BRUSSELS —European Coalition for Israel (ECI) Founding Director Tomas Sandell called upon the European Union to formulate a comprehensive strategy to combat the rise of anti-Semitism directed not only towards Jewish people but also towards the only Jewish state in the world.
“If we separate the State of Israel from European Jewry we will fail to address the core problem”, he said in a statement following the release Monday by the EU of the results of a survey conducted by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) showing an increasing level of anti-Semitism in Europe over the past five years. I
“The widespread animosity from national governments against the Jews as a nation, the State of Israel, quickly translates into hostility towards individual Jews in ways that the results of the survey reveal.”
28% of those interviewed said that they had experienced harassment because of their Jewish identity, but 79% of them did not report it to the authorities because they did not believe it would be of any help. 38% of the Jews who took part in the survey said that they were considering leaving Europe as they no longer felt safe in their home countries.
ECO notes that the most common anti-Semitic slogan recorded in the survey is that “Israel behaves like Nazis towards Palestinians” (51%).
“If our governments accept and tolerate a UN member state such as the Islamic Republic of Iran which is openly calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, then we are tolerating anti-Semitism at the highest level. If our governments, in addition to that, consistently vote for UN resolutions which expressly deny Jewish history and the right of the Jewish people to self determination, we cannot expect our citizens to have a positive attitude towards the Jewish people as a whole”, Sandell said.
He added : “We need to see Jews and the Jewish state not as ‘problems’ that need ‘solutions’, but instead learn to appreciate the Jewish people, their culture and their state as well as their contributions to our societies and civilization. Only when we have a holistic and positive view on Jewish culture as a whole can we expect our citizens to make a change in their negative attitudes and stereotypes.’’
Last week, the European Coalition for Israel celebrated its 15th anniversary with a symposium in Brussels on EU-Israel relations.