As the campaign heats up in the final weeks before November’s U.S. midterms elections, so have overt appeals to racial animus and resentment, reported The Washington Post (WP) last week.
“The toxic remarks appear to be receiving less pushback from Republicans than in past years, suggesting that some candidates in the first post-Trump election cycle have been influenced by the ex-president’s norm-breaking example,” said the report.
The racial invective has come at a time when Democrats are dealing with their own scandal in Los Angeles, where Democratic city council members and a labor leader were recorded making racist statements, according to the report.
Civil rights leaders say they are holding out hope that the environment will improve after the U.S. midterms but worry that each new attack further erodes the standards for how people in public life talk about race and religion.
“I don’t know if it’ll be very easy to put the genie back in the bottle,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, was quoted as saying.
The racist messages from prominent Republicans came in rapid succession. It was on Friday, Sept. 30, when Donald Trump used racist language toward Elaine Chao, who served as his transportation secretary for four years. A week later, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used racist rhetoric about Black people, crime and reparations.
The next day, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia re-emphasized her support for the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. All the while, Black candidates for the U.S. Senate were confronting attack ads emphasizing race in unsubtle ways. Yesterday, for good measure, Trump thought it’d be a good idea to dabble in antisemitism — again.
To be sure, the push isn’t especially surprising. It’s also an offensive with ample precedent in the American tradition. What’s more, it’s very likely to have the intended effect: The right would steer clear of such ugly tactics if conservatives were convinced they wouldn’t work.
But The Washington Post had a good report over the weekend noting the difference between this year’s offensive messaging and what voters have seen in recent years.
A Nobel laureate in literature, Jewish students and other prominent figures in Austria want the country’s new interior minister removed from office because of allegedly anti-Semitic comments he made during a regional election campaign more than a decade ago.
Gerhard Karner, who became interior minister a week ago when predecessor Karl Nehammer became Austria’s new chancellor, said Monday that he regrets what he said and wouldn’t say it now, but he rejected allegations of anti-Semitism.
According to a report in German news weekly Der Spiegel, the conservative Karner once accused Austria’s center-left Social Democrats of working “against the country with gentlemen from America and Israel,” and described them as “climate prisoners.”
Der Spiegel quoted a spokesperson for the minister as saying Karner was referring to suspected “dirty campaigning” by an Israeli political adviser.
An open letter from a group that included Jewish students, academics, Nobel Prize-winning playwright Elfriede Jelinek and others expressed dismay at Karner’s appointment.
“The anti-Semitic dimension of this comment is obvious,” the letter stated
“We are convinced that this person is completely unsuited to the office of interior minister and call on the government to put our security in the hands of moderate politicians,” the letter added.
Karner said in a statement that fighting anti-Semitism and every form of extremism has been a “deeply personal concern” of his for decades.
He said he has arranged a personal meeting with Austria’s main Jewish leader, Oskar Deutsch, who had asked for him to clarify what he said over 13 years ago when Karner was a regional official with the conservative Austrian People’s Party.
“If things I said then were understood ambiguously, I regret that,” Karner said. “The comments were never in any way intended to go in this direction, and I would not make them now.”
Karner already faced criticism over a museum in the town of Texingtal, where he served as mayor in recent years, dedicated to Engelbert Dollfuss — an admirer of Italian fascism who became Austria’s increasingly authoritarian leader from 1932 to 1934. Karner has said the museum will be reworked next year.
Source: Ynet News
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Two NDP candidates have resigned after their Anti-Semitic comments on social media caused an intense backlash.
The party confirms that the two candidates – Dan Osborne from Nova Scotia and Sidney Coles from Toronto – have stepped down.
Federal party leader Jagmeet Singh addressed the resignations during a campaign stop in southwestern Ontario.
“I want to be very clear: their comments were completely wrong and have no place in our party,” Singh said in Essex, Ont., on Wednesday.
“Those messages were completely unacceptable, and the right decision was made.”
Osborne was reported to have Tweeted to Oprah in 2019 asking if Auschwitz was a real place, referring to the Nazi-run concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War.
“I want to offer an apology,” Osborne said in a subsequent tweet Sunday.
“The role of Auschwitz and the history of the holocaust is one we should never forget. Antisemitism should be confronted and stopped. I can’t recall posting that, I was 16 then and can honestly say I did not mean to cause any harm.”
Coles was reported to have posted misinformation about Israel being linked to missing COVID-19 vaccines. Both Coles and Osborne’s Twitter accounts have since been deleted.
“Those comments were wrong, and I’m encouraged to see a clear apology and a complete withdrawal of those comments,” Singh continued.
“In addition, they’re talking about the importance of getting training. Antisemitism is real. We’re seeing a scary rise in antisemitism, and we are unequivocally opposed, and we’ll confront it.”
Yesterday, Singh had said it was enough that the two apologized for their past Anti-Semitic remarks.
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) issued a statement on the matter, saying “FSWC exposed and denounced Coles’ tweets in which she repeatedly accused Israel of misappropriating U.S. supplies of the coronavirus vaccine.”
Source: City News
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Reports of anti-Semitism in London reached their highest number last month, figures from a Jewish safety charity suggest.
The Community Security Trust said 201 incidents were reported in the capital in May, almost all linked to the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
More than 160 cases of abusive behaviour, 20 threats, 12 assaults and seven relating to damage or desecration were made.
It is the largest number in one month since the organisation began recording incidents in the 1980s.
The total exceeds the previous record of 179 in July 2014.
Dave Rich, of the CST, said: “This abuse has nothing to do with Israel.
“It’s just racism directed towards Jewish people who are picked out on the streets, on the internet, because they are Jewish.”
There are about 300,000 Jewish people in the UK with two-thirds of those located in London, according to the CST.
Community Secretary Robert Jenrick warned the Commons there had been an upsurge in anti-Semitism on social media.
Last month, four men were questioned by police after anti-Semitic abuse was heard being screamed through a loudspeaker from a car in St John’s Wood.
Footage shared on social media showed a convoy of vehicles draped with Palestinian flags passing down Finchley Road.
Detectives from the Met’s Hate Crime Unit are also appealing for information over a racially aggravated assault on two men in Baker Street on May 23.
Alex Menashe and Joseph Cohen were walking home from a kosher restaurant about 5pm when they were approached by two suspects in their teens or 20s.
The thugs screamed anti-Semitic abuse before pushing and punching them.
A member of the Muslim community confronted the assailants who ran off. He then offered the victims shelter. Neither were injured.
“It was terrifying,” Mr Cohen told the BBC.
“I’ve walked around London dressed as an Orthodox Jew for years and never had any issues.
Read the complete article at: Yahoo!
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A backlash against the proposed European Super League, a new professional soccer league announced on Sunday, has triggered a wave of anti-Semitic hate online.
Soccer fans who oppose the ESL blamed Jews for “ruining” soccer, targeting Jewish owners of the clubs involved. One Twitter user wrote: “Notably, most of the owners of these ‘big’ football clubs pushing for a Super League are Jews … Jews are ruining football, they don’t give a f*** about the Gentile fans.”
Another Twitter user posted an anti-Semitic cartoon and wrote: “All this talk of the European Super League. It’s jew rats behind it. All money grabbing c***s. It’s no wonder that people hate them as much as the muslims.”
A separate tweet said, “Them 3 fat AMERICAN C***S YOU F***ING BASTARDS. And as for that Jew levy, your family should have been gassed.” Another stated, “Hey Zionists it’s not all about money you suckers.”
Six British soccer clubs—Manchester City, Chelsea FC, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur—originally committed to join the new league, along with six clubs from Spain and Italy. However, after an outpouring of negative reactions from fans, soccer officials and even government figures, it appears that the proposed league is on the verge of collapse.
Manchester United is owned by the Glazers, an American Jewish family, and Tottenham is chaired by Jewish businessman Daniel Levy. Joel Glazer was expected to be vice chairman of the new Super League, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
Chelsea FC, owned by Jewish billionaire Roman Abramovich, pulled out of the league after seeing the negative global reaction it received.
“The beautiful game has some very hideous fans, and they are out in force on social media objecting in the most grotesque fashion to the possible launch of a new European Super League,” said a spokesman for the U.K.-based Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Read the complete article at: Jewish News Syndicate
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French leaders are speaking out after graffiti calling for “death to Israel” was found at a university in Paris on Monday.
“This morning, hateful inscriptions, some of an anti-Semitic nature, were discovered on the walls of … the main entrance to the Sciences Po campus in Paris. Management strongly condemns this heinous and cowardly act,” Benedicte Durand, the provisional administrator of Sciences Po university in Paris, said in a statement.
“Faced with these attacks, Sciences Po will continue its fight more than ever against all forms of discrimination and attacks on human dignity,” the administrator continued. “Sciences Po also reiterates its values of openness, debate and plurality of points of view, which will always be at the heart of its university training project, its research and its student life.”
Sciences Po has 14,000 students, nearly half of whom are international students, and is focused on social sciences, including international politics.
Francis Kalifat, president of CRIF, the Jewish council in France, called out the vandalism on Twitter, saying it was “decidedly anti-Semitic” and the “weapon of the weak.”
According to Combat Anti-Semitism, which reported on the graffiti on Monday, the vandals wrote anti-Semitic slogans and spray-painted the Arabic term for “infidel” at the entrance to the school.
“We are appalled by this vile vandalism and send our support to the Jewish students who are experiencing this hatred,” the group wrote on its Twitter page. “We urge academic institutions that deny the link between contemporary anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism to learn from this incident and adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in order to prevent students from experiencing such acts of hatred and bigotry on and off campus.”
Frederique Vidal, France’s minister of higher education, research and innovation, also spoke out against the vandalism and vowed to punish those involved in the incident.
Read the complete article at: Cleveland Jewish News
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A woman in Britain said to be a virulent anti-Semite has been found guilty of spreading offensive messages and material over the Internet and was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison by a magistrate court there.
Reports say that Alison Chabloz, 57, who is known for promoting Holocaust denial, is expected to serve nine weeks in prison for violating the country’s communications act after she promoted anti-Semitic rhetoric and ideas on the GAB social-media service in two interviews she did with far-right online sites.
GAB has been under fire for being utilized by far-right extremists.
“Today’s verdict and sentence finally give the Jewish community justice and protection from someone who has made a vocation out of denying the Holocaust and baiting Jews. It also sends a clear message to those who might be tempted to go down the same path,” said Stephen Silverman, director of investigations and enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, in a statement. “This is not the end. Ms. Chabloz now faces even more serious charges on other matters that we have brought to the attention of the police. We will not rest until all anti-Semites like Alison Chabloz are behind bars, where they belong.”
In 2018, Chabloz received a suspended sentence for singing songs that claimed the Holocaust was a “bunch of lies.”
According to the Daily Mail, in issuing his ruling, District Judge Michael Snow told Chabloz: “I’m not sentencing you on the basis that you are anti-Semitic, I’m not sentencing you on the basis that you are a Holocaust denier. I’m sentencing you on the basis that on two separate occasions whilst subject to a suspended sentence, you participated in a radio program where you made grossly offensive comments.
“The grossly offensive contributions by the defendant to both programs are insulting to members of a vulnerable community,” continued Snow. “The need to protect that community from such gross offense is a pressing social need.”
Source: Cleveland Jewish News
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Holocaust denier
A State Department official said the Biden administration embraces a definition of anti-Semitism that has sparked controversy because it includes some forms of harsh criticism of Israel.
‘We must educate ourselves and our communities to recognize anti-Semitism in its many forms so that we can call hate by its proper name and take effective action,” Kara McDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said Monday at an experts’ meeting on anti-Semitism.
“That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, with its real-world examples, is such an invaluable tool,” she said at the meeting convened by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security umbrella for Western nations. “As prior U.S. administrations of both political stripes have done, the Biden administration embraces and champions the working definition.”
Read the complete article at: Jewish Telegraph Agency
A State Department official said the Biden administration embraces a definition of anti-Semitism that has sparked controversy because it includes some forms of harsh criticism of Israel. ‘We must educate ourselves and our communities to recognize anti-Semitism in its many forms so that we can call hate by its proper name and take effective action,” Kara McDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said Monday at an experts’ meeting on anti-Semitism. “That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, with its real-world examples, is such an invaluable tool,” she said at the meeting convened by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security umbrella for Western nations. “As prior U.S. administrations of both political stripes have done, the Biden administration embraces and champions the working definition.” “That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, with its real-world examples, is such an invaluable tool,” she said at the meeting convened by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security umbrella for Western nations.
A German court on Monday handed down a life sentence to a neo-Nazi behind a deadly attack last year that nearly became the country’s worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II.
A bolted door at the synagogue in the eastern city of Halle with 52 worshippers inside marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, was the only thing that prevented the heavily armed attacker from carrying out a planned bloodbath.
After failing to storm the temple on October 9, 2019, Stephan Balliet, 28, shot dead a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop.
“Without that famous reinforced door, he would have committed a massacre,” presiding judge Ursula Mertens said as she read out the verdict.
Balliet, his head shaved and dressed in black, listened with a blank expression.
Read the complete article at: Macau Business
A German court on Monday handed down a life sentence to a neo-Nazi behind a deadly attack last year that nearly became the country’s worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II. A bolted door at the synagogue in the eastern city of Halle with 52 worshippers inside marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, was the only thing that prevented the heavily armed attacker from carrying out a planned bloodbath. After failing to storm the temple on October 9, 2019, Stephan Balliet, 28, shot dead a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop. “Without that famous reinforced door, he would have committed a massacre,” presiding judge Ursula Mertens said as she read out the verdict. Balliet, his head shaved and dressed in black, listened with a blank expression. A German court on Monday handed down a life sentence to a neo-Nazi behind a deadly attack last year that nearly became the country’s worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II. A bolted door at the synagogue in the eastern city of Halle with 52 worshippers inside marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, was the only thing that prevented the heavily armed attacker from carrying out a planned bloodbath. anti-Semitic rampage anti-Semitic rampage anti-Semitic rampage
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation Monday to identify the authors of online anti-Semitic comments directed at the runner-up for Miss France 2021, who has Israeli origins.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin led high-profile condemnation of the comments, saying he was “deeply shocked by the rain of anti-Semitic insults” and that police were mobilized to investigate.
April Benayoum, 21, placed second in the Miss France pageant televised Saturday’s televised pageant, but her moment in the limelight was quickly sullied. In an on-set interview, she mentioned her Israeli roots. A wave of abuse followed on Twitter, including tweets that invoked the Holocaust.
Read the complete article at: ABC News
