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Holocaust Memorials Defaced in Belgium, Germany as Antisemitism Continues to Spike in Europe
“Escalate for we are all equal! Palestine everyone!” was spray-painted over a Holocaust memorial in downtown Brussels. Photo: Screenshot
Holocaust memorials in Belgium and Germany were defaced this week, as antisemitism continued to skyrocket to record levels in Europe following the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
In Brussels — the capital of Belgium and the seat of the European Union — a memorial for Nazi resistance fighters at park Bois de le Cambre was defaced with a white swastika and Celtic cross, a symbol often used by neo-Nazis.
A memorial dedicated to resistance fighters in Brussels was defaced with a swastika and Celtic cross. Photo: Screenshot
The memorial was dedicated last year to Belgium resistance fighters Youra Livchitz, Jean Franklemon, and Robert Maistriau. During World War II, the trio managed to stop a Nazi train carrying Jews from Belgium to Auschwitz. In the ensuing chaos, roughly 200 Jews were able to escape.
Meanwhile a Holocaust memorial dedicated to the people of Belgium on the walls of Mont des Arts Square in downtown Brussels was targeted by anti-Israel graffiti calling for violence against Jews. “Escalate, for we are all equal! Palestine, everyone!” the message read.
Eitan Bergman, secretary-general of Belgium’s Jewish community organization CCOJB, tweeted in response to the graffiti incidents, “Whether you are Jewish or their saviors, for these fools you are guilty. Sad, scary.”
Germany too has fallen victim to the uptick in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7. In Weimar, at least seven stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks in the sidewalk meant to mark Jewish homes seized by the Nazis, were defaced with the message “Jews are perpetrators.”
Stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks, defaced in Weimar, Germany with the phrase “Juden sind tater” or “Jews are perpetrators.” Photo: Screenshot
According to the European Jewish Congress (EJC), an organization representing European Jewry, the disturbing phrase was also used in a graffiti incident at Germany’s Achava Festival and on other Holocaust memorials. Police are investigating whether there is a connection to the latest incident in Weimar.
“This shameful act of disrespect towards Shoah victims must be unequivocally condemned and those responsible held accountable,” the EJC posted on X/Twitter in response to the desecration of Weimar’s stolpersteine.
The incidents came after a Holocaust memorial in Paris was defaced last month with painted blood-red hands in what French authorities and Jewish leaders described as a “hateful rallying cry against Jews.”
Europe has experienced an explosion of antisemitic incidents in the wake of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, and amid the ensuing war in Gaza. In many countries, anti-Jewish hate crimes have spiked to record levels.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany last year, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Notably, Brussels has witnessed several troubling antisemitic incidents. In April, for example, the home of a Belgian Holocaust survivor was spray-painted with the words “Gaza Free” and a swastika. Last month, a 64-year-old Israel tourist was attacked by a mob in the Belgian city of Bruges and suffered a broken jaw after he and his daughter removed an anti-Israel sticker in a train station.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.