Posted on 02/14/2004 6:15:21 PM PST by blam
Prominent Jews targeted by Muslims and the far Right
By Rajeev Syal
(Filed: 15/02/2004)
Prominent Jews in Britain are being targeted in a wave of anti-Semitic harassment by far-Right and Islamic fundamentalist organisations.
The home of Lord Triesman, the former general secretary of the Labour party, has been attacked by Combat 18, the neo-Nazi group. Uri Geller, the Israeli television personality, and Barbara Roche, the former Labour minister, have been the victims of graffiti and hate mail.
Uri Geller with graffiti on a fence outside his home
The incidents have emerged as police prepare to release figures this week showing that Britain saw a significant rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2003.
Mike Whine, the security spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that the problem of prejudice directed towards Jews on the European mainland was spreading to Britain. "Tensions in the Middle East and the rise of far-Right activity have come together to produce a depressing increase in anti-Semitic activity," he said.
Mr Whine, who works closely with the police to monitor anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues and Jewish graves, said that extremist Islamic groups are behind many anti-Semitic incidents. "There is reliable evidence from the police to prove that an increasing number of incidents are committed by sympathisers of the Palestinians and Islamists.
"The promotion of anti-Semitism by the Arab media and by Islamist organisations worldwide is having a significant effect on the attitudes of Muslim communities around the world towards the Jews."
Combat 18, the banned neo-Nazi terror group, has orchestrated a 14-month campaign of terror against Lord Triesman of Tottenham. His windows have been broken and his walls daubed with swastikas in 12 separate attacks.
The problem became so bad that he was advised by Special Branch to erect a 10ft fence around his home in Dartmouth Park, north London. The fence was dismantled in December, however, because it fell foul of the planning rules of the Labour-run Camden borough council. Lord Triesman, 61, said that he was disturbed by the attacks, which he blamed on anti-Semitic sentiment.
"When a group like Combat 18 spray swastikas and slogans on your walls and brick your windows, it's evident what it's all about," he said. "My family was at home through a number of attacks and it was pretty grizzly. It has been a really bad time, horrendous, and no one should have to go through that."
He criticised Camden council for forcing him to take down the protective fence. "The fence has come down now. I am not happy about it at all. It was there because Special Branch advised it."
Lord Triesman was brought up in the north London Jewish community. Although he is not a practising Jew, police fear that his race was the reason for being targeted by Combat 18.
Mr Geller, 57, the Israeli-born exponent of mind over matter, was shocked to discover the word "Jew" painted on a fence at his home in Sonning, Berkshire, last Thursday. He said that his family had been subjected to a three-year campaign of intimidation including hate mail, silent telephone calls and stalkers, but this was the first time that graffiti had been painted on his property.
"It is a real shock to be confronted with the word 'Jew' being used as an insult. It is a sickening feeling," he said.
In November, Mrs Roche's office in Crouch End, north London, was daubed with swastikas for the third time in a year. The Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green said: "The use of Nazi symbols is abhorrent." Earlier this year, the far-Right British National Party tried to march in her constituency but was stopped after residents objected. In 2002, there were 350 recorded anti-Semitic incidents in Britain, according to the Board of Deputies - a rise of 13 per cent on the previous year. This year's rise, to be announced this week by the Board of Deputies, will show a small but significant increase in incidents that include name-calling, physical assaults and hate mail.
Gerry Gable, the publisher of Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said that far-Right organisations such as Combat 18 were orchestrating campaigns on the internet against prominent Jews by circulating their names and addresses. "They believe they are participating in a race war," he said.
An ICM poll last month in Britain found that one in five Britons would oppose a Jewish prime minister, while one in seven believed that the Holocaust was exaggerated.
Abu Hamza, the hook-handed former cleric of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, was reported to the police yesterday for preaching alleged anti-Semitic comments about the Holocaust.
He is one of a number of extremist Islamic clerics who have been accused of encouraging anti-Semitic views among young Muslims.
Every stinking lefty group was proudly waving the "Palestinian" banner during the anti-war protests!!
The mythical "Palestinian" national movement has become the 21st century version of Nazism. An excuse to hate, persecute and drive the Jews, once again, from a homeland.
The same idiots in Europe who are bitching about Israel are the same ones responsible for necessity of it's existence.
Good Lord!
We regret to inform you, that the security barrier you installed after government warning, does not fit in with the condo associations esthetic rules.
A man installs a security barrier for his families protection and the nuts make him tear it down, absolutely amazing.
Nazi is slang for the "National Socialist Party" - now is it the far left or far right that wants socialism?
Short for Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiter-Partei, National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Uri Geller ought to just be happy that someone remembers who he is. Maybe he can bend those letters with his mind to make them spell "fraud." That would be equally true, and it would even be insulting...
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