Struggle
05-08-2008 / United States
USA - N.J. justices add religion jokes to workplace ban
Derogatory comments about a Jewish police officer's religion were more than just teasing and constituted a hostile work environment, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The decision could have widespread impact, as the court determined that the standard for demonstrating religious discrimination is the same as that for sexual or racial harassment.
The 5-0 decision by New Jersey's highest court upheld a Camden County jury ruling in favor of the Haddonfield police officer Jason Cutler.
A lawyer for the police department said the ruling means ethnic jokes are essentially barred from the workplace, but a Jewish civil rights group applauded the ruling because it would encourage employees to think twice before making such remarks.
Cutler said a former chief referred to him as "the Jew," and once asked him "where (his) big Jew ... nose was." In addition, a lieutenant had told him "Jews are good with numbers" and "Jews make all the money."
Source:
www.dailyrecord.com
01-08-2008 / Britain
Britain - MPs fly to Poland to learn legacy of hate
A group of nine MPs visited Poland last week to discuss combating antisemitism in the country.
The three-day trip was organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism (PCAA).
It included a visit to the former Nazi death camp at Majdanek and meetings with government officials and Jewish residents.
John Mann, PCAA chair, said: "There is great practise our MPs have to share with our colleagues in Poland but our refusal not to be complacent means we also have much to learn in the fight against hatred, bigotry and antisemitism."
Karen Pollock, HET chief executive, said: "The unfortunate truth is that hate and prejudice continue to persist in Europe today."
Those who took part in the visit were: Ian Austin MP (Dudley North), Ian Cawsey MP (Brigg and Goole), Andrew Dismore MP (Hendon), Louise Ellman MP (Liverpool Riverside), Andy Love MP (Edmonton), Shahid Malik MP (Dewsbury), Mark Pritchard MP (The Wrekin), Anne Snelgrove MP (South Swindon), and Phil Wilson MP (Sedgefield).
Source:
http://community.thejc.com/
31-07-2008 / United States
USA - Man sentenced to 60 days for hate crime, assault
John Fiorentino was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 2 years of probation after he was found guilty last month of
threatening three Jewish teenagers with a gun and calling them anti-Semitic slurs during a 2007 confrontation in Lincolnwood
.
John Fiorentino, 21, told the court his actions after a traffic altercation with the three teenagers were "wrong and stupid of me."
Source: www.chicagotribune.com
31-07-2008 / Israel
Israel - Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force
An anti-Israeli Facebook group that once had more than 48,000 members is being “destroyed” by a secretive group called the Jewish Internet Defense Force.
The force took control of the "Israel is not a country! Delist it from Facebook as a country" Facebook group and is steadily deleting its members.
The group, which the force claims was promoting anti-Semitic hatred, now has fewer than 20,000 members and the figure is continuing to fall.
Its old profile photo - a map of Palestine - has been replaced with an image of an Israeli fighter jet, and its front page contains a statement from the JIDF. The group's location has been changed to "Jerusalem, Israel".
“This group was one of the vilest, antisemitic, pro-terrorist sites on the internet,” the statement reads.
“Despite thousands of user complaints over the course of eighteen months, Face book allowed this group and its ubiquitous antisemitic lies to flourish," it continues.
A member of the JIDF identifying himself as David told the Jerusalem Post newspaper that it managed to take control of the Facebook group after its old administrators – who set up and managed the site – left.
"Ultimately, it was a result of our enemies' stupidity and our timing, persistence and determination more than anything else,"
The JIDF claims more than 5,000 members worldwide. It was established in 2000 to promote pro-Israeli coverage on the internet during the second intifada, and has challenged content it deems anti-Semitic on websites such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube.
Facebook had declined to take the “Israel is not a country!” group down, saying it did not take action against “legitimate political discourse”, according to the JIDF.
Source:
www.telegraph.co.uk
27-07-2008 / Ukraine
Ukraine - Antisemitism project debuts in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Jewish Committee and a group of young Ukrainians launched a project targeting xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
Using the slogans “Say no to xenophobia,” and “Anti-Semitism - No!" more than 30 members of the Youth, Europe, Future organization with the Ukrainian Jewish Committee protested in Kiev against racist attacks and other forms of intolerance.
The project will monitor and counteract intolerance in the media, as well as at events, demonstrations and speeches. It also will maintain a database of the neo-Nazi centers, push authorities to intensify the struggle against anti-Semitism, race discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance; and expand the initiatives against neo-Nazi propaganda and xenophobia in Ukraine.
Aleksandr Feldman, the leader of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee and a Ukrainian lawmaker, said his organization is especially concerned about the lack or absence of official statistics regarding racial and xenophobic attacks.
“The racial and anti-Semitic motivation as a rule is not taken into account, and Ukrainian courts identify them as hooliganism" Feldman said.
Source: www.jta.org
24-07-2008 / Canada
Canada - Man gets one year for hate crime against Jewish teen
Attacking a Jewish girl and the friends who came to her rescue has landed a Muslim man a one-year jail sentence for what provincial court Judge Bill Cummings ruled was a racially motivated assault.
Mustafa Taj, 21, was convicted in May of attacking four teenagers the night of Nov. 3, 2006, while they waited for a C-Train at the Sunnyside LRT station in
Calgary
.
Taj approached the group around 10:45 p.m. and asked "who's Jewish." Nichola Cordato, then 16, stated "me" and Taj grabbed her and said, "I'm Muslim and hate Jews."
He then slapped her in the face and pulled her hair before her friends, Jessica Motta, Kayla Hungle and Daniel Ball attempted to intervene.
Hungle attempted to prevent Taj from further attacking Cordato and was punched in the face by him.
Motta then intervened and was punched in the face, pulled to the ground by her hair and kicked in the stomach and ribs.
When Ball tried to stop the assaults, he was thrown onto the C-Train tracks where he fell onto his back and was spat upon by Taj.
During the melee, Taj called Cordato a "Jewish piece of (crap)."
Source: http://calsun.canoe.ca
24-07-2008 / Russia
Russia - Court fines Bryansk businessman for selling antisemitic film
A court in Bryansk, Russia fined a local businessman 25,000 rubles (approximately $1,000) for selling an antisemitic DVD. Dmitry Kovalyov, owner of the "Patriot" store, reportedly urged his customers to buy the film "Russia With a Knife in Its Back: Jewish Fascism and the Genocide of the Russian People."
Source: www.fsumonitor.com
23-07-2008 / Germany
Germany - Prosecution against chairman of Bremen NPD
The
Bremen state prosecutor indicted Horst Görmann, the Bremen chairman of the right-wing extremist party NPD, for “incitement of the people”. The 55 year old is charged with publishing a text on Bremen NPD’s website containing insults against Jews in November 2007.
Source: www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org
22-07-2008 / Germany
Germany - District court sentences known holocaust denier to eleven month in prison
On the grounds of “using signs of forbidden organizations,” Cottbus district court sentenced the known Holocaust denier and Neo-Nazi Horst Mahler to eleven months in prison. The 72 year old former lawyer
had used the Nazi salute and greeted his supporters with the phrase “Hail (Heil)!” when entering the jail for previous prison sentence of “incitement of the people” two years ago. Mahler confirmed the charges but questioned the constitutionality of the law forbidding usage of the Nazi salute.
Source: Radio Bremen online
21-07-2008 / United States
USA - Man convicted of hate crime for accosting Wiesel
A jury in San Francisco has convicted a 24-year-old man of
accosting Holocaust survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel in a hotel elevator.
Jurors convicted Eric Hunt on Monday of false imprisonment with a hate crime allegation. Hunt also was convicted of battery and elder abuse.
The 79-year-old Wiesel testified he thought Hunt was trying to kidnap him when he was forcefully pulled off an elevator on Feb. 1, 2007.
Wiesel read comments allegedly written by Hunt calling the writer's accounts of the Holocaust "fictitious."
The jury dismissed charges of attempted kidnapping and stalking.
Hunt had pleaded not guilty to all the charges by reason of insanity. His lawyers say he faces up to three years in prison.
Source: Associated Press
21-07-2008 / Britain
Britain - Brown tells Knesset will fight academic boycott of Israel
Gordon Brown became the first British prime minister to address the Knesset, and opened his statements in Hebrew to extend his best wishes to the country as it marks its 60th anniversary: "Mazal tov Israel, shalom aliechem," he said.
Brown, pledged the UK and its European partners are prepared to tighten the sanctions imposed on Tehran should it choose to ignore calls to suspend its pursuit of nuclear arms.
"To those who question Israel's very right to exist, and threaten the lives of your citizens through terror, we say: the people of Israel have a right to live here, to live freely and to live in security," said Brown.
"And to those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears, we say in one voice: it is totally abhorrent for the president of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world.”
He pledged the British government would fight against any attempt to boycott Israeli academia.
Source: www.ynetnews.com
17-07-2008 / Russia
Russia - Editor of antisemitic newspaper charged with incitement
Prosecutors in
Rostov-na-Donu
, have filed charges of illegal incitement of ethnic and religious hatred against the editor of a local newspaper.
The editor of Priazovsky Kray faces up to five years in prison if convicted of violating Article 282 of the criminal code for authoring an article in the May 22, 2008 edition of the paper that demonized Chasidic Jews.
Source: http://www.fsumonitor.com/
16-07-2008 / Britain
Britain - British lawmaker: Europe imports antisemitism
Europe is an importer of antisemitism, a British government official said.
Jim Murphy, the British minister for Europe, says it does so by allowing the Islamic media to broadcast antisemitic content to the continent's citizens.
Speaking at the launch of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary antisemitism, Murphy added, "The most emblematic claim of this antisemitic source is that no Jews died on 9/11."
Murphy pointed out, however, that the British government recently enacted a law prohibiting the use of threatening words or behavior with the intention of stirring up hatred against groups because of their religious belief, a law that could make such anti-Semitic allegations punishable.
Source:
www.jta.org
15-07-2008 / Russia
Russia - Police detain suspects in Orenburg synagogue vandalism
The suspects reportedly have neo-Nazi tattoos and have confessed to the crime. A search of one suspect's apartment reportedly yielded extremist leaflets.
Source:
www.fsumonitor.com
14-07-2008 / United States
USA - Man arrested for attacking a rabbi
Pichardo Dearmas, 49, a convicted burglar from
Miami Beach
has been charged under a hate crime law after police say he slapped at a rabbi and blurted: “You Fucking Jew.”
Rabbi Abraham S. Mann, 36, formerly of the Hallandale Jewish Center, wearing a black brimmed hat and black knee, length overcoat, was walking on the Venetian Causeway.
Miami Beach police stopped Dearmas on Dilido Island, where he admitted”he didn’t know why he did it,” according to police.
Source:
www.miamiherald.com13-07-2008 / Britain
Britain - Holocaust denier convicted of trying to incite race hate online
Simon Sheppard claims accounts of the Holocaust are "exaggerated" and describes Anne Frank's diary as "evil" has been convicted of putting articles on the internet that could stir up race hate.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court found Simon Sheppard, 51, guilty of nine counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material on his website between March 2005 and April 2006.
Source:
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
11-07-2008 / Russia
Russia – Newspaper editor charged with extremism
Prosecutors in
Chita
, charged the editor of a local newspaper with extremism. The newspaper “Russkoe Zabaykale” is the official organ of the local branch of the Union of the Russian People, named for a group that led pogroms against Jews in the late Tsarist period. Its editor, Aleksandr Yaremenko, previously received a warning from the prosecutor’s office but continued to publish antisemitic articles. A local court approved the charges of extremism and ordered that the newspaper’s property be confiscated.
Source:
www.fsumonitor.com
10-07-2008 / United States
USA - ADL fight the next generation of online extremism
Anti-Semitism 2.0, a new explosion of online hate, is extremely dangerous to Jews and to Israel, with antisemitic and anti-Israel propagandists attracting tens of thousands of viewers.
For example, on the extremely popular Facebook social networking site there is a group called "Israel is not a country!!!! Delist it from Facebook as a country!" This group has more than 40,000 members and includes more than 100,000 comments posted by readers. Much of the content posted (and other online forums like it) is strongly anti-Israel and antisemitic.
Help fight the threat of anti-Semitism 2.0. Sign our pledge condemning antisemitic individuals and groups on social networks and other sites, and make a commitment to stand up for the rights of Israel and Jews.
08-07-2008 / Russia
Russia - Russia bans book on Hitler saying Nazi quotes insult
A Russian court has banned a book about Adolf Hitler by the late historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, saying quotes attributed to the Nazi leader insult Russians and Jews.
Under anti-extremism laws the court banned the 1953 book "Hitler's Table Talk: 1941-1944", which records Hitler's sometimes racist ramblings on a wide range of topics.
Russia's Prosecutor-General said in a statement that texts published in "Hitler's Table Talk" are of "an anti-Slavic and anti-Semitic character".
"A host of statements by A. Hitler in the book insult the dignity of Russian and Jewish peoples who are presented in quotes as inferior and primitive people because of their nationality."
The book will now be put on a national list of extremist works that are banned and owning or distributing it would then be illegal.
Source:
www.reuters.com
08-07-2008 / France
France - Five held in Paris beating
Police have detained five youths suspected of being involved in the alleged anti-Semitic beating of a Paris teenager.
Immediately following the attack, five other young blacks were held by police and later released as witnesses.
Source:
www.jta.org
