A/75/329 conspiracy theories have been propagated in many countries, including, for example, Bulgaria, Iran (Islamic Republic of) and Iraq. 11 56. A Jewish cemetery in Finland and Jewish religious sites across the United States were defaced with antisemitic graffiti; a Russian synagogue in the north-western city of Arkhangelsk was subjected to an arson attack in mid-April 2020; and violent threats against Jews on social media platforms in various states of the United States were consistent with a Federal Bureau of Investigation warning sent to local law enforcement authorities in March 2020 that online extremist groups were encouraging members who became infected with COVID-19 to spread the virus to police and Jews.12 57. The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, at Tel Aviv University, reported Holocaust-associated terminology: for example, comparing lockdown to the ghettos and using the German slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“work liberates” – which was on the gate to Auschwitz) to refer to release from it. Anti-vaccine protesters wore the Nazi yellow star, replacing “Jew” with “unvaccinated”, suggesting that they were persecuted and seen as disease spreaders – as Jews were in Nazi Germany. This became so widespread that officials in Munich prohibited wearing of the yellow star at demonstrations. 13 58. The rise in antisemitism must be understood in the context of broad and rampant racism and other forms of hatred and intolerance affecting other groups as well. Extremists are ready and able to exploit the fear and confusion that accompanies the pandemic. As indicated in submissions received by the Special Rapporteur for the present report, multiple incidents of racist and xenophobic violence continue to be perpetrated by ethnonationalists, including neo-Nazis, skinheads and members of other right-wing movements, against Asians, Muslims, Jews, Roma, LGBTQ persons, migrants, refugees, foreign students, people of colour, indigenous and Afrodescendent peoples, and other minority groups. 59. Submissions for the present report, and countless news and human rights reports, are rife with examples of the widespread discrimination, harassment and assault – online and physical – against persons of Chinese or Asian descent. In what can be seen as an all-too-familiar attempt to normalize xenophobia and racism as reasonable reactions to COVID-19, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, dubbed it the “Wuhan flu” or the “China flu”. Online antisemites perverted this to “Jew flu”, implying either that Jews were behind it or that it was most closely associated with Jewish victims and spreaders. 14 On 14 March 2020, three Burmese family members, including a 2-year-old and 6-year-old, were stabbed in a grocery store in Texas by a man who said they were spreading the coronavirus. Many other incidents have been recorded on video and published online, which involve not only overt racism and physical attacks, but also attacks on public health. The US Human Rights Network reported videos of people ripping face coverings and masks off people of Asian descent, and spitting and coughing on their faces. 15 Jews have been similarly assaulted; for example, a couple attacked a group of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn, New York, pulling masks from their faces and accusing them of spreading COVID-19.16 The Community Security Trust, in the United Kingdom, reported far__________________ 11 12 13 14 15 16 12/23 Ibid., pp. 2–3. Submission from the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, “COVID-19-related antisemitic incidents”, p. 4. Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, “The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a unique worldwide wave of antisemitism”, press release, 23 June 2020, p. 10. Community Security Trust, “Coronavirus and the plague of antisemitism”, p. 7. US Human Rights Network submission. Submission from the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, “COVID-19-related antisemitic incidents”. 20-11206