According to the Report published by the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism there has been an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents and violent attacks against Jews.
The Islamic antisemitism continues to be the main and most dangerous threat to the Jewish communities and it has been this Islamic antisemitism which inspired the murder of Sarah Halimi in Paris on April 5, 2017. Incitement by radical Islamic states and institutions continued also this year and legitimated attacks against Jews.
Following the refugee and immigrant crisis in Western Europe, extreme right-wing parties scored extraordinary achievements in terms of public support. The elections held this year in several European countries were an opportunity for them to spread their doctrine to the public under the guise of a legitimate political debate. Campaigns organized by the parties in France, Britain, and Germany accelerated the infiltration of antisemitism in the center of political discourse and reflected in an increase of antisemitic rhetoric. The Labor Party conference in Britain, for example, continued to be a fertile soil for anti-Israeli and antisemitic remarks as well as the Alternative for Germany party whose representative called the Holocaust Memorial a “Monument of Shame.”
In the United States, the “alternative right” became more popular and reached its peak at the right-wing march in Charlottesville: “Uniting the Right”. During this march they revealed for the first time the dimensions of the phenomenon, which until then had been considered a network phenomenon.
At the same time, radical leftist movements, especially on campuses, continued to spread anti-Israeli propaganda causing Jewish students to feel insecure and unfree to express pro-Israel or Zionist views.
Official figures collected by the Anti-Defamation League in the United States indicate that the number of antisemitic incidents reported in 2017 continues to be higher than in the previous year.
In Eastern Europe the number of violent incidents dropped. An exception to this trend in Eastern Europe is Ukraine.
Despite the above mentioned, significant achievements have also been made during the last year in the struggle against antisemitism. Primarily the recognition of the definition of antisemitism. (Which actually recognizes new antisemitism and delegitimization as a form of antisemitism. The full definition can be found at the end of the Report). Until now six countries have ratified the definition adopted by the International Association for the Preservation of the Memory of the Holocaust (IHRA) – UK, Israel, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and even the European Parliament. Several states have already stated that they intend to adopt the definition in order to provide tools for the authorities to identify antisemitism and thereby enable its prevention.
Significant achievements have also been recorded in the online incitement. In Germany and the United Kingdom, laws have been ratified forcing Internet companies to deal with incitement. The European Commission has published guidelines and principles for Internet companies to promote prevention, detection and removal of insulting content, hate speech, violence and terrorism.
