Dutch antiracism groups have filed criminal charges against a pro-Palestinian organization called Stop de Bezetting—“Stop the Occupation”—whose website published an article accusing Jews of controlling the Internet. JTA reports that the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel and the Dutch Complaints Bureau for Discrimination on the Internet have joined forces, filing a complaint against Stop de Bezetting that labels the text “offensive to Jews.” Stop de Bezetting’s founder, Gretta Duisenberg, denies breaking Dutch laws that forbid disseminating material with intention of inciting hate or discrimination.
The article in question was written in 2009 by the California-based Freedom Research Foundation and mentions the names of Jews involved with Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, MySpace, and eBay. Titled “The Jewish Hand Behind the Internet,” the article is split into subsections that include “The Jewish Entourage at Google,” “Zuckerberg’s Jewish Entourage at Facebook,” “Google’s Cooperating with Jewish Censors,” and “More Tricks to Control Information on Wikipedia.” Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is called the “darling of the Jewish crowd at Harvard” and Sheryl Sandberg, who worked at Google before becoming the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is mocked for being involved with philanthropy, a “favorite Jewish pastime.” The article also chronicles in great length the trips Internet moguls have taken to Israel.
This anti-discrimination complaint comes amidst much discussion and concern about rising anti-Semitism in Europe, and the case against Stop de Bezetting’s online anti-Semitism, which raises larger questions about hate speech on the Internet, is not the first of its kind. Last year, a French Jewish student group won a case in French court that called on Twitter to release the names of users who were promoting anti-Semitic hashtags. Duisenberg does not seem concerned about the prospect of legal action, and is quoted as saying “If they want to go to the police, fine… I won’t remove [the article] because why should I.”
Related: #FrenchJewHating
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Lily Wilf is an editorial intern at Tablet.