Poll: Anti-Semitism on rise in France, Europe
Friends and relatives comfort Eva Sandler, the wife of Jonathan Sandler, and the mother of Gabriel 4, Arieh 5, during their funeral at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem on March 21, 2012. A new survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that “classical anti-Semitic notions” were on the rise in France.
A new survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that "classical anti-Semitic notions" were on the rise in France, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The poll, released a day after a gunman killed a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, compared attitudes of the French from 2009 and 2012. The results showed that the French are more likely now to believe that Jews hold too much power in business and probably have more loyalty to Israel than France.
On the question about whether Jews "still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust," more than a third of the respondents agreed, according to The LA Times. The survey was based on 5,000 telephone interviews across France and nine other European countries, finding that nearly one third of those surveyed held "pernicious anti-Semitic beliefs."
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According to the Associated Press, the number of anti-Semitic acts reported fell last year, but a 24-hour hotline still exists to report such incidents. Jewish and Muslim graves are frequently desecrated and last week two synagogues in Paris received threatening letters.
The Protection Service for the Jewish Community which runs the hotline and tallies reports on anti-Semitism said the number of attacks fell to 389 in 2011, from 466 in 2010, but the aggressiveness of the attacks increased, according to the AP.
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French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday, "France is determined to fight terrorism and anti-Semitism – which stand in total contrast to the values of our republic – with all its might," according to Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. Speaking at the funeral for the four victims from the Toulouse shooting in Jerusalem, Juppe said, "France is doing everything and will do everything so that there will be full safety in schools and synagogues, so that a criminal act such as this will never happen again."
On the day of the Toulouse shootings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there was a "strong, murderous anti-Semitic motive" behind the incident, while expressing his belief that French President Nicolas Sarkozy would do his utmost to pursue the case, according to The Telegraph.
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Here is a video of Netanyahu's statement, courtesy of The Telegraph:
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