VIGILANCE CALL AFTER FRENCH JEWS HIT BY NEW ATTACKS
PARIS, France - There has been a call for vigilance in France after an assault on a Jewish boy, the latest anti-Semitic incident reported since the Toulouse massacre.Teenagers punched the boy, 12, in the back of the head and beat him, calling him a "dirty Jew" in the attack near a Jewish school in south-eastern Paris.
Jean-Paul Amoyelle, head of the Ozar Hatorah network of Jewish schools in France, said he feared further attacks.
The Jewish school attacked in Toulouse has reportedly received hate mail.- Several emails are said to have been sent to the school four days after the massacre on 19 March, when Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah shot dead three small children and a teacher, as well as seriously wounding a schoolboy.
The messages warned that the shooting was only "a beginning", the French newspaper Le Parisien says.The emails were reportedly signed "the Justiciar of France" and "real French people" - suggesting the work of extreme nationalists, rather than Islamists.
1/4 OF AUSTRALIAN HOLD ANTI-SEMITIC PREJUDICE?
SYDNEY, Australia – Almost one-quarter of Australians harbor anti-Semitic prejudices, according to the largest study on racism ever undertaken in the country.The 12-year study, conducted by several leading universities, surveyed 12,512 people across the country and found that 23.3 percent were negative towards Jews.
- Almost half, 48.6 percent, were negative towards Muslims, and 27.9 percent were negative towards Indigenous Australians, also called Australian Aborigines. Still, the survey's head researcher, Professor Kevin Dunn, said overall the results of the Challenging Racism Project were positive, showing Australia's multicultural society was alive and well. “About 87 percent of Australians say that they see cultural diversity as a good thing for society,” he said.
But Professor Andrew Markus, the former head of the Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilization at Monash University in Melbourne, said the results “may be seriously flawed.” The length of time it took means some of the data is a decade old, he said.
Markus also said he had "major problems" with the conclusions about people being anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim because they were only asked how concerned they would feel if one of their close relatives were to marry a person of Jewish/Muslim/Asian/Aboriginal descent."A respondent can be concerned about a close relative marrying a member of another faith or culture without being anti that faith," Markus said.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN UNITED KINGDOM AT RECORD HIGH
LONDON, England – The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK set a new high in 2009, the most since records began, according a report released recently.The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, recorded 924 anti-Semitic incidents in 2009.
- The high number of incidents was attributed to “unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism” during and in the immediate aftermath of Operation Cast Lead. This included 288 incidents last January, during the conflict, and 114 in February, after the cease-fire. These compared with a previous highest monthly total of 105 incidents in October 2000.
Responding to the findings of the report, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Anti-Semitism is one of the most ancient of hatreds – and yet it constantly adapts to modern times, requiring ever greater vigilance from all of us who are determined to stand up for tolerance and for the truth.- “Whether online, on campus or on the streets, there is absolutely no place for racism or discrimination of any sort, and the CST has my whole-hearted support in its work with the police and the Jewish community.”
- Regardless of strength of feeling on the conflict, nothing justifies any form of extreme action, the prime minister added.
- “The increase in anti-Semitic incidents recorded by CST in the early part of last year is deeply troubling and I want to be unequivocal today; I am a proud friend of Israel and welcome a robust debate about how we ensure both a secure Israel and a viable Palestinian state existing side by side. The debate is welcome, but no strength of feeling can ever justify violent extremism or attacks and we will stand firm against all those who would use anti-Israeli feeling as an excuse or disguise for anti-Semitism and attacks on the Jewish community,” Brown said.
- “Britain’s Jewish citizens face a real and growing danger,” said Michael Gove, the Conservative Party’s shadow secretary of state for children, schools and families. “The dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the last year proves that the oldest of prejudices has been given a new lease of life. Everyone in public life has to recognize that this growth in anti-Semitism is a stain on our society. “History tells us that whenever Jewish individuals feel less safe, society as a whole is becoming less free. We must learn the lessons of the past, recognize that prejudice against the Jewish people leads to a growth in hatred and intolerance overall, and therefore we have to be tough on both anti-Semitism and the causes of anti-Semitism.”
- Gove said the Conservative Party is pledged to work with the CST, the police and others to counteract anti-Semitism wherever it is found.
- “We need to be more vigilant in countering extremist groups such as the [far-right nationalist party] BNP and [radical Islamist group] Hizb-ut-Tahrir, more determined to counter extremism on campus and intimidation of young people, more aware of the new ways in which hatred is spread. Crucially, we need to understand that preachers of hate are exploiting events in the Middle East to peddle prejudice on our streets. It is up to all of us to challenge those spreading hate against British citizens,” Gove said.
- “This steep rise in anti-Semitic crime is shocking and shameful,” Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne said. “We must do everything we can to prevent foreign conflicts from spilling over onto British streets and campuses. The police must work with all communities to stamp out anti-Semitism and hate crime in all their forms and to promote cohesion and tolerance.”
- “This report makes for disturbing reading,” said John Mann, chairman of the All-Party Group Against Anti-Semitism. “While incident figures continue to climb, we must be doing all that we can to ensure such hatred is met with our resolute determination to stop it. This underlines the need for all the recommendations of our All-Party Inquiry report to be implemented without delay.”
Denis MacShane, chairman of the 2006 Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism; chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism; and author of Globalising Hatred: The New Anti-Semitism, said: “This sudden rise in anti-Semitic incidents should be a warning sign that hate against Jews is on the march.“But when the anti-Semitic BNP win seats as MEPs, when university campuses host preachers of anti-Jewish hate, or when a British ambassador says Jews should not serve on public inquires, why should we be surprised? The open hate of Israel fanned by jihadi Islamist ideologues is creating an unacceptable climate of fear for Jews. Politicians need to take the lead and say loudly and clearly that British Jews should not have to face intimidation and threats.”
ANTI-SEMITIC HATES CRIMES RISE SHARPLY
Despite the fact that 2008 showed a marked decline in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, hate crimes directed against Jews rose sharply in the beginning of 2009, with a wave that included physical assaults and attacks on synagogues and cemeteries, according to a report released Monday by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.According to the study, which was released in conjunction with the opening day of the Durban II UN racism conference in Geneva, although the anti-Semitic outbreak precipitated by the start of Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip "featured traditional anti-Semitic motifs, their use was more extreme, intensive, and vociferous than was hitherto known."
Among those perpetrating the attacks, Muslim activists and organizations "showed a high degree of mobilization," the report said, "and were the moving force" behind many violent demonstrations. They were also joined by "leftist and human rights activists, and to a lesser extent extreme-right circles. Jews and former Israelis also took part in some of the rallies, mostly in the US."The report emphasized that it was still too early to determine the exact number of incidents, but cited statistics showing that 250 incidents were recorded in January of 2009 in the UK, as opposed to only 35 during the correlating month in 2008, including a tripling of the number of violent assaults. The report assessed that in January alone, some 1000 "manifestations of anti-Semitism of all types" occurred throughout the world.
Courtesy: The Jerusalem Post
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
