EU: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, has called for greater action to tackle the "vile phenomenon of anti-Semitism" but has defended the right of European governments to criticise the policies of Israel.
Mr Cowen made his remarks on behalf of the European Union at a conference on anti-Semitism in Berlin, attended by representatives of 55 countries, including the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell and the Israeli president, Mr Moshe Katsav.
"Anti-Semitism must be addressed by firm measures. But, while we do so, we cannot and should not expect reasonable criticism and fair comment about specific Israeli government policies to fall silent," said Mr Cowen, calling criticism of governments and their policies "an essential feature of democratic political systems".
He added: "The exploitation of race for political purposes by any government or any politician ...is quite simply unacceptable."
Mr Colin Powell said the conference was an important step "to stamp out new fires of anti-Semitism within our societies".
"It is not anti-Semitism to criticise the state of Israel," he said. "But the line is crossed when the leaders of Israel are demonised or vilified by the use of Nazi symbols," he said.
The two-day conference opened yesterday amid conflicting reports of the current level of anti-Semitism in Europe.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a report showing falling levels of anti-Semitism in Europe but growing criticism of Israel.
"The good news is that, regardless of the methodology we use, there is a decrease in anti-Semitic attitudes in eight out of the 10 \ countries surveyed," said Mr Abraham Foxman, director of the ADL. France showed the greatest drop in anti-Semitism, despite having some of Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities.
However, the president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Mr Edgar M. Bronfmann, told a German newspaper: "Anti-Semitism has risen noticeably in many European countries. The latest studies clearly prove that. A particular problem appears to be the countries with a strong emigrant population from Arab countries, for example in France."
Mr Elie Wiesel, a concentration camp survivor and Nobel laureate, told the conference: "If we tell you that the signals we receive are disturbing, that we are alarmed ... people had better listen."