Global antisemitism surged 340% in two years, report finds

"The year 2024 was a ‘peak year’ for antisemitism, with a 340 percent increase in total antisemitic incidents worldwide compared to 2022, according to a new report published by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Compared to 2023, the number of antisemitic incidents nearly doubled. The report used 2022 as its benchmark because it was a relatively normal year, unlike 2023, when Hamas launched its war with Israel on October 7.

The sharp rise ‘poses a real threat to the foundations of Western democracy, where the new antisemitic discourse erodes the fundamental values of democratic society and creates cracks in the wall of pluralism and tolerance,’ said Raheli Baratz, head of the Department for Combating Antisemitism at the World Zionist Organization and author of the report.

The report was presented to President Isaac Herzog in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It comes a week after a survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that nearly half of all adults worldwide hold significant antisemitic views.

The report broke the data down by geographical location.

In the United States, there was a 288% increase in antisemitic incidents, peaking in April 2024. The incidents included a number of significant acts of violence, such as the murder of Dr. Ben Harouni in California in March, attacks on synagogues, and violence in schools and universities.

In Canada, the situation was even worse, with a 562% increase in antisemitic incidents, a quarter of which were violent, the report said.

The trends were equally concerning in Europe. In France, there was an increase of over 350% in antisemitic incidents, with 28% involving violence, the report found. In the United Kingdom, there was a 450% increase in antisemitic incidents, with almost 2,000 incidents in the first half of 2024 alone...

Online, antisemitic content increased by more than 300%, with classical antisemitism accounting for 38.5% of reported content, Holocaust denial accounting for 21.1%, and anti-Israel and anti-Zionist content accounting for 15.4%.

The increasing use of the term ‘Zionism’ and its derivatives as a euphemism in antisemitic expressions led Meta to recognize anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism in certain contexts, the report noted.

‘This is not a coincidence — it is a deliberate change in language aimed at making antisemitism socially acceptable,’ Baratz said."