German anti-Semitism grew sharply in the months following the Gaza conflict, Israel Hayom reports.
According to a recent poll, one in four German respondents equate "the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi persecution of Jews during World War Two."
The biannual survey on xenophobia in Germany by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation showed broad measures of anti-Semitism on the decline over the past decade, but it also showed a spike in negative views towards Israel and Jews in general between June and September, coinciding with the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
When asked in September, for example, whether they believed Jews, because of their actions, were partly responsible for their own persecution, 18 percent of respondents agreed, up from less than 8 percent in June.
Just over 27 percent of those surveyed in September said they broadly or fully agreed with the idea that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians was no different than Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, when six million Jews were murdered.
That survey's result was still down significantly from 2004, when over 51 percent of respondents agreed with this statement.
The poll also found that one-fifth of respondents think Israeli policies make Jews less likable.