Eight-two percent of survey respondents do not support prioritizing efforts to combat antisemitism.
By Canaan Lidor, JNS in Madrid
A survey of 4,400 European adults published on Monday found that more than a quarter said they had seen antisemitism disguised as pro-Palestinian activism.
The 28% figure suggests a high level of public awareness of Jew-hate in the media and at thousands of rallies across Europe that have proliferated since Oct. 7, 2023.
However, 82% of respondents said they do not prioritize national plans to fight antisemitism, Rabbi Menachem Margolin said in presenting the survey in Madrid during the annual conference of the European Jewish Association that he leads.
“There’s a high number of people who recognize the problem, but also a very high number of people who don’t care enough to counter it,” Margolin told the participants of the conference, including dozens of Jewish community leaders from across the continent.
Juan Soto, an expert in immigration who conducted the survey, told JNS that the figures could only be considered encouraging “if there was a mandate for action that followed from the recognition” of disguised antisemitism.
The Ipsos surveying agency conducted the survey in March in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom among adults aged 18-65. The Netherlands and Belgium had 600 respondents each, and the other countries had 800.
The EJA unveiled the survey at the conference titled “Building or Leaving—Decision Time for Europe’s Jews.”
Action in needed to counter the antisemitism that surged throughout Europe after Oct. 7, 2023. under the guise of pro-Palestinian action, Margolin said. The effects of the proliferation of antisemitism “are shaping a whole new level of anti-Jewish narratives and stoking viral antisemitic sentiment in our cities,” he added.
He had a message for the leaders of Europe: “Protect your Jews, or witness the collapse of the values Europe claims to stand for.” Hatred that starts with Jews “never ends with them” and will spread to other parts of society, he said.
The survey also measured antisemitic sentiment in various countries by interviewing respondents on their degree of comfort living next to Jews. The results varied from about 70% in Belgium to 86% in the United Kingdom.
Just over half of respondents said Jews identify more with Israel than with their own country, and 20% said Jews are responsible for the current war in the Middle East, which broke out when about 6,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 251.
Just under half of the respondents overall said the media image of the Israel–Hamas conflict negatively affects Jews. Recognition of the media’s role was highest in the Netherlands (63%) and lowest in Spain, where it was under the 50% mark.
Last week, an Israeli government ministry accused authorities in Spain, along with Ireland, of enabling antisemitism through inflammatory rhetoric on Israel. Both countries, which have accused Israel of committing genocide, were characterized as ones “that enable antisemitism through their selective criticism of Israel and abuse of the language of human rights.”
In a speech, Margolin noted how the current surge in antisemitism is an extension of a phenomenon that surfaced in the early 2000s in French Muslim communities known as “new antisemitism”: The persecution of Jews in connection with Israel.
“Anti-Zionism and antisemitism are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “Europe imports hatred, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the events of October 7 have served as a catalyst. The result is a new wave of anti-Jewish narratives, which are rapidly spreading in cities across the continent.”