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:
 

Great Gloating in the Glen

Despite his slogan that "Anti-Semitism is a crime" Scottish PSC chief Mick Napier has apparently done nothing to solve the problem of Jacinta and her ilk.

Perhaps he's as yet unaware of the Holocaust denying contingent among his followers exposed by David Collier. 

Whatever the case, Mick and the SPSC are cock-a-hoop over the outcome of a trial in Glasgow.

In the words of Press TV presenter and Islamic "revert" Yvonne Ridley,

'In yet another landmark legal victory, members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign emerged from court victorious today after being accused of racism. Their “crime”? Standing up to Zionism.  The trial ended three years of speculation and pressure for SPSC members whose robust defence of their actions won the day in Glasgow Sherriff’s Court when the verdict was announced on Friday.

Four days of evidence and cross-examinations earlier this month focussed on the actions of two SPSC members who faced charges of racism and aggravated trespass for a protest against Israeli company Jericho cosmetics, which operates around the Dead Sea in the occupied West Bank. The protest was held in the wake of Israel’s 2014 military offensive against Palestinian civilians besieged in the Gaza Strip. More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed by the Israelis during the offensive, including 550 children, before in the war ended on 26 August. During the demonstration on 13 September 2014, the SPSC protesters denounced the killings.

Police were called to the shopping centre where the protest was being held, leading to the arrest of the two SPSC members accused of racism. “In other words,” explained Mick Napier, one of those arrested, “we were accused of being motivated by hatred of Israelis rather than opposition to Israel’s repeated massacres, apartheid across the whole of Palestine and genocidal violence in Gaza.”

During the Glasgow trial, the SPSC was buoyed by a High Court ruling in London that the Conservative government in Westminster acted unlawfully when it tried to prevent local councils in Britain from divesting from companies involved in Israel’s military occupation. The successful legal challenge for the right to boycott was brought by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London, supported by War on Want, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and the Quakers.

However, Napier wasn’t convinced that the result of the latest trial was a foregone conclusion. “Given their past record, we felt it was unlikely that even this High Court ruling in favour of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] would stop Scottish prosecutors’ related efforts to criminalise the campaign in support of Palestinian freedom.”

The prosecutor — called the Procurator Fiscal in the Scottish legal system — claimed in open court that the two accused in the Glasgow case were recycling an ancient anti-Semitic “Jewish blood libel” by speaking about Israeli mass murder of Palestinians. The Procurator Fiscal’s office made these claims, said Napier, while the violated people of Gaza “were still looking for ice-cream freezers and vegetable refrigerators in which to store the bodies of children killed by Israel’s military.”

In their testimony last month, Napier and his co-accused Jim Watson both rejected the claims made by prosecution witnesses, a Chief Inspector of police, the manager of the Jericho stall and two local Zionist activists. The prosecution claim was that staff were intimidated by “racist” placards and the shouting of “racist abuse”; this was the description of the SPSC’s criticism of the pro-Israel counter-demonstrators for supporting Israel’s most recent massacre of Palestinians.

The “racist” placard with which the Procurator Fiscal and Zionist witnesses took particular issue was a symbolic but graphic image of blood dripping under the name “Dead Sea cosmetics”. Napier pointed out that at the time of their protest, the UN Secretary-General was describing Israel’s massacre of thousands of Palestinians as a “moral outrage and criminal act” and a “gross violation of humanitarian law.”

http://david-collier.com/dumbarton-antisemites-party/

“When the Scottish government joined in by denouncing the ‘deep inhumanity’ of the Israeli massacre,” noted Napier, “the Scottish procurators fiscal were working hand in glove with pro-Israel lobby groups to silence voices of Palestine solidarity.”

The SPSC has faced repeated efforts by pro-Israel lobbyists and Scottish prosecutors to criminalise the group’s pro-Palestine activities. The Zionist record to-date is one of almost total failure; legal action has failed to secure any convictions of pro-Palestine activists.

“There was, however, a consolation prize [for the Zionists] when we were both found guilty of refusing to leave the shopping centre when asked to do so by the police,” said Napier. “I was also convicted of aggravated trespass for protesting inside the shopping centre. We will be appealing against both convictions so any celebrations by the Zionists will, I suggest, be a bit premature.”

In February last year, two employees of the pro-Israel Community Security Trust made allegations against SPSC members but that was also thrown out by Kilmarnock Sheriff Court when the Sheriff ruled that the crime as alleged had not taken place. “Had we not had the benefit of an Al-Jazeera Arabic language broadcast of the protest where the CST tried to secure an assault conviction there might have been a different outcome,” added Mick Napier.'

She never did say whether her stents were made in Israel

Come on, Mick.  Pull yer finger out.  What will you do with a problem like Jacinta?

(Meanwhile, here in Australia, a setback for an as-a-Jew Israel hater)


Meanwhile:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLbmk-ulpkE

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:

Beware The Anti-Israel MacRatbags: Why we should fear a "Yes" vote in Thursday's Scottish referendum

Members of the Radical Independence Campaign standing with Gaza

The outcome of Scotland's referendum on Thursday to decide whether or not to secede from the Union with England hangs in the balance, with polls indicating that the probable result is too close to call.

A "Yes" vote leading to the breakup of the United Kingdom would be a tragedy, diminishing Britain's weight in the world.

It would also limit opportunities for Scots, people who have not, despite the nonsense pushed in some "Yes" circles, been oppressed by "the English"; indeed, in the twentieth century alone there were five British prime ministers from Scotland and others with Scottish connections, including Tony Blair.

Ratbags in Edinburgh

Scots have played a distinguished part in Britain's wars and in the development of the British Empire (the East India Company was largely dominated by Scots, something that the leftists would rather not acknowledge).

More importantly from our standpoint, Scottish independence would mean and the dominance in Scotland of the Israel-hating Left, which has to date been responsible for five Scottish councils commiting to BDS and which is thirsting to wreak more mischief of that sort.

As the Jewish Chronicle reported last week that some Jews intend to vote "Yes" despite apprehensions:

 'Scottish Jews are concerned that independence could lead to a rise in anti-Zionism but, for many, it will not stop them voting yes.

Scotland's 6,000-strong community has faced a summer of rising anti-Israel protest amid the Gaza conflict, with Glasgow and Edinburgh town halls flying the Palestinian flag and protesters boycotting stores stocking Israeli goods.

With the latest polling putting the yes and no camps at level pegging in the run-up to the vote on September 18, Jews are having to consider what affect independence could have on issues such as circumcision and kosher slaughter, and whether a new goverment would pursue a harder line on Israel.

... Paul Morron, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council [is not panicking but concedes]

"An independent Scottish government will have control over foreign policy and that may take a more anti-Israel view. This could increase pressure on the community. We have seen how quickly anti-Israel feeling can turn into antisemitism.

"In the last 60 years Glasgow has not suffered this level of antisemitism so of course there is a major shockwave going through the community. ..."

....Living in England, Rabbi Alan Plancey, emeritus rabbi of Borehamwood Synagogue, cannot vote next week, but as a proud Scot he is keenly following the campaign, and is dead against independence. "Why do we have to split up everything all the time? If it works, why break it?" he said.

"There is a lot of antisemitism in Scotland - if they go on their own, it could be worse. Once they have their own fully sovereign government and parliament, God knows what they will do."'

 Note this recent press release by the Radical Independence Campaign:

“An independent Scotland could have a Palestinian embassy and support sanctions against Israel”, Radical Independence Campaign co-founder Jonathon Shafi has said, ahead of a Scotland-wide march against the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The writing on the wall

The Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) were present at the Scotland-wide demonstration and have printed placards reading ‘Scotland’s stands with Gaza – Free Palestine’. Jonathon Shafi, who will be speaking at the demonstration, said:

‘Israel has broken the UN Human Rights Charter many times over. But we have come to come expect nothing but inaction from successive Westminster Governments. This is not the first time Israel have committed war crimes, such as collective punishment, and as long as the UK Government and the rest of the international community continue to stand in support of Israel, it won’t be the last.

An independent Scotland could follow the example of Chile, who announced this week that they were suspending trade talks with Israel and considering withdrawing its ambassador from Tel-Aviv(1).

An independent Scotland could stand with those in the international community who want to see peace and justice for the people of Palestine. It could support effective political and economic sanctions against Israel. And it could make a symbolic gesture of the legitimacy of Palestine on the international stage by having a Palestinian embassy in a newly independent Scotland.

With the full powers of independence, the Scottish Government could play a definitive and leading role in standing against Israeli occupation and the oppression of Palestinians. Contrast that with David Camerons ‘staunch support’ of Israel."

Note what Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), said on Sunday. To quote the  Jewish Chronicle:

'Scottish politician Alex Salmond appeared to compare the Islamic State terror group’s beheading of a British aid worker to the actions of the Israeli government in controversial comments on Sunday.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Salmond said: “The Muslim community of Scotland isn’t responsible in any shape or form for atrocities or extremism, just like a few weeks ago the Jewish community of Scotland wasn’t responsible for the policies of the state of Israel.”

The Scottish National Party leader was commenting after Scottish aid worker David Haines was murdered by Islamic State terrorists in Iraq.'

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57306

Note, too, that Mick Napier, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief, is as fanatical a pro-Scottish independence proponent as he is an anti-Israel one.

If Scotland does become independent, this initiative of Napier's, argued by him before the Scottish Parliament that Edward Snowden by granted asylum in Scotland, is a likely example of what the ratbags will do.

Yes, if they get independence, that is a likely example of what they will do Though they are unlikely to cite a Yiddish tale, as he does in that video. What chutzpah!


 I give several recent examples of Mr Napier's mindset below, as contained in recent messages of his on Facebook.

And cheering Scottish independence on, the Welsh Green Party's anti-Israel leader:

As well as the anti-Israel Socialist Workers mob:

Yet another ratbag for independence, in a nonsensical piece in the Guardian:

Among The Israel-Haters, Ezra The Prophet (video)

Don't let the well-modulated tones of the narrator in the following video lull or fool you.  Uploaded last month, and focusing on a bunch of five Israel-haters in Scotland who disrupted the performance of The Jerusalem Quartet and appear to be Edinburgh's answer to Melbourne's so-called "Max Brenner 19,"  it's as insidiously nasty a piece of propaganda against what's described in it as "a criminal racist state" as you're likely to find.

These people favour BDS against all Israeli goods and initiatives (though presumably, it goes without saying, not those Israeli inventions and medical breakthroughs that enhance their own lives) and they mean business.  This is no amateurish video.  It's a well-made, far-ranging piece of vilification against Israel, the only Jewish State in the world and – well, well, what a coincidence! – the only country in the world whose existence is challenged.

What these haters overlook (or maybe it doesn't matter to them) is that  the "Palestinian state" yearning to be born already has anti-Jewish apartheid as a principle in its draft constitution. See  here
(Hat tip: E.G.)

There is, however, one person featured in the video who talks sense.  He's Dr Ezra Golombok, director of the Israel Information Office in Scotland.

As outlined in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History, Dr Golombok, a retired research chemist, is the son of Lithuanian-born Zevi (or Zvi) Golombok (1880-1954), who co-founded a Yiddish-language Zionist newspaper in Scotland as well as a Yiddish weekly, and who went on to found the English-language Glasgow Jewish Echo (ran from 1928-92), which Ezra edited from 1950.

O To Be In Tel Aviv, Now That April's Here ...

No, I haven't gone bonkers, fast forwarding the calendar and mistaking the month.  But I do want to diarise Sunday 15 April. It occurs immediately after Pesach.

Be prepared, folks! That's when a new flytilla is scheduled to descend on Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

Here's the lowdown, from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in that part of the United Kingdom where the pictured message, presumably by some antisemitic nutjob within the Scottish National Party,  was scrawled upon a wall not so long ago.

I quote from the Scottish PSC's website:

'The challenge to Israel’s illegal siege of Palestine has to move from words to deeds; a small flotilla of boats challenge the siege of Gaza by sea and the Welcome to Palestine 2012 initiative will fly in to Tel Aviv Airport on April 15th to insist on the rights of all Palestinians to freely receive visitors from abroad. Hopefully, hundreds of international visitors will celebrate with Palestinian friends on that Sunday a tiny progress towards the realisation of their full human rights.

The Israelis may, however, as in 2011, imprison air travellers without charge for trying to go openly to Palestine, but the numbers and international scope this time will make it much more difficult and politically costly for them. If, in addition, international air carriers agree to act as auxiliary prison guards for Israel’s illegal occupation by refusing boarding to some ticket-holders in our home countries, we will know how [to] deal through the courts and otherwise with this violation of our rights to travel.

As with other countries, UK involvement in WtP 2012 will be much greater than last year. Most will be participating for the first time, but some will be veterans of WtP2011. Organisers are already in place in London, the North of England, Wales, Scotland and elsewhere to be a point of recruitment, to fundraise, to set up support systems here, to liaise with Palestinian and Israeli welcomers, and to organise the groups that will fly into Tel Aviv Airport on April 15th from many airports internationally. Join us.

Read the endorsement of WtP 2012 from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky and many others:

"We, the undersigned, endorse the call from the Welcome to Palestine 2012 initiative for supporters of Palestinian human and national rights around the world to openly visit Palestine during Easter 2012.

There is no way into Palestine other than through Israeli control points. Israel has turned Palestine into a giant prison, but prisoners have a right to receive visitors.

Welcome to Palestine 2012 will again challenge Israel's policy of isolating the West Bank while the settler paramilitaries and army commit brutal crimes against a virtually defenceless Palestinian civilian population.

We call on governments to support the right of Palestinians to receive visitors and the right of their own citizens to visit Palestine openly.

The participants in Welcome to Palestine 2012 ask to be allowed to pass through Tel Aviv airport without hindrance and to proceed to the West Bank to take part in a project there for children to benefit from the right to education."

SIGNED:

Sam Bahour / Tony Benn / Noam Chomsky / Jonathan Cook / Stephane Hessel / Ronnie Kasrils / Nurit Peled / John Pilger / Nawal Al Sadaawi / Vauro Senesi / Desmond Tutu

So now we know.
Hat tip: J.S.