem for over a year, but it was far from unique. Just like dozens of attacks in Jerusalem over the past 15 months, this was a resident of the city, acting on his volition, without any active support from a terror organisation, using whatever means he had against a convenient target.  

As Police Commissioner Ronny Alsheich said after arriving at the scene: “You don’t need more that two to three seconds to find a terrorist target.”  

What Commissioner Alsheich did not add, although he knows it very well, was that very little than can be done to prevent such attacks, save cutting off Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. (...) 

While in the past many Western governments were somewhat hesitant to condemn Palestinian attacks against IDF soldiers across the Green Line (technically, Sunday’s attack took place in what was once no-man’s land between Israel and Jordanian-occupied East Jerusalem), this time there was a chorus of unequivocal solidarity with Israel. Even the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted, “again we condemn another despicable act of terrorism today in Jerusalem”, although he later deleted it.  

In Germany’s capital, the Brandenburg Gate was lit up on Monday night with the colours of Israel’s flag, which was also flying over city halls in Paris and Rotterdam.  

This time at least, the Western world seems to agree with Mr Netanyahu that they are all facing the same threat. It is too early to say whether this is a trend, but we can speculate on the reasons. The visual similarities between the ramming attacks in Nice, Berlin and Jerusalem probably played a part. The near-identical images of a lorry, its windshield pockmarked with bullet-holes amid the chaos and casualties, probably played a role.  

There is a growing realisation in some quarters of Europe that there are at least some links between what Israelis have been facing for decades and what Europeans are facing are now.  

There may also be at least some connection between the increasing solidarity with Israel and the changing international landscape in the era of Mr Trump where, for better or for worse, the Israel-Palestine conflict is likely to be much lower on the list of Western diplomatic priorities. 

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