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A demonstrator holding an anti-Israel sign at a rally against the IDF Gaza op in Tampa, Florida last week.
Last update - 23:00 05/01/2009
Demonstrators cry 'nuke Israel,' carry Hezbollah flags at U.S. anti-Israel rallies
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Gaza, Hamas, ADL

Comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and signs depicting the Star of David as equal to the swastika have been a recurring feature at rallies in the United States protesting Operation Cast Lead, the Anti-Defamation League said on Monday.

Though they lack the violence of their counterparts in the Middle East, protests held in the United States against Operation Cast Lead have included extreme rhetoric that wouldn't look out of place among the extremists of our region.


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In New York City's Times Square on Saturday, some demonstrators called for someone to 'nuke Israel', and held signs that read 'Israel: The Fourth Reich,' 'Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,' and a placard with images of Holocaust victims along Gazans with the words 'Nazi Genocide, Israeli Genocide,' below.

Many of the demonstrators also carried home-made Hezbollah flags, something also seen at a rally Sunday in Washington, D.C.

At the demonstration in Washington, DC, signs called the operation in Gaza 'Israeli-US genocide of the Palestinian people,' while others accused Israel of carrying out a 'Palestinian Holocaust.'

These same "peace activists" chanted in support of violence against Israel and accused the IDF of carrying out wide-scale ?murder of innocent people.'

Pedestrians who passed the protest, held outside the White House, were also treated to demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and shouting 'Allahu Akbar', and the chant 'Azza, Azza, don't you cry, Palestine will never die.'

A demonstration in Tampa, Florida last week featured demonstrators carrying signs reading 'Zionism is Cancer, Radiate it,' as well as a number of signs with the word 'Nazi' written over an Israeli flag with a swastika instead of a Star of David.

Similar signs appeared at a San Diego, California demonstration, including ones reading: 'Stop the Israeli Third Reich,' 'Israel is a Terrorist State,' 'Israeli Zionism = Nazism,' 'Stop the Israeli Holocaust on Gaza,' 'Israel is the old South Africa,' and 'Stop the Massacre in Gaza.'

'Freedom of speech is not just a right, it is also a responsibility,' Anti-Defamation League Chairman Abraham H. Foxman said Sunday.

'Comparisons of Israel to the Nazis are a deeply cynical perversion of history, an attempt to turn the tragedy that befell the Jewish people into a bludgeon against Israel. While we have come to expect to see such and hear this type of inflammatory rhetoric in Arab and Muslim capitals overseas, it is deeply disturbing that it is appearing in anti-Israel demonstrations at home. Offensive Holocaust comparisons and the use of Nazi imagery are deeply offensive and have no place in a civil society such as ours.'

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      1.   What on earth do you expect? 23:05  |  Palestinian Brit 05/01/09
      2.   Free speech... 23:05  |  Silvienne 05/01/09
      3.   Free speech 23:33  |  Matty 05/01/09
      4.   what did the US do when they had 1 terror attack 23:33  |  zionist forever 05/01/09
      5.   These are the dilusional racists amoung us. 23:37  |  David 05/01/09
      6.   Are there no laws prohibiting incitement to hatred and violence 23:38  |  Alicia 05/01/09
      7.   Demonstrators either twisting or not understanding reality 23:38  |  Richard S 05/01/09
      8.   American Demonstrators 00:05  |  Canadian 06/01/09
      9.   Parallels 00:55  |  cosmo 06/01/09
      10.   Hezbollah supporters should be deported 00:56  |  Gina 06/01/09
      11.   stranger than fiction 01:06  |  Mikhail 06/01/09
      12.   8- canadian 01:06  |  scott 06/01/09
      13.   Stupid comparisons 01:07  |  Deborah G. 06/01/09
      14.   Zionist Forever - Lessons Learned 01:07  |  Mark of Lewiston 06/01/09
      15.   They Behave Themselves In USA 01:18  |  Bill Foonman 06/01/09
      16.   Anti-Israel rallies 01:27  |  Lazarus 06/01/09
      17.   Shame on YOU David, and the rest of you... 01:27  |  Abba 06/01/09
      18.   They don`t have any nukes, but... 01:36  |  Master Shoemaker 06/01/09
      19.   #6 laws 01:37  |  David 06/01/09
      20.   Free Speech? Like Hell! 01:38  |  DAVID KAPLAN 06/01/09
      21.   After 50 years of Israeli propaganda 01:40  |  Alphonse 06/01/09
      22.   Uh, Silvienne, many or most of them are not Americans 01:42  |  Raymond in DC 06/01/09
      23.   Two Yardsticks Means Antisemitism 01:45  |  Frankie Littlehammer 06/01/09
      24.   The line between "Nuke Israel" and 01:45  |  DAVID KAPLAN 06/01/09
      25.   Fort Lauderdale protest 01:50  |  Jackie 06/01/09
      26.   Shocked and Outraged? 01:52  |  Zen 06/01/09
      27.   Hamas are just mafiosi 01:53  |  Flavia 06/01/09
      28.   These Are Muslim Demonstrators 01:53  |  Mike Sless 06/01/09
      29.   #10 06:59  |  Hartley Jey 06/01/09
      30.   More support Israel 07:04  |  John 06/01/09
      31.   Zen your logic can backfire 07:04  |  David Israel 06/01/09
      32.   David Kaplan - New to Talkbacks? 07:11  |  Mark of Lewiston 06/01/09
      33.   Silent Protesters 07:13  |  Citizen 06/01/09
      34.   We stand with Israel!! 07:38  |  Don American 06/01/09
      35.   " Nuke Israel"? 07:49  |  Joe 06/01/09
      36.   to GINA 08:00  |  JOE 06/01/09
      37.   behind the scene working hard 09:08  |  Capt Ahab 06/01/09
      38.   Flavia #27 09:21  |  Rina 06/01/09
      39.   GAZA the arab rocket launching platform 09:47  |  jan 06/01/09
      40.   #4 Zionist forever : unfair comparison 12:19  |  tristan 06/01/09
      41.   Anti-Semitism 19:06  |  Chubbarow 06/01/09
      42.   @ #15 Bill Foonman 21:13  |  Mannstein 06/01/09
      43.   "nuke isreal" 21:36  |  M goldberg 06/01/09
      44.   Not all protestors are Arabs or Muslims 04:01  |  DC Girl 07/01/09
      45.   Americans are beginning to wake up... 08:13  |  R. Fenderson 07/01/09
      46.   Isreal Murder 14:51  |  John Kinsella 11/01/09
      47.   there is a sickness out there in the world and it is manifested 13:30  |  r 26/03/09
      48.   #43 M Goldberg..."self-hating Jew" mantra passee 14:25  |  Hanna 26/03/09
      49.   i dont hate israel 16:31  |  mat 26/03/09
      50.   Drastic Need for Reconciliation 18:29  |  DoubleClick 26/03/09
      51.   protests held in the United States 08:41  |  lily 27/03/09
      52.   And now muslims have achieved their prised goal 08:42  |  lily 27/03/09
      53.   one way free speech 22:29  |  tabitha 30/04/09
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