Online Jew hate soared during the pandemic, says EU

ANTISEMITIC SOCIAL media activity in European languages has surged at an astronomical rate during the Covid pandemic, according to research released by the European Union.

The study measuring anti-Jewish hate on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram uncovered a terrifying rise as conspiracy theories were propagated.

In German-language content, researchers found a shocking 13-fold rise during the pandemic.

French antisemitic material had multiplied seven times. The study only covered the two languages.

Europe’s antisemitism tsar is now planning a new campaign to tackle the scourge of social media hate.

The EU coordinator on combating antisemitism, Katharina von Schnurbein, told website Politico: “It really exploded and I think that we saw that many of the old conspiracy myths, the old ideas, were repackaged.

“How quickly this increased was really shocking.”

Acknowledging that there had been a sharp rise in antisemitism during the Gaza conflict in May, Ms von Schnurbein made clear that political protest can never be used in order to justify hate crimes. Ms von Schnurbein said: “We don’t accept... in any other constellation, that a conflict elsewhere in the world can be used to justify pressure against our citizens, or even attacks and criminal acts against our citizens here.”

Next month, the EU is due to publish a “strategy on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life”.

In 2018, the EU said they would adopt national strategies to fight antisemitism, but so far only three member states have put one in place.

German-born Ms von Schnurbein – who was awarded the B’nai B’rith Europe’s Human Rights Prize in 2018 – said: “You are almost 80 years after the Holocaust and we see symptoms in society where Jews feel threatened again here. This is of course something incredible.

“When anti-Semitism is on the rise you know something bigger is going on. We address the symptoms but there are also other issues that need addressing. When you fight anti-Semitism you defend democracy, you defend equality.”

Old conspiracy myths have been repackaged and are back