Antisemitism the situation in the EU 2001-2011

THE STATE OF ISRAEL – EUROPEAN COMMISSIONVIth Seminar on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism

JERUSALEM , 18-19 JUNE 2012

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency

• Created in 2007 to provide evidence based assistance and expertise on fundamental rights issues to EU institutions and Member States, when implementing EU law

• to promote dialogue with civil society, in order to raise public awareness of fundamental rights and actively disseminate information about its work

(Council Regulation (EC) 168/2007 of 15 /02/2007)

Civil SocietyAcademia

FundamentalRights Platform

Civil SocietyAcademia

FundamentalRights Platform

EU institutions and

advisory bodies

EU institutions and

advisory bodies

**CoE**OSCEUN

**CoE**OSCEUN

National Human

Rights Institutions

Equality Bodies

National Human

Rights Institutions

Equality Bodies

EU Member StatesNational LiaisonOfficers Network

EU Member StatesNational LiaisonOfficers Network

FRAFRA

Research & Analysis

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Research methodology

• Baseline: definitions and standards EU – CoE – UN• Policy relevant research evidence based opinions• Interdisciplinary ‘socio – legal’ approach

‘Active’ collection of secondary quantitative official and unofficial data and qualitative contextual information

Quantitative and qualitative primary data collection fieldwork research to attain comparable data

Update on Antisemitism in the EU

• 8th update of 2004 report “Manifestations of antisemitism in the EU” – data provided by RAXEN

• Official and non-official statistical data 2001-2011 (where available)• Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, The

Netherlands, Sweden, UK• Limited information on incidents in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Ireland,

Italy, and Spain• No data were available for Estonia, Luxembourg (where no data are collected),

Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia when compiling the report.

Official data on antisemitic incidents

• Only France, Germany and Sweden collect sufficient official criminal justice data allowing a trend analysis of recorded antisemitic crimes:

• France: the annual level remains above that of 2001 with an overall decreasing trend.

• Germany: incidents had a low point in 2003, increased in 2004 and 2005, 2006 and 2009, but since 2007 there is a downward trend.

• Sweden: A sharp increase in the number of crimes with an antisemitic motive reported to the police is observed between 2008 and 2009, followed by a sharp decline between 2009 and 2010. We are awaiting publication of official data for 2011 by the end of 2012.

Official data

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

FranceSource: Commission nationale consultative des

droits de l'homme

219 936 601 974 508 571 402 459 815 466 389

GermanySource: Kriminalpolizeilicher Meldedienst - Politisch motivierte Kriminalität, KMPD PMK

1,691 1,771 1,344 1,449 1,748 1,809 1,657 1,559 1,690 1,268 1,239

Sweden Source: Centre for research and development within the judicial system http://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home.html

115 131 128 151 111 134 118 159 250 161 To be published

towards end of

2012

Data collection issues

• Contradiction inherent in data collection: Countries with the best data collection systems become portrayed as those with the worst problem

• But! Whilst high figures indicate that a serious problem exists, they also indicate that it is taken seriously

• Adequate and EU coordinated criminal data collection procedures, police training, third party reporting, etc, needed

• Need to facilitate civil society efforts to record incidents

Other issues

• Events in the Middle East led to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents

• Efforts by community leaders and government to defuse tensions between Muslim and Jewish groups (FR, BE)

• Financial crisis used in the rhetoric of extremist groups

• Extreme right and left wing and increasingly populist political rhetoric uses/disseminates antisemitic conspiracy notions

• Traditional antisemitic stereotypes persist with nuanced references to the Israel/Palestinian conflict

• Perpetrators identities and motivation under-researched

Antisemitism in sports• 2009 research revealed anti-Semitic incidents in sports in

many EU Member States, in particular related to football• Players in Jewish teams have been subjected to antisemitic

slander and threats by players of other teams or spectators in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Germany

• Anti-Semitic slanders and chants were directed at the fans and players for clubs that have or had a Jewish background or roots in the Jewish community like Ajax Amsterdam, NL; FK Vienna, AT or Tottenham Hotspur, UK

• References to the Holocaust in graffiti, chants or banners in Poland and Slovakia or antisemitic slanders and remarks expressed by neo-Nazis.

Causes for the upsurge in antisemitism

• Statistical trends over the past few years does indicate that for some countries Middle East political developments impact on antisemitic activity, e.g. impact of Lebanon war in France and the UK in 2006, Gaza incursion of 2008 in various MSs in late 2008 and early 2009.

• From a scientific perspective the overall paucity of data, allows only speculative conclusions for the EU, as a whole, as to how political developments in the Middle East influence attitudes and behaviour of Arab and other Muslim EU communities, as well as the rhetoric and activities of the extreme right and the extreme left.

Primary data on antisemitism • Survey seeks to collect reliable and comparable data that will

assist EU institutions and national governments in taking the necessary measures that will ensure that the rights of Jewish people are fully respected, protected and fulfilled across the EU

• To address this need, in 2012, the FRA is carrying out a Survey among Jewish populations in selected EU Member States. The survey will focus on Jewish people’s experiences and perceptions of antisemitism.

• The following EU Member States are included in the survey: BE, FR, DE, HU, IT, LA, SE, UK.

• The survey results will be published in 2013.

The survey aims to provide• Robust, reliable and comparable data on the experiences and perceptions

of antisemitism by Jewish people in selected EU Member States.

• Evidence-based advice to EU and national level policy makers in order to assist them when they develop policies and measures to combat antisemitism, to improve rights awareness and to address the under-reporting of incidents.

• Link up with community security initiatives – for example: Community Trust Fund, UK, A Jewish Contribution to Inclusive Europe, Facing Facts! Project, which aims on improving monitoring and recording hate crimes throughout the European Union.

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Countries selection in the FRA survey

• Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Sweden, the United Kingdom

• Countries have been selected on the basis of:

– estimated size of the Jewish population

– coverage of various regions of the EU

– to reflect historical developments and their effects on the communities surveyed

– practical feasibility

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Methodology • Survey data collection based on standardised

questionnaire, translated in the official languages of the countries + Russian and Hebrew

• Online survey

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Two stage data collection

• Stage one: Respondent-driven sampling (RDS)– People can access the survey only by invitation,

following a controlled process– Aim of the RDS is to arrive at a representative

presentation of the opinions and experiences of Jews living in the country

• Stage two: Open web survey– All eligible persons who did not complete the survey in

stage one can participate

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Questionnaire• Trends in antisemitism• Antisemitism as a problem in everyday life

– vandalism – expressions of hostility – in the media – in politics– on the Internet

• Personal experiences of antisemitic incidents• Witnessing antisemitic incidents

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Questionnaire (cont).• Jewish identity

– Self-identification– Secular/religious– Following Jewish practices– Synagogue membership– Self-defined Jewish identity– Importance of specific elements to own Jewish identity– Assessment of the strength of own Jewish identity– Respondents background variables

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Results • Dedicated reports• Results integrated into other FRA reports, such as the

Annual Report on Fundamental Rights in the EU• Information on the FRA website, including in the form of

interactive maps

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Thank you for your attention!

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