ADL survey: Anti-Semitism down in France, UK, Germany

Attitudes towards Jews improve in three European countries, polls by US watchdog find

Illustrative: A truck with the words 'fuck off' and another with swastika graffiti on it were found outside a Jewish school in a Hasidic neighborhood in London, November 14, 2016. (Shomrim N.E. London/Twitter)
Illustrative: A truck with the words 'fuck off' and another with swastika graffiti on it were found outside a Jewish school in a Hasidic neighborhood in London, November 14, 2016. (Shomrim N.E. London/Twitter)

The prevalence of anti-Semitic sentiment has dropped in three European countries over surveys from 2014 and 2015, according to polls conducted this year by the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL interviewed 500 people each in Germany, the United Kingdom and France by telephone, the organization said in a summary of the study it unveiled Thursday.

In the United Kingdom, 10 percent of respondents “harbor anti-Semitic attitudes,” the poll found, compared to 12 percent in 2015 and 8 percent in 2014.

In France, the figure was 14 percent compared to 17 percent in 2015 and 37 percent a year earlier.

In Germany, the figure dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent in 2015 and 27 percent in 2014.

Respondents were instructed to agree or disagree with statements that included “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country” (32 percent in Britain, 33 percent in France and 45 percent in Germany agreed,) and “Jews think they are better than other people” (13 percent to 14 percent agreed in all three countries).

Only four percent of respondents in all three countries agreed with the statement that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” The statement “people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave” was endorsed by 26 percent of respondents in Germany, as well as 14 and 17 percent of those polled in Britain and France, respectively.

Among them, the three countries have a population of more than 200 million people.

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