Theme: Antisemitism

The British government is facing a legal challenge over its recommendation for schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, in a case filed on Monday by the Good Law Project. Seven of the definition’s 11 illustrations include references to Israel. The group’s executive director, Jo Maugham, said rules that conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism could be among the drivers of antisemitism. British Jewish group Na’amod said that “Jewish pupils should be safe at school, and antisemitism has to be taken seriously. The IHRA definition doesn’t do that job”.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 46, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty in federal court to 12 hate-crime charges for using Molotov cocktails to attack members of the group Run for Their Lives and others. According to the US Department of Justice, the attack killed one person and caused permanent and life-threatening injuries to several others, and Soliman admitted that he targeted the group because of the victims’ actual or perceived Israeli national origin and Jewish religion. The Times of Israel described the case as an antisemitic attack on a hostage rally in the United States.

An assailant attacked a guard with knives outside Israel’s embassy in Belgrade and was killed shortly after midnight, according to Serbian police cited by the Times of Israel. Serbia’s interior minister called the case a “terrorist attack,” raised the terror alert to the highest level and stepped up policing at key sites, while Israel’s Foreign Ministry said no staff members were injured and the embassy was closed during the nighttime hours.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella group for British Jews, passed by 118 votes to 1 a motion declaring the Green Party of England and Wales a racist party, the Times of Israel reported. The vote took place at the body's October plenary on Sunday, after the party approved a resolution describing Zionism as racism and calling for Israel to be replaced with a Palestinian state.

Less than 24 hours after being stabbed in midtown Manhattan, a Chabad-Lubavitch man returned to the same street where he was attacked to help employees wrap tefillin, according to The Times of Israel. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday evening around 6 p.m., where medical staff assessed that he had no internal bleeding and would not need stitches. No arrests have been made, and the assailant has been described as a woman in her 40s.

Skyler AJ Rose of Utah was charged with threatening to blow up a synagogue after being found with pipe bombs in his bedroom, according to the Times of Israel. He allegedly searched for a Jewish site in his area and posted “death to Israel” and “heil Hitler” on social media, also according to the Times of Israel.

The New York Police Department said on Thursday it was investigating the stabbing of a Jewish man the previous day as a potential hate crime, according to the Times of Israel.

The terms of reference for a review commissioned by the British government into antisemitism in schools, seen by the Middle East Eye, say the work will use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been widely criticised for allegedly being used to target criticism of Israel. According to widely reported accounts, teachers could be told not to wear pro-Palestine badges, including the watermelon symbol, although the report is not set to advise a blanket ban on badges, the Middle East Eye reported.

A Hamburg court found two men guilty of plotting to kill two leaders of Jewish organizations at Tehran’s behest and, after that, Iran summoned Germany’s ambassador, Axel Dittmann, according to Al Jazeera. The Dane, partially identified as Ali Hassan S, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years; the Afghan recruited as his accomplice, for four-and-a-half years. Tehran rejects the accusations as “baseless political claims” and says that attempting to give them a judicial face undermines the standing of the German judiciary itself.

The homemade bomb left outside Bank of America’s Paris branch, in the city’s 8th arrondissement, on the night of March 27, was an operation orchestrated by pro-Iran groups, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded in a letter rogatory dated July 29 sent to French justice, according to Le Monde. According to the FBI’s investigations, an Iraqi identified as Mohammad A.-S., arrested in Turkey, is suspected of having orchestrated 18 attacks or planned attacks in Europe between March and May against American interests or targets linked to the Jewish community, in response to the military offensive the US and Israel launched against Iran in February.

The Green Party of England and Wales voted at its conference in Brighton to declare Zionism a form of racism, in a motion that also backs a single democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups, rather than a two-state solution. The proposal has split the party, and critics claim it is antisemitic, according to The Guardian.

Two Iranian men accused of preparing a homemade bomb attack on Manchester’s Jewish community identified potential targets including the city’s Jewish museum and Heaton Park synagogue, the Guardian reported. Rahman Salehi, 34, from Salford, and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, from Liverpool were charged on Friday with preparing to commit an act of terrorism or assisting another to commit an act of terrorism. According to the prosecution, the pair were in contact with a third party, also assessed to be an Iranian national, who directed and coordinated the plot and sent instructions on how to assemble a homemade explosive device.

Two Iranian men have been charged in relation to an alleged terror plot targeting Manchester's Jewish community, according to The Guardian. The men, both in their 30s, were arrested on 20 September, on the eve of Yom Kippur.

A police officer and a man were wounded in an exchange of gunfire near the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Canada, on Sunday evening, as the Jewish community observed Yom Kippur, according to the Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times. The man is in critical condition; police have not said whether the synagogue was the target, and Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has taken the case. Provincial premier Doug Ford said he was “disgusted” by the shooting.