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From Cordoba to Jerusalem
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has apparently suggested that Europe is in the throes of the worst outbreak of anti-Semitism since the second world war, is this a reasonable view?. According to media reports, the Centre has cited an unpublished opinion poll carried out on behalf of the EU as evidence, and in particular that 59% of people who participated in the poll (and not 59% of the EU as some news services reported) indicated that they 'believed' Israel to be the biggest threat to world peace. It is sometimes easy for me to forget that I live in Europe, after all, Cordoba is closer to Tanger than to Madrid, closer to the Bazaar than to Galerie Lafayette, Hertie or Marks and Spencers - ok, I exaggerate, we do have an El Corte Ingles department store here, all lit up with coloured lights for Christmas - but nonetheless, we also get the press and internet and TV. This is how I get to know, for example, that a right-wing politician speaking in Rome told his audience that the best way to avoid anti-Semitism was to move to Israel, stating that it would be "the only place on Earth where Jews can live as Jews", they also suggested that "If Israel is weakened ... the Jews worldwide will not be able to live the lives they live today". Quite frankly it makes me wonder how people can get away with saying such things in Europe or anywhere else for that matter. Who has the moral right to tell people where they should live? Have we forgotten decency, did we shelve the fight against discrimination and are all opinions valid? What if President Bush had told some Americans that the best move they could make would be to emigrate to Africa? What if Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that the Welsh living in England should all leave? What if Chancellor Schroeder told the Turkish living in Germany that they would be happier elsewhere? And, what if President Aznar told Spain's Muslims that they would be better off living in an Islamic country? Of course, there would be public outrage, and justifiably so. Is Europe becoming more anti-Semitic? How many Europeans hold a derogatory view of Judaism and Jews based on some characterization of physical and moral traits? Certainly this was the view of certain segments of the extreme-right, the Nazis, which continues in its vile and pornographic manifestation as a western phenomena known as neo-Nazism. How about superstitious, irrational and vile hatred of Jews as a group? Again, we know that this exists, we know from history and experience that hatred of Jews as a group has resulted in some of the greatest crimes against humanity, but to what extent does it exist now, how pervasive is it in today's European civil society? Clearly there are attacks on Jewish people, property and interests in Europe. The presence of extreme right wing sentiments in Europe is a reality, it cannot be denied by any thinking person of almost any political persuasion. There is long-term unemployment, alienation and marginalization amongst the poorest and least well equipped sectors of society. Mainstream parties seem to be incapable of offering any solutions, any hope or any resolve in attacking the conditions in which neo-Nazism flourishes. These neo-Nazi groups tend to be anti-Semitic in its fuller sense, their hatred isn't limited to Jews but also frequently extends to Arabs, and subsequently Muslims and other identifiable groups. Anti-Jewish sentiment is also to be found amongst some young Muslims in Europe who have seemed to have adopted the Palestinian cause as their own, as if Ramallah or Mosul or Kabul were just a new arrondissement of Paris, and attacks on Jewish people, property and culture is a fact, it's roots lie in ignorance, alienation and intolerance. Of course, anti-Semitism should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form, and governments and civil society should do everything it can to eliminate it, along with the eradication of negative discrimination, socially disruptive fanaticism and violence. But does the poll, which was criticized by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, amongst others, indicate that the European Union is overtly anti-Semitic? Well, judge for yourself. The poll carried out by the EU involved 7,500 participants, 500 people from each of the 15 member states included in the poll. The European Union now embraces more than 370 million people: from the Arctic Circle to Italy, from Wales to Catalunya, from Portugal to Poland. This really means that a representative sample of 7,500 participants from the European Union is actually quite small. The poll was the equivalent of polling 0.002% of the population of the EU, which means that 0.0012% of the population actually polled believed that Israel posed the biggest threat to world peace. Little wonder then that the poll was not published. What about the opinion poll question itself, what about the motivation that people use for defining a country as a threat to world peace? Well that's a very subjective question for a start, rather like polls that ask people how they rate the President's on the job performance - let's be honest, amongst Jane and Joe Public who really knows what the President does and is supposed to do? But seriously, we could discuss the threats to world peace from a better position if world peace was itself a reality. We know for example that Ariel Sharon is a reactionary right-wing politician who is not afraid to use force to try and achieve his objectives, we also know that he has a long time dislike of another reactionary right-wing politician, President Yasser Arafat (nothing strange there, despite the legitimacy of Arafat's claims for a Palestinian state, he really was a terrorist), and voices close to Sharon have even threatened to exile Arafat or even have him killed. Israel itself also has a veritable array of world-class weapons, obtained from the USA, Germany and elsewhere, and the cherry on the top of Israel's weapons stash is of course, the nuclear bomb. Consider this, even if little Wales had a tenth of the weaponry that Israel possesses it would probably also be considered a threat to world peace. So, going back to the claim that Europe is in the throes of anti-Semitism what can be said? Maybe this really has very little to do with anti-Semitism at all, and a lot to do with political manipulation, disinformation and pretense. Bottom line is that some people with clear political agendas claim that anything and everything that criticizes the government of Israel is intrinsically anti-Semitic. Now I know that the state of Israel was founded as a Jewish homeland and that its constitution states as much, but, nonetheless the level of spin and veiled quasi-defamation generated in defense of the government of Sharon is alarming and actually, in my view, hugely counter-productive. Anyone who knows of the way that the charge of anti-Americanism was used in the McCarthy era will find a certain resonance in the way that the charge of anti-Semitism is used quite frequently these days. In spite of the charges that Europe is more anti-Semitic, the last ten years has seen an marked increase of emigration from Israel to Europe. This has resulted in the increase in the number of Jewish people living in Germany, Switzerland and the UK, to name just three European states. So why would anyone want to live and work in Germany? There is a simple answer. Personally, I would live and work in Germany, for example, simply because: the standard of living is one of the best around; there are more opportunities for more interesting work and better working conditions than most anywhere else; there is good protection for employees and the health service is excellent; despite complaints of some Germans, the education system is still very good; there are a high degree of cultural and social activities that one can participate in; the law is the law of civil society and not the law of the jungle; society itself is tolerant, liberal and relatively prosperous; the country is highly democratic, and, Europe in general, is probably as safe a place as anywhere else in the world. We know that Anti-Semitism, like xenophobia, and intolerance itself,
is a real problem for Europe, which must be addressed with not only
with a sense but also with the reality of urgency. We also know
that the right-wing politician who was telling a Jewish audience
in Rome that they should move to Israel was Ariel Sharon. We can
observe that the Sharon Government's principal, most rigorous and
most telling critics are Israelis and Jewish intellectuals in the
USA and Europe. At the end of the day, the silly little poll carried
out on behalf of the EU also showed that eight percent of the respondents
described the EU as a threat to world peace - self-hating Europeans
no doubt.
© 2003 Martyn Richard Jones Reader Response |
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