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Dear Friends,
“Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality…[of the Holocaust],” and “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” are three common examples of contemporary antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by more than 904 governments, institutions, and organizations worldwide.
During remarks alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas invoked all three of these antisemitic tropes, during an official visit to Germany’s Chancellery. In his remarks, he claimed Israel has committed “50 Holocausts,” engaging in Holocaust trivialization and distortion, while also accusing the Jewish State of institutionalized racism under the apartheid label.
Condemnations of these unconscionable remarks made by the Palestinian leader on German soil, poured in from leaders around the world. Meanwhile, New Mexico became the 30th U.S. state to endorse the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
The word “Hitler” was painted on a synagogue in New York City where Holocaust survivors are members. Synagogues and a Holocaust Museum were also vandalized in Germany, Russia, and Australia.
A German security guard was arrested for making a Hitler salute towards a group of Israeli athletes visiting a memorial to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. Five Jewish Americans were among those shot in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, and the New York Times cut ties with a Gaza freelancer who issued a call to ‘kill Jews like Hitler did.”
On campus, a federal complaint was filed against the State University of New York at New Paltz for antisemitic discrimination, and students at Ohio State University held a memorial vigil to honor the U.S.-designated terror organization Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades member Ibrahim Nabulsi, who was responsible for multiple shooting attacks on Jewish Israelis.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 33 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 13 (39.4%) from the far-right, 3 (9.1%) from the far-left, 12 (36.4%) with Islamist motivations, and 5 (15.2%) unidentifiable in nature.
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