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A VAN WHICH caught fire and ploughed into pedestrians on a crowded pavement outside a Starbucks in central Shanghai has injured at least 18 people, three of them seriously, according to authorities and witnesses.
The incident occurred at People’s Park in the heart of the city during morning rush hour, when crowds of people would have been on their way to work.
A Shanghai police statement said a preliminary investigation indicated that the driver of the van, a 40-year-old man who was among the injured, had been smoking at the wheel which apparently ignited “dangerous substances” inside the vehicle.
Zhang Sai, a security guard at an adjacent building, told AFP the van was on fire when it veered out of control and mounted the curb, striking pedestrians and sending others scurrying to get out of the way.
The incident happened around 12:50 am Irish time. “The van was on fire before it crashed on the sidewalk,” Zhang said.
Xu Xin, a 23-year-old restaurant employee, came upon the immediate aftermath during his morning jog to find injured people on the ground and bystanders calling emergency services.
Portable gas tanks that are often used to fuel stoves were inside the vehicle, he said.
“The fire department carried gas tanks from the van, like those used in restaurants,” Xu said.
The driver seemed unconscious while two other people in the van were badly burned, he added.
Ablaze
AFP journalists who arrived at the site found it had been quickly cleared by authorities.
A small police presence remained on hand standing watch. Damage to the fencing outside the Starbucks could be seen, but otherwise there was little evidence of an accident.
However, amateur video clips shot earlier and which circulated on Chinese social media showed several people sprawled on the pavement receiving medical treatment from fire and rescue personnel.
Other images showed a fire ablaze inside the van, which had come to a stop in front of a tree near the entrance to the Starbucks.
The coffee shop was locked up and a notice was taped to the door saying it had been closed, advising customers to go to other nearby outlets.
In 2013, two tourists were killed when a car rammed into bystanders on Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Square before bursting into flames.
Three attackers also died in the incident, which Beijing blamed on separatists from the restive western region of Xinjiang.
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If Israel had no association with Jews this whole thing would be much easier to discuss.
Condemning and hating Israeli policies is NOT antisemitism and it really pisses me off when Jews put the two together.
Israel is not even mentioned above. There is anti semitism in Europe.
I totally agree. Israel is a difficult problem to solve… And a country with a religious symbol on its flag just can be a problem…
There’s anti everything ever where. Due to the fact us humans have opinions. We also have the intelligence to separate being anti Israeli policy and anti semitism
@ Adrian De Cleir
Such a shockingly ignorant comment. And you got 140+ likes.This whole article had nothing to do with Israel but you associate it withe every Jew in the world. F*ckin. Ignorant. And i include the people who green thumbed.
Nail in the heae Adrian. The Israeli authorities are the ones using ‘human shields’. The shield being the Jewish entity
@ Hevin Bear Kiggins
Thank you. You did it better than i tried.
Charles read what he said above again. He is trying to separate religion from state not stick them together
Switzerland ?
The point I’m making is he brought Israel into a speech that seemed to comment on the persecution of Jews long before the modern state o Israel existed. WE associate Israel with modern Jews around the world even if they have little to no support of its actions.
It is this idea of ignorantly including all of them breeds a pretentious ideology against anyone of that particular belief system.
Charles, not to be nit picking here, but the article references an Israeli newspaper.
Anyway that’s neither here nor there, I see your point , you think Im insighting an anger towards Jews by bringing up Israel.
FWIW, I don’t expect Jews to apologize for Israeli actions, just like I don’t expect Muslims to apologize for terrorism. But its naive to think that the issue of Isreal and the quite common claims of anti semitism have nothing to do with this article.
All the green thumbs on the top comment prove the majority of Irish Journal readers are anti-Semitic. Any story involving Israel on here quickly becomes a discussion about Jews. Don’t deny it because it’s true.
Probably because Israel is a Jewish State
@ Charles Forgarty
Spielberg’s quote did not specify whether he was talking about Israel, Europe etc. So the context is not exactly clear, which it needs to be when talking about an obviously important issue. The other source quoted is unrelated to Spielberg’s speech, adding to the confusion even more. So the OPs original point was valid.
@ Adrian De Cleir
I appreciate the response and the understanding that my reaction was a little knee-jerk. I don’t have a horse in the race so to speak but it has become all too common for some to attribute unnecessary harm on Jews (or believers of any faith) to those who lay claim to the most “righteous” element of their doctrine.
It would seem from recent reports that there is a rise in anti Semitic ( they all are right ‘)) attacks that the actions of Israel, a state whose polices i have no support for, play a big part in. I just feel there is an insidious element to it and that it will become far worse in time.
@Ugly Truth. Oh so you disagree with Adrien De Cleirs comment too
Alexoz. ……. you are right about the religious symbols, many Muslem countries have the cresent moon on their flags, something to do with Allah being a lunar God (Ramadan is also a lunar feast)
@ Adrian de C. Let me quote Jordanian Palestinian politician Mudar ZahraN;”You guys-Western Press- are not interested in the welfare of Palestinians! You only want to vilify Israel and the Jews”.
And who weeps for these Palestinian children smothered to death building Hamas’s terror tunnels while the Hamas leadership lived it up in Qatar!
” At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels(to 2012), according to Hamas officials” (emphasis added).
“( An estimated another 40+ children to 2014)”
Though some children likely worked voluntarily, the fact that there were public complaints about child deaths, to which Hamas felt compelled to respond at least superficially, is evidence of some amount of coercion. The number of deaths since 2012 has yet to be reported, but almost certainly exceeds the number Pelham reported.
To sum up: Hamas is not only using child labor, but likely child slavery, in building its terror tunnel network. While the world worries obsessively over the child casualties of Israeli attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza, it has ignored Hamas’s deliberate killing of hundreds of Palestinian children, over the objections of the local populace.
See full Article.http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2014/07/27/report-hamas-used-child-labor-to-build-tunnels-hundreds-died/
I’m all for a Palestinian Holocaust Museum in Israel
Religious symbols on flags?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Flag
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Turkey
I guess it’s a matter of perspective and culture and how they influence political opinion.
there is elements of anti everything in europe,but what adrian said is bang on.if you are critical of israel you are an automatic anti semite
Would be a low-key museum Tom since Palestinian population, health and life expectancy have all rocketed since 1967!
What happened in Paris wasn’t specifically an attack on Jews. Shouldn’t be using the tragedy to further their own cause!
I’m not anti Smithicks , I just prefer Guinness !
Except the kidnapping and murder of Jews in a kosher shop you’re right.
A minority psychotic anti-Jewish Frenchman attacking an unprotected Jewish shop does not make Europe anti-Semitic. Most of the victims of the attacks were satirists, but there is not a “demon of anti-satirism” in Europe.
I think the demon is called “Chip” and he is sitting on some people shoulder whispering in their ears that they should be afraid – almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy if you think about it …..
Andrew Haire – Take a bow ..
have several in fact !
What about that other muslim killer who murdered three Jewish kids, one rabbi and three soldiers in France 2012?
@david: ‘further their own cause’ are u actually for real saying something like that.. Shame on u mate, ur a disgrace
Yes Jason I am for real. Most of the people who were slaughtered were not Jewish. So to push the agenda of anti semitism while using the deaths of others is wrong!
@Jamie, What about the Muslim who saved 7 Jewish people in the Kosher store? Even Netanyahu acknowledged him.
That’s irrelevant to the point I was trying to make yippydee. Just read few of your posts, you are anti-Israel so your opinions are one sided.
Just because attitudes are shifting from the apartheid state to the Palestinian side doesn’t make Europe anti-semitic. It’s not a religious issue, it’s a moral one. Either that or I’m missing all this Jew bashing going on round Europe, is there any evidence of this? Even the far right idiots are focusing more on Arabs than Jews.
There are some people (I stress SOME) who like to conflate z10nism with Judaism. And they hate Jews anyway, so the actions of Israel give them excuse to keep on hating all Jews, no matter how illogical that is.
Sadly, when people are labelled anti semetic for criticising Israel, it only serves to bolster these people’s illogical hatred. This as you point out is a problem, because no state should be above criticism.
In fairness, the far left are far more idiotic than the far right.
Connall, dead Jews in Paris, Toulouse and Belgium says differently.
Shanti, you have a knack of putting your finger right on the essential truth.
All Russians are not Putin.
All Germans are not Hitler.
All British are not Margaret Thatcher.
All Irish are not terrorist killers.
The State and the people of a nation are not the same.
No they don’t , they’re dead!
@ Conall Mac Loingsigh
There is plenty of evidence. Google. Also plenty (i think 20ish in 2 days) retribution on muslims or mosques. There is plenty of newsworthy incidents that happen in mainland Europe that can only be described as zealotry and should be considered worrying.
Question -
Did more Jews die in terrorist attacks last year in Europe than were killed as a result of Gangland violence in Ireland last year …
Anti-Semitism is not a problem in Ireland for one simple reason there are very very few Jews – The cork population has shrunk to a handful ….
I like the Jews they came up with “Thou shalt not kill !”
Just out of interest, there have been 300 attacks on orange halls since 2009. As Kevin said above, there will always be people anti- something, and there will always be a small number of idiots who will be violent against that. It is up to us to recognise it as a small group that have to be dealt with, instead of making it a bigger ‘us v them’ issue, like Mr. Spielberg is doing with his movement.
Great point Alen8
no they didn’t ,
look up the 42 Egyptian commandments , long before the lads that decided to leave narrowed it down to 10
Padraig – Some suggest they originates even earlier in Summeria – but it was the Jewish faith that I heard it from so once again – Thanks Jewish Faith !
for as long as it takes any religious belief system to tell us right from wrong there will always be trouble in this world ,
if we don’t have these simple moral’s in the first place to live by , we may as well stay hating each-other
alas ,some of us need these excuses to justify conflict towards others ,some of us certainly have a long way to go yet when we use god as an excuse to keep wiping each-other out !
Jews aren’t the only minority afraid to send their kids to school, what about travellers? Going by attendance records they seem positively terrified of schools!
I think I’ll put the kettle on.This should be interesting.
Here, move over on that seat. This could be good.
I’ll get the popcorn !
Bring condoms too.
Yeah, the majority of Journal readers really hate the Jews. You would think the Jews done something to them.
You just did…….oiiii!!
Here’s a “demon for you”; in 2014 Israel was doing to Palestinians what the Nazis were doing to the Lodz Jews in 1943.
What’s that got to do with Jews in Europe?
Justify and explain that statement stephen. Liar.
@stephen lane et al..If your saying Israel is guilty of some crime you must show “INTENT”. Where is it?
But for the Hamas’s Palestinian Islamo-Fascists there is lots OF evidence of “INTENT” See below.
HAMAS CHARTER 1988/PREAMBLE PAGE 1
On the Destruction of Israel:
‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.’ (Preamble)
“The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August
18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS,
is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the
territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive
manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the
basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad
(Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS
Covenant:. —-Read All http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
“We’ll begin Saturday(with The Jews) and finish the job on Sunday(The Christians).- Well-known Islamo-Arab saying”
Ban Ki Moon described the attcks on schools in Gaza as War Crimes – just saying !
@patrickOConnor, Israel were forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land a long time before Hamas were formed. Turn down the sound on the rhetoric and take a look at the map to see exactly who is wiping who off of it. Actions are speaking a lot louder than words in this instance.
Achtung Indy……..Lucas and Spielberg will want you to digitally squeal like a piggy for another re-relesase!!
Stephen Lane what nonsense! You are in dire need of a basic history lesson!
What about we lobby to have the Irish famine taught in all schools, some say lack of British intervention was tantamount to genocide, or what about lobbying to have the Rwanda massacre of the Tutsis thought in school, one of the most brutal slaughters of our time, 1 million men, women and children were hacked to death with machetes by their country men in a matter of weeks while the international community did nothing!
Do Jews have a monopoly on suffering, I’m all in favor of remembering all atrocities that have occurred through the ages
Agree, Jon Snow …, we should also remember Holodomor , when over 20 million people including 6 million Christians were starved to death at the hands of Jews such as Genrikh Yagoda, interesting article here written by a Jewish journalist although it really glazes over the fact that communism too is Jewish to its core from its inception http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html
We should also remember the red wedding and the Rains of Castamere.
ugly truth. Yagoda was Russian. All the mass murderers of the past had a religion. Will we all start hating every religion then?
Hitler was Austrian , what’s your point ?
Going by your posts you seem to have a deep hatred of Jewish people. That’s my point..
Not a crime in Ireland yet , shade.
Brainwash programmes
Could it something that they do that causes people to dislike them?
Go on, enlighten us.
Gary Gary you are an expert in anti-semitism.
Maybe like continually stealing land or dropping phosphorus bombs on babies or forging passports or slaughtering refugees in UN camps or pirating ships in international waters or assassinating people in soverign countries or building illegal walls or subjecting displaced refugees to illegal siege or knocking peoples houses down or illegal collective punishments or ……????
Der Juden deserve everything they get Paul eh. It’s all their fault. Here was me thinking anti semitism existed before Israel.
My teenage son asked me today why nobody lines the Jews?
Why have people always persecuted them? Or expelled theh from their country?
That’s one I can’t find an answer for ?
70 odd times/countries in 2000 years. Yes its a question that has been asked throughout the ages.
In a fantasy novel called the bible written by a Roman emperor called Constantine.. He claimed Jews killed God and ppl seem to believe him
Martin Luther of Germany wrote a book about it
@captain Ireland. Constantine claimed no such thing. I swear to god, journal comments are where facts go to die.
Once upon a time, a pope decreed (I forget which one) that the Jewish race should carry the guilt and the sin and the responsibility for killing Jesus. They as a race and as individuals were ostracised as a result and were banned from working in most professions. The anti semitism that Europe and now the world has witnessed through the ages is a direct result of this papal bull…
Traditionally Jewish people kept themselves to themselves, for a long time they did not accept converts from other religions, so they were seen as “elitist”. They had their own language, their own system of law, and quite a different culture.
People fear that which they don’t understand. And when you have a group of people who as a minority, seem to be happy to self segregate – the more insecure or possibly less rational people are going to make assumptions and allow their imaginations run wild. And they’re not inclined to wish to see the best in these people who do not share their culture.
Jews have been hated throughout history because of ignorance and suspicion – and sadly these days there are people in the Israeli government who merely hand ammunition to those who would merrily tar the entire religion with the same brush.
Also, this tenet of Catholicism i.e. the collective responsibility of the Jews for the killing of Jesus, was only rescinded in the mid twentieth century.
With the exception of the English “blood libel” scare mongering responsible for that massacre, the majority of expulsions of Jewish people as a group has been tied to finance and power, rather than any religious reasons. Religiously, there has always been a tolerance, even from the moors in Spain – the expulsion came afterward. The holocaust was due to manipulated association of control of the German reparation to a small number of Jewish financiers, with Jewish people as a whole. This was manipulated by the Reich as a nationalist cause. A similar thing is happening with Israel, where they are trying to associate an abomination (the holocaust) with nationalism (the z word).
And even in 90% catholic, pro-Palestinian, Ireland, there has never been any issue of fear for Jewish children going to school (there has only ever been one Jewish school in Ireland), bit there will be if people make a problem where there isn’t currently one.
Martin Luther just wrote about the corruption of the church .. How dare he .. Heresy!!
Try some of these – continually stealing land or dropping phosphorus bombs on babies or forging passports or slaughtering refugees in UN camps or pirating ships in international waters or assassinating people in soverign countries or building illegal walls or subjecting displaced refugees to illegal siege or knocking peoples houses down or illegal collective punishments or ……????
Paul, you have just listed valid criticism of the state of Israel. The question was about Jews, while Israel is a Jewish state, not all Jews live there, nor do all Jews support the behaviour of the Israeli government. Conflation of the two is completely irrational.
@ Paul……so the hatred of the Jews began only when what you described occurred.
An interesting angle on 2000 years of history!
Thank you for the usual old cobblers!
I just see religions claiming to be the chosen people, it puts peoples’ back up.
It just means they are saying I am chosen and you are not. You are outside, other, not welcome, not right, not one of us etc..
There are many religions and there are many that believe in other things. Does it matter? Why cannot we live in peace, side by side, enjoy our differences, stop all these insults and this violence for those are the things I am against. I don’t care what anyone calls themselves just be a good person, look around, help others, and if we cannot be pleasant then be quiet. Do some thinking.
I know nothing about the Jewish faith nor the Muslim, nor many others and I feel quite happy to be having religious education and not religious indoctrination in schools and in the media.
Look at murder, wars, centuries of blood and chaos, and we are still not sophisticated enough to just talk, agree or agree to disagree.
More victimhood nonsense
Paul, the holocaust and the many pogroms against Jews are historical facts and anti-semitism is a real threat, not the only threat, but a very real threat.
Anthony – if they keep highlighting it is bound to be isn’t it ?
Besides isn’t fear of the rise of Anti-Semitism not a fear of the rise of right wing fascism – Troika turned Cyprus into a Gaza-like economic concentration camp- max daily withdrawl limits – where is European property law there ?
It yours but you can only spend it as and how foreigners decide .
I think when one looks at the films taken during the Holocaust and sees the innocent children who were killed because of the religion that they were born into, we have to ask ourselves.
Do we want to see this happen in Europe again?
Will we stand idly by like we did in 39-45?
These horrors happened within a lot of peoples lifetime despite some of the revisionist historians. It is heartening to listen to some of the few remaining WW II veterans who are in no doubt about the evil of anti-Semitism, racism and Nazi inspired ideology.
Anti-Semitism is alive and well in all parts of Europe and we must remain vigilant in our opposition to it!
Many more religions other than the Jews were persecuted in concentration camps …Strange how modern Jews don’t mention this – not a very inclusive people it would seem .
That’s all I’d like to say about that …
Jews formed the overwhelming majority of the victims of the Nazis.
Am I correct in saying that the Jewish religion supports genital mutilation of its young men ?
Could this be a deep psychological scar that no young teenager should go through ?
Not criticising merely observational/rhetorical questions……
Know damn all about it so teenager may be the wrong term but ye get what I am asking …
Not that it has anything to do with the article but Jewish boys are circumcised when they are 8 days old. For info, 99% of all baby boys born in the US are circumcised.
Thanks for the clarification Jenni – I did say that I was not sure …..
Was there ever a time years ago when it was a ceremony for older boys …… that is something that we have picked up from Hollywood here in Ireland – so please forgive the ignorance ! No insult meant as such …..
I was watching a programme about religion in Africa – An ancient religion where it was thought that young children – 2 or 3 years old would be brought to a woman witchdoctor and she performed ceremonies that were designed to remove the demon – “Kontiki (or some such description) – I won’t go into details but it seems to me that the “cure” was more likely to cause the disease .
Again – No offence – my Mom worked for a Jewish Family years ago in England and said that they were lovely people and that’s good enough for me .
I try to understand people’s religions and assess them individually on their actions – regardless of religion…
Our Catholic religion is very concentrated on child protection ( in theory) – but then again given its similarities to Zororastrianism then that is not that surprising then is it ?
$
Spielberg is full of shit.
“The most combative way to fight hate is to…..” I think he’s right. Could we also build a visual archive for the war crimes committed against Palestinians in recent years? I’m sure Hollywood would contribute generously to the building of it.
@Vincentom And send all Israeli-Bashers a copy of “The Hamas Charter” showing the Islamo-Fascist intent to Genocide the Jews.
Preamble
” Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
Article 7:”The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
Article 8: The Slogan of the Islamic Resistance Movement:
“Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.”
Remainder of this pure hate if you can stand it! http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
My suggestion is that if the “most combative way to fight hate is to remember…” as Spielberg says, and if building visual archives helps to remember.. then we could also fight the hate against Palestinians (men, women, and children) by building a visual archive of war crimes committed against them in recent years. Not sure what your point in response to my post is about.
This very like the term “KN acker” in Ireland ..
the travellers went around the place saying that everyone was calling them that and that it had to stop…
what they didn’t realise is that it was used for an awful lot more people than the travellers – they just took ownership of the victimisation ..and milked it for all it was worth !
“That’s discrimination boss ” – and the eyes glintin’ .cute as foxes in the middle of a four month freeze !
Wasn’t it Jesus who told us to beware of the false ones who pretend to be jews but are not jews
Them would be the Hittites – disappeared of the archaeological record around the time of Moses …. I kid you not !
I strongly suspect that Albert Reynolds was of such a line !
From what I can see the only people engaged in violence against Jews are Islamists. Its misleading how the US media in particular refers to it as if its a return ti the 1930s. The reality is that we are all targets of Islamic terrorists. Look at 911 for evidence. Jews in Ireland are perfectly safe, but Israel needs to frighten Jews to increase the settler population colonising the West Bank.
To accept that there is anti-semitism is not to dent that there are other hat reds, even between Muslim sects but we are seeing a rise of anti-Semitic incidents.
And what are now the limits of free speech in France?
Prime Minister Manuel Vals lists four. “There is a fundamental difference between the freedom to be impertinent and anti-Semitism, racism, glorification of terrorist acts, and Holocaust denial, all of which are crimes, that justice should punish with the most severity.”
Vals’ list brings to mind another quote of Voltaire’s, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
Why did Vals not include slanders against Catholicism and Islam, the world’s largest religions, both of which have been repeatedly insulted by Charlie Hebdo? In the banlieues north of Paris, they wish to know.
It is not their fault but Bibi’s after the slaughter on Palestine especially on the children.
Bibi looks like he is on the verge of a heart attack now?
Israel acts the goat and quelle surprise we get the holocaust rammed into our faces. Jews are the ruling elite in America and their still playing the victim card to deflect and demonise anyone who speaks ill of their motherland
have your say