JERUSALEM (EJP)—A Tel Aviv University survey released on Sunday reported 1,129 anti-Semitic incidents in 2009, ranging from vandalism and arson against Jewish targets to beatings of Jews.

The figure, up from 559 incidents in 2008, was the highest since the survey began more than 20 years ago.

Attacks against Jews were fueled by a Muslim backlash in Europe in the aftermath of Israel's operation against Hamas in Gaza, showed the data compiled by the university's Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism with the support of the European Jewish Congress

The most marked increase in anti-Semitic violence occurred in Western Europe, especially Britain and France, where protests and anger by Muslim residents boiled over after Israel's Gaza operation.

Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism, said protests against the war often led to incitement, which in turn erupted into physical violence.

"The political goals are imbued with anti-Jewish sentiment, equations of Jews to Nazis," she said.

She said the study tracked only instances of physical violence against Jewish targets.

"Verbal violence is violence of course, but we don't count it. Violence we regard as physical, and here we have clear indications."

For the first time in the report's history, incidents carried out by Muslims eclipsed those by right-wing extremists in cases where the perpetrator was identified, the report said.

Incidents in Britain shot up to 374 from 112 in 2008, and to 195 from 50 in France.

The United States registered only a slight increase, according to the study.

The university issued its report on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Israel's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.