Troubling signs

“It is early for conclusions but there are clear signs that indicate a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe tied to the heightening of the conflict in the Middle East” Morten Kjaerum is the director of the European Union Agency for Human Rights. A few days ago he presented a survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in the Union in the period 2001-2008.It is difficult to trace a European picture. The basic line of the document s that it is difficult to dispose of “valid and comparable” data. The experts explain, “We find ourselves facing a real problem, given that in some countries ministries of national institutes or agencies keep a record of acts and crimes”; in other cases we must, instead, rely on newspaper article or reports written by non government organizations or work done by the Jewish communities. Another difficulty regards the different categorizations of individual episodes. “In some cases anti-Semitic violence is not classified as such”, while more generally, incidents of different levels of gravity are compiled, including offence, physical violence, destruction of tombs or monuments, damage to things or even bullying among young people. Gaza, economic crisis and xenophobic politics. Despite these difficulties, the document produced by the Agency (around thirty pages) starts with the situation in 19 Member States, presents a series of statistics and then lists the most recent cases. “Compared to a total decrease in incidents caused by anti-Semitism up to a good part of 2008, today we are witnessing increasing numbers.” The director of FRA speaks of “an alarming increase” and sends out an alarm to national authorities regarding the near future. Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, who was a co-worker on the survey, agrees with him. “It would seem there is a relation between the increase of anti-Semitism in the EU and the situation recently created in Gaza:” The EU Agency has announced that regarding this aspect, it has “begun research that should be completed by 2010.” However, two other elements are stressed. Above all there could be a possible relationship between the economic recession – which nearly always generates attitudes of closure, nationalism and xenophobia – and cases of violence against persons or property of other nationalities. The second observation relates to Austria “where extreme right and xenophobic parties have risen in the elections. Here the number of anti-Semitic crimes doubled in 2007 with respect to the two preceding years. From the numbers to the cases. The analyses of national realities present a picture of lights and shadows. For example, in the Netherlands – a nation most hit by this problem in recent years – “in 2007 there were 50 cases of this sort, whereas in 2006 there were 108.” In Germany too, as in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden, where the phenomenon is always widely reported in newspapers, there was a decrease between 2006 and 2007, followed by an increase of episodes of discrimination in the recent period. In the part that speaks of cases, we find, for example, acts of vandalism by about twenty teenagers in Warka (Poland); desecration of tombs with Nazi signs in Lisbon (Portugal), acts of vandalism against the Synagogue of Barcelona (Spain). Other incidents, of diverse gravity, were recorded in Rumania, Slovackia, Italy, the Baltic Republics, Hungary and Greece. The EU Agency in Vienna. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (www.fra.europa.eu) was born officially in 2007 when it replaced the previous European Observatory for the phenomena of racism and xenophobia. The objective of the organization is to “furnish European institutions and national authorities assistance and consultation regarding fundamental rights in the implementation of community law, as well as to help them adopt appropriate measures or initiatives.” In fact, respect for human rights and fundamental liberties is a common value, shared by all the Member States, as we can read in Article 6 of the EU Treaty: “The Union respects the fundamental rights guaranteed by the European Convention for the Safeguarding of the Rights of Man and Fundamental Freedoms, signed in Rome November 4, 1950, and those treated in the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of Community Law” . Among the basic duties of the Agency of Vienna, are the collection of data, research and studies, the formulation and publication of opinions on specific topics, the proportion of dialogue with civil society “to sensitize public opinion with regard to fundamental rights.” The organism does not however, have the right to speak with regard to individual accusations or to legislate norms.