Around the world
SWEDEN
‘Shoah was scam’
POLICE are investigating how the words “the Holocaust was a scam” were projected onto the main synagogue in Malmö and other buildings in the country while that city was hosting the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism last month.
The Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi group, claimed responsibility for the incident, according to Dagens Nyheter, which also reported that police are treating it as a hate crime.
The conference had brought together heads of state and other prominent government officials from dozens of countries in a city known for its high rates of antisemitism.
GERMANY
Singer doubles down
A SINGER who claimed he had been denied service at a hotel in Germany for wearing a Star of David pendant doubled down on his account following doubts raised in the German media.
Gil Ofarim claimed on Instagram that he’d been told by an employee of the Westin Leipzig to remove the necklace, prompting hundreds of people to show up at the hotel in protest.
However, security footage reportedly showed him arriving at the hotel without the pendant visible, while the employee has denied the allegation
Ofarim, though, has insisted that he “didn’t lie” and that “the complete video … has not been shown”.
US
Attempted arson
NEW YORK’S hate crime force has launched an investigation after a woman tried to start a fire outside a Jewish school in Brooklyn.
Images provided by NYPD showed the suspect pour gasoline from a container as she walked past the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School, then lighting it and running off.
A security guard at the school put out the flames using water.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that an attack on “one of our yeshivas is an attack on all New Yorkers” and vowed to bring to justice the perpetrator of the “vile act against our Jewish brothers and sisters”.
CHINA
‘Final solution’
A CHINESE state-run media outlet has come under fire for calling for a “final solution to the Taiwan question”.
Frank Müller-Rosentritt, a member of the German parliament and its foreign affairs committee, compared the terminology to the Nazis’ “final solution to the Jewish question”.
China’s Global Times published an article in English last week warning that it will take action to occupy Taiwan and used the “final solution” language in a tweet.
“If a Chinese propaganda medium operates with historically-loaded terms, then all alarm bells should ring for us against the background of our history,” Müller-Rosentritt told Welt on Saturday.
ITALY
Fascist salutes
THE Italian Football Federation (IFF) has been urged to take action after a display of fascist salutes at a Lazio match.
Supporters were also heard shouting “Duce, Duce,” as Italy’s former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was known.
The Union of Jewish Communities in Italy (UCEI) called on the team and the IFF to “intervene with the utmost urgency and effectiveness”.
“Faced with the ostentation of gestures and symbols that evoke fascist ideals, there can be no ambiguity and hesitation,” wrote Noemi Di Segni, the UCEI’s president.
“The world of soccer must free itself from fascists and carriers of hatred”.
UK
Parl goes kosher
A CAMPAIGN for kosher and halal meals to be made available to MPs and other staff at London’s Houses of Parliament has finally come to fruition.
The launch follows a push that two Labour lawmakers – Charlotte Nichols, who is Jewish, and Zarah Sultana, who is Muslim – began in 2019.
The move was approved in 2020, but implementation was delayed due to COVID.
The dishes on offer included chicken schnitzel, Hungarian beef goulash, Moroccan salmon and meatballs.
Expressing her “delight,” Nicholls said, “There are many things that need to be done to make parliament more accessible, but small steps like this can make a big difference.”