The group has been moved to complain about instances of a "significant minority" of Chelsea fans chanting "Yiddo, Yiddo," at the Israel international Yossi Benayoun during the game at Wigan. Chelsea responded by saying they had spoken to police and officials but that it would be "unlikely" they would identify those involved.

This followed another complaint from the same group of fans who provided evidence about a man using racially motivated terms to insult Avram Grant, Portsmouth's Israeli manager, at the FA Cup final last season.

The group gave seat numbers to the club, and Chelsea officials followed up the complaint with an interview. The man was warned as to his future conduct but not suspended.

"A number of people have been banned from Stamford Bridge in the past and we won't hesitate to ban others given sufficient evidence," Chelsea told Digger. "

Digger is unable to confirm that, since the club has not provided details. One of the group said: "Whatever they purport to do, in reality Chelsea do nothing."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The ageing revolutionary devoted much of a five-hour conversation to the issue of anti-Semitism, wrote Jeffrey Goldberg, who interviewed Castro in the Cuban capital Havana.

Castro told The Atlantic that the Iranian government should understand the consequences antisemitism.

"This went on for maybe two thousand years," he said. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything."

He added: "The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust."

Asked by Goldberg if he would repeat his comments to Ahmadinejad, Castro said. "I am saying this so you can communicate it."

Following the interview, Goldberg spoke with Haaretz about his impression of the thinking behind Castro's comments. "I think he [Castro] realizes he's gone too far in certain criticisms of Israel," Goldberg said. "I think he wants to be a player in this issue; and I think he's genuinely offended by Holocaust denial."Ahmadinejad has publicy called the Holocaust "a myth", claiming Jews exaggerated the Nazi genocide to win sympathy from European governemnts.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/

Daniel Anderson, 19; Travis Beaupierre, 16; Malik Keith, 18; and Daemion Cameron, 19; previously pleaded guilty to burglary and served their jail time. They were formally sentenced to six months in jail and 500 hours of community service. Keith and Beaupierre were sentenced as youthful offenders.

A fifth teen, Dishawn Terry, 16, will be sentenced later this month and will also have to read an essay. Judge Frank LaBuda made them write essays as a condition of their plea agreements and he timed the sentence to fall around the date of Rosh Hashanah, which is commonly known as the Jewish New Year.

While the boys have all had previous run-ins with the law, none of the teens, who are all minorities, has ever been involved in a hate crime. The motive was burglary. The boys will also have to pay several thousand in restitution. They have also offered to help the owner clean up the property.

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In an announcement on behalf of the “Bundesbank” it was stated that the members of the Board had decided unanimously to ask the President to dismiss Sarrazin (65), a member of the Social Democratic Party, after a book published this week had quoted research that he argued proves that “the Jews share a certain gene”. He also claims that Moslem immigrants in Europe neither want to nor are capable of integrating into Western society.

Because it concerns a political appointment, only the President has the power to fire Sarrazin. It was stated by the President’s Bureau that the request had been received and he is considering whether to accede to it. He personally hinted on Wednesday that there was no alternative to dismissal. In a television interview he said that in his opinion “the Board of the Bundesbank could do a lot to avoid Germany being damaged by the controversy- especially internationally”.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed satisfaction with the request for Sarrazin’s dismissal. The Chancellor, along with members of the Government and legislators, indicated that she wanted Sarrazin to be fired against a background of the fear that his statements would harm the reputation of the Central Bank.

It should be noted that the name of Axel Weber, the President of the Bank, has been put forward as a possible candidate for President of the European Central Bank, and an incorrect handling of the affair could adversely affect his chances of receiving the coveted position. The Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fisher, spoke with Weber yesterday and expressed his great appreciation following the request to oust Sarrazin.

But despite the court's accepting the prosecution's arguments, the man was only sentence to eight months probation, because of the country's laws.

Paloch, who works as a cook, has a long history of neo-Nazi activity, and was suspected in the past of two incidents of assault. On Tuesday, he was convicted of beating the young Israeli on April 16 in the small town of Lauscha. The victim's grandfather was Amitzur Shapira, who was murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

During the attack, which went on even after the teen tried to flee, Paloch shouted, "Jewish pig". He punched him and kicked him until a passerby rescued the teen with his car.

The judge accepted the prosecution's claims and sentenced Paloch to eight months probation. The defense requested only five months probation. Paloch was also ordered to pay a fine of 360 euros ($458) which will go toward the memorial site at the former concentration camp at Buchenwald.

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A Mobile police station will be operating in Hale and Bowdon throughout the Jewish festivals this month to help deter antisemitism.

Trafford has a high Jewish population and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and members of the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) will be taking part in joint foot patrols as part of a drive to prevent antisemitism and crime throughout the High Holy Days.

Starting on September 8, the month-long High Holy Days include the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur.

There will be a mobile station outside the Synagogue on Shay Lane in Hale, which will alternate with The Firs in Bowdon and the patrols will cover the main pedestrian routes to the synagogues.

Jon Rush, chief superintendent at GMP, said: “We are working closely again this year with CST and putting extra patrols in place to make sure people feel safe and have easy access to police officers and reporting centres.”

Source: http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/

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"Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius welcomes the police investigation of the anti-Semitic provocation in Kaunas and hopes it will be successful, with the perpetrators found and punished," a government statement said.

The pig's head was found outside a synagogue in Lithuania's second city of Kaunas.

"The Holocaust is a black page in the history of humanity," the appeals court in Arnhem in the eastern Netherlands said in a statement.

In April, a court acquitted the AEL of insulting Jews by publishing the cartoon, which depicts the Nazi Holocaust as a figment of Jewish imagination.

But appeals judges agreed with prosecutors that the cartoon was more offensive than could be justified by the debate.

They fined the organization 2,500 Euros (3,200 dollars), of which 1,500 Euros was suspended.

Two examples are:

The minister of finance (Now Minister of Education) Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party, participated in an anti-Israeli demonstration in Oslo in January 2009. She was the only European minister to do so. She was photographed standing close to a sign which says “United States and Israel- the greatest axis of evil”…..

In January 2009 during a pro-Israeli demonstration in Oslo in which a senior opposition leader Siv Jensen participated, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom of a size never before encountered in Norway’s history…Author Erik Eiglad wrote [it was],” wanton anti-Jewish mass violence.”

The excursion, which ran from August 8 through August 10, was organized by Marshall Breger, an Orthodox Jew who served as a senior White House official under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The trip was co-sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think tank, and the Center for Interreligious Understanding, a New Jersey-based interfaith dialogue group, the Jewish Daily Forward reported.

"There is a view that there is growing antisemitism in the Muslim world, reinforced by people like [Iranian] President Ahmadinejad, that there is growing Holocaust denial in the Muslim world, Breger, now a law professor at Catholic University, told the Jewish Daily Forward. "In light of that, the idea was to offer education to those who might not have the kind of knowledge that we've had about World War II and the Jewish community, and to do this in a public way."

Among other activities, Muzammil Siddiqi, imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County, Calif., led prayers at the concentration camps, saying: "We pray to God that this will not happen to the Jewish people or to any people anymore."

The delegation's sole female member was Laila Muhammad, daughter of the late U.S. Muslim leader W.D. Muhammad and granddaughter of the late leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad.

Several U.S. government officials also joined the group, including Rashad Hussain, special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and Hannah Rosenthal, the State Department's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, the Forward reported.

Berger told the paper that the heartfelt comments of the delegates -- some of which have made previous statements that many Jews view as problematic, show the trip was a valuable experience in promoting education, understanding and maybe even chane.

Mohamed Magid, imam and executive director of the Washington area mega-mosque All Dulles Area Muslim Society, is now preparing an article for the Muslim magazine Islamic Horizons on Holocaust denial.

"No Muslim in his right mind, female or male, should deny the Holocaust," Magid, a native of Sudan, told the Forward. "When you walk the walk of the people who have been taken to be gassed, to be killed, how can a person deny physical evidence, something that's beyond doubt?"

Former Holocaust denier Yasir Qadhi, the dean of academics at Al Maghrib Institute in New Haven, Conn., said the trip was eye-opening.

"Anybody who is a Holocaust denier should deserve a free ticket to see Auschwitz and Birkenau," he told the Jewish Daily Forward, "because seeing is just not the same as reading about it."

Police say Baron spray-painted antisemitic graffiti on the exterior walls, retaining walls, light posts, and parking lot of the B’Nai Shalom Synagogue.

Baron also scattered loose change near the entrance of the synagogue as a possible antisemitic act.

The ZOA’s July 26 letter to university President Mark Yudof called on the advisory council to replace UC San Diego Professor Jorge Mariscal and Imam Jihad Turk, who the group says has been hostile toward Jews. ZOA says the council as constituted now has no members with experience fighting anti-Semitism, and it wants the replacements for Mariscal and Turk to be well versed in the battle.

According to the letter, Mariscal praised “Justice in Palestine Week 2010 -- End the Apartheid,” an anti-Israel student-run event on the San Diego campus, by saying that rarely had he seen “a more sophisticated and tempered demonstration of student activism as the Justice in Palestine calendar of events.”

Turk is the director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center of Southern California, which promotes the creation of a strong American Muslim community. ZOA said that in May 2008, the center hosted a conference about what many Arabs call the Nakba, or catastrophe -- the founding of the State of Israel -- and also have hosted conferences where the antisemiticscreed "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was displayed.

Until 2005, ZOA said, the center published a magazine containing articles that compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

“One would never dream of including individuals on the Council who have praised or supported events that are hostile to African Americans, Muslims or gays,” said ZOA President Morton Klein and Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA's Center for Law and Justice, in a statement. “Individuals who have praised or supported antisemitic or Israel-bashing events likewise don't belong on an Advisory Council that is supposed to be dedicated to eradicating antisemitism in all its forms.”

A June 28 letter sent to Yudof signed by the ZOA, three University of California faculty members and 11 other organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Orthodox Union and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, requested that Yudof take steps in addition to the advisory council to stop antisemitism on campus.

Yudof responded four days later, saying that he recognized that antisemitism should be dealt with on UC campuses, but that the letter was “a dishearteningly ill-informed rush to judgment.”

New Reporting Standards

For the first time in the more than three decades ADL has tracked and reported on antisemitic incidents, the 2009 Audit was significantly revamped to improve reporting methods and update some evaluation criteria. At the same time, a new technology platform was developed that enabled the League's 30 regional offices to record and track incidents with even greater speed and accuracy.

As a result, the 2009 total of 1,211 incidents does not include incidents that would have been categorized as antisemitic under the previous Audit system. In 2008 – prior to the adoption of enhanced reporting methods – the League recorded a total of 1,352 incidents. The decline of 10 percent between the 2008 and 2009 figures is not inclusive of incidents that would have been counted under the previous methodology.

"In an effort to make the Audit as accurate as possible in measuring antisemitic incidents in America, we have decided to take a more conservative approach to counting certain types of incidents, including graffiti and swastikas," said Mr. Foxman. "We know that the swastika has, for some, lost its meaning as the primary symbol of Nazism and instead become a more generalized symbol of hate. So we are being more careful to include graffiti incidents that specifically target Jews or Jewish institutions as we continue the process of re-evaluating and redefining how we measure anti-Jewish incidents."

For reporting purposes, the ADL Audit divides antisemitic incidents into three categories: Antisemitic Assaults, involving violence against Jewish individuals or those thought to be Jewish; Vandalism, such as property damage, cemetery desecration or antisemitic graffiti; and Harassment, including threats, slurs and activity by antisemitic hate groups:

·Assaults: A total of 29 assaults were reported in 2009. The incidents included under assaults included a "kick a Jew day" at a Florida middle school, a brick thrown at an identifiably Jewish man, an individual physically assaulted by a racist skinhead, and numerous bomb threats against Jewish institutions.
· Vandalism: There were 422 cases of vandalism reported in 2009, including rocks thrown at synagogue windows, antisemitic graffiti and attacks on Jewish cemeteries.
·Harassment: With 760 harassments reported in 2009, including anti-Jewish taunts and threats, this category accounted for more than 62 percent of all incidents reported.

Continuing a longtime trend, the states with the highest totals were those with large Jewish populations. The top four states were California, with 275 incidents, or 23 percent of the total; New York with 209 incidents, or 17 percent of the total; New Jersey with 132 incidents, or 10 percent of the total; and Florida with 90 incidents, or 7 percent of the total. (State-by-State Totals).

Behind the 2009 Audit's statistics, several important trends were identified:

· Extremist Plots to Kill Jews

The Jewish community in the United States was the target of serious threats to life and security, as several extremists motivated by antisemitic ideology attempted to carry out murderous attacks against Jewish institutions. The most prominent incident was the June 2009 shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in which a white supremacist and anti-Semite killed an African-American security guard before being critically wounded himself. The 88-year-old shooter, James Von Brunn, who subsequently died of his wounds, was a longtime white supremacist and anti-Semite who had published an antisemitic book and created an anti-Jewish Web site.

Other terror plots included:

-- In May 2009 in New York, four Muslim converts were arrested for an alleged plot to attack two synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and to shoot down planes at a military base. The men allegedly began surveillance of several synagogues and a Jewish community center in April 2009. According to a federal prosecutor, the four men were "eager to bring death to Jews."

-- In January 2009 in Brockton, Massachusetts, police arrested a white supremacist after he allegedly killed two people and raped a third. The arrest put a stop to what authorities say was a pre-planned racially motivated killing spree directed at Jews and non-whites that would have continued later in the evening.

· Actions by the Westboro Baptist Church

Many Jewish institutions across America were targeted by (or were threatened by) protestors from the virulently antisemitic Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), a small Topeka, Kansas-based hate group. At these protests, church members held signs stating that "The Jews killed Jesus," that "God Hates Jews," and "God Hates Israel." WBC also sent volumes (in some cases dozens over the course of a week) of faxes and e-mails with antisemitic and anti-gay messages to numerous Jewish institutions and individuals. The group protested at scores of Jewish institutions, including synagogues, Jewish community centers and Israeli consulates, and its airing of age-old antisemitic charges like deicide provoked anxiety, anger and outrage in many communities. (More on WBC)

· AntisemitismGoes Viral

While the League has monitored hate on the Internet for many years, 2009 was marked by a severe intensification of antisemitic expression in cyberspace. There was a significant increase in the amount of antisemitismfound on online social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, and user-generated content sites, like YouTube.

Antisemitismflourished on a variety of social networking sites. Facebook, in particular, has become a widely used platform for users seeking to link their antisemitic views to discussions of Israel. Numerous Facebook groups were created in early 2009 in support of the Palestinians, and many of these groups also contained vile anti-Semitism. One Facebook group called "I Hate Israel," which boasted more than 1,000 members in 2009, contained dozens of antisemitic posts.

Antisemitic comments also flourished on mainstream media Web sites in connection to stories on the Middle East, or stories dealing with the arrest of Jewish businessman Bernard Madoff and the revelation of his multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme. In the case of Madoff, most of the antisemitic comments tended to focus on alleged Jewish greed and thievery, as well as conspiracy theories linking financial losses to Israel. (More on Viral Anti-Semitism)

· Antisemitic Expressions at anti-Israel Protests

In 2009 anti-Israel protests were a major source of antisemitic agitation in the U.S. These mainly included antisemitic expressions at anti-Israel rallies held in response to Israel's actions in Gaza in January 2009. At these rallies Holocaust imagery and analogies proliferated and various speakers and placards accused Jews of controlling the U.S. government, among other anti-Jewish accusations and canards. (More on anti-Israel Protests)

The following are selected incidents of assaults, vandalism and harassment reported to ADL in 2009:

Assaults: Selected Incidents in 2009

· February 21, 2009: Lincoln, Nebraska - Jewish girl was shot with air-soft gun. Assailants yelled, "Jew girl, we are going to do what the Germans did."

· March 6, 2009: Newton, Massachusetts - Man was hit in the face with a thrown egg while someone yelled, "Kike."

· April 20, 2009: Buena Park, California - Jewish student beat up after confronting classmate drawing swastikas.

· June 26, 2009: Pendleton, Oregon - Jewish individual assaulted by skinhead.

· August 25, 2009: Brooklyn, New York - An 11-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted and taunted with antisemitic comments by a gang of African-American teens in a public playground.

· September 20, 2009: Brooklyn, New York - Jewish man wearing a kippah was assaulted with a brick by two unknown persons.

· November 1, 2009: Boca Raton, Florida – A Holocaust survivor assaulted and subjected to antisemitic slurs.

· November 18, 2009: Naples, Florida - Numerous incidents took place during a "Kick a Jew Day" at middle school.

More Assaults

Vandalism: Selected Incidents in 2009

· January 1, 2009: Knoxville, Tennessee - Vandals threw rocks at two synagogues, breaking several stained-glass windows.

· February 15, 2009: San Francisco, California - "F--- the Jews and "F--- Anne Frank" was drawn on benches at middle school.

· April 6, 2009: University of Florida, Florida – A large swastika was painted on house belonging to Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity.

· April 8, 2009: Cape Coral, Florida - "Hitler was here," "White Power" and several swastikas were drawn on approximately a dozen homes and a police cruiser.

· April 10, 2009: Damascus, Maryland - Thirteen swastikas and KKK graffiti were found in synagogue parking lot on second day of Passover.

· April 22, 2009: Union City, New Jersey - Vandals broke into a Jewish education center, laid two pieces of wood on a desk in the shape of a cross, and set it on fire.

· May 12, 2009: Chandler, Arizona - A sign announcing the construction of a Jewish religious institution was defaced with a large swastika and white supremacist graffiti.

· July 17, 2009: Queens, New York - Several mausoleums were damaged and approximately 55 headstones overturned in Jewish cemetery.

More Vandalisms

Antisemitic Harassment: Selected Incidents in 2009

· February 5, 2009: Tidewater, Virginia - Students held "Kick a Jew Day."

· March 2, 2009: Monroe Township, New Jersey - Harassing phone calls were received by several people in connection with a Holocaust memorial program. Messages included, "I am a Christian and I hate the f---ing dirty Jews."

· April 1, 2009: Manhattan, New York - Three Jewish professors at Columbia University's Teachers College received envelopes containing swastikas in their mailboxes.

· May 11, 2009: Madison, Connecticut – A student was taunted by a classmate with taunts such as "I hate all Hebrews," "I have some German relatives who would love to kill you," and "Jews are easy targets."

· June 1, 2009: Munster, Indiana – A Jewish student was passed a note on which a classmate had drawn a photo of Hitler pointing a gun at a Jew holding a dollar bill. An antisemitic caption was included.

· June 27, 2009: Fair Lawn, New Jersey - As families were exiting synagogue, a passing car slowed down and a passenger yelled, "Six million more! Six million more!"

· November 12, 2009: Wallingford, Connecticut – An actor taking part in a Hansel and Gretel scene told onlookers, "If there are any Jews here, you have to go into the ovens first."

More Harassments

About the ADL Audit

The Audit identifies both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs. Compiled using official crime statistics, as well as information provided by victims, law enforcement officers and community leaders and evaluated by ADL's professional staff, the Audit provides an annual snapshot of a nationwide problem while identifying possible trends or changes in the types of activity reported.

The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights signed the agreement at Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry .

"This agreement is a step that doubles the power of 87 states' cooperation in the fight against the de-legitimization of Israel and anti-Semitism towards Jews around the world," said Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, who signed the agreement on behalf of Israel. "There are those who deny the Holocaust and are preparing for the next Holocaust. We must remember the Holocaust so that the horrors will not return, and we will make the world a safer place."

Israel was selected to lead the task force for the first time in 2010.

The task force, established a decade ago at the initiative of the Swedish government, aims to promote the remembrance of the Holocaust through education, research and memorial sites. It is comprised of 27 member countries, mostly European. Six international organizations belong as observers, including the United Nations and the European Union.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which has 57 members, deals with educational programs and monitors instances of xenophobia, mainly anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Source: http://www.mfa.gov.il/

Citing a foiled plot targeting Bronx synagogues in 2009, Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, told Reuters that cultural, nonprofit and religious institutions need extra resources for protection.

The need for added protection is "particularly acute in New York, where there's always chatter about the threats posed to communities, heavily Jewish communities," Weiner said.

The city is to receive nearly one-third of the US Department of Homeland Security's $19 million allotment for nonprofit organizations.

New York has been the target of most of the extremist plots in the United States since the September 11 attacks of 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people.

In May 2009, four men were arrested in an FBI sting operation when they planted what they believed to be explosives in two cars parked outside synagogues in the borough of the Bronx, police said at the time.

"There's no doubt that the synagogue attack increased awareness," Weiner said.

The funds are capped at $75,000 per group and may go toward installing security cameras or other extra security.

The Zionist Organization of America lobbied for the letter, which was signed by 36 lawmakers and sent last week to Department of Education secretary Arne Duncan. The letter raised questions about the department’s Office for Civil Rights’ enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 2004 ZOA requested that the civil rights' office investigate antisemitic incidents at the University of California, Irvine. In 2007, after looking into the allegations, the office concluded that it could not take action because the incidents were not based on students’ national origins.

The lawmakers' letter denounced this decision, saying that the Office for Civil Rights was not abiding by its own policy statement.

The office's policy statement says that it will enforce Title VI for groups that exhibit both racial and ethnic characteristics, such as Jews. Title VI ensures that recipients of federal funding, including public and most private universities, keep their programming free from racial and ethnic discrimination.

University of California President Mark Yudof said the ZOA’s claims were exaggerated.

"[I will] do everything in my power to protect Jewish and all other students from threats or actions of intolerance," he said in a July 6 statement.

The letter was written following a briefing for congressional staff about antisemitism on college campuses organized by Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), co-chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Antisemitism.

Speakers at the briefing included representatives from ZOA, The American Jewish Committee and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

An artist, who called on Poles to post their antisemitic thoughts on his internet site, printed them and burned them in a barn that was a memorial to those slaughtered in the Jedwabne pogrom in July 1941.The representation was intended for the former horror village and not to lead to the death of the artist, who emerged from the barn unscathed.

A controversial gesture: Last night (Sunday) the Polish Artist, Rafal Betlejewski set fire to the barn structure into which he had been locked, in Central Poland, in a representation to mark the 69^th anniversary of the massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne in the North East of the Country, in a pogrom in 1941. Unlike the hundreds of Jews who were burned to death in a barn by their Polish neighbors, Betlejewski emerged during the representation from the other side of the burning structure, after having remained there for a period of time.

More than 1,000 spectators, including Israeli representatives, viewed the representation which was protected by the local Police, and the fire department had deployed around it in order to avoid the spread of the fire in the field in which it took place, near the village of Jedwabne. Eye witnesses said that you could see the flames hundreds of meters away from the motorway connecting Warsaw and Katowice.

Betlejewski had recently called on Polish citizens to post on his internet site ‘all the bad thoughts that you are likely to have against the Jews and to do some soul-searching about them so that they are burned forever’.

At the start of the representation, he read the names of those persons that had posted such antisemitic thoughts on the site, he placed strips of paper on which they had been printed all around the barn, poured petrol over the barn, locked himself into it and set it ablaze. As previously mentioned, the representation was intended for the former horror village, and not to lead to the death of the artist, who emerged from the barn shortly afterwards.

During the last year, the Polish artist has been leading a public campaign entitled ‘Jew, I miss you’ and he adds various testimonies of the abuse and horror that the Jews underwent during the Second World War, or in 1968, when many of the Jewish survivors were expelled by the Communist regime.

The Polish News Agency has reported that Israel’s Ambassador to the country, Zvi Rab, commented at the ceremony in Jedwabne on the controversial representation in Poland and stated ‘This is art. We are commemorating here the memory of those who were murdered, in a very traditional way’. The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Shudrich, expressed his admiration for Betlejewski and his efforts to break the antisemitism still prevailing in the country. “He is seeking to cause people to confront the unpleasant facts, and face reality. He has the purest intentions, even if his methods are not acceptable to everyone”.

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The self-proclaimed neo-Nazis were both cleared of soliciting murder. Heaton was convicted of stirring up racial hatred - a charge Hannington admitted.

Heaton was jailed for 30 months and Hannington for two years.

Justice Irwin told Heaton his words were of the most "insulting and extreme nature" marked by "violent racism" and said only a significant jail term was acceptable.

This person, who had in the past founded the Neo-Nazi group “Martillo del Sur” [Hammer of the South] was charged with payment of a fine amounting to UTM 50 (one million 800 thousand pesos) for an offence against Law 19.733, and was sentenced to 600 days imprisonment suspended under restrictive conditions, due to illegal possession of ammunition.

The Prosecutor in the case, Alejandro Ivelic, welcomed the Court’s decision, and particularly the punishment handed down because of breach of the Expression of Opinion Law, which constitutes a legal precedent.

“We are very satisfied with the sentence that was obtained, particularly because of the offence under the Expression of Opinion and the Press Law as this is a landmark case, as a penalty has never before been handed down for a breach of this Law, and in this sense it is an historic judgment”, he stated.

For is part, Oscar Mella, the Neo- Nazi’s Defense Attorney – who was not present when the verdict was read out – promised that he would be lodging an appeal against the decisions in respect of the two offences.