The influx of refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries into Europe has caused a spike in anti-Semitic backlash against Israel, a Diaspora Affairs Ministry report on global anti-Semitism stated Sunday.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett presented the report's findings at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning. The ministry regularly compiles a report on worldwide anti-Semitism ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be marked on Saturday.
The report pointed to Muslim immigrants to Europe as "a major risk factor to the Jewish communities of western Europe," saying that over half of all immigrants in western Europe hold anti-Semitic views.
"Following U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, we are hearing for the first time in years calls to kill Jews, and Israeli flags are being burned in European capitals," the report said.
It also said that the mass immigration has sparked violent, anti-Semitic discourse among native-born Europeans.
"Due to the crisis of the refugees and immigrants, extreme right-wing parties are making unusual strides in terms of public support. The campaigns that [far-right] parties in France, Britain, and Germany ran have accelerated the rate at which anti-Semitism seeps into political dialogue, which is expressed by a rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric and anti-Semitic remarks," the report said.
According to the report, 2017 saw a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, Britain, and France. Britain alone reported a 78% rise in the number of cases of physical violence perpetrated against Jews. According to the CST, a group devoted to protecting and advocating for Jewish communities across Britain, there were 767 reported anti-Semitic incidents across the country in 2017, the highest number since it began tracking such complaints in 1984.
In Germany, a new annotated edition of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" became a bestseller, and a senior official in the far-right Alternative for Germany party was quoted calling a Holocaust memorial a "disgrace." A total of 522 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in Germany in the first nine months of 2017.
Despite France's active efforts to combat anti-Semitism, and a decline in anti-Semitic acts in 2016, France experienced a host of serious attacks in 2017, including the murder of Jewish woman Sarah Halimi in her home by a Muslim man. While the case was under investigation, kosher supermarkets in a Paris suburb were set on fire, and a Jewish girl was attacked by a Muslim immigrant.
According to figures from the French police for 2016, one out of every three race-based crimes reported was committed against Jews, although Jews comprise less than 1% of France's population.
Meanwhile, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine has doubled. Dozens of Jewish memorials and graves have been vandalized, and a Jewish museum and synagogues were damaged in Odessa. In Austria, 477 anti-Semitic incidents were reported over the course of 2017.
The data covers anti-Semitism in its familiar form, but also addresses the "new anti-Semitism" – rooted in a hatred of the State of Israel.
In addition, the report discusses rising incitement online and on social media, which has provided minorities and marginalized groups with an outlet to spread hate content and make their voices heard among the population at large.
In May 2017, the Pew Institute conducted a survey of 2,000 residents in each of the countries in eastern and central Europe. Twenty percent of respondents did not want Jews in their country, and 30% did not want Jews as neighbors. In Romania, 22% wanted to revoke the right of Jews' to hold citizenship, and 18% of Poles said the same.
"This year, five more countries adopted the new definition of anti-Semitism [used by] the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which helps pass laws, set standards, and enforce [action] in cases of anti-Semitism in these countries," said Dvir Kahana, director general of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.
"The Diaspora Affairs Ministry will continue to work, along with the Foreign Ministry, with governments of the world [so they] adopt the updated definition of anti-Semitism and work vigorously with governments and authorities across the world to contain it," Kahana said.
