Prodi blames immigrants

NEW immigrants frustrated with the conflict in the Middle East were blamed for creating a fresh form of anti-Semitism in Europe by European Commission President Romano Prodi.

But he denied a suggestion made by the US Ambassador to the EU last week that the problem was now almost as bad as it was in pre-Hitler Europe.

Mr Prodi was addressing a major anti-Semitism conference organised by the commission and the European Jewish Congress in Brussels yesterday.

Mr Prodi said while there are vestiges of the historical prejudice and attacks against synagogues and Jewish people, it must be seen in perspective.

“Today’s Europe is not the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s and it would be false to claim it was,” he said.

But, he said, there was another context in which anti-Semitism may develop and which feeds on the conflict in the Middle East.

“In Europe we see this conflict fuelling the social frustrations of new minorities established through immigration ... Such frustrations imported into Europe do sometimes translate into anti-Semitic acts ... Such acts must be dealt with severely.”