Struggle
24-12-2007 / United States
USA - 5 Kendall hate crime suspects arrested
Miami-Dade police have arrested five young men in connection with a hate crime reported about a week ago in which anti-Semitic slurs and symbols were scribbled on a Falls area home.
According to arrest warrants released Monday morning, Mao Joa, 16; Victor Morris, 16; Jorge Leyva, 18; Jose Montero, 18; and Olenka Gayoso, 18, all of Kendall, were arrested last week on criminal mischief charges for committing a hate crime with prejudice.
Source:
www.miamiherald.com
Date: Dec. 24, 2007
By Yudy Pineiro
19-12-2007 / Russia
Russia - Suspect Detained in Vandalism of Izhevsk Jewish Center
Police detained a 19-year-old resident of Izhevsk, Russia (Republic of Udmurtiya) in connection with last month's vandalism of the city's Jewish center. The suspect reportedly confessed to the crime after being caught on a security camera spray painting "death to the kikes" on the building's walls. He now faces hate crimes charges.
Source: www.fsumonitor.com
Date: December 19, 2007
19-12-2007 / United States
USA - ADL Honors Hanukkah Subway Hero Hassan Askari
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today recognized a Muslim student who came to the aid of several young adults physically assaulted in an anti-Semitic attack while riding the New York City subway. In recognition of Hassan Askari's courage in standing up to the hate, bigotry and violence he witnessed, ADL established the Stand-Up New Yorker Award, and made Mr. Askari its inaugural recipient.
In presenting the award, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, spoke of the importance of recognizing a good deed. "Hassan Askari did not hesitate for a moment. He saw hate being acted out and confronted it. Whether it occurs in the classroom, on the playing field, in the corporate boardroom, in public or in private, words of hate and bigotry and acts of hate and bigotry must be confronted. Hassan's was a courageous and inspiring act. He is a model for all of us, and as New Yorkers he makes us proud. We hope to give out this award many times in the future."
In accepting the award, Mr. Askari thanked ADL and was humble about his heroic actions. "My friends are proud of me for what I did, but I know every one of them would have done exactly the same. I did what any regular person would do."
Source: www.adl.org
Date: December 19, 2007
19-12-2007 / Britain
Scotland - Hate books removed
Tesco removed a range of anti-semitic book from sale on its website.
The “Totally Jewish” Website alerted Tesco to the fact that their online facilities were peddling a number of publications alleging that Jews were plotting to take over the world and were responsible for all society’s ills. Among the books pulled from sale were the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford’s The International Jew.
Meanwhile Play.com launched an investigation on Tuesday after a “Totally Jewish” reader informed us that they also stocked the controversial publications. At least five versions of the Protocols were on sale, alongside the International Jew which claims: “Whichever way you turn to trace the harmful streams of influence that flow through society, you come upon a group of Jews.”
Source:
www.totallyjewish.com
Date: December 19, 2007
By Marc Shoffman
17-12-2007 / Hungary
Hungary - Prosecutor calls for disbanding extreme-right Hungarian group
Budapest’s prosecutor filed a request to disband a recently formed Hungarian extreme-right group, accusing it of having a racist stance.
"The official letter was presented to Budapest’s municipal court, the competent authority in this case," said spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, Attila Morvai.
The request comes eight days after the group, known as Magyar Garda or Hungarian Guard, organised an anti-gypsy rally where 260 members marched in neo-Nazi uniforms in Tatarszentgyorgy, some 70 kilometres south of Budapest.
The prosecutor’s office said the Hungarian Guard had been guilty of racial discrimination, violating human dignity and causing fear among Hungary’s gypsies, who make up about five percent of the country’s population of 10 million.
Its militant anti-gay, anti-gypsy and anti-Semitic rhetoric has led Jewish and Roma rights groups, as well as politicians and civil society groups in Hungary and abroad, to call for the group’s dissolution.
Source: www.ejpress.org
Date: Dec. 17, 2007
17-12-2007 / Russia
Russia - Neo-Nazis arrested in connection with Attacks on Jewish School
Police in Bryansk arrested one college student and three teenagers in connection with five separate attacks on a Jewish school. Over the course of a month, starting at the end of October, the youths, who admit to membership in a neo-Nazi gang, shattered eight out of the Or Avner school's nine windows while screaming neo-Nazi slogans at the students. The extremists face charges of hooliganism motivated by ethnic hatred.
Source: www.fsumonitor.com
Date: December 17, 2007
17-12-2007 / Spain
Spain - Spanish court to probe speech by David Irving
A Spanish court will analyze a police recording of a speech delivered in Barcelona by British Holocaust denier David Irving to see if he violated any law during the event.
Under Spanish law justifying genocide or inciting racism and xenophobia are crimes which can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.
During his speech at a Barcelona bookstore, Irving, a historian who has written over 20 books, said "there is no proof" Dictator Adolf Hitler was aware of what was aware of what was happening in Nazi Germany’s concentration camps.
But he said "there was no doubt" that the Nazis killed two or three million Jews.
Source:
www.ejpress.org
Date: Dec. 17, 2007
16-12-2007 / United States
USA - NY subway ‘heroes’ honored
New Yorkers Hassan Askari and Walter Adler honored by Foundation for Ethic Understanding for their role in preventing anti-Semitic attack on subway.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmund Burke. He would surely laud Hassan Askari and Walter Adler, as these two brave New Yorkers were honored by the Foundation for Ethic Understanding for their heroic actions in combating an anti-Semitic attack on the Brooklyn-bound Q train this week.
Muslim college student Askari came to Jewish rider Adler’s aid, as Adler and his three friends were assaulted on a subway train in lower Manhattan on Friday night. The altercation erupted when Adler and his friends said "Happy Hanukkah" to a group yelling "Merry Christmas" on the Brooklyn-bound train.
Askari said he tried to fight off the 10 attackers, giving Adler a chance to summon police by pulling an emergency brake. Askari was punched and beaten in this bias attack, while Adler suffered a broken nose and lip wound. Prosecutors have charged eight men and two women with menacing and assault in this case, and said that these charges could be upgraded to hate crimes.
Source:
www.ynetnews.com
Date: Dec. 15, 2007
16-12-2007 / France
France - Trial begins for Le Pen
France's far-right leader went on trial for calling the Nazi occupation of his country "not especially inhumane."
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 79, whose trial began Friday, made the remarks in an interview with the far-right magazine Rivarol in 2005.
The prosecutor is calling for Le Pen, the head of the National Front party, to pay a $14,500 fine and to receive a five-month suspended sentence.
Le Pen was convicted of racism and anti-Semitism in the past. In 1987 he reportedly described the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history."
The Nazis deported more than 70,000 French Jews to death camps and murdered thousands of French civilians during World War II. France only recently has come to terms with the fact that the collaborationist French Vichy government also was responsible for these atrocities.
Rivarol's editor, Marie-Luce Wacquez, also is being prosecuted.
"If you exclude the deportations, the occupation was pretty moderate compared to what happened in the Netherlands and Belgium," she said
Source: www.jta.org
Date: Dec. 16, 2007
14-12-2007 / Russia
Russia - Moscow hate publisher gets jail time
Alexander Aratov, editor-in-chief of the radically right-wing Russkaya Pravda, was sentenced to three years in prison for violating Russia’s anti-hate speech laws.
According to a statement by the Moscow procurator’s office, the Moscow Zyuzino District Court found him guilty of “incitement to racially and religiously motivated hatred, the humiliation of a group of individuals.”
Experts at the trial said articles written by Aratov "incited racially and religiously motivated hatred of Judaism and Christianity.”
Aratov will most likely serve one year in prison followed by two years of probation.
Source:
www.fsumonitor.com
Date: December 14, 2007
12-12-2007 / United States
USA - Muslim helps Jews attacked on New York subway
A Muslim man jumped to the aid of three Jewish subway riders after they were attacked by a group of young people who objected to one of the Jews saying "Happy Hanukkah," a spokeswoman for the three said Wednesday.
Friday's altercation on the Q train began when somebody yelled out "Merry Christmas," to which rider Walter Adler responded, "Happy Hanukkah," said Toba Hellerstein.
Two women who were with a group of 10 rowdy people then began to verbally assault Adler's companions with anti-Semitic language, Hellerstein said.
One member of the group allegedly yelled, "Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day that the Jews killed Jesus," she said.
When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she said.
Another passenger, Hassan Askari -- a Muslim student from Bangladesh -- came to Adler's aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him, Hellerstein said.
"A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn't do anything," Adler said. Watch Adler describe the altercation »
Adler pulled the emergency brake and the train stopped at DeKalb Avenue station, where police came on board.
The 10 suspects, ages 19 to 20, were taken into custody, said Brooklyn district attorney spokesman Sandy Silverstein.
Source:
http://edition.cnn.com
Date: December 12, 2007
10-12-2007 / Australia
Australia - A Jewish group asks Australia to ban band
The B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission asked the federal government to ban the Croatian rock band Thompson that plays anti-Semitic lyrics.
The rock group's anti-Semitic lyrics have attracted fans of the Ustashi, Croatia's Nazi-era nationalist party, as well as neo-Nazis who shout "Heil Hitler" and make the Nazi salute at live performances.
The group, which has been banned from the Netherlands, is scheduled to perform in several locations throughout Australia this month, including in Sydney on New Year's Eve.
Source: www.jta.org
Date: Dec. 10, 2007
09-12-2007 / Poland
Poland - Radio Maryja attempts to rid itself of anti-Semitic image
Radio Maryja, the influential nationalist Polish conglomerate that operates radio and television stations, a daily newspaper and a Web site, is trying to rid itself of the anti-Semitic image that has dogged it in recent years. A letter from one of the heads of the media empire claims Radio Maryja is carrying on the tradition of Polish priests who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
The attempted makeover comes after the European Union refused to authorize a 15-million Euro grant for Radio Maryja to build a media studies school.
Monitors of anti-Semitism in Poland say that in recent months, Radio Maryja broadcasts have ceased talking about "the Jews" and say instead "the wealthy."
Since its foundation in 1991, Radio Maryja has been perceived as the voice of the nationalist-conservative wing of the Catholic Polish church. Numerous instances of anti-Semitic and racist statements have been documented in recent years: Holocaust deniers were guests on radio shows; Jews were accused of controlling the Polish government and trying to harm Poland's interests and steal its assets; and the station's critics in the Polish press were called "a Jewish fifth column."
Several weeks ago, one of the heads of Radio Maryja, Father Jacek Cydzik, sent a letter to the head of the umbrella organization for Holocaust survivors in Israel, Noah Flug, expressing disgruntlement that Jewish groups had protested the grant request and blaming the European press for starting the allegations of anti-Semitism.
Source: www.haaretz.com
Date: Dec. 9, 2007
By Anshel Pfeffer
04-12-2007 / United States
USA - Manhattan high school students get lesson on impact of hate symbols
Students of a Manhattan high school that was a target of a hate crime this fall had a lesson with representatives of the Anti-Defamation League.
School officials say they still do not know who scrawled 22 swastikas around Murray Bergtraum High School in October. The principal says the walls at the school are nearly always graffiti-free so the incident raised important questions.
"How do we combat this, work with the students so things like this don't happen again?" said school Principal Barbara Esmilla.
In response, education officials had the ADL come speak to student leaders at the high school about the impact of hate symbols and to teach them how to teach other kids about combating anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.
"It's aimed at treating difference as a positive thing," said Joel Levy of the ADL. "Trying to teach people that our difference actually enriches our lives and getting people to respect that difference."
Source: www.ny1.com/ny1
Date: December 04, 2007
By Michael Meenan
03-12-2007 / Austria
Austria - Austrian court rejects appeal by Holocaust-denier Honsik
An Austrian court ordered Gerd Honsik, who denies the Holocaust, to sit out his 18-month jail sentence, rejecting his appeal for leniency on the grounds of his advanced age and ill health.
Honsik, 67, had been convicted in 1992 for his book "Acquittal for Hitler".
But after his conviction, Honsik fled to Spain, where he spent the next 15 years until he was extradited earlier this year.
The court of appeal in Vienna confirmed, but did not extend, the 18-month sentence. However, prosecutors indicated that new proceedings could be filed against Honsik related to new writings, which also appeared to deny the Holocaust published on his website while in Spain.
Source: www.ejpress.org
Date: Dec. 3, 2007
02-12-2007 / France
France - Founder of black radical and anti-Semitic group sentenced to one month in prison
Kemi Seba, founder of a French black radical and anti-Semitic outlawed group calling itself "Tribu Ka", was sentenced to one month firm prison by a Paris court.
He was convicted for having posted anti-Semitic comments on his internet website in August 2006.
The 25-yar-old Seba, whose real name is Stellio Capochichi, announced his intention to appeal the sentence.
On its website, Seba said international institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organization "are held by the Zionists who are imposing to Africa and its diaspora such extremely bad conditions that the Auschwitz concentration camp can appear as a paradise on earth."
In July 2006, Tribu Ka was banned by the French government and its website was later shut down after its members descended on a Paris Jewish quarter, wielding baseball bats and shouting anti-Semitic slogans.
Kemi Seba’s personal website was closed because, the judge said at the time, “it was marked with the hatred of Jews on every page".
Source: www.ejpress.org
Date: Dec.2, 2007
By Joseph Byron
29-11-2007 / Australia
Australia - Toben gives Holocaust denial apology in court
Fredrick Toben gave an apology in the Federal Court of Australia for being in contempt of court by continually featuring Holocaust denial material on his Adelaide Institute website.
He gave the apology during a contempt hearing of the Federal Court sitting in Adelaide.
After being called up to the bar by Justice Michael Moore to apologize if he agreed with it, Toben began to give a qualified apology.
When Justice Moore said that his comments were inconsistent with an apology, Toben gave a full apology, without embellishment and undertook to remove all Holocaust denial material from the website by 4pm on December 5 and not to replace it.
Solicitor Steven Lewis said after the hearing: “It’s a significant victory for the community. The ECAJ was vindicated in their actions and has forced him to acknowledge his contempt of court and remove the offending material.”
This court hearing is the culmination of a 10-month battle that began when contempt orders were served on Toben by the Federal Court, after he returned from a Holocaust denial conference in Iran in January.
Source:
www.ajn.com.au
Date: November 29, 2007
By Peter Kohn
27-11-2007 / Britain
Britain – Controversial Oxford University debate goes on despite protests
Hundreds of demonstrators changed anti-fascist slogans, sang songs and waved placards outside the Oxford Union Debating Society, where David Irving, who was jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust, and British National Party (BNP) head Nick Griffin, were speaking.
Undergraduates with tickets to the event endured chants of "Nazi scum" and "shame on you" from hundreds of protesters from Oxford colleges and the Unite Against Fascism campaign group in a narrow street in central Oxford.
A group of 30 demonstrators managed to break through a security cordon outside the building and staged a sit-in protest on stage, delaying the event by more than an hour as they sang songs until they were persuaded to leave.
Anti extreme-right British National Party (BNP) demonstrators protest 27 November 2007 as Nick Griffin of The British National Party and Holocaust-denying historian David Irving attend a debate on free speech at the Oxford Union in Oxford.
Security at the event was so tight that organizers separated the speakers into two groups with Irving in one room and Griffin in another.
As a result of the throng of protesters, nearly half of the students with tickets to the event could not attend the debate.
Source:
www.ejpress.org
Date: Nov. 27, 2007
By Henri Stein
27-11-2007 / Poland
Poland - Education minister will investigate Father Tadeusz Rydzyk
Poland's controversial "radio priest," Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, has asked the audience of Radio Maryja to write protest letters to the country's education minister, Barbara Kudrycka.
Father Rydzyk, who has been the focus of criticism for months because of allegations of anti-Semitism, was reacting to Kudrycka's announcement that she will investigate the activities of the university that Father Rydzyk founded in Torun. The priest described the investigation as a "return to the darkest Communism” and he assured listeners that his school adheres to national laws governing post-secondary institutions.
Source:
www.cwnews.com
Date: Nov. 27, 2007
26-11-2007 / Germany
Germany - Police hunt neo-nazis who cut swastika into woman's hip
German police say they have received two leads but have made no arrests yet in the case of a 17-year-old girl attacked by four far-right youths who cut a swastika symbol into her hip in the eastern town of Mittweida this month.
Police said on Sunday they had received two leads from the public after they released photofit pictures of the attackers. The victim said two of the attackers had badges bearing the letters NSDAP, the acronym of Hitler's Nazi party, on their bomber jackets. The town of 16,000, located in the eastern state of Saxony, condemned the attacks and called on the inhabitants to work with the police to find the perpetrators.
Source:
www.spiegel.de
Date: November 26, 2007
