World
Europe On Fire
New report on rampant anti-Semitism in Western Europe
chides governments.
Dinah A. Spritzer
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Prague
A
young French Jew is kidnapped,
tortured and left to die by a
band of Muslims.
An arson May 24 badly damages
Geneva's largest synagogue.
A 13-year-old girl on a London bus is
robbed and kicked unconscious after her
attackers ask if she is "Jewish or English!'
Anti-Semitism in Western Europe
apparently is out of control.
That is the consensus of a dizzying
array of recent reports, the latest released
last week at a conference combating dis-
crimination. Representatives of dozens of
European governments attended the June
7-9 meeting in Bucharest, Romania, a fol-
low-up to a 2005 conference of the OSCE
conference on anti-Semitism in Spain.
The 2007 Hate Crimes Survey by the
U.S.-based Human Rights First organiza-
tion goes beyond the data to suggest that
most European governments are woefully
inept at measuring and prosecuting hate
crimes.
Human Rights First says the survey is
the first by a U.S. non-governmental orga-
nization to examine racist, xenophobic,
homophobic and anti-religious crimes in
Europe. It also is the only one to raise the
specter of a Europe teetering on the verge
of a Hitler-era epidemic of racist hatred.
"As it did in the 1930s, the reactivation
of ancient prejudices and the transforma-
tion of new hatreds into deadly violence
have been largely overlooked outside the
Jewish community,' the report concludes.
Many Jews say anti-Semitism is dis-
guised as criticism of Israel throughout
Western Europe. The latest examples
come from Britain: the proposed boycott
of Israeli academics, which the largest
British teachers union voted last month
to disseminate to its membership for a
final decision, and the country's largest
trade union deciding to consider a boycott
motion on Israel.
Reports issued since Israel's war in
Lebanon last summer and widely cov-
22
anti-Semitic incidents
since it began monitoring
in 1984, with a 60 percent
journalists arrested in IRAN
increase in the second half
of 2006, after the Lebanon
War. There were 594 anti-
activists detained &
Semitic incidents in Britain
tortured in ZIMBABWE
in 2006, up 31 percent from
2005.
murdered in DARFUR
Explaining at least one
cause of the jump, CST
spokesman Mark Gardner
complained of the media's
But BRITISH UNIONS
ongoing portrayal of Israel
in
a negative light. "If peo-
have singled out
ple think Israel is a mad,
bloodthirsty, apartheid
ISRAEL for BOYCOTT.
state, they will think those
who
support Israel should
That's ANTI-SEMITISM,
be socially isolated, boy-
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and then',' Gardner said.
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• In France, the Jewish
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organization
CRIF recorded
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a 6 percent rise in anti-
Jewish incidents in general,
Spc-.1 up at: WWW 4(11.ovyboycott
to 371 from 350, and a 37
percent increase in violent
incidents, to 99 from 72.
An ADL advertisement slams a proposed British
Perhaps no attack was
boycott of Israel.
more representative of the
trend toward anti-Semitic violence in
ered in the international media showed a
marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents, Europe than the January 2006 torture and
murder of Ilan Halimi, a Jewish student
rhetoric and attitudes in the 27-member
in Paris, by a gang dominated by African
European Union.
Muslims. The gang leader was quoted in
In an Anti-Defamation League sur-
vey on European attitudes toward Jews
the French press as having singled out
Halimi because he thought Jews have
released in early May, 51 percent of
money.
respondents in five countries said Jews
are more loyal to Israel than to their
• In Germany, the government recorded
1,024 anti-Semitic acts, a 21 percent
home country and 52 percent said Israel's
increase from the previous year.
actions have lowered their views of Jews.
For Ilan Moss, this trend was illustrated
The German media has been full of
reports about how Jews for the first time
best when someone anonymously lami-
in decades will not wear yarmulkes in
nated a Guardian newspaper photo of vic-
tims from the Israeli airstrike in Qana that public for fear of their safety. A 16-year-
old in the former East German state of
killed 28, including 16 children, and taped
Saxony Anhalt, who raised his voiced
it to the front of a London synagogue.
against racism in October, was forced by
"The message was clear: You Jews are
classmates to wear a sign that read, "I'm
responsible for this massacre Moss said.
the nastiest swine in town; with the Jews I
• In Britain, the Community Security
always hang around."
Trust reported the highest number of
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• In Denmark, the Jewish community
said there were as many anti-Semitic
incidents in the first half of 2006 as in all
of 2005, with most aimed at Jews on their
way to or from synagogue or a Jewish
school.
Putting all of the country reports
together in April, Tel Aviv University
reported that of the 590 cases of anti-
Semitic violence reported worldwide
in 2006, 324 were recorded in Western
Europe.
The report attributed the high numbers
to the war in Lebanon. But Gardner said,
"It's also 9-11 and Afghanistan and the
invasion of Iraq. There is a larger anti-
Semitic mythology at play here he said.
"When you preach hatred about Zionists
and Israel, that hatred has an impact on
those who are visually Jewish, or Jewish
cemeteries or synagogues?'
Gidon Van Emden, policy officer for a
Brussels-based coexistence group, said,
"There is a dire need for serious monitor-
ing, Europe-wide, for all forms of hate
crimes. In some countries it's good, in
some it's bad and in some there is nothing
in place
According to the Tel Aviv University
report, "The proportion of Muslims
among the attackers" in anti-Semitic
assaults documented in 2006 "is far higher
than their share in the population at large."
Some 20 million Muslims live in Europe,
and their numbers are growing much
faster than the non-Muslim population.
While the majority of anti-Semitic
incidents in the United Kingdom last
year were committed by non-Muslims,
Muslims were disproportionately repre-
sented as perpetrators.
Human Rights First offered a 10-point
plan to combat crimes motivated by
anti-Semitism, racism, Islamaphobia and
homophobia.
The group urged government leaders
to publicly acknowledge and condemn
hate crimes, enact specific laws enhancing
penalties for such crimes, strengthen pros-
ecution of offenders, improve monitoring,
ensure adequate resources to deal with
trigger events and create specific anti-dis-
crimination bodies.