Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents

(January 2000)

General

A relatively small number of violent anti-Jewish incidents were reported in January, but anti-Semitic propaganda intensified throughout the world. Special mention should be made of anti-Semitic overtones in the Arab press.

Anti-Semitic Attacks and Incidents

France - On 8 January, 2000 in Bordeaux, during the Sabbath prayer service, two skinheads, accompanied by three Rottweiler dogs, burst through a door of the synagogue and began cursing and reviling the guards there. After a short argument, the skinheads spat at the guards and promised to return armed and to shoot them. The police were summoned immediately.

Mexico - In Mexico City, on the night between 13-14 January, 2000, a car stopped in front of the Jewish 'Tarbut' school and its passengers threw stones at the school, shattering window panes. No one was hurt, however, a similar incident occurred at the same time opposite the Jewish 'Yiddishe' school. The stones broke window panes and injured the local guard.

U.S. - A synagogue was desecrated in Littlerock on 24 January, 2000.

Swastikas

U.S. - Unknown persons drew swastikas and abusive slogans on the walls of the 'Bamidbar' synagogue in Lancaster.

On 4 January, 2000, unknown persons drew swastikas and abusive slogans on the 'Emmanuel' synagogue in San Jose. The slogans attacked the Jews and Israel.

Threats

The Netherlands - On 5 January, 2000 in Amsterdam, an unknown person called the Jewish newspaper editorial office and informed that a bomb had been planted in the building where additional Jewish and Israeli bodies are also located. The local police were summoned but refused to come to the place claiming it was a false alarm.

Slovenia - An anonymous phone call making derogatory remarks and threatening the life of the head of the community in Lubliana was made by a caller who said he belonged to a skinhead group.

Propaganda

Arab countries - The Arab media continues writing abusive articles against Israel and the Jews. For example, the official press in Syria accuses Israel of 'Nazi' behaviour and the Zionist movement of persecuting historians whose ideas regarding the holocaust contradict Jewish claims.

Syria - In a discussion held by the U.N.'s ECOSOC NGO Committee on the request of the Hadassah organization in the U.S. to receive advisory status, the Syrian representative took the floor and claimed, among other things, that 'Zionism is based on expulsion, terrorism, stealing resources and land, and racial superiority.'

Australia - After his release from prison in Germany, Frederick Toben, the well-known Holocaust denier, began a lecture tour throughout Australia. His institute's Internet site advertised that his lectures would deal with his arrest in Germany, with research he conducted at a Polish concentration camp, with the 'witch hunt' against Konrad Kalejs, and the libel trial currently underway in London between David Irving and Deborah Lipstadt.

On 10 January, in Melbourne, abusive slogans were drawn on the wall of a train station in the Richmond suburb. The slogans said, 'Kill more Jews' and 'Konrad Kalejs forever!'

On 10 January , on the main street in Sydney, pamphlets were distributed attacking Jewish community leaders and 'victims of the Holohaux'.

On 16 January, an anti-Semitic slogan 'Jews! Die!' appeared on a wall at a main intersection in the Doncaster area in Melbourne.

Many abusive letters and Holocaust denial material were sent in January to Jewish organizations and community centres and private homes in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland.

U.S. - A series of accusing letters were sent in recent weeks from North Carolina to the offices of the American Jewish Committee throughout the U.S. The letters bore swastikas and used the expressions 'Rahowa' and 'Racial War' which are slogans of white supremacist groups such as the World Church of the Creator. The letters also threatened an escalation of violence against human rights activists, Jews and Blacks.

The largest auction site 'E-BAY' sells accessories used by the Nazis during the war, such as SS flags, swastikas and other items.

Ukraine - The Ukrainian media recently published bluntly anti-Semitic articles. In one of them, which was published in the government 'Idealist' newspaper in Lvov, the Jews were called 'inhuman creatures'. There was a call for destroying the Jews physically, including technical details to achieve this goal, such as establishing and preparing a semi-underground army of small youth groups. Another article published in the youth newspaper 'Dzherektze' in Kharkov, gave a collection of anti-Semitic sayings, such as: 'whoever kills a Jew, is atoned for 40 sins.'

Belarus - A book was published in Minsk called 'The Despicable War', which is a collection of articles accusing 'World Jewry' of the economic and moral deterioration of Russia and the Slavic people. A large part of the book is devoted to Holocaust denial.

France - On 18 January, 2000 in Paris, a number of activists from the radical right-wing organization 'GUD' broke into the main square of La Sorbonne University. They burned an Israeli flag and shouted 'Death to the Jews!' and 'The Intifada will win', and distributed pamphlets supporting Yehieh Ayash and Palestinian terrorism against Israel.

El Salvador - An article was published in the 'La Prenca Grafica' newspaper, written by the Evangelist priest Edgar Lopez Bertrand (Brother Toby), which said that God does not forgive the People of Israel 'for what they did to Jesus'. This is not the first time that Brother Toby has taken stands and expressed opinions that border on anti-Semitism.

Taiwan - A new theme restaurant was opened on the subject of prisons and used pictures of Nazi concentration camps. The restaurant manager claimed that showing pictures of starving men on wooden bunks in the concentration camps was meant to give the customers the feeling of eating in prison.

Struggle

Britain - The war criminal Anthony Sawoniuk lost the appeal against his conviction of committing war crimes in World War II, thereby becoming the first Nazi war criminal in the history of Britain. Last year Sawoniuk was convicted in a criminal court on two counts of murdering Jews in Belarus in 1942 while serving under the Germans. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Konrad Kalejs, who is suspected of murdering thousands of Jews in World War II, escaped police custody on the way to London airport from where he flew to Australia via Singapore. The British Home Office, which opened deportation proceedings against Kalejs after he was discovered in Britain, did not act on them since he left before the final date determined for his departure. The authorities in Australia, Russia, Latvia, and Britain are currently trying to collect sufficient evidence to extradite Kalejs to Latvia and bring him to trial.

The Netherlands - Three suspects were arrested for desecrating memorial plaques to victims of World War II. One of the memorial plaques was in memory of the Jews of the Hague. The three suspects are apparently members of the Nationalist Socialist Action Front.

Germany - A court in Germany sentenced the lead musician of the Krafshlag' group to two years prison after it rejected his appeal against his conviction for incitement to racial hatred. The 30 year old musician was convicted of singing songs at a concert in 1996 which justified the Nazi murder of Jews and the setting of fire to refugee hostels.

Czech Republic - The prosecutor for the Prague municipality stopped proceedings against Vladimir Skoupy, the leader of the radical right-wing 'National Union' organization. Skoupy was arrested and accused of incitement and racist defamation at a demonstration on Czech Independence Day. Human rights representative Peter Uhl said in response that he had already appealed to the Minister of Justice to change the law since 'denial of the Holocaust was a gross insult not only to the Jewish people, but to all mankind and its struggle against Fascism'.

U.S. - Heads of Jewish organizations intend to appeal to American Airlines to stop a joint campaign with the Palestinian 'Holyland Foundation' after it has been revealed that the Foundation collects funds for Hamas.

A prisoner who admitted murdering a homosexual couple also admitted that he was the one who torched three synagogues in Sacramento last summer. He said he had lit the fires to prove that he was worthy of being accepted into a radical sect. He said eight other skinheads had helped him commit the crime.

Miscellaneous

Britain - On 11 January, a libel suit was opened in London by the Holocaust denier David Irving against Professor Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin publishers. Irving based his prosecution on Professor Lipstadt's book 'Denying the Holocaust : 'The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory' which was published in 1993. The trial is expected to last three months and to be the most comprehensive legal examination of the Holocaust since the Eichmann trial.

Russia - The Russian Jewish umbrella organization is planning to establish a new Zionist group called ' The Zionist Federation of Russia'. This group is to be a member of the World Zionist Organization.

Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry