June 2016 – MEDIA MONITORING HIGHLIGHTS
From the antisemitism related to Brexit to the president from a Greek workers union claiming God created Jews by mistake, these June highlights are an overview of the most significant results of our monitoring of traditional and new media in Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.
GREEK: Workers Union President says God created Jews by mistake
Date: 27 June 2016
Media Outlet: Voria.gr
Headline: The president of the Workers Union of Urban Transportation in Thessaloniki is denounced for antisemitic rants
Description of the antisemitic content:
Dimitris Tsermenidis, president of the Workers Union for the Urban Transportation in Thessaloniki, is under fire for a number of antisemitic statements he made during a Union assembly on 24 June 2016. Voria.gr reports that Tsermenidis stated that “God created the Jews by mistake, who afterwards killed Jesus Christ” and expressed his regret for the fact that “unfortunately Hitler did not finish his work”. The Union president also made derogatory statements against Avraam Benaroya, the Jewish co-founder of “Federacion”, the first workers union in Thessaloniki. When, later on, Tsermenidis denied to a Voira journalists that he made these antisemitic statements, he was caught making a new one: "The only thing I said is that God made Jews and they crucified Christ. Majorities crucified Christ just as they burned Copernicus".
About the source:
Dimitris Tsermenidis is the president of the Workers Union of the Organization of Urban Transportation in Thessaloniki. Bus Owners Association of Thessaloniki, and the Union “Anatropi” condemned his statements.
Myth Debunked:
By stating that God created the Jews by mistake, that they crucified the Christ and by regretting that Hitler did not “finish the job” with Jews, the president of the Workers Union of Urban Transportation in Thessaloniki is fully supporting the extermination of Jews, both by denying their legitimacy to exist and by supporting the Shoah. As in many other antisemitic discourses in general, he supports his argument by accusing Jews of having killed Jesus Christ, although the Church denied the collective responsibility of Jews in the death of Christ (declaration “Nostra Aetate”) in 1965.
UK AND OTHER COUNTRIES: (((Echo))) symbol to single out names of Jewish people
Date of publication: June 2016
Headline: “Antisemitism watchdog adds (((echo))) symbol to hate list after Jews targeted”
Description of the antisemitic content:
The (((echo))) sign has been used in the internet to highlight people with Jewish background. Google used to have a plug in that could detect these triple brackets to make it easier for antisemites to find Jewish people on the internet. Google has now banned this plug in. To react to it, Jewish people have enclosed their own name in the triple brackets to show pride of their Jewish name and decent.
About the source:
This sign is used all over the Internet by antisemites.
Myth Debunked:
Add triple brackets to Jewish names in order to better identify them, is an antisemitic practice. The Anti-Defamation League has compared it to painting a Swastika on someone’s house. However, when this practice has been exposed, antisemites had to deal with a wave of positive response by Jews taking pride in adding the brackets to their own names, and also by non-Jews adding the brackets to their names to confuse antisemites on the web and to further show solidarity with Jews.
FRANCE: Antisemitism related with Brexit
Date of publication: 24 June 2016
Media Outlet: Blanche Europe (White Europe) blog
Headline: “Brexit: The Jew Laurent Cohen-Tanugi wants to abolish the democracy”
Description of the antisemitic content:
This blog post is an antisemitic analysis of Laurent Cohen-Tanugi’s column on the French daily Le Monde. In his opinion piece, Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, lawyer and essays writer, explained the key factors to understand the outcome of the British referendum to leave the EU and took position to “stop the European populist suicide”. The commentary by Blanche Europe, called “a translation of the article”, is an accumulation of violent antisemitic and racist clichés in words and images. The antisemitic echo symbol, used to mark Jewish people and Jewish names, is used throughout the article and directly on the photo of Laurent Cohen-Tanugi.
Excerpts:
« On Tuesday, « Le Monde » published a tribune of a certain (((Laurent Cohen-Tanugi))) titled “Stop to the populist suicide”.
[…]
I will translate this title for you: “Democracy is wonderful if the goys vote for the racial suicide. But if the Whites want to stop the global and genocidal program, democracy becomes bad, we need to initiate a dictatorship for saving progress, as for example in USSR for saving the Bolshevik revolution”.
It is clear that this kind of Jews dream absolutely about a Bolshevik one killing all the best White people. For the others, they will be enslaving by non-Whites (who live as parasites).
[…]
For Mr Cohen-Tanugi who is part of the people elected itself as master of the world, it was easy to elect himself as master of the European people destinies.
About the source:
Blanche Europe website, with a Celtic cross on the top banner, claims to be “a website of information and analysis, defending nationalism without any concession. You are part of the White Race? You like your people and want to defend its interests? So, you are in the good place to be informed and participate to the discussion”.
Myth Debunked:
The website and the page represent a purely fascist discourse, with the presentation of racial theories in direct connection with the racial theories of the 19th century, followed by the Nazi theory of race superiority. By putting Jewish names in three parentheses, the authors of the article refer to the latest antisemitic online practice to “mark” Jews. The blog post interprets the opinion piece by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi as an attempt of Jewish world domination, a well-known antisemitic stereotype that has been constantly appearing in our monthly highlights.
FRANCE: Apologies of terrorism by P.R.I. member
Date of publication: 08 June 2016
Media Outlet: Twitter
Description of the antisemitic content:
In a tweet, Aya Ramadan, a member of the Parti des Indigènes de la République (P.I.R.) expressed her support to the two terrorists who killed four people in Tel Aviv.
Tweet:
“Dignity and pride! Congratulations to the 2 Palestinians who have led a resistance operation in Palestine #FreePalestine”
Description of the anti-Muslim content: During their weekend news report, M1 invited Tamás Dezső, an expert at the Migration Research Centre, to discuss the integration of Muslim immigrants. The Migration Research Institute is a Hungarian think-tank closely linked to the government. They have been known to distribute research skewed towards the government’s message on topics such as Islam and immigrants.
The news piece opened with a very quick and uninformed run-through of events: “Europe 2015 – Mass immigration starts from Syria and Africa because of war and danger. Then Europe 2016 - the terrorist threat increases, 2017- integration does not work, Europe 2018 – anti-Christian sentiments and anti-Semitism grows.” This opening sets the tone for the interview, during which Dezső claims there are no integrated Muslim communities in Europe, and that most Muslims belong to radical religious communities. During the interview, Dezső said: “Muslims look at Europe as a depraved society without religion. As the numbers of immigrants grow, Muslim communities will get stronger and stronger. There is competition between Muslim leaders and inclusive governments because such governments want to integrate immigrants into their societies.”
Myth debunked: This interview was aired on a public service media channel, which at its core should aim to inform and educate the public and be independent and non-partisan. Instead, the interview was extremely biased from the onset; the introduction linked several phenomenon in Europe in a causal manner, insinuating that immigrants and refugees who arrived in Europe in 2015 are the reason for the rise in antisemitism and anti-Christian sentiments. The interview itself failed to supply context for the claims Dezső was making and the interviewer made no effort to ask Dezső questions to counter his claims, making the whole piece extremely one-sided. The claims Dezső makes during the interview are highly inflammatory; stating that “Muslims look at Europe as a depraved society” without providing any evidence is not only unprofessional but sets a dangerous precedent. For such content to be aired on a public service media channel, which people look to for accurate and fair reporting, can be dangerous. Hungary is already dealing with dangerous anti-Muslim narratives, being spread by people as high up as the Prime Minister, and this type of content only furthers this trend.
More to read:
The Challenges of Fake News and the Role of Public Service Broadcasters in Communicating Europe
Why an anti-Islam campaign has taken root in Hungary, a country with few Muslims
Europe’s Public Service Media: Between Responsibility and Accountability
