Saturday, December 7, 2013

Fundamental Rights Agency spotlights rising anti-Semitism, then buries its own working definition of anti-Semitism

Europe’s Fundamental Rights Agency, which last month released a study on rising anti-Semitism in Europe has now discarded its own definition of anti-Semitism and removed the definition from its website.

The FRA study reported that:

  • 76% of survey respondents said the situation had deteriorated over the last five years
  • 66% consider anti-Semitism to be a major problem in their country
  • 38 % said they avoid displaying symbols identifying them as Jews in public
  • 23 % said that they occasionally avoid visiting Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe there or the way there because they are Jewish
  • Fear of rising anti-Semitism in Europe has prompted nearly a third of European Jews to consider emigration because they do not feel safe in their home country

“We are not aware of any official definition [of anti-Semitism],” Blanca Tapia of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency told JTA after the definition was removed from the FRA website.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called on the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency to return the working definition of anti-Semitism to its website.

With European Jews facing increasing difficulty, the Jerusalem Post published an editorial in October calling on Israel to “prepare both operationally and conceptually to absorb thousands of European Jews.”

A paper published in March by JPPI titled European Jewry – Signals and Noise, reported on the situation and trends facing European Jewry and proposed ways to improve Israeli capabilities to welcome and absorb large numbers of Jews fleeing Europe.

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