Conflicts & War

2021 most antisemitic year in a decade, report warns

Jerusalem, Jan 27 (EFE).- Jewish organizations have warned that 2021 was “the most anti-Semitic year of the last decade” and that there was a risk of trivializing the Holocaust.

According to a report published by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, an average of more than 10 anti-Semitic incidents per day were reported in 2021.

“However, the actual number of incidents was significantly higher, since many are not reported by the victims out of fear, and due to the lack of surveillance and prosecution of local authorities and law enforcement agencies,” the report added.

The main anti-Semitic incidents included vandalism and destruction, graffiti and desecration of monuments, as well as a spike in propaganda shared online.

Incidents of physical violence in 2021 accounted for less than a third of all anti-Semitic crimes and “this year no Jew in the world has been murdered on anti-Semitic grounds.”

Europe was at the forefront of anti-Semitic incidents in 2021, with close to 50% of the total, followed by the United States (30%).

Canada and Australia presented surprising increases in the number of anti-Semitic incidents on previous years.

The Antisemitism Report for 2021 published on Monday warns that another phenomenon on the rise is the trivialization of the Jewish Holocaust by Nazi Germany to “diminish the dimensions of the Holocaust and its historical uniqueness and importance.”

“Opponents of vaccination from all over the world used symbols from the Holocaust to protest,” leading to the “trivialization of the Holocaust,” Raheli Baratz-Rix, head of the WZO’s departmnet for combatting anti-Semitism denounced.

Conspiracy theories, fuelled by anti-Semitism, accuse the Jews of spreading the pandemic to control the world, according to the report.

Despite the grim statistics, the report welcomed the adoption by many countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism and the approval of new laws worldwide that prevent the use of Holocaust symbols.

Another 2021 milestone that took place last week was the adoption in the UN General Assembly — with the sole opposition of Iran — of a joint German-Israeli non-binding resolution to condemn the denial of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, particularly on social media.EFE

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