Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said WDR bears “a great responsibility not to present anyone on the screen who could spread hatred of Israel.”

By JNS
A Muslim journalist was axed from her pending position as a TV host for a German science program after allegations came forward about her past anti-Semitic activity, including participation in the pro-Iran, anti-Israel Al-Quds march in Berlin in 2014.
As reported by the pro-Israel daily Bild and other German outlets, politicians, activists and Jewish community members called on WDR, a public broadcasting station, not to give a platform to Nemi El-Hassan, a journalist and doctor, in light of evidence of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel words and deeds.
Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, stated that WDR bears “a great responsibility not to present anyone on the screen who could spread hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism.”
Following the uproar, WDR suspended the 28-year old from participating in “Quarks” and said that it would examine the matter carefully. “The allegations against her are grave,” the station stated. “But it is also grave to deny a young journalist of professional development.”
El-Hassan has since disavowed her participation in the Al-Quds march, where she was photographed wearing a headscarf and a kaffiyeh. Following inquiries to WDR from Bild, her tweets with alleged anti-Semitic content have been removed.
In an interview with Germany’s Spiegel, the Lebanese-born El-Hassan said she doesn’t hate Israel and that her participation in the march, of which she knew little, simply provided an outlet for her to express solidarity with Palestinians. “That demo was definitely the wrong way to do that. I say that today very clearly.”
She also said that she has since moderated her Islamist views and has distanced herself from the conservative Islamic crowd that brought her to such a rally; she stopped wearing a headscarf in 2019. “I have many Jewish friends, and my best friend is gay,” she said in the interview.
The annual Al-Quds march has been a hot-button issue in Berlin.
Despite the urgings of Jewish community leaders, German authorities did not ban it outright, citing freedom of assembly, although it was heavily regulated against anti-Semitic expressions. Last year, however, the organizers canceled the march under the cover of coronavirus guidelines. Some argued the cancellation came under fear of the ban on Hezbollah in Germany.
https://ejpress.org/muslim-journalist-suspended-from-hosting-german-tv-show-over-allegations-of-anti-semitism/

Amid the dramatic rise in levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and violent demonstrations on campuses across Europe, encountering a lack of action by European governments or even a tacit encouragement in cases like Belgium and Spain, the European Jewish Association (EJA), representing hundreds of communities across the continent, established a forum of senior lawyers and Jewish jurists from across the continent to develop legal tools to enhance enforcement against manifestations of anti-Semitism.

The lawyers surveyed the legal tools – laws and enforcement mechanisms existing in each country – and discussed current challenges, such as the lack of knowledge among plaintiffs and police, legal loopholes, the sluggishness of the judicial system, and also addressed the distorted reception of the International Criminal Court in the case of the aggression between Hamas leaders who instigated the terrible massacre of October 7 and the Prime Minister and Defense Minister of the attacked state.

The forum decided on a series of operative steps, including calling for examining arrests until the completion of proceedings against inciters against Jews and Israelis in order to create deterrence, legislative processes to define the personal responsibility of politicians and government officials to prevent incitement and hate speech, measures to expedite and accelerate legal proceedings against anti-Semitic attacks, and of course, legal action against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

The Chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, who initiated the forum, noted that: “Unfortunately, too many governments across Europe are not truly willing to combat the plague of anti-Semitism that has reached unprecedented levels since October 7. The ‘National Plans to Combat Anti-Semitism’ and the IHRA definitions are a good tools, but as long as they are not implemented, they remain merely declarative. The plans are shelved and reality is worsening and becoming more dangerous day by day. It begins with people being afraid or hesitant to file complaints against anti-Semitic attackers, continues with the lack of response and the absence of an effective response from law enforcement authorities, and strengthens in the face of the fact that even when an offender is brought to court, the process takes years and in the case of punishment – there is no longer an effective message for deterrence and prevention. If governments, law enforcement authorities, and university officials fail or refuse to address the challenge, then Jewish lawyers will do so. We intend to confront anti-Semitism directly, develop evidence-based legal tools, and disseminate an operative guide that will define to the police what constitutes anti-Semitic incidents and how they should act in each such case. Rabbi Margolin noted that all Jewish lawyers who are members of the forum volunteer fully and out of deep commitment.”

Adv. Pascal Markovitz, European Jewish Association Advisory Board Member and Lawyer at the Paris Bar, a pioneer in the legal fight against anti-Semitic phenomena in Europe, noted that in France, effective legislation has been developed against anti-Semitism and BDS, and the country has also adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. However, Markovitz noted that there is significant difficulty in enforcing the laws and imposing sanctions on anti-Semites.

Adv. Avram Ishai Head of the Legal Center for Combatting Antisemitism – The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IJLL), which partnered in convening the forum, noted that in Germany too, there is appropriate legislation against anti-Semitism, but the problem lies in enforcement when police lack the tools to identify and address incidents of anti-Semitism.

Wester Meijdam, Policy Officer at the Office of the European Commission Coordinator on combatting Antisemitism, revealed to the lawyers that 71% of Jews in Europe refrain from wearing or wearing items that could identify them as Jews. About 38% of European Jews have considered or are considering emigrating because they do not feel safe in their countries. 9 out of 10 Jews believe that anti-Semitism in their country has worsened.

Adv. Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive, UK Lawyers for Israel, noted that the police in Britain are ignoring the Jewish community – especially in London. While some police officers are very good and deserving, unfortunately, it seems that police commanders are reluctant to deal with the problem of anti-Semitism directly and comprehensively and fear internal rebellion, as a significant number of the officers under their command are Muslims.

The legal advisor to the European Jewish Association, EJA, Adv. Shlomo Dahan, noted that the guide to be developed for enforcement agencies will clarify to officers in the field how to identify and act from the moment a complaint is received to bringing the suspects to justice. The guide will detail to prosecutors in each country the legal channels they must take to achieve justice and how to distinguish when an utterance or act is an anti-Semitic statement or incitement, defined as a crime according to European Union guidelines.

For two days, September 29 and 30, 1941, 33,771 people were exterminated. More than thirty thousand of them were Jews.

A zoom press conference was dedicated on Tuesday to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre ahead of an event “Lessons from Babyn Yar: History, Memory and Legacy” which is jointly organised by the House of European History in Brussels and the Kiev-based Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC).

The conference, organized in cooperation with the European Jewish Asociation, discussed lessons 80 years later, as well as unveiling new and unique tools to keep the lessons, history and memory alive, including actually putting faces and names to those murdered for the first time.

Among the speakers, French Father Patrick Desbois, founder of Yahad-In Unum and head of the scholarly council of BYHMC, stressed that Babi Yar was a criminal site where the genocide of the Jewish people took place in the center of a large city in a large country (Kiev, today Ukraine).

‘’The locals willingly aided the young fascists. The gunmen were given sandwiches and tea with little vodka in it as the mass executions lasted many hours,’’ he noted.

Father Patrick asked a practical question: where did the tons of items and valuables taken from the Jews before their execution go? ‘’It would seem that everything should be documented, but it is easier to find detailed evidence and statistics of the shootings than information about the confiscated property of those killed. It was as if the Germans were embarrassed to write about such facts.’’

He added, ‘’For me, this is another terrible evidence of the Babi Yar tragedy: human life is reduced to zero. It is only the result of statistics, nothing more. Even more terrible is that the USSR, on whose territory the tragedy took place, tried to hide the truth about Babyn Yar for a long time. Nevertheless, our generation has a goal: to find the hidden facts and restore the history of this bloody genocide.’’

“I visited Raka in Syria where there was a mass grave. Journalists came, journalists went. Perhaps in 80 years there can be a debate about what is a ‘fitting’ memorial. What is important is keeping the memory and lessons alive,’’ stressed Father Desbois.

One of the panelists, Marek Siwiec, Director of European Affairs at BYHMC, provided information about many ongoing projects, each of which can contribute to the restoration of the truth about Babyn Yar.

Colossal work has been done: out of more than 33,000 dead, 28,428 names have been identified, and essential family and personal facts have been restored. All these invaluable findings became the basis of a vast program titled “Project Names.”

‘’It brought us closer to the real life of those who were shot at Babi Yar. They say that the death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of tens of thousands is a statistic,’’ said Siwiec, who is a former member of the European Parliament.

‘’Project Names’’ allows us to turn dry statistics into pain for everyone who was left in that terrible place, who did not live, who did not love, who did not leave their continuation on earth,’’ he added.

Another project mentioned by Siwiec, “Red Dot” (Red Dot Remembrance), is unique: more than 3,000 people provided information about the WWII war crimes. This app has so far registered 2,850 sites across of Europe of the ‘Holocaust by bullets’ which enables users to see and learn what took place wherever they are.

‘’These are mass extermination sites, eyewitness accounts, evidence supported by documents, which were kept with German punctuality and pedantry throughout the war,’’ explained Siwiec.

On the Babyn Yar massacre anniversary date of 29th September, 15,000 schools in Ukraine will participate in a “lessons of the Holocaust Day”.

‘’The key word underpinning all of our activities is education. It is only through education that the tragic disasters of the past can never be repeated,” said Siwiec.

Marek Rutka, a member of the Sejm, the Polish parliament, and chairman of the parliamentary group for the commemoration of the crimes at Babyn Yar and for a Europe free from genocide and hatred, explained that members of his political party regularly visit the sites of the Shoah executions. ‘’They see heartfelt tragedies lead to politically literate conclusions about the need to talk about the Shoah on a European scale. There is no genocide without the tolerance of neighboring countries. These words can be taken as a motto for the whole debate.’’

Anton Schneerson, who contributed this article for European Jewish Press, is a Ukrainian Jew living in Germany. The Jewish community of his hometown, Dnipro, managed to build one of the world’s most prominent Holocaust museum that deeply covers the Babyn Yar tragedy.