Category Archives: Antisemitism

Elon Musk to file ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers desert X

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Social media firm boss says he will sue media watchdog that said ads were being placed alongside antisemitic content

Elon Musk has said he will be filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters and others, after major US companies paused their adverts on his social media site over concerns about antisemitism.

Media watchdog Media Matters said earlier this week that it found corporate advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were being placed alongside antisemitic content, including that praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

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Shots fired at another Jewish school in Montreal amid tensions over Israel-Hamas war

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Third such case in less than a week in Canadian city but unclear if incidents are related

A Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire, according to local media, marking the Canadian city’s third such attack in less than a week amid heightened tensions over the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

No one was injured when the facade of Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal was struck early on Sunday. Bullet marks and shells were found after residents heard gunfire, CBC News in Canada reported.

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China has a history of being pro-Palestinian, but now faces diplomatic conundrum

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Rivalry with US and current of antisemitism are running up against Beijing’s increasing closeness to Israel

China was an early proponent of a ceasefire in Gaza and has called for wider talks on resolving the Palestinian question. But analysts say the situation is complicated, and it’s not clear what Beijing expects to achieve, and how it can get there.

Beijing has been a supporter of the Palestinians since the Mao era and long called for a two-state solution, but it is increasingly close to Israel, and is presenting itself as a neutral party that holds steadfast to a noninterference principle.

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Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel seen as move away from party’s antisemitic past

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National Rally has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself and promised to protect French Jews

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks is being seen as part of a long-running drive to move her National Rally party away from its toxic, antisemitic past before a run for the presidency in 2027.

National Rally, which is now the biggest opposition party in the French parliament and is polling ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s centrists for next year’s European elections, has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself since the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

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Russia blames Ukraine for antisemitic riot at airport in Dagestan

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Foreign ministry says Kyiv played ‘direct and key role’ after mob stormed planes in search of Israeli passengers

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the antisemitic riot in the mostly Muslim region of Dagestan on Sunday in which an angry mob stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Monday that the riot was the result of a “provocation” orchestrated from outside Russia, with Ukraine playing a “direct and key role”.

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EU official warns of antisemitism in European society as fears grow over rising Islamophobia – as it happened

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Michael O’Flaherty, director of agency for fundamental rights, says ‘dramatic moments in our societies trigger antisemitic responses’. This live blog is closed

“Lovers and defenders of democracy, it’s high time to stand up,” tweeted the EU’s coordinator on combating antisemitism Katharina von Schnurbein.

She was responding to the incident in Dagestan, describing the mob as “hatred unleashed by globally downplaying the barbaric acts of Hamas of 7 Oct and allowing antisemitism and anti-Zionism to fester around the globe.”

The authorities in European countries have a responsibility to make sure that everyone is safe and protected from violence and discrimination.

It’s also important for the authorities to protect people’s right to peaceful protest and expression and ensure that governments’ security responses to violence don’t harm rights.

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UK ministers to hold Cobra meeting on terrorism threat from Israel-Hamas conflict

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Suella Braverman will meet police and national security officials at No 10 to discuss ‘accelerated’ risk

UK ministers will hold an emergency meeting of its Cobra committee amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza conflict has raised the possibility of a domestic terrorist incident.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, will meet national security officials and police at No 10 on Monday to assess the security risk after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.

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Victorian education official to apologise in person for antisemitic bullying at Brighton secondary college

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A judge also ordered the state to pay the five men more than $500,000 in compensation, including interest and legal costs

A Victorian education department official will make an in-person apology to five students who experienced antisemitic bullying at a Melbourne school.

The former Brighton secondary college students – Joel and Matt Kaplan, Liam Arnold-Levy, Guy Cohen and Zack Snelling – successfully sued the school and the state of Victoria in the federal court, which handed down its decision last month.

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Antisemitism is deeply ingrained in European society, says EU official

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Remarks by rights chief come as civil society groups warn of a rise in antisemitism amid Israel-Hamas war

Antisemitism is a “deeply ingrained racism in European society” that poses an existential threat to the continent’s Jewish community and the fundamental aims of the European Union, an EU official has warned.

Michael O’Flaherty, the director of the bloc’s agency for fundamental rights, said it was worrying that only a third of the general population considered antisemitism a big problem, when there was no doubt “dramatic moments in our societies trigger antisemitic responses”.

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The rise of antisemitism in the UK – podcast

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There has been a 1,350% increase in hate crimes against Jewish people in London, according to the Metropolitan police

On 7 October, Dave Rich and his team of volunteers at the Community Security Trust were doing what they always do on Jewish festivals: organising security.

‘That weekend was a Jewish festival, supposed to be a very happy, celebratory time for Jewish people,’ David tells Nosheen Iqbal. ‘This meant that we at CST had a security operation in place for that weekend anyway, because there is an ongoing, very longstanding threat of terrorism that Jewish communities around the world face.’

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Visitors to UK who incite antisemitism will be removed, says minister

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Robert Jenrick says process of revoking visas of foreign nationals who spread ‘hate and division’ has already begun

The UK immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, has suggested that visitors to the country will be removed if they incite antisemitism, even if their conduct falls “below the criminal standard”.

Jenrick said he could not get into “specific cases” of visa-holders whose conduct is being reviewed, saying there was a “legal process that must be followed properly”, but noted some people had been seen “glorifying” terror activities and “praising Hamas”.

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‘A lot of pain’: Europe’s Jews fear rising antisemitism after Hamas attack

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Protection of Jewish sites increased in towns and cities across continent after outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas

In the usually bustling “Little Jerusalem” area of Sarcelles, north of Paris, the popular falafel and grill restaurant was eerily quiet. “People are not going out,” said Jérémy, the 33-year-old restaurant owner. Lunchtime and evening crowds are common in one of the largest Jewish communities on the Paris outskirts. But many thought it wiser to stay at home, fearing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in France and across Europe since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

In France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, police recorded more than 320 physical acts of antisemitism, and made more than 180 arrests, in the first 10 days of the war.

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Australians told ‘do not travel’ to Lebanon – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

No move on paying super to people on paid parental leave

But so far, the government has not moved on paying superannuation to parents (mostly women) on paid parental leave.

Super, of course, is really important and it’s something we would very much like to look to in the future when the budget can afford it. But this is a very big step forward, the current arrangements, but we’ll continue to look around superannuation into the future and consider it in each budget context.

I think with the reserved period as well, we’re going to see an increase in shared care, both parents taking some time out, which is really, really important if we want to get a more equal burden of, you know, of that share of care.

So that is really important as well.

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Tory MP Peter Bone should be suspended for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct, says report – UK politics live

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Commons will vote on suspension recommended by independent expert panel after investigation

Peter Bone has issued a statement saying that the bullying and sexual misconduct claims about him made by a former employed, that have led to the IEP recommending a six-week suspension, are false and without foundation. He says the complainant did not raise them at the time and only submitted a complaint years after they had left.

As I have maintained throughout these proceedings, none of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place. They are false and untrue claims. They are without foundation.

The allegations by an ex-employee refer to events of more than 10 years ago that spanned no more than a few months. The complainant first made the allegations years after they left my employment. They did not raise them at any time during their employment, either in writing or verbally with me, nor with their line managers …

I am also firmly of the opinion that on this occasion the independent complaints and grievance scheme investigation was flawed, procedurally unfair and didn’t comply with its own rules and regulations. It is my belief that they have operated outside of the powers given to them by parliament and I am currently discussing with lawyers what action could and should be taken.

The commissioner found the following allegations proved:

Allegation 1: Mr Bone “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the complainant, and this was bullying.

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Sunak promises Israel ‘unqualified support in face of evil’ – but makes no mention of Gaza’s plight

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Keir Starmer also backs Israel but issues call for all parties to act in line with international law

Rishi Sunak has voiced “unequivocal” UK support for Israel “not just today, not just tomorrow, but always” in a lengthy statement to mark one week since Hamas militants murdered 1,300 Israeli civilians and soldiers, and took more than 150 people hostage. The prime minister’s remarks – in which he makes no mention of the plight of innocent Palestinians now trapped in Gaza, or the need for their safe evacuation – come amid growing political tensions in the UK over how to respond to Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza, and its orders to more than 1 million Palestinians to flee their homes for their own safety.

Senior Labour figures believe the Conservatives are deliberately trying to paint them as less supportive of Israel, and to suggest that some on the left of the party are somehow sympathetic to Hamas and antisemitic, because they are pro-Palestinian.

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Police arrest three men outside Sydney Jewish Museum over alleged Nazi salute

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Police were called to the museum in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst shortly before midday after alleged antisemitic display

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has expressed “extreme concern” after three men were arrested after allegations they performed a Nazi salute outside Sydney’s Jewish Museum on Friday morning.

Police were called to the Darlinghurst museum shortly before noon, where they proceeded to arrest the men.

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Two Jewish schools in London to close over security fears

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Ministers announce £3m extra funding for charity that helps protect Jewish community sites

Two Jewish schools in north-west London are set to close temporarily because of safety fears after the crisis in Israel and Gaza, as ministers announced £3m for a charity that helps protect Jewish community sites.

The extra support for the Community Security Trust (CST) was announced after a roundtable discussion at Downing Street involving ministers, police and the charity, which recorded a quadrupling of antisemitic incidents in the UK since Hamas’s attack on Israel.

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European leaders pledge crackdown on antisemitism as incidents rise

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Bans on pro-Hamas celebrations and pro-Palestinian protests announced in several countries amid tensions

Officials across Europe are scrambling to curtail any spillover of tensions from the Israel-Hamas war, with Germany pledging a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism and France banning pro-Palestinian protests amid concerns for public order.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told parliament on Thursday that while thousands of people had rallied in support of Israel, the country had also seen “disgraceful images on our streets in which the most brutal acts of terror have been celebrated in broad daylight”.

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Prado show examines how images helped fuel centuries of antisemitism in Spain

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A new exhibition chronicles the shifting lenses through which Spain’s Catholics saw the country’s Jewish population

The jet, horn, silver and coral amulets placed around the neck of a three-year-old boy in Tàrrega almost seven centuries ago offered no protection against the crowds who massacred him and hundreds of other Jews in the Catalan town in 1348.

Some of the other pieces in a new exhibition at Madrid’s Prado museum that looks at how images were used to shape and define relationships between Jews and Christians in medieval Spain may have been more effective in warding off the escalating antisemitic hatred.

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Call for Labour government can transform Israel-Palestine policy

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Group says party ‘freed of the stain of antisemitism’ can promote two-state solution and reverse Tory apathy to Middle East

An incoming Labour government “freed of the stain of antisemitism” can seek an Israeli settlement freeze, promote a two-state solution and call out democratic backsliding not only by the Palestinian Authority, but also by the Israeli government, according to a pamphlet from Labour Friends of Israel.

The pamphlet is designed to mark a breakpoint from Labour’s debilitating debates about antisemitism, and promote a detailed policy solution to the Israel-Palestine question around which the majority of people in the party can gather.

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