Denmark 2003-4

 

The Jewish community reported 36 antisemitic acts in 2003, mostly threats and provocations, and including two serious incidents. Most occurrences appeared to be directly connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The link between antisemitism and anti-Zionism was debated continuously in the Danish media throughout 2003.

 

the jewish community

Denmark was the first Scandinavian country that permitted Jews to settle there when they arrived in the 17th century. Jews have enjoyed civic equality since 1814 and citizenship since 1849. Today there are 7,000 Jews in Denmark, out of a total population of 5.25 million. Most of the community is concentrated in Copenhagen, but smaller communities exist in Odense and Aarhus. About one-third are Polish Jews (or their children) who found sanctuary in the country after the 1968 antisemitic campaign in communist Poland. The central communal organization is the Mosaiske Troessamfund. The community operates only one synagogue, the Great Synagogue completed in 1833, as well as the Caroline Jewish Day School (established in 1805). Joedisk Orientering is the leading Jewish publication.

 

political parties and extra-parliamentary groups

Ultra-Right-Wing Groups

The Danish National Socialist Party (DNSB) took advantage of the heated debate on the place of Muslims in Danish society by attempting to recruit new members in areas where Muslims are concentrated. However, it remains a very small and marginalized group. In November government subsidies to the DNSB radio station, Radio Oasis, were suspended.

 

Extremist Islamic Groups

An investigation of the Muslim organisation Al-Aqsa, which collects money purportedly for humanitarian aid, was still underway in 2003. The investigation was begun after a new anti-terror law (paragraph 114A) was passed in 2002. Al-Aqsa is the Danish chapter of Al-Aqsa International Foundation, designated a terrorist group by the US authorities in May.

On 5 October Politiken published an article on ‘Imad al-Din Barakat Yarkas, a member of al-Qa‘ida living in Spain, with alleged links in Denmark. One such contact, Said Mansour, had his residence searched by the Danish police and was arrested for possessing a loaded weapon. On 25 August Jyllands Posten reported that, according to the Police Intelligence Division (PET), Said Mansour was also connected to al-Qa‘ida’s sprititual leader in Europe, Abu Qatada. Another Muslim Danish resident, Omar Ma‘ruf, was sentenced to death in the country of his birth, Morocco, for terrorism. PET has been closely examining the recruitment of Jihad warriors in Danish mosques. A 46-year-old Algerian living in Aarhus (Denmark’s 2nd largest city) was arrested for bank robbery and for sending money to the Algerian FIS (Islamic Salvation Front).

The minister of justice asked the state prosecutor to decide whether or not the fundamentalist, trans-national Hizb ut-Tahrir (HUT) could be banned in Denmark. This followed the organization’s loss of its appeal on 14 March to revoke the 2002 court decision determining that it was guilty of racism for handing out flyers calling for the murder of Jews “wherever you find them.” HUT leader Fadi Abdul Latif, claimed that his own conviction was not about racism at all but about silencing those who would criticize Israel (see ASW 2002/3). In May 2004 the State Prosecutor stated that there was no basis in Danish law for prohibiting HUT.

 

antisemitic activity

The Jewish community reported 36 antisemitic acts in 2003, mostly threats and provocations. Many appeared to be directly connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

Violence, Vandalism,Threats and Harassment

The two most serious incidents were an assault on a rabbi, on 13 March, at a train station in Odense, Denmark’s third largest city. A group of ten Arabs attacked the rabbi kicking him in the stomach. After other passengers and railway employees intervened, halting the attack, the perpetrators made a ‘slit throat’ gesture. In the second incident, a bomb threat was received by a kosher butcher shop on 28 Sepember. The bomb squad cordonned off the area and removed four pipes with protruding wires, which were found not to contain explosives.

 

Propaganda

A politician from the Radical Left Party, Kim Sejr, formed an organization at the beginning of December aimed at passing legislation forbidding the brit mila (Jewish circumcision). Further, the chairman of the Ethical Council, Ole Hartling, warned at the end of January that circumcision is an assault on babies which should be outlawed. The chairman of Parliament’s Foodstuff Committee, Christian H. Hansen, from the Danish Peoples’ Party, called for a ban on all forms of ritual slaughter in Denmark. There were no public protests from the Jewish community, in keeping with its long tradition of keeping a low profile.

A scandal arose in the Danish boy scout movement when it emerged that they had played ‘Jew hunting’ at a camp in January. The game included wearing yellow patches and swastika patches. The incident was largely swept under the carpet, with leaders of the movement being told that such games could not be tolerated.

During three weeks in January a chat room in the leading Danish newspaper Politiken carried calls for the murder of Jews, providing the names of six prominent Jews. The writer, who called himself ‘Theodore Roosevelt’, wrote “Death to Bent Melchior [formerly chief rabbi of Denmark]”; “You have no right to exist”; and “Jews are legitimate targets”. When a complaint was made to the police, Arab writers claimed that their freedom of speech was being violated.

The connection between antisemitism and anti-Zionism/anti-Israelism was continually debated in the Danish press throughout 2003. In July stickers resembling the Israeli flag were posted in Copenhagen. They contained the word NAZIONISME?, in which the letter O was replaced by a Jewish star. Moreover, during the screening of the anti-Israel film The Occupied, made by Danish journalist Joergen Flindt Petersen, there was a telephone call in which the person threatened to kill all the Jews.

Under the headline “The World’s Strongest Lobby,” a man called Kjeld Poulsen wrote in Jyllands Posten on 8 March that no American president with an anti-Israel position could be elected because Jews “control a very large percentage of the American press as well as… radio and television.”

Marking Women’s International Prayer Day in March, a private organization, Danish Church Emergency Aid, issued texts to be read during church services describing the serious situation in Lebanon, for which they blamed ‘the Jews’.

Operation Day Job, a private left-wing organization, which mobilizes high school students to raise money for needy regions, and which has often taken an anti-Israel stance, joined the Boycott Israel Campaign initiated by the Special Workers Union in 2002 (see ASW 2002/3).

 

responses to antisemitism

The overtly racist and antisemitic local radio station Radio Holger lost its license to broadcast.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Copenhagen synagogue on the 60th anniversary of the Danish Jews’ escape to Sweden during World War II.