The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 1 No. 42
15 February 2008
YIISA SEMINAR
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21 @ 4:15 PM
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Rm. 101 (63 High St.)
Symposium: Africa and Contemporary Antisemitism
Speakers: Dr. Hubert Ngatcha Njila
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS); Centre d’Études Nord-Américaines (CENA), Paris
“Antisemitism in Africa: Post 9-11”
Professor Shalem Coulibaly
Université de Ouagadougou, departement de philosophie; ENAM, École Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrature
“Negation of Memory: Jewish and African Responses to the New Antisemitsm and Racism”
Professor Olufemi Vaughan, D.Phil
Professor of Africana Studies and of History; Affiliate Professor, Political Science; Associate Dean, Graduate School, Stony Brook University; Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
Discussant
YIISA CONCERT
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21 @ 9:00PM
Alchemy Nightclub – The Elevate Lounge
223 College Street – Enter on Crown Street
$5 Cover
META AND THE CORNERSTONES
Meta and the Cornerstones is made up of six exceptionally talented musicians from West Africa and Israel. Their reggae/hip-hop sound has earned them a nomination for best hip-hop/reggae album by the French Cultural Center in 2000, opportunities to perform alongside Steel Pulse & Luciano at the 2006 Annual Reggae Salute and be featured on Sean Blackman’s album YERAZNER (Dreams). More information and samples of their music can be found at: http://www.myspace.com/metaandthecornerstones
YIISA SPECIAL EVENT
MONDAY, MARCH 3 @ 4:00 PM
The MacMillan Center, Luce Auditorium (34 Hillhouse Ave)
Why It Is Difficult to Research Antisemitism
Speaker: Michel Wieviorka
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Centre for Sociological Analysis and Intervention (CADIS)
SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY AT YIISA
Post-Doctorate Research Fellowship, Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), Yale University
Applicants are invited for a Research Fellowship tenable for one year, renewable for one further academic year, commencing in September 2008. Applications are welcome from candidates from various academic disciplines, with a strong background in the study of antisemitism and related fields. YIISA is dedicated to the scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with antisemitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, as it relates to policy.
Click here for full description
YIISA IN THE NEWS
Antisemitism without Jews: Yale Initiative on Antisemitism to explore Africa
With the post-9/11 spread of radical Islam throughout the world, Africa is among the areas experiencing rapid transformation. The extremist movement brings with it anti-Western and anti-Israel rhetoric, and the occasional physical attack on Western organizations.
More of this story
RELATED EVENTS OF INTERST AT YALE
The Iran Colloquium – Spring 2008 Series
Covering Iran: The Pitfalls of Reporting on Iran for the US Media
With Kouross Esmaili, Independent Filmmaker and Journalist
Friday, February 15 @ 4:15pm, Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Avenue), Room 202
Refreshments and social hour to follow. Please RSVP to ranin.kazemi@yale.edu. The Iran Colloquium series is sponsored by the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for
International and Area Studies.
Yale Conference on Religion and Violence
MacMillan Center Auditorium
Saturday, February 16th, 8:30 am – 6 pm
The conference on Religion and Violence will take an interdisciplinary approach towards analyzing the relationship between religion and political violence by bringing together historians and social scientists. The fundamental question we hope to begin exploring is if there is something unique or different about religion that leads particular patterns of conflict across time and space. The day-long event will consist of two panels and a keynote speaker. The first panel, relating to premodern societies, consists of Hugh Kennedy and Mack Holt. The second panel, relating to the modern period, consists of Paul Brass, Jennifer Todd, and Malika Zeghal. Our keynote speaker will be the distinguished historian Robert I. Moore, Emeritus Professor of History at Newcastle University. Convened by the MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics, & Society
The Sociology of Hate
Panel, which Jon Butler, Dean of the Graduate School, joined by Professors Alondra Nelson, Joanne Meyerowitz, Shivi Sivaramakrishnan, and Philip Smith.
Tuesday, February 19 @t 7 PM in Sudler Hall (WLH Room 201) – 100 Wall Street
Sponsored by the Graduate School, the Yale College Dean’s Office, and the Graduate School’s Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity
VIDEOS
SMC Video
(IDC Media Conference) Noam Bedein moved to Sderot three years ago and has established an information center there. This video depicts common scenes from the dangerous daily life in Sderot, where there is an average of three missile attacks per day.
Click here to watch
Hamas Rabbit eat Jews
(YouTube) Palestinian Media Watch shows a disturbing clip: “Why is your name Assud [lion] since you are a rabbit? A rabbit is a [nickname] for a bad person and coward. And I, Assud, will finish off the Jews and eat them, Allah willing.”
Click here to watch
REPORTS
Council of Europe: Reports on racism in Andorra, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine
ECRI released today four new reports examining racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in Andorra, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine. The reports focus on “implementation ”. They examine if ECRI’s main recommendations from previous reports have been followed and implemented, and if so, with what degree of success and effectiveness. ECRI recognises that positive developments have occurred in all four of these Council of Europe member countries. At the same time, however, the reports detail continuing grounds for concern for the Commission.
Click here to read summary
Click here to read full reports (Links are to the right)
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
MIDDLE EAST
On revolution anniversary, Iran vows not to suspend nuclear program
(Haaretz) Tens of thousands of Iranians rallied on Monday to mark the 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, in a show of defiance of Western pressure on Iran to suspend its disputed nuclear program. Iran will not back down “one iota” in its nuclear dispute with Western powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the crowd which had gathered in Tehran to celebrate revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
Click here to read
Diplomats: Iran’s centrifuges processing gas
(Jerusalem Post) Iran’s new generation of advanced centrifuges have begun processing small quantities of the gas that can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The diplomats emphasized that the centrifuges were working with only minute amounts of the uranium gas used as the feed stock for Iran’s uranium enrichment program. And one of them said Teheran had set up only 10 of the machines – far too few to produce enriched uranium in the quantities needed for an industrial scale energy or a weapons program.
Click here to read
Iran Replaces Tehran U.’s Leader After Student Protests
(Chronical) Iran’s government has replaced the president of Tehran University, a conservative Islamic cleric whose controversial appointment in late 2005 prompted student protests and concerns over academic freedom, after allegations of mismanagement, the Associated Press reported, citing an announcement in the state news media.
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Iran: Mugniyah’s death will shake Zionist regime
(YNet) Iranian ambassador to Syria, Ahmad Moussavi, warned Wednesday that “the death of (Hizbullah leader) Imad Mugniyah will lead to an earthquake in the Zionist regime,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. He added that “this despicable crime will increase the Zionists’ disasters and strengthen the courage of those who will hit the Zionist regime.”
Click here to read
Iran envoy defends amputation
(Telegraph) Iran’s ambassador to Spain has compared chopping off the hands of thieves to a “surgeon amputating a limb to prevent the spread of gangrene”. In a defence of Iran’s tough implementation of Islamic law, Seyed Davoud Salehi called for “the traditions, religion and economic development” of Iran to be taken into account by those monitoring human rights in the country. He also argued that the death penalty was necessary “to preserve the health of society as a whole”.
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US shares intel with IAEA on Iran
(Jerusalem Post) The US has recently shared new sensitive information with the International Atomic Energy Agency on key aspects of Iran’s nuclear program that Washington says shows Teheran was directly engaged in trying to make an atomic weapon, diplomats said Thursday. One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that Washington also gave the IAEA permission to confront Iran with at least some of the evidence in an attempt to pry details out of the Islamic republic on the activities, as part of the UN nuclear watchdog’s attempts to investigate Iran’s suspicious nuclear past.
Click here to read
Nasrallah: Mughniyah’s blood will lead to elimination of Israel
(Haaretz) Nasrallah: Mughniyah’s blood will lead to elimination of Israela
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday threatened to retaliate against Israel for the killing of militant commander Imad Mughniyah Tuesday, saying “his blood will lead to the elimination of Israel.” Mughniyah, the deputy secretary general of the Lebanon-based guerilla group, was killed in a bomb blast in a residential neighborhood in Damascus late Tuesday. Israel denied involvement.
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Hezbollah Threatens Attacks on Israeli Targets
(NY Times) BEIRUT, Lebanon Accusing Israel of killing one of his top commanders, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, threatened Thursday to intensify his group’s conflict with Israel and to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world. Mr. Nasrallah, who has been in hiding since 2006 because of Israeli assassination threats, spoke to thousands of mourners via a televised image at an emotional funeral for the slain commander, Imad Mugniyah, who was killed in a car bombing on Tuesday night in Damascus, Syria.
Click here to read
PMO issues global terror warning
(Jerusalem Post) Following the assassination of Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Thursday issued a global terror warning to all Israeli citizens abroad. According to the PMO warning, Israelis should avoid as much as possible being in large concentrations together overseas.
Click here to read
Israel issues abduction warning for citizens traveling abroad
(Haaretz) The Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a severe travel advisory Thursday to all Israeli citizens traveling abroad because of grave concerns that Hezbollah will attempt to launch terror attacks or abductions, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israeli targets for Tuesday’s assassination of the guerilla group’s deputy chief Imad Mughniyah.
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Gaza, Stripped
(The New Republic) In the wake of Hamas blowing up the border fence between Egypt and Gaza the images of Palestinians from Gaza streaming across the border into Egypt were unsettling to the Israelis, Egyptians, Palestinian Authority, and Bush Administration. Only Hamas benefited from the images. In breaking down the wall sealing the Sinai from Gaza, Hamas seemed to liberate Palestinians besieged in Gaza and outmaneuvered all those trying to build pressure on it to change its behavior.
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What is Israel to do? Ignore the attacks?
(Miami Herald) Israel faces difficult choices in Gaza. There is no off-the-shelf remedy for the unprecedented situation, no playbook to follow. What direction would Gaza take? Would it recognize that a peaceful approach was likely to accelerate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by convincing Israelis of Palestinian sincerity? Would it take advantage of widespread international interest in underwriting economic and social development? Sadly, the answer is a resounding No
Click here to read
Palestinians Ask U.S. To Intervene in Suits Over Terrorist Attacks
(Washington Post) The State Department is considering supporting the Palestinian Authority in its quest to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments won by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Palestinian officials and defense lawyers involved in the cases.
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Bush’s Mideast U-Turn
(Wall Street Journal) Bassam Eid and Natan Sharansky write, “On June 24, 2002, President Bush presented his vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. That we both would have greeted Mr. Bush’s speech with the same enthusiasm may come as a surprise. One is a Jew convinced of his people’s just claim to the Land of Israel. The other is an Arab convinced of his people’s just claim to the same land. Yet while we have real disagreements that would make an historic compromise very difficult and painful, we are fully in agreement that the only path to peace lies in building a free Palestinian society — a path Mr. Bush boldly laid out in his historic speech. Unfortunately, encouraged by short-sighted Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the Bush administration, now entering its final year in office, has resuscitated the failed policies of the past that have brought nothing but tragedy, terror and war and that have only pushed peace further away.
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The Palestinian Census – Smoke and Mirrors
(Independent Media Review Analysis) The Feb. 9, 2008 Palestinian census is not a cause for fatalism. In contrast with the census, the accurate number of Judea & Samaria Arabs is 1.5 million, and not 2.3 million, and the number of Gaza Arabs is 1.1 million, and not 1.5 million.
Click here to read
NORTH AMERICA
California Congressman and Holocaust Survivor Tom Lantos, 80
(Washington Post) Tom Lantos, 80, a California Democrat whose experience as the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress shaped his strong support for human rights and U.S. military intervention abroad, died Feb. 11 at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda from esophageal cancer.
Click here to read
Holocaust Jokes And Anti-Semitism At The US Air Force Academy
(Israel News) A 2004 survey indicated that half the cadets at the academy reported hearing religious slurs on campus. One documented “joke” went like this:
“Why do Jews make the best magicians? Because they can go into a building and vanish in a puff of smoke.” Jewish cadets complained about being called “Christ-killers” and being told that the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus.
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Holocaust survivor speaks in West Palm, says anger is the answer
(Sun Sentinel) Elie Wiesel is a man of letters: Nobel laureate, Boston University professor, best-selling author. But his message Thursday night amounted to four words: “Where is the anger?” The speaker, who gained fame for his Holocaust memoir Night, voiced concern at the lack of outrage over the return of anti-Jewish words and deeds to public life.
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EUROPE
Terror Threat From Pakistan Said to Expand
(NY Times) BARCELONA, Spain As the terrorism suspects congregated in the largely Pakistani neighborhood here over the past few months, they were joined by a young man who called himself Asim. He had come from the Pakistani borderlands where the leadership of Al Qaeda is said to have regrouped. The suspects, he later told Spanish investigators, envisioned a wave of spectacular attacks: Coordinated suicide bombings would start in this city’s vast subway system and then sweep through Portugal, Germany, France and Britain if certain demands were not met.
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Gordon Brown backs archbishop in sharia law row
(Guardian) The Archbishop of Canterbury received the backing of the prime minister today as a “man of great integrity” as he prepared to address the Church of England’s 550-strong national assembly and counter the furore prompted by his comments on sharia law.
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Book Fair’s Plans to Honor Israel Lead to Protests
(NY Times) The selection of Israel as guest of honor at this spring’s International Book Fair in Turin has set off a furious debate among Italian, Israeli and Arab authors and intellectuals, including calls to boycott the event, Italy’s largest annual gathering of the publishing world.
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Italy to probe anti-Semite blacklist blog
(United Press International) Italian officials Friday ordered in investigation of an Internet blog that “blacklisted” a group of 162 Jewish university professors. Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the probe would be aimed at verifying the existence of the blog, which the ANSA news service said alleges that the scholars had banded together as a “lobby.”
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Italian police shut down blog listing 162 Jewish University professors
(European Jewish Press) Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato ordered the closure of a blog on Internet on Friday. The blog listed the names of 162 Jewish University professors who are accused of “doing lobby in favour of the Zionists.” Signed by “Re” (king, in Italian) the blog also displayed a number of articles and weblinks dedicated to Holocaust revisionism, to former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and to anti-Zionism.
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Fear Ripples Through Community in Ukraine
(Jewish Exponent) The Eurasian Jewish Congress, which runs the most respected program monitoring anti-Semitism in Ukraine, says that anti-Semitic attacks did not spike in 2007. The Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine notes that the statistics it has been keeping as part of a new program show an increase. Whether or not the attacks constituted a surge in violence, it’s clear that they left Jews in Ukraine — particularly its most visible members, the Orthodox — concerned about their safety.
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Report: Anti-Semitic insults tend to become a feature of everyday life in Holland
(European Jewish Press) Anti-Semitic insults and expressions had “tended to become a feature of everyday life in Holland, a pan-European anti-racism commission said in a report released Tuesday. According to the Strasbourg-based European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), these insults “reflect in part a similar trend in Holocaust denial, notably among the younger generations.”
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Poland won’t sue author of book on post-WWII anti-Semitism
(Haaretz) The author of a book accusing Poles of persecuting Jews in the years immediately after the Holocaust will not face charges of slandering the Polish nation, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Jan Gross’s book “Fear”, which claims that anti-Semitism remained prevalent in Poland under the communist regime after 1945, was published in Polish last week and immediately sparked a national debate about Polish-Jewish relations.
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U.S. Jew says kicked out of Belgian cafe for wearing kippah
(Haaretz) A U.S. professor who was born in Auschwitz just before the concentration camp’s liberation in 1945 said he was kicked out of a restaurant in the Belgian city of Bruges two weeks ago because he was a Jew, according to European news reports.
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Interview with Martin Amis on 9/11
(BBC) Extended Newsnight Review interview with author Martin Amis on how writers responded to 9/11. Martin Amis (born August 25, 1949) is an English novelist, essayist and short story writer. His works include such novels as London Fields (1989) and The Information (1995). (Video link is on the right)
Click here to view page
WEEKLY QUOTES (Source: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
It is not true that the siege imposed on Gaza caused a serious humanitarian crisis that eventually led to the Palestinian flood [into Egypt]. Each Gazan comer spent an average of US$260 in three days. The total spending during that period [when the border was breached] reached US$220 million. These figures raise real questions about the financial situation in the Gaza Strip. Abdullah Kamal, editor-in-chief of Egypts Rosa-al-Yousef. (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 8)
Just like Nahoul took Farfour’s place when he was martyred, I will replace Nahoul, Allah willing. I will bring smiles and joy back to the children of Palestine, and the children of the whole worldthe Arab and Islamic world, Allah willing. We are all martyrdom-seekers, are we not[?] I, Assud, will get rid of the Jews, Allah willing, and I will eat them up, Allah willingAssud the Bunny, a costumed rabbit, is the latest character on Hamas Al-Aqsa TV show Pioneers of Tomorrow which teaches children to hate and destroy Jews and Zionists. (MEMRI, Feb. 13)
When you ideologize discourse, when all you do is present your point of view in a maximally radical wayyou refuse to [allow] other opinions.CIJR Director and professor at Concordias Liberal Arts College Frederick Krantz, addressing an Israel Apartheid Week panel held at Concordia University. When pressed to ask a question by conference moderators, Prof. Krantz replied, My question is, how can you possibly come forward on a university campus and simply spew propaganda? Student members of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Researchs Student Israel-Advocacy Seminars program were prevented from placing pamphlets and literature on tables set aside for materials from the anti-Israel organizer groups. (The Concordian [campus newspaper], Feb. 12)
None of you have mentioned terrorismPalestinian terrorism. Terrorism is a large part of whats going on in the Middle East. Thats something that wasnt addressed. Israeli students are getting killed.CIJR Assistant Director Jackie Douek, directing her remarks toward the panellist from the student association ASS who claimed to be standing in solidarity with Palestinian students. I feel like you want to say Jews, but then [you know] it would sound like antisemitism, insisted Rachel Yane, a board member of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, at the start of the question period. (The Link [campus newspaper], Feb. 12)
With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrsthe brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh. After a life full of jihad, sacrifices and accomplishments…he died a martyr at the hands of the Israeli Zionists.A statement read on Hezbollah-owned Manar TV in Beirut, confirming the death of Imad Mughniyeh, originally a Fatah terrorist who went on to head Hezbollahs security and operational command, before acceding to a rank similar to super-chief of staff. While he was the second-most wanted terrorist on Israels list, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated, Israel rejects the attempts of terror elements to attribute to Israel any involvement in this incident. (BBC News, Haaretz, February 13)
This is very misguided. There is no halfway house with this. What part of sharia law does he wantthe sort that is practiced in Saudi Arabia, which they are struggling to get away from? Muslims do not need special treatment or to be specially singled out. This would not contribute to community cohesion.Muslim and MP for Britains Labour Party Khalid Mahmood, responding to a statement by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams advocating plural jurisdiction to allow for sharia law. An approach to law which simply said theres one law for everybody and thats all there is to be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courtsI think thats a bit of a danger, he told BBCs Radio 4 before an address to the Royal Courts of Justice. (BBC, Feb. 7; Daily Telegraph, AFP, Feb. 8)
This decision will bring further pressure on women. It will ultimately bring us Hezbollah terror, Al Qaeda terror and fundamentalism.MP Nesrin Baytok, an opposition member, worried about giving in to Islamism, following Turkeys move toward lifting a ban on womens head scarves at universities. (New York Times, Feb. 10)
TOM LANTOS DIES(Washington) Representative Tom Lantos, who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in the United States Congress, has died. He was 80. During the war, Lantos found refuge in a safe-house operated by Swiss diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and later made his way to America, becoming an economist and serving in Congress as a California Democrat for the last 27 years. President Bush described Lantos as a man of character and a champion of human rights and a statement issued Monday by Israels Foreign Ministry characterized Lantos as one of the leaders in advancing Israel-U.S. relations in the U.S. Congress. (New York Post, Haaretz, February 12)
U.S. JEW KICKED OUT OF BELGIAN CAF /b>(Jerusalem) A U.S. professor who was born in Auschwitz just before the concentration camps liberation in 1945 said he was kicked out of a restaurant in the Belgian city of Bruges two weeks ago because he was a Jew. Marcel Kalmann said a waiter at the Le Panier dOr saw his kippah under his hat and shouted at him We are not serving Jews, out of here. Kalmann then encountered resistance when he went to file a police report, saying officers did not believe him at first and heckled him throughout the complaint. Plans to file a complaint against the police and the restaurant have been reported in Antwerps Jewish magazine Joods Actueeel. (Haaretz, Feb. 11)
THREE ARRESTED IN PLOT TO KILL CARTOONIST(Brussels) Two Tunisians and a Dane were arrested in Denmark on Tuesday to prevent what the Danish police said would have been a terror-related assassination of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard, 73, is one of the 12 cartoonists behind caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in Denmark in 2005 and internationally in 2006. He drew the cartoon depicting Muhammad wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb with a burning fuse. Danish security and intelligence services said that the Danish suspectwho is of Moroccan originwould probably be released after being charged under antiterrorism legislation, and that the two Tunisians would be expelled as threats to national security. (New York Times, Jer. Post, Haaretz, Feb. 12,13)
HUMAN RIGHTS CASE AGAINST LEVANT DROPPED(Calgary) Syed Soharwardy, the president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, withdrew his Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint against Ezra Levant, the former publisher of Western Standard. The complaint was launched in February, 2006 when the Western Standard and Jewish Free Press reprinted the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Soharwardy said he was dropping the complaints out of respect for Canadians society principle of freedom of speech. Levant says he plans to launch a lawsuit against Soharwardy to recover the money he lost defending himself from the complaint. Soharwardy settled his dispute with the Jewish Free Press after mediation in March, 2007. (National Post, Feb. 13)
AL QAEDA TRAINING CHILDREN (Baghdad) Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq are training children as young as seven as gunmen and kidnappers, U.S. and Iraqi militaries said. Videos released to reporters by the U.S. military show a young gang halting a civilian volunteer on a bicycle and submitting him to a mock kidnapping in which they hold a pistol to the base of his skull and pin his hands behind his head. U.S. commanders say al Qaeda has been using different tactics (young boys, women) as increased security has hampered the groups ability to carry out large-scale bomb attacks. (National Post, Feb.7)
ITALIAN OPPOSITION TO HONOUR ISRAEL (Rome) The selection of Israel as guest of honour at the International Book Fair in Turin has set off calls from extreme left wing Italian political activists and prominent Italian and Arab intellectuals and authors to boycott the fair scheduled for spring. Organizers, however, say they will not be cowed and expressed alarm this week when a local pro-Palestinian group stormed the book fair offices, demanding that the invitation to Israel be rescinded. A country has to be able to come to the fair without being counterbalanced by another country, said fair president Rolando Picchioni. Whats next? If we honour Russia, do we also have to invite Chechnya? About 70 Israeli authors have been translated into Italian. (New York Times, Feb.9)
KRAKOW CHURCH HOLDS ANTISEMITIC SERVICE(Warsaw) About 1,000 people gathered Sunday for services at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, where calls could be heard to defend Poles against Jews. The Jews are attacking us! We need to defend ourselves, shouted Professor Bogoslav Wolniewicz. Local residents were informed of the service by posters that said: The kikes will not continue to spit on us. The service comes on the heels of the publication of a new and controversial book by Jan Gross, entitled Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz. (Haaretz, Feb.12)