Yet again another European right wing politician.

Via Jewish Chronicle:

Nigel Farage has been criticised for referring to “a powerful Jewish lobby” operating in America. 

Mr Farage, who was presenting his phone-in show on the LBC network yesterday, took a call from someone identifying himself as “Ahmed” during a debate on Russian influence in last year’s US presidential election.

“How come there’s such an issue with Russia, and no one really highlighting AIPAC and the Israeli lobby and their involvement in American politics and elections”, the caller asked.

Mr Farage, referring to the “Israeli lobby”, responded by saying Ahmed had made “a reasonable point”.

He added: “There are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence its quite big. They have a voice within American politics, as indeed do the Hindu groups and many other groups in America. But I don’t think anybody is suggesting that the Israeli government tried to affect the result of the American elections.”

When the caller claimed Israel had Democrats and Republicans “in their pockets”, Mr Farage, the former leader of UKIP, responded: “In terms of money and influence they are a very powerful lobby”.

He went on to thank “Ahmed from Leyton”, who he said “makes the point that there are other very powerful lobbies in America, with the Jewish lobby, that has links with the Israeli government, is one of those strong voices”.

Social media users condemned Mr Farage’s comments.

“Nigel Farage spewing anti-Semitic conspiracies over the radio, nobody cares because he's right-wing”, one person tweeted, with another sarcastically saying “Nigel Farage slips into antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and wealth. Shocked, I tell you, shocked!”  

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Europe, believe Hezbollah – it’s exactly the terror organization it says it is

Via El País (Ted Deutch and Yair Lapid):

Last week, Congress passed House Resolution 359 which calls on the European Union to recognize the fact that Hezbollah, all of Hezbollah, is a terrorist organization. One of us initiated that resolution, and the other agrees with him wholeheartedly. But both of us are bewildered that the resolution was even necessary. How can anyone in Europe not believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization when Hezbollah itself confirms it over and over again? Not only through words, but through actions: assassinations, bombings, and rocket attacks.

Over the past six years Hezbollah has been the most significant military force alongside President Assad as he destroys his country and kills his own people. With thousands of Hezbollah fighters and commanders on the ground, they hold direct responsibility for a war that has left half a million people dead and eleven million people forced from their homes.

Hezbollah doesn’t hide its next intended target – Israel. The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made it quite clear that his aim is not Palestinian independence, nor the creation of two states. Rather, the total destruction of Israel. He tells a story about an Egyptian journalist who asked him if he’s working towards the destruction of Israel. Nasrallah answered him plainly, “That is the principal objective of Hezbollah.” (...)

The absurdity is heightened when you consider that even the Arab League designates Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. Muslim countries in the region, which can hardly be accused of being overly sympathetic to Israel, know full well there is no such distinction between its ‘wings.’ (...)

We urge the European Union to follow the lead of France and the Netherlands. Designate Hezbollah – all of Hezbollah – a terrorist organization. We need our partners to join the global coalition against Hezbollah and cut off its activities in Europe. Terrorism isn’t fought with words, it’s fought with actions.

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Netherlands: Christian ex-PM uses Holocaust-era word to describe Israeli arrests of Palestinians

Yet again a European centre-right Christian politician.  Dries van Agt is not a leftist. His party is the Christian Democratic Appeal.

Via JTA:

A leader of Dutch Jews criticized a former prime minister of the Netherlands for using a word that is widely associated with the Holocaust to describe arrests by Israel of Palestinians.

Dries van Agt, a pro-Palestinian activist who in 2012 said Jews should have “gotten a piece of land in Germany” instead of Israel because “World War II had nothing to do with the Middle East,” used the word “razzia” on Twitter to describe the arrests of terror suspects last week.

No one died in the arrests.

Originating in Arabic, the word means invasion or raid. But according to Ronnie Eisenmann, a former leader of the Jewish Community of Amsterdam and current chairman of the pro-Israel Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, “it is mostly used in the Nazi context” in Dutch. (...)

Bart Vink, a representative of the left-leaning D66 party, which is relatively critical of Israel, also condemned Van Agt’s use of the word. “Your language, bias, and one-sidedness are objectionable,” Vink wrote to Van Agt on Twitter. “Again you are harming the Palestinian cause once more. Pity, they too deserve better.”

Van Agt served as prime minister in the early 1980s. In 2008, he spoke at a rally in Rotterdam in which Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh delivered a speech on video via satellite. 

Van Agt has said that he would accept the definition of Hamas as a terrorist organization only if the same definition applied to Israel. He also has called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest and trial for alleged war crimes.

Van Agt has faced accusations of anti-Semitism since the 1970s and has consistently denied them. 

In 1972, while serving as justice minister, Van Agt said: “I am only an Aryan,” in speaking to a journalist about his intention to bring about the release from prison of Nazi prisoners for health reasons.

After the statement’s publication caused a scandal, Van Agt said that he meant to say that the release would be difficult for him to achieve because his Jewish predecessor had, according to Van Agt, tried and failed.

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France: Terrorist’s father wins French human rights award

Via Algemeiner:

Knesset member Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli (HaBayit HaYehudi) has called on Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely to deny entry to Israel to lawmakers who took part in an awards ceremony that honored the father of a terrorist for his work as a human rights lawyer.

“We cannot show restraint,” Mualem-Rafaeli wrote in a letter to Hotovely, after an Israel Hayom report revealed that Muhammad Alyan, whose son killed three Israelis in 2015, won the France-based International Institute of Human Rights’s award for best international human rights attorney for defending another terrorist’s wife. Many diplomats, including from Belgium and Canada, attended the event.

Alyan won the award for defending Nadia Abu Jamaal, the widow of terrorist Ghassan Abu Jamaal, who participated in the November 2014 terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood that killed five Jewish worshippers and a police officer. Alyan’s son, terrorist Baha Alyan, perpetrated the October 2015 attack in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood that killed three Israelis.

Mualem-Rafaeli wrote, “The message to the world will be clear: The State of Israel will not allow subversive elements to pass through the entrance gates to Israel.”

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France: Supporters of Swiss Islamist call sexual harassment claims a ‘Zionist plot’

Via JTA:

Three women said this month they were sexually assaulted by Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Islamist with ties to terror organizations and who is accused of justifying Palestinian terrorism and promoting conspiracy theories about Jews.

His supporters were calling the accusations the result of a “international Zionist plot” to blacken his name.

The third and newest complainant, a woman identified only as Yasmina in the French media, told Le Parisien that Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College, sexually harassed her in 2014 and blackmailed her for sexual favors, the weekly reported Saturday. She said Ramadan threatened to distribute “compromising pictures” of her.

Ramadan has denied any wrongdoing.  (...)

Following Ayari’s decision to step forward, journalist Caroline Fourest, who has reported extensively about Ramadan’s controversial career, on Friday wrote in the Marianne weekly that supporters of Ramadan are calling the accusations the result of a “international Zionist plot” to tarnish his reputation. 

Ramadan, who in 2009 was fired from Rotterdam’s Erasmus University for taking money from the Iranian regime and who has been refused entry to France and the United States over his ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups, has often aired conspiracy theories about Israel and the Jews. (...)

In 2014 he said that the slaying of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, which authorities say was perpetrated by the Islamist Mehdi Nemmouche, was in fact a deliberate attack on Israeli secret agents.

And in a 2004 interview, Ramadan said that violence for the Palestinians is “a legitimate resistance,” and “the only way for them to be heard at the international level.” In the same interview, he also said he does not justify the use of violence against Israelis.

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Germany: Hezbollah-affiliated football team hires German biologist as coach

Via Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal): 

A former German soccer player and biologist, Robert Jaspert, has been hired as the new head coach of the Hezbollah-backed Lebanese football team Al-Ahed.

The Rheinische Post reported on Saturday that Jaspert, who worked for Al-Ahed ten years ago, is back this time as the team's top coach. The RP wrote that "Al-Ahed is supported by Hezbollah."

The US, Canada, Israel, the Arab League and the Netherlands classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The EU and Germany designated Hezbollah's so-called military wing a terrorist entity.

It is unclear if direct Hezbollah funds are to pay for Jaspert's salary. (...)

Jaspert previously worked for the German research organization Robert Koch Institute as a molecular biologist. Germany's domestic intelligence agency reported that as of 2017, there are 950 active Hezbollah members in the country. 

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Netherlands: Dutch government ‘obsessed’ with Israel, Simon Wiesenthal Center says

Once again this shows that European center-right governments and politicians are no better than their left counterparts with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Via JTA:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Dutch government has an “obsession” with Israel following the publication of a foreign policy platform singling out the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“The Dutch are fixated” on the conflict Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center’s associate dean, wrote in an article published Tuesday by the Huffington Post website, co-authored with Manfred Gerstenfeld, an anti-Semitism  researcher with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 

The op-ed noted that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the only international conflict mentioned in the coalition agreement of the new government of the Netherlands, which was announced this week.

The coalition agreement was reached following protracted negotiations between the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose center-right party was reelected in March,  and three other partners, including the left-wing D66 party. 

The 70-page coalition agreement states that “the Netherlands will contribute to peace and security in the Middle East, using its good relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to promote and achieve a two-state solution: an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state alongside a secure, internationally recognized Israel. We will also strive to improve relations between Israelis and Palestinians.” 

The reference to Israel appears in the coalition agreement’s 590-word chapter devoted to foreign relations. The only other foreign countries mentioned in it are Germany, Belgium and Venezuela – all three in the context of bilateral relations requiring the lifting of obstacles or deserving “special attention,” in Venezuela’s case. 

Despite growing concern in Europe about jihadists returning from Syria, where according to the United Nations some 400,000 died since 2011 in a civil war, the country is mentioned only once, in a section about the treatment of refugee children. 

“Key European Union issues such as Brexit and the Catalonia conflict are absent.  

Nothing is mentioned about a nuclearized North Korea, nor about the problems with the nuclear agreement with Iran,” wrote Cooper and Gerstenfeld about the agreement. Iran’s name is absent altogether.

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EU: In the W. Bank, the EU creates its own facts on the ground

Via Mosaic Magazine:

The European Union has begun building settlements for Palestinians and Bedouin in a small strip of the West Bank known as the “E1 corridor.” As the Oslo Accords place this territory under direct Israeli control, these building projects—conducted under the shelter of diplomatic immunity and without proper permits—violate both Israeli and international law. Israel has finally moved to dismantle some of these structures, and now the EU is demanding compensation. David M. Weinberg comments:

[I]llegally established Palestinian villages and Bedouin shantytowns have slowly closed the corridor between Jerusalem and [nearby] Maaleh Adumim, where a major highway runs, crawling to within several meters from it. These illegal outposts steal electricity from the highway lights and water from Israeli pipelines. 

Civil Administration data, presented last year to the Knesset’s subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, showed that 6,500 Palestinians were living in some 1,220 illegally built homes in the area, and the number undoubtedly has grown since then—thanks to the EU, [which] has poured perhaps €100 million into EU-emblazoned prefabs, EU-signed roads, and water and energy installations. [And not only] in E1, [but also] in Gush Etzion, in the South Hebron Hills, and even in the Negev. . . . 

In short, the EU’s support of the Palestinians has graduated from passive diplomatic and financial assistance to subversive participation in the Palestinian Authority’s illegal construction ventures. The explicit EU intent is to erode Israeli control of [this portion of the West Bank] and east Jerusalem while promoting Palestinian territorial continuity leading to runaway Palestinian statehood. . . . 

Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden—members of the so-called “West Bank Protection Consortium,” a body that coordinates “humanitarian assistance” to Bedouin and Palestinian squatters in [the area]—are now demanding that Israel pay them compensation of more than €30,000 each. . . . First the EU builds illegal settlements in defiance of Israel, then it demands that Israel pay for these offenses when Israel acts against them.

 Read more at Israel Hayom

Greece: The image of Israel is improving in Greece

Via Mosaic Magazine:

The Greek media have a consistent history of hostility toward the Jewish state, a hostility that seems both to shape and to reflect a great deal of popular sentiment. But since 2010, as Athens and Jerusalem have formed closer economic and diplomatic ties, popular opinion seems to be improving. George Tzogopoulos writes:

Greek sympathy for the Palestinian cause is rooted in the proximity of the Arab world and the support of most Arabs [for Greece’s stance on] the Cyprus question. Anti-Semitism has also played a role. But there is another reason why Israel was constantly blamed by the Greek media, at least before 2010. It served as a useful scapegoat for all the problems in the Middle East, if not all the problems in the world. This made it easy for journalists to avoid time-consuming, in-depth research on international affairs. Jerusalem’s close cooperation with Ankara only fueled the negative perception of Israel within the Greek media. . . . 

When Jerusalem decided to look for new allies in the eastern Mediterranean following the setback in its relations with Ankara [over the Mavi Marmara affair], it turned to Athens. In August 2010, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Greece, opening a new chapter in a relationship that had been marked for decades by misunderstandings and suspicion.
George Papandreou, the Greek premier at the time, saw Israel as a critical ally in an era of economic austerity and uncertainty over Greece’s potential default and exit from the Eurozone. . . . In the aftermath of the Netanyahu-Papandreou meeting, most Greek journalists began to grasp that Israel is no longer an unknown, distant neighbor. [Rather], it is a partner. This strategic partnership yields positives for Greece in terms of security and energy affairs, and also has a tangibly positive effect on the Greek economy. While 207,711 Israeli tourists came to Greece in 2012, expected arrivals from Israel are expected to be 530,712 in 2017. . . . 

After 2015, an additional barrier tarnishing Israel’s image in Greece was removed. A leftist government, Syriza, came to power, bringing with it a new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. Though he had participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past, his tune changed when he assumed his new position. In contrast to his pre-election stance, Tsipras treats Israel as an ally, and his foreign policy is reflected in media coverage on both left and right. . . . The improving image of Israel in Greece could theoretically go hand in hand with a reduction in anti-Semitism. . . .

 Read more at BESA Center

UK: Only 11% of Britons support the boycott of Israel

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

The poll, conducted this month by Populus with a nationally-representative sample of more than 2,000 British adults, also found the lowest level of support for a boycott of Israel since 2014 — at just 11 per cent.

Almost half of respondents said they did not support boycotts and they “find it difficult to understand how others do”, although this number was marginally lower than it was last year.

Support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) has fallen dramatically in the past three years among younger voters — usually seen as the demographic group most sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Forty-five per cent of 18-24 year olds said they opposed boycotts — up from 28 per cent in 2015. (...)

Israel is considered the UK’s most important Middle Eastern ally in the fight against terrorism.

The country is also seen as the fourth most vital post-Brexit trading partner in the region, after Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

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Belgium: Israeli students in Belgium accused of being Mossad agents

On Monday October 23, the cultural center of Nivelles, a Belgian city near Brussels, hosted the screening of a film, This is my Land, by French-Israeli left-wing director Tamara Erde.  The film was followed by a debate with Marianne Blume, a well-known veteran Israel-basher.

Joods Actueel reports that Blume stated that it is an open secret that almost all young Israelis who study in Belgium are Mossad agents.  "Everything that comes from Israel should be boycotted", she further added.

She also stated that Israel is a "foreign body" in the Middle-East.

Mariane Blume is also deeply upset that Belgium cooperates with Israel in the fight against terrorism – implying that the real terrorist is Israel which she alleges tortures prisoners.  She argued that such a cooperation is a "threat to Belgian democracy”.  No less.

The event was organized by a center right politician  (CDH), Evelyne Vanpée, councillor at the city.  When contacted about Blume’s assertions she indicated that she had not attended the event and expressed no regrets.  

In 2008, Evelyne Vanpée took part, with former minister André Flahaut, in a street event also at Nivelles in which Israelis were compared to Nazis. 

At the time, the Simon Wiesenthal expressed revulsion at "the repulsive manipulation of public opinion staged last Saturday in Nivelles near Brussels."

It is only fair to assume that Marianne Blume, who is a frequent speaker at anti-Israel events, has been peddling this sort anti-Israel accusations and conspiracy theories to audiences only too eager to hear how hateful Israeli Jews are.  Most worrying are her attacks against young Israeli students.  By claiming that everybody knows that they are spies she and her supporters put their safety at risk.  It is all the more disturbing because such accusations were proffered in a cultural center run by the city authorities without being challenged, except by Joods Actueel.

Netherlands: New deputy foreign minister accused Netanyahu of racism

Here we go again.  They are so pro-Israel... "The Netherlands’ next foreign minister will be the ruling party’s Halbe Zijlstra, whom pro-Palestinian activists in the Netherlands described as “very pro-Israel.”"

Via JTA:

A Dutch activist for Palestinian rights who is married to a senior member of the PLO was nominated to the second-most powerful Cabinet post in the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

Sigrid Kaag’s nomination as minister for international aid will be formalized in the coming days following the signing of a coalition deal between the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and three other partners, including her left-wing D66 party, the NOS public broadcaster reported Friday.

The wife of Anis al-Qaq, a deputy minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s and a Palestinian Authority ambassador to Switzerland, Kaag has worked for UNRWA, the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians.

As minister for aid, Kaag will not be directly responsible for the foreign relations of her country, which is one of Israel’s strongest allies within the European Union. But she will be responsible for implementing aid projects in the West Bank — including ones considered illegal by Israel and that have led to friction between the Jewish state and the Netherlands.

In an interview from 1996, Kaag said that Benjamin Netanyahu, who was that year elected prime minister for the first time, does not represent peace-seeking Israelis. (...)

Kaag in the interview called settler “illegal colonists on confiscated land.” She also said that settler called her “whore of the Arabs.” She also said in that interview that her father-in-law was in 1995 stabbed on the Jerusalem promenade by a Jew wearing an Arab kaffiyeh – a claim that was later contested by critics who said Israeli police records show no record of such an incident that year.

“Netanyahu’s way is of soundbites with racist, demagogic overtones about the Palestinian peace partner, his Arab peace partners, who are being sidelined,” added Kaag.

The Netherlands’ next foreign minister will be the ruling party’s Halbe Zijlstra, whom pro-Palestinian activists in the Netherlands described as “very pro-Israel.”

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Italy: Lazio fans leave anti-Semitic stickers of Anne Frank images

Via The Washington Post/AP:

Images of Anne Frank wearing a Roma jersey were among the anti-Semitic stickers and graffiti left by Lazio fans that were discovered at the Stadio Olimpico on Monday.

It was the latest in a long line of racist or anti-Semitic incidents involving Lazio supporters.

The northern curva (end) of the stadium where Lazio’s “ultra” fans sit was closed on Sunday for the match with Cagliari due to racist chanting during a match against Sassuolo this month. 

As a result, Lazio decided to open the southern end and let the ultras in where Roma’s hard-core fans sit for their home matches.

Stadium cleaners found the anti-Semitic stickers a day later.

The Italian football federation is likely to open an investigation, which could result in a full stadium ban for Lazio.

“There are no justifications. These incidents must be met with disapproval, without any ifs, ands or buts,” Sports Minister Luca Lotti said. “I’m sure that the responsible authorities will shed light on what happened and that those responsible will quickly be identified and punished.”

Lazio’s ultras have long been known for their far right-wing political stances and fascist leanings. During a 1998 derby, Lazio ultras held up a banner directed at their Roma counterparts that read, “Auschwitz Is Your Country; the Ovens Are Your Homes.”

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Germany: Hezbollah-aligned center declares 'resistance' against Israel

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The chairman of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic center Al Mahdi in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) urged his supporters to wage “resistance” against Israel on Saturday, according to a report in the regional paper Neue Westfälische.

“Israel is the enemy – we are carry out resistance,” said Hassan Jawad, chairman of the Al Mahdi cultural center in the city of Münster.

Jawad’s cultural center is building a meeting center for 800 to 1,000 religious believers in Bad Oeynhausen, a spa town with a population of nearly 50,000 in NRW. The Al Mahdi center has served as a hotbed for Hezbollah activity for over twenty years, according to the paper.

The NRW interior minister Herbert Reul told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that “when somebody in Germany says that Israel is the enemy, that is, for me, intolerable. I am a big friend of Israel, and the friendship to Israel belongs to Germany’s raison d’état. Therefore this statement [from Hassan Jawad] is condemned by me in the strongest terms.”

When asked if the interior ministry plans to ban the Al Mahdi center, the ministry told The Post that “associations that support Hezbollah can presently be banned, if financial support [for them] is provable.”

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Germany: Few Israelis are aware of how popular it is in Germany to compare Israel to the Nazis

Via Fathom (Gadi Taub):

Most Israelis assume – or at least they did until very recently – that Germany is a steadfast friend of Israel. They therefore find it hard to imagine that it would actively support organisations which contribute to the campaign to delegitimise Israel’s right to exist. But all that may have changed after the debacle in April between German Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Gabriel, on the occasion of an official visit for Holocaust Memorial Day, announced that he would meet the representatives of two radical left-wing civil society organisations – Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem. When Netanyahu said that if those meetings went ahead he would boycott the visit and refuse to meet Gabriel, many thought he was overreacting. Few, however, expected Gabriel to choose those two organisations over Israel’s prime minster (and acting foreign minister). And when he did, things began to appear in a new light. It no longer seemed that the German foreign minister made an honest mistake, not knowing how controversial these organisations were among Israelis. It appeared, instead, that he knew exactly what he was doing and that it was us, the Israeli public, who had made a mistake in our assumptions about German-Israeli relations. (...) 

Before the Gabriel affair few Israelis were aware of how popular it is in Germany to compare Israel to the Nazis. But one has to admit that it does have its own perverted psychological logic. If the Jews are now victimisers, not victims, does that not partially alleviate the terrible burden of German guilt? Does that not create a counterweight to the ever-present sense that the very existence of Jews is a permanent reminder of German sins? Does not the psychological need, if not exactly the argument, press towards some path of relief in blaming the victims? 

By refusing Netanyahu’s request and lending his support to organisations bent on demonising Israel, Gabriel made many wonder whether he was not in fact engaged in exactly this kind of politico-psychological game, which may appeal to his own constituency at home. But surely a German foreign minister on an official visit on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day, cannot be trying to manipulate symbols and emotions so as to switch victims and victimisers! Or could he? We were all ears now. 

So it was not overlooked here in Israel when, upon his return to Germany, Gabriel said to the Frankfurter Rundschau that the Social Democrats, his own party, were, along with the Jews, among ‘the first victims of the holocaust’ (this was later changed on the paper’s website from victims of ‘the holocaust’ to victims of ‘the Nazis’). So after using his state visit to look at Israel through the lens of organisations emphasising our sins, and thus classifying us as victimisers, was he now making himself the victim (by proxy), and not just any victim, but a victim of Nazism? Where was all this heading? It brought to mind the bitterly sarcastic quip attributed to Israeli psychiatrist Zvi Rex: ‘The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.’ Will we soon need to apologise for it to Gabriel? 

All this, we should note, was carried on in the guise of high handed – and decidedly condescending – rhetoric. Gabriel, on his own account, was helping to instruct us about the dangers of nationalism – ours – and the virtues of ‘European values,’ and democracy. But despite the immaculately humanitarian vocabulary, it was not hard to sense that something very sinister was afoot, since the minister’s interest in malignant nationalism and human rights seemed to be selective. He was apparently more interested in cases where Israel could be blamed. He had no plans to meet any civil society organisations which document Palestinian abuses of human rights, and his high-minded exhortations against Jewish nationalism were not matched by any criticism of the murderous sort of xenophobic nationalism which the Palestinians habitually – and institutionally – encourage in their people, especially their young. (Gabriel has since also hosted an Iranian religious leader who has called for the elimination of Israel, as part of an official Foreign Ministry event intended to harness religion for the cause of peace, the Jerusalem Post reported.) Of course Palestinian anti-Semitism is less useful as a ‘lesson of the holocaust’ if such a lesson is only intended to insinuate – to be sure, in a roundabout, never-explicit way – that the former victims have now become the culprits, thus helping to lighten Germany’s moral burden. 

Netanyahu was absolutely right to forcefully refuse to take part in any such shady game of insinuations. So perhaps we should thank Gabriel, after all, for providing the opportunity to bring all this home to Israelis. We can appreciate that the German past is indeed a difficult burden to carry, and we can even sympathise with the pains of sons who have to live with their fathers’ sins, but it is by no means the task of Jews to help relieve, much less shoulder, Germany’s historical guilt. So it is easy to see why Israelis found the whole affair rather nauseating. 

But even this was not yet all. Many Israelis dismiss the shrill rhetoric of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, in which complaints about how European money is funnelled through the Palestinian Authority (PA) to support terrorism can get lost in the general air of paranoid-seeming rhetoric. But this complaint too now received more attention when, as fate would have it, the US recently became quite firm about the PA’s support of the families of terrorists. The PA under Mahmoud Abbas habitually calls Palestinian terrorists ‘martyrs’ and offers generous financial aid to their families. Gabriel, who was so particular about Israel’s moral conduct, had nothing to say about how German money is used in that way. But we do. And we should hold all donors accountable if they allow their money to be used to provide incentives for terrorism. Germany is a good place to start, and Netanyahu was right to highlight all this. 

According to press reports in Israel which followed Gabriel’s visit, Germany denied entry to Turkish officials of Recap Erdogan’s government when they wanted to meet with German citizens of Turkish origin. Germany feared representatives of the Turkish state would radicalise members of its own citizenry. So when all was said and done it seemed like Netanyahu’s treatment of Gabriel was actually mild in comparison. Perhaps it should be less mild in the future.

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Netherlands: Soccer fans ridicule child Holocaust victims on Twitter

Via JTA:

Avram and Emanuel Rosenthal, 5 and 2 years old respectively, were rounded

up to be murdered shortly after their picture was taken in Lithuania in 1944

Soccer fans in the Netherlands used a picture of child victims of the Holocaust to taunt a rival team in what Dutch activists against racism called a new low for anti-Semitic rhetoric in sports.

The photo featuring two toddlers wearing a yellow star was widely circulated on Twitter under the hashtag #anti020week. The digits are the Amsterdam-area dial code, which in soccer jargon references the city’s main soccer club, Ajax. The picture, in which one child appears to be nearing tears, also featured the caption “When 020 had only one star.”

The children pictured, Avram and Emanuel Rosenthal, 5 and 2 years old respectively, were rounded up to be murdered shortly after their picture was taken in Lithuania in 1944.

Shared by many supporters of the Feyenoord team of Rotterdam, the photo offers an extreme example of how fans of Ajax rivals mock the memory of the Holocaust. Ajax players and supporters are often called “Jews” in recognition of the large Jewish community that had existed in the Dutch capital before 80 percent of its members were murdered in the Holocaust by Germans and Dutch collaborators. Some Ajax fans self-identify as Jews.

Past incidents included songs about burning Jews and the SS, and the use of gas and Hamas, but using archival photos of individual victims is unusual.

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Europe: Why Europe's new nationalists love Israel

PJ Media (David P. Goldman): 

"If ponies rode men and grass ate cows," goes the text of "The World Turned Upside Down," the tune piped by the Continental Army band at Cornwallis' surrender of Yorktown. Europeans might consider adopting it as their anthem to replace the present European Community hymn, the overused Ode to Joy. The resurgent nationalists who made the Alternative fuer Deutschland into Germany's third-largest party and the Austrian Freedom Party into that country's second-largest (and a likely member of a new governing coalition) have an extreme-right reputation, but they are now the most pro-Israel parties in Europe. The world has indeed turned upside-down, and we might as well sing about it.

Most remarkable is the success of the Austrian Freedom Party (German initials FPŐ) in last Sunday's Austrian elections. It came in second with 26% of the vote, ahead of the governing Social Democrats. Its chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, rubbed shoulders with neo-Nazis during his early political career, and four years ago posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his Facebook page, "showing a banker with a large hooked nose and Star of David cuff links profiting from Europe’s financial crisis," as the Times of Israel reported. Since then Strache has undergone a Damascus road conversion from Saul to Paul (or perhaps the other way round). He has visited Israel several times, defended Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria, and demanded that Austria move its embassy to Jerusalem. 

Strache brings to mind the canonical definition of a philo-Semite, that is, an anti-Semite who likes Jews. It is widely alleged that he is looking for respectability after emerging from the extreme right swamp into the mainstream of Austrian politics, and hoping to burnish his credentials through gestures of reconciliation with the Jewish State. It is also widely believed that the FPŐ as well as the AfD support Israel as the enemy of their enemy, that is, the flood of Muslim migrants that provoked the surge in their support among voters. (...)

There are European nationalists who support Israel out of conviction rather than expediency. They admire the accomplishments of the Jewish State, moral as well as military or commercial. They observe that Israeli women bear on average 3 children compared to just 1.3 in Germany. They wish that Europeans could show the same love of country and culture that the Jews evince in Israel, and the same willingness to defend themselves. (...)

The existence and success of the State of Israel changes everything. It is not merely a promise, spiritualized by Christianity into a vision of another life beyond this one, but a living, breathing people that punches above its weight in every field of human endeavor. Perhaps the people of Israel will help fulfill their mission to be a light unto the nations by example. Europe's new nationalists may attempt to emulate Israel not but superceding it or by asserting their claims for election against each other, but by seeking to identify its virtues.

Post-nationalist Europe bears an irrational hatred of Israel, I wrote in this space in 2014.

The flowering of Jewish national life in Israel makes the Europeans crazy. It is not simply envy: it is a terrible reminder of the vanity of European national aspirations over the centuries, of the continent's ultimate failure as a civilization. Just as the Europeans (most emphatically the Scandinavians) would prefer to dissolve into the post-national stew of European identity, they demand that Israel do the same. Never mind that Israel lacks the option to do so, and would be destroyed were it to try, for reasons that should be obvious to any casual consumer of news media. 

It is too early to judge the direction of the new European nationalism, which has some elements that make me cringe, and some that make me release the safety-catch on my Browning. But it also has men and women who do not want to disappear into the dustbin of history and look to Israel for inspiration. 

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Europe: Even in Left-Wing European circles, BDS is linked to anti-Semitism

Via Commentary Magazine (Evelyn Gordon):

BDS activists are presumably celebrating the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to warn off companies that do business with Israelis in the West Bank. I’d advise them to enjoy their temporary victory while they can. As several recent events make clear, they’re losing badly outside the UN. And they’re losing for one simple reason: People worldwide are gradually coming to understand that the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement isn’t “anti-occupation,” it’s anti-Semitic.

Last Friday, for instance, Austria’s national student union passed a motion denouncing BDS as anti-Semitic and saying the movement recalls the Nazis’ economic boycott of Jewish businesses. The resolution also said BDS activists shouldn’t be given funding or venues in which to promote its campaign. The motion, which was pushed in particular by a student group called GRAS (Greens and Alternative Students), passed almost unanimously, with one abstention and no votes against.

The previous week, the Green Party in the German state of Bavaria passed a resolution denouncing BDS as “anti-Semitic, hostile to Israel, reactionary and anti-enlightenment,” adding that it “reproduces the National Socialist slogan, ‘Don’t buy from Jews!’” The resolution, introduced by the party’s youth wing, also urged the national Green Party not to cooperate with BDS. Given that some prominent Green Party members have actively promoted anti-Israel boycotts, this uncompromising denunciation effectively amounts to a grassroots revolt.

And this week, the Left Party in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, decided not to consider a motion urging Israel “to end the occupation and the Gaza blockade” and demanded the European Union end its Association Agreement with Israel due to the blockade and Israel’s West Bank security fence. Given that the Left Party (Die Linke in German) is easily the German party most hostile to Israel, this development is surprising.

The party offered no explanation when it announced the decision on its Twitter account, but Jerusalem Post reporter Benjamin Weinthal suggested it might be related to what Martina Renner, a Left Party member of parliament, said about the resolution earlier this month. The “motion sounds like it was written from Israel boycott groups,” Renner said. “From this the executive board of @dielinke clearly distances itself.” Renner’s statement left no room for doubt: Even the Left Party wants nothing to do with BDS and anti-Israel boycotts.

All these examples have something in common: The anti-BDS push is coming precisely from the groups that are normally least sympathetic to Israel–leftists and young people. In other words, BDS is losing not just among groups that could be expected to oppose it, like the U.S. Congress, but among the very demographic that ought to be its principal bastion of support.

Even though large swaths of polite society are now perfectly comfortable with anti-Semitism as long as they can tell themselves it’s just “anti-Zionism” or “fighting the occupation,” open avowals of anti-Semitism are still taboo. Once stripped of the comforting pretense that it’s not anti-Semitic, BDS will be finished. And groups like the Austrian student union and the Bavarian Green Party are now tearing that pretense to shreds.

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Ukraine: Odessa celebrates Bob Dylan's Jewish roots this weekend

Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency: 

Bob Dylan

Some 950 people are expected to gather over this weekend for Limmud FSU Ukraine, the biggest event geared towards the Jewish community in the country. The event will take place in Odessa, one of the most important cities of Jewish and Zionist movement’s history in the former Soviet Union. Today there are about 400,000 Jews living in Ukraine, with more than 45,000 in Odessa. 

Limmud FSU Ukraine, the dynamic and pluralistic Jewish festival of culture, creativity and learning, will feature an array of more than 180 world-class speakers from around the world on a multitude of subjects ranging from art, to Jewish culture and tradition, literature, music, theater, history, politics, business and lifestyle.

The event will feature a special ceremony and a concert celebrating Bob Dylan, one of the most prominent Jewish composers and musicians of our time. Dylan’s paternal mother, Anna Zimmerman, together with her husband Zigman, emigrated from Odessa to the US in 1910. The event will also include an exhibition on Dylan’s life “Forever young: behind Dylan's revolution and legacy”, created by the Museum of Diaspora in Tel Aviv, and presented by one of its curators, Amitai Achiman.

Special recognition will be given to the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress of 1897, to be celebrated this year, including a concert and several activities relating to the World Zionist Organization, with the participation of WZO Chair, Avraham Duvdevani. A commemorative plaque will be unveiled on the house where the distinguished Hebrew poet, Shaul Tchernichovsky, lived, in the framework of an official ceremony made possible by the efforts of Nativ and WZO.

“The Ukrainian-Jewish community is among the most thriving Jewish communities in the world, while the city of Odessa is one of the most important cities in Jewish history. We confidently expect that this Limmud FSU 11th festival in Ukraine will be an important part in the life of the Jewish community,” said founder Chaim Chesler, “and we look forward to an inspiring gathering, especially the celebration of Bob Dylan’s Jewish roots in Odessa.”

Among the presenters will be Israel's ambassador to Ukraine Eliav Belotserkovsky; Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) Vice-President for External Relations and former Israeli Ambassador to Russia, Dorit Golender; Executive Director  of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Haim Ben Yakov; Nativ's countrty director for Ukraine Gennady Polischuk; Director of The Ukrainian Institute for the Study of the Holocaust Tkuma, Igor Shchupak; Board Member of Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter Adrian Karatnycky, popular Russian satirist and writer, Victor Shenderovich, and many more.

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Ukraine: Disgraceful celebration of anti-Semitic nationalist leader

Via European Jewish Press:

Symon Petliura

The city of  Vinnitsa, in west central Ukraine, once a historic center of Jewish life in the country, has decided to celebrate an anti-Semitic nationalist leader and to unveil a monument in his honor this weekend.

Symon Petliura and his Ukrainian People’s Republic are blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of Jews in programs under his watch in 1918-1921.

The memorial for Symon Petliura was unveiled Saturday in Vinnitsa, on Defender of Ukraine Day, a national holiday. It is located in an area once known as Yerusalimka, or Jerusalem, and located next to a small synagogue that is still in operation.

In a statement, the World Jewish Congress denounced the move to celebrate Petliura.

WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer said in a statement: "The World Jewish Congress is distressed by the Vinnitsa municipality’s disgraceful and regrettable decision to celebrate the anti-Semitic nationalist leader Symon Petliura as a 'Defender of Ukraine' and by Vinnitsa Regional Chairman Valery Korovy’s description of him as an 'honest man'."

"Petilura was anything but an honest man. He was a cruel barbarian, indisputably responsible for pogroms in which 35,000-40,000 Jews were murdered."

"He and his Ukrainian People’s Republic were more than just Ukrainian nationalists - they were also avowed and brutal anti-Semites, intoxicated by the thrill of carrying out unimaginably vicious and inhumane crimes against innocent people."

"It is inconceivable that a man, who today we would not hesitate to call a terrorist, should be honored in the very same city in which he and his regime tried to wipe out a rooted and strong Jewish population."

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France: Mohamed Merah's family: a burning hatred against France and Jews

Via The Jewish Chronicle (Michel Gurfinkiel):

Murdered by Mohamed Mehra because they were Jewish

Harrowing details emerge from the French trial of Souad and Abdelkader Merah, whose brother shot dead seven people, including three Jewish children, in 2012  

“Burning hatred against France and against Jews, and an orgy of domestic violence.” That was how Anne Chenevat, a major witness, described the Merah family – a divorced mother, three sons and two daughters – to the Special Criminal Court of Paris last Tuesday. 

Mohamed Merah, the youngest of the family’s sons, killed seven people – including three Jewish children shot at point-blank range – and maimed six others in the southern French towns of Montauban and Toulouse between March 11 and March 19, 2012. He was himself killed by security forces three days later. 

The main defendants in the present trial, which started three weeks ago, are his older brother Abdelkader Merah and his older sister Souad. The siblings are accused of inspiring the killing spree. Abdelkader was arrested in 2012; Souad fled to Algeria. 

Anne Chenevat’s importance as a witness stems from the fact that she was for six years the partner of Abdelghani Merah, the eldest Merah brother. According to her, Zuleikha Aziri, the Algerian-born mother, would use electric wire to beat her children. Violence between the brothers was rampant: on one occasion, Abdelkader inflicted seven stab wounds on Abdelghani. 

Hatred for the non-Muslim French and antisemitism were held as self-evident in the family. 

“As a result, I was routinely abused and spat upon by Zuleikha for being ‘a dirty French woman’ and a ‘dirty Jewess’”, Chenevat said. 

A Catholic by birth, she once admitted to the Merahs that she had a Jewish grandfather.

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Related:
France: Islamist violence is compelling large numbers of Jews to flee

France: Death of Holocaust denier Serge Thion at 75

Serge Thion

French sociologist and Holocaust denier Serge Thion died at Créteil on October 15, at the age of 75.

"A French sociologist and associate of Robert Faurisson, Serge Thion has described the Holocaust as a "religion" that was "pushed by Zionists to attract capital, as well as political and military protection."

Wikipedia:

In 1993 Thion privately published Une Allumette sur la banquise (A Matchstick on an Ice Flow). The book criticized what he perceived as sensationalization of the Holocaust compared to other mass deaths since World War II. He also criticized the prosecution of Robert Faurisson for Holocaust denial, and cast doubt on the accuracy of Filip Müller's book Eyewitness Auschwitz. He met Noam Chomsky during the 1970s and presented his editor Pierre Guillaume for publication.

Thion has been described as a Holocaust denier, and in November 2000 was dismissed from CNRS for Holocaust denial activities. He was condemned and fined for defamation by the French Correctional Tribunal Court of Appeal in December 2002 for attacks on writer Didier Daeninckx.  

Thion attended the 2006 International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust in Iran, often described as a Holocaust denial conference.  

Israeli philosopher Elhanan Yakira has cited Thion and his friend Alain Guionnet, as one of a number of deniers on the radical left (and right) in France whose extreme views on the Holocaust have made Holocaust denial "a central issue in France and elsewhere".

Translated from Wikipedia's article on Serge Thion in French:

- After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Serge Thion doubted Osama bin Laden's role in their organization.
- In 2003, he participated in public meetings organized by members of the Muslim Party of France.
- During the elections of 2007, chronicles were published under the pseudonym "Serge Noith" on the campaign site of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala; the magazine L'Arche made a comparison between this pseudonym and the name of Serge Thion.
- In June 2009, Serge Thion joined the Kemi Séba's Movement of Those Damned By Imperialism.

Spain: Newspaper regrets discussion of British soccer club’s ‘Jewish origin’

Via JTA:

A Spanish newspaper wrote that soccer fans hate the British team Tottenham Hotspurs because of their “Jewish origin,” spurring condemnation from British soccer clubs.
Marca, a Madrid-based daily sports paper, published the article on Monday ahead of a Champions League match between the Spurs and Real Madrid.

“Their Jewish origin has made them into a club hated by rival fans,” the article said, in part. “But in their 135 years of existence they have always had style and great players.”

The Spurs were indeed popular among Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fans often call themselves the “Yid Army,” though the league has since banned the term as offensive. According to a history of the club, opposing fans aimed anti-Semitic abuse at the team from the late 1960s onwards, and such chants were heard earlier this year.

In a clarification issued after publication, senior reporter Enrique Ortega wrote: “That ‘hatred’ that Tottenham suffers is very focused on the radical and racist groups that are hiding in the social mass, especially Chelsea and West Ham,” referring to two rival teams.

“I regret the confusion that has been created in this respect,” he added. “The intention was not to damage the image of Tottenham, a club we respect, value … and we do not want to serve as a spokesman for these racist minorities who use any pretext to expand their hate messages, which we reject head-on.”

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Germany: Left party leader call Jewish MP a "sneaky Jew"

Raheem Kassam quite rightly pointed out on Twitter:

If the head of the AFD said this it’d have flashed up on my phone as a Reuters/AFP alert by now...

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):  

The head of the German Left Party in the city of Saarlouis, situated in the state of Saarland, used an antisemitic phrase on his Facebook page to denigrate an MP in his party, according to a Monday report in the regional paper Saarbrücker Zeitung.

Mekan Kolasinac, the chairman of the Left Party in Saarlouis, called the party's federal head, Bernd Riexinger, a "sneaky Jew."

Kolasinac told the paper he wrote the anti-Jewish entry but regrets it. He said it was a mistake and he intended to write "Judas" instead of "Jew." Kolasinac said he apologized on his Facebook page and apologized to "my Jewish friends."

Birgit Huonker, a spokeswoman for the Left Party in Saarland, said: "Antisemitism in one's party. Bad."

The Saarbrücker Zeitung said the background to Kolasinac's verbal attack on Riexinger is a BILD paper article, in which Riexinger allegedly sought to oust the party's parliamentary head Sahra Wagenknecht. Riexinger is co-chair of the federal Left Party.

The Left Party has been plagued over the years by allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel scandals, according to critics. 

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UK: Organization of British Jews gives cover to left-wing anti-Semites

Via Mosaic Magazine:

The fall conference of the UK’s Labor party saw more than its share of vitriol directed at Israel, not to mention naked anti-Semitism. In response, the Jewish Labor Movement—an established group for the party’s Jewish members—successfully pushed for new rules that would allow the party more effectively to combat anti-Semitism in its ranks. Opposing the change was the newly-formed Jewish Voice for Labor (JVL), which, according to Stephen Daisley, exists primarily to apologize for anti-Semites:

Although it failed to halt the new disciplinary regime, JVL’s intervention marks a turning point in Labor’s engagement with Jews and its attitude to anti-Semitism. Jewish groups within the party have hitherto been united in criticism of the leadership and the toleration of prejudice against Jews and conspiracy theories about Zionism. Now another group will purport to speak for Labor Jews, one ideologically wedded to the leader [Jeremy Corbyn] and the radical anti-Israel politics he practices. ... 

The [true] purpose of JVL is not to explore and debate complex questions or to represent the feelings of most Jews within the party; it is to muddy the waters. ... [Its] most noxious aspect ... is [its supporters’] eagerness . . . to leap to the defense of the most outrageous statements by the most extreme figures in the Labor party. Time after time, JVL has acted [by] providing kosher [certification, as it were] for the nastiest elements on the far left. When [London’s former mayor] Ken Livingstone pronounced Hitler a supporter of Zionism, Jenny Manson, now chair of JVL, issued a statement insisting his comments were “not offensive, nor anti-Semitic in any way.” ... 

So what do the anti-Zionist activists in groups like JVL get out of being used as a kosher stamp for anti-Semites—aside from proving their loyalty to the Labor party leadership? [The scholar David] Hirsh suggests a deeper motivation: “They would rather live in a world where anti-Semitism is provoked by Jews—and so, therefore, could notionally be stopped by Jews—than in a world where anti-Semitism is irrational. They prefer to imagine that Jews are in control of their own destiny than that they are simply victims of anti-Semitism.”

 Read more at Tablet

Austria's election winner Sebastian Kurz has a warm place in his heart for Israel

 Via Israel Hayom:

Sebastian Kurz

(...) Less than 24 hours after Kurz's sweeping win, as he began preparing for his new job as the youngest world leader, he granted Israel Hayom an exclusive interview, making a point of showing he has a warm place in his heart for the Jewish state. 

Kurz made it clear that denouncing anti-Semitism would be a "clear precondition" for his future coalition partners, including his most likely partner, the far-right Freedom Party of Austria. (...)

Kurz also said he supports the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which was negotiated in his country's capital, Vienna. He stressed that "we cannot be naive" about the Islamic republic's conduct. 

Q. Congratulations on your victory and thank you for finding the time to answer our questions on such a busy day. How does it feel to become the youngest chancellor in Austria's history?

"I'm glad and overwhelmed by the good electoral results for our political movement, the new People's Party. We have achieved historic success. The voters have conferred a very large responsibility on us and I would be honored to serve the Austrian citizens as the head of the next government." 

Q. Does being so young make it easier for you to take responsibility for Austria's history during World War II?

"My visits to Yad Vashem [Israel's Holocaust memorial], as well as my many meetings with Holocaust survivors, were deeply moving for me. I have always been very clear that we – and that very much includes the new Austrian generation – shall never forget the Holocaust and the atrocities committed during World War II. Austria has to face up to its own history, and that includes the dark sides of it. Let me be very clear: A Europe without Jews is not Europe anymore. I am therefore very glad that we have a vibrant – small, but very vibrant - Jewish community in Austria. Also, Austria enjoys excellent relations with the State of Israel – this is a fact that is very important for me." 

Q. During the campaign, your close contacts with the Austrian Jewish community and Israel were used by certain sides to try to harm your chances of winning. Was that anti-Semitic?

"I cannot speak for other parties. But the election results clearly show that Austrians do not reward any kind of smear campaigns or dirty campaigning tricks. Let me also be clear that we must continue to pursue a policy of zero tolerance for any form of anti-Semitism in Austria as well as in Europe." 

Q. The campaign was shadowed by the "Silberstein scandal," in which Israeli adviser Tal Silberstein was accused of misconduct by promoting allegedly racist propaganda. Will this affair influence future contacts between Austria and Israel?

"No, it will not. It is of the utmost importance for me that Austria and Israel continue to intensify our already close bilateral relations. I am glad that during my time as foreign minister our bilateral relations have further improved and grown ever stronger. Let me just give you one figure here: Our bilateral trade grew by 32.5% during the first half of 2017 – that tells you something about the growing strength of our relationship. Also, we have put a focus and an intensified exchange between our young generations. (A new Working Holiday Program that I have signed with PM Netanyahu allows for young Israelis and Austrians for the first time to work in each other's country – and this opportunity is taken up with great enthusiasm.) If I become the next chancellor of Austria, I will strive to further intensify our close bilateral relations."

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Europe: Czech MEP Tomas Zdechovsky: MEPs who invited Leila Khaled must be sanctioned

Related:
Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at the European Parliament

Via European Jewish Press:

Tomas Zedchovsky, a Czech Member of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party (EPP), was the first to be alerted by the presence of a terrorist in the building of the parliament in Brussels. He called on European Parliament President  Antonio Tajani  to investigate whether the EU’s anti-terror rules had been breached by the two Spanish MEPs from the European United Left group who invited Leila Khaled.

"Not only did she (Khaled) hijack airplanes from European cities, but she never faced justice. This terrorist only walks free here because other terrorists hijacked even more Europeans in exchange for her release,"  he noted.

"President Tajani, who was very surprised when he learned of the presence of Leila Khaled (it was not announced until the last minute), promised us that this will quickly be investigated," Zdechovsky told European Jewish Press in an interview.

According to the Czech MEP, President Tajani can impose various sanctions on the two Spanish MEPs, even a suspension. ''We must avoid this will happen again,'' he said.

"I am a peaceful person and I support every time a peaceful solution between Israel and Palestinians. But we cannot give a democratic word in the European parliament to such people who have been fighting with guns against democracy. I will never bring here to the European Parliament radical people, like the PKK or any Palestinian terror group," he said.

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Germany: BDS protest against Israeli band

Via Watch Antisemitism in Europe:

On Saturday evening, supporters of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (#BDS) protested in front of the venue Kulturbahnhof Jena. Reason for the anti-Israel protest was a concert by the Israeli band Kutiman Orchestra. BDS recalls the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses.

Twitter photo

France: Former PM Valls accused of proximity with Israeli far right

Via The Irish Times:

Mélenchon [a former Socialist minister and now leader of the far-left France Unbowed, France Insoumise] clashed with the former prime minister Manuel Valls, after the weekly Canard enchaîné reported that Mélenchon called Valls a Nazi. “I did not say and I do not think that Valls is a Nazi,” Mélenchon tweeted. “He’s a political loser.”

Mélenchon accused Valls of supporting the Israeli extreme right, while Valls accused Mélenchon of using “Islamo-leftist rhetoric” and complacency towards anti-Semitism. 

Valls, now deputy for the Essonne department south of Paris, chairs a commission on independence for the overseas territory of New Caledonia. Mélenchon withdrew from the commission, citing Valls’s “proximity to the ethnic theses of the Israeli extreme right”. He referred to a photograph of Valls with Ayelet Shaked, the Israeli minister of justice and a member of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party. 

Valls called Mélenchon’s statement “ignoble and outrageous”. Mélenchon replied that “Valls’s gang are completely integrated in the fachosphère and its propaganda.” Valls thanked politicians who supported him under the hashtag  #I’mFromValls’sGang#. 

The name-calling culminated with Vall’s interview on Europe 1 radio station. “When I go to Israel, I meet everyone,” he said, referring to the photograph with Shaked. “But when they publish this photo and say I’m the friend of the Israeli extreme right, they want to send one message: that Manuel Valls is the friend of the Jews. They’re forgetting the new anti-Semitism. That’s where there is complacency... or they realise it, which is even more serious.”

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UK: Swastika and ‘Kikes’ spray painted at synagogue

Via Times of Israel:

An anti-Semitic slur and a swastika were spray painted overnight Tuesday-Wednesday on a sign outside the Etz Chaim synagogue in the city of Leeds, England, according to local police.

Authorities were treating the act of vandalism as a hate crime and police increased the number of patrols in the area in response, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

Witnesses said racist slogans were found scribbled on a sidewalk near the Jewish house of worship as well, according to the BBC.

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UK: Bus passenger swore at Rabbi and accused him of “murdering Muslims”

Via CAA:

A rabbi from north London’s orthodox charedi Jewish community has been subjected to a barrage of antisemitic abuse while travelling through Stamford Hill on the 253 bus service. At 20:40 on Wednesday evening, a middle-aged man of Middle Eastern appearance boarded the bus, sat immediately behind him and began to swear at him under his breath. When, on arrival at the stop outside the Shell petrol station in Upper Clapton Road, the rabbi stood up to leave the bus, his abuser shouted at him, “Why are you killing all the Muslims? You are a murderer!” The rabbi declined the bus driver’s offer to call the police, as he was on his way to officiate at a ceremony. However, the next day, he made contact with the police himself. Clearly still angry and upset, he told us: “He was clearly antisemitic. He has no right to say these things to a person in a public place.”

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UK: UK: Pensioner fined £250 for antisemitic mail campaign against 'Zionist Jews'

Via CAA:

James Evans, a 70-year-old pensioner from Worcester, has been fined for harassing Worcester MP Robin Walker after writing him over 150 letters which included references to “Zionist Jews” being a “death cult” and claims that they will “get us all killed in the Third World War.” He also said the Jews were “not a race.” Mr Evans was fined £250, despite him refusing to express remorse and the fact that this is his third conviction for a similar offence.

Mr Evans wrote over 150 letters to Mr Walker between 1st August and 25th November last year. Mr Evans, who represented himself, had previously admitted racially aggravated harassment against Mr Walker when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court to be sentenced.

It is Mr Evans’ third conviction for similar offences, one of which led to a restraining order preventing him from contacting staff at BBC Hereford and Worcester after he sent them 70 offensive letters. It was a restraining order he later breached.

Mr Walter even contacted Mr Evans in an attempt to stop the letters being sent, but he continued to send and hand deliver letters, sometimes several times a day.

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Op-Ed: Why my antisemitism antenna keeps twitching

Ivor Gaber @ TheJC:

Let me begin with a declaration of interest so that readers know, as they say, where I am coming from.

I am Jewish by birth and an atheist by belief. I was one of the original signatories to the declaration of Jews for Justice for the Palestinians and Independent Jewish Voices, so I can hardly be described as a friend of the current Israeli Government or any of its immediate predecessors.

But why, at every Labour conference I have attended as a journalist and observer, does my trusty antisemitism antenna almost always start twitching?

I am no Jewish snowflake. I have sat in meeting after meeting where platform speakers have made legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government - both this one and Labour's before, and have offered, in the main, thoughtful insights into the origins of the state of Israel and of the whole Zionist mission.

But then, as soon as the discussion is opened to the audience, my discomfort begins.

Take Jeremy Corbyn's closing conference speech at this year’s conference for example. In the section on foreign affairs he spoke about the Saudi onslaught on Yemen, the oppression of the Rohingyas and the death toll in the Congo. Each reference received polite applause. Then he mentioned Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and the polite applause exploded into yelps of agreement and a standing ovation.

Why?

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Austria: Students reject 'antisemitic' boycott Israel campaign

Via Jerusalem Post:

The Austrian National Union of Students passed on Friday a motion against BDS, saying that the boycott movement targeting Israel is antisemitic, and that its demands recall the Nazis’ economic war against Jewish businesses.

It is believed to be the first time an Austrian national student union has passed such a resolution.

The Austrian Jewish students group announced on its Facebook page: “We are very happy to announce that the Austrian Students Union is the first national student union to officially pass a resolution denouncing BDS and also passing a version of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – IHRA definition of antisemitism. The resolution states BDS to be an antisemitic campaign and calls not to give it any space or supporting funds.

“This has been a big step in the fight against antisemitism, and we are very happy that after our lobbying effort almost all factions have supported the motion.

“A special thanks to the GRAS Greens and Alternative Students and their continuing support in the fight against all antisemitism.”

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Europe: Despite underdevelopment of Palestinian institutions and civil society, Europe 'must' fund them

Via Besa Center (Dr. Asaf Romirowsky):

A consistent Palestinian strategy for seeking statehood while blaming Israel for its absence has been codified through the narrative of “occupation.” The anniversary of the 1967 war brought this to the forefront in endless accusations regarding the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank. There is even an assertion that Gaza is still “occupied.”

Occupation is a Palestinian tool to avoid negotiations, since “no tactical brilliance in negotiations, no amount of expert preparation, no perfect alignment of the stars can overcome that obstacle.” Nor is progress in Palestinian economics, institution-building, or civil society possible, because –  as Nabeel Kassis, Palestinian Minister for Finance, put it – “Development under occupation is a charade.” Even the Palestinian Authority’s own repression and crackdown on freedom of the press is, according to Hanan Ashrawi, caused “of course [by] the Israeli occupation.” And despite the palpable underdevelopment of Palestinian institutions and civil society, Europe must keep funding them, since “Preparedness for several possible scenarios with a long-term focus on functioning institutions is what is required from the EU and other donors in Palestine.”

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Spain: Terrorism charges filed with Court over Palestinian hijacker

Related:
Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at European Parliament

Via The Algemeiner:

The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit legal-focused think tank, recently submitted a criminal complaint to the National Court of Spain, accusing convicted hijacker Leila Khaled, a member of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of “public exaltation” of terrorism and financing terrorism. 

The complaint was submitted in collaboration with the Jewish community of Ibiza, Spain. It details how Khaled used her position in the PFLP to “trivialize the Holocaust, compare Israel to Nazi Germany and advocate for indiscriminate violence against civilians,” the group said in a statement. Additionally, The Lawfare Project has applied for a European warrant for the arrest of Khaled and for her inclusion in the European Union (EU) and Interpol criminal databases. 

Khaled, 73, participated in two hijackings; one in 1969 of a TWA flight and the other in 1970 of an El Al plane. 

Recently, she was permitted to address the European Parliament at an event called “The role of women in the Palestinian resistance.” The Lawfare Project asserts that Khaled used that platform to “praise extremist violence and demonize Jews.” 

“Seeing an infamous terrorist leader welcomed at universities, municipal halls, and even the European Parliament, all while praising violence against civilians, is both despicable and unacceptable,” said Ignacio Wenley Palacios, The Lawfare Project attorney who filed the charges. “Public exaltation and defense of terrorist acts is a serious crime in our country, and we are determined to advance criminal charges on behalf of the victims who are unable to defend themselves.”

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