More than one in 10 people living in OSCE countries are antisemitic, a top official said at a conference in Bucharest looking at legislative, educational and communication measures to combat antisemitism.
“Education is a key in combating such prejudice,” Gert Weisskirchen, the Personal Representative on Combatting antisemitism for the OSCE’s chairman-in-office, said, adding that “the figures rises or falls, particularly when there are events that cause debate, such as the war between Israel and the Hezbollah in 2006.”
“Across the whole OSCE area, from Canada to Russia, a constant 10-15 percent of the population have an antisemitic attitude,” Weisskirchen said.
“It was vital to investigate the role countries in central and eastern Europe played in the Holocaust,” he added.
“In some countries, there’s no clear comprehension about what the Holocaust was and that people were involved in it in certain regions, not only as victims, but as perpetrators.”
The OSCE – Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
