Symbols at University of Georgia and Georgia College & State University fuel renewed calls for hate crimes law
Swastika symbols on two Georgia university campuses have students and parents on edge.
Swastikas were drawn on message boards recently in Creswell and Russell halls at the University of Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Continue reading...Labour leader denies antisemitism in the party has increased under his leadership
Jeremy Corbyn has insisted antisemitism in Labour has not risen under his leadership and resisted calls to apologise to Britain’s Jews, after the country’s chief rabbi claimed he had let poison take root in the party.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, the Labour leader declined four opportunities to apologise for the party’s approach to dealing with antisemitism, which has led a string of Labour MPs to resign and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to launch an investigation.
Continue reading...Labour leader says there is no place for antisemitism in party and it will not be tolerated
Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated his belief that there is no place in Labour for antisemitism and vowed it would not be tolerated following claims from the chief rabbi that he has allowed the Labour party to become poisoned with antisemitism.
Ephraim Mirvis on Tuesday accused the Labour leader of allowing a “poison sanctioned from the top” to take root in Labour, saying Jews were justifiably anxious about the prospect of the party forming the next government.
Continue reading...In wide-ranging speech, actor accuses tech giants of running the ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’
Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full
Sacha Baron Cohen has denounced tech giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google as “the greatest propaganda machine in history” and culpable for a surge in “murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities”.
Baron Cohen was speaking on Thursday at Never Is Now, the Anti-Defamation League’s summit on antisemitism and hate in New York, where he was presented with the organisation’s international leadership award. He said that “hate crimes are surging, as are murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities” and that “all this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history”.
Continue reading...Activist says German police were warned by US authorities of AWD member who went to Germany with possible intention to harm her
An US activist in Germany who was targeted by the neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division (AWD) has told the Guardian German police were last year warned by US authorities of “a specific threat to find me and do me harm”.
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Continue reading...Documents seen by Guardian show fresh attack on university debate under the guise of prohibiting antisemitism
Rightwing activists are attempting to spread new laws across Republican-controlled states that would ban criticism on public university campuses of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.
Related: Resigning MP claims Corbyn has failed to tackle Labour antisemitism
Continue reading...Calls for ‘racist and humiliating’ gesture to be removed from online guide to Flemish signing
An organisation representing Jewish communities in Europe are demanding the removal of a “racist and humiliating” depiction of Jews as having large hooked noses from an online dictionary of Flemish sign language.
The portrayal is one of more than 10,000 signs on a visual online guide recognised by the Flemish government as a “knowledge and coordination centre” for sign language in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Continue reading...Jewish Labour Movement also criticises party for allowing issue to be debated at party conference on Jewish Sabbath
Labour has been criticised for failing to consult Jewish members over its new disciplinary procedures for expelling members, and allowing the revised rules to be debated at conference on the Jewish Sabbath.
The Jewish Labour Movement, which is affiliated to the party, accused Labour of more “institutional failings” after it failed to discuss with it Labour’s proposed changes to the process for dealing with serious misdemeanours including antisemitism and other racism.
Continue reading...The US president has renewed his attack on four Democratic congresswomen who have been critical of Israel, and reiterated a longstanding antisemitic trope implying that American Jews had divided loyalty to America and to Israel. Over almost 24 hours he has repeatedly described Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats as showing ‘either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty’
Ex-party staff to act over ‘defamation’ as angry Jeremy Corbyn criticises BBC documentary
The Labour high command is to be sued by former employees who broke cover last week to criticise the party’s handling of cases of alleged antisemitism in a dramatic escalation of the row engulfing Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
Two of the whistleblowers who featured in last week’s explosive BBC Panorama programme entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic? – Sam Matthews and Louise Withers Green – contacted the Observer last night to say they had instructed the prominent media lawyer Mark Lewis to act on their behalf because they believed the party had defamed them in its response to their claims. Others who spoke to Panorama are also understood to be considering contacting Lewis to represent them in libel actions.
Continue reading...Labour leader says Panorama adopted ‘predetermined’ critical position
Jeremy Corbyn has said there were “many, many, inaccuracies” in the BBC Panorama documentary about antisemitism in the party, saying that the programme adopted a “predetermined position” before it was aired.
The Labour leader made the comments during a visit to the Durham Miners’ Gala. He said: “I watched the programme and I felt there were many, many inaccuracies in the programme. The programme adopted a predetermined position on its own website before it was broadcast. We’ve made very clear what our processes are.
Continue reading...Former officials tell BBC Panorama that top aides interfered in investigations
Eight whistleblowers have said how they felt fatally undermined by senior Labour bosses in their attempts to tackle antisemitism, alleging consistent interference in complaints and claiming that one key aide mocked their efforts.
Four of the whistleblowers, including former Labour general secretary Iain McNicol, who left his post last year, have broken non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to come forward.
Continue reading...The self-avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counter-protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.
Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr, 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents on Friday the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.
Continue reading...The museum of the Warsaw ghetto is not due to open for several years, but is already shaping up to be one of the most contentious museums in Europe.
Backed by Poland’s populist government, which has been accused of rewriting history to fit its political agenda, the museum has caused a bitter spat between historians of the Holocaust about how best to tell the tragic story of Warsaw’s Jews.
Continue reading...MPs criticise Labour’s handling of Brexit and complaints of harassment and antisemitism
Labour MPs tore into Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit strategy at a party meeting on Monday night, with several MPs loyal to the leadership saying they felt ashamed to vote for the party at the European elections and urging a change of direction.
MPs inside the private gathering said there were surprise interventions from colleagues who had never before spoken out against Corbyn, including Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Marie Rimmer.
Continue reading...Shrine honouring those who escaped to UK damaged in carefully planned attack
A memorial honouring the escape of mostly Jewish children from the Nazis, organised by Sir Nicholas Winton, has been damaged in an apparently carefully planned attack.
The Valediction Memorial at Prague’s main railway station – representing trains used to transport 669 children from the Czech capital to Britain – was left with a long crack across the length of a symbolic window pane.
Continue reading...Call for solidarity follows warning that Jews wearing cap face abuse and attacks
Germans of all faiths and none are being urged to wear kippah skullcaps on Saturday as a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community, after a steep rise in antisemitic attacks.
Protests across the country have been called by the government’s antisemitism ombudsman after he triggered a heated debate when he warned Jews last week not to wear the kippah because of the increasing likelihood of being attacked.
Continue reading...The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has spoken openly about the spectre of antisemitism in Germany. She told CNN that “We have always had a certain amount of antisemites among us ... Unfortunately there is to this day not a single synagogue, not a single day care centre for Jewish children, not a single school for Jewish children that does not need to be guarded by German policemen.” Her remarks came a week after the country’s ombudsman for antisemitism, Felix Klein, suggested that observant Jews would be wise not to wear kippahs (skullcaps) in public. Taken together, these developments might suggest that Germany is sliding back into its dreadful past. In fact, they are signs of a determination that this must not happen. The crime figures do not suggest there is a crisis under way – though crime statistics do not measure fear.
The Jews of Germany are alarmed. It is not just the success of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in recent elections that contributes to their feeling of unease. A short-lived campaign to ban circumcision in 2012 was the first alarm bell; large demonstrations against the Gaza war in 2014, in which hostility to Israel often seemed indistinguishable from antisemitism, was another. And they are aware of the rising currents of antisemitism around Europe, even if it takes different forms in different countries.
Continue reading...Angela Merkel has said antisemitism is a problem in Germany and the country has a historical responsibility to face up to the growing threat of far-right populism both at home and abroad. Her comments came days after Germany’s ombudsman for antisemitism, Felix Klein, warned German Jews not to wear kippahs in public after a spate of racist attacks
Continue reading...Government commissioner says lifting of inhibitions and rise of uncouthness are factors behind rising incidence of antisemitism
Germany’s government commissioner on antisemitism has warned Jews about the potential dangers of wearing the traditional kippah cap in the face of rising anti-Jewish attacks.
“I cannot advise Jews to wear the kippah everywhere all the time in Germany,” Felix Klein said in an interview published Saturday by the Funke regional press group.
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