Unite against fascism

Another useful email from Dutch Jewish news service JoodseInfo.net:

In Germany on 13 February 2005 thousands of Nazis and right-wing extremists met, abusing the commemoration of the bombing of Dresden. This was the biggest demonstration of right-wing extremists in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Unfortunately this is not the only example. All over Europe, fascist organisations abused the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of the 2nd World War. During meetings they also had the chance to spread fascist ideology and to demonstrate strength in a legitimised way.

The victims of the war that were commemorated at such events did not include any Jews, Roma, homosexuals or disabled.

Fascist organisations aim to rehabilitate racism and National Socialist ideology. Denying the Holocaust is one of the most dangerous tools that fascist propaganda uses.

Through distortion, invention, misquotation, manipulation and mistranslation self-appointed 'revisionists' try to prove that the Holocaust is something that never happened. In public, these 'revisionists' pretend to be serious scientists with only deviating opinions and often they are believed and given podium.

The crimes against the Jews are minimised and denied, in particular the mass extermination of Jews in the gas chambers of the extermination camps. They claim that there is no evidence that gas chambers really existed.

Some even claim the Holocaust did not happen because there was no single, systematic 'master plan' for the extermination of the Jews. Some even blame the Jews themselves to be responsible, or the Holocaust to be just a big lie made possible through Jewish conspiracy. In the minds of many Nazis and right-wing extremists the war crimes committed by the Allied Forces were as bad as the war crimes of the Germans.

During the commemoration events of the end of WWII fascists did not refrain from using those unacceptable statements.

But not only fascists make use of antisemitism as a focus for their hatred. Antisemitism as well as racism, xenophobia and discrimination of minorities are on the rise in Europe. In France for example racist and antisemitic violence nearly doubled in 2004, hitting its highest level in a decade and this growth is showing no sign of slowing down. These are reasons to be concerned.

Each year around 9 November the UNITED network http://www.unitedagainstracism.org organises a European-wide campaign to commemorate the "Kristallnacht" pogrom, to protest against intolerance and to build a better future of tolerance and respect.

The strength of UNITED campaigns is that the diversity of the European movement against racism, fascism and intolerance takes part in a common action.

There are many different approaches and philosophies, different methods and ways, but one common vision of intercultural understanding and peace.

UNITED campaigns generate publicity and mobilise people but they are also a unique opportunity to inspire each other and to learn from each other's experiences. As a sign of reconciliation and mutual understanding different groups commemorate the 'Kristallnacht' pogrom together. Eye-witnesses tell about their experiences to young activists, youth groups take the occasion to develop models of responsible and progressive commemoration of the Holocaust.

UNITED against fascism and antisemitism, Jews and Roma groups organise joint commemorations and Christian groups cooperate with gay organisations. Together we want to highlight the danger of discrimination, racism and division and we stand together for peace and understanding.

The variety and creativity of many simultaneous activities on different levels all over Europe make the campaign successful.

A list of activities taking place in your country is available on the web site:
http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/act05n9.htm

Comments

[Lior]

The correspondent on the Joodseinfo website is quite correct to cite the fact that neo-Nazi activity is on the rise in Europe but remiss in attributing the recent escalation of anti-Semitic attacks - of all degrees of severity - to home-grown neo-Nazis groups in Europe and to cite the growth of such attacks in France as an example of this. Since the 1980s, French Jewry has been victim of a low-level and planned outbreak of Moslem violence, largely against the Sephardi Jews also resident in Paris' run-down banlieus. It is this Islamic violence that was ignored by the government until it reached such heights that they had to intervene.

It might here be worthwhile noting militant Islam's connection with Nazism, which is well-documented and goes back to before the 2nd World War, with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the neo-Nazi regime in Iraq and further connections between "Palestinian" terrorists and European Rightwingers.

I am not for one moment under-estimating the effects such neo-Nazis have but I am warning that the major danger of anti-Semitism in Europe comes not from them. Nearly all European governments have legislation in place to ban such organizations - and do. The danger comes from European governments - ours included - that cannot or will not see that anotehr strand of Fascism, intimately and closely linked with traditional European Fascism, namely Islamofascism, is now making the running in a void created by an accepting liberal Left ethos of multi-culturalism that is bending over backwards to accommodate more and more extreme demands.

If the proof of the pudding were not in the eating, why is it that Paris, tonight as on previous nights, is now burning?

What traditional Euro-centric Nazis cannot now achieve themselves is being achieved by proxy - in the encouragement of grievance politics and now violence in a radicalized Islamic youth across the continent, aided and abetted by the all-knowing and all-trusting Liberals at home.

What we face - the whole of society, including moderate Moslems - is a concerted effort to destroy democratic values. And who better to single out in order to attack those very values but the Jews?

Do these Islamic attacks and so-called spontaneous rioting, vandalism and the singling out of Jews not remind of something? They should. They are the stirrings of the same phenomena that errupted into Kristallnacht.

We have been warned.