Anti-Semitism not on the rise in ČR, report says

Prague, May 3 (CTK) - Anti-Semitism has not been on the rise in the Czech Republic in the past few years, the situation is stable unlike in other European countries, says an annual report on anti-Semitism symptoms in the country in 2011 that the Jewish Community released yesterday.

The document was worked out by its security centre based on information from the persons affected by anti-Semitic action and from information avalaible to the public.

"No significant deviation either in the number of incidents or their character was registered in 2011," the centre said.

The situation in the Czech Republic is very favourable for the Jewish minority, the centre says in its assessment.

Czech society has traditionally rather a positive attitude to the Jews unlike its stance on a number of other minorities, the report says.

According to its authors, another reason might be the fact that the Jewish community in the Czech Republic is relatively small compared to the Western countries and that its members cannot be identified at first sight.

Last year, the centre registered five anti-Semitic attacks on property and one on a person. A similar attack was previously registered in 2008. The report also mentions three cases of threatening and one of harassment.

The figures are almost the same as in 2010.

In 2011, the centre also monitored seven anti-Semitic web pages and 19 articles, video-recordings and pictures. There were five more in 2010.

The police registered 16 acts with anti-Semitic motives last year, 11 of which were investigated on suspicion of support to and promotion of movements leading to the suppression of freedom, two as incitement to racial and ethnic hatred, one as violence and threatening, one as defamation of race or nation and one as vandalism (by spraying), the report noted.

The ultra-right wing tried to revitalise its activities last year, but its scene is splintered, the report said.

Neo-Nazis sought high publicity for their trials if they were charged and they tried to present them as political or show trials.

They also focused on discrediting experts in extremism. One of them was, for instance, accused of bias over his alleged Jewish origin, the report writes.

Moreover, it adds, the issue of anti-Semitism has become a certain taboo for rightist extremists. Over negative reactions of the public, extremists rather highlight their anti-Romany stances and "the fight against the System."

The Czech right-wing extremist scene is no imminent threat to the safety of Jewish communities, the report concludes.

The far-right Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS) campaigned mainly against Romanies and immigrants, too.

Anti-Semitic statements were for example made by Ladislav Batora, former leader of the D.O.S.T. ultra-conservative movement.

The report considers it noteworthy that supporters of Batora, who has links to promoters of anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi ideas, claimed he was a victim of a manhunt similar to the Hilsner Affair from 1899-1900, when a Jew was unjustly accused of blood libel after a murder of a young Catholic girl from the Czech countryside.

Apart from the conservative Catholics, anti-Semitic statements were also made by a member of the Czech Muslim community. This concerned a sermon from 2009, but the news of it spread only last year.