European Commission is anti-semitic, say Jewish groups
By Honor Mahony
Two of the most important Jewish organisations have accused the European Commission of being anti-semitic.
In a guest commentary for the Financial Times, the President of the World Jewish Congress Edgar M. Bronfman and the President of the European Jewish Congress Cobi Benatoff write, "Anti-Semitism can be expressed in two ways: by action and inaction. Remarkably, the European Commission is guilty of both".
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The writers take the Brussels executive to task both for releasing a poll in November in which Israel was named as the greatest threat to world peace and for censoring a study that reported on the involvement of Muslim minorities in incidents of mounting European anti-semitism.
"Both of these actions were politically motivated, demonstrating a failure of will and decency", write Mr Bronfman and Mr Benatoff.
"Outside Israel, the majority of the world's violent anti-semitic attacks took place in western Europe. For the EU to hide these facts reeks of intellectual dishonesty and moral treachery".
Their strong words come ahead of a meeting in February to discuss anti-semitism in Europe.
The meeting was arranged by Commission President Romano Prodi and the World Jewish Congress after the furore caused the publication of the poll last November.
The findings revealed that when asked to choose from a list of countries that may be threatening to world peace, 59% of those polled chose Israel. On the list were also North Korea, Iran and the US.
Later it was revealed that a report by the EU's own European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia had been repressed after it found that many of the reported anti-semitic incidents had been carried out by Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups.