By Marc Daalder on Newsroom…
A new survey seeking to determine the level of antisemitic belief in New Zealand falls short by conflating anti-Jewish and anti-Israel views, Marc Daalder writes.
Do two-thirds of New Zealanders hold antisemitic views?
That’s the suggestion from a new survey by the New Zealand Jewish Council (NZJC), which canvassed 1017 online respondents’ views on 18 supposedly antisemitic statements. The study also evaluated knowledge of the Holocaust and general sentiment towards views.
At first, it’s hard to square the headline result – that “63 percent of New Zealanders surveyed agree with at least one antisemitic view” – with another key finding that people were more favourable of Jews than Buddhists or Muslims. Asked to rate their “feelings of warmth” towards Jews on a scale from 0 to 100, respondents’ median choice was 75.
“Warmth toward Muslims is significantly lower than warmth scores toward each of the other ethnic/religious groups,” the report found and the median ranking for Muslims was just 66.
Part of the issue is explained in the 2017 British survey that the NZJC study is largely modelled on: There is a distinction between antisemites and antisemitism. This survey estimated that 2.4 percent of British adults expressed multiple antisemitic views “readily and confidently” and another 3 percent held fewer – but still multiple – antisemitic attitudes with less certainty.
Read the full article on Newsroom here.
