The New Anti-Semtism in Europe Piers Mostyn
In November, the Israeli government launched an attack on the European Union, accusing it of anti-semitism. The trenchant criticism focused on two concerns. Firstly, that the EU had suppressed a report indicating that there had been a marked rise in anti-semitism across Europe in the past three years, apparently blaming this on Europe's Muslims. Secondly, a poll conducted by "Eurobarometer" reported that 59% of Europeans saw Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.
Israel's prime minister Arial Sharon made clear what he saw as the real basis of the problem on the 24th November, when he stated that the growing Muslim population of Europe (17 million) was "endangering the life of Jewish people", linking this growth to the Palestinian Intafada since 2000 to explain a rise in anti-semitic incidents.
The EU has stated that the withdrawal of the report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia was because it wasn't sufficiently evidence- based and that it would be reworked and released this year. It has also been suggested that the methodology was wrong - failing to properly distinguish between Israelis and Jews.
If the latter were true, of course, it would totally distort the conclusions and wrongly ascribe anti-semitism to many Muslims, by conflating it with criticism of Israel. Any judgement on the competing claims is impossible without access to the report and information as to how it was compiled.
But it would be wrong to presume that because some of the reasons for withdrawing it may have been valid or because of Sharon's Zionism and the racism of his comments that the question of rising anti-semitism needn't be addressed.
There is no agreement as to the rate at which anti-semitic attacks are on the increase in Britain. For instance in February 2003 the Guardian reported a 13% rise in 2002, whereas Searchlight magazine noted a 260% increase over the period 2001-2. But the consensus seems to be that it is on the rise.
There were a number of very serious incidents last year - including the daubing of swastikas on gravestones in July and the desecration 386 Jewish graves in Plashet, East London in August.
This mirrors developments across Europe, with November being particularly bad. Two synagogues in Turkey were the subject of suicide bombings, there was a devastating arson attack on the Mercaz Hatorah Jewish school in Paris, 21 gravestones were desecrated in a Jewish plot in Chatham in Kent and the Hillock Hebrew Congregation synagogue near Manchester was damaged in an arson attack.
In Germany Christian Democrat MP Mark Hohman claimed that what the Nazis did was no worse than the actions of Jews in the Russian revolution -simultaneously resurrecting the anti-semitic conspiracy theory of a plot between Bolsheviks and Jews and reviving one of the Nazi justifications for the holocaust.
The head of Germany's special forces, General Reinhard Guenzel, was then sacked for praising the MP for his I"couragel" speaking out.
A n ICM poll published by the Jewish Chronicle this year found that one in seven believed that the scale of the Nazi holocaust against Jews is exaggerated, nearly 20% said a Jewish prime minister would be less acceptable than a member of any other faith and 18% thought that Jews have too much influence. Whilst the findings were highest among the older age group, worryingly the 18-24 year age group were also disproportionately more anti-semitic than the population as a whole.
But the evidence published is far from supporting the assertion that this prejudice can simply be laid at the door of the Muslim community. The rise also has to be examined in the context of long-term political processes at work. Over the past ten years a social and political polarisation has spurred the growth of a far right, with an anti-semitic ideology, which has made electoral gains across Europe Œ not simply countries with a substantial Muslim communities. Examples include Switzerland, where the People's Party increased it™s share of the vote from 5.2% to 26.6% between 1999-2003, and Norway, where the Freedom Party improved its share of the vote in regional and municipal elections last September.
I n Britain a Mori opinion poll in January this year showed disturbing evidence of a long term increase in the proportion of the population holding racist attitudes. In the poll, 41% of white people did not want black neighbours. Race and immigration were ranked the most important issue (ahead of crime, defence and the economy) by 29% of respondents, compared to less than 10% a decade ago. Racist scapegoating was reflected by a finding that immigrants were similarly being blamed for a variety of ills - including job insecurity and lack of welfare. Such are the fruits of seven years of New Labour™s neo-liberalism and anti-immigrant xenophobia.
In the circumstances, the clearest evidence is required before rising anti-semitism can be disentangled from other rightist racist ideologies on the increase as stemming from a different source (Muslims). Great care must be taken to avoid wrongly ascribing this to a Muslim community that is bearing the brunt of racist attacks, discrimination and scapegoating. But that does not mean that anti-semitism in the Muslim community does not exist or should not be robustly challenged, as should in the white working class communities. Undoubtedly there are fundamentalist groups with such an agenda. And a string of bombings of synagogues and Jewish establishments have been attributed to them - in Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and elsewhere.
The left, the anti-war movement and the activists in the Muslim community should not shy away from tackling those who give credence to anti-semitism Πwhether through ignorance or positive ideology. There is no contradiction between doing this and fighting for the kind of alliance between the left and Muslims that has been such a success in the anti-war movement and has the potential to be politically deepened through Respect.
A consistent attempt has been made to smear the Stop the War Coalition with anti-semitism - not simply for consistently raising the slogan of Freedom for Palestine or working with Muslim groups. The coincidence of the Turkish bombings with the massive and his toric November anti-Bush demo was the excuse by some on the right for making the outrageous slur that the movement was in some way responsible.
In fact it is the warmongers that have made the world a more dangerous place, acting as recruiting sergeants for terror groups with an anti-semitic agenda. In this context Tam Dalyell MP's reference last year to "Jewish influence" at the heart of US and British policy" in May, was rightly attacked by some on the left, but not by enough. And hopefully a situation won't arise again where a group of Jewish anti-war activists felt they needed to make representations to the Stop the War Coalition about a lack of responsiveness to concerns about the orientation to the Jewish community (as happened in the Autumn). The point is not that the anti-war movement is anti-semitic or this ideology is prevalent on the left - certainly there can be no equation between anti-Zionism and anti- semitism. But the necessary and successful orientation towards the radicalising Muslim community as it defends itself from the current onslaught should not make us defensive on the issue. On the contrary, positively taking it can only strengthen that process.