The corona pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have further fueled anti-Semitism in Europe. This is according to a report by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (FRA). However, because every EU country registers incidents in a different way, it is difficult to tackle Jew-hatred effectively, it sounds. In Belgium, in 2021, according to the website antisemitisme.be, there were 119 incidents.
During the pandemic, the existing anti-Semitic discourse has been revived, the FRA underlines. This concerns forms of trivialization or denial of the Holocaust, new anti-Semitic myths and conspiracy theories that blame Jews for the corona crisis. The number of physical incidents has decreased due to the lockdowns, but online anti-Semitism has risen sharply.
The EU Fundamental Rights Agency further emphasizes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin rhetoric also have an influence on the number of anti-Semitic incidents. “There were insinuations about the ‘Nazi leadership’ in Ukraine and the alleged genocide by Ukrainians,” it said. Furthermore, according to the FRA, the terms “Nazi” and “genocide” were also misused, which has led to, among other things, a lot of disinformation about Jews and accusations that were spread via the internet.
Report
According to the FRA, anti-Semitism remains a serious problem in our society, but it also pinches the registration of the number of incidents. Each EU country collects data differently and some countries, such as Portugal and Hungary, have no data at all. “It is high time that EU countries step up their efforts to encourage reporting and improve registration so that we can better tackle hatred and prejudice against Jews,” said FRA chief executive Michael O’Flaherty.
The European Council calls on EU Member States to develop a national strategy to prevent and combat all forms of anti-Semitism. The FRA underlines that only fourteen Member States currently have such national action plans. Another eight countries are currently developing it. Belgium does not yet have such a national strategy, but work is underway on a national action plan against racism in general. The United Nations Human Rights Council already reprimanded Belgium last year that the data on racist hate crimes is insufficiently split up.
Belgian affairs
Available Belgian figures show that last year the federal police investigated 11 cases related to Holocaust denial. At the equal opportunities center Unia, 81 reports of anti-Semitism were made.
The website antisemitism.bewhich lists all racist incidents against Jews, reports a record 119 incidents in 2021, 83 of which involved online harassment.
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