Anti-Defamation League study finds anti-Semitic sentiment pervasive
Anti-Semitism remains prevalent around the world, with one in four adults surveyed in a new international study expressing anti-Jewish sentiment.
Anti-Semitism remains prevalent around the world, with one in four adults surveyed in a new international study expressing anti-Jewish sentiment.
The Anti-Defamation League Global 100 Index found someone to be anti-Semitic if they answered "probably" or "definitely" true to six or more of 11 stereotypes about Jews offered on the survey.
The survey, which the league called "the broadest survey of anti-Jewish attitudes ever conducted", found the lowest level of anti-Semitism in Laos, with just 0.2 per cent of the adult population expressing such views. The highest level of anti-Semitism was found in the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza at 93 per cent.
Greece was the most anti-Semitic country in western Europe, with 69 per cent of the adults surveyed expressing such opinions and Sweden, with four per cent, was the least. In the United States it was nine per cent.
"Our findings are sobering but sadly not surprising," said the league's National Director Abraham Foxman.
"Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country/to the countries they live in", was the most commonly accepted stereotype, with 41 per cent of 53,100 respondents surveyed across 101 countries and the West Bank and Gaza saying that it was at least "probably true".
The survey also found that only 54 per cent of those polled had heard about the Holocaust.
According to the survey, 49 per cent of Muslims hold anti-Semitic views, compared with 24 per cent of Christians. But Jeffery Liszt, who oversaw the survey for Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, said that anti-Semitic views conformed more closely to region than religion, with 75 per cent of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa holding anti-Semitic views while only 18 per cent of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa express similar sentiments.
The Middle East and North Africa region was found to the most anti-Semitic and the Oceania region the least, followed by the Americas.
