France: University of La Sorbonne in Paris Jewish students chapter office vandalized

Via European Jewish Press:

If Sacha Ghozlan had any doubts about whether there would be more anti-Semitic attacks in France following the March murder of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, he quickly got an answer.

Ghozlan, the president of the French Jewish Students Union (UEJF), planned to attend a rally on March 28 with more than 10,000 others in response to the murder of Mireille Knoll, who was found stabbed 11 times in her Paris apartment a few days earlier.

Hours before the gathering, Jewish students at the University of La Sorbonne in Paris found that its UEJF chapter office had been vandalized, with materials tossed on the floor and stepped on and “Death to Israel” and “Zionist racist anti-goy office,” written in French on the walls, according to videos of the office.

“At that particular time, it was very difficult to organize a gathering of the non-Jewish students,” said Ghozlan. “They refused to release a public statement [condemning the vandalism]because they didn’t want to be involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” (...)

After the vandalism, the UEJF wanted to get political leaders’ attention, so they commissioned a survey that measures attitudes among French people towards Israel and Jews. The study by the Institut français d’opinion publique, a market research firm, found that 54 percent of the respondents ages 18 to 24 believe that “Zionism is an international organization that seeks to influence the world and society in favor of Jews.” 

Fifty-two percent considered Zionism a racist ideology, and 57 percent had a bad image of Israel.(…)  

Jews in France and elsewhere in Europe now face not only traditional anti-Semitism from the far-right, but also from far-left parts of European society and from Muslim immigrant communities, according to Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, director of the American Jewish Committee-Europe. The focal point is a “biased view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

She would like to see European governments adopt a “zero-tolerance policy” towards anti-Semitism.

“There seems to be a discrepancy between the words and the actual actions,” she said. “You will have very strong words from the president, from the prime minister, on anti-Semitism, but then you will have small incivilities or anti-Israeli demonstrations in the streets of Paris that suddenly turn sour.”

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Austria: Holocaust memorial in Vienna defaced

Via reader:

There is a small memorial exhibit at the subway station Herminengasse in Vienna, for the Jews rounded up and sent to death and concentration camps during the Holocaust. Although this exhibit only opened in October 2017, it already has been defaced twice, this time with "gaza" spray-painted in blue. Workers tried to wash it off but it is still quite visible.

Photos of the recent defacement (the squiggly black lines are part of the original exhibit):

Europe: Netanyahu refused to meet EU's Mogherini

Via i24NEWS:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed a request from the European Union to meet its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini next week.

Mogherini was scheduled to speak at a conference in Jerusalem on Monday but subsequently cancelled her appearance, the event's hosts, the American Jewish Committee, confirmed to Hadashot News.

The reason was that Netanyahu's office ignored a request by Mogherini for the two to meet while she was in town.

Diplomatic sources confirmed to i24NEWS that Mogherini's planned visit was not a state one.

The EU's foreign service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but reportedly told the channel that the cancellation was due to scheduling conflicts.

Israel frequently clashes with the EU's diplomats, who in theory represent the united positions of the bloc's member states. An unnamed Israeli government source accused Mogherini of holding positions Israel finds "hostile". 

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Germany: Jewish teen was listening to Hebrew song before Arab men attacked him in Berlin

Via EJP:

Because he was listening to a Hebrew song on his cellphone, a Jewish teen and two of his friends were attacked in Berlin by a group of Arabs, the Bild newspaper reported.

The attack happened at a train station late on Saturday.

According to the report, the Arab assaillants said they were from the Gaza Strip.

The 17-year-old teen, identified as Jonathan, told the daily Israel Hayom newspaper that he and his two non-Jewish friends, of the same age, were waiting for a train when he played Israeli singer Omer Adam’s hit song 'Tel Aviv, Ya Habibi, Tel Aviv' on his phone.

According to the Israeli teen, the Arab men shouted at him: "Hebrew music? For 70 years you are murdering children. Berlin is our city now and here we don’t listen to fucking Jewish music."

After pointing out that just as they can play Arabic music he can listen to Israeli music, Jonathan said, he and his friends moved away from the group but they were followed and threatened them: "If I had a knife, I would kill you…"

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Ireland: Leila Khaled, a convicted plane hijacker, to speak at a teachers’ club in Dublin

Via The Times of Israel:

Israel has lodged an official protest to Ireland over the invitation of Leila Khaled, a convicted Palestinian plane hijacker who has continued to advocate violence against Israelis, to speak at a teachers’ club in Dublin belonging to the Irish National Teachers’ Organization.  

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan sent the protest letter to Dublin’s education minister, Richard Bruton, demanding that he cancel Khaled’s appearance, Hadashot TV reported Thursday. Khaled is scheduled to speak via video link in a public talk hosted at the club by the socialist groups Anti Imperialist Action Ireland and Lasair Dhearg.  

“It is hard to understand why Ireland, which has also experienced many terror attacks, would agree to honor a terrorist at an educational event, who expresses solidarity with terror attacks and views them as a legitimate tool,” Erdan wrote.

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UK: Jeremy Corbyn is pitting Britain's Muslims against Jews

The Telegraph (Ed Husain):

In recent days, we have seen the worst elements of Jeremy Corbyn. Behind the veneer of an affable, bearded chap I see a sinister Marxist who believes in class warfare and also in pitting Britain’s Muslims against Jews.

Under Corbyn, the Labour party has a serious and sustained problem with Jew-hatred. Rightly, for months, there has been scrutiny of increased instances of anti-Semitism, with suspensions and investigations including the departure of Corbyn’s long-term ally Ken Livingstone. Lifting from the Soviet Union’s playbook of diversionary tactics, Corbyn has now accused the Conservatives of “Islamophobia”. This is the worst form of whataboutery, but I believe there is something darker at...

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Sweden: Foreign Minister tells Palestinians: ‘We will fight with you and for you’

Via JTA:

Sweden’s foreign minister told Palestinians that her country will “fight with you and for you,” prompting pro-Israel activists to accuse her of encouraging violence against Israelis.

Margot Wallstrom, whom Israel has accused of pursuing hostile policies against the Jewish state, made the pledge last month during a visit to an exhibition at the Palestinian Authority representative’s office in Stockholm.

“You know how much we care about Palestine, you know that we will continue to hopefully fight with you and for you,” Wallstrom said, adding: “And we will fight for a two-state solution, we will remain a close friend.”

The Sweden-Israel Friendship Association said in a statement last week that Wallstrom’s language, which is unusual for a top diplomat of a major member of the European Union, suggests that “the government of Sweden has placed itself on the ‘Palestinian’ side in their armed struggle to wipe out Israel.”

But a spokesperson for Wallstrom told JTA that her referencing of “fighting” was for “a negotiated two-state solution,” and that the “security of both Israel and Palestine is fundamental to Sweden.”

Sweden is the only country in the European Union that recognizes a state it calls Palestine.

“Palestinians walk around with keys in their pockets to homes that they once owned,” she said in reference to the Palestinians’ aspiration for what they call “return” to places inside Israel that some 700,000 Palestinians left during the 1947-48 war that led to Israel’s creation.

“It is so important to know your history, to honor and to cherish your history,” Wallstrom said, but “also to think about the future.”

In 2015, Wallstrom said that terrorist attacks in Paris by radical Islamists were rooted in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing protests from Israel.

Germany: Anti-Semitism In Rap, A Loaded Question

Via World Crunch:

Artists are now using anti-Semitism and Islamism to shock, and that’s not surprising. But if both listeners and rappers started to finally take music seriously, this could change.

Since Germany's top music prize, the Echo awards, honored the rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang, there has been a misunderstanding that both sides of the debate have somehow agreed upon: that anti-Semitism is part of hip-hop culture. Some intend it as criticism; others want to defend the two rappers. But no matter how you mean it, it’s bullshit. Too many who are now talking and writing about the issue have no idea what rap is, to begin with.

In German rap, anti-Semitic content became visible only with the rise of rappers such as Bushido and Haftbefehl, around ten years ago. Kool Savaş, who started in the 1990s and is a pioneer of battle-rap in Germany, raps transphobic, homophobic and misogynist lyrics, but has never used anti-Semitic words. One might ask why so few have been upset about his words. But one thing is certain: The claim that anti-Semitism is part of rap is simply not true. This trend is relatively new.

It was born and grew because rap was a relatively unnoticed genre for a long time. In Germany, it was also considered to be the music of the lower classes and adolescents. This lack of interest from the public allowed the formation of a semi-criminal parallel community with its own "code of honor" — or at least one that pretends to be criminal, because that belongs to the bad boy image and offers street credibility. Much of it was and is only for show.

...

The neo-gangsters from Frankfurt and North Rhine-Westphalia have managed in recent years to again make woman the object of their degrading lyrics. The arguments that one hears defending misogynist rappers are now used to brush aside allegations of anti-Semitism: First, rap only depicts society; secondly, only the musical ego is speaking here, not the private person. Both arguments fail to take rap seriously enough and underestimate its influence.

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Belgium: Anti-Semitic caricature removed from textbook

Background: Belgium: Antisemitic Latuff cartoon published in textbook

Via Ynet:

Two months after Ynet first made public a Belgian textbook contained a caricature that could be construed as anti-Semitic, the country's Education Ministry announced Thursday that the upcoming edition of the book will be published without the offensive drawing.

A letter forwarded by Belgian Education Minister Hilde Crevits Thursday to attorney Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum—who first exposed the story—notified the lawyer that after a probe and a talk with the book's publisher, the caricature will be removed starting with the book's next edition.

The minister added that, "One of the education system's goals is to bring up the younger generation to become respectable, informed citizens" and that the Flemish government only set a bar on academic achievement, leaving selection of appropriate books to each school.

The matter initially came to light in late March, when the International Legal Forum NGO was informed by parents from Bruges of a geography textbook intended for 15 year olds and approved by the country's education system.

The chapter in which the caricature appeared dealt with purported inequality in water distribution between Israelis and Palestinians residing in the West Bank. The caricature showed an overweight Jew with traditional Jewish payos (or sidelocks) asleep in a bathtub filled with water, contrasted with an old Palestinian woman with an empty water bucket.

The cartoon—which may have come from the international human rights group itself—carried a caption that read, "Amnesty International: Israel is denying Palestinians access to adequate water … While settlers enjoy lush lawns and swimming pools!"

Attorney Segal, who is deeply involved in the international struggle against the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was astounded by a copy of the textbook she obtained and consequently sent a scathing letter to the Belgian education minister demanding the anti-Semitic caricature be removed summarily. 

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Sweden: Jewish group shuts down after Nazi threats

Via The Local:

Sweden’s most northerly Jewish community group has closed down following a succession of threats from neo-Nazi groups.

The Jewish Association in the city of Umeå shut itself down at a board meeting at the end of May.

“It’s a heavy blow. I’m very sad about it, and have even shed a few tears,” said Carinne Sjöberg, the Liberal Party politician who chaired the association. “In some way, it feels like we lost.”

In a tweet, Sweden's Jewish Youth Association thanked Sjöberg and other board members for the work they had done since the group was established in 2010.

"This means that there is no Jewish organisation in Sweden north of Uppsala," it wrote.

 The association moved out of its premises in April last year, after swastikas were painted on the walls alongside antisemitic stickers which included pictures of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the text ‘we know where you live’.

Association members also received threatening emails and Sjöberg was even visited at her home.

According to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the threats came predominantly from the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement, which has been growing in strength in recent years, and is very active in northern Sweden.

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UK: Jews worry too much...

Via Weekly Standard (Irwin M. Stelzer):

Jews worry too much. That seems to be the point of a recent article in the otherwise sensible Economist. Sure, two German rappers won that country’s highest music award by bragging their torsos are “better defined than an Auschwitz inmate’s” and vowing to “make another Holocaust.” But, says the Economist, the intended targets of this aspirational Holocaust were “unclear” and could “possibly [be] rival hip-hop artists.”

No reason to worry then that Germans were not alone in figuring out “whom.” The rappers’ invitation to another Holocaust was broadcast on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

There’s more. Pears Institute scholar David Feldman is quoted by the magazine for the proposition that “competitive victimhood” prompts “claims of oppression by Jews, Muslims, and other groups [to] step on each other’s toes.” Anti-Semitic, is merely part of a “general wave of chauvinistic sentiment” that has also seen hostility towards Muslims, gays, and Roma to rise. The comfort that Jews should take from this is similarly unclear.

In the past, French, German, and other European Jews could look to a short hop across the channel for a safe haven. Now, not so much. 

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Italians trained to fight Israel in Palestinian refugee camps, former Arafat adviser says

Things don't really change in Europe, do they? In 2018, 25% of Italians do not want Jews as family members

Via La Stampa:

During the Seventies, thousands of Italians went to Palestinian refugee camps to give their help, according to a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Bassam Abu Sharif, a historic member of PFLP who later became advisor of Yasser Arafat, has been heard by the parliamentary inquiry committee into the death of Aldo Moro, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, who was kidnapped and killed by the Red Brigades in 1978. Bassam Abu Sharif said to the committee also that there was a non-aggression pact between the Italian secret services and the Palestinian fedayeen.

«The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had special relations with some of the revolutionary groups emerging in Europe after 1968. These forces did not know how to oppose capitalism, and we taught them how to do it. It was part of the fight against the imperialism that supported Israel. Thousands of Italian young women and men came to Palestinian refugee camps in order to help in different ways, in the schools, in the clinics, or in combat», Bassam Abu Sharif said to the committee. This is the first time explicit mention is made of the presence of Italians in the Palestinian refugee camps forty years ago.

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Italy: 25% of Italians do not want Jews as family members

Via The Times of Israel:

Nearly a quarter of British respondents to a poll on attitudes to minorities in Western Europe said they would be unwilling to accept Jews as family members.

The Pew Research Center’s report titled “Being Christian in Western Europe” was published Wednesday and contains results from interviews with more than 24,000 randomly selected adults in 15 countries. In the United Kingdom, 23 percent of 1,841 respondents interviewed said “no” when asked “Would you be willing to accept Jews as members of your family?” It was the second-highest highest proportion of naysayers, directly after Italy’s 25 percent. The poll has a margin of error of up to 3 percent. (…)

The statement that “Jews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in” received the highest levels of agreement in Portugal and Spain, with 36 and 31 percent of 1,501 and 1,499 respondents in those two countries, respectively. Next were Italy, Belgium and Norway, with 31, 28 and 25 percent, respectively.

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France supports a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza

Another illustration of the "politique arabe" of France. "At the UN, France, China, and Russia were among the countries that voted in favor of the draft put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries. Four countries, Ethiopia, the UK, the Netherlands, and Poland abstained."

Via The Times of Israel:

Israeli deputy minister Michael Oren on Saturday slammed France for supporting a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, saying Paris was hypocritical for supporting an “anti-Semitic resolution.”

Oren’s comments, in a tweet, prompted outrage from France’s ambassador in Israel Hélène Le Gal who accused Oren of not even reading the resolution and “insulting France.”

On Friday the United States vetoed an Arab-backed UN draft resolution calling for protective measures for the Palestinians that won backing from ten countries at the Security Council. A US resolution condemning Hamas also failed.

‏ “Praise for the US for vetoing Security Council resolution on Gaza that didn’t mention Hamas and condemned the IDF for defending Israel,” tweeted Oren, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office who is responsible for diplomacy.

“Shame on France for supporting it. French government cannot say it’s against anti-Semitism and vote for this anti-Semitic resolution,” said Oren, a former ambassador in Washington.

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French-Muslim activist denies tweet of famous Jews is ‘hit list’

Via The Times of Israel:

A French Muslim anti-colonialism activist on Thursday denied posting a “hit list” of Jewish groups and individuals while referencing a popular TV character.

Sihame Assbague last week posted a list of names of individuals and groups, accompanied by a GIF of a character from the series “Game of Thrones,” from a scene in which she lists the people she intends to kill.

It included the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities; the Socialist Jewish politician Julien Dray; former prime minister Manuel Valls — a supporter of Israel, whose ex-wife and children are Jews; and the radical left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is not Jewish.

But Assbague told the Times of Israel on Thursday that her post “was absolutely not a ‘hit list,'” and was a joking reference to a meme used by many online to denote “people or things that have upset them.” She said the names on her list were those of people or bodies who “distinguished themselves by their Islamophobia.” 

The tweet by Assbague — whom the LICRA civil rights watchdog has accused frequently of spreading racist views on Jews – prompted a reply from the official Twitter account of Al Kanz, which is one of France’s best-read Muslim news websites.

The Al Kanz staffer who wrote the reply added nine more names, including the Jewish philosophers Raphael Enthoven and Alain Finkielkraut; the French-Jewish historian Eric Zemmour; the French-Jewish journalist Elisabeth Levy; and several other writers with critical views on Islam and radical Islam.

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