Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - Jan-98

Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - January, 1998

General

There was a certain increase in January compared to December, 1997 in the number of violent incidents against Jewish targets. Most of them were directed against synagogues, among them firing from an air rifle on a synagogue door in London and the explosion of some explosive in the community compound, which includes a synagogue, in Guatemala. The scope and seriousness of the incidents, however, were generally not unusual in comparison to recent months.

There was also a certain rise in the number of threats this month. Most of them were false alarms on the planting of bombs/explosive charges in Jewish facilities.

Expressions of anti-Semitic propaganda continued to appear in various places in the world and there was apparently an increase in the number of manifestations. In most cases, it appears that the disseminators of the propaganda belonged to the radical right/Neo-Nazis.

Regarding the struggle against anti-Semitic manifestations, steps were taken in a number of countries (Britain, Switzerland, France and Argentina) against dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda on the basis of existing laws against racism and anti-Semitism. In this connection mention should be made of the opening in France of the trial of the historian and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy whose anti-Semitic doctrine earned support and identification in the Arab world.

Incidents

Britain - A bullet from an air rifle was shot at the entrance door of the 'Masorti' synagogue in Edgware, London. As a result of the firing the glass of the synagogue's front door was smashed.

Unknown persons broke into three Jewish facilities in the Prestwich neighborhood in Manchester. The facilities were the Jewish Youth Center, the Jewish-owned 'State Fair' Bakery and the Jewish 'Deli King' food store.

A window of the West London synagogue was smashed. The background to the action is unclear.

An unknown person broke into the 'Hayei Yosef' synagogue in London. The background to the action is unclear.

Russia - Three Molotov cocktails were thrown into a Jewish school in Nalchik in Russia. The bottles were thrown into the principle's room and the storage room and caused damage to both. The classrooms were not damaged and no one was injured. The background to the action is not known.

Estonia - The purification room in the Jewish cemetery in Tartu was burned. The background to this is not known.

Guatemala - During the Friday prayer service at the Guatemala City synagogue an explosion was heard in the Jewish community compound where the synagogue and other facilities are located. The explosion was in the basketball court which is behind the synagogue. Debris from the explosion and charred remains of the court were found, as well as sheets with swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans. No one was injured.

Argentina - Shots were fired at the wall of the small Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. No one was injured and no damage was caused.

Brazil - On the wall of the Reform 'A.R.I.' synagogue in Rio de Janeiro marks were found that had been made by rifle bullets. The background to the action is not clear.

Australia - A worshipper on his way to a synagogue in Adelaide was attacked by a man in the street. Anti-Semitic remarks were also shouted at him.

Threats

Denmark - A threatening letter was received in the Copenhagen Jewish community. The senders are a group working for the welfare of animals and their humane slaughter. They threatened that if the decision to allow the Jewish community ritual slaughter were not cancelled serious actions would be taken against trains, public bodies, museums, etc.

Uruguay - Anonymous phone announcements on the planting of a bomb in the community facility were received in the homes of three Jewish community secretaries in Montevideo. The places were examined and searched but nothing was found.

In the Punta Ballena neighborhood at the entrance to the city of Punta Del Este there is a Habonim camp which belongs to the Jewish community and where Jewish Agency emissaries are active. A youth leader from the camp received a threat of a bomb planted close to the camp from a man she had met.

Brazil - An anonymous phone call on the planting of a bomb was received in the Jewish 'Adolfo Bloch' club in the Barra Da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The place was searched but nothing was found.

Argentina - An anonymous announcement was received in the Jewish community building in Parana. The announcement said 'next week we will start cleaning up the Jews in Parana'.

Mexico - An anonymous threat on the planting of a bomb was received in the office building of the Magen David community in Mexico City. The building was evacuated and searched but nothing was found.

Anti-Semitic Propaganda

Britain - The editor of the anti-Nazi newspaper 'Searchlight' received a postcard with quotations from a Nazi poem which sometimes appears in current Neo-Nazi publications. A comment was written at the end of the postcard which was taken from the Combat-18's 'Stormer' publication calling for damaging Jewish synagogues and cemeteries. This particular quote referred to the desecration of cemeteries.

The owner of a Jewish delicatessen in Wembley and the communication director of the 'Harrow and Wembley Progressive' synagogue in London received an anti-Semitic letter from the NSA/C-18 organization. In the envelope were pages with Nazi slogans. On one of the pages was typed 'Yes, Jews, I have returned' and 'I've got you, filthy Jew'.

The rabbi of the 'Liberal Jewish Synagogue' received an empty envelope on which was written 'If you are not satisfied with the Christian culture, go to your own country. That's the reason Palestinians were robbed and murdered - Take the remaining three hundred with you'.

In the Holborn neighborhood of London anti-Semitic stickers were found with the word 'Judenrein' written on them.

The editorial office of the Searchlight newspaper received a letter from the C-18 organization in Cardiff. There were two bulletins in the letter. In the first was written 'Bang. It's very easy to catch you, stinking Jew. Maybe the next time', and in the second were swastikas and a caricature of a Jew in the shape of a rat on which was written 'We will smash your head'.

At the Center for Races, Cultures and Education at the Leeds Metropolitan University in Leeds an envelope was received with anti-Semitic leaflets with the following titles: 'Bad Blood' - a list of diseases carried by the Jews including Tay Zachs, 'The Wandering Jew', 'The Most Ancient Hatred - Jewish Self-hatred', 'Correction to Whom?', 'The Zionist Occupation of Jewnited Kikedom', 'The Jew Rifkind', 'Peace through Multiracialism'.

Anti-Semitic e-mail was received over the web site of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). Among other things in the letter was written that 'the Jews made up the Holocaust to get money from the world'.

Sweden - The Jewish theater in Stockholm received phone calls with the same message. The caller proposed articles for purchase such as bloodied boots, swastikas, etc.

Skinheads were seen opposite the Jewish museum in Stockholm who said 'This is the place where we know what to do now'.

Four different Jewish institutions in Stockholm received faxes with racist opinions and messages. The material was sent by a well-known veteran Swedish Nazi.

The Jewish community in Stockholm received electronic mail containing the following: 'We hope that Allah makes sure that all of you go to hell, with the help of Allah. You are racists and we will butcher you, just wait. You are lying in connection with the so-called Holocaust'.

Switzerland - Abusive anti-Semitic slogans were discovered on the walls of buildings in Geneva including the following: 'Europe Blanche', 'Mort Aux Juifs', White Power', 'Skinheads', 'Death To Zog'. The meaning of ZOG is Zionist Occupation Government. It is a concept whose source is in the American radical-right propaganda and it has become well-known in the international Neo-Nazi and radical right arena. The concept refers to Jewish control over all government institutions, the media and so forth in the U.S., through the Zionist/Jewish lobby. It is also possible to find the term today in anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic Islamic propaganda.

In the offices of the Inter-community Coordination Against Anti-Semitism and Defamation (Coordination Intercommunautaire Contre L'Antisemitisme et la Diffamation' - 'CICAD') in Geneva, anti-Semitic and Holocaust denying letters were received.

Germany - On the occasion of 'Muslim Jerusalem Day', a very large demonstration took place in Berlin against Israel by fanatic Muslims, most of them Iranians. German and English placards were carried in the demonstration as well as signs in Persian saying 'Death to the Jews'.

Hungary - Swastikas were drawn on the wall and gate of the 'Habonim-Dror' clubhouse in Budapest twice this month.

Romania - A number of anti-Semitic articles appeared in the latest addition of the anti-Semitic weekly 'Atac La Persona '. The title of one of the articles was 'Rape, Murder and the Jewboys'. At the end of the article the author summarizes saying 'Jewboy, even a dead Jewboy is a more interesting subject for the press than a politician'.

Ukraine - Anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas were discovered on the walls of a boys' boarding school which was opened a few months ago in Dniepropetrovsk.

Uruguay - Two large meter-sized swastikas and abusive slogans such as 'Judas Afuera' (Jews Out!) were drawn on a building belonging to the Montevideo Jewish community. Dozens of other small swastikas were drawn on additional buildings on the same street.

Costa Rica - A number of people from the San Jose community who shopped at the Preco supermarket which is owned by a known anti-Semitic Argentinean, were told by the store managers that they were not interested in having Jewish customers in that supermarket.

Australia - Anti-Semitic stickers were pasted on the walls of a synagogue in Melbourne. They included swastikas and drawings of stereotype Jews which were used as firing targets. In another Melbourne synagogue other anti-Semitic stickers were pasted of a picture of Cyclone B containers with captions 'Dirty Jewish pigs, get out' and 'Six million satisfied customers'.

A member of the Melbourne community found a dead rat in his garden. A note was added which called the Jewish house owner a Nazi.

Frederick Toben, a Holocaust denying historian, wrote to a reporter in Canberra that 'the story about the gas chambers is an invention and a leftover of the war propaganda'. In the Canberra and West Australia press he publicized lectures that he would give on the great forgery of the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Toben recently distributed a pamphlet in Sydney called 'The Traditional Lie of the Holocaust and the Gas Chambers in Auschwitz'.

Struggle

Britain - This month a man was convicted who had been caught in September 1997 by the police spraying paint on a Jewish home in Leeds and in possession of an air rifle. He was sentenced to 12 hours of public service. The police assessed that he was a violent anti-Semite.

Switzerland - Andreas Studer, a Neo-Nazi from the Swiss canton who was accused in December 1997 of composing and disseminating anti-Semitic pamphlets, published another anti-Semitic booklet this month. Studer also published a New Year's message once again denying the Holocaust and claiming that the Swiss government is Fascist and racist. In the trial against him the prosecutor requested a sentence of eight months in prison for breaking the law against racial discrimination.

Argentina - The law against racism and discrimination was implemented for the first time since it was passed. It was used against four persons accused of desecrating the Jewish 'Tablada' and 'Ciudadela' cemeteries. Anti-Semitic material was found in the home of members of the group. The maximum punishment for desecrating a cemetery is five years imprisonment.

A special protest rally was held following last month's desecration of the Tablada and Ciudadela cemeteries in Buenos Aires. A large crowd took part in the rally and prominent by their presence was Prime Minister Rodriquez, Lugones who is newly in charge of the Buenos Aires provincial police, MP's from the entire political spectrum, community heads and others. The community leaders demanded that the subject of cemetery desecration and/or all the holy places be included in a separate clause in the Penal Code and would bear heavy punishments. The Prime Minister promised to raise this as a draft proposal on behalf of the government in the next parliamentary session.

France - This month the trial began of the historian and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy for his anti-Semitic statements in his book 'The Fundamental Myths of Israeli Politics' ('Les Mythes Fondateurs de la Politique Israelienne'). He is accused of 'participating in the denial of crimes against humanity' and 'incitement to racism, hatred and racist violence'. His trial was widely covered in the media and by persons in the Arab world where they supported Garaudy and his doctrine.

Miscellaneous

Scandinavia - The Stockholm police raided a hall on the outskirts of the city where a Neo-Nazi concert was taking place. Hundreds of youths from various countries in Europe participated. Mass arrests were conducted and Neo-Nazi and other symbols were confiscated. In the suburbs of Oslo

(Nittedal), a new year ceremony was conducted by Neo-Nazi groups from Norway and foreign countries (Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Canada and the U.S.). Some 70-100 persons participated in the ceremony. Norwegian law does not prohibit such meetings and the bodies operating against Neo-Nazi grouping fear that because of the Swedish authorities' rigid attitude towards Neo-Nazis, Norway will become the center of Neo-Nazi activity. Sweden - In the framework of an educational project by the Swedish government on information and increasing awareness of the Holocaust a number of events took place on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. A special session of the Riksdag with the participation of all the MP's and government ministers was convened. Prime Minister Goran Persson delivered a speech on conveying the memory of the Holocaust to this generation and coming generations and the horrors which were the lot of the Holocaust victims. A commemorative concert was held. Swedish government radio broadcast an article on the popular program 'Studio Ett' as part of the beginning of a government information campaign on the Holocaust and the struggle against racism and anti-Semitism. Listeners also spoke in the broadcast. In addition, the newspaper 'Expressen' printed a very strong editorial against Sweden's 'pretension' to teach others how to memorialize Holocaust memory when Sweden itself did nothing against Hitler at a time when the Allies were fighting uncompromisingly against the Nazi oppressor.

Poland - An interesting controversy is being waged on the pages of the prestigious Catholic weekly 'Tygodnik Opwszechny', which is published in Warsaw, on the subject of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism in the Polish Catholic Church. The background of the controversy is the famous sermon of the priest Yanokovski on 26 October, 1997 where he stated that the Jewish minority should not be tolerated in the Polish government, and especially the article by the priest Stanislaw Mushiel (who in the past was the secretary of the bishop's Council for Dialogue with the Jews) where he strongly criticized the tolerant stand of the Catholic church in the face of Yanokovski's anti- Semitic statements.

Brazil - The important newspaper in the capital Brasilia 'Correio Braziliense' published an exhaustive article, accompanied by photographs, entitled 'Students Choose Hitler as an Idol'. The article deals with the phenomenon of students from the old and well-known military school in Porto Alegre, the capital of the Rio Grande Do Sul province admiring Hitler and his being chosen as the most important historical personality in the present century and in general. Following the publication of the disturbing results of the research in Porto Alegre, Sergio Augusto wrote an article in 'Estado De S.P' complaining of the ignorance which according to him is the reason for this admiration. Another newspaper, the Correio Braziliese also published an article calling the admiration for Hitler 'plain ignorance and the complete absence of patriotism, as the war and the horrors that the venerated man caused also took the lives of 400 Brazilians who participated in World War II'.