“As a public university, Wayne State encourages free speech and open dialogue, and respects diverse viewpoints,” the statement said. “However, the university strongly condemns the antisemitic remarks made by Helen Thomas during a conference.”

Source: http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/index.php/article/2010/12/wsu_pulls_helen_thomas_award_over_antisemitic_remarks#print

The jury deliberated less than four hours Friday before finding Norridge resident Mariusz Wdziekonski guilty of felony vandalism and unlawful acts on cemetery grounds for the desecration of dozens of headstones at Westlawn Cemetery.

After his arrest, prosecutors said Wdziekonski was a member of a neo-Nazi group called the National Socialist Movement. But during his trial in Skokie, Wdziekonski testified that he was not a neo-Nazi but simply a collector of Nazi memorabilia.

Prosecutors say the felony convictions mean Wdziekonski, a Polish immigrant who has been in the United States since 2004, might face deportation.

The two fans will be indicted for public insult of the Jewish people. Four other fans are currently under investigation.

Source: http://www.radio.rzeszow.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10122

Mohammad Alkaramla, who was born in Jordan, mailed a letter in late 2008 to the Ida Crown Jewish Academy, threatening to plant a bomb there if Israel didn't withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip within two weeks, said his father, Tawiq Alkaramla.

"He knows all people are the same," his father said to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. "He went crazy like with stress. ... He thinks Gaza is by Jordan. All he knows is what he sees on the TV."

At a bench trial in July, Pallmeyer found Mohammad Alkaramla guilty of a single count of making threats against the school. Investigators traced his fingerprints and a stamp on the letter to his home. They found he had searched for targets on the Internet in the days before the letter was mailed.

"Will Give You until 01.15.2009 to back OFF from Gaza in Palestine or will set our explosive in your areas," the letter said in part.

Alkaramla, who has been in custody since July, briefly read from a written statement.

"I realize I was in a downfall of my life, thinking of myself," he said of the decision to make the threat. "I regret and am deeply sorry for all my troubles."

Canada will not attend Durban III, a United Nations conference on racism next September in South Africa because the event has negatively targeted Israel, the country's immigration minister said Thursday.

Minister Jason Kenney said Canada has lost faith in the Durban process, a conference that began in 2001 to develop strategies to defeat racism.

"Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

Next year's event commemorates the 10th anniversary of the initial Durban conference that saw the United States walk out in protest over texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state.

The initial conference, which ended days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the US, produced the Durban Declaration and Program of Action.

The 62-page document raises 122 "general issues," among them "concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation." It "recognizes the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the right to an independent state."

But most offensive to Canada and several other countries were speeches laced with anti-Israeli rhetoric. Canada led a boycott of Durban II in Geneva last year, where Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against the Jewish state.

This week, a UN committee adopted a resolution calling for the commemorative meeting next Sept. 21 to "reaffirm that the (original Durban declaration) provides the most comprehensive UN framework for combating racism."

"We voted against this because we believe that the proposed meeting will only perpetuate the kind of ... divisive rhetoric that led Canada to boycott this process in the past," said Kenney.

The FBI says the number of hate crime incidents went down in 2009 compared to the previous year, while the number of victims - which include businesses and institutions as well as people - went up.

The bureau says that out of some 4,000 victims of racial bias, seven in 10 were victims because of prejudice against blacks.

Out of nearly 1,600 victims of anti-religious bias, about the same proportion - seven of 10 - stemmed from anti-Jewish bias.

The year-to-year figures are not an exact comparison. The number of law enforcement agencies providing data to the FBI on hate crime went up last year compared to 2008.

Hate Crime Statistics, 2009 report .

In awarding Charlotte Knobloch the Large Federal Cross of Merit with a star on Tuesday, President Christian Wulff thanked her for work toward reconciliation in post-World War II Germany.

The 78-year-old Knobloch witnessed the Nazi destruction of the Munich synagogue in 1938 and survived Nazi Germany by hiding with a German family. When her term as head of the Jewish council ends on Nov. 28, she is expected to be the last survivor to lead it.

Since 2002, there have been various attempts to boycott Israeli academic institutions and scholars in several Western countries, including England, where Noble lives. Israeli scholars have been ostracized, organizations have refused to publish or review Israeli academic papers, etc. The first major academic boycott campaign was started in England by two Jewish professors who argued that a moratorium on all cultural and research links with Israel at European or national levels was the only way to pressure the Israeli government to change its policies toward Palestinians.

Michael Yudkin and David Smith, also Oxford scientists with global reputations, have joined their colleague in resignation, with a letter in the Oxford magazine:

Sir – Like Denis Noble, we have been a member of UCU and its predecessor AUT, for more than 40 years. Like him, we remained a member after retiring a few years ago from our University posts. The facts set out in Denis’s letter to Sally Hunt show beyond dispute that UCU is now institutionally anti-semitic. We too have resigned our membership of the union. Yours Sincerely Michael Yudkin, Kellogg College David Smith, Department of Pharmacology

Source: http://www.osce.org/odihr/item_11_41314.html

In response to increased reports of antisemitism on campus and intimidation of Jewish students, the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) invited Jewish students in Victoria to fill in a questionnaire about their on-campus experiences. More than two thirds (68 per cent) of respondents reported experiencing or witnessing some form of antisemitism. Written material, such as posters and signs, were the most common form of antisemitism, followed by verbal attack and prejudice.

Students reported more widespread antisemitism at La Trobe University than at Deakin, Melbourne or Monash. Many students cited individual examples of antisemitism but did not consider antisemitism a problem on their campus. Few students admitted to hiding their Jewishness or Israel views to avoid attack or abuse but most said they knew Jewish students who did.

Most students made no distinction between traditional antisemitism and anti-Zionism. There was a strong crossover between abuse of Israel and abuse of Jewish symbols and individuals. Swastikas and antisemitic graffiti are used by a range of groups to attack Jews and Israel.

The questionnaire also uncovered cases of faculty members using their positions to launch polemics against Israel or make antisemitic statements in ways which intimidated Jewish students.

These results indicate a disturbing number of cases of antisemitism on campus in Victoria, creating a campus environment that is uncomfortable and sometimes intimidating for Jewish students.

Read the full report on campus antisemitism in Victoria

The declaration, known as the Ottawa Protocol, was released yesterday after a two-day meeting of parliamentarians and experts from about four dozen countries in Ottawa.

"We are alarmed by the explosion of antisemitism and hate on the Internet, a medium crucial for the promotion and protection of freedom of expression, freedom of information and the participation of a civil society," the declaration says.

The Ottawa Protocol builds on one crafted in London in February 2009 at the founding conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism.

Among the commitments of the Ottawa Protocol: Here is the full text of the Ottawa Protocol

- Working with universities to encourage them to fight antisemitism with the same seriousness with which they confront other forms of crimes.

- Establishing an international task force of Internet specialists comprising parliamentarians and experts to create ways to identify and monitor antisemitism and other hate crimes online and to develop policy recommendations on how governments can address the problems.

- Working to ensure police have one universal and comprehensive recording facility for hate crimes in general, which also breaks out antisemitic attacks.

Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Ottawa+Protocol+draws+line+anti+Semitism/3804067/story.html#ixzz14rszgBC8

Two weeks ago I visited Ukraine for the first time. At the killing grounds of Babyn Yar, I knew I was standing in a place where evil – evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque – had been unleashed. But while evil of this magnitude may be unfathomable, it is nonetheless a fact.

It is a fact of history. And it is a fact of our nature – that humans can choose to be inhuman. This is the paradox of freedom. That awesome power, that grave responsibility, to choose between good and evil.

Let us not forget that even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, men were free to choose good. And some did. That is the eternal witness of the Righteous Among the Nations.

And let us not forget that even now, there are those who would choose evil, and would launch another Holocaust, if left unchecked. That is the challenge before us today.

In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly.

Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition. It must also be an understanding and an undertaking. An understanding that the same threats exist today. And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.

Jews today in many parts of the world and many different settings are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.

Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends.

Antisemitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack. And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world – such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.

We have seen all this before. And we have no excuse to be complacent. In fact we have a duty to take action. And for all of us, that starts at home.

In Canada, we have taken a number of steps to assess and combat antisemitism in our own country. But of course we must also combat antisemitism beyond our borders, - an evolving, global phenomenon. And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.

Harnessing disparate antisemitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.

We must be relentless in exposing this new antisemitism for what it is. Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism – healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack – Is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the 3 D’s, it is a responsibility, to stand up to them.

And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of “honest broker.” There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are, in the longer term, a threat to all of us.

Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom. It is freedom that makes us human. Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples. We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human dignity, at home and abroad. None of us knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous. But we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted. Thus, we must use our freedom now, and them and their antisemitism at every turn.

Our work together is a sign of hope, just as the existence and persistence of the Jewish homeland is a sign of hope. And it is here that history serves not to warn but to inspire.

As I said on the 60th anniversary of its founding, the State of Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness. Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations – freedom, democracy, justice.

Canada Stands with Israel
Uploaded by brachot. - News videos from around the world.

Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Excerpt+Harper+speech+Israel+anti+Semitism/3796186/story.html#ixzz14lCp7rGz

This is the 7^th time that such an activity takes place, and this year – with a total of 170 events – marks the largest national antisemitism counter campaign. The purpose of this series of events is to discuss contemporary and historical antisemitism. "20 years after the Wall fell, it is important to let the public witness contemporary antisemitism", said Anetta Kahane, the chairwoman of the board of directors of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in the press conference.

"Antisemitism hasn't changed over hundreds of years. Today, criticism against Israel is often the excuse behind antisemitism", said Stephan Kremer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. He claimed that the hostility towards Israel is the main focus, where antisemitism disguises itself as legitimate criticism towards the state of Israel – e.g. the comparison between Israel's current policies with those of the Nazis.

Press release about the launch of the campaign

The activities of the counter antisemitism campaign

The counter antisemitism week is promoted by the Federal Office for Family Matters, the Elderly, Women and Youth.

The Pope was greeted by a leadership delegation in Rome led by Robert G. Sugarman, ADL National Chair, Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, and Rabbi Eric Greenberg, ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs.

"Thank you for what you do. It is very important what you do," the pontiff told the ADL leaders. "Continue what you do." When asked if he would continue to condemn antisemitism, the Pope replied: "I will, you know I will."

Mr. Foxman, a Holocaust survivor who has had numerous previous audiences with Pope Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, made brief remarks about the growing threats Israel faces as some in the international community seek to isolate the Jewish state.

He asked the pontiff to use the Church's moral authority to help prevent Israel from being made a pariah by its enemies. "Please do not permit the world to isolate Israel," Mr. Foxman said, to which Pope Benedict replied, "I will be there."

This is CST’s third annual report on antisemitic discourse. It is being published now to coincide with the conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, being held in Ottawa, Canada. (This is the second such international conference, and follows last year’s inaugural London event, which was hosted by the Foreign Office, with CST helping to co-organise the parallel Experts Forum.)

The Discourse Report may be read in pdf format here at the publications section of CST’s website. (Note, the report is 58 pages in length, including graphics.)

As in previous years, the report examines public discussion of antisemitism, Jews and Jewish issues in mainstream media and politics. Explicit antisemitism remains uncommon in mainstream British discourse and it is not the report’s intention to brand those who feature in it as being antismites.

Nevertheless, old antisemitic motifs remain remarkably persistent, especially in relation to Zionism and Israel; and it is hoped that this report will help explain why CST, the Jewish community and many other observers note and fear the ongoing development of this trend.

In particular, this year’s report examines the increased mainstreaming of a relatively new charge, whereby Israel is compared to Nazi Germany and Israel’s supporters are compared to Nazis. This causes significant upset to Jews and is an antisemitic abuse of the memory of the Holocaust.

Other sections of the report include:

How antisemitic conspiracy themes endure in modern depictions ofAmerican Jewry, and of “Zionists” and “Zionism” generally, including here in Britain.

The play “Seven Jewish Children”, which typified the emerging trend to depict Israel and Zionism as a mass Jewish psychological reaction to the trauma of the Holocaust.

The revival of the medieval Blood Libel, claiming that Jews steal children in order to use their blood. This returned as a shocking example of how antisemitic rumours sweep through today’s global village.

A section noting numerous public declarations against antisemitism during 2009, including from Government, commentators and BritishMuslims.

(Hard copies of the report may be obtained direct from CST’s office.)

The graphic below features on the cover of the report. It shows a sticker found on the University of Manchester campus in January 2009. It is anti-Zionist and anti-American, but is also antisemitic due its grotesque abuse of Nazi imagery (i.e. the swastika inside the Star of David, flanked by SS death’s head insignia).

Shoppers Drug Mart said that it will no longer sell Adbusters, an anti-consumerist/activist magazine based in Vancouver.

Lisa Gibson, a spokeswoman for the Shoppers, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the decision was unrelated to a campaign by the Canadian Jewish Congress against the magazine, which in its last issue ran a photo essay equating Israel's military actions in Gaza with the Holocaust.

The CJC had urged supporters to go to stores where the magazine is sold, show the essay to the cashier and say: "This is antisemitic and shameful," and walk away.

Nassau County police charged Demetrios Apolonides with nine counts of aggravated harassment.

Seventh Squad detectives said the 37-year-old, while employed as a driver for XYZ Car Service, threw 1-inch by 3-inch pieces of paper with the message written in black marker onto the streets throughout various locations between September 2009 and March 2010.

The statement by the Nobel prize laureates says: "Academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom, antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin. Instead of fostering peace, [they] are likely to be counterproductive to the dynamics of reconciliation that lead to peace.”

Statement of Nobel Laureates on Academic BDS Actions Against Israeli Academics, Israeli Academic Institutions and Academic Centers and Institutes of Research and Training With Affiliations in Israel   Believing that academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are: * antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom, * antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and * may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin, We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, appeal to students, faculty colleagues and university officials to defeat and denounce calls and campaigns for boycotting, divestment and sanctions against Israeli academics, academic institutions and university-based centers and institutes for training and research, affiliated with Israel. Furthermore, we encourage students, faculty colleagues and university officials to promote and provide opportunities for civil academic discourse where parties can engage in the search for resolution to conflicts and problems rather than serve as incubators for polemics, propaganda, incitement and further misunderstanding and mistrust. We, and many like us, have dedicated ourselves to improving the human condition by doing the often difficult and elusive work to understand complex and seemingly unsolvable phenomena. We believe that the university should serve as an open, tolerant and respectful, cooperative and collaborative community engaged in practices of resolving complex problems.   Sidney Altman Yale University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989 Lawrence Klein University of Pennsylvania Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980 Kenneth Arrow Stanford University Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972 Walter Kohn University of California Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998 Robert J. Aumann Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nobel Prize in Economics, 2005 Roger D. Kornberg Stanford University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2006 Mario Capecchi University of Utah Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2007 Harold Kroto Florida State University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996 Aaron Ciechanover Technion Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004             Finn Kydland University of California Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004 Claude Cohen-Tannoudji École Normale Supérieure Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997 Leon Lederman Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Nobel Prize in Physics, 1988 Robert Curl Rice University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996 Tony Leggett University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003 Edmond H. Fischer University of Washington Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992 Robert Lucas, Jr. University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 1995 Jerome Friedman Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990 Rudolph A. Marcus California Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1992 Andre Geim Manchester University Nobel Prize in Physics, 2010             Roger Myerson University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007 Sheldon Glashow Boston University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979 George A. Olah University of Southern California Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1994 David Gross University of California Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004 Douglas Osheroff Stanford University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996 James Heckman University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 2000             Martin L. Perl Stanford University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1995 Avram Hershko Technion Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004 Andrew V. Schally University of Miami Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977 Roald Hoffman Cornell University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981 Richard R. Schrock Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2005 Russell Hulse University of Texas Dallas Nobel Prize in Physics, 1993 Phillip A. Sharp Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993 Tim Hunt London Research Institute Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2001 Steven Weinberg University of Texas at Austin Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979 Daniel Kahneman Princeton University Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002             Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize, 1986 Eric Kandel Columbia University Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000             Torsten Wiesel Rockefeller University Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981

“We have Tea Party members in the NAACP,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous. He said he has no problem with the existence of the groups, and knew that most of the members were sincere people of good will. He said he has a problem “When the Tea Party members are silent and do not loudly condemns racial hate speech.” Jealous and representatives of the National Council of La Raza, Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, and the Communications Workers of America spoke at a telephone press conference announcing the release of the report.

Report coauthor Leonard Ziskind said the passionate movement is like a tornado, which picks up people on the outside, who do not know what is in the center.

Devin Burghart is the other author of the report. Gathering the information took more than a year, he said. Burghart said they used a variety of investigative reporting techniques, such as freedom of information act requests, statistical analysis, computer aided reporting, attendance at rallies and meetings and old-fashioned digging in archives.

Roan Garcia-Quintana of South Carolina is named in the report as an adviser to the “2010 Tax Day Tea Party and member of ResistNet, [who] also serves on the National Board of Directors of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), the lineal descendent of the Council of White Citizens.” The Council of White Citizens was a group opposed to the end of Jim Crow and an affiliate of the Ku Klux Klan during the civil rights movement. Messages to Garcia-Quintana and to other Tea Party representatives were not returned by press deadline. The Washington Post said Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots coordinator, rejected the report's findings. She said the Tea Party only articulates the values of free markets, limited government, and fiscal responsibility.