E/CN.4/2000/16 page 10 B. Anti-Semitism 27. As in previous years, the Government of Israel has provided the Special Rapporteur with the conclusions of the research carried out by the University of Tel-Aviv on major trends in anti-Semitism worldwide in 1998. The University’s analysts observed that “the year 1998 … was marked by an increase or intensification of all aspects of anti-Semitic activity. While the number of major violent attacks (involving the use of a weapon and especially explosives) was almost as high as in 1997 (36 compared with 38 in 1997), most of these attacks were more violent, caused more damage and indicated the enhanced local and international organizational capabilities of the perpetrators. Moreover, 1998 witnessed outbursts of violence in countries previously quiet in that respect - Greece, Serbia, Uruguay and South Africa - not to speak of the overt political and uncurbed usage of anti-Semitic motifs and intensified atmosphere of violence in Russia. Further, an increase, albeit small, was recorded in major violent incidents (unarmed attacks on persons and damage to private and communal property) - 121 compared to 116 in 1997. Here again, several incidents involving the beating of rabbis in the streets of Russia, Argentina and the United Kingdom [were reported]. In the United States, a 2.5 per cent rise in anti-Semitic incidents was reported after a three-year decline …”. 28. “An analysis of regions should commence with Russia, where violence against Jewish life and property by means of arson and explosives, accompanied by popular incitement, and the most severe anti-Semitic rhetoric by politicians heard in decades went undenounced by the body politic, including intellectuals. The Communist Party, the largest opposition party, used blatant anti-Semitic slogans as a political weapon which the Parliament failed to denounce (see also chapter IV, section F, below). While the legal tools to act against racism exist, the absence of official reaction and the reluctance to use these tools have only served to encourage and legitimize this form of extremism …”. 29. “In North America, the rise in the number of incidents was accompanied by a general upsurge of anti-Semitism, manifested in the continuing proliferation of hate sites on the Internet. … anti-Semitic sentiments persisted especially among White right-wing extremists and Black Muslims.” 30. “In South America, a quiet continent for many years (except for the two bombings in Buenos Aires), there was an increase in extreme right and neo-Nazi activity, influenced by the European scene. The collapse of two Jewish-owned banks … prompted anti-Semitic reactions and expressions ...”. 31. “In parallel to these developments, Muslim extremists were suspected of cooperating with local ultra-rightists or leftists to further violence in Greece and South Africa, and intensify anti-Semitic activities in … Australia and the United Kingdom.” 32. “The weakening of local right-wing organizations had been replaced either by regional reorganization (for example, EuroNat, initiated by the French National Front Party, and its Scandinavian counterpart NordNat) and by international organization, such as the world Nazi conference planned for April 2000 in Chile. The new concept ‘leaderless resistance’, evident