The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its fourth report on Poland Tuesday, criticizing the country for making little progress toward fighting anti-Semitism.
ECRI’s Chair, Nils Muiznieks, said that while progress has been made in some areas, racist and anti-Semitic discourse, in addition to no anti-discrimination legislations, remain a concern for the organization.
According to the report, “it is disturbing that discriminatory attitudes persist in Poland. Anti-Semitism is tolerated in parts of the political world and influential media. Racism among football fans, involving serious insults to Black players and crude references to the Holocaust, is a major problem which must be tackled by the authorities as well as by the Polish Football Association and football clubs.”
“The term ‘Jew’ is used to taunt the fans of rival teams, independent of their religion. Quite often, open death threats are addressed to “the Jews” with crude references to the gas chambers,” writes the report.
According to the report, some “extreme right-wing organizations” maintain their activities, unchallenged by the government. This s particular problem on the internet.
The report identifies strong Polish nationalism as associating with anti-Semitism. It cites sociological studies showing that anti-Semitism is “changing from religious to secondary antsemitism,” meaning that anti-Semites charge Jews of abusing European guilt and being involved a self-interested conspiracies.
The report also notes the growth of anti-Semitism during periods of debate on privatization, often negatively and falsely associated with Jews, as well as increased hostility during publications of the Middle East conflict, occasionally resulting in anti-Jewish propaganda.
“There is no comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, no independent specialized body to combat racism and discrimination on grounds of race, color, language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin and no independent police complaints mechanism.”
Based in Strasbourg, France, ECRI is an independent human rights body of the Council of Europe that monitors racism and intolerance in Europe.
