UK: Corbyn mural artist speaks to David Icke about Rothchilds

Via Guido Fawkes:

The artist who produced the anti-Semitic mural defended by Jeremy Corbyn has spoken, giving an ‘exclusive’ to David Icke. The mural painter ‘Mear One’ says he has refused “msm interview requests” and thanks Icke for allowing him to speak “for those who are awoken”. He then goes on to rant about the Rothschilds. This is the man Corbyn backed and said was in “good company”…

Note: David Icke is a Holocaust denier

UK: Jews stand up to Corbynistas (but will Jeremy bat an eyelid?)

Via Conservative Woman (Niall McCrae):

Solidarity but sadness. That was the mood of the remarkable demonstration by Jewish people in Parliament Square this week. Two thousand peaceable folk assembled following revelations that Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn had joined three Facebook groups containing virulent anti-Semitic comments, and that he had supported a mural depicting greedy Jewish bankers playing Monopoly on a board resting on the backs of slaves. (...)

I asked protesters if they felt reassured by the turnout. ‘It shouldn’t have come to this’ was a typical response. They are aghast at the resurgent ogre of anti-Semitism, which ranges from casual remarks to blood-libel conspiracy theorists, Holocaust-deniers and that ugly combination of hard Left and Islamo-Fascists who want Israel wiped off the map. Will this change anything, I wondered? Walking back over Westminster Bridge, I overheard an answer to my question: ‘He won’t bat an eyelid’. After all, there is a voting bloc twelve times larger than the Jews to harvest. 

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European Parliament admits Jewish population is diminishing in the European Union

In an non-official document "prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background material to assist them in their parliamentary work" acknowledges that the Jewish population in the European Union is declining.  In 2915 it stood at a little above 1 million.  It is clear from the document that there is nothing it can do to reverse the situation.

Jewish communities in the European Union

The Jewish population in the EU has been declining. It dropped from around 1.12 million in 2009 to 1.08 million in 2015, though it is difficult to give precise numbers as some countries do not collect ethnic data. The Jewish population in France, the largest in the EU, declined from about 500,000 in 2002 to 460,000 in 2015. Emigration, mainly to Israel, is the main factor behind the trend, which has intensified in recent years, among other things due to harassment, discrimination and hate crimes against Jews.  

Diminishing Jewish population  

Centuries ago, Jews were persecuted as a religious minority, while in the last century the belief that Jews were a threat to the state was a driving force behind the Holocaust. Today Jews are targeted mainly because of events in the Middle East, although some anti-Semitic sentiments also revolve around the Holocaust. According to a 2015 report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the main perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents are neo-Nazis, far-right or far-left sympathisers, Muslim fundamentalists and the younger generation. The report states that anti-Semitic behaviour is mainly characterised by denial and trivialisation of the Holocaust, glorification of the Nazi past, anti-Semitic sentiment due to property-restitution laws and hatred because of Israeli policies. It includes verbal and physical violence; threats; insults of Jews going to synagogues; harassment of rabbis; repeated attacks on Jews wearing symbols of their religion; hate speech; anti-Semitic bullying in schools; and damage to property, including arson.

Growing violence against Jews Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, encouraged French Jews to come to Israel after the killings of kosher supermarket customers in Paris in January 2015, four years after a deadly attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse. Many Jews have considered following his advice, although some eventually return. According to a 2013 survey on anti-Semitism in eight EU Member States, 21% of respondents experienced verbal or physical violence or harassment because they were Jews. The numbers may underestimate the reality, since 76% of victims of anti-Semitic hate crime do not report it. 

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On the same subject:
Joël Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, warned: Europe: Ours will be the last significant generation of European Jews

Europe: Ours will be the last significant generation of European Jews

Joël Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism, attended the 6th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Upon his return, Mr. Rubinfeld was interviewed by Radio Judaica in Brussels about the future of Jewish communities in Belgium and in Europe. He declared:

"The few days I spent in Israel have not made me change my optimism or my pessimism about the situation and the way I view it.  I am a pessimist who fights.  I fear - and I sincerely hope that I am mistaken - that our generation will represent, in history books, the last significant generation of European Jews.

In 30 years, in 40 years, in 50 years, there will still be, of course, Jews in Europe but far fewer than today."

read more @ Philosémitisme blog (in French)

On the same topic:
Leading European Rabbi: ‘I have never heard so many concerned voices from my fellow Rabbis at the situation affecting Jewry in Europe’

France: 85-year-old Jewish woman, Holocaust survivor, found dead in her apartment, her body stabbed and burnt

Via JTA:

A 85-year-old Jewish woman was found dead, her body burnt and stabbed eleven times, in her apartment in the 11th district of Paris on Friday. She was identified by the French media only as Mireille K, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) reported.

The victim is a Shoah survivor. The woman reported in the past to authorities about a man from the same street whom she said had threatened to “burn her.”

A forensic examination of the apartment showed that an arsonist started a fire in at least five distinct areas of that space, the report also said.  

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Europe added to mankind's lexicon "Pogrom," "Ghetto," and "Holocaust"

Daniel Schwammenthal is based in Brussels and is the Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute.  He reacted to Gallup's findings that Americans staunchly support Israel, but not Europeans:

"Maybe one day, the Continent that added to mankind's lexicon such words and concepts as "Pogrom," "Ghetto," and "Holocaust" will see this kind of support for the Jewish state..."

Poland: Former politician sues Jewish museum over use of tweet deemed anti-Semitic

Via JTA:

A former Polish presidential candidate said she has filed a lawsuit against the director of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews over a tweet deemed anti-Semitism in an exhibit.

In a tweet Monday, Magdalena Ogórek announced the lawsuit filed in Warsaw District Court against Dariusz Stola.

Ogórek, who is now working as a broadcaster for Polish Television, also posted on Twitter a letter of support signed by several people, including Eli Zolkos, a member of the Jewish community who calls himself “an assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Poland.”

“Zolkos is not my assistant and has never been my assistant,” Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told JTA.

Last year, Ogórek suggested on Twitter that Sen. Marek Borowski changed his surname “from Berman to Borowski.” The Polin Museum used the tweet as a contemporary example of an anti-Semitic statement in its exhibit “Estranged: March ’68 and Its Aftermath,” which deals with the organized anti-Semitic campaign by Polish authorities that resulted in the exodus of several thousand Jews from Poland.

Ogórek  had threatened to file the lawsuit unless the museum removed the tweet and apologized. The museum did not respond to the threat.

“Please remember that you have the support of many people from the Jewish community in Poland, because of the unnecessary and harmful attack on you,” read the letter of support to Ogórek signed by Zolkos and Tomasz Małodobry, a board member of the Anioły Kultury (Angels of Culture) Foundation.

The letter said the museum’s use of the tweet creates an anti-Polish and anti-Jewish atmosphere.

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Polish PM's father says Jews willingly walked into ghettos

Via Ynet News:

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's father claimed this week that Jews willingly entered ghettos during the German occupation of Poland to get away from their non-Jewish neighbors, a comment Poland's government distanced itself from Thursday.

The comment by Kornel Morawiecki, a senior lawmaker and father of the Polish prime minister, is the latest episode in weeks of bitterness that have erupted over a controversial new Holocaust speech law.

Kornel Morawiecki claimed in a recent interview that Jews were not forced into ghettos by Germans but went willingly because "they were told there would be an enclave where they could get away from nasty Poles."

The comment is historically inaccurate. It is also seems to minimize the tragedy of the Jews while at the same time suggesting they partly brought the tragedy upon themselves out of anti-Polish hatred.

The deputy foreign minister, Bartosz Cichocki, said the comment does not reflect the position of the Polish government. 

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Belgium: Professor claims Jews were main slave-traders in early Middle Ages

Via Joods Actueel:

The Ghent University has been running a training course for about ten years, mainly intended for alumni and the elderly. This year, the programme featured lectures by Professor em. John Everaert on the theme of "Human trafficking: Europe and the thread of shame". The first lecture titled "Medieval Europe reorients its slave trade" was held on November 7. Dr. Rudi Roth was dismayed when he read in the first slide of the presentation: "slave traders / slave-brokers: rather Jews (polyglot)" and by Prof Everaert's oral assertion that the trade was conducted "mostly by Jews".

Which sources? When asked about the sources he drew on to make his claim, Professor Everaert referred to the work of his predecessor, Professor Charles Verlinden (1907-1996), a Belgian historian and professor at Ghent University. In 1935, Verlinden developped this hypothesis in a first publication that has been passed on uncritically ever since. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne also underlined the important role played by Jews in trade and in the slave trade during the early Middle-Ages (7th to 11th century). So did the acclaimed French historian, Maurice Lombard.

Dr. Roth examined their works and compared them with newer academic publications. They invalidate the theory of Verlinden because it is not based on hard facts but on erroneous assumptions. Historians such as Verlinden were not rigorous when dealing with sources and mixed information from various sources. Very simply put, saying that "Jews had slaves" and that "Jews were merchants" became "Jews were slave traders". Historical truth was distorted, and historians such as Pirenne and others, adopted this view.

Everaert misses the point The proof that Everaert's explanation is not based on facts is apparent from research by the Austian-Israeli historian Eliyahu Ashtor, but especially from the articles by Professor Michaël Toch of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the leading authority in the field of the Middle-Ages and Judaism in Europe. We asked for his opinion on the expressions "rather Jews" and "mostly by Jews" used by Everaert. Professor Toch responded there is no doubt that both are wrong: "This is as wrong as it can be, and that is not an exaggeration because it is simple: these allegations are wrong for a lot of reasons The sources and arguments against this thesis are clearly explained in my book (1), but also in other studies, for example in Atti della XXXI Settimana di Studi(2).

The specific and erroneous argument, that the slave trade was carried out "mostly by Jews" can be primarily be explained by underlying and passive antisemitic prejudices. The fact that the slave trade was mainly a non-Jewish practice was deliberately brushed aside or even concealed. This anti-Jewish claim was later adopted by a number of historians.

Professor Jean-Pierre Devroey (ULB) also rejects Charles Verlinden's approach for similar reasons. Professor Everaert was contacted by J.A. and maintained obstinately that his theory is right even though it is not based on facts and disputed by other historians.

1. The Economic History of European Jews. Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, 2013, pp. 178-190.
2. Michael Toch, Jews and Commerce: Modern Fancies and Medieval Realities, in: S. Cavaciocchi (ed.), Il ruolo economico delle minoranze in Europe. Secc. XIII-XVIII, Attidella XXXI Settimana di Studi, Istituto Francesco Datini, Prato, Firenze 2000, 43-58.

Belgium: "Jews avoid conflicts. That’s the difference with Muslims", says mayor of Antwerp

Via European Jewish Press:

The leader of the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), a governing Flemish nationalist party in Belgium, said that "Jews avoid conflict, that’s the difference with Muslims." 

In an interview with the Flemish weekly De Zondag, Bart De Wever, who is also Mayor of Antwerp, a city with large Jewish [not really large, around 12,000 Jews live in Antwerp] and Muslim communities, was responding a question on whether his views on migration have become tougher in recent years. 

"Analyze my discourse of the past thirty years. You will mainly see continuity. But because of the false humanitarianism of the left, every other discourse seems hard," he said. 

"The Left now embraces the headscarf as a symbol of equality. I find that very strange. People wanted to destroy Christianity, but they accept everything from Islam. I call that soumission," he said. De Wever said that he is just as critical for the Jewish as for the Islamic community.

"Orthodox Jews also attach great importance to external signs of their faith. But they do accept the consequences. I have not yet seen an Orthodox Jew at a counter. They avoid conflicts. That’s the difference. Muslims do require a place in the public space, in education, with their external beliefs. That creates tensions."

Spain: Pro-Israel entity taken to court in Spain

Via JTA (Cnaan Liphshiz):

The Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause, which receives funding from several municipalities in Spain, filed the criminal lawsuit against Angel Mas of the ACOM group last month, he told JTA. A judge examined the 70-page lawsuit against Mas and ACOM and concluded it merited further judicial review, Mas said.

It marks the first time that pro-Israel entities are being taken to court in Spain for their activities and a departure from the strategy of the local Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.

Mas added he was “surprised and disappointed” by the judge’s decision to review what Mas called “a frivolous attempt to abuse the Spanish judiciary with propaganda.” But he added that he was confident that he would be found not guilty in any trial.

At least seven municipalities in Spain have scrapped their endorsements of BDS under threat from ACOM alone, the group said. Another 14 have seen tribunals cancel their pro-BDS resolutions and another two had those resolutions suspended by an injunction pending a final court ruling.

“Having suffered crippling losses in court, the BDS movement in Spain is switching methods,” Mas said. “They are targeting individuals in a smear campaign in an attempt to render Spanish Jews and Israel defenseless. This will not succeed.”

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Belgium: Antisemitic Latuff cartoon published in textbook

Via Elder of Ziyon:

A Flemish geography book published a cartoon by noted anti-semite Carlos Latuff

It shows a stereotypical, fat religious Jew enjoying Palestinian water while their own pipes run dry. 

The geography textbook, Polaris GO!, attributes the cartoon to Amnesty International, although Amnesty has nothing to do with the cartoon. The textbook authors decided to attribute the cartoon to Amnesty in an apparent attempt to make it look like it was an official protest cartoon from that organization.

The book reaches many thousands of Flemish children.

Amnesty, when reached by a Jewish newspaper, denied anything to do with the cartoon.

The good news is that the publisher Plantyn agreed to remove the cartoon from future editions of the textbook, although it will keep the misleading Amnesty quote that ."In the ...Israeli settlement of Sussia, whose very existence is unlawful under international law, the Israeli settlers have ample water supplies. They have a swimming pool and their lush irrigated vineyards, herb farms and lawns – verdant even at the height of the dry season – stand in stark contrast to the parched and arid Palestinian villages on their doorstep. "

Keeping the quote while eliminating the picture is still an example of bias in the textbook.

Here is a photo of the Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah. Note the lawn. Note the pool.

Of course, the "parched" Palestinians have lots of swimming pools too. But Amnesty would never mention that.

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Greece is looking to be a stronger security partner for Israel

Via the Hudson Institute:

Full Transcript: Dialogues on American Foreign Policy and World Affairs: Senator Chris Coons and Walter Russell Mead

(...) MEAD: Yeah. So how are they thinking in Greece about Erdogan’s Turkey and the U.S. relationship?

COONS: Well, first, thank you for the question. One of the challenges is, these are NATO allies. And at a strategic level, one of the most pressing discussions was about an F-16 upgrade package for Greece, which is expensive and complicated because we are selling F-35s to Turkey. And the idea that you’ve got one NATO ally and another NATO ally worried about each other’s jet-fighter sophistication and air superiority should be troubling. Erdogan has, as you all know, taken a quite different direction. Turkey was Israel’s first, closest, strongest Muslim ally. Turkey, under Ataturk and for a long time afterwards, was a key bastion of a sort of more moderate or liberalizing influence in the Muslim world. Erdogan, after an attempt at joining the EU and after strengthening, consolidating his power in early years, has really turned fairly hard to the east and become more of an Islamist leader. And after both the conflict with Israel over the blockade of Gaza and then the allegedly Gulenist attempt at a coup last year, it has enraged Erdogan. And he is quite agitated against the United States and against Greece.

And what we heard was reports of very regular interactions – encounters between naval and air forces between the Greeks and the Turks. The flood of refugees and how they’ve been handled and the navigation around that has created further tension. And just a lack of clarity about the relationship has put some severe pressure on it. Erdogan, though, to be clear, has visited Greece – the first head of Turkey to do so in decades. And the prime minister of Greece indicated an openness to trying to negotiate a way through this. Both parties see, I think, the United States as essential to helping pull them closer together rather than allowing, what may be unintended, accidents between naval forces or conflicts between – between aerial forces to create a flashpoint and drive them apart.

The broader reality is that Greece is looking to be a stronger security partner for Israel, a stronger security partner for the United States, and made clear to us, they know they’re in a tough neighborhood. To the north, to the west, to the east, to the south, they’ve got potentially combative forces. And we shared some pointed conversations about Libya, the consequences of the Libyan adventure and the fall of Gaddafi and then the really destabilizing influence that’s having on the whole region

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Macedonia adopts definition of antisemitism that mentions Israel hatred

Via Jerusalem Post:

The Balkan nation of Macedonia joined the United Kingdom, Romania and Bulgaria in adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that includes the demonization of Israel.

Macedonia, where the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the country’s Jews during the Holocaust is being commemorated this week, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition last week, the World Jewish Congress said on its website.

Next month, the country will see the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia. Designed by Berenbaum Jacobs Associates, the new museum tells the story of the Macedonian Jewry beginning two millennia ago to the growth of the community as a haven from the Spanish Inquisition all the way to post-Holocaust Jewish Macedonia.

Nearly all of Macedonia’s more than 10,000 Jews were murdered in Treblinka, a former German death camp in occupied Poland, after their deportation by Bulgarian forces that had ruled the country with the approval of Nazi Germany.

Over the past two years, several European countries, as well as the European Parliament, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. The alliance adopted it in 2016 after the European Union’s body for fighting antisemitism removed from its website its working definition of antisemitism, which also included examples of some hateful speech on Israel.

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Hungary: PM accused of ‘anti-Semitic’ undertones in election rally speech

Via Jewish News:

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban used language which some critics have said has anti-Semitic undertones.

Speaking at a rally, three weeks before he seeks re-election for a third term, in Budapest, Orban harshly criticised proponents of immigration. He also called out George Soros, the Hungary-born Jewish financier and philanthropist, and those who support his “open society” ideals.

“We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open, but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world,” Orban said, according to the Guardian’s Shaun Walker.

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French consulate worker accused of smuggling arms to Palestine

Via Guardian:

A French citizen working for France’s consulate in Jerusalem has appeared in court in Israel on suspicion of smuggling dozens of weapons to Palestinians, officials have said.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, identified the suspect as 23-year-old Romain Franck. He is accused of using a consular vehicle to elude tight security checks and transfer 70 pistols and two assault rifles from Gaza to the occupied West Bank during five trips.

Franck was allegedly part of a Palestinian gun-running ring, moving the weapons for financial gain while his employer was unaware, the agency said.

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Turkey: Uber a Jewish conspiracy - Istanbul taxi drivers’ head

Via Ahval News:

The president of the Chamber of Istanbul Taxi Businesses has accused Uber of being a targeted attack on his industry carried out by what he called “the Jewish lobby”, Turkish Jewish newspaper Şalom said .

“The global thieving Jewish lobby is carrying out commercial taxi piracy in Turkey,” Eyüp Aksu told a crowd of anti-Uber protesters outside an Istanbul courthouse.

He said the Turkish media were joining in, attacking taxi drivers with biased articles.

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Latvia: Man holding poster of soldiers killing Jews arrested at Nazi SS march

Via Jerusalem Post:

Police arrested a man for displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews at the annual march by local veterans of two SS divisions that made up the Latvian Legion during World War II.

The man was arrested Friday morning on the margins of the annual march of the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires — soldiers from the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the 1st and 2nd Latvian, respectively). A handful of veterans, flanked by hundreds of supporters waving Latvian flags, gathered around Freedom Monument for the march under heavy police guard.

The march in Latvia, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union, is currently the only public event in Europe and beyond honoring those who fought under the banner of SS, Nazi Germany’s elite security force. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for those, including Holocaust perpetrators, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union.

Several protesters from the Latvia Without Fascism group demonstrated against the event by carrying signs reading “They fought for Hitler” and “If they looked like Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters was arrested.

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Switzerland: Neo-Nazi convicted of antisemitic assault on Orthodox Jew

Via Jerusalem Post:

A 30-year-old Swiss neo-Nazi who in 2015 assaulted an Orthodox Jew in Zurich was on Tuesday sentenced to 24 months in prison.

In July 2015, the unnamed man performed a Nazi salute, spat on and verbally assaulted a Jewish man. The assault took place during in the middle of the day during Shabbat in Wiedikon, the Jewish quarter of Zurich.

In addition to his sentence, the court also fined the man 1000 francs, roughly $1058, and ordered him to pay 3000 francs ($3175) to the victim.

He had been previously sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2013 for a different assault. He served only 12 months of the original sentence. An amendment in the canton's penal code revoked the prior sentence because of the latest court proceeding. 

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UK: Soccer executive apologizes for equating Star of David with swastika

Via USA Today:

The CEO of English soccer's governing body apologized Monday for equating the Star of David with the swastika while listing political and religious symbols that the organization would like to keep out of the game.

Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn mentioned the two symbols as part of a conversation over the weekend related to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who was reprimanded last month for wearing a yellow ribbon to support imprisoned politicians in Catalonia.

Glenn said Guardiola's yellow ribbon is a political symbol, unlike the English poppy, which British players and managers have worn to commemorate fallen soldiers.

"We have re-written Law 4 of the game so that things like a poppy are OK," Glenn told reporters. "But things that are going to be highly divisive, and that could be strong religious symbols, it could be the Star of David, it could be the hammer and sickle, it could be a swastika, anything like (former Zimbabwe president) Robert Mugabe on your shirt, these are the things we don’t want."

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German aid to UN Palestinian refugee agency soars under Merkel

Via Israel Hayom (Eldad Beck):

A day before German Chancellor Angela Merkel's fourth government was sworn in Wednesday, it emerged that over the past 12 years under Merkel, Germany has significantly increased its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees and to the Palestinian Authority.

The information surfaced in the government's reply to a query from the deputy leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Beatrix von Storch, who in a recent interview with Israel Hayom promised to look into German government aid to the Palestinians and raise the matter for debate.

According to the government, German aid to UNRWA increased from €3 million ($4 million) in 2005 to €56 million ($69 million) in 2017, when the U.S. announced it would be cutting Palestinian aid.

In certain years, increased German financial support for the Palestinians came at the request of Israel, in an attempt to create more comfortable conditions for peace negotiations.

The governmental response to Von Storch's query defended UNRWA, which has been accused of using materials that incite against Israel in its schools.

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Germany: Arab German security guards besiege Israeli tourist stand in Berlin

English historian David Cesarini (1956-2015) noted: "Two million Muslims live in the UK and one thing that unites this diverse population is hostility towards Israel and its diaspora champions" (quoted by Christopher Caldwell in Reflections on the Revolution in Europe).  This observation applies to Germany, and other European countries, too.

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Security guards who were assigned to protect the world’s largest tourism trade fair in Berlin harassed an Israeli booth on Thursday, screaming pro-Palestinian slogans.

The three guards were of Arab origin, according to witness accounts reported in the daily Der Tagesspiegel. The men yelled “Free Palestine” and “Freedom for Palestine.”

Police intervened and the security guards were suspended. It is unclear, according to the Taggesspiegel article, if the police are investigating the men for disturbing the peace.

Der Tagesspiegel wrote that Berlin officials have repeatedly drawn attention to the presence of young men who work for security companies who have contact with criminal gangs and radical mosques. The Israeli stand at the tourism fair sported the logo “Israel, the Land of Creation.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday: “What happened to Germany’s commitment to ‘never again’ to antisemitism? This ugly incident at an international event in Berlin – by security guards no less – threatens to become in the new normal in Germany. Unless authorities actually crack down on virulent Jew-hatred, there could be, God forbid, further escalation of antisemitism in word and deed.” 

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Holland: Anti-Semitic vandalism rises 40% to highest level since 2007

Via JTA:

The number of incidents involving anti-Semitic vandalism recorded in the Netherlands last year increased by 40 percent, to a 10-year high of 28 cases. The increase in vandalism was part of a small overall

rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2017 over 2016, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, wrote in its annual incidents report, which the group published Saturday. CIDI recorded 113 incidents in 2017 compared to 109 in 2016.

The data was published amid unprecedented developments in public debate on anti-Semitism in the Netherlands. This month, almost all of the political parties contending in the municipal elections in Amsterdam signed a document vowing tougher action against anti-Semitism.

The move followed a Palestinian man’s smashing of windows in December of a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam. Holding a Palestinian flag, he then broke in and stole an Israeli one before being arrested.

Last week, the rightist leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, visited the restaurant. The Forum for Democracy party produced for the first time in the history of Dutch politics an ad campaign focused exclusively on anti-Semitism ahead of the March 21 municipal elections.

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Holland: Jewish students complain about anti-Semitism at Amsterdam Free University

Via Bad News from The Netherlands:

Tens of Jewish students and former students react to a Palestinian terrorist speaking at Amsterdam Free University. They have written a letter to the Board of the Amsterdam Free University.

In it they say that the university has tolerated radical organizations with racist antisemitic tendencies. The most recent case concerned a lecture by the Palestinian Rasmea Odeh who was involved in the murder of two Israeli civilians. She was presented by the organizers in a location at the university as a hero and resistance fighter.

The Jewish students want to meet with the Board to discuss this issue.

read more @ NIW (in Dutch)

Germany: Muslim and right-wing anti-Semitism on the German Internet

Via Arutz Sheva (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

Authorities have tried to keep statistical data and other information about anti-Semitic attitudes among Muslim immigrants and their descendants out of the limelight.

The Office for the Security of the German Federal State of Hessen has published a report on anti-Semitism on the German internet, authored by Ann-Christin Wegener. The study focuses on the manifestations and ideological background of anti-Semitic agitation on social networks in Germany.

Wegener wrote that the German authorities usually claim that 90% of anti-Semitic incidents are caused by the extreme right. She suggests that this results from the way the police report anti-Semitic incidents. As long as nothing is known about the motivation or the perpetrators, these incidents are labelled as right wing politically motivated.

Hate crimes committed in the Arabic or Turkish languages lead to less complaints than those in German. One has to also take into account the fact that many anti-Semitic incidents are not reported or do not result in complaints. It is estimated that less than a quarter of Jewish victims of anti-Semitism bring complaints to the police or to the Jewish community.

The author remarks that very little attention has been given to anti-Semitic crimes and attitudes of Muslims in Germany. She refers to some incidents which received much public attention. One of the most extreme was the severe beating of a rabbi in Berlin in 2012. Two years later anti-Israeli demonstrators shouted “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” in several German towns. Another incident which received much publicity took place in the Spring of 2017 when a Jewish boy quit his Berlin school after being severely harassed by Muslim pupils. Wegener writes: “All this says little about the quantitative comparison between anti-Semitism among Muslims and among the right.”

Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe has been greatly under-researched. Many authorities have tried to keep statistical data and other information about anti-Semitic attitudes among Muslim immigrants and their descendants out of the limelight. This has occurred despite the fact that all resolved murders of Jews in Western Europe in the past decade have been committed by Muslims. The same is largely true for other extreme anti-Semitic incidents. Among these are serious attacks on synagogues in France.

One classic example among many of hiding such information occurred in 2003. The Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at the Technical University of Berlin (CRA) completed its study on European anti-Semitism. It had been charged to prepare this report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). (This organization was replaced by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRA in 2007.) The CRA identified young Muslims of Arab descent as the main perpetrators of physical attacks against Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues. The EUMC did not publish the study. The CRA stated that the reason for not publishing the document was thar it exposed the many Muslim perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents. They also mentioned that the EUMC had repeatedly asked them to change their findings. At the end of 2003, the World Jewish Congress published the CRA draft report on the Internet, thereby exposing the EUMC’s manipulation.

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Europe: Jews, get the hell out of Europe – taste freedom!

Via The Jerusalem Post (Brenda Katten):

(...) Is this freedom enjoyed by Jews living in Europe? Do they feel comfortable openly criticizing their government? Do they write articles in their national press pointing out all that they feel is wrong with their leaders? Is Arfa so content with the German government that she has no need to criticize them publicly? As a resident of Netanya, I wander through its main Independence Square and the language I most hear is French. [Note: approximately 200,000 Franco-Israelis reside in Israel and several thousand make alyah every year - others leave France tp go to the United States Canada...]

Why have French Jews chosen to come here? It is not because they expect to have a more affluent life or to live without the fear of the possibility of war.

They are here because they have the freedom to be Jewish. 

Is a higher standard of living compensation for experiencing antisemitism in all its forms? Sadly, history has proven that a well-filled purse in the Diaspora is more attractive than starting life anew in a country with a strange language that requires its 18-year-olds to enlist in defense forces so that others may live. It is considerably easier for an 18-year-old overseas to ponder which university to attend.

Have we not witnessed time and again how Jews have chosen to stay in the economic comfort of their country of birth? Too many who initially had the chance to leave Europe prior to World War II chose, instead, to remain, ending their lives in the gas chambers.

Perhaps the paragraph of Arfa’s article that disturbed me the most was, “Unlike the 1930s and 1940s, Jews have a place to go that will always welcome them, and maybe because of Israel’s existence Europe will not repeat the Holocaust.

Now Jews have a state of their own that will have their back, ideally, and that should inspire them to bravely, confidently walk the streets with a kippa… fight court decisions that undermine Jews and Israel… and even bear arms.”

Confidently walk the streets with a kippa? I wonder what Europe Arfa is talking about. When the rabbinate there is advising Jews not to walk the streets with kippot and when it is quite possible that the next prime minister of the UK will be blatantly antisemitic, does she really expect Jews to bear arms in Europe? Most disturbing is the notion that it is okay to let the Jews in Israel ensure that the Jews in the Diaspora have somewhere to escape to without recognizing that a key reason that some young people are leaving Israel could be because they do not want to be the ones to sacrifice their lives for those who choose to live in greater financial comfort elsewhere.

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The writer is public relations chair of ESRA, which promotes integration into Israeli society

Portugal: MEP made "vile antisemitic expressions"

Note: Ana Gomes is a member of the ruling Portuguese Socialist Party.  No member of the Portuguese Socialist Party voiced disapproval of Ana Gomes's derogatory remarks about Jews and for spreading conspiracy theories about Jewish power.  In the meantime, the government sent the Secretary of State for Tourism Ana Mendes Godinho on a visit to the US "to speak with dozens of Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the American Sephardi Federation and Anti Defamation League, and discussed the long historic connection of Jews to Portugal".  She proudly indicated that Portugal is "looking for Jewish investment"...

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):

"It is very worrying and depressing to see such vile antisemitic expressions made at the European Parliament by a member of The Progressives," tweeted Katharina von Schnurbein, ,the EU’s Coordinator on Combating anti-Semitism, after Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes called Jewish organizations "a very perverse lob that and uses intimidation tactics."

"Such expressions are not illegal, but they are antisemitic, and we will speak up against any form of anti-Semitism for the sake of an open society," von Schnurbein added.

Gomes, who is a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) made the incendiary comments on 28 February as she hosted in the European Parliament in Brussels a conference with as speaker Omar Barghouti, co-founder of BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement which calls for a total economic, academic and cultural boycott of the state of Israel. During her introductory statement, the MEP falsely accused the Jewish organizations, which had protested and opposed the invitation of Barghouti in the parliament, of telling "a lot of lies".

When Gomes was asked during the Q&A session if she had perhaps misspoken, she categorically refused to retract her offensive remarks.  

"Who would have thought that 70 years after the Holocaust, a center-left lawmaker in the European Parliament would take a page straight out of “The Protocols of the Elder of Zion," spinning a tale of an allegedly sinister and ‘perverse’ Jewish lobby," said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Transatlantic Institute, in a statement.  

"The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of anti-Semitism, which the European Parliament itself adopted less than a year ago, considers as anti-Semitic "making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective."

Schwammenthal said Gomes’s statement "is a textbook example of a classic anti-Semitic trope".  

"It is shocking enough that Mrs. Gomes would promote extremist groups like the BDS movement, which ultimately seek the end of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, and would even go as far as demonizing Jewish civil society organizations. But if Parliament remains silent in the face of her vitriolic attacks on European Jews, it risks damaging the reputation of the entire institution," he added.

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UK: Corbyn's posts in anti-semitic Facebook group

Via Guido Fawkes:

A couple of weeks back Labour types and lefty news outlets got very upset with Dom Raab for once being a member of a Facebook group that contradicted current housing policy. Wait ’til they see that Jeremy Corbyn was a very active member of an anti-Israel Facebook group full of the most extreme anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, ridden with white supremacists. Did Corbyn not read what he was commenting on? 

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Full report by David Collier Here.

Poles who saved Jews in the Holocaust appeal to leaders for Polish-Israeli reconciliation

Please read the English version of the Appeal @ the Jan Karski Educational Foundation

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

Fifty surviving Poles who helped to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust have commissioned a full-page advert in a national newspaper calling for a thawing of relations with Israel. Poland came under international scrutiny last month when it approved a law that would see jail sentences for those found guilty of suggesting the “Polish nation” was complicit in the Holocaust.

The move attracted criticism, particularly from the Israeli government.

“One cannot change history and the Holocaust cannot be denied,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time. The advert, on page 27 of Thursday’s Guardian, called on Israeli and Polish leaders to “continue to build an alliance and a future in Poland, Israel, Europe, and America, based on friendship, solidarity and truth”.

It was taken out by the surviving Polish Righteous Among the Nations, a title given by Yad Vashem on those who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

More Poles – 6,850 in total, of whom 50 are living today – have been granted the honour, more than any other nationality. The letter read:

“We, the remaining living Righteous, representing the 6,850 Polish Righteous Among the Nations appeal to the governments and parliaments of Israel and Poland to return to the path of dialogue and reconciliation. “We ask you not to re-write history. The worst tragedy in the history of our nations was written once and for all during the darkest hour of the Nazi German occupation, of which we are all still victims to this day.

“We do not consent to the escalation of the conflict between Jews and Poles that we are witnessing today.  

“We, the Polish Righteous, who carry the burden of eye-witnessing the truth about the Holocaust along with the Jews, its victims, ask everybody for empathy, judiciousness, and thoughtfulness when creating laws; for responsible media coverage; and for honest and independent historical research.

“Only then can the issues that need to be explained, be explained. We ask for dialogue and kindness.”

It was addressed to Mr Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as the speakers of the Israeli Knesset and Polish parliament.

8 EU states violate UN resolution with Palestinian missions in Jerusalem

Via Israel Hayom:

Despite having voted in favor of resolution condemning U.S. move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which urges states to refrain from operating missions in Jerusalem, eight European states maintain Palestinian consulates or embassies there.

Several European countries have been found to be in violation of a U.N. resolution they themselves supported when condemning U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The U.N. General Assembly resolution that followed the U.S. announcement on Dec. 6 called on all countries "to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem." But the eight European countries in question – Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom – actively operate Palestinian Authority consulates or embassies in Jerusalem despite having voted in favor of the resolution.

The president of the world's largest Zionist Christian organization, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has come out against what he called the "hypocritical and inappropriate conduct of the international community toward Israel and Jerusalem."

ICEJ President Jurgen Buhler sent letters to each of those nation's leaders, in which he noted that "the international community has always called for an even-handed approach to Jerusalem, so as not to prejudge this sensitive final-status issue. Yet here are eight nations that have never been called out for violating this principle by placing their chief missions to the Palestinians in Jerusalem. It turns out the demand for neutrality has just been a hollow pretext for denying the Jewish people and state their rightful place in Jerusalem. So no nation can now complain when a country decides to open an embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.

"Many world leaders have been critical of the recent decision by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Jerusalem, contending that it prejudges a sensitive issue which should left to final-status talks. Instead, they have urged an even-handed approach to Jerusalem. Yet [your country] has been violating this very principle for some time now due to your chief diplomatic mission to the Palestinians being located in … Jerusalem. If you truly wanted to be fair, you would either have both your diplomatic missions to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, or neither." 

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German Palestinian who 'already stabbed many Jews' convicted

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

A court in the city of Siegburg in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia convicted German Palestinians on Monday for a violent attack on a German Jewish doctor and his wife.

The 46-year-old convicted man told the doctor that he is Palestinian and "already stabbed many Jews," according to an article in the General-Anzeiger paper which also described the doctor as Jewish.

During the attack, the Palestinian, whose name was not disclosed, wielded a 40 centimeter knife and yelled

"Allahu Akbar " three times. The Express paper reported that the Palestinian said "Where is this whore's son? I'll kill him." The doctor's wife attempted to stop the Palestinian, who screamed "Get away, you whore," and punched her in the face. The Green Party politician Volker Beck wrote on Twitter on Friday: "How can a political or religious background of the crime with the statements of the perpetrators be ruled out? The antisemitic motivation appears quite clear."

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Switzerland: Government neglects security of country’s Jews

Via The Algemeiner (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

After the recent terrorist murders of Jews in France, Belgium and Denmark, other Western European governments are beginning to understand that it is their legal and moral duty to protect the institutions of their Jewish minority.

Yet on this issue, Switzerland lags far behind other countries. This is particularly worrying in light of the deadly shooting in 2001 in a Zurich street, where an Israeli rabbi (recognizable as a Jew by his clothing) was murdered. The case has never been solved.

Switzerland has a population of 8.4 million; less than 18,000 are Jews. (...)

At the end of 2016, for example, it was scandalously suggested that Jews should create a fund with their own money in order to take care of their security. Some funds have been made available for one Jewish community in Zurich by the canton though these are not destined for security. For the other communities and synagogues in the town, no funds are provided.

The situation is particularly problematic in the third largest — and 212 year old — Jewish community of Basel, which faces a huge deficit and ultimately perhaps bankruptcy. It currently has the choice between reducing activities or having less security. First the government of the canton — and then the parliament (Grosser Rat) — voted down subsidizing security measures. The parliament has also refused to increase financing of the police force, despite the general terror threat in Europe and Switzerland.

But after the lethal Christmas market attack by a Muslim terrorist in Berlin in December 2016, measures were taken in Switzerland last year to protect Christmas markets. A heavily armed police presence was introduced, and several Christmas markets were fortified. Funding for these security measures was provided by the state.

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Netherlands: Amsterdam Kosher restaurant vandalized again

Via NL Times:

Kosher restaurant Ha Carmel on Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam was again vandalized. The restaurant owners arrived on Friday morning to find a massive star of cracks on one of the windows. The police believe something was thrown at it, Het Parool reports. The police are currently doing a forensic investigation at the restaurant.

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AT5

France: Arab teenagers arrested in beating of Jewish boy outside Paris-area synagogue

Via JTA:

Police in France arrested four teenagers who are suspected of beating a Jewish boy with a stick and taking away his kippah outside a synagogue north of Paris.

The suspects were detained Wednesday night in Montmagny, the Le Parisien daily reported Thursday. Their alleged victim, 14, was beaten after 8 p.m. outside the suburban synagogue, where the holiday of Purim was being celebrated. The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, praised authorities for “swift and effective” action.

The report did not say whether the boy was injured, but his sunglasses were smashed. One of his attackers was armed with a baton. Police are treating the assault as an anti-Semitic incident.

The alleged attackers, aged 14 and 15, called the Jewish boy, his sister and brother “dirty Jews” at the park where they were playing, Le Parisien reported, based on police sources. According to BNVCA, all four suspects are of Arab descent.

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