UK: Candidate for Vice President of NUS apologises for ‘stingy Jew’ tweet

Via CAA:

Ali Milani, a candidate for Vice President of Union Development of the National Union of Students (NUS), has apologised for a series of antisemitic tweets from 2012 and 2013. In one of the many antisemitic tweets, he calls someone a “Jew” for being stingy, writing: “Nah u won’t mate. It’ll cost you a pound #jew.” The stereotype of the miserly and cheap Jew is extremely offensive.

In a tweet to Piers Morgan, Milani wrote: “u are a zionist and a corperate [sic] jackass.” In a string of tweets about Israeli-US relations and the Israel-Palestine conflict, he commented: “Israel has no right to exist.”

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‘If antisemitic parties rise to power, we will call on European Jews to flee’

Via Jerusalem Post:

 A European Jewish leader said Monday that the rise of extremist parties in Europe could ultimately lead to an exodus of Jews from countries where antisemitism is becoming increasingly visible.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Rabbinical Center of Europe in Pomezia, Italy, the organization’s director, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, warned that it will not be long before extremist parties which now have a great deal of power become the ruling parties in Europe.

He warned that the “tolerant attitude” of European governments toward extremism in countries where there are many manifestations of antisemitism could lead to a mass exodus of Jews from those countries.

“It is superfluous to say that a country ruled by an antisemitic party is a red line, and if we reach that situation we will call on the Jews of Europe to flee from those countries,” Margolin said.

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Italy: "You are Jews, I'll kill you"

Via Arutz 7:

Police officers in the northern Italian city of Bologna were called to San Vitale Street after locals and passers-by complained about a man who was disorderly, cursing and harassing passers-by. A Tunisian citizen in his thirties went crazay when he saw the officers, pulled a knife from his bag, waved it around and threatened them, saying, "You are Jews, I will kill you."

The policemen quickly disarmed him and handcuffed him, but at one point he managed to wound two policemen who needed medical attention. The Tunisian, without a criminal record, was arrested on charges of wounding and resisting civil servants. A search of his belongings produced several grams of hashish in addition to the knife, which were confiscated by the police.

Belgium: Jewish Museum shooting investigation complete, 4th suspect not identified

Via Flanders Today:

Mehdi Nemmouche, accused of killing four people in a shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014, has been remanded in custody for a further two months. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office said the investigation into the attack was now complete, and Nemmouche (pictured) could expect to go to trial in the early part of next year.

The investigating magistrate has passed the dossier to the federal prosecutor’s office, which has authority over terrorism cases. The magistrate assigned to the case will prepare arguments for having Nemmouche committed for trial. (...) 

The attack on the museum was carried out by a single armed man; two volunteers and two visitors died either on site or later in hospital. Nemmouche, 32, was arrested in Marseilles in possession of weapons a week following the shooting.

He has not given any statements during his time in custody. His lawyers have said that he admits taking part in the attack but denies being the shooter.

Two other men are implicated in the planning of the operation and in Nemmouche’s escape to France. One of them, Nacer Bendrer, was in custody until last November, when he was released under conditions. He is now under house arrest in France. A fourth suspect has never been traced.

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Note: "If the suspect is proved to be the killer, this would be the first known case of a European volunteer with Islamic radicals in Syria to have carried out an attack upon his return to Europe." (The Telegraph)

Killing.

A fourth suspect has never been traced.

German State head gives BDS Bethlehem Lutheran hate preacher $32,000

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The Green Party president of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, personally delivered in late March a check for €30,000 ($32,000) to a Lutheran pastor in the West Bank who advocates the destruction of Israel. 

“Mitri Raheb [the Bethlehem pastor] authored the ‘Kairos Palestine document of Christians in Palestine’... the German- Israel Friendship Society already criticized the paper at the time of its publication in 2010, because it calls for economic sanctions against Israel... and speaks out against its right to exist,” the friendship society’s Stuttgart chapter wrote in a public letter to Kretschmann on April 9. 

The Stuttgart chapter said the Kairos paper “engages in propaganda against Israel using bogus theological arguments.” (...)  

Prof. Gerald Steinberg of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization said: “We welcome the letter from the German-Israel Friendship Society in the Stuttgart region, and join in condemning the transfer of public money by state Gov. Kretschmann to Mitri Raheb. Raheb has a long history of immoral incitement against Israel and against the peace process, including his role as co-author of the infamous Kairos Palestine document, which promotes BDS and also glorifies violence against Israeli citizens. This document asserts that ‘Resistance is a right and a duty for Christians and all Palestinians.” 

Steinberg continued, “Raheb participates in events such as ‘Christ at the Checkpoint,’ promoting themes that echo theological antisemitism, including references to the DNA of Israeli Jews as coming from an ‘East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.’ We join in urging Mr. Kretschmann to rescind his support for hate and violence.”

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Ireland: Trinity College Dublin to host conference on academic boycott of Israel

Here we go again!  Europeans just can't help themselves from engaging in Israel/Jew-bashing.

Via The Jerusalem Post:

Trinity College Dublin is slated to hold a conference in September in which academics will call for an active ban on Israel in the name of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, according to the Jewish Chronicle this week.  

The event, which is expected to take place in the Irish capital on September 12, is organized by a group named 'Academics for Palestine' and will feature academics who will speak in favor of boycotting educational institutions in the Jewish state. 

A website promoting the conference offers several strong statements in support of an academic shunning of Israel, such as: "Across the world, academics and students have responded to the Palestinian call for boycott by refusing to cooperate with Israeli higher education institutions on grounds of conscience."  

The slated anti-Israel event has drawn criticism, particularly due to Trinity College's strong, decades-long ties to Israel and to Judaism, which were expressed recently when the university's student union voted twice against the introduction of a BDS policy, with the last vote determined by a "significant majority" just last week. 

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Also:
Trinity College Dublin event involving Israeli ambassador cancelled (February 2017)

UK: Jewish students are sick of empty apologies

Via the Tab:

Over the past few years, Jewish students have felt increasingly alienated from the NUS. In a recent survey commissioned by Robbie Young in his capacity as NUS VP Society and Citizenship it was found that 49 per cent of Jewish students would not feel comfortable attending NUS events, 42 per cent would not feel comfortable engaging in NUS policymaking processes and an enormous 65 per cent either disagreed or strongly disagreed that NUS would respond appropriately to allegations of antisemitism if they arose. Incidents of antisemitism seem to emerge more and more and evidently, it’s pushing Jewish students away and we are sick of it. 

We are sick of our National Union not taking our concerns seriously. We are sick of antisemitism being used as a political football with apologies only being published when someone’s offensive comments are bad for their public profile. We are sick of antisemitism in the movement and the subsequent apologies being used as a way to showcase a manifesto in a national election. 

For those who have apologised for their comments, and Ali Milani in particular, thank you. Apologies are the first step to rectifying the damage that has been caused by your actions, but an apology is just the beginning and is definitely not the end. Jewish students and the Union of Jewish Students have repeatedly seen apologies being posted across social media with no follow up to even see what Jewish students think of these said apologies. Jewish students have every right to demand apologies and we also have every right not to forgive the offender until we feel that they are truly sorry. (...)

My point is that until an apology is carried through with actions, it appears to be empty words on a page. Even the most offensive antisemite can hide behind a computer screen and type out a few words that make them appear to be sorry, but someone who is truly sorry and wants to show that they no longer think that way will make every effort possible to speak with Jewish students face-to-face to show to those offended that they have changed. Jewish students need more allies than ever and perhaps next time there is a NUS antisemitism scandal, those who have made offensive comments in the past will stand side by side with Jewish students to take action on and condemn antisemitism and any other form of racism that is unfortunately still prevalent in our educational institutions and in our society.

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France’s political upheaval and what it portends for the Jews

Via Mosaic Magazine:

The campaign for France’s upcoming national elections—which occur on April 23 and May 7—has already made clear that the country is undergoing a political realignment as unexpected as those in the U.S. and UK, and perhaps with even more far-reaching consequences. In an in-depth and informative analysis of the current situation and its causes, Michel Gurfinkiel notes how Jews play into the current conversation:

(...) Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, who served as editor at Atlantico, a major conservative online magazine, recently remarked that Jews function in many countries as an advance-warning system. When Jews get anxious about their condition, it means that something wrong and ominous may be lurking for the nation at large. Can this Jewish standard be applied to the present situation of France? Maybe. Muslim anti-Semitism (with or without the excuse of anti-Zionism) has been a harbinger of more general Muslim antagonism to mainstream French culture. Repeated acts of anti-Jewish terrorism preceded the anti-French terrorism wave of 2015 and 2016. 

By this token, the 2017 presidential campaign is not entirely reassuring. Globalisation, the original sin according to both the far Left and far Right, is frequently associated with the United States, the West — and the Jews. Even with Trump in the White House. Trump may be an America Firster, but he is also a friend of Israel, the father of an Orthodox Jewish daughter and the “proud grandfather”, to quote him, “of Jewish grandchildren”. In a different order of things, French Muslims may support indiscriminately IS or Palestinian groups or Iran or Assad’s Syria as expressions of Muslim power, while many non-Muslim French may support Iran or Hezbollah or Assad’s Syria as allies against IS.

As for the rise of [the maverick, economically liberal candidate Emmanuel] Macron, it fits only too well many stereotypes about elites, bankers, cosmopolitanism, conspiracies, or what the Americans call “Manchurian candidates.” Again, these stereotypes tend to include Jews as well. A conservative website recently ran a caricature of Macron as a former Rothschild banker, [which he is], that exaggerated some of his facial features, clearly to suggest, against all the evidence, that he is Jewish. It was swiftly withdrawn, but the damage was done.

Read more at Standpoint

Holland: Why is Holland unrolling the red carpet for a Hamas conference?

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz, Editor-in-Chief):

A peaceful march for Israel by a group of Christians in The Netherlands is prohibited by the authorities of the city of Rotterdam because they claim that the security could not be guaranteed…. This is particularly scandalous because this march was planned to protest a conference of Palestinians in the same city organized by a group – the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) - that advocates and promotes the ideas of Hamas and in fact is an essential part of the Islamist group network in Europe where it is on the list of terror groups… The conference, contrary to the march, was authorized not ony by the city mayor but also by the Dutch government.  Despite calls to cancel it from Jewish groups and several Dutch politicians....

The Palestinian Return Centre hosts Hamas senior officials at their international conferences. It has the same objectives as the rulers of the Gaza Strip: it rejects the right of Israel to exist and openly calls for its annihilation. The PRC has also become an essential and dominant arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. It constantly challenges the Palestinian Authority in Europe.

At a time when Islamist terror attacks are regularly on the news in Europe, Rotterdam is contributing not to a peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but rather to encourage extremists to commit more suicide bombings, more car ramming attacks, more stabbings in Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, London or Jerusalem... On Friday in Jerusalem, a 21-year-old British exchange student, Hannah Bladon, died after being stabbed by a Palestinian...

Mr Prime Minister of Holland, Dear Mark Rutte, how can two of your ministers affirm that "from our known information it cannot be concluded that the conference in Rotterdam is organized by Hamas…". The Dutch government, as well as other EU countries, have received a report from the German intelligence  showing clearly the contrary that PRC is a Hamas entity.

Muslims, Jews faced social hostilities in seven-in-ten European countries in 2015

Via Pew:

Social hostilities toward Jews, meanwhile, remained at high levels in Europe: In 2015, 33 of the continent’s 45 countries (73%) had incidents of social hostilities aimed at Jews, a slight increase from 32 countries (71%) the previous year.

Social hostilities are defined as actions aimed at members of religious groups by private individuals and social groups. These actions can include hostile rhetoric, vandalism and physical assaults. They differ from government restrictions on religion, which also increased in Europe in 2015.

(...)

In Russia in April, individuals fired at a synagogue that was under construction, breaking the windows and writing anti-Semitic graffiti. And in Italy, 25 members of the neo-Nazi movement Stormfront were ordered to stand trial in July for alleged anti-Semitic hate speech. In a separate incident in Italy in October, anti-Semitic graffiti was placed on a University of Teramo wall during the visit of the Israeli ambassador, who was there to launch a course on the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the Community Security Trust reported 86 violent anti-Semitic assaults. And in February 2015, a young Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted by two men in Belgium. The next month, attackers in Ukraine severely beat a Jewish surgeon, allegedly while shouting anti-Semitic rhetoric.

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France: Memorial for slain Jewish woman turns violent as questions linger

According J Forum, French MP Meyer Habib spoke with the victim's brother who told him that the alleged perpetrator and members of his family who are Muslim had for 20 years repeatedly insulted Sarah Halimi and her daughter Elisheva by calling them "filthy Jews".  One day Elisheva was pushed down the stairs by a sister of the attacker.  They lived in fear.  Mrs Halimi was beaten up and defenestrated. During the peaceful demonstration some youths in the neighborhood shouted that they had kalashnikovs.

Via The Times of Israel:

Some 1,000 members of France’s Jewish community gathered Sunday outside the home of Sarah Halimi in Paris to commemorate her murder last week.

A suspect was arrested Wednesday, but authorities have not yet declared whether the murder was racially motivated and community leaders have cautioned against reaching early conclusions. 

The Sunday demonstration was meant to be a quiet memorial but members of the far-right Jewish Defense League attempted to turn the event into a vocal protest against anti-Semitism in France, with several attendees clashing with neighbors in the buildings next to Sarah Halimi’s. 

Footage of the event showed JDL members throwing bottles at people leaning out of the windows who had allegedly shouting anti-Semitic slurs at the crowd. 

French police arrived to disperse the protest shortly thereafter, but not before the Jewish demonstrators sang both the French and Israeli national anthems. 

Halimi was found dead on the street in front of her apartment on Monday in the crime-ridden 11th district of the French capital. Her 27-year-old neighbor, reported by Israel Radio to be Muslim, was later arrested in connection with her death. He has been sent for psychiatric evaluation, according to reports. Relatives of Halimi said that she had previously experienced anti-Semitic harassment by a relative of the man under arrest. 

The woman was beaten before she fell from the third floor, Israel Radio also reported.(...) 

French parliamentarian Meyer Habib has called on state authorities to investigate the crime as an anti-Semitic attack, though. In a lengthy Facebook post, he said the suspect had routinely harassed Halimi, calling her and her daughter “dirty Jews.” 

On Thursday, hundreds arrived in Jerusalem to lay Halimi to rest. She is survived by her son who lives in Israel and two daughters who live in France.

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Marine Le Pen: French nation not responsible for deporting Jews to camps

Via JTA:

Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate in the French presidential elections, said that her country is not responsible for the deportation of thousands of Jews to death camps in 1942.

Le Pen is according to recent polls one of the two leading candidates ahead of the first round of the elections on April 23.

During an interview Sunday, she was asked about the roundup and deportation of 13,152 from the Vel d’Hiv stadium in Paris, which the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem defines on its website as “a symbol of the responsibility of the regime and the French nation for the Holocaust.”

Responding to a question on the subject during the interview in Paris for the RTL network and Le Figaro, Le Pen, who has a 24-percent approval rating according to a poll published Monday, said: ”I think France is not responsible for Vel d’Hiv.”

She added: “I think generally, and in very general terms indeed, if anyone is responsible, then it is those in power at the time, not France as such. It wasn’t France.”

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UK: Conservative council candidate kicked out over anti-Semitic tweets

Via Jewish News:

A candidate at the upcoming local elections has been kicked out of the Conservative Party for writing a series of anti-Semitic tweets.

Obaid Khan was due to stand as a councillor in the Hall Green by-election in Birmingham on 4 May.

However, it has now emerged he published a number of social media posts, in which he used the word “Jew” as an insult, in a Twitter exchange about Pakistani politics. In the debate he claimed some of the country’s politicians had been backed by ‘foreign Jew agents’.

The Birmingham Mail was made aware of the 2014 posts and sent them on to the Conservative Party.

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France: Bank said to have dropped major BDS account

"Asked about possible violations of New York State’s anti-BDS law" is the most likely explanation...

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

One of the world’s largest banks, the Paris-based BNP Paribas, may have closed the account last year of a French organization that advocates boycotting Israel. After the former president of the  Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) sent a letter to BNP in May 2016, the donation section on the organization’s CAPJPO-Europalestine website was scrubbed of the BNP account. 

Israeli journalist Jean Patrick Grumberg, a reporter for the French-language American website Dreuz.info, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that “CAPJPO removed the link to the page with their bank information...  It’s possible that BNP quietly closed the CAPJPO bank account after receiving the letter from CRIF.” (...) 

Asked about possible violations of New York State’s anti-BDS law because of BNP’s office in New York City, Cesaltine Gregorio, the head of BNP’s media relations in the US, declined to comment.

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Europe: Winner of EU journalism award says Jews control the world

Top EU award for Aijaz Zaka Syed (2007)

European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel on Thursday presented the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize for the Middle East to Khaleej Times journalist and columnist Aijaz Zaka Syed at a grand ceremony at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Louis Michel who presented the prestigious award on behalf of the EU is Belgian and is known for his Israel-bashing statements (European Commissioner Louis Michel: "Israel is ridiculing international humanitarian law" - 2009)  He is the father of the current Belgian P.M. Charles Michel (Israel prevents Belgian minister from entering Gaza - 2010).  Let's see if the EU will issue a rebuke and if the prize will be rescinded.  

Via Elder of Ziyon:

In 2007, Aijaz Zaka Syed won third place in the EU's Lorenzo Natali Media Prize for outstanding reporting on development and poverty eradication. 

Here's what he is writing today: 

The Western media narrative is indeed hopelessly flawed and skewed and is often dictated by its economic and political interests worldwide. It remains hostage to powerful lobbies – especially the all-powerful Israeli lobby.

Clearly, this is an impossibly one-sided, asymmetrical battle. The Muslims feel that they are faced with a giant propaganda machine and its awesome power that has for years controlled their world and dictated its agenda. And their claim and historic sense of perpetually being at the receiving-end is not entirely without basis. 

From the worldwide media empire of the likes of Rupert Murdoch – whose News Corp owns scores of newspapers, television channels and radio stations around the globe – to the stable of Time Warner – which owns some of the world’s most powerful newspapers, magazines and television networks – the lobby’s stranglehold over the global media industry is firm and complete. 

This control even extends to Hollywood, the mighty dream factory that plays a critical role in building and perpetuating stereotypes and age-old myths and biases about ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ in Hollywood-speak. 

Many of the major Hollywood studios and production companies are wholly or partly owned by the Zionist and pro-Israel groups and families. So it is little surprising then that Arabs and Muslims do not exactly come across as the friendliest and most likeable people on earth in films and television shows like ‘24’ and ‘Homeland. 

The fact that some of the top editors, columnists, writers and filmmakers in the US and elsewhere also happen to be pro-Israel also hasn’t helped our cause. Just look at the New York Times and the Washington Post – the two most formidable voices of the US establishment – and the proud line-up of their editors and columnists. From Tom Friedman to Charles Krauthammer, some of the biggest names in the business are staunch supporters of Israel and its divine claim over Arab lands.

If America as the sole superpower and the political and economic master of the free world controls our world, the Zionists, in turn, are seen as controlling Uncle Sam.

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