A government ministry in Jerusalem on Monday accused authorities in Spain and Ireland of enabling antisemitism through inflammatory rhetoric on Israel, as well as singled out France and Britain over their “moral ambiguity.”
The accusations appear in the “State of Antisemitism Report for 2024,” published by the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. It’s a rare rebuke by Israel of individual governments, some of which have diverted significant resources to curbing antisemitism, that have seen a surge in that hatred as they adopted critical and sometimes inflammatory language on Israel in connection with the war in Gaza.
The report speaks of an increase in antisemitic incidents worldwide and growing acceptance in Western societies and beyond of this hatred.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, in a statement in the report, lauded U.S. President Donald Trump’s “real leadership” and “real fight against antisemitism,” including in Leo Terrell’s action team in the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with addressing campus antisemitism.
The report places the United States and Germany in Category 1: “countries perceived as supporting the fight against antisemitism.” At the federal level, “the United States has taken many important steps in combating antisemitism,” the report states. Previous antisemitism reports by the ministry did not feature categories of governments.
“The Israeli government will not hesitate to point out those who encourage antisemitism—governments, universities, media outlets or social networks,” Chikli wrote in a statement about the report.
Spain, Ireland and South Africa, which have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, were placed in Category 2: “Countries that enable antisemitism through their selective criticism of Israel and abuse of the language of human rights.”
France and the United Kingdom belong to Category 3 of countries exhibiting “moral ambiguity—countries that have taken significant steps to combat antisemitism, while promoting critical statements and policies on Israel that affect the local Jewish community.” This leaves local Jews “feeling that the government’s position toward Israel enables antisemitism locally, such as France and the U.K.,” the 153-page document states.
French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Israel after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and initially supported the Jewish state’s right to defend itself, but has gradually turned against Israel. He halted defense exports to Israel and accused it of “sowing barbarism” in Gaza and hitting Hezbollah terrorists “unjustifiably” in Lebanon.
Protests over this by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish institutions “highlight the impact that Macron’s anti-Israel remarks have on the country’s Jews and their sense of security and belonging,” the report states.
In the United Kingdom, the Board of Deputies of British Jews openly praised the government for increasing funding for community security and Holocaust education, the report notes. But it also addresses the U.K.’s partial arms embargo on Israel and restoration of funding for UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, which has been heavily infiltrated by Hamas and Israel says must be reformed.
The document mentions the British government’s assurances that it would act on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants from November against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes allegations.
Last year’s report praised the French government’s “firm stance” against perpetrators of antisemitic hatred. It also lauded then-British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s “uncompromising support for Israel,” saying it was making British Jews “optimistic.”
In the United States, the report notes how “there was a 477% increase in antisemitic incidents compared to 2023, while at the same time, there was a 30% rise in visits to online Jewish study sites.”
Jewish day schools
Also on Monday, the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and the United-Global Jewish Educators Network issued a separate report documenting an increase in enrollment by Jewish children in Jewish schools worldwide amid the surge in antisemitic incidents.
In North America, approximately 60% of Jewish schools reported an increase in interest in enrolling students following Oct. 7, 2023. Almost 40% of Jewish parents in North America are considering transferring their children to a Jewish educational setting, according to the report.
France saw a 27% increase in applications for Jewish schools since Oct. 7, with about 1,200 students on waiting lists.
The American education system has become a focal point for antisemitic incidents since October 2023, the report says. “In high schools, there was a 700% increase in antisemitic events since the outbreak of the war,” it says, citing data from the School Watch program of the Israeli American Council.
The document speaks of a “sense of insecurity that also affected the social and professional fabric of the American Jewish community,” despite the Trump administration’s actions, praised by Chikli. The report used Anti-Defamation League data, showing a tally of 4,521 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2024, nearly half the 2023 tally.
The streets of Europe
Across the Western World and beyond, antisemitic incidents exploded after about 6,000 terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, under Hamas’s command.
Chikli wrote in his statement about the report: “The streets of Europe are once again not safe for Jews. Many of its leaders, instead of showing courage, show cowardice. Instead of standing with the truth, they stand with Palestinian propaganda falsehoods. Instead of standing with those who were attacked, they stand with those who launched a barbaric assault.”
He called on European and other leaders to follow Trump’s example.
“Removing and revoking visas from supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah who led violent demonstrations in the United States; this is an example of practical action,” Chikli wrote, adding that so is “revoking funding and taking legal measures against academic institutions that failed to protect their Jewish students.”
In Canada, antisemitism “escalated dramatically compared to previous years, affecting multiple dimensions of Jewish community life,” the report states, added, “These phenomena occur alongside a significant increase in government funding for organizations operating against Israel, and parallel to a sense of helplessness from authorities in addressing the threats.” In 2024, Canada “earned the dubious title of ‘champion of anti-Semitism’ with a more than 7.5-fold jump in antisemitic incidents in the past year,” said a statement that accompanied the report.
Antisemitism in Australia, the report says, was expressed in “serious violent events, which included the burning of a synagogue, organized attacks on Jews in the public sphere, and systematic harassment of Jews and Israelis on campuses.”
Jewish community members and others in Australia “accuse the government that in its ignoring of antisemitic incidents and taking a harsh anti-Israeli policy, it is creating a tailwind for antisemitism in the country,” the document says.
The report singled out for criticism U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese “for her antisemitic rhetoric,” referencing her long record of demonizing Israel and accusing it of perpetrating another Holocaust, among other tropes.
At the U.N. General Assembly, “resolutions regarding Israel continued, reflecting a double standard” that “constitutes an expression of antisemitic policy according to the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” the report stated. Since October 7, 2023, the General Assembly has passed 29 resolutions against Israel, while 13 resolutions were adopted against all the other countries of the world combined.
Among the major incidents listed in the report was the rape of a 12-year-old girl in France by males who allegedly shouted antisemitic slogans while they were raping her; the murder of Zvi Kogan, a Chabad rabbi with Israeli and Moldovan citizenship who resided in the United Arab Emirates; and the November 2024 assaults on dozens of Israeli soccer fans by Muslim men in Amsterdam, who had coordinated the attacks online in chats rife with antisemitic language.
