US Department of State shows Lukashenka to be Anti-Semite

Anti-Semitism, including government-promoted hatred toward Jews and prejudice couched as criticism of Israel, has risen globally over the last decade, the State Department said in its report to Congress.

New forms of anti-Semitism are emerging around the world, promoting prejudice against Jews by attacking Israeli policy and Zionism, the philosophic underpinning of a Jewish state, the State Department reported.

While common throughout the Middle East and in Muslim communities, the new anti-Semitism is not confined to those populations, said the report.

For example, Tel Aviv University's Stephen Roth Institute listed 593 cases of major anti-Semitic incidents in 2006, the highest number since 2000, the report said. Of these, 277 were physical attacks on Jews; 105 synagogues were damaged. Over half the incidents took place in Western Europe.

The report singles out Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a Holocaust denier whose government practices official anti-Semitism against its Jewish minorit, and Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, who the State Department said had "publicly demonized" Israel.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been mentioned in the report as well. In autumn 2007 he told Jews turned the city of Babrujsk into a “pigsty”. In Belarus, state enterprises produce and distribute anti-Semitic material, the report states.