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MOSCOW - A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.


In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."

The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, "The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence."

The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia.

Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites)'s government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.

Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said lawmakers were looking for support "by playing the anti-Semitic card."

The prosecutor general's office could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter, which the Interfax news agency said was signed by lawmakers from the nationalist Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties as well as the Communist Party.

Krutov, a Rodina member, is deputy chief of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy.

With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was "horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day ... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism."

While the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are "anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations," she said.

"The economic situation is ripe for this. An enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional," Gerber said.

Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."

"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.

Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."

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Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged | 

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accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.

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This reminds me of a story from Porter's childhood. He comes to his parents crying because his brother bit his finger. Apparently, he had been poking his finger in his brother's mouth. He demands, "Mom and Dad, tell Derek to keep my finger out of his mouth!"

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the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide

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Gee, you think they'd at least come up with something more original. These are the same accusations that anti-semites have been vomiting up for the last 2000 years. Though I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, since racism in any form automatically requires that you shut off your brain.

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They never supported forced mass conversion, while the Christians and the Muslims did.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kwasniewski and Israeli President Moshe Katsav joined survivors later at the infamous rail siding at the nearby Birkenau camp, where Nazi doctors carried out the "selection" of new arrivals. That meant choosing those deemed able to be worked to death from the majority who were immediately sent to the gas chambers.

Putin won long applause when he acknowledged that anti-Semitism and xenophobia had surfaced in Russia, tackling an issue that the Kremlin had long failed to confront directly. Putin said many in the world should be ashamed of new manifestations of anti-Semitism six decades after the defeat of fascism.

"Even in our country, in Russia, which did more than any to combat fascism ... we sometimes unfortunately see manifestations of this problem and I, too, am ashamed of that," Putin said.

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Russian Parliament Condemns
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Associated Press

MOSCOW, Feb. 4 - The Russian parliament's lower house adopted a declaration Friday sharply condemning a letter that urged prosecutors to outlaw all Jewish organizations in Russia, but the nationalist and Communist factions whose members had signed the letter were absent or voted against.

In a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the "clear anti-Semitic intent" of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews "prompts indignation and sharp condemnation."
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The Duma declaration said it was "particularly sorrowful" that the letter came as the world mourned the victims of Auschwitz, and that while its authors later withdrew their request, "the simple fact of such appeals cannot fail to concern us."

It said the consequences of initiatives such as the letter "could be extremely dangerous for a multiethnic state like Russia."

The Duma declaration reflected the Kremlin's eagerness to be seen as intolerant of anti-Semitism: Almost all the votes in favor came from lawmakers in the dominant, pro-Kremlin United Russia party and from the handful of independent lawmakers.

Votes against the declaration came from Communist lawmakers - six of whom were among the letter's signatories - and members of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. The Homeland faction - six of whose members signed the letter - is boycotting parliament sessions in an unrelated protest.

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Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!  |  IP: Logged | 

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Thank you for letting us know, Yozhik.

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It was an issue back in 1996, when Zhirinovsky was making headlines. (Oddly enough, Zhirinovsky's father was Jewish.)

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Not so odd, or unusual. There is no one so filled with hate as a Jews who hates Jews.

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In Europe, usury was against Christian law, so Jews were traditionally money-lenders.

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"Halacha" (which is the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law, which can be changed throughout the years according to circumstance)

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1. They were (edit: often) wealthy or at least wealthier than the mob
2. They practiced a strange (sic) faith, different from the mainstream in a time where being different was bad
3. As a frequently isolated minority, they made easy targets and scapegoats even when the above factors were not in play

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