Anti-Semitism on the Rise: Report

Criticism of Israel helps fuel hatred worldwide, warns State Department
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 14, 2008 3:15 AM CDT
Anti-Semitism on the Rise: Report
Anti Semitic inscriptions and a Nazi swastika are seen on the grave of Tzaddik Elimelech at the Jewish cemetery in Lezajsk, southeastern Poland, Thursday, March 6, 2008.    (AP Photo/Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, ho)

Over 60 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, warns a State Department report. US embassies across the globe have noted that attacks on Jewish people, their property and institutions have risen in the last ten years. In 2006 more than 100 synagogues were vandalized, hundreds of Jewish people were attacked, and a young French Jew was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, Reuters reports.

New forms of the hatred involve "criticism of Zionism or Israeli policy that—intentionally or not—has the effect of promoting prejudice against all Jews by demonizing Israel and Israelis," the report concluded. Various governments and leaders, including Iran's Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, were accused of helping fan the flames of anti-Semitism. (More antisemitism stories.)

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