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August 6, 2014 4:27 am
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An Inventory of Recent Anti-Semitic Incidents in Europe

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avatar by Abigail R. Esman

A pro-Hamas rally in Damascus. Photo: Tasja via Wikimedia Commons.

In France, eight synagogues were attacked within a week in July.

Among other attacks in France, reports the Sunday Times Leader, on July 20 “a mob of 400 armed with petrol bombs rampaged into the mainly Jewish Paris suburb of Sarcelles and attacked a synagogue, a pharmacy, and a kosher supermarket. Their banners, reading ‘Death to Jews” and ‘Slit Jews’ throats,’ were chilling.” The supermarket burned to the ground.

In Hamburg, Germany, anti-Israel protesters attacked an elderly Jewish man in during a pro-Israel event, and then began beating his daughter when she rushed to his aid.

In Wuppertal, Germany, an 18-year-old Palestinian was arrested on July 31 for hurling three Molotov cocktails into the Bergische synagogue. Noted the London Times, “the symbolism of the target has not been lost on the Jewish community, which rebuilt the synagogue after it was burnt to the ground on Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews in November, 1938.”

And according to the Washington Post, a week earlier, “Israel Daos, a shy, 18-year-old Orthodox Jew, was punched in the face on his way to a synagogue in central Berlin. Daos described his assailant as ‘Arab or Turkish.’ ‘I heard what the protesters had been saying, because they march not far from here, and I have heard them shout, “Death to Jews!”‰”‘ said Daos. ‘But I did not think things would get this bad.'”

Elsewhere in Germany, protesters have reportedly chanted “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone!” while an imam allegedly “called on Muslims to murder Jews in a sermon,” the Daily Telegraph reports.

A politician in Lower Saxony, according to Britain’s Telegraph, “had to resign from Angela Merkel’s CDU party after he posted a comment on his Facebook page in reaction to the alleged revenge killing of a Palestinian boy in Jerusalem, saying ‘Jews are shit.'”

And an 18-year-old Jewish man claimed to have been punched in the face as he walked in the center of Berlin wearing a yarmulke.

Anti-Semitism has also emerged in Italy, where such incidents are ordinarily rare. According to the New York Times, “Even in historically tolerant Italy, anti-Semitic smears have appeared on the streets of Rome. Jewish shop windows in several neighborhoods were defaced this week with swastikas and tags reading ‘Torch the synagogues’ and ‘Jews your end is near.’ Police suspect that right-wing extremists, possibly along with pro-Palestinian activists, carried out the acts.”

In the Netherlands, a spokeswoman for the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, a Jewish civil rights organization, told a local television reporter that where they usually receive three to five calls per week, in one week in July alone they received more than 70.

At a pro-ISIS rally in the Hague, demonstrators repeated a rhyming chant that called for “Jews from the sewers” to be killed, and sounded out the “Khaybar” refrain. Police did not intervene.

According to Holland’s AT-5 News, “There has never been so much anti-Semitism on the Internet.” Two examples: A tweet from an undisclosed account that read, “I hope that all – and I mean all—Jews die, and not a single one remains”; and from someone else, “I hate the fucking Jews more than the Nazis.” Indeed, the Dutch Center for Reports on Discrimination stated that in the week of July 20, it noted more anti-Semitism on the Internet than ever before in its 17-year history.

Stones shattered the glass door to the Amsterdam home of Dutch senior rabbi Binjamin Jacobs, earlier this month. It was not the first time his home had been attacked, according to CIDI. The stones were likely purchased for this purpose.

Also in Amsterdam, Seraphina Verhofstadt was severely beaten after hanging an Israeli flag on her balcony in Amsterdam. Her attackers she alleged, “stomped on my stomach, hit my ribs and my head.”

The Amsterdam home of Leah Rabinovitch, a prominent Dutch-Mexican woman who is also Jewish, was firebombed in July after she had hung an Israeli flag on her balcony. Rabinovitch also received threats, including “Hitler will be back” and “Jews must die.”

Meantime, in Britain, “Antisemitic incidents in Britain rose by a third in the first six months of this year, and have rapidly increased further in the past four weeks as Israel’s military operation in Gaza continues,” reports the Jewish Chronicle, citing data from Britain’s Community Security Trust.

“The six-monthly rise, combined with July’s figures, means 2014 is likely to be one of the worst years of anti-Semitism ever recorded in this country.”

Unsurprisingly, then, across the U.K., the hashtag #HitlerDidNothingWrong circulated widely on Twitter, according to the Independent.

Other incidents according to the Independent: in Manchester, England, a “group of men” drove through the Jewish quarter, throwing eggs and soda cans and yelling “Heil Hitler.” In Gateshead, four students attacked a rabbi near a boarding school. And in Belfast, the windows of a local synagogue were smashed.

In Borgerhout, Belgium, hundreds chanted in Arabic, with references to killings and the destruction of the Jews.

In Antwerp, a young mother of four was told at a local clothing shop that “We don’t sell to Jews.” In the shop window, a sign in French and Turkish stated, “Dogs welcome. Jews not.”

Two weeks later, an Antwerp doctor refused to treat a Jewish woman suffering from a broken rib, telling her son, “Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she’ll get rid of the pain.”

In Spain, a July 24 op-ed that ran in El Mundo stated that, “The Hebrew people, tested since antiquity by ups and downs and the intimate dealings with their God, could have done much good for humanity: due to their prudence, their wisdom and endurance, their apparent religious fidelity and their proven administration of money…..What is happening is that suddenly humanity is sick and tired of them… It is normal that they manage to screw the weakest or those who today enjoy their ancient lands. It is always the same. It’s not strange that they have been so frequently expelled. What is surprising, is that they persist. Either they are not good, or someone is poisoning them. I am not a racist.”

And in May, when Madrid Real lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv, reports the Gatestone Institute, 18,000 people took to Twitter to express their sentiments. Some of the more hateful tweets included:

“We’ve been defeated by bloody Jews. Hitler would not have allowed this to happen.”

“Sh*tty Jews. You should all be thrown in the ovens.”

“Jewish sons of b*tches. The ovens of Auschwitz your home. Syria bomb Israel.”

“Now I understand Hitler and his hatred for the Jews.”

“Maccabi needs to take a shower after the game. But in the gas chamber, I hope.”

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