The statue commemorating Anne Frank, one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust, was defaced with pro-Palestinian graffiti for the second time on Sunday.
The statue is located in Merwedeplein, near the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
According to images published on X, the base of the statue was spray-painted with the slogan “Free Gaza” while the girl’s hands were painted with the same red color, AFP reported.
Ah yes, the notoriously pro-Israel Ann Frank. What with Israel existing before 1948.
How the fuck does this help anything?
Perhaps the GRU (Russian military intelligence) paid some petty criminals to do it, as they did with pro-Palestine graffiti on a Jewish cemetery in France a few months ago
Could be. But it could just as easily be some stupid bigots taking advantage of a bad situation.
For example, I doubt this was Russians: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/us/cincinnati-jewish-cemeteries-vandalism/index.html
But I do look forward for a demand that Alfred Dreyfus be exhumed so we can conduct a Cadaver Synod and re-try him for Israeli genocide in Gaza.
I do recall an instance where they paid someone to spray paint a swastika and “Azov” on some mosque in MI, back in the early days of the war.
So, they are active with these sorts of tactics in the US. But yes, this is all just speculation at this point.
I got banned from r/worldnews for suggesting same.
Hey, I was banned from that subreddit too! 😁🙂
They are ban happy. Weaksauce moderating if you ask me.
This is why lemmy deservers to remain underground.
I’ve been on Reddit for 17 years. One of the first things that drew me to it was that I found an appreciable number of people who actually gave a fuck about the Palestinians and had their eyes open about Israel. It varies by sub but in this case I found myself asking “what happened to this place?”
How the fuck does this help anything?
It helps conflate Palestinian opposition to the war in Gaza with German Fascism and the Holocaust. That’s to the benefit of Israeli Zionists.
I think Israelis doing this is the least likely of the scenarios suggested, the others being bigots and Russian operatives.
Israelis doing this
Plenty of possible culprits beyond the actual literal Israeli government. Could very well have been a troll with no political affiliation at all.
But the media coverage, the fixation on Palestinians as scary, violent, genocidal invaders, and the way this gets used to justify continued bombing in Gaza? That’s 100% right wing media.
The Gazans are in the same position as Ann Frank. Wtf.
The statue is located in Merwedeplein, near the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
The Gazans aren’t the ones doing the defacement.
It only takes 1% idiots to give enough anecdotal ammunition for the other side. It’s not the hard numbers that were ever in their favour anyway.
Exactly. Things like this happened many times in the past. And it could be that this was done by Zionists or Nazis to pin on pro-Palestinian activitists. Not saying that this is the case, but it is a possibility.
Yeah, but if you even mention false-flag conspiracies, you make it sound like you need them to have a point. We don’t, that’s just not what our larger movement is about regardless of who did it. There are Jews, like technically me, in it; it’s not anti-Jewish.
Do you apply this same standard to the January 6th morons, or do you conveniently use their actions to paint everyone on the right as fascists and lunatics?
Don’t be ridiculous, it’s all their other actions that make me think conservatives are either fascists or morons.
The majority of Republicans, both voters and lawmakers, held the same beliefs as the rioters about the credibility of the election. I doubt the majority of people who are pro Palestine have much against Anne Frank, but you’re free to do some of your own polling.
Personally, I don’t think everyone on the (American) right are fascists and lunatics. It seems to be the dominant strain, but perhaps you can change my mind.
What percentage or Republicans would you say support the efforts of January 6th? I seem to remember that polling says the majority believe Trump won the election.
Exactly.
The news is portraying it like wow how could someone defile such a respectful thing
It is to make the message clear I dunno Anne Frank but I doubt she’d be cool with bombing Palestinians
Kinda shows the stark contrast of how each are treated, especially with regards to the children.
Just idiots, everyone involved. 🤦♂️
Hey! As an idiot, I resent that! I’m at least smarter than THAT!
This is more the work of the morons.
Graffiti artists are often not well read
These days, Gaza is probably safer and more comfortable than a typical Nazi death camp.
Based on what? I’m in doubt.
wp:Auschwitz concentration camp#Death toll
At least 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, and at least 1.1 million died.[7]
Death toll is one thing. You could be housed at a luxury hotel as a death row inmate.
But the safety and living conditions is another thing.
Kids are starving and ridden with septic diseases in Gaza as well, and everyone is slowly dying with nobody coming to help. On paper it seems pretty close IMO. Sadly.
But who knows except those in the actual situation.
I can understand the anger at Israel. But of all people, Anne Frank has the least to do with all the genocide of Palestinians.
One angry kid with a spray bottle. That’s all it takes for this to happen. Let’s not be crazy about the implications perhaps?
I like how people are assuming if Anne Frank were alive she would be doing anything other than shouting to the world about ending the genocide in Gaza because genocides are the most terrible crime humanity can enact upon itself.
A statue is just some rock you paid somebody to carve.
Nonsense, let’s drum it up into a big stupid story with actual geopolitical ramifications.
In Canada we don’t blame Palestinians for all the hate crimes against Jews
We blame Canadians for trying to bring those issues over here
“Let’s deface a memorial, dedicated to a young girl who was murdered by Nazis. NOW, people will have to listen to what I have to say!”
- surprised Pikachu face * “Why didn’t that work?”
I doubt there was that much thought put into it.
Not the best place for that.
It does help Israel with the, “Everyone who disagrees with our actions is antisemitic” angle.
Yes. That is Israel’s only PR card only and they’ve been playing it over and over.
As an actual pro-Palestine act of protest, this is pure idiocy. It is plainly antisemitic and there is no grounds to hold Anne Frank accountable for the state of Israel. If a pro-Palestine protestor did this then they are an absolute moron and a bigot.
However. As a pro-Israel false flag, this is brilliant. It draws a tight connection between supporting Palestine and being anti-Semitic. It makes protestors look exactly like the bigots Israel wants them all to be.
So given that someone just ran up and did this under cover of night, we’re left with a decision: was it done by someone incredibly stupid or very smart? There are plenty of both in the world.
Pro-Palestinian idiots or Bad Actor/False Flag idiots?
People are scoffing at this, but in the UK you’ve got full blown fascist riots over the purely fictitious claim that a knife attack was perpetrated by a Muslim immigrant. The British far-right are burning mosques and storefronts in response to a social media slander.
It’s easier to blame a ghost than accept the shitheels on your side
Having some shitheels doesn’t invalidate that Israel is doing a genocide.
Israel. Israel. That’s the point, what the fuck does Anne Frank have to do with Israel?
What makes you think that anybody here knows the answer to that question?
Impossible to tell. The former is the Occam’s and Hanlon’s razor answer, though.
Both are equally stupid. Both requires the same minimum effort to commit.
There’s also the issue that if you immediately suspect false flags when your people do bad stuff, but not when the other side does, that’s not very intellectually honest. Do that and you will rightfully look full of shit.
It doesn’t represent what we’re about, stick with that.
It also doesn’t matter which “side” did it. It’s a low effort type of attack. One person with a can of spray paint can do. It should not and can not be allowed to represent either group until the perpetrator is caught and investigated.
It honestly could be either.
And both options are depressing.
Yeah we had russians painting anti semitic crap here in France to stir shit up.
No shortage of home grown antisemitism in France.
You French? Spend a lot of time there?
How wildly misguided and disrespectful. That is assuming this was even done in earnest. Accusations of anti semitism are levied at anti-zionist action all the time and it’s hard to dismiss those accusations when legitimate anti-semitism frequently tries to associate itself with anti-zionism.
I’m not even saying this couldn’t have been done by a legitimate anti-zionist who is also antisemitic. It just continually weakens the cause of anti colonialism when other forms of bigotry crop up around us. Anti semitism in all it’s forms is completely abhorrent and unacceptable. Advocating for the liberation of Palestinians should never invoke anti-Semitic ideology.
Edit: if you’re curious how antisemitism could come to exist in leftist movements, read the comments below. Giving no thought to the impact our actions have is unacceptable. Pissing people off is not a worthy trade for making Jewish leftists feel unsafe in our movements.
It’s to make a statement and draw attention, protest is supposed to make you upset. That’s just how life works.
Ed:
About the letters, Otto wrote: ‘I often end my letters by writing: “I hope that Anne’s book will impact the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances, you will work for unity and peace.”’
Otto died on 19 August 1980. Shortly before his death, he said in an interview: ‘I am almost ninety now and my strength is slowly fading. But the mission that Anne passed on, keeps giving me new strength - to fight for ,reconciliation and for human rights across the world.’
Ie. Make the disrespect of Mrs Frank and her family visible by defacing a statue of her the same way Israel defaces Jewish history and legacy.
Many people find antisemitism to be upsetting. Just because it’s being done as protest to upset people doesn’t change what it is.
What’s antisemitic about it? The same thing that happened to her is happening to Palestinian children right now and this message is just highlighting the disparity between the two in the response from the rest of the world.
It’s not anti semitic it’s anti zionic, Otto famously refusing to move to Israel and instead to iirc Switzerland.
The fact people know who Anne is and what the protest is about makes it very telling when people say it’s anti semitic in the same way people say being anti zionic is anti semitic.
Anne Frank has nothing to do with Zionism. She was dead long before the formation of Israel. She represents the suffering, struggles, and genocide of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
It would be like walking up to a Jewish person, regardless of their position on Zionism, and punching them in the face and then trying to claim it isn’t antisemitism but a protest against Zionism.
Sorry, but it is. They might not realize that they are blaming all Jews for Zionism, but that’s precisely what they are doing.
Wrong, she’s a famous public figure who’s family are openly anti Israeli. Neither her not her father Otto are likely to take issue to drawing attention to genocide… You know being arguably the most famous victim of it. But no no she’s a Jew that’s all she’ll ever be, you’re right how shameful of me to suggest otherwise.
Not at all the same, who’s harmed here? Your best example is actual physical violence when we’re talking about inanimate property.
Nope what you’re doing is implying that because she is a new she cannot be a symbol for Palestinians actively being genocided by members of her faith.
But no no she’s a Jew that’s all she’ll ever be, you’re right how shameful of me to suggest otherwise.
Wait, you’re arguing that her family would be for them defacing her memorial? Wow. No wonder you have to make up my position.
But no no she’s a Jew that’s all she’ll ever be, you’re right how shameful of me to suggest otherwise.
What if they painted a swastika on it? No one was harmed. Is that also nothing like the analogy I made?
Nope what you’re doing is implying that because she is a new
No, what I’m saying is that targeting her for the protest, when she has nothing to do with Israel, makes it pretty clear they are targeting her because she is a jew. If you want to deface a genocide memorial to make your point about Gazans being the victim of genocide, it wouldn’t expose your antisemitism if you targeted memorials of victims other genocides.
No, I suggested her family would be ashamed of you for reducing her to just a jew, you ignore the genocide victim section and instead claim antisemitism solely because she’s Jewish.
That’s hate speech, there’s laws for that. There isn’t for making valid comparisons.
She may have nothing to do with Israel, but she has everything to do with genocide, the fact you can’t see that over her religion is the fucking point.
I get where you’re coming from but all this is going to do is fuel the fire under people who think support for Palestine is hate for the Jewish community as a whole.
People said that about MLK’s walks.
And if his walks included racist undertones those complaints would have been valid. Your rebuttal could be used against literally anything. The Oklahoma bombings were done in protest to Waco and other shit. You going to defend that protest because i think it was extremist and say it’s not the right way to protest? There’s a line and using MLK to justify crossing it is disgusting.
And if his walks included racist undertones those complaints would have been valid.
American white nationalists regularly insisted they did and claimed that they were being victimized by angry black mobs.
Subsequent efforts by Hoover’s FBI during the COINTELPRO operation aimed at black civil rights leaders attempted to stock those fears and legitimize them with fabricated evidence in support of the claim.
Yes that is my point. He wasn’t doing actual racist shit so they had to make stuff up. Genociders won’t have that problem here.
He wasn’t doing actual racist shit so they had to make stuff up.
And large numbers of White Americans believed it, because they were primed to assume colored people were monsters.
Genociders won’t have that problem here.
Stocking the hate towards Arabs is a pivotal part of the war effort against Gaza.
American white nationalists regularly insisted they did and claimed that they were being victimized by angry black mobs.
They aren’t credible.
Subsequent efforts by Hoover’s FBI during the COINTELPRO operation aimed at black civil rights leaders attempted to stock those fears and legitimize them with fabricated evidence in support of the claim.
Are you saying the person who did the defacing is an agent of the Israeli government?
They aren’t credible.
In the 1950s and 60s, they were considered extremely credible.
Are you saying the person who did the defacing is an agent of the Israeli government?
No more than I am suggesting J. Edgar Hoover was Jewish.
Calling it anti semitic is my definition making it racial, I didn’t do that.
That’s correct, it wasn’t an effective protest because it didn’t get the change he wanted but did put his word out there, right here today I could get that manifesto in less than 30 seconds.
I don’t think anyone is supporting violence like a bombing, this is literal paint. Calm down, they aren’t comparable at all.
It may not be the same as a bombing but the people whose minds they’re trying to change are only going to close further because they don’t want to be seen as supporting anti-semitism. Which when you’re defacing a jewish child’s statue seems like a not so far off stretch.
It’s not at all the same thing, you’re being bombastic about stupid shit.
Defacing a genocide victims statue to bring light to an active genocide committed by members of her religion, famously mass victims of genocide now commiting genocide.
You’re part of the problem, stop with the “protest the right way” bullshit.
this is literal paint.
used to deface a memorial to a victim of genocide.
To bring light to genocide.
Imagine for a second that Anne frank wasn’t a Jew just the most famous genocide victim of all time, would it then be ok to deface the statue being directly relevant to the reason for protest.
They did and they were wrong but his walks also did not bolster claims of anti semitism by defacing memorials to holocaust victims
It bolstered the concept of the “entitled ni**er” at the time, read a newspaper taking about it before it happened.
Please link us to articles and commentaries in such (supposed) newpapers.
I’ll look them up when I get home but your trying to get me to prove racist comments in 1964 and somehow think that’s a high bar to jump.
Either history escapes you or you are wildly ignorant.
I get that angle, I do. I just question whether the statement works or not. Do you think the majority of people will interpret these actions that way? Do you think this will paint a good picture of anti-zionist action to the wider international public? Drop the “pro-palestinian” part and the headline reads like probably neo-nazi action. And I do firmly believe that’s how it will be interpreted. I’m a revolutionary leftist like I’m all for taking action this action just serves not to advance the cause but actually to degrade it. This action legitimizes accusations of anti semitism levied at anti zionists. That is exactly how it will be interpreted that is the exact story they will tell.
They’ll always try and accuse us of being antisemitic, see the college protests for example. But that was contentious like the public was not united in opposition to that because protesting on campus is not on its face value antisemitic. But defacing a statue of a girl who was murdered in a genocide of jewish people does NOT come across as anti-zionist action. We do NOT have to stir up outrage over disrespecting holocaust victims to advocate for Palestinian liberation.
Not to mention can we not have some respect for Jewish people within our movement? How do you think this makes them feel? An innocent girl who died due to virulent antisemitic hatred being brought into a conflict over another genocide. Jewish people tell us they don’t always feel safe in leftist circles. This is also not helping that in any way
I think the conversation is only elevated the now annoyed they are about the protest act. Historically effective protest is to literally rattle as many cages as possible, people get annoyed and take a side.
English suffrage was only gained by breaking windows, burning buildings, donning cardboard armor then learning judo and beating the absolute shit out of cops.
Ed: I think it’s more disrespectful for her to drag the Jewish faith along with Zionists solely because they claim the same religion, that’s the whole point of attacking a famous Jew that cannot physically be harmed only defaced temporarily.
To be clear, totally down with civil unrest. This is not civil unrest. This is defacing a statue of a universally known holocaust victim. A victim who was a helpless child.
Rattling the cage of “innocent victims of genocide” is literally the last fucking cage anyone should ever rattle like what are you talking about. This is the shit that neo nazis do. This action puts us in league with neonazis in the mind of the majority of the public like what do you mean?? Also how is defacing genocide victim statues doing anything to further our cause of international recognition of the genocide of Palestinian?
Break some windows. Civil unrest, fight back against the states that support this genocide. No question yea do that. Don’t deface Anne Franke statues like I genuinely can’t even believe this has to be said. Again, how do you think this makes jewish anti-zionists feel? Does this make them feel welcome in our movement?
Correct that’s protest, the fact that you find it repugnant is irrelevant. You’re talking about it, you wouldn’t be if they painted pro Palestine stuff anywhere else.
Anne and her father are both dead and their family aren’t pro Israel, just as an fyi because their cages literally couldn’t get rattled. I meant people like you, people more wrapped up in the statue and it’s visage than the reason it was defaced in the first place. Yes, everyone protests, that’s not the dig you think it is.
This is a broken window, it hurts literally no one and says a lot. Are you arguing for other means that often turn more violent than anonymous defacement? Why? You’re valuing a chunk of material depicting a famous over millions of Innocent Palestinians, why is that?
This is a broken window, it hurts literally no one and says a lot. Are you arguing for other means that often turn more violent than anonymous defacement? Why? You’re valuing a chunk of material depicting a famous over millions of Innocent Palestinians, why is that?
What’s your opinion of Qur’an burnings and depictions of the pedophile prophet?
Legit speech, go for it.
Though I will point out three fact that the only one who’s being objectively racist and bigoted here is you just now with that statement.
You like Jews and don’t like Muslims, good for you but maybe keep your hate speech to yourself.
Did you miss the part where i said that I understood the intent but am calling out how this makes our movement look like fucking neo nazis? Do you want to re read what I’ve said please before throwing more baseless accusations at me?
No I wouldn’t give a shit if they painted pro Palestine messages on any non-holocaust related memorials. Because that wouldn’t make us look like neo nazis. This does. People are going to talk about this on the news today and millions of people will shake their head and lend more credence to claims that we are antisemites. And Jewish anti zionists now know that due to their religion some anti zionists are entirely willing to throw them under a bus in the name of “rattling cages”.
It doesn’t make anyone look like neo Nazis aside from the people who cannot see duality.
Yes she’s a Jew, neat.
She’s also the most famous victim of genocide ever.
There’s a current genocide that is being committed by isrealis a famously majority Jewish nation.
The fact that you can’t see her as anything but a Jew is more telling of you than anyone else.
This is how people confuse Jews with Zionists and Israelis. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they are only one of the options, but they are not synonyms.
Hate begets hate, not calm and rational responses.
If this changes your opinion on Gaza-Israel; you are a fucking moron.
If Hamas’ fighters being hateful and commiting war crimes changes your opinion on the conflict; you are a fucking moron.
If you think no hamas fighter is hateful and has committed atrocities; you are a naive moron.
If you are wondering why Israel is wrong and Palestinians in the right despite both sides’ soldiers (and “soldiers”) committing war crimes, it’s because Israel created this situation by occupying Palestine and trying to ethnically cleanse it.
People in the West are way naive and sheltered from the realities of war, in part due to propaganda and how western war efforts have been portrayed as unrealistically “clean” and sanitized.
Good take. Except maybe missing the part where the west is complicit in the suffering of palestinians, and where the Arab nations starting a war vs. Israel taught Israel to be aggressive preemptively. And this is not an excuse, just an (incomplete) analysis how this clusterfuck came about.
I’d argue that currently, as Israel has existed for long enough for generations to be born, we cannot solve the issue by just removing it from the map. This really is a homeland for these people, and historic arguments are not valid, or else we have to rebuild an entire world map.
But we can absolutely condemn both Israeli and Palestinian governments when they’ve gone too far.
October attacks carried out by Hamas were a mistake; but that doesn’t excuse Israeli armed forces razing Gaza to the ground. War crimes, civilian deaths, mass destruction and leaving no ways to escape is not an appropriate response.
Also, apartheid and blatant disrespect for Palestinian sovereignty, people and territory, as well as trying to dehumanize people living there are big reasons why this conflict happens in the first place, and that’s heavily on Israel.
Would Hamas do the same if they had the power to do so? Absolutely. They are not known for respecting international law and being good at peace regulations. But this is not just Hamas vs. Israeli armed forces. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people are murdered without mercy. And it’s Israeli soldiers who perpetrate it.
Can’t remove Israel from the map? Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is that Jewish people can exist in a one state Palestine, with equal rights and dignity, but Israel can’t deprive the Palestinians from their rights any longer. The state of Israel has no right to exist, because its only justification has ever been the subjugation of other people living there. It needs to be a majority Jewish state per its theocratic charter, and they achieve this by removing non-Jewish people from their land, ie genocide
It would be odd to expect one state Palestine to give full rights and dignity to Jews, just as much as we can’t expect Israel to be fair and just to Palestinians.
The state of Israel, along with trying to subjugate Palestinians, tries to protect the rights of Jews - something that will vanish instantly inside Palestine. Similarly, the state of Palestine not only tries to protect Palestinian Arabs, but also to subjugate Jews, it just doesn’t have equal power to do so.
Brave anti-imperialists at it again!
Appalling but antisemitism is becoming increasingly mainstream in Europe unfortunately
Which makes the idea of a Zionist state all the more justified. Happy, or more aptly less sad, the European Jews who spent the years between 1935 to 1945 in Palestine, and not the antisemitic shithole that was Europe (and by “Europe” I also mean United Kingdom and Russia/the USSR).
Haviv Rettig Gur put it very accurately and concisely, if brutally, in a lecture he gave recently:
For Jews In the 21st century, you either learned English or Hebrew or you were killed.
As a Brit myself (English, Catholic, English as far back as Ancestry can tell etc.) I’m really ashamed of this country since October 7th. It’s as if we felt that we had been impervious to the very deep, ancient cancer of antisemitism due to WW2. And that seems to have left us even more defenceless than many other European states which have at least tried at points to contain this.
If we’re talking about 1940’s Gaza, wouldn’t it have made more sense defacing an Egyptian statue?
The person who did this didn’t really care about which statue if was. They also defaced (among others) a statue of Ghandi.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2531752-beeld-anne-frank-en-andere-monumenten-in-amsterdam-beklad-met-free-gaza (In dutch) has pictures
I keep being told that not a single Palestinian protestor is anti Semitic.
Whatever gave you that impression? I can’t see nazis being on the side of Israel. There’s probably complexity on views but defacing a concentration camp jew is missing the mark by a lot.
Actually plenty of Nazis are pro Israel, it might even be the default position. Israel can be both a place to send Jewish people to get them out of your country and an example to hold up of successful ethno nationalism. On top of that Nazis would revel in the deaths of Palestinians, the bigotry of Nazis extends further than antisemitism.
Do you have a source for that? Because antisemitism seems to be a core tenant of nazism according to everything I can find.
Also nazis, due to this antisemitism, seem to view Muslims as natural allies, see how neonazis celebrated 9-11 around the world (except in the USA) or this quote:
“…we could have emancipated the Moslem countries dominated by France…All Islam vibrated at the news of our victories…created a feeling of malaise among our Islamic friends…” Adolf Hitler. Last will and Testament.
When they were still figuring out what people would publicly accept, the Nazis mostly favored deportation/displacement genocide rather than outright extermination.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan
They were, of course, extremely aware that Madagascar could not support the entire Jewish population, but that was most of the point. Anti-semite support of Israel is not about liking Jewish people, it’s about gathering the diaspora into one place so it’s easier to kill them. Toss in a little Revelations-prophecy for Christian fundie flavor depending on the brand of Nazi.
…but the task force sent to evaluate the island’s potential determined that only 5,000 to 7,000 families could be accommodated, or even as few as 500 families by some estimates.
…calling for the resettlement of a million Jews per year for four years, with the island being governed as a police state under the SS. They assumed that many Jews would succumb to its harsh conditions
That sounds more like ‘outright extermination’ than ‘displacement’ to me but ok.
I see you’re not the oc but as someone defending their point I’ll ask again, do you have any sources on these ‘plenty of pro-Israel Nazis’?
Who said anything about Nazis? The reality is that anti-semitism is not a uniquely European problem. Especially not with Israel’s actions
I just gave one example, that’s all
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If you see this as a pro anything move, you got a problem
It’s clearly pro Palestinian. Whether it is antisemitic is an issue of perspective but I can see that I am on the minority here and I don’t really feel the need to convince you so Ill just accept that you disagree and leave it there
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