The New Antisemite

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Europe: US lawmakers pass bill requiring greater oversight on European antisemitism

The US House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation requiring greater State Department reporting on European antisemitism.

The bill, known as the Combating European Anti-Semitism Act of 2017, requires enhanced annual reporting to Congress on antisemitic incidents in Europe, the safety and security of European Jews, and efforts by the US to partner with European entities to combat antisemitism.

“This bill would require the US government — and encourage our global partners — to continue to take a hard look at anti-Semitism in Europe, provide a thorough assessment of trends, and outline what the United States and our partners are doing to meet this challenge,” said a statement by the Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Anti-Semitism, chaired by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.).

The bill will now head to the Senate and eventually President Donald Trump for approval.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Belgium: Antisemitic tags in Brussels

Via Viviane Teitelbaum Facebook account:

Viviane Teitelbaum is a Brussels MP and an alderwoman for Ixelles, one of the Brussels municipalities. She wrote that the municipality is confronted with a spate of racist, antisemitic, homophobic and hate tags.

Belgium: Is Jewish life still possible in Belgium?

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):

The vote by the Parliament of Wallonia in Namur to ban religious slaughter of animals, thus shechitah, is a clear direct attack against the Jewish community, its way of life and above all against religious freedom which is enshrined in the EU fundamental rights.

Of course, some will argue that the measure only affects the Orthodox Jewish community.... This is totally untrue. It affects all Jews, orthodox and secular together. It is a political attack against all the 40,000 Jews living in Belgium.

By voting such a legislation, Walloon legislators have shown a total insensivity towards the Jewish community which is very sensitive because of the past. Yes remember the Nazis also acted to ban the Jewish way of life… (...)

Several months ago, Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel declared that "Belgium without Jews is not Belgium." What does he do to protect the rights of this part oft he population and make that Jews really feel at home in a political environment that is not hostile? A member of his own party co-initiated the hostile legislation...

"It is truly sad that the Belgian Jewish community, which already lives in a constant state of emergency--with military personnel guarding its schools and synagogues following the rise of anti-Semitic attacks and the terror attack against the Brussels Jewish Museum--is now also facing unjust laws from the legislature," righty notes Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute.

So now the real question is: "Are Jews still welcome in Belgium?" Or, "Should Jews still stay in Belgium or leave ?"

Some have already decided and left the country. Others are thinking to do the same. But the remaining Belgian Jews should stand up against this attack against our values and ask to be respected as Jews.

Connected:

Jew asks Jeffrey Goldberg whether he should leave Belgium

600,000 Jews have left Europe in last 25 years

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Denmark set to grant 8.3 million dollars to radical Palestinian NGOs

Via European Jewish Press:

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen is set to announce a grant of 8.3 million dollars to a group that distributes funds to numerous anti-Israel organisations, according to Israeli watchdog NGO Monitor. The grant, to be announced during Samuelson’s visit in Ramallah, will go to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (the Secretariat), a joint funding mechanism of the Danish, Dutch, Swedish, and Swiss governments, operating out of Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. (...)

A large portion of the Secretariat's budget is distributed as core funding to radical Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that incite violence and terrorism, are active in global BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel and engage in legal warfare attempting to indict Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC). These organisations employ demonizing rhetoric, such as making spurious charges of Israeli "apartheid" and "war crimes."Among the groups receiving funds, were Al Haq, a legal organization that has spearheaded accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Israeli security forces, and Adameer, which was launched by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing terrorist group within the PLO. (...)

NGO Monitor has presented its information to the Danish government in December in an appearance before the parliamentary foreign policy committee.

The Danish Foreign Minister was in Israel on Wednesday. During a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the latter told him that the true reason for the absence of a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is incitement. Netanyahu asked that Denmark halt assistance to Palestinian Arab organizations that support BDS activity.

France: Catholic journalist compares Israel to ISIS

Via Honest Reporting:

La Croix is the most influential Catholic newspaper in France. As Honest Reporting stresses its editorial line is hostile to Israel and pro-Palestinian.

La Croix published yesterday an articled penned by Mélinée Le Priol, who used to cover the Palestinian territories for La Croix and is now based in France. The piece is obviously hostile to Israel as the title indicates: "The Catholic Church refuses to consider the Israel-Palestine situation as normal".

Mélinée Le Priol's chose the image below to feature on her Facebook profile. There is no doubt as on which side her sympathies lie.

The image equates the terrible attacks perpetrated by ISIS in Paris on November 13, 2015 with what Palestinians are alleged to endure at the hands of Israel 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (24/7).

La Croix management were contacted for an explanation. Mélinée Le Priol expressed regrets for having posted the image.

But the real question is the following: is a person who has expressed such views qualified to cover the current events affecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Note:

La Croix used to be one of the most antisemitic newspapers in Europe - proudly boasting that it was "the most antisemitism paper in France".

This is the type of slanders against Jews it was keen to publish "... extracts published in the French Catholic newspaper La Croix, (Father Léon) Dehon wrote that Jews were "thirsty for Gold" and that "lust for money is a racial instinct in them"; he called the Talmud "a manual for the bandit, the corrupter, the social destroyer"; and he recommended several measures later adopted by the Nazis, including that Jews wear special markings, live in ghettos and be excluded from land ownership, judgeships and teaching positions."

Sweden puts Israel's MFA and ambassador on social media blacklist (update)

The only ambassador 'mistakenly' blocked by Sweden and accused of engaging in "baiting, threats, hatred and incitement against immigrants, women and LGBTQ-persons, but also against organizations that are committed to human rights"?

Update via The Jewish Chronicle:

Isaac Bachman

A Swedish government agency has apologised for blocking Israel’s ambassador to Stockholm on Twitter, after wrongly flagging the account as having engaged in hate speech.

The Swedish Institute published an apology for blocking Isaac Bachman and thousands of other Twitter users, on its website on Tuesday.

By blocking the accounts of some 14,000 users on Twitter the Swedish Institute prohibited people from mentioning its user name @Sweden and reading its Twitter feed.

The institute confirmed all the blocks had been removed from all accounts that had been suspended. The statement on its website read: “The Swedish Institute apologises to those who have been blocked mistakenly.”

Hungary demands resignation of EU Commissioner for calling Prime Minister Orban an antisemite

Interesting that EU Commissioner Timmermans is so critical of Hungary, when the European institutions welcome terrorist Leila Khaled. Via Against Antisemitism:

Papadimoulis with Khaled on February 10, 2016 Khaled poses in scarf with the PFLP logo: Inside a red circle, a black arrow points from a white semi-circle to a map of Israel and the territories. Below the arrow, on the right side, is a green dot. The arrow symbolizes the return of Palestinian refugees. Red symbolizes the group’s Marxist-Leninist heritage. Description via http://archive.adl.org/terrorism/symbols/popular_front_pa1.html

Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled met with Dimitris Papadimoulis, Syriza MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament, in its headquarters in Brussels on February 10, 2016. Leila Khaled was accompanied by a PFLP delegation. Syriza, a left-wing party that despite its past support for the Palestinians has sought to strengthen ties with the Jewish state, has called Khaled in a statement issued after the meeting an “activist with a historical role in the Palestinian Resistance.” read more.

Via EJC:

Hungary on Friday demanded the resignation of the Senior Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans after the latter called Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban an antisemite for his attacks on the Jewish philanthropist George Soros.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto called the remarks by Timmermans in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit “unfair and unacceptable”, noting that Hungary had “a policy of zero tolerance towards antisemitism.”

Timmermans was referring in particular to the government’s decision to force the closure of the Central European University in Budapest, which is funded by Soros.

Orban has called Soros "an American financial speculator attacking Hungary”.

Asked by Die Zeit about the decision, Timmermans noted “clearly antisemitic accents”.

European Parliament: Second largest political group partners with Arab Israeli political group

For Spanish MP Elena Valenciano Palestinian Arabs in Israel are "second-class citizens".

Via European Jewish Press:

The second largest political group in the European Parliament, the S&D (made up of Socialists and Social Democrats) has decided to sign a partnership agreement with an Arab Israeli political party.

The agreement was announced during the visit in Brussels of a delegation from the Arab Movement for Change party led by is leader Ahmad Tibi who met with the S&D Group president Gianni Pitella.

According to S&D Vice-President Elena Valenciano, "the Palestinian Arab community in Israel has the potential to play a crucial role in achieving a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which makes their involvement in and contribution to the peace process imperative.’’

She continued: "This community is facing many challenges today and continues to fight for its individual and collective rights. Realising this potential requires equal rights for them in their own country, which is not the case today. We are particularly concerned about the new nationality law proposal that is currently discussed in the Knesset, which goes against this principle and would make Palestinian Arabs in Israel second-class citizens even more than they are today."

Ahmad Tibi will participate in the S&D conference on the Middle East peace process which will take place in the European Parliament end of June with the participation of Israeli, Palestinian, European and American speakers.

Ahmad Tibi (Wikipedia):

Tibi is an Anti-Zionist. He supports an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state established alongside Israel. He also opposes Israel's character as a Jewish state, claiming that its self-definition as Jewish is racist, and favors Israel becoming a "state of all its citizens". Accordingly, he supports removing icons that represent the special status of the Jewish majority, including the Law of Return, the flag, and the national anthem. He opposes the recruitment of Arab citizens of Israel into the IDF. Tibi also supports the Palestinian right of return, calling it a prerequisite for reconciliation, but has stated that he believes only a small percentage of Palestinian refugees would actually choose to move to Israel.

Sweden: Article equates the Jewish nature of Israel to the Aryan race-based Nazi Germany and Nazi Adolf Eichmann to Ariel Sharon

Via CIJ News:

Mississauga-based Meshwar newspaper published in its latest issue (182, May 12, 2017, p. 15) an article entitled “On the Occasion of Remembrance Day of the Palestinian Holocaust” penned by Khalid Issa Dhiyabat, a Palestinian national who lives in Sweden.

In a article drafted as a letter to an Israeli Jew, the author claims that the Palestinian people are victims of a Holocaust inflicted on them by the survivors of the Holocaust who escaped Nazism in Europe and settled in the Holy Land (Palestine/ The Land of Israel).

He also implicitly equates the Jewish nature of the State of Israel to the Aryan race-based Nazi Germany and Nazi Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, to former prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon. The following is Khalid Issa Dhiyabat’s article (originally in Arabic):

Ukraine: Vandals desecrate hasidic rebbe's grave

Via CFCA:

Storozhynets - The grave of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Hager, a grandson of the first Vizhnitz Rebbe, known as the Storozhynets Rebbe, was vandalized in the Ukraine. The grave had only last year been located, renovated and reconstructed.

Osama bin Laden’s son calls for attacks on Jews, Americans

Via Times of Israel:

A video released recently by the terror group al-Qaeda purportedly features one of the sons of Osama bin Laden calling for attacks on Jewish targets around the world.

In the 10-minute video, which features images of terror attacks around the world, including several in Israel, Hamza bin Laden encourages Muslims in “America, the West and occupied Palestine” to carry out lone-wolf attacks where they are instead of traveling to Syria or elsewhere.

“Know that inflicting punishment on Jews and crusaders where you are present is more vexing and severe for the enemy,” he says, according to a translation provided in the video, which was distributed by al-Qaeda media arm as-Sahab.

Bin Laden also suggests targets for the attackers, telling followers to “look for Jewish targets everywhere” and if there are none, to attack American or NATO interests.

Denmark: Copenhagen imam accused of calling for killing of Jews

Via BBC:

A video of an imam appearing to call for the murder of Jews in a sermon during Friday prayers at a Copenhagen mosque has caused outrage in Denmark.

Mundhir Abdallah was reported to police after being filmed citing in Arabic a hadith - a teaching of the Prophet Muhammad - considered anti-Semitic.

The hadith says the Day of Judgement "will not come unless the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them".

A Jewish community leader said his words were a "thinly-veiled" threat.

Videos of the sermon were posted on YouTube and Facebook by the Al-Faruq Mosque on Sunday, although Mr Abdallah reportedly gave it on 31 March.

UK: Top new Corbyn aide mocked Queen, Army, National Anthem, compared supporters of Israel to Nazis

Latest via Guido Fawkes: Corbyn ditches new aide after Guido revelations

Via Guido Fawkes:

Jeremy Corbyn has appointed to his inner circle a hard-left trade unionist who has repeatedly mocked the Queen, opposed the National Anthem and attacked the British Army. Guido can reveal Tim Lezard has been hired to advise Corbyn on trade union relations and will work for the Labour leader in the party’s Southside HQ. He has some very bold views…

In a series of inflammatory tweets, staunch republican Lezard wrote that he doesn’t sing the national anthem “because I don’t believe the Queen should reign over us” and boasted of refusing to stand for the anthem at an England football match. Lezard also mocked the army, writing that “paedophiles” should “join the Army and abuse a foreign kid for just £1,000”. (...)

Lezard has also posted a series of controversial tweets about Jews and Israel, including that Holocaust Memorial Day should remember “not just the 6m Jews”, and comparing supporters of Israel to Nazis:

Ukrainian general calls for destruction of Jews

View Jewish Chronicle:

In the latest of a series of highly public antisemitic statements by prominent figures in Ukraine, a retired Ukrainian general affiliated with the country’s intelligence services this week called for the destruction of his country’s Jewish community.

In a post since deleted from Facebook, Vasily Vovk - a general who holds a senior reserve rank with the Security Service of Ukraine, the local successor to the KGB - wrote that Jews “aren't Ukrainians and I will destroy you along with [Ukrainian oligarch and Jewish lawmaker Vadim] Rabinovych. I'm telling you one more time - go to hell, zhidi [kikes], the Ukrainian people have had it to here with you.”

"Ukraine must be governed by Ukrainians,” he wrote.

read ore

France: Macron’s party boots politician over tweets deemed anti-Semitic