- Jews should stop "playing the victim" for the
Holocaust, European respondents to an anti-Semitism poll have said.
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- Thirty-five per cent of those polled by the Ipso research
institute said Jews "should stop playing the victim for... persecutions
of 50 years ago".
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- The poll also revealed that 46% of those asked feel Jews
in their nations have a "mentality and lifestyle" different to
that of other citizens.
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- Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera commissioned the
poll which was conducted in Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Spain, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Britain.
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- Middle East Conflict
- POLL FINDINGS
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- - 35% said Jews should stop "playing the victim"
for the Holocaust
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- - 46% believe Jews are different
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- - 40.5% believe Jews have "a particular relationship
with money"
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- It was released a day before many European countries
mark a day of remembrance for Holocaust victims.
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- About 40.5% said Jews in their country have "a particular
relationship with money", nearly 18% said they feel Judaism is "intolerant",
and almost 17% did not consider Jews "real" compatriots.
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- The poll suggested the attitude of Europeans towards
Jews was linked to criticism of Israel over the Middle East conflict.
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- More than 71% of those polled said Israel should leave
the occupied territories and Palestinians should stop attacking Israeli
targets.
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- Anti-Semitism
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- And only 68% said they believe Israel has a right to
exist, and the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "making
the wrong choices".
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- Jewish leaders have expressed concern over the poll's
findings.
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- "Obviously the virus of anti-Semitism is far more
resilient and determined than we might have thought in the past,"
said Rabbi David Rosen, of the American Jewish Committee.
-
- Rosen, who is based in Israel, said he believed the rise
in anti-Semitism is due to the half-century that has passed since the horrors
of the last world war.
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- "The moral implications of anti-Semitism simply
don't speak to a younger generation of Europeans"
- --Rabbi David Rosen, The American Jewish Committee
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- Holocaust survey
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- "The moral implications of anti-Semitism simply
don't speak to a younger generation of Europeans," he said.
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- "What's more amazing than the percentage of people
who hold those opinions is the percentage of people willing to express
them."
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- The poll findings come a few days after a survey found
more than one in seven Britons believe the scale of the Holocaust has been
exaggerated.
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- The Jewish Chronicle survey also showed nearly 20% of
those questioned believe a Jewish prime minister of Britain would be less
acceptable than a member of any other faith.
-
- Another recent survey for the European Union found most
people on the continent identified Israel as the biggest threat to world
peace.
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- Agencies
- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ABFEAC03-DA50-4EEF-A466-3BF09678BC95.htm
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