Europe-wide
New EU network aims to document anti-Semitism
A Star of David hangs on the wall. “You have to make anti-Semitism visible in order to be able to fight it,” says the European Commission’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Katharina von Schnurbein. photo
© David Inderlied/dpa
Anti-Semitic incidents in Germany have increased sharply, especially with the new Middle East war. The numbers are also increasing in other countries. A new initiative is intended to provide an overview.
“You have to make anti-Semitism visible in order to be able to fight it,” said the European Commission’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Katharina von Schnurbein. Obtaining an adequate picture of anti-Semitism in society is a prerequisite for adequately informing politicians and decision-makers. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 last year, a “tsunami of anti-Semitism” has been seen.
According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), anti-Semitic incidents are under-reported: eight out of ten people who experience anti-Semitism do not report it. It was too “inconvenient” to report this, said von Schnurbein. The Enma network, which brings together Jewish and non-Jewish civil society organizations from various European countries, aims to lower the threshold for reporting such incidents to the police.
The Federal Government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, explained that all anti-Semitic incidents could be reported in the most direct, quick and uncomplicated way. This information would then be collected, verified, analyzed and published. The data collected in this way paints a picture that more realistically reflects the reality of anti-Semitism in the countries.
The managing director of the Federal Association of the Rias Anti-Semitism Reporting Center, Benjamin Steinitz, spoke of a milestone in anti-Semitism research and prevention. “Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe, but too little is known about its transnational dimension,” he emphasized.
Anti-Semitic incidents in the US increased by 140 percent
According to the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the USA rose by 140 percent last year compared to the previous year. In total, there were 8,873 attacks, harassment and vandalism incidents – an average of 24 per day, the ADL announced at a press conference in New York. These include criminal and non-criminal acts.
The increase was at least partly due to the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel near the border with Gaza on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent response with massive air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, it said from the ADL.
The ADL, which was founded in 1913, says it collected the data based, among other things, on information from victims and law enforcement authorities.