Jewish groups from across Europe have voiced support for a controversial EU official dealing with antisemitism.
"To attack her for defending Jewish dignity and security is, in effect, to challenge the European Union's own credibility in combating antisemitism," 76 Jewish groups wrote in a letter to the EU Commission on Monday (25 August).
The official in question, Katherina von Schnurbein, had been "steadfast in addressing" the "tsunami of Israel-related antisemitism" seen in Europe since the Gaza war began in 2023, they said.
Signatories included Jewish NGOs from most EU states, as well as Russia, Switzerland, and the Western Balkans.
Von Schnurbein, who has been the EU's antisemitism coordinator for 10 years, caused controversy in July in a leaked diplomatic cable from Tel Aviv.
She briefed EU ambassadors that UN reports of starvation in Gaza were "rumours about Jews" and that EU officials who baked cakes in Brussels to raise money for Gaza aid caused "ambient antisemitism".
Some 26 liberal, left-leaning, and Green MEPs called for her to resign on grounds she had overstepped her mandate by meddling in EU foreign policy and unduly "smeared" Gaza-sympathetic EU staff.
A further 29 Jewish and Israel organisations backed the call for her resignation in August, on grounds von Schnurbein had weaponised antisemitism to shield Israel from its critics.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his spokesmen have widely accused Israel's critics of Jew hatred.
Israel also depicts any show of empathy toward Palestinian civilians as being pro-Hamas, the antisemitic militant group that rules Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli fire killed 20 people at the Nasser hospital in Gaza on Monday, including five local journalists who had worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, and Al Jazeera.
Israel has killed over 63,000 people in Gaza and caused famine by blocking food aid.
It has killed five civilians for every one Hamas fighter, according to a leaked Israeli Defence Forces database, seen by the Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call.
The rate of 83 percent civilian casualties makes Israel one of the most prolific killers of civilians in modern history, alongside the Rwanda genocide in 1994 and the Bosnia war in the mid-1990s.
But speaking to EUobserver in an interview, rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who heads the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), said social media trends were more to blame for the spike in antisemitic incidents than the Gaza war.
"The amount of antisemitic content you have today on X is unbelievable," he said.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.