Despite an overall decline in anti-Semitic incidents
around the world in 2007, the Tel Aviv University antisemitism research center
recorded a 6.6 percent rise specifically in violent antisemitic attacks,
including arson and the use of firearms with intent to kill.
The Tel Aviv
University report, published Wednesday, encompasses 632 incidents of violent
antisemitic attacks. The report maintains that the number of severe violent
attacks has risen threefold with 19 incidents in 2006, and 57 incidents in
2007.
According to the report, there has been an overall
decline in antisemitic events, such as verbal and visual offenses, in several
key nations such as France, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, the United States
and Britain.
The report
also shows a decline in mild violence driven by antisemitism, such as vandalism
of community centers and schools. However, the desecration of Jewish
cemeteries, monuments and memorials has been on the rise around the world.
Incidents of desecration rose from 91 in 2006 to 141 in 2007.
France saw a rise from two violent attacks to eight
in 2007. The trend of increasing violent attacks was especially apparent in
Australia and Ukraine. In Germany, Canada and Britain there was a sharp rise in
violence: in Germany the number of milder attacks rose from 38 to 67, and 10
exceptionally violent attacks were recorded, as opposed to none in 2006. In
Britain and Canada the rise was more moderate, but the number of extremely
violent incidents rose from two to 15 in Britain and from none to five in
Canada.
In the U.S.
there was an overall 6 percent decline in all types of antisemitic events as
well as a decrease in the number of harassments. However, the U.S. saw a rise
in antisemitic vandalism. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 93 cases of
vandalism in the U.S. and 48 cases of assault.
In Russia, antisemitic events remained static, with
no rise or fall in the number of violent cases.
The report
speculates that the decline in overt antisemitism in certain places could be a
result of the commitment made by the government in those countries and other
international bodies to fight antisemitism, especially antisemitic violence,
and to integrate the Jewish communities in the law enforcement and legal
processes.
Another possibility raised in the report is the
respective governments’ fear of street riots that could harm the general
population, not just Jews, and drives the legislation and law enforcement in
those places to clamp down against antisemitic phenomena.
The report adds that the commitment to fight
antisemitism is apparent in Western countries like Canada, Britain the U.S. and
Australia, but not so much in Russia and Ukraine.
