Faced with the various forms of anti-Semitism observed in European societies, the countries of the Union are far from presenting a united front: the former Eastern Europe remains marked by traditional prejudices against the Jews; citizens of Western European countries are more inclined to point the finger at Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians. This is what emerges, among others, from a poll commissioned by the Action and Protection League (APL), a partner organization of the European Jewish Association (EJA), whose officials are meeting on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 October in Brussels for a meeting with parliamentarians, diplomats and heads of European institutions.
In detail, this Ipsos survey, conducted for two years in sixteen countries of the European Union (EU), confirms the persistence of a number of stereotypes about the Jewish communities of Europe, which represent, according to estimates, 1 , 5 million people. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking remotely from Jerusalem, was to denounce on Tuesday, “ the scourge of anti-Semitism that continues to pervade the streets and online “. Overall, the study’s authors estimate that 12% of Europeans are “Strongly” anti-Semites and 8% “Moderately”.
Greece and Romania display their anti-Semitic views
Thus, 21% of Europeans questioned are ” Okay “ (7%) or ” somewhat agree “ (14%) with the idea that secret networks run by Jews would influence the economic and political life of the world. Greeks (58%) and Hungarians (39%) are even particularly convinced of this.
Across Europe, Greece and Romania are the two countries that most massively display their anti-Semitic views, whatever the forms envisaged: a rejection based on religion, fueled by politics, marked by conspiracy or fueled by Holocaust denial … And more than a third of Greeks and Poles believe that Jews cannot integrate into their society, against 17% at European level. The idea it takes “Beware of the Jews” is still strongly or rather shared by 48% of Greeks, 41% of Poles and 39% of Hungarians. Conversely, only 4% of the Dutch and 2% of the Swedes agree with this statement. On the religious level, 39% of Greeks and 30% of Romanians still hold the Jews responsible for the death of Jesus, maintaining the notion of “deicide people”.
According to the poll, revisionist views are present in eastern Europe … and in France: 24% of Romanians, 23% of Greeks, 21% of Hungarians, as well as 20% of Poles and French agree or rather agree with the assertion that the number of Jewish victims of the Shoah is lower than commonly accepted figures. A proportion that falls to 11% on average in the sixteen countries. On the duty to remember, it is, this time, the Austrians and the Germans who stand out: 43% of the former and 28% of the latter (against 19% on average) believe that, eighty years after the events, it would be necessary to talk less about the Shoah. In France, Sweden or the Netherlands, around eight out of ten people believe, on the other hand, that it is important to remember the persecutions.
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