The New Antisemite

Thursday, December 15, 2016

UK: ‘Anti-Semitic’ singer in court after private prosecution

A woman from the East Midlands who posted an anti-Semitic song on YouTube is to appear in court after a Jewish charity launched a private prosecution.

Alison Chabloz was summoned to appear before the Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday, six months after she published her song questioning the Holocaust, calling Auschwitz a “theme park” and saying Jewish financiers “bleed you dry”.

Chabloz, from Glossop in Derbyshire, is due in court after a private prosecution was brought by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). The charity said it took the decision because “the Crown Prosecution Service failed to prosecute [Chabloz]”.

The song, posted in June, include lyrics such as: “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes. Eternal wandering liars haven’t got a clue, and when it comes to usury, victim’s always me and you.”

Elsewhere, she sings: “Tell us another, come on my brother, reap it – the cover, for tribal gain. Safe in our tower, now is the hour, money and power, we have no shame.”

EU agency: Under-reporting continues to hinder fight against antisemitism

Via Jerusalem Post:

Large gaps in data collection on antisemitism by EU member states continue to hinder the fight against anti-Jewish hate crime, an EU agency says.

Antisemitism remains a serious concern and demands decisive and targeted policy responses, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said on Tuesday with the release of its annual report, titled “Antisemitism: Summary overview of data available in the European Union 2005-2015.”

“Greater efforts need to be made to counter underreporting,” the FRA stated.

“Not only do victims and witnesses need to be encouraged to report antisemitic incidents, but the authorities need to have systems in place that would record such incidents.”

While acknowledging that steps in the right direction are being made, the agency said continued and sustained efforts are required at the national, European and international levels, as well as in civil society, to improve data collection on all hate crime.

Netherlands: DENK, a new Muslim anti-Israel party

Via Israel National News (written by Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld):

This is the direction Europe is taking.

The massive non-selective immigration of Muslims into Western Europe is the worst that happened to Jewish communities in Western Europe since the Holocaust. It has also led to the most evil attacks on Israel’s standing in Western Europe. A new development in the Netherlands adds further to the latter.

The new national party DENK (Think) party aims mainly at Muslim voters. Its initiators are two Turkish-born parliamentarians Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk. They were expelled from the Labor party (PvdA) faction at the end of 2014 because they opposed the integration policy for immigrants of Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher (PvdA).[1] He had criticized the role of some Dutch Turkish organizations concerning integration of immigrants.[2] Kuzu got some international attention when, during Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the Netherlands on 7 September 2016, he refused to shake his hand.

DENK favors the recognition of the non-existing Palestinian state. This policy has the support of all Dutch parties on the political left. These include the extreme left SP socialist party, the Green Left party, the party for the Animals, the Labor party and the D66 left-liberals. A recent parliamentary motion to recognize Palestine was defeated by 76 against 71 votes.[3] (...)

DENK takes a more extreme anti-Israeli position than all other parliamentary parties. It wants to prohibit the import of products from “illegal” Israeli settlements.[5] It also wants the Dutch government to request the Israeli government to reimburse the Dutch investment “in development projects in ‘Palestine’ which have been destroyed by proven actions of the Israeli government.”[6]

The number of immigrants and their descendants in the Netherlands from Muslim countries is about one million. This represents about 6% of the Dutch population. One third of these originate from Turkey. There 69% of the adult population are classic anti-Semites as published in 2014 in a global study of the Anti Defamation League.[16] Almost one third are Moroccans. The same study found that there the number of classic anti-Semites is 80%.[17] One might characterize one aspect of the Dutch non-selective immigration policy as a huge program bringing in many anti-Semites from Muslim countries.

UK: We thought antisemitism in football was long gone. How wrong we were

Anthony Clavane @ The Guardian:

I have to admit that this upsurge in racial hatred has taken me my surprise. My book, Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here?, published in 2013, charted the Jewish community’s journey from alienated and often persecuted east European outsiders, to more-or-less accepted, Anglicised football insiders. For 120 years Jews have been involved in the people’s game as players, fans, managers, directors, writers, administrators and owners. Theirs is a model story of integration, showing how a once-demonised group of immigrants could, after a long struggle, find acceptance and a sense of belonging through an obsessive participation in sport. As a football reporter employed by a national newspaper for 15 years, I really thought I had seen the back of antisemitism.

It is at this point that sceptics usually point out these are isolated incidents. Some argue for contextualisation, arguing that they are the product of tribal rivalries between fans who will stop at nothing to rile their sworn enemies. They don’t mean to be beastly to Jewish people.

According to football’s anti-discrimination organisation, Kick It Out, however, such vile behaviour has been steadily increasing in recent years. During the 2013-14 season 57 incidents were reported. The following term there were 63. And for the last season the figure had risen to 83. “I think we’re going to see more of it,” Roisin Wood, the organisation’s director, recently told a 200-strong audience at the JW3 London Jewish cultural centre. “I would be surprised if we didn’t.”

I was sitting next to her when she made this bleak prediction. The Times’ chief football writer, Henry Winter, revealed that he had called the Football Association to ask for statistics about antisemitism. “They reckoned there was a decrease,” he said. “I go to so many games a year – and I think that’s rubbish.”

(...)

A cursory glance at Jewish newspapers, reinforced by anecdotal evidence provided at the JW3 event, reveals that grassroots football is peppered with abuse. “My son played for London Lions,” said Martin Berliner, who heads the Jewish football organisation Maccabi GB. “They have the star of David on their shirts. They experienced it from time to time. There are clubs with a reputation for being intimidating. It’s not unusual for parents and kids to use antisemitic language. You’ve got a generation of 14 to 15 year olds who are growing up right now who think it’s acceptable.”

France: Bullets found at the Le Havre Synagogue

Another act of intimation against the Jewish community in France!

Le Havre Synagogue

Paris-Normandie reports that firearm bullets were found at the Le Havre synagogue. The police is investigation the matter.

The case is being taken very seriously by the police and judicial authorities, as it concerns a place of worship. Twice, in less than a week, bullets were found in front and in the mailbox of the synagogue. "The first discovery took place on Monday, November 28, and it was municipal police officers who saw the projectiles, said a member of the Jewish community. The second discovery took place on Friday, December 2. There were two bullets in the mailbox, and six or seven others on the ground next to the front door."

One hundred Jewish families live in Le Havre. For over 15 years, "the weekly Shabbat services and all the major events in the synagogue are put under the surveillance of the city and police security teams", according to Victor Elgressy.

Netherlands: Jewish journal moves offices to secret location

Via NRG:

At a recent conference of Jewish journalists in Jerusalem, a Dutch editor said her newspaper offices has been forced underground.

Esther Voet, editor of the Jewish weekly NIW, said that authorities have notified them that they're targeted by terror groups. Since security costs were prohibitive, the staff pressured her to move the offices to a secret location. The paper's site only mentions their PO box. They are extremely careful when having meetings at their offices.

Voet says that every Jewish building has massive security, with bullet-proof glass and cameras. Many Dutch blame the Jews for the economic situation, which is classic antisemitism, but then there are many who say publicly 'don't touch our Jews'.

Hungary's thriving Jewish community faces spike in antisemitism, Holocaust revisionism

Via Jerusalem Post (h/t Honestly Concerned):

Budapest has 23 shuls, often within sight of one another, and numerous Jewish institutions – including schools, hospices, and a hospital – for its estimated 50,000 Jewish residents, who comprise the vast majority of the country’s Jewish population.

Take a closer look, though, and you discover a darker side to this ostensibly quotidian idyll of Jewish revival in post-communist Hungary.

Szabadság Tér (Freedom Square) lies within easy walking distance of the Dohány Street synagogue, which draws busloads of tourists from around the globe daily as Europe’s largest shul and a historical hub for the homegrown liberal stream of Neolog Judaism. At the entrance to the square stands a statue to the “Victims of the German Occupation.”

Erected in 2014 by the country’s democratically elected but increasingly autocratic conservative government, the statue commemorates the Nazis’ seizure of power in Hungary on March 19, 1944. It leaves the identity of those “victims” unexplained, but there is no real mystery.

The memorial features a German imperial eagle swooping down, talons at the ready, on the archangel Gabriel, who is depicted as an effete and defenseless youth and is a stand-in for wartime Hungary. In the recrudescence of historical revisionism that has swept postcommunist societies from Hungary to Lithuania, the memorial seeks to whitewash the role of many Hungarians in the persecution and murder of Jews during World War II by lumping the perpetrators and their Jewish victims together as equally guiltless victims of the Germans.

“This statue is a symbol of the Hungarian government’s blatant disregard of history in the service of a nationalist agenda,” fumes Fruzsina Magyar, a Jewish-Hungarian dramaturge who has been at the forefront of rowdy protests against the statue by grassroots groups, both Jewish and non-Jewish, since early 2014, when its construction got underway.

“It’s a disgrace. It tells you about the state of affairs in this country,” she adds.

For months on end, the protesters – led by Magyar and her husband, Imre Mécs, a leftwing politician who once spent time in prison for his role in the Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule in 1956 – sought but failed to stop the memorial from being built through daily acts of nonviolent resistance. Then on July 21 of that year, when the statue was to be officially unveiled, hundreds of protesters formed a human chain around the memorial, bickering with right-wing provocateurs and tussling with police officers, to prevent the ceremony from happening. They succeeded: the statue has still not been officially unveiled.

Two years on, many local Jews are still protesting it. They gather daily at the site for discussions, fiery speeches, poetry readings, performances and concerts. On a recent Friday afternoon, some three dozen protesters, including several elderly Holocaust survivors, sang and clapped along energetically to a Hungarian rendition of “Hava Nagila,” performed for their benefit by an operetta singer on a patch of lawn behind the statue.

Just a few hundred meters away, on a nearby square outside the country’s flamboyantly gothic Parliament building, a different group of people was singing another tune. Some members of the widely popular far-right party Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary) had arrived bearing flags and insignias styled after those once carried by members of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross movement, which played a pivotal role in the murder and deportation of 600,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944 and 1945. Their middle-aged speaker railed against “alien-hearted influences” and the “tyranny of minorities” (code words for Jews) before a thunderstorm scattered the gathered.

“I think antisemitism is worse now than it was in 1938, before the war,” laments György László, a Jewish engineer who frequents Freedom Square to meet like-minded Jews. “Most people in this country have been inculcated with antisemitic views.”

Britain adopts broader anti-Semitism definition to fight hate crimes against Jews

Via Times of Israel:

Britain will be among the first countries worldwide to adopt an international definition of anti-Semitism in efforts to fight hate crimes and incitement targeting Jews which have been on the rise this past year.

On Monday, in pre-released excerpts of a speech she is set to give, British Prime Minister Theresa May said “it means there will be one definition of anti-Semitism – in essence, language or behaviour that displays hatred towards Jews because they are Jews – and anyone guilty of that will be called out on it,” according to Reuters.

“It is unacceptable that there is anti-Semitism in this country. It is even worse that incidents are reportedly on the rise. As a government we are making a real difference and adopting this measure is a groundbreaking step,” her speech reads. It was not yet clear when she would give the address.

The definition adopted by Britain was formulated earlier this year by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and is designed to make it harder to evade repercussions for discriminatory or prejudiced behavior because of a lack of clarity or differing opinions on what constitutes anti-Semitism.

The intention was to “ensure that culprits will not be able to get away with being anti-Semitic because the term is ill-defined, or because different organizations or bodies have different interpretations of it,” read a statement by Downing Street, cited by the Guardian..

The IHRA definition reads: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

According to the definition, “manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.”

Europe: Pro-BDS group lives large on European donors' funds

Via Israel Hayom:

A Palestinian human rights group is misusing donor funds to finance the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, a new report found Sunday.

The report, by NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that promotes greater transparency among foreign-funded Israeli nongovernmental organizations, claims that the Ramallah-based Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat has greatly inflated its functionaries' salaries.

The secretariat also uses donor funds to finance other BDS groups and activities, the report said.

The secretariat was set up by European governments to funnel funds to Palestinian and Israeli political groups classified as human rights organizations.

As such, the secretariat provides core funding for 24 nongovernmental organizations and auxiliary funding to other groups, 13 of which are declared BDS groups, which have received over $5.8 million in foreign funding over the past four years.

NGO Monitor found that some of the groups use anti-Semitic rhetoric, while others are headed by officials with known ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Gaza Strip-based terrorist group.

Sweden: Israel officials snub Swedish foreign minister

Via The Local Sweden:

No Israeli officials will meet Sweden's foreign minister during her trip to the region, a spokesman has said. Erik Wirkensjö, spokesperson for Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, told the AFP news agency she had wanted to meet both Israeli and Palestinian officials during her visit from Thursday to Saturday.

“This time it was not possible to visit Israel,” said Wirkensjö.

Asked why there were no meetings planned, he said such questions must be “asked to the Israelis”.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon blamed “schedule problems” and declined to provide further details.

Earlier, Wallström told Swedish news agency TT: “I would have gladly seen myself travel to Israel as well, but unfortunately they do not welcome it.”

There is no international airport in the Palestinian territories. Wirkensjö declined to comment on whether Wallström would fly to an Israeli airport and then travel to occupied West Bank or go via Jordan. She was not denied entry to Israel, he said.

Wallström will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki during her trip.

In January, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Wallström would no longer be welcome in the country after she called for investigations into the killings of Palestinian assailants by Israeli forces.

France: Benedictine nun says "People don't like when you sell to Jews"

Via Elder of Ziyon:

The National Catholic Reporter's Global Sisters Report has an article on a Benedictine convent in Jerusalem on the road to the Mount of Olives (Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Calvary (1896), Bénédictines de Notre-Dame du Calvaire).

Most of the article is about how the sisters there are trying to restore old cisterns to water their olive trees and save thousands of dollars in water bills.

But it also mentions this:

"The Benedictine convent is also unique because it is a semicloistered convent in the midst of one of the most impoverished and crowded East Jerusalem neighborhoods. Next door to the convent is a contentious Jewish settlement called Beit Hoshen, run by the group the City of David Foundation, whose ideological agenda is to purchase land in Arab neighborhoods and build heavily fortified Jewish residences, in an attempt to "Judaize" the area. Beit Hoshen is a single building with about 30 people.

"One year before I arrived, the [Beit Hoshen] building was sold," said Penka ("Sr. Gabriele Penka, 38, who is originally from Germany") "The [Palestinian] farmer owner lost his life. People don't like when you sell to Jews" in this neighborhood, she explained.
Oh.

The article also mentions matter-of-factly:

The location of the Jewish building means the road is now a flash point for riots whenever the political situation becomes shaky. Additionally, the sisters are located on the road toward the Mount of Olives, the holiest place for Jews to be buried, because it is believed that the arrival of the Messiah will come from the Mount of Olives and those buried there will be the first dead to be resurrected. But many Arab residents resent the endless traffic jams from funerals. Angry children and teenagers protesting the Israeli occupation sometimes throw stones at the Jewish people's cars exiting the cemetery.
Because stoning Jewish mourners is a perfectly valid expression of anger at "occupation."

Via DW:

"Have you ever been attacked?" one student asks.

Ott himself was previously targeted by three men who, on noticing his Kippah, surrounded him and began chanting Palestine.

"There are small parts of Berlin where I no longer wear my Kippah," Ott said. "Your personal safety takes priority in those situations."

"But it isn't all bad," he added. "I've have some great conversations where people have been curious enough to approach me."

"That's encouraging to see that people can be so open," he said.

According to Jewish law, men are required to cover their heads during prayer

Taking part in the Rent-a-Jew seminar gives participants the chance to learn about all manner of things that contribute to Judaism - whether it's worship, festivals, ancestry, or the particularly popular topic of food.

As the participants begin to relax, Schmerling and Ott turn the tables. "What have you heard about Jews?"

Apprehensive at first, someone answers: "Educated."

"Not always a bad thing," Schmerling replies. "But certainly not true for everyone."

"Money," says another, prompting a mixture of tiny gasps and uneasy laughs from the group.

"Well, it's certainly an old prejudice," Schmerling says. "But, unfortunately it isn't true. At least it wasn't passed on if there was any in my family," she jokes.

"Wouldn't that be nice if you were given a bag of money if you converted," Ott quips. "Where do I sign?"

Among the students at the Solingen Technical College was 17-year-old Justin. Prior to the visit from Rent-a-Jew, he had never had the chance to speak with anyone from Germany's Jewish community.

"They live alongside us, although you don't always know it," he told DW. "It's important to know how others live and not only people from your own religion."

Classmate Mohamed was also keen to learn more about the Jewish way of life.

"Not only have I learnt about day to day life in Judaism, but I've also learnt that many things I've heard about Jews aren't actually true," the 17-year-old said.

For Schmerling and Ott, debunking the stereotypes is half a battle won. "This is a chance to break down those prejudices," Schmerling said.

"Dialogue is key to any problem. Instead of talking about one another, we need to be talking with one another."

France: AFP's journalist Nasser Abu Baker ran for Fatah Revolutionary Council

Typical of the views of the French government via Agence France Presse. It doesn't seem to bother French journalists at all.

Via Camera:

Nasser Abu Baker, wearing a Palestinian Authority military uniform (Source Facebook, Jan. 31, 2016)

AFP's Nasser Abu Baker is one of 1,400 delegates attending the Seventh Fatah Congress, which wraps up today (4 Dec.). Moreover, he is running for the Fatah Revolutionary Council. As a Palestinian news site reported:

Nasser Abu Baker, Chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the Representative of Palestine at the International Journalists Union, announced on Monday his intention to present his candidacy to the election for the Fatah Revolutionary Council during the Seventh Fatah Congress that is being held in Ramallah. Abu Baker said he views the convening and the success of the Fatah Congress as an historic revival for Fatah and a renewal of its leadership and struggling spirit. He said that Congress's positive effects will affect Fatah and the arousal of the Palestinian cause.

Abu Baker clarified that his intention to present his candidacy and become a member of the Revolutionary Council stems from his keenness to upgrade the Fatah media and the significance of representation of journalists in the leadership of Fatah.

"My decision to run in the election for the Revolutionary Council stems from my and my colleagues' desire to awaken the Fatah media, which needs to be awakened so that it would be devoted primarily in favor of the national interest and redirect the compass toward our cause toward Jerusalem and the (right of) return."‭

At 10 a.m. EST today, when official election results are available, it will become known whether congratulations are due to the AFP for owning the dubious distinction of being the first Western media outlet with representation on the Fatah Revolutionary Council. At what point, if at all, does AFP draw a red line, determining that its stated commitment to maintain independence from "economic or political interests" is actually a guiding principle, and not just a declarative statement?

According to final lists, AFP's Abu Baker did not win a seat on the Fatah Revolutionary Council.

Read the excellent research work by CAMERA about AFP's Nasser Abu Baker

Danish Medical Association says it's ethically wrong to circumcise children

Via Jerusalem Post:

Chief Rabbi of Denmark Yair Melchior on Wednesday night clarified that legislation to ban brit mila (Jewish ritual circumcision) was not on the table, following media reports that the Danish Medical Association was pushing for legislation against the practice on anyone under the age of 18.

The chief rabbi released a statement emphasizing that while the Medical Association had issued a statement claiming that it was ethically wrong to circumcise a person without his consent as an adult, it also made clear that it would not pursue legislation on the matter.

The association said last week that circumcision should be “an informed, personal choice” that young men should make for themselves.

“It is most consistent with the individual’s right to self-determination that parents not be allowed to make this decision but that it is left up to the individual when he has come of age,” said Lise Moller, chairwoman of the doctors’ association’s ethics board, adding that male circumcision carries a risk of complications and should only be performed on children when there is a documented medical need.

However, the association also noted a ban could have serious implications, “both for the involved boys, who could for example face bullying or unauthorized procedures with complications, and for the cultural and religious groups they belong to.”

Melchior said that just as the Jewish community spoke out strongly against the statement, Gorm Greisen, chairman of Denmark’s Ethical Council, had also said on national television that there was no ethical issue involved in the matter or with parents making the decision for their child.

UK: Neo-Nazi group 'to be classed as terror organisation and banned' in unprecedented move

Via Independent:

A British neo-Nazi group is expected to be labelled a terror organisation and banned in a landmark first for the UK.

An order proscribing fascist group National Action is due to be laid before Parliament on Monday. It will be the first time membership of a far-right group has been outlawed in the UK.

The self-styled “nationalist youth movement” has praised and glorified Thomas Mair, the white supremacist who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in what a court described as a terrorism offence, and employs anti-Semitic language lifted direct from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party.

The group’s Yorkshire branch, which is believed to consist of about 100 fascists, also encourages ‘lone wolf activism’ on its website, a phrase which usually refers to acts of terrorism committed by individuals.

Proscribing organisations is difficult because groups “often skirt around the law”, a senior government source told The Sunday Times. National Action, however, has been deemed to have “crossed the line and glorified terrorism”.

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