The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has held a roundtable meeting in Vienna to discuss trends and the recent upsurge in anti-Semitic hate incidents reported by governments and civil society. The meeting brought together representatives of Jewish and non-Jewish NGOs from several OSCE member states. It was also attended by a number of diplomats interested in the issue of anti-Semitism.
Morten Kjaerum, director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, current chairman of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, took part in the discussion. Jewish leaders from several countries, including Britain, Norway, Germany, Greece, Poland and Russia, gave presentations on the current trends in anti-Semitism. Generally, incidents were down in 2007 and 2008, but surged dramatically in the wake of the Gaza war.
Kjaerum underlined the severe lack of statistical data in most EU countries regarding hate crimes, the exceptions being Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, which compile good reports on this matter. Participants at the roundtable urged more pressure on European governments to improve the gathering of data and monitoring of anti-Semitism to allow for better analysis and comparison between different countries.
Haraszti expressed the view that new laws restricting freedom of speech to curb hate speech and Holocaust denial were not the best instrument to combat this phenomenon, particularly in view of the important role the internet is playing. Instead, he pleaded for an approach of self-regulation by publishers of their news websites.
