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Polish magazine asks “just how strong is the Jewish lobby?” on its front cover

Right wing Polish magazine Do Rzeczy has published an antisemitic issue which features the question “just how strong is the Jewish lobby?” on its front cover.

The weekly right wing magazine was founded in 2013 and represents Christian conservatism in the country.

The article pits the mysterious “Jewish lobby” against Poland, asking “can the Polish government handle it?”. Poland is currently governed by the far right Law and Justice Party, a party infested with antisemitism from the top all the way down to the grassroots.

Pitting the “Jewish lobby” against Poland’s national government is a repetition of the classic antisemitic canard in which conniving Jews seek to undermine national interests. It has its modern roots in antisemitic conspiracy theories such as the infamous hoax the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but such ideas were also a mainstay of Nazi propaganda.

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Turkish newspaper read by thousands of people publishes series of antisemitic cartoons

MEMRI have exposed a series of antisemitic cartoon that was published by Turkish newspaper Yeni Asya.

The cartoons, which is the work of İbrahim Özdabak, were made in response to calls in France to censor some antisemitic passages of the Quran. France has a growing antisemitism problem, which is often driven by Islamic extremism and which has increasingly spilled over into serious antisemitic violence in recent years. 

The cartoons have been produced since 2005, but were all reprinted by the newspaper last month in an edition that sold over 11,000 copies.

One cartoon shows a caricature of a religious Jew, covered in blood and flanked by missiles captioned “remove the verses about us from the Quran”. Another shows the UN as a puppet attached to a Magen David.

One shows another antisemitic caricature portrayed as Nero, playing a harp as the Islamic world burns.

Several compare Israel to Nazi Germany, including equating Gaza with the Holocaust.

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Conservative Iranians blame “Jewish influence” for Tehran Mosque’s “ugly” design

A large new Mosque being built in Tehran, the capital of Iran, which has been hailed as evoking the “austerity of early Islam” has attracted ire from conservative forces in the country.

Reza Daneshmir, one of the architects of the Mosque, has said that the design departs with traditional Mosque architecture partly to appeal to young, less religious professionals in the city, adding that they “wanted it to be an avant-garde project, not a conservative and backward one”.

The Vali-e-Asr Mosque has been divisive in Iran. Whilst it has many supporters and admirers, one news source, Mashregh, has said that the building “looks like a Jewish kippa” and called for the architects to be tried for treason for “aiding the Zionist conspiracy”.

Other conservative voices in the country have decried the Mosque as the result of “Jewish and secular influence”. The idea that Jews are behind attempts to modernise is a common theme in European antisemitism, in which Jews are portrayed as attempting to erode national cultures. Like many forms of European antisemitism, it is an idea that is finding increasing amounts of traction in the Middle East.

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Former Hamas official spouts variant of blood libel myth, blaming Jews for “every despicable deed” in Europe

Mustafa al-Lidawi, formerly a senior official of Hamas, has written a variant of the classic antisemitic blood libel myth in Ma’am, an Arabic newspaper.

Al-Lidawi called Purim a “holiday that the people of Europe hated and detested and wished that the Jews would leave their countries so they could be saved from their wickedness”. He continued that “this is because the Jews who lived in Europe would always bake a large pastry on the occasion of the holiday, and everyone would eat it. However, this pastry was mixed with the blood of a victim they chose from among those who were not Jews. Most of the time the victim was a little boy”.

Blood libel is an antisemitic myth that originated in England, and typically revolves around the accusation that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake matzah. However, it has many variants, most of which involve accusations of Jews engaging in ritualistic killing. Blood libel was imported into the Middle East by Imperial powers and has become a prominent part of contemporary Islamist antisemitism.

Al-Lidawi linked this blood libel to Israel, stating that “his Jewish mentality and this ancient Jewish nature have not changed. For they fashioned their joy from the blood of others, hold their celebrations at the expense of the sighs and groans of the victims who they tortured, and base their happiness on the sorrow of others”.

His comments are a disturbing reminder that behind the purported political motivations of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, there lies a hardcore antisemitism that mirrors the same mentalities that fuelled hundreds of years of persecution of Jews in Europe.  Whilst the fact that someone who was a senior official in Hamas has made such blatantly antisemitic comments is not remotely surprising, his comments provide a telling illustration of the profound antisemitism at the heart of the terrorist group.

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Erykah Badu says she “saw something good in Hitler” describing him as a “poor thing” who “had a terrible childhood”

Erykah Badu, an American singer-songwriter, has been condemned by the ADL after claiming that she “sees the good in everybody”, including Adolf Hitler, in an interview with Vulture.

She was asked about a 2008 trip to the Palestinian Territories in which she was criticised for denying Louis Farrrakhan’s antisemitism, who has a long history of antisemitic comments, which can be read about here. Badu claimed that she sees “good in everybody”, saying:

“I’m not Muslim, I’m not Christian, I’m not anything; I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things. If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously. I’m also okay with anything I had to say about Louis Farrakhan. But I’m not an antisemitic person”.

She then continued to say “I don’t even know what antisemitic was before I was called it. I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler. He was a wonderful painter”.

When she was challenged on this she retracted her assertion that Hitler was a wonderful painter, yet continued to try to find ways to defend him, stating “Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood”.

Having previously defended a notorious antisemite, Badu now seems to be trying to find any excuse to portray Hitler as a person with salvageable moral qualities, something which is almost invariably a precursor to downplaying the nature of Hitler’s crimes. Describing Hitler as a “poor thing” is an outright statement of sympathy for the man responsible for the extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of others.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League responded to the comments almost immediately. In a statement shortly after the interview was released he wrote:

“I also like to think that there is good in all people, but Hitler is pure evil. I don’t care if he painted or was a vegetarian; Hitler is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews & a war that claimed the lives of tens of millions. Shame on you for downplaying that. You are a role model to many, and as such, you should immediately apologize for these irresponsible and misguided comments”

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Puerto Rican Newspaper issues tepid “apology” for antisemitic article that claimed Jews control US Government

El Nuevo Dia, a newspaper based in Puerto Rico, has issued an apology after publishing an article that blamed Jews for the lack of American aid to the territory.

The newspaper published an article by Wilda Rodriguez titled “What does ‘the Jew’ want with Puerto Rico?” which argued that the US Government was under Jewish control, suggesting that Congress “will finally do what ‘the Jew’ wants, as they vulgarly call the prototype of true power?”

The column claims to explain “how the Jews control Washington”, adding that Israelis are not shy about “recognizing [that] Jewish power over the United States is no offence. It is the victory of their diaspora”.

In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League said:

“This is not the first time that confronted with an economic crisis Jews are accused of controlling the power and money. Wilma Rodriguez’s column published in your diary follows the worst legacies of anti-Semitic regimes that we would like to have left behind in the 20th century.

“Publishing an article accusing the Jewish people of controlling governments to the detriment of the future of Puerto Rico is practically the definition of antisemitism.”

Indeed, according to the Definition of Antisemitism, “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic, and antisemitism “is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong'”.

In a tepid ‘apology’, Rodriguez wrote that “writing is interpreted as antisemitic…. I can understand the  reaction of some to the mere use of the word Jewish. But the intention is not to provoke offence, but to contribute to public discussion”.

The writer’s ‘apology’ does nothing to address the actual offence that was caused, and seems to place blame upon the Jewish community for being offended by an article which is a blatant expression of classic antisemitism. Instead, it shamelessly suggests that antisemitic conspiracy theories have a place within “public discussion”.

The publisher of the newspaper itself wrote that it “apologizes to the Jewish community and to the rest of our audience that has been offended”, but left the text of the article entirely unchanged and un-retracted.

The ADL re-iterated its initial criticism of the article, stating that it “follows the worst legacies of antisemitic regimes that we would like to have left behind in the 20th century”

 

 

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Breitbart knowingly hired an antisemitic writer, asking him to delete tweets about Jews

An ex-employee of Breitbart has claimed that the website hired him despite knowing that he was an antisemite.

Tim Gionet – known online as “Baked Alaska” – has claimed that the right wing publication asked him to go through his tweets and delete any with the word “Jew” in them before they hired him.

The statements, if true, demonstrate that Breitbart knowingly hired an antisemite and merely attempted to cover his antisemitism up.

On a New Years Eve livestream, Gionet said:

“You know I, back in the day, used to work at Breitbart and I literally was told many times—they said, ‘Go through all your tweets and delete the word “Jew” in your tweets.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ Like, I was told that by Breitbart management. It’s like, if you’re going to be pro-white at all, publicly, you can say goodbye to getting a job. You can say goodbye to working at any sort of company. You’re going to get fired immediately”.

His comments, perhaps unknowingly, demonstrate a divide in the far right. On the one hand, many wish to avoid any compromise in expressing their extremist – whether those be racist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, etc. – views. On the other hand, those concerned with political viability attempt to practice optics, concealing the more extreme aspects of their ideology in order to make far right views more palatable.

Breitbart, which is once again run by Steve Bannon who served as Chief Strategist for Donald Trump, has been accused of being a far right, antisemitic publication with increased frequency since it became closely linked to Trump’s campaign. Bannon, who described the website as a platform for the Alt Right, led it to an increasing level of public influence, a fact that will look more unsettling if these allegations prove to be true.

Donald Trump commented that “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind”.

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Arab-American Newspaper in Georgia apologises for printing Antisemitic joke

Georgia, USA, based Arab community newspaper An Nour has apologised after publishing an antisemitic joke.

The newspaper posted an oft-repeated joke about a Jewish boy asking his father for money as his father repeatedly lowers the amount as he repeats it. The joke plays upon antisemitic stereotypes of Jews being miserly.

Printing such a joke demonstrates very poor judgement, and may indicate the existence of underlying antisemitic attitudes.

Habib Osta, the paper’s manager, apologised, saying “please convey our message to the Jewish community that we didn’t intend to be offensive and we apologize if we did”.

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UC Berkeley apologises after students publish blood libel cartoon depicting Alan Dershowitz

The Chancellor of UC Berkeley has apologised after student newspaper the Daily Californian published an antisemitic cartoon depicting pro-Israel activist and celebrated lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

Dershowitz, a liberal supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, spoke at the College, answering questions from a large audience.

The cartoon depicts Dershowitz grinning, with his head showing through a hole in a wall with an Israeli flag and images of happy children. The words “the liberal case for Israel”, the title of Dershowitz’s talk, are written on the wall. Behind the wall, he is depicted as trampling on a Palestinian man and holding up an Israeli soldier depicted as carrying out what is essentially an execution of an unarmed boy who lies in a pool of blood.

According to the Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic. The image unequivocally invokes blood libel in the implication that Israel, and perhaps Dershowitz personally, is responsible for cold-blooded killing, without any balance being provided. The image also presents Dershowitz as duplicitous and dishonest, as he attempts to influence political thinking, ideas which are often applied to Jews as a manifestation of antisemitism.

Reportedly, posters for the event were also vandalized with Swastikas. According to the Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is Antisemitic.

The publication’s editors apologised, saying that they “have seen with sharp clarity the pain and anger caused… The criticism we have received reaffirms for us a need for a more critical editing eye, and a stronger understanding of the violent history and contemporary manifestations of antisemitism”.

 

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Turkish “satire” shows a caricature of a Jew drinking blood, controlling world politics

Sumac, a satirical newspaper supportive of the Turkish government, has published a piece of blatantly antisemitic propaganda portraying an Orthodox Jew drinking blood and controlling world affairs.

The cartoon shows a caricature of an ultra-Orthodox Jew drinking from a teacup with the European Union flag and with the NATO symbol on his shoes. He sits opposite Donald Trump, portrayed as Caligula.

This is a classic example of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Such conspiracy theories often portray Jews as manipulating world affairs and being “behind the scenes” of world politics. The use of conspiracy theories is commonly used to incite hatred and violence against Jewish individuals.

The two are being served what appears to be blood by Golen, a former preacher who is exiled in the USA due to his alleged involvement in the Turkish coup.

Portraying Jews as drinking blood is known as blood libel, a defamatory accusation against Jews that dates back to the Middle Ages, when Jews were accused of killing Christian children to bake matzo. It has been used to incite countless pogroms against Jews.

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Berlin Mayor refuses to stop fundraiser for Palestinian terrorists at Socialist Newspaper’s offices

According to the Berlin daily, Der Tagesspiegel, a fundraiser for the terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was held on July 11 in Berlin. The Mayor of Berlin, Michael Muller, who has been publicly accused of being soft on antisemitism and terrorism, ignited a firestorm for allowing the fundraiser to proceed.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Director of Nazi War Crime Research, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Israel told the Jerusalem Post:”PFLP should be banned from staging events anywhere in the world.”

Zuroff also stated: “The Mayor should have said he found this offensive. The PFLP has murdered innocent civilians in many places.” The military wing of the PFLP, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, takes pride in launching Sumud rockets from the Gaza strip, which are aimed at the Israeli town of Sderot.

The Democratic Committee for Palestine reportedly held the fundraiser in the publishing house of the socialist newspaper, Neus Deutschland (New Germany).

The PFLP, who supports the destruction of Israel, is known for suicide bombings, plane hijackings, and targeted murders. And one of those tragic murders included the 2001 assassination of the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Zee’evi.

But this is not the first fundraiser in Germany for the PFLP. At the University of Hamburg, a guest professor from South Africa, BDS supporter, Farid Esack, invited his “comrade”, the PFLP terrorist, Leila Khaled, to a fundraiser for the PFLP in 2015. Khaled is the world’s first female plane hijacker.

Not surprisingly, Esack’s actions were widely condemned. Dr. Efraim Zuroff, in an article in the Jerusalem Post said: “A person who is sponsoring an unrepentant terrorist is hardly a person who should be educating German students.” And Zuroff, who added that “BDS is antisemitism” certainly has the support of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose Christian Democratic party declared BDS to be antisemitic at a party congress in 2016.

But just like BDS, fundraisers for terrorists in Germany are not banned. However, making a Nazi salute is banned. And, on August 4, two unnamed male tourists from China found out about this law the hard way, when they were arrested by Berlin police for snapping cellphone photos of each other giving Nazi salutes, in front of the Reichstag, the seat of the lower house of the German Parliament.

Obviously, saluting Hitler is abhorrent behavior, and it is understandable why the German government, given the horrors of Germany’s past, are happy to set this limit on free speech, and punish those who celebrate, even symbolically, Hitler’s barbaric regime.

But reason also dictates that raising money for terrorists, so that they can buy weapons and kill innocent people, is clearly a greater threat to the 82 million people living in Germany than a raised arm.

However, given the tragic terrorist attacks that Germany has suffered, officials, to their credit, do not whitewash the potential terrorist threats that the country is still facing. The BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, released its annual report in 2016. Tragically, the document reveals that Radical Islam is alive and well.

The numbers: There are 24,400 Islamists, 10,OOO Salafists, Sunni Muslims who believe that the German Constitution must be replaced by sharia law, and 10,000 members of the Turkish Islamist Milliu Gorus.

In addition, there are 680 potential Islamist threats influenced by Salafist ideology.

BvF also confirmed that hundreds of “jihadists” entered the country when one million migrants entered Germany during the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

According to Hans-Georg Maassen, who heads the BfV, “we must expect further attacks by individuals or terrorist groups.”

Maasen explained:”Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing BfV and we see it as one of the biggest security threats facing the internal security of Germany”.

But there is progress. Maassen told reporters that Germany has “dramatically stepped up its efforts to combat Islamist militancy, with a record number of arrests, prosecutions, and departures over the past year”, Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizere told the press.

But that statement leads to this question: Since Germany’s commitment to defeat terrorism is beyond dispute, why is it legal to raise money for terrorists? And what does that mean for German Jews?.

The answer, which has existed for thousands of years is, of course, antisemitism. Daniel Killy told the Jerusalem Post that Germany’s Jews are faced with antisemitism that is caused by “a combination of extreme right wing forces, deteriorating security, and [Germany’s] welcoming of refugees brought up in cultures ‘steeped in hatred’ for Jews”.

Of the 118,000 Jews in Germany, 2,500 of them live in the city of Hamburg, where Killy is the leader of the Jewish community.

“We no longer feel safe here,” Killy stated.

All eyes on Germany.

 

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Haaretz journalist Allison K Sommer compares Haredim to neo-Nazis

Allison Kaplan Sommer, a journalist for the English language edition of Haaretz, has compared Haredim in Israel to neo-Nazis.

Writing on Twitter, Sommer said “Sorry, Tal, but the haredim are as as hateful to Reform Jews as the neo-Nazis are to Jews, and secular Israelis stand by silently”

Whilst there are genuine problems in terms of intra-communal relations in Israel, and legitimate criticisms can be made of the response of some Haredim to non-Orthodox Jews, such a comparison is flippant, inflammatory and comes across as deliberately hurtful, as does any attempt to compare Jews to Nazis.

She faced a backlash from her Twitter followers, and from others, but does not appear to have apologised for her comments.

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Japanese Hotelier writes article claiming “Jewish people control American…finance and laws”

Toshio Motoya, the founder of the Apa Group, a Japanese hotel company, has penned an antisemitic article claiming to be about the “American counteroffensive against Jewish globalism”.

Extraordinarily, the Apa Group’s monthly newsletter, which is distributed to guests, featured the antisemitic article.

In the article he wrote that “Jewish people control American information, finance, and laws, and they benefit greatly from globalization because they move their massive profits to tax havens so they don’t have to pay any taxes. Many Jewish people support the Democratic Party”.

When Jewish groups in Canada objected to the material, Motoya defended himself, saying “it is very unfortunate that my writings gave you an erroneous impression that I hold antisemitic beliefs”. Such a defence is bizarre, given that conspiracy theories accusing Jews of controlling finance or politics have been a feature of antisemitic discourse for well over a century, and the idea that Jews dodge taxes belongs to a much older antisemitic canard.

Debby Shoctor, of The Jewish Federation of Edmonton, believes that the apology is insincere, suggesting that Motoya is speaking from a belief in Japanese supremacy, saying “he seems to be a Japanese apologist and to think that Japan is superior to other countries in the world, and that the Japanese are superior”.

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Holocaust denial and sympathy for Hitler in Chinese media

A postgraduate student in China has publicised material from Baidu News which allegedly espouses Holocaust denial, as well as promoting myths about Hitler’s life designed to evoke sympathy for the man in the Chinese public.

In one article, the author claims that only “tens of thousands of Jews” were killed by the Nazis. Such a huge underestimate of Jews murdered by the Nazis can only be described as Holocaust denial, and it is antisemitic to deny “the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The second article relays an apocryphal story claiming that Hitler had sympathy for the Chinese, but secretly disliked the Japanese, as he was poor and was assisted by a Chinese family in Vienna.

China has been said to have an “obsession” with Hitler, which at best comes across as in extremely bad taste in the Western World. However, deliberate attempts to deny the Holocaust go far, far beyond mere bad taste and are clearly extremely antisemitic.

Baidu is described as “effectively state media”. This is due to the extremely tight controls on information platforms in China, in which very little media is allowed without meeting the stringent censorship requirements set out by state policy.

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LBC and the Daily Mail must deal firmly with Katie Hopkins after her latest publicity-craving provocation

Katie Hopkins has built her career as a publicity-craving ‘provocateur’ but yesterday she crossed a line.

Some celebrities who thrive on outrage make genuine mistakes, but often they will deliberately wound and then apologise just to generate headlines. We cannot imagine that her latest move is a mistake.

Ms Hopkins has retweeted an American neo-Nazi called “AntiJuden” whose profile includes a swastika and the emblem of Hitler’s SS. The American neo-Nazi had cheered her support for racial profiling, tweeting: “Now that is the way it should be told”.  Even without examining its timeline, the virulently antisemitic nature of the account, which now appears to have been closed down by its owner, should have been immediately apparent to Ms Hopkins.

When the inevitable Twitter backlash arrived, Ms Hopkins could have taken the opportunity to redeem herself by issuing a full and genuine apology. Instead, she tweeted a mealy-mouthed apology which trivialised the account’s extremist antisemitic views by referring to it as merely “dodgy” and was accompanied by a photo of Ms Hopkins striking a forthright pose but with a teardrop photoshopped onto her cheek, leaving little doubt as to the insincerity of her words.

Ms Hopkins has prior form in this area. In the run-up to the last General Election, she attracted opprobrium and scorn for making a Holocaust joke about the then Labour leader, Ed Milliband, who is Jewish, and his wife Justine.

If yesterday’s episode was indeed an accident, Ms Hopkins has made herself accident prone. Having built her career on trolling the airwaves, she has developed quite a following amongst neo-Nazis like “AntiJuden”, which cannot come as any surprise to the LBC producers and Daily Mail editors who decided to give her a platform as a presenter and columnist. LBC thrives on debate, but having taken Ken Livingstone off air after his claim that Hitler supported Zionism, if they retain Katie Hopkins then their cover as a responsible broadcaster sometimes caught in the crossfire will be well and truly blown. The Daily Mail likewise.

LBC and the Daily Mail may decide to fire Katie Hopkins, and we would applaud them if they do. If they decided to reprimand her instead, she should, at the very least, be required to visit a Nazi concentration camp and for once make a positive contribution to a debate, perhaps by presenting a show and devoting a column to explaining how irresponsible demagogues are fueling the resurgence of Nazi propaganda online.

We await their decision with interest. While we wait, you may wish to contact them at [email protected] and [email protected].

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RT readers cheer that “k!kes are dead” after Tel Aviv building collapse

Russia Today’s coverage of a Tel Aviv building collapse provoked many antisemitic comments.

A building site had collapsed, killing two and injuring seventeen.

One of the comments said “surely the crane is anti-semitic”. Whilst such a comment may appear harmless, in reality it attempts to delegitimise the experience of antisemitism.

Comments such as “SQUASHED kosha spaghetti and pasta” and “With all the bad news in the world everyday, it’s nice to see something different, for a change” actively revelled in the death of Jews.

Comments such as “Lols, another Jewish builder trying to save a shekel or two on the materials” played on antisemitic canards.

Perhaps most shockingly, comments such as “Yay K!kes are DEAD !!! lol ZioTechnology just collapses ha ha ha” appeared.

Others said it was “another Holocaust” and “cause for celebration”, whilst one commenter mocked the Holocaust saying “6 trillion feared dead”. Another replied to the first comment “you mean Holohoax”.

The comments still remain up.

 

 

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Holocaust denial and antisemitism in Palestinian and Egyptian news sites

El Badil,  an Egyptian news site published a series of anti-semitic and Holocaust denial articles that were  republished by Palestenian TV Network Wattan News, reports the online American Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner on 22nd August, 2016.  The Algemeiner claims that the articles appeared in four parts: part one denies Jews exist as a people stating that Ashkanazi Jews are Khazars; part two states Jews use the ‘myth of the chosen people to manipulate the world to do their bidding’; part three denies Israel as the promised land and claims Jews have no historical ties to the region, essentially depriving Jews of part of their history; part four cites ‘renowned’ Holocaust deniers including Fred Leuchter, David Irving, and Ernst Zundel as ‘experts’, using their work as ‘evidence’ to deny the Holocaust , the use the of gas chambers and that claim there were only three million Jews in Europe before World War Two, thereby denying the count that six million Jews died during the conflict.

The articles were all titled “Zionist lies”

” Denial that Jewish people exist and that Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis are framed as if they are merely anti-Zionist positions”, the report claims. Adding further that Arab media are complaining about Arab refugees being shown death camps as history lessons and reprimanded if observed comparing Israeli activities to Nazi actions.

The use of the ‘Kharazian hypothesis’ is both scientifically flawed, as there is no evidence for it in genetic studies, and is a common thread within antisemitic discourse. Similarly, the

Links to the features can be found through the Algemeiner article, here.

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Venezuelan publication accuses “Rabbis” of manipulating economy

On August 12th, a Venezuelan weekly magazine called “The Truths of Miguel” published an antisemitic cover story.

The popular magazine’s cover featured an image of a Haredi Jewish man with a Star of David made from a banknote, titled “The Rabbis of Cadavi”, which references the government institution which deals with currency exchange, which implicitly accuses Jewish leaders of economic collusion. At a time of economic uncertainty for Venezuela, this amounts to using Jews as a scapegoat for economic troubles.

The editor of the magazine also writes that currencies are being manipulated by companies “that belong to citizens of Israelite origin”.

The head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt writes:

“For several years, we have seen anti-Semitic accusations and themes appear in Venezuelan public discourse,”

“This shockingly graphic manifestation of anti-Semitic imagery on full display on Venezuelan newsstands is unacceptable and repulsive.”

“At a time when all of Venezuela feels the impact of a serious economic hardship, this magazine cover not only feeds into base, age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and unscrupulous behavior towards money, but dangerously points the finger at Jews for taking advantage of this crisis and deepening the economic instability for their benefit”

 

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Daily Mail calls Temple Mount “Islamic Holy Site”, smears Jewish worshippers

Agence France Press has produced an article on an incident at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which was published by the Daily Mail with the headline “Jordan slams Israel after radical Jews visit Islamic Holy Site”.

The Temple Mount is a sacred site for Jews, Christians and Muslims, but it is the holiest site in the world for Jews, and at the centre of much Jewish liturgy. Whilst it is the third holiest site in Islam, to describe it as an “Islamic Holy Site” which has somehow been intruded upon by Jews is to erase Jewish connections to the Temple Mount.

Moreover, to call Jews who wish to visit the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples, “radical Jews” is simply untrue.

Whilst the Daily Mail does acknowledge later in the article that the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site, it does not challenge the idea that Jews who wish to visit it are “extremists”

Jordan’s Minister of Islamic Affairs and Awqaf (religious property) Wael Arabiyat described allowing Jews to visit their holiest site as “tyranny” and ominously said that it could provoke a religious war.

The current ‘status quo’ arrangement is that only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Jews who pray or show signs of being emotional on the Temple Mount are often arrested by Jordanian religious police.

UK Media Watch has challenged the Daily Mail over the headline, which remains as of yet unchanged.

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Egyptian media: Saudis are “Talmudic secret agents”

The blog Elder of Ziyon has reported that El-Shamal News, a prominent Egyptian media outlet, has published a bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theory that describes the Saudi royal family as “Talmudic secret agents”.

El-Shamal write:

“Global Talmudic Zionism has succeeded in planting a Talmudic Zionist gang who are staunch enemies of Islam and Muslims in the very land of Muhammad, since the 284-year-old when Zionism succeeded and convinced Britain to install the Mordechai family whose lineage started with the Jews of Khaybar to take the name of the Al-Saud and (Britain) enabled them and international Zionism to British colonial occupation of the Hijaz led by the name of Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who have committed the most heinous crimes against the people of Hijaz and the people of Iraq…
The Talmudic family killed more than 10 million Muslims because of the Talmudic motto that everyone who kills a lot of non-Jews will enter Paradise, and 10 million dead Muslims would ensure the highest levels of Paradise.”

The article accuses “Talmudic Jews” of using stolen money “to finance all Western colonial wars of Zionism” and claims that they kill those “hostile to Jews and their associates”. This is claimed despite the fact that it is against Saudi law to carry out any Jewish services. Jews are rarely allowed to even enter the country and people wishing to enter the country must sign a statement confirming they are not Jewish.

The article goes on to claim that the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein were also “Talmudic” Jews, whilst praising Hezbollah and the current Iranian regime. EoZ takes this to suggest that the writer is likely affiliated with the Iranian regime in some way.

Whilst attempting to place blame on Jews for events or political figures that one dislikes is blatantly antisemitic, both in appealing to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy and in using Jews as a scapegoat, the ADL has also produced a report exploring how references to the Talmud have frequently been used in antisemitic material.

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Everyday Antisemitism Italy Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Literary Nobel Prize winner, Dario Fo, speaks of ‘Jewish brutality’

Playwright, actor, comedian, singer, director, painter, politician and overall Renaissance man, Dario Fo, commented on Jews in a recent interview with Anna Bandettini of La Repubblica. In response to a question regarding Roberto Benigni, Fo criticised the actor/comedian for his work on The Ten Commandments, a show aired by Italy’s RAI 1 channel.

Benigni, who acts in this rendition of the Exodus, said that there is no more beautiful story. In the La Repubblica interview, Fo calls Benigni out for being an ‘opportunist’ and states that, “…you cannot become the maker of the Jews and not mention their brutality against those of other religions, as it happens today…Benigni is not good for comedy.”

Fo, who is internationally acclaimed for his plays, has notably been denounced by the Vatican for his ‘blasphemous’ writing. In 1997 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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Everyday Antisemitism Newspaper Turkey Ξ E-mail

Turkish journalist defines chimps and gorillas as “Cursed, mutated Jews”

In an article for Vahdet, a radical Islamist and pro-government Turkish paper, journalist Seyfi Sahen referred to the chimps and gorillas of North Africa as “cursed Jews…perverted humans that have mutated.” Sahen argues that Allah has cursed “perverted” Jews and therefore they have mutated into chimps and gorillas as a result. Throughout this article, Sahen accuses Jews of “terrorising the world of science” while also writing that Jews have “banks and money.” Sahen is thereby using the same type of propaganda that was used against Jews by the Nazis, by proposing that Jews are not to be considered human beings, and also by reinforcing the stereotype of Jews controlling the banks.

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Everyday Antisemitism Newspaper Spain Ξ E-mail

Spanish magazine publishes cartoon showing Jews abusing Jesus

Popular left-wing Spanish satirical magazine El Jueves portrayed hook-nosed Jewish caricatures abusing Jesus and Palestinians.

In El Jueves’ latest issue, illustrator Julio Serrano made allegations that Jerusalem’s Israel Museum keeps a Torah scroll wrapped in “the skin of my holy testicles” and depicted a long-nosed Jew harassing a beaten Jesus. The issue also featured themes that showed Jews in Nazi-style helmets, mistreating Palestinians.

The Jewish community has threatened to take legal action, saying “This [cartoon] could be taken from the Nazis’ Der Sturmer and nobody would notice the difference.”

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Everyday Antisemitism London Newspaper Ξ E-mail

UK’s Daily Telegraph removes reference to Jewish financier as “Latter day Shylocks”

The Daily Telegraph has changed an article by Jeremy Warner which referred to Jewish financier Paul Singer and his hedge fund, Elliott Management, as “latter day Shylocks”. Warner’s article began by hailing a deal to reduce the amount of money owed by Argentina to Elliott Management, writing: “Latter day Shylocks at Elliott Management allowing, Argentina will soon have renewed access to international capital markets.” Warner went on to criticise the reluctance to reduce the debt owed by Argentina, writing that Argentina’s efforts to reduce the amount of debt it owed was “frequently obstructed by aggressively litigious hedgies such as Mr Singer demanding their pound of flesh.”

Source: Daily Telegraph

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Belgium Everyday Antisemitism Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Belgian newspaper and Holocaust denier face action over interview claiming Nazi gas chambers were harmless

A Belgian daily paper, De Morgen, published an interview earlier this month, in which Siegfried Verbeke, a far-right symathiser with multiple convictions for inciting racial hatred against Jews and Holocaust denial, said: “Of course gas chambers existed, hundreds of them. To disinfect the clothes of people who went through them. But gas chambers designed to kill people never existed, no.”

Under Belgian law, Holocaust denial is illegal, and the state’s authority for combatting discrimination, has said that it may take legal action against Verbeke for his statement.

A Jewish newspaper, Joods Actueel, has also lodged an official complaint with the Belgian Council for Journalism, against De Morgen itself for “violation of ethics”.

Sources: CFCA/JTA and Joods Actueel

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Brazil Everyday Antisemitism Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Major Brazilian newspaper brands new Israeli ambassador “the Jew”

One of the most prominent newspapers in Brazil, O Globo, published in Rio de Janeiro, has covered a diplomatic spat between Israel and Brazil by calling Israel’s proposed new ambassador to Brazil “the Jew”.

An article on O Globo’s website is headlined “Experts opine on the appointment of the Jew Danny Dayan as an ambassador to Brazil” (Especialistas opinam sobre indicação do judeu Dani Dayan para embaixador no Brasil).

Source: CFCA/NRG

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Employment Discrimination Everyday Antisemitism Germany Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Fired editor who was told to stop covering “Jewish issues” is accused of “playing the victim” by German newspaper

Daniel Killy, former Executive Managing Editor of Bremen’s Weser-Kurierwho became the victim of threats and abuse for writing about Jewish issues and Israel and was fired shortly after, has been accused of “playing the victim” by the German daily newspaper Junge Welt.

In November, Killy reported to Arutz Sheva that he discovered a Nazi-style denunciation of his life and work, written by a former editor at the paper (himself the son of a Nazi), had been circulated amongst Bremen’s politicians.

According to Killy’s account, he received a letter from his Chief Executive Officer at the paper’s publisher, Bremer Tageszeitungen AG, officially forbidding him from engaging in voluntary work for the Jewish Community. In a meeting with his CEO, Killy says that he was warned: “Mr. Killy, you need to understand that we as Bremen’s monopoly paper can’t afford to be considered pro-Jewish.” When Killy responded that this explanation was perhaps seventy years too late, he said that his CEO replied: “No, no, of course I didn’t mean it like that” and assured him that there was no longer a problem.

Six weeks later he was fired.

In an article on their website, Junge Welt describes Killy’s report to Arutz Sheva as being “clearly intended to incite controversy amongst an Israeli and international audience regarding how a Jewish editor is treated by a German newspaper.” Quoting Meedia, Germany’s largest news agency, they restate Bremer Tageszeitungen AG’position that, as an active member of Hamburg’s Jewish community, Killy’s lacked necessary journalistic neutrality.

In his interview with Arutz Sheva, Killy remarks that, “this instruction [to cease writing on Jewish and Israeli issues] went against Germany’s official state doctrine. Germany is a steadfast friend of Israel and protector of its Jewish population. To be forbidden, as a journalist, to take a stand for Jewish issues, is a demonstration of blunt anti-Semitism, and does not stem from media neutrality.”

Junge Welt reports that, in addition to Killy’s “neutrality” being questionable, he had also neglected to acquire written permission prior to engaging in voluntary work as press spokesperson for Hamburg’s Jewish community, thereby breaching the terms of his contract with the Weser-Kurier.

Junge Welt goes on to report the upset accusations of antisemitism caused at Weser-Kurier and writes that management called into question the quality of Killy’s journalism. Editor-in-chief Moritz Döbler stated, “We were forever arguing over the position of the paper,” and Ruth Gerbracht, chair of Bremer Tageszeitungen AG, is reported to have been “appalled at how Killy was damaging our paper.”

Junge Welt concludes by stating, “Criticism against Israel does not necessarily equal antisemitism and firing an editor with Jewish beliefs is not automatically motivated by antisemitism.”

Sources: Junge Welt, Arutz Sheva

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Everyday Antisemitism France New York Newspaper Ξ E-mail

TIME writer claims it is easier to explain the murder of Jews than of non-Jews in Paris

Journalist Vivienne Walt, writing in TIME, has suggested it is easier to explain the murder of Jewish Parisians than the murder of non-Jewish Parisians:

In January it had been relatively simple to explain to my child, who was then eight, why the cartoonists had been the target, and why a Jewish supermarket was attacked—grim as the details were… Answering questions over dinner on Sunday was more difficult, however. The targets this time were young people having fun on a warm Friday night; people, in fact, who were his age not all that long ago. To children in Paris, Charlie Hebdo had seemed a one-off attack, involving targets that were not part of our ordinary lives.

Walt also suggested that Jewish people in a supermarket were not “the most normal of people,” writing that:

…Friday’s attacks impacted so many regular Parisians because they had been aimed directly at the most normal of people — the drinkers, the concert-goers, the soccer fans.

The Algemeiner news site adds that despite Walt’s suggestion that the youth of the victims was also more shocking in the November attacks than the January attacks, “Yoav Hattab, murdered in the HyperCacher kosher supermarket attack in January, was 21, and Yohan Cohen was 22. They were pretty young. In fact, they were younger than nearly every victim of the more recent Paris attacks. But apparently that didn’t make it more difficult to explain their murders to Vivienne’s 8-year-old son. Shopping for food is probably as familiar an experience to her son as sitting in a café or going to a concert, but clearly that didn’t make the job of explaining those murders any more difficult.”

Source: Time Magazine/Algemeiner

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Everyday Antisemitism France Newspaper Ξ E-mail

French editor fined for article attacking “Jewish thought police” and “Jewish tyranny”

The editor of the French far-right publication Rivarol, Fabrice Bourbon, has been fined €4,000 by an appeal court for incitement to hatred against Jews. In January 2014, Rivarol published an article entitled “The unacceptable Jewish thought police”, attacking the decision of France’s Council of State to ban performances by antisemitic comic Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala.The article referred to the Council of State as “a rabbinical court” and stated that French people were living under “full Jewish tyranny”. The Court of Appeal doubled the fine originally imposed by decision of the lower court.

Source: CFCA/OJIM

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Everyday Antisemitism Germany Newspaper Ξ E-mail

German newspaper editor who was told to stop covering “Jewish issues” is fired

Daniel Killy, former Executive Managing Editor of the Weser-Kurier, the only independent daily in the major German port city of Bremen, became the victim of threats and abuse for writing about Jewish issues and Israel. Soon after he joined the paper, he discovered that a Nazi-style denunciation of his life and work written by a former editor at the paper (himself the son of a Nazi) had been circulated amongst Bremen’s politicians.

According to Killy’s account, he received a letter from his Chief Executive Officer at the paper’s publisher, Bremer Tageszeitungen AG, officially forbidding him from engaging in voluntary work for the Jewish Community. In a meeting with his CEO, Killy says that he was warned: “Mr. Killy, you need to understand that we as Bremen’s monopoly paper can’t afford to be considered pro-Jewish.” When Killy responded that this explanation was perhaps seventy years too late, he said that his CEO replied: “No, no, of course I didn’t mean it like that” and assured him that there was no longer a problem.

Six weeks later he was fired.

Source: Arutz Sheva

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Everyday Antisemitism Greece Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Greek paper publishes antisemitic caricature of former Finance Minister

Following the revelation that former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was paid €24,000 by an Italian television station for a 22-minute interview, a Greek newspaper has published an antisemitic caricature depicting Varoufakis as a stereotypical Jewish money lender.

Source: CFCA

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Everyday Antisemitism London Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Local paper publishes letter from man demanding that UK Jewish Film Festival be banned in his borough

Local paper Ham & High has published a letter by John McPartin demanding that the UK Jewish Film Festival not be permitted in the borough. Writing in response to an article in the paper about the UK Jewish Film Festival, McPartin refers to the festival as the “Israeli Film Festival” possibly because he is confused, or perhaps because he wants to make the bigoted suggestion of banning a Jewish cultural event seem more acceptable. If you would like to respond with your own letter, please send it to [email protected].

Hat tip: North London Friends of Israel and Mandy Blumenthal

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Egypt Everyday Antisemitism Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Egyptian newspaper claims Jews capture, torture and murder non-Jewish children, then make pies with their blood

Egyptian newspaper Vetogate has published an article claiming that Jews practice strange and inhuman rituals, such as torturing and murdering non-Jewish children and using their blood to make pies:

“On the occasion of Purim, Jewish adult men slaughter a non-Jewish child under the age of seven, after torturing him and then completely emptying their blood in a suitable container, and then the blood is dried until it becomes a powder to bake a blood pie, which is a sacrifice for this holiday; in order to atone for sins. Despite the fact that the custom has been discontinued for the time being, but the Jews practiced it all over the world, and particularly in Russia during World War II, prompting ostracism and persecution in the communities in which they lived.”

The antisemitic “blood libel” has been used as a pretext to persecute Jews for centuries.

Translation: Elder of Ziyon

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Everyday Antisemitism New York Newspaper Ξ E-mail

Outcry after New York Times publishes list of Jewish politicians and their voting intentions

Ahead of the Congressional vote on the Iran nuclear deal, the New York Times published a list of Jewish politicians, the Jewish population in their constituencies and their voting intentions. After an outcry (see some selected tweets below), the paper quietly removed the “Jewish” column.

 

https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/642032222862766080

https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/642040218736963584

https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/642049125689749504

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/642037980442587136