ByNathan Jeffay, Nathan Jeffay
As musicians fight to top the Christmas charts, a Jewish organisation has published an altogether less flattering top ten - the worst antisemitic slurs of 2010. Those honoured include the Independent columnist Christina Patterson, who penned a diatribe against London's Charedim in July.
"It's the first time we have compiled such a chart and there's a single reason," said Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the US-headquartered Simon Wiesenthal Centre. "The quotes featured are not from marginal figures but people who are in positions of authority, and illustrate that we're no longer facing just Iran and Hizbollah, but antisemitism in the mainstream is on the rise." It is becoming a characteristic of "what used to be called polite society", he said.
Topping the chart is the prominent American journalist Helen Thomas, who said in May that "Jews should get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else".
Coming in at second place is film director Oliver Stone, who said in July that Russians suffered more damage than Jews at the hands of the Nazis but Jewish "domination" of the media has made the Holocaust high-profile.
Up third is former Malaysian Premier Mahatir Mohammad who opined in January that, after the Holocaust, Jews "survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world". And Al-Mutawakil Taha, the deputy minister of Information for the Palestinian Authority, who wrote last month's "report" denying that the Western Wall is a Jewish site, came in fourth.