Anti-Semitism On The Rise In European Union

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Conflicts between Israel and Palestine have spurred hatred towards Jews in 19 countries of the European Union.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise throughout Europe because of events in the Middle East, especially because of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to a research of the Fundamental Rights Agency. The image of an anti-Semite as a “right wing skinhead” has also changed, information gathered in 19 European countries states, which also points to a rise of physical violence against Jews and the Jewish culture in the European Union.

Link between politics and attacks?

Austria, which has a right wing government, has seen twice the more offences in 2007 than in the previous two years, with tan increase of extreme right wing and xenophobic attacks. Still, a study was not conducted which would establish a link between anti-Semitism in politics and direct attacks on Jews.

In France, where such cases are carefully monitored, anti-Semitism has been constantly on the rise from 2002 until 2004, which is connected, according to researches, with the development of the conflict between Israel and Palestine territories.

The research was complicated with the fact that it was impossible to compare the countries amongst themselves, because individual EU members have different mechanisms for monitoring these offences and recording them.

Many countries lack official and unofficial figures on the number of attacks on Jews, or anti-Semitic acts in general. For instance, France and the Czech Republic have offices in interior ministries which monitor the attacks on certain ethnic or religious groups, while Belgium does not store information on such attacks. Denmark does not differentiate anti-Semitic attacks from others.