Meeting with President – Nehammer: “Israel is an important partner”

“Relations between Israel and Austria are characterized by mutual trust and respect (…). My government is at the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism. The active promotion of Jewish life in Austria is particularly important to us,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) on Tuesday. In order to preserve and promote Jewish life in Austria, the financial resources would be increased annually to seven million euros. In this way, the Austrian-Jewish cultural heritage can be preserved for the future, according to Nehammer.

anti-Semitism is on the rise
According to Statistics Austria, about 5,400 Jews lived in Austria in 2021, most of them in Vienna. However, the Israeli religious community assumes a higher number. After 1945, small Jewish communities were again established in the major cities. Nevertheless, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are said to be on the rise again, as a spring parliamentary anti-Semitism report showed. For example, 18 percent of the 2,000 respondents consider the ‘Jewish elites’ to be responsible for the current price rises. At least one in ten people (eleven percent) thought that the reports of concentration camps and persecution were exaggerated.

Nehammer was in Israel in July 2022, met then Prime Minister Jair Lapid and several members of the government, and visited the Yad Vashem memorial. The current president already had a meeting with Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen on Tuesday. Since Herzog called Austria’s fight against anti-Semitism “uncompromising.” Another topic was the planned judicial reform in Israel, which repeatedly leads to mass demonstrations.