Following the attack on a synagogue in Gothenburg, a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam and anti-Israel demonstrations over the weekend in several European cities, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) calls for harsher punitive measures.
“It is no longer acceptable for Jews to be attacked on the streets of Europe, be it by terrorists hurling Molotov cocktails or openly and shamelessly demanding the mass murder of Jews in Malmö, Vienna and Paris,” said EJC President Moshe Kantor. “We urge European governments to take punitive action against those who perpetrated these acts, and call for the immediate arrest of those who incite murderous slogans.”
PROTESTS
Over the weekend, protests were heard in several European cities, including Paris, Vienna and Berlin, against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. During the demonstrations, Israeli flags were burned and anti-Semitic slogans chanted. In Berlin and Vienna, pro-Palestinian demonstrators are said to have called “child killers Israel” and “death Israel.”
It is trying to relativize the acts, pointing out the connection with the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by US President Donald Trump, said Kantor. “This is another double standard against Jews, and anyone who suggests such an equation should be ashamed. Those who justify antisemitic attacks on Jews, whether physical or verbal, place themselves into the category of antisemite,” said the EJC president.