A shocking result in the latest anti-Semitism report: one third of Austrians think that Jews take advantage of the Nazi era, and they are also tired of the constant discussion of the Holocaust. In addition: Turkish and Arabic-speaking people in Austria are particularly anti-Semitic.
On Tuesday morning, National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) presented the third anti-Semitism report to the public. The first two reports, which like the current one had been commissioned by the parliament, had existed in 2018 and 2020.
As Sobotka explained, anti-Semitism is “not a phenomenon of fringe political groups, it comes from the centre of society”. And the President of the National Council continued: “It becomes visible on the margins, on the right-wing margins we have seen it for years and decades; on the left-wing margins we have not paid attention for a long time, now we see it quite clearly as anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism; and in the third form we see it among those people who have come to us for migration reasons, because they come from countries where anti-Semitism or anti-Jewish attitudes are part of a kind of reason of state.”
He was referring to Turkey on the one hand, and Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria and Iraq on the other.
What specifically emerges from the anti-Semitism report:
1) More than a third of people in Austria think that Jews today try to capitalise on having been victims during the Nazi era. Among Turkish- and Arabic-speaking respondents with a migration background, it is more than half.
2) One third of Austrians are tired of the topic of the persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust. Among people with a migration history, this is said to be just under half.
3) Over a third of Austrians believe that Jews dominate the international business world. Among respondents with a migration background, it is the majority.
4) 40 percent of the Turkish- and Arabic-speaking respondents are of the opinion that “many things are exaggerated” in the reports about concentration camps and the persecution of Jews during the Second World War. Furthermore, 40 per cent of this group are of the opinion that it is no coincidence that Jews were persecuted so often in history.
5) Almost half of the Turkish- and Arabic-speaking respondents think that there would be peace in the Middle East if the State of Israel did not exist. Moreover, more than the majority of these respondents believe that the State of Israel treats the Palestinians no differently than the Third Reich treated the Jews during the Second World War. In the whole of Austria, just under a third agree.
Overall, the report shows that respondents under the age of 25 are less anti-Semitic than the population as a whole.