Survey: Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis, say 23% of Germans

Israel’s behavior makes it easy to comprehend why people hate Jews, some 25 percent of respondents said.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

European antisemitism is on the rise and pervasive throughout the continent, community leaders said at the European Jewish Association’s (EJA) Community Leaders Conference in Belgium on Tuesday.

“We need to take our fate into our hands if we want our grandchildren to be able to live in Europe in 20 to 50 years from now,” said Rabbi Shlomo Koves, who commissioned a survey of non-Jewish Europeans that produced disturbing results.

“Jews around Europe need to propose specific action-plans to their governments as well as on the EU level.”

The survey’s findings, which asked questions of non-Jewish residents of 16 European countries, were presented at the conference.

Some 1,000 participants in the survey answered 70 questions. Respondents to the survey live in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Commissioned by the EJA and its partner organizations, the survey asked respondents to disagree or agree with direct statements about Israel and Jews.

Israel’s behavior makes it easy to comprehend why people hate Jews, some 25 percent of respondents said.

Jews take advantage of the Holocaust for their own political and economic gain, said 34 percent of Latvians, 23 percent of Germans, and 22 percent of Belgians.

Some one-third of those surveyed in Poland, Hungary, and Austria agreed with a statement that Jews will never be able to completely integrate into society.

When asked if Israel’s treatment of Palestinians comparable to the treatment of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust, some 35 percent of Spaniards, 29 percent of Dutch, and 26 percent of Swedes answered in the affirmative.

Joel Mergui, President of the Consistory of France and Paris and the European Center for Judaism, said the survey proved there’s much to be done to combat antisemitism in Europe.

“One thing is certain, while the European institutions and politicians devote significant resources and spare no effort in the fight against antisemitism, the situation in Europe is not improving,” Arutz Sheva quoted Mergui as saying at the conference.

“Worse, it is deteriorating. It is time to face the facts. Combating antisemitism cannot be reduced to isolating and penalizing antisemitism acts. This penalty is of course essential. Perpetrators of antisemitism acts should not never go unpunished.”