THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
Bosnia and Herzegovina became the 39th country to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. The Muslim-majority nation joins six other Balkans nations, in doing so.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is now in a position to lead the Balkan states in interfaith relations,” CAM Senior Advisor Robert Singer said and called for more countries to adopt the definition “as but an initial step in combatting antisemitism.”
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI created new agencies to strengthen Jewish life in the country, and a new Latin-Jewish Media and Entertainment Alliance will engage journalists and influencers in Spanish-speaking audiences to portray Israel and the Jewish world accurately.
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating the University of Southern California for not addressing antisemitism directed at a Jewish student leader, following an effort by CAM partner the Brandeis Center. “This is not about one individual but a trend targeting Jews and keeping them away from student office… The reign of impunity for antisemites on campuses must end,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said.
Alarmingly public neo-Nazi activity took place in the U.S. as dozens of neo-Nazis with swastika flags demonstrated outside a conference in Tampa, Florida, following a violent Neo-Nazi demonstration in Boston.
A former U.S. marine was arrested on federal charges following an investigation into his plot to commit mass murder against Jews, as part of neo-Nazi group “Rapekrieg.” Matthew Belanger had “procured weapons, uniforms, and tactical gear, and discussed committing attacks on a synagogue, Jewish persons, women, and minorities,” in Long Island, New York.
Miloon Kothari, one of three members of the “UN Commission of Inquiry” that is investigating Israel, claimed in an interview that social media is “controlled largely by [the] Jewish lobby…,” recycling a dangerous antisemitic trope about Jewish power and control of media.
The UN official’s comments were condemned as antisemitic by Israel’s Prime Minister, U.S. Antisemitism Envoy Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Human Rights Council.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 43 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 29 (67.4%) from the far-right, 2 (4.7%) from the far-left, 6 (14.0%) with Islamist motivations, and 6 (14.0%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
NEO-NAZIS RALLY WITH SWASTIKAS OUTSIDE FLORIDA CONSERVATIVE YOUTH CONFERENCE
By TOI STAFF
A group of neo-Nazi demonstrators rallied outside a conservative conference in Florida on Saturday, where they displayed swastikas and handed out antisemitic material. Dozens of demonstrators reportedly waved Nazi flags and swastikas, displayed antisemitic caricatures and distributed antisemitic leaflets outside the building where the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit was taking place in Tampa. Among those who attended the summit were former US president Donald Trump, who headlined the event, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Turning Point USA told Business Insider that it had no connection to the Nazi group, which carried banners declaring the state “DeSantis Country,” a reference to Florida governor Ron DeSantis who is seen as a potential future presidential candidate. The organization said it was unable to have the activists moved away because they were standing in a public area.
NEO-NAZI MARINE PLOTTED TO ATTACK JEWS AND OTHERS IN ‘RAPEKRIEG,’ FEDERAL PROSECUTORS SAY
By PHILISSA CRAMER
A former Marine who belonged to a neo-Nazi group that counts willingness to murder Jewish children as a membership requirement has been arrested on charges stemming from a federal investigation into his plot to commit mass murder, including against Jews. Matthew Belanger was an active Marine while conspiring online with members of a hate group called Rapekrieg. Belanger was also discharged because of his extremist activity, according to the court filing, which offers a window into how online conversation among extremists can translate into real-world activity. Like other white supremacist groups, Rapekrieg’s goal, outlined in a manifesto that investigators learned Belanger had largely written, is to create a white “ethno-state” free of the minority groups that the group believes are “replacing” white Americans. In addition to killing people who do not advance that goal, the group advocates for raping white women to accelerate the production of white children. Anyone who has qualms “about being able to pull the trigger on a jewish child” is not prepared for the group’s work, the manifesto says.
‘I WAS HORRIFIED:’ DISTURBING, PORNOGRAPHIC ANTISEMITIC FLYERS PLACED IN SC NEIGHBORHOOD
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
ANNE FRANK TRUST APOLOGIZES AFTER INVITING ANTI-ISRAEL SPEAKER
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Anti-prejudice organization the Anne Frank Trust said in a Thursday statement that it had failed to properly vet a speaker who justified Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and claimed that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. The Anne Frank Trust had invited Nasima Begum to lead a storytelling workshop despite the fact that she had made inflammatory social media posts about a decade ago. Begum claimed that Jewish people are committing genocide against Palestinians, comparing the treatment of Palestinians by Israel to the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany.
MAN SHOUTED ANTISEMITIC ABUSE IN HACKNEY
GERMANY
“DELIBERATE ATTACK ON REMEMBRANCE”: TREES DEDICATED TO MEMORY OF BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP VICTIMS CHOPPED DOWN
By AP
The Buchenwald concentration camp memorial says seven trees dedicated to the memory of victims of the Nazi camp in eastern Germany have been chopped down. The foundation that runs the memorial tweeted on Wednesday that the trees near the site apparently were attacked the previous day. It posted pictures showing the trees severed about halfway up the trunk, and said it was “appalled at the deliberate attack on remembrance.” The foundation said it filed a complaint with police. One of the trees was dedicated to children killed at Buchenwald and the others to six prisoners at the camp. The trees were part of a project called “1,000 beeches” and were planted on a route outside the actual camp along which prisoners were taken.
FRANCE
FRENCH LEFT-WING MPS CALL ON THE GOVERNMENT TO CONDEMN ‘THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION BY ISRAEL OF A REGIME OF APARTHEID AGAINST THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’
By YOSSI LEMPKOWICZ
38 left-wing French MPs have co-signed a draft resolution urging the government to condemn what they called “the institutionalization by Israel of a regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.’’ “All the criteria to qualify the apartheid regime set up by the State of Israel are met,” the tekst of the resolution says. The signatories specify: “Israel has perpetrated several inhumane acts listed by the Convention on the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people”. They therefore “invite” “the French government to act to achieve the dismantling” of the Israeli regime. The text was introduced by Communist MP Jean-Paul Lecoq, who is vice-president of the French National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee. The signatories are members of the left-wing NUPES (Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale) group which includes extreme-left, Socialists, Communist and Ecologist MPs.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
UN OFFICIAL: SOCIAL MEDIA LARGELY CONTROLLED BY JEWISH LOBBY, NGOS
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
A United Nations human-rights investigator spoke of the Jewish lobby and the overuse of antisemitism in a wide-ranging interview with the Mondoweiss website that was published on Monday. He questioned Israel’s membership in the 193-nation global body. “We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by – whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs,” said Indian human-rights expert Miloon Kothari. He is one of three members of the “UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel,” which was created last year and is tasked with issuing reports twice a year.
UKRAINE – MIKHAILO KOVALCHUK, FORMER MEMBER OF THE KYIV CITY COUNCIL: “JEWS KILL CHILDREN”, RABBIS “CALL ON DEMONS DURING PRAYERS”
MIDDLE EAST
CHILDREN IN HAMAS TV KIDS’ SHOW: THE CRIMINAL JEWS ARE PLOTTING TO REPLACE AL-AQSA MOSQUE WITH THEIR FALSE TEMPLE, BUT WE WILL DEFEND JERUSALEM TO OUR LAST DROP OF BLOOD; JIHAD IS THE PINNACLE OF ISLAM
By MEMRI
In a July 15, 2022 episode of “Pioneers of Tomorrow,” a children’s show aired on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza, a man dressed in a puppet costume spoke about Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque with children. A little girl said that the Jews must not be allowed to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. A young boy also said that if the Muslims adhere to shari’a law, Palestine will surely be liberated. The man said that the Muslims must also wage Jihad, and the boy responded that Jihad for the sake of Allah is the “pinnacle of Islam”. In addition, the man said that the “criminal Jews” have a plot, explaining: “They are digging tunnels under the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to… I forgot, what do they want to build?… They want to replace the Dome of the Rock with the Tem… the Tem… What is it called?” In response, the boy said that the Jews want to build the “false Solomon’s Temple”, but that this will never happen as long as the Palestinians defend Jerusalem.
ON CAMPUS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO OPEN INVESTIGATION INTO USC OVER ANTISEMITISM ALLEGATIONS
By MELISSA WEISS
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into allegations that campus administrators at the University of Southern California did not adequately address claims of antisemitism targeting a Jewish student leader, who resigned from her leadership position within the school’s student government in 2020 after a targeted campaign of online harassment. The investigation comes nearly two years after Rose Ritch, then a rising senior at USC, resigned as the student body’s vice president, following a stream of documented online harassment and calls by students for her resignation that centered on her identity as a pro-Israel individual. In one Instagram post, a resident assistant on the campus wrote, “Even if all the orgs on campus that r Jewish r also Zionist That’s not an excuse For you to join That’s still blood on ur hands.”
CUNY SUED OVER FAILING TO DEAL WITH ANTISEMITIC INSTANCES ON CAMPUSES
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
AUSTRIA – POLICE REGISTERED 5,464 HATE CRIMES IN 2021
By AUSTRIAN MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
In 2021, 5,464 prejudice-motivated crimes were recorded while the police clear-up rate was 68.8 percent. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner speaks of an important contribution to democratic coexistence in Austria through the structured recording of crimes motivated by prejudice by the police. The most crimes motivated by prejudice were recorded in absolute numbers in Vienna (1,451), Upper Austria (1,006) and Lower Austria (809), but relative to the resident population most in Salzburg, Vienna and Upper Austria. Prejudice-motivated crimes are categorized into nine motives. In 2021, the nine prejudice motives were recorded in the following order of frequency: belief (2,052), national/ethnic origin (1,874), religion (750), skin color (408), sexual orientation (376), gender (354), social status (287), age (266) and disability (252).
JEWISH AMERICANS ARE INCREASINGLY CONCERNED ABOUT LEFT-WING ANTISEMITISM
By IRWIN J. MANSDORF
The underlying trend in our data appears to show, in contrast to conventional wisdom and our previous research, an increased recognition that the ideology of left-leaning sources—specifically “woke” ideology, and especially in the Jewish American sample—bears some responsibility for antisemitism in the United States. What makes these data more convincing is that this behavior is not a “shift” away from blaming right-wing ideology and especially Trump-associated sources, but rather an expression of additional responsibility.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
PRESIDENCY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA ADOPTS IHRA ANTISEMITISM DEFINITION
By CAM
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted this week the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. The move was announced on Twitter on Friday by Milorad Dodik, the Serb representative in the three-member Presidency body. “Upon my initiative, the Presidency of BiH adopted today legally non-binding definition of anti-semitism,” he wrote. “By doing so, BiH has joined other 30 countries that also adopted the same definition.”
MOROCCAN KING MOHAMMED VI CREATES NEW AGENCIES FOR JEWISH COMMUNITY
By YOSSI LEMPKOWICZ
Morocco’s government announced last week that “acting under royal instruction,” it will create several new initiatives aimed at strengthening the Jewish community there, preserving the Jewish cultural and historical connection, and improving ties with Jews of Moroccan descent. King Mohammed VI and Crown Prince Moulay Hassan were presented with the plan during a July 13 council of ministers meeting at the royal palace in Rabat. According to a local news organization, MAP: Agence Morocaine De Presse, the Council of Jewish Communities in Morocco welcomed the new initiatives, saying they would “ensure the preservation of the sacred values of Moroccan Judaism and the rehabilitation and promotion of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Hebrew tributary of the rich Moroccan civilization.”
US ENVOYS SAY ANTISEMITIC COMMENTS BY MEMBER OF UN PROBE ARE ‘UNACCEPTABLE’
HUMANITY
LOCAL CATHOLIC BISHOP CALLS FOR INTERFAITH SOLIDARITY AFTER SPATE OF ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
By CAM
Following a recent spate of antisemitic incidents across Southwest Florida, Catholic Bishop Frank J. Dewane of the Diocese of Venice issued a powerful call for interfaith solidarity and harmony, condemning Jew-hatred as “simply unacceptable.” Reacting to the distribution in the Venice area of flyers propagating conspiracy theories about Jews, Bishop Dewane penned a July 13th letter to the editor that was published by several local newspapers. “The Diocese of Venice has tremendous compassion and empathy for what has occurred in the history of the Jewish people and has always valued and indeed cherished its longstanding relationship with the Jewish Community,” he wrote. “An emphasis has been placed on deepening our shared roots, the teaching of tolerance in our schools and Parishes, and fostering interreligious friendships
LATIN-JEWISH ALLIANCE AIMS TO USE STAR POWER TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM AND MISINFORMATION IN MEDIA
By ORGE CASTELLANO
When antisemitic conspiracy theories flooded Spanish-language media in Florida ahead of the 2020 U.S. election, some mainstream news outlets joined in amplifying them — then apologized for doing so. A new effort initiated by Fuente Latina, a pro-Israel Spanish-language media group launched in 2012, aims to combat those ideas and prevent them from seeping into community discourse. The Latin-Jewish Media and Entertainment Alliance launched last week with a goal of engaging journalists and influencers who reach Spanish-speaking audiences to portray Israel and the Jewish world accurately. A prominent Mexican Jewish TV executive, Joshua Mintz, will lead the effort, which Fuente Latino founder and CEO Leah Soibel said in a statement is essential given the efforts underway to tell a different story to Spanish-language news consumers.
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.
