Antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crime has “exploded” in the EU since the October 7 Hamas attack and Israeli retaliation, a European Commission vice president said on Wednesday.
“Many Jews and Muslims living in Europe are fearing for their own safety,” with firebombs being thrown at synagogues, Jewish shops destroyed and swastikas and anti-Muslim “slurs” painted on mosques and homes, Margaritis Schinas told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Online, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim messages have “exploded”, he said, including slogans calling for Israel’s destruction and Jews to be killed, and for Muslim migrants “to be killed or expelled, and Muslim women raped”.
“This is simply unacceptable,” Schinas said, calling for EU member countries to get behind national and European efforts to stamp out anti-Semitism and racism.
He also underscored the role of a new EU law cracking down on illegal online content, the Digital Services Act, and increased funding for fact-checkers to help battle anti-Semitism in social media posts.
Schinas did not provide any figures for anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes across the European Union.
Last month, Belgium’s anti-discrimination agency Unia said that, between October 7 and December 7, it registered 91 reported incidents related to the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
That compared with 57 for the whole of 2022, it said.
Pope Francis last weekend condemned a “terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world” and rising anti-Semitism since October 7.
