EU labeling of products made in Judea and Samaria came in third on a Jewish human rights organization’s 2015 list of the year’s top ten worst global anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents.
The ranking was released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization based in Los Angeles, and lists some of the worst offenders against Jews and Israel this year, including everything from the terror attack in San Bernardino to Palestinian incitement and discrimination against Jews at sports and music events.
The Center cautions that its top ten are “merely representative of the growing menace that threatens the Jewish people”.
The number one most anti-Semitic act this year, according to the Center, was the hatred for Israel which inspired one of the terrorists who killed 14 people in a horrific shooting attack in San Bernardino, California. In an interview, Sayed Farouk, the terrorist’s father, said that he had taught his son “to stay calm and be patient because Israel will not exist anymore. Geopolitics is changing: Russia, China, and America don’t want Jews there anymore.”
Second on the list was the militant Islamic State, which released several videos this year directly threatening Israel and Jews with attacks and violence. “To all the Jews, grandsons of apes and pigs, we are coming at you from all over the world,” one ISIS fighter told the camera.
In another Hebrew language video, a masked terrorist warned, “Soon, there will not be even a single Jew left in Jerusalem or the rest of the country. We will keep going until we eradicate this disease worldwide.”
Third on the list was the European Union’s notorious decision to label Israeli products made in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights. Though the EU claims the labeling is a technical matter, it has faced strong condemnation from Israel and Jewish organizations worldwide. Israel has said that the labeling amounts to institutionalized boycotts and a “misguided attempt to hamper trade with Israel”.
The list notes that the EU singled out Israeli products in a stunning double standard targeting Israel while ignoring products from occupied and disputed territories worldwide and products from areas controlled by terrorist organizations.
US campuses, which have been a hotbed of anti-Semitic activity directed against Jewish students and pro-Israel groups, came in fourth. According to one survey, over 50% of a sampling of Jewish students at 55 different campuses reported having experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism on their campuses.
The list cited an incident at UC Berkeley in which the sentiment that “Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber” was graffitied on a campus sidewalk.
Fifth on the list were the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The Center called out Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas for blatant incitement to violence against Jews when he said of the Temple Mount in September, “Al Aqsa is ours . . . everything is ours, all ours. [The Jews and Christians] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet and we won’t allow them to.”
The UN agency, meanwhile, has admitted to employing at least 22 Palestinians, some of them teachers, who actively encouraged stabbing and shooting attacks against “Jewish apes and pigs”.
Iran and its existential threats against Jews and Israel came in sixth on the list. Seventh was the discrimination against Jews and Israelis at several European events this year, including an incident at a music festival in Spain in which a performance by Jewish rapper Matisyahu was cancelled because he refused to sign a pledge supporting the Palestinian state.
The Center also pointed to anti-Israel riots which took place outside a hotel in Bosnia where Israel’s national soccer team was staying and a soccer game in the Netherlands where fans chanted, “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS. Together they burned Jews, because Jews burn best.”
The voting in of a British politician who has promoted anti-Israel violence was listed as number eight, and a recent decision by Kuwait Airways to halt service between JFK and London rather than fly Israeli passengers took the number nine spot.
Poland came in last with a string of anti-Semitic activities, including the burning of effigies of ultra-Orthodox Jews and anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery.
Several incidents which didn’t make the list earned a “Dishonorable Mention” by the Center. The city of Munich received one for allowing an anti-Israel BDS event to take place on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and Jakob Augstein, part owner of the German news weekly Der Spiegel, earned his for comparing Israel’s government to European fascism.
