Antisemitism expected to rise globally in 2021, according to new Israeli report

According to Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs’ annual antisemitism report, anti-Jewish racism is expected to increase significantly around the world as a direct result of conspiracy theories against Jews and the State of Israel connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report maintained that the most prominent forum for the expression of antisemitism in 2020 shifted from the physical realm to a hostile online environment.

The previous year saw a sharp rise in the dissemination of antisemitism online, including an alleged Iranian campaign to compare the Jewish state to a viral pandemic by launching “#COVID48”, in a reference to the year in which the Jewish state was established. The recent report stated that there was also an increase in antisemitism in the United States caused by the pandemic, various conspiracy theories and the presidential election.

The 140-page document noted, however, that there was a reduction in the number of antisemitic posts on mainstream social media sites, as a result of new measures taken by social media companies to regulate potential hate speech. Data from the Ministry’s monitoring systems highlighted that there was a 50% decrease in antisemitic content on Twitter, for example, between 2018 and 2020. Antisemitic users have apparently migrated to alternative platforms with less regulation and stringent terms of use to spread antisemitic propaganda, hate and conspiracy theories.

The Diaspora Affairs Minister has stated, as a result of recent findings, that “if antisemitism is a global phenomenon, then the war against it must also be global”, and that an “uncompromising struggle” should therefore be adopted to defeat “this plague”.

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