By Rebeccah Steil
Current Affairs Section Editor
Throughout the past two UCR semesters, there has been a sudden rise in protests around the world. Whether it’s the ongoing revolution in Syria, election protests in Thailand, protests for human rights in Russia, protests in Taiwan, dissatisfaction in Venezuela, or the conflict in Ukraine, it seems that the amount of protests occurring per annum have risen. In the vein of the theme in this section, a year of protest, there is a problem that has spanned centuries and recently has become a motivating factor in protests. The issue of which I speak is anti-Semitism. As the Days of Remembrance have just passed, the time for reflecting on the events that passed almost seventy years ago are once again over. Despite the large distance between the bygone genocide and modern times, the attitude towards Jews across the world has never shifted towards one of acceptance. Although there is by no means comparison with what happened during World War 2, there has been an increase in protests by anti-Semitic groups and a rise in such rhetoric across political debates and entertainment.
For instance, within the Israel-Palestine issue, the Hamas party rules the Gaza strip. In its charter, the party states that Jews’ wealth and power has reached an extent that it controls the world media, news agencies, the press, publishers, broadcasting stations, and others. Even in Germany, a country that has taken legislative steps to prevent holocaust denial and the wearing of Nazi paraphernalia is still plagued by the anti-Semitic National Democratic Party.
In a survey conducted recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that German states that provided above median support to Hitler are more likely to feel that Jews should not have the same rights as Germans and that it would be unpleasant to have one as a neighbor (6 and 3 percentage points higher than the current median, respectively).
Anti-Jewish sentiment is still a problem in the US, where nearly 60 percent of anti-religious hate crimes reported to the FBI were against Jews in 2012. Even the US President has acknowledged the problem in the past week, stating that there is a “rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world.” In terms of protest, the case of Hungary is particularly worrisome. Although far-right parties with anti-Semitic values have been successful in Eastern Europe, nowhere have they been as triumphant as Hungary. In this country the far-right party, Jobbik, has called for a Hungarian Ku Klux Klan and the documentation of all the Jews in the country and in parliament. Despite their extreme views, during the April elections, the Jobbik party won 21% of the vote. Weeks after, tens of thousands of Hungarians marched in protest to anti-Semitism. In 2013, the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency published a report on Anti-Semitism, where a Hungarian woman was quoted as saying “Unfortunately, the fight against anti-Semitism is more and more hopeless.” The report stated at the outset that this trend is an alarming example of how prejudice can endure, linger for centuries, and curb basic human rights. Fordham University’s Ben-Atar has said, “The reality is that European Jews feel terribly unsafe.”
This new trend is alarming, as it would appear that while the world is becoming technologically advanced and more connected, certain prejudices die hard. In a world where newsfeeds are constantly updating, it is surprising this downturn in opinion has not caused more of a stir. Perhaps hate crimes will have to increase alongside hate speech before the world realizes there has been a great mistake.
Rebeccah Steil, class of 2014 is a Law and politics major from San Antonio, Texas, United States.
