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CNN Live At Daybreak

Jewish Congress Meets to Discuss Rise in Anti-Semitism

Aired April 24, 2002 - 06:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The World Jewish Congress is concerned about a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe. The group met in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the problem. Our Diana Muriel has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Passionate exchanges at an emergency session of the World Jewish Congress in Brussels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will not be cowed into...

MURIEL: The heated rhetoric, a reflection of the growing fear amongst many in the European-Jewish community that anti-Semitism is on the rise.

In the southern French city of Marseille, a Jewish synagogue was burned down. In Belgium, three attacks on synagogues, including here in the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht, a synagogue damaged by young people throwing Molotov cocktails. Another came under machine gunfire just last weekend.

No one was injured in any of these incidents, but they have served to shake up the community, leading some Jews scared to walk the streets.

AVI BEKER, SECRETARY-GENERAL, WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS: The fact that we have today Jews here in the continent who feel fears and anxieties when they walk on the street, when they take their children to the Jew school is something which is really unheard and unacceptable today in a democracy.

MURIEL: Jewish community leaders say they now want to see European politicians taking an active role in stamping out anti- Semitism. But in European politics, the extreme right appeared to be gaining ground, as witnessed by the success of the far-right French presidential candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the first round of the elections last weekend.

EDGAR BRONFMAN, PRESIDENT, WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS: In Europe, we have lots of reasons to be worried about a far-right with just the things, as you said, Le Pen says, the holocaust was just a detail in history. Now, it may a detail to him. It wasn't a detail to me and to the Jews of the world.

MURIEL: The European Parliament has condemned the recent racist attacks against Jews. On Tuesday, parliamentarians met with the speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, to exchange views.

AVRHAHAM BURG, SPEAKER, KNESSET: Anti-Semitism is not my problem. Anti-Semitism is not the problem of the Jews. Anti- Semitism, xenophobia, hatred are the problems of the society in which it happens.

MURIEL (on camera): The visible demonstration of anti-Jewish feeling in Europe has shocked both Jews and non-Jews alike. Here in Brussels, a delegate to the World Jewish Congress dressed in Orthodox Jewish garb was pushed around and roughed up at the train station. That just reinforcing a new sense of vulnerability amongst the Jewish community in Europe.

Diana Muriel, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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