THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 28 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 16 (57.1%) from the far-right, 6 (21.4%) from the far-left, 2 (7.1%) with Islamist motivations, and 4 (14.3%) unidentifiable in nature.
A group of neo-Nazis flying banners with far-right symbols demonstrated outside an Ulm synagogue on the one-year anniversary of an arson attempt at the same location. This came as new data showed there was a 29% increase in antisemitic crimes in Germany in 2021.
In France, a neo-Nazi man, who used the online pseudonym “HeinrichHimmler88,” was indicted for a mass killing plot.
In the United States, a University of Illinois Urbana Champaign student was charged with a hate crime for throwing a rock at a Jewish student during an anti-Israel march on campus in April.
Two Jewish men dining at a restaurant in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, were verbally harassed with antisemitic invective — including a “Heil Hitler!” exclamation — by a passerby.
Across the U.S., a disturbing nationwide trend of antisemitic flyering continued apace, in South Carolina, Florida, and Illinois, among other states.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a proclamation highlighting the importance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, noting its vital role in her state’s efforts to combat Jew-hatred.
And during a visit to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi reiterated his government’s commitment “countering all forms of discrimination against Jewish people.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
JAN. 6-RELATED FILING REVEALS U.S. MARINE WAS JAILED FOR PLOT TO SHOOT UP SYNAGOGUE
By RON KAMPEAS
A filing in a case stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection revealed that a U.S. Marine in a relationship with one of the defendants served 19 months for a plot to shoot up a synagogue. The revelation came in a filing by federal prosecutors arguing against a request by an alleged insurgent, Riley Williams, to loosen restrictions pending her trial. The June 10 filing by the U.S. Attorney says that he “stole his roommates’ truck and attempted to purchase a firearm with the intent of committing a mass shooting at a synagogue.”
BEN & JERRY’S REQUIRES NEW EMPLOYEES TO WATCH LECTURES ON ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
By MELISSA WEISS
New employees hired by Ben & Jerry’s are required to watch four video lectures featuring activists discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of their orientation, Jewish Insider has learned. The videos are part of what the ice cream company dubbed “Scooper Series: Social Mission” and address racism in the U.S. and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an employee who viewed the videos. In a portion of one of the videos, which was reviewed by JI, Omar Shakir, who serves as Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, attempts to explain Israel’s policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
JEWISH TOMB IS DESTROYED IN ARSON ATTACK ON DONCASTER’S ROSE HILL CEMETERY
By DARREN BURKE
Fire crews were called to Rose Hill Cemetery yesterday after the Tahara House – a small burial room and chapel within the cemetery’s Jewish quarter was set ablaze. Police have not said at this stage if the incident is being probed as an anti-semitic attack but the blaze has been condemned by members of the Jewish community in South Yorkshire. The building was last used more than 15 years ago for a Jewish funeral and has since been used as a store room by cemetery staff.
GERMANY
MEN WITH NEO-NAZI BANNERS GATHER OUTSIDE GERMAN SYNAGOGUE ON ANNIVERSARY OF ARSON ATTACK
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
Men flying banners with far-right symbols gathered outside a synagogue in Germany on the anniversary of its attempted torching, allegedly by a Turkish citizen. In Ulm near Munich, about 10 men displayed one banner reading: “White lives matter, stop the White genocide.” Another banner depicted the black sun symbol, which is popular among neo-Nazis. Local non-Jews confronted the demonstrators and made them leave the scene. The date of the event was the one-year anniversary of the attempted arson at the synagogue, which authorities say was perpetrated by 45-year-old dual citizen of Turkey and Germany.
CANADA
CJPME APPLAUDS THE ONTARIO FEDERATION OF LABOUR FOR ENDORSING AN ARMS EMBARGO ON ISRAEL
By CJPME
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) congratulates the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) for endorsing a series of measures in support of Palestinian human rights, including sanctions on Israel. A resolution adopted by the OFL and published today calls for an end to Canadian arms sales to Israel, a ban on goods from illegal Israel settlements, and divestment from Israeli military companies. Another resolution adopted by the OFL upholds free speech on Palestine by rejecting the discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism, which equates legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The OFL is Canada’s largest labour federation, representing more than 1,500 locals from 54 affiliated unions.
FRANCE
FRANCE: A NEO-NAZI SUSPECTED OF A MASS KILLING PROJECT INDICTED
By AFP
A Hitler admirer, suspected of planning a mass killing, was indicted on Friday for “terrorist individual enterprise” and placed in pre-trial detention, we learned on Saturday from sources close to the case. Aged 20, the suspect was spotted on social networks and encrypted messaging under the pseudonym “HeinrichHimmler88”. He poured out neo-Nazi remarks there, threatening in videos to attack “Jews, blacks, women, the LGBT community”, added this source. The man was arrested Tuesday in Ardèche by investigators from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) who had established that he was “looking for a weapon”, suggesting an imminent act.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
AUSTRALIA: NAZI MEMORABILIA AUCTION SLAMMED
By MIA GARDINER
Items that were sold in a weekend auction of Nazi war memorabilia “belong in museums, not on people’s mantelpieces”, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said this week. The almost 60 items for sale in the online action held by Melbourne business Oldies Collectibles included a gas canister, an SS regalia book and Nazi uniforms.
SOUTH AFRICA: COMMENTATOR CALLS HOLOCAUST EDUCATION ‘BRAINWASHING’
By TALI FEINBERG
“Ignoble and ill-intentioned”, “brainwashing”, “racist content” that “creeps through a syllabus” and “grand lies fed to impressionable children” are some of the phrases that Madoda Sitshange used to describe Holocaust education in this country in an article published on 29 May under the “analysis” section of the Sunday Independent. The study of the Holocaust was mandated by the department of basic education in 2007 as a required curriculum in all South African high schools. Sitshange spent most of his article raging that Israeli policies should be included in Holocaust education, and blatantly compared Israel to the Nazis.
MIDDLE EAST
HAVING FAILED TO INSTIGATE VIOLENCE TO PREVENT ISRAELI CELEBRATIONS, PA REVERTS TO OPEN ANTISEMITISM AND REWRITING HISTORY
By MAURICE HIRSCH
As Palestinian Media Watch exposed, in the lead up to the May 29 Israeli celebrations to mark 55 years since the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem and its liberation from Jordanian occupation (1948-1967), the PA tried desperately to incite wide scale violence. Having failed in this goal, the PA then did its utmost to create an alternative narrative. Part of the alternative narrative rested solidly on openly antisemitic hate speech referring to the 70,000+ Israelis who participated in the march as “inferior… settlers”, “monkeys” and “fools”.
ON CAMPUS
STUDENT AT ANTI-ISRAEL MARCH ON ILLINOIS CAMPUS CHARGED FOR ROCK-THROWING
By JNS
A student from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been charged with a hate crime for throwing a rock at a Jewish student in April during an anti-Israel march on campus. On April 18, the Students for Justice in Palestine held a led march against Israel. Sayed A. Quraishi, 23, admitted that he threw the rock. He faces a sentence that ranges from probation to five years in prison.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
GERMAN GOVERNMENT REPORTS STARTLING 29% INCREASE IN ANTISEMITIC CRIMES
By TOBY AXELROD
The German government’s annual report on developments in extremism notes a nearly 29% increase in antisemitic crimes in 2021 over the previous year. The report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is based on statistics reported in May by the Federal Criminal Police Office. In all, 3,027 antisemitic incidents were registered last year, up from 2,351 in 2020. The vast majority were related to right-wing extremism, but Islamic extremist antisemitism is also up, with 122 reported incidents compared to 26 the year before. The number of incidents rose when tensions between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors were highest — in May 2021. The most worrying trends come in the form of burgeoning conspiracy theories relating Jews to the coronavirus pandemic and measures to curb it, leaders and watchdogs said.
GERMANY – 70 ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN IN 2021
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
EU STATES VOTE TO CONTINUE FUNDING DESPITE PALESTINIAN ANTISEMITIC INCITEMENT IN TEXTBOOKS
By LAHAV HARKOV
The EU on Tuesday failed to pass a proposal to withhold about 5% of its support for the Palestinian Authority in light of antisemitic incitement from its textbooks, after 14 months of freezing funding. Instead, the European Commission – whose president, Ursula von der Leyen was in Israel on Tuesday – decided to pay the PA without new conditions, despite the findings of an EU-commissioned study by the Georg-Eckert Institute confirming in June 2021 that Palestinian textbooks feature antisemitism, glorification of terrorism and erase Israel.
ITALY WORKING AGAINST ALL JEWISH DISCRIMINATION – DRAGHI
By ANSA
Italy is working against all anti-Jewish discrimination, Premier Mario Draghi said at the Italian Temple in Jerusalem Monday. “Italian institutions and civil society have for many years been active in the fight against antisemitism,” he said. “The government is working to combat discrimination of all kinds against the Jews”. He said “in moments of crisis, of uncertainty, of war, such as we are living through, it is even more important to firmly oppose the political use of hatred. Draghi added that Israeli-Italian ties were being boosted, from the economy to research.
‘ENOUGH WITH THE BIAS’: 22 COUNTRIES SIGN DECLARATION AGAINST UN PROBE INTO ISRAEL
By SHARON WROBEL
A group of 22 countries, led by the US, have signed a declaration criticizing an open-ended probe established by the UN Human Rights Council into alleged human rights abuses committed by Israel. “We believe the nature of the COI [Commission of Inquiry] established last May is further demonstration of long-standing, disproportionate attention given to Israel in the Council and must stop,” US Ambassador Michèle Taylor stated at the 50th session of the HRC in Geneva, where the first report of the commission was presented on Monday.
HUMANITY
TRADE UNION BACKS CALLS FOR ANTISEMITES TO FACE ‘FULL FORCE OF THE LAW’
By LEE HARPIN
One of Britain’s biggest trade unions has unanimously passed a motion calling for antisemites, including those found guilty amongst its own membership, to “face the full force of the law.” In a move backed by the GMB’s General Secretary Gary Smith, the union, which has 600, 000 members across nearly all industrial sectors, committed itself to a zero-tolerance policy on anti-Jewish racism. It stated: “This congress strongly challenges the disturbing rise in antisemitism across the UK. “Where such behaviour may be present from any member of GMB Union, including social media posts, our Union should take immediate action to investigate and apply appropriate measures to address this within rule.”
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.
