THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
Another tragedy unfolded in Israel, as a wave of terrorism targeting civilians continued with a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv that left three dead and more than a dozen seriously injured.
Amid this wave of terror, reminiscent of the second intifada, a European Parliament committee passed a motion condemning the Palestinian Authority for issuing textbooks that contain violent and hateful materials using EU funding.
A Palestinian-British BBC contributor praised the recent terrorist attack in Hadera, Israel. While in New York City, pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated outside the office of a Jewish organization, while calling to “globalize the intifada,” and yelling that mainstream Jewish organizations are “legitimate target[s] because [they] support the Zionist entity.”
Two shocking antisemitic attacks took place in New York City that saw a group of six teenage Jewish boys being threatened by another group with a sword, a knife, and a crowbar. In Brooklyn, a young orthodox Jewish man was viciously beaten in an antisemitic gang assault.
In Ohio, a security guard at a Jewish school was arrested after threatening to shoot up the school’s playground, in a social media post in which he posed with a gun.
Two Holocaust memorials in Lithuania were smeared with antisemitic and pro-Russian vandalism, and election signs for Josh Frydenburg, the Treasurer of Australia, were vandalized with swastikas and ‘Hitler-mustaches.”
Meanwhile, the parliament of the State of Berlin in Germany approved a new plan to combat antisemitism and anti-Zionism. In the UK, a new antisemitism taskforce is being created in parliament, and the city council of Washington, D.C. approved a resolution condemning antisemitism and endorsing the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 42 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 23 (54.8%) from the far-right, 2 (4.8%) from the far-left, 10 (23.8%) with Islamist motivations, and 7 (16.7%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
SIX JEWISH KIDS THREATENED WITH SWORD, KNIFE AND CROWBAR IN LATEST NEW YORK CITY ANTISEMITIC ATTACK
By Algemeiner Staff
Six Jewish boys were the target of antisemitic intimidation on New York’s Upper West Side, by three other teens bearing a knife, sword, and crowbar who threatened to attack them because of their faith. The six victims, reported as between the ages of 12-16, were approached by three male teenagers who were carrying a knife, sword, and crowbar. The three then said they wanted to get the Jewish pre-teens and teens because they were Jews, and followed the group home before fleeing the area.
SECURITY GUARD AT OHIO JEWISH SCHOOL ARRESTED AFTER THREATENING SCHOOL ON SOCIAL MEDIA
By SHIRA HANAU
A security guard at a Jewish day school in Columbus, Ohio, was arrested and charged with making terrorist threats against the students and parents at the school. Thomas Develin, 24, worked as a security guard at Columbus Torah Academy, a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school for students from kindergarten through high school, until his arrest. The arrest came after local law enforcement was alerted to photos shared to social media platforms showing Develin threatening the school community. “I’m at a Jewish school and about to make it everyone’s problem,” read the caption of one picture of Develin holding a gun posted to his social media account. Another photo posted that day was captioned: “The playground is about to turn into a self defense situation.”
‘INTIFADA UNTIL VICTORY’: PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK CITY FEATURES VIOLENT ANTISEMITIC RHETORIC
By CAM
Amid a wave of terrorist attacks in Israel that left 11 dead, pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Manhattan carrying signs reading “Intifada until victory,” “We will free Palestine within our lifetime,” and “Resistance until return.” The protesters also chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Resistance is justified when people are colonized,” “New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada,” “There is only one solution — intifada revolution,” and “We don’t want no Zionists here.” One of the speakers, CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) activist Nerdeen Kiswani, launched a vehemently antisemitic tirade against numerous mainstream U.S. Jewish communal organizations, claiming, “They do not represent the Jewish people. They are Zionist organizations hiding behind Judaism.” “So every single organization on that list is a legitimate target because every single organization on that list supports the Zionist entity,” she continued.
SUSPECTS SOUGHT IN ‘VICIOUS’ BROOKLYN GANG ASSAULT ON HASIDIC JEWISH MAN
By Algemeiner Staff
New York police are seeking several suspects in a brutal gang assault on a Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn that prompted condemnation from state and local leaders. The attack occurred in Williamsburg, when a group of teens allegedly launched an unprovoked assault on a 21-year-old visibly Jewish man, leaving him with minor injuries. The group of teenagers approached the victim, threw him into a box truck and then punched and kicked him as he lay prone on the ground. The attackers then escaped the scene.
DENTON MAN WITH NEO-NAZI BELIEFS SEND THREATS TO JEWISH ORGANIZATION
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
BBC CONTRIBUTOR ABDEL BARI ATWAN PRAISES ‘HADERA OPERATION’ THAT KILLED TWO ISRAELIS
By Akiva Van Koningsveld
The publicly-funded BBC continues to provide a platform for Palestinian-British journalist Abdel Bari Atwan, who has repeatedly glorified terrorism against Israelis while promoting antisemitism. Last week, “BBC Trending” presenter Rania Attar highlighted a Twitter post by Atwan, while speaking about the terror attack in the Israeli city of Hadera, which killed two and injured 12. Atwan’s tweet referred to the ISIS-claimed attack as the “Hadera operation,” and suggested it had “exposed those [Arab leaders] who did not mention Palestine.” Furthermore, Atwan’s tweet linked to a video in which he expressed joy over the March 27 killing of Israelis.
GERMANY
“HITLER APPLE STRUDEL” OFFERED FOR 8.88 EUROS: LANDLORD CONVICTED OF INCITEMENT TO HATRED
By RND
The district court in Trier has convicted a former innkeeper of incitement to hatred by advertising a “Hitler apple strudel”. The court handed down a five-month suspended prison sentence. Accordingly, the probation condition consists, among other things, in the payment of 800 euros to a non-profit organization. The verdict is not yet legally binding. The former operator of a café in the clubhouse of an allotment garden in Trier was accused of labeling an advertising display with the words “Original Hitler’s apple strudel/Sieg Heil/8.88 euros”. The “H” was drawn with incomplete swastikas. On the other side of the display, terms such as “gas” and “Jewish blood” were mentioned.
ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI IN FROHNAU
CANADA
ARABIC NEWSPAPER PRAISES B’NEI BRAK TERROR MASSACRE
By B’nai B’rith Canada
A newspaper in the Greater Toronto Area with a long history of anti-Jewish incitement is at it again, praising the murder of five people during a terrorist attack in Israel last week. In the April 1 edition of al-Meshwar, an article appears with the headline, “Ramadan Comes Early in Palestine This Year.” The article is a lengthy paean to Dia Hamarsha, who opened fire in the Israeli city of B’nei Brak, murdering five people. The article states that Hamarsha “executed an operation of exceptional quality against the settlers of the enemy, displaying steadfastness, composure, professionalism and drama that could have come from the world of film.” It goes on to gleefully recount exactly how Hamarsha murdered his five victims, falsely describing them as “settlers,” even though the massacre occurred in B’nei Brak, a city located within Israel’s internationally-recognized territory.
FRANCE
FRENCH JEW KILLED BY TRAM LIKELY A TARGET OF ANTISEMITIC ATTACK, FAMILY SAYS
By TOBIAS SIEGAL and JTA
Relatives of Jeremy Cohen, a 31-year-old French Jew who died two months ago after being hit by a tram in the town of Bobigny, said that his death was not an accident, but the result of an antisemitic attack. Initially, his death was reported as a “pedestrian being run over,” but video footage released by Cohen’s family showed the moments leading to his death and indicated that the incident could have been triggered by an assault. In the video, Cohen is seen being attacked by several members of a large group before running away from the crowd and being hit by an incoming tram. An observant Jew, Cohen died while wearing his kippah. His family claimed that he was targeted by the gang seen in the video for this reason alone.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
LITHUANIA: TWO HOLOCAUST MEMORIALS SMEARED WITH ANTISEMITIC, PRO-RUSSIAN SLURS
By ZVIKA KLEIN
Lithuania’s major Holocaust memorial at Ponary, where the mass murder of some 70,000 Jews took place, was smeared with antisemitic graffiti on March 31 and April 3. The graffiti ostensibly expressed support for the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. There was a new attack on [the] Ponar memorial, Lithuanian 15min news site reported, adding that the Lithuanian Jewish community appealed to the government. In both attacks, the letters “V” and “Z” had been inscribed on some of the memorials. This is the second such attack, the first of which was recorded on Friday.
AUSTRALIA: ‘OBSCENE’: JOSH FRYDENBERG ELECTION SIGNS DEFACED WITH NAZI SYMBOLS
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned of the threat of radicalism in Australia after electoral signs bearing his image were defaced with antisemitic imagery. Mr Frydenberg, who was born in Australia to Jewish parents, took to social media afternoon to share an image of a campaign sign where a swastika had been drawn on his forehead.
AUSTRIAN NEO-NAZI RAPPER WITH SONGS TIED TO HALLE SYNAGOGUE ATTACK JAILED
MIDDLE EAST
DEADLY SHOOTING IN CENTRAL TEL AVIV: “A TERRORIST OPENED FIRE AT SHORT RANGE”
By CBS News
At least two people were killed and several wounded in a shooting in central Tel Aviv at night in an area with several bars and restaurants packed with people, Israeli medics said. The shooting came amid heightened tensions following a series of deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians. Live footage showed police flooding the area and training their guns on the upper story of a building. It also showed an explosion of some kind. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it received reports of a shooting at “several scenes” around downtown Tel Aviv. It said it had evacuated six people to a nearby hospital, three of whom were in serious or critical condition. The nearby Ichilov hospital said two people had died and that it was treating another eight who were wounded.
PALESTINIAN MUSLIM SCHOLAR CLAIMS JEWS STARTED UKRAINE WAR TO ESTABLISH A SECOND JEWISH STATE
By Algemeiner Staff
A leading Palestinian Muslim scholar went on a bizarre rant on Turkish television, claiming that the Jews started the war in Ukraine in order to establish a new Jewish state there and “are now saying that the Temple and biblical Jerusalem are located in Ukraine and not in Palestine.” Mraweh Nassar, the Secretary-General of the Jerusalem Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, made the statements on Turkey’s Channel 9, an Arabic-language outlet affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He claimed, “even the Jews themselves” “are now convinced that Palestine cannot be the state for the Jews. So, they started saying that holy Jerusalem is in Ukraine and not in Palestine. Ukraine is now the candidate to become the future Jewish state.”
ON CAMPUS
ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI AT PARIS NANTERRE UNIVERSITY DRAWS CONDEMNATION FROM JEWISH STUDENTS
By Dion J. Pierre
The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) has condemned antisemitic messages scrawled in the bathroom of the law building at Paris Nanterre University. Photographs of the graffiti shared by UEJF show a Star of David scrawled on yellow tile with “MEDIA” written in black permanent marker. Others said “Hitler, you’re the best,” and invoked the antisemitic “qui?” (who?) slogan, which was launched after a retired French general insinuated in a television interview that Jews control the media.
40+ UNIVERSITY LEADERS TO ATTEND SUMMIT ON CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Leaders of more than 40 American colleges and universities will convene on April 11 in New York for the University Presidents Summit on Campus Antisemitism. The summit is being presented by Hillel International and American Jewish Committee, in collaboration with the American Council on Education. The summit, to be hosted by NYU president Andrew Hamilton, will take place at the Center for Jewish History in New York and will give university presidents and other campus leaders opportunities to openly discuss campus antisemitism and develop actionable plans for responding to it.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
POLL: 70% OF BULGARIAN JEWS SEE HATE SPEECH AS A PROBLEM IN BULGARIA
By Sofia Globe staff
Seventy per cent of Bulgarian Jews see hate speech as a problem in Bulgaria, compared with 37 per cent among the wider population. Among the wider public in Bulgaria, people saw hate speech as mainly in informal communication, and therefore enclosed in the internet and social networks (48 per cent), sporting events (37 per cent) and inscriptions on public and residential buildings (29 per cent). Among Bulgarian Jews, 95 per cent pointed to the internet and social networks, and 84 per cent to inscriptions on public and residential buildings. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of Bulgarian Jewish respondents believed that hate speech had also permeated public appearances, including on radio and television (43 per cent).
BIAS INCIDENTS REPORTED IN N.J. AT 27-YEAR HIGH, STATE SAYS
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
BERLIN SENATE APPROVES NEW PLAN TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM AND ANTI-ZIONISM
By Algemeiner Staff
The state senate in the German capital Berlin has approved a new proposal to step up the fight against rising antisemitism in the city. The senate — which governs Berlin, one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany — gave its backing to a 260-page report submitted by Samuel Salzborn, the antisemitism officer for Berlin, that concentrates efforts in five areas: education, the judicial system, Jewish life, science and research and prevention of discrimination. Salzborn was highly critical of how antisemitism is taught in Berlin schools, arguing that the topic was appropriate for social studies as well as history classes. “Antisemitism begins in 1933 and ends in 1945,” said Salzborn. “What came before and after is not an issue in schools.” Much of the teaching reflected positions hostile to Israel, Salzborn said. Salzborn argued that anti-Zionism had become a global ideology, uniting elements of the far right, the extreme left and Islamist movements.
NEW UK ANTISEMITISM TASKFORCE TO BE CHAIRED BY ANDREW PERCY MP
By KIRSTY BUCHANAN
A new taskforce on antisemitism has been set up by the UK Government amid growing concerns about racism on campus and accusations of institutional Jew-hate within the National Union of Students. It comes as the NUS announced it would investigate the body’s newly elected president, Shaima Dallali, following revelations she had made a string of incendiary statements on social media including praising the notoriously antisemitic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Boris Johnson revealed at Prime Minister’s Questions that he was establishing a taskforce “devoted to rooting out antisemitism in education at all levels”.
ADL WASHINGTON, D.C. APPLAUDS PASSAGE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA’S “SENSE OF THE COUNCIL CONDEMNING ANTISEMITISM RESOLUTION OF 2022”
HUMANITY
MOBILE HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTER VISITS TORONTO AREA SCHOOLS AFTER RECENT SPATE OF ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS
By CAM
A mobile Holocaust education center is visiting Toronto area schools following a series of incidents involving Nazi salutes performed by students and swastika vandalism. The Tour for Humanity — run by the Canada-based Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) — offers students and educators an interactive digital experience designed to inspire action against contemporary antisemitism and other forms of hatred and intolerance.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition engaging more than 360,000 people and 450 organizations from a diverse array of religious, political, and cultural backgrounds in the common mission of fighting the world’s oldest hatred. We act collaboratively to build a better future, free of bigotry, for Jews and all humanity.
