Aktion Kinder des Holocaust

Last updated

Aktion Kinder des Holocaust (AKdH, "Action 'Children of the Holocaust'") is a Swiss voluntary association founded in 1991. Its principal aim is the documentation of and opposition to antisemitism in Switzerland. It is associated with the University of Basel research projects "VIOLENCE youth" and "Right-wing youths in Switzerland".

Its modus operandi is to contact "insecure adolescents who might be turned from their extremist views" on web forums and chatrooms and to engage them personally, a practice they describe as "Internet Streetworking". [1] It also maintains extensive documentation of antisemitic statements made in Switzerland or on Swiss websites and puts pressure on Internet hosting service providers to terminate offending websites. . [2]

Among its activities, in 2002 it criticized the work of Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuff in 2002 for a cartoon depicting a Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto saying "I am Palestinian". [3] Also in 2002, it sued the Independent Media Center (IMC, also known as Indymedia) of Switzerland on the charge of antisemitism. The reason was a cartoon of Latuff's We are all Palestinians series, published in Swiss IMC website, which depicted a Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto saying: "I am Palestinian." [4] The criminal proceedings were suspended by Swiss court later in 2002. [5]

Notable supporters listed as members of its patronage committee include Israeli writer Uri Avnery, Swiss writers Peter Bichsel and Mariella Mehr, former chief rabbi of Denmark Bent Melchior, Swiss anti-racist activist Sigi Feigel (d. 2004), and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal (d. 2005). [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warsaw Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the German authorities within the new General Government territory of occupied Poland. At its height, as many as 460,000 Jews were imprisoned there, in an area of 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi), with an average of 9.2 persons per room, barely subsisting on meager food rations. From the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps and mass-killing centers. In the summer of 1942, at least 254,000 ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp during Großaktion Warschau under the guise of "resettlement in the East" over the course of the summer. The ghetto was demolished by the Germans in May 1943 after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had temporarily halted the deportations. The total death toll among the prisoners of the ghetto is estimated to be at least 300,000 killed by bullet or gas, combined with 92,000 victims of starvation and related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the casualties of the final destruction of the ghetto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arab European League</span> Political party in Belgium

The Arab European League is a Pan-Arabist political organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands.

New antisemitism is the idea that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tending to manifest itself as anti-Zionism and criticism of the Israeli government. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the Working Definition of Antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Latuff</span> Brazilian freelance political cartoonist (born 1968)

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian political cartoonist. His work deals with themes such as anti-Western sentiment, anti-capitalism, and opposition to U.S. military intervention. He is best known for his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Arab Spring events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gretta Duisenberg</span>

Gretta Duisenberg-Nieuwenhuizen is a Dutch pro-Palestinian political activist. She is the widow of Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) politician Wim Duisenberg who was also the first president of the European Central Bank (ECB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marek Edelman</span> Polish socio-political activist and cardiologist (1919/1922–2009)

Marek Edelman was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and, long before his death, was the last one to stay in Poland despite harassment by the Communist authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilad Atzmon</span> British jazz saxophonist, political activist, and writer (born 1963)

Gilad Atzmon is a British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer.

There are several incidents involving controversial caricatures in the press media.

Antisemitic tropes, canards, or myths are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such reports have been a recurring motif of broader antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Antisemitism in contemporary Norway deals with antisemitic incidents and attitudes encountered by Jews, either individually or collectively, in Norway since World War II. The mainstream Norwegian political environment has strongly adopted a platform that rejects antisemitism. However, individuals may privately hold antisemitic views. Currently, there are about 1,400 Jews in Norway, in a population of 5.3 million.

<i>Grossaktion</i> Warsaw Nazi operation to deport and murder Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII

The Grossaktion Warsaw was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the Grossaktion, Jews were terrorized in daily round-ups, marched through the ghetto, and assembled at the Umschlagplatz station square for what was called in the Nazi euphemistic jargon "resettlement to the East". From there, they were sent aboard overcrowded Holocaust trains to the extermination camp in Treblinka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Internet Defense Force</span>

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) was an organization that used social media to mobilize support for campaigns against websites and Facebook groups that promote or praise what it described as Islamic terrorism or antisemitism. The group's website described the JIDF as a "private, independent, non-violent protest organization representing a collective of activists". The JIDF's work has been termed "hacktivism" by the BBC and Haaretz.

Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.

Racism in the Palestinian territories encompasses all forms and manifestations of racism experienced in the Palestinian Territories, of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, irrespective of the religion, colour, creed, or ethnic origin of the perpetrator and victim, or their citizenship, residency, or visitor status. It may refer to Jewish settler attitudes regarding Palestinians as well as Palestinian attitudes to Jews and the settlement enterprise undertaken in their name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of the Israeli government</span> Disapproval towards the Israeli government

Criticism of the Israeli government, often referred to simply as criticism of Israel, is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. Within the scope of global aspirations for a community of nations, Israel has faced international criticism since its declaration of independence in 1948 relating to a variety of topics, both historical and contemporary.

Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.

Since World War II, antisemitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms.

Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.

Allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) have been made since Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of the party in September 2015. After comments by Naz Shah in 2014 and Ken Livingstone in 2016 resulted in their suspension from membership pending investigation, Corbyn established the Chakrabarti Inquiry, which concluded that the party was not "overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism", although there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere" and "clear evidence of ignorant attitudes". The Home Affairs Select Committee of Parliament held an inquiry into antisemitism in the UK in the same year and found "no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party", though the leadership's lack of action "risks lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally antisemitic".

Zionist antisemitism is the phenomenon in which individuals, groups, or governments support the Zionist movement and the State of Israel while they simultaneously hold antisemitic views about Jews. In some cases, Zionism may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. The prevalence of antisemitism has been widely noted within the Christian Zionist movement, whose adherents may hold antisemitic and supersessionist beliefs about Jews while also supporting Zionism for eschatological reasons. Antisemitic right-wing nationalists, particularly in Europe and the United States, sometimes support the Zionist movement because they wish that Jews be expelled or that they emigrate to Israel. The Israeli government's alleged collaboration with antisemitic politicians abroad has been criticized as an example of Zionist antisemitism. Anti-Zionists have criticized the Zionist movement for its alleged complicity with or its alleged capitulation to antisemitism since its inception, with some anti-Zionists also referring to Zionism as a form of antisemitism.

References

  1. Samuel Althof, Internet Streetworking, an Instrument for Psychosocial Short-Term Intervention, presentation at the "OSCE Meeting on the Relationship Between Racist, Xenophobic and antiSemitic Propaganda on the Internet and Hate Crimes", Paris, 16 – 17 June 2004.
  2. Yahoo! said to delete dozens of neo-Nazi sites by Rick Perera, Cable News Network , February 7, 2001. Accessed June 2008
  3. Infoshop News Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine - Jun 3, 2006
  4. Alex Schärer: Linke und Antisemitismus: Der Indymedia-Streit - Aufpassen, was im Kübel landet, WOZ Die Wochenzeitung , April 4, 2002. Junge Welt: Ärger im Internet: Wegen antisemitischer Beiträge hat Indymedia Schweiz den Betrieb gestoppt, February 25, 2002. Aktion Kinder des Holocaust: Is this cartoon by Latuff, published at indymedia-switzerland, anti-Semitic? An analysis Archived 2011-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Hamadeh, Anis (August 2002). "Jewish peace activists and Israeli violence". Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  6. Das Patronatskomitee (akdh.ch)