The Anti Defamation League’s (ADL) Global 100 Index of Anti-Semitism reveals that the Palestinian Authority is the most anti-Semitic territory on earth.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday released the results of its first-ever global survey of anti-Semitic attitudes in more than 100 countries around the world.

The ADL Global 100 Index of Anti-Semitism is based on polls of adults in 101 countries plus the Palestinian territories. It confirms what has already been widely understood to be true about the persistence of bias against Jews.

The study shows the Middle East to be the most anti-Semitic region on earth. The top 16 countries on the anti-Semitic index were all in the Middle East region, with “West Bank and Gaza” leading the pack at 93%. Second up was Iraq, followed by Yemen and Algeria. Jordan, which has a peace treaty with Israel, came in ninth.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, noted that even excluding Middle East countries, “close to a quarter of those polled in other parts of the world are infected with anti-Semitic attitudes.”

The most anti-Semitic country outside of the Middle East was Greece, which scored 69%. On the other side of the spectrum, Laos had the lowest level of anti-Semitic views, coming in at a mere 0.2%, followed by the Philippines and Sweden.

The poll also found that anti-Semitism in the Middle East and North Africa tends to increase commensurate with the respondents’ education levels – the opposite of what is seen in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial

In the survey, which was conducted via a combination of telephone calls and face-to-face conversations, respondents were asked a series of 11 questions based on stereotypes about Jews, including questions about Jewish power, loyalty, money and behavior.

The poll determined that 26 percent of respondents are “deeply infected” with anti-Semitic attitudes while only a little more than half of those polled have heard of the Holocaust. Two thirds of those asked stated that they have either not heard of the Nazi genocide or do not believe that the accepted historical accounts are correct.

Such beliefs, the ADL stated, are “fueled by conspiracy theories on the Internet, and in some countries it is still politically expedient to scapegoat and blame Jews for social, economic and political ills by accusing them of having ‘dual loyalties’ or even of being a foreign enemy in their midst.”

Author: Gidon Ben-Zvi, Staff Writer, United with Israel