Europe's oldest hatred revives
Violence in the Middle East is provoking a rise in anti-semitism across Europe, reports Ian Black
Friday April 26, 2002
Synagogues vandalised in France; a firebomb attack on a kosher deli in Brussels; assaults on Hasidic men in Germany; gravestones desecrated; swastikas daubed on Jewish schools; racial abuse in Manchester and the Netherlands: just examples of the incidents that add up to a worrying revival of Europe's oldest hatred.
Events like these have been almost a daily occurrence over the past month, and this week galvanised anxious community leaders from across the continent to hold emergency consultations about how to respond.
Terrible memories were stirred when police in Berlin - the site of the Nazis' infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938 - advised Jews to avoid wearing skullcaps, Stars of David and other identifying objects.
The World Jewish Congress reported bluntly that it was seeing the biggest wave of anti-semitic attacks since the second world war. "There are Holocaust survivors who are telling their children: 'Look, this is exactly how it happened in the 1930s,'" warned its president, Avi Beker.
Alarmist? Perhaps. But the European Union was concerned enough to issue an unprecedented declaration condemning anti-semitism, racism and xenophobia, pointing out that such views were contrary to the values and beliefs on which the EU - itself a response to fascism and Auschwitz - was founded.
Thursday's statement was prompted directly by the rising number of anti-Jewish attacks linked to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was planned before the startling success of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, in the first round of his country's presidential elections.
But the performance of a man who once dismissed the gas chambers as a "detail of history" only added to the feeling that Jews living in the most tolerant and multi-cultural societies they have ever known were once again facing threats and fears long dismissed as a nightmare from Europe's dark age - albeit from a new direction.
France alone, whose 600,000 Jews make up the biggest community outside the US and Israel, chalked up hundreds of incidents over the past year. Perhaps the most shocking was the one when hooded men shouted "Death to Jews" at a soccer team in suburban Paris.
But the phenomenon spread wider after March 29, when the Israeli army went on the offensive in the West Bank against the spate of attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers, the most lethal of which killed 28 Israelis as they sat down to their Passover meal.
"At a time of acute international tension, especially in the Middle East, it is vital to preserve the spirit of harmony, entente and inter-cultural respect within our societies," the EU urged, pledging concrete measures to tackle extremism.
European governments are right to be worried: for the furies spawned by the Arab-Israeli conflict are reaching their own streets, vicious little sideshows in the "war of civilisation" many fear will be the deadly legacy of the September 11 attacks on the US.
Leaders of France's five million Muslims have warned against stigmatising an entire community, condemned attacks on Jews and called for peaceful protests in solidarity with the Palestinians.
But it is widely believed that many of the culprits are indeed angry, alienated young Muslims, often of North African origin, venting their frustration on easy targets. And horrified, of course, by the success of Le Pen. Elsewhere, police have speculated about the possible involvement of neo-Nazi groups, especially around April 20, Hitler's birthday.
Middle Eastern politics and ancient prejudice make for a volatile mix. Americans and Israelis have blamed EU governments for showing bias by maintaining support for the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who is dismissed by Ariel Sharon's government as a terrorist.
European political and media outrage has focused intensely on events in the Jenin refugee camp, where Israel has rebutted allegations of a massacre and warned of a dangerous mood of "delegitimation" of the Jewish state.
Exchanges have been heated and hostile: when Terje Larsen, the Norwegian UN envoy, said he was shocked by what happened in Jenin, an Israeli spokesman snapped back that he would not take lessons in morality from the country that produced Vidkun Quisling, who led Norway's wartime collaborationist regime.
Shimon Peres, Israel's normally mild-mannered foreign minister, told EU colleagues in Valencia that he saw a link between attacks on synagogues and the union's tilt towards the Palestinians. "You must understand this," he said. "The issue is very sensitive in Israel ... We ask for memory."
Europeans dismiss such uncomfortable connections. "Please don't confuse anti-semitism with legitimate criticism of policies of the current Israeli government," was the confident retort of the Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique. "It is ludicrous to imply that any criticism of the way the Israeli government conducts policy reflects hostility to Israel," the EU's British external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, told Guardian Unlimited. "That sort of argument is beneath contempt."
But it is hard to deny that there is a murky grey area between questioning Israeli policy and the insensitive use of words and images that suggest old-fashioned hatred of Jews.
The liberal Italian daily La Stampa, for example, depicted a baby Jesus looking up from the manger at an Israeli tank, saying, "Don't tell me they want to kill me again." In Denmark, a Lutheran bishop delivered a sermon comparing Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians to those of King Herod, who ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two - in the same Bethlehem under siege by the Israelis today.
And in Edinburgh, an Episcopalian clergyman was forced to defend a mural showing a crucified Jesus flanked by Roman soldiers - and modern-day Israeli troops. It was not anti-semitic, he insisted, but designed to make his congregation think about current conflicts.
Highly emotive issues are in play here so it is important to be clear about what is at stake. Israelis and Palestinians desperately need to make peace. There is no alternative. Jews and Israelis are not the same, but the links between them are strong.
Many European Jews are deeply dismayed by what is happening and dislike Sharon. But they also know that even a more doveish Israeli government could not ignore the ghastly suicide bombings in its restaurants, supermarkets and streets.
Many Muslims identify with Palestinians, who deserve justice after so long. But all would do well to remember this: Europe's terrible past - just like the past of the Middle East- is not yet another country
- Guardian
Violence in the Middle East is provoking a rise in anti-semitism across Europe, reports Ian Black
Friday April 26, 2002
Synagogues vandalised in France; a firebomb attack on a kosher deli in Brussels; assaults on Hasidic men in Germany; gravestones desecrated; swastikas daubed on Jewish schools; racial abuse in Manchester and the Netherlands: just examples of the incidents that add up to a worrying revival of Europe's oldest hatred.
Events like these have been almost a daily occurrence over the past month, and this week galvanised anxious community leaders from across the continent to hold emergency consultations about how to respond.
Terrible memories were stirred when police in Berlin - the site of the Nazis' infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938 - advised Jews to avoid wearing skullcaps, Stars of David and other identifying objects.
The World Jewish Congress reported bluntly that it was seeing the biggest wave of anti-semitic attacks since the second world war. "There are Holocaust survivors who are telling their children: 'Look, this is exactly how it happened in the 1930s,'" warned its president, Avi Beker.
Alarmist? Perhaps. But the European Union was concerned enough to issue an unprecedented declaration condemning anti-semitism, racism and xenophobia, pointing out that such views were contrary to the values and beliefs on which the EU - itself a response to fascism and Auschwitz - was founded.
Thursday's statement was prompted directly by the rising number of anti-Jewish attacks linked to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was planned before the startling success of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, in the first round of his country's presidential elections.
But the performance of a man who once dismissed the gas chambers as a "detail of history" only added to the feeling that Jews living in the most tolerant and multi-cultural societies they have ever known were once again facing threats and fears long dismissed as a nightmare from Europe's dark age - albeit from a new direction.
France alone, whose 600,000 Jews make up the biggest community outside the US and Israel, chalked up hundreds of incidents over the past year. Perhaps the most shocking was the one when hooded men shouted "Death to Jews" at a soccer team in suburban Paris.
But the phenomenon spread wider after March 29, when the Israeli army went on the offensive in the West Bank against the spate of attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers, the most lethal of which killed 28 Israelis as they sat down to their Passover meal.
"At a time of acute international tension, especially in the Middle East, it is vital to preserve the spirit of harmony, entente and inter-cultural respect within our societies," the EU urged, pledging concrete measures to tackle extremism.
European governments are right to be worried: for the furies spawned by the Arab-Israeli conflict are reaching their own streets, vicious little sideshows in the "war of civilisation" many fear will be the deadly legacy of the September 11 attacks on the US.
Leaders of France's five million Muslims have warned against stigmatising an entire community, condemned attacks on Jews and called for peaceful protests in solidarity with the Palestinians.
But it is widely believed that many of the culprits are indeed angry, alienated young Muslims, often of North African origin, venting their frustration on easy targets. And horrified, of course, by the success of Le Pen. Elsewhere, police have speculated about the possible involvement of neo-Nazi groups, especially around April 20, Hitler's birthday.
Middle Eastern politics and ancient prejudice make for a volatile mix. Americans and Israelis have blamed EU governments for showing bias by maintaining support for the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who is dismissed by Ariel Sharon's government as a terrorist.
European political and media outrage has focused intensely on events in the Jenin refugee camp, where Israel has rebutted allegations of a massacre and warned of a dangerous mood of "delegitimation" of the Jewish state.
Exchanges have been heated and hostile: when Terje Larsen, the Norwegian UN envoy, said he was shocked by what happened in Jenin, an Israeli spokesman snapped back that he would not take lessons in morality from the country that produced Vidkun Quisling, who led Norway's wartime collaborationist regime.
Shimon Peres, Israel's normally mild-mannered foreign minister, told EU colleagues in Valencia that he saw a link between attacks on synagogues and the union's tilt towards the Palestinians. "You must understand this," he said. "The issue is very sensitive in Israel ... We ask for memory."
Europeans dismiss such uncomfortable connections. "Please don't confuse anti-semitism with legitimate criticism of policies of the current Israeli government," was the confident retort of the Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique. "It is ludicrous to imply that any criticism of the way the Israeli government conducts policy reflects hostility to Israel," the EU's British external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, told Guardian Unlimited. "That sort of argument is beneath contempt."
But it is hard to deny that there is a murky grey area between questioning Israeli policy and the insensitive use of words and images that suggest old-fashioned hatred of Jews.
The liberal Italian daily La Stampa, for example, depicted a baby Jesus looking up from the manger at an Israeli tank, saying, "Don't tell me they want to kill me again." In Denmark, a Lutheran bishop delivered a sermon comparing Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians to those of King Herod, who ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two - in the same Bethlehem under siege by the Israelis today.
And in Edinburgh, an Episcopalian clergyman was forced to defend a mural showing a crucified Jesus flanked by Roman soldiers - and modern-day Israeli troops. It was not anti-semitic, he insisted, but designed to make his congregation think about current conflicts.
Highly emotive issues are in play here so it is important to be clear about what is at stake. Israelis and Palestinians desperately need to make peace. There is no alternative. Jews and Israelis are not the same, but the links between them are strong.
Many European Jews are deeply dismayed by what is happening and dislike Sharon. But they also know that even a more doveish Israeli government could not ignore the ghastly suicide bombings in its restaurants, supermarkets and streets.
Many Muslims identify with Palestinians, who deserve justice after so long. But all would do well to remember this: Europe's terrible past - just like the past of the Middle East- is not yet another country
- Guardian
