Sunday

4th Jun 2023

Major EU states report spike in anti-Semitic abuse

  • Jewish people in Europe are increasingly fearful to wear religious symbols, the FRA noted (Photo: Eric Parker)

Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in Europe, but lack of proper data and "gross under-reporting" make it hard to document the trend, an EU institute has said.

The findings come in a report by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna, published on Wednesday (30 September).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

In France, the CNCDH, an official watchdog, recorded 851 incidents last year compared to 423 in 2013. It said 108 of them included physical violence, compared to 49 the year before.

German police noted 1,596 "crimes with an anti-Semitic motive" compared to 1,275 in 2013. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a German NGO, recorded 173 incidents compared to 65.

L’Osservatorio anti-semitismo, an Italian NGO, noted 86 incidents compared to 49.

The Polish interior ministry recorded 39 incidents compared to 25.

Spanish police recorded 24 compared to three in 2013.

The Community Security Trust, a UK charity, said there were 1,168 incidents last year compared to 535 the year before. Eighty of them were violent assaults, while the majority were "abusive behaviour".

Belgian, Czech, and Dutch authorities and NGOs also marked sharp increases. The trend was less marked, but still on the rise in Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Greece.

Hungary and Sweden were the only EU countries which noted a decreasing trend.

The other 13 member states either recorded zero incidents (Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Slovenia) or had no official or unofficial data.

But the FRA warned that the varying nature of the data available makes it impossible to compare levels of hate crime from EU state to state.

The "incidents" vary in gravity, from killings of Jewish people in Belgium, Denmark, and France by Islamist radicals, to desecration of Jewish graves by far-right groups in the Netherlands, or, more generally, posting of hate speech on the internet.

The FRA report noted that perpetrators often link Israeli state actions to local Jewish communities in Europe.

It said incidents "intensify in periods when conflict in the Middle East flares up".

It also said sporting events act as flashpoints, noting, for instance, "a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse" on the internet in Spain after a basketball game in Madrid with Maccabi Electra, an Israeli team.

Constantinos Manolopoulos, the FRA’s head, warned of a "climate of intolerance" in Europe and called for "immediate and decisive action to combat extremist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic discourse and crimes".

The EU agency, also on Wednesday, published a separate report on Combating Intolerance and Hate, timed to coincide with a European Commission "colloquium" on the issue in Brussels the same day.

The report said there’s a "cacophony of racist and intolerant discourse" in Europe, which "influences mainstream politics at national, and more importantly at local level".

It cited a 2008 survey - the latest one available - of 23,500 migrants and minorities in the EU.

The survey showed that 37 percent of migrants had experienced "discrimination", but 80 percent didn't report incidents to police.

Roma people (50%) reported the most abuse, followed by sub-Saharan Africans (41%), and north-Africans (36%).

Anti-semitism 'disturbingly normalised' in Europe

Almost 40 percent of European Jews contemplate leaving their home country because they no longer feel safe, and almost 85 percent say their number one concern in Europe is anti-semitism and racism, according to a new EU survey.

Latest News

  1. Spanish PM to delay EU presidency speech due to snap election
  2. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  3. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  4. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  5. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  6. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  7. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  8. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us