another Anti semitic group in SL?

I was messaged today to bring down the prim count of a stall i had in Rose..in a small Mall....i teleported to said stall...and as the place was loading...i saw a flame texture burning i had not seen before< had been a few days since i had visited this stall>..well as it loaded..i could see it was an israeli flag burning...with the description of death to isreal...needless to say i pulled my items from this mall, and no i am not saying
it was in ANY way the fault of the owner, but i will not have myself associated with this type of crap, in SL or RL...the
creator of the item was named Eric Linden,...the owner is a JAMES FEW...a member of a group named WorldWar II Online Luftwaffe...im hoping that this group just doesnt realize WHO they have in thier group, HOPEFULLY this is just a random act of a ignorant youngster..and im sure the object is something that eric linden created that this person turned into an ANTI semitic statement....the item is located at 67,78 Rose< if the lindens havent removed yet>...am i the only one kind of surprised a group with the LUftwaffe tag is allowed to exist? yes im aware it means German Airforce, but still, it caught me off guard....

and yes i did file a report

Any visual/text expressions of hate, bigotry, violence against any individuals, groups, etc. is not to be tolerated.

I support your efforts Maeri.



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Edited for Spelling
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the reason it probably say eric linden is he was the creator of the FLAME I highly highly doubt he did the flag

I just took a look in Rose. I think the offending object has been removed.

Well, it didnt say "death to JEWS" so we should not assume it was meant to be anti semetic. Now i know that Isreal is very much so predominantly jewish, but isreal doesnt represent the jews of the world. Basically, we dont really know if it was anti semetic or not

Uhhh... WTF are you talking about?! OBVIOUSLY it was anti-semetic. Isreal is a Jewsih nation. Period. When you say that, you etiher don't like Jews, or you want the land for the Muslims.

I...Dont.....Know....0.o

Hehehe.

Anyway, this would probably be abuse report material. If it's already taken down, chances are someone found it before you did

Get real. It was anti-sematic. It was anti-respect for others...
It was anti-EVERYTHING

Ok, I talked to the guy. He just wants to stir up stuff and create drama, that's all.

So stop talking about it. It's what he wants.

Yeah, but it's just a word. Simply because Germany was taken over by crazy people 70 years ago, it doesn't mean that the language must automatically become associated with the crimes of that era.

I mean, there's still a Luftwaffe. Contextually, I find it unlikely that the individual in question was thinking of any modern air force, but the word itself is pretty innocuous.

As for the WWIIOLers themselves, "World War II Online" is a MMO game. While many of the players are history buffs, and I'm sure a select few are undoubtedly bigots, (there's bound to be someone like that in any community.) the majority of players are there because it's simply a game and they find it fun.

That some of the WWIIOLers found their community close-knit enough that they would want to hang out outside of WWIIOL really speaks to this, I think. Whether or not you agree with the subject matter in a game, that's all it is: a game.

Now, posting a "Death to Israel" sign and a burning Israeli flag is certainly an act of hatred (or at least a childish attempt to get attention) and should be dealt with accordingly. Using German words isn't.

After seeing how many innocent people have died at the hands of the israeli lately, I really can't blame anyone for burning an israeli flag and screaming "death to israel" from the top of their lungs.
Let us not excuse their atrocities just because 60 years ago they were on the receiving end.

Eggy, I'm not exactly sure what the media in your country is having you believe, however, Israel is not committing any atrocities. They are fighting back. I doubt you'd like to watch your family be blown up crossing the street, eh?

It was a message of hate Eggy, in SL, its a direct violation of TSO, and im sad you'd say such a thing, but you do have your opinion, like us all, and you have the right to express it, no matter how appauling it is...just another view into why we are killing each other daily, ourselves and the world we live in

Below is the 'Antisemitism by Country' section of the Report on Antisemitism in Europe - the one that was suppressed and now has been released following a Financial Times exposé. The Report was commission by the European Union's European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) and prepared by Centre of Research on Antisemitism at Technical University in Berlin.

In Portugal (total population: 10 million) there is no tradition of anti-Semitism in recent times. Apart from a period of some tension between Salazar’s regime and the Portuguese Jewish community – that never resulted in persecution –, in the recent past the small Jewish community (700 people) has been assimilated and accepted by Portuguese society. After the dawn of democracy, Jews were totally accepted as another religious minority and its religion is protected under the act acknowledging religious plurality.



1. Physical acts of violence

In July the Lisbon synagogue was vandalised and sacred objects scattered on the floor.[251]



2. Verbal aggression/hate speech

Direct threats

There are no reports of complaints neither by the Jewish community, the press, NGOs nor other media.



Insults

The Israel Embassy has received slanderous calls and Internet messages with offensive content.



Telephone

There are no reports of physical or material threats against the Jewish community and its property.



Graffiti

The Israeli Embassy reported that their flag in the “Nations Park”, located where the World Expo took place in 1998 and now a major social meeting place in Lisbon, was vandalised. Several Nazi swastikas and other insults appeared on the flag platform.



Leaflets

No material of this kind was reported to have appeared in circulation. The Jewish community, as expressed through its representative, considered an e-mail sent by a professor of the Trás-os-Montes University the main anti-Semitic event in the monitored period. In this e-mail, addressing the conflict in the Middle East, a phrase stated “If there are any good Jews (which I doubt) (…)”. Another professor of the same university alerted the Portuguese Jewish community about this e-mail, who in turn then revealed it to the press, where it was published in the newspaper Público.



Public discourse

On a visit to Israel, the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago declared to Portuguese radio station Antenna 1, that “It must be said that in Palestine, there is a crime which we can stop. We may compare it with what happened at Auschwitz”. While visiting Ramallah and Arafat with members of the International Parliament of Writers, Saramago stated that the Israeli blockade of Ramallah is "in the spirit of Auschwitz," and "this place is being turned into a concentration camp."[252]



Internet

Several Portuguese Nazi sites appeared in 2002 on the Internet. Some of them have anti-Semitic declarations and articles. However, these are translations of anti-Semitic articles written in other countries, mainly from the US. No explicit threats to the Portuguese Jewish community were found in any of these sites (at least in the period monitored). One particular site has more explicit anti-Semitic allusions: Movimento da Reconstrução Nacional Socialista Atlântico (Atlantic Movement for the National Socialist Reconstruction). At this site one can find several links to further national and foreign National Socialist sites. The majority of the anti-Semitic sites are Brazilian; and though we can also find Portuguese fascist and nationalist sites, they do not display anti-Semitic references.



3. Research studies

There is no recent report on anti-Semitic aggression or attitudes.



4. Good practices for reducing prejudice, violence and aggression

There are no reported examples of good practices.



5. Reactions by politicians and other opinion leaders

The President recently participated in the 100-year celebrations for the Lisbon Synagogue. On that occasion the President stated that Portugal should pay more attention to Jewish culture and to its several famous names, claiming that they are an integral part of Portuguese history. The main newspapers broadcasted the celebrations and printed the President’s address.

Its a little long, but may give some insight to the feelings eggy has, seems its been around awhile

From an address at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, Los Angeles, October 1997

The story of the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Span is well known. Not so well known is what happened five years later in the neighboring country of Portugal.

Of those Jews who chose to flee Spain in 1492, large numbers went to Morocco, Italy and to the Ottoman Empire. But, the greatest number, perhaps half of the total went to Portugal.

King João II, of Portugal, allowed them to enter. He was preparing for war against the Moors and he needed the taxes collected from these Jews to finance that war. He also was aware of the great talent of the Jews in many fields including the mechanics of arms making, which he hoped he would call upon and he did not want that talent to be available to the Moors.

But his welcome was not complete. Permanent residence was granted only to 630 wealthy families who were allowed to establish themselves in several parts of the country upon payment of 100 cruzados. A number of craftsmen, skilled in arms making, were also granted permanent residence.

Others were allowed to settle for only eight months upon payment of eight cruzados for each adult. The king then bound himself to provide shipping so that they could leave. One hundred thousand refugees may have entered under these conditions. At the end of eight months, however, the king saw to it that little shipping was available and few could leave. Those left behind were declared forfeit of their liberty and were declared slaves of the king. In 1493, many Jewish children were torn from their parents and sent to the recently discovered island of São Tomé off the west coast of Africa:

In this year of 1493, ... the king gave to Alvaro de Caminha the Captaincy of the Island of São Tome of right and inheritance; and as for the Castilian Jews who had not left his kingdom within the assigned date, he ordered that, according to the condition upon their entry, all the boys, and young men and girls of the Jews be taken into captivity. After having them all turned into Christians, he sent them to the said island with Alvaro de Caminha, so that by being secluded, they would have reasons for being better Christians, and [the king] would have in this reason for the island to be better populated, which, as a result, culminated in great growth.1

In 1993 the descendants of those children, still living on São Tome, held ceremonies to commemorate that tragic event.

The son of King João II, Crown Prince Affanso, was married to Princess Isabel, the daughter of the Catholic Kings of Spain. One day Affanso went fishing. Later that day his body was found, drowned. It is not known if this was an accident or foul play. Princess Isabel, now a widow and still a very young woman, returned to Madrid.

In 1494 King João died. Next in line of succession to the throne was a cousin, Manoel.

The new king recognized that the Jewish slaves were guiltless and he restored them their liberty. He even refused a gift offered to him in gratitude. Was this because he was truly an enlightened monarch or because he hoped to win them over to Christianity? The status of the Jews of Portugal appeared to be improving and they must have felt secure to be ruled by such a seemingly merciful king. But, their good fortune did not last. Soon their lives were again in peril.

There was some dispute as to the legitimacy of Manoel’s claim to the monarchy. He needed a way to solidify his position. His solution: marry Princess Isabel of Spain. A union with the widow of the late crown prince would not only give him a stronger claim to the throne, but also create a possible future union with Spain in which all of Iberia would be ruled by Manoel or one of his descendants.

He made an offer to Ferdinand and Isabella. Their answer: the marriage would be approved only if the Jews were expelled from Portugal.

Manoel was in a dilemma; he did not want to lose the wealth and skills of Jews and he feared that these skills would be used to the advantage of the Moors in the coming war. But, he felt that a marriage to Princess Isabel was necessary.

Finally, Isabel herself interceded; she announced that she would not accept the marriage unless the Jews were expelled. Manoel agreed to the terms. A marriage agreement was signed on November 30, 1496. Five days later, the king issued a decree banishing the Jews from the country. They were ordered to leave Portugal by October 1497.

Soon Manoel began to question his decision. He knew of the value of the Jews and may genuinely have felt he could convert them. He wanted to find some way to keep them in Portugal as Catholics. On the advice of the Apostate Levi ben Shem-tob he found a way to achieve this goal: Friday March 19, 1497 (the first day of Passover) Jewish parents were ordered to take their children between the ages of four and fourteen to Lisbon. On arrival in the capital, they were told that their children would be taken from them and given to Catholic families to be raised as good Catholics.

At the appointed time, those children who were not presented voluntarily were seized by the officials and forced to the font. Scenes of indescribable horror were witnessed as they were torn away by the royal bailiffs. ... In many cases, parents smothered their offspring in their farewell embrace. In others, they threw them into wells in order to save them from the disgrace of apostasy, and then killed themselves. Sometimes, even old men were dragged to the churches and forcibly baptized by over-zealous fanatics, who were under the impression that a general conversion of all the Jews had been ordered. The desired effect of forcing the parents to accompany their children into baptism rather than lose them for good was achieved only on exceptionally rare occasions. In all other cases, the unwilling neophytes, some mere babies, were distributed throughout the country, as far as possible from home, to be brought up in Christian surroundings.

More than thirty years later, the terrible scenes still lived in the mind of the old Bishop Coutinho. "I saw many persons dragged by the hair to the font," he wrote, "Sometimes, I saw a father, his head covered in sign of grief and pain, lead his son to the font, protesting and calling God to witness that they wished to die together in the law of Moses. Yet more terrible things that were done with them did I witness, with my own eyes." The children of the Moslems, who were included in the edict of expulsion, were untouched. The authorities cynically confessed the reason. It was that there were lands in which the Crescent was supreme, and in which reprisals might be carried out! 2

Meanwhile the final date for departure was arriving. At first the king gave the Jews three ports from which to leave. But soon he changed his mind and ordered them all to leave from Lisbon. In October 1497 some twenty thousand Jews from all parts of Portugal gathered in Lisbon where they were herded onto the courtyard of Os Estâos, a palace normally used for diplomatic receptions. Here priests and apostate Jews harangued them in an attempt to bring them to the baptismal font. Some succumbed. The rest were kept under guard until the time for their departure had elapsed. They were then informed that by their failure to leave they were now declared forfeit of their liberty and again were the king's slaves. More succumbed, others were dragged to the font by force. And the remainder? Holy water was sprinkled on them and they were declared to be Christians.

King Manoel then informed the Catholic Kings of Spain. "There are no more Jews in Portugal"

~~~~~~~~

Yet another @$$wipe is discovered in the ranks of the WWIIolamers.

I think your attempt to portray my entire country as anti-semitic is far more hateful than a stupid burning flag.
As someone of sephardic ascent, I can assure you that Judaism has nothing to do with sending armies of tanks to genocide entire neighbourhoods of innocent palestinians who were never near a bomb in their entire lives.
Israel's latest actions have nothing to do with fighting terrorism. It is pure reigious and ethnic cleansing, and most europeans condemn it. I'm saddened by the fact that you don't. But then again, america is the country who thinks it's perfectly right to invade two entire countries in retaliation for an attack against two whole buildings. *sigh*

But, Eggy. SOMEONE had to do it!

Maerl,

It is both dishonest and unpleasant to indirectly accuse someone of anti-semitism when they criticise Israel's foreign policy.

I think Americans seem to be somewhat in denial about what is going on over there; I wonder whether you are getting the full news reports.

I have seen on the news acts committed by Israeli soldiers that have turned my stomach and stay in my mind to this day. Today saw the belated trial of an Israeli soldier who shot a British aid worker in the head while he was trying to protect Palestinian children. I'm not saying that Israeli soldiers are worse than any other military personnel, but that the military situation gives them enormous power, and human beings are not capable of handling enormous power as history has shown us over and over again.

We are now hearing about atrocities committed by American and British soldiers in Iraq. The fact is that power tends to corrupt, and if you have rifles and tanks and are fighting people armed with stones you are in a position of power; if you are in charge of prisoners of war you are in a position of power.

It's not difficult to find out what is going on. For one thing you could hear the other side's point of view. Try http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml, a site refreshingly free of hysteria and hyperbole. There's an interesting article on Daniel Barenboim's recent series of recitals in Palestine. There is also a very relevant article, 'The New Anti-Semitism'.

Without belabouring the point, those who claim that Israel is suffering the most because of Palestinian terrorism should do a search on the net for the comparative number of casualties. Particularly telling is the large number of Palestinians who have died as a result of denial of medical assistance.

I'm sorry, but to portray Eggy (and indeed, all of Portugal, apparently) as racist for disapproving of a foreign government's policy of killing civilians is as silly as to question whether a group in SL should be banned for using German.

I'm (at least partly) Jewish, and I find the recent actions of the Israeli government and military to be absolutely despicable, just as I am sickened by the atrocities commited by groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda, Baathist Iraq, or the United States. Regardless of the intent, be it revenge, expansion of territory, or even a seemingly altruistic goal such as to bring evil people to justice, it's wrong for someone to kill another, doubly so if that other person is an innocent bystander.

Does this mean that I must automatically hate all Jews or all Muslims or all Christians? Or even all Israelis or all Americans? Or that as a Canadian, my entire country must share my hateful and murderous views? No, not even close. You see, to disapprove of the the murder of innocents is actually not the same thing as calling for the same.

(And on a more pedantic note: Eggy, the terrorist attacks on September 11th saw a total of 3 buildings attacked, 7 completely destroyed, many more heavily damaged. Yes, invading Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with it, is still very stupid.)

Eggy please excuse my fellow americans. Few find it impossible to believe that our government controlls the media. I agree with you, Isreal has been stacking up the death toll. Many americans will not believe that they are just as big a terrorist as the ones attacking them. People here in the USA just dont understand, we only hear what uncle sam wants us to hear. I could get into depth about how jews have strong influence in our media, but this is not the place to do so.

Saying Isreal is a "Jewish" country is the same as saying USA is a "Christian" country.

With all that said. I do not have anything against the Jews in general, my problem is with the United States policys regarding Isreal.......but again....thius isnt really the place to get in to that.

Not it is not the same.

This is an incorrect statement. Israel is a Jewish state and thus is very much different from other countries. You should read over the Israeli Citizenship Law.

Israeli law already extends an absolute preference to Jews, over members of all other ethnic or religious groups, in obtaining Israeli citizenship. The Law of Return, together with the country’s Citizenship Law, grants automatic citizenship to Jewish immigrants to Israel.

The updated law also singles out Palestinians. In July of 2003, the citizenship law was updated to deny citizenship to Palestinians who marry Israeli's.

Israel is a Jewsish country. No need for the quotes.

so, how come burning an American flag is a political statement protected by free speach, but burning an Israeli flag is anti-semitic?

If someone burned a Saudi flag, would you assume that it was a political statement, or religious hatred?

eggy, your reply was...I really can't blame anyone for burning an israeli flag and screaming "death to israel...death to israel..the country, full of innocent people just as portugal has,...and no i wasnt trying to potrait your Entire country as antisemitic, if anyone had bother to read<long i know> last two posts, i posted items about the past and present portugal, how from history your country, as well as many others, have an inbred racialism to thier politics, just like the usa, in no way do i agree what the us is doing in iraq is right, quite the contrary.....taking what i posted to mean ALL portuagal are antisemites is as silly as saying ohh lets say..I really can't blame anyone for burning an israeli flag and screaming "death to israel