EU racism watchdog shelves anti-Semitism report

LONDON - A report on anti-Semitism in Europe has been shelved by the EU's racism watchdog after it found that Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) decided not to publish the research after clashing with its authors over their definition of anti-Semitism, which included anti-Israel acts, the paper said.

"The decision not to publish was a political decision," a source familiar with the report told the Financial Times. He said the report had uncovered a "trend towards Muslim anti-Semitism, while on the left there is also mobilization against Israel that is not always free of prejudice."

The report was commissioned by the EUMC following a peak in anti-Semitic activity in early 2002. Its leaked findings come just a week after the bombing of a Jewish school near Paris and suicide attacks on two Istanbul synagogues.

A deputy board member not named by the paper confirmed the directors of the EUMC had regarded the study as biased, adding that they had judged the focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators to be inflammatory.

An extract from the report obtained by the Financial Times stated: "...it can be concluded that the anti-Semitic incidents in the monitoring period were committed above all by rightwing extremists and radical Islamists or young Muslims."

Beate Winkler, EUMC director, told the paper the report was shelved because of problems with time scales but also due to the overly complicated definition of anti-Semitism. "Of course there are people of Arab descent committing such acts. This will be represented in our next report," she added.