Israeli senior government officials rebuffed claims by international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), which accused Israel of deploying “abusive...
As was also observed in several other countries during the last year, the lockdowns imposed by the spreading of COVID-19 led to a soaring of online antisemitic incidents in the US, often fueled by antisemitic conspiracy theories about the pandemic. A new phenomenon of extremists hacking into private videoconferences, or “zoombombing,” also surfaced. The ADL audit recorded 196 incidents of antisemitic videoconferencing attacks. Of those incidents, 114 targeted Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues.
Among the shocking examples cited in the ADL report was the intruder who hacked into a synagogue’s online Passover seder. Displaying a swastika tattoo on his chest, the intruder sent the message “HEIL HITLER YOU FILTHY K_KES. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IS ON YOUR HANDS. YOU ARE CURSED FOR HIS MURDER” to the participants. In another “zoombombing” incident, a virtual Torah study class was disrupted by an unknown participant who drew swastikas and vulgar images on the screen, and wrote “Kill Jews” multiple times in the chat function.