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Canada’s crackdown on online antisemitism is an example worth following, says the Jewish head of Australia’s Online Hate Prevention Institute

“Antisemitism 2.0.”

That’s what Andre Oboler, CEO of Australia’s Online Hate Prevention Institute, calls what is happening on online social media platforms today.

“Prior to 2008, it did not exist because the platforms did not exist,” he said. “It’s a different world today.”

Oboler, who was in Winnipeg January 27-28 to speak about online antisemitism at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, spoke with The CJN about the growing threat of online antisemitism in Australia and around the world.

Since Oct. 7, his institute, which monitors online hate, has seen a 400 percent rise in antisemitism on social media platforms.

“The biggest increases are in the platforms dominated by the far right,” he said. “But it is growing everywhere.”

While the Australian government and police forces are actively addressing antisemitic attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools and businesses, they dedicate almost no time or effort to online antisemitism, he said.

Oberler, who is Jewish, appreciates those responses—he understands the fear being felt by the 117,000 or so Jews in Australia. “There is an antisemitic act somewhere in the country almost on a daily basis now,” he said.

 In January, police in Sydney reported they foiled a possible antisemitic attack when a trailer with explosives was discovered. Cars and homes have also been vandalized with swastikas and other graffiti.

But those physical manifestations of antisemitism are made possible by the hate people see online, he added.

“Antisemitism online normalizes it,” he said, noting this is also of concern to Muslims in Australia. “People become conditioned to accept it.”

While governments in Australia are increasing the physical security for the Jewish community, they aren’t doing much about what is happening online. “Nothing is being done to address hate towards whole communities on social media,” he stated.

The Australian Jewish community is also not taking the challenge seriously, he said, noting they are more focused on antisemitism in mainstream media. While that’s important, the mainstream media is not where most younger people get their news and information, he said.

“The impact of social media on those people is not fully recognized by the community,” Oboler said.

The social media platforms aren’t much help either, since they have become reliant on artificial intelligence to decide what is hateful and what isn’t.

“Many times it decides it isn’t hate speech when it’s clearly antisemitic,” he said, adding the only recourse is try to connect with an human being to draw attention to the hateful posts.

In 2023, Facebook and Instagram stopped allowing links to news stories in protest of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which mandated that digital companies pay news organizations when readers reach a link to a news story.

The recent decrease in fact-checking at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, only makes the challenge even greater, Oboler said.

For this reason, the Facebook ban on posting news from mainstream media outlets in Canada is “ridiculous,” he stated.

“There’s no block on sharing disinformation and hate, but there’s a ban on professional journalism that can correct disinformation and counter hate,” he said.

Oboler praised the Online Harms Act, which the Liberal government had proposed before Parliament was prorogued.

The act, which has died on the Order Paper in the House of Commons due to prorogation, sought to hold online platforms accountable for harmful content and require them to create safety measures to protect users.

The bill had been criticized by the Opposition Conservatives for curbing free speech and adding a costly layer of bureaucracy.  

For Oboler, the proposed legislation is a model for Australia to follow—and he hopes it can be resurrected in the future in Canada.

Ben Carr, Liberal MP for Winnipeg South Centre, isn’t sure that will happen. “Even if we do go back, I’m not sure the government would survive long enough for it to pass,” he said.

According to David Cooper, vice-president for government relations for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the organization remains concerned about online hate directed at Jews in Canada and all other targeted communities.

 “While gaps need to be filled in Canada’s legislation, we urge our leaders and authorities to enforce all existing laws to protect Canadians from the impacts of hatred and radicalization,” he said.

The post Canada’s crackdown on online antisemitism is an example worth following, says the Jewish head of Australia’s Online Hate Prevention Institute appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Colombia Appoints First Ambassador to ‘State of Palestine’ Amid Deepening Rift With Israel

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro speaks during the inauguration of the International Book Fair (FilBo) in Bogota, Colombia, April 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

Colombia has appointed its first ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, marking a significant diplomatic shift a year after severing ties with Israel and pledging to open an embassy in Ramallah.

On Monday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro officially appointed Jorge Iván Ospina — former mayor of Cali, Colombia’s third most populous city — as the country’s first ambassador to the “State of Palestine.”

A close ally of Petro, Ospina is well known for his outspoken hostility toward Israel following the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

He has previously sparked controversy by comparing the Israel Defense Forces’ campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group to the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during World War II.

In a post on X, Ospina publicly confirmed his appointment, expressing solidarity with the “heroic Palestinian people.” He also pledged to “denounce the ongoing genocide that the Palestinian people are suffering today” and to dedicate himself to advancing their freedom and dignity.

The Colombian diplomat indicated that it is still uncertain whether he will carry out his duties from Ramallah in the West Bank or operate from a neighboring country.

“We will need to discuss with Israel and determine the necessary steps to enable the establishment of the Colombian embassy in Ramallah,” Ospina told AFP. “We recognize that the Palestinian state and the State of Israel must coexist.”

This latest move builds on Colombia’s 2018 official recognition of “Palestine.” According to Ospina, the new embassy will prioritize securing the release of Colombian-Israeli citizen Elkana Bohbot, supporting humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and advancing the recognition of a two-state solution.

Despite decades of close diplomatic and military ties — with Jerusalem supplying Colombia with warplanes, surveillance technology, and assault rifles since the 1990s — Petro severed relations with the Jewish state last year.

On Monday, the Colombian president called on the United States to help stop what he described as “the genocide in Gaza,” while condemning Israel’s defensive campaign in the enclave.

“In the fight for their lives, there are girls trying to survive the bombing of a school by Netanyahu, the genocidal man,” Petro said in a post on X, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “There is a decisive complicity in producing this horror in the US and the EU. What we see is produced by Nazis.”

Colombia has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s actions, with Petro backing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza. Israel adamantly rejects the allegations.

The Latin American country has also joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the Jewish state of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli leaders have condemned the case as an “obscene exploitation” of the Genocide Convention, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

Last year, the ICJ ruled there was “plausibility” to South Africa’s claims that Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide. However, the top UN court did not make a determination on the merits of South Africa’s allegations, nor did it call for Israel to halt its military campaign.

Instead, the ICJ issued a more general directive that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide. The ruling also called for the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist group’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The post Colombia Appoints First Ambassador to ‘State of Palestine’ Amid Deepening Rift With Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Children Attacked in London, Harassed in New York Amid Rising Antisemitism

A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) car. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The growing wave of antisemitism across the globe continued to crash down on Jewish teens and children with incidents Monday in the United Kingdom and Friday in New York.

A Jewish teen required hospitalization after a group of approximately seven men used a knife to attack him and two other Jewish boys at northwest London’s Hampstead Underground Station on Monday evening. Police have opened an investigation into the assault and robbery as racially motivated. Hampstead is one of the country’s largest Jewish communities, with a 2021 Jewish population of 8,851.

Jewish security agency Shomrim stated on X that it was “appealing for any witnesses to the incident which took place or anyone with information to come forward … Shomrim is supporting the victims, and we encourage anyone who has been affected or who has experienced any form of antisemitism to get in touch. Shomrim specializes in reporting and supporting victims of antisemitic crime.”

London saw a previous antisemitic attack against adolescents in London on Nov. 25, 2024, when a man threw glass bottles from a high-rise balcony, targeting Jewish girls, one of whom required hospitalization from a head injury.

In February, the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, said that 2024 included 3,528 recorded antisemitic incidents across the UK, the second worst year in the country’s history, following 2023. This included 260 cases at schools, 223 at synagogues or with congregants as victims, and 1,240 taking place on the internet.

Mark Gardner, the CST’s chief executive, praised “the defiance and pride that our community has shown, despite everything it has been through” and described how “those who are complicit in this antisemitism range from social media giants to the Islamist and far left extremists who celebrated the Hamas terror attacks.”

Students in Brooklyn also experienced antisemitism, when they reported their charter school’s bus driver pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road in order to evangelize his religious beliefs, including the claim of collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This resulted in one Jewish pupil crying and the students arriving 30 minutes late to class at Brooklyn Prospect International Elementary Charter School, the New York Post reported.

The driver reportedly said, “The only one who can deliver you isn’t religion, it’s Jesus.”

In response to a student’s question about Jesus and Judaism, the driver said, “Yes, he was a Jew and basically Jews — his own kind — killed him.” He added, “They basically killed him because he said he was the son of God … These were religious leaders who killed him.” Some students texted their parents in real time during the driver’s antisemitic sermonizing. At one point he distributed white hats with black crosses and asked students to pray with him.

One parent told the New York Post that the driver “definitely held the kids captive.”

The school has since suspended the as-yet unnamed driver, sent a note to parents informing them of the incident, filed a complaint with the service who provided him, and requested a new person to fill the role.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents recorded 860 incidents (9 percent of the total nationwide) in K-12 schools in the US, a decrease of 26 percent from 2023. The most prominent of these antisemitic acts was swastika vandalism.

The Brooklyn school bus incident took place just two days before a protest outside the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, which resulted in police officers removing the demonstrators. The activists seemed intent on disrupting members of the global Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism as they were conducting a Torah ceremony.

According to the ADL’s audit, New York — the state with the largest Jewish population in the US — led the country in antisemitic incidents, with 15 percent of the total. The incidents included 912 cases of harassment (second highest nationally), 443 acts of vandalism (highest nationally), and 82 assaults (highest nationally). Comparable to the country as a whole, 58 percent of the state’s incidents included anti-Israel sentiment. New York’s colleges also experienced more incidents than those of any other state.

Sixty-eight percent of incidents occurred in New York City. The ADL reported that “the targeting of Orthodox Jews has become particularly concerning, with Brooklyn alone — home to numerous Orthodox Jewish communities — accounting for 39 percent of all assaults in the state. This reflects a dangerous pattern of escalating violence against visibly Jewish individuals.”

The post Jewish Children Attacked in London, Harassed in New York Amid Rising Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘Pod Save America’ Hosts Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’

Pod Save America hosts on tour. Photo: Screenshot

On a recent episode of Pod Save America, hosts Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor, alumni of the former Obama administration, slammed Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza as a “genocide” and accused the Jewish state of killing at least 100,000 people in the enclave — a number that even exceeds the figures put out by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

“[The Palestinians] are — this is a population that lives in a place that has been entirely destroyed, right. Like almost every structure destroyed or damaged,” said Rhodes, an adviser and speechwriter in former US President Barack Obama’s White House. “I talked about in the interview, but like the death toll is much higher than you know they can report anymore. It’s probably like somewhere over 100,000 people. They’ve not let any food into the Gaza Strip.”

Rhodes dismissed Israel’s new plan to control aid distribution in Gaza, arguing that the Jewish state has only allowed a “dribble” of food to be delivered to civilians. He falsely accused Israel of “entirely killing civilians at this point,” not mentioning the military campaign is aimed at targeting Hamas.

“That’s a genocide,” Rhodes said. “And people don’t like to hear that term, but I don’t really know what other what the military rationale is to starve children and bomb innocent people in tents.”

After a two-month pause, Israel has allowed aid trucks to resume entering the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, around 170 trucks entered Gaza on Monday. Since allowing aid deliveries to restart last week, over 600 aid trucks have been allowed into the war-torn enclave. Israel says that it ceased aid deliveries to pressure Hamas, the terrorist group which rules Gaza and regularly steals aid for its own purposes, to release the remaining hostages it kidnapped from southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Vietor, who also served as a speechwriter for Obama, then cited Drop Site, a new pro-Palestinian news outlet, as a “great” publication that, according to him, has done valuable work in hiring journalists to document the ongoing war in Gaza. However, critics have accused Drop Site of being apoloigists for Hamas. The outlet’s lead reporter, Jeremy Scahill, has described Hamas as a “resistance,” echoing the terminology used by supporters of the internationally designated terrorist group.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza, the Pod Save America podcast, known for its sharp Democratic analysis and former Obama staffer hosts, has struggled to address the ongoing war in Gaza with the same clarity and confidence that characterizes much of its political commentary. While the hosts have tackled other contentious issues, their discussions on Gaza have been sporadic, cautious, and often notably brief, drawing criticism from some longtime listeners.

The show, which typically provides liberal commentary on American politics, has appeared hesitant to engage deeply with the complex dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Initial episodes after Oct. 7 expressed horror at the violence but largely emphasized Israel’s right to self-defense. As civilian casualties mounted and global criticism of Israel’s military actions grew, the podcast’s treatment of the topic remained limited — often sidelined in favor of domestic political issues such as the 2024 US presidential election.

The reticence to engage in discussions centered around the Israel-Hamas war has sparked disappointment among parts of the show’s progressive audience, particularly younger listeners who have pushed for a more critical stance on US foreign policy and military aid to Israel. 

Additionally, the show has also been under pressure from progressive staffers, who have urged the show’s hosts to adopt a more critical stance against Israel. According to reports, many of the show’s staffers wear keffiyehs — a traditional Arab headdress that has been repurposed after Oct. 7 to indicate support for the Palestinian cause.

The post ‘Pod Save America’ Hosts Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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