I don't know how long this URL is going to work, but here's a link to the "Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the European Union" report mentioned in this and other news articles.
The bottom line is that attacks on Jews and Jewish property, religions institutions, and symbols in Europe reached alarming heights in 2002. The report seeks to look at what happened and try to assign some causal factors to the upswing. One of the hot button parts of the report follows:
Physical attacks on Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues were acts mainly committed by young Muslim perpetrators mostly of an Arab descent in the monitoring period. Many of these attacks occurred during or after pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which were also used by radical Islamists for hurling verbal abuse. In addition, Islamic circles were responsible for placing anti-Semitic propaganda in the Internet and in Arab-language media.
It's been suggested in some circles that the report was suppressed because the EU is unwilling to deal with the underlying issues the report details. Whether that's true, I don't know. As my sister once told me, Americans generally don't have a good grasp of EU attitudes and beliefs, and she, having lived in Europe, is generally right about that sort of thing. I try to keep that in mind as I try to keep up with what's going on in Europe.
That said, I'm saddened but not surprised by either the report or the fact that it hasn't been published yet. Anti-semetism is nowhere near as bad as it used to be (for which I devoutly thank God) but it's still out there and should not be ignored becasue it's politically inconvenient to deal with it.
