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Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt Holocaust Remembrance Day Event at Auschwitz

People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

Anti-Israel protesters on Monday disrupted an event at Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland, commemorating the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust by the Nazis.

The International March of the Living, an annual Holocaust education program founded in 1988, brings people from around the world to Poland each year for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day — known as Yom HaShoah — to march on the path leading from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the Nazis’ largest death camp where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II.

Survivors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel joined 55 Holocaust survivors in this year’s march. However, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the coinciding record surge in global antisemitism, anti-Israel protesters gathered near the grounds of Auschwitz, sparking outrage.

Local police put up a barricade to prevent dozens of demonstrators from approaching the marchers, who passed by as the protesters shouted slogans including “stop the genocide.”

Anti-Israel protesters hold flags on the route of the annual International March of the Living, outside former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

Marchers, many of whom carried Israeli flags, responded by changing, “Free Gaza from Hamas!” and singing “Am Yisrael Chai.”

If you would have told me a year ago, that there would be protesters outside Auschwitz while Holocaust survivors are commemorating the Holocaust Memorial Day I would say you’re crazy.
pic.twitter.com/vASGX7llxE

— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) May 6, 2024

Danit Ben David, 87, said she was “outraged” at the scene.

“How dare they come here, on this day,” she told The Algemeiner.

For many of the thousands of marchers this year, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day has taken on less of a historic tone and more of a current one, in light of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that launched the war in Gaza.

“I have always feared for Jewish existence in the face of antisemitism,” Phylis Greenberg Heiderman, president of the International March of the Living, told The Algemeiner. “But never has the fear and dread of the Holocaust been more palpable in our times.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others during their invasion of Israel in what was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Following the onslaught, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, antisemitism incidents skyrocketed to record highs in the US and several other countries, especially in Europe.

Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, noted in a briefing with media from Israel that the scenes the Jewish state witnessed on Oct. 7 amounted to nothing less than a “pogrom.”

Others were more reluctant to draw direct comparisons.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told the crowd in a video message: “Although the Holocaust stands alone in the history of human crimes, we have been grieving deep tragedy over the past months. The sickness of blind hatred has been unleashed once again, in our own world and time.”

Hershel Greenblat, an 83-year-old survivor from Atlanta, GA who accompanies students and highschoolers on the march, said he would not visit Auschwitz if it wasn’t for a sense of duty to educate the next generation.

“I don’t come to relive the past. The only reason I come is to be here with the students. To try to educate.”

Greenblat’s parents — from Poland and Ukraine, respectively — were both in the resistance against the Nazis. The octogenarian found his grandmother, for whom he was named, listed in Auschwitz.

Beyond survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7, several Arab and Muslim delegations from Israel and around the world also joined the march. Among them was a delegation organized by Sharaka (“Partnership” in Arabic), a nonprofit organization founded by leaders from Israel and the Gulf following the signing of the Abraham Accords, a series of historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab states brokered with the help of the United States.

The post Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt Holocaust Remembrance Day Event at Auschwitz first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Democrat Announces Primary Challenge Against Anti-Israel New York City Councilwoman

Jewish Democrat Maya Kornberg, an author and senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, has launched a primary challenge to New York City Councilmember Shahana Hanif. Photo: Screenshot

Maya Kornberg, a Jewish Democrat from Brooklyn, New York, has launched a campaign to unseat New York City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif, an outspoken critic of Israel.

Kornberg announced on Tuesday that she will seek to represent District 39 in the New York City Council. Much of the city’s Jewish community has expressed outrage at Hanif over her repeated repudiations of Israel, including her false accusations that the war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza constitutes a “genocide.”

I am thrilled to announce that I’m running for NYC Council in District 39! With the Trump presidency looming, local governance is more important than ever, and the City Council is our best line of defense,” Kornberg wrote on X/Twitter on Tuesday. “Together, I believe we can build a district where everyone can feel happy, safe, and thrive.”

“I’ve dedicated my career to making democracy work better,” Kornberg added in a statement, promising that if elected she will concentrate on “standing up against hate, providing reliable constituent services, and delivering meaningful change for every resident in every corner of the district.”

Kornberg’s decision to enter next June’s Democratic primary contest sets up a showdown between a self-described “pragmatic” liberal and a far-left democratic socialist. Hanif, who represents heavily Jewish neighborhoods in central Brooklyn such as Park Slope, has reportedly enraged her constituents by ignoring concerns about antisemitism and unloading an unrelenting barrage of criticism directed at Israel. 

Following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Hanif issued a statement blaming the Jewish state for the terrorist attacks. 

The root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people. The Occupation has brought violence toward Israelis and Palestinians for over 75 years. There will be no peace unless the rights of all people in this region are respected,” Hanif wrote on X/Twitter on Oct. 13.

Despite Hanif’s presence on New York’s “Taskforce to Combat Hate,” she has reportedly refused to denounce acts of antisemitic vandalism and graffiti around the city. Hanif was also arrested at an October 2023 “ceasefire” rally organized by the anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America organization. At the rally, protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — and held up signs reading “No, I do not condemn Hamas.”

Hanif later participated in the anti-Israel encampments at Columbia University in April. She posted a photo of herself from the center of the encampment, sporting a red keffiyeh and smiling. 

“I’m proud to witness disciplined leadership from students mobilize for peace and against genocide,” Hanif wrote.

The incumbent councilwoman also voted against a resolution to establish “End Jew Hatred Day” in New York City, claiming that it had been brought forth by a “coalition that has concerning ties to far-right politicians who promote problematic and hateful rhetoric.”

Kornberg, who has reportedly spent months fundraising to enter the primary race, is expected to receive substantial backing from the community’s pro-Israel constituents. Many District 39 constituents have expressed exasperation with Hanif’s unwillingness to publicly apologize for her past commentary and hesitance to tackle surging antisemitic hate crimes in the city.

The impending battle between Kornberg and Hanif comes on the heels of New York City experiencing a somewhat rightward shift in the 2024 presidential election. Every single county in the New York City metropolitan area moved toward Trump compared to four years ago, and the Republican president-elect’s margin of defeat in the heavily Democratic city was 16 points narrower than in 2020.

In the wake of last month’s surprising election results, many Democrats are modulating their approach to controversial topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seeking to strike a more moderate tone. Many observers believe the District 39 primary race could indicate whether the deep-blue city has made an enduring shift away from far-left progressivism.

The post Jewish Democrat Announces Primary Challenge Against Anti-Israel New York City Councilwoman first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Orthodox Rabbinical Conference Slams German University for Canceling Lecture by Israeli Historian Benny Morris

Israeli historian Benny Morris in 2024. Photo: Screenshot

The Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany, an influential association of orthodox rabbis, lambasted the University of Leipzig for canceling a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris following anti-Israel student protests described by the school as “understandable, but frightening in nature.”

The Cologne-based group said on Wednesday that it was “shameful to see how quickly an academic institution in Germany is now caving in to aggressive anti-Israeli and antisemitic activism,” German media reported. Instead, the association continued, it is necessary to “resolutely defend the freedom of teaching and science.”

According to the rabbinical conference, young people must be taught to engage with each other at educational institutions rather than shut out opposing views in order to fulfill the post-Nazi promise of “never again.” However, it continued, submitting to aggressive activists rather than protecting constitutional rights is an “alarming signal” and a threat to a free, democratic society.

Morris, one of Israel’s leading public intellectuals, was scheduled to deliver a lecture about extremism and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, at the university on Thursday as part of a lecture series on antisemitism.

However, the school released a statement this past Friday announcing that it had canceled the planned event, citing protests over the lecture and what it described as security concerns.

“Our invitation to Prof. Morris was motivated by the desire to talk about his earlier work, which has had a profound impact on historical research, the university said in its statement. “Unfortunately, Prof. Morris has recently expressed views in interviews and discussions that can be read as offensive and even racist. This has led to understandable, but frightening in nature, protests from individual student groups.”

The University of Leipzig did not elaborate on any specific comments by Morris, whose works include the seminal study The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, first published in 1988, and made a point of noting it did not endorse the historian’s views.

“In principle, inviting speakers to the university does not necessarily mean that we agree with their views, and we firmly distance ourselves from Prof. Morris’ controversial statements,” the school said. “The purpose of the event with him was to engage critically, not to endorse his theses or later statements. In our opinion, science thrives through the exchange of diverse ideas, including those that are challenging or uncomfortable. We trust that our students are able to engage constructively and critically with the guest speaker.”

Various groups including Students for Palestine Leipzig had called for the lecture to be canceled, arguing Morris — who has expressed political opinions associated with both the left and the right — held “deeply racist” views against Palestinians.

“Together with security concerns, the above points mean that Prof. Benny Morris’ lecture will not take place,” the university stated.

Morris, 75, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the decision to cancel the lecture was “disgraceful, especially since it resulted from fear of potential violence by students. It is sheer cowardice and appeasement.”

Despite canceling Morris’ lecture, the University of Leipzig expressed concern about the increased efforts to boycott and marginalize Israeli scholars because they are from the world’s lone Jewish state.

“Regardless of this case, we want to express our concern that a double standard is being established that is being applied to Israeli scholars, who are increasingly marginalized and excluded from events under the pretext of political differences of opinion, while other voices are given unhindered access to the university,” the university said. “This applies, for example, in Leipzig to events by colleagues who are close to the BDS movement, which is classified as a suspected extremist case in Germany. We are far from establishing a culture of cancellations, but the possibility should remain open to be able to discuss difficult and critical voices from both sides in a tough manner.”

 The Algemeiner has reported extensively on wide-ranging efforts across academia to exclude Israeli scholars and institutions in accordance with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.

The post Orthodox Rabbinical Conference Slams German University for Canceling Lecture by Israeli Historian Benny Morris first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Australia Backs UN Resolution Calling for Israel to Pull Out From Gaza, West Bank in Major Policy Shift

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong during Question Time in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Nov. 28, 2024. Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via Reuters Connect

Australia on Tuesday voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, breaking a two-decade pattern of opposing such a measure.

The resolution passed by a vote of 157-8 vote, with Israel and the United States voting no and seven abstentions.

In the measure, the General Assembly called for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “based on the pre-1967 borders,” as well as a peace conference in New York next year, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, to advance diplomatic efforts in making the two-state solution a reality.

The resolution characterized Israel as an “occupying power,” demanding the Jewish state end its presence in Gaza, the West Bank, and eastern Jerusalem — areas described as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” It also called on the UN to recognize the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent state.”

Australia has not voted for such a measure at the UN since 2001. However, Australia’s Ambassador to the UN James Larsen and a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong both said in statements that Tuesday’s vote was meant to work toward peace in the Middle East and a two-state solution. Wong previously called on Israel to “exercise restraint” on Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton blasted the government’s decision to support the UN resolution, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of “selling out” the Jewish community and “abandoning Israel” for electoral purposes.

“The best we can do for peace in the Middle East is defeat Hamas and Hezbollah and make sure their proxy in Iran does not strike with nuclear weapons, or through the Houthis, or others they are finding because innocent women and children are losing their lives,” he told reporters in Sydney.

The vote came amid already flaring tensions between Israel and Australia.

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar summoned Australia’s Ambassador to Israel, Ralph King, for an official reprimand following Canberra’s decision not to grant Israel’s former Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, a visa to enter the country last month.

Saar charged that the decision to prohibit Shaked from visiting Australia was based on “baseless blood libels spread by the pro-Palestinian lobby.”

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke explained that his decision to refuse Shaked’s visa application was rooted in concerns that she would “seriously undermine social cohesion” by speaking about the war in the Middle East, noting her past comments about Palestinians.

Meanwhile, antisemitism in Australia has surged following Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

Antisemitism in Australia quadrupled to record levels over the past year, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, according to a new report published by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), an organization that advocates upholding the civil rights of the country’s some 120,000 Jewish citizens. In many cases, antisemitic incidents were fueled by anti-Israel animus.

Daniel Aghion, president of ECAJ, lambasted Australia’s latest UN vote in comments reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“This is a shameless pursuit of a domestic political agenda that puts [the ruling Labor Party’s] aspirations in vulnerable seats ahead of historic and principled support for a democratic ally,” he said, referring to Australia’s upcoming elections this spring. “For some time now, this government has been chipping away at bipartisan support for Israel and a negotiated end to the conflict. After this latest significant shift, there is very little left.”

David Taragin is a writer based in New York.

The post Australia Backs UN Resolution Calling for Israel to Pull Out From Gaza, West Bank in Major Policy Shift first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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