"One Hundred Per Cent Of Middle Eastern Background": Notes from a noisome north

Both the Danish capital, Copenhagen, and the southern Swedish city of Malmö, are situated in an area that's the most populous in Scandinavia.  Both cities have significant Muslim populations.  The following video shows a seemingly adulatory crowd surrounding the hearse containing the body of the man said to have carried out the recent murders of a participant at a free speech seminar in Copenhagen and of a security guard at a synagogue:

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

 The video below is far longer, but worth watching all the way through.  Carrying English subtitles (which adequately convey the core of what is being said even though they hardly suggest fluency on the part of the translator) it takes a searching look at Jew-hatred in Sweden, focusing on Malmö.

What's described is a litany of harassment, vilification, intimidation, and physical threats.

The general consensus of the Jewish population is summed up by one of the interviewees, who says: "You feel insecure and would prefer not to stay".

We meet the local rabbi, who voices his concerns, a woman who tells of the risk Jews take if they appear on the streets wearing identifying symbols, a man who tests the public mood by walking around the hotspots wearing a Magen David and a kippah, an Israeli Jew who was told by a Swedish Muslim "One day we'll slaughter you all" and is consequently very fearful when out and about,  a young Jew who pulls no punches in explaining that his online tormenters, spewing heavy-duty antisemitism at him, are not neo-Nazis but "one hundred per cent of Middle Eastern background".

Then, at roughly two-thirds of the way through the video, are the schoolteachers (one male, two female) who tell of the antisemitism, insults, and bullying they have faced from pupils, including taunting references to Auschwitz and, in the case of the male, the vow "We will kill all Jews – you also eventually".

We learn that the perpetrators of the antisemitism are rarely if ever prosecuted, let alone punished.
Right at the end of the video two municipal officials, both women, are interviewed regarding civic responses to the problem; the M word is not uttered, although the interviewer hints at it, and watch the younger of the two women avoid placing the blame on the principal culprits, preferring to emphasise antisemitism on the part of the far right.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cFYmhQMks8)
 Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog

Interfaith Dialogue? "A Trap of Satan ... There Should Be An Ideological Conflict To Present Islam As Alternative To Their Bogus Culture "

In London, a number of people supportive of the notion of "interfaith dialogue" come together:

Not everyone is convinced of the efficacy of such dialogue, however: for example, in this recent post, blogger Edgar Davidson, for example, pours scorn on the Board of Deputies' huge expenditure on interfaith initiatives.

Sceptics and cynics, who warn that Islam is a supremacist ideology that aims to replace not only existing faiths but the existing order, can point with a "told you so!" to Copenhagen imam Hajj Saeed, who in the following speech made the day before the terror attacks in that city,  rejects the concept of "interfaith dialogue".  Its aim, he warns, is to draw Muslims away from their faith. Muslims should aim instead, he rants, to promote "Islam as an alternative to their [the western infidels'] bogus culture" which (wait for it!) reduces people to the level of beasts.

"The people responsible for interfaith dialogue want to make all religion equal. They want to equate truth and falsehood, between heresy and deception [sic], between the religion of the Prophet Mohammed and man-made laws, legislated by these criminals in order to rule the world....

The notion of interfaith dialogue is nothing new. This is a malignant idea of which we must be aware, in order to avoid falling into the traps of Satan and his followers, who advocate such dialogue....

Our Prophet Mohammad had Jewish neighbours in Al-Medina. Did he call for closer relations, harmony, and dialogue with them, in the manner of the UN and of those who call to reconciliation truth and falsehood? Or did he call upon them to worship Allah? When they violated their pledge and did not accept this call – well, you know what he did to them. It appears in his Sira. He waged war against the Jews....

Do you know what interfaith dialogue means? Simply put, it is the creation of a new religion and of new concepts that will be shared by religions considered to be monotheistic. The purpose is to draw the Muslims away from their true religion....

All people are called to convert to Islam, and anyone who refrains from doing so, after having been presented with evidence, is an infidel, without a doubt.

Allah has made laws that regulate our relations with them, if we live in their countries. The so-called interfaith dialogue is not part of these laws. Things are entirely different. There should be an ideological conflict to refute their argument of falsehood, and to present Islam as alternative to their bogus culture, which has hurled them into the abyss of depravity and corruption, and which has reduced them from humanity to the level of beasts." (Transcript here)

Yep, #BibiSpeaks4Me

The pro-Israel Dr Ashraf Ramelah is founder and president of Voice of the Copts, which represents the largest Christian community in the Middle East.  Founded in 2007 his non-profit organisation, in its own words,

 "fights the spread of Islamic supremacy and Sharia throughout the Western world through education, advocacy and action .... By drawing attention to the suffering of Coptic Christians in Egypt, it endeavors to educate the Western world as to the chilling effect of Sharia .... [It] focuses on three key issues: freedom of religion, cultural identity and women’s rights".

Recently, Dr Ramelah, on behalf of his organisation, and Michael Mendelson,founder and president of Israel's Voice, jointly sent a letter of support to Binyamin Netanyahu concerning his controversial forthcoming (3 March) address to Congress:

Both sites explain:

 'Netanyahu’s invitation from U.S. Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner to speak before Congress was intended to be for bipartisan purposes — to raise international awareness about the threats posed by global jihad and a nuclear-armed Iran. Yet, his visit has come under attack by the White House administration. Some U.S. members of Congress have already announced they will not attend, and President Obama and Vice President Biden are among those who declined to attend. Several Jewish and so-called “pro-Israel” organizations like J Street, which has started the Twitter hashtag “BibiDoesntSpeakForMe,” have urged Netanyahu to cancel his speech. Opponents have argued his March 3 address has become too politically charged — that it is too close to Israeli elections and U.S.-Iran negotiations — and it is not the appropriate time.

 Israel’s Voice and Voice of the Copts vehemently disagree. The threats posed by Iran’s nuclear program are the most detrimental security risks we could possibly face in our day. As the Washington, D.C., Center for Security Policy analysis clearly confirms, the centrifuges continue to spin, and we have no more time to waste.

 If you agree with our following letter to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, share it and make it viral through email and any and all other social media platforms you use with the hashtag, #BibiSpeaks4Me.” ....'

https://www.facebook.com/events/381547898692826/

Dr Ramelah now writes as follows in the wake of the unspeakable cruelty meted out to members of his religion by ISIS in Libya:

'Once again, tragedy strikes the Coptic community with the brutal murders of twenty-one Christian Copts in Libya. Living under constant threat of a hate-driven and blood-thirsty Islam, Copts of Egypt have learned to expect anything at any time, and mourners go about the streets. A few days ago a young Coptic man was burned alive in the province of Al-Minya. Muslims harassed and targeted this youth in the heart of a peaceful village hoping to spark the retaliation of Copts in order to trigger destabilization of the region. But Copts have not reacted, waiting instead for law enforcement to take its course. 

For more than 1,430 years, Copts have suffered the brutality and aggression of Islamic doctrine along with Jews and other non-Muslims. History shows how Islamic doctrine played an important role during World War One and in World War Two with the massacre of more than six million Jews in Europe.  As well, Muslims become victims of their own system. A video showing a Jordanian pilot hostage set ablaze recently caused Jordan’s leader to respond with military action.

However, one leader who has truly taken the lead against terrorism in the moment is Egyptian president Al-Sisi as the Egyptian military strikes at ISIS in Libya. Al-Sisi’s war against Islamic terrorism began during his presidential election campaign when he asked for the renewal of Islamic discourse and implied that the status of religious minorities should be one of equality as he declared that “there are no religious minorities in Egypt.” 

Voice of the Copts supports Egypt’s President Al-Sisi in his war against Islamic terrorism and hopes that other leaders will follow in his footsteps in order to protect the world from further atrocities. The question that arises now concerns world leaders who listen and take their lead from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian terror organization banned from Egypt, to actually aid its branches of terror in the Middle East rather than oppose them. Will Egypt’s current strike against Libya be countered by unlikely sources behind ISIS on the ground?

We offer our condolences to the grieving families of those who suffered barbaric acts most recently in Libya and Syria. Also, our sympathy goes out to the family and community members of the young Copt burned alive in Egypt’s Al-Minya Province.'

 Meanwhile, "Is Italy the next breeding ground for Isis?" asks Howard Koplowitz, while, of course, The Man in the White House and his minions duck and weave...

In London, Jewish Human Rights Watch Launches With A Demo Against War On Want

These posters can be downloaded via JHRW's website

The UK-based charity War On Want, founded in the 1950s to fight poverty and deprivation in the developing world, has developed into a particularly vicious politically-motivated anti-Israel organisation, as itemised by NGO Monitor here.

Needless to say, the charity is in the forefront of the BDS movement,  and given that, and War on Want's overall Israel-demonising nastiness, it's not inappropriate that one of the first tasks of a new anti-BDS group has been to demonstrate outside War on Want's headquarters.

The new group is called the Jewish Human Rights Watch, and this is what it's had to say in an initial press release:

'Today we announce the arrival of Jewish Human Rights Watch, a new organisation dedicated to exposing the anti-Semitic and racist BDS Boycott Divestment Sanctions.

We are at 0830 this morning [Monday] gathered outside War On Want Headquarters (44-48 Shepherdess Walk, London N17JP) to protest against War On Want’s “War on Jews”.

For several years now War On Want has lead BDS actions against the Jewish community with their boycotting of Jewish goods, businesses, artists and academics.

Having just marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we find it both shocking and distressing that War On Want should be complicit in organising boycotts of Jews, akin to those the Jews suffered in Nazi Germany.

At a time of rising attacks on Jews across Europe, War On Want must understand that their actions are contributing to the incitement of hatred of the British Jewish community.

We therefore call upon War On Want to end its discriminatory policies and dissociate itself from BDS.' 

JHRW's Yochy Davis

Moreover, notes its website here:

'As the Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW) movement hit the streets of London this morning with its first Protest, they came face to face with the Head of the target organisation War On Want.

“At a time of rising attacks on Jews across Europe, War On Want must understand that their actions are contributing to the incitement of hatred of the British Jewish community” it was put to Mr Hilary....

A peaceful but passionate exchange of views and opinions were delivered between the Jewish Human Rights protesters and Mr Hilary. When questioned about the BDS drive for boycotting Jewish goods, academia, arts and more, Mr Hilary failed to give direct or convincing responses.

War on Want proudly leads the anti-Semitic BDS here in the UK.  Jewish Human Rights Watch calls on them to dissociate themselves from BDS and its indiscriminatory policies.'

For more on this new group see here

And be sure to look at blogger Richard Millett's post this week on War and Want and blogger Edgar Davidson's current exposé of War On Want

Reporter Marcus's Small Beer

The ("organ of Anglo-Jewry") Jewish Chronicle's political correspondent Marcus Dysch (whom I've always  regarded as one of the few reporters on the Jewish Chronicle these days with a nose for genuine and important news) has been swift to report a relatively minor transgression by the Students' Union of a university in Wales.

 As Marcus tells us,complete with screenshot to prove it,

'Officials at a students’ union have claimed the use of a Nazi logo in advertising material for a German-themed social event was “a genuine mistake”.

Students at Aberystwyth University in Wales complained after the advert appeared on Facebook featuring an SS emblem.

The Bierkeller event is due to take place later this month featuring German-themed attractions including a lederhosen band.'The online publicity material showed an SS logo between English and Welsh translations on the poster.

In a statement issued on Monday evening the students’ union apologised “for any offence caused”....'

In a paper that is meant to be "the newspaper of record" for the Jewish community of the UK even such small beer has its place.

Yet when Marcus was tipped off by e-mail (complete with screenshot to prove it) about an offence far more significant  – namely the "9/11 Israel Did It" link by Stephen Sizer, a public figure with numerous followers and the potential to influence many minds – his reply was inexplicable.

For the man who had earlier reported on Sizer's transgressions and tussles with the Board of Deputies in effect said "Thanks but No Thanks".

The upshot?  No report.  No tweet.  Not the slightest hint of Sizer's egregious post.

Marcus prefers small beer to a scoop of the hard stuff?!

Go figure.  For I can't work it out.

European Antisemitism: "The Watchword is Toulouse"

It's propoganda [sic], that's what it is', is the dismissive remark on social media by one of Australian Jewry's little clique of leftist Israel-bashers, referring to an excellent brief overview that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry's research officer, Julie Nathan has written regarding antisemitism in contemporary Europe.

In common with so many of his ilk (I'm not going to bother supplying him with oxygen by mentioning his name) this bloke seems much more interested in items that talk up "Islamophobia" in Europe, and indeed in rapping over the knuckles those who maintain that mass Muslim immigration to the West is not good for the Jews.

In her article, Julie Nathan reminds readers of the antipodean J-Wire site of the kinds of events that have made Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu remind the Jews of Europe that Israel offers them refuge.

As many Jews have been quick to point out, on social media and elsewhere, headlines such as that pictured in the London newspaper Metro (see right), which is given away free outside Tube stations,ironically place more emphasis on the furore Netanyahu's remarks have fomented than to the vicious,growing Jew-hatred which prompted his remarks.

Articles such as this one in the Financial Times, which argues that Bibi's call is alarmist, and that there is a false analogy between the situation in Europe today and Europe in the "Devil's Decade" might well be right, but they err if they take too complacent and sanguine a view, whether towards the extent of antisemitism in certain countries or towards the will and the capability of certain countries to protect their Jewish citizens.

The man who made the video below did not choose to make aliya.  He and his family headed across the Herring Pond instead. But his words, combined with the accompanying images, convey so very graphically the circumstances which have convinced a Jewish lover of the land of his birth to leave it, despite a heavy heart, for the sake of his family:

Observes Julie Nathan:

'Seventy years after the Holocaust, the antisemitic virus has re-emerged from the extreme margins of society to which it had been banished after the Holocaust. Not only is antisemitism out in the open, it is brazenly public and proud. The main difference between 1930s antisemitism and the 21st century strain is that in the 1930s it was governments and politicians which incited the hatred and perpetrated the murder. Today, the perpetrators are a combination of the far Right, the anti-Zionist Left, and major segments of Europe’s Muslim population....

Having been predominantly either bystanders or perpetrators during the Nazi attempt to murder every Jew in Europe, Europeans are again in a situation where their Jewish citizens are on the edge of another great abyss. The question remains: How will they respond this time? Will they acquire the backbone to defend and protect their Jewish citizens against murderous anti-Jewish ideologies? Or will they take the easy, but self-destructive, route and excuse the antisemites, appease the murderous ideology at work in Europe and elsewhere, and watch silently as the Jews are driven from Europe’s shores over the coming decade? '

 She writes, inter alia:

'The Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has condemned the attack on Jews as an attack on democracy. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, last month expressed concern at the growing numbers of Jews emigrating from France as they flee antisemitic violence. Even the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, expressed concern that Jews, no longer feeling safe in Britain, are preparing to leave. Other countries in Europe are also facing growing antisemitic violence and are having difficulty protecting their Jewish citizens against harassment, assault, bombings and murder.

In Belgium, the Jewish Museum in Brussels was attacked and four people murdered in May 2014. In 2013, the last remaining Jewish school in Brussels instructed its students to remove their kippot (Jewish religious head covering) on their way to and from school, and only wear it safely within the confines of the fortress-like school building, due to the threat of physical attack.

In Holland, in late 2010, Frits Bolkestein, a prominent Dutch politician, advised Jews to leave Holland as it is no longer safe for Jews to live there. Earlier that year, the police in Holland had instituted a system of décoy police, where Dutch policeman dressed up as Orthodox Jews and walked the streets, in a bid to arrest or deter those who would assault Jews.

In Denmark in 2009, a school refused to enrol Jewish students as it could not protect them from harassment and assault. Other Danish school principals supported the move. In Norway, a survey by the Oslo Municipality in 2011 found that 33% of Jewish students in the town were physically threatened or abused by other high school teens at least two to three times a month. The groups that suffered the next highest amount of bullying were Buddhists at 10%, “Others” at 7%, and Muslims at 5%.

In Sweden, the Mayor of Malmo, where many Swedish Jews live, blamed the Jews themselves for assaults on Jews and firebombings of synagogues. Last year, a planned city walk by Jews and non-Jews to protest antisemitism in Sweden had to be cancelled due to security threats and the inability of police to ensure their safety.

France has experienced the most egregious acts of antisemitic violence in Europe since World War Two. In 2006, a young French Jew, Ilan Halimi, of North African background was kidnapped and tortured for three weeks for being a Jew. He died of his injuries. His attackers were French Muslims, also of North African background. In Toulouse in 2012, a rabbi and three Jewish children, aged under nine, were shot dead at a Jewish school by Mohammed Merah, a French Muslim of North African background. Jews comprise only 1% of the French population, yet 50% of racist attacks in France are against Jews....

A study in Europe in 2013 found that “26% of Jews have suffered from antisemitic harassment at least once in the past year, 34% experienced such harassment in the past five years, 5% reported that their property was intentionally vandalized because they are Jewish, about 7% were physically hurt or threatened in the past five years.” These figures do not include the acts of violence and vandalism of synagogues and other Jewish communal institutions.

Despite the focus on Islamophobia by the media and in political discourse over the last fifteen years, the reality is that attacks against Muslims are significantly less frequent than attacks against Jews. The evidence produced through studies by anti-hate organizations, police reports on hate crimes, and monitors of internet hate, show that the major targets of abuse and violence in Europe are Jews....

In Britain, the Scottish government compiles extensive reports on hate crimes from police records. Hate crime statistics in the Religion category shows high levels of attacks on Catholics (57-58%) and Protestants (36-40%), and much lower levels against Muslims (2-2%) and Jews (1-2%) over the 2011 and 2012 periods. However, these overall percentages, in the 2012 statistics for example, translate into quite a different picture when the population numbers of each religious category in Scotland is taken into account.

 These figures show that there is one anti-Jewish hate incident for every 461 Jews, one anti-Muslim hate incident per 2,240 Muslims, one per 1,579 Catholics, and one for every 6,080 Protestants. Thus, Jews are subject to a much higher rate of attack. Jews are several times more likely than Muslims to suffer hate incidents, and are twenty times more likely than Christians to suffer hate incidents.

The International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) conducts a country by country review and report on racist and religious bigotry on the European internet. According to INACH’s studies, prior to 2002, antisemitism had been the largest single type of hate on the European internet. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, there was an increase in anti-Muslim content; but there was a much larger increase in anti-Jewish content. From 2002, antisemitism became the absolute largest category of hate on the European internet. Incidents of anti-Jewish hate outweighed the combined aggregate of every other form of hate.

INACH’s study showed that up until the second half of 2000 virtually all antisemitism reported online was from ‘classical’ sources of antisemites and/or racists (eg neo-Nazis). By 2002, most antisemitism and Holocaust denial no longer came from ‘classic’ antisemites but from Muslim and left-wing web forums....'

And she maintains:

'The watchword is Toulouse. When three French soldiers (two of North African background and one of Caribbean background) and four Jews (three of them young children) were murdered in March 2012, the French people came out in their thousands to protest the murders. A massive anti-racist banner read: “In France, we kill Blacks, Jews, and Arabs”. However, when the murderer was found to be Mohammed Merah, a French Muslim of North African background, the protests and anti-racism banners disappeared. While ever the murderer was believed to be an indigenous French person, of Right-wing racist politics, the masses of France were eager to protest against murderous racism in France. However, once the murderer was identified as a Muslim jihadist, the protesting masses melted away unable or unwilling to condemn murder when committed by a Muslim jihadist.

In a perverse response to Merah’s murders, there was an exponential increase in physical assaults on French Jews, with several being hospitalized. Bashings with iron bars and other assaults were perpetrated against Jews. The initial shock and horror of the murder of little Jewish children were transformed into a mania by Islamist extremists to emulate Merah, to give him hero status and to glorify his murderous deeds.

After this latest murder in Copenhagen, and the murders in Paris only last month, it remains to be seen whether Europe makes a decision to defend and protect its Jewish citizens. Many Jews fear that European governments will instead cave in to threats and appeasement and watch their Jews pack their bags and leave.'

 Julie Nathan's entire article is here

David Singer Assails The EU's Egregious & Duplicitous West Bank Blunder

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It is entitled "European Union Causes Peace Process and Quartet Meltdown".

Writes David Singer:

Revelations that the European Union (EU) has been acting illegally in funding and facilitating the construction of more than 400 unauthorised buildings in areas in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under exclusive Israeli control signals the end of:

* negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap and

* the role of the Quartet - America, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - as mediator in those negotiations

The Daily Mail – in exposing the EU’s bizarre behaviour – reported on 6 February that: 

“Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C (the Israeli area)’, which some experts say is an attempt to unilaterally affect facts on the ground. Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank. They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.” 

The EU through its spokesman, Shadi Othman, attempted to justify such conduct by reiterating the EU’s unilateral opinion as to the final outcome of the currently stalled negotiations:

"We support the Palestinian presence in Area C. Palestinian presence should not be limited Areas A and B. Area C is part of the occupied Palestinian territory which eventually will be Palestinian land.”

Why Israel's approval was not first sought before the EU surreptitiously undertook such activity remains unexplained.

Representatives of the Quartet – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , United States Secretary of State John Kerry, European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson (representing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon)  met in Munich on February 8 – two days after the European Union's illegal actions were exposed – but no mention was made of the EU’s devious conduct nor was there any call for it to be immediately halted.

The remaining three Quartet members have – by their silence – clearly signalled they condone such illegal conduct by the EU and support its continuation.

Hypocritically, the Quartet Representatives declared: 

“Pending the resumption of negotiations, the Quartet called on both parties to refrain from actions that undermine trust or prejudge final status issues.” 

It is hard to conceive any action more likely to undermine trust or prejudge final status issues than the Quartet’s failure to condemn the EU’s own aberrant behaviour and call for an immediate halt to its illegal activities in the West Bank.

The Quartet Representatives repeated their mantra: 

“A sustainable peace requires the Palestinians' aspirations for statehood and sovereignty and those of Israelis for security to be fulfilled through negotiations based on the two-state solution.”

 The parameters under which those negotiations were being held between Israel and the PLO have now been well and truly consigned to the dustbin of history as a result of the EU’s disgraceful conduct – joining so many other failed proposals made since 1920 aimed at ending the Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Quartet has been found sadly wanting and is clearly out of tune – abandoning any sense of impartiality or propriety in aligning itself with one party to the dispute.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has now directed that action be commenced to demolish these illegal EU structures.

The Quartet has been totally compromised – the peace process and its intricate negotiating structure irretrievably ended.

Back to the drawing board for yet another new proposal...