Antisémitisme : en Europe, l’inquiétante anomalie française

שעון הזהב וכוס השמפניה של אדולף היטלר, קולר שהיה שייך לכלב של אווה בראון, סכו”ם של בכירים נאצים – ואפילו נייר טואלט של הוורמאכט: הפריטים האלה ופריטים נאציים נוספים, יוצעו למכירה פומבית בבית מכירות אמריקני מחר (יום ו’) – ובהנהגה היהודית באירופה, מחאה וזעם.

בית המכירות “אלכסנדר” (Alexander Historical Auctions), הפועל במדינת מרילנד שבארצות הברית, יציע מגוון רחב של פרטים שהיו בבעלותו של הצורר, בת זוגו אווה בראון ובכירים במפלגה הנאצית ובוורמאכט. למעלה מ-30 מנהיגי קהילות וארגונים יהודיים אירופיים הצטרפו ליו”ר איגוד הארגונים היהודים באירופה (EJA), הרב מנחם מרגולין, בקריאה לביטול המכירה הפומבית.

במכתב בהול למנהל בית המכירות, מציינים הרב מרגולין ועשרות המנהיגים היהודים כי “המכירה של הפריטים האלה היא תועבה, ואין ערך היסטורי מהותי לחלק הארי של הפריטים המוצגים, לכן יש לפקפק במוטיבציה של הרוכשים אותם”. הם הוסיפו כי “אירופה סבלה מאוד בגלל האידיאולוגיה המעוותת והרצחנית של המפלגה הנאצית. מיליונים מתו כדי לשמר את ערכי החופש שאנו רואים כיום כמובנים מאליהם, כולל כמעט חצי מיליון אמריקנים. היבשת שלנו זרועה בקברי אחים לזיכרון ובאתרי מחנות המוות”.

https://www.ynet.co.il/judaism/article/byyooayaq

צילום: Alexander Historical Auctions)

Following the beginning of Israel’s operation names “Shield and Arrow” – which to date has resulted in the killing of three senior Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza City and Rafah – we have attached the following points for your use.

1- This is an action that Israel has undertaken following months in which the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad has repeatedly fired unprovoked missiles at Israel.

2- The missiles that the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip fire are aimed only at the civilian population. In the past few days the terrorist organizations have fired over 100 missiles towards the southern population centres whilst parents were coming to pick up their children from school and kindergartens. Just imagine what would happen if a missile hit a school or kindergarten…

3- Israel had warned the terrorist organizations on numerous occasions and demanded that they stop firing missiles towards Israel. Despite these repeated warning, they continued to provoke and launch missiles and rockets.

4- For years the residents of the south of Israel have felt like hostages. Every few weeks the terrorists decide to fire rockets at civilian settlements. Thousands of families including small children flee to shelters.

5- Israel only targets terrorists: only those people who fire missiles towards Israel and only those who wage war against Israel and/or send other people to fire missiles and carry out acts of terrorism against Israel.

6- No other country in the world would put up with the firing missiles and rockets at population centres on its territory without responding.

7- Israel wants to live in peace and mutual respect with all its neighbors, including the Gaza Strip, but Hamas and the Islamic Jihad do not accept the existence of the State of Israel and call for its destruction together with Hezbollah and Iran.

8- Iran is the source and the head of the snake directing terrorism and arms to the terrorist organizations surrounding Israel.

9- Israel has nothing against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and it does

everything in its power to avoid harming innocents and even brings thousands of workers from Gaza into its territory every day to work inside Israel. In addition Israel supplies Gaza with electricity and other civilian needs. This is at a time when the terrorists in Gaza are using the civilian population as human shields and even firing missiles towards Israel from population centres and, as we have seen many times, from schools and kindergartens.

10- There is no closure on Gaza and no blockade, Gaza has a border with the Egyptians and those who want to leave and come to Gaza, do so.

11- Instead of investing the hundreds of millions that Gaza receives as aid from many countries in the world, in education, the development of the city and infrastructure, the leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization that controls Gaza invest the money in the production of missiles and rockets, in the purchase of weapons and bombs and in the digging of offensive tunnels in order to harm the residents of Israel.

If the European Union wants to welcome Jews and Muslims, it needs to make their legitimate religious practices welcome as well.
Last week, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the EU’s highest court, dealt a serious blow to ritual Jewish and Muslim methods of animal slaughter. The court upheld a Belgian law that requires that animals must be stunned before they are killed. Neither Jewish nor Muslim law allows for stunning in the slaughter process.
Proponents of the CJEU ruling and supporters of the Belgian law assert that the stun-first approach is more humane. Critics argue that properly executed slaughter is less painful and less traumatic for the animals. Either way, the ruling is a serious setback for religious freedom in Europe. And it isn’t clear whether the ruling would also prohibit the importation of slaughtered meat that has not observed the stun-first requirement.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, urged reconsideration. “Europe needs to reflect on the type of continent it wants to be. If values like freedom of religion and true diversity are integral, then the current system of law does not reflect that and needs to be urgently reviewed,” he said.
According to the CJEU, its ruling actually protects religious practices and doesn’t prohibit any religious observance. It argued that the ruling permitted religious practices since it “allow[s] a fair balance to be struck between the importance attached to animal welfare and the freedom of Jewish and Muslim believers to manifest their religion.”
That superficial analysis by the CJEU is remarkably naive and misinformed, since it improperly assumes that religious slaughter can be performed on a stunned animal. It cannot. And, besides, Jews and Muslims don’t want to “manifest” their religion — they want the freedom to practice their religions.
Two distinct elements in European society are promoting the ban on ritual slaughter. Opponents on the left are concerned about animal welfare, and see ritual slaughter as inhumane. Opponents on the far right are ultranationalists, who see Jewish and Muslim practices as alien imports to Christian Europe. Strange bedfellows, indeed. But through their issue alliance, opposition to ritual slaughter has taken on a life of its own, without regard to the sensibilities of Jews and Muslims.
According to Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the head of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, had Belgium’s parliament “engaged properly with Jewish community officials before banning the practice, some satisfactory solutions could have been found, as has been the case in the Netherlands and elsewhere, because the method of slaughter is not crueler or [more] painful to animals than other methods.” But no such effort was made.
Not every Jew in Europe eats kosher meat. But the availability of kosher food is one of the markers of a thriving Jewish life. In a pluralistic society, every effort must be made to enable such religious observances. If the European Union wants to welcome Jews and Muslims, it needs to make their legitimate religious practices welcome as well.
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