Struggle against antisemitism
15-03-2009 / Germany
Germany - Horst Mahler gets new jail term for denying Holocaust
A German court slapped another five-year prison term on Horst Mahler for denying the Holocaust,
after a separate court sentenced him to six years on the same charges
.
The two sentences would be served concurrently.
Lawyers for 73-year-old Horst Mahler, who was immediately incarcerated, said they would appeal the new five-year-two-month sentence.
Judges in...15-03-2009 / Britain
Britain - BT shuts down ‘antisemitic’ Catholic website
BT Has banned a religious website critical of extremist Jews that it has hosted for four years following a campaign from a group of MPs claimed it was antisemitic. It is understood to be the first time that a website in Britain has been shut down under such circumstances. The website, www.catholicvoice.co.uk, takes an inflammatory stance over extreme sections of Judaism...13-03-2009 / Canada
Canada - Harper: Antisemitism ‘pernicious’
Canada's prime minister denounced antisemitism as "a pernicious evil" that must be defeated.
Stephen Harper spoke at a Parliament Hill ceremony organized by Chabad-Lubavitch to honor Jewish victims of last November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Harper called the killings "affronts to the values that unite all civilized people." He said antisemitism "is a pernicious evil...13-03-2009 / Netherlands
Holland - Dutch judge orders teens to visit Anne Frank House
A Dutch judge has ordered four teenagers to visit the Anne Frank House museum after finding them guilty of discrimination for insulting Jews at a rally.
The boys, aged 14 to 17, must turn in a report to the Hague Police Judge about their visit the canal house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II.
The four boys were...12-03-2009 / Australia
Australia - Australia to join boycott of 'Durban II' conference
Australia has joined a growing list of nations that either have or are threatening to boycott an upcoming UN Human Rights Council conference on racism because council member nations are making the focus of the event the demonization of Israel. When it became clear that Durban II, scheduled to take place in Geneva next month, will only expand on that hostility, Canada became the...11-03-2009 / Vatican
The Vatican - We were wrong: Pope writes
The Pope has admitted mistakes over the lifting of the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop and said that the Holy See must modernise its response to future controversies.
In a strikingly humble letter to Catholic bishops, he conceded that the Vatican should have been aware of the views of Richard Williamson, the English bishop at the centre of the row. He has pledged to...10-03-2009 / Vatican
Vatican - Holocaust deniers not Catholics
Holocaust deniers cannot be considered Catholic, the Vatican's envoy to Israel said. Antonio Frank apparently was referring to Pope Benedict XVI's reinstatement of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers. Frank's statement was an apparent bid to temper tensions ahead of a papal visit in May. Frank was...06-03-2009 / Poland
Poland - Poland embraces new effort to fight antsemitism
A human rights group and Poland's Education Ministry introduced new teaching materials for Poland's middle schools in an effort to combat antsemitism. Poland is the fifth in a group of 12 countries adopting such workbooks, after Germany, Ukraine, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe guided the project as part of an overall effort to...06-03-2009 / Italy
Italy - Italy to boycott Durban 2
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that his country would not participate in the international anti-racism conference in Geneva - known as 'Durban 2' – out of fears that the event was being used as an anti-Israeli forum.
Italy was one of a number of European Union members who expressed concerns in recent weeks that the international event...03-03-2009 / United States
USA - Holocaust-denying bishop banned in LA
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles announced that he is barring the Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, from entering any church in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
. In an unusual step, Mahony and two Jewish leaders penned a joint op-ed piece that was published in both the archdiocesan newspaper,
The Tidings
, and a local Jewish newspaper, the...
...27-02-2009 / United States
USA - US won't participate in 'Durban 2'
The Obama administration has decided not to participate in a UN conference against racism dubbed 'Durban 2', which is scheduled to take place in Switzerland in April. A senior US official said the White House would announce its intention soon.
US President Barack Obama's administration sent two representatives to Geneva last week, where negotiations on a document leading the event...27-02-2009 / Germany
Germany - Germany may issue warrant for Holocaust bishop
Germany is considering issuing an arrest warrant on hate crime charges against a Holocaust-denying bishop, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said .
Speaking in the sidelines of EU justice ministers' talks in Brussels, Zypries said officials in her country were considering issuing an EU-wide warrant because the ultraconservative clergyman Richard Williamson denied the...27-02-2009 / Vatican
The Vatican - Vatican finds Holocaust-denying bishop's apology lacking
The Vatican said that the apology issued by an ultraconservative bishop who denied the Holocaust was not good enough to admit him into the Catholic Church as a clergyman.
Williamson issued the apology, carried by the Zenit Catholic news agency, in it, Williamson said: "To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologize."
Vatican spokesman Rev....27-02-2009 / Britain
Britain - Diplomat suspended for antisemitic tirade
Foreign Office Minister Gillian Merron told members of Parliament that Rowan Laxton, 47, had been suspended from his job at the Foreign Office and will face disciplinary proceedings.
He was arrested last month on suspicion of threatening to stir up religious hatred, an offense that carries a maximum jail term of seven years, but has not been charged.
He allegedly used foul...
...26-02-2009 / Britain
Britain - JFS bus-abuse teen will have an Ambo until 2014
A teenager who verbally abused a group of Jewish children as they travelled home from school has been given a five-year antisocial behaviour order. It bans the 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, from using the north-west London bus route on which the incident took place in November last year . Last week, Hendon Magistrates’ Court imposed a series of...25-02-2009 / Germany
Germany - Holocaust denier gets 6 year sentence
A former extreme left-wing guerrilla turned neo-Nazi was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday for calling the Holocaust "the biggest lie in history", a court said.
Horst Mahler, who in the 1970s co-founded the militant far-left Red Army Faction (RAF) and later swung violently far-right, was convicted of inciting racial hatred by the higher regional court in the southern...25-02-2009 / Argentina
Argentina - Holocaust-denying bishop flees Argentina
A Holocaust-denying bishop is on board a British Airways flight back to London after being asked to leave his post by the Argentinian Government.
Wearing a black baseball cap embroidered with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and sunglasses, British-born Richard Williamson reportedly shoved a journalist at Buenos Aires airport as he rushed to board his flight to Britain.
It was...23-02-2009 / Germany
Germany – The leader of the Green Party in Germany: "The Muslim community must deal with antisemitism."
"Germany must seriously relate to the antisemitic tendencies among the Muslim community." The man behind this affirmation is surprisingly a German-Muslim of Turkish origin, Cem Özdemir. Özdemir said this comment during an interview to the daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. "Unfortunately, we must acknowledge the fact that there is an antisemitic thinking trend not only among the...23-02-2009 /
Britain - Declaration to fight antisemitism signed in London
A declaration pledging to challenge antisemitism was signed on behalf of all participating nations on Tuesday, the final day of the London Conference on Combating Antisemitism.
Noting the dramatic increase in antisemitism being disseminated in the media and attacks targeting Jewish persons and property, the London Declaration was signed by 125 parliamentarians from 40 countries....19-02-2009 / Argentina
Argentina – Holocaust denying Bishop ordered to leave country
The Interior Ministry's immigration agency ordered Richard Williamson to abandon the country because he "has concealed the true motive for his stay in the country" because he said he was an employee of a non-governmental group rather than declaring "his true activity" as the director of a seminary.
Williamson's views about the Holocaust created uproar last month when Pope...
