A pan-European legal task force to fight anti-Semitism was announced Dec. 1, 2011 in Brussels at a conference of Jewish lawyers and legal experts from across Europe. The task force will operate on the basis of the model established by the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Around 70 people from 16 countries gathered in Brussels to discuss means to confront anti-Semitism and its new forms, anti-Zionism and the delegitimization of the State of Israel, particularly in some European countries where the issue of Jew-hatred appears to be more acute and where legal weapons do not yet exist.
The two-day conference was organized by the European Jewish Union (EJU) in partnership with Tzedek, the European Jewish Lawyers Association. The European Jewish Union is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Brussels that was founded in the Spring of 2011 with the stated aim of being "a uniting structure for all Jewish communities and organizations throughout Western, Eastern and Central Europe." The EJU hopes to establish a European Jewish Parliament, comprising 120 members. This group would then represent the concerns of the Jewish community to the European Union.
The task force was established "in light of the increasing and constant growth of anti-Semitism in the whole of Europe and the campaign to delegitimize Israel using traditional and new forms as well as legal means," a resolution said.
The task force, made up of five lawyers from France, Germany and the UK will draw on legal experts from different countries that will coordinate the sharing of information, tactics, and strategies for combating anti-Semitism
While participants agree that legal means are an important part of the battle against anti-Semitism, several speakers stressed however that this was not enough.
“Laws will not eliminate anti-Semitism. We need education and to work with coalition partners, to develop school curricula that teach why anti-Semitism is wrong. But we also need to call on our political, civil and religious leaders to speak out forcefully against anti-Semitism," said Deborah Lauter, National Civil Rights Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"We will never eradicate anti-Semitism if we cannot reach people’s hearts and minds. Taking anti-Semites to court is not by itself going to solve the problem," Lauter said.
"Anti-Semitism has to be fought at all levels, political, education and within religions," said international lawyer and author Samuel Pisar, a Holocaust survivor, who expressed fears for renewed anti-Jewish hatred in the framework of the current economic crisis.
For him, the fact that Jewish schools, synagogues and Jewish public events need protection in Europe is also a result of an anti-Semitic climate.
Participants welcomed the recent launch by EJU of a Jewish television, Jewish News One. "This channel which now also available live on Internet, has the potential to become an important tool to bring "another voice" on the reality of facts, said EJU CEO Tomer Orni.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, who addressed the conference, said one should really begin "to stand up and use the tools that are used against us" in order to defend the state of Israel and the Jewish people.
"The attacks that demonize and delegitimize Israel are done nearly on a daily basis and it is very hard to really pinpoint them but it is important to do that and respond to each and every issue."
He also stressed the huge role of the media. "Today the media conveys and portrays what countries are and what they represent and Israel has been portrayed in the past from David into Goliath and not really putting through the diversity of the Israeli society as a democracy and what makes Israel so unique as a melting pot of Jews and citizens coming from all over the world."
Growing global anti-Semitism is linked to Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, the American ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman told stunned Jewish conference attendants. He told participants he was apologizing in advance if his words are not to their liking. He then proceeded to make controversial statements about his views on Muslim anti-Semitism, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Dec. 2, 2011.
A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Gutman said. He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.
The American envoy, a lawyer by training, is Jewish and played a major role in fundraising for the Democratic Party. He was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama.
The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman’s words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy’s remarks.
“The modern Anti-Semite formally condemns Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and expresses upmost sympathy with the Jewish people. He simply has created a new species, the “Anti-Zionist” or – even more sophisticated – the so-called ‘Israel critic,’” Germany attorney Nathan Gelbart said.
“The ‘Israel critic’ will never state ‘Jews go home’ but is questioning the legality of the incorporation of the State of Israel and therefore the right for the Jewish people to settle in their homeland. He will not say the Jews are the evil of the world but claim that the State of Israel is a major cause for instability and war in the region,” he said. “There is no other country, no other people on this planet the ‘Israel critic’ would dedicate so much time and devotion as to the case of Israel.”
“For no other country he would criticize or ask to boycott its goods or academics. And this for one simple reason: Because Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not more and not less,” Gelbart said.
Conference attendants received Gelbart’s remarks with loud applause, while the American envoy apologized for having to leave the site as result of prior obligations and departed.
Further Reading:
It is dangerous for a Jewish girl to go to school in Brussels these days
Report on Italian Anti-Semitism released by the Italian Parliament.
Oleksandr Feldman: Ukranian Fighter Against Hatred
Conference on combating anti-Semitism to take place in Kiev, Ukraine
Fighting laws against the Jewish religion – Holland against Schechita
As Anti-Semitism Rises, More of Belgium’s Jews Immigrate to Israel
Spain's Anti-Semitism: Continuing "Lawfare," Selective Application of the Law
Spanish Survey Shows Spread of Jew Hatred Among Left and Students
