In Ireland Today, the Antisemitism is So Wide and Deep
That One Despairs
The government of Ireland has just announced that it has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Here is that definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” Most of those adopting that definition also point to various examples of different ways in which that antisemitism is expressed.
Such a decision — to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism — is always to be welcomed, but given how antisemitic many Irish, including those at the very top of the government, have shown themselves to be this past year, in truly hair-raising pronouncements by the Irish president, Michael Higgins, the prime minister Simon Harris, the foreign minister Micheal Martin, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Eamonn Martin, and the head of the Anglican Church in Ireland, Canon David Oxley, it’s hard to see that that adoption of the IHRA will do much good with those people still in office.
Ireland is, said one leader of the Irish Jewish community, the “most antisemitic” of all member states in the EU, and this announcement looks to be more of an attempt to deflect criticism rather than a genuine expression of sympathetic understanding for Jews, a tiny and embattled people fighting a seven-front war, who are now experiencing an increase in antisemitism worldwide that has not been seen since the days of the Nazis. More on what has been going on in Ireland that vitiates its pretense of becoming, if not a supporter of Israel, at least not a relentless and obsessive enemy of both the Jewish state and also of Jews, can be found here:
Ireland Adopts IHRA Definition of Antisemitism Amid Row With Israel
by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, January 17, 2025:
Ireland has announced that it will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, an unexpected policy decision which comes amid a surge of Jew-hatred in the country and a downward spiral in relations with Israel.
“Ireland is committed to countering the scourge of racism and hatred and to promoting values of equality, inclusiveness, and the full respect of human rights,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said in a statement announcing the move on Thursday. “Combating antisemitism is an increasingly important and visible part of this work. I have been deeply concerned at the current trend of a global rise in antisemitism, both online and offline. The government takes this issue seriously and we will continue to tackle all forms of discrimination.”
If Micheal Martin is intent on “combating antisemitism,” will he publicly admonish, for a start, Canon Oxley, who has described Jews as believing that they are a “master race”? Will he ask for President Michael Higgins to explain his bizarre charge that Israel is planning to build a “settlement” in Egypt, or to justify his constant attacks on the IDF for waging a “merciless” war? And what of the endless stream of anti-Israel invective from Prime Minister Simon Harris, who accuses of Israel of the deliberate “starvation of children” and the intentional “killing of civilians”? And what about remarks by Micheal Martin himself, denouncing the IDF’s conduct of the war as a violation of international law, and choosing to join South Africa at the International Court of Justice in accusing Israel of “war crimes” and “genocide,” while ignoring completely all the measures that the IDF takes to warn civilians away from sites about to be targeted? Those endless remarks so full of anti-Israel animus made by every major figure in the Irish government — the president, the prime minister, the minister of foreign affairs —proved too much for the Israelis to stand. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar finally shut down his government’s embassy in Dublin.
Martin continued, “I believe the step taken today will be an important contribution to these efforts. We will also continue our close relationship with the Jewish community in Ireland and ensure that their concerns are heard.”
Martin later followed his announcement with a tweet which emphasized the IHRA definition’s being “non-legally binding,” a point he made again in reference to Ireland’s additional adoption of the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism, which he also described as “non-legally binding.”
Why did Martin stress that the IHRA definition that Ireland now “accepts” is not legally binding? Is he trying to reassure the antisemites in the public not to worry, no laws will be broken if you speak your mind, there will be no penalty for ignoring IHRA? Go ahead, he seems to imply, and say what you really think about Israel and Jews; you are just as free to make antisemitic remarks now as you were before the government adopted IHRA.
Irish textbooks now teach the country’s schoolchildren that Islam strives for “peace and justice,” and Muslims only go to war in self-defense, “not to spread Islam.” Thus are 1400 years of documented aggression by Muslims in many lands and against many peoples, simply ignored. Think of the Christians in North Africa who were forcibly Islamized, from Morocco to Egypt, the Orthodox Christians in Turkey, so many of whom were murdered or agreed to convert in order to avoid the wretched status of dhimmis, forced to pay the jizyah to the Islamic state. Don’t forget the Zoroastrians of the Persian Empire who were conquered by Muslim Arabs, who Islamized, or killed, its inhabitants (some Zoroastrians fled to India, where they became known as “Parsis”). And don’t forget the 70-80 million Hindus who were murdered by Muslim conquerors during the several hundred years of Mughal rule. Yet in Irish textbooks, Muslims never resort to war “to spread Islam,” but only to “defend” it. This is an offense against history and the truth. Not just Jews, but all non-Muslims, ought to be outraged.
In Ireland today, the antisemitism is so wide and deep that one despairs. How can the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism drain that swamp, undo so much hatred? Perhaps the spectacle of several thousand well-fed and well-clothed Palestinians (Israeli prisons are like those in Scandinavia), hundreds of them terrorist murderers, being freed by Israel in exchange for some dozens of malnourished and clearly miserably treated men, women, children, and the Bibas babies, will shock some Irish into rethinking their prejudices. Perhaps this grotesque trade of innocents for murderers over the next 42 days during phase one, or over 84 days for phases one and two, will offer some lux in tenebris after all. Call it The Great Awakening.
We can always hope, eh?
South Africa Accused Israel of Starving People.
Its Government Starved Miners to Death.
“This is hunger. People are dying because of hunger”
Western liberals insisted that the ANC in South Africa was not a brutal terrorist organization with strong Communist connections, but a bunch of liberals. No amount of violence before or after its takeover could change their minds.
South Africa’s ANC regime going all in on Hamas only made the international media more enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, the corrupt ANC government had launched a brutal campaign to fight ‘illegal miners’ so that it could control all the money. Some of the miners were gang members, but then so was their government.
And the government decided to do it by denying them food and water until they came out.
This was the same South African government that had falsely accused Israel of genocide, and of denying Gazan Arab Muslim occupiers food and water. Meanwhile, it was actually doing that to its own people, not for carrying out terrorist attacks, but for illegally mining.
The bodies are being hauled out, and so far 78 have been identified. The death toll is likely to rise.
Authorities say the miners are able to come out and are refusing, but that has been disputed by rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticized police tactics in cutting off the miners’ food and water supplies from the surface in an attempt to force them out. The rights groups say many of the miners are effectively dying of starvation and unable to climb out because the shaft is too steep and the ropes and pulley system they used to enter have been removed.
Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to illegally enter them to try and find leftover deposits.
Why is that illegal?
Large groups of illegal miners often go underground for months to maximize their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on others in their group on the surface to send down more supplies.
Rights activists said the only way out is for miners to make a dangerous trek to another shaft, which can take days, and crawl out there. They said many of the miners are too weak or ill to climb out.
The cellphone videos purportedly from the depths of the mine are filmed by a man who can be heard saying, “This is hunger. People are dying because of hunger,” as he records emaciated-looking men sitting on the damp floor of the mine. He adds: “Please help us. Bring us food or take us out.”
South African Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters in November that the government would not help the miners, which they considered “criminals.”
“We are not sending help to criminals,” she said, according to local media. “We are going to smoke them out. They will come out.”
They are coming out, feet first! Did this sort of thing happen when Afrikaners were running the country?
The actual criminals are the ANC regime. But don’t expect the ICC or the UN to do anything about these monsters who starved people to death for mining.
That’s reserved only for those who resist Islamic terrorism.
Hundreds of people to read the names of 104,000 Camp Westerbork holocaust victims
A spokesperson for the memorial center said that the start of the fifth edition was well attended, and several thousand names had been read by the end of the afternoon. There is space for approximately 75 to 100 visitors in a tent on the former site.
Eva Weyl, an 89-year-old who was a prisoner in Camp Westerbork during the Second World War, was scheduled to read the first names along with her granddaughter on Wednesday. The first victim that was named is Anna Aa, a toddler from Amsterdam. Aa was killed in the Sobibor extermination camp with her parents and sister during the Second World War.
According to Minco, it is "no small thing" to read out the names of Holocaust victims. Each participant reads out about 150 names in a ten-minute reading session. "But it is a way to pay tribute to all those women, men and children," said Bertien Minco the director of the Westerbork Camp Memorial Center. He said it is like a living monument to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust in this manner.
Several mayors, including Femke Halsema (Amsterdam), Jan van Zanen (The Hague), Sybrand Buma (Leeuwarden), and Peter Snijders (Zwolle) will take turns reading names on Wednesday. The same will happen in the following days with several other mayors, parliamentarians, presenters, writers, and artists.
Among them are Arnon Grunberg and Jessica Durlacher. The presenters include Janine Abbring, Jeroen Wollaars, and Ruben Nicolai. Two of the reading sessions will be skipped on Friday in connection with the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest for the Jewish community. The ending of the Sabbath will be marked a day later, by skipping one reading session.
The last name that will be read out on Monday, January 27, is Henrich Zysmanowicz, who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942 at 19 years old. There will have been a total of 104,000 names read out of Jews, Sinti, and Roma, most of whom were deported from the Netherlands during World War II to be killed by the Nazis. This year will mark the first time that names will also be read of Jewish fugitives from Germany and Austria, and of Dutch people who were deported from Belgium and France.
The Namen Lezen event can be followed via the live stream of NOS and at the location itself in Drenthe. People planning on visiting the reading do not have to make special arrangements prior in advance
Australia investigating if overseas actors
funding anti-Semitic activities
Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Australian Federal Police said it has opened an investigation on Wednesday to determine if local criminals are being paid by "overseas actors of individuals" to commit anti-Semitic acts there.
An AFP task force created in December reported more than 166 anti-Semitic-linked crimes in that month in Australia. A childcare center was attacked with anti-Semitic graffiti earlier along with other incidents, sparking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to call an emergency cabinet meeting.
"We are looking into whether any young people are involved in carrying out some of these crimes, and if they have been radicalized online and encouraged to commit anti-Semitic acts," AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said in a statement.
"Regardless, it all points to the same motivation: demonizing and intimidating the Jewish community. Intelligence is not the same as evidence. We are building evidence, and I want to reiterate, that more charges are expected soon by the AFP."
The AFP said a special operation, dubbed Avalite, is investigating 15 serious allegations among the crimes it has uncovered.
"All lines of inquiry are being open to investigations, including what anonymizing technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices, have been used to commit these crimes," Kershaw said.
Cryptocurrency may have been used to pay off the suspects and those exchanges may be harder to track down, Kershaw said.
The Jewish Council of Australia called for help and continued discussions to combat anti-Semitism there.
"These acts underscore the urgent need for cooperation, education, and community dialogue to combat prejudice and promote understanding [it]," the council said.
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Police make arrest in Sydney synagogue arson case
Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Authorities in Australia on Wednesday announced the arrest of a 33-year-old man accused of vandalizing and attempting to set fire to a Sydney synagogue earlier this month.
The arrest comes as police in the southeastern state of New South Wales crack down on anti-Semitic crimes amid a slew of attacks and vandalism targeting Australia's Jewish community.
"We will leave no stone unturned in combating rampant anti-Semitism and violence in our community," NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters during a press conference. "It will never be tolerated."
The unnamed suspect was arrested overnight Tuesday by detectives with Strike Force Pearl, a police task force launched to crack down on rising anti-Semitic crimes in the state.
The arrest occurred as the detectives were executing search warrants at two addresses on Pyrmont Bridge Road, in Camperdown in neighboring Victoria state, the NSW Police Force said in a statement.
The man was initially taken to the hospital under police guard before being transported to Surry Hills Police Station, where he was charged with several offenses in connection to the Jan. 11 attempted arson attack targeting a synagogue in Sydney's inner west suburb of Newtown.
Police said two people were seen spray-painting graffiti on the fence and building of the synagogue and are believed to have attempted to light it on fire.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters during the press conference that they expect to make a second arrest in the case "shortly."
Strike Force Pearl has now arrested nine people in connection to four crimes targeting the state's Jewish community.
However, the state has been plagued by a string of such attacks that go back to at least October, with the most recent incident occurring Friday, when a number of vehicles and the home of a former Jewish community leader were damaged.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the Friday incident "another anti-Semitic attack that is against everything that we stand for."
"There's more to do, but if you have committed or you are thinking about committing one of these offense, expect a knock on your door," Yasmin Catley, minister of police and counter terrorism in NSW, said in the press conference.
"It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but let me tell you, it will come."
The crimes come as the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia soared amid Israel's war against Iran-backed Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people.
According to a report published late last year by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, there were more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents tallied during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, marking an increase of 316% compared to the same period a year prior.
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