I've been informed by one of the volunteers that the story as it appeared in various news sites is "full of inaccuracies, fabricated quotes and made up story lines".
When and if I get an account of what did happen, I'll update.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Poland: "It’s the same old anti-Semitism"
Via Haaretz:
Though the newly elected government seems to be invested in only one narrative concerning Poland’s wartime past, some don’t see the related anti-Semitic activity as anything new.read more
“First of all, there is no ‘latest wave,’” says Konstanty Gebert, a Warsaw-based journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish Jewish activist and author of “Living in the Land of Ashes.” “It’s the same old anti-Semitism, given more prominence by the fact that its supporters are now part of the victorious political camp. There will be some more of it, in Hungarian style, but it is not an autonomous feature. Rather, attitudes toward Jews are an indicator of broader positions on the democracy/authoritarianism divide.”
And most see the subject of the partisans’ relationship to Jews as part of that fault line.
“It’s a taboo topic. Many of the pogroms were carried out by partisans who are considered national heroes here,” says Zuzanna Radzick, a board member of Forum for Dialogue, the largest Polish nongovernmental organization dedicated to Jewish-Polish reconciliation through various initiatives. “The next big discussion in this country will be about the underground.”
Spain: Santiago de Compostela city council joins the BDS campaign
Via CFCA:
Santiago de Compostela - On Tuesday 10 November, Santiago city council passed a motion declaring itself a space free from discrimination against the Palestinian people and supporting the BDS Campaign.
The city councillor Concepción Fernández, from the Compostela Aberta municipal group, defended the motion put to the seven main cities in Galiza by BDS-Galiza. The ruling electoral alliance in the City Hall, Compostela Aberta, and two of the groups in the opposition, the Socialist Party (PSdeG-PSOE) and the Galizan Nationalist Bloc (BNG) voted in favour, while the People’s Party (PP) abstained.
read more
In Europe, manipulating Israeli democracy is basic policy
Arutz Sheva reports:
The practice among many European Union European states to fund extremist anti-Zionist groups inside Israel is so entrenched that it has become an integral part of those countries' foreign policies, a leading expert has said.
Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the NGO Monitor watchdog which tracks extremist anti-Israel NGOs, explained to Arutz Sheva that that troubling fact was the reason behind his group's surprise withdrawal of its previous firm opposition to the so-called Transparency Bill, which was officially approved by the Israeli government yesterday.
The bill, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), is the latest incarnation of a string of similar, failed legislative proposals to expose the degree to which foreign - primarily European - states are attempting to impose their policies on the State of Israel by funneling tens of millions of euros annually to extremist left and Arab NGOs inside Israel. It would mandate NGOs which receive more than 50% of their funding from foreign states to reveal their sources of income, and with approval from the Ministerial Committee on Legislation it now seems highly likely that the bill will become law once it comes up for a vote in the Knesset.
[...] Steinberg explained that the twin obstacles of bureaucracy-induced ignorance and outright anti-Semitism meant EU states were unlikely to come round any time soon - and that in the meantime Israel has every right to protect its sovereignty in the face of a seemingly-endless assault-by-proxy.
"In Europe, while governments provide tens of millions of NIS every year to Israeli, Palestinian and other political NGOs, the top officials, MPs, journalists, and others are largely unaware of the amounts, activities, or agendas of the groups that receive taxpayer funds," Steinberg explained.
"In many cases, the funding process is entirely secret in order to prevent criticism, and even ambassadors to Israel from European countries are not involved in or informed of NGO funding decisions made in their home countries, and, in the case of the EU, in Brussels," he added.
Read more.
Hungary: Youths shout “Dirty Jews” and “You killed Jesus” at Jewish youths
Via Everyday Antisemitism, FAA:
Late last night, a group of six people approached a group of Jewish youths on the corner of one of Budapest’s main shopping streets and shouted “Dirty Jews” and “You killed Jesus”. After a short argument, the aggressors left the scene. No passersby intervened.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
UK: Activist expelled from Labour Party for “Jewish blood” tweets
As Everyday Antisemitism points out, the Labour Party has yet to do anything about MP Gerald Kaufman who claimed that Israel is fabricating terror attacks in order to kill Palestinians and that the Conservative Party is controlled by Jews who decide the party's position on Israel.
Via Everyday Antisemitism:
Labour activist Scott Nelson has been expelled by the Labour Party over a series of antisemitic tweets.
Nelson, who describes himself as a supporter of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, sometimes tweets to his more than 21,000 Twitter followers about Middle East politics, and it was his tweets on this subject which led to his expulsion from the Labour Party.
Nelson said: “Having thought about this matter, I accept that I used clumsy and inappropriate wording concerning the Jewish heritage of Tesco and M&S by mentioning Jewish blood and my comments about Blairites being purged for disloyalty to Jeremy Corbyn.”
Nelson had tweeted about Tesco and Marks & Spencer, saying: “They have Jewish blood” as early as October 2014, but it appears to have been his comments this month about “appalling conditions working for Jewish companies” that caused the Labour Party to expel him.
read more
France: Antisemitic tags in Paris
JSS News has published photos of two antisemitic inscriptions seen yesterday in Paris.
"Fuck the Jewish Community" at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is also a tourist landmark.
"Israel sterilizes black people" at Saint Lazare, passage Caumartin.
JSS News points out that such incidents have become so common that nobody had bothered to remove the one from the Sacré Coeur...
Monday, December 28, 2015
France: Paris photo exhibit glorifies Palestinian terrorism, Jewish group says
JTA reports:
Read more.
French Jews accused the medical group Doctors without Borders of glorifying Palestinian terrorism in a photo exhibition on militants, which opened with municipal assistance.
Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, last week asked the municipality of Paris to deny its facilities for the group’s exhibition titled “In Between Wars.” It nonetheless opened on Dec. 23 at the Maison des Métallos, a cultural space that belongs to the municipality and is funded by the local government.
The exposition “can only augment anti-Semitic violence and the terrorist threat,” CRIF wrote in a statement. On Twitter, Cukierman wrote: “We are crying still for 130 dead but for Doctors without Borders, terrorist are martyrs. Shocking.”
The exhibition features pictures and informational text on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A text attached to the exhibit says the dispute began with Zionism’s “goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine.” The word is a reference to the British Mandate of Palestine, but in France today is mostly used to designate the West Bank and Gaza.
Part of the exhibition focuses on a 26-year-old Nablus resident who has been incarcerated in an Israeli jail three times and whose brother is still imprisoned. His father also was jailed and all his uncles, one of them for life – a penalty which is usually given for murder. The text does not say why they were imprisoned but described Israeli jails as having “degrading, humiliating” conditions and torture.
One of the photos shows the Arabic-language poster of a Palestinian terrorist who died in an attack on Israelis. He is described in the poster as a martyr.
The exhibition further focuses on Doctors Without Borders’ work in Gaza following Israeli strikes. It mentions neither Hamas’ targeting of Israeli civilians or its use of Gaza medical facilities to fire rockets on southern Israel.
Read more.
UK: Pensioner’s Jewish newspaper smeared with faeces
Via Jewish Chronicle (h/t CFCA):
Police are investigating what is believed to be an antisemitic incident, after an elderly man received his copy of the JC covered in faeces.
read more
Greece: American Jewish volunteers harassed and expelled from refugee camp because "Jews are all murderers"
Update: I was contacted by a woman from the group who said that the article below is "full of inaccuracies, fabricated quotes and made up story lines".
Via Israel Today (h/t CFCA):
A group of American Jewish women were unceremoniously expelled from a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week after suffering anti-Semitic verbal abuse from volunteers with other aid organizations.
The camp is one of many set up by the UN to assist the flood of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. A number of aid organizations are active there, including the Israeli humanitarian group IsraAID.
The young Jewish women in question had traveled from the United States to volunteer with IsraAID, and were wearing the Israeli group’s shirts at the time of the incident.
It started when fellow volunteers working with other organizations began to hurl anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs at the Jewish women. At that point, a UN security guard arrived and, instead of quieting the antagonists, joined in the verbal assault of the Jewish women, demanding they leave the camp.
“The situation quickly deteriorated. The guard…yelled at me and said there was no place here for people like me,” said one of the women. “‘Like me?’ I asked. ‘You mean Israeli? But I’m an American Jew.’ The guard replied by insisting that we [Jews] are all the same - murderers. He then threatened to arrest us if we didn’t leave the camp.”
Coming to the aid of the American Jewish women was none other than an Israeli Arab member of IsraAID, who notified the camp administration of the incident, leading to the security guard’s dismissal.
Russia: RT journalist promotes Jewish "oil for war" conspiracy theory
Tony Gosling is an 'investigative reporter' currently working for the conspiracy-minded RT network.
On Twitter he recently promoted the conspiracy theory that the Israel is paying off Murdoch and Rothschild with oil in return for war on Syria. (h/t Adam Holland)
Think he's just a loony journalist nobody pays attention to? The same theory was also promoted by SNP MP Sandra White a month ago. But since at the time people only paid attention to the accompanying graphic, she never had to own up to this fact.
UK: BBC allows antisemitic conspiracy theories on-air, presenter agrees Israel's existence is up for debate
The caller insisted he had nothing against Judaism, "True Judaism" that is. He only had problems with Zionism. He therefore made a valiant effort to keep on talking about the "Zionist Jews" who control the world.
The presenter, on his part, agreed that Israel's existence is up for debate: “There is a debate, listen I’m not saying there is no debate, clearly there is a debate about whether Israel in its current form should be where it is.”
I can only assume that he would not have said the same about about any other racist 'debate'.
Via Campaign Against Antisemitism:
Last week on BBC London Radio, during a phone-in, a BBC presenter and a caller discussed Jews.
The caller was given over thirteen minutes of airtime, spewing vile antisemitism, with many of his arguments left unchecked. Though it was clear from the outset that the caller was an unrepentant antisemite, the presenter allowed him to opine at length on the subject of Jewish world domination, even telling his caller: “I’m giving you more than I have done anyone.”
(...)
“Most of the Jews of the world come from eastern Europe, from a place called originally, an empire called Cesaria… The Rothschilds, the people who own the Bank of England, the people who own the Federal Reserve, they’re all Zionist Jews. The people who own corporate America, the media, you’ll find if you just do a little bit of research, they’re all Zionist Jews. We are ruled by Zionist Jews.”
“The history of Jews from Palestine, that area of Judaism, it’s a long long history of thousands of years, has nothing to do with Zionism.”
read more
Sweden: Presenter who equated Israel to Nazis given top Christmas and Eurovision television spots
The problem is not people who equate Jews with Nazis. The problem is that this is acceptable in today's European society. There are no social sanctions on antisemitism.
Via Everyday Antisemitism:
One of Sweden’s most coveted television spots, hosting the annual Christmas schedule on Sweden’s state-owned SVT, was given to Gina Dirawi this year.
Dirawi, who will also host Eurovision in Stockholm in 2016, has previously claimed that “The Israeli government does the same thing as Hitler did to its people but with other means. They are racists, they oppress, and kill people who are not like them!”
In 2012 she posting an image on her blog of the book Är världen upp och ner? by Lasse Wilhelmson, under the title, “Some bedtime reading…” The book’s back cover states, “Lasse writes that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace today and Zionism the greatest threat to humanity.”
read more
Ukraine: Legislator toasts Adolf Hitler
Via Jerusalem Post:
A video of a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker saluting Adolf Hitler made its way online this weekend, only days after his country’s president apologized for Ukrainian collaborators’ role in the Holocaust during a state visit to Israel.read more
In the video, Artyom Vitko, the former commander of the government backed Luhansk-1 Battalion and now a member of Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party, can be seen sitting in the back of a car wearing camouflage fatigues and singing along to a song by a Russian neo-Nazi band extolling the virtues of the Nazi dictator.
“Adolf Hitler, together with us, Adolf Hitler, in each of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the right time,” Vitko sang, saluting the camera with his water bottle as the car’s sound system blared “Heil Hitler.”
Sunday, December 27, 2015
UK: Muslim charity facing inquiry over video claiming Jews are tracking smartphones
Background:
British charity trustee Ghulam Mustafa accuses "F***ing Jews" of bugging smartphones
Jewish News now reports:
Government is launching an inquiry into the Ghulam Mustafa Trust after one of the charity’s trustees uploaded a video claiming “f***king Jews” track smartphone data.
The Charity Commission announced the investigation into misconduct and mismanagement at the charity, which raises money to combat poverty in Pakistan.
Footage on the charity’s official Facebook page showed viewers how to remove a supposed tracking device – it is in fact a circuit handling near-field communication. The man narrating the video says the circuit was “recording every of yours (sic) photographs…f***king Jews”.
“Let’s see if this works inshallah,” he says, before before interrupted by the voice of a young child.
The Charity Commission was made aware of the post in June and, after reporting the matter to police, issued the Ghulam Mustafa Trust an action plan for better practice.
Read more.
British charity trustee Ghulam Mustafa accuses "F***ing Jews" of bugging smartphones
Jewish News now reports:
Government is launching an inquiry into the Ghulam Mustafa Trust after one of the charity’s trustees uploaded a video claiming “f***king Jews” track smartphone data.
The Charity Commission announced the investigation into misconduct and mismanagement at the charity, which raises money to combat poverty in Pakistan.
Footage on the charity’s official Facebook page showed viewers how to remove a supposed tracking device – it is in fact a circuit handling near-field communication. The man narrating the video says the circuit was “recording every of yours (sic) photographs…f***king Jews”.
“Let’s see if this works inshallah,” he says, before before interrupted by the voice of a young child.
The Charity Commission was made aware of the post in June and, after reporting the matter to police, issued the Ghulam Mustafa Trust an action plan for better practice.
Read more.
Hungary: Rapper Mr Busta claims that world is run by twelve Jews on Wall Street
Via Everyday Antisemitism, FAA:
In an interview with Hungarian website 444.hu, rapper “Mr Busta” claimed that the world is governed by twelve Jewish businessmen on Wall Street and that six or seven of the twelve are Hungarian Jews.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Europe: Muslim antisemitism is highest in Belgium (ADL survey)
CIJ News reports: (via Watch Antisemitism in Europe)
Read more.
For the first time the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a leading civil and human rights organization in existence since 1913, conducted a new survey to measure Muslim attitudes towards Jews in six Western European countries.
The survey is a follow up to its 2014 groundbreaking worldwide poll on anti-Semitism called the ADL Global 100 Index which compiled data from 102 countries and territories and provided an important insight into national and regional attitudes toward Jews, the levels of acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes and knowledge of the Holocaust.
The new survey polled Muslims in countries with a significant Muslim populations – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. – and found that and average of 55% of Muslims harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, as compared to an average of 24% among the non-Muslim population. [...]
In Belgium 68% of Muslims harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, compared to 21% overall. In Spain the ratio was 62% to 29%, in Germany 56% to 16%, in Italy 56% to 29% overall, in the UK 54% to 12% and in France 49% to 17%.
As high as anti-Semitic attitudes were among Muslims in Europe, they were even higher in the Middle East and North Africa where the Jewish populations are either miniscule or non-existent.
10 of the top most anti-Semitic countries/territories in the original ADL100 Global index were West Bank and Gaza with a whopping 93%, followed by Iraq with 92%, Yemen with 88%, Algeria with 87%, Libya with 87%, Tunisia with 86%, Kuwait with 82%, Bahrain with 81%, Jordan with 81% and Morocco with 80%.
 |
| Brussels: pro-Hamas demonstration |
Friday, December 25, 2015
Hungary: Jobbik politiican blames Zionism for Hungary's problems
Via FAA:
While the debate was raging about the plans to erect a statue in honor of the antisemite Bálint Hóman, Gábor Kováts, a Jobbik politician who heads the Homan Balint foundation, wrote a letter in which he blamed Zionism for Hungary's problems.
See letter (in Hungarian) at CFCA
Poland: Signs at Law and Justice Party protest demand end to "Jewish masonic activity'
Via CFCA:
Warsaw – “we demand the government to eliminate the Jewish masonic activity in Poland. They threaten the Polish people”.” Let’s preserve the origins of The Law And Justice Party” – such slogans showed on a huge sign Sunday on The Three Crosses Square, from which the PIS march began.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
France: Wave of antisemitic graffiti in the streets of Paris
Via CFCA, confusionnisme.info:
Paris - On the night between Friday and Saturday, a series of antisemitic graffiti vandalized Faubourg du Temple Street in Ménilmontant quarter and Cavendish Street in the 19th quarter. Some examples of graffiti, inspired by theories of Alan Sorrell and Dieudonné: "Israel sterilizes black people", "atheist Jew = Racism", "Sorrell is right." In Ménilmontant, some of them focused on the anti-fascist movement, accusing it of collaborating with Israel's policy in Palestine or compare it to the Socialist Party or the capitalists.
read more
Germany: Man atacked for rainbow Star of David badge
Via Everyday Antisemitism, BGA-Kassel:
It has been reported that a man in Kassel, Germany was attacked in October after a group of three people spotted a rainbow Star of David badge on his bag.
Two, tall, stocky middle-aged men and a woman, alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol, followed the victim as he tried to escape to a nearby bus stop. As they followed him, they shouted abuse at him such as “Spastic”.
The group cornered the man at the bus stop. The woman spat at him and called him a “miserable Jew”.
read more
UK: Pro-Palestinian activist says she's done being polite, "Jews are dangerous all around the globe"
Tibou Abdessemed is a very active "anti-Zionist" protester. The kind of people who feel insulted when they're told they're antisemitic, becuse they are 'just critical of Israel' (AKA the Satanic Nazi state of Israhell, purveyor of evil all around the globe).
Recently, she gave up any pretense that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism. h/t Daphne Anson
She posted this note twice (here and here), adding some more antisemitic material the second time.
I am reposting this before I take my leave, just to make sure that everybody knows my position.
I am done saying that we fight Zionism and not judaism because Zionism is judaism, a very simple equation, in reality. Maybe 0.5% of Jews are against IsraHell and I even doubt this percentage! I am being very generous. I am certainly not going to promote their false pretence and filthy propaganda any longer and people know much more than we want to give them credit for. Jews, all around the world love, protect and help IsraHell. Their cruelty and arrogance knows no boundaries. The IsraHelli public is largely supportive of Satanyahu's crusade to achieve his dream " The great IsraHell". They are somewhat sympathetic towards his arrogant and demonic views and actions. The Jewish state has always been condescending towards the Goyim world which is destructive and a very dangerous solipsism, since its inception. Satanyahu is a megalomaniac and a renowned psychopath who thinks he knows better than anybody else, he chose to butt head some of the most powerful world leaders and schooling the rest of the world on how to think, what to do and what to believe in. This attitude aims to combat any criticism towards IsraHell, who is not interested in curing its own ills and sins. Whether for its indiscriminate torture and killing of innocent people in Gaza, in cold blood, or its continued building of illegal settlements...Diving into a moral and political abyss. But IsraHell always knows better. Their arrogance and sense of supremacy such as " We are the chosen people and " God gave us this Land" is outrageous and so arrogant. Distinguishing between pride and arrogance obviously, for pride requires intelligence, wisdom and modesty. Here, you have people that were offered a land by Britain, who by the way had no right to do so, giving something that didn't belong to them, but it's not enough for them, oh no! They want more, much more! Arrogance is encrusted in IsraHelli's genetics. Remember, they are God's elected people! This basic assumption will lead them to their graves. Sorry, but Hubris has always led to tragedies and was proven through history despite " God's support!". I just didn't want to generalise out of respect for people like Miko peled, Noam chomsky, Norman finkelstein, Amy Goodman and more. But I don't care anymore, this is a handful of courageous people. Jews are extremely dangerous all around the globe, look at what's happening in Myanmar, Burma, 9/11, 7/7, Palestine, all over the world. I won't be careful of my vocabulary any longer and pick and choose proper words out of courtesy. From now on I will call a cat a cat and if some people are offended, too bad, unfriend me. Many did already! The truth is not always easy to digest but the truth is the only thing worth fighting for. Truth and justice!
Just a word to salvation!
Her Facebook page is filled with Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, just like every other antisemitic site out there.
Frankly, I find it hard to tell whether her posts are more antisemitic than before, now that she came out of her antisemitic closet.
Anti-Zionists accuse me of not focusing on 'real' antisemitism. They're just 'critical of Israel', they're not anti-Jewish. But notice how this logic develops:
Critical of Israel -> critical of Zionists -> critical of any Jew who is not anti-Zionist
If you're critical of Israeli-policies, you will not get to Jew hatred.
If you're critical of the existence of Israel, then hating all Jews who disagree with you is a logical next step.
Austria: "In Austria anti-Semitism is still flourishing"
Via Ynet (h/t Honestly Concerned):
When I ask Oscar Deutsch, head of Austria's Jewish community, what the main concern is for Jews in Austria these days, he answers immediately: "There's Islamic anti-Semitism, which is gaining strength in Austria and all over Europe, The politicians need to fight this phenomenon. Of course we are bothered by the fact that the Freedom Party got 30 percent of the votes in the Vienna elections. However, I believe the urgent topic right now is Islamic anti-Semitism, because it's becoming dangerous."
"We saw in Paris, Brussels, in Copenhagen what it can cause, and we need to fight it," Deutsch continues, "There's harassment of Jews who can be identified as such on the streets. Protests that are held here see swastikas being raised and calls of 'death to Israel,' and 'death to Jews.' The Jewish community has risen up to help the refugees. It's a Jewish tradition. But it's important to know that many of them grew up with anti-Semitism and Jew hatred, which have been indoctrinated to them through the schools and the media. It's hard to believe that eight hours of education they get here in Austria will give them a totally new worldview on the matter."
(...)
Last November, an academic conference was held in Vienna, dealing with the topic of commemorating Jewish-Austrian doctors.
Even though senior members of the Austrian doctors' association and medical departments in different universities were in attendance, the event reflected the hardships many Austrians have in dealing with their country's criminal past. Again and again speakers recounted the "immigration of Jews to Palestine and the United States," until an American relative of one of the commemorated doctors stopped the discussion and angrily said, "It wasn't immigration, they were thrown out of here."
"In Austria," Haim Gilon estimates, "anti-Semitism is still flourishing. This country hasn't changed much, sadly."
read more
Belgium: Memorial for Jew-killer Samir Kuntar
Via Europe-Israel:
The Arab Cultural Center of Wallonia-Brussels is organizing a memorial for the 'martyr' Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar forced a four year old Jewish child to watch as he killed her father, and then bashed his gun into her head.
The event is organized on Facebook by the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Germany: Jewish man attacked by bar staff, held in headlock and has kippah ripped off, told “This is a religion-free zone”
Via Everyday Antisemitism, Amadeu Antonio Stiftung:
The Amadeu Antonio Foundation has reported that a Jewish man was attacked in a ‘left-wing and alternative’ bar in Bonn, Germany. As the man was ordering, a member of staff forced him into a headlock and ripped his kippah (Jewish skullcap) from his head.
When questioned, the member of staff replied, “I’d rip a headscarf off a Muslim, this is a religion-free zone!” The bar owner voiced his agreement and support of the member of staff.
read more
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Greece: PM supports "territorially unified" Palestinian state
I can only assume that he has never opened a map of the region. As any kid knows, in order to "territorially unify" Palestine, you have to cut through Israel.
Greece joins the list of European countries who support a Palestinian state while remaining silent on the continuous Palestinian incitement to kill Jews.
Via Jerusalem Post:
On Monday, the Greek web site Gazzetta reported that Tsipras welcomed Abbas to Athens by saying that Greece backed a two-state solution that “guarantees the establishment of a viable, territorially unified, independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital and which will coexist in peace and security with Israel.”
According to the report, Tsipras called for an end to settlement construction and respect of the status quo for holy sites. The report said that from now on Greece will, in all its public documents, refer to the Palestinian Authority as “Palestine.”
read more
Norway: Oslo's 'Citizen of the Year' wants to destroy Israel
Mohsan Raja was voted by Aftenposten's readers as "Oslo's Citizen of the Year" for his work with refugees. (h/t morsmal)
The announcement was met by much criticism, as Raja also has his darker sides. His social media postings show him to believe in conspiraty theories, sexist, critical of gays and a supporter of the terror attacks against Charlie Hebdo.
He also wants to destroy Israel.
A year ago he posted on twitter "Long Live Sharia" and "Death to Israel".
Asked about both statements, he responded to the former that he leaves Sharia up to the Islamic Council. To the latter he said "This is a conflict that has been ongoing for many years. I support Palestine in this conflict".
You can support Palestine without wishing to kill millions of Jews, but apparently, that doesn't bother the good people of Oslo. After much deliberation, Aftenposten decided not to withdraw the award.
Honoring people who want to kill Jews a tradition in Norway. Last year, the antisemitic Mads Gilbert was voted as "Person of the Year", and donated his award to the BDS organization dedicated to wiping out Israel.
Sweden: Muslim MP Hanif Bali gets countless hate mail due to his open support of Israel
The Times of Israel reports:
[...] the general climate of fear makes many Israel supporters hesitant to express their opinions publicly. [...]
Hanif Bali
(Fredrik Wennerlund)
Read more.
UK: MP receives antisemitic Christmas card
It's that time of year again. Stella Creasy, Labour & Co-op MP, received an antisemitic Christmas card (h/t Yair Rosenberg)
EU mulls adopting definition of Jew hatred, says new anti-Semitism czar
Jewish groups have been begging the EU for quite a while to officially adopt the 'working definition' prepared by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights . Apparently, they're now up to he mulling stage.
Via Times of Israel:
At Israel’s request, the European Union may formulate a clear definition of anti-Semitism in a bid to better fight the phenomenon, the EU’s new point person for combating Jew-hatred said.
“The definition of anti-Semitism is very disputed, even among Jews themselves. The main dissent revolves around the question of manifestations against the State of Israel. We’re currently looking into this issue,” Katharina von Schnurbein told The Times of Israel in a telephone interview last week from Brussels. “One thing is clear: Anti-Semitism can sometimes hide behind anti-Zionism. That is certainly our understanding here.”
read more
Belgium: Paris massacre 'tenth' terrorist Abdeslam Salah lashed out at Jews
Several French and Belgian media outlets (BFMT, Le Monde, France 24, Le Vif) reported that Salah Abdeslam had complained to his friend Hamza Attou about the Jews - understand he lashed out at Jews. That's what he had in mind after the Paris massacres. He also said that he would be seeking revenge for the death of his terrorist brother. The other brother Mohammed "was convicted of a particularly sordid crime in 2005. In his first job as an ambulance worker, when he was 18, he became part of a gang of fellow workers who stole the personal effects of dead people whose bodies they were sent out to bring to city morgues". They all lived in Molenbeek.
The Daily Mail has the story, but not about his remark about Jews:
Police stopped the most wanted terrorist in Europe three times a few hours after the Paris attacks - but he was let free every time, it emerged today.The astonishing revelations about Salah Abdeslam, 26, highlight the lax security that ultimately allowed Islamic State operatives to murder 130 people at will.
Until today it was thought that Abdeslam, a Belgian-born Frenchman who is still on the run, was questioned once by a traffic patrol on the day after the atrocities.
Sweden: Politicians attend pro-Palestinian protest calling to kill Jews
The protest was two months ago, but at the time passed under my radar. See here for a clip from the protest.
Two parliament members spoke at the protest: Hillevi Larsson of the ruling Social Democrat party and Daniel Sestrajcic of the Left Party. Sestrajcic is the leader of the party in Malmo. Larsson is a pro-Palestinian activist who supports wiping Israel off the map.
Via Times of Israel:
On a chilly fall day, passersby on a central street in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, were greeted with chants in Arabic urging the killing of Jews.
“Death to the Jews,’ and ‘More stabbings,’ the protesters screamed,” recalls Jehoshua Kaufman, head of communications for Malmö’s Jewish community. The protesters at the October pro-Palestinian rally were referring to the near-daily stabbings of Jews by Arab assailants over the past couple of months in Israel.
Swedish politicians, including two parliament members, were present at the protest. However, after Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, condemned the event, they distanced themselves, claiming they had not understood the meaning of the Arabic slogans.
Kaufman questions how such an event had been permitted to take place, and why the politicians had not demanded a translation of the chants.
“The politicians could have left and said, ‘We don’t know what you are saying, but we won’t participate unless we know what you are saying,’” he says.
These types of incidents, where anti-Israel rhetoric turns violently anti-Semitic, have created a climate of fear for Sweden’s small Jewish community, which numbers 15,000. Hate crimes against Jews are on the rise, with 2014 seeing a 38 percent increase in reported anti-Semitic incidents from the previous year, according to a report by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
“Right now, a lot of Jews in Sweden are scared. Parents are scared to drop off their kids at the Jewish preschool,” says Johanna Schreiber, a prominent Jewish journalist who lives in the country’s capital, Stockholm. “People of all ages are scared of going to synagogue, there are many people who are taking off their Stars of David because they are too scared to wear it.”
Last month Schreiber received hateful comments and was targeted for identity theft after publishing an article where she called out political groups for not inviting Jewish organizations to ceremonies across Sweden commemorating Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass,” when violent anti-Jewish pogroms erupted throughout Nazi Germany and Austria in November 1938.
When questioned, one of the organizers claimed Jews might not feel safe at the event.
read more
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
France: Israel lacks legitimacy says Jewish 'expert' Sophie Bessis
According to her Wikipedia page, Sophie Bessis is an impressive 'expert'.
She is currently Director of Research at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) in Paris [*] and Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). She has long taught political economy of development in the political science department of the Sorbonne and the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO). Consultant for Unesco and Unicef, has conducted numerous missions in Africa.Interestingly, Wikipedia also also states that she comes from a family of the great Tunisian Jewish bourgeoisie.
Sophie Bessis likes therefore to be known that she is a 'grande bourgeoise' and an expert. One of her pet subjects is Israel-bashing. She pontificates about the boycott, she pontificates that Western leaders are paralyzed by the memory of Judeocide perpetrated seventy years in the heart of Europe and refuse to enforce UN resolutions likely to solve the problem and submit to dictates of the Israeli extreme right now in power, and such an injustice is one of the causes of terrorism etc. She goes on "fact-finding missions" to Israel and the Palestinian territories - and yet more pontfiication.
On 18 December, Sophie Bessis was one of the guests at the political show C'est dans l'air - the discussion was about ISIS in Libya. She was asked who would benefit from the fragmentation of the Arab world. Her reply was typical - one of the main beneficiaries would be Israel.
She explained that the more the Arab world is fragmented, the less there are competing powers that can be dangerous to Israel. If the Arab world splits the state of Israel, as a Jewish state, would gain a legitimacy it lacks today. Israel would be one of the big winners.
[*] IRIS is headed by Pascal Boniface:
"Pascal Boniface, a Socialist strategist, wrote a study [in April 2001] for his party stressing that there are ten times more Muslims in France than Jews, and suggesting that it should consequently shift to a more pro-Palestinian position."Pascal Bruckner wrote:
"When the political scientist Pascal Boniface, in a note to the leaders of the Socialist Party in April 2001, advised them, as a matter of simple electoral calculation, to abandon the Jewish vote (500,000 in France) for the Muslim vote (five million), he very honestly spilled the beans."
No wonder Sophie Bessis works for his outfit. In spite of all this and of him writing books branding other politcal scientists who do not share his views as intellectual counterfeiters, he keeps being invited by the French media and politicians also think very highly of him. France being France... this is not really surprising. And by the way, one of the other guests on the programme was Frédéric Encel, a Jewish political scientist, who was labeled an impostor by Boniface...
More about Boniface (in French).
Poland: Jews feeling more safe in Poland than in Oslo and Copenhagen
Professor Ruth Wisse on her recent visit to Poland @ Mosaic Magazine:
Very much like this Polish rescuer, the Polish family with whom I am closest feels that they benefit from knowing and making known the truth about the Jewish presence in Poland. They explore local Jewish sites and also visit Jewish museums and landmarks when they travel abroad.
When we met this time, the husband remarked how unpleasantly surprised they were by the extreme security measures in place at Jewish institutions in Oslo and Copenhagen. Then he added: “We in Poland are being asked to take in thousands of Muslim refugees. I ask myself whether, if and when we do, we will then also have to provide similar protection from them at our Jewish sites.”
At that point in our conversation I realized that our largely Jewish group had been wandering around Poland with no security, and feeling very safe.
The whole piece is worth reading.
Ukraine: Local Jews in shock after city of Konotop elects neo-Nazi mayor
Via Jerusalem Post (h/t Watch: Antisemitism in Europe):
Two months after local elections were held across Ukraine, residents of the small northern city of Konotop are expressing shock and dismay over the behavior of newly chosen Mayor Artem Semenikhin of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party.
According to reports, Semenikhin drives around in a car bearing the number 14/88, a numerological reference to the phrases “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and “Heil Hitler”; replaced the picture of President Petro Poroshenko in his office with a portrait of Ukrainian national leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera; and refused to fly the city’s official flag at the opening meeting of the city council because he objected to the star of David emblazoned on it. The flag also features a Muslim crescent and a cross.
(...)
However, while the mayor attempts to make sure his statements never cross over into outright anti-Semitism, many things he says can be interpreted in such a way, he continued. As an example, he referred to a recent statement by Semenikhin in which the mayor refused to apologize for anti-Jewish actions taken by far-right nationalists in World War II, intimating that it was because those responsible for the Holodomor famine of the 1930s were largely Jewish.
The Holodomor was a manmade famine that came about during the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union and which led to the starving deaths of millions. Ukrainians consider it a genocide.
“The community is discussing the situation and they understand that the mayor is balancing between anti-Semitism— – he isn’t crossing a redline with statements but saying border things that can be understood as anti-Semitic,” he explained.
read more
Belgium: Jewish family explains why it chose to leave Belgium for the U.S. (video)
Testimony detailing the reasons a Belgian Jewish family chose to leave
Belgium for the United States: the rise of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism,
the attacks of Toulouse, Islamism, etc (in French with subtitles in English).
For our children, before its too late... Video is dated February 2014 - and the situation keeps getting worse.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Europe: The council of ministers has so far been able to agree on only one thing: the labeling of Israeli products
Edward Luttwak, military strategist and historian, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies @ The Tablet:
The refugee crisis has exposed the nullity of European institutions: The original achievement of the Common Market still stands as a great success. But the European Union’s institutions have failed and keep failing. The Euro parliament is a mere talking shop, the European central bank is an unemployment factory, and the council of ministers has so far been able to agree on only one thing: the labeling of Israeli products made beyond the defunct 1967 armistice lines. That is scant recompense for the failure of economic policy, monetary policy, industrial policy, and now demographic policy vis-à-vis the influx of male economic migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Central Asia who greatly outnumber Syrian war-refugee families, and whose sum total of cultural capital is Islam inclusive of Jihad. The last time Europe was invaded by barbarians its recovery required almost a thousand years.Read more: The Middle East Has Fractured. Is Europe Next? A Tablet Roundtable Discussion
Norway: Media whitewashes Palestinian terrorism
 | |
| Heading: Two Palestinians killed in the West Bank |
The pro-Israeli site MIFF examined how NTB, the Norwegian news agency, reports about the terror wave in Israel.
NTB published 32 articles between November 12 and December 11. Including modified and updated versions, there were 53 articles.
MIFF examined the headlines and article intros.
Headlines camouflage the fact that the killed Palestinians were attackers and that the victims were Israelis.
- 43 of the 53 articles were news stories.
- 28 (65%) headlines mentioned that Palestinians were killed
- Only 16 (37%) headlines mentioned an attack on Israelis
- 7 headlines did not talk of Israelis or Palestinians, but rather mentioned attacks, killings or 'unrest'.
Intros almost always focused on the fact that Palestinians were killed
- 31 (72%) sub-headings mentioned that Palestinians were killed
- 10 (23%) sub-headings mentioned that Israelis were attacked
- 1 sub-heading mentioned that both an Israeli and a Palestinian were killed, without mentioning that one was a victim and the other an attacker.
- 1 sub-heading mentioned that 'people' were injured after 'somebody' attacked them, without mentioning either Israelis or Palestinians.
Palestinians never commit terrorism
- Palestinians were never called 'terrorists' and the attacks never described as 'terror attacks', even when the attacks were aimed at innocent civlians.
Attacks against Israelis are doubtful
- In 15 cases, the sub-heading said that the attack 'allegedly' occurred.
- Palestinians deaths or injuries were never put in doubt.
Most articles are critical of Israel
- 10 of the 53 articles were not news stories, but rather dealt with the terror wave.
- 9 (90%) were critical of Israel. For example, on December 7th, NTB reported that "An Israeli military court sentenced a Palestinian politician to jail". The sub-heading mentioned that this was a "prominent Palestinian parliamentarian" who "among other things" incited to violence. Only later in the article, does it mention that this was an active member of the DFLP terror organization. As usual, NTB ignored the continuous incitement to terror by Palestinian leaders.
- Other headlines in this category: "Israelis arrested for arson against Palestinians", "B'Tselem accuses Israeli forces of unnecessary killings", "Israeli court approves destruction of Palestinian house", "Israeli destroys homes of Palestinian attackers" and "Israeli policemen gets community service for beating teenager".
- Only one article voiced condemnation of the attacks against Israel: "Kerry condemns Palestinian knife attacks".
For full analysis see the MIFF website.
Norwegian media is well-known for its antisemitic slant. While usually they don't get the spotlight, due to the fact that most people don't speak Norwegian, In July I focused for one day on their most antisemitic aspects:
* Norwegian media yells 'genocide!' (but only for Israel)
* We never show pictures of dead children, but we make an exception for anti-Israel incitement
* Norwegian media giving the stage to rabid antisemites
* Norwegian media spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories
Italy: Radio Islam lists "influential Jews in Italy"
Via Britaly Post:
The use of threats and libel, aggravated by racial hatred. These are the charges levelled, currently against persons unknown, in the proceedings initiated by the Rome prosecutor's office, after the Radio Islam website published a list of Jewish figures, under the title "List of influential Jews in Italy."read more
The list includes businessmen, intellectuals and journalists, whom the organization accuses of influencing or even monopolizing Italy's "powers that be." Magistrates have entrusted the investigation to the Postal Police service, and the website may soon be closed down.
On its website, Radio Islam describes itself as an "apolitical organization working to build and improve relations between the West and the Muslim Arab world." "Radio Islam," it also states, "is against every form of racism, including Jewish racism against non-Jews and the objectives of international Zionism. Through its very existence, Israel is an absolute provocation against every international principle, rule and law, and Jewish racism violates every ethical and moral value known to man."
Poland: Right-wing lawmaker accuses ‘Jewish banker’ of funding protests
Via JTA (h/t CFCA):
A Polish lawmaker charged that recent opposition marches are funded by a “Jewish banker.”
“Apparently the march was financed somehow from the outside. PLN150 million [$38 million] are to be given by the Jews, the Jewish banker, in organization of the march,” Pawel Kukiz said, in an interview on Sunday with Zet Radio.
According to the station, Kukiz was referring to American financier George Soros.
(...)read more
Tens of thousands of people in several Polish cities protested over the weekend against the country’s new right-wing government. The protesters oppose government reforms that they claim interfere with the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal, a judicial body that determines the constitutionality of Polish law.
UK: National Union of Students lists Palestinians as victims of terror, not Israelis
Via Everyday Antisemitism:
The UK’s National Union of Students has been forced to apologise for having deliberately left out Israeli victims of terrorism from a list of countries suffering from terrorist attacks, at the union’s National Executive Council meeting earlier this month.
Despite Israel suffering no fewer than 169 terror attacks targeting Israeli Jews in 120 days, the NUS statement read out at its meeting mentioned attacks by “paramilitary organisations” carried out in Nigeria, Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kenya, Palestine, Mali and Paris, but not Israel. The inclusion of Palestine in the list suggests that the omission of Israel was deliberately discriminatory. In recent months Israeli civilians have been the victims of numerous Palestinian perpetrated rock-throwings, vehicular attacks where pedestrians were run over deliberately by cars or vans, and stabbings. These have resulted in numerous deaths and injuries.
read more
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Germany: Columbia University Professor Popular in Germany for Hating Israel, Downplaying Holocaust
Via Algemeiner:
read more
Columbia University Iranian studies scholar Hamid Dabashi has become the darling of German academia. It’s no coincidence that he exemplifies academic hatred for Israel and the trivialization of Germans crimes and the Holocaust.
Columbia’s Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Dabashi has experienced a flurry of speaking engagements at German universities and organizations. In May 2015, he was invited to speak at Freie Universität Berlin. On November 26, he spoke at the Institute for Foreign Affairs, which is financed by the German Foreign Ministry, the state of Baden-Württemberg, and the city of Stuttgart in the Southwest of Germany. The event was hosted by the Berlin Social Science Center. The day before, Dabashi spoke at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, associated with the Party of the Left, which is known for several antisemitic scandals in recent years. In May 2016, Dabashi will be one of the keynote speakers at the “Third Bremen Conference on Language and Literature in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts.”
Germany is a hotbed of academic antisemitism, particularly in the fields of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. Germans are particularly pleased with non-European scholars, such as Dabashi, who will defame Israel and downplay the crimes of the Holocaust. French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch analyzed this new antisemitism as early as 1971 in his piece, “Forgiving?” (“Pardonner?”), in which he noted Germans’ need to accuse Jews of being “like Nazis.” Turning their former victims, the Jews, into perpetrators diminishes the Germans’ unprecedented crimes. Scholarship labels this the “inversion of truth.” It can also be framed as “secondary anti-Semitism,” a form of post-Holocaust antisemitism. Denying Auschwitz is for beginners.
(...)
The government-sponsored German Institute for Foreign Affairs and other leading universities would never host a known neo-Nazi who claims that Israel is an “apartheid state,” that Auschwitz was a mere “crime” on par with the 2014 Gaza war, and that the Iranian threat does not exist. However, a non-European like the Iranian-born Dabashi is not only welcomed, but embraced by German audiences for two reasons: hatred of Israel and the distortion of German crimes and the Holocaust.
read more
Europe: One thing that human-rights doctrine does not oppose is anti-Semitism, says Roger Scruton
In a wide-ranging essay on the decay of Europe and its lessons for America, Roger Scruton observes that the notion of human rights has filled the gap left by the decline of religion:
However, notes Scruton, there is one thing that human-rights doctrine does not oppose, namely, anti-Semitism:Europe is rapidly jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found nothing to put in the place of it save the religion of “human rights.” ... The notion of a human right purports to offer the ground for moral opinions, for legal precepts, for policies designed to establish order in places where people are in competition and conflict. However, it is itself without foundations. If you ask what religion commands or forbids, you usually get a clear answer in terms of God’s revealed law or the magisterium of the church. If you ask what rights are human or natural or fundamental, you get a different answer depending on whom you ask, and nobody seems to agree with anyone else regarding the procedure for resolving conflicts.
Read more @ Heritage.Another interesting side-effect of Islamization has been the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. It was inconceivable in my youth that anyone should voice an anti-Semitic sentiment, still more inconceivable that he should exhibit violence, contemptuous language, or any kind of assault towards others on account of their Jewishness. This has changed, and changed almost overnight.Of course, people say that it is all the result of the bad behavior of Israel, but what is now considered bad behavior is precisely what was cheered on and endorsed a decade ago. The real cause of the new wave of anti-Semitism is the growing self-confidence and numbers of the Muslim minority—a fact that you cannot publicly declare in Britain, still less in France or Belgium, for fear of provoking the charge of Islamophobia and even the threat of legal action.So much for the rights culture, which displays its foundationless character precisely in this matter, for which it should put itself aggressively on display. It is precisely the advocates of human rights as a social panacea who are the most ardent in seeking excuses for anti-Semitism.
Greece: Orthodox Bishop blames "Internationalist Zionist Monster" for same-sex couple law
Via Against Antisemitism:
In an announcement posted on the website of the Metropolis of Piraeus, Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus is threatening to cut off official relations with any member of the Greek Parliament that votes in favor of the amendment to include same-sex couples in the Cohabitation Agreement.
“About seven years ago parliament passed a law allowing couples to establish civil partnerships,” thetoc.gr reports. “However this right was restricted to heterosexual couples, a fact which ultimately led to the measure being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for unfair discrimination.”
In his statement, Bishop Seraphim denounces the institutionalization of “the subversion of human ontology and physiology” and “the psycho-pathological diversion from the healthy human sexuality.” Furthermore, he claims that “the Internationalist Zionist Monster” wages a “constant war” on the “real faith” and believes that this “monster” is behind all Greek governments since 2007. Seraphim praises the Greek Communist Party for distancing itself from the new Cohabitation Agreement.
read more
Germany: Far-right politician charged for Auschwitz tattoo
Via Times of Israel:
German prosecutors say they’ve charged a far-right politician with incitement after he appeared at a swimming pool with a tattoo of what appeared to be the Auschwitz death camp on his back.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email
and never miss our top stories Free Sign up!
Neuruppin prosecutors’ spokeswoman Lolita Lodenkaemper said Wednesday that Marcel Zech is accused of violating the country’s prohibition of the public display of Nazi symbols.
Another bather took a photo of the tattoo, which also carried the slogan from the Buchenwald concentration camp’s gate, “Jedem das Seine” — “to each his own” — at a pool in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, on November 21 and passed it on to authorities.
read more
France: Jewish fashion boss fined for discriminating against other Jews
Via JTA:
The French-Jewish owner of a chain of clothing stores was found guilty of discriminating against a Jewish job seeker because he gave non-Jews, whom he could ask to work on Shabbat, preference over Jewish applicants.read more
The ruling Wednesday by a judge from the Correctional Tribunal of Paris against Dan Cohen, co-founder of the Eleven Paris chain, followed a lawsuit filed against Cohen in 2012 by a Jewish man in his 20s who briefly worked at one the chain’s stores before he was fired for being Jewish, the Le Parisien daily reported Thursday.
The court made Eleven Paris pay a total of $16,250 to the claimant in damages and another $8,000 to cover legal expenses.
The ruling was based on the claimant’s testimony about a conversation he had with another employee of Eleven Paris who told him, at the end of a 15-hour trial period as an Eleven Paris sales representative, that his Jewishness was the reason he was not hired. Cohen, the other employee told the claimant, “doesn’t want Jewish employees because he can’t have them work on Shabbat,” the Jewish day of rest, according to the testimony.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Portugal: BDS philistines target the Jerusalem Quartet in Lisbon
Slipped Disc reported in November 2015:
The Israel boycott lobby have turned again on the Jerusalem Quartet, trying to block their next performance at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
The BDS, whose supporters have previously disrupted their London recitals, state – absurdly – that the quartet are cultural ambassadors of Israel. They are nothing of the sort, just four outstanding musicians trying to play Beethoven and Schubert. Those who try to stop them are philistines.
And they did it yesterday as reported by the Portuguese media:
Portuguese pro-Palestinian activists from BDS interrupted a concert by the Israeli group Jerusalem Quartet at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. They shouted anti-Israel slogans "Palestine will win", "Boycott Israel" and accused the musicians of collaborating with the Israeli state that continues "the colonization of the territory of Palestine," "steals land", "destroys homes and infrastructure" and carries out the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land.
Obviously none of these people will ever voice opposition to the friendly relations Portugal has with countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey etc...
There are about 1,000 Jews living in Portugal... the lowest rate in Europe! But the Portuguese are "high" on anti-Israel/anti-Jew sentiment.
Please watch the video:
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Poland: Jewish Cemetery Vandalized With Antisemitic, Pro-ISIS Graffiti
Via Algemeiner (h/t Watch: Antisemitism in Europe):
Vandalas in the Polish city of Sochaczew desecrated a Jewish cemetery over Sunday night.read more
Slogans such as “F*** Jews” and the “Holocaust never happened” were scrawled across the Ohel HaTzadik memorial, next to others about Muslims, for example, “Islam will dominate” and “Islamic State was here.”
Another featured a Star of David hanging from a crudely depicted noose. The Jewish cemetery is apparently located right next to others gravesites for Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians and Muslims. The entire Jewish population of the town was wiped out by the Nazis in World War II.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Europe: EU won’t change its mind on llabelling Israeli exports from the West Bank and the Golan Heights
European Jewish Press reports:
Despite Jerusalem’s strong protest against what it calls a ‘’discriminatory and double standard’’ measure, the European Union won’t change its mind on the decision to put special labels on Israeli exports from the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
Although the labeling issue wasn’t on the formal agenda of a meeting of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers Monday in Brussels, it was raised during the general debate.
On November 11, the European Commission announced that it was issuing an "Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967" which contains guidelines for EU members states to label products from Israeli settlements and exported to the EU market.
These products, the EU said in its notice, cannot bear anymore the label ‘Made in Israel’’ as the EU ‘’does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory.’’
Following the EU announcement, which provoked the ire of Israel, Jerusalem told EU’s ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen that it was suspending its diplomatic dialogue for a number of weeks.
Foreign Ministry officials later clarified this decision pertained mostly to Palestinian and human rights related issues, but that the dialogue would continue on other topics.
But Israeli Prime Minister and acting Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went even further when he instructed two weeks ago the foreign ministry to suspend contacts with the EU on issues related to the Middle East peace process ‘’until completion of a reassessment of the involvovement of EU bodies in everything that is connected to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.’’
Speaking to reporters after Monday's Foreign Affairs Council, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said: "Let me add two short points that were not part of the discussion or of the agenda but were still debated among us. One is related to the Middle East Peace Process, especially after the adoption of the technical guidelines on indication of origin. We had an exchange of views in this respect with the ministers and we commonly decided that it was important also for me to pass this message publicly that the Council and the European Union stay united on these technical guidelines on indication of origin which is in no way a boycott and should in no way be interpreted as one." [...]
Some EU countries, including Hungary and Greece, have recently stated their opposition to the labeling of Israeli settlement products.
Israel considers the EU’s labeling decision "politically motivated" as it discriminates against the products of one country, Israel, while there are some 200 territorial disputes around the world, such as in Western Sahara and northern Cyprus, for which the EU didn’t issue labels.
Many in Israel fear that the labeling is only the first step leading to a total boycott of Israel, particular given the active role of Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) in getting the labeling passed.