Jews Nervous North of the Border?

Image: Scottish Jewish Archives on Facebook

“Mostly the Jewish community used to feel that Scotland was a good place to be Jewish but for many that has reversed. Many Jews actively discuss leaving Scotland because they feel alienated, vulnerable and not at home.”

So says Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC), as reorted in a Scottish newspaper yesterday. 

It reports, inter alia:

'The claim reflects the figures in the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights report, published last month, which found that 38% of Jews surveyed said that they had considered emigrating from their country over the past five years, with the highest proportions found in Germany, France and Belgium.

The survey also found that three-quarters of Jewish people in the UK perceived anti-Semitism to be generally a very big or a fairly big problem, with 29% having considered emigrating.

.... Borowski pointed to SCoJec research from 2015 in which one-third of respondents explicitly talked about a heightened level of anxiety, discomfort, or vulnerability.

He also said that, as part of the survey, five people told SCoJec without being prompted that they were considering leaving Scotland.

The row on anti-Semitism in the UK last year focused heavily on the response by the Labour party to allegations of anti-Jewish sentiment, with various members either being suspended or expelled.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who apologised for the hurt caused to Jewish people, was also criticised for his party’s initial refusal to endorse in full an international code on antisemitism.

Corbyn had originally backed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, but not all of its associated examples. He later performed a U-turn.

Mark Gardner, director of communications at the Community Security Trust, a charity set up to ensure the safety of the Jewish community in the UK, said of the Borowski comments:

“This is an accurate summary of the fact that despite the many positives of Scottish Jewish life, many Jews are still considerably more nervous about the state of antisemitism, politics and society than was the case 10 or 20 years ago.

A similar trend can be seen in Jewish communities across Europe and in this context, Scotland and indeed the UK as a whole remain relatively better than elsewhere.” '

Read more here

I've blogged from time to time about antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Scotland, and last year the UK Jewish Telegraph (23 March 2018) reported:

'Scotland has been awash with hatred of Jews and Israel this week. Three separate incidents will have Jews fearing for the future of the Jewish community north of the border.

An anti-racism rally in Glasgow, United Kingdom at the weekend saw Israel supporters verbally abused by thugs with their faces covered. Members of the Confederation of Friends of Israel - Scotland and Glasgow Friends of Israel took part in the march, despite calls for them to be barred. Even when the Muslim Council of Scotland withdrew its support the night before the march because of the “participation of Zionists”, the organisers held firm. This was followed by death threats to Scottish Council of Jewish Communities - SCoJeC director Ephraim Borowski after the conviction of Mark Meechan, of Coatbridge, for teaching his girlfriend’s pug to give a Nazi salute when he shouted “gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil”.

And a debate on ‘This House Believes that Israel is not an Apartheid State’ was cancelled after no one would debate with famed antisemitism researcher David Collier.

Professor Henry Maitles, Scottish Jews for a Just Peace a member and a Holocaust educator, had been due to oppose the motion, but made a statement with the Scottish Friends of Palestine that it would not be a fair or objectively factual debate with Mr Collier.

In the Meachan [sic; Meechan] case at Airdrie Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Mr Borowski said:

 “In many ways, the bit I found most offensive was the repetition of ‘gas the Jews,’ rather than the dog itself.

 The other thing that struck me was the explicit statement that this was intended to give offence and intended to be the most offensive thing he could think of and then he says he isn’t a racist. Unfortunately, we hear that all the time from people.

“I’m no historian, but it is the marching signal of the Nazi stormtroopers who contributed and supported the murder of six million Jews, including members of my own family.

Material of this kind goes to normalise the antisemitic views that, frankly, we thought we had seen the last of.”

Since the verdict, SCoJeC has been bombarded with hate messages and threats both to Mr Borowski and Jews in general. Others, purporting to come from Jews, have condemned the court case and outcome. Among the messages received by SCoJeC has been:

“I’m going to kill every single one of you ugly, rat-faced kikes. I think I’ll use a knife. Then after I’ve cut you, I’ll shut that dirty, filthy, lying Jew mouth of yours, once and for all. “Make sure you have a good hiding place ready. I’m gonna stick your children into an oven and then I’m gonna serve roasted kike to my dog.”

The video of the pug had been praised by comedians Ricky Gervais and David Baddiel, who is Jewish. Mr Gervais tweeted that if you don’t believe in a person’s right to say things that you might find “grossly offensive”, then you don’t believe in freedom of speech.

 Glasgow Jewish Representative Council - GJRCpresentative Council co-president Nicola Livingston declared: “There’s a difference between making jokes about the Holocaust and saying ‘gas the Jews’. That is not a joke — it’s like saying kill an entire race and what is funny about invoking something like that?”'

Meanwhile, a downplaying by the BBC of Jewish fears of antisemitism in the UK, enthusiastically repeated by the Scottish SPC on SoundCloud, and a new message from Scottish PSC chief Napier:
 

"They're Actively Working in Glasgow...They Can Identify You ..."

Och, those evil Zionists and their running dogs.

At an Israel-demonising bash in Scotland's second city recently, Scottish PSC chief Mick Napier rallies others of that ilk with the usual Israel- and IDF-demonising claptrap.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XICwqB_FGI

Like our old friend the ex-vicar of Virginia Water, the hoary-headed chieftain and "human rights activist" has no qualms about appearing on Iran's Press TV.

And here he is, strutting his stuff on the Fars newsagency.

What a farce!

Jew-Baiting in Edinburgh: "This is what these creatures are celebrating ... the rape of non-Jewish women" (video)

"How disgusting can you get?  How low can you sink?" screeches Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief Mick Napier.

Watch this video of anti-Israel fanatics in Edinburgh on 17 August to find out: loathsome, despicable stuff aimed at the organisers and attendees of the "Shalom Festival". And at Jews (the vast majority who are "Zionist" Jews) and Israel generally. 

"Your tickets are covered with Palestinian blood!" cry the assembled flag-waving, baying, jeering mob over and over again.

"This is what these creatures are celebrating ... the rape of non-Jewish women" we hear a male voice scream amid a lengthy rant that demands the "right of return" and extols BDS.  ("The original inhabitants of Palestine were Palestinians" the ranter earlier declares to wild cheers.)

"These people are here to support barbarism" thunders the hoary-headed chieftain regarding the festival attendees, in an odious address demonising Israel and "Zionist Jews" that follows an emotional diatribe in similar vein by a woman. 

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E4TVvBcTCQ)

The Stench Beneath Some Scotsmen's Kilts (updated again)

An exclusive report here

"An international push to make Google show Israel’s illegal wall around Palestinian territory on its Maps service will be launched this week by a Scottish MEP.

The SNP’s Alyn Smith will launch the #showthewall petition in partnership with the global activism network Avaaz, which has 44m members in 194 countries.Smith, who sits on the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said the absence of the so-called “separation barrier” from Google Maps appeared “deliberate and excessive”. ...."

Read more about this push from Smith, a contender for the Scottish National Party's deputy leadership, by clicking on the caption.

We all know what that "Celtic fans' Palestinian flag protest" entailed, of course.

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief Napier explained it thus:

 George Galloway had this comment:

And blogger Edgar Davidson has this graphic one here that's worth 1000 words:

As most readers will know, Glasgow's footie teams, "Celtic" and "Rangers," have histories rooted in sectarianism: "Celtic" football club has Glaswegian Irish Catholic roots and "Rangers" Protestant ones.  It would seem that the support for Palestinian nationalism that became evident in Irish Republican circles in the 1970s, and persists in the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which is among the most vicious of the PSC's branches and imitators, along with an unhealthy dose of antisemitism that arguably stems from traditional Catholic Church influences, drives much of this hostility towards Israel, abetted by Muslim anti-Israel sentiment in Scotland.

The comments beneath this Facebook post by Gorgeous George will help to explain the latter point:

 Beneath that video, commenter Moe Sylver unleashes some demons of the deflecting, conspiracy-laden kind:

And the stench persists:

And gains momentum:

Looks like young Cameron Gore (comment directly above) has no qualms about displaying racist antisemitism.

And as for Tina (see the final comment shown here), just fancy that!

I found that video on the Facebook page of a Scottish anti-Israel fanatic, who like most of his ilk seems to love the Iranian propaganda channel Press TV, notwithstanding the fact that Iran is one of the world's worst violators of human rights.

Here at left is the fanatic's present profile pic.

Very eloquent as to the endgame, eh?

 I blogged recently about the latest anti-Israel Hatefest in Scotland.

So (magnificently) did David Collier, here

I realise  he's not a Scot, but I can't resist adding this footage of a literal comedian, Londoner Mark Thomas.  In the opening frames he and as-a-Jew BDS activist Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi hove into view, and then the comedian goes on about the Shalom Festival (which was a grand counter in Ediburgh to all the recent hate) and about pride in BDS.

It's stuff that shows the puerile mindset of the anti-Israel set.

And the damnable self-importance of "Artists for Palestine".

More obscenity:

Read about this woman here

 Click on caption (feint, but there) for link to article 

25 August 2016: The SPSC chief's obscene characterisation of Israel in the wake of the Italian earthquake gets lots of likes and shares:

Anti-Israel Hatefest in Scotland (videos)

An old post of Scottish PSC chief Napier, setting out some core views:

It's instructive to know what the enemy thinks, even if it could be seen as giving them oxygen.

And north of the Border this weekend a branch of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been holding an anti-Israel hatefest, where foot soldiers of the Israel-demonising movement got to see some of their idols up close and personal.

But not this idol:

Needless to say, the chieftain attended:

Representative videos.

More here 


 And  Israel-haters get to roleplay in Edinburgh, goodies and baddies, Palestinians versus the IDF (still from the video spruiked by Chieftain Mick):

North of the Border Up Napier's Way

Wrote Scottish political  journalist Stephen Daisley in the Jewish Chronicle last Autumn:

'It reads like the grim manifesto of a fringe group.

"We condemn Zionism as a racist ideology based on Jewish supremacy in Palestine, as well as the related ideology of Christian Zionism... We support the Palestinian non-violent struggle for resistance to the colonisation of their lands, resources and peoples by Israel and by Zionist settlers."

In fact, these words come from the policy statement on Israel and Palestine adopted by the Scottish Green Party at its conference last weekend.The document has attracted attention for its demand that Hamas be removed from the list of proscribed terrorist organisations, but there are even more disturbing provisions.

The resolution "condemns Israel's claim to be 'the Jewish State'", instead declaring it an "apartheid" society "in which non-Jews have inferior rights". As such, it demands the law of return be scrapped for Jews and a right of return introduced for Palestinians.

The party has carved out a startlingly extreme niche.

To achieve this, the Scottish Greens endorse boycotts of Israeli businesses, academics and cultural institutions, Jewish and Arab, Hebron and Haifa. And while calling for the release of Palestinian "political prisoners", they want to see the JNF stripped of its charitable status.

There is some throat-clearing about Israel as a safe haven after the Holocaust but it's tepid stuff. Even amid rising anti-Israel sentiment on the European left, the Greens have carved out a startlingly extreme niche....

In their equation of Zionism to racism, the Greens unearth the notorious UN resolution 3379 and wear it with pride. When the General Assembly carried that motion, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the United States UN ambassador, proclaimed: "A great evil has been loosed upon the world."

Despite the resolution's eventual repeal, that evil has never been contained again. It is at the root of much "progressive" anti-Zionism today. It is why a party of mild-mannered Scottish environmentalists can inveigh against "Jewish supremacy" without shame.'

Also last Autumn, as reported here, Jackson Carlaw, Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for West Scotland, was the keynote speaker at the inaugural Scottish student conference run by Israel advocacy organisation Stand With Us, held in Glasgow's Giffnock Synagogue and attended by students from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde.

Inter alia, he said:

"It’s true that MSPs do commemorate the Holocaust. Sometimes I think some think they have ticked a box when they do that and are free the rest of the year to be deeply critical about Israel, and at times to allow that anti-Israel expression of view to cross into an antisemitic expression of view, and not see the difference between them.

The [Jewish]community has started to feel under threat again.

I don’t want the future Jewish community to feel no longer welcome in Scotland or that they have to follow through on discussions about whether it is time for them to leave."

He added that he aimed to tackle anti-Israel feeling in Scottish Parliament with a motion for a members debate this month titled “Bridges not boycotts” which would be a positive motion about the “contribution of the Jewish community in Scotland today”, and “Israel’s place in the world”.

Mr Carlaw was the keynote speaker at the first Scottish student conference run by Israel advocacy organisation Stand With Us, held in Glasgow...

Around 30 students from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde spoke about issues they faced on Scottish campuses.

Noa Cohen, vice-chair of a the new Israel Engagement Society at Edinburgh University, said her group was building up support by emphasising social events rather than political ones.

The IES was formed last year “in reaction to a strong BDS movement”, she said. “The main target was people who were sympathetic towards Israel, not necessarily Jews”. The group already have a core of around 30 members, but only around 25 per cent are Jewish.

IES political vice-chair Theo Robertson-Bonds said that Israel supporters were trying to bring a different mood to the political debate on campus.

“Students for Justice in Palestine tends to have events based around letter-writing or staging a die-in. It’s not fun, it’s not engaging. Thus we’re trying to have fun and engage people through that. Our view is through building up a really rich social base where people talk about anything, but particularly support each other on issues relating to faith and the state of Israel, that will attract more people to come along just organically.”

Ms Cohen also advised avoidance of the word “Zionism”.

“There’s such negative connotations. It needs to be tackled eventually, but especially when you’re trying to build up a base, stay away from it.”

Concerns over anti-Israel members of the Scottish Parliament was also voiced. Such members include SNP (Scottish National Party) politician Sandra White, who has since apologised "unreservedly" for retweeting an obnoxious cartoon tweeted by, to quotereporter Marcus Dysch  the Jewish Chronicle, "a man called Charles Frith, who has repeatedly posted antisemitic messages and images. Ms White has previously re-posted messages from his account."

Needless to say, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC; Mick Napier, chieftain) has warmly welcomed the Scottish Greens' stance (see here).

Recently, this has become one of the SPSC's principal campaigns, and as the accompanying images show, Mick has been in the thick of the fight.

To quote, inter alia, from the SPSC's propaganda on this issue:

"Police Scotland seem to be lining up with Barclays Bank to prevent political activity on a public street against Barclays' $25m investments in arms giant Raytheon. Barclays profits from military technology that Israel uses  to carry out its massacres of Palestinians as part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Last Saturday (March 5th) Police Scotland officers on Princes Street threatened to arrest SPSC members, although the officers seemed to be scrabbling to identify any crime being committed that could conceivably justify an arrest of peaceful protestors on a public street, leafletting the public as they have been doing now for some weeks.  Ludicrously, the officers finally claimed the 'grim reapers' representation of Barclays bloody investments had to go because they might frighten young children! ....

To be clear, we have been and will remain outside Barclays because the trail of culpability from Israel's massacre of children in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine leads directly to those at the top of the bank who direct investments and profit from such mass killing. Palestinian kid

The majority of Palestinian children in Gaza are being deliberately traumatised by Israeli sonic boom attacks, massacred with weapons that Barclays invests in purely for profit. Money from childrens blood, trauma, shattered bodies, destroyed homes and schools. The suits who profit from such wanton killing are even worse than the brutes who actually use the fruits of Barclays investments to destroy the Palestinian human beings...."

Blood libel stuff.

Mick's newish slogan (we all know what the end-game is):

And here's Mick's newest thrust of his claymore, referring to a vile article in Ha'aretz by the repellent Gideon Levy:

Funnily ("funny peculiar" not "funny haha") the doughty chieftain is not averse to appearing on the satellite channel of one of the world's most notorious human rights abusing states in the world, which has repeatedly threatened Israel with genocide (I'm not linking to this, his very latest studio appearance; if anyone really wants to listen to his nonsense they must seek it out):

Israel-demonising without shame, eh?

Meanwhile  ...

Anyhow, though not directly relevant to the above. let's close with the latest thoughts of Aussie Newton Gatoff:

Mick the Knife

One of our old friends, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief Mick Napier, seems to have swallowed hook, line and sinker the odious canard (blood libel, really) expressed in this cartoon:

Over the weekend, in Glasgow, Mick, who like fellow-Scot Gorgeous George is no slouch in the demagogic stakes (George is a much snappier dresser, though), repeated the canard at a rally called by Israel-haters in Scotland to plug BDS, the right of return, and the ultimate eradication of the Jewish State.

Mick's time in the spotlight begins at 15.35 and runs until the end of the video.  Previous speakers shown in this video are Issam Hijjawi, an SPSC member and chair of the umbrella group Palestine Alliance, and the chair of the Muslim Council of Scotland, Azam Abu Jaffar.  Where from the outset Mick plays "bad cop" they appear to cast themselves in the role of "good cop".  Needless to say, the assembled faithful eats it all up.

As usual, talk only of Palestinian Arabs as victims and perpetual refugees; no mention of Arab rejectionism and other awkward facts of history and politics ...

 Apparently there were other speakers, of whose speeches further videos will be forthcoming.

Another knife attack for Mick to spin:

In London, The Man Who Would Be Mayor Joins The Anti-Israel Throng (videos); includes updates

The despicable one-sided reportage about current events in Israel (I'm looking at you, among others, Orla Guerin) is continuing to work its evil, despite such capable refutations as this, from Mark Regev:

But of course, nothing Regev or other truth-tellers can say can alter the minds of those who have long since wanted to bring the little Jewish State to its knees.  Hence many demos round the world this weekend; the images below depict Sydney (the cleric in the keffiyeh is Australia's answer to Stephen Sizer), Edinburgh, Dundee, Paris (two pictures) respectively, and London (ditto).

 

Here's footage of the nauseating  raucous anti-Israel demo yesterday in Britain's capital, with mayoral candidate Gorgeous George (that's him above) in characteristic loquacious mood (update: see my next post for another video):

Demonising UK propaganda surrounding the rally here 

More nasties here

In Charlie Hebdo Land:

Below, typical behaviour of totalitarian leftist rabble and rabble rousers (at least one Australian city has witnessed comparable conduct on recent Friday afternoons at rush hour, causing traffic chaos and disruption): demonstrators at London's busy St Pancras station in favour of admitting vast numbers of Islamic invaders "refugees" to Britain and deliberately preventing the travelling public from going about their lawful business unhindered.

"The Minority ... Needs A Cowardly & Silent Majority ... & Forces It To Accept What The Minority Wants": A rabbi warns

Back in January, in the immediate wake of the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket bloodshed in Paris, this rabbi from Paris made a heartfelt commentary on the situation facing Jews in Europe, that is in his view so dire that he feels ill.

Comparing the source of antisemitism in Europe in our day to its source in the "Devil's Decade" of the 1930s, he warns that history seems set to repeat itself.  It is not the majority that decides human history and the fates of nations, he maintains, but the minority.  And what does a minority require in order to impose its will and its regime upon the majority, he asks: why, it requires the majority to cower, silent and supine.

His recommendation? I think you can guess.

This is a video that deserves watching (or listening to, for it consists entirely of a talking head) in its entirety.  Rita, the translator, who is herself a blogger (see the credits at the beginning of the video) has done an outstanding job in providing the subtitles.

As for antisemitism in today's Europe, there's an interesting new article here

I read that article, and this by Marvellous Melanie, and shortly afterwards I saw this snap of keffiyeh-wearing Israel-hating Scottish lads and lassies, below. And the phrase "useful idiots" immediately and inexorably came to mind.

Not the Gaelic lingo ...

As BDS Gains Ground in the Highlands, Scottish PSC Chief Slams "Scottish Zionist Leaders"

Yesterday, at a full meeting, members of Scotland's Highland Regional Council voted to condemn

“the Government of Israel for its continuing illegal occupation of Palestine’s East Jerusalem and the West Bank and for its continuing illegal blockade of Gaza”

and welcomed

“the decision of the United Nations on 29 November 2012 to grant ‘non-member observer State’ to Palestine.”

Exults Mr Mick Napier, chief of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign:

' This decision of the Council provides a basis for current work across the region to extend the BDS campaign....

Highland Regional Council covers over a third of the Scottish mainland and is the seventh out of thirty two Scottish councils population size.

The Highland Council vote took place without any preparatory work beforehand and thus casts a very bright light on the current state of British opinion at local government level. Zionists are acutely aware of the pariah status of Israel in popular opinion across the world and throughout the UK. How much longer will Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and the Charities Commission be able to protect the apartheid state from popular opinion as Israel crosses red line after line of sustained criminality?'

And he claims:

'Scottish Zionist leaders reacted to the impending vote in their usual irresponsible and reckless manner, defending Israeli crime by manipulating the fears of Scottish Jews. Three days before the vote, Scottish Council of Jewish Communities [SCoJeC]spokesperson Linda Martin warned darkly in the local press of possible physical attacks on Jews if Israel was criticised.

Ms Martin claimed somewhat disingenuously that “The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities has no collective view on Israeli policies.” Their claimed neutrality towards Israel’s crimes is manifestly untrue, however, since SCoJeC’s leaders never criticise any Israeli massacre and miss no opportunity to smear criticism of Israel with wholly fabricated claims of anti-semitism. These antics have laid SCoJeC’s leaders open to severe criticism from within the Scottish Jewish community.

Ms Martin is reckless: she and SCoJeC claims to be “concerned at recent research findings that reveal verbal and sometimes physical attacks on Jewish people in Scotland because of their perceived identification with Israel”. Such efforts to implicate the Scottish Jewish community in the crimes of the state of Israel have been vigorously repudiated by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. She also claims that “disproportionate criticism levied at Israel by some politicians makes people feel alienated and vulnerable.” There is, however, no reputable research in the public domain that Scottish Jews are “physically...attacked because of their perceived identification with Israel”. Perhaps Ms Martin can point to some, bearing in mind that Zionists have a long record of exaggerating and welcoming real anti-semitism to support their efforts to persuade Jews to emigrate to Israel/Palestine. Political Zionists, open supporters of Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing, also whinge loudly when they come in for the severe criticism their racist and violent policies deserve.'

I think Mr Napier must be unaware of the sentiments expressed by some anti-Israel elements in Scotland, as seen in the following photos.  If he knew about them, he would surely empathise with the fears of Scottish Jews.