Hate group called Goyim Defense League is blamed for flooding six states with thousands of anti-Semitic flyers that claim COVID response is masterminded by Jewish leaders including heads of CDC, Pfizer and BlackRock
Antisemitic, racist flyers found in states from California to Florida
By Adriana Diaz
Daily Mail
January 26, 2022
The Miami Beach Police collected 205 of these flyers throughout the area over the weekend
Thousands of anti-Semitic flyers falsely claiming that public health efforts to protect against COVID are being masterminded by a cabal of Jewish leaders were distributed to homes in six states last weekend.
Police officials have launched an investigation after the flyers were found in heavily populated Jewish areas of Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, California and Maryland.
The hateful campaign appears to have been carried out by members of the anti-Semitic group the Goyim Defense League - their logo and streaming site or listed on the flyers. ('Goyim' is a disparaging Yiddish and Hebrew word for non-Jews.)
'Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish,' the top line of the flyer reads, set between the Star of David and a Satanic pentagram.
The page goes on to list the names of top government health officials, pharmaceutical company leaders and heads of investment management companies with the word Jewish next to them.
'These flyers were distributed randomly and without malicious intent,' the fine print reads.
But local police officials, federal investigators and Jewish groups were not buying the disclaimer.
'There is no place for hate in our community and it will not be tolerated,' the Miami Beach Police tweeted when announcing the active investigation into the dissemination of these flyers.
MBPD announced that they collected 205 flyers and located the rental car which they believe to be connected to the case. The FBI has joined the open investigation.
The hate group took off in 2020 as
they began spewing false conspiracy theories vilifying the Jewish people
with anti-Semitic and anti-COVID narratives
I took my morning walk with my wife on Sunday morning, and they were everywhere,' Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN.
'For me, it's jolting because, look, I'm Jewish. ... The idea that there are people out there who just are willing to spout out hate simply because of who I am, is jolting to anybody.'
The list includes CDC director Rochelle Walensky, COVID, Pfizer boss Albert Bourla and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
It also labeled Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra as Jewish, though the son of Mexican immigrants is Roman Catholic. Perhaps the hate group got him confused with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose Jewish mother fled the Holocaust for Cuba.
In November, residents in Beverly Hills reported the flyers were left in driveways. And the same hate-filled missive was left in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Texas and Vermont, according to the Jewish News of Northern California.
The Goyim Defense League is a known anti-Semitic group which has been monitored by watchdogs such as StopAntisemitism since August 2020.
Their leader, Jon Minadeo II, 38, from the Bay Area, started leading anti-Semitic banner drops along highways in 2020. He then began GoyimTV, a video platform that streams anti-Semitic content, where he and others post hateful content.
GoyimTV has been banned from its two previous web hosting sites for hate speech but currently remains online through Cloudflare, StopAntisemitism reported.
'This man does a great job of skirting the legal line,' Liora Rez, Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, said of Minadeo in an interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
Minadeo claims protections under the First Amendment but Rez insists: 'There's an intent to imitate, to harass, to harm, whether they admit it or not.'
'This isn't just freedom of speech and assembly but premeditated harassment campaign aimed at Jews,' she told DailyMail.com.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Goyim Defense League for comment.
The Jewish Federation of Broward County in South Florida released a statement following the discovery of the flyers: 'Because Broward County is home to the third largest population of Holocaust Survivors in the world, we are acutely aware of what happens when hate is allowed to thrive unfettered and unchallenged. As a nation, we can do better and we will do better.'
Neighbors also spoke out about the hateful flyers. 'For hate to be distributed like that in our neighborhood, was just shocking, to say the least,' Joseph Waks told WFOR.
'We couldn't believe it, here (in) 2022, here in Surfside. This is absolutely hideous,' he said. 'We're used to hearing these types of stories back 50 years ago, back 60 years ago.'
The mayor of San Francisco also blasted the flyers, which were scattered throughout the Pacific Heights neighborhood over the weekend.
'These anti-Semitic acts and any scare tactics like them have no place in San Francisco,' Mayor London Breed tweeted Tuesday. 'We have a strong and proud Jewish community in this City, and we will continue to do everything we can to support all of our diverse communities when they are threatened like this.'
Pages vilifying Jews and connecting them to false COVID conspiracies have also been disseminated by the Goyim Defense League in Wisconsin and Maryland, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
'These flyers are an attempt to intimidate and harass Jewish communities around the United States,' the ADL tweeted on Tuesday.
The ADL defined the Goyim Defense League as 'a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent anti-Semitism...via the internet, through propaganda distributions and in street actions...to troll or otherwise harass Jews.'
But Rez pushed back on the claim that this is a 'loose network.'
'They're not loosely connected at all. They're a type of anti-Semitic fraternity led by Jon and his little minions follow him like soldiers.'
Since the Goyim Defense League first grabbed national attention in 2020, they have quickly expanded throughout the country with 'targeted' and 'premeditated' campaigns.
Minadeo often uses his platform to 'monetarily incentivize bigots to join them.' He has been known to offer monetary compensation to members who take part or grab media attention with their hateful campaigns.
Rez also claims that many Goyim Defense League members have violent and disturbing criminal histories. She provided the names of several members who her group monitors, including Jesse Shenk, Franklin Barrett Sechriest and Joseph Bounds.
Shenk, 31, was arrested in Del Norte County, California lat year for attempting to solicit children online with the intent to commit sexual acts. He and Minadeo have been photographed together on multiple occasions.
Sechriest, 18, was arrested for arson after the exterior of the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Austin was torched on Halloween. Authorities say Sechriest was found with a collection of stickers with Nazi propaganda and swastikas, as well as journals recording his hate for the Jewish community.
Bounds, 34, of Denver, was arrested in Miami last year after he refused to follow police commands during a traffic stop after he had been spotted vandalizing a white van with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs during a highway banner drop.
These men are just a few of the supposed thousands of members that have begun following the hate group since 2020.
The group has taken off in the midst of the pandemic but Rez believes the anti-Semitism goes beyond the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID.
'They capitalized on the popularity of the pandemic looking to vilify Jews and this is the best way to do it in their eyes,' she said.
2 comments:
Bigotry wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so fucking ignorant. You can find REAL things to dislike about Israeli government policies and maybe even the practice of Judaism if you want to. I have issues with monotheism in general myself. But that is based something REAL, not semi-literate horseshit.
WTH! This is open harassment of a protected class of people. Religion is a protected class since 1964.
I rent cars several times a year. Was rental car agency complicit with this act?
Post a Comment