By Emily Smith - 4th May 2004
International fears over a rise in religious intolerance have once again raised their head, with Europe and the USA seemingly united on the need for action.
Italian-US meetings found senior politicians agreeing that the situation was critical.
Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry said that Europeans, Americans, Christians, Jews and Muslims “are all in the same boat”.
But he said fighting anti-Semitism must be a priority, because “anti-Semitism feeds terrorism”.
“In Europe anti-Semitism is growing, because in France as in Germany violence in the Middle East is being used as an excuse to attack Jews.”
A leading member of the Italian government, Marcello Pera, added that the EU should do more to support America.
“Faced with a new threat, after the threat of communism, Europe became divided, Europe has not yet understood what war was declared on the West on September 11.”
He said this led to “appeasement, neutralism” and “thinking that the USA is wrong”.
US and Italian premiers George Bush and Silvio Berlusconi are set to hold bilateral talks on May 19 and June 4 in Washington and Rome, respectively.
France on Monday held an emergency meeting on anti-Semitism, following a spate of religious attacks on French territory.
127 Jewish tombs were vandalised in the Haut-Rhine area on Friday, whilst mosques in Alsace and the Loire also suffered.
French president Jean-Pierre Raffarin said “We as a government do not want to be deaf and blind to the rise of anti-Semitism.
Speaking to yet another anti-Semitism conference in Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cautioned “It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel”.
But he added that “the line is crossed when Israel or its leaders are demonized or vilified, for example, by the use of Nazi symbols and racist caricatures.”
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