THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
In the past week, CAM covered 42 anti-Semitic incidents (48% far-right, 31% far-left, 14% Islamist, and 7% unidentifiable) around the world. Jewish communities experienced several examples of high-profile incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism.
A synagogue in Spokane, Washington and the AEPi Jewish Fraternity house at California Polytechnic State University were vandalized with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti. Pork products were deposited outside two synagogues in Switzerland and a new report shows COVID-19 conspiracies are fueling anti-Semitism in the UK. These stories are a bleak reminder that when anti-Semitic hate speech is left unaddressed, escalating incidents of vandalism and violence often follow.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Knesset presented a new plan to combat anti-Semitism on social media and urged social media platforms to enforce their hate speech polices across the board. CAM recorded 8 new IHRA definition adoptions this week, including in the cities of London and Manchester and four additional German sports clubs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
CAM JOINS MUSLIM WORLD LEAGUE’S #REJECTHATE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
By CAM
CAM has joined a new social media initiative launched by the Muslim World League (MWL) urging Facebook and Twitter to further restrict Islamophobic content on their platforms. As part of the campaign, social media users are being called on to promote the hashtag #RejectHate and sign a Change.org petition. While the MWL lauded recent policy changes banning Holocaust denial, it noted that much material targeting Muslims for their faith remained online. Read Here
THE SHAMEFUL PROPAGATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM BY ALGERIAN MEDIA ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY
By Walid Tamtam, CAM Contributor
Algerian state-supported media once again took the opportunity to bash Moroccan peace efforts, this time by perpetuating anti-Semitism through Holocaust denialism on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. By promoting injustice to the Jewish people, propagating unrestrained anti-Semitism, and continuing to thrive off of the intergenerational hatred of the Jewish State, Algerian state media seeks to destabilize and thwart those who choose a better path. Read Here
UNITED STATES
POLICE SEARCHING FOR VANDAL WHO DESECRATED SPOKANE SYNAGOGUE WITH ANTI-SEMITIC GRAFFITI
By CAM
Police in Spokane, Washington, are searching for a suspect after a synagogue was vandalized with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti. The incident occurred at Temple Beth Shalom. Security cameras recorded an unidentified white male defacing the Jewish house of worship’s Holocaust memorial and side wall with spray paint. Read Here
ACTIVIST MARC LAMONT HILL SAYS BLACK LIVES MATTER SUPPORTS THE ‘DISMANTLING OF THE ZIONIST PROJECT’
By Algemeiner Staff
Marc Lamont Hill, an activist who has previously advocated for the eradication of Israel, told a virtual discussion hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America that the Black Lives Matter movement supports the “dismantling of the Zionist project.” Hill then repeated the discredited claim that Israel is responsible for US police violence against minorities. Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
EIGHT LABOUR OFFICIALS SUSPENDED IN WAKE OF ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
By ITV
At least eight elected lay officials in Wales have had their party membership suspended in the wake of a report into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. One has since left the party, but the other seven are all members of the Welsh Labour Grassroots group, the Welsh affiliate of Momentum, which was formed to support Jeremy Corbyn. Read Here
LABOUR DROPS RAYNER ANTI-SEMITISM COMPLAINTS PROBE
By Lee Harpin
Labour quietly dropped an investigation into a series of anti-Semitism complaints made against the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner. The complaints relate to past remarks by Ms Rayner including a comment that Norman Finkelstein’s controversial book “The Holocaust Industry” was “seminal”, and a Twitter post in which she wrote that opponents of Jeremy Corbyn required a “bigger smear” to damage Labour. Read Here
GERMANY
IN RARE CASE AGAINST A WOMAN, BERLIN CHARGES NAZI CAMP AIDE WITH ROLE IN MURDERS
By Hui Min Neo
German prosecutors have charged a former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp with complicity in the murders of 10,000 people, in the first such case in recent years against a woman. The 95-year-old accused had worked at the Stutthof camp near Gdansk, in then Nazi-occupied Poland. Read Here
GERMAN PROSECUTORS CHARGE 100-YEAR-OLD FORMER CONCENTRATION CAMP GUARD
By Reuters
German prosecutors charged a 100-year-old German man with being an accessory to 3,518 murders committed while he was allegedly a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War Two. The suspect is accused of making a “material and intentional” contribution to the killings at the camp, where 100,000 died. Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
SWITZERLAND: PORK PRODUCTS DEPOSITED AT SWISS SYNAGOGUES IN TWIN ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS
By Algemeiner
Pork products were used in recent anti-Semitic attacks against synagogues in two Swiss cities just days apart. A package of bacon along with a stuffed pig were left outside the synagogue in Lausanne. Four days later, a woman threw slices of pork at the Liberal Jewish Community synagogue in Geneva. Read Here
POLAND: COURT RULES THAT HISTORIANS MUST APOLOGIZE FOR PART OF HOLOCAUST POGROM RESEARCH
By Cnaan Lipshiz
A Warsaw court ordered two historians to publicly apologize for part of their research into a Holocaust pogrom. Judge Ewa Jończyk of the Warsaw District Court ruled that the scholars are to post a statement on the website of the Institute for Holocaust Research and apologize for “violating the honor” of the their research subject by “providing inaccurate information.” Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
POSSIBLE ABBAS SUCCESSOR UNLEASHES ANTI-SEMITIC RANT EQUATING ISRAEL TO THE NAZIS
By Algemeiner
One of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ possible successors went on an anti-Semitic rant, equating Israel to the Nazis and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler. Jibril Rajoub, a long-time top PA official, claimed that the Trump Administration was “cooperating with the path of the fascist right-wing that is being led by Netanyahu, the ugly face of Mussolini and Hitler.” Read Here
“HITLER WAS RIGHT”: ANTI-SEMITIC GRAFFITI AND SWASTIKAS SPRAY-PAINTED IN PETAH TIKVAH
By Eli Nahum
Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted in Petah Tikva. Among other things, it read “Hitler was right” and “six million is not enough.” The inscriptions were spray-painted near the Neve Gan sports hall, and in addition to those inscriptions, swastikas were also spray-painted. Read Here
MOROCCAN SINGER ARRESTED IN KUWAIT FOLLOWING RELEASE OF DUET WITH ISRAELI SINGER
By i24 News
ON CAMPUS
JEWISH FRATERNITY HOUSE AT CAL POLY DEFACED WITH SWASTIKAS IN ANTI-SEMITIC HATE CRIME
By CAM
A Jewish fraternity house at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo was defaced with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti. “This morning, a hateful group of people committed an anti-Semitic hate crime on our chapter house,” the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity wrote in an Instagram post. Read Here
JEWISH STUDENT’S ISRAELI FLAG TARGETED IN EGGING INCIDENT AT UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
By CAM
Multiple eggs were thrown at an Israeli flag hanging from the apartment balcony of a Jewish student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Local media outlet WCIA reported that the student, Jeremy Zelner, had been working on a paper when he heard something hit his window, prompting him to go check what was going on. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
MAYORS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING IN MIAMI, TAKE A STAND AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM
By FRANCIS X. SUAREZ AND BRIAN D. SIEGAL
THE DOUBLETHINKERS: IN ASSESSING MY OWN LIBERATION, I RECALL A CONFORMITY THAT FEELS TERRIFYINGLY FAMILIAR TODAY
By SHARANSKY WITH GIL TROY
STUDIES & STATISTICS
COVID-19 CONSPIRACIES FUEL ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS IN UK, CONFIRMS CST REPORT
By Lee Harpin
Anti-Semitic hate incidents in the UK fell by eight per cent over the past year — but still amounted to the third highest total ever recorded, a figure partly driven by the pandemic. New figures published by the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 1,668 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide in 2020 — a fall on the 1,813 incidents recorded in 2019. Read Here
TEACHING HATE: IRAN TEXTBOOKS PUSH ANTI-SEMITISM, SAY COVID HYPED TO HARM REGIME
By TOI Staff
Iranian schoolkids are studying anti-Semitism, hatred and conspiratorial material in their textbooks. The ADL said its report, “Incitement: Anti-Semitism and Violence in Iran’s Current State Textbooks,” is the first comprehensive study of anti-Semitism, intolerance and extremism in the official Iranian school curriculum in nearly half a decade. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
NETANYAHU: AN ICC INVESTIGATION OF ISRAEL WOULD BE ‘PURE ANTI-SEMITISM’
By TOI Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assailed the International Criminal Court for ruling it has jurisdiction to open a war crimes investigation against Israel, calling such a probe “pure anti-Semitism” and vowing to fight it. Netanyahu lamented that “the court established to prevent atrocities like the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people is now targeting the one state of the Jewish people.” Read Here
ISRAELI KNESSET HEARING CALLS SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES TO ANSWER FOR ANTI-SEMITISM ‘RUNNING RAMPANT’ AS NEW PLAN RELEASED
By Algemeiner Staff
The Israeli Ministries of Strategic Affairs and Diaspora Affairs presented a Knesset committee with an outline for a national response to hate speech online. The outline was released at a special Knesset hearing which featured government officials and representatives of social media networks. The committee’s primary focus was on urging social media companies to crack down on anti-Semitism and enforce their policies against hate speech across the board, rather than selectively. Read Here
HUMANITY
ZACH BANNER TO HOST VIRTUAL PANEL COMBATTING ANTI-SEMITISM, WHITE SUPREMACY
By Cale Berger
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Zach Banner is hosting a virtual panel aimed at combatting anti-semitism, racial injustice and white supremacy. The first segment will be Pittsburgh focused, as Banner will be joined by Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue, and Jasiri X, a hip hop artist and co-founder of activist group 1Hood. Read Here
JEWISH HIGH SCHOOLERS FIGHT ANTI-SEMITIC BIGOTRY BY TEACHING PEERS ABOUT THEIR FAITH
By CAM
Jewish high school students in the Buffalo area of upstate New York are taking part in an initiative to share with their non-Jewish peers their personal experiences of facing bigotry, to help foster interfaith understanding. The “Student to Student” program was first developed by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of St. Louis and has been replicated in numerous locations. Read Here
ITALIAN CARDINAL CONDEMNS ANTI-SEMITISM AFTER DISRUPTION OF ONLINE EVENT
SUDAN BUSINESSMAN DEFENDS INTERFAITH DIALOGUE CEREMONY ADDRESSED BY RABBI
FRATERNITY RAISES THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AFTER IT WAS HIT WITH ANTI-SEMITIC GRAFFITI
ISRAELIS PARTNER WITH EMIRATIS TO ADDRESS THEIR CRITICAL NEEDS IN FOOD SECURITY AND AGRICULTURE
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.
