Category: Everyday Antisemitism

Flyers describing the Holocaust as the “Holohoax” have been found on various Australia campuses.

“Holohoax” is a term used by Holocaust deniers used to imply that the Holocaust never happened and instead was a massive hoax. The term is intimately linked with other antisemitic conspiracy theories, and is often used to allege that Jews fabricated the Holocaust in order to gain favour and special privileges.

Confirmed sightings of the leaflets have been found at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and the University of NSW as well as an unconfirmed report at the University of Sydney.

The leaflets link to a conspiracy theory website and describe the Holocaust as a “Hollywood production”. They are titled “the Greatest Swindle of All Time”.

The universities are investigating, but are so far only discussing it in terms of the perpetrators being punished under anti-littering act, with ANU saying they could face fines under the legislation. Jewish students groups feel that the matter has not been taken sufficiently seriously, believing that the leaflets are part of coordinated neo-Nazi activity on campus.

AUJS commented with the following:

“Australian universities must vigorously tackle the surge in anti-Semitism, and identify and punish the groups which are disseminating this poison.”

“It is vital that student bodies and university authorities work with Jewish groups to educate the student population on anti-Semitism and the destructive effects of racist hate speech.”

It’s a contemptible attempt to abuse and isolate Jewish students and staff, many of whom lost family in the Holocaust and whose grandparents in Australia are survivors of the genocide.”

“Although the leaflets are closely similar to one another in content and appearance, they have appeared in three slightly different forms, suggesting that there have been three separate print runs” 

Donald Trump Jr. has retweeted Kevin MacDonald, a retired professor who is extremely popular among neo-Nazis.

MacDonald has been described as “the neo-Nazi movement’s favourite academic”

MacDonald describes antisemitism as a “logical” response to Jewish control over business and politics and believes that Jews have evolved to want to control societies.

Trump Jr’s retweet also provoked a series of replies, many of which were racist or antisemitic in content, and some of which were happy that MacDonald had been recognised.

Carlos Paz, the ombudsman of the municipality of Cerrillos Saltain Argentina, has posted an antisemitic rant on his Facebook.

His rant included “Jews have me fucking sick, see I’m right that these Jews are shit”.

He has denied authorship of the remarks on his Facebook, but he is under investigation already, with Association of Ombudsmen of Argentina having issued a statement expressing “its strongest condemnation of the statements of the Ombudsman of the Municipality of San José de Cerrillos, Carlos Paz” as well as urging local politicians to “start the relevant impeachment process against Mr. Carlos Paz on the grounds of poor performance in carrying out their duties and indignity”.

Shomrim have tweeted that a Jewish woman was spat on in Bournemouth.

The woman was holidaying in Bournemouth when a man spat at her and shouted “stop killing Palestinian children”. Holding Jews collectively responsible for the state of Israel is antisemitic.

The woman was deliberately targeted because she is Jewish. The suspect fled when the police arrived.

Victim was targeted in this unprovoked attack because she was Jewish. Suspect fled as @DorsetPolice arrived on scene https://t.co/6i7fXp6p2Q

— Shomrim (Stamford Hill) (@Shomrim) August 23, 2016

Kamil Malmon, a Polish man, has been sentenced to 26 weeks in prison after damaging Pinner Synagogue with antisemitic graffiti.

Malmon wrote “f*ck the Juda!!!” on the Synagogue in June, and was captured on CCTV. The CCTV was installed by a Jewish charity, the Community Security Trust, which has been fortifying Jewish community buildings in response to a surge in antisemitic hate crime.

Malmon was identified by the Synagogue’s caretaker.

Malmon appeared at Willesden Magistrate Court on August 12 and pleaded guilty through a Polish interpreter. The court watched the CCTV footage and listened to statements from the caretaker, a representative of the Synagogue, and from several police who attended when the crime was reported, as well as a recording of Malmon’s police statement.

Malmon claimed that he did not do the graffiti, but said that he thinks Jewish people separate themselves from others and only look after themselves, yet denied having a particular problem with Jews.

The Magistrate also ordered Malmon to pay costs, and stated that if the offence was not a racially or religiously motivated one, then it would only warrant a fine, but due to the motivation necessitated a jail sentence.

A representative from Pinner Synagogue reacted:
“Whilst this was the first incident of its type experienced by the Synagogue since its establishment 75 years ago, and perhaps associated with the current trend of increasing antisemitism, it was nevertheless shocking and unacceptable. This incident was painfully reminiscent of the 1930s as tragically experienced by the parents of many of the members of the Synagogue. There is no place for antisemitism in Society today. Our thanks therefore to the local police for pursuing this hate crime to a successful conclusion and to the CST for the funding of the CCTV which was absolutely central to the identification of the offender.”  

The Community Security Trust also responded to the incident, saying:

“CST welcomes this conviction and sentence, and hope it shows that antisemitic incidents, including graffiti, will not be tolerated and will be dealt with by the Justice system. CST wishes to thank the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for their swift action on this case“.

This incident comes amidst a flurry in antisemitic graffiti that has been recorded in London and the surrounding areas in recent months.

A movement for millennial supporters of Donald Trump, which calls itself “Trump Youth”, is being run by an individual who has expressed sympathy for the Nazis, according to Forward.

In terms of rhetoric, the leader, Jayme Liardi, uses similar terms against “globalists” as the Nazis used about Jews, describing them as “parasites” that are “feeding on our energy”.

He is also suspicious of “fluoride in the water” and genetic engineering.

Forward report that on his personal website, Liardi implies that the Nazis have been unfairly portrayed. He writes “And yes, I read Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. I quickly realized that I was not being given all of the facts — that what passes for history is merely rehashed propaganda from the war.”

When writing about “globalism”, Liardi seems to link the idea to Jews, writing about certain government actions as being “kosher” when they benefit these alleged “globalists”. For example, he claims that “if you have no identity, one will be installed into you by the kosher forces of The State”.

The site asks new users to register their ethnicity when creating an account.

A bar in Paris has been reported as selling a cocktail called “The Gas Chamber” for four euros.

The owner of the Sunset Boulevard has been asked to remove the drink from his menu, but no response has been issued as of yet.

Whilst this is not necessarily an incident that has been motivated by antisemitic intent, making light of the systematic extermination of millions of Jews by naming a cocktail over the most prominent method of slaughter is extremely damaging to Jewish people, an insult to those who perished, and sets a dangerous precedent of normalising the commodification of Genocide.

Cazenove Labour, a branch of the Labour Party in Hackney, has reported antisemitic graffiti to the council and to the police via its Twitter account.

The graffiti reads “f**k yids” and was found in Stamford Hill, an area with a large Haredi Jewish community.

The same words have been found in other antisemitic graffiti in recent weeks, including another example in Stamford Hill and one in Stoke Newington, as well as other antisemitic graffiti in Norwich and Brentford, West London.

A Jewish man walking down Ferndale Road in Tottenham in the afternoon of July 28th was subjected to a tirade of antisemitic abuse by a man and woman.

According to the International Business Times, the couple shouted “no one likes your people”, “you c**t, you Jewish pr**k” before threatening that he would be “turned into ashes”.

Following the attack, the victim was apparently too scared to contact the police. The police were alerted to the incident by Shomrim, and have since begun an investigation, highlighting the vital role played by Shomrim within the Jewish community.

The local Labour MP David Lammy described the verbal attack as “abhorrent, disgusting and vile” and the leader of the local council expressed how she was “deeply concerned” about rising antisemitism and urged other local residents to “stand side-by-side with our Jewish community”.

17 June 2016, German-Canadian Monika Schaefer, former senior member of the Green Party in Canada, publicly released a video which allegedly denies the Holocaust.

Through her husband, Alfred Schaefer’s, YouTube account, Monika Schaefer presents what is apparently a post-mortem apology to her late mother. Schaefer recalls the trauma of her childhood growing up German in Canada post-World War II. She claims she was “indoctrinated” by society, through education and media, to consider Adolf Hitler a villainous figure in history.

Over the last few years, she has come to the understanding that the Holocaust is “the biggest and most pernicious and persistent lie in all of history.” Consequently, she regrets reproaching her mother in her youth for participating in a Nazi-ruled Germany that turned a blind-eye to the atrocities committed by that regime. Schaefer now asserts that the Holocaust is “the six million lie.”

RESPONSE:

The Green Party reacted to their former candidate’s video with a swift dismissal of her beliefs and a condemnation of such antisemitic propoganda. Elizabeth May, current leader of Canada’s Green Party referred to the video as hate speech and promised to remove Schaeffer from the party as quickly as possible. “I am shocked by comments made by Ms. Schaefer and I condemn her terribly misguided and untrue statements,” said May.

Emily McMillan, Executive Director of the Green Party commented, “Monika Schaefer’s comments denying the Holocaust are outrageous and shocking. Ms. Schaefer has no standing within the Green Party of Canada…”

Moreover, local community members of Jasper, Alberta, where Schaeffer resides, have stepped up to speak against her. Ken Kuzminski, President of the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion, filed a hate speech complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission referencing her publication as a Hate Crime. Kuzminski clarified his point stating, “Monika has a right to say whatever she wants to say, but once she’s published it, I feel that’s moved on to hate speech.”

Over a three month period from May to July, Kendall Sullivan, a 50 year-old Connecticut man has been accused of having posted messages on an internet forum for heavy metal fans, in which he threatened to “slaughter Jews” and “burn their synagogues.”  A federal grand jury has indicted him in response to charges brought against him by the FBI.

FBI investigators obtained a warrant to search Sullivan’s home in Stamford, during which they found more than two dozen firearms, gun parts, high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s New Haven division, said that the authorities may have thwarted “a horrific hate crime.”
Sullivan is now in custody. Although comment has been sought from sources close to Sullivan, no responses have been received.

Note: the image shows a drummer who is known for playing in several “National Socialist Black Metal” bands

Poland’s defense minister, Antoni Macierewicz, has been revealed as having founded and run an antisemitic newspaper.

Macierewicz, who in the course of his ministerial duties has met with many world leaders, founded Głos (Voice) in 1977, and according to Forward owned it at least as recently as 2009, and may still own it.

One survey of  Głos’ content during the years in which Macierewicz was most active as its editor found 43 antisemitic articles published in 1996 alone. For example, when in 1996 Dariusz Rosati wrote a profound plea for forgiveness to the Jewish community for the 1946 Kielce pogrom,  in which 40 Holocaust survivors were murdered, Macierewicz described the apology as “a brazen lie and defamation”, denying any Polish involvement. In another article, he blames “Jewish circles” for spreading a “politics of lies” that blames Poles for pogroms.

In another article that year he asked “Why are Jewish threats to harm the international interest of Poland treated with such respect?”

Forward writes that many Głos articles accuse Jews of conspiring against Poland, for example of wanting “even our natural monuments”, accusing Jews of wanting to strip the country of its resources. Another writer accused Jews in Krakow of wanting to take over the hospitals and indicated that Jews had in some way infiltrated public services, writing that one senior police officer was “strictly linked to the Jewish nationality,” continuing that one “can see him in synagogue very often”.

The paper also featured many antisemitic cartoons, one depicting an Orthodox Jew saying to a dog “we’ll put you to death for your antisemitism”, and others depicting Jewish stereotypes.

In 2002, Macierewicz wrote of the antisemitic fabrication the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that “experience shows that there are such groups in Jewish circles”.

The Anti-Defamation League have met with Polish officials to discuss the matter

The French Education Ministry is currently investigating a high school teacher from Paris, who has allegedly shared antisemitic content on Facebook, including with some of her pupils.

The CRIF, the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France, lodged a complaint with the ministry earlier this week. She teaches at the Janson-de-Sailly school, which the JTA describes as “prestigious”, and reportedly invited students to connect with her page on Facebook.

The teacher allegedly wrote to condemn “the American Jewish lobby” and voiced her support for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign.

It is also alleged that she wrote that Francois Hollande “is a Jew who benefited from his belonging to that community to ascend in politics and who now denies this” and that he “is a Jew and denies it. Backpedaling will begin all over, now that it is less beneficial for Jewry”.

She wrote of the Holocaust that “the Shoah was designed and organised by Jews”.

Benjamin Immanuel Hoff, the Chief of the State Chancellery in Thuringa has received a horrific letter that threatens both Muslims and Jews.

The letter defames both the Jewish and Muslim communities, saying that the only option is to re-open concentration camps. It continues to say “We’ve gassed 6 million Jews in Europe, so it will not be difficult for us to eliminate 3 million Muslims and the rest of the Jews”.

He singles out two Jews by name: Reinhard Schramm and Stephan Kramer, both of whom are prominent figures in the local Jewish community.

The letter concludes with “Germany wake up!”, which has frequently been chanted by Pegida extremists.

The police have told about the letter and are investigating the matter.

A tennis club in Belgium has suspended a player after he told his Jewish player that “all of you should have been gassed”.

Alain Verlaak reportedly made the comment to a Maccabi player during a tournament at Tennis 7th Olympis club in Antwerp. The Jewish player, who chose only to be identified as Serge S. due to security concerns, said that the incident occurred during a dispute over whether a point should be scored or not. Verlaak was suspended and removed from the tournament.

A criminal complaint has been made to the police.

A 59-year-old man in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, flew a Nazi flag in his garden.

Malcolm Green put the flag up on Tuesday morning, but took it down after a series of complaints and the threat of a fine from the local council. he also flew a large confederate flag.

When pressed on the issue, Mr Green defended himself stating that the Nazi flag was only “small”. Despite having taken it down and having apologised for causing any offence, Mr Green does not appear to be particularly remorseful, stating that he won’t put it up again but because he doesn’t “want the trouble”.

The police have been made aware of the incident and will be discussing it with Mr Green.

Vandals have targeted a Jewish-owned business in Stoke Newington, an area with a large Jewish community, with antisemitic graffiti, a fact that has been discovered by Shomrim.

More anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled in #N16, this time on a door of a Jewish business in #StokeNewington pic.twitter.com/keN9TuX9Ie

— Shomrim (Stamford Hill) (@Shomrim) July 27, 2016

The graffiti reads “f*ck yids”, which appears twice.

It also says “we know your here”, with what appears to be an unfinished swastika below.

This is the most recent of several instances of antisemitic graffiti in London and Southern England, which has also been seen in Stamford Hill (also discovered through the vigilance of Shomrim), Brentford and Norwich within the past week.

A Manhattan attorney has posted several pieces of antisemitic content on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Rahul Manchanda, who describes himself as having “worked for one of the largest law firms in Manhattan”, posted that Angela Merkel was “controlled by Hardcore Zionist Jews Rothschilds/Soros w NATO” who he accused of having engineered the migrant crisis. This is a typical example of an antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging Jewish control over world affairs. He also writes that these individuals are “turning the world into Israel“.

He has expressed support for various other conspiracy theories, reposting one accusing the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rothchilds of controlling the education system to push children towards “adult-serfdom” and preventing schools teaching about the so-called “genocide…by Israel against Palestine”. He has retweeted statements that “Mossad did London terror attack” and “Zionist Jews” run various international institutions. He also retweeted a tweet stating that “Masonic Jews…will destroy the goyim by starting WW3” and that Jewish communists “invented the 6 million figure“.

He tweeted an article purporting to expose “Brexit and Jewish Oligarchy“, and he attributed the Brexit result to an “Anglo-Zionist push” whilst retweeting a statement about “Masonic Jewish white genocide agenda“, which Manchanda described as “great cover for Luciferian terrorist attacks”.

He has made several media appearances speaking about legal issues, including appearing on Fox News.

Antisemitic graffiti has been discovered outside the Fountain Leisure Centre in Brentford, West London.

The graffiti, found on a hoarding in prominent view of a main road, reads “Jude Rauss” – or “Jew Out”, which was perhaps intended to read “Juden Raus”, “Jews Out”, an infamous 1936 German board game based on deporting Jews to Mandatory Palestine with disputed linked to the Nazi Party.

The graffiti also shows a Star of David suspended in a “hangman” picture, an image which could be viewed as an unambiguous threat.

The graffiti also seems to depict a flag-like design using the combination of red and black – colours associated with the far-left ideology of Anarcho-Communism.

Bernie Sanders has invited the secretary of international relations of the far-left Spanish political party Podemon to join him on the campaign trail, as he attempts to influence the Democratic Party platform.

Paul Bustinduy was reported as joining Sanders on July 22nd.

Podemos recently came third in Spain’s elections, but its recent history has been troubled by antisemitism. Its party affiliate in Madrid tweeted:

“ ‘How do you fit five million Jews in a SEAT 600 [a car]?’ Answer: ‘In an ashtray.’”

Zapata, the author of the tweet, initially apologised saying that it had been taken out of context, resigning several days later, but without being the subject of any formal action from his party.

The party is also supportive of the BDS movement, which disproportionately singles out the Jewish state to be boycotted, as well as various other anti-Israel measures. The Hudson Institute describes the party as “explicitly anti-Semitic”.

However, most disturbingly, Podemos has explicitly defended El Jueves, a far left magazine that has consistently published unambigiously antisemitic content. The Podemos leadership have signed a petition which calls for El Jueves to be exempted from possible hate crime complaints against it. The content in El Jueves has frequently included “anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic cartoons” writes Yves Coleman. The magazine also “likes to play with the stereotypes of the Jew as a scheme, swindler and liar” and often depicts Jews with “either payots, long beards, a wide-brimmed hat and a black coat or an IDF military uniform”.

One cartoon depicts President Obama taking money from Jews, playing on the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish control in politics, and is captioned “stay out of Spain, Obama”.

They also used the SS logo to imply that Israel is run by Nazis, which is explicitly described as antisemitic in the EUMC working definition of antisemitism.

Written by Isca Stieglitz

On, July 18th , graffiti was discovered on the pathway of a main pedestrian and high traffic footbridge leading to Norwich city centre. The graffiti reads “ISIS ARE THE PAWNS OF ZIONISM”, accompanied by two “tags”: a cartoon face, smoking, with the letter ‘J’ and the word “Gaph”. The incident has been reported to the authorities. Despite an attempt at removal the graffiti is still in situ.

This could be the work of one or more people, who are ill-informed as to the nature and meaning of Zionism and could simply be following a popular narrative. Despite popular assertions that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, uses of the word ‘Zionism’ in this context serve to simply take the place of the word ‘Jews’ in a style of conspiracy theory that has historically been used to defame Jewish people; conspiratorial activity has been levelled at Jews for centuries and alleged responsibility for ISIS is just a common new form of this canard.

Many are unaware that to be anti-Zionist means one is against the existence of the State of Israel in any form, it is often accompanied with accusations of being a racist endeavour. According to the EUMC definition of antisemitism, attacks against ‘Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity’ are antisemitic.

Whether these authors are aware of these aspects of antisemitism is neither here nor there; it is the casual and everyday nature of these accusations which permeate our communities, at every level, which is more divisive and frightening, as such themes are remarkably common, coming up time and time again.

In the early evening of July 15th in the Stieglitz Town Hall Station a man, brandishing a knife, shouted various antisemitic insults.

Some of the things the man shouted included ‘shit jew’ and ‘all the jews are to blame’. He then went on to shout about the link between ‘the jews, the Americans and the government’, seemingly parroting some form of antisemitic conspiracy theory.

The man repeatedly made stabbing motions with the knife. The police have been alerted and are investigating.

The report was brought to our attention by Recherche- und Informationsstelle Antisemitismus – RIAS

Translated by Isca Stieglitz

On Saturday July 16th a member of the Kahal Adass Jisroel congregation was walking to a Shabbat evening service when he was attacked by two men in their twenties.

The two men were on bicycles and allegedly asked the man, who was dressed in a traditional Orthodox clothing, if he was Jewish. When the man answered that he was, one of the men proceeded to say that he was Palestinian. The offender then apparently hurled insults at the Jewish man, threatened him and his family and spat on him twice. He also photographed him on his phone, presumably in an attempt to humiliate him.

This story was brought to our attention by Recherche- und Informationsstelle Antisemitismus – RIAS.

Translation provided by Isca Stieglitz.

The Police have been alerted to antisemitic graffiti in Stamford Hill and Cazenove Road.

The words ‘fuck yids’ were found scrawled on several posters, including ‘refugees and immigrants welcome’ posters, in the area, which is home to a large Haredi community.

"F*** YIDS" scrawled on several locations in #StamfordHill, including on a sign of "REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS WELCOME" pic.twitter.com/9hHUu8iuEt

— Shomrim (Stamford Hill) (@Shomrim) July 25, 2016

The graffiti was discovered by Shomrim, the Jewish neighborhood security group, who have since been providing reassurance and support to the local Jewish community, whilst also emphasizing that the local area is generally friendly to Jews.

Shomrim have encouraged anyone with information to contact the police (Ref:CAD 4565 25/07).

The police in London, Ontario – Canada, are investigating a potential hate crime after a local Arabic language newspaper published an article that blamed Jews for the Holocaust.

The article, headlined “the question which everyone ignores: why did Hitler kill the Jews?”, accused Jews of causing Germany’s economic collapse in the 1920s as well as of causing sexual “promiscuity…homosexuality…every type of sexual deviance”.

The article then goes on to accuse “Jewish propaganda” of leading to the modern consensus about the Holocaust, which it claims is held despite the fact that “the total number of Jews in Germany was less than a quarter of this figure that they say Hitler burned!”, apparently ignoring that Hitler militarily occupied most of Europe and not just Germany.

The article originally featured in the Egyptian paper  al-Masry al-Youm, which has frequently featured antisemitic content, including a Menorah as part of the ISIS symbol, connected to a common antisemitic claim of the alleged Jewish origins of ISIS, as well as featuring other “elaborate antisemitic conspiracy theories”. According to the National Post, this newspaper is recommended as reading by the London and Middlesex Immigration Partnership, a publicly funded body. The London and Middlesex Immigration Partnership claims that its mission is “serving and integrating immigrants”, yet  promoting antisemitic propaganda serves nobody, and certainly will not help an immigrant integrate into Canadian society.

Wikileaks posted, and subsequently removed, tweets that suggested that most of its critics are Jewish “tribalist….establishment climbers”.

The Wikileaks twitter account wrote “most of our critics have 3 (((brackets around their names))) & have blacked rimmed glasses. Bizarre”.

The use of three brackets around one’s name is a practice that many Jews on Twitter have re-appropriated from the far right, who had used the symbol to identify or ‘expose’ Jews.

In another tweet Wikileaks speculated as to whether the “symbol has been re-re-purposed to now be a tribalist designator for establishment climbers”, drawing on common antisemitic imagery of Jewish control over, or attempts to influence the political establishment.

Wikileaks deleted the tweets, but still continued to defend them.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has previously referred to a “Jewish conspiracy” and has links to Holocaust denier Israel Shamir

Dr Omar Zaid, a former emergency room doctor and currently a lecturer at Insaniah University, a private University in Malaysia, has posted large amounts of antisemitic content on his twitter, as well as his personal website.

In one tweet he accuses “Jews and Jesuits” of spreading fear about the Brexit vote.

On the enquiry into possible Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks he concludes “Jews dun it”. He also shared an image with an antisemitic image of a woman breastfeeding a devil, captioned “Israel:mother of terrorism”. In a case of possible fraud within Medicare, he writes that the offenders are “probable Jews”.

In another he calls Roger Ailes a “fat ugly Jew pervert”. He also claims that Jews created a large scale sex slave trade in Argentina, a similar claim to the more common canard that Jews were responsible for the slave trade in general. Zaid writes that “All roads lead to the Jews”.

He also retweeted several tweets espousing Holocaust denial, which referred to a ‘holohoax’, a common term used by Holocaust deniers.

NTV, a Turkish Broadcaster, has reported that the Jewish deputy mayor of Istanbul, Cemil Candas, has been shot by an unidentified assailant in his office.

Candas is currently in a critical condition in hospital. It is unclear whether this incident is linked to the wave of arrests and political unease that have swept the country following the failed coup attempt.

Whilst it is unclear whether antisemitism played a role in the shooting, a former Turkish lawmaker has suggested that the failed coup could have serious negative implications for the country’s Jewish community.

Baroness Tonge, who was forced to resign from the Liberal Democrat Party in the House of Lords over antisemitic remarks in 2012, has once again tried to hold Jews to account for ‘crimes’ she perceives Israel to have committed.

Speaking in the House of Lords today, Baroness Tonge blamed Israel for the rise of extreme Islamism and ISIS. She then went on to say that Israel did not deserve the support of British Jews, but that Jews nonetheless had a special responsibility to stop the Israeli government “destroying…the Middle East and the wider world”.

Tonge also claimed that Palestinian terrorist groups have a “justified grudge” against Israel, effectively defending the terrorism that is aimed at Jewish people in Israel and around the world by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organisations.

In January last year we condemned Baroness Tonge for submitting a written question in the House of Lords which asked the government “to encourage Jewish faith leaders in the United Kingdom publicly to condemn settlement building by Israel and to make clear their support for universal human rights.”

Baroness Tonge has a long history of making these sorts of remarks. It is despicable to see her continuing to use the House of Lords to try to make demands of Jewish people. Dictating to Jews what their relationship should be with the Jewish state of Israel is unacceptable, and the definition of antisemitism clearly states that it is antisemitic to hold Jews “collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

Having previously suggested an investigation into supposed Israeli harvesting of human organs, which is the modern-day incarnation of the mediaeval antisemitic blood libel, Baroness Tonge is once again claiming that British Jews are the ones with unacceptable opinions on Israel.

We cannot expect Baroness Tonge to apologise, as she means it, and has a long history of antisemitism which has seen her forced to resign from the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Party. It is now time for her to be expelled from the Liberal Democrat Party entirely, not just the parliamentary party, and it is also high time she was expelled from the House of Lords.

You may wish to write to the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, Tim Farron MP, at [email protected].

A care worker in London has reached out to Everyday Antisemitism to report an alleged incident involving antisemitic comments from his manager.

The care worker, whose grandmother escaped Nazi-occupied Europe and lost most of her family to the Holocaust in the process, alleges that his manager said “good job Hitler paid his gas bill” in response to someone mentioning their gas bill, and has gone out of his way to voice his approval of the Nazis in the man’s presence. The manager has allegedly expressed admiration for Hitler and collects Nazi memorabilia.

The matter is currently under investigation by the employer.

A couple in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, have had their home targeted with swastika graffiti.

The woman discovered the graffiti when she woke up in the morning and has stated that she believes that the incident could have been triggered by the fact that her husband is Jewish.

The police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Elsewhere, in Arizona Adam Stevens, a candidate for the state legislature had his driveway targeted with swastika graffiti and the message “go home Jew”. The incident is also under police investigation.

American celebrity Tila Tequila, born Nyugen, has once again been posting antisemitic content on her Twitter account.

In one tweet she wrote that the slave traders were “actually Jews and Saudi Arabians”. Accusations of heavy Jewish involvement in the slave trade are a common tactic among antisemites, but have been dismissed by the American Historical Association as a ‘misuse of history’.

Nyugen agreed with a tweet describing Jews as “cunning beasts full of hate”, replying that she knows “all about the evil Jew”, and described her and Hitler as being a “match made in heaven”.

In another tweet she accused the “Ancient Jews” of having “reptilian DNA bloodline”, surviving from taking the “DNA of Aryans”.

She also referenced a common theory among antisemites, that of the alleged Khazarian origins of the Jewish people, a claim disproved by modern genetics, as well as common claim that ISIS is a creation of the State of Israel, writing that the terrorist group are “Khazarian barbarian Israelis”.

Nyugen has shared antisemitic content on social media several times before. In 2013 she penned an article titled ‘Why I Sympathize with Hitler: Part I’, posting pictures of her dressed in a Nazi-inspired uniform in front of Auschwitz. In May she suggested that the Jewish journalist and political commentator Ben Shapiro should ‘be gassed and sent back to Israel’ and claimed that she would sacrifice her own life for the ‘destruction of all Jews’.

A local news source in Vancouver, Canada, has reported an incident of antisemitic cyberbullying at a West Vancouver school.

A Jewish teenager was sent various abusive text messages referencing the Holocaust, telling the boy he would “burn u like ur ancestors” and threatening to “beat u so hard ur gonna go back to auschwitz”, also taunting him with a message saying “all your ancestors live in ashes in the showers”.

The boy’s father, Eduard Bruk, told North Shore News that the comments were prompted by his son posting a photograph of himself on Instagram. The boy was born in Israel, is a “accomplished” football player, and had recently taken part in a fundraising event for Syrian refugees.

Mr Bruk told the local news outlet that he was dissatisfied with the disciplinary procedures at the school, saying that only one boy had apologised to his son so far and even expressing doubts as to whether the parents of both boys had been contacted. The lack of severity with which the incident appears to have been treated mirrors one which we reported last month, in which a physical attack was not acknowledged by the school as having been motivated by antisemitism, and instead was treated as simple case of playground bullying.

The passing of Nobel Peace Laureate, Holocaust survivor and internationally-renowned author Elie Wiesel was met on social media by torrents of antisemitic comments.

Wiesel, a survivor of both Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, died on 2nd July in his home. Various international figures showed their respect for Wiesel, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who aptly described Wiesel as ‘one of the great moral voices of our time’. However, many people ignored Wiesel’s achievements, instead choosing to use his death as an opportunity to push antisemitic conspiracy theories. One commenter on the BBC Facebook post reporting Wiesel’s death asked ‘is BBC as Jewish controlled as the rest of the British/US private media?’.

Others defamed Wiesel personally; commenting on Obama’s praise for Wiesel on Facebook, one man wrote “The bigest liar and crook  never exist on the surface of the earth, all what he write s a pure fiction, and the worst he has stollen the name of a person with a same name realy exist in the camp and died there , fu…liar zionist, even my dog don’t be sad of his died (sic)”, referencing a malicious conspiracy theory that Wiesel was never deported to Auschwitz or Buchenwald. Others simply commented ‘fraud’, described him as a ‘deceiving, rotten cretin’ or remarked that it was ‘about time as well, for too long we’ve had to listen to his crap’. Perhaps most shockingly, one woman commented that he ‘shoulda (sic) been gassed’ on the BBC coverage.

Many comments drew attention to the fact that Wiesel was a Zionist. Perhaps most notably, Max Blumenthal, son of former Clinton adviser Sidney, accused Wiesel of being a ‘supporter of those who commit’ war crimes, comments that Hillary Clinton has condemned. On Facebook, comments suggested that Wiesel supported the ‘daily murder of Palestinians’, or outright accused him of supporting their ‘genocide’, this despite the fact that the Palestinian population has increased steadily, with over a million Arab residents of Israel with full political and civil rights, and with Wiesel never having made any statements supporting violence against Palestinians. Others described the United Nations as ‘Zionist little sheep’ and ‘american Zionist puppets’ for their praise of Wiesel, despite the fact that there is evidence that the UN is very strict in its treatment of Israel, which some have considered unfair towards the Jewish state.

Various others also espoused Holocaust denial. One twitter user described Wiesel as a ‘holo hoaxer’ responsible for ‘extortion and lies’, whilst another replied to Politico’s coverage by telling them not to ‘spread the Auschwitz lie’. Another simply tweeted ‘The Holocaust never happened’. One man argued that the Holocaust was ‘garbage’ because the ‘clinical and efficient’ Germans left ‘2.3 million Holocaust survivors’ alive, concluding that the Nazi’s brutality must have been exaggerated if so many people survived.
Our archive of the comments mentioned, as well as several others, can be viewed here. It is worth noting that these comments have not been dug up from far-right websites, but instead represent attitudes that were pervasive enough to have appeared prominently in the reactions to coverage of Wiesel’s death from prominent media outlets.

Luciana Berger, the Labour MP for the Liverpool Wavertree constituency, has received antisemitic death threats online.

Berger received the threats through her email account last Friday, a fact that came to light earlier today. The message read ‘you better watch your back Jewish scum’ accompanied by an image of a knife, whilst another email warned that she was going to ‘get it like Jo Cox did’, referring to the MP murdered last month by a man with links to Neo-Nazi groups.

According to a local news outlet, Merseyside Police have since arrested a man in connection with the threats, who has admitted to the offence.

This is not the first time that Berger has been the victim of online antisemitism. In 2013 a local music promoter was fined for an antisemitic outburst directed at her, and in 2014 a man was jailed for targeting Berger with online antisemitic abuse in 2014, an event which triggered a wave of similar messages being sent to the MP.

Bianca Jagger, former wife of Mick Jagger and Human Rights campaigner has shared a list, originating from a far-right source, of MPs who voted in favour of the War in Iraq, with many entries featuring comments such as ‘Jew’, ‘married to a Jew’, or ‘connected to Labour Friends of Israel’. ‘Jew’ is mentioned 34 times on the list, ‘Zionist’ 4 times, and ‘Israel’ 65 times. Jagger suggested that her followers should read it to understand why ‘they’ want to Jeremy Corbyn ousted.

The list also singles out people for other features, describing various MPs as ‘negro’, ‘Judeo-Negro hybrid’ or ‘homosexual’. The website she linked to elsewhere cites David Duke, former ‘Grand Wizard’ of the KKK, and describes the US media as being ‘largely owned by Jews’.

Jagger later apologized for posting the ‘despicable’ tweet, claiming that she had not noticed its content due to tiredness, this despite her having urged her thousands of followers to ‘read it carefully’.

Whilst Jagger seemed to draw a link between the page’s contents and the challenge to Corbyn’s leadership, a suggestion that Corbyn would likely condemn, this concern appears to be shared by others who shared the page, several of whom were explicitly critical of attempts to oust Corbyn. One account, ‘@accouder’, tweeted support for Corbyn, writing that ‘we need a lab leader without blood on their hands’. Others that had shared the link also retweeted messages in support of Corbyn’s leadership, attacking his challenger, Angela Eagle. ‘@butlincat’, another user who shared the page, penned an article detailing an alleged plot to oust Corbyn, an article which culminating with him urging readers to ‘Sign the petition in support of Jeremy Corbyn’. These incidents belong to a worrying trend in which figures on the political left, including among others Naz Shah and one of her associates, Green Party council candidate Christopher Eddie, and an SNP activist, have demonstrated a willingness to engage in antisemitic discourse more frequently associated with the far right.

On February 10th a passerby noticed anti-Semitic vandalism in the Albrecht street in Berlin-Mitte where a star of David was scratched intentionally

The sign of the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Judentum und Christentum in der Evangelischen Kirche Berlin Brandenburg – schlesische Oberlausitz” (Association of Judaism and Christianity in the Protestant Church of Berlin Brandenburg – Silesian Upper Lusatia) contains a Star of David and a cross. In February the Star of David was scratched intentionally with an object while the rest of the shield remained untouched.
The “Arbeitsgemeinschaft” later released a statement saying, that “the Star of David, as far as we remember, already had been scratched in 2014/2015 in connection with the Gaza war.” This kind of anti-Semitic vandalism shows the need for more work between religious communities to counter such bigotry.

https://www.facebook.com/AntisemitismusRechercheBerlin/photos/a.1463499907305026.1073741828.1447776248877392/1580923912229291/?type=3&theater

https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/die-stiftung-aktiv/themen/gegen-as/antisemitismus-heute/chronik-antisemitischer-vorfaelle-2016/

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, has told LBC radio that the Jewish community has corrupted the political system and subverted due process in order to build unregistered schools in London. The presence of unregistered Jewish schools has been criticised heavily by many in the Jewish community.

Porteous Wood told LBC on 3rd April: “It’s far worse than what you’re reporting. There is a very very strong Jewish Lobby that actually undermines — of which the government appear to be frightened — and allows the rule of law to be undermined. Whether we are talking about education or indeed as is another open secret effectively in places like Stamford Hill planning rules just don’t apply. If the Jewish community wants to build — massively overbuild — and extend their houses, then they just get away with it. It’s another open secret. It’s less of a surprise that local authorities feel intimidated — as I think they do — and no doubt there are an awful lot of Jewish Councillors elected who are going to be very happy to look in the other direction, but when it gets to central government just thinking ‘Well actually we won’t do anything about it’, then it is a national disgrace.”

Not only does he think there is a “very very strong Jewish Lobby” which is successfully stopping the Department of Education from regulating Jewish schools, he also believes that Jews are successfully intimidating local authorities into failing to enforce planning regulations. Most appallingly, he thinks that Jewish Councillors ‘look the other way’ when it comes to enforcing planning regulations. Such language is straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It is among the worst examples of antisemitism by a leading public figure in the UK.

UK Media Watch has noted that Porteous Wood has apologised but in a private email and only for the “Jewish Lobby” comment, however his full comments went far beyond the “Jewish Lobby” trope.

The National Secular Society can be contacted at [email protected].