Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Antisemitism rising in Europe - Inside Antwerps Jewish community

Transcript

Antisemitism rising in Europe - Inside Antwerps Jewish community · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now here in Europe. A string of recent attacks on
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Jewish targets in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Belgium has prompted governments to introduce new security measures to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: protect Jewish communities. Belgium has even deployed soldiers to protect
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Jewish sites and communities across the country. DW correspondent Kristin
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Mundbar reports from Antwerp.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: We've come to the port city of Antwerp on Belgium's
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: River Shelt. It would look like an ordinary weekday apart
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: from the presence of soldiers patrolling the streets. They're part
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: of a two hundred strong force that the government has
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: deployed across Belgium to boost security at Jewish sites. The
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: move comes in response to recent incidents suspected of being
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: anti Semitic, attacks torched cars and Antwerp and explosion at
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: a synagogue in Liege. In a recent EU poll, more
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: than half of European surveyed said they considered anti Semitism
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a problem in their country.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Had to bring more military.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Jewish people I spoke to Andward tell me they're experiencing
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: it firsthand. David coordinates a team of volunteers who conduct
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: night patrols in the Jewish neighborhood. But when you say
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: you noticed a rise in and Simison, can you tell
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: me a little bit about what's been happening. What were
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: people in the Jewish community have been experiencing.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of shouting, I would say, a lot
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: of pestering.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: People got hit already.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: On the streets. Oh wow, Okay, I wouldn't say it's
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: a daily occurrence, but it happened.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: Things have changed in the last few years. You feel it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: You can feel it on the street. You see it
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: on the streets. People are getting shouted at. Small kids
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: are getting beaten up here, Couples are flying off. It's
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: became very, very very sad here. And unfortunately I have
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: kids here and it's not so safe as it used
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: to be.
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm minding my own business, I'm off on
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: the street, but are going to school or going to
• 1:56
  Speaker 6: a friend, and there's just people who wann't any starting
• 1:58
  Speaker 6: screaming like stuff that I don't articularly want to repeat.
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: And I normally tend to just walk off and kind
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: of move on. But it's still a very uncomfortable experience,
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: especially if it's in the dark.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Hostile attitudes towards Jews have persisted in Europe. It's why
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: it's not uncommon for Jewish science and Israel linked institutions
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: to receive round the clock security. But this new wave
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: of anti Semitism in Europe has been linked to Israeli
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: government policy in Gaza and now in Iran. This community
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: leader says there are misconceptions about this connection.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Many people who are affected and influenced by the media
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: are seeing images of what Israel is doing in Gaza.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: I believe that the not Jewish world sees Israel and
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Jewish as one, and that's not necessarily the case.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Awerp has one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Its roots date back to the civil sixteenth century, when
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Jews driven out of Spain and Portugal migrated here. The
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: community grew when Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, the significant portion of
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the community are Orthodox Jews. It's why people sometimes refer
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to Anburp as the Jerusalem of the North Alcatnique. It
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: now runs the local kosher grocer her father founded forty
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: years ago. It's a mainstay for the Jewish community and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: with the passer of a holiday, Pesa just stays away.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: It's a particularly busy time.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Everything is here, kosher, everything comes from above, America is well,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: United Kingdom. Friends. Wherever they produce something in Kursha, we
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: have it in our shop. We always try to be
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: on top of everything. Now that returning to Pasach, so
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: the people know thatever they need for the paca, they
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: can come and buy in arsen to all the gasha items.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: But this year, the recent attacks hangover preparations for the holiday.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Israel's National Security Council has urged extra caution when attending
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Passover events at sites identified as Jewish or Israeli eightense
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: background ahead of this most important Jewish commedy.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I'm joined by Bart Wallach, he's professor of Jewish studies
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: at the University of Amsterdam. Good to have you with us.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So we've just seen this report on the Jewish community
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: in Antwerp. More caution, heightened security. How representative would you
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: say is the situation for them for the whole of Europe.
• 4:35
  Speaker 7: Yes, I'm afraid this is the case for many Jewish
• 4:37
  Speaker 7: communities in Europe. It this moment, in this time, many
• 4:42
  Speaker 7: communities are protected both by internal security guards and by
• 4:48
  Speaker 7: national police or even the soldiers, as we see in Belgium.
• 4:53
  Speaker 7: Especially visible Jews and visibly Jewish spaces such as synagogues,
• 4:58
  Speaker 7: Jewish community centers, Jewish schools are endangered in these in
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: these times, so they need protection.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Now in our report, we just heard that this new
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: wave of antisemitism could be linked to Israel's actions in
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Gaza and now also in Iran. First of all, would
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you agree to that? So is this rise in hostility
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: more a political backlash rather than anti Semitism.
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: So, unfortunately we see two things. On the one hand,
• 5:28
  Speaker 7: there is a antisemitism which is part of European populations,
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: and this is definitely also on the rise when there
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: is there are international conflicts in the Middle East, so
• 5:42
  Speaker 7: there is a link there. The second element is that
• 5:46
  Speaker 7: we've seen that when there are wars in the Middle
• 5:50
  Speaker 7: East that they also have a direct impact on antisemitism
• 5:55
  Speaker 7: in the form of antisemitic attacks. So, for instance, in
• 5:59
  Speaker 7: two thousand and fifth teen sixteen, with Islamic State, we
• 6:03
  Speaker 7: witnessed a series of anti Jewish acts, attacks on synagogues,
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: on Kosher shops, on the Jewish Museum in Belgium for instance,
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: and now with the Iran War, we have exactly the
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: same again actors from the Middle East or directed from
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: the Middle East, targeting Jewish communities here. So it is
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: unfortunately a mixture of both both European processes and larger
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: geopolitical processes.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: So you're saying anti Semitism is somewhat ingrained in Europe culturally,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and it keeps rising whenever there is some political incident
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: happening at the same time. Now we know, of course
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: anti Semitism sadly is nothing new, but why does it
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: keep reserve reserfacing time and time again.
• 7:00
  Speaker 7: So it is a repertoire which is from from late antiquity,
• 7:05
  Speaker 7: a part of the cultural memory of of many many
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: people in in in Europe, and especially in times of
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: conflict and crisis, when when people lose control over their
• 7:17
  Speaker 7: lives and become angry. For instance, we we see that
• 7:21
  Speaker 7: people tend to turn to anti the anti Semitic repertoire,
• 7:25
  Speaker 7: and in which Jews often symbolize ultimate evil, and so
• 7:31
  Speaker 7: all evil processes are projected on the Jews. And and
• 7:36
  Speaker 7: there's there's of course another thing that it helps to
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: if there are complex and complicated situations in the world
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: to simplify these by having a very clear actor of evil,
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: which in this case would be the Jews. So unfortunately
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: we see this process time and time again.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But with just about a minute left, is there anything
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that can be done in order to at least end
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: this current way from anti Semitism.
• 8:10
  Speaker 7: Well, I think we need to do a couple of things.
• 8:13
  Speaker 7: One thing is protection and security, but the other thing
• 8:17
  Speaker 7: is to give more attention to Jewish life and to
• 8:22
  Speaker 7: show Europeans and other people in the world that Jews
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: are not just victims, Jews are not just Israelis, but
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: Jews are also part of European societies, contributing to these
• 8:34
  Speaker 7: societies with our long and rich, dynamic tradition which has
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: enriched European culture and which will enrich European culture for many,
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: many more years to come.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: If you say we, just very briefly, who do you
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: mean by that? Who should make Jewish life more visible?
• 8:52
  Speaker 7: I would say every European citizen has something to do here.
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: It's too easy only to turn towards governments, although governments
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: do have an important role to play, but combating antisemitism
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: and providing accurate ideas about Jews is a task for
• 9:07
  Speaker 7: every citizen. So if you encounter Anto Semitism, you should
• 9:12
  Speaker 7: stand up and you should protect your local Jews.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: All right, well, thank you so very much, Professor of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Jewish Studies at the University of Amsterdam, Bartwalllet, thank you,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: thank you.