Tweet
New Anti-Semitism
Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
55 countries address the spread of a 'new anti-Semitism'
Richard Bernstein NYT
Saturday, June 21, 2003
VIENNA In 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Adolph Hitler spoke to cheering multitudes on a balcony at the Royal Hofburg Palace in this city, a historical fact that was much noted by participants in the first-ever, large-scale international conference devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism.
The two-day meeting, which ended Friday at the palace where Hitler spoke, brought together the 55 member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a delegation, led by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, of members of Congress and Jewish leaders from the United States.
The overall theme of the meeting was that a new anti-Semitism is spreading in many regions of the world, spawned by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but drawing on many of the old anti-Jewish stereotypes that were supposed to have faded into insignificance years ago.
"We are witnessing an old-new, escalating, global and even lethal anti-Semitism," Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of Parliament, said in a speech to delegates Friday. Its chief characteristic, Cotler and other delegates argued, is the singling out of Israel for an opprobrium and condemnation that applies to no other country in the world and that transforms the very notion of a Jewish homeland into a criminal offense.
"It is anti-Semitism under the banner of human rights at a time when human rights is the new secular religion," Cotler said. "Israel is characterized as the human rights violator of our time, so that it emerges as a new kind of anti-Christ."
For many participants, the fact that the meeting took place at all was itself of historical significance, because it puts the concern for rising incidents of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in several European countries onto the international agenda.
In this sense, one of the most important events of the meeting came when the German ambassador to the organization, Dieter Boden, invited the delegates to hold another meeting on anti-Semitism in Berlin next year.
The conference comes after several years during which European countries in particular have experienced new waves of anti-Jewish attacks, many of them carried out against synagogues and cemeteries in France by young immigrants from North Africa.
The French government, in a move that was widely praised at the conference, passed new legislation giving greater powers to the police to crack down on hate crimes.
The conference was initially suggested by members of the Parliamentary Commission, a group of legislators from several countries, which submitted the proposal to the U.S. State Department. From that point, according to members of the American delegation, Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed the idea against considerable resistance from other OSCE member states, who argued that anti-Semitism should be taken up in more general meetings devoted to racism and discrimination, rather than made a separate, stand-alone subject.
"Plenty of people came in here kicking and screaming and with the idea that, 'O.K., we've done it,' rather thanwith the idea of really drawing some lessons," Andrew Baker, a member of the American delegation who is the director of international affairs for the American Jewish Committee in Washington, said as the meeting drew to a close Friday.
The conference consisted largely of statements by delegates and members of the many nongovernnmental organizations that were also present. There was almost no give and take, no debate and not even any authoritative presentation of the actual situation of Jews around the world, though individual delegations and organizations provided reports on incidents of anti-Semitism in specific countries, from Belgium to Romania.
There was thus no challenge to some specific ideas that, in another context, would probably have produced some dissenting views, including the idea that the anger around the world provoked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict really is a new form of anti-Semitism. Indeed, that question has been heatedly debated in both Europe and the United States in recent months, with some, including some Jews, rejecting the notion that even very angry and virulent criticisms of Israel amount to anti-Semitism.
Another idea advanced by some delegates that would certainly provoke disagreement if it ever became actual policy by OSCE governments was that ways need to be found to control publications and Web sites that promote anti-Semitism.
Jacques Picard, a professor at the University of Basel, told the conferees that the ideas being expressed on Internet hate sites are imitations of old anti-Semitic notions but that "the Internet disseminates these ideas with the protection of anonymity." He continued, "Anonymity should be lifted."
If there was a single recommendation that seemed to gain widespread acceptance, it was that effective hate-crime legislation should be enacted in countries that do not have it yet, and that there should be a renewed commitment to enforcing that legislation.
"For too long we allowed a current of anti-Semitism to simmer in our societies," Gert Weisskirchen, a German member of Parliament, said. "Now is the time to act." The New York Times
55 countries address the spread of a 'new anti-Semitism'
Richard Bernstein NYT
Saturday, June 21, 2003
VIENNA In 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Adolph Hitler spoke to cheering multitudes on a balcony at the Royal Hofburg Palace in this city, a historical fact that was much noted by participants in the first-ever, large-scale international conference devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism.
The two-day meeting, which ended Friday at the palace where Hitler spoke, brought together the 55 member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a delegation, led by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, of members of Congress and Jewish leaders from the United States.
The overall theme of the meeting was that a new anti-Semitism is spreading in many regions of the world, spawned by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but drawing on many of the old anti-Jewish stereotypes that were supposed to have faded into insignificance years ago.
"We are witnessing an old-new, escalating, global and even lethal anti-Semitism," Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of Parliament, said in a speech to delegates Friday. Its chief characteristic, Cotler and other delegates argued, is the singling out of Israel for an opprobrium and condemnation that applies to no other country in the world and that transforms the very notion of a Jewish homeland into a criminal offense.
"It is anti-Semitism under the banner of human rights at a time when human rights is the new secular religion," Cotler said. "Israel is characterized as the human rights violator of our time, so that it emerges as a new kind of anti-Christ."
For many participants, the fact that the meeting took place at all was itself of historical significance, because it puts the concern for rising incidents of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in several European countries onto the international agenda.
In this sense, one of the most important events of the meeting came when the German ambassador to the organization, Dieter Boden, invited the delegates to hold another meeting on anti-Semitism in Berlin next year.
The conference comes after several years during which European countries in particular have experienced new waves of anti-Jewish attacks, many of them carried out against synagogues and cemeteries in France by young immigrants from North Africa.
The French government, in a move that was widely praised at the conference, passed new legislation giving greater powers to the police to crack down on hate crimes.
The conference was initially suggested by members of the Parliamentary Commission, a group of legislators from several countries, which submitted the proposal to the U.S. State Department. From that point, according to members of the American delegation, Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed the idea against considerable resistance from other OSCE member states, who argued that anti-Semitism should be taken up in more general meetings devoted to racism and discrimination, rather than made a separate, stand-alone subject.
"Plenty of people came in here kicking and screaming and with the idea that, 'O.K., we've done it,' rather thanwith the idea of really drawing some lessons," Andrew Baker, a member of the American delegation who is the director of international affairs for the American Jewish Committee in Washington, said as the meeting drew to a close Friday.
The conference consisted largely of statements by delegates and members of the many nongovernnmental organizations that were also present. There was almost no give and take, no debate and not even any authoritative presentation of the actual situation of Jews around the world, though individual delegations and organizations provided reports on incidents of anti-Semitism in specific countries, from Belgium to Romania.
There was thus no challenge to some specific ideas that, in another context, would probably have produced some dissenting views, including the idea that the anger around the world provoked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict really is a new form of anti-Semitism. Indeed, that question has been heatedly debated in both Europe and the United States in recent months, with some, including some Jews, rejecting the notion that even very angry and virulent criticisms of Israel amount to anti-Semitism.
Another idea advanced by some delegates that would certainly provoke disagreement if it ever became actual policy by OSCE governments was that ways need to be found to control publications and Web sites that promote anti-Semitism.
Jacques Picard, a professor at the University of Basel, told the conferees that the ideas being expressed on Internet hate sites are imitations of old anti-Semitic notions but that "the Internet disseminates these ideas with the protection of anonymity." He continued, "Anonymity should be lifted."
If there was a single recommendation that seemed to gain widespread acceptance, it was that effective hate-crime legislation should be enacted in countries that do not have it yet, and that there should be a renewed commitment to enforcing that legislation.
"For too long we allowed a current of anti-Semitism to simmer in our societies," Gert Weisskirchen, a German member of Parliament, said. "Now is the time to act." The New York Times
Comment