8 November, 2024

Conference: Antisemitism after October 7 and the War in Gaza – tendencies, consequences and lessons

In the aftermath of Hamas terrorist attack on Israel during the fall of 2023 and the war in Gaza, we have seen an increase in antisemitism in several countries including in Sweden. The amount of reported hate crimes against Jews has increased severely, anti-Jewish hate speech has been shouted at pro-Palestine demonstrations and the spread of antisemitic propaganda in social media is substantial. Jews expresses feelings of insecurity in showing their Jewish identity in public. Meanwhile, the debate about antisemitism has become more politicised and polarised.

In order to deepen our knowledge of the development since last year and in order to strengthen the work to counter antisemitism, the Swedish Committee against Antisemitism (SCAA) in co-operation with the IHRS arranged the annual seminar on antisemitism on November 6, 2024.

The lecturers were Professor Meron Mendel, Director of Anne Frank Educational Center in Frankfurt, and Dr Dave Rich, Head of Policy at Community Security Trust and researcher at London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. They lectured on the development in Germany and Great Britain since October 7, 2023, and participated in a panel discussion moderated by historian Karin Kvist Geverts (IHRS).

BILDTEXT: Dr Dave Rich lecture on the Annual Conference