New York, NY, March 31, 2004…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called a new report on anti-Semitism by the European Union's European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) a "significant step in recognizing the new anti-Semitism in Europe," but expressed disappointment that the report's conclusions of the changed nature of anti-Semitism and its perpetrators were not reflected in the EUMC press release and public statements.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

The EUMC report, while a significant step in recognizing the new anti-Semitism in Europe, and reflecting the end to the denial of the problem by European leaders, is flawed and contradictory.

We are disappointed that in its public statements, the EUMC downplays its own conclusions that the new anti-Semitic outbreak is connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict and that incidents are being primarily perpetrated by Muslim immigrant youth, and concerned by the report's narrow approach to the connection of anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism. 

Even after a previous EUMC report produced in 2003 was not released by the Centre, reportedly because of the report's conclusion that Muslim immigrants were responsible for the sharp increase in anti-Semitic violence in the Spring of 2002, the EU still appears unwilling to acknowledge its own findings that Muslim immigrant youth are increasingly responsible for anti-Semitic violence motivated by the conflict in the Middle East.

With the release of this report, the EU must now publicly acknowledge the severity of anti-Semitism in Europe, define the issue and get cooperation from every European nation to monitor and report on the state of anti-Semitism in an honest and responsible manner.