Antisemitism is a virus that never stops mutating
 |
|
Item: KEXP, a public radio station in Seattle, included in a list of “anti-racism” resources the website of Black Hammer, a fringe black-nationalist organization infamous for its attacks on “colonizer” Anne Frank and arguing that Jews controlled the transatlantic slave trade.
Item: the Alberta Ministry of Education withdrew an internal document arguing for both-sidesing the Nazis:
A document that suggested Alberta students learn about the positive aspects of Nazi Germany has been deleted from the Ministry of Education's website, following criticism from multiple groups.
The document, a set of guidelines for "recognizing diversity and promoting respect," suggested considering whether a given educational resource addressed "both the positive and negative behaviours" of various groups.
"For instance," it read, "if a video details war atrocities committed by the Nazis, does it also point out that before World War II, German government's policies substantially strengthened the country's economy?"
Provincial Education Minister Adriana LaGrange denounced the document on social media Friday, saying she had immediately instructed her department to remove it from all Alberta Education publications.
She said it contained "wrongheaded views" and "horrendous content." She said neither she nor anyone in her office had seen it before Friday morning.
"There is not a 'positive' side to tell of the murderous Nazi regime, as this document wrongfully suggests," LaGrange posted on Twitter.
Item: the California State Assembly and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee honoured Suhair Nafal, an activist prone to posting frothing anti-Jewish hate on social media:
Item: a candidate for the Republican Senate nomination in Ohio released a radio ad emphasising that his opponent, Josh Mandel, is one of them:
A candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio defended an ad by his campaign that calls out his opponent Josh Mandel’s Jewishness at a candidate forum Thursday night.
Mark Pukita, an entrepreneur who is one of several candidates vying for the Republican nomination in a crowded primary, released a radio ad in October that called out his opponent Josh Mandel’s Jewishness. The ad highlights Mandel’s courting of evangelical voters by touting “Christian values.”
“Are we seriously supposed to believe the most Christian values Senate candidate is Jewish? I am so sick of these phony caricatures,” a voice says in the ad.
When asked by a moderator at a campaign forum Thursday night to respond to claims that he is “antisemitic and intentionally divisive and inflammatory,” Pukita defended the ad.
“In terms of antisemitism, all I did in an ad was pointed out that Josh is going around saying he’s got the Bible in one hand and the constitution in the other. But he’s Jewish,” he said, according to Politico. “Everybody should know that though, right?”
Item: a New York man told a local planning board meeting about his support for running over Orthodox Jews with his car:
An antisemitism watchdog group identified a speaker by the name of Nick Collela who had expressed desires to run over his Jewish neighbors with his car, according to ABC and The Algemeiner.
His statements were made at a Planning Board meeting last Wednesday in Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York. There has been a reported increase in the population of Orthodox Jews in the area.
During Collela's speech, he said that if Orthodox Jews were "walking in the road at night, not wearing reflectors, and if he was to hit them with his vehicle, he would 'of course back over them again.'”
Colella made statements regarding the local town's Orthodox population and their custom of walking to Shabbat services, ABC reported.
The Planning Board told him that his time to speak during the meeting was over, but he continued shouting over the other participants involved. The meeting was about the possibility of building a yeshiva in the area to better reflect the increasing Orthodox population in the town.
Item: Polish hard-right nationalists chanted “Death to Jews” while marching through the streets:
At a nationalist gathering in Poland, locals burned a book representing a historical document favorable to Jews amid shouts of “death to Jews.”
The book burning Thursday in Kalisz, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants situated 120 miles southwest of Warsaw, was part of a series of nationalist events on Nov. 11, National Independence Day, which is the anniversary of Poland regaining its sovereignty in 1918.
Videos and eyewitness accounts on social media show that Wojciech Olszański, a far-right activist, lit a red-covered book that was meant to symbolize the Statute of Kalisz, a document issued in 1264 by Prince Bolesław the Pious that regulated the legal status of Jews living in Poland and afforded some protection through penalizing attacks on them. The statute served as the legal foundation for relations between non-Jews and Jews in Poland for centuries later.
Olszański poured a flammable liquid on the book that had been skewered on a sharp metal object, and lit the book on fire as the crowd cheered and shouted, “Death to Jews.” Some also chanted: “No to Polin, yes to Poland.” “Polin” is both the Hebrew-language name for Poland and the name of the main Jewish museum in Warsaw.
Item: anti-vaxxer protesters in The Bronx wore yellow Stars of David, comparing themselves to Jews persecuted by the Nazis, while protesting outside a Jewish legislator’s office:
Some protesters in an anti-vaxx demonstration in the Bronx, New York, displayed Nazi symbols outside the office of Jewish politician Jeffrey Dinowitz on Sunday, multiple sources reported.
One protester in the photo holds a sign with a swastika symbol on the upper-right hand corner, with the words "Crimes Against Humanity" written next to it. Another wore a yellow Star of David on his jacket to protest the fact that he is not vaccinated.
"The display of swastikas and yellow Stars of David outside my office today is repugnant and offensive," Dinowitz tweeted. "People are perfectly free to express their opinion on vaccines or any issue, but to openly display Nazi symbols outside the office of a Jewish legislator is despicable." Dinowitz represents District 81 in the New York State Assembly.
The demonstration, organized by former state governor candidate Rob Astorino, was to protest a state bill that Dinowitz sponsored that would require students in New York State to be vaccinated to attend classes, according to the New York Post.
And in Australia:
Furthermore, another recent incident of comparing COVID mandates to the Holocaust occurred last Saturday in Australia, where anti-vaxxers rallied in Melbourne against new mandates, with a few comparing the state government to Nazis.
And in Kansas:
Yet another antisemitic display took place by anti-vaxxers at a government hearing in Topeka, Kansas.
Similar to the incident in front of Dinowitz's office, anti-vaxxers were seen wearing yellow stars on their sweaters, to which they were later condemned for comparing COVID mandates to the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Kansas Republican state lawmakers had also made comparisons between the genocide and recent government requirements to be vaccinated, according to The Independent.
And in Georgia:
Last month, a US Senate Republican candidate in Georgia canceled a fundraiser because the event host's social media account displayed an anti-vax symbol in the shape of a swastika.
Item: Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom was swarmed by an angry mob after she gave a speech at the London School of Ecomonics.
Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was chased out of a university debate by angry LSE students and activists waving Palestinian flags.
The crowd attempted to rush the Ambassador as she fled her controversial debate on the future of the Middle East at the university clutching flowers.
Video from outside LSE on Tuesday night showed security guards bundling Ms Hotovely into her embassy-supplied Jaguar as police attempted to fend off the group who can be heard chanting, “Aren’t you ashamed?”
[…]
It emerged that activists from LSE Class War posted an Instagram story ahead of the debate urging students to rush the stage.
It read: “Whoever smashes the Ambassador car window (Lincoln’s Inn Field), gets pints. Let’s f***en frighten her.“18.25 we’re storming in. Let’s make her shake. F** the old bill.”
This happened on November 9. The anniversary of Kristallnacht.
All of these news items are from the past month.
These news stories involve Republican politicians, left-wing activists, Polish nationalists, African-American nationalists and education system bureaucrats. The stories are from the United States, Canada, Poland, Britain and Australia. Most of the people involved, I’ll bet, don’t have very much in common.
Except for one common enemy.
Hear about antisemitism in scattered news reports here and there. Don't think I've seen such an extensive list of incidents from so many different places by such a varied group of bad actors all in one place before. Really makes your point that the mutation of antisemitism ( and hate itself ) never ceases. While there is sadly no shortage of "source material" for compiling such a list, it must have taken a good bit of effort to put it all together in this way to show just how widespread across different groups this ugly and dangerous malady really is.
Props for that!