Timeline of Antisemitism - Twenty-first Century

Twenty-first Century

2001

During the World Conference against Racism 2001, in Durban, two delegations, the United States and Israel, withdrew from the conference over objections to a draft document equating Zionism with racism.

2002

Massive European wave of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions between March and May, with largest number of attacks occurring in France.

2003 October 16

The Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammed draws standing ovation at the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference for his speech. An excerpt: " are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Nazis killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them. They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries. And they, this tiny community, have become a world power."

2004 April

United Talmud Torah school library was firebombed in Montreal, Canada.

2004 June

A series of attacks on Jewish cemeteries in Wellington, New Zealand.

2004 September

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, a part of the Council of Europe, called on its member nations to "ensure that criminal law in the field of combating racism covers anti-Semitism" and to penalize intentional acts of public incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination, public insults and defamation, threats against a person or group, and the expression of antisemitic ideologies. It urged member nations to "prosecute people who deny, trivialize or justify the Holocaust". The report was drawn up in wake of a rise in attacks on Jews in Europe. The report said it was Europe's "duty to remember the past by remaining vigilant and actively opposing any manifestations of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance... Anti-Semitism is not a phenomenon of the past and... the slogan 'never again' is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago."

2005 September

Throughout the Polish election Radio Maryja continued to promote antisemitic views, including denial of the facts of the Jedwabne pogrom in 1941. Their support of right-wing conservative Law and Justice party is considered a major factor in their electoral victory.

2005

A group of 15 members of the State Duma of Russia demands that Judaism and Jewish organizations be banned from the country. In June, 500 prominent Russians demand that the state prosecutor investigate ancient Jewish texts as "anti-Russian" and ban Judaism. The investigation was launched, but halted among international outcry.

2005 December

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad widens the hostility between Iran and Israel by denying the Holocaust during a speech in the Iranian city of Zahedan. He made the following comments on live television: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets." Continuing, he suggested that if the Holocaust had occurred, that it was the responsibility of Europeans to offer up territory to Jews: "This is our proposal: give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country." See Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel

2006 February

A French Jew, Ilan Halimi is kidnapped and tortured to death for 23 days in what Paris police have officially declared an antisemitic act. The event causes international outcry. On 9 May, the Helsinki Commission held a briefing titled "Tools for Combating Anti-Semitism: Police Training and Holocaust Education".

2006 July

Naveed Afzal Haq kills Pamela Waechter and injures five others in the July 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shooting.

2006 December

The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust was a two-day conference that opened on 11 December 2006 in Tehran, Iran; many saw it as a conference rife with antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Holocaust denial.

2007 August/September

The Jewish state, Israel, is shocked to find a neo-Nazi group of immigrants (from Russia) committing vandalism and voicing anti-Semitic rhetoric within its borders. Some members had immigrated under the Law of Return. One of that group's members was a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and all were of Jewish descent. The group was violent against gays, Ethiopian Jews, haredi Jews, and drug addicts.

2007 and 2008

Pope Benedict XVI, via the document Summorum Pontificum, officially revives the Tridentine mass, which contains a Good Friday prayer asking for the conversion of the Jews. This leads to criticism from Jewish leaders, charging that the prayer is anti-Semitic. The Vatican subsequently issues a statement condemning anti-Semitism, but is reluctant to remove the prayer. and Benedict visits the Park East Synagogue in an April 2008 visit to New York, which is apparently well-received, with the congregants and the Pope exchanging gifts with each other.

Jewish communities around the world are rocked by a firebombings, assaults, and death threats during a spate of Antisemitic incidents during the Gaza War.

2008 26–29 November

Mumbai, India: Nariman House, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish centre in Colaba known as the Mumbai Chabad House, was taken over by two attackers and several residents were held hostage. The house was stormed by NSG commandos and, after a long battle, the two attackers were killed. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah Holtzberg, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with other hostages inside the house by the attackers. Indian forces found the body of six hostages inside the house.

2009 April

Members of the Lithuanian Jewish community report significant increases in anti-Semitism. Local Jewish leader Simonas Aperavicius notes anti-Semitism in the Lithuanian media.

2009 May

attempted bombing of a New York synagogue; see 2009 New York bomb plot

2009 June

A lone 88-year-old gunman enters the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., shooting and fatally wounding Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security officer of African-American descent. See: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting

2012 March

Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Algerian Muslim kills four Jews (including three children) outside a school in Toulouse, France.