EU's handling of Jewish issues criticised

THE EU: Two prominent Jewish leaders are claiming that the European Commission has fuelled anti-Semitism.

THE EU: Two prominent Jewish leaders are claiming that the European Commission has fuelled anti-Semitism.

Mr Edgar M Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, and Mr Cobi Benatoff, president of the European Jewish Congress, make the claims in today's Financial Times.

The claims relate to the shelving of a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia on anti-Semitism which concluded that Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the reported incidents, and also to the way a European opinion poll which found that Israel posed the greatest threat to world peace, ahead of North Korea, Iran and the US, was released.

The poll findings and the European Commission's handling of it sparked a diplomatic dispute with Israel. The EU has insisted that a decision to stagger the release of the poll - initially leaving out the findings about Israel - was not political.