Report: Number of anti-Semitic manifestations increasing online

The latest report by the Elie Wiesel Institute shows that between May 2023 and April 2024, the number of anti-Semitic manifestations increased in our country, especially online, maintaining the same trend it has been on since 2020, according to researchers from that public institution. The document published last year shows that anti-Semitism in Romania has experienced various manifestations, from the vandalism of Jewish symbols to public and online speeches with anti-Semitic content, and the situation is worrying and reflects several problems and difficulties encountered in combating anti-Semitism. For example, from the analysis of 200 narratives that appeared in the online environment during that period, 91% of messages containing words such as "Jew, Khazar, Zionist, Zionist" are anti-Semitic, while 9% are not or the words are used in an insufficiently clear context. The report shows that the absolute majority (84%) of potentially antisemitic content comes from comments, whether on social networks or on websites and blogs. It is worth noting that the messages from the online environment, more precisely from social networks, retained in the research carried out by the Elie Wiesel Institute specialists, come from Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Telegram and TikTok.

The document also reviews the antisemitic slip-ups of Diana Şoşoacă and the SOS Romania party in the first part of last year, including those in Parliament, on May 14, 2024, when Şoşoacă shouted "Long live the Iron Guard" and asked the Jews in the hall to leave for Israel. Among the politicians who had antisemitic manifestations are also some elected representatives from the AUR, their outbursts, or rather violations of the law being reproduced not only in the report published last year, but also in the previous ones, published between 2020-2023.

The report notes: "In 2023, the Prosecutor's Offices had to resolve 82 cases of anti-Semitic manifestations, of which they resolved only 23, with 59 remaining unresolved. Only two cases were sent to trial out of the 23 resolved, while 19 were dismissed and two were resolved by not initiating criminal prosecution. This is a constant trend for over two decades, since the ordinance came into force. The lack of consequences for such manifestations may encourage the continuation or even increase of systematic incidents of Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred."

The situation did not change in 2024, when none of the complaints sent by the Elie Wiesel Institute to the Prosecutor's Offices had yet reached court.

Furthermore, a survey conducted by the "Elie Wiesel" Institute shows that the perceptions of the Jewish community in Romania regarding anti-Semitism are marked by deep concern. 71% of Jews believe that anti-Semitism is a problem in Romanian society, and 23% of them perceive it as widespread "to a large extent". This perception is reinforced by the increase in anti-Semitic incidents in recent years: 41% of respondents believe that the phenomenon has increased in the last five years. Furthermore, 24% of those interviewed said that they had been the target of anti-Semitic remarks, and 14% had experienced direct acts of discrimination or hatred. These statistics reveal not only the persistence of anti-Semitism, but also a growing sense of insecurity among the Jewish community, which claims that stronger measures are needed from the authorities to prevent and sanction such incidents.