The New Antisemite: February 2016

Monday, February 29, 2016

Netherlands: Eindhoven fans sing about killing Jews

Via SoccerNews:

During a game last week, PSV Eindhoven fans chanted "If you don't jump, you're a Jew, and all the Jews must die."

Italy: Anti-Zionist researcher blames Israel for Charlie Hebdo, anti-western attacks

Last week I wrote a post about an Irish top anti-racism activist in Ireland who supports antisemites.

An Italian researcher by the name of Alessandro Zagato did not like my post, and bothered to let me know. Zagato got his PhD at Maynooth University (Ireland) and is currently at the University of Bergen (Norway).

I think the discussion with him is enlightening. Not because it's unusual, but because it's actually quite normal. People think that denying Jews the right to self-determination and voicing support for murdering Jews is not antisemitic. Because they don't hate the 'Jews' (a theoretical construct), they just hate the 'Zionists' and the Jewish state (ie, the vast majority of actual Jews) and they think their murderous hatred is justified.

The subject, let's not forget, is that fact that a top anti-racism activist in Ireland supports the antisemitic BDS movement and the no-less-antisemitic Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).

Zagato started off by saying:

Systematically suspecting pro-palestine campaigners of anti semitism is a form of zionism imo

Zionists (ie, most Jews), have no idea what antisemitism is and/or use for their nefarious purposes, to attack the innocent.

Hoover, if he would have bothered reading my post, he would have realized that I do not "systematically suspect" pro-Palestinian groups of antisemitism. I just haven't found any that aren't. As I said in my previous post:

I don't know of any pro-Palestinian group that does not deny the right of Jews to self-determination and that does not fight Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Both of those are considered antisemitism according to every official definition: according to the United States, according to the EU, according to every antisemitism watchdog, and according to a vast majority of Jews.

If that sounds to you like the definition of anti-Zionism, you're exactly right. Anti-Zionists deny Jews the right to self-determination and deny Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Both of those are flat-out antisemitism.

When I pointed this out to Zagato, he responded:

Right to self determination should not be obtained through genocide

But that, of course, applies only to Jews. Arabs can try and commit genocide against Jews, and they do not lose their right to self-determination.

In fact, when I asked Zagato if he thinks Palestinians have no right to self-determination because they tried to kill off the Jews, he actually voiced support for murdering Jews.

Zagato:

Unsurprisingly, occupation becomes war. Have you read any figures of the death toll? Both sides?

Arabs are allowed to kill Jews, because occupation and resistance. Jews are not allowed to defend themselves, because, well, because anti-Zionists are antisemites.

Additionally, all this talk of 'genocide' is a way of comparing Israelis to Nazis. Which also happens to be flat-out antisemitism, as well as soft-core Holocaust denial.

I then tried to understand what's Zagato's connection to the original post, at which point the conversation devolved into Zagato accusing me of working for the Israeli government and being a troll. Apparently, Jews who fight antisemitism must be Israeli stooges and/or trolls.

To sum up, in this very short conversation, Zagato managed to:
1. Deny Jews the right to self-determination
2. Support murder/genocide of Jews in Israel
3. Compare Jews to Nazis

Each one of those is antisemitic according to both the American and European official definitions.

Zagato doesn't just display his antisemitism in twitter discussions. He recently edited a scholarly work on the Charlie Hebdo attack, titled "The Event of Charlie Hebdo, Imaginaries of Freedom and Control".

The book was published by Berghahn Books, an independent British/American publisher "of distinguished scholarly books and journals in the humanities and social sciences".

This work in enlightening, not because it's special. In fact, it's a rather mundane scholarly work that speaks 'truth to power' by doing what most other academics do nowadays: justify anti-Western terrorism.

Would it surprise anybody to learn that the book does not mention the fact that as part of this attack on (evil, colonialist) France, Jews were held hostage in a kosher supermarket and then executed?

The intro mentions the 'subsequent attacks that took place in the Ile-de-France region'. Otherwise, the antisemitic attack is barely mentioned once in the book, and even that as an aside.

Zagato says that he followed the news closely after the Charlie Hebdo attack, and yet in his article he completely erases the fact that Jews were murdered at all.

He does, however, blame the attack, among other things, on... you guessed it, Israel.

On a broader scale and time span, we should consider the destruction and cultural imperialism which Muslim people have experienced since the start of the 'war on terror'... it also includes the complacent passivity of many European governments vis-à-vis the annihilation of the Palestinian people in the Middle East... it is easy to imagine how anti-state and anti-Western sentiments may emerge among parts of the population

Zagato doesn't just equate Israel to Nazism, intent on annihilating an entire people, he think Israel is to blame for the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In fact, for every anti-state and anti-Western attack. He would blame Israel for the Hyper-Cacher attack too, but he can't, because that would actually require him to mention it.

For antisemites/anti-Zionists, Jews are never a victim, they are the cause of everybody else's misfortune.

This is what passes for 'distinguished scholarly books' nowadays.

UK: Pro-Palestinian students perform 'antisemitic' play as part of Israel Apartheid Week

Via The JC:

A pro-Palestinian student group co-run by the son of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has performed a play widely described as antisemitic as part of Israel Apartheid Week.

York University’s student Palestinian Solidarity Society staged two productions of "Seven Jewish Children - A Play for Palestine" on Thursday afternoon.

Tommy Corbyn, who is studying electrical engineering at York, is the society’s events manager.

The play, written by Caryl Churchill as a response to an Israeli attack on Gaza, was first performed in 2009. In seven short scenes, totalling only 10 minutes, it examines modern Jewish history.

The JC’s theatre critic described the work as antisemitic, highlighting a moment when one Jewish character appears to be glorifying in Palestinian suffering.

Author Howard Jacobson described it as “Jew-hating, pure and simple”.

The play at York was a joint production by the Palestinian Solidarity Society and another group, the Antigone Collective.

UK: Two pro-Corbyn activists investigated over alleged anti-Semitism at Oxford University

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Max Shanly and James Elliott are understood to be at the centre of the inquiry into claims about harassment and intimidation of Jewish students

James Elliot helps Jeremy Corbyn with his Labour leadership bid last year

Max Shanly

Two prominent Momentum activists who hold powerful elected positions in the Labour Party’s national youth and policy wings are being investigated over alleged anti-Semitism at Oxford University, The Telegraph understands.

Max Shanly, 25, a member of Young Labour’s national committee, and James Elliott, 22, who sits on the youth section of the party’s national policy forum, are at the centre of the inquiry into claims about harassment and intimidation of Jewish students. Both vigorously deny the claims.

read more

Lithuania: Town plans to name street after priest who organized gang that murdered Jews

Via Jerusalem Post:

In the latest scrap over historical memory, the small town of Moletai has come under fire for its announcement that it intends to name a street after Jonas Zvinys, a local priest accused of organizing a gang that murdered the city’s Jews in 1941.

Lithuanian writer Ruta Vanagaite launched an investigation into Zvinys at the behest of Simon Wiesenthal Center Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, with whom she recently co-authored a book on Lithuanians and the Holocaust.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post from Vilnius on Thursday, Vanagaite said that after searching through KGB archives she discovered that the priest indeed set up the gang in question, one of whose leaders was his own brother, who would later confess to his role in the massacre.

At Vanagaite’s urging, local news portal delfi.it investigated the matter as well, discovering that Zvinys had been awarded a colonelcy in 2002 by the office of the president at the behest of the country’s state-sponsored Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania.

Delfi asked the center about Zvinys and was referred to the president’s office and the Moletai municipality, with the local mayor, who is related to Zvinys, asking why there should be a problem in honoring him if he was already feted by the government.

“They were all throwing the ball to each other and no one wants to investigate without somebody else asking for it,” Vanagaite said. “I think it’s good because it shows that the whole system doesn’t work because there is nobody who takes responsibility to investigate without anybody asking for it and nobody asks for it.

The media exposure that this case has generated may serve as a deterrent to other towns interested in glorifying Holocaust collaborators, she said.

UK: BBC Radio 4 provides a stage for anti-Israel activist’s agitprop and defamation Ken Loach

BBC Watch reports:

When BBC Radio 4 producers invited long-time anti-Israel activist Ken Loach to appear on the February 25^th edition of ‘The World Tonight’ to talk about a campaign in which he is involved there can be little doubt that they knew in advance exactly what they were going to get. It was therefore to be expected that listeners to the item concerned (from 32:52 here) would hear the tirade of inaccurate statements, crude distortions and downright lies which included the following:

“Israel has been oppressing the Palestinians for 70 years. They steal their land. They destroy their houses. They kill them with impunity. They break international law. They disregard United Nations resolutions and they break the Geneva conventions. They’re constructing an apartheid state.”

“If you look in the West Bank, for example, you’ll see settlements that are only available to Israeli Jews. The Palestinians live in villages at the foot of those settlements. You’ll see roads that only Israelis can travel on. The Palestinians, in their own land, cannot travel on those roads. You’ll see checkpoints that only Palestinians are forced to go through. Israelis don’t have to go through checkpoints. […] it satisfies the United Nations definition of apartheid.”

“Will they go to Gaza and see the rubble? Will they see the schools that were bombed by Israel in 2014? Will they see the hospitals that were targeted by Israel? Will they see the places where families were herded together and then executed? Will they hear about the people who were asked if they spoke Hebrew and if they spoke Hebrew they were executed?”

And in addition to all that, listeners also heard promotion of the BDS campaign – once again without their being told what that campaign really seeks to bring about.

Italy: Jewish sportscaster told concentration camp awaits him

Via JTA:

A group of youths accosted an Italian Jewish sportscaster after their team lost a key match in London.

In a blog post, David Gaeta, known as the radio “voice” of the Florence soccer team Fiorentina, reported that about 20 youths had accosted him Thursday night as he waited for an underground train after Fiorentina lost to the English team Tottenham Hotspur.

The loss ousted Fiorentina from the European League championships.

“They recognized me and started to chant ‘David Guetta, a train for Mauthausen awaits you,’” he wrote. The chant rhymes in Italian.
The shameful thing is, he wrote, that the youths who accosted him “almost certainly do not really know what happened at Mauthausen. Or at Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka.” He added that he would have liked to have had the encounter in Florence, “in front of the memorial plaque that recalls the Florentines who left with these trains that today they want for me, and who never returned.”

Racism and anti-Semitism by militant soccer fans has been an issue in Italy for years.

Thursday’s incident was not the first time that Guetta, who has provided the radio play by play for Fiorentina for more than 30 years, had been subjected to anti-Semitic slurs. In an interview for an Italian Jewish newspaper in 2010 he reported that he had been called “s—tty Jew” on a number of occasions, had had swastikas scrawled on his motorcycle and had received threatening letters.

UK: University of Kent refuses to take action over “Elders of Zion” conspiracy speaker because she is “a bona fide journalist”

Amira Hass is also bona fide anti-Zionist, which means any antisemitic statements she makes are protected by the "anti-Zionism cannot possibly be antisemitism" clause.

Via Campaign Against Antisemitism:

Following a speech to students at the University of Kent in which journalist Amira Hass reportedly claimed that the “Elders of Zion” planned “colonial” hegemony over Palestinians, the Head of the Office of the Vice Chancellor has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that no action will be taken.

“Elders of Zion” is a phrase used absolutely exclusively in the context of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, the antisemitic fabrication first published in 1903 which alleges the existence of a Jewish conspiracy to further the interests of Jewish people to the detriment of mankind, and forms the basis for many antisemitic conspiracy myths. Neither the organisers nor attendees appear to have spoken out.

Hass is quoted by blogger David Colier as saying: “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?” The remark was allegedly made on 28th January at a conference entitled “Israel and the Palestinians: Colonialism and Prospects for Justice” which was a joint event by University of Kent and SOAS.

Asked to clarify the University’s position and what action will now be taken to prevent the use of further antisemitic rhetoric at the University under the guise of political discourse about Israel, David Powell, Head of the Office of the Vice Chancellor told us to confirm that no action would be taken, writing:

“A debate may doubtless be had about the precise point that Ms Hass may have been making in her own presentation but we would note that she is a bona fide (and award winning) journalist working for a respected Israeli newspaper.”

Ukraine: "Ukraine highly influential for reaching Jewish people globally with the gospel"

Via Christianity Today:

In Ukraine, where nearly 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II, Holocaust references are usually used to make political points. During January’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Russian and Ukrainian leaders compared each other to Nazis and publicly fought over which country should get the credit for freeing the concentration camp in occupied Poland.

But Ukraine’s Messianic Jewish community is talking about the Holocaust in its evangelistic efforts. And now Messianic congregations are thriving in many of the same communities that suffered the deepest Holocaust wounds.

(...)

“We . . . rejoice that many Jewish people are coming to faith in Messiah in places that witnessed some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust period,” stated the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE). The group met in Kiev for its 10th European conference last April. More than 80 participants from 19 nations gathered largely “to affirm and encourage these Jewish followers of Jesus,” and to recognize “the enormous number of Jewish followers of Jesus who perished in the Holocaust.”

(...)

“We live in a special time of restoration,” says Boris Grisenko, KJMC’s leader and founder. “Now we see hundreds of Jewish Messianic congregations in different countries. It’s an unusual moment when Jews are coming to the Lord—to their own Master, King, Messiah, Savior.”

Ukrainians are also shaping Messianic life in Israel. Michael Zinn, Israel director for CPM, estimates that almost half of the 20,000 Russian-speaking Jews in Israel who believe in Christ are from Ukraine.

All these trends together make Ukraine highly influential for reaching Jewish people globally with the gospel, said Jonathan Bernis, founder of Phoenix-based Jewish Voice Ministries International. “Ukraine probably represents the greatest opportunity to reach Jewish people,” he says.

French Jews should have ‘orderly plans in place’ to leave, says top US Jewish leader

The Times of Israel reports:

The Jews of France should prepare plans to leave the country, a prominent American Jewish leader said.

“They shouldn’t flee. But they should have orderly plans in place,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“People who want to leave, should be able to leave,” he said of the half-million-strong community. “Things here (in Israel) should be prepared. The licensing process for lawyers, doctors, etc., should be facilitated in order to integrate them quickly.”

There are “whole areas in France” today, Hoenelin noted bleakly in a wide-ranging interview, “where the police don’t venture, and where Jews and Christians don’t go.”

While the French government has allocated considerable resources to the fight against Islamist terrorism there, Hoenlein elaborated, the head of France’s main security agency recently told him he lacked the manpower to adequately monitor the threat posed by French citizens returning from fighting with the Islamic State and other Islamist groups in the Middle East. This security chief, who Hoenlein did not name, told him that Cherif and Said Kouachi [pictured], the Paris-born brothers who received military training in Yemen and who killed 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on Wednesday, January 7, 2015, had been closely monitored by French security until days before the killings.

Germany: Banner compares Israel to the Nazi SS

The new type of Holocaust denial.

Via Everyday Antisemitism, Informationsstelle Antisemitismus Kassel:

An antisemitism watchdog in Kassel, Germany, has reported that a banner reading, “Israel are racists like the SS” was attached to the facade of a local residence for several months. Clearly visible to the public from a main road, the propaganda falsely equates Israel to Germany’s Schutzstaffel.

Fredrik Græsvik, proud to meet Jew hater Ismail Haniye

Fredrik Græsvik is a Norwegian journalist for TV2. In the past he demanded tat the pro-Israel MIFF site be banned, because they dared criticize his reports.

Like most other liberal progressives who deny Jews the right to self-determination, he does not like being called an antisemite. Because he can support murdering Jews, and smile at a man who kills Jews, but calling him an antisemite is really beyond the pale.

He's so unbiased, that he's going to be giving a lecture as part of Israel Apartheid Week,the week dedicated to wiping out Israel as a Jewish state.

Græsvik will be giving a lecture about his new book "Evig krig. Israel og Palestina" (Eternal War, Israel and Palestine). I'm sure he thinks it's an unbiased book about the conflict.

As the invitation to the lecture explains, Israeli Apartheid Week, being held at the University of Oslo campus, is part of a global campaign against 'Israeli apartheid'. The most important means of achieving that is BDS. BDS, it should be noted, is not aimed at establishing a Palestinian state at all, but at ending the "Israeli occupation and colonization of all Arab lands".

Norwegian journalist Fredrik Græsvik is an antisemite of the worst type who thinks Jews have no right to self-determination in their homeland and that Jews are colonialist and racists for living in their own homeland.

h/t Scandinavian Anti-semitism Watch

Finland: Academic incites against Jews, supports terror attacks

Kinnunen supports killing Jews, believe they control the media, via IsraellyCool

Kinnunen thinks he's not an antisemite because he calls it anti-Zionism, via IsraellyCool

Via Algemeiner:

A Finnish academic deleted numerous posts from his Facebook page on Wednesday, after a pro-Israel blogger publicized what he called their “outright Jew hatred,” The Algemeiner has learned.

Paavo Kinnunen, professor of biomedical engineering and computational science at Aalto University in Helsinki, removed the content a day after IsraellyCool published an entry containing numerous screenshots from Kinnunen’s page, which came to its attention when the professor posted the following message on the blog:

Israel is the most fascist ‘nation’ in today’s world, racist, ultrareligious wackos leading it to oblivion. Hitler would be proud of seeing how his ideology was adopted by the zionists…[its] achievements … far exceed everything [Nazi doctor] Mengele succeeded in inventing as means to kill and torture.

The blogger then went to Kinnunen’s Facebook page and found “more of the same, including support of terrorism.”

There were multiple posts supporting and celebrating the violence perpetrated by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel. There were dozens of anti-Israel posts, including, the blogger observed, “belief in blood libels and conspiracy theories.”

One post, for example, claimed that Sweden’s Jews have nothing to fear from Muslims but only from “Mossad jihadists” committing a terror attack and making it look as if it was done by Islamists. Another post suggested that the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were organized by Jews, allegedly absent from the Twin Towers on that day.

Kinnunen’s posts frequently accused Israelis of harvesting the organs of Palestinians. In one, he charts the dollar amounts that different organs earn for Israel over images of what appear to be one or two dead Palestinians with long scars on their bodies; in another he posted a report called “Israel Caught Harvesting Palestinian Organs Again” below his comment, “Lucrative ziobusiness …”

Many posts equated Israel and Zionists with Nazis, and characterized Israelis and Jews as having a penchant for blood and violence. “When genocide is on the agenda,” Kunnunen wrote in one, “it is important to kill children … incl. toddlers, pregnant women …”

Others were what the blogger deemed openly antisemitic:

Jews certainly are special, more special than any other group of people. They have established the most racist religion, involving lineage to their God, giving them the promise of land, slaves, property, license to kill all non-Jews. Following these religious items described in their Talmud, which we Goyims are banned from reading, these God chosen wackos have established, by treacherous deception, the most ultrafascist “society” in today’s world …

Similar claims about the Jewish Talmud occurred frequently, including that it makes “all property of non-Jewish belongs to Jewish,” and that it permits Jews “to kill all non-Jewish.”

Lithuania: Jews call for government to publish list of Nazi collaborators

Via Jerusalem Post:

The government of Lithuania must publicly disclose its list of citizens who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, the former Soviet republic’s organized Jewish community has demanded.

Information regarding the document, which records more than 2,000 Lithuanians “alleged to have committed or contributed to the murder of Jews during World War II” must be published, along with a detailed breakdown of the government’s subsequent actions toward the accused, demanded Faina Kukliansky, the president of the organized community, in an open letter to the country’s prosecutor general and the government-sponsored Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania last Thursday.

“The Lithuanian Jewish Community believes refusal to release the list could have negative repercussions at the international as well as national level and could give rise to various theories that would damage the reputation of the Lithuanian state – for example, that Lithuania is avoiding the criminal prosecution in cases of still-living Holocaust perpetrators – and that might be exploited and manipulated for political aims unfavorable to the Lithuanian state,” Kukliansky wrote.

Ireland: Top anti-racism activist does not recognize antisemitism

Ronit Lentin is Jewish, a former Israeli, and a top activist at Anti-Racism Network Ireland.

Ronit Lentin is also an anti-Zionist. A longtime activist against Israel, she supports the antisemitic BDS movement and is a member of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).

In an interview she said as follows:

The other challenge supporters of the BDS face is accusations of anti-semitism, or, in the case of Jewish supporters, accusations of being a ‘self hating Jew’. This too is problematic as some argue that it is Israeli policies which foster antisemitism. However let me say that the blanket support for Palestine by some people in the west, where some supporters never mobilize to any other local causes such as the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, raises suspicions that perhaps they might be motivated by antisemitism. The IPSC is very careful about any displays of antisemitism, and I feel totally comfortable working with the group in this regard.

To her credit, Lentin thinks anti-Zionism 'might' be a cover for antisemitism. But that, of course, does not prevent her from blaming Israel for antisemitism. Because blaming Jews for antisemitism is not antisemitic at all.

She also thinks that the IPSC is "very careful" about displays of antisemitism.

I don't know of any pro-Palestinian group that does not deny the right of Jews to self-determination and that does not fight Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Both of those are considered antisemitism according to every official definition: according to the United States, according to the EU, according to every antisemitism watchdog, and according to a vast majority of Jews.

But I took Lentin at her word that the IPSC does not display any antisemitism, and I took a look at the IPSC site. Earlier this month, they had two main events going.

One was a lecture on how Israel is responsible for all repression worldwide, using the Palestinians as 'test subjects' for their weapons industry. That's right. If you didn't know: Israel is not just conducting a war against Palestinians, or Arabs, or Muslims, or the entire Middle East. Israel is conducting a war against 'the people'.

Not antisemitic at all.

The other was an "Israeli blood diamonds" protest. Try to follow, because the logic is convoluted: Beny Steinmetz is an Israeli Jew, currently living in Switzerland. He is also a French citizen. He owns a diamond company called Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR), which is registered in Switzerland. BSGR is is currently under investigation for corruption in Guinea.

He also established the "Agnes and Beny Steinmetz Foundation" which mostly supports children and youth causes in Israel. They also support a unit of the Givati Brigade.

According to anti-Zionists worldwide this makes BSGR (which is owned by the same Jew!) responsible for any 'war-crime' Givati commits. And this is why all Israeli diamonds are tainted and should be considered blood diamonds.

Not antisemitic at all.

Most antisemitism in Ireland is of the 'anti-Zionist' variety. Politicians who support murdering Israeli Jews; politicians who think Israel is the source of all problems in the Middle East; politicians who call for a new Intifada in Israel; businesses who boycott Israel, but have no problem buying actual slave labor; people who get death threats for supporting Israel; a ban on mentioning Israel at Holocaust memorials.

Does Lentin think that this 'raises suspicions that perhaps they might be motivated by antisemitism'?

Maybe.

But don't count on it. Because like most anti-racism activists today, Lentin does not recognize antisemitism when it's right in front of her. In fact, she proudly supports it.

Austria: Afghan man says antisemitic incitement was a way to get 'likes'

Via The Local:

A 23-year-old Afghan man who posted anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments on his Facebook page has been sentenced by a court in Upper Austria to a year’s conditional sentence and ordered to pay a €720 fine.

He was also found guilty of possessing an illegal pepper spray.

The 23-year-old man, who speaks German well, said he hadn’t intended to incite hatred against Jews but had hoped to get attention and lots of ‘likes’ on his Facebook page.

He posted a picture of Adolf Hitler with the words “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some alive so you would know why I was killing them,” and another image of a skull and crossbones and the words “Keep calm and f*** Israel”.

He told the prosecution that he had only uploaded the images to see how many ‘likes’ he could get.

Netherlands: Holocaust denier David Irving to lecture in the Hague

Via Times of Israel:

A Dutch watchdog group on anti-Semitism called on owners of event halls not to host Holocaust denier David Irving, who reportedly is planning a lecture in The Hague.

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Irving, who has been barred from several countries and was jailed in 2006 in Austria for denying or minimizing the Jewish genocide, is scheduled to speak somewhere in The Hague on Feb. 25, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, wrote in a Feb. 20 statement.

It called on “all owners of event halls in The Hague to offer no platform to the convict” from Britain.

The topic of the lecture that Irving plans to deliver is “Hitler, Himmler, and the Homosexuals,” according to CIDI.

The intended date, Feb. 25, is the 75th anniversary of the February Strike — the day in 1941 when the Dutch resistance organized a series of protests over the anti-Semitic measures implemented by the German occupation and its collaborators.

Belgium: Museum features antisemitic "Israel = ISIS" writer

In Europe today, there is no sanction for antisemitism, especially if it can be labeled as 'anti-Zionism'.

A Nazi who makes his views public will never be treated as anything other than a fanatic lunatic. But if you say the exact same things about Israel, then it's just fine.

The Red Star Line museum is an museum in Antwerp dedicated to telling the story of the two million immigrants who passed through Antwerp on their way from Europe to North America.

They also put focus on the story of the current-day immigrants who come to Belgium.

The museum now features on its website an article written by Belgian-Moroccan Youssef Kobo about his trip to Morocco.

Youssef Kobo is also an antisemite. For example, he posted this antisemitic cartoon last year.

Kobo added: "JSIL the crazy twinbrother of ISIS, aka the Jewish State in the Levant aka Israel"

The evil, murderous Jews, twins of Islamic State, carving up Gaza. In Belgium, this type of talk is acceptable discourse.

Ukraine: "Death to the Jews!" at anti-government protests

Via CFCA, EAJC, AP:

About 1000 nationalists rallied in Kiev on the second anniversary of the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. They demanded the ouster of the current Ukrainian government.

There were several antisemitic speeches, in particular somebody read out a poem he wrote that ended with a repeated cry of "death to the Jews!".

Poland: Tombstones vandalized in Jewish cemetery in Gdańsk

Via CFCA:

Several tombstones in the old Jewish cemetery in Gdańsk were vandalized.

Belgium: Universities promote Israel Apartheid Week - among guests Mads Gilbert and Shir Hever

The Israel Apartheid Week is organised in Belgium by the ULB, the St-Louis University (Catholic) and Cathloic University of Louvain, the VUB, and no doubt others. Details below:

ULB Facebook:

1 MARS: Diffusion d'un film documentaire, auditoire AY2.107 à partir de 20h.

2 MARS : Conférence sur le campus de l'Saint-Louis University, Brussels autour de la question du boycott académique.

3 MARS : Conférence sur le campus de de l'Université libre de Bruxelles sur le traitement médiatique du conflit Israelo-Palestinien, auditoire UD2.218A à partir de 19h avec notamment Julien Salingue.

7 MARS : Conférence sur le campus de l'Université libre de Bruxelles sur le néo-colonialisme et la possibilité d'une convergence des luttes portant sur la situation aux U.S.A, en Belgique et en Palestine, auditoire UA2.118 à partir de 19h avec notamment Kristian militant de Black4Palestine !

Et n'hésitez pas à aller voir sur le Campus Ucl Alma, nos collègues de Rise Up vous y préparent l'Israeli Apartheid Week, the Rise Up Edition !

Catholic University of Louvain:

Lundi 29/02 à 19h au Roi Baudouin B: Ouverture de l'Israeli Apartheid en beauté avec la projection du documentaire "Roadmap to Apartheid" (évènement coorganisé avec Comac Alma)

Jeudi 03/03 à 19h, dans l'Auditoire Central Lacroix: Vidéoconférence du Pr Mads Gilbert de l'université de Tromso (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mads_Gilbert) sur le thème: "La médecine d'Urgence en zone de guerre, l'expérience d'un homme de terrain"

Vrije Universiteit Brussel -VUB:

Come and join us to this interesting event about the occupation in Palestine!

What are Israel's economic interests of the occupation? What are the effects of the occupation on the Israeli economy? What are the conditions of Palestinian political prisoners under occupation? What can we, as Belgian citizens, do to make an end to this? Come and join us next Tuesday at VUB! Some Palestinian students will also be present and share with you their experience! For the program, see below! Our Guest Speakers:

1) Shir HEVER: The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation. Shir Hever is an Israeli author and economist in the Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour. He researches the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory. Some of his research topics include the international aid to the Palestinians and to Israel, the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy, and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel.

2) Mohammed KHATIB : Political Prisoners Condition under The Occupation. Mohammed Khatib is an active member of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. This is a network of organizers and activists, based in North America, working to raise awareness and build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom. M. Khatib will provide us information about their condition, their demands, and their work for freedom for themselves, their fellow prisoners, and their homeland. He will also highlight some actual cases of political prisoners.

3) Michael DEAS: What is The Solution to The Occupation? What can we, as Belgian and European citizens, do for more justice? How can we challenge the occupation? Michael Deas is a European coordinator of the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). He will provide us relevant and practical information about the BDS organisation and all the solutions it offers to make an end to the occupation.

4) Palestinian students living in Belgium: How is The Life of a Student under Occupation? Some Palestinian students will share with you their experience of living and studying under the Israeli occupation.

Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine-VUB in collaboration with Comac VUB and l'Association Belgo-Palestinienne (ABP)

Turkey: Antisemitic columnist accused of being a ‘Jewish stooge’ for disparaging AKP

Via Jerusalem Post:

Turkish social media users have resorted to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories this week, calling a prominent pro-government media personality a “Jewish stooge” for publicly criticized the ruling AK Party during a television appearance last Thursday.
According to a report in Today’s Zaman, Yeni Safak columnist Yusuf Kaplan came under fire after panning Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy as incompatible with regional realities, leading users on social media to call for his death, accuse him of killing another pro-government journalist and of collusion with the Jews.

In a social media posting of his own, Kaplan accused his critics of “talking nonsense,” stating that while he was “accused of being a Jewish stooge and a British spy,” such statements are merely “a baseless smear campaign.”

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Kaplan has a history of making anti-Semitic remarks, having previously written that Jews “rule the Western universities and world media” and that their “paranoia can reach barbaric, cruel and inhuman dimensions.

“Jewish desire to dominate everything in the Western countries, and the way they easily and arrogantly exploit organizations and individuals to serve Jewish interests, may end up causing a short circuit within the democratic institutions of the West,” he wrote.

“Their nosy interference with everything, and their actions beyond the reach of their size, have already started to draw serious reactions in the Western countries. Because the Jewish paranoia is blown up to extreme, forced and artificial dimensions, it can explode any day and take care of them and cost them dearly.”

UK: Gilad Atzmon says reports of rise in antisemitism is 'kosher psychosis'

Well, that didn't take long.

Yesterday the news broke that a French Jew made up an antisemitic attack, and the antisemites quickly jumped on it.

British Jew-hater Gilad Atzmon writes on his blog that this shows that "[r]ather than a rise in anti semitism in Europe what we see here is a growing manifestation of kosher psychosis."

Because one Jew lying about an attack means that there have been no actual attacks on Jews in France over the past few years.

Hungary: Jews protest another statue to honor WWII-era lawmaker

Via JTA:

Hungarian Jews protested a new government plan to honor a Holocaust-era politician who supported anti-Semitic legislation.

The controversy that unfolded Tuesday between the Mazsihisz umbrella group of Jewish communities and the government concerns a statue scheduled to be unveiled in Budapest in the presence of government officials on Wednesday of Gyorgy Donath – a lawmaker who supported discriminatory laws against Jews that historians say served as the legal foundation for their persecution by the German Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators.

This “far-right, anti-Semitic politician deserves no statue in Hungary,” Mazsihisz wrote in a statement published Tuesday.

Germany: Mezuzah vandalized at home of Jewish couple

Via RIAS (h/t Honestly Concerned):

A Mezuzah was yanked off the doorpost at the apartment of a Jewish couple in Kreuzberg. The Mezuzah is a religious object which Jews hang on their doorposts.

The coupe live on the second floor, and the apartment is only accessible for residents and their guests.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

France: Marseilles teacher accused of lying about ISIS attack

In my opinion, making up antisemitic attacks is worse than real attacks. It undermines any support Jews get for real harassment.

Via TheJC:

A Jewish teacher in Marseilles who claimed he was attacked by Isis supporters has been arrested for allegedly lying about the attack.

In November it was reported that the teacher was stabbed outside a Jewish cultural centre by three men, one of whom wore an ISIS t-shirt.

The reported attack came just days after the terror attacks in Paris in which 129 people were killed and over 350 were injured.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was established 47 years ago. Among their greatest achievements was taking Israeli school-children hostage in the city of Ma'alot forty years ago and murdering 22 of them.

The German "Friends of the DFLP" group will be celebrating the DFLP's 47th birthday in Cologne under the banner "Solidarity with the Intifada in Palestine".

The Intifada in Palestine, it should be noted, means killing Jews in the street - men, women and children.

The guest list includes Annette Groth, an MP for the Left Party, as well as 'representatives from various parties'.

Annette Groth is the human rights policy officer for the Left Group, she is a member of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, and she's an active member of the Free Gaza Movement.

In today's day and age, human rights activists can support terrorists who want to kill Jews, and that's no problem.

The event is supported by the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian Ambassador to Germany is also an honored guest.

h/t Honestly Concerned

Germany: Cemetery vandalized with antisemitic and anti-German graffiti

Via Watch: Antisemitism in Europe, SÜDKURIER:

More than 40 tombstones were vandalized with antisemitic and anti-German graffiti in the city of ‪‎Konstanz‬.

Graffiti included: "Jews to the gas", "I hate Germans", "Germans to Syria", "Christ is dead" and "IS"

The vandalism occurred three weeks ago, but was not yet removed. The city says that in the case of "Jews to the gas", it's difficult to remove since the vandalism targeted a cultural heritage monument, which must be treated carefully.

Police have not caught the perpetrators and say it's unlikely they will catch them as there's no video surveillance and no witnesses.

UK: Pro-Palestinian accuses Israelis of organ harvesting from Palestinian terrorists

At the 'Israeli Apartheid Week' lecture at SOA, a pro-Palestinian activist accused Israel of murdering innocent Palestinians, harvesting their organs and then pretending they were killed because they were terrorists.

Spreading blood libels in SOAS
Yesterday was the beginning of Israeli Apartheid Week, their annual hate fest launched with 4 keynote speakers telling lie after lie to a packed auditorium at SOAS university. Disgustingly Sahar Francis used this platform to spread a blood libel that Israel was harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians.We are appalled that in this era a British university can legitimately be used as platform to spread one of the oldest forms of antisemitism... the blood libel.We would also like to thank the 20 brave students and British friends of Israel that attended the event to counter the BDS lies.
Posted by Israel Advocacy Movement on Tuesday, February 23, 2016

France's relentless hostility to the Jewish State

Guy Millière is one of the few non-Jewish political commentators who writes cogently about the deepseated hostility in France against Israel. Needless to say he is not invited by the mainstream media and that most French Jewish journalists and intellectuals are critics of the policies of Israel.

Guy Millière @ the Gatestone Institute:

France today is one of the main enemies of Israel -- maybe its main enemy -- in the Western world. France's disregard of the threats faced by Israel is more than simple willful blindness. It is complicity.
At a time when Mahmoud Abbas constantly encourages terror and hatred against Israel, and when murders of Israeli Jews by Palestinian Arabs occur on a daily basis, France's anti-Israel relentlessness can only be seen as the latest extension of France's centuries-old anti-Semitism.
France's "Arab policy" has gone hand-in-hand with a massive wave of Muslim immigration. France has quickly become the main Muslim country in Europe. More than six million Muslims live in France, and make up approximately 10% of the population. The Muslim vote is now an important factor in French politicians' decisions; the risk of Muslim riots is taken into account.

In 1967, then French President Charles de Gaulle (left), a few months after imposing an arms embargo on Israel, and with ironically little self-awareness, publicly described Jews as an "elite people, sure of themselves and domineering." At right, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif hugs then Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at the close of nuclear talks in Geneva, Nov. 23, 2014.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- a regime that denies the fact that the Holocaust occurred and does not hide its intention to commit another holocaust -- arrived in Paris for an official visit. [...]

No French journalist or politician mentioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day. French journalists spoke only of Hassan Rouhani's "moderation" and "openness," despite Iran's dire human rights violations. Hollande evoked the rebirth of a "fruitful relationship" between Iran and France.

No French journalist or politician mentioned the Holocaust denial or the genocidal intentions of the Iranian regime; that Iran's leaders regularly chant "Death to Israel" and "Death to America"; the malignant contents of Palestine, a book recently published by Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, or the dangers still inherent in Iran's nuclear program. Every newspaper article and politician's speech in France was about the contracts French companies could sign with Iran and the return of Iran to a harmonious "concert of nations." Iran was presented on every side as a "reliable ally" of the West in the fight against the Islamic State.

France's willful blindness concerning the very real threats Israel faces is characteristic of general attitude of France toward Israel for the last fifty years.

In the second half of the 1960s, after the end of the Algerian war, France adopted an "Arab policy." It consisted of the creation of close ties with Arab dictatorships and, more broadly, with the authoritarian regimes of the Muslim world. The aim of the "Arab Policy" was to enable France to retain influence, whatever the price, even if it had damaging effects on the rest of the Western world. It also consisted of severing strategic and military links between France and Israel. [...]

To please its new Arab friends, France decided to impose an arms embargo on Israel in June 1967, at the beginning of the Six Day War, at the moment when Israel faced mortal danger. The embargo later became permanent.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, France refused landing rights to U.S. military supply planes flying to Israel.

In the early 1970s, France developed close ties with the PLO and became an ardent supporter of the "Palestinian cause." France used its influence, just two years after the massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich, to have Yasser Arafat invited to speak before the United Nations General Assembly in November 1974.[3]

President François Mitterrand, in 1978, received Yasser Arafat on an official visit to Paris, and granted him all the honors reserved for a head of state. In 1979, France voiced its disagreement with the Camp David Accords because the PLO had not been involved in the talks. In 1982, France saved Arafat, who was besieged by the Israeli army in Beirut, and allowed him to seek asylum in Tunisia, a client state of France, to continue his incendiary activities.

France continued to support Arafat until his last moments, and treated him in a French military hospital. When Arafat died, President Jacques Chirac held an official ceremony for him before sending the coffin to the Middle East in an official aircraft of the French Republic. French diplomatic circles never condemned terrorist attacks against Israel, but always condemned Israeli responses as "disproportionate." French diplomatic circles never ceased to support the creation of a Palestinian state, in the "1967 borders" (in reality, 1949 armistice lines).
Hamas, designated a terrorist organization, by the United States, was defined several times by French ministers as a "possible interlocutor." A French Cultural Institute exists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

France intends to create a National Museum of Palestine in Ramallah, and French officials declared that the museum will open when a "free and sovereign Palestine" will be born. For now, the museum is housed in the Arab World Institute in Paris, the largest Arab and Muslim cultural center in a Western country.

France: Antisemitism is extinct says French writer Guy Sorman

For Guy Sorman, a French Jewish journalist and writer who believes that the creation of Israel was a "historical mistake", antisemitism is extinct. One of the reasons he cites in an article @ Contrepoints is that in Europe there is no antisemitic State policy. This argument is often used - things are not too bad because there is no antisemitic State policy.

Sorman dates the end of antisemitism back to the trial of Eichmann in 1961. The trial revealed the mediocrity of antisemitic ideology. Since Hannah Arendt introduced the concept of "the banality of evil" bureaucrats (i.e. I'm a bureaucrat hence I unquestioningly obey orders) and intellectuals can no longer define themselves as antisemites. He also claims that the Catholic church has become truly philosemite.

Those who, in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, beg to differ and do not share his optimism because of anti-Semitic attacks motivated by a mix of old antisemitism and contemporary anti-Zionism, Sorman argues that in 1940 the French police deported his family ; nowadays the French police protects his family. By the way, one can ask why his family still needs police protection.

Sorman concludes that nations do not seem to be able to do without a scapegoat. He thinks that it's likely that Arabs have replaced Jews as scapegoats and that Islamophobia is a danger which should be taken seriously. He also envisages the possibility of a Holocaust or a Dreyfus affair, obviously this time round not against Jews.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Norway: Jewish student faces harassment, school ignores it

Via Aftenposten (h/t Scandinavian Anti-Semitism Watch)

A Jewish student in Oslo says he was subjected to continuous antisemitic harassment by classmates.

The student started a new high-school in the fall of 2014. The harassment started when his classmates found out he was Jewish. They made the Nazi salute at him and said things like "your nose is getting bigger" or held an ashtray in front of him and said "this is what your people look like". In the shower he was told "Norwegian children get water here, but you get gas".

One fellow student wrote on Facebook "It's a shame that Hitler didn't finish the job". Though in this case the message wasn't aimed at him, as nobody knew yet that he was Jewish.

The student complained to the school, and later turned to the country and complained that the school wasn't handling the case properly. Last year the country decided that the school broke the law as it did not take reports from the student and his parents seriously.

Spain: City passes, then scraps BDS motion, calling it discriminatory

There seems to be a backlash against BDS, but most non-Jews don't understand or recognize what's really wrong with it. The does not 'threaten' people's 'right not to be discriminated against'.

It is an antisemitic measure designed to wipe out the Jewish state of Israel.

Via JTA:

One month after passing a motion supporting a boycott against Israel, the Spanish municipality of Aviles distanced itself from that position and denounced it as discriminatory.

The northern city’s council on Saturday nullified its January motion favoring the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, after a pro-Israel group initiated a discrimination lawsuit against the municipality in connection with that vote, the El Comercio daily reported Monday.

ACOM, which filed the lawsuit, and the municipality’s legal department held settlement talks before the motion was scrapped, according to El Comercio. The pro-Israel group called the reversal a “historic political and legal victory.”

In a statement to the media Sunday, ACOM noted the city agreed to advertise its unfavorable attitude toward BDS, including a statement that “the boycott threatens people’s right not to be discriminated against” as well as academic freedom, and runs counter to Spain’s law on public contracts and EU directives from 2006 on equal opportunities.

Germany: Anti-migrant movement grows violent, blames Jews

Via Jewish Press:

German Jewry is beginning to worry about anti-Semitism again, and according to a local source, it’s long past due time that they did.

In an exclusive interview with a peace activist from Germany, JewishPress.com learned this week that the threat to Jews in the country is rising steadily.

Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazi groups are increasing in popularity, albeit with their initial banner raised against the flood of refugees and migrants streaming into Germany from across Europe.

The activist, a German visitor to Israel, told JewishPress.com on condition of anonymity – is that a backlash is beginning among the German population which is starting to blame its “migrant population” on “the Jews.”

(...)

The source warned JewishPress.com: “Germans are extremely polite and most would never tell a Jew they are not welcome. But if you are blond and blue-eyed and are at a party on a Friday night, then after a few drinks it is a good idea to listen to what they are saying when they feel no Jews are around.”

Netherlands: Gov't to restrict kosher slaughter

Via Algemeiner (h/t Antisemitism Watch):

The Netherlands is moving to implement stricter rules overseeing the religious slaughter of animals for meat consumption by observant Jews and Muslims, the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry announced this week.

Once implemented, the new Dutch rules will ban the export of kosher and halal meat outside of the Netherlands, and will require all domestic religious slaughterhouses to register with the government.

Additionally, religiously slaughtered meat will have to be clearly labeled and will not be able to be sold at regular supermarket chains, according to a letter written by Junior Economic Affairs Minister Martijn van Dam and posted on the Dutch government website.

“I find the current implementation unacceptable. Negative effects on animal welfare must be minimized,” wrote Van Dam. Additionally, the junior minister said he had spoken to the leaders of religious communities, who agreed to comply with the new guidelines.

UK: "We are feeling more and more unsafe"

The Guardian checks out antisemitism in Manchester.

Norma Turner, of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, answers the charges of antisemitism as follows: "They [The Jews] need to separate their Jewish faith from their politics."

By 'politics', she means the Jewish belief that they have a right to self-determination.

The interviewer does not pick up on it, and asks whether supporters of 'the cause' (ie, of wiping out Israel), might get confused.

Turner answers: No. The people getting confused are the Zionists.

The Guardian journalist has no answer to that. Apparently she agrees.

No wonder Jews in Manchester are feeling more and more unsafe.

Maybe next time the Guardian does an antisemitism story they can actually ask the antisemites some hard questions, instead of letting them air their views and justify their hatred.

UK: Ofcom warn TV channel over broadcasts calling Jews a ‘cursed race’

Via TheJC:

An Islamic TV channel has been warned by the broadcasting standards regulator Ofcom that it faces sanctions after showing antisemitic lectures by a preacher who called Jews a “cursed race”.

Peace TV Urdu was found in breach of TV standards for broadcasting two recorded lecturers by the late Dr Israr Ahmad in September last year.

The overall effect would have been to “promote highly negative antisemitic stereotypes about and attitudes towards Jewish people,” Ofcom stated in its decision today.

“In our view the terms used to describe Jewish people such as ‘like a cancer’, ‘evil genius,’ ‘their poison,’ ‘cursed people’, ‘cursed race’ were particularly strong and inflammatory,” the watchdog stated.

The lecturer repeatedly portrayed Jews in “overwhelming negative and stereotypical terms” and said the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – the notorious Tzarist forgery – revealed the plans of powerful Jews.

Turkey: Article In Radical Islamist Pro-AKP Daily: Gorillas, Chimps Are Cursed, Mutated Jews

Last year, a pro-AKP broadcaster aired the antisemitic conspiracy show "The Mastermind", which among things claimed that Darwin proposed his theory only to depict non-Jews as “animals” — an idea that is supposedly rooted in Judaism.

Via Memri:

In his January 31, 2016 column in the pro-AKP government, radical Islamist daily Vahdet, journalist Seyfi Sahin wrote that the evolutionary theory of "the Jew" Darwin contradicts Allah's word in the Koran. Claiming to be a physician, Sahin argued that humans did not evolve from monkeys, but rather that monkeys evolved from perverted Jews whom Allah cursed and punished.[1] The column was widely criticized by Turkey's independent opposition media.

UK: Unauthorized ads on London underground libel Israel

Globes reports:

Transport for London has condemned the BDS ads as an "act of vandalism" and is removing them.

An anti-Israel smear campaign, which confronted commuters on the London underground this morning, has been condemned as an "act of vandalism" by the Transport for London authority, which is removing them.

The seemingly authentic adverts on carriages were headlined "Apartheid State" and were put up as part of the BDS movement's "Israel Apartheid Week."

With scant respect for facts, the ads not only took Israel to task for alleged war crimes such as massacring Palestinians and sexually abusing prisoners, they also attacked British government policy in selling arms to Israel, lambasted the BBC for supposedly valuing Israeli lives more than Palestinian lives, and attacked private companies like G4S for equipping Israeli prisons.

A Transport for London spokesman said, “These are not authorized adverts. It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. Our staff and contractors are working to immediately remove any found on our network."

UK: Oxford University Labour Club so serious about fighting antisemitism, they still reject Israel's right to exist

Last week, Alex Chalmers, Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) co-chair, resigned from his position after the club decided to endorse Israel Apartheid Week. Chalmers said that much of the OULC and the student left in Oxford "have some kind of problem with Jews".

Following his resignation the Labour party and the OULC opened an investigation into the allegations of antisemitism. Many pundits wrote that the Left must wake up to the antisemitism in its midst?

But that doesn't seem very likely.

For one, as it looks now, they're going to be blaming 'hard left' activists.

Besides which, there are no plans to cancel Labour support of the event that started all of this off: Israeli Apartheid Week.

Israeli Apartheid Week claims to be an anti-racism event, but in fact, it fights against Israel's right to exist. It supports BDS (whose main aim is to free all Arab lands from Jewish occupation), and it supports the Right of Return (whose main aim is to turn Israel into an Arab-majority state).

But don't take my word for it. Here's Barnaby Raine, one of the (Jewish) organizers of the event:

The organisers of the week have strongly denied the allegations and describe themselves as an “anti-racist” organisation.

Barnaby Raine, a member of the IAW group and prominent Palestinian rights activist said: “Jewish Students for Justice in Palestine are proud of their role in organising Israel Apartheid Week for the second year in a row. IAW is motivated by the anti-racist principle that no human should have to suffer indignity of dispossession, occupation and a criminal siege simply because of their ethnic origin. We abhor all racism – we fight anti-Semitism and zionism with equal rigor.”

Zionism is the right of Jews to self-determination in their homeland. Zionism is the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

Denying this right is antisemitism according to the US State Department definition, according to the EUMC working definition, and according to almost all Jews (except for Raine and his antisemitic friends).

Fighting Zionism is antisemitic.

Equating Zionism and racism (or worse, antisemitism) - is antisemitic.

Israeli Apartheid Week is antisemitic.

The Labour Party at Oxford University supports an antisemitic event.

So don't hold your breath waiting for the results of that investigation into antisemitism at Oxford University.

UK: Drunk Derby man shouted racist, antisemitc abuse after Paris attacks

Via Derby Telegraph (h/t CST):

A DRUNK man launched a racist verbal assault on a passer-by and two policewomen the day after the Paris terrorist attacks.

Suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people in a series of calculated attacks in the French capital last November.

Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court heard how David Gregory, 46, of Gerard Street, Derby, had been particularly angered when seeing the news.

He had been drinking the following day and his partner phoned police to say he was missing and that she was concerned he could get himself into trouble.

Gregory was walking down Etwall Road, towards Mickleover, at about 4.30pm on Saturday, November 14, when he saw his victim jogging towards him.

Gregory had been drinking and launched a foul-mouthed, racist attack at the man, who ran off and called police.

Lynne Bickley, prosecuting, said: "He thought the things he was saying weren't nice things to hear and the last salute he had in his hand was in the shape of a fist.

"Police saw him standing on the pavement swaying, believed to be drunk.

"He said the female police officers looked young enough to be his daughters."

Mrs Bickley said he then made a number of anti-Semitic comments, as well as other remarks about people with dark skin.

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Monday, February 29, 2016

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Thursday, February 25, 2016

Vrije Universiteit Brussel -VUB:

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Monday, February 22, 2016