Here we go again: even the Indians are angry
FROM INDIA to France, anti-Israel protests erupted around the world this week.
One of the most terrifying demonstrations took place in Paris last Sunday, when a jihad-inspired march turned into what one observer likened to a “pogrom”.
Protesters laid siege to Roquette Street Synagogue in the centre of the city, attacking the building with rocks as they attempted to break in.
Three hundred congregants were besieged for several hours until they were evacuated under heavy police protection.
I n India, there were large pro-tests across the country, and several MPs walked out of parliament on Tuesday when the government refused to put forward a resolution condemning Israel.
Meanwhile, a social media worker for the Western Cape branch of the ANC in South Africa tweeted a picture of Adolf Hitler with the caption: “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some to let you know why I was killing them.”
In the UK, the Community Security Trust reported that antisemitic incidents had doubled in the first two weeks of this month as Israel’s Operation Protective Edge continued.
Of the 50 incidents recorded, 30 were “directly attributable to the current conflict”, CST said.
Anti-Israel groups including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised 20 demonstrations around the UK including one outside the Israeli Embassy in London and another in front of New Broadcasting House, i n protest
casting House in protest against the corporation’s perceived pro-Israel bias.
Bernard Abouaf, a journalist for Radio-Shalom, a Jewish radio station, witnessed the scene at Roquette Street Synagogue in Paris. He said it reminded him “of pogroms in Arab countries. Were it not for about 40 young men belonging to the Jewish Community Security Service and the Jewish Defence League”, the synagogue would probably have been torched.
Elsewhere in Paris, protesters at a pro-jihadi demonstration shouted anti-Jewish slogans in Arabic demanding that Jews be slaughtered.
Violent incidents occured in France throughout the weekend. On Saturday a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
In Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign claimed 10,000 people had attended its protest outside the Israeli embassy in London. Other demonstrations were held in Leicester, Bristol, the West Midlands, Bradford and Liverpool. A rally is planned at Downing Street on Saturday.
On Sunday evening, vandals daubed a swastika on a Jewish family’s home in Hendon, north-west London.
The Community Security Trust said it had received reports that occupants of cars driving through Jewish neighbourhoods of Manchester shouted antisemitic abuse.
A spokesman added that at least one antisemetic incident occured in St John’s Wood, north-west London, after a group of 300 protestors broke off from the demonstration outside the BBC. He also said that in Glasgow “after a demonstration a man of south Asian appearance was heard shouting ‘f*****ng kill the Jews’.”
At a pro-Palestinian protest in Bradford, MP George Galloway called for Pakistani and Arab armies to take action against Israel.
Mr Galloway said: “God instructs us to raise our hands against injustice and if we cannot raise our hands then to speak from our lips words against injustice.”
On Twitter, the hashtag #Hitlerwasright was trending, with further Hitler imagery used in Facebook groups before anti-Israel demonstrations.
CST reported that antisemitic incidents in Britain had doubled in the first two weeks of this month. Of the 50 incidents recorded, 30 were “directly attributable to the current conflict,” it said. A coalition of pro-Israel groups, led by the Zionist Federation, is due to hold a rally outside the Israeli embassy on Sunday.
More than a dozen rabbis joined a separate peace initiative this week, putting their names to a statement with leading imams to express their concernsovertheviolence. Dayan Ivan Binstock of the London Beth Din, Rabbi Jason Kleiman of Leeds’ Beth Hamidrash Hagadol, and Liberal Jewish Synagogue’s senior rabbi Alexandra Wright were among those supporting the initiative.
Magen David Adom UK launched an appeal to raise funds to cover the cost of its emergency services work in Israel.
King Solomon High School in Redbridge postponed its year nine trip to Israel for 42 pupils
Meanwhile, almost 50 MPs condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza during Parliament’s biggest debate on