Despite an overall decline in anti-Semitic incidents around the world in 2007, the Tel Aviv University anti-Semitism research center recorded a 6.6 percent rise specifically in violent anti-Semitic attacks, including arson and the use of firearms with intent to kill.

The Tel Aviv University report, published Wednesday on Holocaust Remembrance Day, encompasses 632 incidents of violent anti-Semitic attacks. The report maintains that the number of severe violent attacks has risen threefold with 19 incidents in 2006, and 57 incidents in 2007.

According to the report, there has been an overall decline in anti-Semitic events, such as verbal and visual offenses, in several key nations such as France, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, the United States and Britain.

The report also shows a decline in mild violence driven by anti-Semitism, such as vandalism of community centers and schools. However, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, monuments and memorials has been on the rise around the world. Incidents of desecration rose from 91 in 2006 to 141 in 2007.

France saw a rise from two violent attacks to eight in 2007. The trend of increasing violent attacks was especially apparent in Australia and Ukraine. In Germany, Canada and Britain there was a sharp rise in violence: in Germany the number of milder attacks rose from 38 to 67, and 10 exceptionally violent attacks were recorded, as opposed to none in 2006. In Britain and Canada the rise was more moderate, but the number of extremely violent incidents rose from two to 15 in Britain and from none to five in Canada.

In the U.S. there was an overall 6 percent decline in all types of anti-Semitic events as well as a decrease in the number of harassments. However, the U.S. saw a rise in anti-Semitic vandalism. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 93 cases of vandalism in the U.S. and 48 cases of assault.

In Russia, anti-Semitic events remained static, with no rise or fall in the number of violent cases.

The report speculates that the decline in overt anti-Semitism in certain places could be a result of the commitment made by the government in those countries and other international bodies to fight anti-Semitism, especially anti-Semitic violence, and to integrate the Jewish communities in the law enforcement and legal processes.

Another possibility raised in the report is the respective governments’ fear of street riots that could harm the general population, not just Jews, and drives the legislation and law enforcement in those places to clamp down against anti-Semitic phenomena.

The report adds that the commitment to fight anti-Semitism is apparent in Western countries like Canada, Britain the U.S. and Australia, but not so much in Russia and Ukraine.

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