Friday, August 06, 2021
Melanie Phillips: Lipstadt must tackle antisemitism among Democrats
The fact is that the left consistently refuses to acknowledge the Jew-hatred in its own ranks. Exactly the same denial occurred in Britain's Labour Party under Corbyn and continues within the wider British Left today.
This is partly because so much of this Jew-baiting is wrapped up with the demonization of Israel, an animus that many on the left fail to understand possesses the unique characteristics of antisemitism throughout the ages.
On a deeper level, it's because the left find it impossible to accept that their side is capable of bigotry; and that's because their precarious moral and political identity rests upon the fantasy that their attitudes and goals are the quintessence of virtue.
Liberal Jews subscribe to the same paralyzing fantasies and delusions; and whether out of ignorance or cowardice, many others seem unable or unwilling to scratch beneath surface pieties.
So Lipstadt's appointment has been lauded by a wide range of Jewish organizations. Once again, it's only the Zionist Organization of America that has called out a reality that most American Jews find too difficult to acknowledge.
As with the rest of the viciously oppressive "intersectionality" agenda, the reason the new antisemitism has achieved such traction in America and the West is that so many in positions of cultural power and influence have stayed silent or cravenly genuflected to these unspeakable positions.
As Biden's anti-Semitism envoy, Lipstadt's first duty is to call out the antisemites in Biden's own party. We'll soon see whether the concerns about her appointment are borne out or whether she rises to this particularly loaded challenge.
Islamists and the Left are linked in rejecting the Enlightenment
For too many others on the Left, Islamists have become an essential part of what they seem to construe as a new Popular Front against the oppression and injustice of neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism which — it is claimed — arise from the deification by the post-Enlightenment western state of instrumental reason and Eurocentric universalism. You can see this in the Stop the War Coalition. You can see it in the common cause Islamists and Leftists make over the issues of Palestine or Iran. And you can interestingly see it in shared attitudes towards Israel more generally, where Jewishness often becomes — as Stephan Malinowski has recently reminded us — the emblem of a wider and deranging capitalist modernity.The Tikvah Podcast: Kenneth Marcus on How the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism Helps the Government Protect Civil Rights
It was Marx and then Hannah Arendt who suggested that antisemitism could function as an anti-Enlightenment/anti-modernist cultural code. And it is this belief in the wrong turn the Enlightenment represents that binds Islamists and Leftists together in an unholy alliance against the Enlightenment’s heirs. This belief is in practice founded upon 200 years of largely European Counter-Enlightenment thought, privileging cultural relativism over Kantian universalism, nativism over cosmopolitanism, Being over Scientism, romanticism over rationality. It can be traced from Vico, Herder, Fichte and le Maistre through Nietzsche, Spengler, Heidegger, Croce and Sartre to Derrida and Deleuze — among many others. And it powerfully influenced the development of Islamist thought, sometimes at second-hand, sometimes more directly.
In my Policy Exchange paper, I take Michel Foucault, the French philosopher, theorist and activist, as an example of the reciprocal influence of this intellectual current. In Iran in 1978 he saw in Khomeini and his followers the birth of what he described as a new “political spirituality”, reenchanting the dismal Weberian bureaucratic state and dissolving oppressive power structures. That judgement was harshly criticised for its ignorance at the time by the great French scholar, Maxime Rodinson. And it has not (ahem) stood the test of time. But Foucault had been shaped by the thought of Heidegger, Adorno, Sartre, Fanon and other critics of the Enlightenment. So had many Iranian revolutionaries. And this current of thought, with all its faults, remains intensely seductive to those in search of an ultimate meaning beyond instrumental reason, especially if it is enables them to reject the West at the same time as they make it central to their own discontents. It is present in different ways and to different extents in Hassan al Banna, Abul A’la Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb, Ali Shariati and Yusuf Qaradawi. It is why Ali Khamenei can regard the West as doomed at the same time as he thinks Les Misérables is the greatest novel ever written. And it is fundamental to a way of thinking about the world shared by too many on the Left.
The fact they tend to believe truth is unobtainable, while Islamists claim to have exclusive access to it, that when Islamists take power, one of the first things they do is turn on the Left, the fact that among the first targets of Islamist insurgents are feminists, lawyers, novelists and journalists and the fact that Islamists are constitutively misogynist, homophobic, totalitarian, illiberal, antisemitic and wholly intolerant seems to be lost on them.
They don’t care — not because they don’t know but because whatever else may divide them, the higher goal, the drive for a “counter-Enlightenment in the garb of post-Enlightenment”, is precisely what Islamism and the self-styled progressive and postmodern Left share. If it ever arrives, it will be a disaster for all of us.
With anti-Semitism on the rise over the last few years, it is essential for institutions to be able to assess clearly whether an incident is anti-Semitic or not. For this purpose, over the last two decades many governments, companies, and international organizations have, as Joshua Muravchik discusses in this month’s Mosaic essay, adopted the “working definition of anti-Semitism” from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Today, the U.S. federal government uses the IHRA definition to assess federal claims of anti-Semitism under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and all government agencies also consider the IHRA definition in their own assessments of anti-Semitism.Jonathan Tobin: Is the ADL a greater threat to liberty than extremists?
This week, Kenneth Marcus, who was instrumental in getting the federal government to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, joins our podcast. Formerly the assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, Marcus has played a major role in protecting the civil rights of diverse groups, including Jews facing anti-Semitism; he’s also the author of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America, and The Definition of Anti-Semitism. In conversation with Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver, he explains how the IHRA definition helps American officials protect civil right
Since Greenblatt replaced Abe Foxman as head of the ADL, the organization has repeatedly demonstrated that it is now just another Democratic Party auxiliary. That's a shame since, unlike most national Jewish groups, it still has a job that needs to be done in terms of monitoring antisemitism. By intervening in partisan fights like the US Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, slandering former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as an "Islamophobe," engaging in relentless, dubious efforts to link former US President Donald Trump to right-wing antisemites, and being constantly willing to wink at false analogies between his administration and the Nazis — the ADL surrendered its non-partisan status.Unpacked: Why is Antisemitism Still Around? | Antisemitism, Explained
That is the context for understanding how the ADL/Moonshot effort to root out "right-wing violence" worked. It ignored the fact that hate, not to mention antisemitism, is also emanating from the Left. That's the only explanation for why they signed off on criteria for determining whether someone was searching for a hate site that included typing in the words, "the truth about Black Lives Matter." Anyone who was curious about the movement or who wanted to know more about its opposition to the State of Israel and Zionism, or the way critical race theory has granted a permission slip to Jew-hatred, was automatically labeled a hater by the ADL and its partners.
That's more than ironic following the wave of violence directed at American Jews in the wake of Israel's conflict with Hamas terrorists in May, and the way the BLM movement and its most prominent congressional supporters sought to demonize Israel and its supporters.
Yet it is the same ADL that has just been asked by PayPal to set criteria that will allow the global online payment service to shut down financial networks that, according to the group, "support extremism and hate" or endanger "at-risk communities." Again, the ADL isn't saying how it plans to decide who fits that bill. Its record, however, leaves little doubt that the group is being empowered by PayPal to put any group that dissents from its support for BLM or other left-wing causes out of business by pinning the extremist label on them.
That prospect raises more questions about the future of free speech than answers about how to deal with extremism.
You don't have to be a Trump supporter or have the slightest sympathy for actual extremists, whether on the Right or the Left, to understand what this means. The ADL's partnerships with Big Tech should be fueling worries of a growing threat of a liberal corporate tyranny regime that will — in the name of safeguarding democracy, "anti-racism," and opposition to extremism — not merely chip away at free discourse in the public square but shut it down altogether. In what may be the ultimate expression of gaslighting, those, like the ADL, who pose as the defenders of democracy may be a far more serious threat to our freedoms than the marginal groups they claim to be targeting.
Why is it that even post-Holocaust, Jews experience a large percentage of the world’s hate crimes, despite being less than 0.2% of the world’s population? That’s because the Holocaust wasn’t an antisemitic exception — it was the culmination of years of religious, scientific, cultural and political anti-Jewish sentiment. This foundation still exists today. Many still subscribe to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, resulting in disproportionately high statistics of anti-Jewish sentiment and large numbers of hate crimes.
Have you seen our video on #Antisemitism produced by @Yair_Rosenberg and @JewishUnpacked? Well, Instagram really doesn’t want you to. They’ve denied our appeal. https://t.co/J80KslSk9M pic.twitter.com/JLs1fnA7zT
— Johnny Kunza (@johnkunza) August 5, 2021
From Africa to Zion
An exclusive excerpt from the memoir of Israel's first Ethiopian-born journalist.Constantine pogrom erupted in August 1934
One night in July 1983, the inhabitants of the village of Tilamado disappeared. Barefoot and wearing traditional dress, the men and women, the children and the elderly, set out on a journey they had dreamed about their whole lives: the journey to Jerusalem. Little did they know what horrors waited along the way and what terrible price they would pay to fulfill their dream. Joining this exodus was a young boy, Adeno, the son of Yidege and Bazeto Abebe. The village had been his whole world. Before the age of eight, he was already running around in the meadows as a shepherd boy‚ and now, he was embarking on a trek with no end in sight. Thirty-six years later, Danny Adeno Abebe’s journey between Ethiopia and Jerusalem is still ongoing. The boy who grew up in a village north of Gondar and never knew his own date of birth managed to overcome adversity to become the first Ethiopian-born soldier in IDF Army Radio and the first Ethiopian-Israeli journalist. He worked for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper for years, filed hundreds of reports and investigations, and won prestigious prizes. But even today, as a father of four, Danny is forced to confront prejudice and racism. In his book From Africa to Zion, translated by Eylon Aslan-Levy, Danny reveals his fascinating and wonderful life story and the stories of the 16,000 Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel in Operation Moses and of the thousands who died on the way. He describes his childhood in a mud shack without water or electricity, the grueling trek by foot to Sudan, the horrors in the Um Raquba Refugee Camp, his first days at an immigrant absorption center in Arad, and his time at a religious boarding school, where Israel sent many Ethiopian immigrant children. He describes falling in love with the written word and grappling as a journalist with the reality he covered: the Blood Donations Scandal, police violence, and the cold shoulder of the rabbinic establishment. He also writes about his visits to his native village‚ once with his wife Aviva and their children, and once again while writing this book‚ and about his two-year service as an emissary to the local Jewish community in South Africa. Throughout, he reveals himself to be an extremely talented and sensitive writer with a sharp and witty sense of humor. From Africa to Zion is an extraordinary life story, but above all‚ it is a story about people, about love, and about the importance of family, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. This is the Ethiopian Israeli memoir we’ve been waiting for. Danny Adeno Abebe tells us the truth, in all its painful complexity, about the Ethiopian experience in Israel. No Jewish community paid a higher price on the road to Zion than Ethiopian Jews; none has been received more grudgingly by Israeli society. By turns beautiful, agonizing, inspiring, and hopeful, this is an essential book for understanding Israel today.
The Constantine riot of 1934, which erupted between 3 and 5 August, demonstrates how false accusations against the Jews of North Arica could escalate rapidly into mob violence. The fact that the French forces of law and order were dilatory in quelling the violence shows that they were negligent, complicit, or silently approved of the disturbances. Article in Terre Promise (with thanks: Nelly)What the Heck Happened to American Jews?
On Friday August 3, 1934, a man named Eliahou Kalifa returns home, rue des Combes. To access the front door of his home, he must cross a narrow passage way: two windows overlook the ablutions room of the Sidi Lahdar mosque. Kalifa asks for them to be closed to avoid prying into the ablutions room from the outside. The Arabs, masters of the house, refuse. According to the mosque Muezzin, Kalifa cursed the religion of Muhammad.
The rumour grows that a drunken Jew broke into the mosque and cursed praying Muslims; others will even go so far as to say that this Jew urinated in front of them. It was enough for hundreds of Arabs to be fired up, shout and reach for their clubs. It’s a classic pogrom: the Jews raise the alarm in the Mellah, the Jews barricade themselves in their homes while a crowd of protesters who want to ‘settle scores’ with the Jews gathers. The police, unarmed, try to intervene: two policemen are wounded. The situation seems to calm down during the day, but in the evening, six jewellery stores belonging to Jews are looted. Was this premeditated? Are they simple criminals who took advantage of the situation to rob? In any case, the fact that only Jewish jewellery stores were attacked suggests that the demonstrators had received ‘the green light’.
On Shabbat, August 4, calls for calm are made in all synagogues.
Chief Rabbi Sidi Fredj Halimi urges the city’s Jews to avoid any comment or gathering and to be discreet. On the Muslim side, Sheikh Ben Badis, a religious reformist leader, the Grand Mufti of Constantine and Dr Bendjelloul preach moderation in mosques and Muslim neighbourhoods.
The civil and military authorities in the city hall underestimate the dangers. The mayor, his deputy and the prefect, who are all on vacation, are not recalled. The secretary-general of the Algerian government even forbids the troops of General Kieffer, the military commander for Constantine, to use bullets in the event of a fresh incident.
The following Sunday, at dawn, the rumour circulates in the medina that two Arabs have been strangled by Jews: the demons awake. A huge crowd gathers and begins by attacking a hairdressing salon in order to find razors they will use to slaughter the Jews.
By midday, 13 Jews have been murdered, 200 stores ransacked and four buildings burned down.
How can highly educated people believe lies that can easily be disproven with a minimal amount of research which is easily accessible through the Internet? And these are not benign lies. These are lies that can undo, in one case, the one and only Jewish state, and in the other case, the most powerful democracy on earth. How can this be?The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast: Yasmine Mohammed on Divorcing a Terrorist [Part II]
Interestingly, these two groups (the one that believes lies about Israel and the one that believes lies about US Democrats) hate each other. It’s not uncommon to hear members of one group say that the members of the other group are not legitimately Jewish. In fact, I have heard some Trump supporters extend that harsh judgment to anyone who does not support Trump, even if they are fervently pro-Israel.
But can we at least say that the remaining 55% of American Jews are immune to the lies? Not so fast. The same poll that I mentioned, in the beginning, indicates that on top of the 22% who believe that “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians”, there is an additional 16% who are “not sure”! At the other end of the spectrum, there are the Trump supporters who don’t believe the lie that Biden stole the election but who voted for Trump despite four years of his constant lying to the American people.
That leaves only about one-third of American Jews who are tainted neither by abject ignorance about Israel nor by supporting a liar who is actively trying to destroy American democracy. Not a stellar record for the most educated religious group in America.
In related news, American Jews attempted to show a united front in Washington against antisemitism, but several left-wing Jewish groups found an excuse to not attend. In other words, a substantial percentage of Jews refuse to stand up with their fellow Jews against antisemitism at a time when antisemitism is particularly virulent. They cited Israeli settlements in the West Bank, therefore giving priority to defending the Palestinians over defending their fellow Jews against antisemitism that is often perpetrated by the Palestinians.
What a sad state for American Jewry!
All indications are, however, that ignoring obvious facts is even more prevalent among non-Jewish Americans than among Jewish Americans. This means that this crisis of willful ignorance is more a crisis in American society than in Judaism, but if anyone thought that the Jews would be spared, they were wrong.
Ayaan invites Yasmine Mohammed back on to discuss why the Canadian authorities would not help her escape her forced marriage to an Al-Qaeda terrorist. They discuss other examples of governments failing young, vulnerable girls.Top Canadian Jewish Group ‘Shocked’ at Muslim Student Organization’s Invite to Speaker Who Expressed ‘Genocidal Antisemitism’
Yasmine Mohammed is a Canadian human rights activist who fights for the rights of women living within Muslim-majority countries, as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism, in general.
She founded the nonprofit, Free Hearts Free Minds, which provides mental health support for members of the LGBT community and freethinkers living within Muslim-majority countries.
Her memoir, Unveiled, tells of her experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Islamic household and her arranged marriage to a member of Al-Qaeda.
A top Canadian Jewish group expressed deep concern on Thursday regarding a speaker at a scheduled conference of Muslim students who has expressed violently antisemitic sentiments.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) described the invitation to cleric Tareq Al-Suwaidan by the Muslim Student Leadership conference, organized by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), as “shocking,” describing Al-Suwaidan as “a notorious extremist.”
The CIJA pointed to a series of antisemitic statements by the preacher, including serving as the author of a “Jewish encyclopedia” that denies the Holocaust and describes the Jews as “the most hostile enemies of the Muslim nation.”
Al-Suwaidan has said, “All the mothers of the Islamic nation … should suckle their babies on the hatred of the sons of Zion. We hate them. They are our enemies.”
He then openly engaged in a call for genocide, saying, “We should instill this in the souls of our children until a new generation rises and wipes them off the face of the earth.”
Al-Suwaidan has also engaged in antisemitic conspiracy theories, asserting that “All the wars throughout history … were started by the sons of Zion.”
Due to his extremist statements, Al-Suwaidan has been previously banned from Belgium and Italy.
Shimon Koffler Fogel, the President and CEO of the CIJA, commented, “It is shocking that any organization, especially a registered charity in Canada, would give a platform to those promoting a genocidal form of antisemitism.”
“What we need are initiatives that bring young people together, not a preacher who promotes extreme hate and incites religious violence,” he asserted.
2/2 Brooklyn Memorial Rally and March in Honor of Palestinian “Martyrs”: If We Don’t Get No Justice, They Don’t get No Peace; NYC Is Full of Palestinian Related Targets, the Options to Strike Back Are Endless; New York to Gaza, Globalize the Intifada pic.twitter.com/l12f8wDDZq
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 6, 2021
SOAS ‘ignored claims of institutional antisemitism’
A London university has been accused of ignoring allegations of institutional antisemitism by an academic it asked to handle an antisemitism complaint.UK NGO Calls for Students to Join Lawsuit Against Bristol Professor Accused of Antisemitism
SOAS paid out £15,000 to student Noah Lewis last year after he complained that a “toxic antisemitic environment” at the university forced him to drop out.
An appeals panel that heard the complaint, chaired by David Hirsh, a senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, and included two others, recommended an external investigator conduct a comprehensive inquiry into whether the university has a problem with institutional antisemitism.
But according to an email from Hirsh to university staff last month, which was also copied to the government’s antisemitism adviser, the recommendation has been ignored.
“The panel I chaired made clear and unanimous determinations which have so far been completely ignored,” wrote Hirsh. “This is further prima facie evidence that there is a problem of institutional antisemitism at SOAS.”
The panel recommended the inquiry in March 2020 – but, to date, no such inquiry has been forthcoming, said the academic.
“SOAS is powerful and has felt itself able just to ignore the finding of its own appeals panel. It has not felt the need to respond to it or to explain its decision,” he added.
A British nonprofit issued a public call on Thursday for students to join its lawsuit against a UK professor accused of harassing Jewish students and his employer, the University of Bristol.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it was preparing a lawsuit against sociology professor David Miller, who drew outrage on campus after calling for “the end of Zionism” and accusing Jewish students of conspiring with the State of Israel to censor speech.
The University of Bristol confirmed in March that it is investigating Miller’s conduct, but has not provided updates of the inquiry’s status, citing “the integrity and rigor of what is a confidential process.”
In a press release on Thursday, CAA said that its “case against the University concerns alleged unlawful harassment on the basis of Jewish ethnicity and Judaism, amounting to breaches of the Equality Act 2010, as well as breaches of contract.”
“The legal claim contends that Prof. Miller’s statements sought to create a hostile environment for Jewish students [and] that the University is liable for Prof. Miller’s conduct, and is further liable in its own right, for unlawful conduct in breach of the Equality Act, and for its breach of its contract with students,” the NGO said.
The Equality Act 2010 “protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society,” according to a UK government website.
Continued CAA, “We are asking additional students to step forward and add their names to the legal action to hold University of Bristol to account for Prof. Miller’s conduct, and its own,” adding, “If you are or were a student at the University of Bristol in the academic year 2020-21, please email your name and telephone number to campus@antisemitism.org.”
CAA also said it is aware of complaints of Miller dating back two years, “and it is still unclear … what the outcome was.”
Alphaville does #Israel and speaks out against BDS.
— Creative Community for Peace (@CCFPeace) August 5, 2021
"We are very excited for the performances in Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv…it's a big celebration for us ” pic.twitter.com/rJEzcMi8eu
BDS Activist Explains Pressure on Ben & Jerry’s, Calls on Other Companies to Boycott Israel
A pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist wrote an op-ed in The Guardian explaining how the BDS movement pressured Ben & Jerry’s to cease doing business in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”‘Ben & Jerry’s’ franchisees call on corporate to change tune - Adv. Arsen Ostrovsky
Mark Hage, a member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP), wrote in the August 5 op-ed that he and other BDS activists had been urging Ben & Jerry’s to stop doing business with Israeli settlements for the past 10 years. VTJP first notified Ben & Jerry’s in 2011 that they had been doing business with the settlements. Their discussions reached a “standstill” in 2013, prompting VTJP to start “a public campaign that urged Ben & Jerry’s to end its complicity with Israel’s settlements. We stressed the obvious: the settlements are a flagrant violation of international law. Selling their products in illegally occupied land, moreover, is in flagrant contradiction to the company’s social mission and proud history of social activism.”
Hage then claimed that Ben & Jerry’s said that the company could run afoul of Israeli law if they were to leave the settlements, prompting VTJP to argue that Ben & Jerry’s should leave Israel altogether. Following the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, VTJP called for a boycott against Ben & Jerry’s. “The rest is history,” Hage wrote.
He added that while Ben & Jerry’s July 19 announcement said they would stay in Israel, Ben & Jerry’s independent board claims that their parent company, Unilever, did not run that part of the statement by them as part of the agreement between the two. “VTJP will continue to organize until the company’s commitments are honored in full, consistent with the decisions of Ben & Jerry’s independent board,” Hage wrote. “We also implore other companies to break their ties to Israel’s settlements and to its economy as a whole. After all, Israel’s settlements don’t exist in isolation; they are fully backed by Israel, and it is perfectly clear that Israel’s human rights abuses extend beyond its settlements.”
Hage also lambasted the Israeli government for “demanding that our elected officials trample our first amendment rights and coerce a private American company to conduct business in a manner exclusively on terms pleasing to Israel’s government and settlers, no matter what that government or its settlers do to Palestinians. This is as outrageous as it sounds.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum, tweeted that Hage’s op-ed “just underscores that the @benandjerrys boycott was never about just ‘the settlements’, but a boycott of ALL OF #ISRAEL.” He then tweeted to Unilever CEO Alan Jope that the “ball’s in your court now… What will you do next?”
Dozens of American Ben & Jerry’s franchise owners, who together generate over 23 million dollars in annual revenue are coming together against the corporate office, with an open letter signed by the franchisees calling on Ben & Jerry’s and parent company Unilever to rescind their July decision to stop business in the “occupied Palestinian territories.”
Adv. Arsen Ostrovsky | CEO| The International Legal Forum
Ben & Jerry’s factory sits on occupied Missiquoi tribal land taken over by European colonizers. The occupied territory today is called Vermont. pic.twitter.com/5MaZUWkEYe
— Avi Kaner (@AviKaner) August 5, 2021
Charity Director suspended and reported to watchdog after allegations of antisemitism surface
The Director of a charity has been suspended and reported to the Charity Commission after allegations of antisemitism have surfaced.
Bus Users UK, a charity that works to ensure transport is more inclusive and accessible, lists Hugh Jaeger as a Trustee, Director, and “Chair of Bus Users Oxford and an active campaigner for bus services” on its website. However, yesterday they took the decision to suspend him after a history of inflammatory tweets were revealed.
In a 2019 post, Mr Jaeger reportedly wrote that “In 1948 Zionists copied the Nazis to liquidate several villages” and also shared an inflammatory cartoon along with the caption: “Pic of an Israeli Magav border police thug sums up why Zionism is evil & why Palestinians must resist.”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
In another post, Mr Jaeger allegedly condemned “racist Israel”, while in different one, he said that it was founded by “State terrorists who massacre, steal land, apply apartheid, murder children and commit war crimes have ruled Israel ever since.” He also defended the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.
In a blog post from December 2019, Mr Jaeger reportedly wrote that “No one has proved that antisemitism is any more common in Labour than it is in UK society as a whole.”
This is a welcome development Hugh Jaeger is an antisemite, despite his protestations that he was only critical of Israel. He used age old tropes of Jews controlling the media and likening Jews to Nazis. Please thank @BusUsersUK who are being trolled by antisemites. https://t.co/KoFDZTOfYN
— (((GnasherJew®?????))) (@GnasherJew) August 5, 2021
We’ll just leave this one here. https://t.co/vZcl6y4619 pic.twitter.com/EVRAW6QgGy
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) August 5, 2021
CBC Coverage of Olympic Opening Ceremonies Ignores Moment of Silence for 11 Israeli Victims of Munich Massacre
At the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23, a moment of silence was held for the first time for the 11 Israeli victims of the Munich Massacre in 1972.BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – JULY 2021
In covering this historic tribute of these Israelis athletes who were killed by the Palestinian terror group Black September, CBC elected to go to commercial break, rather than covering this historic and important tribute.
Immediately after the Japanese National anthem was played, CBC went to commercial break
In sharp contrast, NBC News provided prominent coverage to this tribute which acknowledged how historic this tribute was. NBC’s announcer noted that while a tribute was held for those who died as a result of COVID-19, the memorial for the Israeli athletes was especially noteworthy, which NBC poignantly described as “murder” and that the omission of this tribute for many years has been a source of past criticism.
Presumably all media, including the CBC, were given an agenda of the event’s schedule and perhaps a transcript of sorts for the opening ceremony. It’s especially troubling that CBC didn’t feature coverage, deeming that a commercial break was more important than this historic tribute for the slain Israeli athletes. Even if it was an oversight where CBC cut to commercial break too quickly, upon returning from commercials, CBC could have mentioned the tribute.
Not only did this show bad judgement on the part of the CBC, it dishonoured the memories of these 11 Israeli athletes and Canadians were deprived of seeing this memorial which also served as an important reminder of how Palestinian terrorism is not limited to the Israeli border.
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during July 2021 shows that throughout the month a total of 142 incidents took place: 97 in Judea & Samaria, 44 in Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ and one in the Gaza Strip sector.South Korea endorses IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
In Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ the agency recorded 100 attacks with petrol bombs, seven attacks using pipe bombs, one stabbing attack, six shooting attacks and 27 arson attacks. In the Gaza Strip sector one incident of anti-aircraft fire took place.
Two members of the security forces were injured in July: one in a stabbing attack in the Jordan Valley on July 1st and one in a shooting attack at the Qalandiya checkpoint on July 13th.
Visitors to the BBC News website in July did not find coverage of those two incidents or any of the additional ones that took place throughout the month.
A report published on July 29th about an incident that took place the previous day – ‘Israel investigating shooting of Palestinian boy in West Bank’ – briefly mentions two earlier incidents in which Palestinians were killed by IDF fire. The second incident was described as follows:
“Earlier this week, in a separate incident, a 17-year-old boy from a different village died after he was shot by Israeli troops.”
BBC audiences were however not informed that the youth killed near Nabi Saleh was participating in violent rioting at the time.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong told his Israeli counterpart, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, during a phone call this week that the East Asian nation has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism.Grave of Rabbi Nachman's daughter vandalized with pig skulls - report
The news was shared on Wednesday on Twitter by Akiva Tor, Israel’s Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. He said Eui-yong and Lapid talked earlier in the day, and had “a great conversation.”
The foreign ministers also discussed “COVID-19 cooperation and rapid ratification” of the free-trade agreement that Israel and South Korea signed in May.
South Korea is the first country in Asia to endorse the official definition, reported Tor. According to the IHRA website, 29 other countries have already adopted or endorsed the definition, including Belgium, Lithuania, Sweden and Uruguay.
The IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism states that: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The gravesite of Sarah, daughter of the famous hassidic leader Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, was vandalized, with pieces of pigs, including a skull, left behind, haredi news outlet Kikar Hashabat reported.CAA calls on music festival to drop unrepentant antisemite Wiley from line-up
The vandalization took place in the city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine, where she was buried 186 years ago, with other family members being buried in the same cemetery.
The vandalism was spotted by Breslov hassidim who visited the grave on Monday, who reported it to the police, claiming it to have been an act of antisemitism.
"This is not the first time antisemites have harmed the grave," Breslov hassid Rabbi Avraham Chezin told Kikar Hashabbat, adding that he hopes the vandals will be found and taken to court.
As Chezin noted, this is not the first time vandals have harmed this grave, or done similar things.
In 2016, antisemitic vandals targeted the grave of Rabbi Nachman himself, using a pig's head and red paint splatters at the gravesite in Uman.
Campaign Against Antisemitism is calling on the New World Fest music festival to drop the unrepentant antisemite Wiley from its line-up. The grime artist is due to appear at the festival this weekend, despite launching into an antisemitic tirade last summer.Man who admitted to defacing Welsh war memorial with antisemitic graffiti spared jail
On 24th July 2020, the rapper Richard Kylea Cowie, who is known as Wiley, spent days engaged in an escalating rant on social media against Jews. After likening Jews to the Ku Klux Klan and claiming that Jews had cheated him and were “snakes”, Wiley tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn”, a slang expression meaning that they should be shot. He added: “Jewish community you deserve it”. He then also called on “black people” to go to “war” with Jews.
Wiley repeatedly evoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for the slave trade and that modern-day Jews are in fact imposters who usurped black people — a conspiracy theory that has incited acts of terrorism against Jews, such as a shooting in Jersey City and a stabbing attack in Monsey, NY during the festival of Chanukah last December.
In the days that followed, Wiley continued to rail against Jews on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, a major 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram in which we participated, and our projection of antisemitic tweets onto Twitter’s London headquarters, which then went viral, Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok agreed to remove Wiley from their platforms, depriving him of access to his nearly one million social media followers.
Campaign Against Antisemitism immediately reported Wiley to the Metropolitan Police Service, but in September the police force confirmed to us that Wiley was not in the UK at the time of his antisemitic tirade. Under Home Office rules, that means that the Metropolitan Police must give primacy to police in the jurisdiction where Wiley was at the time.
A man who admitted to defacing a Welsh war memorial with antisemitic graffiti has been spared jail, it was revealed earlier this week.Success for CAA as Hitler-loving radio host who called for Jews to be murdered and asked listeners for a gun sentenced to 16 months in prison
The graffiti on the memorial in Rhyl, Wales was discovered in February and included swastikas and vile messages which refer to the murder of Jews and gassing of soldiers.
The graffiti also contained the line, in German, that “the time has come for a Reich [empire]: we must exterminate the Jews.”
Gareth Bradley, 31, confessed last month to committing the act of hateful vandalism. He also pleaded guilty to defacing his prison cell with graffiti of a swastika in April.
After taking the defendant’s mental health into consideration, Judge Recorder Wyn Lloyd Jones handed him an eighteen-month sentence that has been suspended for two years for this offence, in addition to several other offences, which included racially abusing policing officers. Mr Bradley was also told to carry out a 50-day rehabilitation requirement.
Frances Wilmott, defending, told Caernarfon Crown Court: “None of the offences are sophisticated…they are the product of someone suffering ill mental health.”
The judge, taking Mr Bradley’s psychiatric reports into consideration, said: “It’s obvious he has serious mental health issues which go back to a very early age. His behaviour is disgraceful but anyone reading those documents will understand why he behaves the way he does.”
A Hitler-loving radio host has today been sentenced to prison after recently pleading guilty today to eight counts of inciting racial hatred after action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.Teenager admits shouting “I f ing hate the Jews” at Jewish man inside Oxford Circus Underground station
Following an investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism that was acted upon by Devon and Cornwall Police, Graham Hart, 68, of Penponds, Camborne, was charged earlier this year with five counts of using offending words or behaviour in a programme involving threatening, abusive or insulting visual images or sounds which was included in a programme service, intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or, having regard to all the circumstances, whereby racial hatred was likely to be stirred up.
Three further charges were subsequently added following a further investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Mr Hart is an amateur singer-songwriter from Cornwall who has hosted numerous controversial figures on his online radio show, including the notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz, who was sentenced to eighteen weeks in prison in March of this year for offences committed during an interview with Mr Hart. Mr Hart also previously courted controversy after a local rugby team banned his music due to concerns about a Holocaust-denial song of his that was circulating on the internet.
An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that Mr Hart repeatedly claimed that Jews are “filth”; questioned whether six million Jews were really murdered in the Holocaust; praised Adolf Hitler as “the greatest man of the twentieth century”; said that “is isn’t just the white people who hate the Jews…it’s everyone hates the Jews. Everyone”; claimed that the Jews “run everything”, are “evil” and are “not of this world”; and argued that the Jews have “got to go down, they’ve just got to go down”.
A teenager has admitted to shouting “I f***ing hate the Jews” at a Jewish man inside Oxford Circus Underground station.Arab News: Israeli judoka Raz Hershko lauds ‘brave’ Saudi opponent Tahani Al-Qahtani
The seventeen-year-old admitted to the charge of a religiously aggravated public order offence after the Jewish man was targeted with antisemitic abuse inside Oxford Circus Underground station on 4th July. It was reported that the teenager handed himself in to the police on 11th July and on 23rd July, he was charged with the offence.
Prosecutor Valerie Benjamin told Highbury Corner Youth Court on Monday that the victim had been wearing “distinctive Jewish attire”, and that “the defendant said ‘I f****** hate Jews’ while banging on the side of the escalator.” Ms Benjamin added that the victim was now too anxious to use public transport and was incurring significant costs due to having to take taxis instead.
It was also alleged that the defendant yelled “take off your hat”, although the teenager has denied this claim.
The defendant allegedly said during his police interview that he yelled the abuse as he thought “it might have been funny at the time”, but that he now knows that “it was stupid and offensive.”
Mohammed Zeb, defending, told the court that the defendant had “done the right thing” by handing himself in, but acknowledged that he “made a stupid comment for no reason”. Mr Zeb added: “He told me ‘I’ve got no problem with anybody, I’m not into religion, it was spur of the moment’.”
The defendant told District Judge Susan Williams: “I didn’t really think through [the comment], it just came out, and I just left and ran.” He added that he understands that the victim must have been frightened. “Especially as he was by himself – I think I would have been scared as well,” the defendant said.
Two female judokas, one mat, one Olympic contest. That the two athletes competing, Tahani Al-Qahtani and Raz Hershko, happened to be from Saudi Arabia and Israel, made the recent first round of the women’s judo 78-kilogram-class meeting at Tokyo 2020 more than just an ordinary bout.
The two countries have no formal relations and no history of sporting competition to speak of. Furthermore, regional politics and boycotts movements have made it a norm that Arab athletes refuse to take part in any match opposite an Israeli counterpart in fear that this might be interpreted as a form of recognition.
This is why, in an exclusive interview with Arab News, Israeli judoka Hershko had made it a point to praise the bravery of Al-Qahtani. Not only did the Saudi judoka defy popular calls by hatemongers to boycott the match, but she participated knowing very well that Hershko has far more international experience and was clearly the likely winner.
The 23-year-old Israeli said: “I think it is amazing that we both put politics aside to do something we love. I was super excited that anything can happen at the Olympics.
“I knew it was rare for an (Arab) to accept to fight like this, but I was so excited when she accepted. Both of us put politics to the side and did what we loved together in the match.” (h/t Zvi)
#INTERVIEW: “At the end we shook hands” - Raz Hershko of #Israel on her Judo Women’s +78 kg Round of 32 match against Tahani Al-Qahtani of #SaudiArabia | https://t.co/MD4tejgZQw#Tokyo2020 #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/1l31mxqJY7
— Arab News (@arabnews) August 4, 2021
Outdoor Exhibit About History of Polish Jews Travels to Eastern European Cities
A new traveling outdoor exhibition about the history of Polish Jews is making its way through five cities in Poland following a successful showing in Croatia and Norway.Restored Violins Played by Jewish Musicians in Holocaust Showcased at Virginia Museums, Concerts
Titled “They Fill No Space: Reviving the Memory of Polish Jews in Public Spaces,” the exhibit features 30 murals that present topics about Polish Jews and the history of Jewish life in the country. The murals focus on Polish-Jewish relations and efforts to remember those relationships by urban activists and local associations.
“Visitors will learn, among other things, about the contribution of Polish Jews to Polish culture and economy, Jewish life in Poland throughout the centuries and the Polish Righteous Among the Nations,” said the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, one of the exhibit’s organizers. “Difficult chapters in Polish-Jewish history are also discussed, including the Holocaust and the antisemitic campaign launched by the Communist authorities in March 1968.”
After being on display last month in Lublin, the traveling exhibition is now in Warsaw. It is scheduled to travel to Krakow to be placed in front of the Old Synagogue in the Jewish section of Kazimierz, and then to Lodz and Rzeszow. Each exhibition will be accompanied by educational and cultural events organized in collaboration with local partners.
Some of the activities include a walk along the trail related to local Jewish history, a cycling tour, discussions about new ideas for commemoration and family workshops with games.
In 2022, the exhibition will be featured at the Holocaust Museum in Slovakia.
A collection of restored violins that were previously played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust are currently being showcased at three museums in Richmond, Virginia.Remains of Concentration Camp Victims Identified as Jewish Prisoners in New Genetic Study
The “Violins of Hope” collection includes more than 60 instruments that have been restored. They went on display Wednesday at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, the Black History Museum and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. All the museums have different violins, and they will be featured through Oct. 24.
Richmond Symphony musicians will perform with some of the violins at concerts on Sept. 9 and 10 at Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s Catholic Church, a local CBS news affiliate reported. Lectures and educational programs will also be held to teach people about the violins and the Holocaust.
Virginia Holocaust Museum Executive Director Samuel Asher said he hopes people will attend because “the more people learn about the Holocaust, the less likely they are to be involved in racism or antisemitism or other forms of intolerance.”
Richmond Symphony Concert Master Daisuke Yamamoto explained that playing the instruments is a unique experience for the Symphony’s musicians. “You come across old instruments quite a bit in your life, especially as a violinist,” he said. “But to be able to hold and play this kind of specific history I think is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Musician Jennifer Arnold will play a violin that once belonged to a child and commented, “it means that I’m connected to someone who is in one of inhumanity’s worst parts of history. And that this instrument was played by someone who suffered a lot… When I play, I think about that.”
Skeletal remains discovered at the site of the Sobibór concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland belong to Jewish prisoners and not to Polish anti-Communist resistance fighters as was previously believed, according to newly published research by a group of genetic experts.Miami: An IDF colonel's search and rescue diary
Constructed in the spring of 1942, Sobibór was the second of three killing centers established as part of Operation Reinhard — the plan to murder the Jews of Poland orchestrated by the SS and Police Leader in the city of Lublin, Gen. Odilo Globocnik of the Nazi SS.
German SS and police officials conducted deportations to Sobibór between May 1942 and the fall of 1943. In all, the Nazis and their auxiliaries killed at least 167,000 people at the camp, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In a paper published on Friday by the academic journal Genome Biology, a team of European genetic researchers discussed the results of archeological excavations at the Sobibór site since 2000. In 2013, the remains of ten skeletons were found at the site — a discovery that in itself was “particularly surprising, as the testimonies suggested complete cremation of all Jewish victims in Sobibór,” explained the research team, who are drawn from universities in Poland, Germany, Austria and the US.
We choose to mark the end of our 330-hour mission by marching the two kilometers from the site to our hotel. The march begins as a private desire to achieve mental closure for the operations, but it develops into a mass march in memory of the victims. The march starts from the site and from there to the plaza outside a nearby church where we hold a ceremony.
Hundreds of firefighters stand there in our honor in two columns, a gesture that is both moving and embarrassing. The mayor and the county commissioner give us the keys to the town and bid us farewell with warm words. We give them an Israeli flag signed by the members of the delegation, and I ask to say a few words to the families.
"We came here for you. The picture of your lives has shattered into fragments. Standing here are hundreds of heroic firefighters from all over the United States who picked up fragment after fragment, and your one, complete picture is reflected in their eyes. The State of Israel and the IDF sent us on a mission that was very difficult on both a human and professional level - to bring your loved one's home. We return home and you will forever be a part of us, and we will be a part of you."
We head out on the march, walking out carrying the Israeli flag between the two columns of firefighters who applaud us as we march. Together with the excitement, the feeling that we also failed does not leave me, and I imagine Sarah waiting for us in the hotel lobby. Many people walk with us along the way, and from the balconies, locals cheer us on. Midway, an Israeli woman who lives in Miami comes up to me and says she would like to thank us. "Thank you for giving us back our honor," she says. "After Operation Guardian of the Walls, when the IDF attacked Gaza, there was a lot of antisemitism here. Until you came and public opinion turned on its head."
I told her that it's important to remember that it is the same IDF - the army that sent us here and the army that attacked Gaza.
Sarah is waiting for us in the hotel lobby. "You're leaving without my Malki? she cries, and my heart cries with her.
I invite Amnon and Moti over to join me even though they are embarrassed. I say to her: "Look at their faces. Look how they have been burned by the sun. We have been looking just for Malki for 30 hours. We left very clearly defined missions for the teams that are still here, and I promise you they will do everything to find her. Unfortunately, we didn't succeed.
A moment before I step into the elevator, Amnon runs up to me shouting excitedly, "they've found Malki! It seems that she was among those extracted from the floor above. I will never forget how we all hugged each other. It may seem strange, but when we find someone, even though they are dead, we are happy. The commandment to "save lives" has many levels, both for the living and those that are no longer alive.
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When the plane taxis along the runway at Miami airport, there are firefighters standing on both sides shooting out huge jets of water. The water washes down the windows, wings and tail of the plane, which bears the Israeli flag.
On the way back to Israel we hear that the night shift has found another five bodies, and now there is only one person missing out of the 93. When we land at Ben Gurion, the news comes from the U.S. - the final body has been found.
