Anti-Semitism is showing few signs of slowing down, prompting the Simon Wiesenthal Center to release a list of the “Top 10 Worst Global Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Acts of 2017.”
According to the center, the year’s most egregious incidents are as follows:
1. In the most recent act of anti-Semitism of 2017, 128 U.N. member nations voted against President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The move prompted Dallas mega-church Pastor Robert Jeffress to denounce the global body as the “leading sponsor of anti-Semitic rhetoric and action in the entire world.”
2. In Charlottesville, Virginia, hundreds of Klansmen, “white nationalists,” and neo-Nazis took part in “Unite the Right” march. The August 17 event left scores of people injured and one counter-protester dead after being struck by a car driven by a neo-Nazi.
3. Anonymity fell by the wayside as protestors took to the streets across major cities worldwide last year, boldly uttering anti-Semitic chants. Dropping all pretense of “anti-Zionism,” demonstrators made it clear their grievances were against Jews.
4. Anti-Semitism has also seen an uptick at several prestigious North American schools, where Jewish students and other proponents of Israel have found themselves targets of intimidation.
For instance, a Rutgers University professor claimed Jews control sex-trafficking, pornography, Wall Street, cancer, television and the US Federal Reserve. After months of protests, the professor was removed from his post.
In another incident, a UC Berkeley lecturer re-tweeted cartoons showing a Jew in mock Hassidic garb raising his arms in celebration, with the caption, “I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs and steal the land of the Palestinians.”
5. Simon Wiesenthal Center also reports a spate of “genocidal Jew hatred” being spewed by North American imams. During an incident in Houston, Imam Raed Saleh Al-Rousan of the Tajweed Institute delivered a fiery sermon accusing Jews, among other things, of having “killed the prophets and the messengers of Allah.” The center also reports similar rhetoric taking place at mosques in Riverside, California; Jersey City, New Jersey; Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, Canada.
6. The sixth anti-Semitic incident comes with a dire warning for the state of Israel. “Flee Israel before its destruction. Zionism is our common enemy,” Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah warned in an Oct. 17 address commemorating of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
7. Also in October, fans of the Italian soccer club, Lazio, posted anti-Semitic photos of Holocaust victim Anne Frank wearing the jersey of their city rivals. Just a week later, rivals of the German soccer club, Schalke 04, did likewise.
8. During a Nov. 11 march to commemorate Poland’s Independence Day, some participants waved banners reading “Europe Must Be White” and “Clean Blood.” The center reports that one demonstrator said he came to “get the Jews out of power.”
9. In July, three women were ousted from the Chicago Dyke March for displaying Jewish pride flags. Echoing that sentiment, Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers of the Jan. 21 Women’s March in Washington, declared, “You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There’s just no way around it,” she declared.
10. According to historians Simon Schama, Simon Sebag Montefiore, and Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson, the UK’s Labour Party has become a haven for anti-Semitism. “So far the Labour leadership’s action has been derisory. It is not enough to denounce all racisms in general,” the men charged.
They went on to liken the general climate in the UK to that of the Third Reich.