DISINFO: Rise in German anti-Semitism caused by mass immigration
SUMMARY
Amid a recent surge of anti-Semitic attacks in Germany, many see this worrying trend as a side effect of mass immigration from Muslim-majority countries, long encouraged by Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to a 2018 EU survey, more and more German Jews feel that “nothing is being done” about anti-Jewish crime and abuse.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory about the creeping Islamisation of Europe, painting immigrants from Muslim-majority countries as inherently violent and immune to cultural assimilation. The report offers no data to support the link between immigration volumes and the number of anti-Semitic incidents, relying instead on statements of opinion and assurances that such a link has been made by "many observers," without further elaboration. Contrary to the report's central premise, an expansive 2018 study finds "no evidence that MENA [Middle Eastern and North African] migrants make any significant contribution to antisemitism at a societal level" in any of the five EU countries surveyed (p. 29), or any data which would suggest a "significant connection between recent MENA migrants and the extent and character of antisemitism in Western Europe" (ibid.). The individual quoted as saying that "nothing is being done" about the problem was a Dutch woman (see p. 39 of the report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights), not a German individual. RT previously misattributed the quote to "one French woman" in an article about anti-Semitism in France. The EU recognizes anti-Semitism as a serious social and security concern -- see here for a summary of EU-wide efforts to tackle it.