Anti-Semitic incidents on rise
Increase in number of anti-Semitic attacks directly correlated to current political developments in Middle East, explains Chairman of Jewish Agency Education Committee
Since the start of the war in Lebanon, Jews, Israelis and Jewish landmarks across the world have been victims of a wave of anti-Semitic attacks: In Turkey two Israeli families were assaulted when merchants learned of their country of origin; a Jewish Community Center was brutally attacked in Australia; a youth vandalized and an Oslo synagogue and defecated at the entrance; and in Brazil a synagogue was sprayed with the slogan, 'Lebanon - the real Holocaust."
Recent reports received by the Jewish Agency reveal a difficult picture of an exacerbation of anti-Semitic incidents. Many mass demonstrations worldwide against Israeli policy in Lebanon have descended into violence and unruly incitement against local Jewish communities. Most of the incidents occurred in countries with large populations of Lebanese, Arab and Muslim immigrants.
The Jewish Agency said that the character of recent events was particularly reminiscent of the time around the outbreak of the Intifada in 2000, and included physical damage to Jewish facilities and attacks on Jews identified by their kippahs and beards.
At many of the anti-Israeli protests, demonstrators have waved Hizbullah flags and swastikas and called out slogans comparing IDF soldiers to Nazi storm troopers. The JA further noted that the offices of numerous Jewish communities have reported receiving threatening emails.
Few facing many
Chairman of the Education Committee of the Jewish Agency, Amos Hermon, is familiar with the phenomenon of increasing anti-Semitism during wartime. There is an immediate correlation between the political events in the Middle East and the increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Jewish communities, Hermon said.
He cited the example of Brazil, where a demonstration organized Monday was attended by 800,000 people. At the protest, photos were shown of Palestinian areas under siege by IDF soldiers alongside photos of the Nazi siege of the Warsaw Ghetto. Protestors charged that whoever protected the honor of the Jewish people during the Holocaust era, now needed to rally in support of the residents of south Lebanon. According to Hermon, heretofore anti-Semitic activity had never been reported from Brazil.
We are readying for an anti-Semitic onslaught, and we are sending PR materials to Jewish communities across the world, Hermon said. He added that the JA was "flooding" Jewish communities with informative materials, pictures and films from the IDF spokespeople, to aid them in handling malicious and fallacious criticism in the media.
He added that JA envoys were working with Foriegn Ministry officials on this plane.
He said it was important to remember that Jewish communities were much smaller than Muslim communities abroad - in France the Muslim community numbers about seven million, compared to half a million Jews. In Chile as well the Jewish community is far outnumbered by the Muslim population - 400,000 Muslims compared to 20,000 Jews. He noted that Chile was a breeding ground for anti-Semitism, and many Muslims were seeking out neo-Nazi movements.
The JA was further preparing for escalations in anti-Semitism by increasing security around its envoys worldwide.
The JA collects most of its reports on anti-Semitic incidents from the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism, a joint forum headed by the Prime Minister's Bureau and the Jewish Agency.
