Panelists Warn of Rise in Anti-Semitism in OSCE Countries

WASHINGTON — A new form of anti-Semitism that demonizes Israel for its Jewish character is on the rise, a federal human rights commission was told Thursday.

"At anti-Israel rallies on every continent, placards emblazoned with swastikas can be found reading, 'Death to the Jews — Death to Israel' and Stars of David," said Gregg Rickman, the State Department's special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism.

Rickman told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe that the new form of anti-Semitism coincides with a sharp increase on attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions such as synagogues and cemeteries, throughout much of the OSCE region.

It is difficult to make country-by-country comparisons, Rickman said, because anti-Semitic acts in countries such as Russia are often classified as "hooliganism" or non-hate crime attacks.

But the rise in anti-Semitic attacks is not confined to Russia and Eastern Europe, he said. In 2006, for example, a 13-year-old Jewish girl was beaten unconscious on a London school bus for hesitating when students asked whether she was "English or Jewish." A French Jew was kidnapped by African immigrants who tortured and mutilated him while holding him for ransom. He was eventually freed — naked and burned — but died on the way to the hospital.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, chairman of the panel commonly called the Helsinki Commission, said the OSCE has come a long way in the past few years in recognizing and trying to combat anti-Semitism, but "I am deeply saddened by continued reports of hate crimes and other acts of anti-Semitism in the OSCE region."

Felice D. Gaer, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, noted that there were twice as many attacks on Jews in 2006 as in the year before, with the greatest increases in the United Kingdom, Canada and France. But she said there also were a "disturbing number" in Norway, Belgium and Ukraine.

"Those monitoring these incidents find ... that when tensions escalate in the Middle East, the number of anti-Semitic incidents increases," she said.

Although the 56-country OSCE was the first international organization to treat anti-Semitism as a "distinct human rights issue," Gaer said the commission was concerned that the "tone and content" of U.S. State Department statements have changed to downplay the uniqueness of anti-Semitism and lump it together with other forms of racism and xenophobia.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Helsinki Commission that the OSCE could take a leading role in combating what is likely to be an acrimonious human rights conference planned for next year in Durban, South Africa.

Recalling the anti-Israel and anti-U.S. rhetoric that marked the 2001 conference in Durban, Hier said, "There is no doubt that the targets again will be the U.S. and Israel. Their plan will call for boycotts, demonizing, delegitimizing and the exclusion of the Jewish state."