The number of antisemitic attacks reported last year in Belgium is the highest figure recorded there since 2009, according to an annual report.
Anti-racism volunteers registered 80 antisemitic throughout Belgium in 2012. The figure represents a 23 percent increase over 2011.
The number is the highest recorded by the group since 2000, with the exception of the 100-odd attacks documented in Belgium in 2009, when an Israeli military campaign against Hamas triggered a massive leap in antisemitic attacks worldwide.
The authors of the report wrote that last year’s 80 reported incidents constitute a 34 percent increase from the per annum average from the past 12 years.
The increase, the authors wrote, owes to a noticeable spike in attacks after the murder of four Jews by a Muslim extremist in Toulouse, France, in March 2012.
Five of the incidents involved physical attacks, three of which occurred in Antwerp. Thirteen incidents were acts of vandalism against Jewish institutions, and 30 incidents involved threats made online.
