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Europe Tag

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 18, 2018 32 Comments
German police launched an investigation into an antisemitic attack after a video of the incident surfaced on the internet today. On Monday evening, a group of Arabic speaking men verbally insulted two youth wearing kippa, the traditional Jewish skullcap. One of the attackers can be seen using a belt to attack the victim while screaming insults in Arabic. Media reports later identified at least one of the victims as an Israeli Arab "who didn't believe Germany was antisemitic." He told German broadcaster DW News that it was a gift from a Jewis friend who warned him against wearing it in Germany out of safety concerns. "It was an experience for me to wear the kippa yesterday and go out," he added.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on March 03, 2018 6 Comments
Despite Spain's attempts to stop the Catalonia Independence Referendum, Catalans voted for independence.  Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy moved to impose direct rule. Catalan's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont has been living in exile in Belgium since October. 2017 and was thought likely to run for regional president.  Puigdemont, however, has announced that he will not be running for president and has instead endorsed Jordi Sànchez.  Sànchez is currently in jail in Madrid.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 28, 2018 3 Comments
Israeli Economic Minister Eli Cohen said in a speech aired on country's Army Radio on Monday that the country warned 30 countries on specific terror threats in 2017. Minister Cohen's revelation comes almost a week after Australian authorities acknowledged the role of Israeli intelligence in averting an ISIS terror plot to bring down an airliner last year. Israeli military's intelligence branch, known as “Unit 8200,” told the Australian authorities about a hidden explosive device destined for an Etihad Airways flight leaving Sydney for Abu Dhabi last July. Earlier this month, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Israel's role in helping Germany and European countries in combating Islamist terror. It revealed that Israel is part of a covert multinational counter-terrorism operation named “Gallant Phoenix” that gathers intelligence on Islamic State war criminals returning from the Middle East to Europe.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 31, 2018 15 Comments
With the Islamic State (ISIS) heading for collapse, Belgium is bracing for the return of hundreds of jihadi fighters deserting the ranks of the Islamic Caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The western European country, which pursued a liberal immigration policy in recent decades, produced the highest number of foreign ISIS fighters per capita of EU countries -- up to 700 in total.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 10, 2018 24 Comments
Vienna Police have booked criminal charges against three pro-Israeli activists for waving an Israeli flag to a group of anti-Israel demonstrators. They have been accused of waving the Israeli flag "in an extremely provocative way" causing "considerable offense among the Palestinian protesters," Austrian media reported, citing the police statement. If found guilty, they could face up to hundred euros in fine or two days in prison.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 09, 2018 7 Comments
Three months after Germans went to the polls, Chancellor Angela Merkel is making a last ditch effort to form an alliance with the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), a move that could secure her a fourth term in office. Last month, Merkel's traditional ally, the center-right Free Democrats (FDP), abruptly walked out of the talks, citing irreconcilable differences over refugee policy and other key issues -- leaving a so-called 'grand coalition' with the SPD her only path to power.

Posted by Miriam Elman on December 28, 2017 5 Comments
For years, virulently anti-Israel, and in some cases even antisemitic, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been playing a successful con game in Europe. They’ve presented themselves to foreign donors as paragons of virtue worthy of financial support, while funneling their money into anti-Israel demonization campaigns, youth programming and infrastructure that glorifies violence, and collaborative civic-engagement projects with designated terror groups.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 10, 2017 24 Comments
Antisemitic demonstrations erupted over the weekend in major European cities, with Muslim groups staging violent and angry protests under the pretext of the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A gang of 20 masked-men fire-bombed a synagogue late Saturday in the Swedish city of Goteborg. The assailants threw several molotov cocktails at the synagogue while a youth event was underway. Jewish children were forced to take shelter in a cellar during the attack, German broadcaster DW News reported.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 01, 2017 11 Comments
German Intelligence Agency (BND) is concerned about the Islamist ideology increasing its influence in the Balkan region, German newspapers report. The main focus of Germany's foreign intelligence agency is the Muslim-majority country of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The agency has been alarmed by massive investments being made by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in the religious and Islamist infrastructure of the country.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 27, 2017 14 Comments
In a largely symbolic vote, the Catalonian parliament voted for independence from Spain on Friday, which caused the Spanish Senate to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy direct rule over the region. From The Wall Street Journal:
The separatist legislators said Catalan voters gave them a mandate for the declaration in an Oct. 1 referendum on independence. Catalan authorities say around two million voters cast ballots and that the vast majority voted in favor of secession. However, opposition parties boycotted the vote and the Spanish government declared it illegal. The vote was also marred by clashes with the police.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 11, 2017 10 Comments
The North African country of Tunisia is turning into a "springboard" for illegal immigrants trying to get to Europe, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. The Muslim-majority country, destabilized in the wake of the "Arab Spring", was becoming a serious security threat to Europe since the Tunisian government was encouraging its Islamized or otherwise troublesome young men to emigrate to Europe.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 03, 2017 9 Comments
A series of strikes and protests have disrupted the economic life in Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest and most industrialized region. The protests come after Spanish police cracked down on Sunday's independence referendum held in Catalonia region, which Madrid declared as illegal. Catalan authorities say around 900 people were injured after police raided polling stations, carrying away ballot boxes, beating up voters and shooting rubber bullets. The EU and the European media, usually vocal about any perceived human rights violation in the farthest corner of the world, was uncharacteristically quiet over Spain's crack down of the Catalonia vote in its own backyard. "It is telling that these shocking images didn't even make the lead item on the BBC news and voters were described as protesters," wrote the Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 26, 2017 19 Comments
At the White House press briefing yesterday, a German reporter wanted to know why President Trump hasn’t called Chancellor Merkel to congratulate her on election victory. “We’re just working on the logistics,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded. The White House may have been trying to gloss over the issue of frosty ties between the two world leaders, but as far as Chancellor Merkel is concerned: this isn’t much of a victory and there isn’t much to congratulate about. Merkel’s Pyrrhic victory comes at a great cost to her Christian conservative party (CDU), which registered its worst performance in nearly 70 years -- getting just above 33 percent of the vote. Merkel’s desire to extend her 12-year-old reign also pulverized her junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), in many of its traditional working-class bastions. At 20 percent, the SPD, Europe’s oldest socialist party, also clocked its worst performance since 1949.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 17, 2017 12 Comments
Four U.S. female tourists were attacked with acid in France's Marseille main train station on Sunday. Authorities arrested a woman afterwards. From The Associated Press:
Two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city’s main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press in a phone call.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 15, 2017 19 Comments
A homemade bomb went off on a filled London Underground subway car this morning near Parsons Green that left 22 people injured. The police have announced they are treating it as a terrorist attack. From The London Times:
Officers believe that the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device and hundreds of detectives are now investigating, with the assistance of MI5.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 21, 2017 19 Comments
On Monday morning, the Catalan police identified 22-year-old Moroccan Younes Abouyaaquoub as the terrorist who plowed a truck through a crowd in Barcelona on Thursday. The attack killed 13 people and injured over 100. He escaped, but went on to stab "another driver and mowed down a policewoman." Hours after the press conference, reports emerged that the authorities shot him dead as he wore a suicide belt.
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