Anti semitism in Europe.

[Shlep]

A Chassidic rabbi in Antwerp was stabbed in the neck today. This comes after the shooting (killed four people) which was anti semiticallt motivated, outside the Jewish Museum in May, also in Belgium.

Anti-racism activists in Norway have refused to participate in a Holocaust commemoration because members of the Jewish community were also invited to it, according to a Norwegian blog cited by the International Business Times (IBT).

I agree anti semitism from extreme right (and left, using Palestine as an excuse) is a worry. I think both the 'smaller' events and the wider political situation feed off each other. If far right parties are in the ascendant bigotry becomes more open.

I'm sorry your brother went through that shlep. Shitty behaviour.

' I also hear anti semitimic sentiments from very lefty white males who are usually also anti American etc. And of course the edl, but no one ever listens to them.'

I don't think the EDL are anti-semitic.

The behaviour is usually so cowardly. For example I read about a woman who threw a stone at Jewish teenage boy in North London. Would she have done it to any other child. What sort of adult behaves like that

Shlep your brother should report it. Every single instance should be reported so that there are records. It is happening constantly all over Europe and much of it doesn't hit the mainstream media. There is a Twitter and FB account called "The New Antisemite" which reports every instance it finds and my feed gets messages from it every day - 9 so far just today from all over Europe.

JohnFarley I saw those comments on that thread about there being no antisemitism and was gobsmacked. I can't even stomach looking at them now TBH, much less commenting, but I was appalled to see the Synagogue murders only merited a couple of in-passing comments today on part 7 while the knocking down of houses belonging to Palestinian murderers seems to cause total outrage. It's as if it doesn't matter.

Rather than start a separate thread, I wanted to comment about, Wigan football manager, David Whelan's antisemitic remarks.

Wigan football club have had a chance to send a strong message about such overt racism by sacking him but it doesn't look as though they will be taking any action at all. That's the problem with football because the Stamp It Out movement has no real power or funds to actually deal with this. Just a small fraction of the average footballers pay could be spent educating the players, managers and coaches about how to treat minorities with respect and better still, getting rid of the worst behaved offenders.

It feels that something is very wrong with British football when players can make quenelle gestures or managers can make anti Semitic comments without any real consequences.

Louise brookes, I have found the anti Israel bias on the Israel Palestinian thread absolutely sickening. It has made Mumsnet a very uncomfortable place for any supporters of the Jewish State.

I think there is a current upsurge in incidents but I don't know if that means the long-term trend (degree of anti-semitic belief) is worsening. It's always been bad, but possibly because the Jewish population is small no, or not enough fuss is made.

It is astonishing how we normalise the fact that synagogues and Jewish schools need guards. I never get over the shock of that whenever I see it.

As for: Would she have done it to any other child. Oh, hell yes. Happens to black and Asian children with depressing regularity.

Ketchup that's why I won't post there. I made one post today and was immediately jumped upon. If you compare it to the earlier threads, there are now basically 4 people posting and all agreeing with each other. If that thread isn't anti Semitic, I don't know what is, and I speak as someone who supports Israel generally but is definitely not blind to its faults.

It's incredibly anti-semitic, Louise, but they are just preaching to the converted - no-one else joins their mad thread of hate because they are clearly nutters. So they're just left quietly alone in a backwater of Mnet to get on with it.

Better that than that they try to spread their bile more widely. Though they wouldn't succeed - they did try venturing out into the light of day on the Chat forum one day and were sent packing by the normal majority pretty damn quickly.

But yes, I find the attitude to the Jerusalem murders horrific - more horrific than the crimes in some way. As though some peaceful rabbis praying quietly 'deserved' it, because they happened to live in a country whose politics the posters didn't like. By that justification, we should all deserve it, given what Britain's done over the years. Just horrific that people apply this idea of collective punishment towards all Jews - particularly ironic as these are the same people shouting to the heavens about how wrong collective punishment is - when it involves Palestinians, of course.

Terrifying. The anti Palestinian movement is being used by some as an excuse for anti semitism. Hope these events are being recorded.

Anti semitism has to be expected in economic and political conditions remind cent of the 1930s. Nazis disguised as mainstream parties are being blithely voted in in France and elsewhere, most recently in Rochester, and it's bloody terrifying.

Cogito just WHY does it have to be expected? Because Jews are perceived to be wealthy etc? Apart from the fact that that is a load of bollocks as not all Jews are wealthy at all, in that case why aren't Russians, Chinese, etc being treated in the same way? Many many wealthy people from those countries are over here buying up property, etc. Are they seen as investing in the country where Jews aren't because that's bollocks too. British Jews contribute a lot to this country, far more than foreign investors who come in and buy up a few flats at One Hyde Park which most of us couldn't afford anyway (10 million for a flat!)

I'd also say the economic and political conditions may *"remind" us of the 1930s but they are nothing like as bad, although I agree with you about the Rochester result.

Quite Louise. Cogito's point seemed to just be to say, 'oh well, these things happen' like that makes it IK. It is not OK. And surely the fact that we all know where the anti-Semitism of the 1930s led should mean we all take action now to prevent it happening again.

We haven't established a common humanitarian dialogue, yet.

We've had the UN Dec Hum Rights, UNHCR, ECHR, various national equality laws. We're very much further forward than we were in the late 1930s. But, still, grave abuses occur on a global scale and there isn't much we seem to be able to do about it, other than report it. In many ways, we are still in the grip of a communitarian struggle. And, until we find a way of resolving that, there will be victims on many sides, Kurds one day, Nigerian students the next, North Korean citizens here, Palestinians there, some Jews and some Ukrainians tomorrow. It isn't that any one of these suffering groups has any greater right to complain than any other. The difficulty is, that mankind, in its infinite wisdom has decided that the best method of resolving its specific problems is to identify a neighbouring group, and make that group suffer instead. I believe this was true in the time of Jesus, and not much seems to have changed since.

I'd join you on a search to find a solution.

shlep, I am sorry your brother had to deal with this abuse.

Anti-semitism is alive and well and IMO is part of wider xenophobia and radicalising of politics and what people feel is an acceptable thing to say and do.

I'd love to know of a solution and to be part of it.

xenophobia?? Really? Most posters have said that the majority of these attacks were undertaken by young Asian. Do you think they would feel xenophobic?

Yes.

Xenophobia is the fear of the 'foreign', the 'other'.

Why would Asian people be exempt from that?

It's perhaps better not to speculate about that. It's useful to know that racism is the denigration of a particular race and that xenophobia is the denigration of all and every race, save ones own. What benefit any community feels it might gain from a switch between either of these misguided philosophies is beyond me. But, there it is.

It's not racial, it's religious.

It's uncomfortable to speculate, I agree, but it's kind of obvious isn't it? I have not studied the cases, I have just read the posts on here. I hope it's not true.

There's a huge overlap between racist, religious and wider xenophobic attacks.
And the attacks are just the tip of the iceberg of feelings that find a radicalised expression in violence and death .

Religions can, and often do, cut across several races. So, if we're to solve a problem. We do need to focus.

We are all British. This is the thing to focus on, not our differences.

That is a great direction. And, the law is in support of it. There is the small matter that the law itself might not be wide enough to deal with all of its breaches. But, the notion is sound.

In the previous anti semitism threads and more memorably on the Israel-Palestinian thread (part five) several posters categorically denied anti-semitism in uk today

JohnFarleysRuskin, I, too, was sickened by that thread. And to deny the existence of anti-semitism in Europe is ridiculous.

Here in the UK it's pretty worrying. A girl in Glasgow who worked at an Israeli stall had a burning chemical thrown over her. (She was Greek!).

And in Manchester a football match had to be stopped because of the comments made about one of the teams, like calling the players 'Jewish pricks'. They were kids by the way.

So, let the law deal with its breaches, as I'm sure that anyone would expect. But, I sense that not only lawbreaking is at issue here, but the rise in efforts to break the law where issues of antisemitism is an issue. Would that it was possible. But, hasn't it been apparent of late, that our greatest threat is an Islamic one? Resources are but scarce. For my own part, I would suggest that we all do as we always do, in order to make ourselves safe. But, I would suggest to our elders, where ever possible, that we make the utmost strides towards ending inter-community strife, because, I feel, that therein lies a great deal of the motives for casual civil strife to follow.