THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people around the world demonstrated a massive show of solidarity demanding justice for Sarah Halimi, the French grandmother whose antisemitic murderer was let free by a French court. Now is the time to keep the pressure on: Sign the CAM petition to France’s Minister of Justice and demand accountability.
The New York Police Department is investigating a vandalism spree in the Bronx after an unidentified individual threw rocks at Jewish centers and synagogues in five separate incidents. Police in Argentina thwarted a planned Neo-Nazi attack on a synagogue during Shabbat. The student government at California’s Pomona College passed a BDS resolution that would defund Jewish and Pro-Israel student clubs, including Hillel and Chabad.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament became the first legislative body in the world to censure the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for antisemitic hate taught in Palestinian schools using EU taxpayer funds. In Germany, the annual Iran-sponsored Al Quds Day rally, which calls for the elimination of the Jewish State, was cancelled for the second year by Berlin authorities.
CAM’s global anti-Semitism report this week highlights 38 new media reports of anti-Semitic incidents – 19 incidents (50%) from the far-right, 10 incidents (26%) from the far-left, 1 incident (3%) with Islamist motivations, and 8 unidentifiable incidents (21%).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
ANTISEMITISM IS A PROBLEM FOR ALL SOCIETIES, NOT JUST JEWS, EX-IHRA PRESIDENCY CHAIRWOMAN TELLS CAM
By CAM
Ambassador Michaela Küchler was the chairwoman of the German presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) for the past year, until the start of April. Ambassador Küchler pioneered a number of important projects during her IHRA tenure, including the adoption of a significant new working definition of antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination. CAM spoke to Ambassador Küchler about her work at IHRA, the state of global antisemitism, and what to expect from her successor. Read Here
MUSLIM, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN LEADERS GATHER AT RAMADAN BREAK-FAST
By Jerusalem Post
For the second year in a row, ambassadors from across the world and members of Congress took part in the National Interfaith Iftar event, the breaking of the daily Ramadan fast, calling for communities to build bridges of friendship, join together and defeat antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hatred and intolerance. The event was organized by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement and American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMWEC). Read Here
#JESUISSARAH: SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR SARAH HALIMI
By Times of Israel
The Combat Anti Semitism Movement launched a social media campaign to protest what it called the “unfathomable” decision of France’s highest court that the murderer of Sarah Halimi was not criminally responsible because he had smoked marijuana before the crime. The umbrella organization of various groups tackling anti-Semitism said that the campaign, which utilizes the #JusticeForSarah and #JeSuisSarah hashtags, is aimed at showing solidarity with Halimi’s family and France’s Jewish community. Read Here
UNITED STATES
NYPD INVESTIGATING SERIES OF ANTI-SEMITIC VANDALISM INCIDENTS TARGETING BRONX SYNAGOGUES
By CAM
Police in New York City are investigating a series of anti-Semitic vandalisms targeting Bronx synagogues. Surveillance footage shows an unidentified man throwing objects at the windows of Young Israel of Riverdale. Three other Jewish houses of worship in the neighborhood — the Riverdale Jewish Center, Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale, and Chabad of Riverdale — were vandalized in a similar manner the same night. Read Here
ANN ARBOR JEWISH COMMUNITY SEEK TO SHUT DOWN WEEKLY ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS OUTSIDE SYNAGOGUE IN APPEALS COURT
By Algemeiner Staff
In a case presented before a Sixth Circuit panel, members of the Beth Israel Congregation of an Ann Arbor, Michigan were in court this week arguing for more enforcement to prevent the viciously antisemitic weekly protests that have greeted worshipers arriving for Shabbat services for nearly 20 years. Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
LABOUR PARTY SUSPENDS 16 OVER ALLEGED ANTISEMITISM
By Jenni Frazer
Labour has been hit by a wave of antisemitism allegations in the week before the local elections. The party has suspended 16 people in the Peterborough Labour Party and the North West Cambridgeshire Constituency Local Party over complaints, a figure which includes nine sitting councilors and seven activists. One of the suspended councillors, Ansar Ali, wrote in 2014 that he was “boycotting the biased BBC” because it “didn’t want to upset the Zionist Israeli government lobby”. Read Here
LABOUR ACTIVIST FILMED COMPARING ‘A JEWISH STATE’ WITH ‘AN ARYAN STATE’
By Mathilde Frot
Footage obtained by the JC shows a meeting of Labour International — a group of overseas members affiliated to the Labour Party — in which participants compared Israel to an “Aryan state” and claimed that the Holocaust had been “sometimes artificially maintained”. “Please tell me the difference in principle between the concept of a Jewish state and the concept of an Aryan state,” activist Stuart Ward could be heard saying. Read Here
GERMANY
GERMANY WON’T PROSECUTE 95-YEAR-OLD EX CONCENTRATION CAMP GUARD DEPORTED FROM US
By JTA
German prosecutors said they had insufficient evidence to prosecute a 95-year-old man who was deported from the United States on suspicion of involvement in Nazi war crimes. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Celle, in northern Germany, dropped all charges last month against Friedrich Karl Berger, who was deported in February. Read Here
IRANIAN-BACKED ‘AL QUDS DAY’ ANTI-ZIONIST HATEFEST CANCELED FOR SECOND YEAR RUNNING IN BERLIN
By Ben Cohen
The annual “Al Quds Day” march and rally calling for the violent elimination of the State of Israel will not take place in Berlin next month for the second year running, police in the German capital confirmed. Sponsored by the Iranian regime, the annual event prominently features the flag of Hezbollah, which is banned in Germany and other European nations. Read Here
CANADA
HATEFUL, ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI ON VANCOUVER SEAWALL TARGETS HENRY, HORGAN
By Nikitha Martins and Paul James
Disturbing graffiti has been photographed on the Vancouver Seawall comparing B.C.’s top doctor to the Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. Graffiti has also been spotted singling out B.C.’s premier with a comparison to the Nazis. Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry says the graffiti that reads, “Dr. Bonny Henry Mengele,” has left him with a “very palpable sense of anger.” Read Here
POLICE INVESTIGATE ANOTHER CASE OF RACIST VANDALISM AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME
By Madeline Smith
Police are investigating racist graffiti in a northeast Calgary neighbourhood, the latest in a string of incidents police are treating as hate-motivated crimes. A resident called police after finding several swastikas spray-painted on a pathway sidewalk. Earlier this month antisemitic graffiti was discovered in a Woodlands playground parking lot. Read Here
FRANCE
IN PROTEST RALLIES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWS IN FRANCE AND BEYOND DEMAND ‘JUSTICE FOR SARAH HALIMI’
By Cnaan Lipshiz
Over 20,000 protesters gathered in Paris to protest the French high court’s decision not to try a man who killed a Jewish woman while screaming about Allah. At the rally on in Paris, which was held under tight security, the umbrella Jewish organization CRIF played a video on a giant screen in which French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia demanded another “trial of facts”, even if it ends without a sentence. Read Here
‘SHOULD WE DECRIMINALIZE ANTISEMITISM?’: FRENCH SATIRICAL MAGAZINE CHARLIE HEBDO PROTESTS SHOCK DECISION IN SARAH HALIMI MURDER CASE
By Ben Cohen
The latest cover of France’s world-famous satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo features a devastating cartoon about the case of Sarah Halimi — the Jewish woman beaten to death in her Paris apartment in April 2017 by Kobili Traore, an antisemitic intruder — alongside a headline that asks, “Should we decriminalize antisemitism?” Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
WATCHDOG GROUP SLAMS NEW HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH PUBLICATION ATTACKING ISRAEL AS AN ‘APARTHEID’ STATE
By Benjamin Kerstein
A top watchdog group on slammed an upcoming publication by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) that accuses Israel of apartheid and demands an international legal campaign against it. The publication — called “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” is written by Omar Shakir, who has been denied entry to Israel due to his collaboration with the BDS movement. Read Here
ARGENTINA: POLICE STOP PLANNED NEO-NAZI ATTACK ON ARGENTINE SYNAGOGUE ON SHABBAT
By JTA
Police have arrested two people who authorities believe were planning a Friday-night attack on an Argentine synagogue. The country’s federal judiciary was investigating a group called Goy Group Unleashed, when prosecutors found evidence on the messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp of the imminent Shabbat attack in the Tucuman province of northern Argentina. Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LODGES ‘APARTHEID’ ACCUSATION AT ISRAEL, WHICH DISMISSES IT
By AP and TOI Staff
One of the world’s best-known human rights groups said that Israel was guilty of the crimes of apartheid and persecution because of discriminatory policies toward Palestinians — accusations Israel immediately rebuffed. Human Rights Watch focused its report on the definitions of apartheid and persecution used by the International Criminal Court. Israel rejects the court as biased. Read Here
HUNDREDS PROTEST AT FRENCH EMBASSY IN TEL AVIV OVER HALIMI MURDER RULING
By JNS
Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the French embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday in solidarity with the large-scale demonstration held in Paris to demand justice for Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old French Jew who was murdered in her home in 2017 by a Muslim neighbor. Read Here
ON CAMPUS
POMONA STUDENT GOV’T PASSES BDS BILL TO CUT CLUB FUNDS VIOLATING UN BLACKLIST
By Aaron Reich
The student government at California-based Pomona College voted unanimously on a resolution calling the student union to cut funding for any clubs not boycotting companies that “support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” The BDS resolution, passed unanimously, will cut funding for clubs engaging with one of the 130 businesses on the UNHRC blacklist, as well as groups like Chabad and Hillel. Read Here
UK’S JEWISH STUDENT UNION BLASTS REINSTATEMENT OF BRISTOL PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITISM
By Benjamin Kerstein
The UK’s Jewish student union expressed “contempt and outrage” after the University of Bristol reinstated a professor accused of violent antisemitic rhetoric, pending an investigation. David Miller, a Professor of Political Sociology, has been criticized by Jewish student groups and members of parliament for “inciting” antisemitism, promoting conspiracy theories, and calling for the “end” of Zionism. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN AUSTRIA ROSE TO HIGHEST-EVER RECORDED LEVEL IN 2020, NEW REPORT SHOWS
By CAM
Antisemitic incidents in Austria rose in 2020 to the highest-ever level since official data began being collected, according to a new report published by the Jewish Community of Vienna’s Antisemitism Reporting Office. The report found there were 585 antisemitic incidents last year, a 6.4% increase from 2019. The rise was partly fueled by protests against Covid-19 restrictions, which featured Holocaust relativization and antisemitic conspiracy theories. Read Here
MORE THAN SEVEN ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS PER DAY IN CANADA LAST YEAR, ANNUAL AUDIT REVEALS
By CAM
There were more than seven antisemitic incidents per day in Canada in 2020, a new annual audit found. Data compiled by B’nai Brith Canada showed a record-high level of recorded antisemitic incidents in the country for a fifth straight year, with an 18.3% rise from 2019. There were a total of 2,610 incidents in 2020, the third consecutive year the 2,000 plateau was crossed. Read Here
ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN US REMAINED AT ‘DISTURBINGLY HIGH LEVEL’ IN 2020, LATEST ADL AUDIT REVEALS
By Ben Cohen
Antisemitic incidents in the US remained at a historic high in 2020, according to the latest audit published by the ADL. The audit disclosed that a total of 2,024 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism were reported to the ADL in 2020. “While antisemitic incidents declined by 4 percent after hitting an all-time high in 2019, last year was still the third-highest year for incidents against American Jews.” Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BECOMES FIRST LEGISLATURE TO CENSURE UNRWA OVER ANTISEMITIC HATRED TAUGHT IN PALESTINIAN SCHOOLS
By Algemeiner
The European Parliament passed a resolution expressing concern at the “hate speech and violence” taught in Palestinian schools run by UNRWA. The resolution was part of the EU’s annual budgetary procedure which scrutinizes how European taxpayer funds have been spent. It urged that EU funding “be made conditional on educational material and course content complying with UNESCO standards of peace, tolerance, coexistence, and non-violence.” Read Here
FRANCE’S JUSTICE MINISTER AIMS TO CHANGE LAW AFTER COURT RULING ON HALIMI MURDER
By JNS
France’s Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti plans to introduce a bill to change French law after a court ruled that the man who killed Jewish woman Sarah Halimi would avoid trial. Dupond-Moretti said that the bill will fill the “juridical void” that currently makes it impossible to “take account of the voluntary intake of toxic substances” that leads to delirium at the time of a crime. The proposed bill will ultimately prevent intoxication from being used as the foundation for an insanity plea. Read Here
HUMANITY
ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI SOCCER PLAYER ELI DASA SLAMS ‘SICKENING’ ANTISEMITIC CHANTS OF VITESSE FANS
By CAM
Last week, a group of fans of the Dutch soccer team Vitesse chanted, “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” at a rally in Arnhem. Eli Dasa — an Israeli player for Vitesse — was appalled. “In a place where the Holocaust took place, to say, ‘Jews to the gas,’ is sickening,” Dasa — who is of Ethiopian descent said. “I’m proud to say I’m a Jew. I’m Black and Jewish, two of the toughest identities in the world. “I’m the first to stand up as an Israeli and a Jew against such phenomena,” the 28-year-old added. Read Here
FOR THE FIRST TIME, JEWISH COMMUNITIES FROM GULF COUNTRIES TO HOLD JOINT LAG B’OMER/IFTAR CELEBRATION
By Yossi Lempkowicz
For the first time ever, Jewish communities in the Gulf will hold a joint virtual Lag B’Omer / Iftar celebration hosted by the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC). The event will include a panel discussion with Jewish and Muslim ambassadors focusing on how interfaith and co-existence is propelling the GCC region forward. Read Here
The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement is a non-partisan, global grassroots movement of individuals and organizations, across all religions and faiths, united around the goal of ending anti-Semitism in all its forms. Since its launching in February 2019, 294 organizations and 299,000 individuals have joined the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement by signing the campaign’s pledge. The CAM Pledge draws upon the IHRA international definition of anti- Semitism and its list of specific behaviors used to discriminate against the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel.
