Danish Jews threatened after Gaza conflict

Echoes of the Israel-Palestine crisis are reaching Denmark

Jewish Society is currently deciding if it will report a number of anti-semtic assaults in Denmark to the police.

Kristeligt Dagblad reports that out of the 18 assaults and threats that were registrered against Danish jews this year, 13 have happened in July when the Gaza crisis between Israel and Hamas began escalating.

"Burn in hell" 
Jonatan Møller Sousa, deputy head of the national zionist organisation revealed some of the threatening Facebook messages he received after he went on TV2 News on Saturday to discuss the Gaza conflict.

"Unfortunately no jews died: We are going to change that in Denmark," one of them read, while another said: "I hope you and your zionist friends will burn in hell and suffer an even more painful death than all the kids in Gaza that were killed."

Spit on Jewish man
One incident involved a Jewish man in a bus who was carrying a star of David necklace, after which another passenger spit on him and tried to rip it off his neck. In nearly all cases the perpetrator was described as being of Middle Eastern descent.

Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, the head of Jewish Society told Kristeligt Dagblad that he was taking the assaults very seriously and encouraged politicians to do the same.

Fathi El-Abed, head of the Danish-Palestinian Friendship Association said he distanced himself from the threats.

"I strongly condemn any kind of anti-semitic speech. But there is a group who can't express themselves properly about the violations that are taking place in Gaza. Speaking at a demonstration against Israel last week, I pointed out that we should be able to discuss matters on a factual basis. One of the problems is that it's so easy to go on Facebook and express yourself in a primitive fashion," he told Kristeligt Dagblad.

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