Two years to the day after the Hamas attack in Israel, the European Commission presented a statement on the rise of antisemitism in Europe to the plenary session of MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday 7 October, through the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner.
“The situation for Europeans of the Jewish faith is deteriorating”, said the Commissioner, noting that after the terrorist attack in October 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of 251 others, anti-Semitic crimes had increased, as witnessed by the recent attack in Manchester (UK) (see EUROPE 13722/28).
Faced with a “pervasive” scourge, which is on the rise both in public places and online, Magnus Brunner expressed his concern at a reminder of “the darkest days of European history”.
In his view, antisemitism is not just a threat to Jewish populations, but “weighs heavily on European populations and society – the European culture that has taken centuries to establish”.
The Commission will “combat antisemitism by devoting all the political instruments at its disposal”.
Because, as Commissioner Brunner said, “if we lose this battle against antisemitism, we will lose our very soul as Europeans”.
The Commissioner also pointed the finger at the conflation of blaming European Jewish communities for the actions of the Israeli government.
“We can, of course, criticise a government’s actions. What is unacceptable, however, is for European Jewish communities to be blamed for the actions of the State of Israel”, he added. Israel’s campaign of military reprisals has claimed tens of thousands of lives – 67,160 on the Palestinian side, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is under the authority of Hamas – over the past two years.
But the European fight against antisemitism will not be at the expense of other communities, insisted Magnus Brunner. “This is not about a divide between Jews and other religions. It is a split between the democrats and the extremists”, he said.
And he concluded: “I urge you to stand united against this front of intolerance. They will never win”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)