Reports From The London Conference On Anti-Semitism

An international conference on anti-Semitism convened this week in London, in the wake of the sharpest anti-Semitic awakening in Eastern and Central Europe since the Holocaust.

Hungary, for example, is now considered one of the most problematic countries: Anti-Semitic forces operate officially in its political establishment and an expanding number of Web sites express hatred against Jews and Israel. Also, an increasing number of fascist groups that operate in Hungary in the tradition of the 1930s have become prevalent in the nation, which aligned itself with Nazi Germany during World War II.

“We are now at a time of an anti-Semitic outburst the likes of which we have not known since the end of World War II,” Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman told Ma’ariv. “I have been dealing with the battle against anti-Semitism for 44 years, and I have never seen anything like this.”

From Zimbabwe to Europe, Jewish communities have suffered the vulgar and violent outbursts on anti-Semitism in the past several months. This conference is not an academic exercise, he said. Mr. Foxman’s statements were the most outspoken, but in general, the representatives who attended the London conference agreed on one thing: Anti-Semitism was back on a large scale.

The British government and the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA) hosted the conference, and when the British want to play host, they know how to do it.

Over 100 representatives were invited to the conference from over 40 countries, including nearly all the European countries, as well as South American and even North African countries.

A senior Israeli government minister, Yitzhak Herzog, who holds the Israel government’s portfolio when it comes to battling against anti-Semitism, represented Israel.

A Labor councilman from Hackney, an underprivileged neighborhood in London, related how gatherings of his own party give a platform for public discussions on the possibility of the “dissolution of the State of Israel.”

Representatives from Spain told about a new and worrying phenomenon in Barcelona: Arab residents are hanging shoes on stores owned by Jews and stores associated with Israel, to mark the establishment as Jewish and to relate the situation to the shoes thrown at George W. Bush in Iraq.

Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who was imprisoned by the Soviets for his desire to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s and 1980s and who also represented Israel at the conference, said that the anti-Semitic incidents represented an “unprecedented anti-Semitic surge.”

He agreed that the economic recession and the escalation in the security situation were apparently the main catalysts of this phenomenon.

In Great Britain itself, since the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation in Gaza began, the Jewish community has experienced no fewer than 250 anti-Semitic incidents. This is an unprecedented rise, said Mr. Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust, an organization for protecting the Jewish community.

Behind the scenes and the consensus, however, lay the political battle, and it dealt mainly with the attitude of the countries participating in the conference toward the U.N. Conference Against Racism, also known as Durban II. It is scheduled to convene in Geneva in less than three months.

The first Durban Conference that was held in 2001 was an initiative by U.N. agencies intended to deal with racism, but became a huge display of hatred against Israel. This offensive was characterized by what is known as “new anti-Semitism” – racism that is expressed in a denial of Israel’s right to exist.

The Arab League countries, with the cooperation of a series of non-governmental organizations, and countries in Asia and South America led the campaign against Israel at the time. In light of these past events, Israel has already announced that it would not attend the conference, as has Canada. The new U.S. administration, conversely, has announced that it intends to take part in organizing the event, and will only decide at a later date whether to actually take part in it.

The U.S. State Department, at the instructions of President Barack Obama, wants to send the message to developing countries that it seeks a dialogue with them, and has therefore refrained from announcing a boycott of the conference.

This approach by the new U.S. administration has elicited concern among political officials in Israel. However, Israeli officials believe that if the US cannot succeed in changing the character of the conference, it will not participate in it.

A confrontation simmered behind the scenes at the London conference. The Israelis, the Canadians and other representatives wanted the conference to issue a clear statement against the emerging agenda of the Durban II conference, which equates Zionism and racism.

The Europeans wanted a softer version, which would leave them diplomatic room to maneuver. This institution has failed, the Canadian representative said in reference to the Durban conference, and added: The discriminating attitude towards Israel is unfair, non-liberal and non-democratic.

This position was reinforced by the most senior figure who attended the London conference, the Italian foreign minister, who announced that if the expected Durban II conference in Geneva were to discriminate against Israel, Italy would not participate in it.

Britain also shared in this position. Lord Malloch-Brown, a prominent minister in the British Foreign Office, said, “ It is unthinkable for only one country to be ostracized. It is unacceptable for the entire discussion to deal with Israel and Zionism.”

At the same opportunity, he hinted that Britain was waiting to see what the Obama administration would do.

The response was not late in coming from one of the American representatives, who said that:

“Every time the United States tried to take matters off the agenda that only mentioned Israel, its European allies disappeared. Excuse me for the blunt language, but the U.S. administration wants to know whether our European allies have any backbone.”

The British minister hurried to calm. “We have red lines. We won’t participate in the conference if it discriminates against Israel or the Jews,” he said.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com