Berlin top mayoral hopeful admits fear after naming alleged PFLP activist
(JNS)—The office of a left-wing politician who’s poised to become Berlin’s mayor accidentally leaked text in which she expresses fear for her family’s safety after naming a supporter who’s accused of having ties to Palestinian terrorists, Der Spiegel reported on October 29.
Elif Erlap, whose Die Linke Party emerged as the largest in last month’s elections in Berlin, wrote in a private correspondence with her spokesperson: “I cannot endanger myself and my family for Der Spiegel. What do we do now? Can we cancel the entire interview?”
The comment was about the paper’s insistence on publishing a reference by Erlap to an alleged supporter of Hamas and the PFLP Palestinian terrorist groups who had attended Die Linke party events, Ibrahim Ibrahim.
The head of the Berlin State Parliament faction of the Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, told Tagesspiegel in reaction to the affair that Die Linke’s prospective coalition partners on the left must end talks on forming a coalition with Die Linke.
“If the woman who’s supposed to govern Berlin shrinks from publicly naming terrorist sympathizers out of fear for herself and her family, while parts of her own party are making common cause with precisely these circles, then the reasonable members of the Greens and the SPD [the Social Democratic Party of Germany] must finally pull the emergency brake,” he said.
Erlap got to talking about Ibrahim during an interview that Erlap had given to Der Spiegel earlier this week. The journalist asked Erlap about allegations of antisemitism by some Die Linke supporters. She said the party was committed to fighting antisemitism, adding she “hadn’t anticipated that certain boundaries might be crossed at individual events.” The interviewer asked her if this was a reference to Ibrahim. She confirmed that it was.
Spanish dictionary defies judge’s order to stop defining ‘Jewish’ as ‘miserly’
(JTA)—Two years after an Argentine judge ordered a Spanish dictionary to drop a definition of “Jewish” as “miserly or usurious,” the institution responsible for the dictionary has yet to comply — frustrating the Jewish groups that brought the case.
The definition reflects a long history of associating Jews with greed and moneylending, a stereotype reinforced by literary figures such as Shakespeare’s Shylock and by centuries of anti-Jewish prejudice. The Royal Spanish Academy, the Madrid-based language-standardization institution that is ignoring a September 2024 order by a federal judge here, has defended its dictionary as a record of how words are used, including pejorative meanings.
The 2024 order came a month after CJL and DAIA, Argentina’s Jewish political umbrella organization, filed a criminal complaint against Santiago Muñoz Machado, the academy’s director, and other officials. It accused them of “inciting hatred against the Jewish community through the discriminatory definition of the term ‘Jew’.”
Based in Madrid and founded in 1713, the academy is the leading authority on the Spanish language, coordinating linguistic standards with 22 other academies, mostly in Latin America.
Police shoot dead assailant outside Israeli Embassy in Serbia
(JTA)—An assailant with knives attacked a police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Serbia overnight before the officer shot him dead, according to Serbian authorities.
Interior Minister Ivica Dačić called the incident a “terrorist attack.” The attacker had two knives and shouted “Allahu Akbar” at the officer 15 minutes after midnight Wednesday morning at the embassy in Belgrade. One knife hit the officer’s face.
The officer, a member of the Gendarmerie unit who was identified only by the initials D.S., killed the assailant on the spot, according to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. The attacker, who was dressed in black and whom Dačić described as a minor, has not been identified and was believed to be from the western city of Šabac.
Dačić said he raised Serbia’s terrorism threat level to “red,” the highest degree, triggering heightened security monitoring and increased police presence around infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather.
Dačić added that Serbian security services had been monitoring the attacker, who was “known to be a supporter of the Islamic State” and had posted an image of the terror group’s flag on his social media.
Edinburgh council condemns Greens’ anti-Zionist resolution
(JNS)—The city council of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh on Oct. 29 passed a motion calling on the British and Scottish prime ministers to condemn last month’s resolution by the Green Party of England and Wales, which called Zionism a form of racism.
The Edinburgh Council resolution said that that body’s members “condemn the divisive language of the [Green Party of England and Wales] conference motion, reaffirm its opposition to antisemitism and express its solidarity with Edinburgh’s Jewish community,” the Edinburgh Evening News reported.
The motion in Edinburgh, whose council has passed several anti-Israel motions, underlines dissatisfaction with the Green Party’s Oct. 4 resolution even in left-wing circles where the Jewish state is deeply unpopular. Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats representatives voted for the resolution, with the Scottish Greens and Scottish National Party opposing it.
Jewish candidate again wins straw poll, but no indication it’s enough to secure nomination as UN secretary-general
(JNS)—Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, a Jewish economist, won Friday October 30’s United Nations Security Council straw poll to decide the next secretary-general of the global body, according to identical tallies that multiple diplomatic sources released to the press.
That makes six wins in seven tries for Grynspan, a U.N. executive and former Costa Rican vice president.
But despite securing 11 “encourage” votes from the 15-member Security Council, Grynspan got four “discourage” votes, which again casts doubt on her ability to secure the nomination even though she has been the race’s frontrunner almost exclusively.
Candidates require approval from at least nine council members but must also avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Rafael Grossi, of Argentina, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, finished second on Friday with nine “encourage,” four “discourage” and two “no opinion” votes.
Guyana diplomat Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett got eight “encourage” and six “discourage” votes and one “no opinion.”
The wild card on Friday was Lana Nusseibeh, former United Arab Emirates ambassador to the global body, who entered the race belatedly upon viewing the council’s lack of consensus.
