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Isi Leibler , former head of the Australian Jewish community, now lives in Jerusalem. He was a leading personality in the movement to free Soviet Jewry and is a prolific writer on Jewish affairs.
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By Isi Leibler
July 2, 2004
It has been somewhat bizarre to observe the recent stream of international and government-sponsored conferences dealing with anti Semitism. Only six months ago most European governments were still indignantly denying the evidence of burgeoning anti Semitism on their doorsteps. Some were even muttering that the issue was a ploy by Israelis to divert attention from alleged human rights violations.
The first breakthrough took place following a fracas between the European Union and the World Jewish Congress. An infuriated E.U. President Romano Prodi threatened to cancel a scheduled Brussels seminar on anti-Semitism after the WJC had accused them of indifference and inaction. But he soon relented and then he surprised even his own colleagues by conceding that judaeophobia was a real threat to society. He urged member states to introduce tougher penalties against anti Jewish hate crimes, and called for educational programs to promote tolerance. That was in February this year.
In April the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met in Berlin to discuss the same subject. Largely driven by German Foreign Minister Joshke Fischer, the OSCE session closed with a statement endorsed by 54 governments, condemning anti-Semitism and explicitly declaring that the delegitimization of Israel was simply a new vehicle for inciting hatred against Jews. Further, the declaration called on all member states to support the passage of a stand-alone resolution condemning anti-Semitism at the UN General Assembly. This was in line with the campaign launched by the World Jewish Congress after the Irish, in the face of Arab opposition, had withdrawn a resolution at the UN condemning anti-Semitism.
And now in June, for the first time since its inception, the UN also hosted a conference on anti-Semitism. This surely represents a milestone. The proceedings were chaired by Shashi Tharoor the head of the UN Public Information Division, who is considered a possible successor to Kofi Annan as Secretary General. Tharoor has a recent track record of hostile statements against Israel and it is believed that his initial intention was to preside over a low profile academic-style gathering. But once Kofi Annan and a person of the caliber of Elie Wiesel became involved, the proceedings developed a momentum of their own.
The opening address by Kofi Annan was an important political statement and warmly welcomed by Israeli and international Jewish leaders. He stressed the need to combat the "alarming resurgence" of Jew hatred and explicitly called on UN member states to support the resolution condemning anti-Semitism at the General Assembly.
The Secretary General warned that differences over Middle East issues could never justify anti-Semitic outbursts or attacks on Jews. He noted that the UN had called for an end to attacks on Moslems and Arabs, and said that Jews were entitled to the same. In an aside full of irony, he said that "Jews must feel that the UN is their home too."
The Secretary General was followed by Elie Wiesel, the keynote speaker, who had assumed a similar role both at the Brussels and Berlin conferences. As always, he set the tone when he declared - "I was naively convinced that anti-Semitism had died in Auschwitz. But I was mistaken. Only the Jews perished there."
It is not merely what Weisel says - and he possesses a marvelous gift of communicating with words which are polished gems, profound and moving - but the very presence of this Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor conveys an authentic Jewish mystique which is unique. He is surely the most prized living voice of the Jewish people today.
Another speaker who made an indelible impression on the Conference, pulling no punches in exposing the hypocrisy and double standards of the UN in relation to the Jewish people, was Professor Anne Bayefsky of Columbia University Law School, a courageous champion for human rights. She mercilessly castigated Kofi Annan for demonizing Israel and sanctifying the Palestinians. She described the UN sponsored Durban Conference on racism as the launching pad for the global revival of anti-Semitism and lashed out at the UN Human Rights Commission for providing a platform for the promotion of medieval anti Semitic blood libels. "The UN", she said, "had become the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism, intolerance, and inequality against the Jewish people and its State." The UN "provides a platform for those who cast the victims of the Nazis, as the Nazi counterparts of the 21st century."
A visibly distressed chairman Shashi Tharoor, was forced to stand by helplessly as Bayefsky exceeded her allotted time and received a standing ovation from the 1,200 predominantly Jewish NGO audience.
Subsequent Jewish representatives all called for follow-up action. WJC President Edgar Bronfman encouraged Kofi Annan to set up a body to monitor anti Semitic developments, provide an annual report and appoint a rapporteur. He also urged Annan to continue canvassing UN members to support the resolution condemning anti Semitism.
Words are important - especially words from a UN Secretary General - but they do not necessarily portend a change in policy. For example, in response to a question I put to Annan here in Jerusalem four years ago, he conceded that there were grounds for Jewish concern with UN bias and undertook to initiate rectifications. In fact, what followed was an escalation of hostile statements by Kofi Annan himself. Thus any suggestion that this UN Conference represented a sea change is of course premature.
What we are to expect are zigs and zags. Thus at the very same time that Kofi Annan was making his statement condemning anti-Semitism, the UN Human Rights Division was calling for an "international protection force" to stop abuses in the "occupied" territories.
Two years ago I described the UN as a dysfunctional assembly of nations dominated by tyrannies and dictatorships. I predicted that Israel could never expect even-handedness from a body in which the Arabs and their allies occupy such a dominant role and where even the Europeans tend to assume positions of neutrality in the face of lethal anti Israeli hostility.
Nevertheless the WJC, which launched the campaign for a UN resolution nine months ago, can take satisfaction with the progress achieved. In addition to the OSCE and now the support of the UN Secretary General for the anti Semitism resolution, the petition to collect millions of signatures in support of UN action is making great progress. Indeed the WJC now also has the active support of most Jewish NGOs throughout the world.
In the long uphill struggle facing us, the success of this latest UN Conference may paradoxically generate even tougher resistance from the Arabs and their allies. If unable to block the resolution, they will probably endeavor to transform it from a stand-alone condemnation of anti-Semitism to a vague declaration against racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia.
Should that happen, Israel and the Jewish world would be obliged to expose the hypocrisy and bias of an international body purportedly committed to human rights, which felt obliged to quash a resolution condemning the resurgence of mankind's oldest hatred.
The global snowballing of anti-Semitism is of course fuelled by Arabs, but the evil is spawned from the prevailing anti-Jewish and frenziedly anti-Israeli climate in many western countries. The media-generated level of prejudice against the Jews in Israel has reached unprecedented levels and transformed Jews in many countries from an admired elite into a pariah group. This has had awesomely negative repercussions on the quality of their life including even violence directed against them in the streets. To reverse this will be extremely difficult and take much time and effort. Initially the pressure for change should be directed towards the leaders and opinion makers who must be encouraged to strengthen anti Jewish hate laws and to initiate educational programs. Some progress has been achieved in this area over the past six months.
There is an important strategic lesson to be learnt. We should be aware that the rash of conferences on anti-Semitism hosted by governments and international bodies did not erupt spontaneously. They came in response to the public campaigns initiated by the WJC and other Jewish bodies in the wake of the anti-Semitic surge across Europe. There is only one way. Jewish leaders must publicly expose and shame governments into action.
This will require a concentrated global strategy. It will necessitate the backing of all Jewish bodies and the setting aside of organizational rivalry. To achieve that we must be aggressively on the initiative all the time. The road to success will be painful and long. But we must not allow ourselves to become passive. In a word shtadlanut (private diplomacy) and pleas unsupported by public action are utterly futile.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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