The New Antisemite

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Europe: Despite underdevelopment of Palestinian institutions and civil society, Europe 'must' fund them

A consistent Palestinian strategy for seeking statehood while blaming Israel for its absence has been codified through the narrative of “occupation.” The anniversary of the 1967 war brought this to the forefront in endless accusations regarding the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank. There is even an assertion that Gaza is still “occupied.”

Occupation is a Palestinian tool to avoid negotiations, since “no tactical brilliance in negotiations, no amount of expert preparation, no perfect alignment of the stars can overcome that obstacle.” Nor is progress in Palestinian economics, institution-building, or civil society possible, because – as Nabeel Kassis, Palestinian Minister for Finance, put it – “Development under occupation is a charade.” Even the Palestinian Authority’s own repression and crackdown on freedom of the press is, according to Hanan Ashrawi, caused “of course [by] the Israeli occupation.” And despite the palpable underdevelopment of Palestinian institutions and civil society, Europe must keep funding them, since “Preparedness for several possible scenarios with a long-term focus on functioning institutions is what is required from the EU and other donors in Palestine.”

Spain: Terrorism charges filed with Court over Palestinian hijacker

The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit legal-focused think tank, recently submitted a criminal complaint to the National Court of Spain, accusing convicted hijacker Leila Khaled, a member of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of “public exaltation” of terrorism and financing terrorism.

The complaint was submitted in collaboration with the Jewish community of Ibiza, Spain. It details how Khaled used her position in the PFLP to “trivialize the Holocaust, compare Israel to Nazi Germany and advocate for indiscriminate violence against civilians,” the group said in a statement. Additionally, The Lawfare Project has applied for a European warrant for the arrest of Khaled and for her inclusion in the European Union (EU) and Interpol criminal databases.

Khaled, 73, participated in two hijackings; one in 1969 of a TWA flight and the other in 1970 of an El Al plane.

Recently, she was permitted to address the European Parliament at an event called “The role of women in the Palestinian resistance.” The Lawfare Project asserts that Khaled used that platform to “praise extremist violence and demonize Jews.”

“Seeing an infamous terrorist leader welcomed at universities, municipal halls, and even the European Parliament, all while praising violence against civilians, is both despicable and unacceptable,” said Ignacio Wenley Palacios, The Lawfare Project attorney who filed the charges. “Public exaltation and defense of terrorist acts is a serious crime in our country, and we are determined to advance criminal charges on behalf of the victims who are unable to defend themselves.”

Denmark: For the first time troops guard synagogue and Israeli embassy for Yom Kippur

Via The Times of Israel:

The Danish military deployed troops in Copenhagen on Friday to guard the city’s synagogue and the Israeli embassy, hours ahead of the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday.
The deployment was the first by troops in the Danish capital since the Second World War.

The synagogue and the Israeli embassy have been under police protection since two deadly attacks in 2015.

“This is the first time they are used in this type of situation, so it’s unique,” Copenhagen police spokesman Rasmus Bernt Skovsgaard said.

Danish police have protected Jewish institutions in the country since Omar El-Hussein, a Danish citizen of Palestinian origin who swore allegiance to the Islamic State group, opened fire outside the synagogue, killing one Jewish man and wounding two police officers in 2015.

Hours earlier, El-Hussein attacked a cultural centre hosting a free speech and Islam forum attended by the controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who faced death threats for penning a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad.

A filmmaker, Finn Norgaard, was killed in that attack. Police later killed El-Hussein.
The soldiers, who will be deployed until March 2018, are “well-trained and equipped to carry out this type of mission,” Lieutenant Colonel Steen Dalsgaard of the Danish army told AFP.

Police will continue to guard the Jewish museum and the school.

UK: Anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist ran stall at Labour conference

A Labour member who shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blaming Israel for 9/11, ISIS and the Charlie Hebdo attack was allowed to host an exhibition stall inside the party’s conference last month, Guido can reveal. Tapash Abu Shaim was seen manning the Palestine Solidarity Campaign desk inside the conference centre secure zone. Shaim was given a pass despite his social media activities being reported to the party in August and concerns being raised last year over his attendance at Labour conference 2016.

Shaim’s promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracies on social media has been well documented. In the wake of the January 2015 Paris terror attack he posted: “US politician Jack Lindblad claims Charlie Hebdo killings were ‘by US and Mossad’ to keep Israel’s Netanyahu in power”.

In another post he labelled terror group Daesh “ISIS = International Solidarity for Israeli Sentiment”. He shared yet another which read: “confirmed ISIS is a Mossad united state of IsraHELL creation”.

Shaim has also shared articles claiming 9/11 was a “Tel-Aviv based outside job”. He suggested the tragedy was: “a deluge of false flag terrorism.”

Ukraine: Anti-Semitic vandals caught by police

Via Arutz Sheva 7:

Ukrainian Police have arrested an anti-Semitic gang responsible for a long string of attacks against Jewish worshippers at the grave of Rabbi Nachman in Uman. Thousands of Breslov hasidim and others visit Uman for the High Holidays every year.

The gang, which called themselves 'Torpedo', had been receiving instruction from a manager in Russia, who paid them money per attack in an attempt to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment in Ukraine.

The gang was responsible for throwing a grenade at Jews in September, which injured a 13-year-old boy.

In 2016, the gang had thrown a pig’s head and red paint into Rabbi Nachman's grave. Photograph close-ups of the pig’s head showed a swastika carved into the animal’s forehead. The attackers also sprayed tear gas and shouted anti-Semitic epithets during the assault, which left Jewish visitors to the tomb shaken.

France medical brain drain: why are so many doctors leaving for Israel?

Via The Jerusalem Post:

Michel Alimi says he was shopping at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket just a couple of hours before an Islamist struck on January 9, 2015, shooting four Jews dead and holding 16 hostage before being killed by French police. Now, he, his wife and one of his daughters are moving to Israel.

The 62-year-old general practitioner says the attack, coming after other bloody instances of anti-Jewish violence by French Muslims, has sparked a wave of departures to Israel, including about 50 families from his own neighborhood of Saint-Mandé, on the edge of Paris. (...)

But it’s not just the dangers of Paris life that have motivated hundreds of Jewish medical professionals to join thousands of other French Jews in moving to Israel. It’s also a slew of recent rule changes by Israeli authorities that will make the transition easier for people like him and daughter Aurelia, a 33-year-old pediatrician who specializes in pediatric oncology, who are preparing, or considering, aliya, according to Israeli officials in France and Israel.

France is recognized as having among the highest standards of medical care in the world, and there are thousands of Jewish doctors there, including many who have held prominent positions. André Lichwitz was Charles de Gaulle’s personal physician and Prof. Pierre Aboulker performed the French president’s prostate operation.

Dr. José Aboulker, a relative of Pierre, was a World War II hero who infiltrated Nazi occupied France as a secret agent and later headed the emergency medical unit that followed de Gaulle when he was targeted for assassination. (...)

Yet, immigration by French-trained medical professionals to Israel has long been problematic because of difficulties in getting their credentials recognized. Many French Jewish doctors have long alleged that the hurdles were placed by organizations of Israeli doctors to discourage competition.

Israeli officials say this is no longer a problem.

Ariel Kandel, former head of the Jewish Agency in France, is now director general of Qualita, a Jerusalem-based group aimed at smoothing the arrival in Israel for French Jews. (...)

Official Israeli figures show that 1,166 French medical professionals have made aliya since 2012. Among them are 340 doctors, as well as dentists, pharmacists, optometrists and other medical and paramedical specialists. The only countries from which more medical professionals arrived during the same period were Russia with 1,776 and strife-torn Ukraine with 1,186. By comparison, the United States, which has the Diaspora’s largest community, contributed 668 medical professionals.

Austria and Germany: Iranian mosques stoke genocidal antisemitism against Israel

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Iranian regime-controlled mosques in Vienna and Hamburg stoke genocidal antisemitism against Israel, while the Imam Ali mosque in the Austrian capital propagates discrimination against women, according to a government report and statements.

The Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) said last week, in its report probing 16 mosques that in the Iranian regime-controlled Imam Ali mosque, that “the mosque is entirely on the same line as Iran’s state doctrine. Israel is not, regardless of its boundaries, recognized.
The goal is the destruction of the Jewish state.”

In one of the prayer services observed at the Imam Ali mosque in February, the cleric publicized a conference for the support of the Palestinians under the motto: “Palestine is the home of the Palestinians.”

The imam complained during the service that the Islamic world was so occupied with its own problems that it had lost sight of the Palestinians and “negotiates with the ruthless usurper.” While Israel was not mentioned by name, the pejorative descriptions are believed to have targeted the Jewish state.

Belgium suspends PA construction projects after Palestinian school renamed for notorious terrorist

After complaints from Jewish groups, the Belgian government is now dealing with the problem, but will no doubt keep channelling aid to the Palestinians regardeless of the fact that they glorify terrorism. The Belgian government claims it clueless about the name change.

Related: School built with Belgian aid renamed for mass-murdering terrorist

Via The Algemeiner:

The Belgian government is suspending any efforts to construct or furnish Palestinian schools, after one built with Brussels’ aid was renamed in honor of a mass-murdering terrorist, The Algemeiner has learned.

Located in the southern West Bank, the school’s controversial name pays homage to Dalal Mughrabi, who led a massacre of 38 people — including 13 children — near Tel Aviv in 1978. Its logo also includes a map erasing Israel, while its Facebook page has posted pictures glorifying Palestinian attackers.

A plaque at the school, which was first identified by the monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch, notes that it was established with Belgian support.

Didier Vanderhasselt, a spokesperson for the Belgian foreign ministry, confirmed to The Algemeiner that the school’s construction was supported by the Belgian government between 2012 and 2013.

“When the school building was handed over to the local community in 2013 it was called ‘Beit Awwa Basic Girls School,’ subsequently the name was changed to ‘Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School,’” Vanderhasselt explained. “The Belgian government was unaware of this name change.”

He added that Belgium “unequivocally condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks,” and “will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way.”

“Belgium has immediately raised this issue with the Palestinian Authority and is awaiting a formal response,” Vanderhasselt said. “In the meantime Belgium will put on hold any projects related to the construction or equipment of Palestinian schools.”

Belgium: School built with Belgian aid renamed for mass-murdering terrorist

Unsurprisingly, the Belgian government did absolutely nothing about this...

Via The Algemeiner:

The Belgian government is being urged to take action after a Palestinian school that was built with its funding was renamed in honor of a mass-murdering terrorist.

The Beit Awwa Basic Girls School was established in the southern West Bank “through a fund from the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium and through the Belgian Development Agency BTC,” according to a plaque at the school, which was first identified by the monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Now known as the Dalal Mughrabi Elementary Mixed School, it was renamed by the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Education in honor of the Palestinian terrorist who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre. Thirty-eight people — including 13 children — were killed and over 70 were wounded in the attack, which turned Mughrabi into a venerated hero among Palestinians.

The school’s logo also features a map of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, all depicted as a single territory. Its Facebook page has posted pictures glorifying Palestinian attackers, including Adi Hashem al Masalmeh, who was fatally shot after stabbing an Israeli soldier in October 2015.

Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, told The Algemeiner that “the Palestinian Authority under President Abbas has established a culture of incitement that fuels terror and hatred, making it impossible to see how he can ever lead any serious peace negotiations.”

“By naming schools after terrorists, the PA is indoctrinating even little children, apparently determined to ensure this conflict will last well into the next generation,” he continued.

Schwammenthal called on the Belgian government to “investigate this issue and insist that the PA rename the school immediately.”

France: 10-year-old Jewish girl assaulted by classmates

Via BNVCA (National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism):

A ten-year-old child was violently assaulted by classmates at a primary school in the 18th arrondissement of Paris on the grounds of her Jewishness.

According to a complaint filed with the police by the girl Ness C. and her mother, the 10-year-old girl was subjected to insults, beatings and punchings several times and for several consecutive days.

The girl was taken to hospital suffering from pain in her abdomen and ribs. She was signed off from school for ten days.

The BNVCA asked the police to make every effort to ascertain whether the child had been attacked on anti-Semitic grounds and if so for this fact to be taken into account in the course of the investigation.

The mother complained that the school had failed to protect her child and to sanction the young offenders.

The Paris Rectorate was contacted by the BNVCA and is investigating the matter. The Rectorate has acceded to the request by the mother for the child to be transferred to another school.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Greece: Exhibition banner vandalized with antisemitic graffiti

Via Against Antisemitism:

Thessaloniki, September 2017 / Photo courtesy of Iosif Vaena

Τhe exhibition “Shared Sacred Sites in the Balkans and the Mediterranean”, a collaboration between the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and the Municipality of Thessaloniki, opened on September 23rd.

Only hours after the exhibition opening, the banner outside the venue had been vandalized with antisemitic (“Jews out”) and far-right (“Fatherland, religion, family”) graffiti.

Swiss MP: ‘Jews had a better chance of survival at Auschwitz than pigs in farms'

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Fricker’s alleged belittling of the Holocaust triggered outrage in Switzerland, causing him to resign on Saturday.

Swiss Green Party MP Jonas Fricker said during a debate over animal protections in the National Council legislative body on Thursday that Jews deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp had a better chance of surviving than pigs sent to industrial livestock farming.

Fricker’s alleged belittling of the Holocaust triggered outrage in Switzerland, causing him to resign on Saturday.

He said on Thursday that “the people who were deported there [Nazi extermination camps] had a chance to survive. The pigs go to a certain death.”

“You know the photographs, the documentary films from Europe that show the unspeakable industry livestock farming – they are transported to a certain death,” Fricker continued, adding that the last time he recalled seeing a documentary about the transport of pigs, photographs of the mass deportation from Schindler’s List came to mind.

Norway: What the Norwegian elections mean for Israel and the Jews

Via Mosaic Magazine and The Jerusalem Post (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

From 2005 to 2013, writes Manfred Gerstenfeld, Norway’s government was the most hostile toward Israel in all of Europe, and both hostility toward Israel and outright anti-Semitism were on the rise in the country as a whole. The situation has improved since 2013, when the Norwegian Conservative party won an electoral victory, ending eight years of the Labor party’s rule. Against most predictions, the recent elections returned the Conservatives to office. Gerstenfeld comments:

[If] the Labor leader, Jonas Gahr Stoere, would have become prime minister, (...) it is likely that Norway would have joined Sweden sooner or later in recognizing a [Palestinian state]. (...)

[The previous Labor prime minister] was not so much an anti-Israeli inciter himself as he was tolerant of such incitement by his party and allies. At several venues where he spoke, there were brutal verbal attacks on Israel while he remained silent. By not confronting these attacks he condoned them. As for his successor Stoere, his anti-Israelism reached an extreme point when he wrote a blurb legitimizing a book by two Norwegian Hamas supporters [who] claimed that Israel entered the Gaza Strip in 2009 to kill women and children.

[But] Stoere always played both sides. In January 2009, the most anti-Semitic riots that ever took place in Norway happened in Oslo. Muslims attacked pro-Israel demonstrators with potentially lethal projectiles. Stoere visited the Oslo synagogue afterward to express his solidarity with the Jewish community. (...)

Many often underestimate the importance of Norway because the country is not a member of the European Union and has only about 5 million inhabitants. Yet its huge gas and oil income has enabled it to make important donations abroad, including to Palestinian causes.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

UK: School cancels Balfour poetry contest that fails to mention Israel

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

A Kent grammar school has abruptly withdrawn from hosting a poetry competition marking the Balfour Declaration centenary which only asked for submissions on the theme of Palestine.

St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington announced in its June newsletter that it would hold an international poetry competition on November 2.

The competition, sponsored by The Balfour Project, Shortlands Poetry Circle and Bromley International Cluster, is open to students aged between 10- and 18-years-old from “all faiths and none”, and will award £500 to the winner.

The school was contacted by Board of Deputies vice president Sheila Gewolb over why Israel was not mentioned.

Headmaster Aydin Önaç told Mrs Gewolb that the school was “simply hosting the competition”. (...)

But when contacted by the JC on Wednesday, the headmaster said the school was no longer hosting the event. He declined to comment further.

Europe: Why did the European Parliament embrace a Palestinian terrorist who trivializes the Holocaust?

Via The Algemeiner (Daniel S. Mariaschin):

If there was ever a reminder that Europe is losing its way, the appearance this week at the European Parliament by convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled is surely it.

Khaled, a major operative in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was involved in a wave of hijackings of commercial airliners in 1969 and 1970, most notably a TWA flight from Rome to Athens and Tel Aviv, and an El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York City.

The PFLP, headed by George Habash, helped to invent modern terror. Its curriculum vitae is filled with enough hijackings, bombings (suicide and otherwise), drive-by shootings and kidnappings to fill a good-sized bookshelf. It has partnered with like-minded organizations, such as the Japanese Red Army and Colombia’s guerrilla army FARC, and though Marxist in orientation, the group has enjoyed a relationship with terrorism’s biggest backer today — theocratic Iran. The PFLP’s targets have invariably been civilians: in 2014, for example, its operatives attacked worshippers with axes and knives at a Jerusalem synagogue, killing four and wounding seven.

The PFLP has been on the European Union’s terrorism list since 2012 (decades after the organization came into existence). And yet, Khaled was a featured speaker this week on a program at the European Parliament, titled, “The Role of Women in the Palestinian Popular Resistance.” Khaled received a two-minute standing ovation, preceded by this introduction: “We…have a living legend here with us today, who we can call the Che Guevara of Palestine, Leila Khaled.” The Venezuelan ambassador, who was also present, was introduced as an “honored guest.”

Khaled’s speech was not about empowerment and opportunity. Instead, it was a nonstop screed filled with time-tested Palestinian canards about Zionism — and about Jews.

“The Holocaust,” she said, “is only pain to the Jews. They have monopolized the pain and have played the role of the victims. … [D]on’t you think that what happened in Auschwitz is comparable to what happens in Gaza today?”

The Zionist movement, she stated, “aligns with all the capitalists in the world,” and she added that “in the next 100 years, they [the Zionists] will be able to dominate the world economy.” (...)

The Khaled event at the European Parliament was not something hidden or unknown to those who peruse the international body’s weekly calendar. Someone made a decision to approve its being placed on the schedule. (...)

Yet with so many EU heads of government, foreign ministers and other officials proffering comments about the need to defeat the growing threat of terrorism on the continent, where are those voices expressing outrage over the invitation to a convicted terrorist — who remains a “member of the political bureau” of one of the deadliest of terror organizations — to speak at one of the EU’s central institutions

In trying to explain this, words like “hypocrisy” and “indifference” come to mind, along with simple political correctness. But it is more than that: Haven’t those in leadership positions in Brussels learned anything from decades of violence espoused by Khaled, her contemporaries and now, by Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIS? If nothing else, have they no self-respect?

The recent list of terrorist attacks in Europe is long, and growing. At the EU, some may have short memories, but surely the families of victims in Paris, Nice, London, Brussels, Copenhagen and so many other places, do not.

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