A Scottish court is to rule on whether anti-Israel protesters are anti-semitic.This county town of Fife, is not exactly a news hot spot. However the small town’s sleepy Sheriff court is about to host a key legal case involving a US student from New York and two anti Israeli protestors who have been charged with racism. This case centers on an incident at nearby St. Andrews University, where two students are facing racially aggravated conduct charges after allegedly making comments and gestures critical of the State of Israel and its flag.Press reports are already in danger of prejudging the case, with headlines such as the one reading “St. Andrews University students in court to face anti-Semitism charges” that ran in the local daily, The Courier.According to one of the charged students, Paul Donnachie, “Whilst in the room at the student residences of an individual who I considered a friend, Chanan Reitblat, I placed my hands down the front of my jeans and onto an Israeli flag which belonged to him, accompanied by comments to the effect that Israel is a terrorist state, and is guilty of many civilian deaths.” He continued, “The action was not malicious. However, it sparked a great deal of political debate amongst our group of friends within our Hall of Residence, whereby the nature of the State of Israel was discussed.”The following day, after hearing that Mr Reitblat had been upset by his actions, Paul says he “wrote a letter stating that, whilst I would not apologize for my opposition to the actions of the Israeli state, I would apologize for the manner in which I chose to mediate my political opinions on this occasion.” Despite this conciliatory action, the following day police officers arrested both Paul and his friend Simon Colchester and held them in custody for 36 hours before they were made to appear in court charged with “threatening and abusive behaviour,” which was subsequently amended to the more sinister charge of “racially aggravated conduct,” a violation of the Criminal Law. Basically the case turns on whether to criticize Israel or its flag is the same as anti-Semitism. The case is the more surprising, given that last year a very similar charge in Edinburgh was tossed out by the courts.In that instance, five protestors who had disrupted a performance of the Jerusalem String Quartet in Edinburgh in 2008 were charged on a similar basis, with the state alleging that they were guilty of racism for protesting against the fact that performers in the group were also members of the Israeli military. Dismissing the case last year, Sheriff John Scott made it clear that is entirely legitimate to criticize the Israeli state, its army or other institutions, without being guilty of anti-Semitism.Above article by Ken Ferguson of http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/German Left Party under fire over anti-Israeli/ anti-semite stanceThe Left Party in Germany is under pressure for harbouring anti-semites within its ranks. A telling example was the Left Party deputy Inge Höger, who appeared in May at a pro- Hamas conference in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, wearing a keffiyeh showing a map labeled “Palestine” on the entire territory of the State of Israel. She spoke about the “misuse of the Holocaust” in silencing criticism of Israel’s “occupation policies.”One Left Party representative criticised his party position. Bodo Ramelow, the Left’s leader in the Thuringian state parliament said: “When a Catholic cardinal revokes a gay religion teacher’s permission to teach, the indignation in the Left Party is, rightly, great. But when gays in the Gaza Strip fear for their lives, I don’t hear anything from the same indignant people. That’s a problem.”In the Bundestag on Wednesday, Left Party deputy Lukrezia Jochimsen said “calls to boycott” Israel are not acceptable. However, Left Party politicians in Duisburg and Bremen, as well as Bundestag deputies, have either called to boycott the Jewish state or participated in activities with groups that energetically campaign to delegitimize and boycott Israel.A working definition, from the European Union Monitoring Centre, of Anti-semitism is available http://www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org/working-definition-of-antisemitism/english/
Anti- Semitism linked to anti-Israeli attitudes
A Scottish court is to rule on whether anti-Israel protesters are anti-semitic.This county town of Fife, is not exactly a news hot spot. However the small town’s sleepy Sheriff court is about to host a key legal case involving a US student from New York and two anti Israeli protestors who have been charged with racism. This case centers on an incident at nearby St. Andrews University, where two students are facing racially aggravated conduct charges after allegedly making comments and gestures critical of the State of Israel and its flag.Press reports are already in danger of prejudging the case, with headlines such as the one reading “St. Andrews University students in court to face anti-Semitism charges” that ran in the local daily, The Courier.According to one of the charged students, Paul Donnachie, “Whilst in the room at the student residences of an individual who I considered a friend, Chanan Reitblat, I placed my hands down the front of my jeans and onto an Israeli flag which belonged to him, accompanied by comments to the effect that Israel is a terrorist state, and is guilty of many civilian deaths.” He continued, “The action was not malicious. However, it sparked a great deal of political debate amongst our group of friends within our Hall of Residence, whereby the nature of the State of Israel was discussed.”The following day, after hearing that Mr Reitblat had been upset by his actions, Paul says he “wrote a letter stating that, whilst I would not apologize for my opposition to the actions of the Israeli state, I would apologize for the manner in which I chose to mediate my political opinions on this occasion.” Despite this conciliatory action, the following day police officers arrested both Paul and his friend Simon Colchester and held them in custody for 36 hours before they were made to appear in court charged with “threatening and abusive behaviour,” which was subsequently amended to the more sinister charge of “racially aggravated conduct,” a violation of the Criminal Law. Basically the case turns on whether to criticize Israel or its flag is the same as anti-Semitism. The case is the more surprising, given that last year a very similar charge in Edinburgh was tossed out by the courts.In that instance, five protestors who had disrupted a performance of the Jerusalem String Quartet in Edinburgh in 2008 were charged on a similar basis, with the state alleging that they were guilty of racism for protesting against the fact that performers in the group were also members of the Israeli military. Dismissing the case last year, Sheriff John Scott made it clear that is entirely legitimate to criticize the Israeli state, its army or other institutions, without being guilty of anti-Semitism.Above article by Ken Ferguson of http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/German Left Party under fire over anti-Israeli/ anti-semite stanceThe Left Party in Germany is under pressure for harbouring anti-semites within its ranks. A telling example was the Left Party deputy Inge Höger, who appeared in May at a pro- Hamas conference in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, wearing a keffiyeh showing a map labeled “Palestine” on the entire territory of the State of Israel. She spoke about the “misuse of the Holocaust” in silencing criticism of Israel’s “occupation policies.”One Left Party representative criticised his party position. Bodo Ramelow, the Left’s leader in the Thuringian state parliament said: “When a Catholic cardinal revokes a gay religion teacher’s permission to teach, the indignation in the Left Party is, rightly, great. But when gays in the Gaza Strip fear for their lives, I don’t hear anything from the same indignant people. That’s a problem.”In the Bundestag on Wednesday, Left Party deputy Lukrezia Jochimsen said “calls to boycott” Israel are not acceptable. However, Left Party politicians in Duisburg and Bremen, as well as Bundestag deputies, have either called to boycott the Jewish state or participated in activities with groups that energetically campaign to delegitimize and boycott Israel.A working definition, from the European Union Monitoring Centre, of Anti-semitism is available http://www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org/working-definition-of-antisemitism/english/