The Danish Jewish community was repeatedly exposed to Antisemitic acts and
fears that certain individuals were collecting information which could be used
to carry out a potential attack on Carolineskolen (the Jewish school in Copenhagen).
According to the Danish daily Tidende Berllinske, these are some of the
conclusions in a report that was submitted by a special department of the
Jewish Community in Denmark,
Akvah, which gathers information on antisemetic acts.
The report is expected to be published on Wednesday, and documents 53 incidents
of assault, physical harassment, threats, antisemitic remarks, discrimination
and acts of vandalism which were directed against Danish Jews in the year 2014.
In addition to these 53 incidents, two “suspicious” events were
described in the section addressing “antisemitism and terror”.
One of these events was an incident that occurred in the vicinity of the
Carolineskolen, and the terrorist attack which took place in February 2014 in the Synagogue on Krystal Street,
close to the center of the city of Copenhagen,
during which the Jewish Guard Dan Ozen was murdered.
The report describes the threat posed to the synagogue as follows.
According to the daily Tidende Berlingske, two young men of Middle Eastern
appearance tried to monitor the physical security arrangements at the Jewish Synagogue
in Copenhagen. They pointed in the direction of the gate and
marked where the security cameras were
situated and the concrete blocks which were placed there to stop cars. They
halted their activity when a security guard confronted them.
According to the leader of the Jewish community in Denmark, Mr Asmussen Dan Rosenberg,
the Police and PET (Danish Police Intelligence Service) were informed of the
incident.
The events of 2014 were influenced by the conflict in Gaza
which took place in the summer of 2014 and which exacerbated the tense situation
in Denmark.
If we compare the number of incidents to the number of Jews in Denmark, then
the conclusion is that the number of such incidents is relatively high and
makes the report disturbing reading. It only goes to emphasize the unfortunate
trend, whereby regardless of where they live, Jews are perceived as being
responsible for the problems in the Middle East, Dan Asmussen Rosenberg is
quoted as saying in the Tidende
Berlingske.
According to Felicia Cecellie Banke Stokholm, a senior researcher with the Internationale
for Institut Dansk Studier (DIIS- the Danish Institute for International Research)
and an expert in researching antisemitism, the report largely corresponds to
the developments in recent years.
The number of antisemitic incidents reported is high and is on the increase
throughout Europe. There appears to be a
connection between the Middle East conflict and
the number of anti- Semitic incidents, the Tidende Berlingske reported her as
saying.
