Italy: Rabbis accuse biblical conference of fueling anti-Judaism

Via RNS:

Two leading Italian rabbis have accused a Bible organization of promoting anti-Semitism by inviting scholars to debate the roots of Judaism at a Venice conference.

The theological conference, organized by the Italian Biblical Association, is titled “People of a ‘Jealous God’: Coherence and Ambivalence of the Ancient Religion of Israel” and will be held in September.

Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, emeritus president of Italy’s Rabbinical Assembly and former chief rabbi of Milan, has released a letter sent to conference organizers in which he accused them of promoting intolerance and resentment of Judaism.

The conference will examine the role of the Hebrew God, Yahweh, in the evolution of faith and examine elements of the Torah and Jewish and Muslim philosophy, before looking at elements of the Bible’s New Testament.

In his letter, Laras described the program as a “defeat” for Jewish-Christian dialogue.

He said the scheduled topics revealed an undercurrent of “resentment, intolerance, and annoyance” toward Judaism and “a minimization of the Jewish biblical roots of Christianity.”

“It saddens me that those who raise objections, doubts, concerns and outrage about these kinds of programs are always Jews, reduced to the thankless and disagreeable task of having to act as a ‘dialogue policemen,’ instead of influential Christian voices,” he said.

Laras, a university professor who taught Jewish history and philosophy, also said the conference promoted “Marcionism,” referring to the school of thought espoused by Greek theologian Marcion who believed that the Old Testament God was angry and wrathful while the New Testament promoted a loving and merciful God.

Milan’s chief rabbi, Alfonso Arbib, also expressed concern about the conference and its intentions on Tuesday (March 14).

“Theological arguments have been used in the past as a weapon against the Jews: the vengeful God of the Jews, the God of justice as opposed to the God of love, used as anti-Jewish propaganda,” Arbib said.

“When arguments of this kind are used it raises our alarm,” Arbib said. “Through Jewish-Christian dialogue the Catholic Church has overcome these arguments. It seems that now they are coming back.”

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Ireland: Mossad Agents Cheered 9/11, Claims American Jewish Academic at Anti-Israel Conference

Via Algemeiner:

A controversial conference that wrapped up in Ireland on Sunday included 9/11 conspiracy theories, according to live-stream footage from the event.

The three-day conference in Cork — “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Exceptionalism and Responsibility” – featured academics from various countries, including Israel, who had gathered to call the Jewish state’s right to exist into question.

In the question-and-answer period of one of the panels on the third day of the event, which, as The Algemeiner reported, was held at the University College Cork (UCC), American-Jewish professor emeritus Joel Kovel, former Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies at Bard College and author of Overcoming Zionism, stated: “There are so many facts that aren’t known, and then they’re lost to memory. Did you know that, as the towers were burning on 9/11…the five painters who were cheering on the process from across the river…were Mossad agents?! And they were arrested and disappeared from the face of the earth.”

David Collier of the blog The Great Divide, who attended the event, wrote that this section of Kovel’s talk “will no doubt take the headlines, but in truth, his entire speech could be classified as a horrific antisemitic attack.” Collier said, as well, that the audience “seemed to appreciate [Kovel’s] suggestion that the world is ecologically doomed unless you can remove Israel from the Middle East.”

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Germany: Jewish teachers afraid to reveal their religion to students

Via DW:

(...) The Deutschlandfunk report also featured Jewish teachers from Berlin and elsewhere in Germany saying that they were afraid to reveal their religion to their students. 

"There was a student who told me: 'If I saw a Jew, I'd immediately kill him,'" one teacher from northern Germany told the radio station on the condition of anonymity. "And he meant it." 

The abuse caused one teacher in Berlin to address an angry public letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders complaining about anti-Semitism in Berlin's schools. Berlin authorities say they are aware of the problem and acknowledge that the word "Jew" is frequently used as an insult in some of the German capital's schools. 

There was a flurry of interest in the topic in 2015, when the German-Israel Youth Congress was held in Berlin, but the public attention quickly dissipated. Other incidents of anti-Semitism in Berlin schools were reported last year. According to the website report-antisemitism.de, members of the Jewish Forum for Democracy and against Anti-Semitism (JFDA) were called "child murderers" when they visited a school in the heavily Muslim district of Neukölln in May 2016. The JFDA said they had never before experienced such crass anti-Semitism among students. 

There are no official statistics on anti-Semitic incidents specifically in Berlin schools, although the Research and Information Office on Anti-Semitism in Berlin recorded 470 such incidents generally in Berlin last year. Experts say the problem of anti-Semitism in schools stems partly from the conflicts in the Middle East and young people's susceptibility to conspiracy theories. 

"The Middle East conflict is a big concern of these young people, but their knowledge of the issues is very one-sided," Islamism expert Ahmad Monsour told the "Tagesspiegel" in 2015. "It quickly turns into anti-Semitism. It's easy to say the Jews are to blame for everything."

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Europe:How does Europe fight the BDS movement?

Obviously, the fact that in the United States states have been passing anti-BDS laws divesting from companies that are boycotting Israel has an effect on European banks, companies, etc.

Via the European Jewish Press:

Association Belgo-Palestinienne
Wallonie-Bruxelles BDS campaign

Is Europe fighting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement? Although the atmosphere seems to  point out that BDS is stronger, many European countries are fighting this phenomena. 

(...) Also this week, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis came out firmly against the BDS movement during a meeting with a delegation of Knesset members, who visited the country to mark 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel. 

In the United States, at least 12 states have already passed anti-BDS laws, divesting from companies that are boycotting Israel, including Arizona, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, and South Carolina. 

Spain is already regulating laws against BDS. 

The Partido Popular (People’s Party), the ruling party in Spain, has approved amendments that explicitly reject the BDS campaign, according to the pro-Israel Spanish group ACOM. 

Switzerland’s national Council – the lower chamber of the legislature – passed a bill to stop government funding of organizations that promote boycotts of Israel and spread antisemitism and racism. 

The measure will be submitted in May to the Swiss Council of States, the upper chamber of the legislature, which will decide whether it becomes law. 

Last October the Bank of Ireland closed the accounts of the pro-BDS organization’s Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The group’s accounts were terminated in Ireland and Northern Ireland, according to media reports. 

In many other countries there is more and more awareness about the negative consequences of BDS. It appears to be a large trend within the European banking system to sever ties with pro-BDS groups.

Similar decisions like in Ireland, Spain and Switzerland, have been taken also  in other European countries including Austria, Germany, France and the UK where banks have closed down accounts of Palestinian campaign groups. The  first  bank accounts that has been closed as anti-BDS policy were  in France, Germany and Austria in 2016. Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, shut a BDS account last June. The Austrian bank Bawag shut down the account of the Austria-Arab Culture Center. The Austrian financial company Erste Group terminated BDS Austria’s account in April.French banking giant BNP Paribas shut down its subsidiary DAB bank  account with BDS-Campaign in February in Munich. Belgium-based BDS group that holds a Paribas bank account is called Association Belgo-Palestinienne (Belgian-Palestinian Association). It has an office in New York State where Gov. Andrew Coumo signed an anti-BDS executive order in June. He said at the time: “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you.” 

In Italy, a  BDS gathering due to take place in the Municipality of Rome was prohibited. (...)

In response to a question from a member of the European Parliament about banning BDS in Europe, EU’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini stated last September:’’ The EU stands firm in protecting freedom of expression and freedom of association in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is applicable on EU Member States' territory, including with regard to BDS actions carried out on this territory. Freedom of expression, as underlined by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, is also applicable to information or ideas ‘‘that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population’’. She added however that ‘’the EU rejects the BDS campaign's attempts to isolate Israel and is opposed to any boycott of Israel.’’

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UK: Jewish and Muslim women MPs targeted for abuse, says Commons Deputy Speaker

Via TheJC (h/t glykosymoritis)

 Female Jewish and Muslim MPs are the top target of increased threats and abuse on social media, according to the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Lindsay Hoyle warned the worrying development was damaging democracy and could deter women from these communities from entering politics.

He also called on social media companies to react faster to offensive posts or face possible legal action.

Mr Hoyle was giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee -  and he confirmed Parliament had set up a team to monitor abuse online and to provide support to those affected.

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Spain: Antisemitic graffiti on the VOX building

Vox is a right-wing party.

Via CFCA:

Grenada – on the building of Vox Granada, a political party in Spain, vandals painted antisemitic graffiti, an antisemitic message ("Jewish bastards") and neo-Nazi references.

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UK: Labour candidate likens Israeli action in Gaza to Nazis

Via The Times:

Labour’s candidate for one of its safest seats was criticised this weekend for his “utterly unacceptable” comments comparing Israel to a Nazi regime.  

Afzal Khan had posted a comment on Twitter saying: “The Israeli government are acting like Nazi’s in Gaza.” He is due to stand in the Manchester Gorton by-election on May 4. The seat was previously held by the late Sir Gerald Kaufman, who was Jewish, with a majority of 24,079.  

Joan Ryan, chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel, condemned Khan: “Any and all comparisons between modern-day Israel and Nazi Germany are totally inaccurate, highly offensive and utterly unacceptable.”  

A Labour Party disciplinary panel is due to rule on Tuesday about whether to expel Ken Livingstone, London’s former mayor, for saying there was “real collaboration” between Nazis and Zionists before the Second World War.

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Holland: Amsterdam residents demand removal of Holocaust memorial plaque

Only a very tiny minority of descendants of Holocaust victims wish their loved ones be remembered by cobblestones.  So far, only 50,000 cobblestones have been laid in 18 countries in Europe.  Six million Jewish perished in the Holocaust.

Via JTA:

City workers dislodged and relocated a postcard-sized memorial plaque from the entrance to the former home in Amsterdam of a Holocaust victim following complaints by residents. 

The plaque — a brass cobblestone bearing the name of Joachim Elte that in 2014 was embedded into the sidewalk of 3 Nicolass Maes Street — was moved to a location “as far away as possible from the door” of the two residents, who have recently sued the city to have the plaque removed altogether, Sebastiaan Capel, the mayor of Amsterdam’s South district told Het Parool daily on Friday. 

The two residents, who were not named, recently filed with a preliminary relief judge a motion for an injunction ordering the memorial cobblestone’s removal because Capel has ignored their demands that it be removed from aywhere in front of their residence, the daily reported. 

In their motion, the two residents said they found it too confrontational to have to constantly be reminded, because of the memorial cobblestone, of the deportation and murder of Elte, a 51-year-old accountant who died at a Nazi concentration camp in 1945. They also argued it “compromises the atmosphere” of their upscale neighborhood and their privacy and that of their children because it attracts onlookers. 

The judge who reviewed the motion did not issue an injunction but ruled it merits judicial review by an administrational court.

Amsterdam has 400 memorial cobblestones, which have been placed in front of the former homes of Holocaust victims as part of a commemoration project that a German artist began in Berlin in 1996. To date, more than 50,000 of the cobblestones have been laid in 18 countries in Europe. 

The district in which the complainants live does not require the consent of residents for the installation of memorial cobblestones. 

The City of Amsterdam has received two complaints in the past over memorial cobblestones: One by a Holocaust survivor who said it brought back bad memories and another by a hotel whose owners said it is bad for business. Following the survivor’s request, the cobblestone was moved elsewhere on the same street. The second objection was ignored, Paul de Haan, a municipal worker whose responsibilities include issuing permits for memorial cobblestones, told Het Parool.

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Sweden: Jewish centre closes following Nazi threats

Via The Local:

The Jewish Association (Judisk föreningen) in Umeå, northern Sweden has decided to end its activities and close its centre in the city following Nazi threats.

The association's members feel unsafe, and its spokesperson has even received a visit to her home, SVT News Västerbotten reports.

"Too many things have happened lately which mean that Jewish parents don't feel safe having their kids at the schools. Our children shouldn't need to live in a world where they have to be ashamed for what they are, but it's not possible to operate if people are scared," Umeå Jewish Association spokesperson Carinne Sjöberg told SVT.

The association has received threatening e-mails, and also had its buildings painted with the phrase "we know where you live", as well as vandalised with stickers of swastikas.

It made its decision at a meeting on Sunday, where everyone who participated agreed to close the premises and end the association’s activities.

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Belgium: Antisemitic cartoonist named 'cultural ambassador' for Belgian town

Via Elder of Ziyon: 

Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer) has been named the "cultural ambassador par excellence" for the city of Torhout, Belgium. 

Belgian news site Nieuwsblad says he deserves the award because his cartoons have been shown worldwide. 

This is true. He was a winner of Iran's Holocaust Cartoon contest with this entry.

The town of Torhout is quite aware of this because there was worldwide publicity for the school he taught at honoring him despite this clearly antisemitic cartoon. 

And he has drawn other antisemitic cartoons as well, like this one that blames Jews for being blown up by terrorists:

This one with a similar motif doesn't bother with the seeming even handedness of the previous cartoon, squarely blaming Jews for terrorism:

There is no way for any honest person to interpret these cartoons as anything but antisemitism. 

A JTA reporter in Belgium who covered the previous honor for Descheemaeker was shaken by the tacit support for antisemitic expression in Belgium:  

I wanted to see if this see-no-evil approach from government offices in a country whose leaders often declare a zero-tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism surprised me. But the real shock was the response from the Belgian media to JTA’s coverage of the affair.

De Morgen, one of Belgium’s largest and best-respected dailies, ran an article that omitted reference to Descheemaeker’s caricatures of Jews. It described the Iranian competition as a “controversial” affair “themed on the Holocaust,” which the paper said was instituted as a statement about freedom of expression following the publication of insulting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark. 

(UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, had called the contest “a mockery of the genocide of the Jewish people.”) 

Descheemaeker, who is described in the paper as an internationally acclaimed caricaturist, is quoted as saying in reaction to the uproar created by his work: “There is still such a thing as freedom of expression.”
Knack, a popular news site, took the same editorial line. 

Confused, I reached out to Joel Rubinfeld, founder of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism and former president of the CCOJB umbrella group of French-speaking Belgian Jewish communities. I wanted to know whether Belgian education officials were more tolerant of expressions of anti-Semitism than their counterparts from other Western European countries.
“It’s a problem,” he said. “We’ve encountered a number of cases where schools did not take the necessary measures when Jewish pupils were targeted in anti-Semitic bullying, for example.” 

A teacher who last year told a Jewish high school student, “We should put you all on freight wagons,” was allowed to keep his job following an internal inquiry. It ended with him apologizing while denying any anti-Semitic intent in the first place. 

Cases involving anti-Semitic abuse among students are regularly ignored at Belgian schools, “which don’t apply the measures necessary to make these cases stop,” Rubinfeld said. 

One student was forced to leave his public school and was enrolled in a private Jewish one last year following harassment, which included a threat to “break his skull” if he showed support for Israel. Also last year, the Belgian media reported on the online shaming by classmates of a pro-Israel high school student. He also left the public education system for a Jewish school.

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More about Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer):

Belgium: Catholic school supports teacher who won prize at Iran Holocaust-mocking cartoon contest

Belgium: Jews are Nazis, Trump is a Nazi - guess who isn't a Nazi?

France: Massive campus demonstration against Israel ambassador at Rennes university

Via Daphne Anson:

At Rennes, in Brittany, a city whose name all familiar with the infamous Dreyfus Affair will recognise, university students prove their crass immaturity and fascistic left credentials by disrupting a talk by Israel's ambasssador to France, Madame Aliza Bin-Noun.

Screaming the usual malicious canards, and citing the despicable one-sided report just released by the loathsome Richard Falk and his accomplice Virginia Tilley, they belie the very liberty, equality and fraternity that underpins the Republic, and the very democratic principles they accuse Israel of lacking.

 "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people."  The protest last 7 minutes...  The same students would never stage a demonstration in front of the Saudi Arabia or the Qatari embassies...

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It took three days for Le Figaro to report this incident.  A video shows students leaving.  Then they sounded the fire alarm system.  Then comes the Israel-hate speech.  The ambassador reacted on Twitter:

French report questions existence of Islamic anti-Semitism

That's one way of solving the problem of Muslim antisemitism.

Via Arutz 7:

French authorities recorded a 58 percent drop last year in anti-Semitic incidents in a report that identified only far-right perpetrators and questioned the existence of anti-Semitism by Muslims.

The annual report by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, published Thursday on its website, counted 335 anti-Semitic incidents in 2016 compared to 808 the previous year — the sharpest drop on record since 2001, when the SPCJ security group of the Jewish community documented a 71 percent decrease to 219 cases. Data by SPCJ, which has not published its annual report, usually correspond with those published by the commission.

The commission also reported a 57 percent drop in anti-Muslim attacks to a total of 182 incidents in 2016.

According to the report, the decrease in attacks of Jews “is primarily due to security measures applied by the authorities as part of the Vigipirate plan.” The plan, which involves the deployment of thousands of troops around Jewish institutions and heavily Jewish neighborhoods across the country, was initiated in 2015 following the slaying of four Jews at a kosher store in Paris by an Islamist."

The terror attack referred to by the report took place on a Friday in 2015 at the Hyper-Cacher food store. The victims were buried in israel.

The report questioned the “new anti-Semitism thesis” proffered by the National Bureau of Vigilance Against anti-Semitism, a nongovernmental watchdog group run by former policemen — that most anti-Semitic attacks in France since 2000 have been committed by people with an immigrant background from Muslim countries who target Jews over Israel’s actions.

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Belgium: Flemish Region announces new limitations on ritual slaughter

Via Times of Israel:

A cabinet minister in Belgium’s Flemish Region announced that a majority of lawmakers have decided to impose new limitations on ritual slaughter of animals in 2019.

Ben Weyts, the animal welfare minister of the Flemish Region — one of three autonomous states that make up the federal kingdom of Belgium – on Thursday told the Gazet van Antwerp daily newspaper that “the decision in principle has been taken and everyone should respect it.”

He was commenting on criticism by some Jews and Muslims in Belgium over his announcement Wednesday in the Flemish parliament that new limitations on the slaughter of animals without stunning would be introduced on January 1, 2019.

Neither the elected representatives of the Jewish community of the Flemish Region nor of those of Belgium have expressed consent to the plan to impose new limitations, which Weyts described as a “compromise” and “historical agreement.”

Contrary to some reports in the media, the Flemish parliament did not vote on a ban, according to the De Morgen daily. Instead, the plan to introduce the new limitations was announced Wednesday as the result of an agreement between the coalition partners of the center-right New Flemish Alliance ruling party.

The precise nature of the new limitations proposed by the Flemish government has not yet been made public and has not been finalized pending talks with representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities, according to the Gazet van Antwerpen.

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Greece: Holocaust memorial destroyed in Kavala

Via Against Antisemitism:

Kavala Mayor Dimitra Tsanaka in front of the destroyed Holocaust memorial, 30/3/2017 via kavalapost.gr

A Holocaust memorial in Kavala, northern Greece, has been partially destroyed in a deliberate act of vandalism, kavalapost.gr reported today. The attack occured only a few days after the desecration with paint of the Holocaust monument in Arta. 

The municipality of Kavala has condemned the vandalism promising to fully restore the monument and take the necessary measures to apprehend those responsible. 

Though guarded by the police during the night, this is the second vandalism of the newly erected Kavala Holocaust memorial: Just two weeks after the unveiling ceremony on June 7, 2015, the monument was desecrated by a blue paint attack.

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France: 40 of 50 headstones at Jewish cemetery are smashed, toppled

Via JTA:

Waldwisse cemetery

Forty of the 50 headstones at an 18th-century Jewish cemetery in France were smashed or toppled. 

A passer-by noticed the vandalism earlier this week at the cemetery in Waldwisse, a village situated 215 miles east of Paris, the France3 television channel reported Thursday. The cemetery is no longer in use. 

Police are investigating the attack, the second on the cemetery since 2014. Three young men perpetrated the previous attack and received suspended sentences.

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