Gaza, slump seen spurring rise in anti-Semitism

[bemildred]

LONDON (Reuters) – Israel's offensive in Gaza and the global economic downturn have spurred a rise in physical and verbal attacks on Jews, participants in an international conference on anti-Semitism said Tuesday.

"In the last six weeks, we have seen an explosion of anti-Semitic activity and behavior -- which I would describe as a pandemic -- as a result of both the Gaza war and the economic crisis being blamed on Jews," Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. civil rights group, said.

"Since World War Two we have not seen so many attacks on Jews, Jewish institutions, synagogues," he told Reuters during a London conference on anti-Semitism attended by 125 legislators from 40 countries.

British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown said there had been a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain and elsewhere in Europe after the Gaza campaign.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090217/ts_nm/us_britain_antisemitism

[Behind the Aegis]

1. No surpises. None at all.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Hard economic times are always a breeding ground for antisemitism here and everywhere

It's not as bad here as in many other parts of Europe. The number-one form of bigotry in Britain is against *immigrants*, not Jews or Muslims (except insofar as Muslims are more likely to be immigrants). But we certainly do have antisemitism problems, and it's worse when the economy is bad.