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anti-Semitic attacks in Manchester

fight the BNP | 27.02.2008 16:19 | Anti-racism | Palestine

The Community Security Trust reports 147 anti-Jewish incidents in Manchester for 2007. That's a small rise from the previous year and the highest since 1984 when recording by the CST began. Anti-Semitic crime is disproportionately high in Manchester, which has 27 percent of all incidents but only 10 percent of British Jews actually live here.

The strongest rise in anti-Semitic incidents can be witnessed on Manchester's campuses. For example:

"A Jewish student was taking part in a demonstration at Manchester University
when a Muslim student grabbed her poster from her and said that Jews will be
banned from campus."

"A Jewish student was handing out leaflets outside a student union debate at
Manchester University when an Arab student called him “You Jewish bastard.”
When challenged, the Arab student smiled and said: “Whoops, I mean you Israeli
bastard” and walked off."


Other incidents and attacks included:

"A Jewish man was walking down a road in north Manchester when an Asian youth
drove past and shouted, “You Jewish Bastard” at him. The perpetrator was traced by the Police and admitted the offence. He was given rehabilitation work with the local Youth Offending Team."

"“BNP” was daubed on a sign at the entrance to a Jewish care home in Manchester."

"A visibly Jewish man was leaving his synagogue in north Manchester when a group of white youths called him a “fucking Jew”, threw bricks at him and punched him in the head."

"A vehicle was seen on two or three occasions in the space of two weeks, being
driven round parts of north Manchester where there is a large strictly Orthodox
Jewish community. The occupants, white men wearing balaclava ski masks, threw
eggs at visibly Jewish pedestrians while shouting antisemitic abuse."

"A Jewish man was standing in the front garden of his house in Manchester, when
a group of white youths approached him, made abusive references to Hitler and the
Jews, and then threw a large stone at him."

"A Jewish woman was stuck in heavy traffic after collecting her children from a Jewish school in Manchester. A driver trying to pass her car in the opposite direction shouted out of his window: “You fucking Jewish bitch, move, now.”"

fight the BNP

Comments

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comment

28.02.2008 12:09

i think its a real shame that the left in the UK is so accepting of anti-semitism eg this saturday Stop the War Coalition is hosting a speaker event with Ibrahim Mousawi- editor of Hezbollah's newspaper, Lebanon. this kind of thing is sad and it's an embarassment to the so called left.

jess


We don't have to take this

02.03.2008 13:43

You can protest this - I did! National Indymedia has articles on it, also my local board has been abuzz with discussion (and abuse and slime from Stoke The War "Coalition")

It doesn't matter whether or not you are popular, that isn't the point, any fascist can be popular - the point is, your concience - Don't let racists take over the anti-war movement!

Hope it serves as an example.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392653.html?c=on#c190290

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/687987

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/687991

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/687947

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/687955

 http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/687969?condense_comments=false#comments

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/392437.html?c=on#comments

Andy


Indymedia is a haven for anti semitism

03.03.2008 13:54

Some of the comments on this website have been sickeningky anti-semitic.

Holocaust denial, blood libels and conspiracy theories are frequently thrown around.

The left and right have become fused in their hatred for Jews.

make anti semitism history


true

03.03.2008 20:18

that's true for the indymedia UK site. there seems to be little willingness to address the issue adequately. i'm hoping though that local collectives will be less of a target for anti-semitic posts. most posts and comments of anti-semitic nature seem to be reposts from various blogs, the mainstream media or just long rants that claim to be analysis. these will rarely be posted to the local IMC sites, so maybe our efforts shoudl go more into those.

brendan


is that all we can do?

07.03.2008 12:57

brendan you mention putting more energy into local sites. i think that is a good idea but it feels slightly defeatist. is there any way that the uk level could split- we could have one version that sticks to a high quality of reports and sticks to political principals. the other would be a forum for conspiracy theories, obsessive reports on Isreal, rants, capital letter articles, huge blocks of writing about how great Cuba is etc etc.

i guess this is a lot of work, but it seems such a shame to let people run on the back of others' hard work now.

the state of indymedia uk seems to be getting worse each day- i really want something fresh and amazing to be able to come out of it.

jess


Respect-related?

19.03.2008 22:31

I notice that a lot of this is at the University - Is any of this being connected to Student Respect at all? They had control of your Student Union at one point, did they not?

A person


We on the left cannot tolerate anti-semitism

17.04.2008 13:01

It is a shame that legitimate criticism of Israel's policies seems to be being used by a minority of people as a vehicle for their odious anti-semitism - some of the banners I've seen at anti-war rallies look and read like extracts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, such as one depicting stereotypical hook-nosed jewish figures dressed in the Israeli flag hiding behind a satanic figure gloating over a burning world.

I think that it would be morally wrong for those of us on the left to allow this kind of filth to go unchallenged, any more than we could suffer members of the BNP or other racists to join our ranks. We should make clear that our beef is with the apartheid policies of the Israeli government, aided and abetted by the Americans NOT with Jewish people or any other race.

Jonathan Handforth


No retalliation without provocation

15.07.2008 21:19

This does not detract from the fact that racist thuggery, no matter who it's from isn't some thing we can afford to tolerate. But while innocent Jews suffer racism, some of it is a consequence of zionists being so succesful at convincing people that to be Jewish, is to be zionist, and therefore associating Jews with modern state practitioners of genocidal ethnic "cleansing", and with their supporters who behave like brownshirts on the streets of Manchester. That the provocation comes from someone other than innocent Jews, does not detract from the fact, that it sometimes comes from someone labelled as racists, by racist zionists. And even sometimes from someone who has been confused into believing such lies as zionists tell themselves.

John Somebody
mail e-mail: somebody20022003@yahoo.com