Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - Dec-96

General

- December was similar to October and November in the number of violent incidents reported throughout the world against Jewish targets and facilities. With respect to their nature, this month also saw continued attack attempts and violent incidents against Jewish targets and persons.

a. A package was received in the offices of a Jewish weekly in Paris, France, following a series of threats sent to the newspaper's editorial board. This was part of a trend during the past year of increased use of sending letter/parcel bombs or dummies to Jewish and other targets in various places throughout the world.

b. Attacks against synagogues or their environs continued: In Hungary a bomb exploded near a synagogue in Budapest for the third time in a few months in the same neighborhood. In Turkey two shock grenades were thrown at the Ashkenazi synagogue in Istanbul, and in Brazil a bottle containing a firecracker was thrown at a synagogue in Porto Alegre. (In this last incident it is not known for sure whether the motive was anti-Semitic or criminal). In Sweden a synagogue which had been previously desecrated many times was desecrated once again.

c. The desecration of Jewish cemeteries continued - in Italy (by neo-Nazi skinheads) and in Russia (in Vladimir).

d. Attacks continued against youths (in England) and against Jewish rabbis in Switzerland and Slovakia.

- Threats against Jews and Jewish facilities in Britain, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico were also reported this month.

- Anti-Semitic propaganda and abusive expressions continued to appear in various places throughout the world, against Jewish facilities, in written publications and on Internet. Anti-Semitic statements in the Arab establishment and opposition press, also continued this month.

- In the sphere of struggle, in Austria one of those accused of desecrating graves in Eisenstadt in 1992 was sentenced to four years. In Florida the leader of a neo-Nazi group which was responsible for writing abusive anti-Semitic expressions was arrested.

- The scandal of 'Nazi gold' and Jewish property continue to occupy the media in Eastern and Western Europe as well as Latin America. The affair aroused an anti-Semitic reaction from the outgoing president of Switzerland - he defined as 'blackmail' the call for establishing a compensation fund for Jews whose money was stolen during the Holocaust and is found in Swiss banks. This mood was also manifest in an extraordinary anti-Semitic caricature which appeared in a Swiss newspaper.

Incidents

- France - A parcel bomb containing a booby-trapped video cassette was received in the offices of the Jewish weekly 'Tribune Juive' in Paris. The manager of the weekly's editorial board received the package and attempted to open it. He encountered difficulty when he tried to pull the cassette from the box which aroused his suspicion that the cassette might have been booby-trapped. He evacuated the workers and called the police who neutralized the explosive package. The police investigation revealed that the charge could have caused a great tragedy. The weekly's editorial office has recently received many anonymous threats and letters.

- Hungary - A bomb exploded near the Great Synagogue in Budapest. There was no damage to the synagogue. This was the third explosion in the same area which was directed against Jewish targets.

- Britain - A group of youths from the city of Middlesex was attacked with abusive language and physically by a group of Irish youths who shouted "Yid" at them and attacked them while they were sitting in a movie theater and while they were leaving.

- Italy - 15 Jewish graves were desecrated in the special section of the municipal cemetery in Prima Porta next to Rome. Unidentified people broke part of the gravestones and erased the names of the deceased and the Stars of David from others. The desecrators surrounded one of the graves with barbed wire and swastikas and wrote the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" on it

(the words written over the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp). The desecration was carried out by neo-Nazi skinheads. The Vatican denounced the desecration of the Jewish graves and defined the action as a "crime against history".

- Sweden - The Norrkoping synagogue was once again desecrated this month. The synagogue building was sprayed with anti-Semitic slogans, such as: "Kristallnacht", "Cursed Jews", swastikas, etc. The desecration was apparently carried out by a local group of skinheads. The synagogue in Norrkoping has been damaged and desecrated many times in the past two years. This desecration was reportedly the worst of all and the building was entirely covered with anti-Semitic slogans.

Switzerland - The tires of the Zurich rabbi's car were cut by unidentified persons while it was parked near his home. This incident is one of a series of recent incidents such as false alarms concerning an attack in the offices of the Jewish community, anonymous conversations and virulent/abusive letters.

- Slovakia - The rabbi of the Jewish community in Bratislava was attacked by a group of skinheads while the large Chanukah menorah was being constructed in the Rivna Square in the center of the city before the Chanukah holiday. The youths were caught by the police and when asked for their motive, they replied that they had attacked him simply because he was a Jew. This was the second time that the rabbi was attacked by skinheads. The previous incident was in 1993.

- Russia - At the end of November unidentified person desecrated gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Vladimir. Damage was done and the perpetrators were not caught.

- Ukraine - On the eve of Chanukah at a party organized by Habad in the city of Kherson, the Jewish theater group from Odessa performed. After the performance while the actors were in their hotel room, a Chechen youth burst into their room, tied them up and beat them, cursing them with anti-Semitic slogans. The police were called and they arrested the intruder and released the actors.

- Turkey - In early December two shock grenades were thrown at the Ashkenazi synagogue in Istanbul. The remains of one of the bombs were found at the entrance to the synagogue and the remains of the second in the entrance to a shop on the other side of the street. No one claimed responsibility for the incident.

- Brazil - In early December a bottle containing a firecracker was thrown at the Centro Israelita synagogue in the Bom-Fim neighborhood in Porto Alegre. The bottle exploded in the air and caused no damage. During the same weekend more bottles of the same type were thrown at additional houses and buildings in the neighborhood which do not belong to the Jewish community. It is assessed that the action was carried out by a group of neighborhood hoodlums and it is not known whether the motive was criminal or anti-Semitic.

Threats

- Britain - An anonymous announcement was received at the Jewish Free School in London that a bomb had been planted in the building which should be evacuated. A search revealed nothing.

- Turkey - Unknown persons placed a threatening letter in front of the Jewish school in Istanbul. The organization behind the letter is called Muslim Youth.

- Brazil - During the performance of the Israeli singer David Broza at the Hebraica club in Rio de Janeiro, an unknown person phoned and said that a bomb would be thrown into the crowd at midnight. The performance was completed as scheduled before midnight with no mishaps.

- An anonymous announcement was received at the Jewish Peretz school in Sao Paolo that a bomb was going to explode in the school. A search of the school revealed nothing.

Mexico - An anonymous call was received at the "Lohamei Herut" (Freedom Fighters) youth movement during the movement's weekly meeting. The caller did not identify himself but said that a bomb had been planted on the upper storey of the building. Nothing was found when the building was searched.

Propaganda

- Switzerland - The former president of Switzerland and Minister of Economics Jean Pascal Delamuraz defined as "blackmail" the call for setting up a compensation fund for Jews whose money had been stolen during the Holocaust and was found in Swiss banks. Delamuraz rudely belittled the demands of the WJC and the American senator who heads the committee for bank affairs in the senate to compensate Holocaust survivors and their heirs who have Swiss bank accounts. In this context a very anti-Semitic caricature was published in a Geneva newspaper showing stereotype Jews praying to the "Golden Wall".

- Britain - Anti-Semitic graffiti were written on the house of a Jewish family in the city of Herfordshire. The words "Jewish trash" were written on the house's garbage cans and on the entrance posts to the house was written "Crafty Jews". There had been no anti-Semitic incidents such as these in this area for a number of years.

- The World Jewish Relief organization sent postcards asking for a donation for the Chanukah holiday. One of the postcards was returned with anti-Semitic comments on one of the leaders of the Jewish community in London. It was also written that the Jews were "rich trash".

- Italy - Abusive slogans were written on the central piazza in the town of Mentana which is about 25 km from Rome. The slogans were written on New Year's Eve. There are no Jews living in this town. A certain revival of neo-Nazi activity is being felt in the Rome area.

- Russia - The anti-Semitic National Patriotic Front Memory (Pamyat) movement held a demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in Moscow with the permission of the authorities. About 30 persons dressed in black and carrying signs participated. From time to time they called out anti-Semitic slogans.

- U.S. - Anti-Semitic abusive slogans were discovered in the area of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the city Hyannis. They included swastikas, stickers and anti-Semitic slogans. Two people were caught who were accused of putting up the slogans. One of those accused was also accused of pasting an identical sticker on the Cape Cod synagogue in the same city.

- Brazil - Fernando Islam Al Egipto who is responsible for a series of anti-Semitic letters send another letter to the 'Correio Braziliense' newspaper. Fernando Al Egipto used to attack the Jewish community and Israel in the past and still does. His publications are pro-Islamic, especially pro-Iranian. There are anti-Semitic overtones in his letter towards the Jews who are accused of treachery, corruption and for crucifying the noble prophet Jesus.

Struggle

- Austria - This month the trial ended of one of the two men accused of desecrating the cemetery in Eisenstadt in 1992. (The trial was of Tomschitz Wolfgang. His friend Christian Anderle succeeded in fleeing to Paraguay.) He was sentenced to four years.

- U.S/Florida - After secret police activity, Miami Beach police arrested Nikolas Damiani who is considered the leader of a neo-Nazi group thought to have written abusive anti-Semitic slogans. During the arrest there was found in Damiani's apartment a sub-machine gun, a piece of cloth with swastikas on it, black leather coats and T-shirts with expressions such as "Hitler was right" written on them. The outgoing message on the apartment's answering machine was "Sieg Heil". If convicted, Damiani is expected to receive ten years imprisonment. Other arrests are expected.

- Georgia/U.S. - The Caucasian-American Office for Human Rights has begun to function. The organizers of the project are Dr. Leonid Stonov - the director of the Caucasus office and Rabbi Aryeh Levine, the Chief Rabbi of Georgia. According to Rabbi Levine, the purpose of the office is to analyze international and inter-religious relations, to fight against anti-Semites and to help build a democratic system of laws. The rabbi also noted the friendly relations for hundreds of years between the Georgian population and the Jewish population and expressed the hope that those good relations would strengthen and continue to develop.

- Argentina - At a special meeting between the heads of DAIA and Minister of the Interior Corach, during which the investigation of the attacks and the security of the Jewish community were discussed, Corach undertook "to continue in the investigation of the attacks against the embassy and the Amia building without considering the status of those involved". He also promised not to spare any efforts to strengthen the border checkpoints and to increase the country's security.

Politics and Anti-Semitism

- Poland - The Polish government decided to appoint an authorized agent to implement the government plan in Auschwitz. The Auschwitz plan was drawn up according to the proposal of the town of Oswiecim and was accepted by the government. The plan calls for arranging a protective area around the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum.

- Argentina/U.S. - After the visit of Argentinian president Carlos Menem to Washington on 5 December, 1996, the Washington research institute the Council on Hemispheric Affairs published a statement denouncing the Argentinian government as undemocratic, and which was very inadequate in investigating the terrorist attacks and in the fight against anti-Semites and it should therefore not be allowed to procure weapons of American manufacture.

Miscellaneous

- Poland - The issue of Jewish property is still making headlines. "Poland did not pay Switzerland from money deposited by the Holocaust victims" - This is the preliminary conclusion from the report of the special committee set up in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is supposed to examine the secret agreement between Poland and Switzerland in 1949. Newspapers in Poland quote the deputy chairman of the World Jewish Congress, Kalman Sultanik, who states that Switzerland transferred to Poland hundreds of thousands of francs and defined it as "an immoral transfer".

- Austria - The Austrian National Foundation for Nazi Victims, a foundation operating on behalf of the Austrian government, transferred grants this year to Holocaust survivors of Austrian origin residing in Israel. The Austrian National foundation was set up in late 1995 following the law in the Austrian parliament that was passed that same year to arrange for grants to Nazi victims. The law was passed following the declaration of Chancellor Franz Vranitzky that "Austrians were not only Hitler's victims but also collaborators in Nazi crimes".

- The Czech Republic - An agreement for granting compensation to Nazi victims in the Czech Republic is in the process of formulation. According to the agreement, Nazi victims in the Czech Republic will in practice be the last ones to receive the above mentioned compensation and they will receive indirect compensation in the form of the construction of old people's homes and convalescent homes. According to the agreement being formed, the German and Czech governments will pay into a Czech-German fund that will be set up. The funds will also be used to finance additional projects such as youth exchanges, nursing care for the aged, support for minorities and care of sites. The agreement does not include reference to individual compensation to Jewish Holocaust survivors as in other European countries.