Netherlands: Socially acceptable antisemitism

Almost half of the criminal utterances on the internet are aimed at Jews. The number of incidents in the Netherlands is high. Antisemitism is socially acceptable, and everybody knows it.

In the former De Baarsjes district in Amsterdam-West, in the year 2010, there’s a hidden synagogue: Sjoel West (West Synagogue). Every week on the Sabbath, 25-30 Jews come to the services, but the majority of the Jews don’t want the synagogue to be noticeable as a synagogue, for fear of problems, discrimination and the cursing of Moroccan-Dutch street riffraff in the neighborhood. In the past Jews who wore a kippah were sometimes pelted with stones. In the building where the synagogue is located there’s no Star of David or name on the front, and the synagogue has a secret address. When the bell rings, the door isn’t opened just like that, and two Jews will always check who’s standing by the door. Besides the shamash (sexton), Erwin Brugmans, all the Jews who come to Sjoel West cover their kippah with a hat. They don’t want to be recognized as Jews.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

One in every five history teachers in the big cities (Randstad) sometimes deals with the fact that he or she can’t or hardly ever brings up the issue of the Holocaust, because Muslim students in particular have difficulties with it, Elsevier reported on April 27th of this year. ResearchNed surveyed 339 teachers in the VBMO, HAVO and VWO educational systems in 500 schools. Teachers in VMBO school in particular encountered opposition when they wanted to start discussion about the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Ahmed Marcouch, former district mayor of the Slotervaart district in Amsterdam Nieuw-West and a candidate parliament remember, wants the Holocaust to become a compulsory subject in school exams as quickly as possible, he said during a Remembrance Day speech in Slotervaart on May 4th.

Indeed, we should never forget the Final Solution and we should never give in to the intolerance and racism of these young pseudo-Dutch. The teachers should stand tall, but it’s much more important to see and fight the Jew-hatred of today: 65 years after the German occupation there are six neighborhoods in our capital where Jews with a kippah or where orthodox clothed Jews (and for that matter also gays who can be identified as such) can’t show themselves anymore without running a big risk of being cursed at, spit at, threatened and even manhandled. In addition to De Baarsjes, it’s all of Nieuw-West, the Indische Buurt and the Transvaalbuurt in Amsterdam-East and De Pijp in Amsterdam-South, in short, all neighborhoods where there are concentrations of Moroccan Dutch.

I know two Orthodox Jews who for years were beset and cursed on their way to their synagogue in De Pijp by groups of Moroccan youth: “Dirty f*cking Jews. Allah will slaughter all of you.” One moved to Israel, the other to Amstelveen where ‘they’ are not.

Most of their Jewish friends don’t dare go with a kippah in the Indische Buurt, Transvaalbuurt or Nieuw-West, or they put a hat over their kippah. Even rabbi Raphael Evers, who lives in the neat Dutch Buitenveldert neighborhood, has developed avoidance behavior, and goes out as little as possible, because outside he’s almost always insulted by Moroccans: “Heh. Hitler forgot one.” Many Jews that he knows have similar experiences. Evers says that it occurs everywhere in Amsterdam and thinks that it’s especially the virulence of the hate that is shocking

These are the facts.

In the Netherlands, all Jewish schools, synagogues and other Jewish installations, have been permanently protected and guarded for years. Almost half of the 577 criminal internet utterances which according to the Internet Discrimination Hotline were reported in 2009, were against Jews. And 44% of the statement also included criminal Holocaust denial, a much higher percentage than in 2008. The hotline itself doesn’t investigate on the internet, but only counts the reports. If the hotline would have systematically examined Moroccan sites, it could have easily enlarged the number of antisemitic reports by a thousand.

According to a study report (April 2010) of the Stephen Roth Institute of the Tel Aviv University, the number of antisemitic statements around the world had never been as high as in 2009. In many cases they were about ‘coordinated and planed attacks against Jews’. The number doubled in comparison with 2008, but increased the most in Canada and particularly in Western Europe. The leaders were the UK (tripled) and France (quadrupled), where there are the biggest Jewish communities in European, and where there are also large Muslim populations.

In France there were 195 registered incidents, but in the Netherlands, already in the first month of 2009 there were a hundred registered incidents, according to the CIDI. And the definitive data about 2009 aren’t yet known. Relatively very high, if you consider that the Jewish community in France is about ten times as big as that of the Netherlands. Last Saturday the Sabbath service in the Weesp synagogue was canceled at the advice of the police, which mentioned a ‘threatening report’.

Recently I spoke with about 15 students of Moroccan and Turkish origin in vocational training who all lived in Nieuw-West. “Can a Jew with a kippah walk about Nieuw-West, without being harassed or cursed?” I asked. The answer came without hesitation: “No, naturally not, man!”. In recent years I asked about 40 Moroccans that, and I always got the same answer.

The majority of the second and third generation of Moroccan Dutch harbors racist standpoints about Jews which are a bit more extreme than those of the former Vlaams Blok [ed: now Vlaams Belang] about North Africans. Even with some of my Moroccan friends it’s impossible to bring up Israel and ‘the Jews’, after that nothing sensible comes out. The Jews are all child murderers. the Jews and Americans are responsible for everything. Osama bin Laden doesn’t exist. That’s an invention of Bush and the CIA. The attack on the WTC on September 11, 2001 was organized and implemented by the CIA and the Mossad (the Jewish worldwide plot). Weren’t all Jews who worked in the WTC on September 11th fortuitously off work? Now than.

Bloeme Evers-Emden (83), visits Sjoel West every Sabbath. She was a girl of 13 in 1939, survived the concentration camp, but lost most of her family during WWII. She can remember the anti-Jewish propaganda of the NSB, but not that Jews were ever beaten in Amsterdam. Bloeme Evers thinks it’s too silly for words that Jews have to hide in our country. She is furious and combative. “That we have to deal with antisemitism again becoming socially acceptable. Jews never go out to rip off headscarves from Muslim women, than it would really be enough is enough. Than everybody would raise a hue and cry, but we have to put up with it.”

These are the facts. We know it. We think it’s normal, sickly normal.

Source: Paul Andersson Toussaint in NRC

Brussels: If Israel goes into Gaza, we’ll have riots that evening

Glenn Audenaert, chief of Federal Judiciary Police, interviewed on Phara, June 4th, 2010 (~42:00), via Luc Van Braekel’s blog.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

“Professionally, I can only say that the situation in the Middle East has a causal link with the degree of radicalization of the Muslim community in Belgium. According to studies, the Muslim population will be the majority in the Brussels region in five or eight years, with all the unemployment figures which marginalize it.”

(…)

“What I can say is that if Israel steps foot in the Gaza strip, we’ll have riots in the stock exchange area [ie, central Brussels] in the evening.”

(…)

“we can’t pretend as if the international context passes us by.”

Cyprus: Fears of flood of Palestinian immigrants

Cyprus fears a flood of Palestinian immigrants from the Gaza Strip owing to Israel’s refusal to lift its blockade, Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis said on Thursday.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

“The new developments in the Middle East lead us to fear that more and more Palestinians from the Gaza Strip will seek refuge in Cyprus,” he told reporters on arrival for a meeting with EU counterparts in Luxembourg.

“We have already seen more than 2,000 Palestinians coming in from Iraq, and soon we are going to have more and more refugees,” he underlined.

Sylikiotis said he would raise his fears with fellow European Union home ministers seeking greater load-sharing.

(more)

Source: France24 (English)

Netherlands: Dutch Hamas leader one of Gaza flotilla organizers

The Dutch Amin Abou Rashed (43), who was arrested by Israeli commandos on the ‘freedom flotilla’ by the coast of Gaza, is a top official in the Hamas terror organization, according to intelligence services.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Yesterday Israel announced that all 600 foreign activists would be freed within two days. These include two Dutch: Rashed and Anne de Jong (29).

The originally Palestinian Rashed has a Dutch passport and operates from Rotterdam.

In his struggle against Israel the Dutch activist lost an arm in the past. The Dutch man is mentioned as one of the organizers of the ‘freedom flotilla’ on the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that fights for Islamic domination.

“Rashed is the leader of Hamas in the Netherlands,” says an intelligence service source. “He appears by an alias, mainly Amin Abou Ibrahim, in several intelligence reports. He worked for the notorious Dutch foundation al-Aksa, which was suspected of collecting funds for the Hamas terror organization. He is also very active in the Palestinian Platform and Human Rights and Solidarity Foundation (PPMS),” says the intelligence agent.

Hamas is financed by worldwide Muslim ‘charity institutions’. The Dutch ‘Amin Abou Rashed’ was mentioned in connection to the Holy Land Foundation, a notorious charity organization which was charged in America for financing Hamas.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also: Global MB Report

EU: Responses to Gaza flotilla attack

Various anti-Israel protests are already planned across Europe. I’ll be updating this thread throughout the day.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

FIOE ( Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe) message:

In the very early hours of this Monday morning, Israeli military forces—by premeditated decision of their government—committed a gross and bloody act of piracy against the “Freedom Flotilla”; ships that had embarked from several European ports aiming to take humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are suffering under a strangling and immoral blockade.

(…)

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe emphasises that the “Freedom Flotilla” is a live expression of human conscience rising against the unjust blockade inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza; given that this blockade is a reprehensible crime rejected by religion, human values, moral standards, and international conventions. These seafarers travelling to Gaza present an image of courageous human solidarity that has broken the wall of silence surrounding the blockade, and scored a victory for the right of peoples to life and dignity.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe condemns in the strongest possible terms this act of piracy and mass killing perpetrated against the “Freedom Flotilla”, and demands serious and urgent official European action to confront this dangerous piracy, and bloody massacre, and put an end to a long series of blatant Israeli violations.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe also expresses its solidarity with those humanitarian organisations, public figures, and European and world media participating in the Freedom Flotilla, and calls upon civil society and media institutions in Europe to take up responsible stances corresponding to the enormity of the crime, and to focus attention on the grave and serious nature of this bloody attack on a humanitarian convoy, as well as the crime of a suffocating blockade inflicted on human beings.

The Federation calls upon Muslims in Europe, and the general public in European societies, to urgently mobilise—in wide-scale and public action, to condemn the blatant piracy and bloody massacre perpetrated against the Freedom Flotilla, and to escalate in the legitimate demand for a lifting of the unjust blockade on Gaza that can no longer be tolerated.

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Danish MP was to have been on Gaza vessel

A Danish MP, who was to have been on board an aid convoy to Gaza, is to call for action from the Danish government and the EU after Israel’s action against a Gaza aid convoy which is reported to have cost the lives of at least 10 people and injured some 30.

Socialist People’s Party MP Kamal Qureshi was invited to take part in the six-vessel convoy, but was prevented from taking part due to parliamentary work.

“This was a serious and unnecessary provocation. It is difficult to be a friend of Israel at the moment. I will be raising this issue with the foreign minister and the European Union. It was unacceptable and must be condemned,” says Qureshi.

(more)

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Demonstrations in Sweden

About 35 people gathered in front of the Israeli embassy (SE) in Stockholm, Sweden. Three people were arrested after trying to prevent people from coming or going into the embassy.

Several protests are planned for later this evening in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg.

Demonstrations in the Netherlands

The Dutch Palestine Committee is organizing a protest (NL) at the Israel Embassy in the Hague, together with a number of other Palestinian and Turkish organizations. Milli Gorus called its followers to join. The Jewish organization “A different Jewish voice” is also participating. 200-300 people are expected.

Demonstrations in the UK

MPACUK is organizing protests across the UK.

UK: Muslim group objects to Zionism in schools

They don’t object to Judaism, per se, but rather to one of its basic principles (Zionism might not be ‘part of the Jewish faith’, but the Land of Israel is). What’s the difference between saying you have nothing against Jews, just their deeply held beliefs, and saying you have no trouble with Muslims, but rather with the religion they practice?

A Muslim campaign group has written to the new Education Secretary Michael Gove to object to state-aided Jewish schools promoting Zionism.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Mohammed Asif, the chief executive of Engage (not to be confused with the antisemitism monitoring group of the same name), said he was “more than a little surprised” to see Zionism included as part of the ethos of several Jewish schools.

Mr Asif cited a number of Jewish schools professing explicit support for Zionism, including Manchester’s King David High School, Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary in Salford, and Simon Marks Jewish Primary School in Hackney, north London.

He wrote that he understood the Jewish nature of the schools, but that he would “contest the place of Zionism in the school’s governing ethos”.

“Zionism is not part of the Jewish faith,” he stated. “It is a political ideology which has its roots in the works of Theodore Herzl and subsequent ideologues that have advanced the idea of a national struggle to establish a homeland for the Jews in the modern era.”

Referring to comments made by Mr Gove last year about a Muslim school, he went on: “I know… that you objected to the use of public funds to propagate an Islamic state. I would be pleased to learn of your views on the use of public funds to propagate a Jewish state.”

He added: “As a parent, I have no difficulty in sending my child to a Jewish faith school but I, and I’m sure many other parents, would strongly object to the instilling of Zionist ideas and ideals as part of my child’s education.”

(more)

Source: The JC (English)

Malta: Arabs demonstrate for Al Aqsa and Palestinians

A silent protest to support the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem was held this evening at City Gate in Valletta by the Arab community.

Al Aqsa is considered as the third holiest site in Islam with Muslims believing that the Prophet Muhammed was transported from the Mecca to Al Aqsa.

On March 29, Israel curbed travel from the West Bank and access to the Al Aqsa mosque compound as Jews began to celebrate Passover holidays amid raised tension with the Palestinians.

Members of the Arab community in Malta held pictures of the Mosque and Palestinian flags as well as posters calling for an independent Palestinian state.

(more)

Source: Times of Malta (English)

Norway: Jewish leader demands investigation of Muslim antisemitism

Related stories:
* Norway: Muslims attack Jews in school
* Norway: Muslim activist demands complete rejection of antisemitism

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The Holocaust Center in Oslo will investigate Jew-hatred in Norway, but the center didn’t plan to investigate the attitudes of Norwegian Muslims, as a group, when it comes to Jew-hatred.

This has become an topical issue with the recent news reports of Jew-hatred among students of Muslim background.

“Antisemitism among Norwegian Muslims should be part of the study,” says the head of the Mosaic Faith-Society in Norway, Anne Sender.

“I can see no other solution when the world looks as it does, and we have the facts and the experiences essentially from the European reality, and in any case, with last week’s revelations,” she says.

The Holocaust Center will now consider whether they’ll investigate what Norwegian Muslims think about Jews.

—————

Education minister Kristin Halvorsen (SV) already took the initiative to set up a work-group to attempt to fight racism and antisemitism in Norwegian schools.

“I’ve spoken with many teachers who think it’s important to tackle the problems that turn up with harassment, racism and antisemitism in Norweigan schools. Therefore we’re inviting representatives from the schools, police and various faith-communities to participate in the work-group,” said the education minister, who also added that they’ll work on attitude-creating work.

Following NRK’s report on Jew-hatred in Norwegian schools, the minister put the issue on her agenda. On Wednesday she met with representatives from the Mosaic Faith-Society.

Chairman Anne Sender is positive about the work-group.

“I think something concrete can come out of it,” Sender told Norwegian news agency NTB.

She thinks that it’s all about what type of society one wants and that everything regarding racism and antisemitism should be taken seriously. She says that now that it’s dealt with at a national level, the chances for sucess are better.

Sender has on several occasions linked antisemitic attitudes to Muslim communities, and said that this is exactly where the problem lies.

Kristin Halvorsen doesn’t agree with that conclusions.

“It’s not a Muslim problem, but a Norwegian problem,” she says.

The minister also emphasized the importance of differentiating between antisemitism and Israel’s politics.

Sources: NRK, VG (Norwegian)

Norway: Muslim activist demands complete rejection of antisemitism

Related stories:
* Norway: Muslims attack Jews in school
* Oslo: Muslims in the gay parade
* Norway: Still waiting
* Norway: Islamic Council rejects Qaradawi

Syrian-Norwegian Sara Azmeh Rasmussen is upset about an Arabic book, which she says has been subsidized by Saudi Arabia. According to Azmeh Rasmussen’s translation, the book is called “The Jewish attackers – and their country Israel”. She says the contents are just as bad as Hitler’s antisemitism.

The age-old lies about a Jewish world-wide conspiracy are being distributed. By showing up, just like that, Azmeh Rasmussen found a section where Jews are mocked as insidious, treacherous, greedy and sneaky and where Jew-hatred is explained through those Jewish characteristics. Together with Koran verses and religious explanations, written by a scholar.

The Islamic Council is in the same building with the mosque and bookshop. General Secretary Shoaib Sultan denied in Dagsnytt 18 Monday evening any responsibility for the bookshop and mosque. But Sara Azmeh Rasmussen thinks the Islamic Council can’t just shut its eyes to the literature which everybody going to the council offices passes by. The book is still for sale, for 55 kroner.

Azmeh Rasmussen arrived from Syria in 1995. She doesn’t want to talk about her own history with antisemitism. But to the question from Vårt Land she says that she feels ashamed and thinks it’s so serious that she wants to thoroughly deal with it.

For several years she’d planned to write a master’s thesis on how Jews are portrayed in schoolbooks in Syria and Egypt. For personal reasons, she had to put those plans aside. The last few years she repeatedly tried to write a column on the subject. But unfortunately, she says, she hadn’t managed to free up enough time to do the thorough job that is required.

She says that additionally there’s an emotional barrier, since it will activate a history she’s not proud of.

Jew-hatred is strong is Syria, and school assignments and university build a hostile image of Jews. She says that the educational system and the media are two of the most important sources for Jew-hatred in the Middle East.

She says the Jews are portrayed as a warlike collective. They’re not seen individually. Al-Jazeera and other media aren’t necessarily so obviously anti-Jewish, but they only show Jews are military conquerors. They don’t show any other Jewish face. She says that as far as she knows, they’ve never interviewed, for example, a Jewish author about a book.

When Azmeh Rasmussen came to Norway, it was the first she saw a regular Jew – at an adult education class in Oslo. She says it was a shock. He was a pleasant and kind man, and she had to rethink her entire world view.

Today she believes that all Muslims, whether they believe in God or not, should without reservation reject the harassment and hatred that Jewish school-children get from Muslim children. Azmeh Rasmussen says this is also ‘caring for Muslims’.

Sara Azmeh Rasmussen burned her hijab on Women’s Day last year. She sees herself as a cultural Muslim, and therefore is still a ‘voice from within’, though she has lost her faith.

She says she doesn’t want to heat up the atmosphere against Muslims. “My point is that if we don’t respect others, it weakens our own credibility when we Muslims demand to be respected as a minority. Jew-hatred also prevents us from developing in a humanistic and democratic direction.”

In NRK’s Dagsnytt 18 on Monday evening, General Secretary Sultan denounced the hatred Jewish students deal with. Azmeh Rasmussen is looking for clearer language.

She says she doesn’t doubt that Sultan meant what he said, but she doesn’t want any ‘buts’. Sultan dragged in Israeli policies. She’s also critical of Israeli policies, but Israeli policies don’t have anything to do with the harassment and hate of Jewish schoolchildren. These are young people who can be injured for life due to what they’re subjected to, and she’s disappointed that Sultan wasn’t crystal clear about it.

The reports of teachers on Jew-hatred in the classroom and the antisemitic book come on top of Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qardawi appearance on Al Jazeera last year in which he praised the Holocaust and thanked Hitler for punishing the Jews.

Azmeh Rasmussen says she heard it in Arabic, and that there was no doubt regarding what he said.

Source: Vårt Land (Norwegian)

Spain: Israel upset at ‘co-existence sculpture’

Eugenio Merino says he can’t understand the fuss as he’d already sold the piece to a Belgian Jew.

A display by a Spanish artist, including a candelabrum growing out of the barrel of an Uzi sub-machinegun and a sculpture of a haredi figure standing on a priest, who kneels on a prostrate Muslim, has drawn fire from the Foreign Ministry. The Israeli Embassy in Madrid issued a statement Wednesday protesting the display at the International Art Fair in the Spanish capital.

“Values such as freedom of speech and creative freedom are sometimes used to disguise stereotyping, prejudice and provocation for the sake of provocation,” the statement said. The sculptures are two of five works on display by the well-known artist Eugenio Merino.

Merino denied that he had tried to provoke. “The aim was to display the wonder in the co-existence of the three religions, each making a common effort to reach God,” he told reporters.

Sources: Ynet (English), El Pais (Spanish) h/t le blog laiciste