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Antisemitic Gang Attacks Participants of Pride Parade in Sweden Wearing Stars of David
Attendees of a pride event wearing Stars of David in Malmö, Sweden were attacked by an antisemitic gang. Photo: Screenshot
Attendees of an LGBTQ+ pride event in Malmö, Sweden wearing Stars of David were attacked by an antisemitic and homophobic gang that hurled insults at the victims while assaulting them, according to Swedish police and videos circulated on social media.
The incident came amid an ongoing surge in antisemitic incidents across Europe following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Swedish police confirmed on Tuesday that pro-Israel participants of the Malmö Pride Parade wearing and displaying rainbow garments and flags with the Star of David embossed on them were stopped, harassed, and assaulted while walking through the streets over the weekend. Police have opened an investigation into the case.
“The Swedish police take this type of crime very seriously and we are actively working on the current case,” a police spokesperson said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Video circulated on social media showed men driving up alongside the pride marchers, verbally harassing them. They then exited the vehicle and were joined by others. The assailants, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern extraction, shoved the pro-Israel attendees and attempting to snatch one of their rainbow Israeli flags while calling them “f—king f—gots” and asking if they “support killing children.”
BREAKING:
Swedish police confirms that 3 participants of the Malmö Gay Pride Parade in Sweden were beaten up for wearing Stars of David.
The migrant men who attacked them said:
– “Do you support killing children?”
– “You f*cking f*ggots”
– “You think I won’t hit a f*g?”
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 8, 2024
Some members of the crowd threw punches at the pride event attendees. One woman wearing a keffiyeh appeared to attempt to calm the mob from escalating the violence.
Police confirmed the video is authentic and depicts the incident they are investigating. Malo Pride reportedly became aware of the assault on Monday and condemned the incident.
Malmö Pride is a four-day annual pride festival that culminates with a large parade through downtown Malmö.
The Swedish town of Malmö received international attention for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year, amid backlash against Israel’s participation in the competition. Israel’s representative, Eden Golan, faced large, anti-Israel demonstrations outside of her hotel room. Facing death threats, Golan was ordered by Israeli security to remain in her hotel room when not competing in Eurovision.
Eden Golan performing “Hurricane” for Israel at the second semi-final for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest at Malmo Arena on May 9, 2024. Photo: Corinne Cumming/EBU
Golan, who placed fifth in the competition with her song “Hurricane,” was encouraged online by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “You’re competing not just in the Eurovision in a proud and very impressive manner, but you are competing successfully in the face of an ugly wave of antisemitism — and you are standing up to it and representing the State of Israel with huge honor,” he said in a message to Golan.
Meanwhile, Jewish members of the LGBTQ+ community have continued to distance themselves from pride events as antisemitism in Europe continues to skyrocket. In London last month, KeshetUK – a Jewish LGBTQ+ network and charity organization in the UK – announced that it would not participate in London’s pride parade, called Pride in London, after organizers accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
KeshetUK cited safety concerns as the reason for not marching. “Against the background of what has been a challenging and at times a complex year for many Jews in the UK, including LGBT+ Jews, some of our friends and congregants have said they do not feel safe marching in the Pride in London event as they have felt in previous years,” said KeshetUK in a joint statement with the London Synagogue for British Jews.
Antisemitic incidents in Sweden have skyrocketed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, the number of reported antisemitic hate crimes increased by a factor of five between 2022 and 2023.
The post Antisemitic Gang Attacks Participants of Pride Parade in Sweden Wearing Stars of David first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.