In an E.U. survey published on Tuesday, 69% of some 25,000 respondents said that events in Israel shape how Jews are perceived in their country.
The poll, published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, showed an increase in the perception that Israel influences how Jews are thought of: In a similar poll from 2018, 54% indicated there was a link to the Jewish state.
The European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey on the perception of antisemitism also reported that 55% of respondents consider antisemitism to be a problem in their member state, compared to 50% in 2018.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said a rise in antisemitic sentiment had occurred in their country over the past five years—an increase of 11 percentage points over 2018.
The answers varied considerably between E.U. member states, with respondents in Western European countries with high levels of immigration from Muslim countries displaying greater concern about rising antisemitism and a more prevalent belief that it is connected to Israel.
In Estonia, 9% of respondents said antisemitism was a problem, followed by Finland, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia (16%-21%). In France, Italy, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, the share of respondents who said antisemitism was a problem ranged between 71% and 74%.
In Spain, where local Jews reported a massive increase in antisemitic hatred amid a government-led effort to isolate Israel and accuse it of genocide in Gaza, only 33% said antisemitism was a problem—a smaller share than in Croatia, Lithuania and Hungary, where antisemitic incidents are rare.
In Ireland, where many local Jews say the government’s anti-Israel policies have driven up the levels of antisemitism, 40% of respondents said that hatred was a problem—a 20 percentage point increase over the 2018 poll.
The countries where a minority of respondents said Israel affects how Jews are perceived were Hungary, Czechia, Greece, Estonia, Croatia, Portugal, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, ranging from 48% to 35% by order of appearance.
Magnus Brunner, the E.U. commissioner for internal affairs and migration, said in a statement about the report: “Jewish culture is woven into the fabric of European history. We must protect and nurture this today and well into the future.”
The survey also found that almost half of Europeans (48%, compared to 43% in 2018) think that the Holocaust is sufficiently taught in school. A growing number of Europeans (66%, vs. 61% in 2018) are aware of laws criminalizing incitement to antisemitic violence. Half of Europeans (52% vs. 42%) know about laws criminalizing Holocaust denial.
