Jerusalem, March 28th, 2025 – Summing up the messages from several speakers at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, which came to a close on Thursday night, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said that “all parts of society are needed to win this battle for the soul of our civilisation. This includes both the political right and the political left and every single individual who believes in humanity, regardless of creed or religion. We are only strong as long as we are united. Disunity only empowers our enemies”. The conference had been criticised and boycotted by some because of the inclusion of representatives from the far right.
In his intervention in the conference, son of legendary French-Jewish Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, Arno Klarsfeld said that “it is no longer the extreme right which is the main problem for Jews in France but the extreme left in collaboration with radical Islam.” Quoting his father, he noted that whereas the Germans once had to rescue Jews from the pogroms in Russia, only a few decennia later it was the Russians who liberated the Jews from the Nazi death camps. Those who were once our best friends can quickly become our worst enemies and the other way around.
Newly appointed director of the Israeli branch of the World Jewish Congress, Israeli Canadian businessman Sylvan Adams struck a similar note when he explained why he was attending the conference despite the criticism from some of his colleagues. “We Jews are the people of the Book; we engage in debate we don’t boycott.”
Legendary Israeli leader Natan Sharansky spoke at a special reception at the residence of President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday night when he pointed out that there is antisemitism across the political spectrum. It does not help anyone if those on the right only criticise the progressives and those on the left only warn about right wing antisemitism. “It is up to each one of us to call out the antisemites in our own ranks”, he said. “Only then can we make real progress as the chances for getting our messages across are higher when we speak to our own crowd than when we criticise our ideological foes.”
Ahead of the conference Tomas Sandell published an opinion editorial in the European Jewish Press where he questioned the wisdom of not engaging with parties which have a problematic past in relation to the Jewish communities but have since indicated through words and deeds that they want to stand with the Jewish people. “Combating antisemitism must be a joint commitment across the political spectrum and we cannot afford to leave anyone out”, he said.
In one of the panels at the conference Izabella Tabarovsky, a scholar of Soviet anti-Zionism, explained how today’s antisemitism in the global left is a product of 60 years of Soviet indoctrination. “Already during the Six-Day War Soviet Union accused Israel of genocide. For years this lie was amplified and repeated in global forums which in 1975 resulted in the infamous UNGA resolution 3379 stating that Zionism is Racism. But whereas the resolution was already revoked in 1991 and the Soviet Union no longer exists, the lies are still alive”, she said.
She went on to explain that “these lies were later recycled at the UN Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001.” The conference initiated a global movement of new antisemitism with annual Apartheid weeks at university campuses and calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) regarding Israel, financed by countries like Iran, Qatar and today even China.
Whereas most speakers at the conference in Jerusalem focused on this new form of antisemitism, Washington D.C based journalist Karys Rhea warned the audience not to ignore the rise of antisemitism on the political right which in the US follows much of the same logic as the woke movement on the left and includes sentiments of victimhood and conspiracy theories. “There is currently a battle for the soul of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement and we need to remain vigilant so that we do not give in to the antisemites”, she said.
In his concluding remarks after the conference ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell reiterated that “the European Coalition for Israel is equally committed to combating antisemitism on the political left and the political right” but added that “we are also equally committed to engaging in dialogue with both political camps.”
“While being very much aware of the virulent antisemitism of radical Islam, we are not afraid to address the dangers of Christian antisemitism in our midst. As an organisation with a Christian ethos this is both our responsibility and our duty”, he said.
