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'Anti-Israel activists' crash online Holocaust survivor talk

April 21, 2020

The Holocaust memorial day event was being held on the video-conferencing platform Zoom because of the coronavirus. Activists barged in, posting pictures of Hitler and shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

https://p.dw.com/p/3bDje
Monitor showing an ongoing eurozone finance ministers' video conference call on Zoom software, from April 7, 2020.
Zoom has become a popular videoconferencing medium during the pandemic, even for eurozone finance ministers' meetings, as in this caseImage: picture-alliance/ANP

"Anti-Israel activists" disrupted an online discussion with holocaust survivor Zvi Herschel organized to mark Israel's Holocaust memorial day, said Israel's ambassador to Germany on Tuesday. The event was hosted on Monday on video-conferencing platform Zoom.

The activists posted pictures of Hitler and shouted anti-Semitic slogans, forcing it to be briefly suspended, tweeted Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff on Tuesday.

The event was advertised by the embassy on Facebook a few days in advance, a spokesperson told German news agency dpa. The post contained a link to the Zoom conversation and was open to anyone interested.

The event took place one day ahead of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"To dishonor the memory of the Holocaust and the dignity of the survivor is beyond shame and disgrace and shows the blatant anti-Semitic nature of the activists," Issacharoff added on Twitter.

The embassy is now considering filing charges against the individuals, the embassy spokesperson said.

'Zoombombing' and other security issues

The platform has seen an immense surge in usage amid various coronavirus lockdowns around the world, although several governments and organizations have banned or restricted use of the platform, citing security concerns — both in terms of Chinese espionage and unwanted visitors joining open conferences.

Tuesday's incident happened just days after Zoom announced new measures to tackle such issues of so-called "Zoombombing."

Last week, the company apologized for issues with the security of its online service. Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan said the company was taking steps to combat issues such as data hacking, routing information through China and Zoombombing.

Governments in Germany, Taiwan, the US and India have taken action to ban or restrict its use. Google has banned the use of the platform's desktop versions from company laptops.

Britain's Parliament has started using it to allow absent Members of Parliament to put questions to those still present in the House of Commons. Only 50 of roughly 650 MPs can currently be accommodated in the socially-distanced chamber, members are being advised to stay home and participate remotely.

kmm/msh (dpa)