Tammuz 29, 5770, 11 July 10 11:07, by Hana Levi Julian
(Israelnationalnews.com)
Nazi art is starting to make a comeback in Poland, this time using the well-loved Disney character, Mickey Mouse, on a controversial public poster that has outraged at least one official.
The work by Italian artist Max Papeschi is stretched across the top of a building in the center of Poznan, a city in western Poland.
The poster, hung by a new art gallery to advertise an exhibition, features a 1940s-style “pin-up” model wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, against a huge background of a Nazi swastika. A slogan beneath reads, “Poznan – the capital of world-class art.” An Internet web site advertised on the poster promotes an X-rated art exhibition which originates in Germany but is slated to arrive in Poland by September.
Although vandals ripped a huge hole in the two-story-high poster, the gallery immediately replaced it with a new one.
City council member Norbert Napieraj told the AFP news service that the poster violates a law banning the display of Nazi symbols. “For Poles, the swastika symbolizes the suffering and death of more than six million Poles,” he said. “Exhibiting this symbol in the city center is a particularly disgraceful and disgusting act.” At least half of all Polish citizens who died at the hands of the Nazi death machine were Jewish, and killled because of their being Jewish, sometimes with the help of Poles and Polish partisans, wiping out 90 percent of the Jews in the country.
The gallery's curator, Maria Czarnecka, defended her decision to hang the poster. “We don't have to remove it, since it's a work of art. If it were just a swastika, it would be promoting Nazi symbols – but the law allows such symbols to be used in academic and artistic contexts,” she added.
A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor told AFP on Friday that no legal action would be taken against the gallery, since “it did not break the law.”
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Jews Flee Swedish Town in Wake of Anti-Semitism
Shevat 17, 5770, 01 February 10 12:17, by Avi Yellin
(Israelnationalnews.com) Violent anti-Semitism has become increasingly commonplace in Sweden’s southern city of Malmö, leading many Jewish residents to leave out of fear for their safety. “Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmö in recent years and many young Jewish families are choosing to leave the city,” said Fredrik Sieradzki of the Jewish Community of Malmö.
Last year, 79 crimes against Jewish residents were reported to the Malmö police, roughly double the number reported in 2008. In addition, Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have been repeatedly defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, and a chapel at another Jewish burial site in Malmö was firebombed last January during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Many Jewish residents of Malmö feel that local anti-Jewish sentiment is linked with negative attitudes towards Israel.
In addition to its small community of roughly 700 Jews, Malmö is home to a growing Muslim population. However, local Jews insist that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment, although certainly existent in the Muslim community, is coming from local Swedes.
Sieradzki says that the attitudes of Malmö politicians, especially Social Democrat city council chair Ilmar Reepalu, have allowed anti-Semitism to fester. “He’s demonstrated extreme ignorance when it comes to our problems,” Sieradzki explained. “It’s shameful and regrettable that such a powerful politician could be so ignorant about the threats we face.
“If you read between the lines, he seems to be suggesting that the violence directed toward us is our own fault simply because we didn’t speak out against Israel. We’re a non-political, cultural and religious organization, and there are all kinds of Jews in Malmö.”
Sieradzki admitted his pessimism about the future of the Jewish community in Malmö, saying that there needs to be a “complete change in attitude” among the city’s politicians if the situation is going to improve. “These issues need to be taken seriously,” he said, advocating for dialogue between politicians, Islamic groups and the Jewish community. “But right now many Jews in Malmö are really concerned about the situation here and don’t believe they have a future here.”
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Neonaziści i islamiści: łączy ich antysemityzm
jen 11-07-2010, ostatnia aktualizacja 11-07-2010 19:04
Niemiecki Urząd Ochrony Konstytucji, czyli kontrwywiad, obserwuje wspólnotę poglądów neonazistów i islamistów: antysemicką nienawiść do Izraela i wszystkiego, co żydowskie.
autor: Dariusz Majgier
źródło: Fotorzepa
+zobacz więcej
Szef tego urzędu Heinz Fromm w wypowiedzi dla "Spiegla" (niedzielne wydanie internetowe) wskazywał na "wspólny wizerunek wroga", jakim dla neonazistów i islamistycznego środowiska imigracyjnego w Niemczech jest "Izrael i Żydzi w ogóle".
Neonaziści kultywują - zdaniem Fromma - "rasistowski antysemityzm", natomiast islamiści "są zorientowani na konflikt izraelsko-palestyński" i zajmują "antysyjonistyczne pozycje ideologiczne, które mogą być także nacechowane antyżydowsko i antysemicko". W przypadku obu tych ekstremizmów Izraelowi i Żydom przypisuje się "nadzwyczajną władzę polityczną, którą należy zwalczać".
"Spiegel" przypomina incydent z czerwca, gdy podczas wielokulturowego festiwalu w Hanowerze grupę taneczną gminy żydowskiej zaatakowali kamieniami młodzi ludzie ze środowiska "imigracji arabskiej". Zajście to uznano za przejaw "wrogości umotywowanej antysemityzmem".
Sekretarz generalny Centralnej Rady Muzułmanów w Niemczech Aiman Mazyek podkreślił, że nie był to wyraz "pryncypialnej, podzielanej przez wszystkich muzułmanów nienawiści do Żydów".
- Większość muzułmanów wie, że dla antysemityzmu nie ma miejsca w islamie - powiedział Mazyek.
PAP
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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