A New Article At-"kick It Out"

[Cracker 0]

Sorry made a mistake!.. I just saw that I got the year wrong & that the article was from Feb-2007 and not from this month as I wrote in the title(I tried to edit & change the title but the system here wont let you), but still it's relatively new & probably not less if not even more relevant today.

The original link-http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=3019

ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS HIT RECORD HIGH

Friday 2 Feb, 2007

Attacks on British Jews soared to record levels last year in the wake of Israel's war against Hizbullah in Lebanon, according to a report published yesterday.

There were 594 anti-semitic incidents in 2006, and more than a fifth took place during the war in July and August. More than 100 incidents made direct reference to Israel and the Middle East, and 54 referred directly to Lebanon.

The attacks ranged from the stabbing of a Jewish man in London to malicious phone calls to synagogues. In one case teenager Jasmine Kranat was robbed and beaten after passengers on a bus asked her if she was Jewish.

Community Security Trust report

The report by the Community Security Trust, which has been collating anti-semitic incidents since 1984, said: "Trigger events such as the war in Lebanon do not create anti-semitic incidents out of a vacuum. They act as a spark for people whose capacity for perpetrating incidents already exists."

The type of attack prompted by the war was different from those that took place in the rest of the year, the report said. The war in Lebanon, which cost the lives of up to 1,000 civilians and pulverised the country's infrastructure, triggered attacks against symbols of the Jewish community such as synagogues and national bodies rather than individuals in the street.

Other less powerful trigger events were the suspension of the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, for comments made to a Jewish reporter, which was mentioned by perpetrators in 11 incidents, and the jailing of historian David Irving for Holocaust denial, which was mentioned on five occasions. The use of far-right references is no longer the preserve of neo-Nazis, the report said. In one case a Jewish man walking to a synagogue in London was abused by a group of Asian men who shouted: "Jewish scumbag, go back to the camps," and gave Nazi salutes.

Four of last year's incidents were classified as extreme violence, including one in which a Jewish man in Manchester was struck over the head with a metal bar.

Targets

Jewish schools or children were targeted in 59 incidents, and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated nine times. A poster saying: "The Nazis are here again, get your tanks out of Palestine," was stuck on a synagogue door in Gloucestershire.

The CST also recorded 20 cases of mass produced anti-semitic literature. One mass mailing bearing the name of the far right group Combat 18 and containing a razor blade included the warning: "We fully intend to complete the final solution. Slit the throats of your kinder [children] now. Save us the effort."

A CST spokesman, Mark Gardner, said: "Anti-semitic hate crime levels have doubled in the last 10 years. This is unacceptable racism that many Jews had hoped and believed was a thing of the past."

Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian

Edited February 18, 2008 by Cracker

[Cracker 0]

A more recent article from the 28 Oct, 2007

about anti-Semitism wave in Football..

the original link- http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=3484

UK] ALIVE AND UNCHECKED - A WAVE OF ANTI-JEWISH HATE

Sunday 28 Oct, 2007

'Spurs are on their way to Belsen, Hitler's gonna gas 'em again...'

It's not a song you would expect to hear on a family day out at a Premier League game, but it is one of several anti-Semitic chants still heard at some top-flight grounds. While the message about anti-black abuse is in the public consciousness, campaigners say that anti-Semitism is alive - and unchecked.

Incidents

The past few months have featured several high-profile recorded incidents of anti-Semitic abuse, alongside growing evidence from lower levels of the game. The problem centres around clubs in London - where there are large Jewish communities - where songs about concentration camps and gas chamber hissing noises are a regular feature at certain games. The government recently reported a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in wider society and, with the appointment of Avram Grant as Chelsea manager, the issue in football has been brought into focus after the club received anti-Semitic hate mail.

Britain's Jewish sports group says action is overdue. Martin Berliner, chief executive of Maccabi GB, says: 'I'm a Chelsea fan and I can't listen to songs about concentration camps any more. My father's parents died in the Holocaust. When Avram Grant was appointed, fans came on Chelsea TV and asked why they had appointed a Jew who would not work on Yom Kippur. There's a lot of Jewish conspiracy-theory talk kicking about, like Ben Haim only being picked because he's Jewish. The other week Haim made a mistake and someone behind me stood up and shouted, "You stupid Yid!" Nobody complained.'

Weekly abuse

Comedian and author David Baddiel agrees. 'Literally every week there issome anti-Semitic chanting at Stamford Bridge. It often takes place regardless of whether Tottenham are playing or not. It's even happened to me. I went to get a hotdog in an area where I don't usually sit and they started chanting "Yiddo" at me.' Baddiel says he can understand the humour in some of it, but feels that a serious side of the issue is too often overlooked. 'Can you imagine if the Chelsea crowd was shouting "Nigger" or "Paki"? People would actually be talking about taking legal action.'

Abuse has been heard at Premier League grounds from Arsenal to Wigan. A complicating factor is Tottenham's close association with the problem - whether they are playing or not, many of the chants are directed at the club or their former players. Their fans' self-identification as 'Yids' - a derogatory word for a Jew - is problematic. Last week fans and representatives of the Tottenham Supporters Trust, Maccabi GB and Kick It Out debated the issue. Supporters say the term is used as a 'badge of honour', which aligns Jews and non-Jews in a proud allegiance to the club, but campaigners say it provokes and legitimises abuse from rival fans.

Yids

As both sets of fans often interchange 'Yid' for 'Jew', or words depicting a relationship to Israel or Palestine, the demarcation lines separating football from religion, race, politics and anti-Semitism are decidedly blurred.

Chelsea want the term 'Yid' eradicated from their ground. 'We make it clear that we have a policy of zero tolerance,' says Simon Greenberg, director of communications. 'There is no justification in our eyes. We're not going to get into a philosophical debate about it.' But Tottenham insist the FA should be taking the lead and are wary of being made a scapegoat. 'It is a complex issue and there are strong feelings on both sides. But the fans themselves have not raised it,' says their spokesperson.

And that may be a key part of the problem: a scarcity of high-profile voices from within the Jewish football community. Many of those approached by Observer Sport declined to be interviewed for fear of alienating themselves in the football world. Others did not want to draw attention to their Jewish identity and in some cases clubs felt it too controversial for their staff to discuss. The reticence reminds some of the days when black players were too frightened to speak about racism.

Lone voice

One man who is happy to be the lone voice is lawyer and Kick It Out board advisory member Jonathan Metliss. A lifelong football fan, Metliss has been campaigning against anti-Semitism since the early 1980s.'My father fought the Mosleyites. When I started campaigning nobody would take it seriously, but I've since put this issue on the map.' Metliss says 'Yid' is unquestionably offensive. 'It's like calling a Pakistani a Paki. A lot of guys I know won't take their kids to football because of it.'

Simon Johnson, the FA's director of corporate affairs, concedes that there is a problem. 'We have not yet made it as taboo to abuse somebody who is Jewish,' says Johnson. 'People do not understand that it's offensive to call someone an 'effing Yid', or to hiss: they think it's funny. Our challenge is to make it a taboo - and I accept we've got some catching up to do.'

Edited February 18, 2008 by Cracker

[Fulham Broadway 16,845]

This was posted last year when it appeared in the Guardian.