Germany: Anger at FM after he repeats Israel is an apartheid regime

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel reiterated his description of Israeli policies in the territories as embodying the former apartheid regime in South Africa, prompting fierce criticism on Friday from Jewish human-rights organizations and a leading German Jewish activist.

“There are two central narratives to Jewish history in the 20th century – the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Sigmar Gabriel has already tried to undermine the core of each of them,” Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post.

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France: Antisemitic tag in a small town

Via I 24 News:

An anti-Semitic message was scribbled on the railway station at Cazères-sur-Garonne, South of Toulouse. It reads: "Fed up with the Jewish domination, Jews hold the world by the balls".

Cazarès is a small town with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants.  Antisemitism is ubiquitous and is also to be found in small agglomerations.

France: Catholic-owned kid's magazine claims Israel not a real country

Some background: Youpi magazine is owned by the influential media group Bayard. "Bayard is a French press group created in 1873, just after the 1870 war, by Father Emmanuel d'Alzon (1810/1880), founder of the Catholic religious congregation Augustinians of the Assumption. This congregation is still the exclusive owner of the group." "It edits educational and Catholic publications such as La Croix and Catholic Digest." "Assumptionists , profoundly anti-semitic religious order, whose newspaper La Croix ( The Cross) became a daily in 1883. In 1890 it boasted that it was ‘ the most anti-Jew journal of France’"  The author of the article is Bertrand Fichou, editor in chief of Youpi and a prolific writer of children's books.

Via I 24 News:

A French children's education magazine that provoked a firestorm of criticism on Sunday after deeming Israel a state with disputed legitimacy along with the likes of North Korea said it will remove the edition from sale. The publisher Editions Bayard Jeunesse apologized, "to all those who may have been hurt" by this publication.

The controversial fact sheet featured in the latest edition of 'Youpi' magazine read, "we call these 197 countries 'states', like France, Germany, or Algeria. There a few more, but not all other countries in the world agree that these are real states (for example Israel or North Korea)."

The magazine's calling into question of Israel's legitimacy sparked major backlash on social media, with Israel's Ambassador to France Aliza Bin Noun saying she was "shocked" at the publication which she said encouraged anti-Zionism, and in turn, anti-Semitism.

"Shocked by this lie taught to children. Such a rhetoric can only encourage anti-Zionism, inseparable from anti-Semitism," she wrote on Twitter, tagging French President Emmanuel Macron in her statement. President of France's umbrella Jewish group CRIF, Francis Kalifat, told i24NEWS that Bayer's statement reflected "political revisionism."

"Unintentional or intentional, I do not know," Kalifat said. "I prefer to think it is unintentional. The Bayard publication conveys political revisionism."

"Israel has been recognized as a sovereign state since 1948 and by the United Nations since 1949," he said, adding that such intentional revisionism would represent an attempt by the company to "de-legitimize" Israel "this time by targeting its youngest readers." 

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Denmark cuts funding and is reviewing all funding of PA NGOs

Via Palestinian Media Watch (Itamar Marcus and Maurice Hirsch):

• Denmark announced this week that it cut funding and is reviewing all funding of NGOs, in response to PMW exposing that money it provided was used to build a community center that Palestinians named for a mass murderer 

• Other countries cutting or freezing funding this year following PMW reports: Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland
   
• PMW is changing European attitudes one country at a time 

On May 26, 2017 PMW reported that funds provided by Norway, the UN and a conglomerate of countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland had been used to build a center for young women that was subsequently named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi led a terror attack that resulted in the murder of 37 Israelis, including 12 children, in 1978.

Denmark
Last week, Denmark decided to cancel some grants and review further funding of Palestinian NGOs. The decision was made following an investigation initiated after PMW's report that the women’s center funded by Denmark, was named after a Palestinian terrorist murderer. Denmark announced that it will also tighten the conditions for providing funding to all Palestinian NGOs and that the majority of the aid, suspended after PMW’s report, will not be paid.

“Denmark will tighten the conditions for providing money to Palestinian NGOs, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said... The review followed revelations [by Palestinian Media Watch] in May that a women’s center partly funded with European aid money... was named after Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in the Coastal Road massacre in 1978 that killed 37 people... Samuelsen also said that the 'majority of aid' suspended from the summer while the review was under way will not be paid.” 

[The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24, 2017]

Norway

When PMW released its report documenting the center named for terrorist Mughrabi, Norway immediately demanded that the Norwegian money be returned:

Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende: 

"The glorification of terrorist attacks is completely unacceptable, and I deplore this decision in the strongest possible terms. Norway will not allow itself to be associated with institutions that take the names of terrorists in this way... We have asked for the logo of the Norwegian representation office to be removed from the building immediately, and for the funding that has been allocated to the centre to be repaid."

[Norwegian Foreign Ministry website, May 26, 2017]

Belgium
When PMW reported that a Palestinian school built with Belgium funds, was also named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, Belgium condemned it and froze the construction of ten additional Palestinian Authority schools.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Didier Vanderhasselt:

“Belgium unequivocally condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks [and] will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists... Belgium has immediately raised this issue with the Palestinian Authority and is awaiting a formal response... In the meantime Belgium will put on hold any projects related to the construction or equipment of Palestinian schools.”

[The Algemeiner, Oct. 7, 2017]

Additional Countries

Germany,  Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands also cut off funding to one or more Palestinian projects following PMW reports on the ways in which Palestinians are using donor funding to glorify terror.

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Poland: Christmas play at Polish consulate in Ukraine included anti-Semitic message

Via JTA:

A Christmas play presented at the Polish consulate in Lviv, Ukraine included an anti-Semitic message.

Oleg Vyshniakov, honorary consul of Israel in Ukraine, criticized the Christmas show presented last week at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland by students of the Polish school in Lviv. During the show, the students presented a nativity scene featuring unusual characters in which one of the children was wearing a black hat with side curls and had a sign stuck to his back reading “Jew for president.”

Other characters included in the scene were King Herod, the Grim Reaper and the Devil.

“It crosses all lines of common sense when in an official state institution people promote anti-Semitism, and children take part in this terrible event,” Vyshniakov wrote in a post on Facebook which included a photo of the scene.

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Germany: In reversal, Düsseldorf will hold exhibition about Jewish dealer

Via The New York Times:

After intense criticism, the mayor of Düsseldorf has backtracked on his last-minute cancellation of an exhibition at the city’s Stadtmuseum about Max Stern, a Jewish art gallery owner who fled Nazi Germany in 1938.

The exhibition, originally due to open in February, will now go ahead in a “more complete and revised form” at a later date, the city said in a statement. Organized by the Stadtmuseum with partner museums in Canada and Israel, it was intended to honor the life and legacy of Mr. Stern, who settled in Montreal, where he once again ran a successful art gallery.

But Mayor Thomas Geisel abruptly scrapped the show in November, citing “current demands for information and restitution in German museums in connection with the Galerie Max Stern.”

His decision drew a barrage of criticism from the Jewish community in Düsseldorf, the World Jewish Congress, the partner museums in Israel and Canada, and the German government. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, wrote to Mr. Geisel asking him to reconsider what he said was a perplexing move with an absurd justification.

The exhibition will now take place in the Stadtmuseum with an additional, yet-to-be-appointed curator and a “scholarly advisory board,” the city said. Mr. Geisel said by telephone that the target date is October 2018. The city also plans an international symposium on Mr. Stern to “offer a forum for research on the subject and to discuss possible forms of communicating and documenting it.” 

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Greece: Anarchist group vandalizes Israeli embassy in Athens

Via JTA:

Members of an anarchist group in Greece vandalized the Israeli embassy in Athens using bottles of red paint.

The group, Rubicon, filmed themselves committing the early-morning attack on Monday and posted the video online. The video shows the members of the group riding up to the embassy building on motorcycles and throwing the paint at it.

The embassy may not have been as well-guarded as usual due to the Christmas holiday. The building is located at a busy intersection, according to local reports.

“We identify with the Palestinians, a nation that for decades has been a victim of oppression,” Rubicon said in a statement released after the attack. “In reality, the Palestinians are pressured to leave their land. This is ethnic cleansing at a low intensity level for decades.”

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Sweden: Former PM hints far-right is not a threat to Jews because they're "staunchly pro-Israel"

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post titled "Why anti-Semitism won’t flourish in Sweden"

Swedish politicians keep on saying that they take antisemitism seriously, but articles such as these show that they either don't understand the problem or don't care about it at all.

For example, Bildt claims that the ADL global survey of antisemitism shows antisemitism is barely a problem.  What he forgets to mention is that the ADL survey only checked on classic antisemitism.  


Moreover, according to a survey by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, 60% of Swedish Jews think antisemitism is a big problem.  About half think hostility towards Jews in public places and in the media is a big problem.  40% of Jews have personally experienced antisemitic comments in social situations and in public areas.

Moreover, Bildt then claims that the far-right are now pro-Israel and that therefore Jews have no need to worry about them any more. 

In the article Bildt writes:

Sweden certainly has its share of far-right groups and political parties, and we have unfortunately seen the strengthening of them during the past decade or so. But like elsewhere, these groups have often turned staunchly pro-Israel, in the belief that an enemy of your enemy has to be your friend. And their enemy is clearly the Muslim world.

Bildt ends his article as follows:

Sweden’s problems are there, including anti-Semitism. But overall I am confident that if the Anti-Defamation League were to repeat its global poll measuring support for anti-Semitic views, it would come up with the same — or an even better — result for Sweden today.

I am sure that if the ADL repeats its survey, Sweden will come out squeaky clean.  I also know for a fact that Sweden is extremely antisemitic, with an antisemitism that mostly manifests itself as "anti-Zionism".   In fact, one of the only places in the world where Trump's recent "Jerusalem Declaration" was met with violence against Jews - was Sweden.  

If Sweden wants to ensure that antisemitism doesn't flourish in their country, it's time its leaders open their eyes to reality.   Denying the problem exists is not the way to deal with it.

Ukraine: "Jews out, Ukraine for Ukrainians", antisemitic graffiti on Jewish buildings in Odessa

Via JTA:

Unidentified individuals painted anti-Semitic graffiti on three Jewish institutions in the city of Odessa in southern Ukraine.

The graffiti, including the words “toasting the Holocaust” on the gate of Odessa’s Holocaust museum, were discovered Monday. The city’s Brodsky Synagogue had the words: “Jews out, Ukraine for Ukrainians” written on its exterior fence.

An offensive symbol appeared on a gate adjacent to the Beit Grand Jewish Community Center. It and the other two graffiti featured the symbol of the Azov Battalion, a National Guard of Ukraine regiment that was set up after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

Last month, an anti-Semitic slur was painted on the wall of a Jewish charity in western Ukraine.

(...)

The incidents follow several cases of death threats and vandalism against Jewish institutions in western Ukraine, including at cemeteries and synagogues.

The incidents have taken place amid a divisive public debate in Ukraine over the conferring of state honors on nationalists who incited hatred against Jews during the 1930s and 1940s, including for some who collaborated with the Nazis.

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Netherlands: Amsterdam kosher restaurant vandal apologizes; blames anger over Israel

The authorities are not treating this incident as an antisemitic hate crime.

Via NL Times:

Saleh A., a 29-year-old man who broke the windows of kosher restaurant Ha Carmel in Amsterdam while carrying a Palestinian flag on December 7th, apologizes to the owner of the restaurant and the Dutch people, his lawyer said in court on Wednesday. He attacked the restaurant out of anger about the situation in Israel, the man told the court, the Telegraaf  reports.

The Public Prosecutor is charging A. with vandalism and burglary. The court suspended the trial for three months while further investigation is done.

A. several times said that he is like a volcano on the point of eruption due to pent-up grief and anger. "I came here to the Netherlands to get papers and return", he said to the court. "But that idiotic Trump made me so angry." He undoubtedly referred to American president Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing that the U.S. embassy will be moved there. The attack on Ha Carmel happened shortly after this announcement.

On the question on whether he is willing to use violence, A. responded: "No, I want a world in peace." He's been seeing a psychologist for several months. "But I am not crazy", he said.

The probation service would like A. to undergo further examination because there are concerns that he may be paranoid, or suffers from psychoses, according to the newspaper. A. feels this is not necessary, but he added that he will "do everything" the Dutch government asks of him. 

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Germany: Video of anti-Semitic rant outside Israeli restaurant in Berlin goes viral

Via JTA:

A video of a 60-year-old man spewing an anti-Semitic rant outside an Israeli restaurant in Berlin has gone viral. The six-minute video of the man haranguing restaurateur Yorai Feinberg on Tuesday has been viewed more than 600,000 times on the internet since it was posted the same day. The man was released and the case is under investigation for inciting hate and resisting arrest.

Feinberg, whose restaurant bears his name, told the German news media that he often had to deal with anti-Semitism on the street, and he receives about two pieces of hate mail per month. This time, a friend of Feinberg was on hand to record the exchange.

“This guy saw my menorah in the window and suddenly started shouting,” Feinberg told the Spiegel online. Dressed in a winter parka, the man at first tries to wave the camera away. But then he tells Feinberg that Jews belong neither in Israel nor in Germany, and says “nobody wants you people.”

“Everything’s about money with you,” he says at one point. “You will have to pay up in five or 10 years. And your whole family, your whole clan here,” he says, waving toward the camera. “What did you all want here after 1945? After 6 million of you were killed. What do you still want here?”

Feinberg, who had been trying calmly to shake off the man, then sees a police car passing by. He runs and waves down the officers.

At which point the man says, “No one will protect you … you can all go to the gas chamber. Either go back [where you came from] or off to the bloody gas chamber. No one wants you.” 

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Serbia: Dozens of headstones destroyed in Jewish cemetery

Via Jewish News:

Two youths in Serbia have been arrested on suspicion that they toppled or smashed 47 headstones at the Jewish cemetery in the northern city of Pančevo.

In the attack, carried out on 8 December, the youths allegedly jumped over the cemetery fence and proceeded to push down the headstones, causing several to smash, the news site 021 reported. Police were notified of the vandalism last week, according to the report. It did not say whether the youths targeted the cemetery because it was for Jews.

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Germany: 'Hitler Was Good!' Jewish Student Attacked by Classmates

Via Sputnik News:

The anti-Semitic incident occurred in a Berlin school in mid-December and has made headlines in media over the last few days.

A Jewish German student has become a victim to anti-Semitic abuse by his Arab classmates in the Ernst Reuter School in Berlin, according to reports.

The incident took place during a discussion of the Middle Eastern conflict when the 18-year-old Jewish student spoke against the creation of a Palestinian state and received a tough response from his fellow students.

As reported by the Berliner Zeitung, several young people who originally come from Arab countries surrounded their Jewish fellow student and verbally abused him. For example, one girl allegedly said: "Wallah, Hitler was good, because he killed the Jews, he was a good man!"

Talking to a local Jewish newspaper, the student said that he faced insults before and that anti-Semitic abuse had been a common practice in his school life.

"I tried to stay calm, to smile and to present facts, but I decided to break my silence on the comment about Hitler," he said.

(...)

According to the Berliner Zeitung, the girl who made the abusive statement immediately noticed that her words were discriminatory and apologized to the student.

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Greece: Newspaper uses antisemitic tropes against the President of the Jewish Community of Athens

Via Against Antisemitism:

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece condemns unequivocally the malicious and vulgar insults, containing fierce racist and anti-Semitic references, launched against the President of the Athens Jewish Community Mr. Minos Moissis by the web edition of the newspaper MAKELEIO.

The headline of the article reads: “Cruel Jew at the head of a company of “crows” that has been assigned to liquidate the “red loans” (past due debt) of poor Greeks. President of the Jewish Community, he pretends friendly and takes (our money) from the back door”.

The article targets and treats with contempt Mr. Moissis - a renowned and experienced professional and a top executive manager in the banking and insurance industry for 30 years - because only of his Jewish identity and his position as the President of the Jewish Community of Athens. Apart from the insulting references, the racist and malicious intent against Mr. Moissis, is indicated by the fact that he is referred to as the “cruel Jew” who has allegedly undertaken the task of “clearing out the loans of the poor Greeks”. Thus, in an unacceptable manner, the hideous and racist stereotype of the evil hard Jewish is reproduced.

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UK: ‘Hitler was a great man – this ain’t Israel', London van driver’s antisemitic rant

Via The Algemeiner:

A Jewish pedestrian who became embroiled in a row with a van driver in one of London’s Jewish neighborhoods found himself on the receiving end of a vicious antisemitic rant on Friday.

A video of the incident shows the man, seated in the driver’s seat of a red van, repeating the phrase “Hitler was a great man” at the height of an argument between the two on a street in the north-east London area of Stamford Hill – home to a large Haredi population.

When the Jewish motorist filming the footage asked him to “say it again”, the man repeated: “I said Hitler was a great man. He knew what he was doing, okay?”

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Europe: Why is Europe always against Israel?

Via Israel Hayom (Prof. Eyal Zisser):

U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration of recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital has sparked, as expected, outrage among Palestinians and their allies. Less expected, or perhaps not, was Europe's indignation. It seems Trump's diplomatic storm has been far stronger on the European continent than in Arab countries. During their meeting this past weekend, European leaders even considered rejecting the U.S. president's declaration and expressing a divergent position, the implication being the negation of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The European position toward Israel will always be influenced by the past, by those same entrenched views of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. In the 1930s, the slogan "Jews get out, go to Palestine" was prevalent across Europe. Today, "Jews get out of Palestine" is just as ubiquitous.

And yet, the question that remains is what brings Europe to repeatedly display unity and commitment to the Palestinian issue and stand on that side of the dividing line. As per the norm in Europe, it appears the answers to this question are not necessarily rooted in a dislike for Jews or special sympathy for the Palestinians but in cold, cynical interests.

(...) Europe, however, is first and foremost only interested in itself. It is a combination of economic interests – in the past it was oil but today it is commerce and investments with Arab and Muslim countries – alongside the fear of immigrants; those who already live there and have significant electoral clout, but also of radical Islam and terror and those who inspire it. The fear is also of potential immigrants still living in the Middle East, those who Europe wants to prevent from reaching its shores.

In another 30 years or so, in 2050, the Middle East's population will be 700 million, almost twice as much as 2010 when the Arab Spring erupted. (...)

Apparently, however, Europe is still cemented in the view that the Israeli-Arab conflict is the key to achieving stability in the Middle East, to easing social, economic, religious and ethnic tensions throughout the region; and that if only the Palestinians were appeased and peace is achieved to their satisfaction, terror would be defeated and radicalism eradicated. From this vantage point, in the eyes of the Europeans, Israel sabotages Europe's efforts to resolve the problems afflicting the Middle East, and thus its efforts to defend itself.

Many European politicians also realize the electoral benefits of catering to their Muslim constituency by being critical toward Israel. Indeed, for many Muslim immigrants in Europe – undergoing a crisis of identity – the conflict with Israel and the Jewish people is a way to find something in common with other Muslim immigrants; and it helps them forge a new identity to replace the one they left behind.

Europe's position toward Israel over the years, under left- and right-wing governments alike, has always been predictable. The considerations forming the bedrock of its policies, evidently, have not changed one bit.

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British Aid Worker: Grenfell Tower Victims ‘Burnt in Jewish Sacrifice’

See also UK: Revealed: Charity leader Nazim Ali who blamed fire tragedy on "Zionists"

Via Tablet Magazine:

Tahra Ahmed, a volunteer aid worker running a prominent aid network that helps survivors of this summer’s Grenfell Tower fire, has said that the 71 people who perished in the tragedy were “burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.”

The fire, Ahmed told the Times of London, was a “holocaust,” unlike the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis, which she has often referred to as the “holohoax.” On her Facebook page, Ahmed wrote that “Hitler and the Germans were the victims of the Jewish conspiracy to destroy Germany.” She also argued that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a Jewish conspiracy, and has claimed on her Facebook page that Grenfell Tower was owned by a Jewish property developer. In reality, it is owned by Kensington and Chelsea Council.

“Watch the live footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them,” she wrote in a post that has stirred controversy in England. “They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice. Grenfell is owned by a private Jewish property developer just like the Twin Towers. I wonder how much Goldman [Goldman Sachs] is standing to make in the world’s most expensive real estate location [Kensington].”

Ahmed’s comments, said Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust, a non-profit that monitors anti-Jewish bigotry, reached “a new depth of grotesque antisemitic racism. Worse is that the traumatized survivors have to grapple with the reality that one of those who claims to stand up for them seems to be primarily motivated by a vile hatred of Jews.”

Responding to reporters’ queries, Ahmed said she did not care about other people’s opinions.

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Europe's "Arab Street" rises up

Via Gatestone Institute (Douglas Murray):

- Hamas called for a "Day of Rage" -- as opposed to the days of peace and harmony the terrorist group ordinarily calls for -- but this did not spill out very far.
- In Stockholm, meanwhile, the new "locals" contented themselves with setting light to the Star of David rather than to real live Jews as their compatriots in Gothenburg had tried to do
- The fabled "Arab Street" had been meant to rise up. And it did rise up. But not in the Arab world... instead it lit up in Europe.

(...) In Germany, however, as in Sweden, Holland, Britain and every other country in Western Europe, there is no point in merely being nervous. It appears that the instinct that really has a point is wilful optimism. After this recent spate of attacks, the former Swedish politician Carl Bildt summed up the view of an entire establishment. While lamenting the anti-Semitism and misogyny of many migrants from the Arab world, Bildt wrote: 

"Most refugees coming to our country from Muslim countries have adjusted to the values of tolerance central to our society. The fact that many of these people have often fled different systems of intolerance helps that process." 

Mr. Bildt, like so many other politicians of his generation, is now willing to admit some truths about the effects of mass migration which he would never have admitted even a few years ago. But the successor to silence turns out to be this blind, wilful optimism. It recognises that, sure, some of the migrants come to us with rampant Jew-hatred. And sure, some of them do not like women or gays. But in time they will become as friendly towards Jews as any other European.

Perhaps Mr Bildt is right to have his optimistic vision of the migrants becoming just like everyone else. Or perhaps -- and a lot rides on this -- he is wrong. Considering that possibility, all of these recent events present the most ominous possible warning-sign. Events such as those since President Trump's announcement should be sending up the clearest possible flare. Yet it is one that too few people are still willing to see. It is taking people time to recognise that the fabled "Arab Street" did light up in recent days. But it lit up in Europe.

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Germany: Foreign Minister accuses Israel of appartheid (again)

Roger Boyes of the Times is right Muslim migrants behind rise in antisemitism - Germany has the most urgent problem - but it is extremely doubtful, as the following shows, that Germany will do anything to counter antisemitism, except for the usual nice and comforting words.

Via Watch Anti-Semitism in Europe:

Last Thursday the German minister of Foreign Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, met with Muslim migrants and citizens as well as staff of the "Kreuzberg Initiative against anti-Semitism" (KIGA e.V.) to discuss the anti-Semitic slogans heard on pro-Palestinian demonstrations and within Muslim communities in recent days after Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

As Palestinian director Pary El-Qalqili said that anti-Semitism is approached the wrong way because instead of talking about the problem of the Palestinians who suffered under Israeli occupation, "they talk about the supposed anti-Semitism of the young people", Gabriel assured her that the Federal Government has criticized Trump's decision immediately and, of course, takes the right to criticize Israel's government policy. He himself, Gabriel resumed, said some years ago, after visiting Hebron in the occupied territories, that what he saw reminded him of apartheid.

In 2012 Sigmar Gabriel, at that time head of the German Social Democratic Party, described Israel as an “Apartheid-Regime” on his Facebook site while he was visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories: “I was just in Hebron. That is a lawless territory there for Palestinians. This is an apartheid regime, for which there is no justification,” Gabriel wrote. Afterwards he apologised to Israel for the comparison made in his Facebook post. “If my formulation led to the misunderstanding that I wanted to put Israel and its government on the same level as the old apartheid regime in South Africa, I am sorry," he said. “I did not and explicitly do not want to do this, as this comparison would be more than unfair to Israel and would downplay the old South Africa.”  

He seemingly forgot his apology. Read more (in German) at Berliner Zeitung.

Europe: Muslim migrants behind rise in antisemitism - Germany has the most urgent problem

Via The Times (Roger Boyes):

Syrian refugees who fled to safety in Europe must abandon their prejudices or be sent home  

School textbooks in Syria make uncomfortable reading. Jews, pupils are told, reject Allah’s divine truth, their state is illegitimate, Israeli occupation of Arab lands is a crime. A 25-year-old Syrian, whatever his views of Bashar al-Assad, whatever his personal misery, will have been brought up with these unquestioned views and some will have drawn the conclusion: it is impossible, indeed wrong, to live side by side with Jews.

We are seeing the results of this in Europe today. Antisemitism is on the rise, especially in countries that took in large numbers of migrants from Arab countries. At the outset of this month’s Hannukah festival, two Syrians and a Palestinian firebombed a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden. A few days later a Jewish cemetry in Malmö was attacked. In Germany, the Israeli flag has been burned and Jewish pupils bullied by Arab schoolmates. Jewish elders offer advice on which districts it is risky to wear the kippa, the Jewish skullcap. (...)

Muslim antisemites, too, are a motley crowd. Some have been told in mosques that the mere existence of the state of Israel poses an existential threat to the Arab world. The demonstrations in Germany against Donald Trump’s decision to locate the US embassy in Jerusalem were inspired in mosques but also by political agitation among asylum seekers. Neither is Britain immune from antisemitic currents. It has the same driving elements: a significant number of British Muslims who are suspicious and resentful of Jews, and, on the hard-left of politics, an antizionist hardcore.

It is Germany, however, that has the most urgent problem. 

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Germany uses EU funds to finance extremist Iranian regime-controlled group

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The German government provides €283,150 to a radical pro-Iranian regime Shi’ite umbrella organization as part of a program to counter extremism. The funds will support the activities of the umbrella organization the Shi’ite communities of Germany (IGS) until the end of 2019, according to a Friday article in Bild newspaper.

The paper wrote that money from the EU’s Internal Security Fund will be administered by Germany’s federal criminal agency for the Shi’ite umbrella organization. The aim of the grant to the pro-Iranian regime group is to promote “deradicalization” and “prevent extremism,” according to Bild.

Hamburg’s most recent intelligence report from 2016, which monitors threats to Germany’s democracy, includes a reference to the IGS and a number of its members’ organizations, including the Islamic Center of Hamburg. The German government classifies the Shi’ite umbrella group as “influenced by extremism,” it said.

Hamid Reza Torabi, head of the Islamic Academy of Germany – part of the Iranian regime-owned Islamic Center of Hamburg – held up a poster in downtown Berlin during the 2016 al-Quds rally urging the “rejection of Israel” and terming the Jewish state “illegal and criminal.” The Islamic Center buses pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iranian regime members and activists to the annual al-Quds Day rally calling for Israel’s destruction. The rally is also a hotbed of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Jewish state. 

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European Parliament event: propaganda-based advocacy for Israel’s isolation

Via NGO Monitor:

On November 27, 2017, the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine (DPal) held a conference, “Fifty Years of Occupation and Counting: Is it time for a new EU Policy on the Middle East Peace Process?” The conference featured politicians, academics, and NGO officials advocating Israel’s isolation and calling on the European Union and other countries to increase international pressure and to impose sanctions on Israel. None of the speakers advocated for dialogue and/or negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

A number of speakers – namely Michael Lynk, Valentina Azarova, and Hugh Lovatt – joined in a concerted effort to advocate sanctions against Israel based on the pseudo-legal argument that it is an “illegal occupant.” Several speakers additionally promoted false allegations and libelous claims against Israel that went entirely unchallenged.

From Differentiation to Sanctions

Michael Lynk, current “United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,”1 presented his latest report, which “considers whether Israel’s role as an entrenched and defiant occupant of the Palestinian territory has now reached the point of illegality under international law” (p. 7). Lynk admitted in his presentation that “International Humanitarian Law, the main documents and instruments, does not provide a clear answer with respect to that” (17:28:00).

However, in support of his contention that there is reasonable legal ground to declare Israel an “illegal occupant,” Lynk, who is self-reportedly “not an international lawyer… by profession,” purports to have “come up with four main principles that we can deduce from International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law… to determine whether or not the occupant has become an illegal occupant.” He concludes that “Israel has violated in the course of its 50 years of occupying the Palestinian territory, all four of these” (17:40:02).

Following his presentation, MEP Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA) addressed a comment to Lynk,

As far as I could hear, you went further then we here in the parliament has (sic) done up till now, saying the differentiation strategy should be the one we could call for, and every time Israel accuses us to go for the BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions]… they use all means to try to push us into this basket, then you paved the road to go into that basket! By saying that now, as Israel being an illegal occupant, we should really put sanctions on Israel, not only this differentiation (18:22:10, emphases added).

In her comment, Auken was referring to “differentiation” policy, a motif introduced by British NGO European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR). ECFR uses this term to call for sanctions against Israeli entities (and certain individuals) that have activities in or apparent financial contacts with Israeli settlements, claiming that this does not constitute BDS. (Hugh Lovatt, Policy Fellow and Israel/Palestine Project Coordinator at ECFR, who “has worked extensively to advance the concept of ‘EU Differentiation’,” also spoke at the event). (...)

Finally, Bichara Khader, Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain, stated that “aid should not be used to tame the Palestinian resistance” and urged “Europe” to “support the third Intifada, peaceful Intifada, which is the BDS campaign” (19:08:27, emphasis added).

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UK: Former UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom makes "Jewish bank" comment

Via Jewish Chronicle:

A former Ukip Member of the European Parliament has been accused of making an antisemitic comment after referring to an “international Jewish bank” recommending a second vote on Brexit.

Mr Bloom tweeted this morning in response to Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Mr Blankfein had tweeted yesterday, saying that the “#Brexit decision belongs to UK citizens, and I'm not one. But GS [Goldman Sachs] built its Euro biz in the UK on certain assumptions, pays taxes and employs thousands of UK citizens concerned about the economy and their futures. On their behalf, at least, I have to be interested in the outcome.”

In response, Mr Bloom quoted the tweet this morning, saying that “International Jewish bank recommends second vote & we should vote Remain. mmmmmmmmmmmm.”

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Belgium: Jews demand soccer club stop antisemitic chants in the stands

Via Jerusalem Post:

The Belgian Federation of Jewish Organizations requested Friday that management of the Bruges FC soccer team crackdown on antisemitic chants in the stadium ahead of its Sunday match with the club Anderlecht.

According to a Friday report in Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française, the public broadcasting news outlet of French-speaking Belgians, Yohan Benizri, the President of the federation said that it is “continually trying to fight antisemitism, including in football stadiums. We regularly talk to clubs and federations about antisemitic chants and how they are dealt with during matches. This Sunday’s match will be followed very closely.”

According to the report, Bruges fans have chanted “Al wie niet spring is een jood” (who doesn’t jump is a Jew) during Bruges-Anderlecht matches. The chant “Jew” is meant as a pejorative term for the Anderlecht player.

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Germany: 70 years after WWII every single Jewish institution still needs police protection

Via Watch Antisemitism in Europe: 

Over 70 years after the Second World War every single Jewish institution in Germany still needs police protection since there is a constant potential threat of anti-Semitic attacks.

In Berlin alone, nearly 60 Jewish facilities are guarded around the clock by an estimated 350 police officers. On top of that Berlin's Jewish community has its own security service, which works closely with the police.

4th night of Hanukkah during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin

JFDA - Jüdisches Forum für Demokratie und gegen Antisemitismus

Ukraine: Menorah sprayed with 'animal blood' in Kiev

Via Ynet News:

A menorah base in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was sprayed with blood Sunday, just several days after a swastika had been scrawled on the same nine-lamp candelabrum. According to one estimate, the menorah was defaced with animal blood.

Ukraine's Jewish community filed a complaint with the local police, who launched an investigation into the incident, which likely took place at around 7 pm Sunday in the neighborhood of Podil.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was born in the same neighborhood, which was home to the only active synagogue during the Soviet era.

"Whoever renames streets after leaders who murdered Jews shouldn’t be surprised by the targeting of a menorah and Jewish symbols today," said Ukrainian-born activist Alex Tentzer. 

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"Europe, be a fair friend", says Fiamma Nirenstein

Via Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Fiamma Nirenstein):

The EU Accusations against Israel

(...) And yet, if we take a close look at the relationship between the European Union and Israel we immediately hear a tune that is off-key. For years, the relationship between Europe and Israel has been strained. Europe tends to criticize Israel for simply defending itself against the continual threats and terrorist attacks it faces on all its borders and inside its cities. Europe too often disregards not only Israel’s most evident attempts to bring about peace such as its disengagement from Gaza but also chides it for its cautiousness when considering what solutions are risky and which will truly ensure the security of its citizens.

The EU has never recognized the dangers that Hamas and Hizbullah pose, as well as many other jihadist groups, including those backed by Fatah. The EU constantly blames Israel in its Commission and Assembly decisions, resolutions, papers and “non-papers,” letters and appeals. Some of Europe’s most important figures insist that sanctions against the “territories” are necessary – a political stance that will certainly not bring about a solution to this conflict that we – the Israelis – would sincerely like to resolve. Israel has repeated many times that it is ready for direct negotiation without preconditions with the Palestinians. No answer has been received. (...)

The New Anti-Semitism in Europe

The chill wind that sometimes flows from the EU towards Israel is squall that can develop into a tsunami releasing a monstrous wave of anti-Semitism which flourishes in Europe today, much to our dismay. The great historian Robert Wistrich wrote, “The Nazi poison was by no means extinguished, having infiltrated (in its day) the Soviet Union and especially the Arab Muslim world, where hard core anti-Semitism systematically defamed Israel and the Jews and was widely and officially propagated.”

The old European culture of hatred continues to permeate books, magazines, newspapers, sermons, Internet, TV, and radio on an unprecedented scale not seen since Nazi Germany’s heyday.

Europe must become aware of the demonic images circulating in much of the Islamic world which are sufficiently radical in tone and content to constitute a warrant for genocide. Europe, in the wake of its problems caused by immigration and the economy, is also infected with political difficulties that have led to widespread discontent and populism. Furthermore, it suffers overall from an anti-Semitic bigotry that can’t be understood in terms of the Arab Israeli conflict, but instead through the myths and conspiracy theories that the Nazi model propagated. The “perfidious Jewish influence” is again a myth that brings murder in Paris, Toulouse, and elsewhere. In short, terrorism is the same enemy everywhere. There is no difference between the myths of Jews seeking to the Mosque of Al Aqsa and the idea that the West is evil incarnate.

Europe, Become Our Best Friends

Remember, Europe: Israel’s fight for its survival and the survival of the Jewish people is also your battle. In addition, Israel has a love for democracy and social justice just like you. If you want to be part of a peace process, help us to stop the Palestinians from using incitement, criminalization, and demonization; stop them from fueling terrorism and violence; and invite them to come back to the negotiation table.

Be a fair friend. Now is the right time.

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Germany: Anti-Semitism rampant among Muslim refugees, study finds

Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency: 

Anti-Semitism among Muslim refugees is rampant and requires urgent attention, a new study suggests. But the study commissioned by the American Jewish Committee’s Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations in Berlin also suggests that refugees from persecuted minority communities are more likely to take a stand against anti-Semitism and for Israel.

Titled “Attitudes of refugees from Syria and Iraq towards integration, identity, Jews and the Shoah,” the research report was prepared by historian and sociologist Günther Jikeli of Indiana University and the University of Potsdam, Germany, with help from Lars Breuer and Matthias Becker. The study was commissioned by the American Jewish Committee.

The report, based on interviews with 68 refugees, comes amid a series of virulent anti-Israel and anti-America demonstrations in the German capital denouncing the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Thousands of protesters burned homemade Israeli flags and crowded city subway stations chanting anti-Israel and anti-American slogans on their way to rallies. The numbers of refugees among the demonstrators was unknown.

At the same time, in a show of solidarity with Jewish communities in Germany, local imams joined with Christian and Jewish leaders in public celebrations of Hanukkah, including the annual candle-lighting ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate, where Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal of Berlin was joined in a cherry picker by Mayor Michael Mueller. Security has been tightened throughout Germany and at Jewish venues.

The tensions run deep, the new study indicates. Anti-Semitic attitudes and rejection of Israel are widespread among the newcomers, the head of the Ramer Institute, Deidre Berger, said in a statement. While many of those interviewed had positive impressions of Germany, they also tended to believe in conspiracy theories, such as about Jews or Israel controlling the world.

“Anti-Semitic thinking and stereotyping are very common … even among those who emphasize that they ‘respect’ Judaism or that there is no problem living together between Muslims, Christians and Jews in their countries of origin and in Germany,” Jikeli said in a statement.

Berger said that given the depth of anti-Jewish hostility in Arab countries, this is not surprising based on the stereotypes that are implanted in schools, mosques and government propaganda in some countries.

“[N]onetheless,” she said, “the dimensions of the problem are much larger than expected.”

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Holland: University’s professor questions Holocaust on TV, calls Jews ‘parasites’

So nobody was aware of his extreme antisemitic views...

Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency (Cnaan Liphshiz):

A professor emeritus from an esteemed university in the Netherlands whose father was a Nazi called Jews “parasites” in a televised interview.

Jan Tollenaere, a lecturer on medicinal chemistry who retired from the Utrecht University in 2001, also questioned the historical record on the Holocaust in an interview aired Thursday by the Canvas broadcaster in Belgium about children of Nazi collaborators.

Tollenaere, whose father, Raymond, was in charge of propaganda for the Belgian pro-Nazi collaborationist government of Flanders during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, said Jews “are not a nice people, I don’t feel any warmth toward them.” They are, he added, “parasites, speculators and mean people.”

In the interview, Tollenaere described himself as an anti-Semite.

About the Holocaust, Tollenaere said: “Was it really a reality? I think there was propaganda in play to underscore the Holocaust, to exaggerate it and cynically use it, leverage it to extract money.”

A Utrecht University spokeswoman said her institution “fully and clearly distances itself” from Tollenaere, whom she described as a “former employee and nothing more.” But Tollenaere’s page on the university’s website does not make clear he is no longer active with the university or that he retired from it. 

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Sweden: Not even Jewish funerals are safe from harassment.

Via The New York Times (Paulina Neudig):

This past Saturday, a Hanukkah party at a synagogue in Goteborg, Sweden, was abruptly interrupted by Molotov cocktails. They were hurled by a gang of men in masks at the Jews, mostly teenagers, who had gathered to celebrate the holiday. Two days later, two fire bombs were discovered outside the Jewish burial chapel in the southern Swedish city of Malmo. Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

For Sweden’s 18,000 Jews, sadly, none of this comes as a surprise. They are by now used to anti-Semitic threats and attacks — especially during periods of unrest in the Middle East, which provide cover to those whose actual goal has little to do with Israel and much to do with harming Jews.

Both of these recent attacks followed days of incitement against Jews. Last Friday, 200 people protested in Malmo against President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The protesters called for an intifada and promised “we will shoot the Jews.” A day later, during a demonstration in Stockholm, a speaker called Jews “apes and pigs.” There were promises of martyrdom.

Malmo’s sole Hasidic rabbi has reported being the victim of more than 100 incidents of hostility ranging from hate speech to physical assault. In response to such attacks, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel warning in 2010 advising “extreme caution when visiting southern Sweden” because of officials’ failure to act against the “serial harassment” of Jews in Malmo.

Today, entering a synagogue anywhere in Sweden usually requires going through security checks, including airport-like questioning. At times of high alert, police officers with machine guns guard Jewish schools. Children at the Jewish kindergarten in Malmo play behind bulletproof glass. Not even funerals are safe from harassment.

Jewish schoolteachers have reported hiding their identity. A teacher who wouldn’t even share the city where she teaches for fear of her safety told a Swedish news outlet: “I hear students shouting in the hallway about killing Jews.” Henryk Grynfeld, a teacher at a high school in a mostly immigrant neighborhood in Malmo, was told by a student: “We’re going to kill all Jews.” He said other students yell “yahoud,” the Arabic word for Jew, at him.

A spokesman for Malmo’s Jewish community put the situation starkly. You “don’t want to display the Star of David around your neck,” he said. Or as spokesman for the Goteborg synagogue put it, “It’s a constant battle to live a normal life, and not to give in to the threats, but still be able to feel safe.”

The question that has dogged Jews throughout the centuries is now an urgent one for Sweden’s Jewish community. Is it time to leave? Some are answering yes. One reason is the nature of the current threat.

Historically, anti-Semitism in Sweden could mainly be attributed to right-wing extremists. While this problem persists, a study from 2013 showed that 51 percent of anti-Semitic incidents in Sweden were attributed to Muslim extremists. Only 5 percent were carried out by right-wing extremists; 25 percent were perpetrated by left-wing extremists.

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Germany: City cancels Hanukkah festivities due to ‘security concerns’

Via Legal Insurrection (Vijeta Uniyal):

The city of Mülheim in northwestern Germany cancelled its official Hanukkah festivities, citing ‘security concerns,’ German newspaper Bild Zeitung reported. All the outdoor Hanukkah events due to take place in Mülheim and the adjoining region have also been cancelled, the head of the local Jewish community confirmed.

The German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where Mülheim is located, has seen an upsurge of antisemitic attacks in the recent years. In the nearby city of Bochum, the Jewish community leaders have urged Jews to stop wearing kippah, the traditional Jewish skullcap that identifies them as Jews, in public. Last month, the local broadcaster Radio Bochum reported that Jews “routinely faced with insults on public streets when they are recognized as Jews.” The broadcaster identified the perpetrators as “Muslim youths.”

A study published by the Berlin branch of American Jewish Committee (AJC) today points to “widespread antisemitism among Arab refugees in Germany.”

“Until now, reports that many new arrivals in Germany espouse anti-Semitism have been largely anecdotal,” said AJC Berlin Director Deidre Berger. “But this new scientific analysis shows that the problem is widespread in the refugee communities from Syria and Iraq. Anti-Semitic attitudes, stereotypes, and conspiracy theories are common, as well as a categorical rejection by many of the State of Israel.”

Country’s most-read newspaper Bild Zeitung broke the story on Wednesday:

It was meant to be the festival of joy — but Hanukkah has now been cancelled. The Jewish community and the city of Mülheim have cancelled the event planned at the symbolic Synagogenplatz.

The spokesperson for the city, Volker Wiebels did not speak of an imminent threat, but referred to the advice of the Central Council of Jews (the umbrella organisation of German Jewish community).

The city hall, exposed from many sides, could not serve as a protected site. “A secured indoor location could not be found at such short notice.

City’s Mayor, Ulrich Scholten, a 60-year-old Social Democrat said, “It is unbelievable that I have to witness a time — apart from the period between 1933 and 1945 — that a Jewish public gathering cannot take place due to security reasons.

Alexander Drehmann, head of the Jewish communities in Mülheim, Oberhausen and Duisburg, said, ”Most of all we feel grief, because Hanukkah is a festival of joy. We have cancelled all outdoor events. We are going to our community hall with secured entrance checkpoint, instead of being at the municipal theater. There were warnings, even from the non-Jewish sources, which I cannot name. It is a bad feeling. Surely one of the lowest points in our post-war history.

Michael Rubinstein, head of the [North Rhine-Westphalia] state association of Jewish communities of Nordrhein region, told us in Düsseldorf, “I use to get blatant hate mails, just as I do today. The difference is: earlier one tried to stay anonymous. People now write their proper names without any inhibitions. Apparently they feel that they speak for the majority. This should makes us do some seriously thinking. [Translation by the author]

The announcement comes just days after the antisemitic weekend demonstrations that took place in Berlin and other German cities. In Berlin, more than three thousand Muslim men were heard chanting Arabic slogans, shouting “death to the Jews” and “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is coming again” — alluding to the annihilation of the Jewish population of Khaybar, an oasis in Saudi Arabia, at the hands of Muhammad and his conquering army.

Video: Demonstrators in Berlin chanting ‘Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning’ on Saturday

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Belgium: 'Welcome in the Palestinian Territory' mobile telecommunications message

Via European Jewish Press:

A client of Proximus, the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies, received the following message on her cellphone as she landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport: "Welcome in the Palestinian territory."

The message came days after US President Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capitale of the State of Israel.

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Germans protest sale of Nazi toy soldiers on Internet

Via The Jerusalem Post:

A German father started an online petition to stop the sale of Nazi toy soldiers to Amazon, the BBC reported Tuesday. Manuel Hegel's petition says the toys "represent officers, soldiers etc of the Waffen-SS and thereby trivialize National Socialism."

The toys, sold by German firm CustomBricks, are reminiscent of Lego's toys in their style of design, the BBC reported. But according to Lego, CustomBricks does not act according to the values ​​the Danish company represents. Lego's statement states that the company "does not support the product in any way or way — on the contrary." 

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France: Jews are targets of 30 percent of violent hate crimes

Via Mosaic Magazine (Ben Cohen):

(...) Or look at France, whose 750,000 Jews [a more realistic figure is 500,000] , despite constituting less than 1 percent of the population, were the targets in 2016 of 30 percent of violent hate crimes in the country. Over the last decade, there has been a growing trend of young criminals, frequently from immigrant backgrounds, targeting Jews for kidnapping and robbery as a consequence of the genuinely-held view that all Jews are rich. In one especially ugly instance last September, Roger Pinto, a Sephardi leader, was tied down by intruders in his Paris home who beat his wife and son as they demanded the liquid cash and jewelry that they knew, for sure, were stashed somewhere.

Where do these ideas come from? In the French case, there is a toxic blend of native anti-Semitism and streetwise Islamist loathing of the snooty Jews, most of which can in fact be traced back to the Protocols. In the case of Erdogan and the others, anti-Semitism is a political strategy, based on deeply-held convictions about how Jews, as a global collective, manipulate power. In the other cases in Europe and America discussed by Laqueur, any charge of anti-Semitism, after being instantly characterized as merely another tool in the armory of the Jewish lobby, is countered with a seemingly inexhaustible stream of novel and inventive conspiracy theories: that Hitler “supported Zionism,” that the IDF “smuggles human organs,” that Jews stand in equal measure behind, on the one hand, “globalists” like George Soros and, on the other hand, “fascists” like Donald Trump, that the hand of Israel lies behind the barbarians of Islamic State—and so on and so forth.

In the final analysis, anti-Semitism is a dirty case that can be advanced only by dirty means. The anti-Semites of Tsar Nicholas’ time may not have been entirely convinced of that, but any lingering doubts have long since been dispelled.

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UK: Wales politician claims that “Israel is only interested in the final solution” and that Palestinians are “effectively trapped in an open air concentration camp”

Interestingly, Pippa Bartolotti refers to the Roma - what she does not say is that in Europe the Roma peopleare heavily discriminated against, live in great poverty, many have to resort to begging.  Indeed they don't have a state of their own and that's why they are treated as they are by Europeans.

Via Campaign Against Antisemitism:

The Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, Pippa Bartolotti, has claimed in a Facebook post that Palestinians are “effectively trapped in an open air concentration camp” and that “the government of Israel is only interested in the final solution”. The comments followed a previous post in which she claimed that US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would “appease the wealthy Zionist backers who paid for Trump’s election campaign”. 

Writing on 7th December, Ms Bartolotti posted an aerial view of Jerusalem’s Old City, commenting:  “I think it’s important to explain that Jerusalem is not a Jewish city – any more than Israel is a Jewish country. Israel is in fact a western state, taken by force in 1948, in bloodshed and massacres of the unarmed and innocent indigenous population.” In the post to her almost 5,000 followers, Ms Bartolotti peddled the conspiracy that Israel is a “Western puppet state” and that wealthy Arab oil states are “in cahoots” with the British and western governments to to legitimise Israel’s claims to the land.

Ms Bartolotti went on to explicitly level two accusations at Israel of behaving like Nazis against towards the Palestinians. She wrote: “Palestinians in Gaza are effectively trapped in an open air concentration camp from which there is only slim means of escape”. She then invokes the Nazi language of the Holocaust in her claim that “The government of Israel is only interested in the final solution”. The Final Solution (Die Endloesung) is the name given by the Nazis to their programme to exterminate six million Jews during the Holocaust. Ms Barolotti’s statements qualify as antisemitic discourse under the terms of the International Definition of Antisemitism by “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”. When confronted on Facebook with the notion that “Comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis is grotesquely offensive and antisemitic”, she responded: “The Roma and disabled were similarly targeted by the Nazi regime, but they have not gone around demanding a state of their own”.

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Europe: "Trump is not to blame for Muslims re-enacting Kristallnacht on the streets of Amsterdam"

Via Tablet Magazine (James Kirchick):

(...) Donald Trump is not to blame for Muslims re-enacting Kristallnacht on the streets of Amsterdam. Neither is Israel. Europeans are. In particular, Nazi Germany’s attempt to solve Europe’s “Jewish problem” has been followed by decades of nauseating indulgence of Arab and Muslim fantasies about wiping out Israel, and the assumption that every adverse development in the mostly one-sided “peace process” between Israel and the Arab world, and every real or imagined indignity visited upon any Palestinian by any Israeli–Arab offenses against Palestinians or other Arabs don’t count–is a natural reason for people to attack and murder Jews anywhere and everywhere in the world.

Encouraging poor and disenfranchised Muslims to stew in hate propaganda so as to direct their resentments away from their lazy and corrupt rulers and towards “Zionists” is a threadbare trick that only people hardened by centuries of colonial administration could continue to play, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. Europe has grown rich through such grotesqueries, which also provide a convenient safety-valve for the social and economic dissatisfactions of the continent’s underclass along with a self-administered dose of exculpation for the mass extermination within living memory of the vast majority of Europe’s Jews in gas chambers and before firing squads. Claiming that divide-and-rule tactics used against one’s own population constitute some higher form of morality is a truly rare kind of obscenity. As anti-Semitic mobs raged across his country, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt—a fervent twitterer who is never at a loss when it comes to criticizing baleful developments in other countries—saw fit to tweet this.

Yet to obfuscate the ways in which Muslims are actually attacking Jews in Europe and the Middle East, fueled by hate-propaganda produced by other Muslims, is to engage in an equally dangerous species of denialism. Events over the weekend should spark a long-overdue, honest conversation about anti-Semitism in Europe, the sources of which people are too afraid to talk about–but should. The rise of nationalist movements across the continent in recent years has led many to assume that the far-right is mainly responsible for resurgent anti-Semitism. But the facts indicate that assumption is false: Anti-Semitic harassment in Europe is predominantly Muslim in origin, with leftists coming in a strong second place.

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Sweden: Second synagogue firebombed

Via European Jewish Congress:

A second synagogue in Sweden was firebombed, this time in Malmö. An attempt was also made to set light to a funeral chapel at a Jewish cemetery in the city. This comes after a synagogue was firebombed in Gothenburg on Saturday. According to reports in the Swedish press, two firebombs were found at the site and had burned out on the spot.  

No injuries were reported. Police were investigating the incident as a suspected hate crime. Sveriges Radio reported that on Friday, demonstrators at a rally in Malmö against the US declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Jerusalem chanted: “We have announced the intifada from Malmö. We want our freedom back, and we will shoot the Jews.”  

Protests held in other European cities also involved antisemitic chants. In London, protesters shouted the Jihadi chant ‘Khaybar, Khaybar’ outside the US Embassy. This “can only be interpreted as a call to incite violence against Jewish people,” said British Jewish leaders in a statement released on Monday.

Sweden: Outpouring of anti-Semitism for which officials blame Israel

Via Mosaic Magazine:

Following the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, there have been anti-Semitic demonstrations in many European countries. Particularly severe is the situation in Sweden: crowds walk through the streets threatening violence against “the Jews,” and both a synagogue and a Jewish funeral home have been firebombed. Bruce Bawer examines the reactions:

Svante Weyler, head of the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism, told the daily Aftonbladet that . . . anti-Semitism is, indeed, quite severe and on the rise in Europe—especially in Sweden—but, unless Aftonbladet cut something out, he was careful not to mention Islam. (That is par for the course.) . . .

Weyler [also] pointed out that “those young people who were gathered together in the synagogue [at the time of the attack] have no direct connection to what is happening in the Middle East or to what Trump does.” Rarely does a European Jewish leader—or anyone, for that matter—simply stand up and defend Israel.

It is not just European Jewish leaders who, in such cases, feel driven to draw a sharp distinction between European Jews and the Jewish state. In an interview with [another Swedish paper], a member of the city council in Gothenburg, [where the attack on the synagogue took place], lamented the fact that “Jews in Sweden are held responsible for what Israel thinks is right or wrong.” Such remarks, of course, imply, [first of all], that Swedish Jews, being Swedes, are surely too sensible and humane to agree in any large numbers with Israeli (or pro-Israeli) policies or actions, and [second], that Israel, by virtue of its supposedly provocative behavior, is at least indirectly responsible for anti-Jewish attacks in Europe. . . .

The attack on the Gothenburg synagogue may have been immediately triggered by Trump’s recognition of Israel’s capital, but it is part of a pattern of persecution and savagery that has [long] been in place, and that has been systematically ignored, denied, or played down by the news media and public officials.

read more @ Gatestone Institute