Considered by the international community the most fatal day in the crisis so far, July 20 marked the 12th day of the renewed and ever more violent Palestine-Israeli conflict, with little signs of tensions abating. Israel upped the ante with a ground offensive and heavy fire attack on the Gaza town of Shujai’iyaon Saturday night. The aim was to destroy Hamas’ weapons and bases, but the offensive also obliterated the neighborhood, leaving whole families dead and many with little place to flee.
Despite UN, US and Egyptian efforts at negotiations to obtain a ceasefire from both sides, neither Hamas nor the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) showed signs of laying down their weapons, irrespective of the rising death tolls.
Israel’s ground attack, during which an Israeli tank shell rammed into the Al-Aqsa hospital in the Gaza strip, has led to increase international criticism of the Israeli government and military, as the Palestinian death toll has risen to over 500. At home, Israel, having also lost around 27 lives, continues to gather widespread support for its defense policy on its home turf. However, this latest crisis is Gaza is causing a new wave of anti-Semitism abroad, and a rise in explicit attacks on the worldwide Jewish community.
France: “we may leave”
The case of France with regards to recent treatment of Jews is particularly disturbing, as pro-Palestine protestors have turned increasingly violent and straight out anti-Semitic, with some bearing signs calling for “Death to the Jews” and attacking synagogues in Paris.
On July 20, in the aftermath of Israel’s first ground strike on the Gaza strip, protestors wrecked havoc in the Parisian Jewish suburb of Sarcelles, also known as “little Jerusalem”. Despite efforts by police to protect the community, rioters burnt down local businesses, set fire to cars and a market, and attacked a synagogue, while calling out “Hitler for President”.
Despite the increasing intensity of the crisis in Gaza and the worrying wave of anti-Jewish sentiment it is creating, support to Palestinians should never translate into hatred towards Jews. Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s interior minister, rightly announced that while “protest against Israel is legitimate, nothing can justify such violence” and anti-Semitic acts.
In what one could call the epitome of the revival of neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic trends in Europe, France is heading down a dangerous path in history, where recent violence has left many Jews to consider moving to Israel.
Indeed, in a clear sign that fascism and all its branches are on the rise in the country, 20% of French people have stated that they would not want “people of another race” as their neighbors. Since the beginning of 2014, 1,400 Jews have emigrated, four times the number that left during the same period last year.
Europe’s age-old foe: anti-Semitism strikes again.
Similarly, the explosive gains of the extreme right parties in the May 2014 European elections should send chills down the spines of all who have not forgotten what happens when far-right and far-left ideologies gain access to the levers of power. European populist parties such as France’s Front National, the Greek neo-fascist Golden Dawn Party and Hungary’s Jobbik party toe a clear anti-Semitic nationalistic line, hidden behind their rhetoric of anti-immigration and anti-Europeanization.
Just take the surreal appointment of neo-Nazi German MEP Udo Voigt to the EU Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, which sparked outrage amongst Jewish communities worldwide, committee members and European citizens. Voigt has been characterized as a Holocaust denier, claiming approximately 350,000 Jews died in the Holocaust as opposed to the 6 million figure engraved in the history books. Though he has been convicted in the past for his praise of the Waffen SS and Hitler, he still managed to make his way to this very influential committee.
The move is likely to further smear the reputation of the EU, which is now being seen as turning a blind eye to abuses and trampling on its own mandate of anti-discrimination by awarding a powerful institutional voice to such individuals. As Stephen Kramer of the American Jewish Committee’s European Office on Anti-Semitism puts it “the idea of a neo-Nazi as a guardian of European human rights is sickening.”
The way of indifference is not our way
On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Sevastopol, Vladimir Putin also echoed these rising threats in a meeting held with Rabbis from Israel, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy and France, during which he discussed his concern over the revival of neo-Nazi ideology in Europe and the need to eradicate it.
The memorial ceremony the following day, which was supported and funded by Putin and the Russian government, attracted hundreds of visitors from the international community to commemorate the tragic events of the Holocaust and in Crimea on July 12, 1942, when 4,200 Jews were shot dead by Nazi forces. Speaking at the event, Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, mentioned efforts to deny the historicity of the Holocaust, as one of the many reasons these ceremonies need to take place.
As both Hamas and Israel continue on the offensive, we need to be careful as to how we address the delicate situation, and ensure that the entire Jewish community is not attacked and unfairly targeted on the basis of the Israeli government’s actions.
Indeed, recent neo-Nazi advancements and aggression in Europe give all the more reason to support memorials and Holocaust memorandums such as the one in Sevastopol and Berlin. These efforts should be coupled with educational programs at the EU level, which will study the common ideals shared by all religions, to put an end to the increasingly prevalent and worrying trend of extremism that could very well threaten the moral future of our society.
What`s wrong with saying “Gaza crisis exacerbates Anti-Jewish Sentiments in Europe”?
There are three “Semite” religions (actually there are many more!), but it seems rather strange that the worldwide 15 million Jewish believers can disenfranchise the “Semite” religions of Christianity and Islam which have the best part of 4 billion followers.
It`s a symptom of the polarization of opinions when it comes to the Palestinian situation, there are many Jews who are critical of Israeli actions, invariably they are referred to by supporters of Israel as “Self hating Jews” in an attempt to negate their opinions as depraved with no value.
It`s regrettable that those Jews who choose to live in their own homelands and not on stolen Palestinian land, can be regarded as being supportive of the Israeli treatment of the intrinsic population of the Levant, some are of course but many are not.
The interned has revealed a ground swell of public opinion critical of Israeli actions, The regular Israeli Foreign Ministry Email appeals for Hasbara volunteers openly states, “World Governments are still patient with Israels operations in Gaza, Public opinion, on the other hand, is impatient, to say the least”.
Since the UN Partition plan, Israel has, de facto, occupied by force of arms all of Palestine and part of the Lebanon and Syria, creating in the process some 4.9 million UN registered Palestinian refugees all denied the right of return to their homeland and after 67 years Israel is still only sustained by force of arms. Whatever the justification provided by Israel, it is growing increasingly unacceptable to the “ordinary” people of the world.
The “People of the World” now have access to information that, in days gone by, was only available to academics, and their opinions can now be given to a world wide audience. It`s totally wrong to include non-Israeli Jews as targets for actions that are driven by anti-Israeli feelings, perhaps world Governments, or Western Governments, should act, in the case of Israel, as they happily do in the case of other countries.
The most fundamental human right of all races
is the right to a self-governing autonomous homeland.
Not governed by other races, but by their own.
It is good to know that Udo Voigt will defend this
human right for all nations.
European is a genetic race of human beings that
are indigenous to the European continent. This
is their home. When it is gone it will be gone.
We are all we have left.
Last time I checked, Palestinians are Semitic, so how can Israeli Jews ethnic cleansing of Palestinians exacerbate antisemitsm? I am more anti Jewish by the day and I don’t mean ALL Jews since there are decent, honest Jews like Rabbi Nochum Rosenberg whom I highly respect. No, the Jews I have a problem with are the ones who glory in mass murder, and there are many in that Camp.
Anti-Semitism is nothing more than the obscene notion that no one is allowed to question, criticize, or disagree with a certain privileged group. It is paralleled by application to American blacks, for which violation one would be labeled “racist” instead.
No culture or race is above and beyond human discourse; to place themselves beyond human discourse is to relinquish their own humanity and the protection inherent in law. Further, to demand that culture or race as personal attributes should also be beyond anyone’s consideration is itself a form of mental and political tyranny.
No free person should stand for another to demand his thoughts be limited away from a particular notion or observation. Race and culture, stereotype and mindset are as legitimate points of discussion and discrimination as any other requirement of the problem under consideration.
Yes, it’s harder than slavishly cleaving to grade school principles or calling someone “Nazi”. But freedom of thought is worth millions of lives to defend, and without it, there is no freedom for anyone.
For God’s sake, when will it be more widely prescribed that it is not POSSIBLE to be “anti-semitic” about Israel, its government or its actions. They are NOT Semites! Their alleged enemies the Palestinians, be they in Gaza or the West Bank, the Syrians and the Iraqis are more Semitic than they could ever be. They are of Caucasian origin. Let the truth be spread broad to end this nonsense.
–the revival of neo-Nazi ideology in Europe and the need to eradicate it–
Preferably the current solution to this anti-semitism would be that Israel is made to be convinced that they should accept an independent Palestinian state upto 1967 borders and have co-existence like a good neighbor instead of having chronic animosity with the Palestinians and thus face acrimony throughout the world.