Who are the key drivers of modern antisemitism? On its homepage, the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, the organizer of a conference on antisemitism taking place in Jerusalem on March 26 and 27, says that this will be the main question.
However, the list of invited guests for the event has sparked massive criticism. Reading like a who’s who of the radical right in Europe, it includes in France, a politician from Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban’s national-conservtive Fidesz party and an MEP from the far-right Sweden Democrats. President of the political entity , Milorad Dodik, who is considered a friend of , is also due to attend. The star guest is Argentinian President . Many of the invitees share a closeness to the Israeli government, and an anti-Muslim agenda.
Their hosts are Israel’s and Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli. Select guests were invited by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the evening before the conference began.
No focus on far-right antisemitism
One of the panels is titled “How Radical Islam Fuels Antisemitism in the West,” and overall, the conference is expected to focus particularly on Islamic antisemitism. Milorad Dodik, who denies that the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica was a genocide, is on the guest list. In February, the was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for defying international rulings overseeing the fragile unity of the two entities that make up Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The conference will not address the connection between right-wing extremism and . This comes despite the fact that Jewish organizations and antisemitism experts have warned for years that the rise of the far right is a threat to Jewish life all over the world.
The Israeli government has been criticized for inviting people from the far right.
“Nobody who convenes a conference against antisemitism can at the same time invite antisemites who spread the poison of prejudice and hatred,” said German lawyer and journalist Michel Friedman. He was once president of the European Jewish Congress and vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
“The Netanyahu government is becoming more and more disinhibited, and is seeking coalitions that are intolerable,” he told DW. “We know that it treasures its connection to Victor Orban in Hungary. The government is moving further and further to the right. That is very dangerous for Israel.”
Numerous cancellations because of far-right guests
This criticism is shared by many in Europe. Many of those who had been invited to attend the conference canceled their attendance the clearer it became that far-right figures would be present. Those who have canceled include Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of a New York-based organization combating antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. The Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism Felix Klein was one of three high-ranking Germans to withdraw their confirmation to attend.
“My refusal was motivated by the fact that I don’t want to appear at a conference or even share a panel with people that have no contact to Jewish communities in the diaspora,” Klein told DW.
The president of the German-Israeli Society (DIG), Volker Beck, told DW in a statement that he was “astonished to see that almost only members of parliament from the extreme right were invited to the conference. Many of these parties do not respect the Jewish religion in their own countries.”
‘Jews or Israelis should not be used as rabbi stamps’
In a letter to the English-language Israeli broadsheet Jerusalem Post, the president of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Muzicant, wrote that the conference posed a major problem for Jewish communities in Europe.
“The motivation of extreme right politicians to come to this conference is not the love for Israel or to protect the Jews, but mainly to get a kosher rabbi stamp,” Muzicant wrote. “And we, Jews or Israelis, should not be used as rabbi stamps.”
In a guest article for the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Brenner, a professor of Jewish history and culture at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, described the conference as a capitulation to the right.
“In Jewish communities outside of Israel, which feel under increasing pressure from verbal and physical attacks, there is a growing willingness to see right-wing and anti-Muslim forces as their supposed allies in the fight against terror,” he claimed. “In so doing, they forget that these right-wing extremists hate Muslims only a bit more than [they hate] Jews, who are still very much on their blacklist.”
The Diaspora Alliance, which campaigns against antisemitism and its instrumentalization, has long criticized Netanyahu’s government for using accusations of antisemitism to delegitimize criticism of Israeli policies.
The conference has also triggered criticism within Israel. At a hearing before the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, diaspora Jewish leaders criticized the Israeli government for not coordinating with Jewish communities before inviting controversial far-right politicians. The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs argued that it had invited representatives from across the political spectrum.
When asked by DW, spokesperson for the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, Gilad Zwik, defended the selection of participants.
“The event hosts guests from a variety of countries and political backgrounds, all united by their commitment to a common goal: an uncompromising fight against antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel,” Zwik said. He also denied that there had been numerous cancellations.
For days now, protesters have taken to the streets of Israel once again to slam Netanyahu’s government. Critics accuse it of failing to negotiate the release of Others have called for an end to , which resumed earlier this month, breaking the fragile ceasefire.
Friedman told DW that the protests were a good sign: “This country is in the , and yet people are demonstrating against the government every day.”
Tania Krämer and Kyra Levine contributed to this article, which was originally written in German.
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