Alwaght- While having been grappling with a wide range of home tensions in recent months, the Israeli regime has not been well abroad, too. The Israelis have so far been thinking that should a war erupt between them and the Muslim countries, they can count on the Western countries, but reports published by Israeli political circles about the way of the Western citizens’ vision of the Israeli regime are worrisome to Tel Aviv officials.
On the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 17, the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University published a report that shows the number of anti-Semitic incidents have increased considerably worldwide. The report further held that in 2022, over 3,700 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the US, which is considered unprecedented compared to 2717 cases in 2021.
In the US, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York and Los Angeles in 2022 was nearly double the previous year, according to the report. In France, the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents increased by almost 75 percent compared to 2020. In England, the number of recorded physical attacks against Jews has increased by 78 percent. In Germany, such incidents recorded by the police increased by 29 percent and 49 percent compared to 2019. In Australia, the hate against the Jews increased sharply, and only in May 2022, 88 cases of anti-Jewish hate crimes were recorded, which is the highest monthly figure so far. The writers of this report partially consider the reactions to the 11-day war in May 2021 between the Israeli regime and the Gaza resistance groups as the reason for the increase in anti-Jewish sentiments.
Anti-Israeli hate rise
According to the report, the orthodox Jews are the primary target of the anti-Semitic behavior in the West including psychical attacks, spatting, and object throwing. Uriya Shavit, the head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, said that battling anti-Semitism required police, legal prosecution, and targeted training campaigns in areas where there are higher attack numbers.
Shavit and Carl Yonker, a senior researcher at the same center, said anti-Semitic and white supremacist propaganda in the US also hit new levels, higher almost three times compared to the year before.
The report points to the racist remarks by the Israeli lawmakers, saying: “Racism is racism, and Jewish racism is as deplorable as other forms of racism, and should never be excused or tolerated.”
The report also talks about the increasing role of social media in publishing fake news and incitement against the Jews. It suggests that the social media platforms have a highly alterting role in anti-Semitic attacks. Although the US has imposed restrictions on social networks, including Twitter, regarding criticism of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jews, yet the wave of global opposition to the crimes of the Israelis has spread so widely that even such reports cannot win respect and solidarity for the Israelis.
Europe is insecure, too
The insecurity of the Jews is not just in the US, but also in Europe. The reports published about the increase in public hate violence against the Jews in European countries indicate that the Israeli regime is considered criminal among most Europeans.
Last week, for example, a synagogue was vandalized before Holocaust Remembrance Day. A number of veiled people made anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls of the Jewish prayer hall in Catalan and called Tel Aviv a regime of “genocide and execution of Palestinians.” The graffiti further suggested that the Israeli regime is a “killer” entity that seizes the houses and destroys them. It also held that killer elites are those who support Tel Aviv.
The head of the Conference of European Rabbis expressed his concern about Barcelona incident, saying that the fate of the Jewish community in Barcelona was the result of what is happening in Israel. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt responded to the vandalism by saying that “the irresponsible decision of the mayor of Barcelona to unilaterally sever relations with the State of Israel has put the Jewish community in the city in real danger.”
The rabbi was referring to Mayor Ada Colau’s February 2023 announcement that Barcelona was severing its twin-city relationship with Tel Aviv, claiming that Israel is guilty of “apartheid,” as well as “flagrant and systematic violation of human rights.”
The move to sever ties with Tel Aviv was unprecedented and showed that even Europeans are fed up with the Israeli crimes in Palestine. The Israeli regime has been dubbed as the largest apartheid regime in history, which has slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced millions of others by usurping their lands in the past seven decades. Despite all these genocides and crimes in front of the eyes of the world, Tel Aviv leaders claim that they are victim of the ambition of the Nazi leaders in the Holocaust, a claim that has been recognized so far only by Western governments and other nations cast doubt about its authenticity.
Winning prestige for the Israelis
Western leaders have closed their eyes to Israeli crimes in the occupied territories for over eight decades and suppressed any anti-Israeli protests to pretend that the Israelis are fighting for the so-called promised land. The West actually replaces the oppressors with the oppressed.
In the West, when the extremists insult Islamic values by burning the holy Quran in public, the politicians do not react and justify it in the name of freedom of speech, but when American and European citizens criticize the Holocaust, they punish them heavily so that nobody can dare to deny what many historians call a made-up story. Actually, the Western freedom of speech stretches wherever there is no condemnation of the Israeli regime.
The rise in anti-Israeli hate wave comes as the Israeli officials, citing fake historical documents about the Holocaust, try to pretend that the Jews are oppressed in the world. But it seems that such playing victim so far has not worked for them and the public even in countries supporting Tel Aviv do not buy these claims.
Given the reports published in recent years about hate and public anger in the West, it is obvious that hate against the Israeli occupiers is not limited to the Muslim countries and now the Israelis are not secure even in the West. After hardliners assumed the power in Tel Aviv three months ago, even opposition to the Israeli leaders in the West has increased. Thousands in Britain held street protests two weeks ago on the eve of the visit of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to London, asking their government to not let him in. Unlike their leaders, the public in the Western countries see the bitter realities that are going on in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and know the difference between the oppressor and the oppressed.
Western leaders mark the Holocaust while it took place in the heart of Europe, and even if such thing took place, the West was behind genocide of the Jews not other nations. Thus, penalization of the deniers of the Holocaust is a kind of recognition of the Western crimes against the Jews and if there is one side to be held responsible for the so-called Holocaust genocide, it is the Western leaders themselves.
The world public anger at the Israeli crimes during Qatar World Cup and reports of growing anti-Semitism in the West demonstrate the fact that the Western citizens do not buy remarks and positions of their politicians and playing victim no longer works, and actually the Israelis are not hated only by the Muslim countries, but also are a source of Western public anger. Besides, due to the hardline policies Netanyahu government is adopting, aversion to the Israeli occupation is expected to grow larger and further isolate this regime regionally and globally.
