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Elder of Ziyon
Anti-Zionism Worse than Anti-Semitism
It is far from that. The BDS mission originates straight from the founding mission of the PLO in 1964, before any Jewish settlements existed, which was to eliminate what is still seen as the unacceptable and humiliating sovereign Jewish-Zionist presence in Arab-Muslim lands.
Jew hatred may fuel the Israel hatred behind BDS and other anti-Israel forces, but after that, Israel-hatred wreaks havoc on its own. This is why, in my eyes, anti-Zionism is more lethal than anti-Semitism: It carries the virus of elimination.
As author Gil Troy writes in an email from Jerusalem, “Thousands have been killed and maimed by modern anti-Zionism, which requires the ideological and rhetorical inflammation to get people to blow themselves up and kill innocents. As a result, not only have we absorbed the notion that Israel’s existence should be up for grabs, but our outrage has been dulled –— we accept attacks on Israel as normal.”
Underlying the whole assault on Israel, he adds, “is the rejection of us as a people — we are just supposed to be a ‘nice’ religion confined to our synagogues and JCC’s, not a people taking up real space in the international arena.”
In sum, it is hardly enough to argue that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. In at least one crucial way it’s worse than that. Anti-Semitism revolves around an emotion — hate. Anti-Zionism revolves around an action — destruction.
Anti-Zionism must be fought on its own terms. Demonizing Israel and singling it out for special condemnation is immoral and discriminatory regardless of any claims of anti-Semitism.
Israel doesn’t just have a right to exist. Like any other imperfect state, it has a right to thrive, whether you hate Jews or not.
Political Correctness Blinds Us To The Causes Of Anti-Semitism
One wonders, though, if the New York Times editorial writer sees any incongruity in demanding Israelis sit down with group of people who are virulently anti-Semitic and illiberal while wagging their finger at Israelis for being friendly with Hungary, a nation that protects its Jews and fights for Israel in the European Parliament.I was an expert witness against a teacher who taught students to question the Holocaust
Orban’s Hungary is far from perfect—although also far from the fascistic place his antagonists would have you believe. Yet its 100,000 Jews didn’t report a single physical attack against them in the past two years. It seems Jews are enjoying something of a renaissance in that country.
As Evelyn Gordon at Commentary noted not long ago, American Jews might believe that “rightist governments enable anti-Semitism” in Europe, but polls show that Jews feel safer, sometimes by a 20-point margin, in places like Poland, Hungary, and Romania—which, maybe not coincidentally, also have low numbers of Muslim immigrants—than they do in countries like France and Germany, where anti-Jewish violence is spiking.
According to the Times, though, Israel’s leaders also perpetuate anti-Semitism when they find common cause with the president of United States, who has angered anti-Semites worldwide by taking positions once widely supported by a majority of American Jews, like moving the American embassy to the capital of Jerusalem and pulling the United States out of the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal.
It’s gotten to the point where the left regularly lumps the elected leader of the Jewish state in with white supremacists because he’s shown more deference to Donald Trump than to Hamas, Fatah, or Iran. If Israel engenders anti-Semitism, a sentiment that supposedly has absolutely nothing to do with Israel, it’s only because people are predisposed to hating Jews.
Then again, maybe the Times doesn’t understand that it’s not Israel’s or America’s job to placate anti-Semitic thugs in Germany. One of the reasons Israel exists, actually, is so Jews would never again have to worry about such things.
My involvement in the case against Mr. Ali began in November 2017 when I got a phone call from a lawyer who was representing the Woodbridge Township School District. I had sent an email earlier in the year to the district about my study of how textbooks portray the Holocaust and officials there remembered my note.
Woodbridge officials had fired Mr. Ali, who was teaching students to question the Holocaust and who was also pushing 9/11 conspiracy theories. Mr. Ali was now suing the district for illegally firing him over his race and religion.
Mr. Ali had first made headlines in September 2016 after a news station discovered several 9/11 conspiracy links on his school webpage.
After speaking with the Woodbridge district lawyer, I was sent several hundred pages of depositions, student work and lesson plans to review. I was also asked if I would serve as an expert witness in the case.
One particularly memorable student paper in the documents was called “A Gas Chamber Full of Lies.”
“We have all been taught that the Holocaust was a time of hate, and that Hitler used the gifts he possessed for absolute evil, but is that really the case? … Is the death of the Jews completely justified? No, because nobody deserves to die, regardless what they’ve done. But are their deaths really completely unjustified either?” read an excerpt.
Another student stated that the Jews imprisoned in concentration camps “had a much easier and more enjoyable life in the camps” and that “even though they were not at home, they felt like they were.”
Douglas Murray: The New Smear Machine: Guilt by Association
On May 11, in London there was a march – attended by around three thousand people – and organised under the banner 'National Demonstration for Palestine: Exist! Resist! Return'. The event was backed by – among others – the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn. In Twitter and Facebook messages sent to marchers, he expressed his support. This message, read out at the rally said, among much else, 'We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights and justice to the Palestinian people.'Why Are Israeli and other Jewish Academics Legitimizing Anti-Semitism?
The message was not read out by some obscure anti-Israel activist, but rather by one of Corbyn's closest political aides, the Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott. Other speakers included the Labour party's Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Richard Burgon, who just last month was found to have lied to the British media about an earlier speech he had given in which he said that 'Zionism is the enemy of peace.'
In many ways there was nothing remarkable about the protest. Aside from the addresses from senior members of the Parliamentary Labour party, it consisted of the usual commonplace acts and claims by ordinary participants. Protestors, for example, waved placards claiming that 'Israel provokes anti-Semitism'. During the speeches, one of the representatives from 'Jewish Voice for Labour' (a shell organisation set up to defend Jeremy Corbyn from accusations of anti-Semitism) claimed that Jews are 'in the gutter'.
Nothing was particularly noteworthy in all of this. Except for one interesting fact, spotted by the British-based 'Campaign Against Anti-Semitism'. This organization, having attended the march to monitor it, noticed a number of extremely interesting attendees. According to the 'Campaign Against Anti-Semitism', these included a man called Tony Martin, who is the leader of a neo-Nazi organisation called the National Front. This is not an organisation that is called 'neo-Nazi' or 'fascist' as some sort of rhetorical colouring required to win a debating point. It is described as that because that is what it is. The National Front in Britain is steeped in the politics of the far-right and actual neo-Nazism, hard as it might be for people to credit that in an era in which nearly everything and everyone can be called by these names.
The German parliament's recent passage of a resolution that censured the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel for being anti-Semitic sets an important precedent. It smashes the glass wall erected by the European far Left, Islamist and Palestinian activists, and political progressives in the United States who have insisted that BDS is a pro-Palestinian human rights campaign whose condemnations of Israel are defined as "legitimate criticism."Stand With Us: Yael Shevah testimony in front of Paris conference
The BDS movement possesses a demonstrably anti-Semitic character, links to terrorist organizations and convicted terrorists, and a goal of destroying the State of Israel.
The German parliament's moral linkage of Nazi-era boycotts, fascist extremism and modern BDS is instructive. Lawmakers passed the "BDS is anti-Semitism" resolution in the shadow of a 20% spike in anti-Semitic acts in Germany in 2018, 90% of which were attacks reportedly carried out by right-wing extremists.
The Palestinian-led global BDS movement does not criticize Israeli policy; it categorically rejects Israel's existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people and calls for its dissolution.
THE BDS National Committee in Ramallah includes founder Omar Barghouti, who has reiterated ad nauseam his unequivocal rejection of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, emphasizing that "No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine."
The connection between BDS and anti-Semitism is rooted in the BDS National Committee (BNC) in Ramallah. The BNC includes five Islamic and Palestinian terrorist organizations that sit with Barghouti and others as co-equal members of the BDS National Committee.
Participating terrorist organizations include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the PFLP GC, and the Palestine Liberation Front.
The BDS movement's student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, currently operating on about 250 North American university campuses, has harassed, intimidated and threatened Jewish and Israel-friendly students and faculty.
Yael Shevah, whose husband was killed in a drive-by shooting near his West Bank home, warns Paris conference that terrorists and BDS are an existential threat to Jewish and Israeli life.
Germany must confront Muslim anti-Semitism
The leaders of the Jewish community and many German Jews dispute the claim that almost all anti-Semitic attacks are perpetrated by the far right. More than half of German Jewish respondents to a 2018 EU survey indicated that they had experienced anti-Semitic harassment during the previous five years. Of these respondents, the plurality – 41 per cent – believed that the perpetrator of the most serious incident they experienced was ‘someone with a Muslim extremist view’.New European Parliament challenges Israel and the Jews
So why do official German statistics paint such a different picture? The answer is very simple. As James Angelos recently uncovered in the New York Times Magazine, German officials have adopted a procedure whereby, when the perpetrators of an anti-Semitic incident are unknown, they are automatically classified as far right. This point was acknowledged by Klein when Angelos asked him about the reliability of the official statistics. Klein admitted the methodology was ‘flawed’ and said he had ‘already started the discussion within the government to change that’.
But the problem here is not just a methodological one. The German political establishment is neither prepared nor willing to deal with manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred within Muslim communities. Klein’s readiness to instruct Jewish people not to wear skullcaps is symptomatic of this wider dishonesty and cowardice within official circles.
No doubt far-right anti-Semitism exists and constitutes a real problem. But it is a problem that has been made far worse by officialdom’s acquiescence to Islamic anti-Semitism. Arguably, the hostile attitudes directed at Jewish people by sections of the Muslim community have emboldened old-school German anti-Semites to feel free to express their sentiments.
The takeaway message of the ‘don’t wear a kippah’ scandal is that the real threat facing Jewish people in Germany is not the attitudes and behaviour of old-school, nativist anti-Semites, but the acquiescence of German officialdom to new forms of anti-Jewish hatred.
As antisemitism flared from cocktail chatter to Molotov cocktails, and antisemitic terror spread across the Western continent, world Jewry developed a suspicion of a united EU – a concern borne out by its officials for foreign relations, Baroness Catherine Ashton and her successor Federica Mogherini.Noah Rothman: Immorality, Incompetence, and Ilhan Omar
Radical-left parties’ Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have invited and applauded speakers from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and spokespersons for terrorism.
On the other hand, populist/nationalist parties, such as British UKIP (now renamed the “Brexit Party”)and far-right parties, especially those in government in Eastern Europe, tend to take pro-Israeli positions.
At the national level, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has enjoyed success in establishing special relationships for Israel with sub-blocs within the EU, such as the Visegrad Group – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – the Baltic countries and Greece-Cyprus, due inter alia to hi-tech commerce, but also common strategic interests, as in the latter example against Turkey.
Israel is perceived by these countries to be an access key to the United States and its president. For anti-Russian East Europeans, Israel is also viewed – when necessary – as a back channel to the Kremlin. Blips may appear on the screen, such as the current crisis with Poland (whose ruling party sits in the European Parliament) regarding research into its wartime complicity in killing Jews.
The irony is the growth of both populist regimes from Italy to Hungary, and parties from Germany and France to Austria sharing interests with Israel.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has a knack for making a burden of herself. In her short time in federal office, the freshman congresswoman is best known for making anti-Semitic remarks, forcing her colleagues to sacrifice time and reputation in the process of defending her from the consequences of her own behaviors. Tired of limiting her nuisance to domestic affairs alone, Omar is taking the act global.Rep. John Lewis Perpetuates Myths Around Racism, Anti-Semitism During Trump’s Presidency
Despite becoming embroiled in more anti-Semitism scandals than can be attributed to luck alone, Rep. Omar maintains a perch on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. That platform provides her with the power to shape U.S. foreign policy, and she plans to use that authority to codify her fanatical and novitiate understanding of American foreign affairs into a doctrine.
“When I think about foreign policy,” Omar recently told the Star Tribune, “we need something equivalent to the Green New Deal.” Woe unto Democrats. If Omar’s foreign-policy makeover is anything like the Green New Deal, it will be a source of almost unmitigated humiliation that exposes the Democratic Party’s radicalism while derailing its governing agenda.
Conspicuously, Omar’s prohibitive fixation—what she views as America’s hidebound alliance with Israel—does not feature prominently in her plans for a foreign-policy makeover. Given the popularity of that alliance, disguising her objectives is a smart move. It’s the kind of acumen you’d expect from someone savvy enough to gloss over her support for the cosmetically anti-Zionist but functionally anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement until after she was elected.
Omar’s central animating principle is the desire to see American foreign policy emphasize soft (diplomatic and economic) power over hard (military) power. While neither revolutionary nor entirely objectionable, the way she would go about realizing her vision suggests some conceptual flaws.
On the issue of anti-Semitism in America, what can we attribute to the rise in attacks against Jewish people? People have debated this subject for the last two years, with Democrats predictably blaming Trump.Petition urging California delegates to vote against divise anti-Israel resolutions
But is it the non-stop false painting of Trump, who often stands shoulder to shoulder with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, as a raging enemy of the Jewish community?
Or could the slow, but steady rise – and acceptance of – anti-Semitism within the ranks of the Democratic party be one of the factors? After all, two Democratic women who unapologetically support the anti-Semitic BDS movement and who have routinely repeated anti-Semitic tropes were elected to the U.S. House last year in a blaze of glory.
Furthermore, Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have essentially become apologists for the anti-Semitism routinely displayed by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ilhan Omar (MN).
Do not forget the Congressional Black Caucus and their longtime embrace of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, which neither the mainstream media nor Pelosi, Hoyer, nor other Democratic leaders have objected or condemned. Lewis, by the way, ranks as the senior-most member of the CBC.
On the other hand, Republican leaders stripped Rep. Steve King (R-IA) all his committee assignments in January after he made disturbing remarks suggesting there was nothing offensive about white nationalism and white supremacy.
From Zioness:Reverend Al Sharpton and his friends in the Reform Movement
This week's California Democratic Party Convention presents a historic opportunity to lead the nation in identifying the progressive issues that will be most pressing in the search for a Democratic nominee for president. In a time where marginalized communities are attacked, women's rights are suppressed, LGBTQ+ people are dehumanized, climate change science is denied, and corrupt federal judges are nominated to uphold bigotry and intolerance, it could not be more urgent that we come together to advance a bold, progressive agenda.
Unfortunately, there are individuals who claim to be allies but who are actually working around the clock to divide us, rather than to unite us. Certain groups have introduced six resolutions intended to encourage boycotts of, and otherwise target, Israel: the world's only Jewish state, and a safe haven for one of history's most enduring persecuted communities.
However well-intentioned, these resolutions are perceived by American Jews as an attack on our community, which has seen a terrifying uptick in antisemitic attacks in America and around the world; which overwhelmingly supports the progressive agenda; and which has stood on the forefront of social justice movements in this country since their inception.Anyone who wants to see these movements succeed understands that we must reject these attacks on the Jewish community by rejecting the demonization and delegitimization of Israel. By doing so, we protect the integrity of our progressive spaces and recommit ourselves to equality and human dignity for all people, including the Jewish people.
In his remarks at the Reform event, Sharpton referred vaguely to some “excesses” that he committed in the past—but he didn’t say what they were. He implied that he should have “done more to heal, rather than harm”—but he didn’t say who was harmed.No violence or arrests at Klan rally in Dayton, counterprotesters destroy Israeli flag
Then he related an alleged conversation he had with Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., in which she supposedly urged him to not “say cheap things to get cheap applause.” But once again, Sharpton declined to acknowledge that he had ever done any such thing.
Words such as “apologize,” “sorry,” and “Crown Heights” never crossed his lips. It’s sad that the leaders of Reform Judaism did not insist on a full apology before—or at least during—Sharpton’s address.
Equally surprising is that the Reform leaders, who have been at the forefront in defending gay rights, did not insist that Sharpton apologize for his 1994 speech at Kean College. That was the speech where he was ranting about achievements by blacks throughout history, and announced: “We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it!”
Why is “Reverend Al” allowed to get away with such outrages? It seems that it’s all about politics. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the most important consideration is that “Reverend Sharpton has stood with us these past couple of years” on immigration, racism, and various other issues of concern to the Reform movement.
The Reform leadership has given Sharpton a clean slate simply because he is a useful political ally. This drastically lowers the “forgive and forget” bar. It says that an unrepentant inciter of antisemitic violence does not have to pay any price in order to be embraced by at least a large part of the Jewish community. He doesn’t even have to mutter a perfunctory apology. All he has to do is take politically correct positions. That is the wrong way to deal with bigots.
When Stathes learned of the rally, she decided to hold a fundraiser; The Barrel House donated a dollar per pint sold on May 25 to the National Conference for Community and Justice of Greater Dayton. After she posted the fundraiser on Facebook, two local businesses each matched the dollar per pint.Barry Shaw: In Iceland, hate has prevailed from the Nazi SS to Eurovision 2019
“People came out strong to support that,” Stathes said.
That afternoon, someone posted a series of photos on her Facebook site showing people in the counterprotest area first attempting to burn an Israeli flag, then tearing it and stomping on it.
“I was shocked to see that,” Stathes said. “I saw some counterarguments (in the comments) as to why they might have done that, but at the same time it’s totally unacceptable. It made me feel sick.”
According to Stephanie Hausner, deputy director of the Israel Action Network of Jewish Federations of North America, Students for Justice in Palestine equates Zionists and the KKK as fascists.
Native American rights activist Corine Fairbanks of Dayton took the series of photos, which have been widely circulated on social media. Fairbanks posted them at her Facebook page just before the end of the rally and counterrally, with the heading: “More Allies, and Palestinian Relatives, wanting to burn flag – FREE PALESTINE!! Deport the KKK.”
Jen Mendoza, with the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition, is a friend of Fairbanks. Mendoza is shown in the images wearing sunglasses and attempting to set the Israeli flag on fire with a cigarette lighter.
The nasty appearance of the Icelandic group Hatari, singing “Hate will Prevail” in the Eurovision 2019 Song Contest in Tel Aviv, is nothing new for Iceland.Temple U. Prof Marc Lamont Hill Called an "Orientalist' for Dismissing Hen Mazzig
The group’s ingratitude to Israel, whose soldiers had protected them when Israel was bombarded by over 700 Palestinian rockets as they rehearsed for the show, was greeted by global boos and condemnation as they unfurled their “Palestine” banners at the televised final, a gesture that angered the European Broadcasting Union, which may sanction Iceland for its political provocation.
Their gesture fell flat and became a stain of shame on Iceland.
But political provocation and the propagation of hate is nothing new to that cold Arctic island. Iceland has shown a consistent disdain for Jews and for Israel going back to the 16th century and the “Passion Psalms” of Icelandic clergyman HallgrÃmur Pétursson. They are full of expressions of malice toward the Jews as in,
“The righteous Law of Moses, The Jews here misapplied, Which their deceit exposes, Their hatred and their pride.”
Hatred and the pride dwelt entirely among the Icelanders, who generally met no Jews until a few Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust arrived on their shores and found a very chilly reception.
The few who arrived in the 19th century as traders and merchants were greeted by the antisemitic first president of the University of Iceland, Bjorn Olsen, who wrote about one trading firm, “Jewishness radiates from all of their activities. The firm wears various disguises, but Jews are always recognizable by their voice.”
It turned out that the Jews he scathingly smeared from his academic ivy tower were, in fact, Christian Danish merchants.
In 1933, a Nazi Party was formed in Iceland. It became the National Socialist Party with connections to the German Nazi Party. As with the 19th century university president and with Adolph Hitler, they invented tales of Jews and Jewish conspiracies everywhere.
Jews were expelled or fled Iceland, usually for refuge in Scandinavian countries.
Employing a label popular among academic devotees of the late Edward Said, Times of Israel blogger Dmitri Shufutinksy calls out Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill for engaging in "tropes that he seemingly opposes–namely, Orientalism." According to Shufutinksy, Hill's ignorant and dismissive response to Mizrahi Jewish journalist Hen Mazzig's LA Times column explaining that, contrary to opponents' stereotyping, Israel is not a "white" nation, has all the hallmarks of a "modern, more progressive lens of Orientalism [that] is focused on Jews."BBC Arabic website promotes antisemitic Holocaust analogy
Intoning the "logic" of Said's Orientalism, whereby only those of the identity at hand have a right to study said identity, Shufutinsky concludes: "There are many important conversations to be had about the conflicts in the Middle East and Jewish identity–and the voices leading the way should be those with skin in the game. Lamont-Hill has none and is trying to speak over those who do. He continues to show his hand as a privileged Western scholar, who condemns bigotry only when it affects him, yet regularly disregards the pain of other communities when it suits his political agenda."
Five participants were interviewed and their context-free and often inaccurate claims and statements were uncritically amplified.Sky News Arabia claims “5 million Palestinian refugees”….in 1949!
“But things changed for her in 2012 when she visited the West Bank and witnessed the “inhuman treatment” of Palestinians by Israelis, especially in the city of Hebron.”
“The “Palestinian cause” has become a symbol of all forms of injustice and injustice in various parts of the world. Those who defend any just cause anywhere in the world must support the Palestinians in the face of Israeli injustice and aggression.”
“I was ignorant of what was going on there, but I started to research, read and listen to people, and I concluded that what was happening was terrible, but that it was racist.”
“Alicia considers that what is more important than demonstrating on Nakba Day or other occasions is “to engage in the campaign to boycott Israel. This is a method that has proved successful with apartheid in South Africa and will make a big difference to the Palestinian cause.”
BBC Trending also had no qualms about promoting antisemitic Nazi analogy from an interviewee named as ‘Jay’.
“I was very sympathetic to the victims of the Holocaust and I visited the Jerusalem Museum [sic] to know more about them, however the fact that the Israelis commit violent acts that bear the same level of atrocity against the Palestinians is beyond my comprehension”
The IHRA working definition of antisemitism includes:
“Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
At the beginning of 2018 BBC Arabic had a weekly reach of 43 million people. Apparently the BBC is quite happy for such an antisemitic statement to be promoted to that audience.
In a report published last week on its website (“Washington calls for the elimination of the Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA – CAMERA Arabic]”, May 23rd), Sky News Arabia claimed that there were five million Palestinian refugees….in 1949! (translation by CAMERA Arabic):Police swoop on alleged host of internet radio hate station after receiving dossier from CAA
“It should be noted that UNRWA was founded in 1949 to provide education and health services to circa 5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including occupied East Jerusalem”.
Of course, the real number of Palestinians UNRWA was mandated in 1949 to provide aid to is more than six times lower – around 750,000. The agency has been criticised for the inflation in numbers of ”Palestinian refugees” over the years, an inflation prompted by a policy which – contrary to how other refugee groups in the world are treated – automatically grants refugee status to subsequent generations of Palestinians.
Such criticism helps explain calls heard from Washington to close it down.
However, Sky News Arabia likely wouldn’t want its readers to be reminded of the connection between criticism aimed at UNRWA regarding their perpetuation of the “refugees issue” and American calls to axe the UN agency. In this context, it seems clear why the network – a joint venture between the UK-based Sky News and the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp. – would falsely claim there were 5 million refugees all along.
A dossier provided by Campaign Against Antisemitism has led to the arrest by Devon and Cornwall Police of a 67-year-old man from Camborne on Thursday as part of a pre-planned policing operation. The man was arrested on suspicion of producing a racist internet radio broadcast that could incite racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986. He has since been released but remains under investigation pending further enquiries.MEMRI: Antisemitic Lecture By German Imam Said Abu Hafs: The Jews Are Miserly, Greedy, Enamored With Gold; They Are Arrogant, Take People's Money Unlawfully
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, said: “The ease with which the internet has been harnessed in recent years by extremists as a vehicle for hate speech is a growing cause for alarm. Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Devon and Cornwall Police for its prompt response and diligent handling of this matter, and will be watching developments with interest.”
German imam Said Abu Hafs said at a lecture titled "The Position of the Jews towards Islam," which he delivered at the Islamic Center of Kaiserlautern, Germany, that Jesus came to the Jews and told them to "leave their money" and follow him. Imam Abu Hafs laughed, saying that requesting such a thing from the Jews is "pointless" and that this is why the Jews turned against Jesus. He said that the Jews have been miserly and greedy since ancient times and, explaining that they have always been "enamored with gold," that they worshipped the golden calf simply because it was made out of gold. Imam Abu Hafs also said that the Jews, their rabbis, and their leaders are arrogant and look down on others because they see themselves as God's chosen people, and that it has always been pointless to call them and their forefathers to Islam because they do not want to be equal to everybody else and because they would then not be able to unlawfully take other people's money. Abu Hafs added that the Jews have fought Islam by "tearing apart the unity of the Muslims," and he claimed that this is still taking place today. The video was uploaded to the Islamic Center of Kaiserlautern's (Islamisches Zentrum Kaiserlautern) YouTube channel on March 30, 2019.Jewish News wins 18-month legal battle against Polish nationalist group
"Since Ancient Times, [The Jews] Have Loved Money [The Quran Says:] 'You Will Surely Find Then, Of All People, The Most Greedy For Life'"
Said Abu Hafs: "Jesus came [to the Jews] and said: 'Leave your money and follow me!' That was pointless! [Jesus said:] 'You are rich, but you want the Kingdom [of God]? Just leave everything and follow me! Wear something old, eat anything – locusts or whatever – and follow me!' That's pointless! That is why [the Jews] turned against him. They could not benefit from this. So since ancient times, [the Jews] have loved money. [The Quran says:] 'You will surely find then, of all people, the most greedy for life.' Therefore, even though they saw the great divine signs, they still worshipped the golden calf – because it was made of shining gold. They knew that it was not a god, but it was gold, which was enough for them. They are enamored with gold. They have been arrogant, especially their rabbis and their leaders. They would enslave people. They are arrogant, they look down on other people, and they hold their own race in high esteem – 'God's Chosen People,' and so on..."
A Jewish newspaper has won an 18-month legal battle against the Polish League Against Defamation for publishing a quote the league believed mischaracterized Poles as Nazis, according to a report by the Press Gazette.Holocaust memorial stone vandalized in Rome
The Jewish News won what is being described as a “landmark legal battle” against the Polish nationalist group that centered around the article, “Polish restitution law excludes most Holocaust survivors and heirs.” In the article, the author quotes a statement by the heads of the World Jewish Restitution Organization who said they were “profoundly disappointed that the Polish government’s proposal excludes the vast majority of Polish Holocaust survivors and their families."
Mira Wszelaka, president of the Polish League Against Defamation, took the free weekly newspaper to court claiming the article implied Poles were responsible for the confiscation of Jewish property and other atrocities against Jews and complaining that the word “German” should have been placed in front of the word “Nazi” to make the distinction clear.
The case was one of the first civil cases brought under a new Polish law that criminalizes references to Poles’ complicity in the Holocaust, the Press Gazette explained.
A stolperstein (“stumbling block” in German) commemorating a Holocaust victim was defaced in Rome, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday.Uproar over Netflix show in which Hitler ‘roasts’ Anne Frank
The stolpersteine are memorial engraved brass stones placed in front of Holocaust victims’ former residences. The art project was created in 1992 by German artist Gunter Demnig. Each stone features the name, year of birth, date of arrest and fate of the person honored. There are currently about 70,000 stones in 21 countries in Europe.
Two hundred and eighty-eight stolpersteine can be found in Rome. In the night between Monday and Tuesday, someone placed a black sticker on a stone located in the city center, just meters away from Portico D’Ottavia, the heart of the ancient Jewish Ghetto. The sticker was cut to perfectly fit the stone and read a message in German: “The murderer always returns to the scene of the crime.”
According to the Corriere della Sera, the Italian authorities are investigating the incident.
“This is not vandalism, this is a provocation,” the Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni told the Italian daily. “I am thinking of the place chosen by these people to do what they did: Via della Reginella [ the street where the stone was defaced] is not any street, it was a key site for the deportation of the Jews of Rome.”
Other memorial stones in the city were already targeted in the past: among others, 20 stolpersteine in the Monti neighborhood were stolen in December 2018.
In a separate incident reported by the Italian press on Thursday, numerous swastikas and Celtic crosses graffiti appeared around the town of Fiumicino, which belongs to the metropolitan city of Rome.
A new Netflix series called “Historical Roasts,” in which comedians poke fun at historical figures, has caused uproar by featuring an actress playing Anne Frank fending off what the broadcaster describes as “playful insults” from other World War II figures — including Adolf Hitler.ADL Raps Trump Adviser’s Holocaust Comment as ‘Offensive, Idiotic’
Top comedians mock historical characters in the series, which was released Monday.
Among the roasters of Anne Frank, played by actress Rachel Feinstein, are Adolf Hitler (Gilbert Gottfried) and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Jon Lovitz). All three performers are Jewish.
Frank, who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, aged 15, gained posthumous fame for the diary she wrote while in hiding with her family in an Amsterdam attic.
“Everyone knows you as a hero and a best-selling author, but to me you’ll always be little number 825060,” Gottfried as Hitler says to Anne. He also says, “Of all the accounts that I’ve read, Anne, your book is by far the most flammable.”
He describes how, just before going to hell, he hid out with Dr. Josef Mengele in Brazil where “we had a great time just drinking pina coladas and gluing midgets together.”
Mengele was a notorious doctor who conducted experiments on Jewish inmates at Auschwitz without anesthetics. He fled to South America after the war, eluding those who tried to bring him to justice, and eventually drowning off the Brazilian coast.
Feinstein retorts, “You tried to break us, but today the Jewish people are thriving more than ever. In fact, guess what, Hitler. You’re being played by a Jew right now, and it’s the loudest most annoying Jew we could possibly find!”
The Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday weighed into the controversy over a Trump administration adviser’s comment from 2014 comparing the “demonization” of carbon dioxide emissions with the genocide of six million Jews by the Nazis.Mexican youth agency apologizes for Joseph Goebbels information tweet
Writing on Twitter, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said he did not believe the quote from scientist William Happer — who serves on the National Security Council as the president’s deputy assistant for emerging technologies — was genuine until he saw the CNBC interview from five years ago in which the comparison was made.
“Suffice to say, the comparison lands somewhere between absolutely offensive & flat out idiotic,” Greenblatt commented.
The statement in question was made during a heated exchange between Happer — a professor of physics at Princeton University — and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin.
When Sorkin questioned Happer about an earlier comparison the scientist had made between climate change scientists and the Nazis, Happer accused his critics of trying to smear him as a “Holocaust denier.”
“You know, I’m getting tired of that,” Happer continued. “The comment I made was that the demonization of carbon was just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world and so were the Jews.”
Mexico City’s youth department has removed a tweet with an infographic on the Nazis’ infamous propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.Budapest Jews to establish their own security service amid anti-Semitism fears
The Mexico City Youth Institute, or Injuve, also apologized after deleting the post about the birth of Goebbels, which featured the text in Spanish “el padre da la propaganda,” or “the father of propaganda,” and the hashtags #Nazi and #Hitler.
“Injuve reiterates its commitment to tolerance, respect for all people, peoples, and diversity. The intention of our posts only seeks to generate historical memory, without exalting or claiming any kind of ideology,” the agency wrote in a new tweet on Sunday.
There was speculation that the agency’s social media specialist would be fired.
The Mexico Jewish community’s central committee reacted Monday in a statement.
“It is unacceptable that an institute in Mexico City makes this type of advertisement of the most racist, anti-Semitic and bloodthirsty political party in the history of the 20th century,” the statement said.
Volunteer group to patrol Jewish district of Hungary’s capital, where drunk tourists have hurled insults at local Jews‘#KeppelOp!’ — Dutch Jews Stage Kippah Demonstration Against Antisemitism in The Hague
A Hungarian Jewish organization that monitors and fights anti-Semitism on Wednesday said it was forming its own security service to patrol the historic Jewish quarter of the capital city Budapest.
“To prevent anti-Semitic atrocities, the Foundation for Action and Defense decided to create a kind of ‘self-organized security service,‘” the organization announced on its Facebook page.
Organization director Szalai Kálmán said the goal was to prevent “importing the plague of the anti-Semitism in north and west Europe” and do everything possible to ensure “Budapest does not become like some of the western cities,” an apparent reference to the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in other European countries.
Known by its initials in Hungarian, the TEV was organized in 2012 to fight anti-Semitism in Hungary. The group monitors and reports incidents and acts as a central coordinating organizer for the Jewish community’s efforts to combat attacks against Jews.
Carrying signs urging an end to antisemitic hatred and waving Israeli flags, about 250 demonstrators on Wednesday gathered in the center of The Hague — where the government of The Netherlands has its seat — for a demonstration under the slogan, “#KeppelOp!”, Dutch for “kippah on!”
Called by the Dutch Jewish organization CIDI — the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel — the rally came in response to last week’s warning from the top official combating antisemitism in neighboring Germany that it was dangerous for Jews to wear “the kippah everywhere all the time.” The official, federal commissioner Felix Klein, later clarified that his comments were intended as a “call to action” against rising antisemitism.
The rally was addressed by Ferdinand Grapperhaus, the Dutch minister of justice and security, as well as parliamentarians from across the political spectrum. Speakers declared their solidarity with the Dutch Jewish community of approximately 30,000.
In a statement that followed Wednesday’s rally, CIDI urged Dutch political leaders to move beyond “just words.” The organization highlighted the low rate of reporting for antisemitic incidents, arguing that the government needed to encourage victims to come forward.
According to research by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency in 2018, only 25 percent of Jewish Dutch nationals who have been victims of antisemitism in the last five years reported their experience to the Jewish community or to the police.
Christian Zionist’s to fight antisemitism @CUFI @CUFI_UK pic.twitter.com/fHT382W5XC
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) May 30, 2019
The Untold Story of Japan’s Oskar Schindler
On his way to the gallows, Josef Meisinger, a Nazi officer and pathological liar with a gangster’s disposition, committed a treacherous act toward his archenemy. Meisinger turned his attention to a German-born anti-Nazi Tokyo factory owner named Willy Foerster and accused him of complicity in his own long list of Nazi crimes. And that is how Foerster, who might otherwise have been championed as a Japanese Oskar Schindler, was instead defamed and largely forgotten, his deeds remaining buried for decades beneath layers of deception.Simon Wiesenthal drawings on display in Vienna
The real story of Foerster’s actions during the war and Meisinger’s successful plot to defame him by spreading a false account was only chronicled for the first time in 2017 with the publication of Fall der Foerster, written by Dr. Clemens Jochem, a German scientist from Hamburg. The book, thus far available in the German language only, has remained largely unknown. But in an exclusive interview with Tablet Jochem sheds new light on his findings and the latest developments in the story, including the troubling role American forces played in upholding Meisinger’s accusations after the war, and the ongoing efforts to see Foerster recognized by Yad Vashem as a “righteous gentile.”
“What made me curious was a letter that Foerster wrote to Fritz Bauer, the famous attorney general who helped capture Adolf Eichmann,” Jochem told Tablet. “In this letter, Foerster gave a summary description of how he had employed Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. I really was astonished, because if Foerster’s story was true, he seemed to be some sort of second Oskar Schindler.”
There are limits to the comparison. Foerster was not carrying out his work inside of Nazi Germany and there were far fewer Jews who came to work for him than did so for Schindler. But the parallels between the two factory owners who sheltered Jews within their businesses at great personal risk are striking.
The world knows Simon Wiesenthal for his tireless work to bring Nazi criminals to justice. Few remember that before the war, he was trained as an architect.Jewish students donate stipends to help Syrian refugees in Aleppo
The Jewish Museum of Vienna inaugurated on Wednesday an exhibition that sheds light on this forgotten aspect of Wiesenthal's life, reflecting on what could have been, but wasn't.
"Café As. The Survival of Simon Wiesenthal" features dozens of drawings that the Holocaust survivor produced in 1945.
During his internment in Mauthausen, Wiesenthal started to imagine the design for a future coffee house that his fellow prisoner Edmund Staniszewski dreamed of opening in the Polish city of Poznan, his hometown, after the end of the war. After the liberation of the camp, Wiesenthal perfected the sketches into drawings.
"The exhibition places the sketches of Simon Wiesenthal in the context of his training as an architect in Prague and Lviv, which was little considered by his biographers," "Café As" curator Michaela Vocelka told the Jerusalem Post via email.
"The sketches represent not only a symbol of hope in Simon Wiesenthal's struggle for survival in the Mauthausen concentration camp, but also document a hitherto little-known aspect of his biography," she added.
The color drawings feature designs for the café's interiors and exteriors, the staff uniforms, and even the baked goods to offer at the establishment.
Ten Jewish students from Vassar College in New York chose to donate their education stipends to help send aid to Syrian refugees in Aleppo.Caesarea opens new NIS 80 million visitor center in reconstructed vaults
Last year, the ten students who are participants of the Sinai Scholars Society program at the liberal arts college jointly decided to donate their $350 participant stipends to fund an aid shipment for the refugees and internally displaced people at five refugee camps in the Aleppo area, which is currently helping 537 families, a statement by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and Chabad on Campus International said.
The container, which cost $5,500 to ship to Syria, finally arrived at the refugee camps last week following months of hard work.
The students' donation of $3500 went towards the $5500 cost of shipping the 40-foot container, which was filled with supple of supplies that “included medicines, medical supplies and hospital equipment, food and clothing,” the organizations explained in the press release.
To make up the the $2,000 difference, the students held a fundraising drive, in which they were able to raise the of the remainder of the money rest from private donors. As intensified bombings around the outskirts of Idlib and Aleppo have continued over the last several weeks, the aid was in critical need.
Vassar student Iliana Jaime, who is one of the ten students that donated her stipend, said that in Sinai Scholars she has “learned that every good deed brings value into the world.”
President Reuven Rivlin officially opened a new NIS 80 million ($22 million) visitor’s center at the Caesarea National Park on Wednesday night, built in the ruins of four massive reconstructed vaults that once provided the base for a pagan temple built by King Herod in the first century BCE.
“Two thousand years ago, King Herod stood here and watched the city of Caesarea spread out below,” Rivlin said, cutting the ribbon. “The Caesarea we see today holds the promise of becoming as magnificent as the old city was, if not more than that.”
Caesarea is the country’s most visited national park, with more than 900,000 visitors per year, the majority from outside of Israel. The visitor’s center is part of a NIS 150 million grant from the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Caesarea Development Corporation, and the Nature and Parks Authority.
In addition to the Visitors Center in the King Herod’s Vault, there is also a new promenade under construction in the nearby Arab town of Jisr al Zarka and other renovation work for antiquities in the area, including an ancient synagogue.
Caesarea was the first open-water deep-sea port built in the ancient Middle East, utilizing cutting-edge technology of the time to sink platforms made of volcanic rock onto the seabed. Herod named the port and city Caesarea after Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of the Roman empire.
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