Jewish-Israeli teenagers faced more antisemitism and “anti-Israel
expression” on the Internet in 2014 than they did last year, according to an
Anti-Defamation League poll.
The survey, which was announced Tuesday, polled 500 Jewish Israelis aged
15 to 18 in November.
It found that 51 percent of the participants reported encountering “attacks”
on the Internet because of their nationality, compared to 36% last year.
Eighty-three percent of the teens reported seeing antisemitism online in some
form through “hate symbols, websites, and messages found on social media and in
videos and music,” compared to 69% last year.
The respondents noted that online antisemitism increased significantly
during Israel’s war in Gaza this summer.
“The more teenagers in Israel
are using the Internet to connect with friends and share social updates, the
more they are coming into contact with haters and bigots who want to expose
them to an anti-Israel or antisemitic message,” Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s
national director, said in a news release issued by the organization.
The survey also found that the teens encountered more antisemitism on
social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Eighty-four percent
reported seeing anti-Semitism in Facebook posts or tweets, compared to 70% last
year.
Sixty-five percent of the teenagers noted that they took action in
response to the posting of antisemitic content by contacting website
administrators or responding with comments of their own.
The poll was conducted in Hebrew by the Israeli polling company
Geocartography. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%.
