Executive Summary
Berlin police have opened a preliminary investigation into outrageous comments made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that downplayed the Holocaust. Indeed, Abbas sparked widespread outrage from world leaders after he accused Israel of committing “50 holocausts” during a news conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
French Jewry experienced another violent murder targeting a Jew; the third suspected antisemitic attack so far in 2022. Eyal Haddad was allegedly murdered by his Muslim home health aide who confessed to have killed him with an axe. While the prosecutor’s office did not attribute an antisemitic motive at this stage of the investigation, an examination of the alleged suspect’s Facebook page shows strong signs of Islamist radicalization, alongside expressions of radical anti-Zionism.
In the U.S., antisemitic assaults continued as did expressions of antisemitism on the extreme right and left.
- New York appeared once again as the epicenter of antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S., with at least five antisemitic physical assaults this month. In all, the New York Police Department has made 44 arrests related to attacks on Jews so far in 2022 compared to 33 in all of 2021.
- Far-right extremism in political spheres featured in Republican primary contests; nearly 25 percent of right-wing extremist candidates were successful as of this month. In parallel, Congressional Republicans and conservative commentators frequently compared the FBI to the Gestapo and Nazi Germany in the wake of the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
- Radical anti-Zionist responses to Operation Breaking Dawn included calls in a BDS-affiliated protest for all Zionists to leave New York, and for the destruction of Israel.
In Germany, Documenta15, one of the world’s biggest art exhibitions, continued to face widespread controversy over antisemitism and is likely to become a turning point in the history of post-war antisemitism. Additionally, the Central Council of Jews expects a rise in antisemitism during the cold season, as Jews could be targeted if protests break out over the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war.
In the UK, CST documented 786 anti-Jewish hate incidents from January to June this year; a 43% decrease compared to the first half of 2021. Moreover, a recent survey found “shockingly” high antisemitic attitudes among British youth.
In the Muslim world, a Mecca imam called on Allah to exterminate the Jews. In the background, reports exposed antisemitic statements by several Palestinian religious scholars; for example, the Mufti of Jerusalem accused the Jews of being the “slayers of the prophets.” Meanwhile, an Iranian official claimed that “Jews control Western media” as well as the sex industry, and are therefore responsible of Western moral decadence.
In Russia, the murder of Daria Dugina led to covert expressions of antisemitism as several figures called for the “eradication of the enemy from within” and harshly criticized “liberals” and “globalists” opposed to Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
In the Spanish-speaking world, Ministry of Diaspora affairs data indicate a sharp rise in online antisemitism following Mahmoud Abbas’s 50 holocausts statement.
