Danes report record level of anti-Semitic attacks

JTA — The Jewish community of Denmark documented 40 anti-Semitic incidents in 2012, almost double those in 2009, a year that marked a sharp upturn in such attacks.

A report released on Feb. 25 by AKVAH, the security unit of Denmark’s Jewish community of 8,000, counted six physical attacks on Jews last year.

In one of them, in November, several men of Middle Eastern descent hit an elderly Israeli man in the Copenhagen suburb of Norrebro and tore off a Star of David pendant from around the victim’s neck.

AKVAH documented two attempted assaults and 10 incidents in which Jews were verbally abused for being Jews. Other incidents included intimidation and threats.

In 2009, which began with an Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the community reported 21 incidents, a substantial increase over the average of three incidents in the previous six years.

The report did not say how many such incidents were documented in 2011. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has said it received no data on attacks in 2011 and 2010 from institutions belonging to Denmark’s Jewish community. The FRA report from last year only contains data for the years 2003-2009.

FRA said last year that Danish authorities offered no disaggregated statistical data on hate crimes, but said there was an even distribution of offenses targeting Muslims, Christians and Jews.