(Jewish Group) Anti-Semitism rising sharply across Europe, latest figures show
Anti-Semitism is rising sharply across Europe, experts have said, as France reported a 74 per cent increase in the number of offences against Jews last year and Germany said the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks had surged by more than 60 per cent.
The figures confirm the results of three recent Europe-wide surveys showing Jewish people feel at greater risk, and are experiencing markedly more aggression, amid a generalised increase in racist hate speech and violence in a significantly coarser, more polarised political environment.
France’s interior ministry said this week that recorded incidents of anti-Semitism rose to 541 last year from 311 in 2017, while the German government said offences motivated by hatred of Jews hit a 10-year high of 1,646 in 2018. Physical attacks rose from 37 to 62, leaving 43 people needing medical treatment.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, denounced the trend as “unacceptable”, telling ministers that anti-Semitism in France was “a repudiation of the Republic and its values”. Petra Pau, an MP for Germany’s Die Linke party, said more and more people felt free to “deny the Holocaust and engage in anti-Semitic agitation”.
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