State Dept. report describes ‘rising tide’ of anti-Semitism
The U.S. State Department’s report on religious freedom
described a “global increase” in anti-Semitism and said the “rising tide of
anti-Semitism” was among the key trends of last year.
The executive summary of the report for 2011, released
Monday, also detailed the “impact of political and demographic transitions on
religious minorities” and “the effects of conflict on religious freedom.”
The increased anti-Semitism was “manifested in Holocaust
denial, glorification, and relativism; conflating opposition to certain
policies of Israel with blatant anti-Semitism; growing nationalistic movements
that target ‘the other'; and traditional forms of anti-Semitism, such as conspiracy
theories, acts of desecration and assault, ‘blood libel,’ and cartoons
demonizing Jews,” the summary said.
It was not clear from the report how its authors assessed
an “increase” in anti-Semitism. There was no overall quantification of the
phenomenon, and individual country reports, while listing instances of official
and societal anti-Semitism, did not compare rates to previous years’ reports.
The emphasis on anti-Semitism reflects a policy initiated
by Hannah Rosenthal, the current special envoy on anti-Semitism. Rosenthal has
pressed for the incorporation of anti-Semitism monitoring into the department’s
overall human rights reports, arguing that it increases awareness of the issue
among U.S. diplomats.
The George W. Bush administration, which expanded
monitoring of anti-Semitism by creating the post of an envoy to combat
anti-Semitism, kept its reports on the issue separate.
Countries singled out for special notice on anti-Semitism
included:
* Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez described Israel’s
treatment of the Palestinians as “genocide” and called Zionism racism, and an
Op-Ed in a government-owned newspaper that described Norwegian mass killer
Anders Breivik as a “sabbath goy."
* Ukraine, where there were several instances of
vandalism targeting Jewish buildings and cemeteries, as well as incitement by
ultranationalist figures.
* Hungary, where the rise of an anti-Semitic political
party was noted.
* Egypt, where anti-Semitic cartoons and articles
persisted in government-run and opposition media after the revolution in early
2011 that ousted the regime of Hosni Mubarak.
* Iran, where the report said that “the government’s
anti-Semitic rhetoric, along with a perception among radical Muslims that all
Jewish citizens of the country supported Zionism and the state of Israel,
continued to create a hostile atmosphere for Jews.” The report also said that
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “continued to question regularly the existence
and the scope of the Holocaust and publicly called for the destruction of
Israel, which created a more hostile environment for the Jewish community.”
* The Palestinian areas, where the report noted an
instance of a Hamas imam in the Gaza Strip calling for the death of Jews, as
well as a documentary on Palestinian Authority TV that characterized Jewish
rites as “sin and filth.”
The country report on Israel said that “government policy
contributed to the generally free practice of religion, although government
discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism continued.”
It noted that Christian missionaries were turned away at the airport in some
instances and also noted the Interior Ministry’s refusal to recognize some U.S.
converts to Judaism as Jews.
“A minority of Jews in the country observes the Orthodox
tradition, and the majority of Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox
control over fundamental aspects of their personal lives,” the report said.
It noted the practice on some public buses of segregating
men from women.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry had yet to formulate a
response to the report, an official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington said
Tuesday.
Recording instances of societal discrimination, the
report listed organized efforts to persuade Jewish businesses not to hire
Arabs, as well as attacks by extremist settlers on mosques.
It also noted extremist Muslim riots, including several
instances in which rioters at the mosques overlooking the Western Wall stoned
Jewish worshipers.
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