Jew Watch
Encyclopedia
Jew Watch is an antisemitic website that promotes Holocaust denial
, and makes many negative claims about Jews
, which include allegations of a conspiracy that Jews control the media and banking industries, and accusations of Jewish involvement in terrorist groups. The site contains a large amount of propaganda, according to Sam Varghese of The Age
, similar to that used in Nazi Germany
. It is widely considered a hate site. Jew Watch has received support from Stormfront
, a neo-Nazi site. The site describes itself as a "not-for-profit library for private study, scholarship, or research (that keeps) a close watch on Jewish Communities and organizations worldwide".
The site received media attention in April 2004 when it emerged as the first result in a Google
search
for the word "Jew". A petition was started to get the site removed from Google search results. A scandal in 2006 involved solicitations for donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina
being redirected to Jew Watch.
organization.
, organized in the form of a Web directory. The material is organized under topic headings such as Jewish Controlled Press, Jewish Entertainment, Jewish Banking & Financial Manipulations, Jewish-Zionist-Soviet Anti-American Spies, Jewish Communist Rulers & Killers, Jewish Terrorists, Zionist Occupied Governments, Jewish Communists
, Jewish Atrocities, and so on.
Jew Watch claims that Jews control the world's financial systems and media. It also claims that the "All Anti-Christian Jewish Red Commissars" killed 100 million Christians in Russia from 1917-1945 under the orders of "Trotsky
, the Jewish Commissar of Commissars
". It also makes the suggestion that global Jewry is the driving force behind both global capitalism
and communism
. The site links to others which speculate that Jews have committed or are planning genocide
against the Palestinian people
; the site also promotes Holocaust denial
, maintaining that the Holocaust
either never happened or was greatly exaggerated.
. In May 2004, Steven Weinstock launched an online petition to remove Jew Watch from Google. "When performing a search for the word 'Jew' on Google, the first Web site listed is JewWatch.com, a site that has been notorious for being anti-Semitic," Weinstock wrote in a widely disseminated e-mail. He set up an online petition site called RemoveJewWatch.com. Within a few days 2,000 signatures had been added to the list. By mid-2004 the site had collected over 125,000 signatures. RemoveJewWatch.com went offline, but a preserved version remains.
In response to complaints, including one from the Anti-Defamation League
, Google added an explanation to searches for the site. They said their results are automatically ranked by computer algorithms, and that they do not approve of any of the results.
In December 2004, OSCE
's Sandy Starr addressed the issues of freedom of speech
:
Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui wrote in 2008 that the Wikipedia
page on Jews had become the number one result for the search word "Jew". Jew Watch's position continues to fluctuate in search results: during early 2009, the site dropped below the top 50 positions for the search term "Jew" on Google.
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
, and makes many negative claims about Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, which include allegations of a conspiracy that Jews control the media and banking industries, and accusations of Jewish involvement in terrorist groups. The site contains a large amount of propaganda, according to Sam Varghese of The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, similar to that used in Nazi Germany
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
. It is widely considered a hate site. Jew Watch has received support from Stormfront
Stormfront (website)
Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist neo-Nazi Internet forum that has been described as the Internet's first major hate site.Stormfront began as an online bulletin board system in the early 1990s before being established as a website in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader and white...
, a neo-Nazi site. The site describes itself as a "not-for-profit library for private study, scholarship, or research (that keeps) a close watch on Jewish Communities and organizations worldwide".
The site received media attention in April 2004 when it emerged as the first result in a Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
search
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
for the word "Jew". A petition was started to get the site removed from Google search results. A scandal in 2006 involved solicitations for donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
being redirected to Jew Watch.
Ownership
Established in 1998, the website was formerly owned and maintained by Frank Weltner, a member of the National Alliance, a white nationalistWhite nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
organization.
Themes
Jew Watch features an archive of writings, articles, videos, and linksHyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
, organized in the form of a Web directory. The material is organized under topic headings such as Jewish Controlled Press, Jewish Entertainment, Jewish Banking & Financial Manipulations, Jewish-Zionist-Soviet Anti-American Spies, Jewish Communist Rulers & Killers, Jewish Terrorists, Zionist Occupied Governments, Jewish Communists
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...
, Jewish Atrocities, and so on.
Jew Watch claims that Jews control the world's financial systems and media. It also claims that the "All Anti-Christian Jewish Red Commissars" killed 100 million Christians in Russia from 1917-1945 under the orders of "Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, the Jewish Commissar of Commissars
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
". It also makes the suggestion that global Jewry is the driving force behind both global capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. The site links to others which speculate that Jews have committed or are planning genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against the Palestinian people
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
; the site also promotes Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
, maintaining that the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
either never happened or was greatly exaggerated.
Google controversy
The increasing publicity has resulted in many news sources, weblogs, and general information sites to link to Jew Watch, and thus created a Google bombGoogle bomb
The terms Google bomb and Googlewashing refer to practices, such as creating large numbers of links, that cause a web page to have a high ranking for searches on unrelated or off topic keyword phrases, often for comical or satirical purposes...
. In May 2004, Steven Weinstock launched an online petition to remove Jew Watch from Google. "When performing a search for the word 'Jew' on Google, the first Web site listed is JewWatch.com, a site that has been notorious for being anti-Semitic," Weinstock wrote in a widely disseminated e-mail. He set up an online petition site called RemoveJewWatch.com. Within a few days 2,000 signatures had been added to the list. By mid-2004 the site had collected over 125,000 signatures. RemoveJewWatch.com went offline, but a preserved version remains.
In response to complaints, including one from the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
, Google added an explanation to searches for the site. They said their results are automatically ranked by computer algorithms, and that they do not approve of any of the results.
In December 2004, OSCE
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
's Sandy Starr addressed the issues of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
:
When it transpired that the anti-Semitic website Jew Watch ranked highest in the search engine Google’s results for the search term “Jew”, a Remove Jew Watch campaign was established, to demand that Google remove the offending website from its listings. Fortunately for the principle of free speech, Google did not capitulate to this particular demand... Forced to act on its own initiative, Remove Jew Watch successfully used Googlebombing... Better still would have been either a proper contest of ideas between Jew Watch and Remove Jew Watch, or alternatively a decision that Jew Watch was beneath contempt and should simply be ignored. Not every crank and extremist warrants attention, even if they do occasionally manage to spoof search engine rankings.
Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui wrote in 2008 that the Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
page on Jews had become the number one result for the search word "Jew". Jew Watch's position continues to fluctuate in search results: during early 2009, the site dropped below the top 50 positions for the search term "Jew" on Google.
Hurricane Katrina controversy
St. Louis City Circuit Judge Julian L. Bush permanently barred Frank Weltner and his site InternetDonation.org from soliciting funds in Missouri for charitable purposes after it was revealed by State Attorney General Jay Nixon that Frank Weltner had set up multiple websites soliciting funds for Katrina victims and then redirected those wishing to donate to his site that collected money for Jew Watch. A press release from the Attorney General said: "Anyone who takes advantage of the generosity and compassion of his fellow citizens in an attempt to fund his hate-filled Web site should never again be in the position to solicit charitable funds from well-meaning Missourians".Further reading
- Finkelstein, Seth. "'Jew Watch', Google, and Evil", sethf.com, 30 March 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
- Kopytoff, Verne. "Google revisits policy on hate sites / Search engine to reconsider labeling in response to Jewish group upset by anti-Semitic content", San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, 23 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010. - Bar-Ilan, Judit. "Web links and search engine ranking: The case of Google and the query "jew"", Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 12: 1581–1589, October 2006.
- Romirowsky, Asaf. "Anti-Semitism Hits Home via Google", Jewish Exponent, 25 October 2007, accessed 23 November 2010.
- Finkelstein, Seth. "Jew Watch, Google, and Search Engine Optimization", sethf.com, accessed 23 November 2010.