Israeli media have reported on a report published by a UK Jewish community organization detailing how anti-Semtic themes have become more common in the UK mainstream during the past year. According to the report:
A report published by a Jewish community organization on Thursday highlights how old anti-Semitic themes to depict Israel and Zionism have become more widespread in mainstream British circles during the past year. Comparisons of Israel and its supporters to Nazi Germany have become increasingly common among the public, and anti-Semitic conspiracy themes are being used more freely in conversation, the “Anti-Semitic Discourse in Britain in 2009” indicated. The 57-page report was published by the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti- Semitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain.
The CST report explains how the UK Muslim Brotherhood has contributed to the diffusion of anti-Semtic themes:
Demonstrations against Israel’s 2009 conflict with Hamas in Gaza and Southern Israel were marked by repeated allegations that Israel was in some way analogous with Nazi Germany. Such allegations have been heard on previous anti-Israel demonstrations, but the charge was significantly more pronounced than ever before. The tone was set by the profusion of “STOP the Holocaust in Gaza” placards produced by British Muslim Initiative (BMI), one of the main organisers of the Gaza demonstrations. Placards of another organising group, the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), featured a swastika entwined with a Star of David and the words “HISTORY SEEMS TO BE REPEATING ITSELF”. Many individual demonstrators carried their own home-made signs and banners making similar statements. BMI and PFB are ideologically orientated towards the Muslim Brotherhood (as is Hamas), and are currently in broad alliance with Far Left groups whose complicity and enthusiasm for the Israel-Nazi comparison is troubling: especially given their influence within many less obviously extreme groups, such as trade unions and other NGO’s, including anti-racist groups. In particular, the Socialist Workers Party has long practised the tactic of infiltrating and influencing other groups. During the Gaza conflict, one of its commentators, Richard Seymour, asserted that those attending a Jewish community rally for peace “ought to be shunned, and treated as the moral and political degenerates that they are. ” George Galloway, (then) Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, repeated the Israel-Nazi alligations, telling thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators: “Today, the Palestinian people in Gaza are the new Warsaw Ghetto, and those who are murdering them are the equivalent of those who murdered the Jews in Warsaw in 1943. ”“Holocaust Survivors – Some Graphic Pictures – Stand up to Hatred” The importance of electronic media was demonstrated by a viral email campaign, entitled Holocaust Survivors – Some Graphic Pictures – Stand up to Hatred, in which the recipient received (unsolicited) images comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. Each image consisted of two photographs, one relating to Israelis and/or Palestinians; the other relating to the Holocaust victims and/or World War Two. The email was accompanied by an introduction saying: “The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany” CST was forwarded many copies of the email by individuals who had received it in extensive emailing lists that included staff at universities, local and regional councils, commercial and cultural premises, as well as private email addresses. It is likely that thousands of people received the email.
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) had for many years been the most active organization in the U.K Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the leaders of the MAB left in 2007 to form the British Muslim Initiative (BMI). According to sources in the U.K, the breakup appeared to be the result of a conflict between traditionalists in the MAB who were unhappy with the high level of involvement in U.K left-wing politics while those who who formed the BMI wished such activity to continue. Anas Al-Tikriti, the leader of the BMI, is the son of Osama Al-Tikriti, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party representing the Muslim Brotherhood in that country.
For the full CST report, go here.