The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief takes place this Thursday, on August 22. A study by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance shows that key challenges in Europe remain the rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism as a result of the current Middle East conflict.
Following the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza, several European countries have reported a spike in anti-Semitism, and in some countries the number of hate incidents against Muslims has multiplied. These are the findings of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its annual report on the main trends observed in 2023. ECRI is the Council of Europe's human rights monitoring body, specialising in issues related to the fight against racism, discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance.
"In several states, the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in the last three months of 2023 far exceeded the number usually reported for an entire year, and in some cases was much higher," the statement of the ECRI said. At the same time, the study found that "in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack of 7 October 2023 against Israel the number of hate incidents against Muslims increased manifold". It was also said that "Muslims received blame for the attack and other attacks in the Middle East, based on stereotyping of whole communities and their perceived connections with the use of violence".
Muslims are also often unfairly blamed for crimes committed in Europe. An example of this is the recent events in the UK following the murder of three girls aged nine, seven and six.
Initially, false rumours spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. The suspect was later identified as a 17-year-old who was born in Wales. British media reported that his parents were from Rwanda. Despite the police statement, initial disturbances in Southport centred around a mosque, and widespread violence has rocked England and Northern Ireland since.
The acts of anti-Semitism have covered a wide range of incidents, from hate speech, online and offline - including death threats - to acts of vandalism and destruction of Jewish community sites, such as synagogues and cemeteries, to physical attacks against Jews, the ECRI said.
The Commission "is particularly concerned" that many of these incidents have occurred in schools "which should be places where future generations learn about and practice diversity, inclusion and mutual respect".
Europe's Jewish community is experiencing a "rising tide of anti-Semitism", the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) reported in July. "The spillover effect of the conflict in the Middle East is eroding hard-fought-for progress" in tackling anti-Jewish hate, FRA's director Sirpa Rautio said. This was jeopardising the success of the EU's first-ever strategy on combating the issue adopted in 2021, she added.
To assess the impact the conflict in the Middle East has had on anti-Semitism in Europe, the report relied on information collected from twelve Jewish organisations in 2024. "FRA's consultation with national and European Jewish umbrella organisations in early 2024 shows a dramatic surge" in antisemitic attacks, Rautio said.
In France, 74 percent of Jews felt the conflict affected their sense of security, the highest rate among the countries surveyed. Across Europe, 76 percent reported hiding their Jewish identity "at least occasionally" and 34 percent avoid Jewish events or sites "because they do not feel safe", a press release accompanying the report said.
On a positive note, the ECRI's report said that many heads of EU member states and representatives of national, regional or local authorities and civil society organisations, as well as politicians and personalities from the world of culture and religion, among others, have publicly demonstrated their solidarity with Jewish communities in Europe since October 7.
The report mentioned that some governments have also increased the security measures necessary to protect Jewish institutions from antisemitic violence and potential terrorist attacks and continue to do so.
The opposite trend seems to be true for Muslim communities. The ECRI highlighted that "there have been several cases of speeches by politicians and other public figures in which aspects of anti-Muslim racism have been mixed with general xenophobic discourse or who have used the threat of a so-called Islamisation of European societies, to gain votes in elections".
"Those who use this latter narrative exploit people's ignorance," said the ECRI chair Bertil Cottier. "Public figures, not only politicians but also those in entertainment and sports, should say that such discourse is unacceptable," he added.
France, which is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, with around six million people of Islamic faith or background, recorded 242 anti-Muslim acts in 2023, the interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said in February. He added that this was an increase of almost 30 percent on the previous year.
Situation of Jews before the outbreak of war in Gaza The FRA survey, however, does not only refer to the situation of Jews in Europe after the Hamas attack on Israel, but also to how Jews described their situation before the war in Gaza broke out.
80 percent of Jews surveyed said they feel anti-Semitism has worsened in recent years. The most common "negative stereotypes" those questioned listed as encountered included the accusation that Jews were "holding power and control over finance, media, politics or economy". Many also reported encountering denials of Israel's right to exist as a state.
A total of four percent of respondents in 2023 said they had experienced antisemitic physical attacks in the twelve months prior to the survey - double the number recorded in 2018. About 60 percent of those asked said they were not satisfied with their national governments' efforts to combat anti-Semitism.
The survey covered 13 EU countries home to 96 percent of the bloc's Jewish population: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. Here are some examples from this study and a report by the US State Department.
Current state of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism in Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and Romania: Austria: 76 percent of respondents in the FRA study believe that antisemitism has increased in the five years prior to the survey. The EU average was 80 percent. For the year prior to the survey, 38 percent in this country reported having been the victim of antisemitic hostility - similar to the EU average.
Five percent were also attacked that year. As a result of these experiences, many people feel compelled to hide their religion in public. In Austria, 29 percent of Jews never wear Jewish symbols in public due to security concerns.
The Documentation Centre on Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Racism recorded 1,522 cases of racist attacks on Muslims in 2023. This is the highest number since the documentation began in 2015, said the head of the documentation centre, Rumeysa Dür-Kwieder, at the presentation of the report in Vienna in May. The number of reported cases has risen particularly sharply since the escalation of violence in the Middle East following Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel in October.
Germany: Following Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel, anti-Semitic incidents also increased sharply in Germany. The Federal Criminal Police Office recorded 715 antisemitic offences in Germany in the second quarter of 2024, including 19 acts of violence resulting in seven injuries. This figure is more than a third higher than a year earlier.
Bulgaria: At the end of June, the US State Department's 2023 International Religious Freedom Report highlighted an increase in anti-Semitism and harassment of religious minorities in Bulgaria. The report suggests that despite a legal ban on the propagation of fascism or other antidemocratic ideologies, authorities rarely enforced the law, and souvenirs with Nazi insignias were available in tourist areas around the country.
Some political parties and leaders continued to use antisemitic language and images. The report added that the Jewish nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Shalom repeatedly expressed concerns regarding escalating public hate speech and antisemitism, including on social networks, and offensive graffiti.
The report also details numerous instances of restricted religious freedoms and violent actions against members of religious minorities.
Romania: "Romania is one of the very few countries in Europe, perhaps the only one, where there have been no attacks against Jewish communities and Jewish life unfolds without incidents," said the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER), Silviu Vexler, in June at the launch of the National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Anti-Semitism, Xenophobia, Radicalisation and Hate Speech 2024-2027. The general objectives of the strategy are: to prevent and combat antisemitism, xenophobia, radicalisation and hate speech. The strategy also seeks to promote education for inclusion, to promote knowledge of Jewish culture, and to support these efforts at the international level.
Borrell's call to respect the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," reads Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is now 76 years old.
On the occasion of 75th anniversary of its adoption, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, had issued a statement on behalf of the 27 Member States, joined by the candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the potential candidate country Georgia, the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Armenia.
In that statement, Borrell regretted that despite the time that has passed since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which enshrined the right of all human beings to have, change and manifest their religion or belief, "too many people in many parts of the world still suffer threats, physical attacks, killings, discrimination and persecution solely on the basis of their religion or belief".
"The European Union continues to stand up for freedom of religion and belief, abroad and at home" Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy How do EU countries punish religious violence? According to a report published by the Spanish Observatory for Religious Freedom and Conscience (OLRC) on the protection of religious feelings in the EU, a total of 21 EU Member States punish offences against the religious feelings of citizens, and all of those that criminalise these offences provide for prison sentences.
Ireland, Sweden, Estonia, France, the Czech Republic and Croatia are the EU countries that do not punish offences against religious feelings.
This article is published twice a week. The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, Agerpres, ANSA, APA, BTA, dpa, EFE, and Europa Press.
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