Zionist Pogrom in Jerusalem

Israeli Police Tell Palestinians to Shut Their Shops as they Protect Settler Violence and Racism

Every year Jerusalem day is the pretext for an orgy of hate and violence from settler mobs, aided and abetted by the Israeli Police and Border Guards.  This year a legal attempt was made to secure an injunction by the Supreme Court rejected that, despite the video evidence from last year.  The Deputy Chief Justice confronted with the evidence simply expressed pious wishes that the Police would exercise zero tolerance towards those who chanted ‘Death to the Arabs’ and similar slogans. 

I’ve included a number of reports and videos from a variety of sources to show the flavour of the day.  

There was a contingent from Lehava, dedicated to preventing pure Jewish women being ensnared by wily, predator Arab men.  An image that is derived directly from the Nuremburg Laws 1935.  There have, of course, been no condemnations by ‘mainstream’ Israeli politicians such as Netanyahu.

As that great Orthodox scholar and Professor at the Hebrew University, Yeshayahu Leibowitz said, religious-nationalism is the direct opposite of religion.  He first coined the term ‘Judeo Nazis’ to describe the little pogromists that are evident in the videos.  Israel and Zionism have taken the Bible and fashioned it into a nationalist creed and used  the bits they agree with (never the Prophets!) to legitimise their racist and fascist sentiments.

Whereas previously, under Labour Zionism and Begin, there was an attempt to keep the racism hidden from view, today it is on display for all to see.  In some ways we should be grateful for the fact that there is no pretence anymore but Palestinians are paying a  high price for this.

Tony Greenstein

Video: Israeli mobs celebrate “Jerusalem Day” with anti-Palestinian rampage in Old City

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 05/18/2015 - 11:48

Lehava' s gang, "Jerusalem day", 17.5.2015

Note: To see 
Thousands of young Israelis, many of them children, rampaged through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem on Sunday chanting “Death to the Arabs” and other racist and anti-Muslim slogans.
Some attacked bystanders and journalists and banged on the shutters of Palestinian stores that had been ordered to close at midday.

The mob march was the climax of “Jerusalem Day,” an Israeli national holiday to celebrate the occupation of the eastern part of the city in 1967. Zionist militias ethnically cleansed and captured the western sector of Jerusalem in 1948.

Under international law, Israel’s purported annexation of Jerusalem following the 1967 conquest is null and void and is not recognized by any country in the world.

Racist chants

Sunday’s violent scenes began as occupation forces allowed large numbers of religious and nationalist Israeli Jews to flow into into the area of the Damascus Gate in the late afternoon.
This is an entrance to the walled Old City that was long a bustling market for Palestinians from surrounding villages until Israel made access to the city virtually impossible for millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israelis, many chanting racist slogans, rally at the Damascus Gate before marching into Jerusalem’s Old City, 17 May.(Charlotte Silver)

Groups of young men and boys banded together in circles, chanting and dancing.

The atmosphere quickly shifted to that of an angry mob, which first turned on two women who held the Palestinian flag and then, with increasing frequency, toward random Palestinian bystanders and journalists, according to The Electronic Intifada’s Charlotte Silver, who reported from the scene.

Haaretz published a video of a mob attacking a Jordanian television crew and The Times of Israel captured video of young Israelis harassing a female journalist and preventing her from speaking to her cameraperson.

Many sang Bible verses set to popular music, often embellished or altered to justify Israeli rule over Palestinians. Among the numerous racist slogans was “A Jew is a soul, an Arab is a son of a whore.”
The frenzied, sustained and widespread nature of the racist vitriol is documented in a large amount of footage obtained by The Electronic Intifada, only a small part of which is included in this post. This video, shot by the Jerusalem resident known as Zalameh, provides a good sense of the mixture of Jewish extremism and outright racism on display:

Israeli mob chants anti-Palestinian slogans in occupied Jerusalem

The video also shows two women holding a Palestinian flag being verbally abused.
But Israeli Border Police on horseback, armed with sound bombs and guns, kept most Palestinians out of the Damascus Gate area. Police monitored the crowd, attempting to intervene when a pack of marchers would attack someone, Silver said.

“May they all die”

In this video, several youths who spoke to Silver make virulently racist comments. One says that they had come to celebrate the “liberation of Jerusalem from the Palestinians,” others chiming in with “may their memory be erased.”

"Jerusalem Day" at Damascus Gate (occupied East Jerusalem), 17 May 2015

“May they all die today, all together,” another interjects. A child asserts repeatedly that Jerusalem was “liberated” from “the donkeys.”

Similar expressions could be heard throughout the day from the chanting mobs.

Israel expert Dena Shunra notes that the curse calling for someone’s name or memory to be erased was typically used for enemies as despised as Adolf Hitler; its use by Jewish youths against Palestinians is an indicator of extreme levels of hatred.

While deeply disturbing, children cannot be held responsible for spouting such views. But the large number of children participating in the hate march underscores the systematic indoctrination and anti-Palestinian incitement to which Israeli youth are exposed.

Jewish women as Jewish “goods”

The marchers then entered the Old City, charging down the narrow streets which are usually full of Palestinian business owners and shoppers.

Members of the anti-miscengenation group Lehava, some again appearing to be very young, also took part in the march, shouting “Arab beware – my sister is not abandoned goods” (see video at the top of this post).

They also chanted, “Girls of Israel, for the Nation of Israel [Jews].”

These are warnings to Palestinian men to stay away from Jewish women who are described, in effect, as property exclusively available to Jewish men.

Religious hatred

The same marchers can also be heard singing “Kahane still lives” to the tune of a popular religious-nationalist song, “Our Father Still Lives” – which refers to Abraham.

Meir Kahane, the assassinated Brooklyn rabbi who founded the the Jewish Defense League, is thus elevated almost to the level of a biblical patriarch.

Kahane also founded Kach – an organization so racist and extreme that even in Israel it was outlawed and classified as a terrorist group.

He is most remembered for his demand that the entire Palestinian population be expelled from lands occupied by Israel.

Voices can also be heard chanting that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a “homo” and a “son of a whore,” among other slogans calculated to provoke and denigrate.

The expressions of virulent, even genocidal, hatred for Palestinians are reminiscent of the “Death to the Arabs” marches in the city which culminated in the abduction and burning alive of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khudair last July.

Demolish Jerusalem’s mosques

A leaflet distributed at a “Jerusalem Day” march calls on the Israeli government to “bring down” the al-Aqsa mosque so it can be replaced with a Jewish temple.(Charlotte Silver)

Jewish extremist organizations handed out leaflets demanding that the Israeli government demolish Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock to make way for a Jewish Third Temple in their place.

The destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest places for Muslims, is a long-standing goal of some Israeli Jewish organizations backed and financed by the Israeli government.

The leaflet in the picture, collected at the Sunday march, states:

In honor of Jerusalem Day, we all demand of the Israeli government: to bring down the mosques on the Temple Mount so that we can build the Temple and renew the offering of sacrifices.

It is signed by an organization called “Returning to the [Temple] Mount.”

The atmosphere of intense hatred and religious-nationalist chauvinism was no doubt encouraged by a declaration from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “Jerusalem was always the capital of the Jewish people alone – and not of any other nation.”

The march culminated in a mass rally at the Western Wall, attended by education minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) party among other government figures.
With thanks to Dena Shunra for translation and analysis.

Netanyahu: Jerusalem was always the capital ‘of the Jewish people alone’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Jerusalem Day celebration at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, on May 17, 2015. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Jerusalem has always been the capital “of the Jewish people alone, not of any other people” at a Jerusalem Day ceremony on Ammunition Hill, in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem on May 17.

“Jerusalem won’t become once again a wounded and bisected city,” he continued. “We will forever keep Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty.”

Netanyahu pledged to “continue to build and nurture [Jerusalem], to expand her neighborhoods.”

The prime minister has long insisted that Israel must control East Jerusalem. In the same celebration in 2010, he maintained that “We cannot divide or freeze a city as vibrant and creative as Jerusalem – we will continue to build and be built by it” and averred “We are the generation which was lucky enough to see our holy sites liberated and returned to our hands, and it is upon us to transfer this right to our children.”

Jerusalem Day, celebrated every year on the 28th day of Iyar, the second month in the Jewish calendar, commemorates what Israel calls the “reunification” of  Jerusalem.

Extremist Israelis mark the day every year by marching through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem chanting racist and anti-Muslim slogans like “Death to the Arabs.”

Journalist Charlotte Silver, reporting from the 2015 commemoration for The Electronic Intifada, interviewed Israelis who proclaimed “May they all [the Palestinians] die today, all together.” A young Israeli applauded Israel for liberating Jerusalem from “the donkeys.” Another expressed hope that the memory of the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem will be “erased.”

Israeli leftists protest a Jerusalem Day march on 17 May 2015. (Photo: AFP/Gali Tibbon)

Several hundred Israeli leftists protested the march, chanting slogans such as “Jerusalem will not be silent, outlaw racism.” The activists, largely from the left-wing organization Jerusalem Won’t Tolerate Racism, dubbed the demonstration a “march of hate,” and held signs reading “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies” (red sign in Hebrew above) and “We are against incitement. We are against racism” (purple sign in Arabic above).

Decades of Illegal Occupation

Israel militarily occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. For decades, the United Nations has insisted that this occupation is illegal. “Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the surrounding West Bank hinterland contravenes international law. It is not recognized by the international community which considers East Jerusalem an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the UN maintains, citing Security Council resolutions 252, 267, 471, 476, and 478.

“Since 1967, Israeli measures have altered the status of East Jerusalem and affected the residency status of Palestinians, their access to basic services, and their ability to plan and develop their communities,” the UN continues.

“Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem is illegal and occurs at the expense of land and resources for Palestinian construction and development, placing residents at risk of forced eviction, displacement and dispossession,” the UN also notes. “As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for administering the occupied territory for the benefit of the protected Palestinian population.”

Attacked Journalists

Palestinian photojournalist Nidal Ashtiyeh was shot in the face by Israeli occupation forces on 17 May 2015. (Photo: Ahmad Talat Hassan)

Israeli police assaulted and broke the cameras of Palestinian journalists who were filming the Jerusalem Day protests. The reporters say they had the proper accreditation to film the march, but were attacked anyway.

A journalist reported that Israeli police evacuated the area and refused to allow anyone except Israeli settlers in.

Just a few days before, on 15 May, Israeli occupation forces shot a Palestinian journalist in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The man had been photographing a Nakba Day protest. He was wearing a gas mask, the glass of which the bullet shattered, wounding his left eye.

RT crew attacked by Israeli police in Jerusalem (VIDEO)

Published time: May 17, 2015 18:11
Edited time: May 19, 2015 06:30

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 a terrible time we had to pass through check points that they erected everywhere along the Old City, they asked us to move away from the Damascus gate point. They didn't do it gently, they pushed us and broke our camera,” RT Arabic reporter Dalia Nammari later told RT International.An RT Arabic TV crew was attacked by Israeli police while covering the Jerusalem Day march in the Old City. Although the journalists had all documents permitting them to cover the event, the police prevented them from going live.

The reporter added that other journalists covering the event were treated the same “brutal” way by the Israeli police.

Dalia Nammari and the cameraman Muhammad Aishu were filming the march of settlers, which they had been accredited to, when the police interfered with their work and took away the camera. The crew continued to report from the scene using a smart phone and going on air live via Skype, when the police attacked them again.

Screenshot from RT video

“They took away my earpiece ... they are demanding from everyone – even journalists, to evacuate the area. Even Palestinians who live in the city can’t be present here because of the settlers’ march,” Nammari said.

The Israeli settlers took to the streets of Jerusalem to mark the day when Israel occupied the eastern side of Jerusalem in 1967, Nammari reported. Many were carrying posters reading “Jerusalem for Israelis.”

Read morePolice fire tear gas during demo against racism, police brutality in Tel Aviv (VIDEO)

The controversial Israeli march through Jerusalem and its Muslim quarters is an annual event, marking the anniversary of Israel's capture of East Jerusalem. Police estimated that more than 30,000 Israelis took part in this year's rally, Reuters reported. They marched through the areas of the city, the overall population of which includes more than 30 percent of Palestinians.

The march resulted in confrontations, with mounted Israeli police clashing with dozens of rock-throwing Palestinians, who were protesting the Jewish nationalists march, Reuters reported. Two officers were injured and six Palestinians were arrested, police sources said.

The RT Arabic crew managed to film some of the clashes before being assaulted themselves by Israeli police.

Read more​RT office in Ramallah raided by IDF

Brutal attacks by Israeli law enforcement are “rare to be filmed, but not rare to happen,” Sarit Michaelli of the Israeli info center for human rights has previously told RT.

On Saturday, a Palestinian journalist suffered at the hands of the Israeli army, being shot in the eye with a rubber bullet. The photojournalist was taking pictures during a march to commemorate Nakba, or Catastrophe Day, when Palestinians were displaced in the creation of Israel.

“This is a usual behavior for the Israeli army against journalists and against peaceful non-violent Palestinian demonstrators,” Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative told RT.

“During the last attack on Gaza less than a year ago the Israeli army killed 18 journalists including an Italian journalist in their attack on the Palestinian people. So this violation of the freedom of expression and violation of the right of journalists to cover what happens is a frequent behavior of the Israeli army which respects nobody,” Barghouti told RT, adding that this time the clashes happened during celebrations of annexation of East Jerusalem, which is “considered illegal by every international law.”

Last year, Israeli forces raided a building in Ramallah where the offices of several media outlets, including RT's Arabic channel, were located. The troops broke down the doors of the offices, destroyed some of the equipment and confiscated records.

Jewish Defense League thugs found guilty of assault at Palestine event in London

Zionist Nazi Group Members Attacked a Palestinian Literary Event

Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada Fri, 02/27/2015

Photo from the JDL UK website shows Roberta Moore meeting with deputy speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin in Israel.

Two Jewish Defence League UK thugs were today found guilty of assault after they attacked a panel at a Palestine literary festival in September.

Former Zionist Federation Vice-Chair Jonathan Hoffman Demonstrating with Jewish Nazi Moore

Roberta Moore was convicted of two counts of assault and one count of possession of an offensive weapon. Her accomplice Robert De Jonge was convicted of assault.

Both initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, but De Jonge on Thursday changed his plea to guilty for reason of recklessness.

De Jonge argued he had only meant to cause a “distraction” when he rushed the stage and assaulted Andy Simons, the chairperson of the panel and an organizer with Haringey Justice for Palestinians.

But district judge Julia Newton ruled today that De Jonge had acted with full intent to cause injury.

The other man assaulted by Moore was Simon Assaf, who had been invited to the festival to run a stall for Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop. Moore sprayed the two men in the face with “Farb gel” spray paint, which the judge ruled was used in a way consistent with an offensive weapon.

The two were released on bail until sentencing on condition they did not attend any event involving Haringey Justice for Palestinians. Sentencing will take place 23 March. The hearing this week took place over two days.

Sussex Friends of Israel members correspond with the JDL

Fascist thuggery

Victim Andy Simons reacted with relief today. The attack briefly hospitalized him and meant he had to miss the rest of the festival on 20 September 2014.

Simons, 62, a retired British Library professor, told The Electronic Intifada that the attack had taken an emotional toll, leaving him afraid to do further pro-Palestinian charity work.

But he said he felt he had little choice but to testify in court this week, despite feeling intimidated by the two thugs. Moore and De Jonge visibly smirked through much of Simons’ testimony, recounting the assaults.

Simons said today: “This was fascist, Zionist thuggery … they’re driven, they’re messianic, it’s their own strange jihad. A prison sentence, if they get one, will be like a badge in scouts or girl guides. If I didn’t help the prosecution, when they do it next time there wouldn’t be a record – and there probably will be a next time.”

Although Roberta Moore has a previous conviction for fraud, neither of the two have any prior convictions for assault – a relevant factor the judge said she would will take into account when deciding between a fine or a custodial sentence.

The Electronic Intifada understands that Moore and De Jonge have engaged in such attacks before, but that in the past witnesses have been too intimidated to testify.

The JDL UK

Founded by the ultra-racist rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1968, the Jewish Defense League has been termed by the FBI a violent terrorist organization. Kahane was later elected to the Israeli parliament, founding the Kach party, which was banned as a terror group even in Israel.

Irv Rubin, JDL leader from the late 1980s until his arrest in December 2001, died in prison in 2002 while awaiting trial for planning a series of bombings against a mosque and the office of Representative Darrell Issa, who is of Lebanese descent.

In 1985, with Rubin as JDL leader, Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American civil rights leader with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was murdered by explosion after a bomb was planted in his office.

The prime suspects in the case belonged to the JDL, but fled to the Israeli colony of Kiryat Arba near the Palestinian city of Hebron (a hot-spot for Kahanist violence).

The Jewish Defence League UK initially appears to have no direct lineage from the US organization. However, the group’s website clearly aligns it ideologically with the JDL, Kahane himself and especially with convicted JDL bomber Vincent Vancier.

More examples of SFI and JDL contact

Vancier (aka Chaim ben Pesach) spent five and a half years in federal prison for no less than eighteen bombings in New York and Washington in the late 1980s.

Due to this legacy of violence, the JDL UK website dubs Vancier “a Jewish hero.”

“Don’t take photos of me” — Roberta Moore and Robert De Jonge tried to evade reporters outside Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. (Asa Winstanley / The Electronic Intifada)

Roberta Moore was formerly a member of the racist anti-Muslim street gang the English Defence League, which has always been extremely pro-Israel.

The Brazilian-born fascist infamously founded the EDL’s supposed “Jewish division” before she left in 2011 claiming to have suddenly discovered the presence of anti-Semites in the far-right group. Other accounts say she was kicked out for being too extreme for even the EDL.

JDL warning Cobbs to be careful!

From then on, she started identifying her group as “JDL UK.” In 2012, Moore expressed support for Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik, the extremist who in July 2011 massacred dozens of people in the name of protecting Europe’s Christian identity from an imagined Muslim takeover.

Moore and De Jonge live together at a flat in Golders Green, north London. They are a fairly regular presence at Palestine solidarity protests where they harass, intimidate and attack peaceful campaigners.

De Jonge, who wore a crucifix necklace to court, appears to be a Christian Zionist. Extreme anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism clearly drives them both. De Jonge goes by several different aliases, including “Robert Bartholomeus” or (on Facebook) “Robert Bartholomew,” “Yoel Yossi” or “Joel Yossi” and “Joel Ben Shuleman.”

Kach symbol  - replete with Nazi imagery

Dangerous

Moore and De Jonge appear to have a lot of enemies even within the right-wing Zionist movement. The extent to which they really are a “league” is questionable. However, the agenda of extreme violence and racism is clear. Will they one day be facing terrorism charges in the UK? Who has been responsible for their radicalization?

Brighton Against BDS is Sussex Friends of Israel Secretary Simon Cobbs

An armed Roberta Moore visiting extremist Israeli settlers in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.

The JDL UK website boasts a photo of Moore visiting Kahane’s grave in Jerusalem and another of her armed, visiting a shooting course “at the counter terrorist unit in [an Israeli settlement in] Hebron.” During his testimony to the court, De Jonge said that Moore had been in “two different armies, so I know that she can defend herself.”

Abuse from Sussex Friends of Israel/JDL Supporters

Perhaps most concerning is the photo at the top of this article: Moore meeting Moshe Feiglin during her trip to Israel (along with Meir Weinstein of the JDL Canada). Feiglin is the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. During Israel’s summer 2014 war on Gaza he published a genocidal plan for the total destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The August Facebook post called for the “conquest of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their supporters.”

'Anti-Semitism' in France is State excuse for banning demonstrations by French Arabs

Violence outside Paris synagogue falsely attributed to anti-Semitism (Updated)

The Post below taken from Mondoweiss, demonstrates that the allegations of anti-Semitism in the French Palestine Solidarity Movement march on July 13^th, enabling the French state to ban Palestine solidarity marches in support of the people of Gaza.   The trouble was entirely provoked by the fascist Jewish Defence League, which even the USA has banned as a ‘terrorist’ organisation.

A YouTube video showing events preceding a well publicized stand off in front a Paris synagogue that shows the violent encounter was provoked by members of the Jewish Defense League.
Update:

Mondoweiss’ story has been confirmed by the President of the Synagogue de la Roquette.

Incidents rue de la Roquette: Serge Benhaïm dément toute attaque de la synagogue - 18/07/2014 à 19h00

Incidents rue de la Roquette: Serge Benhaïm dément toute attaque de la synagogue – 18/07/2014 à 19h00

In an interview broadcast Friday on the 24-hour news channel i-Télé, Serge Benhaïm said that there was “not a single projectile thrown at the synagogue” and that “at no moment, were we ever physically in danger.” (“Pas un seul projectile lancé sur la synagogue”. “A aucun moment, nous n’avons été physiquement en danger.”)

While Benhaïm did not describe the street fight outside as resulting from a JDL “provocation”, he did say that the extremist group smashed up a cafe on Rue de la Roquette (“le président de la synagogue de la rue de la Roquette confirme également que la LDJ a ‘cassé des chaises et des tables’) in order to confront pro-Palestinian demonstrators (“pour aller livrer ce face-à-face”). He added that he did not condone the action, and described the JDL as having a “bad reputation” using a French phrase – “une renommée un peu sulfureuse — that is not done justice by a literal translation.

Benhaïm added that he believes rumors of an attack on the synagogue were spread due to “‘confusion’ between the events that happened near a synagogue at Aulnay-sous-Bois” — a reference to a firebomb thrown at a synagogue in the northeast suburb two days prior to the July 13 demonstration.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the front of the synagogue was attacked. No one was hurt and the building only suffered “minor damage.”

It was not, however, something that could be effortlessly and shamelessly linked to thousands of people in the street showing solidarity with the 1.8 million inhabitants of an open-air prison who are currently being bombed by one of the world’s most powerful states.

Original Post:

From multiple expulsions in the Medieval era to L’Affaire Dreyfuss and Vichy collaborationism, French Jews have every reason to be wary of antisemitism. And, sadly, despite the fact that 89 percent of French citizens this year reported having a favorable opinion of Jews, antisemitism appears to be on the rise in the Fifth Republic. 

But a violent incident that took place in Paris on Sunday widely described as antisemitic, using this narrative as the background, was actually a street fight between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the Jewish Defense League; one that appears to have been started by the extremist latter in support of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign that has thus far claimed the lives of almost 200 Palestinians – 80% of them civilians. 

That hasn’t stopped powerful anti-Palestinian voices in the U.S. from using Twitter to appropriate the incident for their cause. On the same day he declared there to be a causal relationship between the mass killing of Palestinians by the IDF and the existence of Jews around the world, former Iraq War salesman David Frum highlighted the alleged attack amid his stream of sabre-rattling consciousness. Former IDF Prison Guard and admitted beater of Palestinian detainees Jeffrey Goldberg characterized the violence as “Jews Trapped by Rioters in Paris Synagogue” and questioned whether or not the incident was cause for migration. Dan Gainor, a “nondenominational Chrsitian” and waterboy for a right-wing media watch dog called Media Research Center” declared, in a refreshingly honest fashion for a bigot, that “France shows what happens after lots of #Muslim immigration: Jewish synagogue attacked, besieged.” Avi Mayer, the social media guru for the Zionist NGO, the Jewish Agency of Israel, declared the incident to be an “anti-Semitic riot, which masqueraded as an anti-Israel rally.” Yair Rosenberg, a writer for Tablet Magazine and employee of the Israeli State Archives, posted a video of the incident, describing the clip as capturing “anti-Israel protesters beseiging [sic] it and rioting outside” (it shows pitched battles in the street, filmed from inside the synagogue):  

He then used his inaccurate description of the 25 second video to effortlessly justify both Israeli ethnic cleansing and the IDF’s most recent massacre of Palestinians. “With European anti-Semitic attacks spiking during Israel’s operation,” he declared, “starting to get feeling that some anti-Zionists might not like Jews.” And J-Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-Peace” lobbying group that falsely portrays the ongoing subjugation of Palestinians in as a conflict between equal factions, decried the incident, describing it as “our brothers and sisters in Paris trapped inside a synagogue on Shabbat, pelted with rocks, surrounded by crowds with sticks and chairs and calling for Jewish blood.” 

Unfortunately for the aforementioned hawks and the reporters upon which they relied, the incident was far from an antisemitic attack – a fact laid bare by readily available information.

One of the loudest voices denouncing this false characterization belongs to a Jewish woman named Michèle Sibony, a member of the Union Juive Francaise pour Le Paix – The French Jewish Union for Peace. Sibony, incensed by what she described as an Islamophobic report of the demonstration on a Nouvel Observateur blog, penned an open letter to its editor. Posted on the UJFP website, her side of the story in question, as interpreted by Mondoweiss, is as follows:

“Protester thugs tried to attack the Synagogue de la Roquette? You cite, without flinching, a ‘testimony of the JDL.’ The announcement of the JDL assembly you mention, in support of Israel before the Synagogue de la Roquette, was organized with the eloquent title ‘Keep Calm and Kill Hamas.’ Curiously, when a rally for war crimes takes place in front of or inside a Synagogue, the injection of religion in politics does not shock you, nor does it even register. It requires no commentary from you. It is sufficient to insinuate that the [pro-Palestinian] demonstration was antisemitic. You need that for your cause: silence about crimes in Gaza, of which you say nothing.

So I’ll tell you what I, a poor Jewish infidel, saw…at this protest:on the Boulevard Beaumarchais, right near the Chemin Vert Métro stop, four or five JDL types perched on a bench, completely surrounded and protected by two rows of riot cops, threw projectiles and insults at the crowd. Cops and officials begged the crowd to not lose its cool and respond to provocations – what they were waiting for. Of course, as crowds dispersed, there were fights at the entrance of the Synagogue de la Roquette, as expected, I dare say.”

Sibony also makes no apology for Islamist rebels, declaring that Palestinians have the right to resist Israel’s occupation on their own terms:

The [Israeli] army has occupied and stolen their lands, and they refuse to submit. They’re fighting for liberty, for national liberation, and the independence of Palestine, and against eradication, pure and simple, declared by Israel, for resisting! Yes, Hamas and Jihad militants are resisting the occupation, as all Palestinian political groups are, and even if my heart is to the left, I respect them. Especially when the agenda is their dehumanization, their demonization, and their eradication at all cost. Wouldn’t anyone – white Christians, atheists on the left, or the right wing limousine set – have a title as beautiful as resistance fighter?

But whether or not one disagrees with Sibony’s characterizations of Hamas, which have been applied to many others combating occupation without controversy, a video of the incident on Rue de la Roquette lends credence to her story:

The video, posted on Monday by a user whose library doesn’t appear to include any other video on Israel or Palestine (unlike the anti-Palestinian YouTube user who posted the video shared by Rosenberg), is titled “Pro-Israelis who break everything in front of the Synagogue on Rue de la Roquette” (“Des pro-israéliens qui cassent tout devant la synagogue de la rue de la Roquette”). 

As promised, the video shows extremist Zionists (who had said the day before that they would appear outside of the Synagogue “to support Israel, where the population lives under the rhythm of sirens”) smashing chairs and tables to make weapons. The group forms barricades before pursuing pro-Palestinian demonstrators while yelling “Palestine, we fuck you” (“Palestine, on t’encule”) and throwing missiles. The JDL members pursue the demonstrators, but stop at the nearest intersection. A stand-off ensues, until pro-Palestinian demonstrators themselves respond with militancy and charge, bearing a hastily-cobbled together armory of their own. The JDL members, minus a few comrades who were attacked, retreat behind a line of riot police, and take refuge near the synagogue – without a hint of irony, in light of cynical accusations that Hamas has been employing “human shields” in one of the most densely populated strips of land on earth. The pro-Palestinian combatants withdraw soon after, closely watched by police.

Nowhere does this violence appear to be motivated by hatred of Judaism. But that hasn’t led any of the previously mentioned journalists, flack or their sources to issue corrections.

This is not to say that antisemitic attacks don’t occur in France. Also on Sunday, for example, not far from the Synagogue de la Roquette, the Synagogue de la rue des Tournelles was targeted by a few individuals in an attack that lead to several arrests. Yet, unlike the vivid images captured outside the Synagogue de la Roquette, the rue des Tournelles incident didn’t fuel wild rumors of a mob siege depicting a sizable part of the pro-Palestinian march as antisemitic — an extremely powerful, but ultimately false, tale in these combustible times. 

About Sam Knight

Sam Knight is a freelance journalist who was born, raised and currently lives in Washington DC. He studied French for eight years and went to college in Montreal.