Europe: There is “gross underreporting of the nature and characteristics of anti-Semitic incidents”

Another reason for under-reporting is that victims will not report incidents, especially antisemitic slurs.  The general idea being: what's the point?

The Jerusalem Post reports: 

In a report issued last year, the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights said that European countries lack systematic methods of collecting data on anti-Semitism, contributing to “gross underreporting of the nature and characteristics of anti-Semitic incidents that occur.”

In its report, the agency said “few EU member states operate official data collection mechanisms that record anti-Semitic incidents in any great detail,” which “limits the ability of policy makers” to deal effectively with growing hate crimes.

According to a 2014 study by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, anti-Semitic violence rose by nearly 40 percent over the previous year. While steps have been taken to combat this rise in 2015 – including the European Commission’s appointment of the continent’s first coordinator on combating anti-Semitism – the violence is expected to continue to rise in the coming years.

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Israel: Pro-Palestinian blames Elders of Zion for lack of peace

Via David Collier:

Yesterday, 28/01/2016, I was at the University of Kent to hear a talk by Amira Hass titled ‘Israel and the Palestinians: Colonialism and Prospects for Justice. The event itself was a collaboration between The Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Kent University and the Palestine Centre at SOAS, University of London. One of these universities, SOAS, is already a notorious hotbed for extremism, the other, Kent, seems to be desperately trying to catch-up.

(...)

So the evening went on, and Amira Hass had been discussing Israeli ‘war crimes’ for 40 minutes, and the majority of the audience were hanging on her every faltering word. When suddenly, without warning, I heard mention of the ‘Elders of Zion’. As had occurred with me at a different event when Gerald Kaufman had mentioned ‘Jewish money’, I got lost between the sentences as I tried to make sense of what I was hearing. Hass was discussing a hidden agenda, a secret group of Jews, plotting and planning beyond the reach of Israeli democracy – by extension, this secret group were to blame for the ‘war crimes’, for the death of innocent Palestinian children. Hass was spinning tales of a Jewish cabal, of shady secretive control, of unworldly plots and sinister deeds. A road that leads to dead children. Hass was resurrecting a classic historic antisemitic blood libel in a British university.

Hass had stepped back in time to explain the perpetual occupation, to present a reason why after 49 years, no movement had been made towards peace. Without Palestinian violence, Israeli actions become irrational, with Israeli democracy, they become inexplicable, and someway, somehow, this illogical unreasonable position needed to be explained away. All that is left is conspiracy. This is what she said:

    “And I ask myself did the Elders of Zion really sit together at the beginning of the Seventies and then during the nineties, and plan, and have all these military orders, all these changes? I believe that they knew for sure that they don’t want to give back the land and in the Nineties, my conclusion is that they wanted to do everything possible to stop(?) the two state solution.”

Beyond Israeli democracy, beyond the will of the voters, beyond the desires of peacemakers like Rabin and Peres, there are invisible Jewish decision makers. They planned from the early 1970’s, never to let the territories go, they manipulated, they connived, they controlled as puppet masters do. A conspiracy of a Jewish cabal that places the profit to be won from the occupation above the will of the electorate and the lives of innocent children. And it is called the ‘Elders of Zion’.

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Germany: Jewish cemetery vandalized on Holocaust Memorial Day

Via Ostsee Zeitung (h/t Honestly Concerned):

The Jewish cemetery in Kröpelin has once again been vandalized, apparently on Holocaust Memorial Day.  Six tombstones were overturned.

The Jewish cemetery has been repeatedly targeted for vandalism over the past few years.  No perpetrators have been arrested.

Italy: 60% of Italians think antisemitism not a problem, 60% of Jews disagree

Via Times of Israel:

Conducted by SWG, a leading Italian pollster, with the cooperation of Italian Jewish paper Pagine Ebraiche, the survey interviewed over 1,000 representatives of the adult general Italian population between January 11 and January 13, 2016.

In the final question of the SWG-Pagine Ebraiche poll, those surveyed were asked, “Do you think anti-Semitism in Italy is still: very present/fairly present/little or not present at all?”

Over 61% of the respondents from the general population said that it is “little” or “not present at all,” with 34% opting for “fairly present” and only 4% for “very present.”

However, when the similar questions were posed to the Italian Jewish population in a different survey, 18% of the respondents described anti-Semitism in Italy as “a very big problem” and 45% as a “fairly big problem.” Another 36% of Jews said that it is “not a very big problem,” and only 1% “not a problem at all,” according to a survey by the London-based Jewish Policy Research.

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Europe: Jewish students hide their identities because of BDS

 Via Arutz 7 (h/t Honestly Concerned):

The European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) works to strengthen Jewish communities in Europe through promoting Jewish student activism and advocacy.

At a European Jewish Congress event in Brussels in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Arutz Sheva spoke with EUJS President Benjamin Fischer about the challenges facing Jewish students in Europe. 

Fischer noted that while all university students face hardships, Jewish students in Europe must contend with specific hardships.

According to Fischer, the most "infamous" challenge is the BDS movement, which has "different faces in different countries" and thus begs for a vast array of strategies to counter it.

Combat the boycott Israel movement has become a big challenge for Jewish students, Fischer asserts, because it "often turns out into pure anti-Semitism that students face on campus."

As a result, he said, Jews begin to hide their identities on campus. "Not wearing the kippah on campus is a reality in most of the European countries."

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Spain: Gov't ‘deeply worried’ about Israelis killing the terrorists who try to kill them

Via Times of Israel:

Spain’s government this week expressed “deep concern at the loss of many dozens of lives” of Palestinians as a result of Israel’s “use of force” in response to attacks against its citizens.

The statement Tuesday by the Spanish foreign ministry also said that Palestinian murders of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks on other Israelis are “terrorist attacks” and “hate crimes.”

However, pro-Israel activists lambasted the ministry for the statement, which the ACOM lobby group condemned Thursday as “infamous” and creating a false moral equivalence between aggressor and victim.

The Spanish ministry’s statement was in reaction to the killing of Dafna Meir, a mother of six, on Jan. 17 at her home in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, and two other attacks that occurred thereafter in settlements, the statement said.

But, in addition to condemning those attacks, the statement read: “The government is also deeply worried about the loss of many dozens of human lives among the Palestinian population as a consequence of the use of force by agents of Israeli authorities in reaction to the attacks and calls on all parties to abandon all acts of violence or instigation thereof, as those can exacerbate the situation.”

The statement added: “It is necessary to break this cycle of violence.”

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Italy: Dozens of academics call for boycott of Israeli universities

Last week the president of Iran, one of the world's most antisemitic regimes, visited Italy.  He talked about the 'Zionist lobby' while Iran's Supreme Leader Kamenei published a Holocaust-denying video.

I did not see any Italian academics condemn, let alone criticize, their country's support of antisemitism and threats of genocide against Jews.

Via Times of Israel:

Italian academics have signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli universities due to their “notorious complicity” with the country’s “state violence.”

The petition, which was published Wednesday, is signed by 168 Italian academics from more than 50 institutes, including the universities of Rome, Turin and Florence, as well as the European University Institute. The campaign stresses its support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, calling the petition an act of solidarity.

In the statement accompanying the signatures, the campaign denounces “the utter lack of any serious condemnation” of government policy by the Israeli institutes since the creation of the state in 1948.

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Europe: Because Jews' tormentors don’t look like the people in history books it won’t trigger any alarm bells

The Holocaust has been instrumentalised for political purposes for a long time, espcially to fight the Far right and conservatives.   It has become a powerful tool. It is often used to bash Israel, thus trivialising the Holocaust.  Two examples.  The first Belgian poet laureate Charles Ducal compared Jews in Israel to Nazis. Portugal’s Nobel Prize–winning novelist, José Saramago "drew a parallel between the plight of the Palestinians and Auschwitz, an Israeli journalist countered by asking him whether there were gas chambers in Gaza. Saramago replied, “I hope this is not the case. There are so many things being done that have nothing to do with Nazism, but what is happening is more or less the same.”"

Ed West writes @ The Spectator:

This is not happening in Europe.

[...] Monday’s controversy over asylum seekers being made to wear red wristbands in order to receive free meals, because being asked to wear ID to qualify for things is exactly like being a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. A chilling echo, as many people commented. I imagine the reason for this policy is that it’s more convenient than asking someone with a not especially good grasp of English to walk around with a form for his entire family; either that, or it was part of a concerted effort by the Conservative government to pave the way for the mass extermination of refugees.  [...]

On the same day as this story broke Amnesty International put out an advert in the New York Times calling on European leaders to take in more refugees. The picture showed families behind barbed wire with the phrase ‘Leaders of Europe, it’s not the polls you should worry about. It’s the history books.’

https://twitter.com/adhofstra/status/691665680450637824

Chilling, once again. Except for the fact that Germany’s policy right now is as far from Nazism as it is possible to get –  pathological altruism rather than pathological nationalism – and yet the minute a refugee is photographed near barbed wire we’re immediately back to Auschwitz.

Next door to Germany sits tiny Denmark, which has historically been one of the most ethical countries on earth (at least since the time of Canute the Great). It has now been compared to the Nazis after it told refugees that they must sell their assets to pay for their upkeep before the Danes support them. I agree they should have exempted special items like wedding rings, but how tenuous is that Nazi comparison? As James Lewishon wrote for The Spectator:

‘The Nazis took the Jews’ valuables as part of an industrialised process of genocide which ended with them stripped naked and murdered in the showers of Auschwitz. The Danes meanwhile organised the most successful rescue of Jews anywhere – 92 per cent of Danish Jews survived the war, including my entire family. It is true that today the Danes are proposing to take some refugees’ valuables as part of the asylum process. But the showers at the other end are safe and contain hot water paid for by Denmark’s extensive welfare state.’

The problem with history is that the most dominant subjects tend to crowd out all others, just as in any artistic sphere the most celebrated musician, writer or artist tends to become remembered at the expense of contemporaries. This has happened with Nazi Germany in our culture, which has become ubiquitous just as knowledge of large areas of the past has become confined to a few enthusiasts.  [...]

One of the reasons for Nazism’s ubiquity is that this era of the past has become a weapon in the culture war, a stick with which to beat conservatism. [...]

Many people will argue that the whole point of teaching so much of Nazi Germany is to avoid a repeat of it. Yet the history books are full of warnings and lessons, so focusing on one area does not give us a well-rounded idea of the human experience, nor especially guide us away from future tragedy.

Last year 8,000 Jews fled France for Israel, and I can’t imagine it will be long before the Jewish population in Germany starts to decline once more. But because their tormentors don’t look like the people in our GCSE history books it won’t trigger any alarm bells. Amnesty is right: our leaders should worry about Europe’s history books, but maybe they should be more concerned about Edward Gibbon [the fall of Rome] than William Shirer.

Read more.

Study: Vast Majority of Antisemitic Material Remains on Social Media Even After User Complaints

Via Algemeiner:

Eighty percent of the content identified by a prominent study on antisemitism across major Internet platforms like Facebook and YouTube remains on the Web today, the Online Hate Prevention Institute reported this week.

This amounted to about 1,620 “unique items of social media content” reported by users as antisemitic, using a tool launched by the Australian government to measure the response to online antisemitism.

“This demonstrates a significant gap between what the community understand to be antisemitic, and expects to be a violation of community standards which prohibit hate speech, and what social media platforms are currently willing to remove,” said the study, which was authored by Australian-based Dr. Andre Oboler on behalf of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism.

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Netherlands: Anne Frank jokes on Utopia show

Via Televizier:

Utopia is a reality series in which a group of 15 people are placed in isolation for a year and attempt to maintain an ideal society.

This week, two of the residents told antisemitic jokes.  The two were moving a bookcase and one told the other "Anne Frank is already out, so that's a few kilo less."  The second said: "Maybe there's still a few more Jews hiding there."

John de Mol, creator of the show, was not happy with the commenets, but pointed out that the same statments by well-known Dutch comedians would be acceptable humor.

Belgium: "We are Eichmann" graffiti

 Via Twitter:  Graffiti on a wall at a Brussels arts college saying "We are Eichmann!"

Germany: Jews shouldn't wear a kippah because "people don't need to provoke anyone"

 
Via DW:

Lena Stein lights a cigarette while she considers the question of whether she still feels safe as a Jew living in Germany. "I cannot answer that with yes or no," says the student from Frankfurt am Main, as she exhales a cloud of smoke into the icy winter air. "The subject is far too complex."

(...)

Lena Stein says she does not think that refugees pose a threat to the Jewish community in Germany. "These people have fled terror and civil war themselves, they want to live in peace and quiet without being oppressed by fundamentalists," says the 25-year-old. In any case, Lena does not feel threatened on the streets of Frankfurt, qualifying her answer by saying, "but I don't wear anything that says I am a Jew." Daniel Neumann also says, "as long as no one can see that we are Jewish we only have a very diffused feeling of concern, but not a feeling of fear."

Lena also has no worries about her own safety, or that of family and friends, when present in institutions within the Jewish community. "We are all very well protected there, we are really safe." Nevertheless, when asked about whether Jews should wear their yarmulkes on the street, she says no, adding that it could end up causing a radical to attack the yarmulke wearer - "People don't need to provoke anyone."

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Germany: Police raid homes of neo-Nazi website founders

Via The Local:

German police raided addresses across the country on Wednesday morning, as they moved to shut down a neo-Nazi internet site.

In coordinated raids, law enforcement hit addresses in Berlin, Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia believed to be connected to the internet platform Altermedia, several German media outlets are reporting.

Prosecutors in Karlsruhe are investigating the people behind the website on suspicion of forming a criminal network.

The group’s sole purpose in forming was to incite racial hatred, an offence under German federal law, prosecutors say.

Two leaders of the group were arrested in the raids and the properties of other members were searched by officers from the Federal Office of Investigations (BKA).

According to prosecutors the two arrested individuals, a 47-year.-old woman and a 27-year-old man, ran the website along with three other people.

The website calls for violence against immigrants and denies the Holocaust, prosecutors argue.

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UK: Jewish youth face antisemitic harassment on London bus

Via Jewish News:

A group of Jewish youngsters aged in their 20s were traveling on the 102 bus towards Golders Green when they claim to have heard man, who was accompanied by a child, spout the abuse late last month.

A female member of the group, one of three to overhear the comments, told the Jewish News: “We were at the back on the top deck not showing any signs of disruptive behavior. When we arrived at our stop, we walked down the stairs when I heard a man mutter ‘these f** Jews.

“I asked him why he thought what he was saying was necessary. He looked directly at me with no response but told his son that we are ‘disgusting Jews’. At this point the rest of the group I was traveling with got off the bus but three of us remained.” She claimed that the man and the boy later “placed their fingers across their throats while smiling at us” as the three walked away from the vehicle.

While the driver didn’t overhear the remarks, she alleged he didn’t show “any care” after being told what happened, asking only what they wanted him to do about it. “We told him we would the report the bus if he did not open the doors immediately so he did,” she said.

The alleged victim – who had never before experienced anti-Semitism – was left “shocked, disgusted and upset” by the incident, while a male friend said the group “felt threatened even in a group of guys and girls”.

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Germany: Is Merkel's refugee policy promoting anti-Semitism?

Merkel apparently understands...  In the meantime, in Germany, Israel native encounters swastikas, anti-Semitic slurs while visiting Berlin refugee camp
 
Malte Lehming is opinion editor of Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin writes @ The National Interest:

[...] There can be no question that this past fall Merkel, as she sought to create a “welcome culture,” followed a humane and moralistic impulse. Humanity and benevolence—these were her lodestars. But she also acted as a typical postwar German in an unconscious layer of terms like guilt, sin and historical responsibility. The French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut formulated it thus in an interview two months ago with the prominent weekly Die Zeit: “As the first wave of refugees arrived, the Germans believed that the moment had arrived to cleanse their historical blackmark. They could buy themselves free.” Finkielkraut was heavily criticized in Germany for these sentences. He was, so we were told, practicing historical pathology.

In the meantime, however, the warnings about German refugee policy are becoming steadily louder. And it isn’t simply conservatives or foes of foreigners that are voicing their opposition. Merkel must have particularly noticed the concerns of a group that is close to her heart—Germany’s Jews. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews, said at the end of November: “Many refugees are fleeing the terror of the Islamic State and want to live in peace and freedom, but at the same time they stem from a culture in which hatred of Jews and intolerance are a permanent part.”

Is the German refugee policy promoting anti-Semitism in Germany? Already Jews are leaving Western Europe in record numbers—almost 10,000 in 2015 according to the Jewish Agency. Above all, they are leaving France, followed by Great Britain, Italy and Belgium. Now the wave could reach Germany. But that would be the deathknell for Merkel’s refugee policy.

“I’m incensed by the path that Merkel is following,” wrote Micahel Hasin, a Jew born in Estonia, who now has a German passport and is a lawyer in Hamburg. According to him, “the majority of all Jews and many others whom I’ve spoken with are thinking about leaving.” Israel’s ambassador in Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, said before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, “Many refugees are coming to Germany from countries in which Jews are widely seen as enemies.” Among fleeing Syrians conspiracy theories are swirling around in which Israel is viewed as a supporter of Bashar al-Assad.

Merkel apparently understands how dangerous this connection can become. In her internet podcast this past weekend she espoused a determined battle against anti-Semitism which is much more widespread “than we imagine.” She explicitly referred to refugees “from countries in which hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews generally is propagated.”

Read more.

Martin Schulz: "It hurts that in today's Europe, Jews again live in fear"

This is all just talk.

In Europe 2016, media demonization of Israel is the norm.  European leaders meet with and honor the world's most antisemitic leaders, and stay silent while the latter incite to kill Jews.   In fact, they justify such incitement.  European children go to school and learn how horrible the Holocaust, but then learn that the Jews are even worse.   European countries at best abstain while Israel is condemned for everything under the sun.

This is the reason Jews live in fear, and until Europe faces up to that, all the talk about 'fighting antisemitism' is just that - talk.


Via Daily Mail:

The president of the European Parliament has warned of rising anti-Semitism as Holocaust Memorial Day is marked around the world.

The Parliament held its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day with the European Jewish Congress on the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

(...)

But speaking at the memorial day event in Brussels today, Mr Schulz warned that many Jews across Europe still do not feel safe.

He said: 'Jewish life is part of our culture and our identity. Without the Jews, Europe would not be Europe. Therefore it hurts that in today's Europe, Jews again live in fear.

'It is unacceptable that Jews are reluctant to wear their traditional clothes and display religious symbols in the public because of fear of reprisals and aggression.

'It is saddening when Jewish people consider leaving Europe because they no longer feel safe.'

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UK: British Jihadi blasts 'evil Zionism', wants to 'eradicate all Jewish people'

Via Daily Star:

TWISTED Isis executioner Jihadi Sid wants to follow in Adolf Hitler’s footsteps and eradicate all Jewish people.

He lauds the evil Nazi dictator in the middle of a nine-minute, hate-filled YouTube rant on the eve of his disappearance to Syria in September 2014.

The former bouncy castle salesman blasts "Zionism" and gloats: "Other people were aware of this evil doctrine and they did things to stop it. Like Adolf Hitler."

The murdering hypocrite even has the nerve to claim Jews have "little regard for human life".

Jihadi Sid, real name Siddartha Dhar, has been hailed as the new "Jihadi John" following the death of his predecessor, killed in a US drone strike.

Dhar reportedly came from a Hindu background but converted to Islam when he was 19 and changed his name to Abu Rumaysah.

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Greece: New VP of Greek Defense Industry blogs on alleged Jewish plan “to undermine the world”

Via Against Antisemitism:

George Kessarios and The Greek Analyst reported today on Twitter that the new Vice President of Greek Defense Industry, Babis Papaspyros, has tweeted about “quislings”, “Nazi collaborators” and “how Jewish people want to undermine the world via multiculturalism” 

(...)

Mr. Papaspyros is close to Greece’s Minister of Defense, Panos Kammenos; according to onlarissa.gr he has been appointed in November 2015 by Greece’s Finance Minister.

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Germany: Israel native encounters swastikas, anti-Semitic slurs while visiting Berlin refugee camp

Via Jerusalem Post:

Originally reported Monday by German newspaper Die Welt, Kippa-clad Yonatan Shai decided to sojourn into the former Tempelhof Airport refugee center as he said the massive influx of refugees, mainly from Syria and Iraq, has concerned the local Jewish community.

According to the Tel Aviv native, who moved to Berlin a year ago, he planned the visit as a means for open dialogue, however he remained weary of possible anti-Semetic reactions.

"I'm not afraid, but I'm on guard," the German paper quoted him as saying.

According to Die Welt, the Templehof Airport has housed some 2,000 refugees since October.

In one of the long corridors separating hangars that serve as living areas, the visiting Israeli came across anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled across the walls. According to the report, the graffiti included red swastikas, Stars of David accompanied by the satanically-affiliated number 666, and maps of Israel in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

Die Welt cited Shai as linking the graffiti to refugees of Palestinian background.

With his traditional Jewish yarmulke visible, Shai was reportedly met initially by the inhabitants with a mix of refugee children proudly displaying their German language skills and grown men ominously whispering "Jew."

When he confronted those hissing under their breath, they men assured Shai that he was mistaken and that they had not said anything.

Shai met other refugees who expressed consternation toward the Jew from Tel Aviv. However, he encountered others who responded to him with criticism of the Israeli government, but no ill-will toward the country's people.

Shai approached a pair of university students from Baghdad, who apparently had never met a Jew before, asking them what they learned about Israel in their homeland.

Yet in a more hostile encounter, Die Welt reported that one young refugee boy had menacingly gestured and told Shai "the Jews must get out of the country."

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France: Jews fear a new strain of ISIS-inspired anti-Semitism (NYT)

The New York Times reports from Marseille:

The attack’s bloodthirsty undertones — the deadly blade, the will to decapitate,
the coldness of the would-be killer — continued to stir unease.

It was the heavy leather-bound volume of the Torah he was carrying that shielded Benjamin Amsellem from the machete blows.

His attacker, a teenage fanatic who the police say was inspired by the Islamic State, was trying to decapitate Mr. Amsellem, a teacher at a local Jewish school. But Mr. Amsellem used the Torah — the only defense at hand — to deflect the blade and save himself.

It was the third such knife attack since October on a Jew in Marseille, where the Jewish population, around 70,000, is the second largest in France after Paris. And it was the latest example of how France is confronting both the general threat of terrorism, especially after two large-scale attacks in Paris last year, and a particular strain of anti-Semitism that has left many French Jews deeply unnerved.

“This was something claimed by an individual who invoked Daesh, who wanted to kill a Jew. It is extremely serious,” said Marseille’s top police official, Laurent Nunez, in an interview. “Daesh” is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Among Jews here, the attack on Mr. Amsellem, 35, has been met with a mix of anger and resignation, a response conditioned by the history of anti-Semitism in France, along with the recognition that global jihadism has made French Jews choice targets. [...]

In the wake of the attack on Mr. Amsellem, a top community official here called on Jews to stop wearing skullcaps in public, provoking a furious backlash from other community leaders in Paris. “It was my duty,” said the official, Zvi Ammar, who was startled by the outcry. “My only goal was to preserve human life.”

The teenager being held for the attack hardly fits the conventional profile of a radical Islamist: He is a Turkish Kurd, a group at war with the Islamic State.

The suspect — whose name is being withheld because of his age — has “very good marks in school,” said Mr. Amsellem’s lawyer, Fabrice Labi, and lives with his immigrant family in well-maintained if drab apartments north of the city center. His father, who brought the family to France five years ago, is a tile-setter with a solid income.  [...]

“It doesn’t shock us that much,” said Michele Allouche, who lives in the old downtown neighborhood near the 19th-century synagogue. “We’re waiting for it. There’s huge anti-Semitism in France.”

But the attack’s bloodthirsty undertones — the deadly blade, the will to decapitate, the coldness of the would-be killer — continued to stir unease.

“The machete, that evokes something barbarous,” said Hagay Sobol, a prominent doctor here. 

“And this boy, he’s the opposite of any image one might have of the terrorist. He’s not marginalized. And that tells us any boy could do this.”

Read more.

Also on this topic: Muslim attacker of Jewish teacher inspired by Palestinian terrorists (update)

Germany: Bremen Jewish community accuses pro-Palestinians of antisemitism

The speaker in this event is Arn Strohmeyer who wrote the book "Antisemitism - Philosemitism and the Palestine conflict, Hitler's long and disastrous shadow".




Strohmeyer  denies that he 'ever questioned Israel's right to exist', but it really doesn't take a genious to figure out that this is not 'criticism of Israeli policies' but rather 'criticism of the very basis of Israel's foundation'.


Via Jerusalem Post (h/t Honestly Concerned)

German cultural center cancels anti-Israel event ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day

The director of the publicly-funded cultural center in the northern Germany city of Bremen on Monday pulled the plug on an anti-Israel event seeking to demonize the Jewish state.

The event, “Antisemitismus – Philosemitism and the Palestinian Conflict” was organized by the German-Palestinian Society and the Middle East Forum Bremen.

(...)

The anti-Zionist talk was slated to take place one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday.

André Städler, spokesman for Bremen’s Mayor Carsten Sieling, told the Post that he “welcomes” the decision to cancel the event, adding, “Bremen sharply condemns every form of anti-Semitism including attempts to question Israel’s right to exist.”

The deputy representative of the Bremen Jewish community, Grigori Pantijelew, told the Post on Monday that “Arn Strohmeyer, Detlef Griesche and other members of this group have defamed the Jewish community in Bremen for years.”

(...)

In an email to the Post, Strohmeyer wrote the he is “very outraged” that his talk was canceled. He said the refusal means that “freedom of speech was threatened in a bad manner.”

He said his lecture will still take place at another location.

“I have never questioned Israel’s right to exist and never will.” He added that “the allegation of anti-Semitism from certain Jewish circles serves as an instrument to silence critics of Israel’s policies.”

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Ukraine: Jewish cemetery vandalized over and over due to park dispute

Via CFCA, Дзеркало Коломиї:

The Jewish cemetery in Kolomyia was vandalized two weeks ago: The security cameras were smashed and the prayer chapel was set on fire and burned down.

This is the last incident in a string of vandalism targeting the cemetery.  The prayer chapel had been burned down a few times, and a few dozen tombstones have been smashed.  Some of the tombstones had been previously saved from being used as building materials elsewhere in town.

Apparently some people do not like the fact that the gate to the park in which the cemetery is located been locked, preventing them from cutting through the area.  One of the suspects had previously threatened to 'blow up the cemetery' because they've 'received a lot of complaints about it'.

Belgium: Academic says Israel lobby of controls America and inflicts "unspeakable miseries" on the world

Jean Bricmont

Jean Bricmont teaches physics at the Catholic University of Louvain and is a fellow-member of the prestigious Belgian Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts.  He is obsessed with Israel and is a promoter of conspiracy theories about the "Israel lobby". Like many Europeans he is a passionate defender of Muslims.  In France, some people on the left are horrified by what Bricmont writes and have like journalist Aude Lancelin denounce his support for "extremists, anti-Semites and holocaust-deniers", communist intellectual Danielle Bleitrach and others.  But not the  Belgian elites.

Bricmont wrote an essay for Counterpunch (see Counterpunch: A Neo Nazi Magazine) in 2006 - and nothing has changed since.  In it he advocates the "de-Zionisation" (doesn't this remind you of "de-Nazification?) of the American mind.  No less. Well, so far the American "idiots" have superbly ignored the ravings of an unsufferably arrogant man for whom Americans are Zionized brainwashed fools who have relinquished their self-determination to the benefit of the Lobby.  The article is titled The De-Zionization of the American Mind:

[...]  But the level of hatred that leads a large number of people to applaud an event like September 11 is peculiar to the Middle East. Indeed, the main political significance of September 11 did not derive from the number of people killed or even the spectacular achievement of the attackers, but from the fact that the attack was popular in large parts of the Middle East. That much was understood by Americans leaders and infuriated them. Such a level of hatred calls for explanation.

And there can be only one explanation: United States support for Israel. It is indeed Israel that is the main object of hatred, for reasons we shall describe, but since the United States uncritically supports Israel on almost every issue, constantly praises it as "the only democracy in the Middle East" and provides its main financial backing, the result is a "transfer" of hatred.

Why is Israel so hated? The constant stalling of "peace plans" in favor of more settlements and more war aggravates that hatred, but the basic cause lies in the very principles on which that state is build. There are basically two arguments that have justified establishing the State of Israel in Palestine: one is that God gave that land to the Jews, and the other is the Holocaust. The first one is deeply insulting to people who are profoundly religious, like most Arabs, but of another creed. And, for the second, it amounts to making people pay for a crime that they did not commit. 

Both arguments are deeply racist, with their claim that it is right for Jews, and only Jews, to set up a state in a land that would obviously be Arab, like Jordan or Lebanon, if not for the slow Zionist invasion. [...]

[...]  why isn’t this understood in the United States either? There are traditionally two answers to that: one is that the population is manipulated into supporting Israel by the government, the arms merchants or the oil industry, because Israel is a strategic U.S. ally; the other answer is that the United States is manipulated by the Israel lobby. The idea that Israel is a strategic ally, if by that one means a useful ally (useful to, say, the oil interests, broadly understood), although widely accepted, specially in the Left, does not survive a critical examination. That may have been the case in 1967 or even during the Cold War period, although one could argue that, even then, the Arab states were attracted by the Soviet Union only because it might support them in their struggle against Israel, albeit ineffectively. [...]

Finally, just imagine that the United States would make a 180 turn and suddenly side with the Palestinians [...]

What effect would that have? Can anyone doubt that such a change of policy would facilitate U.S. access to oil fields and help it gain strategic allies (if any were still needed) throughout the Muslim world? In the Middle East, the main charge against the United States is that it is pro-Israel, because it lets itself be "manipulated by the Jews". Therefore, if Washington switched sides, there would be no more basis for hostility to U.S. presence, including its control over oil. Thus the notion of Israel as "strategic ally" makes no sense.  [...]

The Israel lobby does not work like other lobbies, for example, the arms and the oil industry lobbies (which is one of the reasons why it is easy to dismiss it as irrelevant, as long as one does not understand how it really exerts its influence).  [...]

What protects the Israel lobby is the fact that anyone who would denounce an opponent funded by the Lobby as a quasi-agent of a foreign power would immediately be accused of anti-Semitism. In fact, imagine that Big Business is unhappy with the current U.S. policies (as it well may be) and wants to change them–how could they do it? Any criticism of Lobby influence on U.S. policy would immediately trigger the anti-Zionism-is-anti-Semitism accusation.  So the strength of the Israel lobby resides in part in this second line of defense, which itself is linked to its influence on the media. [...]

The problem, and that is why the Israel lobby is so effective, is that it expresses a world view that is accepted too easily by too many Americans. After all, nothing could be more ridiculous than accusing someone of anti-Semitism because he wants or claims to put America’s interests above those of Israel. Yet, the accusation is likely to be effective, but only because years of ideological brainwashing have predisposed people to consider U.S. and Israeli interests as identical — although instead of "interests" one speaks of "values".

Associated with this identification comes a systematically hostile view of the Arab and Muslim world, which both increases the lobby’s effectiveness and is in part the result of its propaganda. Despite all the talk about anti-racism and "political correctness", there is an almost total lack of understanding of the Arab viewpoint on Palestine, and, in particular, of the racist nature of the problem. It is this triple layer of control (selective funding, the anti-Semitism card, or rather canard, and the interiorization) that gives the lobby its peculiar strength. (And that is also why it is easy to dismiss its strength by saying, for instance, that, obviously, Jews don’t control America. Sure, but direct control is not the way it works.)  [...]

Peace in the Middle East can only come when this feeling of Israeli superiority is shattered, and Americans have a great responsibility is doing half of the job, the one concerning kneejerk U.S. support.  [...]

Also, if the United States were to distance itself from Israel, it would pursue policies opposed to the traditional ones, and far more humane. [...]

What is at stake in the de-Zionization of the American mind is not only the fate of the unfortunate inhabitants of Palestine but also unspeakable miseries for the people of that region and maybe of the rest of the world. The ultimate irony in all this is that the fate of much of the world depends of the American people exercizing their right to self-determination, which, of course, they should.

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Poll: 67% of Israelis concerned for safety of Jews abroad

Via Israel Hayom:

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and in light of the significant rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and across the globe, the World Zionist Organization conducted a survey, which showed that 67% of Israelis are worried for the safety of Jews abroad.

WZO Vice Chairman Yaakov Hagoel will present the survey's findings at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The survey, which was performed by the Midgam Research Institute for the WZO, found that 39% of Israelis believe that European Jews need to immigrate to Israel due to the increasing anti-Semitism there. With that, 46% of Israelis understand the Jews who continue to live in Europe for economic, social and other reasons.

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France: Prime minister calls to ban BDS

Via France24:

France’s prime minister has criticised boycotts of Israeli products, saying they fuel anti-Semitic sentiment. But critics say using France's strict laws against "inciting discrimination" to criminalise the boycotts violates free speech.

Addressing a meeting of the Crif, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, on Monday, Manuel Valls said “French authorities must change their attitude” towards demonstrations that call for a boycott of Israeli products, which he accused of fostering a “nauseating climate” in the country.

“It is perfectly obvious how we have shifted from criticism of Israel to anti-Zionism and from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism,” he added, slamming a recent protest in Paris, staged by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which opposes the Israeli “colonisation” of Palestinian land and has grown in popularity as people lose faith in the stalled Mideast peace process.

When the Crif’s president, Roger Cukierman, repeated longstanding calls to ban all BDS protests, Valls said he had discussed the issue with France’s interior minister and would raise it again. He did not specify what actions he had in mind, though adding that any new step would be taken “in compliance with the rule of law”.

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UK: Jew-hater on a train

Harry's Place reports:


I wish I could say I’d have the courage to do what our comrade James Bloodworth did here:

Read more.

France: Israeli ambassador to France: There is sense of insecurity in Jewish community

It must be pointed out that non-Jewish French people are also deeply disturbed and frightened by what is going on.  A recent poll revealed that only 12% of the French population trust politicians and 24% the media.  It is not surprising that so many Jews are leaving France.

The Jerusalem Post reports:  (H/T Philippe)

Israeli Ambassador to France Aliza Bin-Noun is a busy woman. Her secretary’s telephone doesn’t stop ringing with interview requests or by people who would like to meet the Jewish state’s top female diplomat.  [...]

“Indeed, ever since I got here last summer I’ve been confronted with a sense of insecurity in the Jewish community – insecurity primarily following the attack at Hyper Cacher, but also due to the smaller scale attacks that ensued, such as the incident in Marseille just a few days ago, where a teacher was stabbed by a 15-year old,” says Bin-Noun in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. “The accumulation of so many incidents definitely takes its toll on them.”

Read more.

"Many Western journalists covering the Middle East do not feel the need to conceal their hatred for Israel and for Jews"

Khaled Abu Toameh @ Gatestone Institute:

But when it comes to covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ignorance apparently is bliss. Misconceptions about what goes on here plague the international media. The binary good guy/bad guy designation tops the list. Someone has to be the good guy (the Palestinians are assigned that job) and someone has to be the bad guy (the Israelis get that one). And everything gets refracted through that prism.

Yet the problem is deeper still. Many Western journalists covering the Middle East do not feel the need to conceal their hatred for Israel and for Jews. But when it comes to the Palestinians, these journalists see no evil. Foreign journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have for years refused to report on the financial corruption and human rights violations that are rife under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas regimes. They possibly fear being considered "Zionist agents" or "propagandists" for Israel.

Finally, there are the local journalists hired by Western reporters and media outlets to help the cover the conflict. These journalists may refuse to cooperate on any story that is deemed "anti-Palestinian." Palestinian "suffering" and the "evil" of the Israeli "occupation" are the only admissible topics. Western journalists, for their part, are keen not to anger their Palestinian colleagues: they do not wish to be denied access to Palestinian sources.

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Belgium: Islamic State terrorist mastermind says "we will be the ones who liberate Palestine"

Anti-Zionism justifies terrorism against Jews and it justifies terrorism against non-Jews.


Abdelhamid Abaaoud (AKA Abu Omer al-Baljiki) is a Belgian Muslim, the mastermind of the Paris attacks. He was killed by French security forces in a raid in Saint-Denis.

Via i24 News:

The Islamic State group released a video Sunday featuring the messages from nine perpatrators of the Paris massacres which killed 130 people last November, and threatening "coalition" countries including Britain.

The 17 minute propaganda video, entitled "Kill wherever you find them," was posted on jihadist websites with French and English subtitles, and shows four Belgians, three French citizens, and two Iraqis said to be responsible for the attacks threatening more violence.

"Allah! Allah! On this day we will create rivers of your blood. With Allah's help we will be the ones who liberate Palestine," is the final message given by Abu Omer al-Baljiki, considered the "mastermind" behind the attacks.

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Poland: NOP party invites British Nazi speakers

Via Searchlight:

Two leading British Nazis addressed a conference of the fascist National Rebirth of Poland (NOP) party in Silesia, last November. Entitled “The nation state in the era of globalisation”, the conference in Rybnik, southwest Poland, brought together leading Polish fascists, two professors from the University of Economics in Katowice and a number of NOP members living in the UK.

Jeremy Bedford-Turner of the London Forum spoke on “European resistance to the threat of national identity” and Kevin Layzell, a young Nazi activist who flits around the far-right scene, spoke on the theme: “Third Position – together in defence of peoples”. Layzell briefly ran the British National Party’s youth organisation despite being only a probationary member of the party, until he was expelled by Steve Squire, the London organiser, for being “not right for the BNP”.

Among the audience was Piers Mellor, an Australian Nazi living in London who took part in a Moscow-inspired anti-Ukrainian protest in March 2015 and an “anti-Jewification” demonstration in Whitehall on 4 July 2015 organised by the Nazi activist Eddy Stampton.

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UK: "Hitler Was Right" anti-refugee protest

Via Twitter:

Anti-Refugee protest in Newcastle by the National Action group: "Refugees not welcome #HitlerWasRight".

Europe: 40% of European citizens hold anti-Semitic attitudes

Via i24News:

The Israeli government's 2015 Report on Anti-Semitism, presented by education minister Naftali Bennett in a cabinet meeting on Sunday, revealed alarming increases in anti-Semitic attacks and attitudes in Europe.

The report, published three days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, found that 40% of European citizens hold anti-Semitic attitudes, and detailed a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the EU, particularly in France and Britain.

France saw an alarming 84 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents between January and May 2015, according to published data.

Britain also reported that anti-Semitic incidents reached peak levels in 2014 and 2015, increasing by 53 percent.

More than half of French Jews are considering emigrating from the country, according to the report.

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UK: BBC Two’s ‘Newsnight’ gives a stage to Galloway’s anti-Israel conspiracy theories

Via BBC Watch:

Following the publication on January 21st of the results of the inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the producers of BBC Two’s flagship current affairs programme ‘Newsnight‘ apparently reached the bizarre conclusion that their mission of providing audiences with “comprehensive coverage of the day’s important national and international news stories” could best be met by bringing George Galloway into the studio.

During that interview, Galloway made the following statement:

“Look, I know Plutonium [sic] 210. I was at Yasser Arafat’s bedside in France when he died from Polonium 210, so I know how foul a murder this was.”

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Norway: "I've always seen myself as Jewish, but I began to deny it and hide it"

Via NRK (h/t SAW)

Michael Stark (24) says he was harassed in school.  He was called "fucking Jew" and told jokes like "It's so cold here, can we burn a Jew?".

When he started working he didn't tell anybody about his Jewish life.  "I didn't tell anybody about my religion.  I stayed away from it because I didn't want to be seen as Jewish."

Michael's mother is Jewish and his father is Catholic, and he grew up with both religions.

He didn't tell anybody at home about the harassment he experienced.  He identified as Jewish, but because of the situation in school he stopped participating in Jewish celebrations.  "I said that 'It's Mom that's Jewish, not me'.  I've always seen myself as Jewish, but I began to deny it and hide it."

It didn't help when he changed schools.  "there was always somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody from the previous school.  That way, it never ended.  I was always 'the Jewish boy'."

Michael says that he's now decided to be more open about his religion and where he comes from, and that he won't be embarrassed to celebrate Hanukka or wear a kippah.  He's received mostly positive comments.  One coworker, a Muslim, told him "You and I must work together. You are a Jew and I'm a Muslim, we must team up."

France: Jews leave France in record numbers (CNN)

CNN reports (click on link to watch the video):

Yoav Krief remembers the day he knew it was time to move to Israel: January 9, 2015.It was a Friday. Four Jews had just been killed in the Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket in Paris, two days after the Charlie Hebdo attack. One of them was Krief's friend. 

"I was not good, really not good," Krief says of how he felt at the time. "I talked to my mom, and I said, 'We must go to Israel. We need to go to Israel.'"

Krief decided to leave France after a friend was killed in a terror attack. Krief, a French Jew who had just finished high school, moved to Israel with his family six months later, as part of the largest migration of Jews from Western Europe to Israel since the modern state of Israel was created.

Nearly 8,000 French Jews moved to Israel in the year following the Charlie Hebdo attack, according to the Jewish Agency, which handles Jewish immigration, or aliyah, to Israel. 

[...]

'Difficult to live as a Jew in France'

Many French Jews settle in Ashdod, a city in southern Israel known for its large French population. You are as likely to hear French on the streets as you are Hebrew, especially in one of the city's many French cafés. 

"It's great for me here, much better than France," says Charly Dahan, a musician who moved to Israel from Paris two years ago.   Dahan sits in Café Lyon, a popular meeting spot for French Jews.

"This is the first time in my life that I am relaxed. In France, I also felt good, but the situation and the current problems... it's very difficult to live as a Jew in France," he adds.  [...]

Fear of being seen as Jewish

But when the European Union studied the prevalence of anti-Semitism in 2013, it found that 74% of Jews in France avoid openly identifying themselves as Jewish at least some of the time, and more than a quarter of French Jews always do.

Dov Cohen, a French Jew who left Marseille for Ashdod last summer, says he never wore his religious skullcap, or kippa, in public.

"You have to watch out," Cohen says about his life in France. "You have to protect the children because of fights in the metro and on the buses. This pushed us to decide to make aliyah," he says. 

"Here there is a feeling of security that no longer exists in France. Twenty years ago, maybe yes. But since the year 2000, there no longer is that feeling of security in France."

Read more.

France: Antisemitic graffiti

Via 94.citoyens:

Residents of an apartment buildings in Joinville-le-Pont (Paris) found the following engraved into the doors of an elevator: Jewish star, swastika, "Nazis" and "Jihad".

Germany: “Jews out!” graffiti campaign continues in Berlin

Via Everyday Antisemitism, RIAS:

Berlin’s Alt-Mariendorf district continues to see a campaign of antisemitic graffiti, RIAS reports.

Following last year’s spate of antisemitic vandalism, the Jew-hating slogans have continued to appear in the area. At the beginning of January, the Alt-Mariendorf underground station and its surroundings were daubed with graffiti including, “Who is Rotschild [sic]? Western Terror Jews [sic] out!”, a swastika and several “Jews Out” and also the initials “JF”.

“JF” may be a reference to the Junge Front (Young Front). The Junge Front was the youth movement attached to the Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit (the VSBD/PdA), a far-right political party that was founded in Germany in 1971 and banned in 1982.

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Germany: Non-Muslim students hide their anti-Semitism better than Muslim students

Via Everyday Antisemitism:

Arif Arslaner, founder of Kubi, an organisation that provides social work to seven schools in Frankfurt an Main, says the insults are particularly prevalent amounst Muslim students. He advises that it is important to distinguish between ideological hatred and students “merely” parroting hateful rhetoric to be provocative.

He notes the difference between Muslim and non-Muslim students is that the latter are less open, rather than less hateful. Kanbicak supports this view, noting that amongst students from more traditional German backgrounds, outright antisemitism is taboo and is more likely to be cloaked as criticism around Israel.

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Merkel: "Anti-Semitism is more widespread than we imagined"

Via Times of Israel:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for “intensive action” against anti-Semitism on Saturday, urging vigilance particularly when dealing with young people from countries “where hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism is widespread.”

“Anti-Semitism is more widespread than we imagined. And that is why we must act intensively against it,” Merkel, who on Monday will inaugurate an exhibition in Berlin titled “The Art of the Holocaust,” said in her weekly video podcast.

(...)

“We must take care, specifically also in youth (from) countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is widespread,” she insisted, without mentioning specific countries or refugees.

“We have observed in several schools and meeting places (anti-Semitic) events (led) by young people, against which every adult has to act,” she said. “We must also encourage students who think differently,” she stressed.

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Sweden: "Non- Jews approached me in stores and engaged me in conversation about Israel"

Dov Lipman felt safe walking around Sweden with a kippah.  He doesn't see a problem with the fact that people approached a kippah-wearing Jew and felt it quite proper to start talking about Jews and Israel.  

Dov Lipman @ The Jerusalem Post:

In response to Foreign Minister Wallström’s horrific accusations against Israel, I flew to Sweden as part of a World Zionist Organization delegation for a two-day trip to participate in an event in the Swedish parliament, and in one in the Jewish community. As I was leaving the Stockholm airport, a young man came over to me, introduced himself as a local Jew, and strongly suggested that I remove my kippa because he believed it was dangerous to wear one publicly in Sweden. I refused to do so, and posted about the incident on Facebook along with a selfie of my wearing my kippa in Sweden. I wrote that as a proud Jew I would not remove my kippa – even in Sweden.

The response was swift and stunning.

A debate erupted over whether I was heroic or naive. I received huge numbers of messages – some were filled with pride while others, particularly from close friends, begged me to remove my kippa.

Total strangers scolded me for placing myself in danger. People in Israel scolded people outside Israel for not returning to their homeland where they can wear a kippa freely. Others strongly defended those who live in the Diaspora.

The responses of the hundreds of people who reacted online are available to see. What the public has not seen is what happened in Sweden as I walked around in my Kippa. Swedish Jews told me how happy they were with my post, and that it emboldened them to remain strong and proud of their heritage.

One of the main synagogues tweeted my Facebook post with the message in Swedish: “sometimes you need a foreigner to spell out the obvious #jewishpride.” Non- Jews approached me in stores and engaged me in conversation about Israel. One 20-something-year old who approached me – who fit the classic Scandinavian external profile – ended our conversation by saying, “People should just learn to talk. You dispelled so much of what I had thought about Israel and about Jews.”

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Switzerland: Young Socialists post 'Jewish lobby' cartoon (UPDATE: apology)

Via BLICK:
 
JUSO (Young Socialists Switzerland) is a youth organization connected to the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.


Recently they posted the antisemitic cartoon above on their Facebook page.   It shows President and Commerce Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann feeding a fat Jewish man, who has a large nose and sidelocks.   Schneider-Ammann says ".. and a spoon for... the international financial lobby".  The hungry child next to him gets nothing.


JUSO removed the cartoon and published a statement saying that they understood that the cartoon could be interpreted in an antisemitic way and that this in no way reflects on their basic values.   They apologize without reservation and assure everybody that there were no antisemitic intentions behind it.


Update: apology text via Haaretz:

“We understand that the cartoon allows for an interpretation through anti-Semitic codes and stereotypes that absolutely do not correspond with JUSO’s basic values,” the organization wrote in a statement on Jan. 23. ”We would like to apologize unreservedly for this regrettable error and affirm that there was no intention to reproduce anti-Semitism.”

France: Jewish pro-Palestinian activist says Kippah signals ‘allegiance to Israeli policies’

Via JTA:

French Jews condemned a prominent Jewish pro-Palestinian activist who said that the act of wearing a kippah is a sign of allegiance to the policies of the State of Israel.

Rony Brauman, a former president of Doctors Without Borders, made the statement last week during an interview on the Europe1 radio station about the Jan. 11 stabbing of a devout Jew in Marseille, allegedly by a 15-year-old boy who told police he assaulted the victim as part of the jihad of the Islamic State terrorist group.

“We have to wonder about the significance of wearing a kippah — not for that person,” Brauman said of the victim in Marseille, “as I have no reason to suspect him, but in society in general.” In addition to an affirmation of faith, Brauman said, wearing a kippah is “an affirmation of loyalty to the State of Israel, why not after all, but also, and this is much more problematic, a sign of a kind of allegiance to the policies of the state of Israel.”

According to the Tribune Juive daily, both CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, and French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia condemned this statement. André Mamou, the paper’s editor-in-chief, wrote in an op-ed that, “what made this left-wing physician venture so far into self-hatred is incomprehensible.”

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Belgium: Right-wing politician "not accusing" Jews of Stalin's purges in anti-Zionist op-ed

Jean-Marie Dedecker is a Belgian Flemish politician and head of the right-wing LDD party.  Last year he was awarded the Prize for Liberty by the Flemish classical-liberal thinktank Libera!.

In a recent op-ed in the Belgian magazine Knack Dedecker supposedly 'criticizes Israel' - warning Europeans not to accept 'Israelis crimes' just because Palestinians are killing Israelis.  But as Jewish journalist Hans Knoop responds, the entire article is antisemitic.

Dedecker accuses Jews of using Western guilt for the Holocaust to whitewash their crimes against humanity in Palestine.

He brings quotes (not necessarily authentic ones) from right-wing and left-wing Israelis to demonstrate the vile nature of Jews and to demonize the Jewish people.

He even uses Stalin's purges in order to demonize Jews.  Blaming the Palestinians for the Holocaust, he says, is as perverse as blaming the Jews for Stalin's purges.  After all, Dedecker claims, many gulags were headed by Jews.  He accuses "the Jew" Uritzky of turning the secret police into a "real murder machine".  He says that "the Jew" Genrikh Yagoda was Stalin's most effective executioner and was responsible for millions of deaths, and points out that "the Jewish mass-murderer Lazare Kaganovitch" starved millions of Ukrainians.

It is indeed incorrect to blame the Palestinians for the Holocaust in Europe, but it is a fact that the Palestinian leadership pushed for a genocide of all Jews in Muslim countries including Palestine.
 Dedecker can claim that he said that it's 'perverse' to blame Jews for Stalin's purges, but this is in fact what he's doing.


Knoop points out that the big Stalin purges happened long before the State of Israel was founded and the Jews were the one group who suffered most from Stalin's terror regime.  Bringing the purges up as nothing to do with "criticizing Israeli policy".  Dedecker simply wants to show that Jews are despicable.


In fact, Dedecker points out that Orthodox people of all religions are all the same, and does so by denigrating Judaism:

"Ultra-Orthodox Jews men man only touch their wives, the others are apparently infectious.  As compensation for the discrimination, the rabbis decided that one may pick his nose on the Sabbath.  This isn't seen as work but rather fits the motto 'you should scratch where it itches'."

Dedecker concludes his indictment of Israel, the Jewish lobby and the Jews in general, by claiming that Israel recently adopted a law that bans people who criticize the "Promised Land".  Though Israel doesn't need to worry, Dedecker also says that he doesn't want to ever visit Israel again.

Knoop says that Dedecker denies being an antisemite, since it's banned by law, and that as usual in such cases, he will mention his Jewish doctor or that last year he helped a Jewish neighbor with his car.   However, if he's not an antisemite, he surely sounds like one.

Vatican: Pope silent when asked to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people

Last year the Pope wrote in an email that "anyone who does not recognize the Jewish people and the State of Israel — and their right to exist — is guilty of anti-Semitism".

Jews assumed this means the Pope thinks that not recognizing Israel as Jewish is antisemitic.  But that's not what he said.  He said the Jewish people and the State of Israel have a right to exist.  Each one separately.

The Pope repeated that statement a few months later: "Israel has every right to exist"

Does it have a right to exist as the state of the Jewish people?  The Pope never said so.

Christian Today, a British Christian news-site, reported that the Pope was "ambushed" with that question and that Israel as a Jewish state is a "highly controversial issue".



Via Arutz 7:

The rabbi told Arutz Sheva that during the visit he turned to the pope and asked him to declare that the church recognizes the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, but the clearly embarrassed pope simply responded with silence.

Rabbi Arusi said that while the Catholic church has conducted something of an about face in recent years regarding its relations with the Jewish people, there remains much that it must do.

"The church ignores the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, they talk about the Holy Land, but not about the state of Israel," he said.

"Therefore during the meeting with the rabbis after the public event, I turned to the pope and I told him that we appreciate his words against anti-Semitism, but today there is a new and very fierce anti-Semitism built on the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

The rabbi called on the pope to be "the Balfour of the Catholic church, and since the land of Israel is the Holy Land and they recognize our birthright, they should declare that the state of Israel is the state of the Jewish people by virtue of the Bible, without diminishing the rights of the Palestinians to a state."

In response, "the pope was very embarrassed by my request, he was never told that directly, and afterwards he smiled but didn't say a thing. I think that the time has come for them to indeed recognize the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

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Germany: Antisemitic campaign posters at Berlin university declare “Capitalist pigs are not kosher”

Via Everyday Antisemitism, RIAS:

RIAS have reported antisemitic posters used in a campaign in student elections at the Freie Universität, one of Berlin’s major universities.

The left wing group “Liste 15/Tierbabys und Klassenkampf” [List 15/Baby Animals and Class War] posted up campaign posters featuring a piglet drinking from a Starbucks cup, together with the slogan “Kapitalistenschweinchen sind nicht koscher” [“Capitalist pigs are not kosher”].

The word “kosher” is used to denote food prepared in accordance with Jewish law. It has also found wider use in common parlance to describe legitimacy or genuineness.

Conflating Jews with capitalism, and leveraging anti-capitalist sentiment against the Jewish people, is a centuries-old phenomenon. 

(...)

Starbucks, whose Chairman and CEO is Jewish, has long been the focus of anti-Israel campaigners. In 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2014 there were several calls to boycott Starbucks for ‘supporting Israel’

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