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New Survey Finds Startling Increase in Rates of Antisemitic Incidents Around the World
A woman holding an anti-semitic sign at a Pro-Palestine protest in Warsaw, Poland on Sat. Oct. 21, 2023. Source: Twitter / NEXTA
i24 News – “October 7 helped spread a fire that was already out of control.”
That’s the finding of an alarming new report from the Anti-Defamation League and Tel Aviv University, which shows that the rate of antisemitic incidents increased by dozens of percentage points around the world.
But the study also shows that the number was growing even before the Gaza war broke out in October.
In the US, the ADL said that antisemitism reached historic levels. In its recently released annual survey, the organization recorded 7,523 incidents in 2023 compared to 3,697 in 2022, and according to a broader definition, it recorded 8,873 incidents. The number of assaults increased from 111 in 2022 to 161 in 2023 and acts of vandalism rose from 1,288 to 2,106. Spotlighting specific cities, in New York City, the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, the NYPD recorded 325 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023 in comparison to the 261 it recorded in 2022. In Los Angeles, the figure was 165 compared to the 86 incidents filed the previous year.
Other countries also saw dramatic increases in the number of antisemitic attacks, according to data collected from governmental agencies, law enforcement authorities, Jewish organizations, media, and fieldwork.
In France, the number of incidents increased from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, with the number of physical assaults increasing from 43 to 85. In the UK, the number grew from 1,662 to 4,103, and physical assaults nearly doubled (from 136 to 266). And in Germany, the number rose from 2,639 to 3,614.
In South America, Brazil saw the most alarming increase, from 432 incidents in 2022 to 1,774 in 2023, while Argentina saw a rise from 427 to 598. Meanwhile, Australia recorded a stunning 622 antisemitic incidents in October and November alone, compared to 79 during the same period in the previous year.
While the dramatic increases in comparison to 2022 largely followed October 7, the report emphasizes that most countries with large Jewish minorities saw relative increases also in the first nine months of 2023, before the war started.
In France, the number of incidents during January-September 2023 increased to 434 from 329 during the same period in 2022; in Britain – from 1,270 to 1,404. In Australia, 371 incidents were recorded between January and September 2023, compared to 363 in the same period in 2022. On the other hand, Germany and Austria, where national programs for fighting antisemitism are applied, saw decreases.
The ADL’s CEO and National Director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said: “The aftermath of Hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7th was followed by a tsunami of hate against Jewish communities worldwide,” citing the recent survey released by the organization which found 2023 had the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the US ever recorded by the ADL.
While the report focuses on 2023, the recent headlines focusing on the intense pro-Gaza protests on American campuses have added to the sense that the ability of Jews, particularly younger generations, to present themselves in public spaces is at risk. Authorities are grappling with how to balance freedom of expression while protecting the rights and physical safety of others, and the recent passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act in the US House of Representatives may help prevent the worrying trend from similarly inflating in 2024.
“The year is not 1938, not even 1933. Yet if current trends continue, the curtain will descend on the ability to lead Jewish lives in the West – to wear a Star of David, attend synagogues and community centers, send kids to Jewish schools, frequent a Jewish club on campus, or speak Hebrew,” warns Professor Uriya Shavit, head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.
The report concludes that the effort to fight antisemitism on a global scale has failed. “One of our biggest challenges is how to fight antisemitism without making it the defining factor of Jewish identity in our times,” says Shavit.
The post New Survey Finds Startling Increase in Rates of Antisemitic Incidents Around the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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